Their Pandemonium (3)

"You're saying I've experienced it?"

"You said you grew another step after capturing an Energy Eater, didn't you?" Hwayeon said. "In the East they call that enlightenment, but in the West they call it a jackpot. A jackpot can grow you by as much as double your current Phase Power, though as a rule it stops at about a third. They say the lower your class, the better your odds of reaching double, but that part has never been verified."

She finished there, adding that it wasn't rare, exactly, but hardly common either—and that the higher one's class climbed, the harder enlightenment became to reach.

Enlightenment. I'd only thought I'd evolved thanks to the ability name Franc had given me. So that had been enlightenment.

Then the higher your class, the better enlightenment would be, wouldn't it? Even a mere third, taken at ten million, became 13.33 million. Get lucky, and it could be twenty million.

"Ah, I see. So Hwayeon gathered that much Phase Power because she gained enlightenment and caught a Crystal Eater, right?"

"I experienced each once. Early in Time River, I ran into a Crystal Eater by chance, together with Cha Soyoung, Sophia, and the four ability users you sensed earlier. We only managed to take it down because Soyoung was quick with her hands."

Aha. So that was why Cha Soyoung and Sophia were at the very peak of C-Class too, and why the four women Hwayeon had saved had climbed to nearly a million as well.

"And the enlightenment I gained while learning Sihwa Yuseon in China, at no small expense, is what brought me to where I am now."

"Enlightenment! What did you realize?"

"That the essence of Phase Power is all the same. Thanks to that, my Phase Power rose sharply."

The essence of Phase Power? Now that she said it, I remembered how an aberrant's Phase Power—Physical Reinforcement or Elemental, it didn't matter—simply sat pooled together as one mass when it wasn't in a fight.

Hmm. Was there some connection between that and the essence Hwayeon meant? Seeing my face, Sophia broke into a spinning smile and drew a circle in the air with her index finger.

"Enlightenment belongs entirely to the one who reached it. It can serve as a hint, but it can never be the key!"

"Even so, that hint seems every bit as important as the key," Lee Hyeryeong said.

"Right. So, Seoha, you never repeat what you heard from Hwayeon. Not anywhere. Understood?"

Siha had cut into the conversation to lay down the warning, and I was so thrown that I asked her back.

"Sis, what do you take me for? I know there are things you can say and things you can't."

It was a common enough tale even in wuxia novels—the kind where people spilled blood over a secret manual holding a transcendent master's insights. If the subject and the conclusion of an enlightenment got out, any ability user would covet them like treasure.

I said it with a pout, and Siha broke into a bright smile.

"Long as you know."

At any rate, seeing her back to my usual pretty sister, that Asura fit seemed to be over. The moment I remembered what had happened earlier, though, another chill crawled up my spine. I was rubbing the goosebumps on my forearm when Sophia looked back and forth ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠between me and Hwayeon with the eyes of a dirty old man, grinning wide.

"But wasn't Sophia just amazed? The boss came on so boldly! So aggressively! Kyaa~! And Mr. Seoha buried his face in the boss's lush, overflowing breasts~ Kyaak!"

"Cold as the ice of the North Sea to any male she doesn't know, but hot as the southern sun for my man... that's what this is, isn't it?!"

"Just as Hyeryeong-unnie said! Come on, now—impressions! You buried your face in the soft swell of the greatest beauty in Korea, the one no one hesitates to name first! How was it?! Tell us. The boss's darling!"

"I find myself curious as well."

The subject turned without warning, and the moment the arrow of it pointed at Hwayeon, she began to visibly come apart.

"Well, I am a man, so..."

"Kyaa! Because you're a man~!"

"Oh my, oh my! Aigoo, aigoo!"

Lee Hyeryeong and Sophia were staring at me with sparkling eyes, like mothers glued to a weekend morning drama, but the exaggerated faces and the sidelong glances they kept flicking at Hwayeon told me they were doing it to tease her. Cha Soyoung didn't say a word, but the faint smile she wore while sipping her drink was very much her riding the mood.

These people really did love teasing Hwayeon.

