Chapter 869: The Eye That Sees Fate (5)
Lennok ignored Meyer’s reaction and continued his explanation.
“This method of vaguely overlapping coordinates just enough to maintain a physical form while minimizing the backlash… it feels quite familiar. Usually, cases like this are inspired by certain terrains or natural objects… Yes. If I had to pinpoint it-”
Lennok stopped mid-sentence as he realized what example had come to mind.
He’d realized that this method of existing by separating spatial coordinates for each floor was just like Yorta’s Memorial Tower.
Lennok immediately and smoothly changed the subject.
“To maintain this many overlapping spatial coordinates in reality would require an astronomical maintenance cost. It seems the general hospital of a mega-city has such a surplus budget that they can pour this kind of technology into it and still stay in business.”
The very fact that they could replicate the floor-separation method of the Memorial Tower, a core secret of Yorta, was proof that the capital and technology invested in this space were truly immense.
Meyer, who had turned to look at Lennok with a surprised expression, nodded reluctantly.
“That’s right… an astute observation. That’s why the coordinate-overlapping technology applied to the current VIP ward hasn’t yet been used in other wards or facilities. Without the investments of the VIP patients hospitalized in this ward, this space couldn’t be properly maintained even in Vulcan.”
“…”
Lennok noticed Partisha’s reaction change subtly upon hearing those words, but Meyer’s explanation didn’t end there.
“But even considering that, the effectiveness of the spatial coordinate-overlapping technology applied to this ward is truly immense. By simply changing altitude via an elevator like this and stepping out onto a new floor-”
Ting!!
As he spoke, the doors opened. Stepping out of the elevator, Meyer turned to the group and said,
“You can briefly entrust your body to a completely different space.”
“…”
The space visible beyond the elevator was not the clean, dazzling, pure-white ivory tower where they had just been.
Whoosh!!
A dark corridor illuminated only by dim lights.
A chilling scene where the ceiling and walls were plastered with thousands of strange, unknown talismans.
Something that looked like hair writhed and flowed like snakes underfoot, and from the far end of the hallway, an eerie, ghostly wail seemed to echo.
“This place is…”
“This way.” Unconcerned by the drastically changed atmosphere, Meyer began to walk ahead.
“No need to worry about getting lost. There’s only one hospital room on this floor, anyway.”
“…”
“And there is also only one patient sleeping in this room.”
As he pushed open the old wooden door at the end of the hallway, the view of a spacious hospital room unfolded before them.
A bed with thick curtains drawn around it stood at the center, surrounded by more than a dozen medical staff bustling restlessly around the room.
All the medical personnel moving about were wearing thick respirators that covered their faces and outfits that left no skin exposed.
“Ah, Councilman Meyer. You’re a little late.”
“Gaisel.” An elderly man in a worn-out suit standing right next to the bed nodded toward Meyer.
He looked slightly younger than Meyer, but he too was of a considerable age, with stark white hair.
The only peculiar thing was that, unlike the other medical staff, he stood near the bed without any protective gear.
“I am Lapis Falcia.” As Lapis bowed her head slightly in courtesy, Gaisel’s eyes gleamed with a strange light.
“Hoh, so you are Madria’s…”
“Are you acquainted with my grandmother?”
“…A long time ago. We traveled together for a short while.” Gaisel shook his head with a subtle smile.
“It was so long ago that I don’t remember it well myself. Pay it no mind.”
“…”
His informal tone toward Lapis was as natural as breathing.
He was likely either of extraordinary birth or a superhuman whose own martial prowess had reached a comparable level.
But before Lapis could ask more about it, Meyer took a respirator from the medical staff, put it on, and approached the bed.
“Lady Falcia. Earlier, you asked me why you were being granted access to District 19. The reason is here.”
Swoosh!!
The moment he pulled back the curtains draped around the bed, a terribly twisted, vile energy began to pour out like a fog.
“…!!”
The vile energy was so potent that Lapis instinctively stiffened and drew a sharp breath, while Partisha shifted, wary.
But Meyer, paying no mind to their reactions, pointed to the patient lying on the bed.
A wretched figure, steeped in black, vile energy and completely withered, barely maintaining a human form.
It was impossible to even tell if it was a man or a woman, a child or an elder.
“Ramonte Clifton. A founding father who served as a senator since Vulcan’s establishment, and once the Keeper of the Keys, responsible for all the city’s gates.”
Meyer glanced down at the patient and said,
“Suffering from a chronic illness, he began to rely on strange folk remedies in his later years. In the process, he was afflicted with ancient curses multiple times and ended up like this. The last time he was conscious was ten years ago. Now, most of his biological functions have ceased, and his life is being forcibly sustained.”
