CRT Ch 1

“If the master tells you to drink their semen, what should you do?”

At Supervisor Hyun Kyojun’s question, the classroom fell into a heavy silence. If you answered incorrectly, only the one who got it wrong would be punished by Supervisor Hyun. If no one answered, the entire group would face punishment. Rather than stepping forward and taking the blame alone, the sentiment was to suffer together. It was frustrating to be on the same level as these dimwits who lacked confidence in such an easy question.

Seok Ryu raised a hand to respond.

“You must drink it deliciously for the master.”

Supervisor Hyun’s gaze turned toward Seok Ryu. The other students quietly observed the exchange between teacher and pupil.

“If they feel pleasure watching you bleed?”

“You must wail and writhe even more to please the master.”

“Why?”

“Because the pain the Guardian Stones feel is all fake.”

“Ugh.”

At Seok Ryu’s response, some students gagged while others snickered.

They were all Guardian Stones in human form. They were beings born from the fusion of a human consciousness, long dormant within a gemstone, and the power of the stone itself. Their rosy skin, flowing hair, colorful irises, and delicate movements were so perfectly human that only dissection could reveal their true nature, as they were restored to their exact appearance from life.

Garnets that enchanted everyone to pledge loyalty to their master, diamonds that granted power, pearls that transformed appearances into beauty… Each with its unique ability fulfilled the master’s desires.

Supervisor Hyun Kyojun scanned the miraculous gems with a cold gaze.

“Remember this. Not feeling pain like you all do is a damn blessing.”

“Yes, sir!”

‘Disgusting bastards.’ Supervisor Hyun tossed the gifts and letters on the podium into the trash and strode toward the classroom door. The letters were likely filled with Guardian Stones slandering competitors or begging to be chosen next. They believed that impressing the Hyun brothers would lead to a good master. Since Supervisor Hyun recommended Guardian Stones to clients and even decided on cancellations, it wasn’t entirely untrue.

Seok Ryu was a humanoid garnet. Possessing the ability to enchant anyone to pledge loyalty to their master, Seok Ryu had died young and lay dormant in a garnet gemstone before being restored to human form by a gem sorcerer. Upon rebirth, the once-black eyes and hair had turned a wine-red hue. The gem sorcerer explained it was due to the influence of the garnet’s energy.

Seok Ryu organized the surveys submitted by the Guardian Stones.

“Gross.”

The gems’ gazes turned toward Shinbi. Shinbi was a chubby-cheeked boy, a humanoid peridot with the power to strengthen the love between couples.

Supervisor Hyun, who had paused at the door, stared at Shinbi.

“What did you say?”

Shinbi twirled his light-green, leaf-like hair around his finger.

“My dad said it’s wrong to hurt other living beings. He said we should treat them with care because they feel pain and sadness just like us…”

Seok Ryu let out a long sigh. Shinbi’s condition was serious. Shinbi’s first masters were a couple, the CEO of an advertising agency, facing divorce. After taking Shinbi, their bond grew so strong they conceived a child. Shortly after, they returned Shinbi to the workshop early. Fortunately, a new master for Shinbi appeared quickly. But Shinbi firmly believed the couple’s lie that they would come back for him.

Supervisor Hyun turned and walked toward Shinbi. The Guardian Stones feared the moment he glared through his glasses the most. Hyun Kyojun adjusted Shinbi’s yellow kindergarten uniform.

“Who said anything about living beings?”

“Everything with a soul…”

“Who told you to spout that nonsense?”

“My dad said not to use bad words…”

“Who’s your dad?”

Supervisor Hyun clenched his teeth tightly.

“I’m asking who your father is.”

Shinbi trembled, lips quivering, clueless about the situation.

“M-my dad is Jo Young… Ow!”

Seok Ryu threw an eraser at the back of Shinbi’s head. Fortunately, it stopped Shinbi’s words and distracted Supervisor Hyun. Shinbi already had a prospective master. Loving anyone other than that master weakened a Guardian Stone’s abilities, reducing its value and leading to disposal. Supervisor Hyun didn’t make exceptions for children.

“Heewan said he’d handle it, so just let it go.”

