༺ Repayment (3) ༻
1.
A week had passed since the incident.
It was after Siwoo finished his training with Eloa in the middle of Gwanghwamun Square.
He was caressing his sore body.
The content of the training was the same as usual, one-on-one sparring.
But, under his request, they made a little bit of change.
As its name suggested, ‘Myriad Weapons Mastery Covenant’ was a self-essence magic that would increase one’s efficiency when it came to handling weapons.
So far, he had learned how to move his body and use his mana to enhance it, so now it was time for him to start training while wielding weapons, mainly swords, spears and shields.
As one might have expected, between this time’s spar and the spar that they had been doing, there were clear differences, but the main difference would be its intensity.
Whenever Siwoo had just put up his armor, Tiphereth would immediately shattered it before starting to pummel on his defenseless body.
Compared to before, she was less relaxed and seemed to be taking the spar more seriously.
“Haah…crazy…”
After the spar, he took a shower. Currently, he was standing in front of the mirror, looking at the state of his body.
His swelling red cheeks and various red marks on his body represented the intensity of the training today.
If anything, he was actually worse off than this because Eloa had applied light healing magic on him. Without it, he would be left with bloodied cheeks and blue marks all over his body instead.
“I know I asked for it, but… Ugh, it hurts…”
Their usual training time, which lasted as long as twelve hours, was effectively cut into four hours.
But, the training became considerably more intense than before.
In fact, if one were to look at it from a normal person’s perspective, the training was simply absurd.
To give it more impact, Siwoo increased the weight of his armor to 100 kg and all the weapons he used to 30kg.
Even if one were to disregard the weight, a professional MMA fighter would still exhaust himself if one were to throw him into a ring to fight for four hours. The only reason why Siwoo could last that long was because of his spirit body and his magic.
He looked at the reflection of his body in the mirror.
Even during his time as a slave, he had already a pretty toned muscle due to all the labor, but after obtaining his spirit body, his muscle became even more toned and firm than back then.
Every time he stopped and observed his body, he always realized that he had broken through the limit of a human’s body and entered the ranks of transcendence.
Of course he didn’t have the desire to do so, but if he wanted to, he could become a world-level threat to the ordinary human.
Firearms wouldn’t be able to pierce his armor, tank shells wouldn’t be able to pierce his shield.
He could definitely break through any bombardments by throwing his spear of shadow, and he could easily take down any kind of air force using his ribbons.
If things became dangerous for him, he could always run away using Dimension Shift.
A tomahawk missile might give him a little trouble, but if he were determined to block it, it wouldn’t be a problem for him at all.
“Maybe I can win even against Ironman.”
Siwoo, who was thinking about dumb things just like all normal men did whenever they had spare time, came out of the bathroom soaking wet while only wearing his underwear.
But, what he should do here was to put on some clothes before coming out.
Because Eloa, who left for a little while after the training, had already returned and was sitting in the living room.
“…”
Eloa, who was sipping her tea, turned into a frightened rabbit as her eyes widened.
However, she still had enough composure to place her cup down before letting out a series of coughs.
Maybe it was because of the sunlight that seeped through the pink-colored curtain landing on her cheeks…
Her cheeks were burning bright pink, the same color as her hair.
But she managed to hide her fluster and spoke out with her usual stern and reserved voice.
“How are you feeling? I thought I was too harsh on you today, so I came back to check up on you.”
“As you can see, I’m alright. I feel bad because I can’t touch the hem of your shirt again today, though.”
“But, you were bleeding.”
“I was the one who asked you to do it. Besides, I’m all better thanks to your treatment.”
He shook his shoulders in a joking manner.
It wasn’t like Eloa didn’t allow him to hit her.
Rather, she managed to block every blow he sent at her.
She caught all the gaps he showed and intercept his strikes without fail.
Still, it did make him feel like he was fighting someone who could see the future.
“I understand your wish to put your everything into training, but you can’t let greed overcome your feelings, okay? Don’t rush, take one step at a time. You’ll notice a stark difference when you pace yourself well.”
She said with a kind smile.
While she was merciless in training, once it ended, she’d always go out of her way to encourage him like this so that he wouldn’t lose heart.
But today, it felt like her mind was in a different place.
It was as if she didn’t want to look at him.
“Ah…”
Siwoo quickly put on the clothes that he placed on the sofa.
Only then did Eloa look at him properly.
The way she tried to hide it was rather funny, though,
“By the way, there’s something that came to my mind… Can I ask you about that?”
“Ask away.”
And so, he asked the thing that he was curious about.
“During our spar today, how much of your strength did you use?”
“How much of my strength? Hmm…”
That question made her lost in thoughts for a while.
“That’s not an easy question to answer. It varies depending on the timespan.”
After a while, she opened her mouth again.
“But, generally speaking, it should be around 5% of it.”
Only that much.
He expected that she had shown him at least 10% of it, but the truth disappointed him.
Then again, she was a rank 23rd witch, a rank that wasn’t achievable by just anyone.
Rather than disappointment, he felt more awe toward her than anything.
“But that’s only if I include my mana and such. Since I didn’t use any of them and had only been using my swordsmanship and martial arts, it should be around 50%.”
“Huh? That much?”
