Chapter 209: I Came Back, But... (1)

"I'm counting on you, Chief!"

"Haaah..."

I said it with a wave, on the way out of the Ability User Association officetel, to the branch chief whose face said his skull was splitting. I had a fair idea what was eating at him, so I figured I'd take the edge off—and make the friendliness just obvious enough that he'd feel it.

"Please don't rack your brain like that. People who are friendly to me, I treat the same way. That's all."

I gave him a thin smile as I said it. The chief flinched, and then his expression turned strange.

Leaving him and his aide behind, I climbed into the van Aunt Hyeryeong was driving, and we started back toward the Grand Bleu Building. Hwayeon, seated on my left, was the first to speak.

"Is it really all right, leaving a Wall of Space up like that? It isn't putting a strain on you, is it...?"

"Yeah, it's fine. If I use Mana Sieve without running it through my whole body, there's a bit of load—but that's only a problem if I keep throwing them up nonstop for ten or twenty minutes. Setting one and leaving it is nothing."

"I see. Then the moment Ha Cheolsu returns, he'll appear inside the Wall of Space, and die taken apart like furniture."

I checked with Spatial Perception that Hiarid was still following through the air, and added to it.

"Right. If anything touches the Wall of Space, I get a signal. ...Honestly, I'm glad the chief showed he was on our side and took the cooperation. If he hadn't, I was going to station Hiarid around there and have her watch until that bastard came back."

My hand wandered over the waist of Hwayeon's plain black suit, then slipped in under the cloth. Warm, soft skin met my palm and clung to it. A little farther in, and I found the smooth plane of her abdomen. She leaned lightly against me, and the plum-scent of her reached me; only then did the tension and the anger begin, little by little, to loosen. I reached to my right as well, sliding a hand up under Franc's skirt, and met the soft, springy give of her backside.

Both of them shifted faintly under my hands and leaned in. Franc rested her head on my shoulder and spoke.

"Is there any particular condition required to sustain it continuously, in that manner?"

"Not really. I just don't know how long a Wall of Space holds, so I set one to find out. I think it'll last a good long while, but I'll have to confirm exactly how long."

I worked a finger into the cute little hollow of her navel. She must have tensed; the muscle of her abdomen bunched and went hard.

"If you go far from the Wall of Space, or if you en—enter the Phase World, the wall doesn't release, does it?"

Her words had broken and picked up again. I poked the navel, tickled it lightly, and a flush began to rise in Hwayeon's face.

"I can only raise a Wall of Space inside my Spatial Perception range, but once it's up, it holds even if I leave that range. The farthest I've confirmed is ten kilometers, and it's about seven from the Association building to our place at Grand Bleu, so distance-wise that part shouldn't be a problem. If I have to be farther off, I can just station Hiarid. Whether it holds after I enter the Phase World, though—that I'll need to check."

Next time I go into the Phase World, I'll have to post Hiarid as a sentry.

At the talk of posting Hiarid to watch, Aunt Hyeryeong spoke up as if she thought it a waste.

"A Peak-Rank Variant could go about lightly hunting even High-Rank Variants on combat ability alone. Using her for surveillance feels somehow wasteful."

"I don't want to spare her, let Ha Cheolsu slip through, and have disaster fall on the people who matter to me. You're included in that, Aunt Hyeryeong."

"Heh. Surely he isn't going to come after an auntie like me."

Unless the bastard was a complete moron, I figured that after me he'd resent Department Head Ha Yucheol, or Aunt Hyeryeong. And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she was a beauty in her own right—he might even go after her, an ordinary civilian, before he came for me, an ability user. No point saying it and worrying her for nothing, so I agreed just enough to get by. Either way, I meant to wreck that bastard no matter what it took.

I checked the time. Midnight was nearly on us. I sent Yeongeun the result, and a reply came at once.

Yeongeun's cute reply helped too. The mood that had crashed all the way to the floor seemed to be climbing back, little by little. This was why a lover was good. Why family was good.

When we reached the Grand Bleu Building, I could see the whole family gathered in the home on the thirty-ninth floor. Yeongeun was waiting on the fortieth... I texted that I'd see my parents and my sister on thirty-nine first, then come up.

"Aunt Hyeryeong."

"Yes?"

"The schedule for demonstrating my ability still hasn't been set, has it? I'd like to leave that to you."

"Really? I'll give it everything I have!"

She had looked deflated ever since she brought me the news about Ha Cheolsu. I suspected it was because she hadn't fully tracked that bastard's movements, and though it was only a matter of days, the delay in getting the information had let this happen. Even if she had learned sooner that he had gone into the Phase World, there wouldn't have been much she could do—and looking at everything that followed, it had been one thing after another beyond even her power. Better to lift her spirits than leave her moping until she made some other mistake.

