The Immortal Had a Guardian Spirit Chapter 9

Raven dodged it without difficulty. As if fully anticipating that, no sooner had he tilted his head to evade than Dan lunged directly at him and shoved him.

But could such shallow tricks possibly work on someone who had been active in the field for about 150 years?

Twisting his body slightly on the spot and merely sticking out his foot to trip Dan, Raven looked down at him with indifferent eyes.

“Sorry.”

…The apology, falling dryly, was utterly cruel.

Wasn’t he supposed to be a frail shaman who relied solely on a single guardian spirit? Where had the figure precariously vomiting blood gone? Ignoring Dan, who scrambled desperately to cling to him again, Raven moved his hand. He paid no mind even as Dan’s rough nails raked away his skin, revealing red blood.

—Thud.

A sound more chilling than ever resounded.

“…—.”

Silence descended.

As if time had stopped, Dan, frozen, stumbled toward the woman. Unable to walk properly on two legs, he crawled close, gathered the limp body into his arms, and moved his lips. The arms holding what had been his noona trembled faintly.

Dan could not comprehend this situation.

‘…Why.’

He slowly caressed her cheek, but far from any response returning, her head merely lolled to the side. Even when he placed his hand beneath her nose, there was no sign at all of a living, breathing life.

‘How.’

How did things end up like this?

He had promised to help. He had even suppressed his urgent heart and waited silently for the conversation with the guardian spirit to finish.

Faced with a reality too difficult to accept, his mouth fell open vacantly.

“…—.”

But what came out was only a faint breath of wind, unheard by anyone.

…For what had he struggled so desperately? Was it not to save his noona?

Even when his throat was torn and his vocal cords ruined, even when confronting monsters with a severed tongue, the reason he had screamed and endured—was it not for the sake of his remaining blood relative?

His black eyes lost focus and stared blankly into the empty air. Then, feeling the weight in his arms, he looked down at his noona again.

‘…It’s not a dream.’

Yes, this is reality. It is not a dream, or anything of the sort.

If only it were a dream. But the weight of the limp body forced him to realize the truth.

His firmly shut mouth opened again, beginning to spew silent screams. His eyes, which had been sinking into emptiness, wavered and poured out despair.

“———!”

He resented this throat, unable even to produce a sound, unable even to weep. He felt as if he would go mad, resenting himself for choosing the wrong person and asking for help. He was resentful and angry, so angry—and the object of this rage was himself.

He raised his finely trembling hand and brought it to his neck.

His sharply honed nails began scratching relentlessly at the scarred place. Even as flesh caught under his nails and tore away, even as blood smeared, he did not stop.

Perhaps even his sense of pain was paralyzed by the overwhelming emotion, for he felt no agony at all.

Drip. Drop.

Scratching and scratching down, the blood beading up ran along his fingers, gathered at his elbow, and fell to the ground. Around then, a voice that did not belong cut in.

“Do you want to die?”

“….”

A perfectly clean voice, holding not a trace of any emotion.

Eyes sunken with heavy weight turned toward Raven. As if the murderous gaze did not trouble him in the least, the man standing crookedly returned the soul-collecting weapon to its place and continued speaking carelessly.

“As for me, I don’t care whether you die or not….”

“….”

“But you must have too many lingering attachments to die.”

…Now that I think about it, yes. This man was here.

From breaking his promise to personally wielding the blade and killing his noona—a being with clear cause for resentment stood before his eyes. The surging bloodlust shifted its direction.

At that blatant glare, Raven smirked.

‘Yes, have lingering attachments.’

Wouldn’t it be too unjust to die and leave behind me—who directly killed your noona—and, more fundamentally, the slave traders?

‘Originally, I wasn’t going to concern myself with it….’

His reason, parched by worn-down emotions, felt no need to save someone trying to die on their own—this wasn’t even a case of being killed by monsters. Had the other been an adult, he would truly have pretended not to see and left the place.

But.

‘Because the other is a minor.’

There, a reason to contemplate arose.

The minimum line he had long ago set for himself—to remain human after realizing he was straying beyond the bounds of ‘human’—now questioned him.

