Chapter 89
While Yoo Seodam was in the United States to find a wandering dimension for Jungwon Murim, Taylor Nine returned to her hometown, Russia.
It was a huge federal state built on a vast land that took ten hours for the sun to reach every inch of its snowy landscape.
The home of the Blestasch family was located in the quiet countryside of Vladivostok, 10 hours earlier from the regional clock time. Blestash really tried their best to imitate a ‘noble’ in the modern era, with their grand mansion built lavishly and everything else.
Taylor Nine, who wore a silver dress sat quietly on a chair with a badge of silver light, a symbol of the family. Her hair was neatly trimmed.
“It’s nice to see you again, Taylor.”
Her brothers and sisters had gathered around her because of the family meeting. Unlike 16 years ago, they did not ignore her presence and tried to talk to her.
“You’ve been living filthily for years, be careful not to be rude to people.”
Of course, they didn’t talk in a friendly way.
Taylor glanced at one of her siblings with an indifferent eye. They glanced with contempt at Taylor’s bob hair. It’s good to be proud of their waist-long hair, but Taylor thought it would be nice to show them that her haircut was the hottest trend these days.
‘These bastards haven’t even watched Leon 3. Anyway, only the old people gathered….’
In the past, she was afraid of this place.
An aristocratic family in the modern world where nobility has vanished.
The reason they were able to pretend to be noble was because of the imbalance of the power beyond common sense, namely, superpowers.
More than 15 years ago, the very first superhuman villain group declared they will conquer the world using their power. And then, they were subjugated by people who called themselves ‘villain hunters’. After that incident, the establishment of hierarchy using superpower was banned all over the world.
Of course, it was impossible to ban superpower even when they banned hierarchical systems. Several Russian families produced outstanding superhuman knights and gained considerable power, which soon take their status to akin to old aristocracy system
Taylor’s influence within the family was close to zero. Blestash had a unique culture which bestows the right to talk through ‘superpower’ alone. It was because of the history of the Blestash family who received their peerage with only one Superpower.
It would be great if those cultures were non-existent in the first place. Because harassment was a daily occurrence in the family. They also hurled insults towards Taylor because of her weak superpower. Taylor had a childhood that was worse than the life of a family pet.
For Taylor Nine, Blestash was a hell she never wanted to go back to.
In fact, the moment she came back here, she felt stuffy.
However,
She understood.
‘What was I scared of?’
The 8 siblings gathered here right now were all a S rank superhuman with better output than her, they also received elite education, and were truly nobles among the nobles… but, they were only kids with no actual experience.
Kids who were intoxicated with expensive clothes, food, and vodka as if they were real nobles.
When she first ran away from her family, she knew she was a coward.
She felt that it was only natural for people to treat her as worse than human because of her weak superpower.
She only knew that if she had no superpower, she would have nothing to do in this world.
But it wasn’t true.
By chance, she met a boy without superpower who had a clearer goal and courage more than anyone else. Even without superpower and talent, he always stood in front of other superhumans and led them. Everyone else also leaned on him.
‘…Thinking this way, should I say that the current Yoo Seodam is very fortunate?’
Overtime, his confident-self started to wither away to the point where Taylor had to question her judgement about the boy.
When everyone else awakened their Superpower and succeeded, he was the only one who couldn’t get a proper place in society. After all, society was also a superpowered-oriented community.
So, when she was young, Taylor fell asleep every night with a wish that she would rather give her superpower to Yoo Seodam. Of course, that didn’t happen.
Sixteen years ago, he gave her courage. He was the one who observed an inferior and useless superhuman like her more than anyone else. He was also the one who helped her to become a proper hunter.
And even now, 16 years later.
He still gave her the courage she needed. This time he was in a position where he could meet eye to eye with her.
‘….I can’t have fun here.’
The 16 years she had lived so far was a very precious time that cannot be replaced with anything else in the world. Those times could never be ignored.
“You’re all gathered. It is good that the youngest come back before the important banquet.”
