Chapter 15: Meditation, Determination

It’s clear that something evil has gotten into me these days. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been possible for me to have an experience where I was almost cut down by that man Yi, or for someone who had set out on a journey to catch the Golden Demon to come to my house.

If I just attributed the cause to the outside like this, I felt like my mind would be at ease. But unlike my expectations, no matter how much I escaped reality, I couldn’t forget this situation that I was facing right now.

No, why are you doing this to me? I just wanted to live happily with Set… Why do I keep getting caught up in strange things…?

Eventually giving up, I had no choice but to listen to the explanation that Shen was telling. He said that after learning from someone’s tip that the Golden Demon had escaped, he had been tracking the demon’s whereabouts. However, the demon was skilled at disguises and acting, so it was very difficult to catch his tail.

But recently, there was an incident where a woman was found dead in an inn where she was presumed to have stayed. The appearance of the woman had parts that were consistent with the characteristics of the victims he had seen when he was chasing the demon in the past, so he said that he had finally found a clue and had embarked on a full-scale pursuit.

When I asked about the possibility that it was simply a crime committed by someone else imitating him, he shook his head and said that the owner of the inn testified that the demon had asked the woman for various things. And those requests were mostly requests related to the number 4. This couldn’t be anything other than a characteristic that completely matched the Golden Demon. That demon was a perfectionist who thought of 4 as a perfect number.

His explanation, which took away even my last shred of hope, was enough to put me in despair. If the demon came to this place as it is, it seemed like he would just kill one or two people around me.

The Ohyangjangyuk had now reached the perfect time to eat with the fat that had melted, but I couldn’t bring my chopsticks to the food.

After finishing the meal, we got up from our seats and went into our respective rooms. I decided to go into the room and feed Set the baby food that I had cooled down in advance. Looking at Set, I felt like I could get away from this chaotic situation even a little bit.

As expected, Set is the one to seek peace of mind. I can forget all my worries just by looking at this child’s face.

But it would be a problem if I continued to be mentally weak like this. When I encountered the bandits before, Set was also there, and I was able to stay calm, but if I learn about such a large-scale incident, I can only think that it is too much for me, who was just an ordinary citizen, to handle.

As I was worrying about how to manage my mentality, I suddenly remembered the meditation that Yi had been doing before. He was probably feeling and controlling the power of the spirit world through meditation. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to do that much, but I decided to try it because I thought it would have some effect on controlling my mind.

First of all, the posture… I have to take a posture, but I remember there was a cross-legged posture in PE class in the past, but I remember failing. Thinking that it was worth a try, I tried again to take the posture, and I succeeded so easily that I couldn’t believe it.

What is it? Was this posture such an easy posture to take? What’s different from before… Ah, my body has changed. I felt a bit empty, so that’s why.

Embarrassed by the posture that was taken more easily than I thought, I closed my eyes to start meditating. When I closed my eyes, I didn’t know how to meditate properly, so I just stayed still in that state for the time being.

Hmm… I don’t think staying in this state will help at all. That’s how it is, so I decided to just practice dealing with the natural mana I’m using now.

Until now, I had mainly used the mana of nature to manifest my fingernails, so there was no difficulty in using mana, but if I could use this mana even better, then even bigger things could be possible.

Let’s start with circulating the mana first. If I had been using mana by taking a little bit of mana from nature and attaching it to my hand, this time I tried to move the mana with the feeling of synchronizing my body with the mana of nature.

It seemed to be going well for a while, but soon cold sweat started to flow from my body. Noticing that fact and stopping the meditation, I was breathing roughly. This training seemed to consume more mental strength than I thought.

But the body condition after circulating the mana in the body was definitely different from before. I was less tired than when I finished training in the morning, and my body became much lighter.

I thought that if I got a little more used to this, I would be able to continue meditating without difficulty. If the meditation duration increases, there will be no need to adjust and exercise in the morning anymore. I was only able to increase the amount little by little because I was worried about muscle pain, but if this happens, it doesn’t matter even if I overdo it a bit.

As a bonus, the affinity with mana also increases. I got up from my seat and wiped the sweat off with a towel. There was some time left until I went to bed, so I thought I should do something and headed out of the room to the kitchen.

The disciple of the Kinkou Order’s head seemed to not be used to sleeping in such a remote place, so I decided to bring her some tea and cookies. Of course, to that Shen person too.

In order not to make the same mistake as last time, I didn’t forget to knock on the door before entering the room. When I knocked on the door, I heard a voice from inside telling me to come in. Opening the door and looking inside, there was Akali sitting in the room, organizing what looked like her weapons.

Hmm. As expected, even if she’s young, a trainee is a trainee. She’s preparing her weapons even in this situation. I slightly raised my evaluation of her in my mind and handed her the tray I had brought.

“I’ve prepared some tea and cookies simply. The weather outside isn’t very good, so please eat some and cheer up.”

“Wow! Really? Thank you! I’ll enjoy it!”

Oh dear. Cancel what I said earlier. Even if her actions are demure, a child is a child. Still… That kind of appearance is cute. If a child acts like an adult who has experienced everything in the world, what’s cute about that?

Anyway, leaving behind the joy of discovering her new appearance, I brought refreshments to Shen as well. He gave a short thank you and then went back into the room again. See? Akali is much better in this regard.

Looking outside, it was still raining heavily. There was nothing else to do and I didn’t have to go outside, so I thought it would be good to just go to bed early today.

I turned off the lights in the house and looked at Set’s face, who was fast asleep in the room. It’s dark, so I can’t see it properly, but I can see the outline. No matter how many times I see it, it’s cute.

I gave Set a short kiss on the forehead and lay down next to him. I felt like today was a tiring day with various things happening.

The news of the escape of the heinous criminal and the encounter with the people who were chasing him, and how to cultivate the mind, none of them were unimportant.

Still, just looking at your face makes all this fatigue disappear. In order to protect Set, I will be willing to fight even if the Golden Demon comes, burning with determination.

Then today too.

Good night.