Girls' Daydreams Are Best Understood by Nymphs # 2
"Ah, we died…!"
"We don't know how we're supposed to beat this sunflower-seed-spitting boss…! It's a terribly nymph-phobic boss…!"
The nymphs sat in the yard, idly playing Mecha Snail 3.
But the game was so brutally difficult that every single one of the mysterious donation coins they'd collected that day had run dry.
It was still the blazing middle of the afternoon.
The nymphs spent their time chasing grasshoppers through the nearby paddies and fields, or handing out almonds to the dog-squirrels.
After playing like that for a good long while, the nymphs made their way back inside, switched on the air conditioner to cool the sweat of the sweltering heat—
Di-ring, di-ring—
The indoor temperature Illinoi had set with the remote was 19 degrees.
"Muh huh huh! Nineteen degrees is a most nymph-friendly and proper temperature…! This luxury of blasting the AC and sleeping under a blanket in the middle of hot summer…! Nature's nymphs surely never got to enjoy this…!"
The nymphs loved cranking the air conditioning while burrowed under blankets.
Such was a nymph's pleasure.
Of course, not every nymph shared this particular joy.
Di-ring, di-ring—
With her foot, the tiger owl Kalinoi worked the remote and raised the temperature to 25 degrees.
It was to save on the electricity bill.
━Hooh, hooh…!
Then she tidied the shoe rack the nymphs had left in total chaos, and reorganized the refrigerator they'd rummaged through as well.
"As expected of Kalinoi, she is a very excellent nymph…! This Oinoi has never before seen a nymph who loves tidying up that much…!"
"A big nymph really is different…!"
"Truly a big nymph—a magnificently big nymph…!"
The nymphs chattered away busily, until Oinoi suddenly grew curious.
"This Oinoi wants to grow tall like Kalinoi did…! But even though Oinoi gobbled up so many mushrooms, she didn't grow even a little…!"
Oinoi wanted to be taller.
If she were taller, she could reach the high shelves without having to climb on boxes or chairs.
And that meant she could harvest the donation coins that sometimes turned up on top of the refrigerator all the more easily!
Soon the eldest of the small nymphs, Illinoi, spoke up.
"Muh huh huh! From what this Illinoi has lisened, nymphs who live alongside gods grow big and strong with their mighty power…!"
"Of course…! Kalinoi was a nymph who lived in the Moon Forest with the Goddess of the Moon…! It must have been that mysterious goddess's power that raised her to adulthood…!"
Nymphs who live with gods sometimes grow big—
It was a story Oinoi had heard before.
"But there are no gods in this world…!"
Wilting—
The nymphs deflated, their motivation wilting on every front.
Of course, the nymphs' wilted spell didn't last long.
Because Illinoi, who hated being bored, hollered out.
"So when is the House Master getting married…? He must hurry up and marry so he can sire lots of nymph-friendly children…!"
The atmosphere flared back to life in an instant.
All nymphs loved to gossip and meddle in other people's love lives.
Illinoi, Oinoi, and Coris were no exception, and Coris answered the ever-rolling conversation.
"This Coris hopes the prospective Kore Jina and the Master of the house end up together…! Their upbringings are similar, and their economic levels resemble each other, so they suit each other wonderfully…!"
People are happiest when they live alongside people who resemble them.
Soon Illinoi nodded in agreement.
"Indeed! The Kore Yerim whom this Illinoi has been practically raising by hand is pointlessly strict, and her personality is very difficult…! Even when this Illinoi is the one managing her, I say so…! If Kore Yerim keeps lounging around like this, she will lose to the prospective Kore Jina…!"
Since the oldest of days, nymphs had been the nannies and playmates of growing heroes, young gods, and beautiful princesses.
And so Illinoi sincerely believed she bore a duty to responsibly guide the Kore Seo Yerim entrusted to her care.
Oinoi, too, thought seriously about the Master of the house who had fallen under her watch.
"This Oinoi also thinks the foreign ladies like Cassie and Koreiko and Tsubaki are wonderful…! Marrying a foreign princess…! That is a fundamental qualification of heroes…!"
Everyone marveled—indeed! Truly!
Being the Chief Nymph, Oinoi was in high spirits that everyone had marveled at her opinion, and she grew itching to brag about it somewhere.
Dri-ring—
Just then, the doorbell rang.
Illinoi sprang up from her blanket and thrust her hand into the air.
"It is certain that the soy sauce fried chicken this Illinoi ordered has been delivered…! The 21st century is a most nymph-friendly and wonderful world…! Payment will be made with this black card…!"
"Boneless chicken…! To think this world has chickens without bones—how marvelous…! I can't even imagine how such an animal moves…!"
"A world where you can be full without foraging fruit or hunting for yourself—how magnificent…! Then today too, let's give that research institute director a thorough beating for trying to steal our nymph comfort…!"
"Let's do it…!"
Dududududududududududududu—
Beating up Director Bang Saenghyeon in the apple orchard was a daily routine for the nymphs, as regular as clockwork.
The crime of trying to return them from their comfortable 21st century to a most nymph-unfriendly nature was, indeed, a deep one.
Tsubaki recalled the day she had fought with her father.
