The Nymphs' Summer Vacation # 2
"The world really has gotten better, I'm telling you."
I smacked my lips as I watched a video playing on MeTube. These days, whenever there was something I wanted to learn or something I was curious about, all I had to do was search MeTube and the answer popped right up.
"I'm a man with over five years of living on my own. Cooking? That's child's play for me."
MeTube was where I'd always learned my recipes—cheap, budget-friendly, maximum-value-for-money cooking. Without it, my bachelor life would have been a good deal more miserable.
But today, I wasn't planning on some frugal cost-per-calorie dish. No, today I intended to indulge in a little luxury. After all, some expensive ingredients had just come into my possession.
This is me talking now, in the present, but I actually liked cooking.
It was around lunchtime—the nymphs had all headed out to the nearby fields to gather mugwort, leaving the house quiet and to myself. I was enjoying my own brand of leisure.
"Now that's a gorgeous color. Once I strain this properly—"
Sluuurp—
I filtered my finished 'masterpiece' through a sieve with fine mesh holes. All that was left was to pop it in the fridge. Done!
"Heh heh. I cleaned out the ice-water purifier."
I dispensed ice from the purifier and dropped it into a plastic PT bottle I'd prepared beforehand, pouring the strained liquid in after it. The bottle itself was a thoroughly washed-out relic of the two-percent drink Oinoi used to love.
Slurrrp—
Watching the ice and the shimmering liquid settle together in the bottle put me in a great mood. Which was exactly when Seo Yerim, who had been watching the whole process, scrunched up her face and exploded.
"I can't stand to watch this anymore, you lunatic! Why on earth are you dumping that insanely expensive ELF tea into milk?"
"What do you mean, why milk? What's wrong with you that you don't even know what milk tea is? All that money, and apparently not a shred of culture to show for it."
I had always dreamed of milk tea. Tea mixed with milk—it just felt refined, luxurious. Aristocratic, even. Using the premium tea leaves the elves had given me, I'd steeped the tea, added warm milk and honey, and turned it into milk tea. And by my own honest assessment, it had come out beautifully. Aristocratic enough to pass—well, a viscount at the very least. A count, minimum.
"Look at this level of quality. You'd never guess it was my first attempt. B-rank awakener Ha Ildo is truly a legend. I could sell this for ten thousand won a cup."
Call it being astonished by my own potential. I'd always known I was good at all sorts of things, but who knew I had a talent for making tea too? I could open a café someday if I wanted.
Seo Yerim, however, only kept snapping at me like a dog with rabies, despite the summer heat that was already climbing.
"Who on earth turns tea this expensive into milk tea! It's not even about the price—there are only a handful of these leaves in the entire world, and you're using the whole lot for milk tea!"
"What's wrong with milk tea? It tastes great. The effects are identical anyway."
It was my own creation, but it genuinely was delicious. Smooth, fragrant—
"Should I add a little more honey?"
Stir stir—
One glass with ice cubes floating on top, and I felt like all my fatigue was melting away. The morning's training under the blazing sun had drained me, but now my body and mind were recharging, my mana settling back into a comfortable rhythm. I felt fantastic.
"See? It's good. Here, stop sulking and have a glass yourself. It's seriously amazing."
Slide—
I poured a glass of my special milk tea for Seo Yerim, who still looked like she couldn't comprehend why I'd committed such a crime. She frowned at the tea glugging into the paper cup.
"And there he sits, pouring tea worth a fortune into a paper cup like some construction-site worker chugging instant coffee mix. I'm only holding back my anger because blowing up at you would mean losing money at this point."
Apparently she had a grudge against paper cups. But it wasn't as if I had a choice.
"The nymphs took every single one of my nice cups. They said they were selling apple juice they'd made themselves. I think they've gotten a taste for running fundraisers."
Oinoi and the nymphs had pooled their efforts to squeeze out one bottle of juice from a Golden Apple. Honestly, it hadn't tasted like much of anything—but Oinoi and the others seemed convinced that this apple juice would make them a fortune.
"It does taste good."
Seo Yerim sipped my special milk tea and smacked her lips. There she went—fussy and harsh right up until the moment she admitted it was delicious.
"To craft a tea that suits the palate of Tickle-Me-Yerim herself. Truly, my talents reach high and far."
Seo Yerim's face contorted violently.
Beep—
The air conditioner whirred back to life. I suppose the room temperature had risen along with her temper.
"Why are you so angry? It's summer, it's already hot enough. You're single-handedly contributing to global warming and climate chaos. So what's the occasion today, anyway?"
It didn't seem like she'd come just to arrange a meeting between Illinoi and Oinoi. She'd been in a bit of a mood even before I started making the milk tea. What could have gotten her so worked up?
Well, there were plenty of reasons a person could be angry. Maybe it was simply the summer sun burning too fierce. Not long ago, I'd read Albert Camus's The Stranger under a parasol, as a bit of self-improvement—and in it, the protagonist killed a man because of the oppressive heat and the scorching sun.