As expected, the moment an important task was put in her hands, she perked up visibly. A workaholic, through and through.

"Then I'll leave it to you. We should go see my parents and my sister."

"Of course. Have a good night!"

"You too, Aunt Hyeryeong."

She didn't head home. Her feet turned toward the office-wing elevator. Workaholic. Called it.

Anyway, I drew Franc and Hwayeon in against either side, crossed the first-floor lobby of Grand Bleu in the dead of night, stepped into the residential-wing elevator, and sighed.

Grandmother always said that if you sigh too much, your luck flies away.

When we reached the apartment, Mom and my sister waved us in.

"My boy! Working so hard again today, you must be worn—!?"

"You were a little late. I was worried. Nothing happ— huh?!"

My sister's eyes went wide at Hiarid standing behind us. Mom followed her gaze, found Hiarid a beat later, blinked twice, and turned to me.

"A third wife?"

"No! Mom, what are you saying!?"

She was seriously going to give me a heart attack. I pushed her toward the living room, and Dad, who had been watching, nodded at me.

"Welcome back."

"Yeah. I'm home."

"Hey. Seoha. What's the story with the winged woman? Why'd you bring her?"

My sister, who knew nothing because she had only been discharged from the hospital today, asked it with a flustered face. She had originally meant to finish her examination the day she returned alive and go straight back to the company. Then Dad had caught hold of me with a threat that wasn't quite a threat, and a warning on top of it, and I'd had no choice but to order her to fill out the standard days of admission and only then be discharged. That had been five days ago. Naturally I had blocked her from getting any information in the meantime, which was why she looked so startled. Mom and Dad were seeing Hiarid for the first time today as well, of course. In fact, today was the first time I had brought Hiarid out of the house at all.

"Hold on. I'll explain everything in a bit. So—"

Huh?

Just then, up in the dressing room, Yeongeun—dressed in an exceedingly modest, elegant suit, studying the hang of it—stepped into the elevator and started down for the thirty-ninth floor.

Ding-dong~.

If a person wasn't registered in the system, the elevator doors wouldn't open even after the car arrived; the doorbell would ring instead. That doorbell was ringing now.

"Oh my? Who could it be, this late?"

Mom, whom I had nudged onto the sofa, got up again and checked the intercom on the wall—and startled.

"Oh my!"

On the screen attached to the intercom, Yeongeun stood inside the elevator. Mom hurried over in small quick steps, opened the door, and bowed from the waist. Yeongeun returned the bow and followed her into the living room. Dad rose as well, greeted her with due formality, and began to speak.

"Welcome. Madam Pres—"

"This is a private gathering. Might I ask you to set the official titles aside?"

A touch fast, yet with a polish and a timing that never tipped into rudeness, Yeongeun cut him off. She saw my sister, broke into a bright smile, and drew her into an embrace. My sister flailed her hands in surprise, then carefully, lightly, took hold of Yeongeun's waist.

"Ah... ma'am?"

"I'm so glad you're safe. I heard. You awakened light and darkness at C-Class, and you even possess A-grade aptitude? A talent truly worthy of Seoha's sister!"

"Ah, thank you!"

The praise must have been unexpected. My sister answered with a bright smile of her own, and Yeongeun, after patting her back a couple of times, let her go. She lifted a hand, patted my sister's shoulder, then closed the distance to me in a flash and seized my hand tight. For a second I thought she was going to hug me and opened my arms a little—and was left standing there like an idiot.

"..."

Yeongeun only held my hand, saying nothing, and looked straight into my eyes. In her pupils was a heat she couldn't hide. She kept hold for a while, and only let go around the time Mom, Dad, and my sister began to look puzzled. Then she turned on my parents and unleashed a terrifying volley of flattery. How well they had raised their son. How, with a son that fine, they would have nothing to fear in their old age.

I was the one living with her, body against body, so I knew it for flattery. Mom and Dad didn't. Even my sister, a ghost when it came to reading people, failed to catch it—that was how natural it was, how excellent. The very picture of a master sycophant. I had seen Mom beam until her face went soft plenty of times. I hadn't known even Dad would clear his throat and let the corner of his mouth tick up.

I had said I would tell them everything once my sister was discharged, so the hour was no different from a family council. Yeongeun was Hwayeon's mother, and given the nature of her work, Mom and Dad didn't find it strange that she stayed to listen. I had Hiarid stand in a corner of the living room and asked my sister how far the explanations had gone. Nothing much, she said—so I took over. I put the video logs of the dozen-odd days up on a hologram window, ran them at speed, paused at the important parts, and told the story that way.

