I'm Not Free (2)
When Academy students face monsters, they usually fight in teams.
Healers are assigned one to a team—except under special circumstances.
If a team has a martial artist, one healer must be attached to each martial artist without fail.
As the position that trades blows with monsters bare-handed, the risk of injury is far higher than for any other role.
So after a few rounds of monster-suppression drills in the Academy's first-year curriculum, each healer is assigned a dedicated martial artist.
"And that just happens to be you?"
Among the students gathered in the gymnasium for the drill, I shot the words at him coldly. Junhyuk fumbled for a reply.
"Well… yeah."
"Can't we change this dedicated-partner system?"
"Unless something special comes up, it usually stays as is."
"And what counts as something special?"
"If the dedicated martial artist dies, or…"
"Forget it. Just forget it."
I shook my head and waved him off. A guy they call the strongest freshman martial artist in Academy history wasn't going to die in a drill that wasn't even real combat.
There was no need to form groups in advance. Students simply followed the professor's directions and filed into the prepared portals.
But this game was so thorough about its pointless little considerations for niche players that picking the wrong option could trigger a route that was either fanservice or a landmine, depending on the heroine.
Of course, there were also walkthroughs that deliberately chased those routes—like people who only ever took the larva path in Metal Slug 3.
…It'll be fine.
The thought that I might become one of those heroines made me tense enough that my feet refused to move.
"Philin, you okay?"
Seeing Junhyuk stick his nose in again because my face must have looked off, I snapped,
"Mind your own business."
I quickly smoothed my expression into something indifferent and strode straight into the portal.
What a piece of work. Who asks after the person who just dumped them yesterday?
Beyond the portal, the scenery rippled as if I'd put on a VR headset, then settled into a stretch of woodland.
"Looks like a forest zone this time."
Junhyuk spoke while looking around, as if fishing for conversation.
As humanity's years of fighting monsters piled up, the setting went, they'd even developed the technology to detect the signs of a gate before it opened and respond in advance.
"Forest zone, so goblins?"
"Trolls show up sometimes too, so stay sharp."
At his explanation I hummed an acknowledgment and kept walking.
"Hey."
"Hm?"
"Where'd you go yesterday?"
The second the question left my mouth I regretted it. I'd only asked out of simple curiosity, but given how yesterday had gone, I hadn't accounted for how differently it might land.
Sure enough.
"You were worried. I'm sorry."
That was not it.
I wanted to push back, but it already felt too late, so I just shut my mouth.
"I was in a foul mood, so I just went home."
"I see."
"How's your body holding up?"
That had only been an excuse, and he was still fretting over it. I let out a thin sigh and brushed it off.
"I'm fine. Don't worry about it."
"What did you have for dinner last night?"
"Ramen."
"Since when? You always just eat salad at night."
So she was famous for living like a princess. Philin's romance route was short, so a lot of the finer details were left blank.
But I didn't need to live up to those details, so unless it was going to become a real headache, I decided to just wing it.
"Sometimes I just want something greasy like that."
"I'm pretty good at cooking ramen. Next time I'll come over and make you some."
At the ramen line that came out of nowhere, I finally stopped walking and fixed him with a cold stare.
"Could you not?"
"Huh?"
"We broke up."
Even saying it again made the line cringe. But now that things had come this far, I couldn't leave him any more room.
"Stop acting like we're still something. It's uncomfortable."
A clean, firm line drawn.
Junhyuk lowered his head for a moment, fidgeting with his hands clasped in front of him, then lifted his face again and met my eyes.
"I won't accept it."
"What?"
"We can't break up like this."
He stood his ground as if he had no intention of backing down, so I decided to get a little harsher.
"How am I supposed to date someone who smashes through my door and scares me half to death?"
"That was…"
"And once you were inside, you yanked my horns hard enough to hurt."
At the memory of the day before yesterday, Junhyuk went mute as a stone and hung his head. I tugged down the knee-high socks that came up over my knees just enough to show him.
The bruises still hadn't faded—my knees were stained purple—and Junhyuk sucked in a breath.
"These are the injuries I got running away from you."
"……"
"Still have something to say?"
If he had a conscience at all, ten mouths wouldn't have been enough to answer.
Watching his eyes dart without finding a place to settle, I pressed my lips into a thin line and pulled the socks back up over my knees, covering the bruises.
And honestly, I still couldn't get used to this. Clothes like these knee-highs and short skirts.
I cleared my throat once for no particular reason and drove the nail in again.
"If you get it, don't talk to me. And don't dig your heels in with meaningless stubbornness about how we can't break up. Understood?"
He still couldn't quite nod—his heart clearly hadn't accepted it yet—but this much should have been enough for him to take the hint.
Leaving Junhyuk frozen in place as if rooted to the spot, I started walking again.
"Hurry up."
And so we walked the forest zone again. Nothing but the thud of our footsteps, the occasional birdcall sounding unnaturally loud.
We must have walked for about an hour. My knees still hadn't fully recovered, so the long walk was getting uncomfortable. Where were these things hiding that we had to go hunting for them like this?
Coming into a new world had naturally sharpened my sense for mana, so I'd tried healing my own knees—but it seemed a healer couldn't treat herself.
