Chapter 363

“Huh? Huh?”

The child couldn’t accept it.

As if the peaceful surroundings felt unnatural, he kept glancing around and muttering.

“Why is the forest…”

The moment he stayed in one place for more than a day, the curse would manifest. Springs would dry up, and the land would die. The only thing left unharmed was the child himself.

But now, even after a full day had passed, Lekrezen remained unchanged.

Life still breathed all around.

“D-Did you do something, Taesan?”

“No.”

Taesan shook his head. He had watched over the child all night.

But nothing had happened. The child’s divine blood didn’t go berserk, and the land didn’t collapse.

“Uh… what is this?”

The child was deeply flustered.

“Then what about the trial?”

“Uh… the trial was just to stay here for a day… so I think we passed.”

The child stammered out a response.

He couldn’t calm his panic. Still, since the trial had technically been cleared, Taesan moved again with the child in tow. As they walked, the child kept murmuring to himself.

“Why? Why didn’t anything happen?”

“Maybe your curse has been lifted?”

“I don’t… think so.”

The child trailed off, denying Taesan’s suggestion.

He looked at his arm. The wound from the leaf the day before had formed a scab—not red, but blue.

“There’s still blue blood flowing inside me.”

The curse wasn’t lifted.

Taesan didn’t know either. He had extended his senses yesterday to detect any changes, but nothing had happened.

“For now, let’s move on to the next trial.”

“Ah. Yes, okay.”

The child nodded, still stammering.

As they walked, the child kept mumbling.

“This is strange. Just days before I met you, Lord Taesan, my curse activated again.”

The child explained. Exhausted from the long journey, he had collapsed in a cave and slept through an entire day. When he awoke and stepped outside, all the surrounding vegetation had been crushed and killed.

“But now, why…”

The child looked utterly confused.

He kept walking, and night fell again. Leaning against a tree, the child continued murmuring.

“Why? Why didn’t the curse activate in Lekrezen?”

“No idea.”

Taesan handed the child some rabbit meat. Though confused, the child devoured it hungrily.

“Mm…”

Before long, the child, exhausted, fell asleep.

Taesan looked at the sleeping child, then pulled out the leaf from his coat.

The leaf that had cut the child’s arm. It still bore traces of blue blood.

What exactly was divine blood?

He had to figure that out first.

[You have activated Focused Detection.]

The power of detection surged toward the blue blood on the leaf. Information began pouring into Taesan.

He frowned.

Information about the divine blood was reaching him.

But he couldn’t analyze it. It was like a text file with all the characters scrambled—completely unreadable.

Taesan used magical concentration to try detection again. He added scouting and essence analysis on top.

But nothing changed.

The data remained garbled and unintelligible.

“Hm.”

He hadn’t gained anything concrete, but that in itself was a kind of information.

A power that even Taesan in his current state couldn’t analyze.

That meant it might be a power beyond his current level.

[You have summoned the Spirit King of Wind, Minerva.]

“Whoosh.”

The wind quietly gathered, taking the shape of a woman. Minerva landed on the ground and looked around in surprise.

“What kind of world is this? Such intense power dominates everything here.”

She narrowed her eyes and muttered.

“She’s stronger than me.”

“You can sense that?”

“I’m a being of nature. And there’s no Spirit King here. In a world like this, my detection range is extremely wide.”

Minerva closed her eyes and expanded her senses.

“Ah, I see. This world is ruled by the Apostle of a Transcendent One? No wonder it feels monstrous.”

“What kind of being is an apostle, anyway?”

Taesan had encountered a few apostles. But most hadn’t been in their true forms. The one on the battlefield of the gods had been forcibly granted the role, and the apostle of the forgotten goddess had lost their sense of self. The apostle of Fabsha, Maalesten, had descended using Taesan’s body.

Only the apostle of the Old God, whom he fought in his previous life, had been in their true form—but even then, the Old God was such a distorted being that it made comparisons difficult.

“They vary. The weaker ones barely cling to the edge of mortality, but the stronger ones, the ones called ‘Fingers,’ can be more powerful than most immortals. On average…”

Minerva looked at Taesan.

