161 – The Nymphs' Training Methods # 2
Seo Yerim.
In her spare time, Seo Yerim had a habit of searching her own name on the internet. Countless news articles would come pouring out, and clicking through them one by one to read the comment sections had become part of her daily routine.
Today's articles were going on and on about Seo Yerim's love life. Every time she appeared on a variety show, tabloids would link her to whatever male celebrities happened to be there with her, manufacturing scandal after scandal to juice their view counts. It was an old, tired game.
Still, she wondered what nonsense they'd written today. Seo Yerim moved her finger and tapped the screen of her phone. If someone outside your window was talking about you, any reasonable person would open the window and stick their head out to listen—and being a member of a world-class megacorp and an S-Ranker changed nothing about that.
But this article was sharp in a way the others hadn't been. Photos of her passing through a Chinese airport alongside Ha Ildo, pictures of a meeting at the Well House—cleverly mosaic-blurred, yet unmistakably there, plastered across the page.
"Weren't articles like this supposed to be scrubbed at the corporate level?"
Stories about Seo Yerim's love life were supposed to be censored and manipulated by the global conglomerate Telos. And rightfully so—Telos funneled an astronomical amount of advertising money into the newspapers that ran those stories every single year, so that much leverage was only natural. That was why the meetings between Seo Yerim and Ha Ildo had never made serious waves in public opinion until now. So why was information leaking out like this?
Malicious comments and vitriol were nowhere to be found under the article. Word of Telos's fearsome legal department had spread far and wide across the world. In fact, that legal team was busy tracking down anyone who spread false rumors about Seo Yerim or posted deliberate hate comments and burying them under mountains of lawsuits.
Which meant today was the day she'd be getting in touch with PotionManiac, the malicious user who had spent the past few days plastering hate comments across every article about her.
Ahn Yeongeun approached Seo Yerim, who was sitting on the sofa, and spoke up.
"Yerim, I've brought PotionManiac in for you."
"Oh, have you?"
"Kore Yerim must cancel her lawsuit against Illinoi right away, that is what I am saying...! This is a nymph-phobic situation, that it is...! Illinoi will be calling her lawyer right this way, that it is...!"
The identity of PotionManiac, the serial hate-commenter haunting every article about Seo Yerim, was none other than Illinoi!
Seo Yerim's brow furrowed, and she pinched Illinoi's cheek.
"Kore Secret Technique: Nymph Cheek Pinching...!"
"Hieeek...!"
A thin trickle of tears ran down Illinoi's face. Flailing her arms and legs in protest, she shrieked.
"You must stop the usage of such Kore secret techniques, that it is...! Kore secret techniques are techniques of elegance and beauty...! This is not an abusive movement against nymphs, that it is...!"
Slick—.
Seo Yerim released the cheek she'd been pinching. Only then did Illinoi, tears still beading at the corners of her eyes, hurry over to the mirror just like always, wailing, "Illinoi's cheek has not stretched out, has it...? Illinoi's cheek has not stretched like a rice cake until Illinoi became Iliiiiiiinoi, has it...?"
Needless to say, Illinoi's cheek had not stretched.
"Hey! Why on earth did you post hate comments?"
Seo Yerim demanded. At that, Illinoi let out a sly mwehehe— and snickered.
"Do you know that poison and medicine are but a hair's width apart, hmm...? Illness sometimes becomes the cure...! It is the strategy of becoming the tragic heroine to stimulate the protective instincts of men, that it is...!"
"What on earth are you talking about?"
Illinoi was always spouting off incomprehensible nonsense. Seo Yerim crossed her arms as if to say, go on, explain more, and Illinoi, as if she'd been waiting for exactly that, rattled off her reasons for the hate comments without missing a beat.
"What is important to a woman is the gap, that it is...! When men glimpse the fragile side beneath a confident woman's exterior, their hearts cannot help but vibrate...! Therefore, Kore Yerim needs to become a tragic heroine, that it is...!"
Seo Yerim more or less understood what Illinoi was trying to say. She just didn't see why it had to go that far.
"Do I really have to do all that? I'm gorgeous! My family is prestigious, my abilities are top-tier. I'm already perfect. And you want me to act as some tragic heroine on top of it? Isn't that cheating?"
If you had to pick the number one bride in all of South Korea, the answer would naturally be Seo Yerim. She resented the very idea that someone like her had to do something more proactive at this point. The lofty pride that had carried her this far simply refused to allow it—but hearing this, Illinoi scrunched up her face, balled her fists, and shook them wildly as though delivering a counterpunch.
"You must not pull a rabbit-napping-in-the-turtle's-race maneuver and fall flat asleep, that it is...! The nymphs are teaching Kore secret techniques to other women as we speak, that it is...!"
Nymphs loved living alongside beautiful princesses. Becoming a princess's guardian, her friend, or her teacher—shaping her into a proper, accomplished woman and marrying her off to a prince or a hero—was their greatest joy and their deepest pride.
For the Kore in their care to win on the battlefield of love—what could possibly fill a nymph with more pride?
