The One Who Watches
"See? That's how you pull off a proper duel."
"Yeah, yeah. Good work out there."
Marin flashed a V-sign right in front of my face, basking in her victory with every fiber of her being.
Which raised a very simple question: why was she holding her victory ceremony in front of me, the neutral party, instead of Chloe, the actual loser?
"Okay, you're done. Move. You're blocking my path to Chloe."
"Chloe? Why? Are we teasing her now?"
"I'm going to comfort her."
I stepped past Marin and approached Chloe, who was curled up in a corner of the training ground like a deflated balloon.
"Huaaang, h-heyyy, snap out of it, Chloe!"
"Huuuuhh..."
Her soul had left her body entirely.
Eva hugged the unresponsive girl and wailed, and if you didn't know any better, you'd have sworn someone had actually died.
"Chloe, the duel's over. It's time to move on to the practical combat drills."
"I lost... I... again."
<This is hopeless. She's completely broken.>
"Well, this just became a headache."
The Sword Saint, hailed as the strongest of her generation.
She'd wanted to inherit her father's seat and become the greatest swordsman alive, and she had clawed her way to the top through bone-grinding effort. Yes, raw talent had carried her — but it was the sweat she'd poured into her training that had earned her the top seat faster than anyone else.
In the original story, the other heroines were constantly shown goofing off at Purity Academy, but Chloe alone was repeatedly shown drilling herself without rest.
Only those who have truly worked for something understand what that work is worth.
Chloe had always believed that the time she'd sacrificed meant something — that it proved something. And then she'd lost to Marin, and all of it scattered like feathers on the wind.
"This has to be a lie. Not once, but twice? Losing that pathetically?"
"Heh heh, Chloe. Life's a long road — sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Come on, cheer up, okay?"
"Hahaha... why did I waste my time like that? If I'd just spent all those hours lolling around having fun instead, at least I wouldn't feel cheated."
"H-hey, hey, hey! Somebody help me!"
"You sure know how to make a man's life difficult."
Eva's distress call had me pressing a hand to my forehead. How does one cheer up Chloe Opal? I stroked my chin and pondered the question with all the seriousness it deserved.
"Would groping her chest snap her out of it, you think?"
<What a brilliant idea. Please, try it immediately.>
"Wait, you'd actually let me?"
<By all means — as long as you handle the fallout yourself. If you'd like to watch a future where the Sword Saint, hearing the news, takes your head and hangs it above the gate as a decorative ornament, go right ahead.>
"Ah. Yeah, no."
Brilliant idea or not, once my own neck entered the equation, that option was off the table.
Should I at least offer some words of comfort?
Yeah, I don't think that's going to work.
This was the girl who could be sulking her heart out over something terrible, and one word from Eva would have her face flipping to a beaming smile on the spot.
Eva shook her by the shoulders, urging her to snap out of it, but Chloe just stared vacantly into the air with her mouth hanging open.
If I chose my words wrong here, we might witness the birth of Eva Number Two.
"Why not just leave her like that?"
<Wh-what kind of thing is that to say?!>
"It worked out fine, didn't it? In that state, she won't be clinging to Eva for a good long while."
The picture the Writer and I both wanted.
Distance growing between Chloe and Eva — that was the whole point of everything we'd set in motion.
Left like this, we wouldn't be seeing the two of them shoulder to shoulder anytime soon.
"Let's not borrow trouble. Knowing Chloe, she'll shake off a setback like this and be back on her feet in no time."
Chloe was fierce, and she possessed a stubborn, unyielding will. Losing to me or Marin was never going to break her spirit — I knew that better than anyone.
So why, I'd like to know, did she put on that whole grave, solemn performance earlier?
Eva had made such a worried face that I'd simply matched the mood. That was all.
you the one panicking?>
"Th-that's... haha, it just happened. Spur of the moment."
I couldn't believe she'd taken my act seriously.
The Writer truly was beyond understanding. She'd been the one to tell me to drive a wedge between Chloe and Eva — and now, when it was working, she was playing the worried guardian for the very Chloe whose ending she'd ruined.
Three years of writing her story. Had she grown genuinely attached to the woman she'd created?