“About the same level as you are now.”

“That strong, huh.”

“A god directly burns their power to create an apostle. There’s no way they’d be weak.”

Come to think of it, even the top brass of the Guides—who had reached the end of mortality—hadn’t managed to form apostle contracts.

Partly because their values and actions didn’t align with the gods’, but also because their strength might have still been lacking.

Unless someone like Taesan, who perfectly matched the gods’ preferences, came along, the bar to pass must’ve been extremely high.

“You’re the odd one, really. Reaching that level in such a short time without even an apostle’s contract? It’s insane.”

Minerva looked around, then asked Taesan,

“So, what’s going on? Doesn’t look like there’s a battle.”

“I wanted to ask you something.”

Taesan held up the leaf stained with blue blood.

“How much do you know about divine blood?”

Minerva was a Spirit King. At the moment of her birth, she had gained the knowledge befitting a Spirit King.

There was a chance that included information about divine blood.

“Ah, so that child has divine blood. It’s my first time seeing it in person.”

Minerva looked at the child curiously and said,

“I don’t know much either. Even for me, the information about that is vague at best.”

Information that didn’t exist even within the Spirit King’s knowledge.

“It manifests very rarely. But having divine blood doesn’t mean a person gains power beyond human limits.”

What Minerva knew wasn’t much different from what the ghost had explained.

“Can someone with divine blood affect their surroundings? Like causing a place to decay after staying more than a day?”

Taesan explained the curse the child had described. Minerva denied it.

“That doesn’t happen. Divine blood isn’t something normal humans can interfere with. If there were a power surge, maybe, but in that case, the caster wouldn’t be unharmed. If it were truly a rampage, it wouldn’t be a place—it’d be an entire country that gets wiped out.”

What the child called a curse couldn’t be explained by divine blood.

Taesan organized the information.

“That’s enough. You can return.”

“Alright. Call me again if you need me later.”

Minerva disappeared.

The child was still quietly asleep.

* * *

“This is the next trial site.”

It was a beautiful plain. Flowers of all kinds bloomed like a rainbow, captivating anyone who looked at them.

Because of its beauty, many people had come to the plain to enjoy the scenery.

The child approached them with a gloomy expression.

“Um… excuse me.”

“H-Hey!”

The people who had been calmly admiring the view recognized the child and panicked.

“What are you doing here?!”

“I’m sorry. I’m here because of a divine trial…”

“Damn it! You should’ve never been born! You’re ruining our world!”

Gnashing their teeth, the people quickly fled.

Only Taesan and the child were left in the plain.

The child sat down on the plain with a very sad face.

“That’s the expected reaction. This land is known for its beauty. If I stay here, the land will wither… so of course they hate me.”

“How many trials are there in total?”

“Seven.”

The child stared blankly at the plain.

As if trying to memorize the sight for the last time.

Then, as if something came to mind, he kept glancing at Taesan.

“What is it?”

“N-No, it’s just…”

The child hesitated and then carefully opened his mouth.

“Um… may I hold your hand?”

“Do what you want.”

Taesan reached out his hand to the child.

Not expecting it to be accepted so easily, the child looked flustered.

“Th-Thank you…”

The child carefully grasped Taesan’s hand tightly, as if not wanting to let go of its warmth.

Clinging to Taesan’s hand, the child fell asleep. A gentle, steady breath could be heard.

Time passed, and soon, a day had gone by.

It was the time the child’s curse was supposed to manifest.

At that moment, Taesan felt it.

Something was being activated beyond the boundaries of space.

The power centered around the child began to manifest in the world with a powerful ripple.

It was made of divine energy.

Crack.

The ground started to fracture. The manifesting power aimed to destroy everything except the child.

Taesan raised his force.

A tremendous force engulfed the space.

He crushed and suppressed the emerging power.

The divine energy was smothered under Taesan’s power and vanished.

The child remained asleep.

Taesan looked beyond the space.

