Hammurabi Style - Chapter 20
Of course, Kimin’s question wasn’t completed.
It had lots of faults.
This question would reveal Sera Lee’s present thoughts.
It would not uncover what her thoughts were in the secret room at Ohsung.
However, if she answered ‘yes’, Kimin will stop testing her since it will be useless.
Kimin watched as Sera opened her mouth without hesitating.
Her answer was different from what Kimin expected.
“I will do it.”
“…Why? Can’t you just bring anyone? Why are you trying to sacrifice yourself?”
Kimin’s tone wasn’t very soft.
“It’s not really like a sacrifice… I just have to do it. Also, I have an idea.”
‘What is she talking about? Does she have to do it herself? Then why did she take me to Ohsung?’
Did she get kinder all of a sudden or something?
‘It doesn’t matter how much kinder you are right now. The important thing is you at that time.’
Kimin glared with his eyes and continued his question.
“Is your idea to use another person?”
“It’s…”
Sera Lee couldn’t answer.
It was an appropriate question.
If she could use another person, she didn’t have to do that to herself.
“Then, why don’t you transfer the curse to another person?”
“No. I have to do it.”
‘Show me your real card, Sera Lee.’
Kimin shrunk his eyebrows.
“You have to tell me the reason. Otherwise, I’m not going to release this cure for you. I can’t put you in danger.”
Sera Lee hesitated and then looked at the metal door.
The door was completely closed.
She thought about it more while looking at the door and Kimin, then, she opened her mouth.
“This curse is coming from our ancestors. It is our blood succession. A person who has the curse dies, then it automatically transfers to the next person. I’m the next after my mother.”
“How do you know that you are the next turn?”
“When I get close to her… I can know that. I just feel it that I’m the next.”
Kimin secretly reached his hand out to Sera Lee.
[ You can absorb the abnormal status. ]
[ The abnormal status you can absorb: The seed of the vines of the hell flame, … ]
‘It’s real. It is definitely an abnormal status. I don’t think she knows that…’
Kimin nodded.
“Since you are branded, it is pointless to transfer the curse to someone else. It is going to go to you when your mother dies.”
“That’s right.”
“What if we transfer the curse to someone else and then seal the person just like what you guys did to your mother?”
“One of my ancestors had tried it before. However, the processing speed was way too fast since the person wasn’t one of us.”
“What about animals?”
“We have already done so many experiments.”
Sera Lee shook her head.
Even if they transferred the curse, it came back to the next person.
He tried to think about this and that, but nothing was going to work.
Then…
‘Even if I absorb the curse, it is going to go back to Sera Lee anyways. If I die, it’s going to automatically transfer to her.’
Kimin was right.
According to her, there was no reason to go to Ohsung to get Kimin.
Once Kimin absorbed the curse and died, it would go back to her. Then, what was her reason?
He needed to know ‘the method’ Sera Lee had in mind to resolve his question about the secret room in Ohsung.
Kimin tapped his chest.
“So, what’s the method you are thinking about?”
“I would like to talk about this with everyone. Is it possible?”
Sera Lee pointed to the metal door.
‘I need to listen to her.’
“Sure.”
***
“I see. Sera talked everything about the family’s hidden history…”
“…”
“What happens if we transfer the curse to someone who is not one of your family?”
Kimin asked Saehyun instead of Sera Lee who dropped her head.
Saehyun massaged his eyes and barely answered.
“This curse is very persistent… According to the history we have, ordinary people almost die right away. Skill users lose their skills one by one and become ordinary then die soon afterward.”
‘They lose their skills…’
“Boss. You should stop. That guy seemed like he is trying to know about everything.”
Hakdong Lim looked at Kimin with wary eyes.
Saehyun shook his head.
“Hakdong. Have you seen any curse magician who can transfer a curse to somebody else? He is someone that God gave us.”
“I did see one in the records. Just one case. Even the records say that someone transferred the curse, but it doesn’t say the person who did it was a curse magician or not. How can you be so sure that he can really do that? You can’t talk about this to someone whom we can’t trust enough, boss.”
“If you can’t trust him, just trust me. I guarantee him.”
Kimin gave no attention to Hakdong who had a hostile attitude toward him and continued his questions.
“Sera was talking about ‘a method’. Do you know about this?”
“Sera. Show it to him.”
“Boss!! Miss, please think about it more…”
“…”
Sera Lee took out a stone from her subspace pocket.
It had a weird pattern.
“This…?”
“This is a rare item we luckily got a few years ago. This returns the user’s body to a state from 3 days before. We call it ‘a regression stone’.”
“Oh… So transfer the curse and then regress the body? Not bad, but…”
Kimin still had doubts even though Saehyun explained it.
“…Then, there is still no reason why Sera has to do it.”
She could just do it to someone else.
“That’s what I’m saying!!”
Hakdong Lim shouted and saw Sera Lee’s face and then just begged quietly.
“Miss. Please… I will do it. I don’t understand why you are doing this.”
“No. I want to finish this curse from my family myself. I found somebody last year because I didn’t have any chance… but not this time.”
“Oh, you mean the abnormal status absorber? Then, I will find someone like that for you. I will look everywhere in the world for someone. Is that going to be enough? Miss. Sera, please treat yourself preciously. Boss! Please say something to her. We gotta stop her.”
“Old man. I’m going to do it. Sorry.”
“…”
Hakdong was almost crying while begging and Saehyun was standing firm with his suffering face and his arms crossed.
At the moment, Kimin’s ears opened wide.
“Abnormal status absorber?”