The noisy hall fell silent with one word from Alexadre Blestash. He is the Patriarch of the Blestash family as well as Taylor’s father. The faint sunlight leaking through the silver-colored window frames shone on Alexandre’s silver hair, but it did not shine. Maybe it only looked like that in Taylor’s eyes.
Alexandre looked around the hall and soon their eyes met. As if he lost interest in Taylor, he soon looked away from her.
Even though his youngest daughter returned after 16 years, it was a reunion without any sentiment. Alexandre only mentioned Taylor existence once, and that was it.
‘….It became clear. I have to leave this place.’
Until now, Taylor had escaped from the family for a brief moment (16 years). She was able to do that because the family gave her their permission. However, now that she is able to use her power, Alexandre would think it was only natural for her to stop doing lowly things and work as a ‘knight.’
A permission, in other words, when the family wants Taylor to come home, they could forcefully summon her.
By the way, Alexandre hadn’t even once cared about Taylor who bet her life in the battlefield for the last 10 years. Yet suddenly, he wanted her to return because her power had become useful.
‘It’s ridiculous, really.’
Taylor couldn’t even join any guild she wanted because the family only allowed her to leave but not join any organization. The Union where she was quite active only participated in some activities with trusted personnel and it was ambiguous to say that place where she belonged to.
In order to join Yoo Seodam’s newly created guild ‘Another League’….
She must cross a gateway called Alexandre Blestash.
* * *
The prophet is gone.
Even though it has already been close to half a year, the Morian Guild has not disclosed that fact to the world. They still pretend they had the prophet among their ranks. However, Morian stated that the prophet couldn’t make any prophecy for the time being due to some reason. They were trying to buy some time by saying so.
It seems like they had a way to replace their reputation if they take the time like that.
Yekaterina looked towards the hall.
Underneath the chandelier clinging to the ceiling like stars, the luxurious banquet hall filled her blurry vision. She had lost her sight, but when she used her magic with the help of ‘Library of the White Witch’ she could see the world for a while.
The banquet hall was filled with people.
This banquet was called the ‘Knight banquet’. An event that is held only once a year in Russia. Only those who called themselves ‘noble’ could attend this banquet. But now, not only knights, members of Morian Guild as well as other major figures from all over the world attend this banquet to make a connection with others.
The reason Yekaterina was able to appear here was purely because of the whim of Morian’s guild master, Avon. She was originally a woman who would never disclose the existence of Yekaterina to the world, but… Yekaterina felt suspicious when she saw Avon behave as if her existence doesn’t matter anymore.
‘…I was thinking to ask her to duel me with the witch’s law, but the plan went wrong.’
Originally, I had no intention of coming to such a place.
Yekaterina sat quietly in the corner with her eyes closed while sipping on a glass of wine. In her life, she didn’t have any experience with both alcohol and men. The latter was because Avon strictly forbade her from doing so. She was quite awkward in this regard. The other witches were already hanging out with someone, while she sat alone in the corner of the hall. In her heart, she wished that Yoo Seodam would appear and accompany her. But soon she erased that thought.
‘From now on, I have to do it by myself.’
Yoo Seodam already rescued her from the hell, allowed her to learn magic, which had been her lifelong wish, returned her music, and promised her a place to stay once she left Morian. She already received so much from him, she couldn’t burden him more than this.
“Oh, this is my first time seeing you. How did I didn’t know that there’s such a beautiful woman in the Morian guild?”
From time to time, there’s people who approach her. However, Yekaterina always reject their company by saying excuses like,
“Because I’m not feeling well….”
Literally. She had a pretty emaciated face. Her appearance now was way better than how she used to look before meeting Yoo Seodam. However the traces of living with nightmares everyday while stuck in her room for more than 10 years without seeing any sunlight properly were still there.
The people who approached her easily believed her excuse. In the meantime, she tried to grasp information about the banquet as much as possible.
‘Did all 7 knights’ families gather here…?’
Taking full advantage of her blurred vision, she looked at people’s faces one by one, and found a woman that stood out from the rest. She’s Taylor Nine. A woman she saw in the prophecy together with Yoo seodam.
