018 – Nymph Oinoi # 18
Winter dawns came slowly.
It was four in the morning, the sun still nowhere in sight. As I rose from my seat, Oinoi stirred awake too, rubbing her eyes.
"This Oinoi had a strange dream…! It was a dream of leaving a little crab behind and journeying far away, so it was…! For some reason, it was both sad and angering…!"
Apparently Oinoi had dreamed something strange as well. Perhaps it was the faint mana this house and its well-rift carried, seeping into our hearts and minds—or perhaps there was some other reason entirely.
Oinoi and I went back down into the well together.
The well in the chill of early morning. The Galaxy Crab, Grebnoi, lay flat-bellied against the bottom, dead.
"It is terribly pitiable, to think it waited so long for its friend only to die alone…! This Oinoi wishes to bury her nymph's friend Grebnoi in the ground, so she does…!"
Even though Grebnoi's bubbles had nearly done her serious injury, Oinoi seemed to feel only sorrow for the creature. And I felt exactly the same way.
This was a crab whose shell had shattered my high-frequency blade with just a few body slams. Proper procedure would have been to harvest the byproducts and sell them to material dealers and agencies. I should have used the materials to craft my own gear—but this time, I didn't want to.
"So it really was a nightmare after all. No wonder I dreamed something like that."
In my dream, I had been the crab. A crab no bigger than a person's palm. How many years, how many centuries, must have passed for such a tiny thing to grow this large?
━Zzzt-
The Emperor Ant, Angangi, began digging a pit in the floor. Soon Keongkeongi joined in, clawing at the dirt alongside him.
Ants are, after all, masters of civil engineering. And Keongkeongi, being a hibernating animal by nature, was equally adept at burrowing—so in no time at all, a large pit had opened up in the ground.
"Hnngh!"
I strained to lift the crab's enormous body. Back when I was still D-Rank, my mana-reinforced arms could hoist three hundred kilograms without breaking a sweat, but with the crab weighing nearly a ton, it barely budged.
While I was grunting and straining all by myself, Angangi clamped onto my leg.
━Zzzt…!
He seemed to be asking me for mana.
I dusted off my palms on my trousers and looked down at my own body. Reinforcing one's insides with mana was the domain of D for Dynamorphosis. Infusing mana into weapons, or refining and adjusting it to influence objects and others—that was the realm of C for Create.
My body had only just stepped over the threshold into C-Rank. Honestly, when it came to granting mana to objects or other beings, I was still a rank amateur.
"It went so smoothly earlier, though."
No practice, straight into live combat. I called up the feel of that moment and poured my mana into the Emperor Ant's body. A warm current seemed to drain softly out of me, and with it, Angangi's frame glowed even brighter.
"Didn't notice it earlier, but I'm more worn out than I thought."
Just as a dizzy spell was starting to wash over me—Angangi began pushing the crab's body with all the strength of his horned head.
Slide—
Sliiiiide—
The crab's bulk, which hadn't moved an inch no matter how hard I pulled, slid smoothly into the pit. Watching it, I was reminded of those nature documentaries about the herculean strength of ants.
"Now let's cover it up."
We buried the crab in the earth and heaped the soil into a neat round mound, a little grave. Oinoi carefully laid out the ribbon she'd brought and planted a tree branch at its head.
"Grebnoi, may you now rest easy among the constellations of the sky, so you shall…!"
And that was the whole of our mourning. All that remained was to find and destroy the rift core—or pull it out into the outside world—so this strange rift could be closed for good.
Then Oinoi spoke up.
"This Oinoi wonders whether the rift truly must be destroyed, so it does…! This is the place Grebnoi guarded for the friend who was to return…! If we break it… they will never, ever meet again, so it is…!"
"I know. But if a rift stays open like this, people have nightmares. They get hurt. Awakeners with mana like me can handle it, but ordinary people can barely endure the effects."
That was precisely why awakeners worked so hard to close rifts. Soon enough, Oinoi slumped in resignation.
"This Oinoi wonders what this rift even is, so it does…! She also wonders why she ever came to this strange world…."
"Yeah, I know the feeling."
What are rifts? Why, exactly, do they open? Even now, it was a subject countless researchers clung to, day after day.
Swipe—
I went looking for the place I'd seen in my dream. The spot Grebnoi had guarded with its belly even as it lay dying. Digging into that soil, I unearthed a small box—a crude thing of wood and nails.
"This must be the rift core, then."
Creeeak—
There was no lock, and when I pried the box open, inside lay a brooch made of flowers and a few small seed-like grains. While I was still puzzling over what the grains could be, Oinoi cried out.
