Ding ding!
The annoying ringing bell snatched away her deep sleep and showed no signs of stopping. Baek Seoyeon had to suppress the urge to smash every object in her room.
In the end, she reluctantly dragged herself out of bed.
The pale gown she wore swayed unsteadily as she walked.
With each step she took, the sleeping pill bottles scattered around the floor tumbled and clattered like tinkling marbles.
Ding ding! Thud!
“…What’s going on?”
“Miss. I apologize for the early hour. We have a call from the Northern Army’s capital communication office. The scouts urgently need help deciphering some magic language they’ve collected. What should we do?”
“Tell them I understand. I’ll be down shortly, so please prepare a vehicle.”
Despite her dignified tone, Baek Seoyeon hung up the phone with a snap of her visibly nervous fingers. She took a deep breath and began a quick touch-up in front of the mirror.
After slipping a precious ring onto her finger and fastening the necklace’s buckle, she checked her expression one last time.
Her lips were stubbornly unyielding, so she had to forcefully lift them with her fingers before she could finally nod at her reflection.
Baek Seoyeon faced herself in the mirror. The woman there radiated stunning beauty, yet lacked any sign of vitality or liveliness.
She was certainly alive, but her heart felt like it had long gone dark and dead.
*
With delicate fingers, she fumbled for the phonograph’s operation button, and soon strange howling began to fill the dark room.
It was a threatening sound reminiscent of a barking dog, a noisy rumbling as if hoofed animals were snorting, low growls meant to instill fear in the opponent, and the sound of a large beast gasping for breath.
For a moment, the noise felt like a wild gathering of beasts in the wilderness, enough to make her feel as if she had been thrown in the middle of the wild.
Most ordinary people would dismiss it as meaningless noise, but this was precious information obtained at the cost of life by the scouts beyond the barrier.
The air in the dark room was thick with particles that shimmered, vibrating in response to the sound.
And depending on the peculiar rhythm and patterns hidden within the beasts’ howls, those particles instantly gathered into specific patterns before dispersing once again.
“…When was this information collected?”
“About a month ago. It seems there was a gathering of beasts in the old Ma-eup region, and they recorded the conversations among the leaders who participated there.”
The phonograph, after a long winding, eventually came to a stop with a thud.
Baek Seoyeon turned on the lights in the dark room and sat across from a female officer wearing a distinctive insignia.
“I heard the scale of the gathering was unusually large. The smell of beasts and their cries echoed over the cliffs.”
“They said it was particularly enormous…”
“…Could it be something?”
Hearing Baek Seoyeon’s serious mumble, the officer asked.
“It was all stories related to battle. Who would take the lead, how many would be mobilized from each tribe, where the barrier is weakest…”
She handed over the documents containing the magic language she had deciphered to the officer.
“Well…”
“If I’m right… it seems they are planning another large-scale invasion.”
Two years ago, the demon army’s large-scale invasion left the Republic with an unforgettable wound.
Fortresses burned, and countless casualties occurred.
And Baek Seoyeon could be considered both a direct and indirect victim of that chaos.
“…Understood. I need to urgently convey my findings to the headquarters.”
The female officer nodded, her expression tightening.
“And… the existence of the ‘Agent’ has repeatedly come up in the conversations. Along with the last decoding I provided. Is there any additional information on it?”
“Only speculation about a newly emerging rank… nothing substantial yet.”
“Is that so…”
“I apologize. I will contact you first as soon as any related information is updated.”
As Baek Seoyeon walked outside the building, she chatted briefly with the officer.
“If the Lady of Paecheon hadn’t been here, such a quick decoding wouldn’t have been possible. Thank you on behalf of the Northern Army.”
“Oh please, there’s no need for such thanks. It’s my duty as someone responsible…”
Seoyeon lightly waved her hand, adorned with an elegant smile.
The sounds the beasts use to communicate, known as the magic language.
Thanks to the principle of conveying meaning through vibrations of particles, those with less sensitivity are inherently incapable of understanding it.
Additionally, since demons are a species born with inherently superior sensitivity, ordinary wizards typically struggle to comprehend even the lower ranks of the magic language.
Moreover, those capable of understanding and deciphering high-ranking magic language—where crucial information is exchanged—are practically nonexistent.
“Truly impressive. How can you comprehend high-ranking magic language to such a degree? It typically takes experts days to interpret a single sentence.”
“Oh, come on. You’re making me blush here. I just happened to read as many books as I could out of boredom when I was young, and that’s how it turned out…”
With a shyly radiant smile, Seoyeon brushed it off.
