Chapter 13 : S Class Gate : Seocheon Flower Garden (2)

I stood there stunned, replaying the few words I had just heard.

…There’s a flower that can save people.

Caspar. Can be saved.

“…No. Way.”

How can a dead person be revived?
That doesn’t make sense.
There must be some trick.

Swapping souls, or maybe just dregs mimicking a dead person.

Isn’t it something like that?

Right. It’s an S-rank Gate.
It could be the kind that commands zombies or something similar.

‘Wrong. Yes, I must have misunderstood. I already confirmed Caspar’s soul was annihilated.’

I confirmed it countless times.
Did they think I wouldn’t have searched for a way to revive Caspar?
I delved into forbidden secret arts, willingly enduring all sorts of dirty means and disgusting acts.

In the end, all I obtained was a body closer to the devils I loathed so much and disgusting magic I never wanted to know.

Therefore, I could be certain.
Within the scope of my knowledge, there was no way to regenerate a destroyed soul.

The thought that the Association President wouldn’t deceive me without confirming such basic matters crossed my mind, but I forced myself to ignore it.

“Huuuh. No. No. Agathe, don’t get your hopes up.”

I don’t want to hope anymore, not anymore.

Can’t I just pretend I didn’t hear it?

It’s already over.
Everything is finished, I forced my heart down and even extinguished the embers.

That’s what I thought.

“…”

This is cheating.
Why, after taking everything away.
Now.

Why show me a faint path to happiness now?

So. Don’t hope. Please.

If it’s not true this time either, if the spring I sought with a yearning heart turns out to be another mirage.

I think I’ll really go mad.

After hearing Lee Yulha’s words, I was literally spacing out.

I prepared for the subjugation half-heartedly, listening distractedly, and couldn’t sleep at all even on the propeller plane heading to Jeju Island.

My mind was absent, and the inside of the plane was quite noisy.

“…Something’s a little strange. Everyone.”

Kim Haeun bit her lip slightly and spoke to me in a quiet voice.

“What is?”

My heart was so heavy that I was almost glad she spoke to me.

“A little. Everyone’s emotional. They’re not usually like this…”

Right.
Everyone looks a bit pale.

Fortunately, it seems she can’t read my thoughts yet.
If she could, she would have spoken to someone else, not me.

Having one’s mind read is unpleasant, even if only the surface is read.
I could defend against Haeun’s ability by enveloping my entire body in a defensive mana field.

This was possible only because she was merely a B-rank Hunter.
Even then, aside from mind-reading, she wasn’t much.

“Emotional? As long as they don’t express it through actions, isn’t it fine?”

At first glance, nothing seems particularly wrong.
There’s some instability, but considering we’re on the way to raid an S-rank Gate, it seems within the normal range.

“It’s a bit different from that. It’s a sensation only I can feel… Like, thoughts are being induced, perhaps?”

Tilting my head, I stared intently at Bari in front.

“…”

No.
If Bari also knew about the Honsali Flower, she couldn’t possibly be in her right mind now.
Then, among the people I know who were originally rational…

“…Yulha.”

A slightly sarcastic voice responded.

“Yes.”

Indeed, something was definitely strange.

And common knowledge I had recently learned surfaced.

If a large number of people behave unusually, there’s a high probability they’ve been eroded by a Gate.

Although I hadn’t seen much of her, the person Lee Yulha seemed to be someone who kept public and private matters separate.
Her sister, Lee Yeonah, was the same.

The reason she told me about the Honsali Flower was clear, but considering the process, there was something lacking.

A precious item like the Honsali Flower shouldn’t be revealed this way.
Telling me while fully aware there was a mind-reader present was definitely strange.

“Ha. Right. To say such things to a future S-rank Hunter, I must have been briefly mad. Please understand.”

Hearing that cemented my conviction.
Lee Yulha was definitely in a strange state right now.

Focusing my mind, I looked at Lee Yulha with my soul vision.
A strange flower was blooming in her soul.

It was a chillingly beautiful flower.
It seemed like a flower that parasitized the human mind, which made it even more bizarre.

…It’s ambiguous.

Can I persuade someone in such a state?
Still, I should probably prod gently first.

“…Right. If you know, then continue the briefing. I missed the part about role distribution. Because I was lazy.”

Lee Yulha replied with a frown.

“You didn’t even hear that? Good grief. I’ll tell you again, so listen carefully. Hunter Agathe is in charge of firepower. Hunter Kim Haeun is for checking mental contamination. Hunter Baek Hyunwoo is for burning the flowers. And…”

Seeing her memorize over ten people suggests her reason is intact.
Where’s the problem? I’m no expert, so I don’t really know.

Then.
Lee Yulha suddenly recited words I didn’t understand.

“15. 4. 89. 40. 142. 59. 205. Subway. Blade. Bonfire. Mackerel. Sea. Suicide jump…”
(TL Note: These seem like disjointed keywords, possibly related to personal trauma or Gate influences.)