As expected, Supervisor Hyun’s expression softened. He patted Shinbi’s hair and left the classroom.

At that moment, Noeul approached and kicked Shinbi’s desk. Other gems surrounded Shinbi, creating a menacing atmosphere.

“Try spouting nonsense and upsetting Supervisor Hyun one more time. I’ll shatter your core stone!”

When Noeul yanked the choker around Shinbi’s neck, Shinbi coughed violently. This time, Noeul kicked the trash can filled with discarded letters and gifts.

“And you lot! Who told you to give this stuff without my permission? Want me to read them aloud again for everyone to hear?”

The Guardian Stones who had offered gifts and letters didn’t dare make a sound.

“Supervisor Hyun doesn’t care about letters or gifts, so just hand over the surveys.”

At Seok Ryu’s rebuke, Noeul flashed a seductive smile. Meeting a garnet’s gaze would enchant anyone into becoming a slave to the gem’s master. Fortunately, it didn’t work between Guardian Stones.

Noeul was a humanoid garnet like Seok Ryu. With a deep wine-red appearance and a 100% enchantment success rate, Noeul was hailed as the most perfect gem in the workshop’s history. As a result, Noeul never lacked new masters. The prospective master set to take Noeul this time was a wealthy musician.

Noeul threw a survey at Seok Ryu’s face.

“Oh, I was wondering something. Since you’re so thorough with prep and review, you’d know this well. If the master cuts off both your arms with a chainsaw, what should you do? You know, you might meet a master who gets off on making a Venus de Milo and climaxing over it.”

When cornered, Noeul always dug into Seok Ryu’s trauma.

“Ask Supervisor Hyun. You’re good at cozying up to him, so why bother me?”

“What, you done talking?! You don’t even have a master coming for you…!”

Seeing Noeul’s face flush red, Seok Ryu felt a bit relieved.

“It looks like Noeul-ssi is feeling shame right now, but that’s not real shame. The emotions and pain we feel are just simple reactions triggered by memories from our past lives. Judging by Noeul-ssi’s vivid reaction, you must have done a lot of humiliating things right up until you died.”

“Seok Ryu, you’re lucky you’ve got that choker year-round. Good thing you died with your throat slit; imagine if you’d been poisoned?”

Noeul pointedly stroked her own choker. The choker, adorned with a fingernail-sized core stone, was proof of a prospective master. If a gem without a master wore a choker, Noeul’s followers would tie them to a tree or push them down the stairs.

Noeul kicked Seok Ryu’s desk and stormed out, her followers trailing behind. Since the workshop kept multiple Guardian Stones of the same type, competition was inevitable. Even so, Noeul was particularly vicious toward Seok Ryu.

Seok Ryu felt the same. Noeul had once schemed to nearly kill Seok Ryu and even stole Seok Ryu’s master. The thought that the stolen master might have been the “fated master” made it impossible to stay calm.

Seok Ryu sighed and picked up the scattered surveys from the floor. Shinbi helped with small hands. The child’s sleeves were so smudged with graphite that they were frown-worthy. When Seok Ryu folded both sleeves up, Shinbi looked up with round eyes.

“Seok Ryu-hyung is way more beautiful and smarter, so why does only Noeul get to meet masters?”

Shinbi’s wavering over a past master was pitiful, but moments like this made Seok Ryu want to smack him.

“Have you perfectly memorized the emergency protocols? You’re not actually a blockhead just because you came from a stone, right?”

“Noeul said all that’s useless…”

Shinbi looked skeptical, repeatedly inhaling and exhaling. It was Seok Ryu’s “emergency protocol for being abandoned by a master,” a modified Lamaze breathing technique that other Guardian Stones found effective.

Each time the child exhaled, the peridot core stone on the choker jingled. Seok Ryu tore their gaze from the choker, hiding petty jealousy. Even a snotty kid was a competitor in this workshop. After such fierce struggles, meeting a master meant loving and serving them even more fiercely.

With heavenly luck, one might meet the “fated master.” It was said that meeting the fated master turned a Guardian Stone into a real human. In the workshop’s history, only a handful of Guardian Stones had been saved by their fated masters. The tale that they lived happily ever after was passed down like a fairy tale. Seok Ryu dreamed of such a fairy tale too.

