118 – Nymphs Love a Storm Through Time and Space! # 2
"This concludes the A-Rank Awakener meeting."
Clap clap clap clap—.
Amid the dry, dutiful applause, A-Rank awakener Han Juryeon filed out of the conference hall.
"Nothing but dull small talk, same as last year. If all we're going to do is trade gossip like this, there's no point dragging busy people here in the first place."
The A-Rank awakener meetings were rife with petty nerves and tiresome power struggles. Han Juryeon, whose bones had long since thickened in the A-Rank world, felt every bit as drained as the rest of them.
But what grated on her nerves more than the rivalries and factional squabbling was the fact that Ha Ildo—the one invited as a special guest—hadn't shown up at all.
"Ha Ildo. You're supposedly on the verge of breaking through to A-Rank, and yet you have no interest in joining the A-Rank faction?"
Every awakener alive dreamed of building ties with the A-Rankers.
The A-Ranks knew all the secrets for raising one's awakener rank, and plenty of them knew exactly how to grow stronger. It was every bit as childish as underclassmen lining up to court the students holding the exam answer keys—but then, the world had always run on such crude arithmetic.
And yet—.
Ha Ildo, by his absence, might as well have declared his refusal to play along.
"Bold of him. Or reckless."
As Han Juryeon, ranked 2nd among A-Ranks, left the conference hall, her secretary—the C-Rank awakener Oh Eunhee—trailed after her like a duckling.
Eunhee studied her boss's face, though reading Han Juryeon's expression was difficult in more ways than one, given that the bangs grown long enough to curtain her eyes made every attempt a guessing game.
What I should be reading right now isn't her face—it's the air around her. The mood, if you will.
Crackle, cracklecrackle—.
Oh Eunhee noticed the intense static electricity sparking to life around Han Juryeon.
The very air had begun to prickle and sting.
Better to stay quiet and let it pass.
Lately there was a saying going around that an awakener's personality followed the nature of the power they wielded.
So what kind of temperament did that give someone who handled violent static electricity?
"Eunhee."
"Hm? What is it?"
"Why do you think Ha Ildo skipped this A-Rank meeting?"
How the hell would I know that?
Eunhee grumbled inwardly, but saying so out loud would earn her a nasty shock—perhaps literally. So she decided to stroke her boss's ego and toss in a few stray observations instead.
"Hard to say. Maybe he just didn't feel the need to join a faction? I mean, anyone who matters already knows the rumor that he's got some kind of direct line to Seo Yerim and Telos."
In an awakener society where everyone scrambled to hook their wagon to a higher group, Ha Ildo seemed blissfully unaware of how a B-Ranker with connections to an S-Ranker must look through A-Rank eyes.
"The most dangerous enemy an awakener faces isn't the monsters in the rifts. It's the very people who live shoulder to shoulder with them—fellow awakeners. Ha Ildo apparently hasn't figured that out yet."
Ha Ildo was about to find himself stirring a very hot pot indeed, what with the provoked A-Ranks now sharpening their knives for him.
With that thought, Han Juryeon simply went home.
Then, some time later, she watched the broadcast of Animal Farm, Episode 1004.
Ha Ildo's house was positively bursting with adorable animals.
They looked even fluffier and warmer than the rumors had made them sound.
And such a variety of them, too.
"……"
Han Juryeon could not contain herself, and went straight to find Ha Ildo.
She drove toward Primeval Village and finally arrived at a rural street that was thriving, strangely enough, like a busy downtown district.
━Kong-kong…!
━Kong-kong…!
It really was a place crawling with dog-squirrels, just as the rumors said.
Han Juryeon's secretary, Oh Eunhee, brightened at the sight of a dog-squirrel that seemed intrigued by her and was creeping closer.
"Oh my goodness, what is that? It's so cute…! Hey! Come here, come on! Come here! Juryeon, are you seeing this? There are SO many dog-squirrels! Everywhere! Ooh, it's absolutely adorable!"
Whisk—.
With its long, sleek body, the creature looked less like a squirrel and more like a ferret.
The moment Eunhee reached out her hand toward the tip of its nose, a sharp burst of static electricity snapped—pa-jit!
"Owch!"
━Krrrung…!