Is turning a blind eye to the death of a child truly the right conduct as an ‘adult’?

All adults pass through childhood to become adults. Whether positive or negative, every child safely survives under the influence of countless adults and becomes yet another adult.

Unless one became an adult alone in a mountain valley without ever encountering a single adult—and even if that were the case—to show consideration for a child, who is both one’s own past and another future, is the proper duty of an adult.

Thus, Raven—who defined himself as an ‘adult’ and, among the many standards of humanity, had set ‘attitude toward children’ as the measure of his humanity—pondered, and soon arrived at an answer.

‘…I should stop him.’

Is it not too sad to lose the chance to become an adult?

A child who, even striving a lifetime, only manages to mimic an adult—a mere shell. He quietly lowered his vivid green eyes and deliberately twisted the corners of his lips upward.

“More than anything, isn’t this the wrong thing to do in front of someone who cared for you until the very end?”

“….”

Having killed such a person, yet his mouth was alive and babbling freely. Dan ground his teeth and clenched his fist tightly.

Seeing this, Raven tilted his head to the side. Between grinning lips, words that were unmistakably mocking followed.

“Your eyes are murderous. Why? Planning to kill me or something?”

“….”

“Don’t waste your energy on pointless things, and take the force out of your glare. You can’t kill me anyway.”

Dan’s patience ended there.

It was a miracle he had listened to his nonsense at all until now.

I will certainly kill that bastard and adorn my noona’s grave with him! Baring his teeth savagely, Dan lunged at Raven—.

“I told you.”

—and was instantly subdued.

There was no way a person who roamed alone hunting monsters and closing gates couldn’t subdue an unarmed minor charging barehanded. Having easily stopped Dan, Raven sat pinning him down, propped his chin on his hand, and chuckled.

“You can’t kill me.”

“——!!”

I’ll kill you!!

“Well, that’s not the only reason.”

A weightless touch pressed down firmly on the back of Dan’s thrashing head. In stark contrast to the raised corners of his lips, utterly mirthless, parched eyes gazed at the sky.

“Your noona entrusted you to me.”

“…!”

“There’s a world of difference between me ignoring her request because I have no intention of granting it, and you killing me and making it impossible to grant that request. Surely you’re not so heartless a wretch as to let your emotions sway you and trample on your noona’s last wish.”

…I really want to kill him.

I want to somehow shut that mouth brazenly spouting sophistry, but…

“Rather than that, shouldn’t the funeral come first? You wouldn’t be planning to let your precious family rot in a place like this.”

“….”

Even when he had clung with all his might to stop his actions, he had exerted no influence whatsoever. And now, from the situation where he was subdued so easily, he could feel the clear difference in their strength.

Dan quietly lowered his eyes.

∞ ∞ ∞

The grave, which had seemed like it would take a long time due to a lack of manpower, was completed sooner than expected thanks to Dan’s tenacious persistence.

With this, our tie would be severed. While Dan took care of the body, Raven had been passing time by torturing the pursuer he’d kept alive a short distance away. The moment the grave was finished, he bade farewell without hesitation and set off on his way…

…And thus, he acquired a stalker.

No, perhaps an assassin would be more accurate.

[Guardian Spirit ??? asks if you’re all right.]

“Of course I’m all right. It’s not like this is the first or second time.”

Swaaack!

He twisted his body slightly. A bird brushed past his chest with terrifying speed, narrowly missing. Judging by the abnormal sound and velocity, if it hit properly, the impact would likely be akin to being struck by a brick falling from five stories up.

‘If I let my guard down, my ribs will be shattered.’

Even if it won’t kill me immediately, this much spite is to be expected, is that it.

‘Of all things, the Sculpted Soul Orb had to be a crow.’

Every time I see it, I flinch. But with what I’ve done, I have no choice but to bear it.

Glancing—throwing a fleeting look at the crow circling overhead, biding its time, and at Dan following at a distance far behind, Raven, with an utterly unperturbed face, stepped forward on the path he must take.

A nonchalant murmur followed.

“How many grudges and curses have I received until now? What difference would it make to add one more from a brat.”

[….]