Siha sighed at Hwayeon, who kept checking her reaction, as if there was nothing to be done, and shook her head. Sophia and Lee Hyeryeong mischievously tormented a flustered, scarlet Hwayeon, and as I watched the show alongside Siha and Cha Soyoung, the mood turned warm and cheerful in no time.

Sure enough, nothing livens up a room like thoroughly ruining one person.

"Sis. Isn't it about time we ate?"

"Mm. You're right. I should call the restaurant."

Did the restaurant do delivery too? I listened in while Siha called somewhere, and it turned out to be nothing more than an on-site catering service.

Lee Hyeryeong and Sophia kept tormenting Hwayeon until the restaurant staff arrived, and Hwayeon fought back in her own way with a face gone red, but against the verbal slaughter of those two her valiant struggle never quite measured up. She was on the back foot from start to finish. A brief ceasefire fell while the staff set the food on the table, but once the setting was done and they had gone, round two broke out, and thanks to that I got to enjoy myself all through dinner as well.

Dinner finished, and tea time after it, Lee Hyeryeong and Sophia went back beaming, their skin gleaming as if they had charged themselves to the brim. Cha Soyoung, who had been moving with them, saw me and Hwayeon out by the elevator to see them off, smiled faintly, and made a request.

"Please take good care of Hwayeon."

"Ngh. E-even you, Unnie..."

Once they had stepped into the elevator and vanished, Hwayeon—flushed all the way to her ears, maybe from the endless mischievous questions—couldn't even meet my eyes. She scurried off toward Siha in short quick steps.

"How long are you planning to keep this a secret from the unnies?"

I asked it as I followed, and she stopped dead and turned to look at me.

"I'm sorry to them, but I intend to hide it until you are at least at the peak of C-Class. Until you enter B-Class."

"That long?"

"I can't be certain, but from the strength and the rate of growth I've seen in you so far, I think that by the time you become B-Class, even an A-Class wouldn't be able to handle you. It will take at least that much to block unreasonable restrictions and shackles, and to break them."

"I see... I'm sorry for making you keep a secret even from sisters who matter so much to you."

"If it's them, they'll understand."

As she said it, Hwayeon linked her arm through mine—linked it—and smiled. Franc, watching from behind, took the opposite side and linked her arm through mine as well.

Heh heh heh. Well, now. A flower on each arm. Hehehe.

Hwayeon studied Franc, arm in arm on the other side, for a moment, then turned her gaze forward and spoke.

"High Grade variants and subspecies, three of each, appearing in a starting region was astonishing enough. Then a Highest Tier Imugi showed up, and even a virus that turns people into aberrants."

At Hwayeon's words, Franc looked at her.

"All things considered, I think it would be best if you didn't enter your Phase World."

"Huh?"

"It is a world entirely unlike any reported case. Miss Evans, you said you saw five more trial-takers after you became an aberrant, did you not?"

Franc nodded.

"That part is an unknown story as well. The established theory has hardened around the idea that one person holds one Phase World. Of course you can enter a Phase World together with its host, but that is only ever a visit. It isn't sharing."

"Oh, about that. How do you go in with a host? Is there a special method?"

"You simply stay in physical contact, and the person who will be the host enters."

"That's surprisingly simple. What if, while someone else is entering, another person barges in and tries to enter on top of them?"

"You go to the Phase World of whoever attempted entry first."

Had someone already tested it? At least there didn't seem to be any cases of an entry getting snarled and dropping you into Subspace. That was a relief.

"At any rate, it is a place that turns about half the established theory of the Phase World into scrap paper. And the aberrant that smashed Archangel—the greatest, strongest raid team of that time—was an Imugi. An Imugi like that exists in the Phase World where you are the host."

"Mmm."

"Do you understand? There's no telling where in that region an Imugi might break in. And the theory that an Imugi never strikes first has been overturned as well. It is extremely dangerous. Sealing it away would be best."

When I didn't answer, Hwayeon looked at me with an expression of barely contained anxiety and waited.

"I don't know."

"Seoha!"

"If I think about it normally, you're right—not going is the correct ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠answer. But the thought that I have to keep going won't leave my head."

And with that, I told her about meeting the Supergiant Turtle.

