Chapter 50

Chapter 50, Lee Yeonhee (4)

They were tiny wings.

Three pairs of wings so small that, forget flying, they probably couldn't even properly cover a single egg.

A total of six wings fluttered softly.

They were far too small to even serve as accessories on an adult woman's body.

Even so, no one in the group could ignore them.

The wings were pure white.

Whiter than the snow falling heavily in winter.

Whiter than a blank sheet of paper that held nothing at all.

They were a flawless white.

The wings looked as though all the light and holiness in the world had been gathered together and carved into shape.

For a moment, they were sacred enough to make me feel like kneeling.

Holy.

Radiant.

Beautiful.

Those three feelings passed through my mind at the same time.

Everyone stared blankly at the wings.

The first person to recover was Arlin.

She was so shocked that none of her usual calmness remained.

“A, a Seraph?”

She was so surprised that she even stuttered.

Had Arlin ever stuttered before?

I didn't think so.

She looked as shocked as she had when she first encountered the Gallery.

Maybe even more shocked than that.

Just as all my attention turned toward Arlin's reaction, Hwa-ryeon spoke next.

“That... that's a Seraph?”

Hwa-ryeon repeatedly muttered the word Seraph while staring at Lee Yeonhee.

Her trembling pupils clearly showed just how shocked she was.

Instead of focusing on her reaction, I focused on the word she had said.

Seraph.

In religious terms, it referred to one of the highest ranks among angels.

I knew the word.

I also knew what it meant.

But was Seraph really a word that should be used in this situation?

Thinking about Hwa-ryeon and Arlin's reactions, I soon realized why they were so shocked.

“...This is insane.”

Even after realizing the reason myself, I couldn't believe it.

So I went through the logic again.

The Gallery had said that people with enough talent could train divine power past a certain limit and eventually transcend their species.

The stages were angel, demigod, and god.

And Lee Yeonhee was someone who belonged among those so-called talented people.

If she didn't die first, she was someone who would eventually become an angel.

After hearing what the Gallery users said, I had imagined Lee Yeonhee as an angel before.

But I never thought I would actually get to see it.

└ How do you become an angel? Eat properly every day and train normally without skipping a single day, lol.

└ Right, hahaha. Just train, hahaha. That's all, hahaha.

└ Normal training, roughly 300 years.

└ Humans only live about 100 years. How are they supposed to train for 300 years?

└ That's why there are barely any angels who started as humans, lol.

└ Human balance is completely broken. They seriously need a buff.

The Gallery users had said it took more than three hundred years of training for a human to become an angel.

And that was three hundred years of training without missing a single day.

The average human lifespan was only around one hundred years.

Yet reaching that level required three hundred years of training.

For a human to become an angel was practically impossible.

Their words had left such a strong impression on me that, without Arlin and Hwa-ryeon's reactions, I probably wouldn't have realized it either.

After going through all the evidence again, I reached only one conclusion.

“Did Yeonhee... become an angel?”

No one answered my empty question.

Everyone simply stared blankly at the pure white wings.

Ironically, their silence became an answer for me.

Almost as if hypnotized, I approached Lee Yeonhee and gently touched the wings on her back.

They felt so sacred that touching them with my dirty hands almost felt disrespectful.

The feathers were made of divine power.

They were far softer than the feathers of any ordinary bird, and they rippled beneath my touch.

Whenever the feathers moved, dozens of tiny particles of light scattered from them.

These wings clearly existed outside the normal laws of this world.

Whenever their angle shifted even slightly under my hand, each white feather refracted light like a prism and created a different impression.

Simply calling them beautiful wasn't enough.

Human language couldn't fully describe them.

If I had to choose the closest expression...

“This is crazy.”

They were insanely beautiful.

While muttering in disbelief and absentmindedly touching the wings, Lee Yeonhee began to stir.

I moved the hand that had been touching the wings and supported her body.

Her long eyelashes had been resting against each other.

Then, little by little, they separated.

Her eyes appeared between them.

Instead of the exhaustion I had seen earlier, her eyes were now filled with energy and confusion.

Her gaze moved between me and my arm.

“Uh... huh? What's this?”

“Yeonhee.”

