Chapter 298

With a soft pouring sound, the teacup filled with a pale green tea whose fragrance was rich enough to savor at a glance.

"I drink it often because the scent's so nice. I've picked up the habit lately."

Having poured the tea by hand and nudged the cup toward me, Milited filled its own cup and gave a small shrug.

"Drink it if you feel like it, leave it if you don't. I'm not going to bother pressing you."

With that, it tipped the cup to its lips and took a sip.

I glanced down at the cup, then over at Han Su-yeong, who was still out cold, sunk deep in sleep. If it had wanted to pull anything underhanded, it had had every chance to do so already.

Without hesitation, I reached out, picked up the cup, and took a sip the way it had.

"Whoa — doesn't that burn? On top of that, I put poison in there. A pinch of something potent enough to drop a whale on the spot."

I just looked at it in silence.

It raised its palms as if to say it was joking.

"Kidding. I don't play around with food. Well, strictly speaking this is a drink, but anyway — you know what I mean."

It took another little sip.

"All right then — let's cut to the chase and talk fast, shall we? Normally…"

Here it shot a brief glance at Han Su-yeong and looked momentarily thoughtful.

It seemed to be thinking about how to refer to her.

"…the right thing would be to wait until your companion there is awake before we talk. But honestly, even if I look relaxed on the surface, I'm a bit pressed for time."

It grinned, then slowly began to slip off the large Eastern-style robe it wore.

It exposed one side of its torso to me, and the skin there bubbled and popped in an endless cycle, like the surface of a boiling soup.

"See it?"

It didn't seem to be in pain — it was still smiling.

"As expected of the me from three hundred years ahead. Even weakened and frail, it won't go down easy. I've been chewing away at digesting it for three solid days and this is what I've got."

Pulling the collar closed again, it began to explain.

"First I should probably tell you why I laid you down on my bed… honestly, there's nothing to it. You, your companion, and another me — the three of you just dropped right out of nowhere onto my bed. You can't imagine how much that startled me. Picture it: I'm fast asleep, and suddenly people come falling out of the sky!"

Milited let out an easy laugh.

"So I ate it."

It tilted back, watching me with the same unhurried air.

"One Milited is enough. Two is more than necessary. And above all — do you know the story of doppelgängers? No, wait. Right… if you've met me in your world, you must have met Margo too. Yes?"

I nodded slowly.

When I set the cup back down — barely having wet my lips — it pulled a face of genuine regret.

"That's a very expensive tea, you know… anyway. The principle's similar. Within the same time and the same space, only one of us can exist. That's the rule, the iron law. Try to break it and neither party survives."

Milited grinned a deep, almost gleeful smile as it spoke.

"Of course, it's not quite that airtight — there are plenty of workarounds. No rule's without its exceptions."

"Workarounds?"

"Right. For example… if only one side is aware of the other? Or maybe both parties acknowledge each other from inside isolated alternate realms. Strictly speaking, those aren't the same dimension."

It shrugged.

"But the moment both sides know about each other, one of us has to go. That part doesn't budge."

And unfortunately, the me from three hundred years ahead wasn't the one who wanted to go.

It brought the teacup back to its lips.

"Same for me, of course. So I didn't want to die, and I killed first. That's all."

It tapped its fingertips together with a soft click.

"And along the way, I got a nice gift, and got to peek at plenty of entertaining memories."

"So then."

"Hmm?"

"Why didn't you kill us?"

It frowned at my question, as if I'd said something insane.

"What kind of crazy thing is that to ask? Why on earth would I kill you? Why? Distinguished guests I never even dreamed of just dropped into my lap, vine and all!"

It looked excited enough that it half-rose from its seat before settling back down awkwardly.

"What — because you fought the me from three hundred years ahead and damn near killed it? That's the me in your world. Not me."

"……"

"And besides, when that pendant is sitting right there with you, why would I do something stupid?"

It pointed at the pendant it had given back to me.

"Before that, can I ask you something first? What in the world did you do to it? There's an enormous mass of intent dwelling inside it, shielding you and the girl. And on top of everything else, ownership has shifted to you completely. So without your will behind it, the thing's nothing but an old curio to anyone else."

The eyes Milited fixed on me as it spoke gleamed with obsession and greed.

I already knew perfectly well how fixated it was on that pendant.