For an instant Hwayeon's face went blank. Then she clenched her fist, looking very much as if she wanted to hit me.

"Just how many secrets are ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you hiding?!"

"Ah. Umm! Anyway, I can't promise!"

"Kkh—!"

I fled from her furious face as if running away, and dashed over to Siha.

Siha, who hadn't even been able to greet the three of them because she was taking a call from Mom, was still on the phone.

"I said no! No, no, no!"

No to what? Hwayeon arrived a step behind me and glared from the side, looking thoroughly put out.

Don't meet her eyes.

"Ah, Mom, seriously!"

I stared blankly at my sister mid-tantrum, then pricked up my ears.

"Of course I want to see one! But he's still young!"

The moment I grasped what the conversation was about, I looked at Hwayeon. Her face had gone scarlet all over again.

"That was Dad being awful! Sixteen, of all things... Ah, the kids are here. Anyway, no! I won't allow it!"

Siha ignored Mom's desperate call and hung up with a click.

Apparently Mom wanted me in bed with Hwayeon as soon as possible. The reason Hwayeon's face had gone red was surely that she had heard that conversation too. When I looked at her with a suggestive expression, she cleared her throat and avoided my eyes.

"I'm jealous..."

I pretended with all my might not to hear Franc's murmur, while inwardly I stamped my feet in pity.

Krgh. They said I only had to wait seven months, but with a fully ripened plum wavering right in front of my eyes, I was supposed to not eat it and just wait? I might wither away and die.

I looked with open dissatisfaction at Hwayeon, who was trying to block my gaze with her hand, and when Siha started to turn her head my way I hastily fixed my expression. She looked at me in exasperation anyway.

"Honestly. Young thing, already shameless to the bone."

I had nothing to say to that.

Still grumbling, Siha sat on the sofa and went on.

"Are the two of them all right?"

"Huh? With what?"

"Not you! Hwayeon and Miss Evans!"

What?! The two of them had only just calmed down—what was she about to say!

Franc and Hwayeon, seated on either side of me, looked at each other for a moment, and Hwayeon spoke first.

"If it's Miss Evans, I've come to feel it doesn't matter."

"Nor do I have any complaint, if it is Miss Hwayeon."

"...Haah, honestly. This is ridiculous."

Looking back and forth between Hwayeon and Franc with an expression of stifled disbelief, Siha let out a deep sigh.

She sighed, didn't she? Caught red-handed.

"Haaah, honestly..."

Siha sighed again and clutched her head. How stifled did she have to be, not to even notice she had sighed? Either way, it was the perfect chance for me.

"Sis."

"What!"

"You just sighed, didn't you?"

At my words, Siha flinched. Her pupils trembled; she had realized it a beat too late. Then, the moment she caught what I was about to say, her face went pale. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish. She was searching for words, but I wasn't about to let her get them out cleanly.

"I have one demand. From now on, don't get between me, Franc, and Hwayeon. Whether I'm kissing the two of them or doing anything else, stay out of it."

"Urk. Aaaah..."

She looked as despairing as someone hearing a final sentence, and I was dumbfounded. There was a limit to sabotaging your little brother's love life. Just how far had she been planning to stick her nose in?

Still, it was satisfying. From the attitude she had just shown, it had looked as if she would keep blocking me even after I came of age and had the papers to prove it. Not that I disliked my sister, or anything like that. I knew she was trying to stop me for my own sake. I had only been frustrated that I couldn't do all sorts of clingy, lovey-dovey things with Franc and Hwayeon.

In contrast to my despairing sister, Franc's and Hwayeon's faces had caught fire. Franc fanned her face with her hand, eyes darting every which way; Hwayeon clamped her mouth shut like a clam and stared only at her own knees. Of course I had no intention of doing anything either of them would dislike. But Franc had said that once I was healthy, she would accept everything—and she hadn't looked as if she disliked the idea, either. Hwayeon probably wouldn't accept actual sex until I turned nineteen, but she had pounced on me over a little stimulation, and when Franc provoked her she had come tumbling right over. If I played it well, it seemed like it might work.

I folded the lewd thoughts away, sat on the sofa, and looked for a moment at Franc and Hwayeon with their faces on fire, and at Siha in the middle of her despair.

