Chapter 313 — A Simple Plan, Nothing Special (3)
I undid the Mana Bullet I had formed and tried once more, every nerve drawn tight for the sake of another check — but in the time it took Director hyung to shape an elemental bullet of 400,000 TP, I managed to condense a mere 8,000 or so.
Hmm… Huh? Wait. Condensing TP into a Mana Bullet is far slower than what Director hyung was doing. Is making it through will somehow different?
…And come to think of it, the Spatial Barrier had considerable cohesion, too. How did I make that again?
Something itched at the back of my mind, but no clear answer surfaced. I was rolling the Mana Bullet across my palm, turning the problem over, when Director hyung asked in a voice gone slack.
"What. Don't tell me you pulled it off after hearing my explanation once?"
"I told you, no. Like I said to Auntie Haehwa, this is my way. I just condensed the TP the way I meant to — plain condensation, no will in it. It doesn't seem like what you were talking about… It's slower than what you make, and the efficiency feels worse, somehow."
Director hyung, who had been wearing a gloomy face, broke into a sudden grin at that and nodded, as if to say he had known it all along.
"Right. Monster of a brat though you are, my secret art isn't something you pick up that easily. Hahaha!"
"Ugh. Quit showing off. It's obnoxious."
"…And you're the one saying that?"
"Why? Am I not allowed to talk like that?"
"You, of all people — acknowledged by one and all as heaven's own favorite! Don't say things like that in front of ordinary folk!"
"You're in no position to talk either. That's spitting in your own face. Gross."
"What! The title of Branch Director is the fruit of my own effort…!"
"I heard it straight from the Madam herself, you know? That she helped you."
"…Nnngh."
While Director hyung and I bickered, Auntie Haehwa let out a soundless sigh, the look of someone watching children who refused to grow up.
We were still trading jabs when Franc, head slightly bowed in concentration, suddenly beamed, raised both hands for us to see, and cried out.
"Ah — so this is how it is done!"
"Huh?!"
"Oh?"
Above one point on the palm she had lifted, Phase Power seemed to be drawn in — and with a solid thump a sphere appeared, glowing white past mere light and into flame.
Director hyung and Auntie Haehwa were struck utterly dumb.
Whoa. Don't tell me she condensed lightning?
Franc, having snatched Director hyung's secret art in a single try, all but grew a question mark over her head at the sight of Auntie Haehwa staring blankly right beside him. She tilted her head and glanced back and forth between me and the Director.
"Well, look at that. The real genius was someone else. Congratulations, Franc."
"Hehe. Thank you."
Whatever Director hyung or Auntie Haehwa made of it, Franc smiled as if my congratulations and my praise were all that pleased her.
Struck dumb that she had mastered in an instant the secret art he had spent so long perfecting, Director hyung hung his head from then on, looking burned out to white.
Seeing him so crushed, genius Franc grew a little flustered, wondering if she had done something wrong — but when I told her not to worry about it, she gave a small nod and genuinely stopped worrying.
Franc's pretty bold, too.
Watching Auntie Haehwa stroke Director hyung's head with a wry smile, I asked about something that had occurred to me earlier.
"I thought Director hyung was the peerless-under-heaven type who yields to no one but the President, but he shows a soft side to you, too?"
"Hohoho. So you noticed. The truth is, I come from the same Ability Users Association orphanage as Hyunwoo."
"Ah, uh…"
The word orphan startled me so badly my thoughts cut out, and I floundered — so Auntie Haehwa soothed me with a warm smile, petting Director hyung as if he were something adorable.
"It has already been more than thirty years since I met Hyunwoo. Now that I think of it, is he already thirty-seven? When I first met him I was seventeen, and he was four — such a tender child, forever in tears. I took special care looking after him, and at some point he began to call me Mom…"
"Noona! Not that story!!"
Director hyung's head had been slowly lifting as her story went on, but the moment the word Mom left her mouth he snapped it up and seized her hand.
