# Chapter 14
“Ah… Ah…!”
He couldn’t believe it.
Just a few minutes ago, he had wished for death to come quickly because of the terrible pain of necrosis throughout his body. For the sake of his brother and daughter who were crying while taking care of him, he wanted to stop breathing soon. At the very least, he wanted to show his daughter that he was accepting death peacefully.
But now, all those thoughts were instantly forgotten.
Now, only one thought remained.
He could live.
“I… I… I’m a-alive…!”
The man sat up, supporting himself with trembling hands. The pain he had felt until moments ago seemed like a dream—there was no pain anywhere. He didn’t even feel the stiffness in his muscles that had been rigid with agony.
The man looked at his hands from front to back, then touched the smooth skin visible between the bandages and exclaimed again. His voice, completely different from his painful groans earlier, seemed to fully convey his elation.
After unwrapping the bandages from his hands, the man saw that his skin had become smooth like someone who had never been ill. He proceeded to unwrap the bandages from his forearms, legs, feet, and face. He tore off all the bandages stained with pus and filth without hesitation.
The man shouted wildly at the sight of his smooth skin everywhere. He seemed unable to contain his excitement. Hearing this, the child outside must have thought her father was screaming in agony, as she began thrashing about more violently and shouting loudly.
“Ah! Kana!”
With the uncle’s urgent voice, the closed door burst open. The child, who had rushed inside with tears streaming down her face, stopped in shock when she saw her father who had removed all his bandages.
“F-Father?!”
The child rubbed her eyes to make sure it was really her father. The man, with a broad smile, spread his arms toward her. Only then did the child realize it was truly her father, and she rushed into his arms, crying loudly.
“How is this possible…”
The child’s uncle, standing at the entrance, was dumbfounded at the sight inside. His brother, whose skin had become smooth as if he had returned to his pre-disease state, embraced the child while calling upon a deity he didn’t even believe in and repeatedly expressing gratitude. Then, putting the child down, he began bowing repeatedly to the strange black mass.
“Thank you, Holy One! Thank you!”
“Mister, your voice is too loud. It’s embarrassing…”
Ion gave an awkward smile to the man who seemed to ignore his words, then looked at Levi with a somewhat satisfied expression. Even though Levi had witnessed Ion’s power right before his eyes, he showed no surprise or bewilderment. He merely displayed his usual interest in Ion’s left hand.
As Ion looked at Levi’s face, he clicked his tongue briefly.
Perhaps it was due to all he had been through.
‘I’ve really lost my humanity.’
He hadn’t used his ability because he felt pity for the man dying in pain before him, or because he felt sorry for the people around him. Considering the risk that would come to him by saving them, he normally wouldn’t have stepped forward readily.
Yet the main reason he had used his power without hesitation was because of Levi.
He didn’t like that Levi was seen as a vicious murderer in that child’s eyes. Levi’s compensation was merely a few food items he didn’t even need, but Ion couldn’t bear for him to be labeled a killer because of that.
‘What did Levi do wrong?’
Though Ion felt that distinguishing between good and evil was meaningless for Levi, he was still not someone who should receive unreasonable anger from others. To begin with, Levi was so pure that even if he received such anger, he wouldn’t understand what was wrong.
Others would say that saving lives should naturally take priority over concerns about Levi facing anger. If the people he had saved with his ability hadn’t demanded free treatment for their acquaintances as if it were a given, and if some of them hadn’t sold him and his mother to slave traders, he would have agreed with that sentiment.
“Your ability exists to protect yourself. Remember that you can’t save every human.”
His mother was right.
“Being righteous isn’t always the right thing to do.”
Acting righteous and good only resulted in him being the one who suffered.
“So our son doesn’t need to go looking for what’s right or who to help, regardless of his ability. The world is a place where you thrive by being selfish.”
So he decided that from now on, he would attach selfish reasons when saving people.
Just as the reason he had used his ability this time was for Levi, the only person toward whom he couldn’t be selfish.