“Yes, the information was from Ohsung. We had to secure him right away because Dongsoo Choi was one of the worst…”
Hakdong Lim looked very exhausted.
“If you guys had the abnormal status absorber, you could’ve solved this problem much faster…. Oh.”
Kimin became stiff when he got an idea.
“You were going to use the regression stone on him after making him absorb the curse from your family, right?”
“Yes. That was Miss. Sera’s idea. It was like killing four birds with one stone. It was very clever for her to come up with the idea.”
“Saving her mother, saving herself, and getting rid of the family curse. There should be one more thing if it kills four birds. I can’t think of it. What is it?”
Sera Lee answered Kimin’s question.
“I could save the abnormal status absorber too.”
“How… is that possible?”
“You have heard, right? This curse eats up people’s skills.”
“….Oh…”
Kimin gently closed his eyes.
“I understand. You were going to use the curse to get rid of the abnormal status absorption skill from him and then use the regression stone…… It makes sense.”
“I thought his life would be better without his skill. It was going to be a win-win relationship. I failed because of a variable though.”
“Right. That person would have definitely consented if he was there.”
Kimin opened his eyes and answered Sera while biting his lips.
‘It makes sense… but not yet.’
“Let’s start this. Get ready. Stand next to your mother.”
“Ok.”
“No, miss! Boss, why are you just watching them? Boss! I will do it for her! If you don’t stop me, I will just…!”
“Hakdong!!”
Saehyun Jae stopped Hakdong Lim who was going to grab Kimin’s collar.
Hakdong Lim’s hand was about to shine with blue light and then his eyes faced Saehyun’s eyes.
The blue light dimmed down once he saw the shaky bloodshot eyes inside Saehyun’s wrinkled eyelids.
Hakdong gnashed his teeth and dropped his head.
Sera Lee held the regression stone and went next to the ice column.
“I will give you a signal.”
“Ok.”
[ You have absorbed the abnormal status ‘The seed of the vines of the hell flame’. …]
‘This is your last test, Sera Lee. As you claim, prove your goodwill in the secret room at Ohsung.’
Before the last test, he absorbed Sera Lee’s brand first and then saved it in his diary just in case her brand causes any problem after absorbing her mother’s abnormal status.
Kimin put his hand up.
“Let’s get started.”
[ You have absorbed the abnormal status ‘The vines of the hell flame’. …]
This time, he absorbed the abnormal status of the woman in the ice.
Her purple spots were disappearing slowly.
“Wow…”
“No way…”
Saehyun Jae and Hakdong Lim let out an exclamation.
Kimin looked at Sera Lee.
“Get ready. Once it starts, you have to use it right away.”
“I understood.”
Sera Lee seemed nervous while holding the stone tight and Kimin started counting.
“Three, two, one. Go.”
As soon as Kimin opened the bookmark in his diary, the thing that made her mother suffer went to Sera Lee.
“Aiee!!!”
The purple spots instantly spread out on Sera Lee’s body.
The spot extended longer and spread sideways. It looked just like vines with thorns.
Sera Lee, who was being wrapped around with the purple vines, gnashed her teeth and twisted the stone.
The stone broke.
A golden flash wrapped Sera Lee, the light exploded, and then shrunk to a small dot.
“Has he succeeded…?”
Hakdong mumbled and the golden light disappeared.
In the place that the light disappeared, Sera Lee who didn’t have any purple spots was standing there.
“Ohhh!!”
“Miss!!”
Saehyun and Hakdong ran to Sera Lee.
Kimin was looking at the air behind them.
‘It’s true… She has regressed.’
[ Abnormal status you can absorb: The seed of the vines of the hell flame, … ]
Kimin definitely saved the abnormal status in his bookmark.
However, he could detect it from Sera Lee again.
It was evident that her body really regressed.
‘What she said was right. She missed a tiny thing though.’
Sera Lee tried her best.
Just she didn’t completely understand the abnormal status’s character and its mechanism.
If she knew about the seed in her body, she wouldn’t use the regression stone.
Kimin understood her misunderstanding since there was no way to figure out about the seed from outside.
The tragedy wasn’t over yet.
The new seed in her body realized that it was time to sprout itself. It was getting ready to shoot out the purple bud.
“Huh….?”
At the moment Sera Lee stopped celebrating and hugging Saehyun and Hakdong because of the pain,
[ You have absorbed the abnormal status: The seed of the vines of the hell flame(under progress). … ]
Kimin touched the air without any words.
Sera Lee was puzzled for a moment because the pain suddenly appeared and disappeared, then, she and her people started to walk to her mother.
Kimin quietly watched them.
***
“I can’t be more thankful than this.”
“Get up. You are not in a good condition.”
Sera Lee’s mother, Sohyun Jae, bowed in front of Kimin.
Kimin dissuaded her from doing that and supported her so that she could get up.
“I will definitely return your favor. I will give you anything I have.”
“No, it’s already paid.”
“Excuse me…?”
‘Your family did.’
Kimin caught sight of Sera Lee and Saehyun Jae and then bowed toward everyone who came out to send him off.
At the moment he was going to get in Saehyun’s car, Sera ran to him and gave him a memo.
He slightly opened it and it had a website address, ID, password, and the way to access it.
“This…?”
“It is an information storage box for our family. This is my ID. We renew and gather all the information that is shared with the Rulers. Please make good use.”
“Hahaha… You have talked about information so I told her to let you borrow it.”
“If you need anything else, please call me. Please.”
“…Thank you.”
Kimin told Saehyun that he needed some information and he remembered.
Kimin bowed to show him appreciation.
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