Honestly, the expectations of the people around me who knew my situation were a burden. I was just a high schooler who was good at petty schemes and quick to read a room. My physical specs had been patched over by an ability-user's correction, but everything else fell far short of my sister or Hwayeon.

The three of them, unlike me, were geniuses from the moment they were born. Siha and Hwayeon had already proven their ability past the point of proof—they shone on their own. My sister especially. She wasn't even an ability user, and yet she had proven her excellence so thoroughly that the Madam and Hwayeon practically drooled.

I had been thinking it since I heard Hwayeon's story earlier. If my sister were equipped with my ability, wouldn't she become a great figure written into history? Hwayeon, too, would put it to use incomparably better than I ever could. And Franc—back when she was in the real world, she had risen to a position of real importance as an ordinary knight on the strength of her ability and her looks, and after becoming an aberrant she had even gone on to rule a whole region as its hegemon. There was that record, wasn't there?

Compared to that, I... The first time I fell into the Phase World I was so terrified I half rampaged, and once I gained my ability I spent my time peeping at naked women and thinking nothing but lewd thoughts. And when I recalled what I had done to giant Franc's corpse, I even started to grow a little afraid of what my true nature might be.

Had the Supergiant Turtle noticed a nature even I didn't know I had, and left those words because of it? Asking me not to hate the aberrants.

Franc, perhaps embarrassed, had her eyes shut tight and was clinging to my arm. Hwayeon couldn't meet my eyes, and yet she was quietly putting strength into the hand holding my arm. Siha seemed to have gone past frustration over her own behavior and into self-loathing.

I let out a soft snort of laughter and said what I was thinking.

"If I teased Hwayeon and Franc a little and wheedled, they'd probably give me everything—what they should, and what they shouldn't..."

The three young ladies flinched.

"I won't, though. I don't want to do anything either of them would dislike. And you're only fussing because you're worried about me, right, Sis? I know that, so don't worry too much."

"Seoha..."

"Seoha...!"

"Seoha..."

I smiled at my sister and my two lovers, who looked as if they had been moved.

Right. Even if I was lacking, my remarkable women would lead me well. They would know how to use an ability that was supposedly the best in the world, too. So I should just think about getting stronger.

Siha and Hwayeon sat facing each other on the sofa, deep in some earnest talk. Now and then words like force assessment and operational outline came up, and objections, and data analysis—raid business, from the sound of it. Well, Siha had said she contributed a great deal during Time River's first year. How much could have changed in two years? Once a system was complete, it didn't change easily, and if it was Siha, she would be into the actual work in no time.

I hated headache-inducing, complicated talk, so I sat facing Franc where Hwayeon practiced Sihwa Yuseon, meaning to refine my recovery ability a little further.

"I don't know exactly how much it heals each time I resonate one growth ring, but if it drops by ten percent per ring, then resonating it ten times means my TP runs dry. That's what it means, right?"

"I feel as though I would know the amount healed without even looking."

"You would?"

"What is certain is that you will be stronger than Miss Sophia!"

I had no idea where that faith was coming from.

"I want to control it so I can use only a small amount, the way Sophia did when she healed her own shin. And if I can find a way to heal from a distance, like she does, all the better."

"Did you see how Miss Sophia performs a minute healing?"

"Yeah. Gather 0.1 TP at the fingertip and reso—"

"Eek?!"

"Kyaa!?"

"I—I only meant to ring the growth ring!"

The Mana Bullet I had fired by mistake caved the wall in. I was gaping at a crater ten meters across, webbed with cracks, when Siha and Hwayeon came running.

"What happened?!"

"Seoha!"

Hwayeon grabbed me around the waist first and pulled me back. Siha, arriving right behind her, hugged me as well, looked at the caved-in wall, and scanned the surroundings. More importantly, weren't those warning lights on the floors below? I could see the people in the building evacuating!

As the boom and the tremor spread through the building, red emergency lights began to spin on every floor from the twentieth down, and the people who had been working moved off somewhere in perfect order.

"Ah, it's nothing. I was practicing a recovery skill and accidentally fired a Mana Bullet. But the people in the building are evacuating right now—shouldn't we stop them?"