Even my sister couldn't tear her eyes from the footage I had recorded.

My parents and my lovers sat quiet, unable to look away from the enormous hologram hanging before me, and only listened. Mom, my sister, and Franc cried out at the vista of the vast sky islands. Dad's eyes shone as he looked from the image to Hiarid, standing meekly off to one side, and back again.

And last, the scene of my conversation with the whale began to play.

Of course, only my voice came through. Album Cetus, that absurdly enormous white whale, gave nothing but low, booming calls.

Mom and Dad, who couldn't tell from the screen how huge Album Cetus really was, only looked amazed. Hwayeon and Yeongeun seemed to grasp the scale well enough; their faces stiffened a little. My sister, thinking of how she had missed both Purus Balaena and Album Cetus, pulled a miserable face, stamped her feet, and wailed.

"I should've come just a little later!"

Yeongeun, who had already heard Album Cetus's account from me, let the stiffness leave her face and spoke in earnest.

"Album Cetus. Purus Balaena. Both of those are Latin."

"Latin...?"

"Yes. Album Cetus—a masculine noun meaning white whale. Purus Balaena, the opposite, a feminine noun meaning black whale. Those Aberrants can hardly have learned Latin, which means someone gave the whales those names."

"Ah. Come to think of it, he did say Album Cetus, in a human language."

"Did you happen to hear anything else about the names?"

"He listened well, and he answered everything I asked. I was just so full of wanting to come back..."

I was using a halfway-polite register with Yeongeun, since my parents were right there, and my sister set a hand on her hip and scolded me as if I were hopeless.

"Aigo, you idiot! That could've been important information—a clue! Even if it made you a little late, you should've made sure of it before you came back!"

Should I have asked? Hm. I did waffle over it a little. Yeah. I should have asked. I was pouting under her rebuke when Franc took my arm and asked,

"Hiarid... that was the name, yes? Might we not simply ask Hiarid?"

"Oh, right. Hiarid, you don't know anything about Album Cetus and Purus Balaena?"

=I do not know the origin of the names. All I know concerns the habits of Dimension Whales.=

My sister looked at me with that hopeless expression again. I bristled and raised my voice.

"Why does that even matter?! They're friendly whales—what could the origin of a name possibly matter!"

"You idiot, it's Latin! You don't understand what it means, that giant whales in the Phase World have names in Latin?"

"Some ability user who happened to be into Latin probably met the two of them on another time axis and gave them names!"

My sister didn't look convinced it was that simple, but Yeongeun smiled and held her back.

"It's already past, and as Seoha says, I don't believe it particularly matters. Besides, this is your Phase World, Siha. There's a chance of meeting them again someday, isn't there? You can ask then."

Ah. The conch.

"You know the conch from the video just now? Album Cetus gave it to me and said if I called with it, he'd come find me and help me once. If I end up calling him later, I can ask then, right?"

With that, I took out the Summoning Conch I had been keeping and set ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it on the table.

Everyone but me, Dad, and Mom went rigid.

Huh? Even Hiarid was startled.

My sister picked up the silver conch with wide eyes, turned it over, and couldn't look away from the way it glittered like a work of art.

"If you call on that, you're saying at least a Highest-Rank Variant comes to help? What are the conditions for calling it?"

I slid my eyes away from Yeongeun's question, and disbelief spread over her face. She let out a long sigh, as if this was one she couldn't cover for. Between that, my sister's hopeless look, and Hwayeon's resigned one, I just kept my mouth shut.

The weight of the eyes on me kept growing while I hunted for some excuse to change the subject, and Hiarid came into view.

"Oh, right. Hiarid. If the people here give you an order, follow it, unless something out of the ordinary comes up."

=Understood, Lord of the Sky.=

"...Lord of the Sky? Lord of the Sky is what that winged woman Aberrant at eleven o'clock said, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I was taming Hiarid, and she started calling me Lord of the Sky."

At the word taming, my sister's eyes went sharp. She ran her gaze over Hiarid's figure, then looked at me.

"...And what method did you use for that taming?"

"Violence, and my Mana Sieve."

"Viol...ence?"

She filtered Mana Sieve clean out and latched onto violence. And hey, I wasn't lying. Sexual violence is still violence.

"Yeah, violence. What else do you need besides violence?"

At my brazen air, my sister's face went a little nonplussed. Yeongeun, watching with a soft huff of a laugh, nodded.

