The Mage Who Devours Disasters - Chapter 51

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 51.
The tears would not stop flowing.
My shoulders trembled uncontrollably.
Park Ha-yan covered her face with both hands, sobbing convulsively.
All this time, she had strived ceaselessly to appear strong.
Since the accident, the eyes of others had always held the same expression.
Pity.
A wretched child.
Those pitying gazes pierced through her entire being like thorns.
Each day had been despair itself.
Staring at the cold ceiling of the Hospital Room, those were days spent waiting only for death.
The verdict that she would never again feel solid ground beneath her feet was nothing less than a death sentence for a young girl.
But then she glimpsed hope.
A helping hand extended by a benefactor whose face she did not know.
Grasping that hand, she had clawed her way up from the mire.
Though her beloved parents had passed away.
Yet she remembered it vividly.
Inside the Passenger Airplane.
That hellish instant when the Aircraft split in two and gravity vanished.
The couple who had held her hand firmly to the very end, offering her comfort.
“Do not be afraid. It will be over soon.”
That warmth they had shared.
The thread of fate extending from them had miraculously reached Kim Jung-seok.
The surgery would have been impossible without his sponsorship.
And then, through a letter, a single name revealed to her.
‘Mayon.’
The sweet and chilling temptation offered by the spirit of darkness.
Even that nightmare that had sought to consume her could be escaped with merely the true name he had taught her.
It was nothing short of a miracle.
If all of this were not a miracle, what else could it possibly be called?
‘I must grow stronger.’
Park Ha-yan had made this vow countless times as she left the Hospital Room.
She would grow far stronger, and as the sole survivor, she would live for all those who had perished in the accident.
She would become an unshakeable great tree, trampled by no one, swayed by nothing.
So she had heeded the spirit’s voice and ventured through Dungeons at the cost of her life.
But then.
Standing before Kim Jung-seok, all those resolves crumbled to dust.
She became infinitely fragile.
Before his indifferent yet warm gaze, the dam of emotions she had so carefully suppressed burst open.
“Ugh… hic…”
Inside the cramped Semi-basement Room.
Only Park Ha-yan’s sobs hung heavy in the air.
Park Ji-hoon scratched the back of his head with an awkward expression.
“Uh, hey there, hyung. Should I grab some tissues for her?”
“Leave her be.”
I took another sip from the can of beer.
I made no attempt to console Park Ha-yan.
Clumsy comfort only poisons the wound.
It was better to let her purge everything that needed purging.
I waited for the clots of anguish lodged in her heart to wash away with her tears.
Time passed in silence.
Park Ha-yan’s sobs gradually subsided.
She lifted her gaze toward me, her eyes bloodshot and inflamed.
Her face was streaked with tears.
Yet within those eyes burned an unbreakable resolve.
“I… I don’t know how to repay you.”
Her voice trembled.
Park Ha-yan lowered her head once more.
“You saved me. My legs, my soul… everything was rescued by you, Kim Jung-seok.”
She steadied her breathing and continued.
“I will never forget their kindness, nor yours. Even if it costs me my life…”
“I don’t need that.”
I cut her off.
Park Ha-yan flinched and looked up.
I set the empty can down on the table with a sharp clink.
“Don’t speak of grandiose things like sacrificing your life.”
I leaned forward.
My gaze locked directly onto hers.
“There’s only one thing I ask of you.”
“…What is that?”
“Live healthily.”
Park Ha-yan’s eyes widened.
I continued matter-of-factly.
“Don’t get hurt, don’t bow to anyone. Live boldly with the strength you possess. That’s the only condition, and that’s your repayment.”
That was all.
I remember the ‘White Demon’ from before my regression—consumed by darkness, forced to survive.
I had no desire to see her shackled by such a terrible fate again.
If she could grow stronger righteously and protect herself, that would be enough.
“Ah…”
Park Ha-yan bit her lip.
Tears welled up in my eyes once more.
‘This person is truly magnificent.’
Someone who asks for no compensation, who absolves all debt with a single word—simply to survive.
Could such a person exist anywhere else in this world?
Yet Park Ha-yan refused to yield.
Her gaze only grew more resolute.
She clenched both her fists tightly.
“That won’t do.”
“…What?”
“It’s not enough.”
She looked directly at me as she spoke.
“I know it’s shameless stubbornness. But I cannot simply dismiss this grace as merely ‘living healthily.'”
“….”
“Please, give me anything—any task I can do. Let me be of use to you, Kim Jung-seok. Let me contribute.”
Obstinate.
The nature of a creature that, once it bites down, never lets go.
Truly the bearing of a future Spirit Lord.
Park Ji-hoon, standing beside me, clicked his tongue.
“Wow. Look at that audacity, talking back to hyung like that. That girl’s no ordinary one.”
“Be quiet.”
Park Ji-hoon let out a yelp and clamped his mouth shut.
I turned my gaze back to Park Ha-yan.
She was sincere.
If I didn’t assign her some role here, she would follow me around for the rest of her life, insisting on repaying this debt.
And.
‘It’s not a bad proposal, actually.’
I stroked my chin.
Park Ha-yan possessed overwhelming talent.
Judging by the crystallized mana I could sense, she was awakening at the highest tier of speed.
If she continued to grow at this rate, she would become my steadfast shield and an excellent piece to control the variables of the avatars manipulating the entire world.
“If you insist.”
I opened my mouth.
Color returned to Park Ha-yan’s face.
“Then answer me one thing.”
I leaned back deeply into the chair’s backrest.
The atmosphere sank in an instant.
I too felt the tension.