I gave a small nod and shot back, "So that's why you kept us alive? Because I have full ownership?"

"…No. I'll be honest with you. I was going to kill you both."

Milited said it in a flat, indifferent tone and poured itself another cup of tea.

"Nothing personal, really. I was annoyed, and irritated you'd dirtied the bed I was sleeping so well in. More importantly, if I took the pendant by force, you wouldn't just let that slide, would you? My thinking was, eliminate the trouble before it starts."

It got that far, then quietly closed one hand around its other wrist.

"But the moment I reached out with that in mind, my arm started rotting away. …Can you believe it? A Seven Calamity, crushed by poison. I'd have bet the only thing in this world that could poison me was that brute-strength lizard."

At its words I felt the shadow twitch faintly.

It seemed Milited didn't realize I carried Minerva and Sbeungali inside me.

"So what is it you actually want to talk about? You're not about to ask for the pendant in exchange for sparing us, I assume."

"I'll help you."

Milited leaned forward as it said it.

"You have to go back, don't you? To your own time."

I kept my voice steady and met its eyes, trying to read its true intent. "…And? You're not going to tell me you want to run a charity."

"Right."

It nodded and pointed at the pendant.

"Once everything's done, hand that pendant over to me — by your own will."

It said the next part again, lower, almost a whisper.

"'You have to transfer ownership to me by your own will.' Promise me that, and in return I'll swear on all of my names and on my past, present, future… on everything I am."

After saying that, it hastily added, "If I were being slick, I'd have hooked you with something like, 'I swear on the name Milited.' And as you know, that's a pretty trick and nothing more — because I have countless names. Losing one of them barely registers. That's why swearing on a name comes so easy. But once I swear on every name, that little dodge doesn't work. And for our kind… a vow staked on names and existence carries an enormous weight."

At its words, Sbeungali quietly confirmed it was telling the truth — that once Milited swore an oath like that, even it couldn't slip free.

I nodded. "Then swear right now."

"Swear to what, exactly?"

"That you'll answer everything I'm about to ask, with no lies."

It mulled it over for a beat, working its lips together.

I spoke quietly. "You want to make a deal with me, don't you? Then we have to build some mutual trust. Like you said yourself, you and I were enemies from the start — and asking me to trust someone like that on the spot is a stretch, even by your standards."

"…I won't answer on critical secrets. You'll allow me silence on those, at least?"

"Sure."

"Then I'll swear it. I, Milited, for a brief time from this moment, will spit out only the truth in answer to all your questions, without an ounce of deceit. This is a sacred, solemn, unbreakable vow sworn upon all of my names and my existence."

The instant it finished the oath, I shot in, "What memories did you steal from the other Milited you ate? And what new power did you get?"

"Opening with a big one, are we."

Even so, it answered immediately, like it had been waiting for the question.

"The truth — and it's the opposite of what you'd expect — is that I got almost nothing. The other me wasn't in one piece, so I could only salvage a tiny fraction. Power-wise, nothing's changed. I'm a hair stronger; no new abilities at all. The memories… are basically just things tied to my long-standing wish."

"What do you know about me?"

"Hmm — that you're strong enough and capable enough to push me to the brink of death?"

"……"

I kept my mouth shut at that vague answer, and Sbeungali spoke up again.

[You can believe it. There's far too much for that one to lose by lying about something this minor.]

Right after, Minerva tapped at my ankle through the shadow in a small, reassuring stroke, as if to say it was fine.

I nodded and moved on. "You said you'd help me. Mind telling me how?"

"What it sounds like — I send you and your companion back to your original time. To be blunt, the longer you stick around here, the more awkward it gets for me too."

It spoke easily, opening its hand toward me.

"Like I said earlier, that pendant won't function at all without your will. But — as is usually the case with items inhabited by a sentient force — with the rightful owner's permission, anyone can touch it and manipulate it freely."

"Right…"

"And above all, to actually use that pendant, you need a Seven Calamity's core."

Milited spoke as if whispering to me.

Then it grinned.

"And I'll tell you this with full confidence — there isn't a single Seven Calamity out there who'd attempt something that insane. Why? Because tearing out your own core is, for us, the equivalent of yanking out a human's heart. Which means one use of the pendant costs one Seven Calamity's life. How absurd does that sound?"

"But not for you."

