Chapter 109: Rising Star of the City (1)

Low muttering woke his mind.

The edges of his vision were jaggedly gnawed away. Lee Taebaek blinked, and the clustered kids erupted into a huge fuss.

Cheers and exclamations assaulted his eardrums. He’d just woken up, and the surroundings were already boiling with passion, chasing away any lingering sleep. Then, one person in the crowd turned around and shouted.

“Sister! The Patriarch’s awake!”

His face was still too blurry to make out, but the piercing voice and “sister” nickname made it easy to guess the owner was Leon. And the place he was lying.

‘Hundred-Fold Sect branch.’

He’d stormed straight into the Kergel Magic Tower.

Right after, he’d been sucked into the cyber space the Tower Master created. And then…

Unfortunately, that’s where his memory cut off.

Not just the memory of meeting the Tower Master, but even the situation right before it had been neatly erased. His inner voice told him that encounter had been more important than meeting the Kergel Magic Tower Master.

Frustrating. Infuriatingly so.

‘It’s always like this.’

What good was laying a solid foundation if he blacked out at the crucial moment and lost the memory?

Lee Taebaek sensed some intent there. Someone had deliberately shredded the film of his memories with scissors.

As he frowned in distress, the Hundred-Fold Sect believers held their breath. They started glancing around nervously.

That drew a hollow chuckle from him.

“Sorry, kids.”

“Y-You don’t need to apologize to us…!”

“Nah. I woke up and got all serious on you right away.”

“D-Don’t get up yet! You slept for three whole days, Patriarch…!”

Three days straight? After pulling off something that huge, three days had passed like nothing?

‘This a dream or what?’

Before getting up, Lee Taebaek pinched his cheek. He wasn’t sure. Dream or reality? So he asked Leon.

“Hit me once.”

The kids around him gasped in unison. Leon looked dazed, like a disciple who’d just been expelled from his sect.

“H-How could I commit such irreverence?!”

“You forget how we first met?”

“That’s…!”

“Just a light tap. Shoulder.”

Under the pouring stares, Leon groaned. Finally giving in to the repeated pleas, he punched my shoulder.

“How could I hit the Patriarch?”

“Irreverent… Burn him at the stake right now!”

“Ahh, brother. I once respected you, but not anymore. You’ve struck my sky.”

“Leon oppa, I knew he was like that, but to think he really was. No expectations, total disappointment.”

The kids made a huge racket, and Lee Taebaek rubbed his shoulder. A decent sting. That proved it wasn’t a dream. If it was, he’d just stay here forever.

He pushed off the floor and stood. Then he roughly ruffled Leon’s hair, who was taking the glares of reproach.

“Thanks.”

“…Thank you…!”

“The virtue of a Hundred-Fold Sect believer is courage.”

“…?!”

“I’ll commend your courage.”

“H-Hundred-Fold!”

Watching his expression, like he’d been branded with a holy mark, really made Lee Taebaek feel like the head of a cult. Well, no more denying reality. He was the Hundred-Fold Sect’s Cult Leader.

“I’ve always believed in you, Leon oppa. Mind if I sniff your head? I want to store even a bit of the Patriarch’s scent in my nose.”

Thanks to Lee Taebaek’s praise, the barbs flying at Leon stopped like magic. That attitude shift was…

“I didn’t wash my hair today.”

“Don’t ever.”

That pink-haired girl with the dangerous glint in her eyes.

Her name was Angela, right? The girl who never spoke directly to Lee Taebaek but shot hot stares from behind walls.

Whoever he brought back, she freaked out equally regardless of age or gender… A complex character hard to describe.

“If it weren’t for the mood, I’d cleave that thick skull. How dare a mere oppa think of stealing the Patriarch’s scent?!”

“P-Patriarch! Spare me-!!”

“Go eat.”

“Patriaaaarch.”

Lee Taebaek left the believers behind and climbed the stairs.

‘Pretty sure she said “nimii” at the end there.’

Nah, no way.

Lee Taebaek followed the acrid cigarette stench and stopped before a door. His unconsciously deployed [Presence Detection] caught two presences.

Screeech.

He opened the door and entered.

Sure enough, Goeun was perched on the windowsill, puffing on her long pipe. Jasbi was wrestling with a laptop on the desk. Smoking coolly in front of an AI was pretty striking.

The two spotted Lee Taebaek. After a beat, Goeun smiled with the pipe in her mouth, while Jasbi’s eyes welled up.

“Creator!”

Jasbi rushed over and hugged him tight.

“You okay? No head injuries? Tell me right away if anything’s wrong. I’m an AI developed for medical use too, so in that area…”

“Enough with the overkill.”

“Tch.”

“And the smoke.”

With a huff, Jasbi returned to her spot and hammered the laptop. Her grumbling about “worry and he complains” grated, but he let it slide this time.

“How’s the body feel?”

Goeun said, extinguishing her pipe.

