Resolve
Leonard's back grew steadily smaller in the distance.
Those shoulders that had always carried themselves with such pride now hung strangely low.
Was it shame? Or was he still fretting over the boys who'd gone and caused a disaster far beyond anything reasonable?
Jun had no way of knowing.
So he simply watched that retreating figure without end, until Leonard opened the hospital room door and vanished from sight entirely. Only then did Jun let out a long, heavy breath and ease his raised torso back down onto the bed.
Being powerless really is a miserable thing.
Leonard and the villagers had all thrown themselves into the hunt, and still the mercenaries had gotten away. Frank and the twins had fared no better.
If the fugitives had fled toward Lemumni, a word to the city's council and the Church would have been enough to catch them. Unfortunately, the trail they'd left pointed in the exact opposite direction.
Still, it hadn't been a total wash.
Robin — Heni's father and the village's finest hunter — had managed to snag Fatty while the man was wandering the woods alone. Once caught, the guy hadn't even needed to be asked. He'd spilled every name involved in the whole affair of his own free will.
The list included Fatty himself, his family, and one merchant of no small reputation in Lemumni.
When Jun first heard that last detail, he'd been equal parts dumbfounded and rattled. Fatty and his family he could understand — Jun's actions had cost them their head of household, so revenge made a twisted kind of sense. But a merchant? Why in the world would a merchant want him dead?
According to Leonard, the man had been fairly close with the village chief. Even so, something about it sat wrong with Jun. His thoughts kept whispering that there had to be more to it — something he still didn't know.
But there was nothing he could do about it.
He couldn't go confront the merchant and demand to know what that something was. He couldn't go poking around for clues. All he could manage was to spin wild theories about what might be standing behind that merchant, working from the handful of scraps he had — and wait to see what kind of punishment Lemumni's Church and council would hand down.
Never thought I'd end up thinking like this.
He wanted real strength. Strength so overwhelming that no one would dare brush him aside.
With power like that, he could have marched up to the merchant and pressed him hard. He could have hunted down leads himself. Hell, he could have leaned on the Church and the council until they threw the book at the bastards. Or better yet — two mercenaries and three kids would never have been able to put his life in danger in the first place.
"Jun, what are you thinking about so hard?"
"How to pile up strength as fast as possible. Nearly dying once really drives the point home."
"As it should. Good thing you brought it up yourself — if you hadn't, I was fully prepared to wring it out of you by any means necessary."
Fortuna nodded with open satisfaction. Jun eyed her with a distinctly uneasy look. Even as she nodded, a faint shade of disappointment crossed her face, as if she'd been looking forward to whatever scheme she'd cooked up.
Just what the hell were you planning to do to me?
He found himself sincerely convinced that her fall from angel to mischief-loving fairy had been no accident. It had been destiny.
"I thought of something while you were sleeping. Want to hear it?"
"By all means, Angel. Enlighten me with your wisdom."
Jun didn't refuse. She might be nothing more than a guardian fairy clinging to an ordinary human right now, but her true form had been a high angel so powerful even the invaders had feared her. Taking her counsel was bound to be better than stewing alone.
"You don't need to add any new training. What you're already doing is more than enough."
"Then?"
"Learn martial arts. Not self-defense or bare-knuckle brawling — killing arts and weapon techniques. I held off telling you before because I didn't think you'd be able to use them properly, but now…"
"Right. Because I've got an Aura Core now."
Jun grinned and ran a hand over his lower abdomen, where the Aura Core sat. The solid, weighty presence he felt there was deeply satisfying — like he'd just polished off a hearty bowl of gukbap in one go.
Talk about perfect timing for a real weapon to drop into my lap.
The tools Jun already possessed — his Thought Psychic ability, his Spatial Magic, and a body refined through elixirs and psychic training — had always been awkward to call weapons in any real sense.
Thought Psychic had no offensive function whatsoever. Spatial Magic could theoretically attack through spatial cuts or collapses, but the efficiency was so abysmal it made you want to scream, and he didn't even know the incantations to use it. His trained body could match a conditioned adult man, but it still fell short of anyone with a genuine physical-type ability — and that was with those people holding back. The moment they went all out, the gap doubled overnight.
But now he had Aura — a weapon of supreme efficiency that excelled at both offense and defense. A solid, substantial power that didn't lose an inch to any of the abilities he'd already carried. With it, he finally had a reliable means of attack, and the synergy with Aura transformed his previously half-baked tools into genuine weapons.
