Past Life Returner

We started as soon as we entered the room. There was no need to hesitate since I had confirmed Yeon-Hee’s thoughts on this again.

As the Life Vessel flowed out of Yeon-Hee’s body in a river of dark energy and was absorbed into the bone ring immediately after, she let out a short gasp of relief. It was a sense of liberation for her, who had been tied to the Life Vessel as a form of restriction.

Is it over?

Yeon-Hee silently asked with her eyes. When I nodded, she asked with a complicated look, “Is it going to be Jonathan from now on?”

She was asking if I had plans to put the Life Vessel inside Jonathan’s body next. However, just having the Life Vessel could make him a target of the enemies. We still had not figured out what route Saint Dragorin was taking to attack the mainland. Although the number of their invaders had considerably reduced, they were still trying to mug us.

Jonathan was currently maintaining order on my behalf, so I couldn’t let him be disturbed by the Life Vessel. After watching the hearing, I had become convinced of that. Therefore, there was someone else who had to protect the Life Vessel.

“Orca.”

That was why I had brought it before returning.

Yeon-Hee wished to discuss it further, but I was unable to engage in a long conversation as I hadn’t had the chance to take a proper shower upon returning to Washington D.C. I had only changed my clothes. I was exhausted from wandering around for seven days without even a moment of rest at the Saint Dragorin, and the fatigue from the last battle made me more restless.

“You must be really tired. Go sleep in your bed, not here…”

I heard Yeon-Hee’s worried voice faintly, and it had been quite some time. The tub was overflowing with hot water, causing it to spill out and fill the entire bathroom with steam. When I checked the time, it seemed like I had slept for about three hours.

When I came out wearing a gown and sat on the couch, Yeon-Hee was skillfully wielding the Clown’s Dagger after its final reinforcement.

She asked in a concerned voice, “Do you need to sleep more?”

I gently pulled her toward me, then she looked up at me with a smile as if she had been waiting for this. The intense look in her eyes from the hearing was no longer visible. I could feel a natural instinct creeping into her.

“Wait a minute. Hold on.”

Yeon-Hee slightly pushed me away and looked around. She came back after checking that the plastic bag on the table contained condoms. That was right. We still lived in a world where we were not supposed to have a baby between us.

***

“Here is the first news. Jonathan Hunter, who had been hiding since the Awakened returned from the Stage of Advent, appeared at the hearing yesterday and declared that his only concern was humanity’s safety. Amid growing concerns about the transcendent being that had been discovered around June 2nd, the Jonathan Investment Finance Group reaffirmed its commitment to be a ‘defender’ in any crisis situation.

To prove his sincerity, he revealed that he is the mysterious major shareholder ‘John Doe’ of the Jonathan Group. He also claimed that he would accept the judiciary’s decision regarding the anonymous transactions he made.

With Jonathan Hunter’s consistent message, the protests that had been spreading from Wall Street to countries around the world seem to be losing momentum.

The second news is about another alien attack in Manchester, United Kingdom, where fifteen Awakened and thirty civilian agents, as well as many employees of the TMC Group, lost their lives.

The buildings and their surroundings were suddenly covered in a blue veil, and cars on the road sped up to escape. A supernatural attack phenomenon, called ‘Blue Veil’ occurred at the TMC Group’s headquarters and training grounds.

There was a significant number of losses as most of the group’s Awakened were in outer space. We will connect to the reporter Curry Brown who is in Manchester. Hello, Curry.”

“On the 25th, local time, the Awakened and civilian agents who were preparing to enter outer space at the TMC Group’s headquarters fought against alien attackers. The battle lasted for two hours, and the loud noises from inside did not stop until the Blue Veil disappeared. Witnesses said that drivers in vehicles and pedestrians were terrified and were evacuated due to the noise.

The invasion had destroyed the group’s several facilities, including the strategic headquarters and training grounds, and resulted in more than one hundred casualties, including Awakened.

At the joint press conference in the World Awakened Association London Branch, TMC Group announced that they had repelled all alien attackers on-site and reminded that humanity is still not completely safe as long as such invasions continue to occur worldwide. They also emphasized that everyone should be prepared for the possibility of sudden increases in the frequency and intensity of attacks…”

Yeon-Hee was already awake. As the sound of the television she had turned on became clearer, the weight of her body leaning against my chest also became more distinct. I didn’t open my eyes because I was savoring the moment.

Shortly after, she moved a bit, then the television was turned off.

“Sorry, did I wake you up?” she asked apologetically.

