Hermit Wizard
Chapter 73

Heart Fish (7)

The movement of ink spread on the transparent paper. Tiny tentacles stretched out in the air.

I couldn’t see the Heart Fish that was already out of its host. After I saw the shape of the encroaching tentacles, I could know by analogy what it looked like.

‘… I’ve seen a lot of things I can’t unsee these days.’

[This is the first time I have seen anything visualized like this.]

The captured Heart Fish struggled. Its mouth was like the spout of a sea cucumber.

To describe the appearance in the squishing tentacles’ light movement, should it be called an elliptical mass of intestines? It was similar to whether it was the crumpled egg or the intestines in the pollack soup. However, it had fins on its back, sides, and tail.

‘Is it getting smaller?’

The shape of the Heart Fish gradually shrunk. After absorbing everything, the tentacles that had wrapped around seem to had become a little plump.

[I think this solves the Heart Fish problem.]

‘Then, the egg’s problem.’

The tentacles didn’t betray our expectations. A similar force emerged from the tentacles when pressed the Heart Fish to vomit ectoplasms in the bedroom. There were no more ectoplasms to protect the eggs. The Heart Fish’s egg lost its bond with the soul and began to erupt outward.

I frowned and gazed at the black grape-like things spewing out of the fainted kid.

‘If all of this had hatched… it would have been a disaster.’

I could see if the egg was completely non-material. I gave up trying to count them.

[To lay eggs like this, the soul’s level must be quite high. Didn’t it eat just one head?]

Wandering the corridor with her neck down was a phantom that linked the invisible soul body and the soul. If there was no head, it meant that 10%-20% of the soul was eaten.

How could it have laid so many eggs after only eating that much?

The tentacles swallowed the egg one after another. I couldn’t see anything like the mouth, and it just seemed to be absorbed by its skin.

When it finished eating the eggs, the tentacle went back into the pocket as if it had completed its work. The girl’s body was now floating in the air. The spring night breeze was still cool. I put a magical warmth around the child.

[I see why it was aimed at her for food. Even though the Heart Fish ate only part of the soul, it was enough to lay so many eggs.]

At those words, I observed the girl again.

‘I understand that her Mana circuit is excellent, but she didn’t build the Mana and train it in earnest, right? How high is her natural spirit?’

It wasn’t a question that the answer would come out anyway.

Putting aside the question for a moment, I looked at the apartment wall with a hole in it. There was definitely a CCTV in that hallway that would have well recorded the scene of me running out of the hallway.

A video of a large, tall, alien race with more than ten times the number of eyes of a normal human being tied the young girl to the tentacles and jumped out of the building.

‘I don’t know if the video I was shot will go through the press or not.’

[At least we should hope it flows into them.]

‘It’s enough to find out where the Fake God went from America and raid it, so we’ll have to count on their intelligence.’

It was best to retrieve the Heart Fish and go back quietly. However, I predicted that things were wrong and a situation like that would happen. If I work in a city like that, I would’ve attracted the attention of the Guardians of the Great Convention anyway.

So what? It was a trick to confuse if it attracts attention. So, I transformed myself into Fake God and left a trace.

For now, I wanted to get rid of the assumption that there was an ‘unknown and powerful human wizard.’ And I wanted to make all the pursuits focus on the Fake God, the one who was locked in my tank right now and couldn’t even walk around outside.

‘Kim Kyung-hwan should study harder. It will be faster for them to come to Korea.’

[However, even if they come to Korea for the Fake God, you must somehow lure them to the training camp, right? To proceed as planned.]

‘If Kim Kyung-hwan is judged to be threatening enough, they will find him on their own even if we don’t encourage them. If it doesn’t work, we have to create a better link between Kim Kyung-hwan and the Fake God and spill them.’

[Hmmm.]

‘It would be nice if they go to the training center while coming to catch the Fake God. But I don’t know if they’ll move as we want. It would be good to create a suitable motive.’

That being said, I looked back at the fainted girl.

To go along with my scenario, it had to be a twenty-three-eyed alien that caused this mess with that slime monster. Not a human man in a black mask.

Seeing the girl who saw the invisibility magic and looked at me with both eyes, I scratched my head.

‘Well… what should we do?’

[She will regain consciousness..]

‘Then she will testify of what she witnessed… About seeing me. And the tentacles also.’

[It would be nice if everyone who listens believes it is a dream…]

‘Things more than a dream just happened. They won’t be ignoring it because she is a child.’

