Chapter 155
"Pollution?"
Lee Yang-hoon frowned at the bizarre word.
Pollution.
What did he mean by pollution?
Wasn't that a word you'd expect to hear in a horror movie or disaster film?
It seemed like a word that should be preceded by ominous terms like 'nuclear testing', 'biochemical weapons research', or 'virus research', not 'coming-of-age ceremony'.
"What on earth are you planning to do that you're bringing up the word 'pollution'?"
Jinseong smiled brightly at Lee Yang-hoon's words and was about to answer.
However, just as he was about to open his mouth, the food he had ordered began to fill the space in front of him one by one. Jinseong thanked the person who handed him the food and looked around.
Then, finding a suitable metal bowl, he picked it up, threw it into the air, and lit a fire in his hand.
"Wait, what are you doing?"
"It's nothing special."
Jinseong began melting the metal while keeping it suspended in the air. Soon the metal turned red-hot, and eventually began to change shape according to Jinseong's kneading motions in the air.
The shape resembled a bell used in churches.
When the metal took on a shape similar to a church bell, he threw it on the floor. Then he pulled a large bottle of water from where the chef was, opened the lid, and poured it into the metal bowl.
Tssssss-
With the sound of the metal cooling rapidly, white steam rose.
When Jinseong thought the metal had cooled completely, he levitated it and brought it to the dining table.
The metal tableware, which had its own beauty and style, now had a crude shape like an ancient artifact, looking as if it might crack and break after a few uses.
But Jinseong hadn't reshaped the tableware to use it for a long time.
Just once.
It was enough to use it only this time.
He poured all the drinks that had been served in glass cups into the bell-shaped tableware.
Then he asked Lee Yang-hoon, who was looking at him in bewilderment:
"May I eat first and then explain? I'm not in the best condition right now because I've lost a lot of blood."
"...Alright. Go ahead."
As soon as Lee Yang-hoon's permission was given, Jinseong began inhaling the food.
He shoved large chunks of meat into his mouth, which gushed with what might have been meat juices or blood when cut, and gulped down the drink with a terrible appearance, made from who knows what. Then he scooped up the blood pudding placed in a bowl with a spoon, put it in his mouth, and swallowed it along with the drink.
It was a meal devoid of any dignity.
Lee Yang-hoon slightly frowned at the sight, but Jinseong frantically stuffed food into his mouth regardless of whether it made Lee Yang-hoon uncomfortable. He ate the blood pudding by scooping it up like pudding, put the steak in his mouth as if a primitive man was eating freshly caught prey roughly cooked over a fire, and used the terribly combined mixed juice not for taste but only to help swallow the food.
As he repeated this meal, vitality began to return to Jinseong's face.
Color returned to his skin, which had been so pale it might have been mistaken for a corpse, and his dull eyes regained their sharpness. His skin, which had been losing elasticity, began to glow, and warmth enveloped his skin, which had seemed cold to the touch.
When he finished his meal, he slightly made the sign of the cross and pretended to pray.
Only then did he smile and look at Lee Yang-hoon.
"What did you just do?"
"I used a bit of sorcery for quick recovery."
What Jinseong had just paid as the price for sorcery was blood.
Abrahamic, especially Christian-based sorcery, placed great importance on blood.
They regarded blood as life, considered giving life as a proper sacrifice, and emphasized enduring sacrifice and bestowing love. This perception of blood was directly applied to their view of sorcery, leading to the development of sorcery that used 'blood' as a medium or price.
This obsession with blood became more refined as generations passed, and methods to replenish it also developed.
However, not all excessive contemplations about blood were accepted.
Some methods were rejected for being wicked, or oppressed as heresy because they were rooted in symbols that were not on good terms with Christianity.
What Jinseong used was one of these oppressed sorceries, and as a result, its form had become distorted and broken, degrading into folk beliefs or simple games.
Folk beliefs.
Infinitely close to superstition.
No, a trivial game that had become superstition itself.
