Chapter 4 – Slave and the Monarch

“Your majesty.  We will perform the ritual now, and it will interfere with your curse.”

In the middle of the s.p.a.cious garden, there was a ma.s.sive magic circle drawn in gold and silver. In the center of the circle, there were pillars of red gems embedded to draw a pentacle. Bands of gold and silver radiated outwards in all direction in a whirl.

The king stood in the center of the large magic circle.

There were several thousand Archmages, and High priests positioned around the magic circle with their knees bent.

The old va.s.sal stood outside the magic circle.  He lifted a staff with a large clear crystal embedded in it.  He lifted it high with both his hands.

The large crystal let out a light, and as if the magic circle was resonating, it was surrounded by a blinding light.  The magicians and priests, who were maintaining the magic circle, was also surrounded by a white light.

The magic circle shook harder. The light became more dense.  It surrounded the king and the light pressed in on him. The network of gold and silver making up the magic circle started to crack.

Everyone’s face was crumpled in pain, and they were sweating as if it was raining.  Only the king didn’t feel any pain, and he had his eyes closed with a peaceful expression on his face.

“Ciaruuda!”

The old va.s.sal let out a powerful yell then he brought down crystal staff.  The clear crystal broke, and a golden light quickly followed the lines of the magic circle.

A blue fire erupted covering the entire magic circle.  The flame moved as it was alive, and it surged to surround the king.

After a moment, everything disappeared as if nothing had happened.

The magicians and priests were completely worn out, and they were gasping for breath. The magic circle was completely destroyed by the fire.  There were only black ashes left behind.

The king opened his closed eyes.

“Did we succeed?”

“……it seems we didn’t fail.”

It seemed the old va.s.sal was tired.  He used the staff with the broken crystal to prop himself up, then he answered.

“Your majesty possesses an enormous amount of blessings and power…  It is beyond our capability to move more than a fraction of your power.  Fortunately, we’ve confirmed a small portion of your power had been transferred.

“Which power?”

“That I do not know.”

The old va.s.sal bowed his head in apology as he continued to speak.

“Your majesty has to check it out for yourself.”

Hahn-suhjin opened his eyes.

The inside of his head felt dizzy.  He had a slight headache, and he was nauseous.

It felt as if he had a dream, but he couldn’t remember any of it.  Pain erupted when he thought about the content of his dream for a brief moment, and he clutched at his abdomen.  He hurriedly popped in a painkiller, then he swallowed it down with water.

“Oh yeah! I have to go to work!”

He was about to jump up, when he stopped himself.

He remembered he took care of his resignation yesterday.  Moreover, he even signed a legal doc.u.ment saying he wouldn’t cause any trouble regarding a possible occupational disease he had developed.

Hahn-suhjin returned to his bed to lie down once again.  He stared blankly at the ceiling.

It was strange.

Even couple days ago, he was afraid and angry about dying.  He had been sad as if he was detached from the whole world by himself.

Now it felt as if his heart had been emptied.  He couldn’t think of anything as if everything had been washed away.

‘She’s marrying next month…….’

She was his old flame.  A part of his chest hurt when he thought about Lim-suhyoung.  However, he didn’t have that tearing pain he had before when he had called her.  

Hahn-suhjin pulled his body up into a sitting position.  He stretched out his right hand, then he repeatedly opened and closed it.

What should he do with his remaining time.

Should he go on a trip?  Should he travel around and eat delicious foods?  Or should he try tracking down his run-away mother.

He didn’t feel inclined to do any of those things. In a flash, Hahn-suhjin realized something.

He had nothing he wanted to do even though he didn’t have much time left.

He opened his hand phone to check his sister’s contact info, then he closed the window.  He had no idea how he would approach this subject to his sister.

Hahn-suhjin washed himself, then he went outside.  He mindlessly exited his house, and he started walking the streets.

The busy streets were overflowing with people going to work.  They were overflowing with vitality, but he couldn’t join them.

He walked with a blank expression on his face. He kept on walking without any thoughts.

Before he knew it the streets became quiet.  He stopped for a moment to check the time.  It was 10 AM.  The morning rush hours were over.

He went into a convenience store, and he bought a beverage.

“That’ll be $3.50.”

He gave the employee a 5 dollar bill. As he waited for his change, he suddenly saw the lottery tickets, and soon, he discovered something strange.

“Why is this one like this?”

“Yes? What’s wrong, sir?”

“Look at this lottery ticket over.  It’s letting out a light by itself…”

“What? I don’t see anything…….”

The employee stared at him as if he was a weird person.  Hahn-suhjin grabbed the lottery ticket.  He hesitated as he held the lottery ticket in his hand.