Her father, Yagami, had furiously demanded she bring Ha Ildo to him, and before that he had delivered a stern ultimatum: never set foot on Japanese soil again.
"I intend to bring Ha Ildo to Japan. Of course, only if he agrees and is willing to become family of the Yagami house."
Tsubaki was the only daughter of the Yagami clan.
The Yagami family line stretched back to the old Heian era.
Taking in a husband who would marry into the family to carry on the bloodline was an ordinary affair.
"But whether Ha Ildo likes me is a separate matter entirely. If I can't bring him to Japan, I'll never be able to set foot in my own home again."
Tsubaki had worries upon worries.
Living in Korea didn't seem bad at all—but never returning to her homeland for the rest of her life was a difficult prospect even for her.
"Why are you telling me all this?"
Lee Jina stepped out of the water and asked the question as she toweled herself off.
Tsubaki decided to answer her honestly.
"Because you're beautiful. You've also had plenty of experience with men, so I thought you'd know how I should talk to them, and what to do."
Tsubaki had attended a private school that ran on a single escalator from elementary school all the way through high school.
Particularly from middle school onward, she had gone to a girls' mission school, so the only men she'd ever spoken with were her father's subordinates.
To Tsubaki's eyes, Lee Jina was dazzling—colorful in every sense.
A glamorous woman of an entirely different flavor than Reiko, her childhood friend, or Seo Yerim.
Tsubaki harbored a quiet prejudice that women like her must surely understand men well.
Soon Lee Jina stepped out of the bathhouse and said, dressing as she spoke.
"I've never had a boyfriend either."
"Really? You strike me as the type who'd date the toughest delinquent in school, smash a window with a baseball bat, and get suspended for it."
"…My older sister did, actually."
Slick—
Lee Jina was now fully dressed.
And she turned to Tsubaki.
"With Ha Ildo, being straightforward beats calculating and second-guessing every little thing. Though taking him to Japan? That'll be hard. You know Cassie Light?"
"The American S-Rank Awakener?"
Lee Jina explained to Tsubaki what had happened between Cassie and Ha Ildo.
When the story was done, Tsubaki passed a hand slowly down her face.
"Seducing prominent awakeners from various countries through honey traps is common enough these days. Our Kangekiren sends kunoichi out to do the same."
Tsubaki anxiously bit down on her thumb.
Worries and emotions she'd never once felt in her life left her reeling with confusion.
"So you're saying it's impossible to take Ha Ildo to Japan and make him a Japanese national married into my house? Then there's only one thing left to do—Japan must invade Korea and annex it…!"
Making Korea and Japan a single country.
The moment Tsubaki mused that the Kangekiren's power might just make it possible, Lee Jina recoiled in horror.
"You absolute lunatic, what the hell are you saying right now!? You insane pirate-wench! You want to start World War III over this…!?"
Awakeners who realized their mana during their adolescence often grew into adults shaped by that very mana, with eccentric personalities—hardly an unusual thing.
And it was publicly known that the superhumans called S-Rank included plenty of oddballs, but Lee Jina was feeling, keenly and in real time, that the rumors weren't even all that exaggerated.
"Phew—just be honest with him. With Ha Ildo, honesty first, no scheming. For some people, that's the hardest thing of all, sure."
Tsubaki realized that Lee Jina was giving her genuinely earnest advice.
Despite her frosty, prickly face, Lee Jina was a deeply caring woman.
"Jina. You like Ha Ildo too, don't you? Well, of course—he's a man among men. It'd be strange if women didn't fall for him. But then, why are you helping me?"
As she talked with Jina, Tsubaki had gathered that Lee Jina also carried feelings for Ha Ildo.
Which was why her sincere counsel came as quite a surprise.
To that, Lee Jina simply gave a light shrug of her shoulders.
"I just hate it when people play cheap and sleazy, that's all. Also—my mana constitution makes animals and people take a liking to me easily."
Lee Jina was confident that if she ever confessed to Ha Ildo, he would fall for her without question.
She was built to touch people's hearts, after all.
But if Ha Ildo came to like me—and it wasn't real love, just brainwashing from my ability—wouldn't that be kind of awful?
And so Lee Jina had decided that jumping into the mud-wrestling free-for-all herself would feel like cheating, and had been watching from a step behind.
Until she could swear she had her constitution under perfect control.
"Honesty… is that so."
Kwook—
Tsubaki at last clenched her fist tight.
I was taking a bath, thinking very seriously indeed.
Truly, this was the dilemma of a lifetime.
That dilemma was none other than: If Keong-keong-i and I fought one-on-one, could I actually win?
Didn't some famous martial artist once say that when a human fights a cat one-on-one, the fight only becomes even once the human is armed with a Japanese sword?
The point was that animals were just that strong—and Keong-keong-i, the Prime Dog-Squirrel, was surely even more formidable.
Lost in these thoughts as I scrubbed away, before I knew it, my bath was over.
Then, as I waited in front of the bathhouse building, Tsubaki approached me and said—
"Ha Ildo, I will be honest with you. Our business may yet set off World War III. The truth is, the reason I came to Korea wasn't some S-Rank deployment over a security gap—it was that."
Thud—
I heard something collapse.
When I came back to my senses, I was sitting sprawled on the ground.
"…So finally, the day has come."