"So he followed you around, calling you Mom?"
"Ghk."
Auntie Haehwa finished the sentence she had been cut off from with a bright little laugh, and Director hyung clutched his head, writhing in spiritual agony.
"Hehe. That's right. At the orphanage the teachers were like mothers to us, but Hyunwoo alone clung to me and called me Mom."
"Nngh."
Noona, huh. Director hyung called Yeongeun Big Noona, didn't he? Could Auntie Haehwa know Yeongeun personally, too?
"Do you know the Madam as well, Auntie?"
"Of course I do. Any ability user of C-Class or above in the Korean branch of the Ability Users Association will have received the President's love call at least once. I was no exception."
Heh. Watching her expression soften as she spoke of Yeongeun, I could tell she held warm feelings for her. Yeongeun must have looked after people in vulnerable positions well.
His childhood laid bare and his ears a little red, Director hyung grumbled as he opened his mouth.
"Big Noona is downright viper-persistent with any ability user who catches her eye. The time she spent hounding Noona for refusing to join Hwarang has to be a dozen years at the least."
Hoh… Calling Yeongeun a viper. Maybe I ought to tattle.
"And was it not thanks to that that you could sit down with the President and become overall Branch Director of Korea? You shouldn't use that kind of language about the President."
"Haa. And that, too, is the last of it now."
The last? Director hyung gave a bitter smile, lifted a half-cooled teacup, and drained it without a scrap of manners. There was more than a little heartbreak in the gesture, so I asked.
"Are you getting kicked out of the directorship?"
"Kicked out?! I'm stepping down of my own accord!"
I waved off Director hyung, who was barking, and turned to Auntie Haehwa to ask again.
"Really? What did hyung do wrong?"
"The fallout from the Ha Cheolsu incident is even graver than what has come to light. Someone has to take responsibility, and Hyunwoo volunteered to bear it and resign as overall Branch Director."
"But that isn't hyung's fault. If someone means to cause an accident, there's no way to stop them — so why should hyung…"
When I asked with a face that said I didn't understand, he answered with the look of an adult who had made his peace with reality.
"Even so, more than twenty thousand people died. Someone has to answer for it. If I don't take it, someone below me with no guilt of their own could end up shouldering the blame. That's what it means to hold a senior post."
…So a high rank carries a heavy responsibility with it. Watching what Director hyung was doing, I felt anew that the seat of master of the Grand Blue raid team was not so comfortable a place.
Besides, the wrong was Ha Cheolsu's, that bastard — so why should hyung be the one to answer for it? Wasn't it lucky the son of a bitch ran into me and ended that way?
If he hadn't crossed my path, and had gone on raising hell in one piece before slipping into the Phase World, he would have come back a mental-manipulation ability user, wouldn't he? Who knows what evil that bastard would have worked with a power like that.
When I made a displeased face, Director hyung gave a small shake of his head, as if he had no wish to go on. Auntie Haehwa beside him wore a slightly wan smile and fiddled with her teacup.
"Hyung. Then how about coming to Grand Blue—"
"You think I would?!"
Tch.
I clicked my tongue in disappointment at Director hyung, who had cut me off with a shout, and he buried himself in the sofa with a face that said he was tired to death.
"The reason I was able to grow this far is that countless people helped me — but at the foundation of it all stood the Ability Users Association."
Without so much as a glance my way, saying only what he meant to say, Director hyung swept back his black hair, streaked with red, and went on.
"That's a shame. What happens once you step down from the directorship? Do you just live in Korea as an ordinary ability user?"
"As if. I may not look it, but I am, in name at least, a B-Class ability user. I'll be summoned to headquarters, then reassigned to some suitable branch."
So we wouldn't be able to meet as easily as we did now? That was a bit of a shame. Whenever something had been lacking, I had gotten help from Director hyung.
"When are you leaving?"
"Before the year is out."
"…You're really leaving fast."
