The Foreigner on the Periphery - Chapter 123

The air froze. Choi Pan-seok’s eyes had been stained with embarrassment. 

‘How did this happen?!’ 

This old Orc was a member of the National Assembly who has been through it all before and after birth. Nevertheless, he could not completely hide the agitation. A man who should have been subdued by Blade suddenly appeared by now. Holding the wrong sword, in a way that the principle was unknown. It was the power of age that calmed the trembling in his voice. 

“Ah… what are you talking about?” 

Minjun’s eyes were sharp. “I have something to return.” 

Naturally, he felt humiliated, but the Orcs did not even dare to point out or protest. He waited for the next word in his heart-burning tension. The dagger moved slightly. 

“You used me well. Is it worth living now?” 

The last words were aimed at the daughter behind the lawmaker. Choi Seon-ah was trembling close to her seizures as she still had not been able to escape the influence of foreknowledge. The Orc moved her body carefully, placing her on her back and behind her. 

He knew it was useless, but it seemed he had to do it anyway. His mind felt confused. ‘Is my foreknowledge wrong?’ 

No matter how one were to look at it, it didn’t seem like they had been brainwashed. The quiet rage in his eyes was clearly the agent’s own. His blood vessels constricted, and the energy circulated through his body. 

From this, the Orc gave up on any further steps. “My daughter knows nothing.” 

He then spoke with earnestness in his eyes. “Everything was made up by myself. There is nothing wrong with Seon-ah.” 

Hearing what the lawmaker said, Minjun thought to himself. Indeed, she had similarities to her inmate. Criminals whose criminal memory had been wiped clean. However…

“Okay?” 

There came upon a cold voice. “Do sins disappear by erasing memories?” 

Minjun didn’t think so. He thought of original sin, which he had forgotten for 800 years. However, what Minjun recognized was not a crime as the basis for the request of the committee. He had no guilt for the act of creating Asif-1. The real sin he believed was to induce his people to become bloodthirsty livestock. It didn’t change that the consequences, intentionally or not, were dire. From this, he became a sinner. And from now on, he was going to pay the price. 

Minjun took a step forward, and the Orc shouted with a pale face. “…It had no choice but to do this! To save her daughter!” 

Such was an appeal for acknowledgment and cry mournfully. However, the response was disappointing. Minjun’s expression did not change. Unable to read any emotion from his opponent’s face, the legislator ran dry. He purposefully shouted, but it remained quiet outside. He knew that his hospital room had been magically cut off and that his wife’s life was at stake.

‘All plans have been revealed! Maybe Blade?’ 

The other party even knew that her daughter’s memory had been artificially erased. “I’m sorry I cheated! But if I tell you frankly, I won’t be able to cure you.”

“There’s something I can’t stand in the first place.” 

An overwhelming feeling began to fill the hospital room. The Orc felt his chest squeeze and his breathing suffocated. “I couldn’t stand it when someone touched mine. Those who trespass on my territory and make a mess.” 

He now knew why he was so unbearable and angry. It was because he had already had the experience of losing everything. Hallucinations began to ring in his ears. 

-People are suffering. Let’s give them freedom. Let’s break free from the oppression and tyranny of those monsters who know nothing but domination and exploitation, and help all races to bloom. Let’s end the long winter and let the spring of freedom sprout. 

Minjun just wanted to wake up all of his people earlier. That hope turned the situation into a catastrophe. 

– So please let me know. Where are you sleeping? Our people have been robbed of their most precious thing, the blood of their source, and they are being robbed at this very moment. 

That was Minjun’s original sin. “But one more thing, I just can’t stand it any longer.” 

Minjun’s voice rang out sharply. “They run to me to get a dog collar.” 

The Orc tried to protest, but the blade that flew to the back of his neck was faster. “Big!” 

A life focused on one point. Choi Pan-seok screamed at the sensation of being pierced in his throat. “…Heh!” 

However, he didn’t die. Instead of piercing the black jugular vein, he paused with a slight tear in the skin. Blood then began to flow in red streaks. The Orc could not breathe and hardened.

At that moment, Choi Pan-seok’s eyes darkened. “··········!” 

Brainwashing. This was the original way the blade attracted people. Meanwhile, the moment Choi Pan-seok lost his wisdom, Minjun felt it. The brainwashing power that Blade had planted in the shadow monster was gone. 

‘That’s right.’ 

Minjun summed up the abilities of the fused fragments in his head. Blade’s brainwashing was limited to one person holding the handle and one wounded by the sword. So, the moment Choi Pan-Seok was brainwashed, the shadow monster returned to normal. 

Compare that to the original ability of a frying pan. Twenty-nine MPs were still under his control. There were complex prerequisites for cooking and feeding, and his grip was weaker than that of a sword, but instead, he could control more people. And now, the frying pan had absorbed the blade’s, in addition to his original abilities. ”

Thinking like that, Minjun looked at Choi Pan-seok’s memory. The creation conveyed the Senator’s memory. In it, Minjun saw a chain of repeated hatred.

– Hey! Calm down… Seon-ah! There, isn’t anyone there?! 

The Orcs wanted revenge on the racists. His life was a fight against discrimination, and what happened to his daughter was decisive. Whatever the reason for adoption, he was sincere in his love for Choi Seon-ah. Thanks to the help of her daughter, who had strengthened her abilities, two methods had since then emerged. 

