27. Taeryeong Divine Art (3)
Ha Taeryeong was not a particularly good writer. He wrote out his research in sprawling, lengthy fashion, and whenever a new realization came to him in the middle, he would go back, erase passages, and revise them later, so there were quite a few parts that were difficult to understand.
To the point that it was hard to believe he had written it for anyone else to read.
‘Even so… this is pretty good.’
In Ha Taeryeong’s research notes, there was quite a lot recorded about history I didn’t know—history that hadn’t even been documented in the Bulbul Glasses.
Ha Taeryeong was a figure who was never even mentioned in the original game.
And yet, his footprints were far broader and more intense than I’d expected; apparently, he had stood in direct opposition to the First Mage’s twelve disciples.
In those days, when monsters and dark mages descended upon the world—
Back then, mages were humanity’s saviors.
When humans who could call down thunderbolts and overturn the earth eradicated incomprehensible beings that seemed impossible to fight against, would they not have looked like gods?
Ha Taeryeong had been born in an era when all of that chaotic warfare had already ended and peace had returned.
Dragons had vanished from the world, monsters had retreated into their own territories, and the dark mages had fled to abandoned lands.
Humanity had won, so one would think it was only natural to expect a world overflowing with dreams, hope, and laughter.
In fact, that was exactly how it was depicted in the prologue story of Aiter World.
But… the reality was different.
What happens to human society once the war is over and stability is restored?
Very naturally, a world ruled by mages came to be.
If you ask whether that was only to be expected, then yes—it was.
Who would dare defy those who possessed godlike power?
Bloodline and political authority meant nothing before magic. It became a world where the slightly smarter, more talented mage obtained higher status.
Then the First Mage disappeared, and the twelve mages called his disciples remained behind in the world, so it was only natural that they became the highest ruling class in existence.
That much was a story even I knew.
The influence of the twelve mages still had an enormous impact even in the modern age.
Their names appeared very frequently in the main episodes too.
‘The Fire Mage, Adolevit.’
‘The Ice-Flame Mage, Morf.’
‘The Void Mage, Hollow.’
‘The Matter Mage, Hwalseok.’
‘The Nature Mage, Byeolkkot.’
And so on…
By now, they had become the world’s twelve greatest houses, their prestige renowned far and wide.
“Hm…”
According to Ha Taeryeong’s records, they had thoroughly turned mage society into a class-based society.
In other words, this document was explaining why the noble system had still not collapsed in this world, despite it having built a modern civilization very similar to twenty-first-century Earth.
“So this shitty class system is all those bastards’ fault?”
Fearing that descendants in the far future would suffer under class divisions, Ha Taeryeong had fought against the First Mage’s twelve disciples.
But I knew how that story ended. Iphanel had told me before.
‘He was killed by the First Mage’s twelve disciples.’
That was what she had said.
Thinking of it that way, I was suddenly able to feel all over again just how long Iphanel had lived.
She had been there alongside almost all of history, hadn’t she? Of course, she probably didn’t remember most of it, having spent so much time hidden away in sleep.
“Hm…”
Anyway, the research journal had been written with real diligence, including all sorts of historical tales.
Unlike modern research papers, it was messy, complicated, and wildly disorganized, but with the Bulbul Glasses, I had no reason to worry about that.
The longer mana remains in the body, the longer a life will endure. For mana is the very source of life.
This is precisely why mages who reach higher realms maintain their youth and live long lives.
We who possess the Mana Leakage Body are short-lived because there is not even a speck of mana inside our bodies.
However, we continually receive the mana of nature through circulation. The amount we receive that way is simply far too small, and that is why we die young.
From there, this one conceived a thought.
What if…
There were a way to hold on to that minuscule amount of mana—which only brushes past the body for a moment—for as much as possible, and for as long as possible?
If that were so, then this one might go beyond mere longevity…
And perhaps achieve immortality.
With that thought in mind, what this one developed was precisely a method of drawing mana in by breathing through the entire body.
It was finally here.
Mages had breathing methods too, but those were only methods for storing mana in the head, the heart, and the lower dantian; they were of no help to someone with a Mana Leakage Body.
But I had realized the importance of breathing methods early on, and in order to somehow breathe in as much mana as possible, I had steadily continued aerobic exercise to increase my lung capacity.
Mind Method (心法)
That is the name of the breathing technique I created. As you may have guessed from the word itself, this is not something you can achieve simply by mindlessly doing aerobic exercise.
To discipline the mind, harmonize oneself with nature, and naturally accept all things in the world.
That is the foundation of this breathing method.
‘Mind Method, huh…’
It almost made me feel like I was reading a wuxia novel or the scripture of some cult, but it wasn’t a story I found impossible to believe.
To begin with, magic itself is a surreal thing to me. In the middle of that, whether it was Mind Method or whatever else, it really wasn’t any stranger than the rest.
No matter how you looked at it, immortality was a bit of an absurd idea, but even so, increasing the blood mana circulation rate to extend one’s lifespan would in turn mean that my own abilities would grow stronger.
“…Shall I begin?”
Following what was written in the research journal—or rather, the secret manual—I sat down in the most comfortable posture possible and closed my eyes.
Sometimes, on weekends, Hong Biyeon would go out. It was not because she wanted to enjoy a leisurely excursion or go on a picnic.
[The Adolevit Royal Mausoleum]
This was a graveyard where only members of the Adolevit royal family could be buried. There were countless gravestones, but in truth, there were almost none among them who had any direct connection to Hong Biyeon. If one traced bloodlines far enough, there were probably distant ancestors buried here, but she could not have cared less about that.