Lee Yulha stopped there, her lips moved slightly, then she quickly took off her outer garment and scattered it in front.

-Rustle.

Several syringes fell from her coat pocket.
Picking out syringe number 2, she forcefully injected it into her vein.

“Keuk. Hu. Hooo…”

Her gaze changed.

Emotions like guilt and shame flickered across her face for a moment before vanishing.

“My apologies. I showed an unseemly side.”

Lee Yulha’s soul had subtly changed.
The flower parasitizing her soul withered, drooping as if pickled in poison.

Surveying the surroundings with sharp eyes, Lee Yulha then pointed to one Hunter in a calm voice.

“Hunter Baek Hyunwoo. Please cover this entire plane with flames that only burn plants. As strongly as possible.”

“When?”

A-rank Hunter Baek Hyunwoo asked, eyes narrowed.
Lee Yulha answered immediately.

“Right now.”

Without further words, flames erupted.

-Fwoooosh!

The sight of the flames erupting was truly magnificent.

As fire blazed through souls, only then did the flowers become visible.
Several flowers clung to people’s souls.

Most were dormant, but some, like the one on Lee Yulha’s soul, were in full bloom.

Those flowers flickered yellow and red like death throes as they burned.
Countless petals trembled finely and turned to ash as they burned.

Ash created by painting people’s souls with flowers and grinding them down.

“Kkeueuk. Heuu, my head.”

Unlike those clutching their heads and writhing in pain, I was perfectly fine.
Thanks to my high resistance to Gate erosion.

.
.
.

After cleansing the plane once with flames, a commotion erupted.
Time was needed to analyze the phenomenon we had experienced.

“…I have no excuses. Hunter Agathe-nim.”

I shook my head at her apology, offered with a bitter smile.

“No. It’s fine. It wasn’t your true intention.”

“…Perhaps. It likely was my true intention. As these things often do, they probably just greatly amplified my true feelings, but ultimately, the root is my own heart.”

The flowers of Seocheon Flower Garden could control people’s minds.

They could make people laugh until they couldn’t breathe, or make them hate each other to the point of self-destruction.

“I thought it was only like that in Seocheon Flower Garden, but to think it’s like this here too. The erosion must have progressed more severely than expected.”

If an S-rank Gate fully opens, reality begins to assimilate with Seocheon Flower Garden.
The current erosion phenomenon is a precursor to that.

Then, suddenly.
I looked out the window beyond the plane.

Petals covered the sky.
Petals mixed with ash rode the fair wind, flying far, far away.

To Seoul, to Busan, to Japan, to China.
As if they would go anywhere people lived.

Focusing my vision, I looked for their source but couldn’t see it.
I could only tell it was wind blowing from the south of the Korean Peninsula.

Wind has no color, but people often depicted it as white or blue, following the color of clouds and the sky.

Now I knew the color of the wind.
The wind, mixed with petals, possessed the colors of stained glass and was trying to spread its color everywhere in the world.

Spring arrived in October.
A spring no one wished for.

After many twists and turns, we finally arrived just off Jeju Island, but Lee Yulha’s assessment was blunt.

“Magnificent. Befitting an S-rank Gate.”

The storm of burning flowers was indeed magnificent.

Thanks to that, besides Baek Hyunwoo, other Hunters capable of manipulating fire had to pour out their power until they were exhausted.

I lent a hand too, but… aiming Magic Bullets at petals was too much of a waste of power.
Seems I’m really not suited for mass slaughter.

Many flowers were missed, but she said it was fine.

A certain amount of information had been gathered and sent to the Association, so the people at headquarters would take care of the rest.

-Swoooosh.

The smell of the sea filled the air.
The sound of waves crashing and seagulls crying evoked a strange feeling.

We stood at the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula, looking out at the sea and consulting a satellite map.

Jeju Island wasn’t there.
Only something shrouded in fog.

“Actually. To make an excuse, there’s a reason I was particularly susceptible to erosion. I was carrying an item from another S-rank Gate.”

Saying so, Yulha took out a vial radiating a somewhat sacred aura from her pocket.
Inside was something that looked like milk.

“It’s called Amrita. A byproduct from India’s S-rank Gate, Churning of the Ocean of Milk, they say. Though it’s a replica, its performance isn’t too bad when used like this. It is, after all, milk that appears in mythology.”
(TL Note: Amrita is the nectar of immortality in Hindu mythology, produced during the Samudra manthan.)

-Splaaash!

As if it wasn’t precious at all, Yulha emptied the bottle of Amrita into the sea, smiled faintly, and bowed her head slightly.

“Alright. Let’s go. To Seocheon Flower Garden.”

The fiercely crashing waves suddenly calmed, and milky water reaching the shins appeared, replacing the sea.

It was the entrance to Seocheon Flower Garden.