“Fit as a fiddle. So fit I almost doubted if this was the afterlife. Nearly forgot I even went to the tower. Goeun, taking you there wasn’t a dream, right?”

“I wish it was. Just thinking about it still gives me chills…”

She played it cool, but tension from that day lingered in her voice. That dizzying standoff.

That bizarre scene had been a shock she’d never endure twice.

“What happened?”

“…”

Goeun shut her mouth at Lee Taebaek’s question.

She tucked the still-warm pipe into her bosom and nodded at Jasbi.

“Gonna grab some food.”

Jasbi smartly grabbed her laptop and left. Some prior talk between them, or Jasbi’s brilliant intellect figured it out.

Either way, the vibe was off. As suspicion filled Lee Taebaek’s eyes, Goeun’s slender finger flicked her shoulder strap. One gesture, and she was half-naked.

“…W-What the sudden?”

Lee Taebaek panicked.

“Told you. Don’t say cringy stuff like that with that face. And it’s not that kind of moment you’re imagining.”

Goeun cut him off. Facing the window, she brushed her hair aside, exposing her back. Lee Taebaek’s lips parted slightly.

A tattoo covered her entire back that hadn’t been there before (he’d once inevitably seen her back). More like a pattern than a tattoo, and he knew what it was.

“Got a rough idea?”

“…”

Lee Taebaek nodded faintly.

‘Curse Binding.’

Magic reinterprets internal energy, and all internal energy or fortunes stem from nature. The “lin” in Murim shows martial folk follow and borrow from nature.

Unlike the character, mages respect things as they are. They just infuse intent into nature for fire, water, air, lightning.

The opposite concept is curses.

And Curse Binding was a type of curse.

Curse Binding, Curse Speech, Curse Puppet, Curse Spirit. Anything with “curse” usually meant curse.

Among them, Curse Binding infused massive magic or internal energy with personal grudge, binding a single target.

Curse Binding had the strongest effects among curses.

Hence, strict constraints.

First, target’s consent. Tricky from the start. Plus, inscribe a catalyst on their body to establish it.

Like the pattern on Goeun’s back.

Lee Taebaek mulled it over, savoring the guilt squeezing his heart. He created the [Curse Binding] concept, knew its side effects best.

“…The Heavenly Demon bound you so you couldn’t tell me what happened in the tower…”

His lost tower memories. Their safe escape. All of it.

Goeun shouldered all that debt. Why go that far? Asking would insult her. A gap in memory caused issues, so she accepted the binding to smooth it over.

Snapping in anger would mock her sacrifice. So his words were excuses.

“That wasn’t how I meant to save you. Instead of sending the Left Guardian to the tower, I…”

“The Left Guardian’s dead.”

News to him.

“Don’t worry. This isn’t bound by the curse, so it’s fine.”

“…”

“You made ‘some contract’ with the Heavenly Demon. She accepted and fulfilled her part immediately.”

“Did that include disposing of the Left Guardian?”

“Can’t say.”

“…Got it…”

Goeun had turned around by then.

Clothed or not, it didn’t matter now. Lee Taebaek just listened intently.

“The contract’s ongoing, and the Heavenly Demon will fulfill the rest soon. When it’s done, she’ll come collect from you.”

“Pinpointing ‘you’ means nothing more to take from me?”

“With a curse binding too, what more could she want? Without me, you’d have begged for death, but I’ve rolled hard since the jianghu.”

Goeun shrugged. Her moon-pale skin gleamed. Lee Taebaek averted his eyes and bristled unnecessarily.

“Talking like an old fogey despite being younger.”

“Life density’s different. Density. Though by that metric, you’ve weathered storms too. Siesta Hounds, death row, Resistance, even tangling with Ten Wings. Contracting the Heavenly Demon on top. Doing it all solo.”

“…!”

A flash lit his mind.

‘Curse Binding can’t be undone normally.’

Kergel Magic Tower’s fame as a megacorp on magic alone: science couldn’t replace mystery. Curses, trickier than magic? Futile talk.

But who was Lee Taebaek?

Boss designer. Most versed in boss-inflicted status ailments.

‘Way to release Curse Binding.’

One way.

Abnormal method, nearly impossible to find.

But that elusive means surfaced. Specifically, one person’s face.

Split second.

Thud thud thud thud.

The stone wall shook. Footsteps rushing down the hall. Not kids’—full of vigor.

‘Speak of the tiger…’

Kang Hyeonseong. Multiple footsteps. Jasbi must’ve told, whole 9th Battalion coming.

Lee Taebaek smirked.

But, wait…

Something felt off.

‘Shit.’

Lee Taebaek urgently reached for Goeun. As usual, sensing crisis too late.

“Taebaaaaek…!”

Kang Hyeonseong’s voice trailed off.

“…You guys… what were you doing…?”

No sooner said, 9th Battalion members craned past him, gasping one by one.

Ah, damn it all.