# Chapter 10
Still, Ion remained tense. Levi might be innocent and could possibly be being used by this man. Thinking that he needed to protect Levi from this suspicious individual, Ion felt strength returning to his previously intimidated body.
Levi untied the sack the man had brought. Ion, who was sticking close to him and looking into the sack together, pouted.
“You could have brought something delicious too while you’re at it. Like meat.”
Hearing Ion’s words, the man smiled snidely and looked down at him arrogantly.
“What would he use meat for?”
“Can’t you see how thin Levi is? Feed him some meat to make him stronger…!”
“Perhaps because you’ve only picked him up recently, there’s a lot you don’t know about Levi.”
The man showed a sneer perfectly suited for turning someone’s stomach and shrugged his shoulders.
“He doesn’t need to eat such things. Because he’s different from us.”
“Are you trying to say he’s vegetarian?”
“Vegetarian?”
The man’s gaze naturally turned toward the wooden bucket outside the tent. Inside were a few potatoes roasted the day before and a small head of cabbage.
“I see he’s still imitating humans.”
Muttering as if it was pathetic, the man looked at Levi, who seemed to pay no attention to their conversation as he examined the clothes.
“He’s not human to begin with, so he can live just fine without eating food. Instead, he has different ‘provisions’…”
“Hest.”
Levi, who had thrown the sack of clothes into the tent, picked up a potato from the wooden bucket. Then he nonchalantly handed it to the man named Hest.
“Potato, delicious.”
Hest stared at the potato Levi offered. Unlike before, it was free of soil and looked plump. He had always received dry and crumbly ones, but this time it seemed he was given something quite nutritious. Plus, although it was a bit burnt, it looked delicious with its golden-brown color.
Taking the potato Levi offered, Hest looked at the neatly made clothesline around the tent and the clothes hanging tidily on it. Then he rolled his eyes to look at the blonde boy hiding behind Levi.
‘For emergency food, he seems quite useful.’
Hest, who had been unknowingly directing sharp killing intent toward Ion, softened it a bit and put the roasted potato in his pocket.
“I don’t know if I’ll eat it, but I’ll keep it. I’m leaving.”
He somehow looked like he was in a better mood.
Hest pulled his hood down low again and moved forward as if to leave the forest. Then he stopped, turned slightly, and his eyes met with Ion’s, who happened to be glaring at him.
“Next time I’ll bring meat as you wish. …If you’re still alive by then.”
Leaving these words, unusually without any mockery, Hest walked quickly toward the entrance of the forest.
Once the hem of the white robe was completely out of sight, Ion finally moved away from Levi.
“Is he really someone we can trust? Why is he so arrogant?”
“You can trust him. Because he promised.”
Levi’s trust in Hest was certainly solid. Although Ion still didn’t think much of the man named Hest, it was difficult to get angry about not trusting him when Levi spoke so firmly.
More than that, there were things in Hest’s words that needed confirmation.
“Levi, can I ask you something?”
“Yes. Speak.”
Ion, who had been carefully pondering Hest’s words one by one, asked with a somewhat tense expression.
“What he said about you not being human… is that true?”
Levi answered frankly without the slightest hesitation.
“Yes.”
“No… don’t answer so simply…”
With such a brief answer, it felt as if he’d been made a fool for taking the question so seriously. Despite the content within the question and Levi’s answer being by no means light matters, his response was excessively plain.
“What does it mean… exactly… that you’re not human?”
Because he has the ability to kill with his right hand? Because he turns clear pond water into ink? Or because he’s been living like a primitive, foolish person?
No matter what reason was attached, none of it made sense. Ion understood that Levi had special abilities and was an unusual person, but that didn’t necessarily lead to the statement “not human.”
Levi approached Ion, whose face was serious, close enough to easily touch him. Then he drew a dagger from his right waist with his left hand. As the blade suddenly appeared before his eyes, Ion’s body stiffened as if frightened. If it had been anyone other than Levi who had drawn that dagger, he would have immediately created distance and prepared to throw something at them.