[Hong Erin Adolevit]
[Gone like a flower scattered on the wind]
Her eldest sister, Hong Erin, had always said with a bright smile, half in jest, “If I die, make sure those words are written on my gravestone.”
In the end, those words really had become her epitaph, but Hong Biyeon had not been able to laugh.
To begin with, was there even anyone in the world who could laugh while hearing a joke like that?
Hong Erin had always been a warm and affectionate older sister to Hong Biyeon. More mature than anyone else, warm, quiet, and full of loving kindness.
All of Hong Biyeon’s memories of her were filled with good things.
Even now, whenever she thought of Hong Erin, the first thing that came to mind was a field overflowing with flowers.
The image of Hong Erin turning around to look at her while holding down that brilliant silver hair fluttering wildly in the wind felt like something from a dream—distant and unreal.
At the time, Hong Biyeon had not been able to become close with anyone inside the royal castle.
Her entire body had been covered in burn marks from the training meant to increase her affinity with fire. Her hair had burned away so hideously that she always had to wear a hat, and her skin had been grotesque, almost as if it were rotting.
Pessimistic about her own disgusting, repulsive appearance, Hong Biyeon had naturally become withdrawn, and her self-esteem had plummeted.
And to that version of her, her eldest sister Hong Erin had always been the one to approach first.
Whenever, early in the morning, Hong Biyeon fled to the lonely lakeside in a depressed mood, Hong Erin would somehow find her there and say:
‘Let’s do our best again today!’
Whenever, late at night, Hong Biyeon sat alone in a dark solitary room, eating in loneliness and isolation, Hong Erin would somehow find her there as well and ask:
‘How was your day today?’
That voice still remained vivid.
How could she ever forget it?
Every single day, she had always come to me like that.
But Hong Biyeon had only tried to push her away. She had thought no one could understand her. She had believed there was no one living a life of suffering the way she did.
Then one day—
‘It seems unlikely that she’ll make it through the year. You must prepare yourselves…’
She learned that Hong Erin had an incurable disease.
No one knew its cause or its true nature, but it was a horrifying illness in which the body slowly began to combust on its own.
And in that moment, she…
came to love her eldest sister.
Only after learning that her sister was enduring the same pain as her—no, pain greater than hers—did she finally understand why Hong Erin had approached her.
Her sister had known too.
How horrifying and agonizing it was for body and soul to burn.
How lonely and desolate it was to live like a bomb that could explode at any moment, forced to keep everyone at a distance.
Her eldest sister, Hong Erin…
was the only person in the world who could truly understand her.
But by then, it was already too late.
‘Biyeon-ah, you came?’
She had already grown pale and gaunt, and because flames would erupt from her body at any given time, she could not even go outside freely anymore.
So for the first time…
Hong Biyeon began to make an effort for someone else.
At the very least, she herself did not suffer from spontaneous combustion, so although her appearance might be horrific and repulsive, she could still go outside if she steeled her heart.
She desperately saw, heard, and felt as much as she could, and then told Hong Erin about all of it. Whenever she spoke, her eldest sister would always listen with a bright expression.
‘Is that so?’
‘So something like that happened…’
‘It must have been very hard, my little sister.’
The time they had together was so terribly short. So she desperately struggled and strove to spend even more time with her.
She was happy.
Every moment she spent with her made her feel alive.
…But that happy time did not last very long.
Hong Biyeon laid a pink needleflower atop the gravestone. Even now, she still could not forget what had happened then.
At the very last moment, even while her whole body was on fire…
the smile she had given her.
‘I hope you will definitely be happy.’
Because Hong Biyeon had once lost someone she loved, she had come to understand just how painful that was.
It was a pain far worse than burning alive—hotter, crueler, more agonizing.
An incurable disease.
What a word that was—enough to make one’s teeth chatter with rage. Magic had advanced this far, so why had humanity still not managed to conquer disease completely?
Not long ago, she had learned of a constitution called the Mana Leakage Body. Those born unable to store mana in their bodies from birth, doomed to die young.
Up until only a year ago, it would have been a term with absolutely no relation to Hong Biyeon.
But not anymore.
So much had… changed.
She had thought nothing like this would ever happen again.
And yet someone had once more forced his way into her life and taken up a great place in it.
And he too…
like the older sister she had first loved, was suffering from an incurable illness.
On the day of Stella’s graduation, when he turned exactly twenty…
he would die.
‘…I don’t want to go through that kind of pain a second time.’
No one in history had ever managed to cure the Mana Leakage Body.
But “no one” did not include the great mage families.
The Adolevit royal family, descended from one of the First Mage’s twelve disciples, possessed a single heirloom that had been passed down through the generations.
‘The Flame-Spirit Flower.’
A legendary treasure said to summon the ‘Incarnation of Fire’ into the body the moment its fragrance was inhaled.
In exchange, one would lose all ability to use magic, and if one failed to control the fire of the incarnation, it would run rampant enough to burn an entire country to the ground, which was why its use had been strictly forbidden.
‘…Even so, survival should be possible.’
If an incarnation descended, that meant a divine presence would drift inside the body and naturally grant it a tremendous amount of mana.
In other words, the Flame-Spirit Flower had the potential to cure the Mana Leakage Body.
Even if, for now, it was sealed deep within the royal palace and only the king could access it…
‘I’ll become king.’
Until now, she had been running ceaselessly in order to become king. That had also been what her eldest sister had wished for.
But from now on, she would run even more desperately.
Her goal was to ascend the throne on the day of Stella’s graduation, before the end of his lifespan.
Hong Biyeon clenched her fist so tightly that her nails dug into her palm and steeled her resolve.
‘I… absolutely must become king.’
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