That surprised him in a different way than before.
If her words were true, that meant when it came to strictly technique, he was already halfway on catching up to her.
“The power of the covenant within you is powerful. Within it is the accumulation of a hundred years of practice and experience. Right now if you wield your weapon, even without using magic, no human could ever wish to match you.”
“I see…”
“You can raise your chest a little bit more.”
Eloa stood up and walked in front of him.
After a brief moment of hesitation, she seemed to resolve herself, reached her hand out and gave him a light pat in the head.
Though it made quite the funny scene due to the height difference between the two, the atmosphere was still quite warm.
“Stay still.”
As she swept his head from left to right, her eyes began to glow with a soft light.
Since he had just come out of the bathroom, Siwoo wasn’t wearing his eyepatch, so he could see a magic formula consisting of complicated-looking figures with his left eye.
The magic formula was in the shape of an octagram, numbered in hundreds, woven together creating some sort of chain.
Both the chain’s ends were placed on both of their chests.
“Hereby, I declare a covenant.”
As she muttered softly, he felt a tingly sensation on the back of his hand and a weird feeling all over his body
When he took a look at the back of his hand, there was a pattern that looked like an hourglass, throwing him into a surprise.
“What is this?”
“A simple covenant, a defensive covenant that would activate if your life is in danger. Also, the covenant will allow me to know your location.”
Eloa’s covenant magic was something that could be established with words.
Therefore, there was an endless use of it.
From preventing someone from lying, enhancing someone’s body, even tracking the location of an object.
And of the twelve covenant slots she could use, she dedicated one of them for him.
“Thank you, this will really help me.”
“No matter how strong your adversaries are, you only need to hold out for one minute, I’ll be able to save you by then.”
She stroked his head one last time before preparing to leave.
“Where are you going?”
“I’ll be looking for the Cowardly Witch. She should be nearby, so I figured I’d give her a piece of my mind or two.”
The tone of her voice as she said that was filled with resolve and calm anger that felt unsettling to Siwoo.
He didn’t know how strong exactly the Cowardly Witch was, but he believed that Eloa was strong enough to deal with her.
“See you later.”
As she turned around and was about to walk toward the elevator, Siwoo called out to her.
“Master.”
When she heard that, she stopped.
It felt as if her ears, which were sticking out from under her hair, perked up a little.
She turned around again and stared at him.
Her cheeks were puffed with joy, as if she was holding back a smile.
“Did you call me?”
Actually, she had been acting like this whenever he called her ‘Master’.
And while it was an audacious thought, he always found her reaction to be cute.
Unlike her usual curt and dry attitude, she looked just like a small animal, so he found himself calling out to her like this occasionally just to observe her reaction.
And as expected, her reaction didn’t betray his expectations.
“Why don’t we go shopping for clothes together next time?”
“Shopping for…clothes…?”
She only ever used two kinds of clothing.
Sports bra + training pants + windbreaker that were hanging up her belly combination.
Or the plain white dress without any decoration.
He wasn’t thinking that she was ugly in both, but he figured that it would probably be good if she were to dress up a little.
“There’s a department store nearby, so it’s perfect. Let’s go there later, I’ll buy you some clothes.”
“What’s with you all of a sudden? Do my clothes look weird?”
Eloa had a perplexed expression on her face. Just like someone who thought ‘Am I smelly?’ when they received a perfume as a gift.
“No, but you know, the season changed already, so I figured that we should go shopping.”
“Ah, I see. Sure, let’s make some time for it.”
After that she told him goodbye one more time before living with a more excited gait than before.
She then disappeared in the elevator, leaving Siwoo and Sharon alone in the room that was as big as a mansion.
When he approached her, he noticed that she was sleeping so quietly that he couldn’t even hear her breathing.
Just like a doll.
Perhaps she was fighting her own battle now.
He stroked her forehead as usual before taking out a business card from his pocket.
Now was the time for him to pay his debt to that certain person. All this time, he had been distracted and decided to focus on training, but he couldn’t dawdle on it anymore.
But to do that, they needed to meet up first.
While looking at the business card with only a name and a phone number on it, he made a call.
[I’ve been waiting.]
Before the tone rang even once, Periwinkle had already answered the call.
[It’s been a week since then. Don’t you think you’re a little late?]
What came from the other side of the call was a calm reprimand.
“I’m sorry, I had a lot of things to take care of.”
[It’s fine. I didn’t mean to reprimand you. Anyway, let’s meet up today.]
“Can I know what is the request that I need to listen to?”
[Why don’t we talk about it after we meet up?]
“Alright.”
[I’ll be there soon, it isn’t far away from where I am currently at.]
Just like that, the call was cut off.
Even though she saved his life, it felt like she wasn’t going to ask something overbearing and she didn’t seem to be looking at him condescendingly either.
But that was only what he thought, as Periwinkle might have something completely different in mind.
It seemed like in witch’s society, they regarded paying a debt of gratitude as something important. Considering that she had saved his life, this wasn’t something to take in lightly.
Perhaps this was because of their nature as a witch, as they could live forever as long as they willed it, and even if they didn’t, their name and brand could still be inherited to someone else.
With that in mind, Siwoo changed into his outdoor clothes and went to meet up with Periwinkle.