‘…She belonged to a Knight’s family?’
Somehow, Taylor Nine’s expression didn’t look good. She thought to go and talk to her, but then she remembered that she didn’t personally know her.
She soon looked around the other audience members, except for the knights.
It was an unusual banquet filled with renowned people from all over the world. Although few guild officials were also present, a man who seemed to be the chief of the secretary of the ‘Lost Day’ guild stood right next to Avon.
‘Come to think of it….. Didn’t she say that she’s been conducting research on how to realize magic through science?’
She had heard a few times that the reason why Morian was able to carry out the ridiculous experiment of mixing science with magic. It was because of Lost Day’s enormous funding. Such experiments had been around for a long time.
Around last year, Yekaterina still remembered that Avon was angry because the magic experiment conducted in deformed dungeon was largely unsuccessful because of Yoo Seodam.
‘Wait a minute… What is this…?’
The combination of people who gathered here was strange. There weren’t many guild members or hunters, most of the attendees were those who could exert great influence in the society. It was her first time attending a Knight banquet, but this banquet was way bigger than she initially thought.
‘Surely……’
Suddenly, an idea crossed on her mind.
Avon climbed onto the podium and caught everyone’s attention.
“I am the Master Morian Guild, Avon. nice to meet you.”
She spoke slowly, as usual.
“Actually, today I came with a firm heart. As everyone knows, I’m going to make an important presentation today. Phew… at first, I couldn’t say anything because my heart was trembling at the thought of talking in front of so many people.”
She threw some humor lightly.
“Oh my goodness….Mr. Khan there, how’s your third daughter doing?”
She induces familiarity.
Finally, she went to the point.
“……Everyone, the subject I’m going to bring out today is the story of ‘amulet’.”
The noisy hall quickly became quiet.
Amulet.
Very few numbers of veteran hunters and some well-informed institutions know about the existence of Amulet. However, everyone who gathered here today knew it very well. Amulet was a very unique and mysterious object that allowed people who did not have superpower to use it.
Yekaterina was well aware that the amulet was the best item to take away all the attention from the Murim people who use mystical ability called ‘Mugong’ who got famous recently.
Yekaterina hurriedly looked around her. As expected, the camera was rolling,
“Everyone. Amulets are not a superstition. It’s not even an unknown ability. It was a ‘Study’. The listing of text and numbers are the proof of it. And I’ll name this study ‘magic’.”
“······!”
“Magic…?”
People questioned Avon’s statement, but they never interrupted her declaration. They were also curious whether Amulet was another form of Mystical ability like Mugong.
Avon raised his wrist showing the mechanical bracelet that she wore.
“Moreover, Magic does not consume ether. Like Mugong, it uses a new energy that exists in nature itself, we call it ‘essence energy’, and this is the result of using it.”
Wooong!
A flame rose from her palm. At first glance, it doesn’t seem much different from normal superpower. To prove her point, Avon had installed a bunch of ether detectors around her. They were detectors that immediately triggered an alarm when a superhuman used their abilities, and also detected changes in etheric wavelengths.
The detectors ranged from a cheap one used in general roads and buildings, to high-performance one used by top-secret institutions, but none of the ether detectors responded to the magic.
“This is magic.”
Even in the modern world, magic has a long history. It has been handed down from generation to generation. However, as science progressed, witches had to hide in society, and most of the magic was lost. The witches who lost their ‘magic circle’ couldn’t find a way to activate their magic, and had to stay in hiding for hundreds of years…
But today!! By combining science and magic, the magic circle was finally implemented scientifically!
The bracelet on Avon’s arm was the proof that Morian had successfully reproduced the ‘Staff’ used by witches in the distant past using science.
‘…..Oh my God.’
When a result she had never thought of appeared in front of her, Yekaterina was astonished.
Because.
‘It’s too different…?’
It was because Avon’s ambitious scientific magic was far lower than Magic that Yoo Seodam used.
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