In the short term, it was to make their representatives elected by the racists a puppet of the orcs. Just imagining it was refreshing. Orcs manipulating lawmakers sent by voters to pollute the National Assembly with racist ideas. He couldn’t help but be excited. There was also a plan to exterminate all those behind the attack by making them vomit out everything they knew. 

Also, in the long run, he planned his self-improving revenge, not his self-destructive revenge. Such was a form of revenge that would make the lives of those they despise people better. So, in the end, so that no one can ignore the Orcs, it was to drive wealth that was not envious of other races. Little by little the balance of power would be brought towards the Orcs. 

So, he prepared a redevelopment bill that would be a stepping stone. Minjun saw the warped hostility in his memory. In addition to this, he confirmed that he was trying to use Minjun as a tool of revenge. The agent pulled out the sword that had only slightly pierced the tip of the blade. The eyes of the foster daughter followed it. As hard as a wax doll, only the eyes moved. 

“You are a very rare talent.” 

To a certain extent, it was coveted by the committee. “I told you, I have something to give you.” 

Choi Seon-ah couldn’t seem to understand Minjun’s words. “······?!” 

Contrary to what Ego Sword was worried about, Minjun did not feel confused about the standard of good and evil. His principles of action were much simpler. Their mother and daughter return the malicious intent to use them as tools. 

“From now on, you will have to work for me.” 

The reason he brainwashed the Orc instead of Choi Seon-ah was because he knew that the efficiency of foresight fell when she lost her intelligence. 

“········” She had just seen a terrible future. Choi Seon-ah was able to simulate a number of different cases. No matter what path she took in the first foreknowledge she took after losing her memory, both wife and daughter ended up in tragic situations. 

Earlier, she lost her temper and shouted to run away, but she actually had no way out. Whatever path she took, it was catastrophic. A cruel future that seemed to lose her mind just by looking at it unfolded. However, there was only one way for his daughter to survive in a better form. 

“Poetry… Shiki…” 

With trembling lips, he barely completed the sentence. “I will do whatever I ask you to.”

The brainwashed foster father was a hostage. If one were to give him a single command, he would jump out of the building without hesitation. Choi Pan-seok’s life depended on the agent. Choi Seon-ah realized that she was caught in a trap from which she could not escape. 

Also, the foresight that she had shown for Choi Pan-seok would be used only for the man in front of her from now on. Minjun conspired to make him his servant, but on the contrary, he looked at the woman who had been reduced to his servant with cold eyes. 

*** 

=Could you please explain a little more in detail? Of what you said today… did you say that the agent made me? = 

There were so many things to do, it took more than half a day to finish them all. After he got home, he didn’t even turn on the frying pan, but it returned to its original shape. Although it absorbed the blade’s powers and memories, what came to the fore was the ego frying pan’s 800-year-old self, whose identity was still close to that of a cooking tool. 

Minjun was the same. Retrieving some of his memories, but he was still him. However, the forgotten identity was gradually mixing and staining. “So it is.” 

Minjun explained what he found out. After the story ended, the magic tool didn’t respond for a long time, apparently in shock. Then he blew his mind again.

=···Well, in summary, I’m a tool that Agent-sama created to wake up his people? 

=Perhaps by doing so, you can save everyone and lead to true happiness. Otherwise, I can’t explain why such a sense of duty resides in me.= 

It seemed that Carbite interpreted it as the destruction of the world, but Minjun was old and didn’t even mention the story. This was because there must be an excuse for suppressing and arresting Asif-1. They were beasts that had been covered with lies from the beginning. 

There was no need to attach meaning to each of the frivolous remarks. While thinking about it, the frying pan added a word. 

=Um, come to think of it strangely, Agent I was reluctant to call you bro. Is it because of this reason?= 

He remembered that when he held it in his hand, regardless of age, men were called older brothers and women were called sisters, but the changed owner, Minjun, never called them that way. Well, perhaps it was just a coincidence. 

=If so…= 

The mental wave of the frying pan suddenly mixed with serious emotions. 

=At this point, wouldn’t it be necessary to re-establish the relationship between you and me?=

Minjun’s eyebrows twitched. “What are you talking about?” 

=Me… So.= 

After a moment of silence, the frying pan rolled a bunch of meanings with great difficulty. =···Papa?= 

“·····” 

Feeling the air freezing, the frying pan vowed to postpone the re-establishment of the relationship until later. Still, just not throwing it to the floor like he did when we first met was a huge improvement in our relationship. Feeling disappointed and happy at the same time, the frying pan asked for something more important. 

=So, what are you going to do next?= 

“I need more talents, more fragments.” 

Ultimately, his dream was to recreate his plans when he first created Asif-1. It was also to wake up the people… 

“This is because I have something to give back to the committee bastards.” 

Of course, he had no intention of handing over fragments of his own blood or Asif-1. As of today, the route that Minjun was aiming for had clearly changed.

=What?=

It would not be easy and would take a long time. There was a long way to go. However, Minjun firmly engraved his will to repay what he received from the ancient race. The original race then made a promise to cross the 800-year gap. 

“Shock and horror.”