# Chapter 11
“You want to show me again?”
Ion panicked and quickly grabbed his hand to stop him.
“Alright, I believe you!”
He hurriedly shouted while snatching the dagger away from Levi. Yet his gaze remained fixed on the wound on Levi’s chest, unable to look away.
Levi, who had surrendered the dagger without resistance, continued speaking.
“I don’t need to eat anything. I don’t need to drink either.”
“But… you eat potatoes and cabbage every day.”
Until they purified the pond water, he used to eat vegetables with dirt still clinging to them. Wasn’t that because he was hungry and willing to forsake taste just to fill his stomach?
“I was told that’s what people eat.”
Levi’s eyes lowered slightly.
“I want to… look like a person too.”
As Levi continued to speak, Ion, who had even been frightened of him, couldn’t think straight when he heard the words “want to look like a person.”
For the first time, Ion sensed a loneliness emanating from Levi. It was impossible to ignore.
Ion himself had been called a monster by some of the people he had healed with his left hand’s ability, people who had recoiled at the sight of his power. The slave traders had said the same thing whenever they confirmed his ability. Remembering that, he could fully understand why Levi would consider himself not human because of his abilities and physical capabilities.
As Ion saw himself overlapping with Levi, his heart swelled with emotion, and he impulsively wrapped his arms around Levi’s waist. His small blonde head pressed against just below Levi’s chest.
“You look like a person no matter how I look at you. Not getting hungry or thirsty is actually a great thing to have in life! And as for healing ability… I’m not inferior to you either. It’s not because you’re not human.”
While pouring out words, he pressed his ear firmly against Levi’s chest. Though very slow, Levi’s heart was definitely beating.
Only after hearing that could Ion feel relieved. Once he became convinced that Levi would still be alive just like now even if his heart were stabbed, he felt more grateful than scared.
“You might get stabbed, but your heart is beating just fine. Having strong organs means you’ll live longer, which is good.”
“…”
Ion released Levi and made a sulky face.
“Ah, I’m telling you, you are human!”
Levi looked with interest at Ion, who spoke as if insisting that Levi should only believe him, puffing out his chest.
“When someone says ‘I’m not human’ or ‘I’m different from humans’… that just shows you’re a ridiculous fantasist, you know?”
Ion was now even snorting derisively.
“Think about it the other way. You say you’re not human because of this and that, but conversely, you’re definitely human because of other things. Your appearance, your ability to eat, your speech, your thoughts, and so on!”
As Ion spoke vehemently, counting off on his fingers, he felt his confidence growing.
“If you count, there’s more evidence that you’re human, so why think about it so seriously? Then am I normal when I can change pond water and heal people just by touching them? Does that mean I’m not human either?”
“You are human.”
“See! If I’m human, then Levi is human too. Who’s human?”
Ion lifted his chin and grimaced as he thought of Hest.
“Anyway, Hest, that dried dog shit bastard!”
Imagining dog excrement that had dried until it turned white, Ion nodded, thinking it was a perfectly fitting description for that guy.
He didn’t like him from the first time they met; his instincts were accurate after all. It was because Hest had acted arrogantly when they first met.
“Levi, don’t believe everything that person says either. A person who tells another person they’re not human isn’t human themselves.”
He deliberately overused the word “person” as a warning.
“Do you understand now? If you understand, answer me!”
When Ion pressed him with narrowed eyes, Levi slowly nodded.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Ion smiled broadly and stood on his tiptoes to pat Levi’s cheek like he was praising him.
“Levi, just believe what I say. You don’t need to listen to weird people like Hest.”
“But…”
“I’m telling you you’re human. Levi is human no matter how you look at it, right?”
Levi, who had been looking down, slowly met Ion’s eyes. The corners of his mouth, which had never shown any expression before, formed a faint curve.
“…Yes.”
Facing Levi’s smile, Ion stood frozen, blinking rapidly.
‘What, he knows how… to smile.’
Levi’s lips had already returned to a straight line. His innocent eyes seemed unaware that he had even smiled.
