Chapter 140
I was barely holding on to my consciousness. If I lost focus even for a moment, I felt like I would pass out.
"You came to help me, Grace. I was half in doubt until the very end."
I spoke as I watched Grace approach. She looked down at me with Ruina, now in the form of a sniper rifle, slung over her shoulder.
"If you die, my nights are going to be restless. And besides, you said you trusted me."
Grace knelt on one knee and sat beside me.
"Haha, ugh, cough..."
I laughed, but the pain in my chest made me grimace.
"Hmm, you're in pretty bad shape. The burns are severe too. It's a miracle you're still alive. If you have any last words, now would be the time."
Grace calmly examined my condition as she spoke.
"Last words, my ass… Considering who I was up against, I got off easy. By the way, your eye is quite pretty without the eyepatch covering it."
I looked at Grace's left eye as I spoke. Objectively speaking, it wasn't what one would typically call pretty. But aesthetic standards were often subjective.
To most, it probably looked like a grotesque contraption, designed purely for function with no regard for appearance. Her left cybernetic eye must have been of such extreme performance that it couldn't even be used continuously.
"For now, you should hide. A riot has broken out, and the atmosphere in Akbaran is unsettling. Even Diva finds it strange. She said that among all the storm seasons she's experienced, this one is the most chaotic."
For reference, storm seasons occurred roughly once every thirty years. And Martina Diva had lived through many of them.
In any case, I needed to hide. It seemed like I had dealt with all the assassins that Hemillas had sent after me, but there was no telling what other dangers might come.
I could trust Grace, but Martina Diva was not someone I could fully rely on. And if Diva made a decision, Grace would have no choice but to betray me as well.
That meant there was only one person left who could protect me right now. Someone I could truly trust—or rather, someone I had once trusted. Whether he would still be willing to risk his life for me, I had no way of knowing.
Too much time had passed. Just as I had changed, he must have changed as well.
"Call Ilay Carthica with your terminal. His unique ID is…"
I hurriedly spoke before my consciousness faded further. Grace quickly finished entering the call request and waited for a response.
"He said he'll come."
At the news that Ilay was coming, the last thread of tension inside me snapped. As my consciousness began to drift away, I grasped Grace's arm, as if trying to hold on.
"This is my last request, Grace. Protect Giselle until Ilay arrives."
"I'll do that as a free service."
Grace nodded. Only then did I completely let go of my consciousness. Since I had been forcefully keeping myself awake, my body shut down the moment I relaxed.
"Luka? Wait…!"
There was a hint of panic in Grace's voice.
Through my narrowing vision, I saw her expression change. She was frowning, shouting at me. The usual cold look on her face was nowhere to be seen.
So, Grace does worry about me after all.
That was my last thought before I died.
* * *
I had no idea how many times I had lost consciousness in such a short span. When this ordeal was over, I would be left with all kinds of aftereffects.
I had pushed my body beyond simply rough treatment—I had driven it to the brink. It felt like my exhausted body was desperately trying to give up, yet I was dragging it forward purely through sheer will. I almost felt guilty toward it.
"Damn it, Luka? What the hell is this…?"
"...Cardiac arrest…"
"We need to inject a cardiac stimulant…"
"That'll kill him! Stop the bleeding first…!"
"Keep calling his name! If his brain shuts down, it's over!"
My consciousness flickered back, barely surfacing. The voices sounded distant, as if coming from far away. Even then, I couldn't make out their words clearly.
My body was being carried somewhere on a stretcher.
"H-Hemillas…"
I muttered something every time my lips parted. I didn't have the luxury to hesitate just because I was in pain.
"Shut that damn mouth. You're gonna die like this, you idiot!"
That was probably Ilay's voice.
Then, my consciousness sank again.
When I came to, I heard different voices.
"Now's not the time to worry about side effects."
"But the last guy who took this turned out weird."
"Better than dying right now."
"No, you’re just doing this because you find it entertaining, you psycho."
"Come on, there's really no other way. There's no proper facility here either. So, what do you say, babe? Should we just let him die?"
It wasn't just Ilay and Grace speaking. There were other voices mixed in. They must have been people I knew.
"If that’s the best option, we don’t have a choice. Please, Director."
That was Ilay's voice. He had used the title "Director."
It took me a while to realize who he was referring to.
Ah, so Director Jin Gaw is here. That bastard was the one treating me.