I answered with my eyes still closed, “What time is it?”

“Around eight o’clock.”

I nodded. “Let’s stay like this for a little longer.”

I had already woken up from the sound of the news, but this wasn’t bad. The love we shared last night still lingered through the skin that was in contact with hers. Her small shoulders, small enough to hold with my one hand, especially reminded me of last night.

As I lay stroking her shoulder for about an hour, I felt it was time to start the day.

We showered and dressed together, then I began to unfold the stories I had put off from telling yesterday. Yeon-Hee had been waiting to listen to them as well. It was a story of searching for the two Dragorins by visiting each Holy Knight in the Greenwood Continent. Most of them didn’t even notice that I was there.

The ones who were blood descendants of the Greats all had the ability to awaken as soon as a Doom was near. Even if they didn’t directly face me, they would awaken as soon as I entered their vicinity. In fact, Dragorin Blue and Green both showed signs of awakening as soon as I approached them.

Yeon-Hee couldn’t help but laugh when she heard that the places where I had caught them were battlefields where they were fighting.

The Greenwood Continent was still in the midst of a conquest war that was dominated by powerful countries to confront the Demon King’s corps. In other words, they were fighting each other on the pretext of strengthening their own military forces before the Demon King’s army attacked their territory.

They seemed to be sincere with their goals. The powerful countries of Greenwood believed it was more rational to conquer their neighboring countries under their flag than to build alliances with them.

Despite the vastness of the North, East, South, and West, the fact that all the powerful countries had reached a unanimous conclusion despite the communication barriers caused by the immense size of the land meant something. It was not because they were all stupid.

Yeon-Hee chuckled while buttoning up her blouse. “Their way of thinking is so similar to humans. It is actually the same.”

We dressed up and headed to the association’s headquarters. Both of our returning stones’ destinations were set there, so we moved immediately. As the energy dispersed through space, the background changed quickly from a hotel room in Washington D.C. with morning sunlight to the office of the headquarters locked at night.

I could see Orca’s suite between the bright lights beyond the window. There, the tentacles that had lost their master and hung limp had regained their vitality and wriggled on their own. Even in the middle of the night, the association agents were controlling access in front of Orca’s building. Yeon-Hee brought her Kciphos in her arms, then headed toward Orca.

Orca’s throne was located on the top of the building, and it greeted us after coming down from its throne, which was made of tentacles and the unique clay of the Maruka Clan.

Orca had once failed to protect the Life Vessel of the Maruka Clan in the past, but it was now completely different from before. Yeon-Hee quickly noticed that it had become stronger than before. Although it still appeared injured, the immense power that had grown after swallowing Insectum’s subordinate couldn’t be hidden even if it wanted to.

When Insectum and I were summoned to the meeting of the Demon Kings and vanished, Orca had fought a life-or-death battle against Insectum’s subordinates. Then, it waited for me there.

“Amazing, Orca!”

Yeon-Hee raised her voice. It was more a joyful voice than a cautious one. She was calming down the Kciphos, who was baring its teeth at Orca.

Orca had become so strong that it could suppress the instincts of its illegitimate children. Yeon-Hee was more surprised by that. Originally, the low-class Maruka Clan instantly attacked us as soon as they saw us due to their primitive hostility towards different species.

Nonetheless, they were silent now. They were just swarming around Orca’s throne without moving a muscle even though they were aware of our presence.

At that time, I found a large egg on the side. Inside the translucent membrane of the egg, a bipedal Maruka was about to be born. Orca was giving birth to a real kid that could think like itself and not a low-class illegitimate offspring. It intended to build a perfect territory of its own, starting with that new baby.

Yeon-Hee and I were very careful with contraception, but it was doing whatever it wanted.

“If you feel cramped, then I will give you a new territory, Orca.”

There was no need for it to stay within the association if its job was to protect my Life Vessel. There were plenty of lands suitable for it to rule as the king of its own faction, including deserted islands and vast wastelands.

However, it seemed that the building was enough. Soon, Orca expressed its refusal in its awkward Korean. Well…the size of this entire building was equivalent to ten times larger than Walt Disney’s Concert Hall. Thousands of ready-mix concrete trucks had been used to build just this one building.

“Okay, fine,” I said as I felt the energy clinging to the bone ring. “There is something you have to protect.”

Orca seemed to have an intuition about what I was talking about. It had once guarded the Life Vessel with the original species of Maruka, which had created it.

[Life Vessel has been reset.]

[Target: Orca]

“And that means you also need to protect your own life.”