“I can come up with a plan if you don’t have one,” Kim Hajun said upon seeing Vur’s annoyed expression. At least, he suspected it was an annoyed expression; it was hard to tell with dragon faces. “The severed hand doesn’t have too much intelligence. It’s very reactionary, and I have a good grasp of the techniques it can use.”
“Alright,” Vur said, nodding at Kim Hajun. “You’re in charge.”
“We have to….” Kim Hajun’s words trailed off. “Excuse me?” he asked. “Did you just say I was in charge?”
Vur nodded. “You want to be in charge, so you’re in charge,” he said. “We’ll deal with the bugs here, and you can stop the severed hand.”
Kim Hajun blinked. Although he did want to be the one to personally stop the Oebu Sin, this wasn’t the right time to be a hero. He was still terribly weak, and one flick of the severed hand’s finger could kill him. Kim Hajun pointed at himself. “Me? Are you sure?”
Vur blinked at Kim Hajun. “You said you can come up with a plan,” the ocean-blue dragon said. He still had four upper legs held up, strings flying into the sky from the tip of his claws. “So, why wouldn’t you be in charge?”
Kim Hajun scratched his head. “I’ll have to bring all the humans with me,” he said. “There’s also no guarantee they’ll listen to my instructions, so….” The well-dressed man, who was still well-dressed despite wearing armor made for fighting, blinked up at Vur.
Vur nodded. Kim Hajun was a weakling. Only someone weaker or dumber than him would listen to him willingly. He needed someone strong to act as his backer. “Take Auntie with you,” Vur said, looking behind himself at an invisible-to-the-naked-eye orb made of mana floating not too far behind him. He waved at it, causing the stream of threads to wobble for a brief moment. “She’s watching the fight through the dragon tablet.”
“She’s so strong, yet she’s not participating in a fight like this?” Kim Hajun asked.
Vur shrugged. “She said dealing with dragons and fighting with bugs are both a hassle, so she didn’t want to stick around.”
Kim Hajun’s brow furrowed. The elf was such a strong individual, but she used her strength selfishly. People like that were the reason why the towers fell so easily; they didn’t want to sacrifice themselves on the frontline for the good of others. There was nothing wrong with that, but Kim Hajun had too many attachments to live life in a similar way. “In that case, are you sure she’ll listen to me if I tell her we’re going to fight an Oebu Sin?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Vur shrugged. “You’re smart,” he said. “If she doesn’t want to go, then convince her.”
“You can do it!” Stella said from her spot on Vur’s snout. She balled her hand up into a fist and raised it above her head. “The spooky hand was your original enemy in your dream, right? I believe you can defeat it!” She nodded and cupped her mouth with her hands as if to whisper but said, “If you can’t, then stall it until we’re done here and capable of helping you out.”
Kim Hajun exhaled and nodded. With the fairy’s words, the difficulty of the task had been reduced. Instead of defeating the hand, he only had to stall it until reinforcements arrived. Ideally, he’d come up with a plan to eliminate the hand, and once the hand was dead, he could extract the technique hidden within its palm. The well-dressed man’s eyes narrowed as he turned around and tapped on his root bracelet, requesting the tower to bring him to Lindyss.
An amber light flashed, and Kim Hajun appeared in front of a familiar door positioned inside of a tree. He sent a message to the lords through the bracelet before taking in a deep breath, straightening his attire before dropping his arms to his sides. He exhaled before raising his hand up and knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Kim Hajun grabbed the door handle and pulled, revealing the interior of the hollow tree. The cursed elf was sitting on a rocking chair with her legs hanging out the knothole window, her calves resting on the windowsill. Her arms were folded across her stomach, and she was slouched in her seat, staring off into the dragon tablet positioned in the clearing outside the tree for perfect viewing. “Excuse me,” Kim Hajun said. The cursed elf turned to look at him, and Kim Hajun couldn’t help but lower his gaze to the ground. “I need your help defeating the severed hand Oebu Sin that has appeared in the tower. Vur told me to ask you for assistance because he’s busy with the fight against the insect-type Oebu Sin.”
“What do I have to do?” Lindyss asked, not bothering to look at Kim Hajun, her gaze glued to the surface of the tablet.
“I need you to act as my backer,” Kim Hajun said. “The lords won’t listen to me without someone stronger than them like Vur or yourself present. The strategy to dealing with the severed hand will require some lords to use their trump cards, and without you or Vur there, they won’t act as they should.”
“Is that all I’m going to have to do?” Lindyss asked. She reached to the side, grabbing a snack from a bowl Kim Hajun couldn’t see, and placed it into her mouth. It crunched as she bit down. “I know you’re going to try and weasel more tasks out of me, so I’ll make you a deal. Every time you request my assistance, I’ll take a portion of your soul as compensation.”
Kim Hajun’s expression darkened.
“What?” Lindyss asked, turning her head to look at him. “You want other lords to sacrifice, but you don’t want to give up anything yourself? All of those people who supported you in your prophetic dream, who sacrificed themselves to give you the chance to defeat the Oebu Sin, you’re going to let them down because you don’t want to pay an appropriate price for power?”
Kim Hajun’s brow furrowed. Why couldn’t the elf just be a good person? Why did the strong have to be so pragmatic instead of righteous?