"Luka, you can probably hear me, right? Your brain scan shows consistent activity in the auditory cortex. I'm going to start regeneration induction now. You wouldn’t understand if I explained things like accelerated cell division… so just think of it as super regeneration."
Jin Gaw paused for a moment, as if preparing something. Then, he continued speaking.
"I'm not a doctor, but since I do value ethical obligations, I'll give you a warning in advance. This is a dangerous procedure."
He values ethical obligations… If that was a joke, it was a damn good one. It actually made me want to laugh.
I kept listening to Jin Gaw’s explanation, though most of it didn’t make sense to me. My cognitive abilities were too impaired to fully grasp it.
"…If we had access to a better facility, or if your injuries were less severe, I could control the regeneration process. But right now, your condition is so bad that you require full-body regeneration. On top of that, your heart is damaged, which makes it impossible to regulate the flow of the drugs. I'll do my best, but even I can’t predict the outcome of this treatment. If you understand and consent, remain silent. If you refuse, move something—your eyes, your mouth, anything."
I was going to agree anyway… but this really felt like I was becoming a test subject.
"Ah, thanks for your consent. This is a procedure I’ve been wanting to try."
So I was a test subject.
"And I forgot to mention one thing. This procedure is going to be excruciatingly painful. I guarantee it… even you won’t be able to endure it. Hey! Bring the gag!"
For Jin Gaw to say that, the pain must have been beyond imagination. If I could move, I would have struggled. This was something I seriously needed to reconsider.
Jin Gaw stabbed something into my chest. It was probably a syringe. A thick needle pierced deep into my heart, releasing a sharp, tingling substance.
At first, I didn’t feel anything. The silence was more unsettling than anything else.
Crunch!
A sound. I had no idea what it was.
Ssss…
As time passed, my dulled senses sharpened. The overwhelming pain from my injuries came flooding back.
Blink.
I opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was Jin Gaw, wearing glasses. He was dressed in an extravagant robe embroidered with golden patterns. The room was filled with decorations just as lavish as his clothing.
"This is the VIP mansion of La Vie en Rose. It’s my private residence for now."
Jin Gaw smirked as he spoke.
A little further away, Martina Diva stood, wearing nothing but a thin garment. Ilay and Grace were there as well.
"Giselle is receiving treatment too. She's in much better shape than you, so don't worry."
Ilay approached me as he spoke.
Slap!
He grabbed my cheeks with both hands as if he were slapping them. His blue eyes burned as he stared into mine.
"Thanks for calling me, Luka. And let's stay alive to see each other again."
Ilay patted my cheeks a couple of times before stepping back. Then, the real treatment began.
Press!
Jin Gaw injected drug after drug into my body. His eyes flickered between the complex graphs displayed on the screen. Though he usually carried a playful air, his gaze occasionally sharpened with seriousness.
Crack!
The sound came from inside my body.
It hurt.
It felt as if someone had reached inside me and snapped my bones. Still, this much was bearable.
Crunch, crunch.
It was like a fanged insect was crawling through my insides, gnawing away at my flesh. This was getting harder to endure. It was an unfamiliar kind of pain.
Sizzle!
A fine, electrifying pain coiled its way up, as if my nervous system was being unraveled thread by thread. This wasn't the kind of pain one could ever grow accustomed to.
So, even if it was disgraceful, there was nothing I could do.
Clank!
My arms and legs were restrained, unable to move, but my body convulsed violently.
Pain tolerance training was, at its core, about desensitizing oneself to pain. It was also a process of conditioning the brain not to perceive minor injuries as life-threatening.
That's why we trained by experiencing battlefield-level pain in advance. By repeatedly imprinting on the brain that this degree of pain wouldn’t kill us, we could ignore most injuries, withstand suffering, and avoid panic.
In other words… if I had never experienced a certain kind of pain before, my tolerance for it would be weak.
‘If this keeps up, I’m going to die.’
It was an illusion, but it felt so real. Despite being a treatment, my body was making horrible noises from the inside. Bones fused at an unnatural speed, and wounds sealed themselves at an eerie pace.
"Oh dear, that didn’t set right. Now, where did I put my saw and hammer…?"
This uncontrolled super-regeneration was a mess. Jin Gaw nonchalantly re-broke the misaligned bones in my body. Everywhere his hands touched, my blood sprayed like a fountain.
