CH 53

“Truly fascinating.”

Roa couldn’t control his astonishment from personally seeing Yi-Gyeol’s soul withdrawal for the first time.

As Yi-Gyeol smelled the sleeping fragrance and collapsed like a powerless straw, a golden light simultaneously jumped out of his body and flew into the air in the form of a butterfly. For Roa, there’s nothing that’d be more amazing than that scene.

Whether voluntarily or by force, the process by which a soul emerges from a person’s body is irrefutably slow.  It begins by getting surrounded by a faint stream of air from head to toe, then gathering them together to gradually form the shape of a butterfly. When the body’s haze-like air is once exhausted to realize the pure white butterfly, the heart would stop and the breathing also disappears.

On the other hand, the process of Yi-Gyeol leaving his body was quite different. When the soul escapes, it usually gathers the vague air scattered throughout the body, or in short, it gathers vitality, forms it, and breaks the connection. However, Yi-Gyeol flew straight from the chest part of his body in the form of a butterfly. He didn’t collect the entire body’s vitality first before going out, and the shape of the butterfly doesn’t look faint or weak either.

‘Marvelous.’

If it were a person who couldn’t see butterflies, Yi-Gyeol would’ve only seemed to have fallen asleep in an instant. Then they must have thought it was strange without truly understanding why Roa was in awe.

Meanwhile, Sethian, who was holding Yi-Gyeol’s sleeping body, turned and looked for him with slight difficulty. He still couldn’t see even the vaguest shape of a butterfly, but he could locate him even without perceiving him since Yi-Gyeol was a presence Sethian was already unequivocally familiar with.

“How was your condition?”

Since Yi-Gyeol didn’t fall asleep the way he normally does, Sethian was worried that there would be some sense of disharmony or that there would be something out of place.

−It’s the same as when I usually go out of my body. I’m going to wake up again now, so please take note how long it’ll take me until I open my eyes.

Yi-Gyeol, who was floating in the air and looking down at Roa and Sethian, flew as if trying to pass through his body. The fast-sliding golden butterfly flew toward the middle of Yi-Gyeol’s chest, and not long after it completely permeated, his body shuddered once. Subsequently, the corners of his eyes trembled, and his eyelids raised with some difficulty.

At this point, Roa was stunned once more. It was the first time he had ever seen a soul escape without exacting its own vitality, but even more so the first time seeing it enter without any obscurity and even open its eyes immediately. Usually, if you put a soul into a body, the vitality needs to spread to a certain extent first before the person can open its eyes, but Yi-Gyeol is already in a condition that’s brimming with vitality, so even if his soul goes in and out of his body, he was able to rise immediately.

“How long did it take?”

“7 seconds.”

When Yi-Gyeol, who’s rubbing his eyes upon being placed down on the floor asked, Sethian immediately answered. Even though it was just for a really short span of time, Yi-Gyeol’s eyes slightly frowned, disliking the fact.

“It took longer than I thought.”

Although it was at a speed that was surprisingly fast for Roa, Yi-Gyeol still seemed dissatisfied.

“I think I could be a bit faster with some practice….”

Not long after experiencing the out-of-body phenomenon, there was a time when he went inside his body and opened his eyes without his mother or younger sister waking him up. On that occasion, there was a difference of tens of minutes between the time he saw on the wall clock just before entering his body with the time he opened his eyes. Since then, the duration it took him to wake up every time he returned in advance to his body has gradually decreased due to his repeated soul withdrawal. Moreover, Yi-Gyeol felt like it had dwindled further during his soul withdrawal in this world.

As if to obstruct Yi-Gyeol from falling into deep thought, Sethian grabbed his arm and turned him around to look at him.

“What are you contemplating so hard for? It doesn’t matter even if you briskly or sluggishly wake up.”

“Of course, it matters.”

Yi-Gyeol’s eyes flashed with determination.

“Being able to fall asleep and wake up as soon as you want means that you can expertly utilize your soul state, and your body would be less in danger.”

He couldn’t go far and could only slack within the castle because of his fragile body at the moment, but later on, he’ll properly have to fulfill his part. In order to do so, he should proficiently be able to control his main specialty, and by doing so, he would be able to go outside the castle as well.

The range that a soul can detach from its body is not really limited, but if someone intentionally awakens the body that is in a defenseless state, the soul will be forced to return and open its eyes.[1] Therefore, even though he wants to do something like being an incorporeal spy, he couldn’t stay out of his body for a long time, and getting too far away also causes an unspecified risk.

Among them, the most defenseless time is after falling asleep, right before the soul escapes, as well as when going back and waking up. The shorter the term limit is, the less the risk would be.

It was something he had never done before, and Sethian didn’t even say a word about making him do something later, but Yi-Gyeol knew exactly what he needed to do and what he could do to fully utilize his ability.

‘I need to master my ability so that Seth can use me appropriately.’