“…”
“Most of the authorities held by Senator Clifton, the former Keeper of the Keys, have been retrieved, but the only one that couldn’t be recovered was-”
“The access authority for District 19, I presume.” Lennok, immediately grasping the situation, cut Meyer off.
The reason Meyer had suddenly guided Lapis to the VIP ward without any explanation.
It was because the series of conditions the City Council had presented to Lapis was all part of a preparatory process to make this very moment understandable.
“Lord Evan?” Lapis turned her gaze, slightly surprised by Lennok’s sudden interjection, but he ignored her.
He had realized why they were explaining the current situation to Lapis in such detail, and why the City Council’s response had been so lukewarm.
Gazing down with cold eyes at the corpse-like thing on the bed, Lennok spoke.
“Are you saying she is to personally retrieve the authority for District 19 remaining in this patient’s body?”
“Correct. You’re quick to understand.” Gaisel nodded at Lennok’s words.
“To begin with, access authority for a restricted district cannot be transferred or handed down, as it doesn’t remain in a tangible or intangible form unless it’s an old, antiquated authority created long ago. A restricted district like District 19, the very first one created, is in a league of its own compared to the others.”
“…”
“However, the reason we could accept the Lighthouse Keeper’s request in this case was because the City Council judged that she might be able to retrieve that ‘antiquated authority’ remaining in Clifton.”
Gaisel’s gaze naturally turned to Lapis.
“A Lighthouse Keeper who can peer into the past and future with the power of Chogyeon should be able to pick out and extract the access authority for District 19 from Clifton’s curse-stained past. Am I wrong?”
“…”
When he’d heard that Lapis had to see a senator’s fate, Lennok had assumed the target was Senator Leisen Azamaha.
He’d thought she was meant to look into the fate of the man who had become a host for the Extinct Eye Acrottrinier and investigate the end result of implanting byproducts of the Outer Sea into one’s body.
To think such a procedure was necessary just to obtain access to a restricted district.
“As we first promised, the City Council desires two things. A renegotiation of the non-aggression pact for the autonomous region left by the Heavenly Sight, and for you to look into Clifton’s remaining fate in our stead.”
“…”
Gaisel spoke to the silent Lapis.
“I will give you time to think if you wish. Since this isn’t a request to see an ordinary person’s fate, you may need time to consider.”
“…No.” Lapis, who had been listening to Gaisel and Meyer’s explanations with her eyes closed, slowly shook her head.
Rolling up her sleeves, she slowly walked forward and stood before the bed from which the vile energy flowed.
“Given that I would be peering into another’s fate with my power, I expected it wouldn’t be an easy task. There is no reason to hesitate.”
“…”
Her clear, sky-blue eyes shining, Lapis looked back at the two senators and asked,
“I will look into this person’s fate and receive the access authority for District 19. Can you both officially attest that this concludes our deal?”
At Lapis’s calm question, Gaisel and Meyer nodded quietly.
“Correct.”
“We will do so.”
“Very well. I will begin immediately. Partisha?”
“Lady Lapis.” Pushing back its pure white cloak, Partisha stood behind Lapis and wrapped a wing around her shoulder.
“I am ready. You may begin whenever you are.”
“…Yes. I’m counting on you.”
With a resolute expression, Lapis turned and carefully took the patient’s withered wrist.
Though she felt a searing pain as if her skin were burning from just touching the blackened, vile energy, Lapis didn’t so much as frown, immediately drawing upon her power.
Wooooong!!!
The power of Chogyeon, which Lapis had obtained by inheriting the mission of the Heavenly Sight.
The power of a Lighthouse Keeper, which crosses past and future to observe the present, was now focused entirely on a single person.
At that moment, vision itself seemed to converge and rotate around Lapis, before beginning to twist into a single point aimed at her.
Whoooosh!!
In the windowless, isolated hospital room at the end of a remote corridor, a frigid wind blew.
The instant a great will-thought awakened from within Lapis and swept through the patient on the bed as if to pierce them.
Thump!!
“…!!”
The patient’s body jolted violently and began to convulse faintly, as if having a seizure.
“Administer a sedative!”
“Heart rate is too high. We need to lower the blood pressure!”
“Bring the cardiotonic! If it comes to it, we’ll have to forcibly suppress their metabolism!”
The scene was a blur of medical staff rapidly administering all sorts of drugs and attaching equipment, with Lapis at the center of the storm, concentrating her mind.
Tsssss!!
The vile energy that had latched onto her from the patient’s wrist instantly traveled up Lapis’s arm and began to gnaw at her, as if trying to invade her body.