Same logic as a doctor who can't operate on their own body, maybe. Inconvenient as hell. Nothing about this situation was working for me.
I was grumbling quietly to myself as I walked when a series of ominous rustling sounds rose from the undergrowth around us.
"Philin."
"I heard it too."
We stopped and each began scanning our surroundings.
A terrain where paths met and opened into a wide clearing. The noisy thrashing of the brush was not the presence of one or two monsters.
Not good ground for a few people to take on a crowd.
"Hey. Yeom Junhyuk."
"Yeah?"
"If a few dozen of them came pouring out right here, could you handle them all at once?"
"…No."
Strongest in history or not, he was still a freshman. Charging in without a plan didn't seem wise, so I quickly looked around.
"There."
"You mean the cliff?"
"Yeah."
A short sprint would put our backs to a rock face—perfect for a fight.
Even just covering our rear cut one direction we had to watch, which would raise our combat efficiency a lot.
The problem was getting there.
"On three, we run."
I gave the quiet order, and Junhyuk nodded while still watching the brush. In a voice barely above a breath, I counted.
One, two…
"Three!"
The instant we spun and ran, goblins that had been hiding in the undergrowth came pouring out and charged after us.
"Keeeeeek!"
"Kkkeeek!"
Running with a pack of goblins thundering after us, cold sweat broke out on its own and my legs felt ready to tangle. I'd chosen this plan because I was confident in my running—
What I hadn't accounted for was that I was in a woman's body now, so I was nowhere near as fast as before, and that I'd already hurt my knees.
"Kh—!"
A sharp, ugly pain lanced through my knee, and I went down at full speed. At the thud of my fall, Junhyuk skidded to a stop and looked back.
"Philin!"
Don't look at me like some fragile little princess. I shoved my hands against the ground to push off again—
"Augh!"
Ah—my knee…
It hurt enough to prick tears into my eyes, and I crumpled again, clutching it.
The goblins were too close.
Clubs raised, they came barreling in with ugly force.
Could I get away?
No—even if I got up, running was…
"Help me…"
So the words slipped out before I could stop them.
Damn it. After how hard I'd pushed him just a minute ago, this was mortifying. But I had to stay alive first…
"No."
What?
This time I was genuinely thrown. I'd assumed he'd drop everything and come running.
It hadn't been that much?
Had he really only ever thought of me as a handle to hold onto?
"Q-quit joking around and hurry!"
"Take back the breakup, and I'll save you."
"Hey!"
Is this the time for that?!
I scrambled desperately through my head for some kind of attack magic while my body tried to crawl away however it could.
I finally dredged up the most basic spell. Magic worked a lot like riding a bike. Whether you were good at it or not, the sense of how to cast it was something you just knew.
"Lightning Field!"
An electric barrier flared out, and the goblins twitched and reeked of scorched flesh. But it clearly wasn't a fatal hit—they recovered their strength almost at once and hauled their fallen bodies back up.
"You're seriously doing this?"
"……"
"Yeom Junhyuk!!"
With the goblins swinging their clubs and closing to point-blank range, my voice came out almost like a sob.
Ugly as hell. Damn it!
Even so, his attitude didn't budge an inch.
"Take back the part where you said we're breaking up."
"You lunatic, is that what you're saying right now?"
"Take it back!"
I wanted to spit a curse at the insane bastard, but this was not the moment for pride. That said, becoming his girlfriend again…
I wasn't even a girl to begin with!
"Fine, then—just friends! I'll go as far as friends!"
"And the breakup?"
"Okay, fine, I take it back for now!!"
The instant I shouted the promise—
A goblin's club swung for my head—
"You promised."
—and in front of my tightly shut eyes, Junhyuk had already leapt in.
He kicked the club and shattered it clean in two.
Before the goblin could even process the shock, he spun gracefully in midair and drove a kick into its skull.
The goblin's neck tore, and its head flew off like a burst watermelon.
After that, it was just a slaughter.
Moving at a lightning speed the eye couldn't track, weaving front to back through the goblin pack and spitting out kicks like flashes of light, Junhyuk was personally proving that his earlier answer—
If a few dozen of them came pouring out right here, could you handle them all at once?
…No.
—had been a lie.
Freshman or not, the title of "strongest in history" wasn't something they handed out to just anyone. Dozens of goblins in front of Junhyuk were nothing more than convenient sparring partners.
"Kieeeek!"
"Kkeuk, kyeek!"
Crack. Thud. Crunch.
One by one the goblins went down to those ugly sounds.
Their clubs kept stupidly cutting empty air.
Watching Junhyuk vanish from the arc of a swing like a butterfly and reappear to sting like a wasp, my mouth fell open—and by the end I just felt sorry for the goblins.
At last, dozens of them lay sprawled in grotesque heaps, something broken or torn on every one.
The peaceful birdcalls returned.
In the middle of it all, Junhyuk stood panting and looked down at me, still sitting on the ground.
"You okay?"
He asked with a little smile he could barely keep from showing, clearly pleased with how thoroughly he'd played me.
"…You lying bastard."
Only then did I spit out the curse I'd been holding in.