"Ahh…! These are, without a doubt, the seeds of a nymph-friendly fruit—Marmelo, so it is…! Marmelo is rich in mana and tremendously good for the bodies of both nymphs and humans, so it is…! A war once broke out over a single Marmelo between three goddesses and two nations, so it did…!"
Marmelo? It was a fruit with an unfamiliar name. As I wondered what kind of fruit it might be, Oinoi added:
"It shimmers golden-yellow, and its taste is so terribly—well, anyway, it is good for the body, so it is…!"
"So what does it taste like, then? Now you've got me curious."
Crumble—
The flower brooch in my hand, unable to endure the passage of so many years, had withered away entirely, scattering on the breeze. In the end, the only thing I could carry out of that well was the seed of a fruit called Marmelo.
The rift had closed completely. And then something astonishing happened.
Where the rift's mouth had opened inside the well, water began pooling—filling up a fair way.
"This water is tremendously clear and clean, so it is…! Its composition is, without a doubt, the same as the pond that crab was dwelling in, so it is…! It is water that contains mana, so it is…!"
Water infused with mana? I scooped up a mouthful from the well and drank. It tasted refreshingly brisk, and my body—fatigued from pushing mana into animal after animal—felt a faint surge of vitality in return.
"I've got it. This is mineral spring water. Healing water."
"This Oinoi wonders what 'healing water' is, so she does…!"
"Back in Korea, just about every mountain has its own mineral spring. Springs on mountains where rifts form get influenced by the mana, and they give off water with a trace of mana in it."
To ordinary people this spring water had no noticeable effect, but for awakeners it slowly replenished the mana they burned through. It was from water like this that mana-charging 'potions' were made—though of course, potions were staggeringly expensive by the bottle, because the state and the corporations squabbled to monopolize the springs they came from.
And needless to say, there were endless stories of mountain owners who went from owning worthless scrubland to being rich beyond measure the moment their barren hillside turned out to be a spring site.
"…A well that produces healing water."
A house with one of these could sell for an astronomical price. Even this run-down, abandoned place would shoot up in value like a rocket.
But right now, the only people in the world who knew what this well's water really was were me and Oinoi. Should I call the realtor right this second and lock in the purchase? For an instant, greed flickered to life. Oinoi didn't know anything about it anyway—all I'd have to do was keep my mouth shut.
Swipe—
I picked up my phone, dialed a number, and left a text.
The awakeners' online community had been in an uproar for days—all over the healing water discovered in that 'well.'
The house with the well had been snapped up quickly by the IT giant Telos. For a cool 1.5 billion won.
As for me, clutching a mere 20 million when the money war erupted overnight—well, there wasn't anything I could do. Should have just kept my mouth shut, bought the land, and revealed the truth after the fact.
"Of all people, Telos had to buy it. I hate those guys—they commission the work and then grind their workers to the bone."
My last ten years had mostly been spent living off commissions from government agencies and Telos. Government officials were notorious penny-pinchers, and while Telos paid decently, they were so demanding about every little thing that working for them was a headache.
Oinoi, meanwhile, was terribly downcast about the whole affair.
"This Oinoi wonders what will become of the well where Grebnoi lived, so she does…! This Oinoi thought that well was wonderful, so she did…!"
━Zzzzzt-
━Keong-keong…!
The Emperor Ant Angangi and the Dog-Squirrel Keongkeongi were deeply disappointed too. Keongkeongi had been diligently chasing off every bug in the house, and Angangi had tidied up the garden until it gleamed.
But that place was not to become our home.
"We'll just have to find somewhere else, that's all."
I was tapping away at my computer, searching here and there for a good house. And that was exactly when it happened.
Ding-dong—. Knock knock knock—
Someone was knocking on the door of my one-room apartment.
"It seems the thing called 'pizza' that this Oinoi ordered has been delivered, so it does…! This Oinoi has never ordered delivery before, so she is terribly nervous…!"
Oinoi lit up with excitement. Had the pepperoni pizza finally arrived?
I got up and opened the door. There stood a woman with long black hair and sunglasses perched on her forehead, her brow furrowing slightly at the sight of me. She had the polished look of a luxury brand model straight out of the city.
"Oh. It's you, Seo Yerim."
"This Oinoi is disappointed that it is not pizza either, so she is…."
"What pizza? Can I come in?"
Without so much as asking my permission, Seo Yerim toed off her heels and swept into the room. She didn't seem the least bit concerned about her stockings getting dusty anymore. Not that it mattered—the floor was spotless, since Angangi wiped it down every spare moment.
