Chapter 73 — Unfamiliar Eyes
1. Stability
The rough mechanical sounds that had shaken the Medical Bay ebbed away like a receding wave.
The red warning lights that had blazed in a frenzy went dark, and in their place a cold, filtered blue light settled back across the room.
The emergency recovery devices that had gripped Mujin's body let out soft sounds — chiik — and withdrew one by one, returning to their resting positions.
Mujin still lay submerged inside the transparent medical pod.
Through the silver-white fluid, his face had shed the worst of its pallor and recovered a measure of warmth. The evidence of a desperate struggle — meridians forcibly reconnected, nerves fused back together.
It was not complete recovery. But the pulse that had touched the threshold of death was now tracing an honest, steady course.
The last of the data resolved inside i-Minerva's eyes.
[Administrator biological stability: maintained.]
[Recovery rate fixed at 30%.]
[System status: switching to standby mode.]
Baekri Hyun, the Heavenly Demon, stood directly before the pod and looked down at Mujin. His gaze did not leave Mujin's chest for a single instant.
Had the eyes of an absolute sovereign who commanded the Central Plains ever fixed on a single person with such urgency and weight?
He felt his own Demonic Qi mingling with the warship's vibration and held his place inside a stillness like the calm before a storm.
Soha had sunk down beside the pod, pressing Mujin's cold hand against her own cheek, unmoving.
Each time she heard her brother's breath, her shoulders trembled, barely visible. Below, Seol had leaned his body against the pod's metal support, golden eyes flashing as he held watch over the surrounding space.
Even the divine beast had sensed the shift in the air — he drew slow, shallow breaths and kept his gaze trained on i-Minerva's form.
The Medical Bay sank into a silence that bordered on eerie. Only the faint hum of nameless machines proved that this was a warship still alive.
And then —
i-Minerva's head, which had remained fixed on Mujin's vital readings, began to turn slowly. Her gaze swept across those standing around the pod.
2. Scanning the Heavenly Demon
i-Minerva's head tilted at a precise mechanical angle toward the Heavenly Demon. A blue scanning beam extended from her eyes and moved from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.
The gaze of an absolute sovereign who commanded the Murim met the mechanical stare of a civilization at an altitude beyond it — and the two held each other taut in the space between.
The Heavenly Demon did not move. Even as that unpleasant streak of light dissected him without reserve, he simply stood his ground — still and immovable as a mountain.
The Demonic Heavenly Guards, however, were not so composed. At the presumption of something daring to sweep their Lord like a creature to be assessed, the grips on their sword hilts trembled with killing intent.
Inside i-Minerva's eyes, the vast flow of the Heavenly Demon's inner energy was being translated in real time into a complex energy graph, rendered as data.
[Analyzing external entity……]
[Analysis complete: biological structure — non-standard.]
[Notable: internal energy density in an abnormally high-concentration state.]
A red warning window surfaced in her eyes.
[Assessment: high-level combat entity.]
[Energy wavelength confirmed: contact point with lower-tier Archeon technology detected.]
[Threat level: High Risk.]
i-Minerva's voice cut through the cold silence of the Medical Bay.
[Combat entity. Threat level: High Risk.]
The verdict, stripped of all feeling, was merciless.
The Heavenly Demon's eyes narrowed slightly. In the Murim, no one had ever dared to evaluate him. The words had been directed at Baekri Hyun, who had placed all of the world beneath his feet — and delivered as though he were a hazardous material to be processed.
Sharp killing intent crystallized in the eyes of the Demonic Heavenly Guards. At that arrogant pronouncement aimed at their Lord, any one of them looked ready to draw their sword first.
But the Heavenly Demon raised his hand and pressed down their killing intent.
His gaze remained on i-Minerva.
Whether what this strange being spoke was praise or insult — it did not matter. His only concern was whether this entity could keep Mujin alive. That alone.
i-Minerva processed even the Heavenly Demon's heavy gaze as simple "visual pressure" and continued her calculations. Her attention returned to Mujin.
[Warning. It is recommended that you maintain a distance of no less than three meters from the Administrator.]
The second warning i-Minerva issued was even more cold-blooded. The Heavenly Demon's eyes narrowed further.
In all his life, tens of thousands of Demonic Cult members had prostrated themselves before him. But a being commanding him to step back — this was something he had never encountered.
The air of the Medical Bay drew tight as though on the verge of freezing.
3. Scanning Seol
The blue beam that had swept the Heavenly Demon moved slowly to the side.
Where it landed, Seol lay crouched beneath the pod.
At the sensation of a foreign light pressing through his entire body, his sharp fangs emerged on instinct.
"Grrr……"
A low warning sound from the divine beast reverberated through the floor. i-Minerva did not stir.
Instead, inside her eyes, a cascade of data began pouring — thousands of times more refined than what she had produced analyzing the Heavenly Demon.