For Sethian, he had to be a significant and indispensable human being. In order to be recognized by him and remain proudly by his side, he must especially focus on his ability to help him.

‘And I also can’t stay under his protection forever.’

Now that he has gained back a bit of flesh, he had to slowly build up his stamina. He wanted to unshackle himself from being unable to do anything due to being sickly as soon as possible.

After completing the task of bringing the sleeping fragrance, Roa was quickly kicked out of the room to the point where his title of being the tower owner was disregarded. However, he doesn’t feel offended since he also wanted to quickly go back and conduct a new study while endlessly reminiscing the scene of Yi-Gyeol leaving his body.[2] Already within his head, a new magic research centered on Yi-Gyeol’s ability was in full swing.

After Roa left, Yi-Gyeol, who was left alone in the bedroom with Sethian, faced him directly all of a sudden and demanded bossily.

“You promised to teach me swordsmanship before, please keep it.”

Thinking about what he means, Sethian recalled a conversation he had with him in the bathroom before. At that time, Yi-Gyeol said that he wanted to learn swordsmanship.

‘I’ll teach you the basics if you gain enough weight.’

Recollecting the answer he had given in the bath, Sethian glanced over Yi-Gyeol’s body. He hasn’t gained his ideal weight yet, but he thought he should be capable enough to start developing his foundation for his physical strength.[3]

“Fine. As long as you don’t overdo it.”

“Thank you! Let’s start right now!”

Perhaps because he’s teeming with motivation, Yi-Gyeol was pleasantly delighted at Sethian’s reply with a radiant smile on his face. He has never thought of the words adorable and cute even after seeing a small animal that was causing a raucous before, but now he thinks those expressions fit perfectly with the current Yi-Gyeol somehow. Before he knew it, his hand was already stroking Yi-Gyeol’s head dotingly.

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“Ah!”

Yi-Gyeol’s shoulders recoiled and the wooden sword that flew out of his hand rolled around with a loud noise in a place a little farther away from them.[4] Probably because the wooden sword was heavier than he actually thought, it flew off and fell to the floor after just swinging it a few times even though he was holding it with a tight grasp. This is already the fifth time, so he felt sorry to look at Sethian’s face who was standing beside him.

Fortunately, Sethian’s expression is the same as usual. Rather, every time he swings the wooden sword and blows it away, he would check his palms as he does now and meticulously inspect them with his eyes to see if there are any injuries.

Sethian slightly frowned as he personally unfolded Yi-Gyeol’s hands and looked at them. His fingertips pressed down on the somewhat thicker palm under the index finger. It was the blistered section naturally getting chaffed as he wielded the wooden sword, making Yi-Gyeol’s entire hand twitch as it scraped at the same time.

“Let’s call it a day here.”

“No, I can do more. I won’t let it fly this time.”

Yi-Gyeol said while sneakily giving him a fawning glance, but Sethian was adamant.

“Stamina doesn’t increase just by overdoing it. You’ve already moved enough.”

The knights who were glancing at the two nearby were gobsmacked as they gulped air at Sethian’s words. Crown Prince Sethian was the one who incessantly pushed the knights into the depths of hell once in a while, saying that stamina can only increase by rolling endlessly, so it’s ridiculous to hear such a person spout such a thing.

In fact, that wasn’t the only thing that was strange with Sethian who came out to the training hall today.

Seeing him bring a man with an exotic and slender appearance that they had never seen before makes them wonder who he was, but from catching sight of the exposed flesh near his neck and clavicle, they thought he was a servant who warms the prince’s bed at night. However, all kinds of questions arose as everyone heard the man speak informally to their master and call him with a pet name, ‘Seth’. And Crown Prince Sethian, who also heard the words said nothing and seemed to be happy with it.

What’s more, Sethian was personally teaching the man basic swordsmanship. Sethian teaching someone something, it was the kind of scene that the knights wouldn’t even dare to dream of seeing, making their surprise gradually grow.

The black-haired young man, as if he had never held a sword before, took a somewhat sloppy posture and slowly began to swing the sword up and down. After doing so a few times, all the knights’ shoulders flinched together when he suddenly lost strength and sent the wooden sword away.

Sethian always said as well that once holding a sword, they should never let it slip out of their hands even if they get cut off, and he would also occasionally hit the wrist of the knights who were training with a wooden sword to see if they’d let the sword go. Therefore, it was only natural for them to grasp it tightly even while their wrists were broken since if they missed it, the prince would break another part of their body.

However, as if he had become a completely different person from before, the Sethian in front of them carefully inspected the other person’s palm and checked whether he was hurt, then picked up and handed him the wooden sword himself.

Rather confused by Sethian’s unprecedented countenance, the knights looked at Lenox and Kirsty as if hoping for an answer. But then, the two did not show much reaction even as they watched Sethian’s behavior. They look composed as if they’re already expecting it to happen.[5]