Killing someone over hot weather and sunlight. People really do come in all varieties. And yet, believe it or not, I actually knew someone like that. There was a novel I'd read out of boredom during my bachelor days, and I heard the author would go half out of his mind whenever the weather turned hot—his plots would get all strange and unhinged. The heat genuinely does warp people. I'm telling you, it's real.
"Ergo, Seo Yerim: the reason you're fuming is the heat itself. It was thirty-seven degrees today, wasn't it?"
Summer had only just begun. The cicadas droned their endless drone, the honey ants buzzed their endless buzz. Sure, summer was supposed to be hot, but thirty-seven degrees was hot to the point of absurdity.
━Hio-ong…!
Kwang-kwangi, the ghost spider who loved cool places, couldn't even set foot outside in the blazing sunlight—she'd curled up under the desk in the coolest corner and was napping the day away. Then again, thinking about it now, Kwang-kwangi had always loved flopping down on the cushion under that desk, hot weather or not. She just plain liked napping.
Anyway.
Seo Yerim sipped her tea from the paper cup and finally explained.
"There's too much work. Cha Yura's come to Korea and all, but T-rank rifts have been opening way more often lately, you know? With that bastard Lee Jeonghun's power out of commission, I'm literally dying from the workload!"
I see. So that's why she was angry—too much work. You might think, well, more work means more money, lucky her—but Seo Yerim was born into money. She'd never needed to earn a won in her life. For someone like her, more work just meant more nuisance.
"I did hear that T-rank rifts have been opening more often lately. The average used to be about once a month, but now it's once a week, right?"
T-rank rifts were the highest-danger category, the ones that required mandatory deployment of S-rank awakeners. Word was that hordes of monsters like the Troll King Kurish I'd once faced came crawling out of them in droves. Clearing one of those every single week would put anyone in a foul mood—especially with one of the nation's only three S-rank awakeners, Lee Jeonghun, sidelined.
Three people's work split between two meant each of them was shouldering fifty percent more. Not an easy situation by any stretch.
"I heard the US is sending one of their S-rank awakeners over to Korea as support. Wouldn't that lighten the load a bit?"
I asked, recalling a piece of internet tabloid gossip I'd stumbled across while searching my own name, Ha Ildo, on the awakener social network. A financial-district rumor mill. They were wrong more often than not, but when they were right, they were right. I figured Seo Yerim might know whether this one was true.
"That's exactly why I'm furious! Honestly, the two of us alone might work out better!"
So the rumor was real—one of America's ten S-rank awakeners really was being dispatched to Korea. And from the sound of it, Seo Yerim already knew exactly who was coming. Still, something about it struck me as odd.
"Seo Yerim, why do you hate so many people? I mean, ask you about anyone and it's 'I hate them.' You hate Cha Yura. You're not close with Lee Jina. You and Yu Ari just growl at each other."
"Excuse me? I do have people I like, for your information."
Seo Yerim liked someone? I'd never heard of it. Every time a tabloid popped up on awakener SNS, it was nothing but 'Seo Yerim Feud rumors.' Was it because she was a woman of fire that only discord followed her around?—I wondered, and asked:
"Who? Who is it you like?"
"What? Who? You're asking who? Um, uh—"
Seo Yerim panicked, big time. Then, as if scrambling to justify herself, she blurted:
"My friend Yeongeun! And I like nymphs like Oinoi and Illinoi and Coris! And as for who else I like—"
So apparently, none of her fellow S-rank awakeners made the list. Well, fair enough. Awakeners were colleagues and rivals all at once, so maybe closeness just wasn't in the cards.
And that was when it happened.
BANG— the door burst open.
"Hieeek…! It is far, far too hot, this much is certain…! The heat is so oppressive that no human dares walk abroad, as is plainly evident…! Today's fundraiser-cum-mugwort-gathering contest is hereby concluded…!"
"It is very, very hot, and that is a fact…! If this Illinoi had been a ditch-water nymph, this weather might have sparked a full boiling-water revolution…!"
"This Coris is an ice-water nymph, which means the cold holds no fear for her, but the heat is her mortal enemy, that is all there is to it…!"
Oinoi and her nymph friends, who'd been playing outside, came tumbling into the room in a rush. Even nature's own fairies, it seemed, had a limit to the heat they could endure.
I served them the milk tea I'd made.
"I chilled it and put ice in, too. Try it. It turned out seriously good."
Oinoi took her cup and beamed with delight.
"The master of this house has committed a terrible outrage against the gift received from the long-eared fairies…! Which can only mean that the master of this house has exacted a most satisfying revenge upon the long-eared fairies on behalf of all nymph-kind…!"
"Truly magnificent! To pour such opulent tea leaves wholesale into cow's milk—what a superbly provocative move this is…!"
"This Coris doesn't really understand what's happening, but it's delicious, and that is enough for her…!"
What was wrong with all of them? It tasted great, and the effects were exactly the same. The effects were so reliable, in fact, that I was a B-rank awakener now.
