[CHE] 017. PRIMING WATER (1)

The place where they arrived to after following the Holy Emperor was a one where the word backyard was put to shame.

No, can he even dare call this place a garden?

Just in the middle of a wide open green lawn, sparse garden trees stand as if they sprouted in a drought. Even that is a meager number that can be counted on one hand.

What is this desolate backyard? Is it a soccer field?

The Holy Emperor, who managed to notice Seongjin’s bewildered gaze, said.

“Sometimes this place is used instead of a gymnasium.”

Indeed. Next time, he’ll ask him to look at his swordsmanship here.

In the middle of the lawn, there was a small table that was too small to be called a dining table.

As the two settle down, the servants of the main palace come out belatedly and prepare a simple meal on the table. Seongjin had planned to skip lunch, but when he saw the neatly prepared food, he felt hungry for no reason.

The two started eating without saying anything.

“Hasn’t there been much progress in training?”

Seongjin, who was eagerly chewing and swallowing a piece of meat, looked at the Holy Emperor in surprise.

This guy was like a ghost.1

He went on nonchalantly, putting the knife down on an untouched plate.

“Several days have passed since the skilled knight commander was sent, but you haven’t even formed an Aura core, let alone pile up layers.”

Seongjin blinked his eyes. It was because he thought that the Holy Emperor’s words were strangely specific.

Sir Marthain and Doctor Ninnias simply said that his aura activity was weak, but why does this guy seem to have a fairly detailed grasp of the level of energy in his body?

Maybe this is it.

“Apart from indirectly guessing through Aura initiation, is there a way to know exactly what level of Aura someone else has accumulated?”

“It’s usually hard to tell unless you deliberately show it outside, but……”

“……”

“It is not that there is no way at all.”

Seongjin grinned and showed his teeth.

He was certain that he had come to the right person.

“Yes, Marthain did such a trick.”

When he talked about the recent training situation, the Holy Emperor slightly raised the corner of his mouth. Whether it’s a smile or a sneer, it’s an ambiguous response.

“The approach was not bad. And then?”

“Yes, rather than progress, I think I got a clue.”

“A clue.”

“That’s right.”

Seongjin wiped his mouth with a napkin and looked at the Holy Emperor for a while, then tilted his head slightly toward him and said quietly.

“That… Father. People say that my Aura is bizarrely thin. So, for some reason, I suspect that the Aura inside my body has already been depleted.”

“……”

“Of course, just in case. Are there any constitutions in the world that do not accumulate Aura?”

He thought it would be a relief if he didn’t get scolded for saying things that weren’t trivial in his heart. However, the Holy Emperor’s reaction upon hearing that was surprising.

His eyes widen a little, then narrow slightly. Soon after, his eyebrows frowned a little, then he put his hands on his chin. Then he lowered his eyes and began to ponder something.

Wow, this is the first time he’s seen such a big change in expression.

This man is on to something!

Seongjin unknowingly swallowed his saliva and watched his actions.

“Hmm……”

The Holy Emperor was immersed in thought for a while, and then gestured toward the chief chamberlain.

“Louis.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Clear the place for a while.”

Louis bowed his head politely, and the table was cleared in an instant. Surprisingly, in less than 5 minutes, the nearby workers had completely disappeared.

The Holy Emperor was silent for a while as he gazed at the whole view of the back garden. Seongjin couldn’t stand it and was about to open his mouth, but the Holy Emperor turned his head and met his gaze.

“The person who looked like he was going to be able to use his aura right now is making no progress, so I just wondered if his laziness disease had flared up again.”

Yes? Is that what you’re thinking about?

“But after hearing what you said, it dawned on me that there were other possibilities. I’ll have to check that out.”

“Eh?”

Another possibility?

“Hand.”

The Holy Emperor said, as he put his hand on the table. Seongjin momentarily realized that he was going to use a method similar to what Marthain did.

When he put his hand on the table, the Holy Emperor lightly wrapped his hand around Seongjin’s wrist.

“This is not a simple awakening of the senses, but a test to know for sure the whereabouts of the Aura. Unlike what Marthain did, don’t be too surprised because you might suddenly get a lot of Aura.”

Seongjin swallowed and nodded.

At the same time, a cool sensation began to run down his arm from the wrists that were touching.

‘… Oh?’

It was literally like flowing water. A far more powerful sensation than Marthain’s Aura spreads through the entire arm in a refreshing way without any tingling stimulation.

Is this the feeling of flowing his own Aura that Masain explained and Seongjin imagined? It’s comfortable, so somehow it feels like even the arm muscles that were knotted up in the recent swordsmanship class are completely relaxed.

Seongjin opened his mouth in a strange feeling and admired it, but soon the sense of Aura from his wrist was cut off.

“I stopped just now. Examine the flow of the remaining Aura.”

At those words, he woke up and tried to observe the flow of the Aura. However, the effort was not rewarded, and the sense of Aura gradually faded and disappeared completely after passing the shoulder.

“Uh, I don’t feel it now.”

Seongjin tilted her head and said. He thought it was a fairly large amount of Aura, but it disappeared without a trace like this?

However, the Holy Emperor’s expression became quite serious.

“Your guess is correct. The Aura has completely disappeared. It’s leaking somewhere.”

“It’s leaking?”

The Holy Emperor was looking at Seongjin’s chest. As if Aura was leaking from there.

Just in case, he wonders if this man can see Aura?

While looking at him with suspicious eyes, the Holy Emperor started pouring Aura again.

The flow of water, more intense than before, climbed up his arm. It was a very large amount, but strangely, there was no strain on the body at all. The cool stream of water passes through the elbow, passes through the shoulder, fades, and flows through the chest… What?