"If we take Seoha at his word, he broke her spirit with violence and brainwashed her with his ability. To think Mana Sieve can subdue a Peak-Rank Variant, and even tame her. I can't help but be impressed."

"Yeah. So once I've seen how the IWO and the Ability User Association handle Hiarid, I'm thinking of putting together an Aberrant legion."

Yeongeun looked briefly thrown, as if that wasn't the direction she had meant, then in an instant put a smile on her face and nodded. She must have been talking about brainwashing people. My sister looked a little worried, but she trusted me enough to give a small nod.

We talked a little longer, and midnight passed. For Mom, Dad, and my sister, who had work in the morning, we left the apartment. My sister looked like she wanted to hear more, but when I told her that what I had said was all of it, she nodded and gave ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up on following us. She let a little worry show as she looked at Hiarid, but on the matter of my having tamed a Peak-Rank Variant, all I could tell her was to trust me.

When we came up to the fortieth floor, the living room lights switched on by themselves and the place went bright. Miho, curled asleep in her little house in one corner, pricked her snow-white ears at the light, lifted her head, saw that it was me, and came scrambling over to leap up.

"Eeong! Aung!"

"Yeah, yeah. You were a good girl today too, weren't you?"

"Kyung!"

I held her as she whipped her tails in a blur and nodded hard, and patted her rump. She closed her eyes, squirmed, and rubbed her head against my chest. I poured mineral water into her bowl and let a single drop of TP fall in. Delighted, Miho shook those cloud-soft tails, fluffy as a brush, and lapped at the water—lap, lap, lap.

When I turned, Hwayeon was heading into the kitchen, and Franc was choosing clothes for Hiarid to wear.

All at once I remembered how the three of them had acted five days ago, the first time they faced Hiarid. Back then they had cried absolute opposition—opposition to the death—against keeping as a pet something whose looks were no different from a human woman's. Five days on, they had been relieved to see that I truly wasn't treating Hiarid as human, and by now they thought of her as half a doll they dressed. Maybe it was also because the rearing permit still hadn't come through, so I had deliberately not been taking her around.

In truth, they knew how useful a Peak-Rank Variant like Hiarid was. Even if I took her in as a maid, they would have had no choice but to accept it.

I was looking at Hiarid when I realized Yeongeun, behind me, was watching me with a peculiar smile. As if she knew every last thing I had done when I tamed Hiarid. I met that smile and grinned, thin and sharp.

"I always want to be a good son in front of my parents. You understand how I feel, don't you, Yeongeun?"

"Mm."

I scooped up Miho, who had finished the water and was smacking her lips, sat on the sofa, and went on.

"You probably guessed already, but the way I tamed Hiarid was to break her reason with violent pleasure, paralyze her mind with Mana Voice, drive goodwill into her with Mana Vision, and stir violence through the whole of it."

"A kind of mental imprinting, then. One could call it brainwashing. How stable is it?"

As expected, she had seen it coming. She asked calmly, without any particular shock.

"Looking at how Choi Soohan's thinking and values changed completely with only Mana Voice and pleasure applied, I'd say brainwashing that adds Mana Vision on top is no different from rewriting a person's beliefs. Even so, I'll have to watch carefully for a while."

"So that was it. You won't use that brainwashing on people, will you?"

"If a son of a bitch like Ha Cheolsu shows up, I don't know—but at that level I'm of a mind to just kill them and be done. Against people who set themselves against me, I'm thinking of using Mana Vision at most. What do you think?"

"Mana Vision isn't enthrallment. It draws out goodwill. Is that right?"

"Yeah."

"Then I'm in favor. People speak of a good first impression, of a face that invites liking, precisely because in dealing with others there is no finer weapon than goodwill."

Watching her say it, I remembered how she had acted five days ago, when we met again after sixteen days. The moment I got home she had thrown herself at me, like a new bride welcoming a husband back from a long trip. Goodwill could lift even a person whose station demanded a heavy, measured bearing, so I had no choice but to agree that it was an excellent weapon. Remembering the hot sex of that night, I kneaded Yeongeun's backside, and she pressed herself against me, sending me a coquettish look.

From across the room, Franc's voice carried over.

"Do you understand? This portion is placed between the legs, and the ties are bound so that they rest beneath the hips."

=Is this correct?=

"It is far too loose. From the side, all is visible. Draw it tight and bind it."

=Yes.=

Franc was teaching Hiarid how to put on string panties. Proportionally she was no different from a human, but her build—her scale was close to 1.3 times that of an ordinary woman—so the underwear that fit her most reasonably was a pair of string panties. Once Franc had finished instructing her on how to wear the white string panties so they sat becomingly, she came and sat on my right, and Hwayeon brought coffee mixed for the number of us.