Calling it a farewell gift felt wrong, but he had helped me this far, so I ought to give him something too.
"I probably won't see you then, so I'll say goodbye now. Thank you for everything."
"Right. Thinking I won't have my insides rotting over you anymore makes me glad, too."
"Kehk. Keep that up and I'll send a cooperation notice to Association headquarters, you know? Requesting the yearly lease of Kang Hyunwoo, fire-attribute B-Class ability user, for three high-grade Phase Stones."
"……I'm sorry. I was wrong."
I had only tossed it out as a joke, but surprise colored Auntie Haehwa's face as well, and the tips of Director hyung's brows trembled as he begged forgiveness.
So this is something that could actually happen? Good to know. I'll remember that.
"Anyway — call it payment for all the grief I've given you, since I've had my share of help from you, too. If a request comes in Director hyung's own name, just once, and only within what I can grant, I'll talk it over with my lovers and do my best to see it through."
It felt a little shabby, tacking on conditions like that, but my lovers and Noona had told me not to make promises carelessly. The Director seemed to find it absurd; he let out an empty laugh.
"In a moment like that, shouldn't you just say, like a man, that you'll grant one request?"
"Making promises I can't keep doesn't suit me, and if I go around handing them out freely, my lovers and Noona will scold me."
"Men rule the world, but women rule men — not even you can slip that old saying."
At night, though, I'm the one who rules my lovers' bodies? Whether Franc had seen through the thought, I felt strength gather in the hand holding mine.
I grinned back at Director hyung, who had snorted a laugh, and rose — and Auntie Haehwa and the Director rose after me.
"Are you leaving?"
"Yes. I slipped out without a word."
"Coming as you please, leaving as you please — a willful temperament. Live hard from here on, too."
"If you're going to curse me, just curse me. If you're going to wish me well, just wish me well. Don't mix them."
Planning not to see me again after this? What an uncomfortable farewell. Auntie Haehwa, to the last, took my hand in hers with a warm smile and gave it a gentle shake.
"It would have been nice to share lunch, since you came… A shame. But next time, please come with plenty of time to spare. I'll treat you to Busan's specialties then."
"I will."
I waved to Auntie Haehwa, smiling bright as a flower, and to Director hyung standing there in a sulk, and left the Ability Users Association Busan Branch.
As I looked down at the Association building from the sky, Franc wrapped her arms around mine. But why hadn't she joined the conversation?
"This time too, aside from the start, you just sat quietly beside me, didn't you? Why don't you join in, Franc?"
"Because you were in the midst of an important conversation, Seoha. I have nothing particular I wish to say, and simply hearing your voice at your side is enough for me."
…If she said she liked it, what was I supposed to say. I had a hint, at least. I ought to go back and practice on my own.
Franc and I ran the sky for a dozen minutes and returned to the gym, where Hwayeon was swinging her spear with heat haze pouring off her whole body.
Her training clothes were soaked through with sweat, the tight white set darkened nearly to gray. From the sweat pooling here and there on the gym floor, it seemed she hadn't rested a moment since Franc and I left, working Ispect the whole time.
The lines of her body and her underwear showed through without a filter, and I was admiring Hwayeon's figure with a perfectly serious face when Franc pouted and jabbed my side with her elbow.
"What?"
"It is nothing! More to the point, more than two hours have passed since we left. I worry she may come to harm, going on like that."
"…Huh?"
"Yes?"
I turned to Franc with a look that said that was a strange thing to say, and she turned back with a face asking what was wrong with me.
"No, I mean — Hwayeon, hurt herself? She's a Physical Reinforcement ability user. She has regeneration on top of that. This isn't even a fight. Training like that would injure her?"
"Ah. A-ah."
Only then did she seem to realize what she had said.
"Hehh~ Franc likes Hwayeon enough to worry that hard training might hurt her?"
"Uu. It was a slip. Please forget it!"
"If I tell Hwayeon, I think she'd be happy, too~?"
"Ah, auuu."