The Holy Emperor tried to push more and more Aura, but it couldn’t get past the chest and disappeared.

This time, Seongjin could definitely feel it. So, closer to the back, rather than the chest……

“It’s a scar.”

A scar?

After saying something incomprehensible, the Holy Emperor let go of Seongjin’s arm and rubbed his chin, thinking again.

Even though he operated his aura like that, he didn’t look tired in the slightest. He felt sorry for comparing him to Marthain all the time, but it was definitely on a different level from him.

After much time has passed the Holy Emperor began to explain as if he had completely organized his thoughts.

“There is definitely something like a passageway in your body, and I went there and confirmed that everything went out. So, no matter how hard I tried, the Aura wouldn’t gather in your body. It is unknown when the passage started and where it leads.”

“Uh……”

Suddenly it became a fantasy. Although this is a different world.

Passage? Passage in the body?

The Holy Emperor continued talking to Seongjin, who was taken aback.

This is not a physical passage, but a spiritual passage through which Aura-like energy or soul flows.

The passage must be open in both directions, but it is a little strange that the energy escapes only from Morres’ body.

Since this does not normally happen in the body of an ordinary person, he speculates that it may have something to do with Morres’ resurrection from the dead.

It was a very absurd thing, but Seongjin was not without a guess.

‘Could it be that my soul came here because Morres had that passage?’

If so, he can naturally guess where the passage is connected.

Sigurd District 34 or Gehena, where the demon king said was a lower dimension.

This is Seongjin’s original world.

“You have two options.”

As Seongjin’s mind became complicated, the Holy Emperor continued his explanation.

First, to wait for the passage in the body to close.

Since this phenomenon is not normal, there is also a possibility that it will close naturally as the body recovers. Of course, the odds were slim.

Moreover, even if it is closed, it is unknown how long it will last, and you may have to live without Aura for the rest of your life.

Second, fill the passage with water to keep it from leaking further.

If the passage is empty and the Aura is leaking out, then fill it completely with Aura. Even if there is a hole in the dock, if it is full of water, the water will no longer leak because of the water pressure.

“Something like that… Is it possible?”

To Seongjin, it sounded like he was about to pour water into the open sea.

“Fortunately, the passage isn’t that big, so I guess I can try it on the edge. I have done something similar before.”

“Are there other cases like this?”

“There are. Of course it’s not that common. I have seen two so far.”

Two people? It’s not common, but I wouldn’t say it’s very rare, right?

As Seongjin opened his mouth wide, the Holy Emperor continued.

“The reason I explain these options to you is that any choice carries some risk.”

First, if the aisle is left as it is, there’s a possibility that the aisle will widen rather than close.

It is said that when a person with a passage is under extreme stress or under spiritual pressure, the passage may suddenly run out of control. One of the two people the Holy Emperor saw was such a case.

It is said that the runaway passage is no longer limited to spiritual things, but becomes an ant hell that affects even the physical reality. There was a time when an entire nearby village was sucked into that wide passage.

What is it, it’s not even a wind hole in the palm of your hand, is that a black hole?

“Isn’t it a big deal then? If that happens, what should I do?”

“We need to get rid of the entrance to the aisle. At that time, I closed it myself.”

The Holy Emperor’s eyes are cold as he answers.

Seongjin felt chills run down his spine as he seemed to know how he closed it without asking.

“Then isn’t there no other choice? Rather than risk becoming a walking disaster, I should take the second option!”

As long as I can block it by filling the passage, I don’t think there’s a better way than that.

However, the Holy Emperor paused for a moment while looking at the panoramic view, and then suddenly asked Seongjin a strange question.

“Do you know what priming water is?”

“Yes?”

When he asked back with a bewildered face at the unexpected question, he kindly continued his explanation.

“It is a method used by people in the mountainous regions of the west to water for farming. When there is a drought, the people there install something like a small waterwheel with a thin water canal connected from the bottom to the top. You put it on a pulley and turn it quickly to pump the water up.”

Suddenly, the topic of farming came up. However, Seongjin listened in silence.

Because he thought that the Holy Emperor wouldn’t say something like this for no reason.

“Sometimes, however, if the slope is too high, no matter how fast the pulley rotates, the water will not flow back. Do you know what they do at such times? Pour water into the aqueduct beforehand.”

“……”

“In order to draw water, it is to first fill the empty canal with water. That is the priming water.”

It seemed that he gradually knew what the Holy Emperor wanted to say.

In other words, the priming water is not that different from filling the passage with Aura.

“Then, the danger you mentioned is……”

“It’s good that you understand quickly.”

The Holy Emperor’s eyes widen as he gazes at Seongjin. The strangely cold gray eyes looked like the blade of a sharpened sword.

“Until the pulley turns, there will be no problems. But, if you try to pull the water in the canal.”

“……”

“Whatever is on the other side of the passage, it will easily be pulled this way too.”

The demon king’s soul, which had been silent and crouched until now, suddenly trembled.

Seongjin’s world perished with Gehenna.

Maybe there are a few survivors. However, he doesn’t think it’s a number that’s enough to continue the species.

There was nothing left of the infrastructure that could serve as a foundation for mankind. Nothing would grow on the land polluted by the corpses of monsters.

Moreover, even if mankind luckily avoids destruction, after the death of the demon king, the Earth will be swept away by the collapsing Gehenna and one day completely disappear.

What on earth remains there, and can it come over to this world?

After organizing his thoughts for a while, Seongjin soon made up his mind.

T/N:
I really like the way Nate always takes his children’s words seriously. Like with Amelia and her future story and now Morres with his Aura problem, he doesn’t outright dismiss them first but instead thought about their words carefully. Best father ever.

1A saying that basically means someone somehow knows what the other person is thinking or have supernatural powers that only ghosts have.