That's right. B-rank.
I was now among the top five hundred awakeners registered with the Korean Awakener Association—genuinely elite human resources! It meant the hero I'd been dreaming of had finally taken one more step toward me.
One B-rank awakener is equal to the firepower of a fully armed battalion.
Someone had once said that. I couldn't say whether it was literally true, but I would admit this much: a B-rank awakener was a genuinely formidable existence.
In practice, the state treated B-rank awakeners and above with considerable deference.
"Mr. Ha Ildo. You're here for your B-rank evaluation, I understand?"
It was the same awakener-specialized facility I'd visited when I'd been promoted to C-rank. This time, when I showed up with Keongkeongi in tow, plenty of people recognized me.
"So that's the famous Keongkeongi."
"I heard he put a tire dummy through its paces?"
Back when I'd written 'dog-squirrel' under the 'preferred weapon' field on my registration form, people had stared at me like I was the weirdest lunatic alive. But the world changed by the day, and people adapted just as fast.
"Alright! Keongkeongi! Time to show them what we've got. Gale Kkeong-Kkeong Slash!"
━Krrrng…!
Keongkeongi clamped his own tail in his jaws. Then he spun—around and around—and at the peak of his rotation, he released his tail like a blade drawn from its sheath.
CRACK—!
Keongkeongi's powerful strike, the Gale Kkeong-Kkeong Slash, cleaved the B-rank evaluation dummy cleanly in two, and the onlookers erupted in admiration.
"That's incredible!"
"I'd only heard about it, but seeing it in person is a whole different story."
"Wait, Keongkeongi hasn't even evolved yet, has he?"
Everyone was astonished. They were finally recognizing just how remarkable Keongkeongi was.
Not one to be outdone, I decided to present Kwang-kwangi, the ghost spider, as well.
"Kwang-kwangi. Go ahead and enlarge."
━Kwang-kwang…!
With my rise to B-rank mana, Kwang-kwangi—who was influenced by my mana—had picked up a technique for shrinking and growing her body at will. She swelled to roughly the size of a compact car, and the sheer pressure of that bulk was startlingly intense.
━Hio-ong…!
Kwang-kwangi wiggled her front legs and hindquarters from side to side, doing a little dance. She seemed so pleased to be performing in front of a crowd that she even started humming a tune. Watching her, the spectators marveled.
"This is the first time a spider's ever looked cute to me. At that size it should be terrifying."
"What an amazing spider!"
"I heard she can even read stock charts. Must be some spider-specific sense, like a spidey-sense or something."
"Like that octopus that used to predict soccer matches back in the day? Heh, now that's something else."
An amazing spider. I thought so too—although Kwang-kwangi's stock returns were, admittedly, still sitting at a modest plus two percent. For the record, the money Kwang-kwangi traded with came out of Oinoi's fundraising proceeds. Kwang-kwangi held the title of financial manager of the Nymph Relief Foundation.
Yes, she was clever—but handing money management over to a spider? Was that really allowed? For the record, my own official position was simply 'Master of the House.'
Anyway.
My evaluation wrapped up quickly. I was officially recognized as B-rank.
"Mr. Ildo, with your experience I'm sure you already know this, but once you reach B-rank, you'll increasingly be pulled in as support for S-rank awakeners on T-rank missions, or sent on solo assignments of your own."
The director of the facility—a middle-aged man with a bit of a belly—personally took the time to walk me through the precautions, my rights, and my obligations. Most of it I already knew. Greater power, greater responsibility. That was the gist.
"These days, a B-rank's first mission is typically a support role alongside an S-rank awakener. In your case, Mr. Ildo, since you're on friendly terms with Yerim and Yura, that shouldn't be difficult—"
Chatter, chatter—
The director spoke earnestly. I stared, with a strange tightness in my chest, at the framed photo on his desk—a middle-aged man posing with his young daughters—and asked:
"So when will my 'title' be decided?"
"Ah—"
The director wiped the sweat from his brow with his hand, then let out a hearty laugh.
"Titles are usually decided after your first mission is complete. The handlers and professional consultants deliberate at length before settling on one."
Just as I'd thought! Exactly what I already knew.
For the record, a 'title' was an honorary nickname granted to awakeners of B-rank and above. Like 'Iron Arm' Kang Cheolmin, 'Witch of Fire' Seo Yerim, or 'Ice Princess' Cha Yura. Back in the day, handles like 'Emperor' or 'Storm' were things only pro gamers got to have—the world really had changed a great deal.
Think of it as a second name. I did technically have a codename already—'Second'—but I'd received it ages ago, and frankly, it wasn't very heroic.
"I'd like to receive a B-rank mission as soon as possible, if I can."
I wanted my title, and I wanted it fast! Someone of my caliber was bound to land an impressive one—I was certain of it.
And that was when it happened.
"Well, then—there actually is an opportunity you could be deployed on right away, Mr. Ildo. Are you aware that an S-rank awakener is being dispatched to Korea from the United States?"