💎

The workshop was surrounded by dense forest and barbed wire charged with high-voltage electricity. Successive workshop masters had gone to great lengths to conceal its location. They bought an entire deserted island to block outside access, cut off the internet, and isolated it from civilization. The Guardian Stones learned about the world through books and videos brought by Supervisor Hyun. Movies and dramas were particularly excellent audiovisual educational materials.

In front of Heewan’s studio door, gifts and letters from Guardian Stones piled up. Instead of offering gifts or letters, Seok Ryu served as Heewan’s assistant to make their presence felt. If they stayed cooped up in a corner like other unchosen gems, they’d never meet a master in their lifetime. Seok Ryu pushed the gifts aside with a foot and entered the studio.

Photos on the studio walls depicted the process of a consciousness within a core stone being restored to human form. The first photo showed a grayish-white membrane around the core stone transforming into a skeleton and skin. Over time, eyes, nose, and mouth formed, creating a perfect human figure. Though memories of the restoration process were hazy, Seok Ryu had gone through it too, making the sight oddly surreal.

Hyun Heewan paced the cluttered studio, books strewn about. His expression was grim as he read the surveys.

“They say I’m an outdated fossil… The desired faces are Yoon Inoh and Lee Taeon? I know Yoon Inoh, but who’s Lee Taeon?”

“He’s the hottest actor right now.”

When Seok Ryu flipped through a magazine to show the face, Heewan grew even more serious.

“They should be moderately good-looking so we can mimic them…”

Seok Ryu elaborated.

“They were most dissatisfied with their names. For example, ‘Mystery of the Universe’ sounds like a documentary title, or ‘Cheers to Noeul’ feels like a trot song and is embarrassing. They want you to ditch the Art Nouveau-style clothing and hair for trendy idol styles—roughly that.”

“You’re not dissatisfied with your name, are you, Seok Ryu?”

“Well…”

As Seok Ryu dodged the question, Heewan sighed repeatedly. Heewan was a hereditary gem sorcerer. His ancestors combined ancient sorcery and alchemy to materialize the consciousness within gemstones and maximize their power. Heewan didn’t stop there, researching even more advanced gem sorcery.

While Seok Ryu organized the surveys, Heewan examined deformed Guardian Stones and dissection diagrams. The sight of flesh melting like liquid made Seok Ryu’s stomach churn. Heewan’s casual flipping through such photos in front of Seok Ryu sometimes felt insensitive and cruel.

“I have something to say.”

When Heewan’s gaze turned, Seok Ryu lowered their voice, wary of Guardian Stones eavesdropping outside.

“Shinbi still can’t forget the CEO couple. If this continues, he won’t be able to use his abilities for the new master and will be returned.”

Heewan brushed back his hair with a dark expression.

“It’s probably because they were his first masters. Once he’s loved by the new master, he’ll be fine. We need to hurry with Shinbi’s binding ritual.”

A Guardian Stone and master had to succeed in the “binding ritual” to form a master-servant bond and unleash the stone’s abilities. It was a dangerous ritual, sometimes fatal for either the stone or the master.

Seok Ryu and other gems had a binding ritual success rate of less than half. In contrast, Noeul boasted a 100% success rate. Clients were willing to pay ten times more for the safe bet, Noeul. Once, Noeul had contaminated Seok Ryu’s binding ritual materials, nearly killing the master, who then abandoned Seok Ryu and took Noeul.

“Then please take over as Supervisor Hyun until then. I’ll keep the others in line.”

“Alright.”

Fortunately, the other gems were careful with their words around Shinbi. Even the spiteful Noeul respected this boundary. Shinbi just needed to hold out for five days until meeting the new master.

Heewan smiled at Seok Ryu.

“I’m busy with research, and Kyojun isn’t exactly warm with the kids, so I’m always grateful you’re looking out for them.”

“It’s nothing.”

Eliminating even one competitor increased Seok Ryu’s chances. Recommending gems to the workshop’s clients was in the hands of the Hyun brothers. Whether to offer new stock or clear out inventory depended on their whims.