"Hmm, did humans always have three kidneys? Kidding, kidding. I’ll remove the excess. You can use the new one. Seems like regeneration doesn’t always follow the genetic blueprint. There's a bit of unnecessary growth happening too."
Just what the hell was happening inside my body?!
Clang!
My eyes were probably bloodshot red by now. Jin Gaw was completely drenched in my blood.
Splurt!
Jin Gaw picked up a scalpel and slit my throat. In an instant, I felt a massive amount of blood gushing out. I thought I was going to die from excessive bleeding.
"For now, this is the only way to stop more of the drug from reaching your brain. I’ll hook you up to a blood dialysis machine, so try to endure it."
Jin Gaw calmly explained as he shoved the dialysis catheter into my neck.
… I had no idea how much time had passed. The unfamiliar pain kept stabbing into my brain over and over. I wanted to faint, but my consciousness remained painfully clear.
Even Jin Gaw, who usually talked a lot, had gone silent, focusing entirely on the surgery. It seemed he no longer had the energy to chatter.
"We’re almost done. I have to say, you’re quite something. Honestly, I wasn't sure if this would work. I went at this as if you were disposable, performing the surgery without hesitation. Anyway, now that you’ve survived, don’t waste your life recklessly. I don’t want to see the person I worked so hard to save die so easily."
His words carried a strange weight.
Jin Gaw wasn’t ignorant of the darkness within the Empire. It was also a mystery why he was here during such chaotic times.
* * *
I survived thanks to a miraculous treatment.
My whole body ached as if it had been beaten to a pulp, and the scars that had torn my body apart were now red and swollen. But the important thing was that I had recovered from a fatal condition in just half a day.
Throb.
A splitting headache made me frown. Even though my recovery was complete, my body still throbbed with pain. Every so often, it felt like someone was stabbing or slashing at me.
‘Aftereffects.’
The trauma engraved into my brain and body would remain permanently. It was the price of undergoing such an extreme, reckless treatment.
"I won’t be conducting a detailed examination. We don’t have the facilities for that, and there’s no time either."
Jin Gaw spoke nonchalantly. He was in the center of the mansion, showering and washing off the blood.
Why was there a shower installed in the middle of the first-floor hall…? I had no desire to find out. This was, after all, a mansion owned by La Vie en Rose.
"Thank you for treating me. Though, there were several moments when I wanted to kill you, Director."
I staggered as I stepped down from the makeshift operating table.
My body was now covered in scars, as if someone had carved a picture into my skin with a knife. I had always had many scars, but this was on a whole different level.
"I don’t know what you’re up to. And I don’t want to know. The Empire’s political struggles have nothing to do with me. If someone comes asking, I’ll tell them everything. So don’t ask me for any more favors, and don’t spill any of your secrets to me. Understood?"
Jin Gaw skillfully drew a line between us. He hadn’t survived this long in the Empire for nothing—he had his own way of navigating things. He wasn’t just some eccentric who ignored the world around him.
Martina Diva was coming down from the second floor to the first. She was carrying a set of clothes for Jin Gaw to change into.
"You actually survived, young master. Guess your skills are as impressive as ever. I was debating whether I should call a cleanup crew for a corpse."
I moved my eyes, searching for Giselle and Ilay. They weren’t within my line of sight at the moment.
"Giselle?"
"She’s asleep upstairs, so don’t worry. The young master of Carthica is looking after her. Seems like you’ve built up quite a bit of goodwill, huh? You’ve got a lot of people helping you. Even Grace stepped in without asking for anything in return."
"That’s just because Grace is kind."
I spoke as if it were nothing. Grace was a subject I wanted to avoid discussing with Martina. But she was relentless.
"No, that’s not it. We’re a gang. Someone who’s just kind wouldn’t survive as an executive. No one drops everything to run to a friend in danger. So why did Grace do it? The reason is simple. Love is what always clouds reason. Grace likes you. You realized that and took advantage of it, didn’t you? Pretty clever."
I kept my mouth shut.
Martina was right. Grace had helped me purely for emotional reasons. She hadn’t expected anything in return.
"…Anyway, thanks for helping, Martina."
"I only did it because Grace asked me to. So thank her instead. She’s mine now—she’ll never escape La Vie en Rose. Her sense of responsibility won’t allow it."
I placed a hand on my chest. I couldn’t tell if it ached or throbbed.