Now just a fragment too far removed from sorcery, a pile of dust torn to shreds by Christians, unrecognizable in its original form.
But culture didn't easily disappear, and even when something that once flourished fell, it always left traces.
When World War III, humanity's worst disaster, broke out, the whole world fell into chaos, becoming a hell where human compassion was hard to find. In this hell, ordinary people began to follow all sorts of superstitions to somehow live with hope, to somehow save their lives, and they tore apart and reassembled these superstitions.
In the name of pseudo-religions.
With the resentment of people with nowhere to rely on.
For a support needed to live life.
And in this process, some things that had degraded into games regained life.
As superstitions were torn apart and grafted in various ways, some began to exert special power.
Although they were like chimeras created by synthesizing various living things, or like bombs made while playing without much thought, they somehow regained power.
And people began to use these creations.
To avoid being attacked by evil spirits.
To hide when soldiers invaded.
To slightly increase the chances of survival when bombs fell.
To somehow save their lives when robbers came with knives and guns.
The price?
You could only pay a price if you were alive.
Could losing half your internal organs, becoming impotent, getting leukemia, or having your appearance changed be considered a more important price than life itself?
In Jinseong's later years, it was common to see people keeping bits of sorcery they had picked up in their minds and using them as lifelines.
Because sorcery, although terrible in its cost, was the most accessible ability.
Although it couldn't compare to sorcerers who specialized in using it, as long as you were prepared, you could use it once or twice just to save your life.
Of course, most people would shudder and never look at sorcery again after safely saving their lives.
"I imitated a vampire to absorb blood most efficiently, and prevented the smell that evil spirits like by using a drink mixed with garlic as the price."
Early English remedies included all sorts of things.
Feeding a cake made with grain flour and the baked excrement of a white hunting dog to cure what was then called dwarf attacks (seizures), or drinking an herbal beverage with garlic and holy water added, made by playing mass music, from a church bell to cure diseases caused by demons, and so on.
Jinseong used a more advanced form of these early English remedies, a 'prescription to ward off demons', to remove the smell that evil spirits like.
"I see. I understand."
Lee Yang-hoon nodded as if he understood Jinseong's explanation.
But his expression was closer to somehow understanding it as just another of the eccentric behaviors he always did, rather than truly comprehending.
"Your complexion seems to have improved a bit, so I'll ask again. Why did you use the word 'pollution', and why on earth do you want to go north?"
Jinseong stroked his chin.
It was a gesture of pondering how to explain in a way that Lee Yang-hoon would easily understand, what analogy would be good to use.
Finally, having organized his thoughts, Jinseong opened his mouth.
"Do you know about rare earth elements?"
"I do."
There was no way he wouldn't know.
If a person running a huge corporation had never heard of rare earth elements, they'd have no excuse even if they died with a sword in their mouth.
"These rare earth elements are quite tricky. They have many uses and no substitutes, but the amount collected is small and requires a lot of effort. Especially when mining and refining them, terrible pollution occurs."
"That's right."
"Radioactive materials flying out during mining is just the basics, and all sorts of pollution occur due to the chemicals used in refining. Sulfur dioxide, sulfuric acid, acidic wastewater... Terrible substances that pollute water and land and kill livestock."
Jinseong paused for a moment, then smiled and asked Lee Yang-hoon:
"But you know, we can't stop mining them just because the pollution is severe, right?"
"...Right."
"However, if we were to mine this right next door, or in the neighboring town, that would be a problem in itself. Wouldn't mining this in a useless place far away from where people live and go about their daily lives reduce the risk of this terrible pollution and bring only returns?"
Lee Yang-hoon's complexion changed slightly as he grasped the meaning behind Jinseong's words.
"I understand why you want to go north. But what on earth are you planning to do that causes pollution comparable to rare earth elements?"
What kind of pollution could it be?
Lee Yang-hoon looked at Jinseong as if in disbelief, and Jinseong scratched his head and said:
"It's nothing special. Just performing a coming-of-age ceremony, and in the process, some impurity will linger in that area, that's all."