Chapter 150 (2/2)

– Even those already dead or gone missing have lost their honor. The Albanos must have thought that if they have correctly taken care of what they were told to do, the headquarters will not pry on whatever they do in their free time, but…

She muttered something along the lines of ‘it was a foolish and small-minded imagination. They’re always like that.’

-Crucially, thanks to the intervention of the ‘great being’ that you serve, the situation has become a big deal. It became an issue that even the headquarters couldn’t leave alone. Perhaps it would have differently ended if they hadn’t seen it, but it was evident that they had made a mess as they were up to something.

The Albanos, which failed to kidnap me quietly, seemed to have been searched inside-out by the Union headquarters. They were in a situation where not only could they not even dare touch me again, as I was considered the reincarnate candidate for Igras-Sho, they had to surrender their position on Union’s audit team.

– Anyway, back to the contents of the interview… You seem to have profound bad blood with him. With that Mercadius thing, I mean, considering a few beings around you have their paths crossed with his curse and went crazy or dead.

I made a gloomy expression for the show.

“It’s a painful wound.”

In the interview with the Albanos, I left out the fact that I was also under the curse.

– But there’s one thing I’m curious about. “?” – The means that thee got to identify the fact that the people around you were under the curse of Mercadius. Did I hear correctly that they each revealed their madness towards you and ultimately tried to kill you?

Well, that wasn’t a lie.

– In the process, the curse’s identity was revealed thanks to the Iponia that thou take care of.

That, of course, was a lie. That was the only way to recognize the curse other than [The Successor’s Eyes], so I reasoned out with that. I couldn’t help but sell out the guy that must be taking a nap and lying around in my house right at that moment. The animal was still actually too young to handle my curse. I nodded.

“Yes, indeed.” – That’s the exact reason that made me wonder.

The eyes shone strangely between the rotten tofu-like flesh. And what she said was…

– Perhaps, couldn’t it be that thou too art under Mercadius’s curse as well?

Thud! My heart pounded once again. Instead of pretending to be expressionless, I asked back with a moderately shaken tone.

“Me, too? What do you mean…?” – There’s a lot we don’t know about the Mercadius species. Although there are many areas where it hasn’t been adequately proven to be considered information among the secured contents… looking at the interview records reminded me of it and bothered me.

She telepathically spoke, leaving a peculiar reverberation, saying that very few beings knew about it even in the Union.

– It is said that they propagate through the method of scattering their seeds.

The seed of Mercadius.

– And among the other names of Mercadius, there is the one that says: ‘the one that breeds by the soul.’

An entity that multiplied through the soul instead of the body…

– When we combine information that has already been scraped from the doomed dimensions… Although it’s only a story considered speculation as there is no evidence, his seed appears to be divided into two types. One is the seed to produce a new Mercadius, and the other is the seed that exists to become the nutrients of the true seed and be consumed.

Lee Chang-Hee, Han-Seol, and Seo Gyu-Cheol passed by my head. The ends they faced were similar. The curse hidden in the Core revealed itself and was destroyed by the curse leeching on me. No, I thought it was destroyed. What if those weren’t just destroyed in vain? What if the seeds of Mercadius in my Core absorbed what was in the bodies of others?

‘My curse ate them up?’

Whenever their seeds disappeared, the memory of the host was passed on to me. That, too, was explained if that was one of the processes of absorption.

‘Then, why did they bear hatred and obsession toward me in the first place? Lee Chang-Hee, Han-Seol, and Seo Gyu-Cheol that is.’

… Could it be that it was ultimately arranged for them to be consumed by me? Amid such thoughts, the Commissioner continued.

– But thee did not go mad, unlike other hosts. That’s why thou may not have noticed that thyself is cursed. In other words, only you are free from the mind manipulation of the seed. We now know the reason.

The reason was [The Successor’s Eyes].

– The reason is that thou art the person who is chosen as the incarnation of a great being.

The Commissioner in front of me was also under the mistake and the misunderstanding that the Albanos had. In fact, the attitude shown by Igras-Sho was abnormal and terrible enough to think that it could also be true. However, the certainty of whether the god’s power indeed suppressed Mercadius’s seed hadn’t been proven, and there would be no way to prove it from then on. It was only proper to think that it’s the effect of [The Successor’s Eyes] for the time being.

– I think the reason why two of our brave warriors were suddenly mind-controlled is that seeds were transplanted. Of course, it’s not the seed that produces offspring, but it must be the seed that serves as nourishment for the real offspring. We still don’t know why it affected only two of them, however.

She spoke in an angry tone.

– They indeed had an artifact that allowed them to resist mind control. But they still got defeated. In the end, it means that the remaining method is to use an EX-Class or System-Class mental control resistance item, but no such artifact has been found yet.

In the end, the only defense seemed to be the EX-Class unique skill [The Successor’s Eyes]. The Commissioner, who wasn’t aware of that information, thought the only way to resist it was through a god’s power.

– We plan to send 500 new observers to Earth in the future. If your kind becomes a member of the Union, it’s not that difficult of an investment to make. “Just to find one Mercadius, you must mean.” – Yes. If that individual is still on Earth, we’ll find it in the end. However, if we get mentally manipulated again, we’ll have to be defeated in the same manner.

She stares at me, saying, ‘But…’

– I think only a god’s power can counter that. As confirmed, there is no incarnation existing in the material world at this time. But there is a person who was chosen as a future incarnation—a man of divine protection.

She looked at the holy wound on my finger. According to the devil’s sword, the sacred power in it had been growing stronger day by day since the tutorial had ended.

– This is my suggestion. I need thy help in the Mercadius hunt we’re currently planning. Considering the threat of the apocalypse they’ll bring, the people of Earth must help us, of course. How about that? Why don’t you lend me your power to hunt for the unidentified signs with us?