I stroked the head of Franc, who had raised her hands to hide her face in embarrassment, and called out to Hwayeon, still lost in her training.
"Hwayeon! It's lunchtime — let's go eat!"
At that she brought her movement to a stop with one great vertical sweep of the spear and walked toward me, breathing so hard the chest bound by her training top heaved.
"Your business is finished, then."
"Yeah. Did you know Director hyung is stepping down as Korea's Branch Director?"
"No. I'd heard rumors that talk was circulating inside the Ability Users Association — that someone had to take responsibility for the Ha Cheolsu incident. I didn't think he would be the one to bear it."
Hwayeon set the spear upright against her shoulder, sweat dripping from her chin and the tips of her hair, and sighed.
"A grumbling man, but he was of the pro-government faction. A bit of a shame."
"Pro-government faction?"
Turn that word over, and it meant the Korean branch had factions. If there was a pro-government faction inside the Association, then there had to be an anti-government faction set against it. In that case, before I went into the Phase World, it might be better to tidy things up in advance…
"Then does that mean there is also a force opposed to the government?"
"No. Even calling them factions, there are only two — the pro-government and the pro-Association — and both are friendly toward you, Seoha."
Answering Franc, Hwayeon added the rest while staring a hole straight through me.
"Even the pro-Association side is not a place that harbors ill will toward the government."
The look said, so don't get any ideas about doing something strange.
"Huh? That's how it is? I figured if there was a pro-government faction, there'd be an anti-government one."
"An anti-government faction? Even if one existed, it would have disbanded. Anyone with the slightest interest in politics knows you lean strongly pro-government, Seoha. Who would join the other side?"
"Join an anti-government faction, and there's no telling what would become of you once Seoha marked you."
So she was saying, when I dabbed the sweat running down Hwayeon's cheek and brought it to my mouth — guhhek!
"Again — again! Why do you keep trying to eat things like that! Seoha, you really…!!"
"Guhk. Th-that doesn't mean you have to hit me in the solar plexus! Hwayeon, you've been getting way too violent lately!"
"It's all your fault! Because you keep trying to eat things like that…! Really, really — is Seoha a pervert!"
Franc sided with Hwayeon, who was flushing red with anger.
"We know better than anyone that Seoha is a pervert. So you must not show him an opening, Hwayeon."
Keuk. And here I thought Franc was on my side.
Hwayeon glared at me, her face flushed not with the heat of training but with shame and anger, glanced at the sweat beading on her clothes and hands, then casually wiped her hand off on my clothes.
I looked at her in disbelief, and she arched a brow as if to ask what I was staring at, then lightly caught my hand. The hand holding mine was hot.
Agh. Later, I'm really going to torment her until she bursts into tears from embarrassment.
When I pulled my hand free of hers, her face went puzzled, then quickly wounded. She must have thought I disliked the smell of sweat coming off her.
Angry, then scolding, then hurt — busy, she is.
I reached out, hooked an arm around Hwayeon's waist, and seized her rear in a firm handful. She flinched, flushed scarlet, and started twisting to get away, so I tightened that hand and held her fast.
The faint heat, and the plum scent threaded with salt — once I thought of them as Hwayeon's, they were pleasant.
"Wh-what are you doing. The sweat, the smell…!"
"Fool. You think I'd care about something like that?"
I whispered it against her faintly heated ear in a slightly edged voice, and she squeezed her eyes shut and stopped resisting.
Should've been like this from the start.
One arm was full, holding Hwayeon, but the other was empty and felt wanting. So I drew in Franc as well — she had been watching the two of us with a meaningful look — and cupped her breast. She let out a small sound through her nose and whispered, pitched for Hwayeon to hear.
"When you torment Hwayeon until she bursts into tears from shame, will you torment me as well?"
"…?!"
Hwayeon startled and stared at Franc. I wore a lecherous smile, the face of a man who thought she asked the strangest things, and answered.
"Come on. Let's go home."