The Foreigner on the Periphery

“Here, take it. I couldn’t even go inside. It was protected by a barrier. But it would be easy for you.” 

With the coordinates given by Ashamin, Minjun began to ponder. His anguish deepened because of his colleague’s subsequent words. “Are you really going? Even between husband and wife, privacy must be kept…” 

Poor Ashamin felt restless. At his request, while tracking Dell’s trail, he didn’t seem to have imagined that something suspicious would come out. This was because he knew how much they loved each other. However, after tracking her down, Minjun’s prediction was correct. 

There must have been an unusually secret door in the place where the track flow had been cut off, a barrier that ordinary people could not discover or enter without a clear intention to create. Ashamin struggled to comfort him. “They say it’s your 81st anniversary soon? Wouldn’t there be a surprise gift hidden inside?” 

At this, Minjun could remember the expression of his wife, whom he had seen before. And he restored her mood, which had changed rapidly. With that, he smiled bitterly. “I would rather have that.” 

On the day Dell returned to the carrier for a while, Minjun drove an airship across the desert. He followed the path that Ashamin had given him. He thought as he looked down at the desolate field, ‘How many times did Dell come and go down this road? What are you thinking? What are you hiding at the end?’

And the place they arrived at was protected by a barrier, as Ashamin had said. No matter how great it was, it was a barrier that could be broken with one touch of Minjun. He hesitated to put out his hand. 

From there, an ominous feeling prevailed. It was like being in front of a door that shouldn’t be opened. The moment he crossed this line, there would be no turning back. Would he turn back now? 

“…”

He hardened his heart, just in case Dell was in danger of being speechless. And if the secret were to lie beyond imagination… A determined light flashed in Minjun’s eyes. Break up!

Minjun tore the barrier. The moment he opened the closed door, his sensitive sense of smell sensed something. ‘…The smell of blood?’ 

It was the smell of blood that stimulated the tip of his nose. It was kind of familiar too. 

Minjun shook his head and stepped on his feet. Then, the abyss greeted him. The moment he recited the magic to contemplate the darkness…

“…” 

Minjun froze. He couldn’t remember how long he stood in that state. He was able to regain consciousness because he felt the pain and vertigo cut through his lungs. Minjun realized that he had been holding his breath for a long time. The sound of the wind sweeping through the wilderness was heard in the distance. It was an unrealistic sound. Everything felt like a dream. 

Minjun took his heavy steps. The interior, which seemed to be a mixture of a warehouse and a laboratory, was larger than expected. More than the dormitory where the two of them lived in. The air of the confined space mixed with the fishy smell and stabbed the inside of his skull. 

Ashamin traced the remaining thoughts and said that there was no trace of anyone other than Dell. This was only Dell’s space. In other words, all of this was Dell’s fault. Minjun clenched his fists involuntarily. Blood gushed under his fingernails, which had dug into his skin. 

Regeneration was honest and quick. As a result, his fingernails were nailed to his flesh. In that state, he looked into the spacious interior, which was an endless expanse of tanks and cultures. 

Behind the glass wall were hundreds of human-shaped creatures. Minjun had seen this scene from another dimension. He knew what was inside. 

“Homunculus…” 

Wow! At this, he stretched out his trembling hand. The healed flesh was torn again, and flesh on the tip of the nail fell off. Minjun didn’t feel any pain. If what he found was an ordinary homunculus, this paroxysmal fear would not exist. 

Minjun looked at their faces, which all reflected back at him. Hundreds of Minjun, hundreds of him were there. 

He had witnessed all kinds of terrible scenes and been subjected to terrible things until now, but this was the first time he had such a shock. out of breath, he stood there for a moment, leaning against the wall. In that state, Minjun looked at the cable stretched out of the tank. 

He looked at where it was connected and what kind of mechanical device it interlocked with. The more he looked, the more he couldn’t deny it. This was Dell’s work. 

In addition to this, she didn’t just clone Minjun’s gene. Without blood drawn by a magical method, this could not be done. The way the blood was obtained could be guessed. When Minjun used black magic, he would always injure his body. 

Most of the blood spilled in the process was sacrificed, but some ended up getting scattered on the spot. It wouldn’t have been difficult to retrieve it secretly from Minjun.  More so if it was Dell. However, a more important question remained.

‘Why?’ 

The homunculus did not appear to have been fully cultured yet. It meant that it had never come out of the glass tube yet. 

With this, Minjun headed to the next room. The bloody smell that engulfed the space came from there. 

From there, another door opened. “…” 

How was the cultured homunculus consumed? Part of the answer was right in front of him. 

“···Ah.” The cold air penetrated his skin. The place ended up being a kind of refrigerator, full of meat and blood. 

The prisoner there looked at him with a puzzled face. Numerous Minjuns were scattered around, dismantled. Storage conditions varied. It was placed in a transparent box and caught on hooks. 

Some were spread out widely and others were tightly packed. The head and limbs were piled up one after another, and what was filled with the leather was placed in a transparent tube separately. 

Minjun, using his vitality, knew. They were either alive, dying, or dead. Through the flow of magic that rushed back and forth between the mechanical device and the countless “Minjun”s, Minjun discovered a few more things. Information he didn’t want to know flowed into his head.

Some prisoners received a new body whenever they were reassigned, but Minjun had remained the same when he first woke up 800 years ago. It seemed to be intended to prevent wasting the talents consumed when changing bodies. 