"I heard, Ha Ildo. You were buying a house, found healing water in the well, and honestly reported it? You should've just kept your mouth shut and kept it for yourself. Why would you do something so stupid?"
The moment she walked in, Seo Yerim started flaying me alive. I answered her honestly.
"And what happens when word gets out later that I secretly speculated on it?"
"Who's going to say that? You're not even famous."
Watching her snort out a laugh, I went quiet for a moment. I'd wrestled with this plenty myself. But no—I still believed I'd made the right choice, so I said, with as much seriousness as I could muster:
"I'll be famous soon enough. And I really am aiming for the very top. Dead serious."
"The top?"
"I'm going to make sure my name's in the papers every single day. Which means I can't afford to have a single stain on me."
Nobody alive had taken more public criticism than I had. I knew exactly how much of a headache it was to be torn down by strangers. If I was going to reach for S-Rank, for the summit itself, then I wanted to be an idol and a hero everyone looked up to—not a punching bag.
Knowing about the healing-water well and pretending I didn't, just to buy the place on the cheap? My own conscience couldn't stomach that.
Seo Yerim studied me, her narrow eyes opening a fraction wider.
"…Since when is S-Rank something anyone can just become? It takes blood, sweat, and money behind it. And someone who can barely manage to find a house wants to talk about S-Rank. So—did you find a new place or not?"
Truly a witch worthy of her S-Rank pedigree. Every single sentence was pure fact, and every one aimed straight at my weakest point. Just as my hard-won resolve began to sink—
Jingle—
Seo Yerim held out a key.
"I just bought a new property, and leaving it sitting empty feels like a waste, so I want to rent it out. You'll pay five hundred thousand won a month. Deposit's twenty million. The address is written right there."
A strip of paper with the address was stuck to the key like a band. The address didn't feel unfamiliar.
I searched it—and pages of news articles and photos of the well house came pouring out.
"Wasn't this well house bought by Telos?"
Then why on earth was Seo Yerim handing me the keys to it? And then, of all things, she scowled at me.
"…Don't tell me you don't even know who I am. Seo Sang-yong, CEO of Telos's Corporate Strategy Division—that's my father."
Oh, for crying out loud.
The curse slipped out on its own. How could the world be this unfair? An S-Rank awakener, a working celebrity, and a chaebol heiress all in one? So that's why her house was as big as a castle and her pond was full of koi. The unfairness of it all made my teeth grind.
Then Oinoi spoke up.
"Ahh…! The household head once said that the owners of Telos are monstrous villains strangling ordinary people with their octopus-armed business empire, so it did…! It said they are wicked beings who try to solve everything with money, so it did…!"
"What!?"
Seo Yerim's face twisted in fury. Feeling the temperature of the room shoot up in an instant, I slapped a hand over Oinoi's mouth.
"No, no—I never said any such thing. What company out there is more ambitious and passionate than Telos? Honestly, admirable. I get plenty of work from them, so I'd know. All that, uh, positive social influence—"
"Hmph. Honestly, I don't care much for my family's business practices either. That's why I don't like advertising myself as Telos's daughter. The family is rich—I'm not."
…Uh, even setting Telos entirely aside, Seo Yerim, you're plenty rich on your own.
Of course, I swallowed that remark whole.
Ding-dong—
"Ahh! This time it really is the pizza, so it is…!"
We split the steaming-hot pizza between us. Watching the daughter of a chaebol family—who I was pretty sure had only ever learned to carve steak—sitting in my cramped one-room apartment eating pizza, my entire sense of how the world worked started crumbling.
"And so, this Oinoi and the master of the house buried Grebnoi together, so they did…!"
"Did you, now. That was a kind thing to do. Something that could shatter a high-frequency blade had to be some seriously tough material. An anomaly rift that never tripped the detection network despite a monster like that living in it… Rifts really are strange things."
Just as Seo Yerim sank into thought over the subject of rifts, I decided to finally ask the question I'd been carrying around for ages.
"You're in a position where you know more about this stuff than the rest of us, right? It's been bugging me forever—what exactly is a 'rift'? And what are 'Drifters'?"
Rifts and Drifters. I'd always been curious about these strange phenomena, but as a career D-Ranker, I'd never been in any position to find answers.
Now, though, I had no choice but to wonder. If only to find a way to return the mysterious nymph Oinoi to her original world.
After all—there might be someone back in her homeland, waiting for Oinoi, the way Grebnoi had waited all those centuries.