Hiarid walked to the black button-tufted side sofa right beside Miho's house and sat. That was her assigned seat. She didn't sleep lying on her side; she slept upright in something like a chair, back straight, so I had prepared the spot for her. Hwayeon set a coffee in front of me, and Franc dropped in one sugar cube and some condensed milk and stirred.

"Seoha. There are a few more things I want to know. I want to ask Hiarid about that wall a Highest-Rank Variant raised, and why they kept the whales from meeting."

Hearing her, I turned to Hiarid, seated in the demure posture Franc had taught her. I wasn't particularly curious, but Hwayeon clearly still had questions left.

"Well, they just split the two apart so they could use the clouds however they liked, didn't they? Is something bothering you?"

"Less that it bothers me than that I want the information. It is Siha's Phase World, so sooner or later we will have to go and explore. Before that, I want to collect everything that can be collected."

"Hm."

It was a fair point, so I called Hiarid over to the table.

=Those two whales are what my people call Dimension Whales. Once a Dimension Whale comes of age and finds a mate, it generates clouds and drifts through the sky. Those clouds have the effect of concealing Phase Power.=

"Huh? Back on Star Island, I could feel the Phase Power of the flying Aberrants."

=What? Such a thing...?=

She was flustered, as if that couldn't be, and it was Yeongeun who calmed her.

"You Aberrants can sense Phase Power, can you not? Seoha's perception is of a different order from yours. Do not measure him by your own standard."

=Yes... I understand.=

Having her declare it so flatly left me a little embarrassed.

Hiarid's explanation continued.

=To move and control those clouds, the two must remain together in one place.=

"So you attacked the two whales who approached in goodwill, split them apart, and raised a barrier. To hide inside the clouds. And the result was a success."

=That is correct.=

Franc stared at Hiarid with revulsion on her face. Parting a sound couple and using them was not something her values could readily accept.

=The clouds vanish in two cases. If a Dimension Whale abandons the clouds, or if one of the pair dies. Dimension Whales...=

What followed was simple. A Dimension Whale cannot live outside its dimensional cloud, and because it can pass at will in and out of the infinite dimensions that exist, if a pair parts without first agreeing, there are many cases in which they never meet again. They had aimed at precisely that, and raised a barrier to split Album Cetus and Purus Balaena.

So that was it. If what lay below had been the sea, they could have simply dropped away and met. I had never quite understood why she had been dragged around for hundreds ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of years. Now I did.

Hwayeon asked another question.

"Was there some other reason your people were hiding in the clouds?"

=It is because of the Savi, who serve the Master of the Great Sea.=

"Tell me everything you know."

At my order, Hiarid began to explain the history of her people. Her race was the Flauvis, who served the Master of the Sky. In an age so ancient it could not be reckoned, she said, a great war had broken out between the Savi, who served the being called the Master of the Great Sea, and the Flauvis themselves. Victory had fallen to the Flauvis, but the fighting had cost them dearly. Even so, having seized what they wanted, the Flauvis gained the sky islands and came to drift through the heavens.

I asked, sensing there must be other stories in the gaps, but Hiarid said she did not know the whole of the history.

"So in the end, you used that whale couple to have things your own way."

=That is correct. Cloud whales are beasts of exceedingly fierce devotion to their mates—beings who, in that situation, would certainly not abandon their partners. For my people to conceal themselves, they were the optimal condition.=

Then after I returned, Album Cetus would have gone back to the place he called the lower world, and those clouds would be gone.

I leaned back against the sofa and muttered.

"The more I hear, the more I can't think of that one's people as anything but bastards."

"You think so? I understand it. If it were I, and my power—my nation—stood on the verge of ruin, I would have done whatever it took."

"R-right?"

"Heh. It is different now, though. I have someone more precious to me than a nation."

Yeongeun winked at me, smiled, and leaned on my shoulder, starting to act cute. Hwayeon's face went faintly displeased, and then she spoke.

"If Hiarid speaks true, the Flauvis will have come to hate Siha, and you. For the time being, we ought to stop Siha from entering her Phase World."

"Not for the time being. We have to keep her from going in at all. The Flauvis seem born to the light attribute, and their numbers alone are in the hundreds, at a rough guess? If she goes in without me, without a plan in place, it'll be a disaster."

"It is fine. There is a manual for situations of that kind. Revise it a little, establish the tactics, and it will serve. You will be there as well, after all."

Hm. Is that so? If Hwayeon says so, then I suppose it is.