It was time to confront the truth I had pushed away.
A story for which even I needed to steel myself.
“…Do you remember that day?”
“Pardon?”
“The day the passenger airplane crashed.”
Park Ha-yan’s shoulders flinched.
I understand.
It must be a horrific memory.
A nightmare she would wish to erase from her mind forever.
I am not unaware that asking a survivor to recount the truth of that day is a cruel thing to do.
“I apologize, but.”
I continued in a measured tone.
“I know you would rather not relive it. However, if you truly wish to repay your debt, I ask that you tell me everything that transpired inside that airplane that day.”
The truth of the accident itself.
It was the most crucial puzzle piece I needed.
Was it merely a freak weather phenomenon?
Or was it the result of someone’s ‘Authority’ at work?
‘The typhoon that tears and kills indiscriminately’.
I had to verify whether there were any points of correspondence with that wind of destruction emanating from Heimdall’s divine artifact.
“Even the smallest sense of wrongness will suffice. Everything you saw, heard, and felt—tell me without omission.”
I waited for her response.
I could never have posed this question to the Park Ha-yan of the past.
She who was called the ‘White Demon’.
There was a possibility she would seize my very inquiry as a weakness to exploit.
But the Park Ha-yan before me now is different.
She is no demon.
She is a righteous human who has risen from her trials and seeks to repay a debt of gratitude.
Park Ha-yan’s complexion turned ashen for a moment.
Her bloodless lips trembled faintly.
But then.
She clenched both her fists tightly.
As though making a vow, she nodded slowly.
“…I understand.”
And then she opened her mouth.
She drew forth the truth of that day, fragment by fragment of her fractured memories.
* * *
Park Ha-yan recalled that day.
There were far too many oddities to call it a simple accident.
The sky that day had been unusually clear.
Beyond the window stretched an endless expanse of brilliant blue sky, unmarred by a single cloud.
A family trip after so long.
She had pressed her cheek against the airplane window, marveling continuously at the dazzling vista.
But then.
The catastrophe arrived without warning.
Screeeech!
The sky suddenly tore open.
The clear heavens split down the middle as though carved by an invisible blade.
Roooaaarrr!
A deafening roar accompanied the deluge of pitch-black storm clouds.
At first, I thought it was merely thunder from deteriorating weather.
But it bore no resemblance to thunder whatsoever.
It was a grotesque, ear-shattering shriek—as though some colossal beast were crying out in anguish.
“W-what?”
“What’s happening!”
Passengers gasped in alarm, peering out the windows.
Flight attendants shouted frantically for everyone to remain seated.
Then it came.
The passenger airplane began convulsing violently.
Crash! Kaboom!
The aircraft crumpled like tissue paper.
Windows shattered outward, and a biting gale tore through the cabin.
Oxygen masks tumbled down, utterly useless.
Destruction everywhere.
Seatbelts snapped, and people were sucked into the void.
Screams.
Shrieks of despair.
Pandemonium.
The passenger airplane was no longer flying.
With its wings shattered, it plummeted vertically.
Crack, Kaboooom!
The passenger airplane was torn asunder.
Split in two mid-air, debris scattered like confetti.
Everyone either lost consciousness or vanished without trace into the raging tempest.
Park Ha-yan was no exception.
Consciousness slipped away amid crushing pressure, paralyzing fear, and the searing agony of shattering bone.
My vision flickered in and out of darkness.
But.
Just before losing consciousness.
Beyond the shattered fuselage, through the gaping sky.
Park Ha-yan saw it clearly.
‘A person…?’
Someone was suspended in the air.
A man, arms folded across his chest, gazing down from the heart of that colossal typhoon—unencumbered, unprotected.
He bore an expression of profound displeasure.
* * *
“….”
I opened my eyes to narrow slits.
It felt as though the breath had been stolen from my lungs.
My heartbeat accelerated erratically.
“That man.”
I asked quietly.
I struggled to suppress every emotion.
“Do you remember what he looked like?”
“….”
“At the very least, some distinguishing feature. Could you sketch it?”
Park Ha-yan nodded slowly.
Park Ji-hoon, who had been observing from the side, quickly rummaged through the corner of the room and produced a pen and blank paper, pressing them into her hands.
Park Ha-yan grasped the pen.
Her hand trembled ever so slightly.
Yet she drew a deep breath, and began tracing lines across the paper, dredging up her memories.
Stroke. Stroke.
The man from that day—etched into her memory with terrible clarity.
With each line, his form grew increasingly distinct.
A massive frame.
Hair that fell wildly and unkempt.
Eyebrows raised with arrogant pride.
And that peculiar expression—weary and displeased—with which he gazed down upon all things as though they were beneath contempt.
“…I’ve finished.”
Park Ha-yan carefully extended the paper toward me.
I accepted the sketch.
My gaze locked upon it.
In that instant.
“….”
I could not even draw breath.
The muscles of my jaw clenched and quivered rigidly.
I could not help but furrow my brow with tremendous force.
The taut thread of reason that had been pulled taut within my mind snapped with a sharp crack.
My vision flooded with crimson.
Murderous intent surged forth.
All the fury I had suppressed until now threatened to erupt like an active volcano.
‘Ha.’
I could not deny it.
I could not dismiss it as mere coincidence, could not claim it was otherwise.
The drawing Park Ha-yan had created.
It was far too vivid, disturbingly identical.
No matter how many times I looked at it, that face was—
‘Heimdall.’
The sovereign of all creation.
The god of typhoons.
…It was him.
The one who had torn my parents asunder.
The architect of ruin who had shattered my ordinary world into fragments.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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