Minjun’s body was based on a human race and had no regeneration ability that surpassed that of a troll. And so it was the power that dwells in the soul. 

However, as a result of the soul staying in the same body for a long time, the body and body changed as the body and spirit became in sync. Therefore, his body would retain some of its regenerative ability even if Minjun’s soul were to escape. A homunculus that genetically and magically copied such a body also had incomplete regeneration ability. And Dell was looking for a way to get rid of that regenerative ability here. 

Minjun felt his body tremble even more. The same question echoed in his mind. Why? Why the hell? 

Beep-! He then accessed the lab computer. He transferred the encrypted data to a computer implanted in the dermis. There were signs that it had already been deleted. That too was a few months ago. Dell erased most of the experimental results long ago. Since her head was a better storage device than any other medium, it was highly likely that there would be no backup. In addition to this, there was still one more room. 

Minjun opened another door. There were homunculus that were consumed in other ways instead of being dismantled. They were in a glass tube like the ‘Minjuns’ ​​in the first room. Similar cultures were also seen. The only difference was that they had transparent coffins embedded in their necks one by one. The tube appeared to be connected to the blood vessels of the homunculus. The red blood from hundreds of them fills the tube, and they flocked to the central processing unit. 

There, complex magic was being activated. It continuously reprocessed the extracted blood and induced chemical and magical reactions. The data of the process was being input one by one into the computer. 

Minjun couldn’t watch the scene anymore. The moment he came to his senses, he found that he was setting this gigantic laboratory on fire. The machinery melted, and the tank eventually broke. The culture medium evaporated with water vapor and the homunculus inside was burned. 

Minjun couldn’t understand Dell’s intention to do this. And more than any other scene he had seen so far, he couldn’t understand why the sight of homunculus having a coffin in their neck and blood drawn out made him feel so enraged. 

*** 

A few days later, when Dell returned home, Minjun was sitting at his table. It was the place where they had exchanged gifts today just a year ago. 

“I’m here.” 

Minjun didn’t want to see her. However, the urge to turn away from Dell and the desire to explode with anger pulled him into a fight. He eventually turned his head. It was unknown how he looked at Dell and the way he looked. What was clear was that his wife had noticed something. 

She said, “Have you seen it?”

And from there, the fight began. If a third person saw it, they would have seen it as a scene in which Minjun unilaterally interrogated and drove Dell rather than a fight. However, Dell was fighting him by avoiding answering his questions. 

How much time had passed? It was when Minjun again asked the question that had been repeated hundreds of times, feeling excruciating mental fatigue. “Why did you do that? What were you doing there!” 

Dell, who was as hard as a stone, finally opened her mouth. With a face so cold that it was hard to recall the past, she answered, “I was looking for a way.” 

Minjun shouted in a harsh voice. “What way?!” 

He clenched his fists and shot. Contrary to the static Dell, Min-jun was more emotional than ever. 

“How to perfectly kill me, playing with cut, tear, and screech?!” 

At that moment, a slight expression flashed across Dell’s ice-cold face. However, as if the door that was opened for a moment was firmly locked again, the signs of emotion disappeared.

Later, when he recalled, Minjun interpreted his expression like this. It was a face that seemed to have decided on something. Perhaps it was the face that was determined to tell him the truth. But even then, Dell did not divulge the entire plan in clear language. 

Minjun filled in the blanks that had been left by his wife. Dell “confessed”, Minjun guessed, and the finished story was shocking. “I wanted to set you free. that you saw . . . it was all about finding a way.” 

In addition to this, what he studied there was how to stop his regeneration, that was, how to kill him. Minjun found out. He intended to kill in order to present true freedom to the one he loved. 

“I had no intention of carrying out my plans while in prison. If you commit a crime during labor reform, your soul will be erased. In order to succeed as I hoped, both you and me, both souls must be healthy.” 

And so, Dell was preparing to kill Minjun after she was released first. Minjun asked while grinding his teeth. “Even if I die and become a spirit state, will you still be able to be with me? You… Did you believe in such a superstition?” 

At this, Dell didn’t answer. The prisoner glared at his wife with bloodshot eyes. She pulled something out of her sleeve. Seeing this, Dell’s eyes widened.

She was the dagger she had presented. Minjun grabbed Dell’s hands with his rough hands. From there, he shoved the handle in her little palm. She lifted her blade up, clasping Dell’s fists from above with both his hands. 

He put this at an angle that would pierce his neck if stabbed as it is. Minjun stared at him with bloodshot eyes. “Did you want to kill me? then give me a chance Kill it! Kill me right now!” 

“..Do not be like this.” 

“Why? It’s what you wanted, right? You want to kill me, but you are afraid of destroying your soul?” Minjun pulled her arm with a terrifying grip, but Dell also held on with her telekinesis. 

Then, a black shadow erupted from Minjun’s body. At the same time, the tip of the sword gradually leaned toward Minjun’s neck. The blade touched the prisoner’s skin, and a drop of blood flowed out. 

He began to shout out, “I thought you were curious, so I’ll take this chance to let you know. I didn’t even have to experiment so hard! I survived a heart attack, but no one has cut my throat yet. No one has a head cut out! So, isn’t that the only way? To kill me? Well, do it right here. Stab me in the neck! Make sure to cut it long!” 

At that moment, Dell’s expression collapsed.