The testimony of a human man in the room and an alien race was recorded on the corridor CCTV. These two different kinds of information will lead to different reasoning. But I don’t want to leave unnecessary suspicion in the minds of the Guardians of the Great Convention and the government.

I hoped there was no room to think about the possibility that an unknown human wizard could transform into the Fake God. The Fake God could transform into a human or the existence of a human wizard who was brainwashed by the Fake God or cooperated with him.

Putting that possibility into the scope of the accident could change the density and method of tracking. It was a more unfavorable condition for me. Unless that kid didn’t testify, there was no guarantee that it would be ignored even if she did.

[Covering her mouth?]

I answered through my backpack.

‘There is a way not to kill her, but there is no need to kill her, right? Gosh, a child like this.’

I looked at the small, thin object in my hand—opaque material such as dragonfly wings. The shape was like a palm leaf with a shortcut end.

It was the ‘ear’ that Yodmo gave me as a gift. I plucked one of the leaf-like branches.

‘You said this is the smallest unit that can be effective, right?’

[Yeah.]

I put a small branch in my hand near the girl.

Yodmo was not a very strong creature when it came to combat power. Therefore, they couldn’t hunt for the mighty long-lived species to give them a feeling of satiety. However, even if they were not aiming for food, there would be times when such a race threatens them.

Yodmo’s ear in my hand was a kind of weapon, or at least that’s how others used it.

I put a piece of the ear that I held on my finger over the girl’s philtrum. And when Mana was applied, the pieces began to vaporize. I watched the smoke get sucked into the girl’s nose.

[It’s supposed to be sprayed everywhere like fog.]

‘Well. In the middle of running away, it can’t do it like this now.’

The power to destroy a part of the other’s memory instead of giving up the memory gluttony when an opponent whose brain cannot be extracted tried to harm itself. It gets rid of what it couldn’t eat anyway. Such power was latent in Yodmo’s ears.

Even for the most powerful enemies, if the memory of the immediate past disappears in an instant, not only that, but if the memories of the last few years are lost all at once, of course, they would have fallen into confusion. Yodmo took advantage of the gap and ran away.

[I don’t know how much memory it’s going to reverse and erase.]

‘You said it was proportional to Yodomo’s ability, right? Usually, it would have ended with losing memories of a few days… The only memory that needs to be erased is the scene that just occurred.’

But unfortunately… The Yodmo I contracted was a fairly high-class individual of its species. I don’t know how many memories that kid would lose, but it would be at least a few years.

‘It would be nice if we could fine-tune the minimum memories that disappear…’

[There is no way. There is nothing we can do.]

I glanced at the sleeping girl’s face.

‘How old is she?’

[Who knows.]

‘If you look at the items in the room, it is certain that it was before school entrance.’

[Let’s say she is seven years old at most.]

What a coincidence. The memories I lost were until the age of seven.

I muttered inside as I looked at the child. I couldn’t help it. That was the only way I could save her.

-Sweeesh!

Depending on the direction I controlled, the vaporized smoke flowed into the child’s nose without leaking elsewhere.

“You’ll be a little confused when you wake up, but you’ll get used to it soon.”

Compared to the whole life you would be living in, your life up to now would be only a small fraction. Even if the power of those ‘ears’ was so strong and if you lose all your memories, it won’t be something you can’t bear. It would be fine. It was only a memory, and you could just make more of them.

Looking back on the memories I had at that age; there wasn’t much of importance. It was the same for me when I read the file I wrote.

I had lost all that much memory right now but look; I am still alive, ain’t I? Without any major problem.

“Because I was fine, you should be fine.”

I waited for Yodmo’s ears to completely disappear and be absorbed.

And after stepping on the ground, I waited for my Mana to stabilized and used the invisibility magic again.

I put the child down in the back of the security room. Then, I made it as if she grabbed the phone box in a surprising incident and made a loud sound with magic so that the mindless guard could hear it. Then I quietly escaped as I watched the security guard hurriedly running over to find the child laid down.

‘Ah, I’m tired.’

‘Parvache.’

[Hmm?]

‘I wish the two remaining hosts had a lower spirit than this one. To make this mess two more times…’

[No matter what, it won’t be very easy. In the absence of a ring, to produce that level of firepower, the consumption of Mana would be severe.]

‘Right.’