Stung by the sudden shock, the dog-squirrel turned tail and bolted without so much as a backward glance, thoroughly pissed off.
None of this was new to Eunhee.
Whenever she traveled with Juryeon, static shocks were simply part of the package.
"……"
Han Juryeon narrowed her eyes at the dog-squirrels fleeing into the distance—then, affecting complete indifference, spun sharply on her heel.
And so they arrived at Ha Ildo's house.
Knock knock—.
She rapped on the door.
Ding-dong ding-dong—.
Then pressed the doorbell too.
"Hey, isn't that Han Juryeon? What's she doing here of all places?"
Lee Jina scrunched up her face in an instant scowl.
The way she called Juryeon 'that one' suggested the two had some history between them.
"Whoa, you two know each other?"
Unable to contain my curiosity on multiple fronts, I asked. After all—knowing Han Juryeon of the Thunder personally? That was a big deal!
Han Juryeon was one of the rare electricity-type mana awakeners in the world, a rising star widely tipped as a frontrunner for promotion to S-Rank.
Tsk. Lee Jina clicked her tongue.
"We're not exactly friends. We just used to trade off second and first place back in the day."
Lee Jina was a 3rd-generation awakener from the same line as S-Rank Cha Yura.
Han Juryeon was from that same 3rd generation.
Apparently they'd gotten acquainted back at the awakener training academy.
"My advice? Don't let her in if you can help it."
Jina scratched the back of her head as though the whole thing was a hassle.
But turning a guest away and leaving her standing in the yard wasn't something I could bring myself to do.
More than anything, I'd been dying to meet Han Juryeon in person.
You could even call it personal fan devotion.
"Please, come in!"
I welcomed Han Juryeon warmly.
She wore a battle suit tinged with white light, her sheep-wool-fluffy hair grown out enough to curtain her face—a look with truly one-of-a-kind flair.
They say A-Rankers all have outsized personalities. Turns out it's true!
Han Juryeon entered the house in silence—and the moment she did, trouble began.
Crackle, cracklecrackle—.
Crackle—!
"Ah, it stings!"
The instant my hand touched the door handle, static electricity started snapping off of everything.
The strange, powerful charge made the fine hairs on my skin stand on end, and Keongkeongi—jolted awake from his nap on the cushion—bristled every last hair on his body and growled like he'd been seriously wronged.
━Krrrung…!
Pababat—!
And with that, Keongkeongi bolted for the yard.
Even Kwangkwangi, usually so docile, found static crackling—pa-jit, pa-jit—with every delicate step, and with a deeply offended Krrrung…! stalked out of the house entirely.
━Jeuji…!
Angangi, whose smooth, hairless body offered no protection at all, floundered about in total confusion while Lee Jina jabbed me in the ribs. Her attitude practically screamed, See? Told you so.
Astonishing!
Han Juryeon's constitution was evidently so unusual that she generated static electricity around everything she approached.
Incredible, really!
She practically radiated electricity-type ability user from every pore of her being.
Whisk—.
A-Rank Han Juryeon took a seat on the cushion I'd prepared for her.
I turned to her and asked.
"What brings you here today?"
"Ha Ildo. First time meeting you like this, isn't it? I've heard a lot about you. I caught the Animal Farm episode too, the one that just aired. They say you fight in the rifts with your animals at your side?"
My mind felt wonderfully clear.
So THIS was the payoff from appearing on Animal Farm!
Pat—.
Right then, someone flung the door open.
"Who is emitting such an aggressively nymph-phobic wavelength…? Is someone deliberately causing my Nymphtendo to malfunction, I ask…?! It is so, and it is illinoi's own device that suffers…!"
It was Illinoi, who had been in her room blasting the air conditioner at full tilt.
Illinoi scowled at the sight of Han Juryeon.
"So you are a prickly, sharp-edged woman just as the thunder clouds suggest…! A nuisance in every conceivable way…! But illinoi can MAKE a remedy prepared for precisely such occasions…!"
Pababat—.
Illinoi marched out to the yard, gathered an armful of leaves from the golden apple tree, some lettuce, and the flowers Oinoi had planted—then, before I could wonder what on earth she was doing, stuffed the whole pile into her mouth, chewed thoughtfully, and spat it out with a big Bleh—!