“What’s more, once I vanish from his sight, he’ll soon forget anyway, so…”

[Guardian Spirit ??? asks what you intend to do about the request the woman left before she died.]

“Do about it? That was a one-sided request and promise from her. I clearly gave no answer. There’s no reason I must follow it.”

But….

He glanced back at Dan, whose exhaustion from ceaseless travel was plainly evident. Having built the grave without rest and then immediately started moving, his stamina must have reached its limit.

“…The Fairy King detests humans, so it would be best to detach that fellow before then.”

Because where I’m going is the territory of the fairy tribe.

I don’t want to care whether he follows or not, but I don’t want to see him die before my eyes either. Conveniently, a village is visible over there, so if I drop him off there, there shouldn’t be much need to worry.

It’s not like I’m abandoning him just anywhere; it’s a village. This much satisfies the last of my conscience. Stepping without hesitation into the village, Raven searched for an inn, moving while concentrating on the presence following behind him.

‘…To get by from now on, he’ll need some money too, I suppose.’

Before entering the inn, he naturally dropped his coin pouch. He felt the crow that had been circling the sky all along snatch it away, but pretending not to notice, he placed his hand on the door.

[Guardian Spirit ??? says it worries because you’re too kind.]

“Kind? Those who died by my hand would laugh at that.”

If I set my mind to it, I can earn money easily and have alternatives. But he doesn’t, does he.

Jingle—

Opening the door with a small murmur, Raven curved his eyes gently and smiled at the innkeeper lady. The green eyes said to unsettle some people hid themselves between his eyelids.

“Do you have a room? I’d like to stay just one night….”

“…Ah, welcome, young man! Plenty of rooms!”

“By any chance, do you take magic stones instead of money?”

∞ ∞ ∞

‘…He dropped it on purpose.’

At the very least, he should have made a pretense of patting his waist to look for his coin pouch to make it believable. And what was with immediately bringing up the premise of having no money right off the bat?

In the first place, someone so perceptive that he could accurately pinpoint and stare at where he was even without his eyesight—it was absurd that he would miss the sensation of the weight disappearing from his pouch and the sound of something dropping.

Watching the back of the man who, on the condition of not receiving change, handed over a magic stone and received a room key before heading upstairs, Dan glanced down at the coin pouch now in his grasp.

‘It leaves a bad taste, but…’

He had no other choice.

Clutching the coin pouch firmly, he stepped into the inn.

‘I have no choice if I’m to follow him.’

Throughout collecting his noona’s body and making the grave, he had thought.

What am I to do now?

He could not kill Raven.

His words were hateful, but they were not wrong. Raven ignoring his noona’s request and him killing Raven to cut off even the slightest possibility—the two were different. And before that, for now, he didn’t feel he could kill him anyway.

‘I don’t know for sure… but he’s definitely far stronger than me.’

Unless he grew stronger, as of now, he could not kill him. Since even a surprise attack did not work on him, all the more so.

Yet neither could he let him go just like that. Dan had only postponed his revenge, not abandoned it. And Raven, at a glance, was clearly someone who roamed the world. He was the kind of opponent you couldn’t guarantee you’d ever see again.

“Listen carefully. Sculpted Soul Orb Masters and Awakened are people respected for their very existence, because of the role they played in the first Gate Incident. It’s a little different in nature, but if I had to make a comparison, it’s similar to how imperial royalty is respected for their very existence.”

“….”

“The fact that someone dared to try and enslave such beings—and not even from a defeated country, but citizens of the Empire—is a more serious matter than you think. Especially, Sculpted Soul Orb Masters are growing fewer by the day and are treated even more preciously. So if you step forward and ask for help, the Empire itself will move. You’ll be treated well, and naturally, revenge against the slave traders will become possible.”

Dan glared at Raven, as if searing him into his eyes. Raven, who had spoken his final advice under the premise of parting.

“Of course, this means stepping halfway into the world of the nobility, so it might be tiring. Your origins as a slave might hold you back. But since you escaped before being sold, calling you a full slave is somewhat inaccurate, so it won’t be the absolute worst. Being a ‘slave’ and being ‘almost a slave’ are different.”

Who was he to decide they would part ways?