Thought Psychic would tell him exactly how to attack and defend. Spatial Magic would stop being a last-ditch escape hatch and become a way to strike at an enemy's blind spots. And that carefully honed body of his, with even a modest Aura reinforcement, would be able to push his physical capabilities to staggering heights.
One new ability, and a pure escape build had flipped into something as aggressive and terrifying as Kassadin hitting that promised level 16. Jun felt his chest swell with sheer grandeur.
Still, one thing nagged at him.
"Think I can actually learn it properly?"
Among the reincarnation options, Jun hadn't picked a single talent-related choice. That meant he had to learn martial arts with nothing but his original aptitude. Honestly, he wasn't confident.
Fortuna stared at him like he'd grown a second head.
"Why are you so insecure about this? You pick up the Boss's bare-knuckle techniques just fine. If the Boss, Sparkles, and Chubbs — Donald — ever heard you talking like that, they'd be so flabbergasted they wouldn't even bother arguing. They'd just laugh themselves sick."
"That's because I used a shortcut."
"Then use the same shortcut on the martial arts you're about to learn."
"I don't know if it'll even work. Advanced martial arts require you to understand and internalize the meaning behind every single movement. A shortcut won't cut it for that. And where am I even supposed to learn advanced martial arts in the first place?"
Even the bare-knuckle techniques Leonard taught the orphans weren't something you picked up casually. In any world, skill was valuable — and combat skill doubly so. Add to that the fact that this was a medieval setting, where learning itself was a privilege reserved for those who already had means.
"Books."
"…Huh?"
"Learn from books. There were a few sitting on the playroom bookshelf, remember?"
The offhand remark left Jun's face blank. Learn combat techniques from a book? Was that even a thing? And more to the point—
"Those are all just basic primers. Fundamentals only."
A handful of the boys had been flipping through them, declaring they were going to grow up to be mercenaries, adventurers, or knights, and Jun had peeked out of curiosity. The books were primers in the purest sense of the word. Detailed explanations, clear illustrations — easy enough to understand and follow. But the techniques themselves were the absolute basics: vertical cuts, horizontal swings, and not much else. The boys had lost interest almost immediately, and so had Jun.
And she wanted him to train with those?
His expression said it all: You've got to be kidding.
"This is exactly why kids are hopeless. Nothing matters more than the fundamentals, and they never get that."
Fortuna thumped her chest in frustration. Her enormous breasts bounced and swayed with the motion. After what they'd done that afternoon, the sight should have been familiar by now — and yet the eel sleeping between Jun's legs stirred and started stretching itself awake.
I-I could suck on them a little, right?
They were lovers now. That much should be fine. She'd pretend to hate it while secretly loving every second. Considering she'd climaxed from nothing but a good squeeze, her breasts were clearly a sensitive spot. Sure, it might look a little undignified — but still better than some otaku leering at a figurine's panties with a greasy grin.
…Probably.
Bonk!
"Ow."
"Stop zoning out. I'm not finished."
"Yes, ma'am."
Fortuna had zipped up to his face in a blink and flicked him square on the nose, jolting him back to reality. She crossed her arms and tried for a stern look, but her face was flushed bright red, which made her look adorable rather than intimidating. The lust bleeding through their soul-bond had clearly heated her up as well.
…If I play this right, she might even go for it right now.
The moment her eyes sharpened mid-thought, Jun hastily spoke up.
"Fundamentals are important. Got it. I'll start practicing with the books tomorrow."
"…Haaah. Fine. With that shortcut of yours, you should manage the basics well enough on your own without anyone teaching you."
"Is there anything you can teach me, though, For? Watching you fly around smacking kids all the time, I figured you'd be a monster in close combat."
"Obviously. If we're being precise, close combat is my specialty."
"Then—"
"Of course I'll teach you everything I can. But I'm more the type who overwhelms with divine power than with technique, so there isn't all that much I can pass on."
Even that was more than enough. Jun nodded, satisfied.
"Spend five years grinding the fundamentals. After the coming-of-age ceremony, once you leave the Church — that's when we start real combat in earnest. Nothing sharpens skill like live battle."
"Uh… so you want me to be a merchant and a mercenary at the same time?"
"Forget becoming a merchant until the invaders are completely gone. And being a mercenary would just waste your time — you wouldn't gain much real skill from it."
That was all he needed to hear. He knew exactly what she was driving at.
"…You're not serious."
"Oh, I'm completely serious."
She wanted him to become an adventurer.
"Let's go. To the Labyrinth."