💎

Tomorrow was the day Shinbi would perform the binding ritual with his new master. Since Shinbi had a high success rate, there shouldn’t be any issues. If the ritual succeeded, he’d have a few days of rest before heading to the cabin to meet his new master.

Seok Ryu stopped by the noble room to pack Shinbi’s belongings in advance. Gems with prospective masters and those without used separate bedrooms. Shinbi spent the day in the noble room but came to the commoner room to sleep. Waking up crying for his mother every night left Seok Ryu no choice but to sleep with him. The roommates didn’t object, having all experienced abandonment by a master at least once.

Shinbi was packing a storybook into a suitcase, pouting and on the verge of tears.

“I don’t want to leave Seok Ryu-hyung. My heart hurts so much…”

“Go get your doll.”

Anyway, what Shinbi felt was fake pain derived from memories. Shinbi swallowed his tears and headed toward the doll basket. The child believed that if he behaved well at the new home, the CEO couple would come for him. He even thought their newborn was his sibling. As Heewan said, maybe being loved by the new master would help him forget the couple…

Seok Ryu secretly took a photo of the CEO couple from Shinbi’s suitcase and hid it in their pants pocket. Supervisor Hyun inspected belongings before heading to the cabin, and if caught, the order might be canceled. In the worst case, Shinbi could face disposal.

Just then, the door burst open, and Noeul rushed into the room. Collapsing onto the bed and sobbing, Noeul was comforted by other Guardian Stones.

“It’s okay. Another master will come along.”

“Shut up and get lost!”

Shinbi scurried over and whispered to Seok Ryu.

“Did you hear? This time, Noeul’s master told her not to come.”

Shinbi whispered softly.

“Because they don’t need her…”

Instead of cheering, Seok Ryu nodded calmly. For a master to forfeit a hefty deposit, they must have unavoidable circumstances. Still, when else would Seok Ryu get to witness Noeul’s humiliation?

“What did you just say?”

When Seok Ryu turned, Noeul was glaring with eyes full of rage. Seok Ryu wiped the smirk from their face. Shinbi stammered in panic.

“N-nothing!”

Noeul slowly approached and stared at Shinbi. Shinbi clutched a rag doll, rolling his light-green eyes. Noeul’s cold expression suddenly softened.

“I forgot to mention, but your parents are never coming back. Why? Because, ugh…!”

Seok Ryu grabbed Noeul by the collar and pinned her against the wall.

“What are you doing?”

“Grab them!”

At Noeul’s command, the Guardian Stones pulled Seok Ryu off and threw them onto the beda bed. They pinned Seok Ryu’s limbs and smothered their face with a pillow.

“Don’t bully Seok Ryu-hyung!!”

Shinbi shouted, clutching the stuffed doll. Noeul stroked the frightened child’s head, redirecting his gaze to her. Her blood-red pupils burned brighter than ever.

“Your parents are never coming back. Why? Because they had a real child. Not a fake like you.”

Shinbi’s eyes twitched.

“No… Dad said he’d definitely come for me. He said since my little sibling is too young, they don’t have time to care for me, so we’d be apart for just a little while…”

Noeul laughed sharply.

“That guy called Supervisor Hyun every day, begging to take you away. He said it creeped him out whenever you called him ‘Daddy’ or ‘Mommy.’ He felt like you were jealous of their real kid and might kill it, so it was disgusting every time you touched them.”

Noeul pressed a finger into the child’s chest.

“That’s why they abandoned you.”

Shinbi gasped as if he might shatter. Crack… At that moment, small fissures began forming on his cheeks. The surrounding gems screamed and fled to the corners. Seok Ryu sprang up and ran toward Shinbi. The cracks spread rapidly to his neck and arms. Afraid he’d blow away in the slightest breeze, Seok Ryu froze in place.

When a Guardian Stone was hurt by its master, the core stone in its heart risked shattering, scattering its consciousness and preventing restoration to human form. Peridots, in particular, were brittle and vulnerable to impact.

Seok Ryu called out to Shinbi, barely breathing. At the sound, the child’s lost eyes turned to Seok Ryu. For a moment, a spark flickered in his light-green pupils. Shinbi opened his mouth, inhaling deeply until his chest puffed out, then exhaled longer than he’d inhaled. As he steadied his breathing, the terrifying cracks in his skin stopped spreading.