Fire trucks and ambulances crowded around the apartment building I broke in. Looking at the sight, I added a word again.

‘And… it would be nice if the remaining two are not young.’

[… Yeah.]

***

The two remaining parasites discovered afterward were those who met the conditions I had hoped for. Both were found in Yeouido, and unlike the Heart Fish that lived in the girl, they were tired of hunger and could not go outside Yeouido, and as soon as they left the Channel, they seemed to be parasitic to a person nearby.

One was working in the office building nearest the Channel, and one was living in an apartment nearby. They also showed a strange phenomenon in which the eggs were laid and quietly subdued, much easier than in the first case.

After dealing with all three Heart Fishes, I crossed the Channel of Mapo Bridge again.

This time, I was waiting without sleeping. But as I stepped on the land of the Dell dimension, I was summoned by the Truth-Seeker of Silver Forest.

Now, after the familiar apnea flight…

“Cough…! Cough…!”

Just like before, I was sitting in an underground cavity and breathing a rough breath.

“… What you asked for.”

The familiar answered.

=I know without explanation. As soon as you moved to this dimension, I felt your presence. =

I was quick to see what the Truth-Seeker was saying. I didn’t even use my own hands, but a familiar pocket pops out of the backpack. It was stored in a sub-space connected to the bottom of the backpack. However, I was amazed that the Truth-Seeker’s power could intervene there.

The mouth of the pocket that flew in front of Truth-Seeker of Silver Forest opened. Bronze tentacles that matched the color of the Truth-Seeker’s body poured out from within and were attached to its body.

=You ended it sooner than I thought.=

“As you said, they didn’t run far away. They were found close to the Channel.”

Even during the conversation, the tentacles returned to the Truth-Seeker’s body were pressed several more times. And… contrary to my expectation that it would keep sticking to it, they fell from the Truth-Seeker’s body again.

I tried to think about whether the act of germinating and separating the tentacles was close to reproduction or spontaneous amputation of the limbs. Still, it seemed to be similar to reproduction. Seeing that they read my mind and moved, they seemed to have a certain degree of self-will.

Of course, if there was the ability to give ego to the cut limbs, it might’ve been another story.

Come to think of it, I was curious. Was the Silver Forest’s Truth-Seeker’s ability, which I had seen so far, the native of its race, or was it its strength as a Truth-Seeker?

If it were the power to have as a Truth-Seeker, it was terrible to think that the Earth’s Dragon had done something similar.

=I’ll give this to you. It is given separately from the price you wish for. =

The Truth-Seeker’s words were once again to confuse my earlier speculations. Wasn’t it a reproductive activity?

What it meant by what it would give me was obviously referring to the tentacles and pockets that I had borrowed for a while.

“Is this tentacle… part of your body tissue? Or is it some kind of reproductive activity?”

Before I could finish what I said, the Truth-Seeker’s joyful, fun, and dying fluctuations of emotions were conveyed to me.

=Reproductive activity? That’s an interesting idea. However, it is difficult to explain this concept with the common sense of the human species. These guys also have some ego, but it isn’t authentic reproduction. It is correct to think that separated parts of me were smaller than the dust of existence. It’s an entity I created, separate from me, but not descendants from my perspective. Growing up like this doesn’t mean they can become like me. =

The tentacled pockets quietly flew to me. I picked it up, looked at it for a moment, and asked again.

“If so… does this tentacle also have a ‘soul’?”

My question was answered by the compositionist nonverbal will first. When it comes to human beings… the emotions seem to be screaming and laughing.

=Yes, but you have a lot of suspicions about me, don’t you? I can’t even read the detailed flow of thought. =

Having said that twice, I quickly reinforced my mental barrier. Did it read my thoughts? Was this also the power of a Truth-Seeker?

It was driving me crazy. How far in the world could it go, and how far was impossible?

= Anyway, you’ve accepted my request, so I’ll have to pay the price. I don’t have to worry about Heart Fish in your dimensions where the Truth-Seeker is lost. That’s a good thing. So, did you say you want information? =

“…That’s right.”

I asked a question I had prepared in advance.

“I would like to know how the Truth-Seeker in our world died. I want to know what happens to the dead Truth-Seeker. Will he be reincarnated? Will the soul of a Truth-Seeker who has undergone reincarnation be born again as a Truth-Seeker?”

The Truth-Seeker didn’t answer for a while. Then it came to its senses again.

=As expected, you are unique. Interesting. =