"If we stay like this, you may be overtaken by the hardworking turtles, that it is...! I am thinking it is still too early, but I shall inform Kore Yerim of the Core Prime's ultimate technique, that it is...!"
Seo Yerim disliked Illinoi's framing—that other women were running the same race she was. Naturally so, since she considered herself to be playing on an entirely different stage. But even Illinoi's rambling held something that caught her interest.
"Core Prime? What's that supposed to be? What comes after Kore?"
"Ordinarily, girls advance from trainee Kore to Lesser Kore...! From there, through training and refinement, one becomes a Kore, and the standard route culminates in becoming a Core Prime, that it is...!"
Kore Prime.
It was said to be the domain of exceptional princesses—Kore like Psyche or Hellene of ancient days, women whose beauty alone could sway the fate of the world. A level of devastating, kingdom-toppling allure that might justly be called the beauty that shakes nations.
"Illinoi shall teach you a Kore secret technique passed down among the medicine nymphs...! The Narcotic Smile, that it is...! However, be warned—it will be a training harder, better, faster, stronger than anything before, that it is...!"
"You're trying to make me do another weird meditation, aren't you?"
"It is not a weird meditation, that it is...!"
While Seo Yerim and Illinoi were bickering like this, Seo Yerim's secretary and longtime friend Ahn Yeongeun watched the scene with a complicated expression on her face.
She still hadn't quite gotten used to all this talk of nymphs and Kores. But ever since Yerim met Illinoi, her mana control has gotten noticeably better, and her reputation as an S-Ranker keeps climbing smoothly too. There's real room for her to grow from here.
Ding-dong—.
Just then, a message arrived on Ahn Yeongeun's phone. As she read it, her eyes went wide.
"Yerim, it says Ha Ildo is looking up flights to Greece?"
"That this Oinoi is already feeling tingles down her spine at the thought of heading to the land of heroes and princesses, gods and nymphs, is the truth of the matter...! It feels as though a spider has latched onto her back, that it does...!"
━Hio-ong…!
While Oinoi was peeling Kwang-kwangi off her back, I was buried in one worry after another as I looked up flights to Greece. Lately it felt like I'd been traveling overseas far too often—and besides, I hadn't actually committed to going to Greece yet.
Oinoi, on the other hand, seemed positively thrilled at the mere prospect of departing for Greece, the land that had once been called the homeland of nymphs. She was already stuffing track suits and bags of candy into her luggage, practically glowing with the excitement of setting off on a long journey.
"The nymphs' homeland, huh…."
I thought of Oinoi, who had once ached with homesickness. Of course, these days if you offered to send her back there, she'd refuse outright, declaring, "You must not release this Oinoi back into the wild, that is the truth of it...!"
After all, Oinoi and the nymphs still took every opportunity to pummel Director Bang Saenghyeon with their fists—him, of all people, the man who kept trying to return them to nature.
Even so, honestly, having a chance to visit the nymphs' homeland was a good thing. Who knew—we might uncover more of the nymphs' secrets.
Casting a casual glance at the internet, I stumbled across an article bearing a name I knew rather well. It said that Tang Sohae of the Honeybees had rapidly improved her skills over the past few days and was now undergoing her S-Rank evaluation.
Had she gained some kind of enlightenment through her training with the Tang Clan Secret Manual?
"I can't just sit still either. I can't afford to get complacent just because I made A-Rank."
Back when I fought Ma Wangjun, I'd watched Cha Yura freeze an entire island solid, and the shock of it had never quite left me. It was the first time I'd witnessed the full firepower of an S-Ranker fighting in earnest.
Paradise Island, frozen over like that, had become a winter isle—as if a new ice age had descended upon it.
An S-Ranker was, quite literally, a force of nature. The journey from A-Rank to S-Rank might well be a longer road than the one from F-Rank to A-Rank.
"There are more awakeners stuck at A-Rank for years than you'd think."
I remembered reading an internet post claiming that A-Rankers grew twisted and bitter, dodging and undercutting one another, because the gulf separating them from S-Rank felt like an impassable wall that ground their hopes into despair.
Back then I'd thought, If I could just make A-Rank, I'd want for nothing. Listen to these people whining. But now that I had S-Rank in my sights, I could sympathize with that feeling, at least a little.
A wall.
No—the gap between A-Rank and S-Rank felt less like a wall and more like the sheer cliff face of a towering mountain. Seo Yerim, Cha Yura, Tsubaki, So Sohee, Cassie—they really were astonishingly incredible people.
But—.
There was a man in Greece who had defeated Achilles, the strongest of all S-Ranks? An S-Ranker unknown to the world?
Just meeting him might yield some kind of enlightenment.
Sometimes a single viewing of a ranker's match taught you more than playing a hundred games yourself, after all.
Right at that moment, Oinoi, her bag finally packed, spoke up.
"That it is time for the master of this house to board The Hero's Way as well, is what this Oinoi thinks...! That the man called Achilles Legion may very well have taught himself The Hero's Way, is also what this Oinoi thinks...!"