"Not Margo, not Sbeungali, not Minerva, not Juno, not Venus… probably not even Ahriman could do it. I can detach my own core at will."

Milited said it with absolute confidence.

And its words had real weight behind them.

After all, of all the Seven Calamities, it alone could freely shift its body between solid, liquid, gas — every state and every form. As it had claimed, peeling off a piece of its own body was well within its means.

"Right. Then…"

I nodded.

I let out a small breath and asked what would be my last question.

"…One last thing — can I ask you a few things about the doubles you make?"

For the first time, it didn't answer right away. It closed its mouth instead.

After a moment, it nodded slowly and murmured, "…Looks like the me on your end ate someone you knew."

I didn't answer, but in a way, that was an answer.

It nodded slowly, signaling me to go ahead.

"The conditions for creating a double. The conditions for summoning one. And anything related to them — tell me as much as you can."

"That's awfully broad."

Grumbling, it nonetheless began to explain.

"There are two main conditions for me to summon a double. The first is that I have to have absorbed some essence of the person — blood, hair, a piece of flesh, that sort of thing. The second is that the person themselves can no longer exist in this world. In most cases, that means they're dead."

It paused there and gave its head a small shake.

"But you don't want to hear this part — let me tell you a few more important things. The doubles I create are, at best, 'doubles that carry a fragment of the original.'"

"Doubles that carry a fragment of the original…"

"Let me put it more bluntly. Using a double, I could even make a homunculus. But that's it. The very best I can do is a doll that resembles them in appearance. I can also embed your memories, or those of people around you, into it to make the resemblance as close as possible. …But that's not what you want, is it?"

Milited — without a doubt the most accomplished alchemist alive — went on.

"Let me ask it plainly: you want to bring back someone you know, using one of my doubles. That's impossible. Even I can't do it. If you handed me the materials right this second, I still couldn't."

"……"

I said nothing.

It nodded slowly. "…I don't know how much alchemy you know, but there's a concept called the Three Primes. It's the foundation of alchemy. Mercury, salt, sulfur — the principle that all matter is built from three basic essences."

It pressed on quietly to me, now speechless.

"Humans are the same. A person is made up of spirit, body, and soul — three parts. Throw their balance off and a person dies. And my doubles are nothing more than a reconstruction built from a fragment of the spirit I've stolen — to put it more simply, from the lubricant that links body and soul and holds them together. The missing body and soul are rebuilt from my own flesh, so…"

I waved a hand to cut off the increasingly opaque explanation.

"So what you're saying is…"

"Right — what I'm telling you is that, for what you want, you need at the very least that person's full body and full soul. The most my double can do is bind those two together."

"……"

With that, it rose to its feet.

"…I think we're done with the questions. I'll step out for now. At the very least, you'll want to talk this over with your companion, won't you?"

It said this with a small twitch of its lips.

"And from the look of it, you'll want some time to think too."

Saying it would send servants and attendants along later, telling me to rest, it slowly opened the door and stepped out. In the room with its lingering fragrance of tea, I just sat there, saying nothing.

[…You all right?]

I nodded at Sbeungali's question. "Yeah."

I meant it.

I'd braced for this from the start, so what I felt wasn't quite despair — just a heavy mix of feelings.

I let out a quiet sigh and was reaching slowly for the teacup —

[…Hm?]

• when Minerva muttered something, sounding puzzled.

[Come to think of it, the little sister of yours that this one saw… ah, no — the young lady looked quite different from what I'm picturing now…?]

"…What?"

I blinked at her, not following, and Minerva made a soft "Hmm…" as if dragging the memory back into focus.

[You showed it to me once. Just once.]

[Yes — I'm certain…]

Your little sister was sealed inside a crystal.

Minerva said it with absolute certainty.

[Haaah….]

Because she'd been provoked into anger, an entire city had disappeared.

Countless lives had been swept away with it, and among the dead were Milited's subordinates, the ones who had effectively ruled the place.

[How tiresome.]

From the mouth of an enormous black-scaled dragon came the voice of a beautiful woman.

It was a voice filled with the kind of confidence only someone with not a sliver of doubt in her own strength could pour into a word.

[So I'll have to make it pay the price.]

The horned dragon muttered as if it were a chore, then slowly spread its wings.

Its destination was the place where the fellow Seven Calamity Milited resided.