NOVEL NEXT Chapter 537
In terms of the ability to sense aura, Saetbyeol was much more sensitive than I was.
She instinctively flinched.
Killing intent.
It was truly rare to see killing intent contained within an aura.
When one is dominated by surface emotions like anger, the Aura Heart doesn’t function properly.
I turned and entered the alley.
“Na-me Unni… are you really going? It’s dangerous!”
“Who, me? I’m not someone who goes around causing violence everywhere. I’ll talk things out if possible.”
So she still thinks of me as a walking time bomb?
I’ve transformed into a civilized individual after years of advanced training.
Saetbyeol let out a deep sigh and closely followed behind me.
There’s no way a normal person could exude thoroughly calculated killing intent.
That’s why I was all the more curious.
I felt like I knew who the owner of this aura was.
“Cough…”
A man collapsed in the corner of the alley coughed out a sound that was either a burp or a groan.
A strong smell of alcohol wafted out from his steady breaths.
I relied only on the faint moonlight to assess the drunkard’s condition.
His white shirt was stained bright red with blood, but I couldn’t find any wounds.
“Kyaah, what, what’s this!”
Saetbyeol jumped up in place.
There were more people lying around like corpses at her feet.
“Now that I see, there were quite a lot of people.”
“Wha, they aren’t dead, are they?”
“From what I can see, they all seem fine.”
“Where do you see that?”
“If their arms and legs are attached and their pulse and breathing are normal, they’re okay. Let’s go ask those people what happened.”
“Kyaah, no, Unni, go alone!”
[Spell Cast: Light]
Pah!
I cleared the path with a magic circle.
On our way, about a dozen people lay sprawled out carelessly.
At the end of the narrow, maze-like alley, the shadows of three people loomed tall.
“Au secours! M’aider moi!” (Help! Please help me!)
A tattooed young man with a rough appearance was begging for rescue in a hoarse voice.
Thud-!
The girl who was holding him in mid-air struck the man down in a single blow, rendering him unconscious.
It happened so fast that I couldn’t even see what hit him.
It was probably an aura, manifesting outwardly.
Immediately, a figure that looked like an attendant rushed out from behind her and cast healing magic on the man.
The Black man coughed up blood a few times before slipping into a peaceful sleep.
The girl, whose eyes seemed to lose focus for a moment, spotted me and gasped in shock.
“Hwaah! Why, why… why are you here?”
Then it happened.
The attendant suddenly choked the girl by her neck with his powerful arms.
“Huhk…!”
No matter how much she kicked her legs, he wouldn’t let go.
The man unscrewed the cap from a glass flask lying on the ground and forcefully shoved it into the girl’s mouth.
Like a goose being force-fed, the girl writhed in pain.
“Puhah…! Cough cough cough! Ugh… Uwahhh…”
The girl lay facedown on the cold stone floor, gagging.
But all that came out was transparent drool.
The attendant walked up to us and stood tall.
“Hmm.”
“Hieeeek! Run away!”
I tightly grabbed the sleeve of Saetbyeol, who was trying to run away without looking back.
“Wait a sec, don’t go.”
“Cough cough!”
The man seemed to be intentionally positioning himself to hide the girl’s face.
As if her identity shouldn’t be revealed.
But I’d already roughly guessed who it was when I entered the alley.
“Giselle Fischer.”
Furrows appeared on the man’s brow.
“Or should I just call the police right now?”
“… Can we just pretend we didn’t see today?”
“Are you an attendant?”
“Something like that. Right now, I’m taking on the role of a coach.”
“Ohho…”
“Eh? What kind of nonsense is this?”
The glass flask that fell on the stone floor didn’t even break.
The black residue spread across the ground.
I immediately held the flask’s opening up to Saetbyeol’s nose.
“Want to take a whiff?”
“What is this, Ugh… Uweeeek!”
She reacted just like the girl did.
“What kind of potion is this? Who still believes in that doping effect myth?”
Of course, there were people who did in the past, around fifty years ago when Nintendo was popular.
“It would be best if you spoke clearly. Do you know how harsh the penalties for child abuse are in France?”
The coach shook his head.
“Don’t get me wrong. It’s purely for treatment purposes.”
“What does that mean?”
“You must know about it, the Restakaya Syndrome.”
Shadows passed over the coach’s face.
He glanced at Giselle, who was still gagging.
“Mana addiction?”
“To some extent, yes.”
“Cough cough! Haaah… Huh…”
“Cough cough! Aigoo, I’m dying! Uweeek!”
Somehow, it seemed like Saetbyeol’s moaning was worse than just having smelled it for a moment.
*
“Are we really just going to leave her on the ground? She’s fine, right?”
These people seemed to have no fear of the law.
Isn’t it rather irresponsible considering what they’ve done?
“Anyway, it’s summer, so there’s no worry about freezing to death.”
“Well, that’s true.”
“But still! At least call an ambulance!”
Saetbyeol strongly protested.
“Fine.”
However, the coach called the police instead of an ambulance.
Despite the commotion, the men and women who had been unconscious immediately sprang to their feet at the sound of the sirens.
“What? Why are those people being arrested?”
“Those are real French gangsters. They operate out of Puyto and Courbevoie.”
“I lured them in via Telegram.”
Giselle shyly showed her phone while making a peace sign.
“Oh really…”
“Why are they acting as vigilantes in another country? They must be insane!”
“Is there no place where we can talk quietly?”
Nearby, a cocktail bar with a nice atmosphere… was dismissed due to age issues.
In France, there are hardly any restaurants operating at midnight.
In front of a 24-hour convenience store.
We sat on a creaky wooden table, each buying an ice cream.
“So, what brought you here?”
I just happened to meet Giselle Fisher, who was going crazy beating up gang members while I was out for a walk near my accommodation?