At the words that I had done it, Siha and Hwayeon, who had been staring blankly at the dented wall, clutched their foreheads. Hwayeon put in a call to Director Lee Hyeryeong. Siha looked at the wall, caved in and cracked like a spider's web.

"You're telling me you did that?"

"Yeah. With a technique I picked up on my second round."

"Haa..."

A short while later the warning lights went out. Hwayeon and Siha set me down, approached the mark I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had left, and studied the debris pattering loose with grave faces.

"A wall custom-built to counter High-Rank Variants, broken this easily..." Hwayeon murmured.

"Three times? No—two more impacts like that and it will breach," Siha said.

"Hwayeon, even if you set out to break it, it would take you a little time, wouldn't it?"

"Mm. I would have to strike it about five times, with intent, before it broke."

The two of them were silent for a moment, then turned to me at the same time. Hwayeon asked in a trembling voice.

"How much TP did you use? A thousand? Two thousand?"

Did a normal ability user have to spend a thousand TP to produce power like that? Her voice was shaking so badly that if I said I had used 0.1 TP, she might pass out on the spot.

I wanted to see her faint, so maybe I should just say it.

"0.1."

"...What?"

"I used 0.1 TP."

"..."

Thinking she had misheard, Hwayeon asked again, and when I gave her the same answer she stared at me with trembling eyes, closed them, opened them, and turned back to the wall.

"A C-Class elemental ability user would have to focus and expend a large quantity of TP to produce power like this, and it was a mere 0.1 TP...?"

"Not a thousand TP—it takes a large amount?"

When Siha asked, puzzled, Hwayeon gave a small nod.

"Seoha is special. I asked because I assumed there would be a difference from other ability users. Even so, 0.1 TP... Even Soyoung-unnie would need twenty thousand TP for power like this. I can't believe it."

C-Class meant an owner of 300,000 or more Phase Power, right? I was E-Class, under 25,000, and 0.1 had done this—so did the power keep climbing as one's class rose?

At any rate, Hwayeon and Siha seemed to be forcibly clinging to their sanity in the face of something beyond common sense. A little more shock looked like it might be fun.

"The range is my detection range. As long as it's inside that, unless the mass is monstrous, like a mountain, I can pretty much punch through and hit it."

"...Ha. Hahaha. A range of one kilometer? So if your detection range expands, the range gets wider too."

All of a sudden Hwayeon started to grin.

"What about the firing speed?"

I answered with the information I had gathered while practicing at Bosom Mountain.

"I'm not skilled yet, so gathering 10 TP and firing takes about three seconds. Condensing the TP further increases the time by that much, but dropping below 10 TP doesn't shorten it either. Oh, and I can alternate hands, so I can fire one shot every 1.5 seconds."

"Ohoho. Ahahaha."

Huh?

"Spatial Perception, and you use Physical Reinforcement as well, and now recovery is possible too?"

"Uh, yeah."

"And on top of that, elemental rounds at an estimated C-Class... once you're skilled, you can spam them at a B-Class level."

"Th-that's right."

"Hahaha, hahaha... haha..."

Hwayeon, who had been laughing, suddenly dropped into a crouch and hung her head. My sister looked at me with complicated eyes, then crouched down beside her and gently stroked her back.

Franc, watching the two of them, murmured with a face of fellow feeling.

"It is true that Seoha is somewhat outside the norm."

"Mmm."

My only points of comparison had been a Mid-Low Grade wind raccoon and some Low Grade insects, so I hadn't really known how strong my Mana Bullet was. Seeing Hwayeon's reaction, it was clearly no joke. I scratched my head, went over to her, and asked.

"Why are you like that? If I'm strong, doesn't that help you that much more?"

"No. It's just... I wondered whether you would even need help like mine. With your ability, you probably wouldn't have to belong to a raid team to handle something on the level of a High-Tier Variant by yourself..."

What? No way. No matter how strong I was alone, I didn't think I could face a High-Tier Variant. The master of Bosom Mountain, or the wind raccoon—a head-on fight with either of them would be touch and go...

Oh. She meant that if she had an ability like this, she could do that.

I think I might be about to despair too.