[Non-standard lifeform — precision analysis in progress……]
[Notable: Archeon nano-particles confirmed within entity.]
[Wavelength analysis: 99.8% resonance with Administrator.]
i-Minerva's holographic form trembled, just slightly.
The red warning windows that had appeared for the Heavenly Demon vanished. In their place, gentle silver-white symbols filled the space.
[Calculation result updated.]
[Assessment: external threat entity — negative.]
[Final assessment: Administrator's direct Guardian Entity.]
i-Minerva's lips parted. The voice that had pronounced the Heavenly Demon a High Risk carried now a strange admixture of mechanical courtesy.
[Administrator's Guardian Entity: confirmed.]
That declaration transmitted to every system in the Medical Bay. The sensors that had shone red in response to Seol shifted to blue all at once and withdrew their hostility.
i-Minerva updated the data in the air and added one final line, decisive.
[Guardian Entities currently registered in system: 1.]
Not the Demonic Heavenly Guards who had shared life and death with Mujin for decades. Not Baekri Hyun, the Heavenly Demon, who held the greatest martial power the Central Plains could offer. Only Seol had been recognized as the warship's own.
There was none of the cold-bloodedness she had shown when ordering the Heavenly Demon to step back. i-Minerva inclined her head slightly toward Seol. Not the respect of one person to another — the courtesy of a system.
Not a single member of the Demonic Heavenly Guard could find a word.
4. Reaction
The eyes of the Demonic Heavenly Guards shifted in unison.
They looked at Seol with bewildered expressions. She had classified the incomparable Heavenly Demon as a threat entity — and now recognized a creature without words as the sole guardian.
Baekri Hyun's eyes narrowed a fraction more. But there was no anger. No displeasure.
Rather, in i-Minerva's merciless judgment, he saw a facet of the world Mujin belonged to.
The Heavenly Demon looked at i-Minerva in silence.
"……Indeed."
He murmured, low.
If he was to remain in the position of an outsider, he was willing to follow this world's rules. As long as it served Mujin's survival — that was sufficient.
Soha showed no reaction at all. She already knew.
Who had been the first to throw themselves forward every time Mujin faced a crisis. Without a word, she reached out quietly and stroked Seol's head as he rumbled low.
"It's all right, Seol. Don't be frightened."
When Soha's voice filled the Medical Bay, the fur that had been raised sharp along Seol's back settled like magic — smooth and calm.
Inside i-Minerva's eyes, a new assessment surfaced.
[Control authority over Guardian Entity: confirmed.] [Entity designation: Baekri Soha. Threat level: Low.]
i-Minerva recorded Soha as a valid variable capable of stabilizing the Guardian Entity and eased her monitoring accordingly.
5. The Question
i-Minerva turned her head again toward the Heavenly Demon. It was a gaze with a clear purpose — different from the warning that had come before.
She was cross-referencing Mujin's biological data with the surrounding environment, seeking to fill the last gap in her information.
[Question for external entity.]
i-Minerva's voice struck the Heavenly Demon's ears. The tone was less a question than an interrogation.
[Define your relationship to the Administrator.]
A silence followed.
The Demonic Heavenly Guards gripped their sword hilts at the presumption of asking the Heavenly Demon to define his relationship with anyone.
But the Heavenly Demon held them back and looked down at Mujin inside the medical pod.
A young man asleep and pale. And yet — the existence this vast steel fortress called its master.
The Heavenly Demon answered: brief, without hesitation.
"He is my Lord."
His voice did not waver.
Inside i-Minerva's eyes, data flickered.
[Recorded. Classified as Administrator's Follower Entity.]
She inscribed the Heavenly Demon's answer into the system.
And in that instant — a vibration moved again inside the pod, which had grown quiet.
Doom.
Mujin's heart beat once more — strong and full.
i-Minerva's gaze snapped immediately back to Mujin.
[Administrator biological stability: additional increase.]
[Brainwave activity: beginning to be detected.]
The silver-white fluid inside the pod swirled as it poured strong radiance into Mujin's body.
Mujin's eyelids — sealed until now — trembled. Barely. Desperately.
He did not open his eyes. But it was a struggle — rising from the depths of consciousness toward the surface.
[Calculating estimated time to awakening.]
Listening to i-Minerva's report, the Heavenly Demon stood before the pod and looked at Mujin in silence.
Then, with a weight heavier than anything in the world, he let fall a single quiet sentence.
"Hold on. My Lord."
Systems don't lie about what they value. They just measure, and report, and classify.
i-Minerva looked at the Heavenly Demon — absolute sovereign of the Central Plains — and registered: High Risk. She looked at Seol and registered: Guardian. She didn't ask anyone's permission to reach those conclusions, and she didn't soften them for anyone's comfort.
There's something clarifying about that. Not kind, necessarily. But clarifying.
Seol's been at Mujin's side every time it mattered. The warship knew.
See you next chapter .