“It’s real…”

Having overcome the crisis, Shinbi clutched the doll, tears streaming down his face. Since Shinbi had calmed somewhat, it was time to call Heewan. As Seok Ryu turned to hurry off—

Crack!!

A bone-chilling rupture echoed. Shinbi’s body shattered into pieces, and light-green dust scattered across the bedroom. His tears turned into light-green crystals, rolling everywhere.

When a Guardian Stone truly grieved, its tears became gems. Seok Ryu had never seen gems so vividly colored. Where the debris was swept away by the wind, only the peridot core stone remained. Split in half, one piece rolled under the bed, the other toward Seok Ryu.

Noeul brushed the peridot dust off her foot. With a refreshed expression, she smiled at Seok Ryu.

You wanted this too, didn’t you?

It felt like she was asking that. Shinbi was annoying and bothersome. He flaunted being chosen without caring how it tore others apart. Noeul had eliminated a competitor, so bowing to her would be normal. Seok Ryu lunged at Noeul, strangling her. Someone tried to pull Seok Ryu off, but they shook them off, screaming.

The CEO couple had doted on Shinbi excessively. They’d sent photos of Shinbi to Supervisor Hyun with warnings more than once. Seok Ryu thought Shinbi had met his “fated master.” Like Pinocchio becoming a real boy, living happily ever after with Geppetto.

When Shinbi was returned early to the workshop, Seok Ryu was angry at the added competition. But part of them was relieved. Seok Ryu had been at the workshop much longer, and the idea of Shinbi meeting a fated master first was unbearable. While yearning to become truly human, Seok Ryu harbored less-than-human thoughts.

💎

Seok Ryu stopped attending Supervisor Hyun’s classes or visiting Heewan’s studio. Shinbi’s core stone was completely shattered, deemed impossible to restore.

Even if Shinbi had performed the binding ritual with a new master, he’d have been abandoned again for not forgetting his old ones. Loving anyone other than the current master was blatant betrayal. No more sleepless nights from Shinbi’s nightly whining. Seok Ryu mulled over every reason why Shinbi’s death was for the best.

“Congrats! What did I say? A perfect gem like you was bound to find a new master quickly!”

Soon after, Noeul’s new master was said to be an unknown actor. Seok Ryu had no complaints about being passed over again. Noeul was the perfect gem in every way. More than ever, Seok Ryu eagerly awaited the moment Noeul would meet her new master.

Seok Ryu approached the dazzlingly revived Noeul.

“Congratulations.”

“You’d better find a good master soon too.”

Fresh from meeting a new master, Noeul was magnanimous.

“There’s something I want to ask.”

“Go ahead.”

“Those things you said to Shinbi that day—were they true?”

“What things?”

“That they abandoned Shinbi because he creeped them out.”

“Why are you asking?”

“Because, even if the CEO couple really said that, there’s no way Supervisor Hyun would blab about it to someone like you.”

“Ha! What’s that supposed to mean?”

Noeul’s mocking laughter faded as her expression hardened. Soon, she glared at Seok Ryu with venomous eyes.

“Do you really need to hear it to know? It’s obvious.”

Seok Ryu nodded in agreement without resistance. It wasn’t uncommon for masters who had achieved their desires to return their Guardian Stones before the contract’s expiration. They were too busy, their health was frail, or they didn’t like the stone’s appearance… The reasons were always similar. It was fine. The despair a Guardian Stone felt in those moments was just fake pain stored in their memories.

But for Noeul, this time would be anything but obvious.

Seok Ryu decided to put into practice what they had learned by observing Heewan. Noeul’s remarkable success rate in binding rituals applied only to prospective masters. If even one element—blood, bone, or breath—was altered or contaminated, one could witness the grotesque deformities seen in the photos.

While Heewan was away, Seok Ryu went to the underground sterilization room. Heewan shared the key to the materials room only with Seok Ryu, his assistant. Seok Ryu swapped the blood with some extracted from a dead rat and hid the real blood elsewhere.

Noeul should have been more thorough and resolute back then. Her clumsy malice had only inspired Seok Ryu.

“Aaaaahhh!!”