The female officer nodded, realizing the significance. It was already a well-known story that the Lady of Paecheon, shielded by her father’s excessive affection, only had her first appearance at the time of admission.
“Then please, feel free to go in. The Northern Army will always stand with Paecheon.”
Before getting into the waiting vehicle, Seoyeon shared one last light exchange with her.
She was trying to draw the Northern Army into her influence instead of the neutral information bureau or other local forces.
To do this, she unabashedly utilized her capabilities and the prestige of her family.
On the surface, it appeared that she was bringing them into Paecheon, leaving little room for her father’s suspicions.
Once seated in the back of the vehicle, Baek Seoyeon closed her eyes.
She began to mull over the praise the officer had just given her.
Thinking of the reality behind it made her want to laugh.
Beauty and protection were words that hardly fit her past. Indifference and threats seemed far more appropriate.
All she could do with her frail body afflicted with an incurable disease was barely read books.
And by pure chance, she had stumbled upon a book on decoding the magic language, obtaining a high sensitivity through a trade with her lifespan, leading to an accidental high level of understanding.
What was more, she didn’t fully grasp it herself.
Of all the vast knowledge she had acquired as a child, who would have thought one of them would completely alter the course of her life?
*
Flames licked at a gory red tongue, smoke billowed thick enough to obscure her vision, and the air was thick with the stench of blood and death.
The once joyous days of happiness scattered like sand in an instant.
Target confirmed. Kill the male beside it and evacuate the scene.
In the nightmarish landscape, the emotionless gaze of a monster watching her sent chills down her spine.
From its mouth flowed the fierce and sharp language of beasts.
It was undoubtedly a conversation among them, yet the trembling conveyed the same meaning to the girl’s ears.
“Yeona, I’ll hold the monster! Hurry and escape in the meantime!”
“What are you…!”
Before she could even protest, a boy threw himself in front of her recklessly.
But it was akin to an ant facing a giant.
“No! I told you!!”
The boy’s body, trampled and thrown away, became drenched in blood, leaving indelible scars etched upon his handsome face.
Yet he stood firm like a weeble, unafraid, continuing the hopeless fight against the monsters.
His only reason for constantly rising again was love—for the girl before him.
“Cough… hack…”
However, his resistance proved futile, and the boy was finally seized by the monster by his neck.
“Hyun-A!!!”
Boom!!!
The furry monster hurled him against the stone wall, and he slumped down, unmoving.
“No!!!”
All she could do was scream helplessly from her spot.
Then the monsters closed in on her from every direction.
As danger signals filled the air, the body of the unprepared wizard began to bloom imperfectly.
Crackle… fizz…!!
The girl sensed the anomaly in her body in an instant.
Golden particles that had swelled within her burst uncontrollably from her body like a dam breaking.
Boom!!!
Rumble! Roar!
The uncontrollable golden storm swept away everything in its path. Dozens of hoofed beasts formed a siege were reduced to bloody remains with screams.
“Hah… Hah… Oh no…!”
Her head felt like it would split open. Blood-mixed tears flowed down her eyes. Every blood vessel felt like it had been torn apart inside her.
“Hah… Hah…!”
Desperately, the girl tried to suppress the surge. The fatality rate during imperfect blooming rises exponentially with one’s potential. Yet, she couldn’t give up on even the absurdly low chance.
If she couldn’t regain control of her body now, the boy would forever become a guest of the afterlife.
“Hah… Ugh…”
How long had it been?
After blocking the hallway and concentrating her consciousness, the surrounding storm gradually began to die down.
It was eerily quiet as if nothing had happened. Pain washed away, and only a pure, serene energy remained in her body. Her limbs brimmed with vitality, and her vision expanded.
After a desperate attempt, she successfully subdued the imperfect blooming and regained complete control.
This also meant she had finally overcome her particle hypersensitivity, completely breaking free from the fear of death.
“Hyun-A… Hyun-A…!”
Yet there was no time to relish her newfound power.
The sane girl turned toward where the stone wall had crumbled.
Without even thinking of casting a spell, she started to dig through the rubble with her bare hands.
Her ten fingers bled and peeled, but she was oblivious to the pain.
At last, the small boy’s limp form—his eyes closed and seemingly lifeless—was revealed.
“Ugh… Hyun-A… Hang in there…”
Despite her pleas, he remained unresponsive. His face was stained red with blood seeping from a long wound. Every touch was accompanied by the stark reality of the warm, sticky blood. His pulse was weak, flickering like a candle in the wind.
“Ugh… Hyun-A… No…”
In the distance, commotion erupted as reinforcements finally arrived, but it didn’t reach the girl’s ears.
The birthday of the boy she loved culminated in the worst possible outcome.
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