“Phew…”
Ion exhaled heavily as he walked with his hands full of baskets. Levi, standing beside him, looked at the baskets and asked.
“Want me to carry them?”
“I can handle this much.”
Though they were heavy enough to hurt his palms, the tent house wasn’t far, so he just needed to endure a little longer. Above all, the sacks that Levi was carrying in both hands were much heavier than his.
Glancing at Levi, who walked with the sacks without any sign of strain, Ion puffed out his chest and said triumphantly.
“Now we won’t have to worry about food for a while.”
The village’s staple foods were the skinny potatoes and cabbages that Levi had been bringing back. They had somehow managed to grow these two crops in the harsh environment, but they must have been so nutritionally deficient that everyone was that emaciated. They said they occasionally caught and dried freshwater fish from a nearby stream, but as people who faced serious consequences from even minor injuries, they had rarely been able to do so.
Therefore, the dried freshwater fish mixed in with the provisions they had brought was the most precious reward for the villagers.
Ion recalled how each villager who had removed their bandages showed radiant smiles and expressed gratitude. Their faces, which must have been filled with despair beneath those bandages, now shone with light.
“You must keep your promise.”
Just before leaving the village, Ion repeatedly urged all the villagers who had come to see them off.
“It must never be revealed that you were suffering from the Numinel disease.”
He told them to be extremely careful, as they would surely be ostracized by other villages if it became known that they had suffered from the contagious disease. In truth, his real concern was different.
‘If the story spreads that people’s Numinel disease was cured instantly, those slave traders will realize it was me.’
Being pursued by slave traders, Ion stressed with a stern look that none of his information should leak out. The villagers, with eyes full of gratitude and emotion, promised the one who had given them a new life that they would certainly keep their word.
Moreover, though it wasn’t his intention, the villagers who had been completely cured of their disease now feared Levi. To some, he had been a benefactor who provided a peaceful end in place of suffering, while to others, as the child had shouted, he was merely a murderer to be feared. Now that they no longer needed a peaceful end, Levi was just the latter to them.
Ion didn’t point out their changed attitudes. Although it stung his heart, he needed to use it now.
‘People will be careful with their words, if only out of fear of Levi.’
He had strongly urged them while in Levi’s company. Besides, he had said he wanted to avoid attention at all costs since he was in hiding. Though they might keep their word because he was their lifesaving benefactor, they would also fear that if they said something wrong, Levi might come to take their lives. Although Levi himself seemed completely oblivious to all this.
Ion stopped walking and turned to look at Levi. Levi, who had seemed strangely lost in thought for a while, stopped along with him.
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
“…”
Levi didn’t answer immediately, looking as though he was carefully choosing his words. Ion, sensing something unusual, was about to ask what was wrong when Levi’s voice came first.
“Is fish… delicious?”
Ion had expected something serious to come out, but it was a completely unexpected question. Hearing this, Ion burst into a short laugh and nodded vigorously.
“It’s much more delicious than potatoes and cabbage, so don’t worry. I’ll grill it nicely for you.”
“Okay.”
Inwardly exclaiming how cute Levi was, Ion walked excitedly toward the tent house.
In the eyes of Levi, who was watching Ion’s small back, some kind of dark ripple was stirring.
❖ ❖ ❖
It was around the time when Ion had completely adapted to life in the Black Forest.
In the early dawn, a drizzling rain fell. The rainwater pouring through the black thorn trees looked like someone’s long black hair falling, and the sound of it hitting the dirt floor sounded like someone repeatedly touching the entrance of the tent, trying to open it.
Perhaps because of this, Ion’s dreams that night were violent.
His mother, covered in blood, had failed to help him escape, and she was cruelly murdered before his eyes. Subsequently, Ion was dragged into a filthy, foul-smelling prison where he was torn to pieces by countless people surrounding him. People frantically fought each other to gain even a small piece of Ion’s body.
At the moment his eyes were finally taken, his vision changed to reality.