As Ion came down from his tiptoes, he felt his face growing warm and pressed his hands against his cheeks. While averting his gaze as if to distract himself, he carefully asked a question that suddenly came to mind.
“But how did Levi know about those things?”
“What things?”
“That… about not dying even if your heart or head… gets injured. And about being able to live without eating.”
He had heard that when Levi regained consciousness two years ago, he couldn’t even remember basic common sense. All he knew was his right hand’s ability, his name, and how to speak and write.
To Ion’s questioning, Levi answered nonchalantly, as if describing what he had for dinner the night before.
“Hest tested it for me.”
“What do you mean by… test?”
Ion, puzzled, saw Levi’s hand wrap around his own neck.
“As soon as we met, Hest cut my throat first.”
Ion’s face, which initially didn’t understand the meaning, soon contorted uncontrollably.
Scrub, scrub—
“That bastard.”
Along with the sound of fabric being rubbed violently as if about to tear, a small curse was heard.
‘What kind of bastard is he?!’
Ion was so angry after hearing about Hest that he couldn’t possibly stay still.
Levi and Hest first met about a year and a half ago. Levi, who was living alone in the forest just like now, confronted Hest who suddenly appeared, and without warning, had his throat cut.
Despite blood pouring profusely from his neck, Levi extended his black hand, attempting to kill Hest, who, astonishingly, shed tears at the sight. Then he called Levi by name and embraced him.
‘What kind of absurd behavior is that?’
Ion jokingly asked, feeling incredulous, why Levi hadn’t just killed him with his black hand when he was embraced, and Levi replied that he had actually intended to kill him, but Hest was wearing clothes made entirely of Etlun leather, so his ability didn’t work.
Clothes made of Etlun leather weren’t something a nobleman like Hest would ordinarily wear. Aside from being expensive, the texture of Etlun leather wasn’t good enough for nobles to deliberately have clothes made from it. Typically, it was used as an accent on high-quality fabric, like the clothes Hest wore this time.
Therefore, Hest clearly already knew about it.
About Levi’s ability. And how to counter it.
Ion didn’t know what had happened between them before Levi lost his memories, but regardless, that was too reckless. If Levi didn’t have the ability of immortality, he would have died right there.
Moreover, Hest looked like he had just reached adulthood, which meant he must have been in his late teens when he swung his sword at Levi.
‘Even if he wasn’t an adult, he should have talked instead of attacking first. What’s the point of having a mouth!’
Hest was indeed a bastard not worth associating with. Levi’s face wasn’t one that could be forgotten after a single glance, so Hest must have recognized him immediately—why would he test him by cutting his throat?
Ion took a deep breath to suppress his anger and glared at the poor laundry gripped in his hand. He had taken it to change Levi into new clothes, but now that he remembered Hest had provided them, he wanted to tear them apart right now.
‘Should I pretend to accidentally rip them?’
As he glared at the innocent target of his anger, Ion suddenly paused as a thought occurred to him.
Thinking about it now, he seemed to understand why his mother had directed him to find the Black Hand, that is, Levi.
His mother must have known exactly what would happen when Levi met him. That Levi would be interested in his left hand, or that Levi’s ability wouldn’t work against his left hand.
Then naturally, a question arose.
‘Why did mother say Levi was dead?’
His mother had clearly stated that Levi was dead. He first heard about him quite a long time ago, when he was about five or six years old. Afterward, whenever Levi was mentioned, his mother always had a face that seemed to miss him. When she said he was dead with such an expression, it never sounded like a lie.
‘Did she just express his loss of memory as death?’
That possibility wasn’t entirely implausible. After all, when she sent him away, didn’t she instruct him to find the Black Hand of this forest? That Black Hand was Levi, whom his mother had told him about.
Though he wondered why she had to express it that way, he assumed she had her reasons as he wrung out the laundry tightly. Cold water splashed onto the ground, forming a small puddle.
“Huh?”
Ion, who had been staring at where the water fell, suddenly crouched down in that spot. As soon as he realized he wasn’t seeing things, his eyes sparkled.