The ominous sound, like flesh being burned away, was enough to make even Gaisel frown in displeasure.
Yet Lennok merely watched Lapis with his arms crossed, not intervening.
“You seem to be the Lighthouse Keeper’s guard, yet you don’t stop her.” Meyer, who had been watching Lennok silently, sidled up and asked.
“Do you respect your employer’s will, even knowing it’s dangerous?”
“Of course not.”
“Then?”
Lennok replied nonchalantly.
“Because I can handle any problem that arises.”
Jindun’s barrier arts were extremely potent at isolating specific concepts, preserving them, and maintaining their original state.
The protective barrier Lennok had placed on Lapis would prevent the curse from invading her mind and body.
And even if the barrier were to be breached, as long as Lennok was by her side, he could deal with any anomaly instantly.
However, Meyer, unaware of this, hesitated, as if feeling a sense of déjà vu from Lennok’s answer.
“…That’s some confidence. For a moment, I tried to recall where I might have heard that before.”
“The Vulcan City Council must have its own assurances to be doing this.” Lennok looked down at Meyer with a calm gaze and retorted.
“Didn’t you entrust her with this task judging that a Lighthouse Keeper could easily handle a curse like that?”
“…Who knows.” Averting his gaze with a subtle expression, Meyer gave a weak shrug.
“I don’t know much about Senator Clifton, but I’ve heard plenty of stories about the truly unspeakable atrocities he committed in his later years.”
“…”
“The reason he’s still kept in this ward isn’t just because of that one authority. In the first place, his twisted existence is so warped that no one short of an Ascendant’s bloodline could handle i-”
Paaat!!
At that moment, a fierce wind erupted from Lapis’s body, and the vile energy began to overflow like a wave.
Not content with merely tormenting and obstructing Lapis, the entire aura covering the patient’s body began to surge violently, as if going berserk.
“Kgh…!!” Cold sweat dripped down the brow of the closed-eyed Lapis, and just as she unconsciously tried to take a step back.
Tak!!
Lennok stepped closer and grabbed her hand.
“Focus.”
“Lord Evan…?”
“This man was never an ordinary human to begin with.” Lennok said, looking at the convulsing body of the patient with cold eyes.
“He’s an Apostle of the Cult. He’ll try to kill you the moment you let your guard down, so don’t release your power.”
“…!!!”
“H-How is an Apostle here…?!”
Lapis and Partisha were horrified, and even the medical staff, who had been pretending not to hear while bustling about, jolted in surprise.
“I don’t know what methods he used, but he tried to prolong his life by turning his body into an Apostle’s without believing in the doctrine. And he was about halfway successful.”
Still holding Lapis’s wrist, Lennok carefully drew up his mana.
“I’ll help.”
Jindun’s barrier arts. The authority of a priest, transferred from the priestess.
There were plenty of ways to help Lapis by suppressing the vile energy and forcibly crushing the Apostle’s will.
All that was needed was for Lennok to guide it flexibly, in a way that would thoroughly help Lapis, without revealing anything to those around them.
“Lord Evan, this is…!” The moment Lennok’s will-thought flowed into her through her wrist, Lapis’s complexion brightened with a cool, azure clarity.
Kagagak!!
The terribly twisted, black, vile energy washed away from the patient’s wrist that Lapis held, revealing bare skin.
A gaunt wrist, swollen and dry, its skin peeled away and damaged.
But beneath that wrist, a strange, unknown pattern like a barcode was engraved, emitting a vivid yellow light.
The moment everyone present realized that this was the very thing they had been discussing—the access authority for the restricted District 19.
The light of the barcode glowing on the wrist swelled in size, instantly filling the entire hospital room.
Paaaaaaaat!!
“…?!“
In the instant that everyone, unable to face the light directly, averted their eyes or blinked.
The light that filled the room slowly began to fade, being sucked in as if converging to a single point.
Everyone quietly followed the path of the light with their eyes.
It circled the bed once, passed over the chest of the patient who had gone completely limp, and went past the watching medical staff and senators.
It lingered near Partisha, then spiraled down onto the back of the hand of the exhausted, leaning Lapis.
Then, it settled all too naturally just below the wrist of Lennok, who was standing right beside her.
“…Hm?”
Kiiiing!!
Although he reflexively tried to shake it off with Targeted Resistance, it was naturally blocked by the edge of his sleeve and hovered over his skin.
Seeing the vivid yellow barcode now glowing clearly on his wrist, Lennok unconsciously raised his gaze.
“…”
Everyone in the ward was staring at him as if they’d seen a ghost.
Meyer, unable to hide his bewilderment, muttered,
“No, if you just snatch it away like that…”