Aquarium
“Just as I thought…”
Everything had gone exactly as expected.
“A job like this is a piece of cake…!”
The commission from Room 1, and even the ones she took from Room 2—none of them had been difficult enough for Yi Siyun to struggle with. After clearing a full seven commissions over the past four hours, confidence was practically pouring out of her.
“Maybe I should start taking commissions from Room 3…”
The pay scaled exponentially with a commission’s difficulty—or its danger. Starting from Room 3, actual combat began to enter the picture, which meant the money she could earn went up accordingly. And even then, the commissions from Room 3 weren’t the kind that put your life on the line.
“All right…! From the next one on, I’m going to Room 3…!”
And so the commission she ended up taking was security detail at an aquarium.
“…….”
Part of it was that the pay had been high enough to catch her eye first. But more than that, for someone as overflowing with a sense of justice as Yi Siyun, it was the kind of request she simply could not walk past.
There appear to be signs that a terrorist attack may occur. Please disguise yourselves as guests and capture the terrorists.
It was a commission recruiting no fewer than five Awakeners. But once she actually arrived at the aquarium, the truth turned out to be something else entirely.
“The owner here is the type who frets way too much, you know? There aren’t any terrorists or anything, so just kick back and milk the easy pay until it’s over.”
That was what she heard from an Awakener who was already on his third security shift at this very aquarium.
So the reason they put in a request with the Association… wasn’t because they received a terror threat. It was just the owner’s overblown anxiety…?
Yi Siyun let out a long, heavy sigh and pressed a hand to her forehead. There had been plenty of practical reasons she’d started earning money through Association commissions—things like how any Awakener could do it easily enough—but one of them had also been that she could make money while still being of help to someone.
“I didn’t start this just to sit around doing nothing and take the pay…”
That said, she couldn’t exactly cancel a commission she’d already accepted over something so trivial. She was slumped in a corner of the waiting room before her shift, sighing over and over, when another female Awakener—also on her first day here, just like Siyun—came over.
“Siyun, was it? Something wrong?”
“Ah… it’s nothing major, just…”
Yi Siyun poured out everything on her mind to the girl who had introduced herself as Cheon Sia. Sia toyed with the sword at her hip and nodded as if she understood perfectly.
“Yeah, I get that. But maybe it helps if you think of it this way?”
“…?”
“You said this commission only exists because of the aquarium owner’s anxiety, right? If us standing guard here eases that anxiety even a little, haven’t we already been of help?”
And while we’re at it, we can walk around the aquarium in case anything does happen—and do a little sightseeing on the side!
Cheon Sia grinned playfully. Yi Siyun stared at her with sparkling eyes and murmured,
“Unnie…!”
“Huh? Unnie?”
“May I call you unnie…!”
“Uhh…? How old are you… even?”
Cheon Sia asked, flustered. Yi Siyun’s eyes shone even brighter as she took another step closer.
“I’m twenty…!”
Sia took a step back, looking distinctly overwhelmed.
“Ah… really? I’m a year older, so I guess you can call me unnie…”
“Thank you, unnie…!”
Even after that exchange, the two of them kept talking. What foods they liked, what schools they attended, whether there was anyone they liked or anyone who was on their mind. The aquarium security detail ran until closing, so they had more than enough time for a leisurely conversation—and both of them were unusually sociable, so becoming friends took no time at all.
“Oh? You’re a senior at our school?”
They discovered they attended the same Academy.
“Class 1…”
And that Cheon Sia was in the same class as Senior Elysia.
Then maybe I even saw her that time I went to visit Senior Elysia…
Having grown close at lightning speed, the two decided to walk around the aquarium together. Spending the whole day alone would have been boring, after all. It was about five o’clock now… around the time she would normally have been meeting Carmen, who’d been waiting at the Academy, and heading home together…
“…Huh?”
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
Yi Siyun stopped mid-step as something she’d completely forgotten slammed into her. Cheon Sia, who’d gone a few paces ahead, turned back to look at her.
“Ah, um, I…”
Having belatedly remembered the enormous mistake she’d made, Yi Siyun stammered as she slowly forced the words out.
“…I completely forgot and skipped the Academy today?”
That was it! She’d been so excited about earning money to buy gifts that she’d thrown herself into commission after commission—and in the process, she’d completely forgotten and just walked out of the Academy!
“Am I an idiot…?”
It wasn’t even that she hadn’t gone at all. She’d gotten there early in the morning, talked with Cecilia and Elysia—and then simply left without attending a single class!
“…You’re wearing your uniform, though.”
Cheon Sia pointed lightly at the clothes Yi Siyun had on.
“Yeees… I did go to the Academy… I just think I forgot and left…?”
Cheon Sia’s expression shifted into something subtle. The look of someone thinking, Is this kid actually weird?
“Are you an idiot, by any chance?”
That one she could answer with certainty. Her grades were usually quite high, after all. But in this particular moment, Yi Siyun had no choice but to doubt her own intelligence.
“I might be…….”
Cheon Sia looked at the thoroughly dejected Yi Siyun, let out a deep sigh, and patted her on the back.
“One day is fine. Just start going to class properly again tomorrow.”
Though you’d better not forget to actually attend next time, she added under her breath, a little too smugly, and huffed a quiet laugh.