And then she started rubbing the soggy wad briskly all over Han Juryeon's head?
I was utterly floored!
"Illinoi! You can't do that to a guest!"
"Muh-huh-huh, all will be well now…! It shall indeed become well…!"
What on earth was she claiming would be fine?
While I stood there flustered in every possible way, Angangi was the first to notice something had changed.
The static that had been crackling nonstop just moments ago had vanished.
"…The static electricity is gone…!?"
Han Juryeon's secretary Oh Eunhee gasped in astonishment.
Her tone was that of someone witnessing something that had never once happened before.
Han Juryeon seemed every bit as stunned.
"……"
Staring down at her own palms, Han Juryeon abruptly rose to her feet.
"I'll be going."
Thud, thud—. Click—.
Without so much as a backward glance, Han Juryeon shut the front gate behind her and was gone.
The sight made my head spin.
"Illinoi, thanks to your weird antics an A-Rank awakener just stormed off in a rage. This is bad. Han Juryeon is the main attacker of the strongest faction in the whole A-Rank scene."
I'd heard the factional warfare among A-Rankers was brutal.
Granted, I only knew it as hearsay—somewhere-I-heard-it gossip—but supposedly, to survive as an A-Rank awakener, raw skill only got you so far. You had to pick your faction wisely.
I'd actually assumed Han Juryeon had come today to invite me into her faction.
After all, it wasn't hard to picture animal-loving Han Juryeon approaching me, Ha Ildo, and declaring, "Become my comrade!"
But there was no mistaking it—Illinoi's bizarre needle-laden head treatment had made her angry.
Of course, Illinoi had plenty to say in her own defense, and she wasn't backing down.
"All of illinoi's potions are MADE this way…! All potion nymphs, without exception, craft their remedies thusly…! An apology is demanded, and it is demanded swiftly…!"
Boing—.
And so I learned a truth I never wanted to know.
I decided to apologize to Illinoi anyway.
"I'm sorry."
"Muh-huh-huh, illinoi's heart is as vast as the Pacific Ocean…! Forgiveness shall be granted…! In exchange, illinoi demands to be taken to this so-called 'PC bang' establishment…!"
Pat—.
Soon Oinoi popped out as well.
"Oinoi too wishes to try this thing called 'gaming' at the PC bang alongside Illinoi…! Surely there must be games even greater than Minesweeper…! Of this, Oinoi is absolutely certain…!"
Han Juryeon had kept her mouth clamped shut ever since leaving Ha Ildo's house.
Then she slowly extended her hand toward a pack of dog-squirrels visible in the distance.
━Kong-kong…!
The dog-squirrels began drifting toward her.
She reached out toward them, flinched—startled by her own daring—and shrank back. But then, summoning her courage, she brought her fingertip gently to a dog-squirrel's nose.
━Kong-kong…!
"……!"
No static electricity rose!
For the first time in her life, an animal had not fled from her.
But—. The dog-squirrel seemed to find something about her unsatisfactory, and with a flick of its tail it bounded far away.
"Ah…."
Just as she was mourning the missed connection, a middle-aged man with his head half-bald strode over and spoke to her.
"Opening your heart to animals—that is the first path by which animals come to you. I myself am nature, and nature must come to know me as myself."
"……"
Who on earth is this man?
Soon enough, Han Juryeon realized he was the director of a wild animal research institute who had released himself into nature of his own accord.
"……"
She had a great many things she wanted to say, but as Han Juryeon simply held her tongue as usual, Oh Eunhee hurried out after her and asked.
"Juryeon, what's the plan? Didn't you come here to talk to Ha Ildo? The A-Rankers are all lying in wait for him, so you should warn him to be careful for a while at least."
Instead of answering, Han Juryeon picked up her phone.
And posted on the internet.
Ding-dong ding-dong—.
Comments soon began rolling in.
"……"
Han Juryeon decided she would have to visit this Primeval Village again.
And she found herself thinking back, in more ways than one, to Lee Jina—the woman who had been standing at Ha Ildo's side earlier that day.
"Looks like two more will be rising to A-Rank before long. Ha Ildo, who knows—but Lee Jina is definitely coming up into MY faction. Things are about to get very noisy. The whole shape of the faction wars is about to change."