Just before the tense Ion could ask what he was doing.
Levi pointed the tip of the dagger in his left hand toward himself and then plunged it into his left chest.
“Wh-what are you doing?!”
Levi, who had embedded the blade almost halfway into his left chest, momentarily frowned slightly in pain before quickly pulling the dagger out. One of the red drops of blood that sprayed from the wound landed on Ion’s cheek.
“This is…”
“Hurry, let me see that wound! Quickly!”
It wasn’t just anywhere, but the left chest where the heart is. It was amazing that he could still stand after being stabbed so deeply there, but that wasn’t the urgent issue now. If the heart was still beating and he quickly treated it with his ability, it could become completely fine as if nothing had happened.
Without further thought, Ion placed his left hand on Levi’s left chest. The golden pattern on his palm glowed softly.
But no change occurred at the wound site. The golden pattern lost its light instantly, and Ion’s face was filled with confusion.
“Why…”
Ion’s left hand had the ability to instantly heal wounds of others it touched. It reverses the time of the wounded area, restores damaged flesh, and dramatically increases self-healing power, albeit temporarily. For himself, since the self-recovery enhancement function that originated from his left hand was already spread throughout his body, his left hand didn’t provide any special effect when touching himself, but it had tremendous efficacy for other living beings.
That’s why he naturally thought it would heal Levi’s wound instantly. But red blood was still flowing from Levi’s chest.
“Th-this can’t be happening…”
This being his first such experience, Ion was considerably confused when he suddenly recalled the water in the pond. When Levi put his black hand in the water, it became black water that killed the trees and grass of the forest, and when he put his left hand in, it became water full of vitality enough to somewhat restore even dried-up vegetables.
‘Could it be… they’re being canceled out?’
When they both put their hands in together, it became just ordinary water, nothing more, nothing less. That was clearly because their polar opposite abilities met and canceled each other out.
Ion then realized that, like in his own case, the influence of the black hand was spread throughout Levi’s body. So it made sense that his ability couldn’t affect Levi, who had the opposite nature.
“Oh, no!”
Ion’s face quickly turned to despair. It was the heart, not just any other part, that was deeply stabbed. This was something that couldn’t be saved even if the most capable doctor was brought.
“It’s okay.”
Despite having his heart stabbed, Levi calmly wiped away the blood flowing from his chest with his fingertips. He already knew both about the healing power of Ion’s left hand and that it would be ineffective on him because it was canceled out by his own ability.
“Something like this will heal in an hour.”
“An hour…?”
Ion, who had been trembling with helplessness, looked up at Levi with shaking eyes.
It was a wound that wouldn’t survive even if all kinds of miracle medicines were poured on it immediately, yet he said it would be fine left as is. Judging by the location, it seemed absolutely impossible, but even if by luck it had missed the heart, one hour was too short for an ordinary human to heal on their own.
Levi placed his fingertip on his wounded area to show.
“Although I have the same structure as humans, I don’t die even if my heart is stabbed.”
What is he saying now?
Ion, who had been in panic at the thought that Levi might collapse and die at any moment, became increasingly frozen as he continued to speak.
“It’s fine even if my neck is cut. I won’t die even if my head is injured.”
Ion’s lips trembled as if in convulsion. No matter how good his self-healing power was, as long as he was human, vital points like the heart, neck, or head would be fatal. He knew that if he received a fatal wound to those parts, he would die too, but the Levi before him was too innocently expressing his abnormal vitality.
In fact, it had been almost 5 minutes since Levi was properly stabbed in the heart, yet he was standing fine and speaking as if nothing was wrong.
“I don’t die from injuries.”
Levi’s words were sincere. It was hard to believe that the innocent Levi, who couldn’t even tell a small lie, would say something untrue to him, and above all, the biggest evidence was that his heart was still functioning.
Beyond confusion to bewilderment, his mind became complicated by the situation. Thinking that Ion needed more evidence in his confused state, Levi this time brought the blade to his own neck.