“Come on, come on! Don’t just stand there drooping—since we’re already here, let’s look around to our hearts’ content!”
With that, she grabbed both of Yi Siyun’s hands and started hauling her along. Yi Siyun’s shoulders sagged.
“Hweeeng…”
Cheon Sia looked slender enough, but the force with which she pulled made it clear the sword at her hip was no mere decoration. All Yi Siyun could do was make a weak little sound as she was dragged along.
And then, in Yi Siyun’s eyes, the silhouette of a familiar person came into view.
“…Senior Elysia?”
The instant that name left her mouth, Cheon Sia—who had been pulling her along—froze solid on the spot.
“…Um? Sia unnie?”
“I—I—I… I’m just gonna run to the bathroom real quick…?”
And then she bolted.
“…….”
Yi Siyun watched Cheon Sia’s retreating back for a moment—fleeing in the opposite direction from the bathrooms—before turning her gaze back toward Senior Elysia.
Elysia was holding the hands of two unfamiliar women, smiling radiantly.
“…Who are they?”
She didn’t know them. And yet… she was certain she’d seen them somewhere often.
People from TV, maybe?
The Academy was full of famous people, so there was nothing strange about Elysia being close with someone who appeared on television a lot. But what was this? Just looking at them made her hands start to tremble for no reason, and her whole body went rigid…
Like prey that had instinctively frozen in terror before a predator…
In the twenty years she had lived through every kind of hardship, upholding her own sense of justice, her instincts had usually been right. And right now, those instincts were telling her that the two women tightly holding Elysia’s hands were dangerous.
Extremely so.
Her mind was screaming at her to run, but her body had locked up and refused to move. She couldn’t even turn her head. She just stared blankly—until, suddenly, her eyes met those of the woman holding Elysia’s right hand.
Pretty irises tinted a pale gold. Looking into them sent a chill down her spine even as she felt herself being drawn in. Watching the soft ash-gray hair sway was like watching the last ashes of a fire scatter on the wind. Her pale face was flawless, without a single blemish.
Ah. Our eyes met.
She had to look away. She couldn’t keep staring. She couldn’t let them know she’d been watching in secret. Her head knew all of that—but she simply could not turn her face aside.
Because the moment their eyes met, she realized who this woman was.
Among all the Families that currently existed, the one with the greatest influence: the Mors Family. Its boss—and one of only five people in the world known to be a Level 8 superpower.
Luna.
Which meant the woman holding Elysia’s left hand was…
No doubt about it. She’d heard the two of them were almost always together. Luna’s secretary and twin younger sister, Rina. Her own combat ability was nothing to scoff at, and she was known for handling affairs quickly and cleanly—even when the methods were a little cruel.
Luna stared at Yi Siyun for a moment with a blank expression, then whipped her head back toward Elysia. The instant she looked at her, that cold gaze melted away like snow in spring and turned warm.
Only then could Yi Siyun finally let out the breath she’d been holding. She hadn’t even realized she’d stopped breathing. The strength went out of her legs, and she sank down right where she stood.
So the rumors Carmen had told her were true after all. That Elysia was close with overwhelming powerhouses like Luna, Rina, Tania, Adele, and the rest. Those four weren’t people you could casually dismiss as “bad news.” Every single one of them wielded massive influence across the entire world.
Yi Siyun finally understood it in her bones. If those friendships weren’t a lie—if they were genuine—then the moment anything happened to Elysia, the whole world would be turned upside down.
“…….”
Luna’s gaze locked onto the woman staring blankly at them from far away. Luna knew who Yi Siyun was. Of course she did—her face had been all over the news for a while. Something about her skill in catching terrorists being recognized and her transferring into the Academy. Besides, Elysia talked about Yi Siyun fairly often.
But it wasn’t as if that made her feel jealous or anything.
…Looks like she came out to play too.
That was the full extent of Luna’s reaction to seeing Yi Siyun in an unfamiliar place. Running into a close unnie somewhere a little ways from the Academy would be surprising, sure. And Elysia was so absurdly pretty that of course she’d catch the eye.
Luna blinked as if she understood exactly how Yi Siyun felt. Their gazes crossed briefly in empty air.
“Luna? What’s wrong?”
Elysia gave the hand she was holding a little squeeze and tilted her head. The warm heat of that hand felt good.
“…It’s nothing. Let’s go see the sharks now.”
“Sharks?! There are sharks here?!”
Elysia bounced lightly in place, completely lit up. Rina, who was holding Elysia’s other hand, pointed in one direction.
“I believe the sharks are that way.”
She said it as if she weren’t particularly interested—but it was plain to see she was looking forward to it just as much. Or maybe only Luna could tell. Aside from the faint flush on her face, she looked exactly the same as always.
Earlier she’d been grumbling that she couldn’t walk around holding hands with Luna, but at some point she’d forgotten all of it and was simply enjoying herself. Rina had wanted to hold Luna’s hand too, and Elysia had wanted to hold both Rina’s and Luna’s—but the three of them couldn’t exactly walk around in a circle holding hands, so in the end Rina had given in.
Luna looked at Rina’s faintly excited face with open fondness, smiled softly, and let herself be pulled along by Elysia’s thoroughly delighted hand.