‘He can’t see it?’

It wasn’t really bright, but one could definitely tell at a glance that the lottery ticket was surrounded by a golden light.

“P…please give me this one.  I’ll buy it.”

After paying for it, Hahn-suhjin exited the convenience store as if he was running from the store.

He entered an alleyway, and he took a deep breath.  Then he looked at the scratch-off lottery ticket in his hand.  The lottery ticket was still emitting a golden light.

“Am I imagining things?”

Was this the side effect of the cancer?  He never heard of such things happening.  Moreover, it was strange that he was able to see the light only on this specific paper.

He bought it without thinking, but now he felt like an idiot.  For a moment, he was dumbfounded, but he quietly took out a coin.

“Since I’ve already bought it, I should scratch it.”

With a bored gesture, he was scratching the lottery tick when his hand suddenly stopped.  Then it started to shake.

Hahn-suhjin’s eyes bugged out, and he  looked at the lottery ticket with shaking hands.  He was seeing it with his eyes, but he couldn’t believe it.

“F…five hundred thousand?”

He had around $368,000.

That was the amount he received after taxes.  Hahn-suhjin couldn’t believe it even though he was looking at his bankbook.  He wondered if this was a dream.

He had bought the lottery ticket without a thought when he saw a strange light.  It turned out to be a winning ticket with a payout of $500,000.  No one would believe him if he told the story.

Without saying anything, he stared dumbly as he kept checking the numbers inside his account.  Then he started to laugh.

“I wouldn’t have minded this several years earlier.  Then I would have been able to spend it to my heart’s content.  I’m about to die, so it’s a bit useless to win the lottery now.”

He had been worried about his sister’s dowry.  He was happy, since he’ll be able to leave a big gift in her name.  As he kept thinking more about it, only a bitter laugh was forthcoming.

He had only a half year time left.  Nothing would change if his bank account held three hundred thousand or 3 million dollars.

Hahn-suhjin tossed his bankbook, then he flopped onto his bed.  He stared blankly at the ceiling then he fell into his thoughts.

‘What was that?’

Only one lottery ticket had let out a golden light.  Moreover, it had been a winning ticket worth 5 hundred thousand dollars.  He couldn’t just call this a coincidence.

Maybe it was a momentary delusion or maybe it was something transcendent.  The inside of his head became dizzy, and it felt as if it was about to explode.  

“Maybe…….”

Hahn-suhnjin stood up.  He started looking around his room. He thought maybe he could see the golden light again by chance.

No matter how much he looked around he couldn’t see the golden light.  Maybe it only reacted to lottery tickets.  While he was thinking idle thoughts, pain started to emanate from his stomach.

He took out the pain killer from the bag.  He poured some water, and he grabbed the drug.  He was about to put it into his mouth when it happened.

“Uh? What is this?”

He stared fixedly at the pill. It didn’t have a special shape, and it wasn’t giving off a golden light like the lottery ticket.

He had been surprise, because strange symbols started to float on top of the pill. It was connected into a five-sided or six-sided figure.  Moreover, there were alphabets attached to the figure as if it was attached to a line.

“N…… H…… F…… OH…… What is this?”

Hah-suhnjin stared fixedly at the shape with confused eyes.  Then the symbols started to blur after a moment.  He suddenly came to his senses, and he hurriedly found a pen and a paper.  He drew the letters and shapes exactly as he saw it.

When he wrote it down, the symbols disappeared as if it had never been there.

After pacing around for awhile, he left his house with the drugs and the paper.  Then he found a pharmacy nearby.

“Welcome.”

The young male pharmacist greeted him with a smile. It was a small pharmacy, so there weren’t any customers present.  Hahn-suhjin surveyed his surrounding, then he pushed forward his painkillers and the paper.

“Excuse me…… This is the painkiller I am taking right now.”

“Yes.  Is there a problem?”

“I’m not really knowledgeable about this, but is there some connection between this drawing and the painkiller?”

“This drawing?”

The pharmacist checked the label for the drug, then he carefully looked over the content of the paper.  Then he spoke as if the matter was trivial.

“Ah.  It’s the chemical structure of the drug.”

“Chemical structure?  What is that?”

“In simple terms, it is how the drug is composed. This drawing represents the bonds between the chemical elements, and how it is arranged. It would be easier to think of it as a chemical blueprint.  If you know the drug’s name, you can search for it on the internet.  Why do you want to know about this?”

Hahn-suhjin returned home in a daze.

He sat at the edge of his bed, then he just stared at the painkillers in his hand and the paper where he had written down the chemical structure.

“What is…… What the h.e.l.l is going on?”