“Ah. Yes?”

“I have something to give you.”

I reached into my pocket to take out the remaining three fragments of divine power.

At that sight, Lee Yeonhee's eyebrows trembled.

She probably couldn't see it herself, but the wings on her back also trembled at the same time.

Still amazed by their sacred beauty, I pulled out the fragments and held them toward her.

Without even looking at what I had taken out, Lee Yeonhee tightly shut her eyes.

Her hands and feet also stiffened from tension.

Before I could ask why she was acting strangely, she suddenly spoke almost like she was shouting.

“No... I don't dislike it, but don't you think this is too soon...?”

“What?”

“I mean, of course I'd be happy... but still! At the very least, shouldn't we do something like this after curing the zombie virus first...?”

“...What?”

“I, if you keep doing that... no, I mean, even if you do... I can't really stop you... no...”

She moved her delicate hands around awkwardly while speaking nonsense I couldn't understand.

At the same time, the wings on her back fluttered forward and backward.

It might have been disrespectful to think this...

But they reminded me of a dog's tail or ears.

They moved around according to her emotions in exactly the same way.

It was cute.

And strangely silly.

While I was thinking that, Lee Yeonhee seemed to make some kind of decision by herself.

Her hand slowly reached toward mine.

Then our hands touched.

Lee Yeonhee took the fragments from me almost as if she were scratching them out of my palm.

When I looked at her face, it was completely red.

Was that humiliation?

No, maybe embarrassment.

After taking the fragments from me, she kept her eyes closed and focused entirely on the sensation in her hands.

The hard fragments rolled around inside her palm.

“This is... as I thought... a jewel? And if it's this large and hard... maybe it's not a ring, but a raw gemstone...? It's unusual, but I think that has its own charm too...”

I couldn't respond to her muttering.

The fragments were melting into her hand.

And the wings on her back were gradually becoming larger.

Once all six fragments had completely melted away, the wings that had looked like a chicken's were now closer in size to a penguin's wings.

The light around them had also grown so bright that it was becoming difficult to look directly at them.

My vague guess was becoming clearer.

I couldn't help being amazed again.

So the divine power fragments really turned Lee Yeonhee into an angel?

Then could anyone become an angel as long as they had enough fragments?

No.

That probably wasn't how it worked.

I had a feeling that without Lee Yeonhee's talent, someone could absorb fragments for a hundred days and still never become an angel.

“...Huh?”

Separate from my thoughts, Lee Yeonhee let out a blank sound.

She blinked.

Then her eyes fully opened.

She spread her palm.

The fragments had completely melted away, leaving nothing behind.

“Huh? Huh, huh?”

“Yeonhee, can you try using divine power right now?”

I grabbed the dazed Lee Yeonhee and asked.

Moving like a broken robot, she awkwardly followed my request and released divine power.

Whoooosh!

Light burst from her hand.

At first, it was like a candle flame.

A moment later, it became as bright as a lamp.

Another moment later, it became as bright as a streetlight.

By the time a full second had passed, it looked as though a tiny sun had descended onto Lee Yeonhee's hand.

The light became so intense that it was difficult to keep my eyes open.

Ten seconds later, a sphere of light had formed.

It truly resembled the sun.

That dazzling sphere seemed like a sun burning for one person alone, following Lee Yeonhee's wishes.

The sun created by Lee Yeonhee shone down upon us.

And then...

A miracle happened.

Everyone in the group, including me, immediately felt every problem inside our bodies disappear.

Hwa-ryeon felt the wrist she had twisted while sparring with Arlin that morning completely heal.

Arlin felt her exhausted brain, worn down from endless research, become refreshing and clear, as though filled with mint.

And I...

I felt the zombie virus, along with every other illness in my body, disappear completely.

It was truly a miracle that only a Seraph, said to communicate directly with a god, should have been capable of granting.

The authority of a god had descended upon this place.

“Huh? Huh?”

Lee Yeonhee was still standing like a broken robot and nearly fell over.

I caught her before she could collapse.

She blinked in disbelief.

Then her eyes closed.

The brilliantly glowing wings lost their radiance, became translucent, and drooped weakly.

I carefully laid her down on the bed.