It was a quiet evening. When an ear-piercing scream echoed from the underground, Seok Ryu was certain of success. The workshop was thrown into shock when Noeul failed the binding ritual. But the Guardian Stones felt relief that their most formidable competitor was gone. Heewan locked himself in his studio, trying to find the cause.

By chance, Seok Ryu saw a photo of Noeul on the studio desk. Her once-beautiful face had melted into a red liquid. Her eyes protruded upward and downward, and her teeth were fully exposed, a hideous sight that Seok Ryu would have mocked endlessly if she were standing there. Unfortunately, her core stone hadn’t shattered. Seok Ryu realized anew that only a master could destroy a core stone.

And finally, an opportunity came for Seok Ryu.

“Seok Ryu, want to give it a try? The client’s in a hurry… You’re so good with masters, I’m sure their complaints will vanish quickly.”

Was it the unknown actor? Stand-in or not, Seok Ryu just wanted to escape this suffocating place. Heewan avoided eye contact the entire time. Perhaps he had figured out the whole scheme. Just as he had pretended not to notice when Noeul tampered with Seok Ryu’s materials.

“If the emotions a Guardian Stone feels are fake, is the love for their master also fake?”

This time, Seok Ryu wanted to find the answer.

“I’ll go.”

Joining the noble group, Seok Ryu distanced themselves from the masterless crowd. They also wore the choker necklace adorned with a garnet core stone.

The binding ritual with the unknown actor took place in a quiet, sealed room. On an altar where candles flickered, Seok Ryu lay naked. To prevent thrashing, their spread limbs were tied down with ropes. It always felt unpleasant, like becoming a cursed straw doll.

“Ugh…!!”

Heewan sliced Seok Ryu’s arm open with a knife and injected the master’s blood. As the blood surged through narrow passages, it felt like every nerve was being torn apart. Though it wasn’t real pain, the searing agony was too much for body and mind to endure. Attempting it after years nearly shattered the core stone. Since that would endanger the master’s life, Heewan stopped the ritual immediately.

After a few days of rest, they tried again but failed. The fourth, the fifth… The pain of the binding ritual pierced through mind and body, rendering hallucinogens or anesthetics useless. Seok Ryu realized anew how despairing a fifty percent success rate was.

By the seventh attempt, when things looked precarious, Heewan advised the master to give up. But the master insisted on continuing. Seok Ryu mustered every ounce of remaining strength.

On the eighth attempt, they barely cleared the first hurdle. Next, Heewan cut open Seok Ryu’s side and attached the master’s fingernail to a rib. It felt like every bone was splitting, like a dull saw carving through their skull. Finally, Seok Ryu deeply inhaled the master’s breath. Choking just before suffocation, they lost consciousness.

Days after succeeding in the binding ritual, Seok Ryu woke up sobbing. No matter who the new master was or what kind of person they were, Seok Ryu would serve them with all their strength. Having endured death together like this, it was impossible not to.

After more rest, the time finally came to go to the cabin. It had taken half a year to get here.

Seok Ryu, blindfolded and handcuffed, boarded a silver sedan. The restraints were supposedly to prevent doping, but they felt like muzzles for beasts. Supervisor Hyun’s subordinates flanked Seok Ryu, keeping watch.

Just before the blindfold went on, Seok Ryu took in the workshop’s final scene. Guardian Stones clung to the villa’s windows like water droplets. From a distance, the minerals looked insignificant and pitiful. Seok Ryu closed their eyelids behind the blindfold. Darkness followed.

Supervisor Hyun had Seok Ryu wait inside a large cage in the cabin. A chain linked to their ankle was tied to the bars. It was Supervisor Hyun’s perverse hobby to treat Guardian Stones like dogs. Seok Ryu longed to remove the blindfold and see the new master.

Despite it being a long-awaited meeting with a new master, their heart was calm. Supervisor Hyun briefed the new master on a few precautions. The sound of him dragging a chair and standing up was audible.

“Now, let’s meet for real. They’ve been waiting since earlier.”

Seok Ryu gripped the bars with both hands, taking a small, deep breath. Then, they stepped forward into the boundary between light and darkness.

“I am Seok Ryu of Persephone.”