Argentina’s base camp is at least ten kilometers away from here, so it didn’t make sense.
I reached the conclusion that she must have had some business with me.
Giselle tightly grabbed her skirt.
The coach looked at Giselle, who had her head bowed, with pity.
“Are you still unable to do it?”
“No…”
“Then, it can’t be helped. Our Argentina is going to give up their next semifinal match. I thought I should let you know, No-Name, out of courtesy.”
“Sorry, No-Name. But thank you for cheering me on. I think it helped us reach the semifinals.”
“Hm.”
Tap tap tap-
I tapped my fingers on the table three times.
I tilted my head to the right and shot a glare at Giselle.
“It doesn’t seem to be a physical problem, does it?”
“There is some. Giselle overworked her Aura Heart in the match against Nathan Chen.”
“Isn’t it the same for everyone? It’s the same for both of us. We finally made it to the semifinals, and you’re thinking of giving up just because you might lose disgracefully?”
“Absolutely not! Everyone in my country wants me to perform in the semifinals!”
Giselle strongly protested.
“Then what’s the deal?”
“That’s…”
The conversation was repeating itself.
“Are you trying to play twenty questions with me or what? I’m severely displeased that my semifinal record is being dirtied by a walkover.”
Bang-!
The coach suddenly slammed his fist on the table.
With a cracking sound, a crack appeared in the wooden plank.
“You clueless little brat…! The one who should be most upset is Giselle! How hard has she trained, undergone surgeries, rehabilitated, and trained again for this day! What should Giselle do when this dreadful incurable disease makes her unable to manifest her aura?”
“How would I know, old man? I’m suffering from the same illness and have no problem in my daily life. And not being able to use outer manifestation doesn’t mean I can’t compete.”
“Na-me, what’s wrong with you… Symptoms can vary from person to person. This person relies heavily on external manifestation in her duels.”
“Cheon Saetbyeol, didn’t you see Giselle use her outer manifestation just now? She’s just telling an absurd lie.”
“It’s not a lie.”
Giselle smiled bitterly.
Let’s see what she has to say and waited with my chin in my hands.
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
Keeping silence for over three minutes, she finally parted her dry lips.
“I can’t manifest my outer aura when I think about fighting you… because you look just like my best friend from childhood…”
“Huh?”
This is the first time I’ve heard that outer manifestation can be affected by another person.
Giselle rummaged through her gallery and showed me the picture of that best friend.
Even more ridiculous was the fact that the kid in the photo didn’t resemble me at all.
“Hey! Other than having twin tails, there’s nothing in common! Are you joking?”
“No, if you look closely, there is! See, her double eyelids are similar! The vibes are similar.”
“Are you really not lying?”
I asked the coach.
“I wish this situation were all a lie right now.”
In the end, saying that the inability to manifest is a psychosomatic issue means it’s just as simplistic as what doctors often say: ‘It’s stress-related.’
It means they don’t know the cause either and will just prescribe antibiotics as a haphazard solution.
When testing on other people (gang members), it supposedly worked fine.
‘What am I even supposed to say about this?’
But it would be too regrettable to give up on my duel with Giselle Fischer.
After all, she’s a friend who’s fought her way up here with pure tenacity.
I wanted to feel the thrill of crushing that excitement as the expectations of her people reach their peak.
I wanted to show this kid, who carries the motto, ‘Nothing is impossible with effort,’ the overwhelming gap in talent.
I kept fiddling with my twin-tailed hair.
“If you let your hair down instead of having twin tails, wouldn’t that be better?”
Although it would lower my combat power (psychosomatic), as long as I could have the duel, it didn’t matter.
I wasn’t always just in twin tails in my past life either.
I didn’t have a strong fixation on having twin tails.
I took off my hairpin and changed my hairstyle to long straight hair, the default setting.
“Give it a try.”
Giselle squeezed her eyes shut and trembled her face.
The Aura Heart was heating up earnestly, but there seemed to be no signs of it manifesting.
“Of course it wouldn’t work.”
In reality, if the hair is too long, there aren’t many styles that can be processed.
The only one that might fit would probably be a ponytail, at best.
I tried a high ponytail, styled in a neat way like Katsuhata Emika.
While Saetbyeol diligently styled my hair, I continued to look through the photos of the “friend.”
‘She may have a different face, but she does look like she’s of my age.’
I could roughly understand what Giselle meant by “vibe.”
She kept flipping through pictures of herself with her friend.
“Is this one coming to support you? It must be nice to have a friend like an older sister.”
Just then, Giselle’s expression stiffened.
“No, we broke up quite a while ago…”
“Even if you broke up, you can still watch on TV. Or could it be that you can never see her again?”
“Yeah…”
Tears brimmed in Giselle’s eyes.
It’s miraculous that she relies on her best friend to bring out her outer manifestation.
I’ve seen cases where belief reaches an extreme level, transcending blind faith… but in any case, she’s just an ordinary person who broke up in childhood.
‘But still, it doesn’t make sense.’
I couldn’t rationalize it with my head or my heart.
Reliance on others is the very opposite of aura.
A person lacking subjectivity cannot even establish their own worldview.
One must break down the world that is filled to the brim.
I squinted my eyes and said.
“Did Giselle kill her? That friend you were talking about.”
“…!”
The moment I spoke those words, Giselle’s Aura Heart went into a rampage.
Black aura spewed from her as coherent lines and surfaces finally began to form.
A handful of starlight trickled through the holes of a parasol.
Thud-
She slumped onto the wooden table, illuminated by brilliant silver light.
Suddenly, the coach lifted her in a princess carry and swiftly left the scene.
“There won’t be any forfeits. I hope for a good match.”
They were strange people.
“Okay, thank you.”