The power that had manifested around the child wasn’t the child’s doing. Someone far away—someone powerful—was exerting their influence here.

“So that’s what it is.”

He was starting to grasp the situation.

The next day, the child awoke.

The plain was still beautiful.

The child stared at it blankly.

The next trial was the same. The child stayed in one place for a day. Divine energy began to manifest from beyond space, and Taesan crushed it again with his power. Thus, nothing around the child was destroyed.

“What is this?”

That night, the child mumbled while staring at the campfire.

“Why… why is nothing happening?”

The child had no idea that Taesan had suppressed the curse each time it tried to manifest. From the child’s perspective, the curse had suddenly stopped.

Once could be written off as coincidence. But this was already the third time. Now it was truly becoming suspicious.

Was their curse really gone?

The child wanted to believe.

But they couldn’t.

Conflicting emotions churned within them.

“Why… why… what is this… Are you mocking me…? If it was going to disappear, why not earlier…”

The child sobbed. They cried for a long time before finally falling asleep from exhaustion.

Even in sleep, the child still held Taesan’s hand tightly.

Taesan used his other hand to gently brush the sleeping child’s hair.

How many years had it been since this child last held someone’s hand?

As they traveled with Taesan, the child shared many stories.

But not a single one involved their parents.

It seemed they were deliberately avoiding any memories of them.

“Hm.”

Minerva had said that even with divine blood, a curse like the child described was impossible.

And Taesan had identified the power that manifested around the child.

If the child stayed in one place for more than a day, divine power would manifest from beyond space and devastate the surroundings.

There was also the gaze watching over the child.

Someone was intentionally triggering the curse.

Taesan let go of the child’s hand.

[You have activated Retainer of the Wolf.]

“Guard them.”

The two wolves silently nodded. Since they were made from Taesan’s own spiritual power, he would be immediately aware if anything happened.

Taesan kicked off the ground.

[You have activated Leap.]

His body flew into the night sky.

[You have activated Reconnaissance.]

[Where are you headed?]

“The place the child spoke of.”

The cave they said had been ruined because of their curse.

That was the destination.

Taesan arrived shortly after. He had moved slowly to match the child’s pace, but from his perspective, it was only a matter of minutes.

Tap.

Taesan landed on the ruined land.

Around the small cave, all vegetation had withered and died.

The lake had dried up, its bottom exposed, and the earth itself had perished—no longer a place where life could survive.

[You have activated Leraje’s Domain Detection.]

Magi spread over the ruined land. The information contained within it flowed into Taesan.

And with that, Taesan understood.

“A land killed by someone’s intent.”

This land had been deliberately ruined.

And within it, he could feel divine power.

That all but confirmed it. Taesan opened his mouth.

“Come out.”

Clang.

With a metallic sound, a golden knight emerged from the ruins.

“…Be warned, base unbeliever.”

A grating sound echoed.

“Step away from the cursed child immediately. If you do not, divine punishment shall fall upon you.”

“Who are you?”

“I am His Majesty the Emperor’s First Knight.”

The knight spoke with pride. Taesan silently looked him over.

The knight was strong.

It wasn’t just empty boasting—he could likely descend beyond the 50th floor.

‘But he’s distorted.’

That strength wasn’t his own. It was power granted by someone else.

“Leave this world at once, base unbeliever.”

“What if I don’t?”

Taesan replied.

Clang. The knight raised his golden sword.

“Then die by my hand.”

In an instant, the knight’s body vanished.

Not even a seasoned knight or a battle-hardened mercenary could track such speed with their eyes. An outsider would die before even reacting.

The knight was convinced that Taesan would be helpless against his blade and lose his life.

Which is why he was horrified.

The sword aimed at Taesan’s neck was caught in Taesan’s hand.

The knight panicked and tried to pull it free.

But it wouldn’t budge.

Like a blade buried deep in stone, it didn’t move at all.

“Y-You…!”

Crack.

The sword shattered.

The knight hurriedly jumped back.

Taesan tossed aside the broken fragments and asked the knight:

“Why is the emperor targeting the child of divine blood?”