Either way, my job was simple: goof off and enjoy myself until Chloe pulled herself together.
"Marin, I'm going for drinks. What do you want?"
"Chocolate latte. Extra whipped cream."
"It's a vending machine. Nothing with fancy toppings is going to exist. I'll get you hot cocoa instead."
"Bring it."
"Eva, anything you'd like?"
"M-me? Sol's Eyes, please!"
The canned drink famous for its crisp, bracing flavor. Even in the original story, she'd hoard it by the dozens in her dorm storage and crack one open whenever the mood struck.
"Bleh. You're not human. How do you even drink that stuff?"
Marin, a certified sweet tooth with the palate of a kindergartner, scrunched up her face — and coming from a girl who supposedly didn't know how to make expressions at all, that was saying something.
"Wh-what, what about it?! What's wrong with Sol's Eyes?!"
"You like the way toothpaste tastes. Incomprehensible."
"Ap-p-apologize! Sol's Eyes is the greatest invention in human history! A god-tier beverage enjoyed by young and old alike!"
Yeah, that one I couldn't defend.
Who pays money for toothpaste? Not even I, her appointed attorney, could argue that one.
<What's your honest take on Sol's Eyes, dear reader?>
"If it's there, I'll drink it. Paying money for it, though? Hard pass."
<And mint chocolate?>
"Why would I recommend garbage to another human being? Are you messing with me?"
so good, though.>
Hah. So she was on the mint chocolate team.
There was no humanity in this woman. None.
"Okay, enough fighting, all of you. People are allowed to like different things."
<You were calling them toothpaste-guzzlers about thirty seconds ago, and now you're preaching tolerance. Bold.>
"Wait, how did you know that?"
<Your face gives everything away. You weren't even trying to hide it.>
I'd made a genuine effort not to broadcast my inner thoughts, out of respect for other people's tastes. Caught red-handed, apparently.
"Chloe, you want anything?"
"Ooooh, O heavens, why! Why did you birth me, only to birth Marin and Solis after me!"
"I'll bring you ssanghwa tea — the herbal root tea. From where I'm standing, that's the only thing that's going to jolt you back to your senses."
"No ssanghwa tea. Any coffee is fine."
"Ah. Sure."
Note how, even mid-crisis, she'd still found the presence of mind to correct my drink choice. Her mental recovery was already complete.
Truly worthy of the "icon of positivity," the mood-maker of the original novel — emotions swept back under control in an instant.
"Okay, orders taken. If nobody's changing anything, I'm off."
Leaving the three of them behind, I set out across the training ground, scanning for the vending machines.
"Oh, hey, that guy over there. That's the guy I've heard about, right?"
"The man who carries mana. When did he even get here?"
<Popular with the ladies, I see. So envious.>
"What's stranger is that for so long, people looked right through me and pretended they didn't see me at all."
The occasional curious glance had always been there. From the elevator incident all the way through the duel, the thing that had actually been odd was how little attention anyone had paid us — not a speck of it, as if we were invisible.
I had a pretty good guess as to why.
A star hidden behind another's light.
Marin's authority.
Living alongside her, we'd all been caught in the radius of that power. It was only now, keeping my distance from Marin, that people had finally noticed my existence — proof enough.
"Traveling with Marin wipes out your presence and spares you annoying attention. Honestly, what's not to love."
Eva Amethyst.
Chloe Opal.
Household names even if you only heard them once — half the students at Purity Academy wanted a connection to them, and they could be relentless about it. The original story had shown them crossing lines more than once, to the point where a fed-up Chloe had actually drawn her sword on someone.
But by recruiting Marin from the start, long before her mid-story debut, we'd cut all that hassle off at the root.
"Oh, that reminds me — could I use that power of hers too?"
<Absolutely impossible. Unless you became the master of the Star's Fragment itself — and even among Divine Artifacts, the Halo holds no power like that.>
Shame. What a waste.
If it had been possible, I'd have mastered it in a heartbeat and taken Yupi out for some outdoor fun.
Oh well. Not happening.
<Dear reader, quit thinking whatever it is you're thinking and FOCUS! I'm about to die of frustration over here!>
"Oh, there, found the vending machine."
Quick-witted woman, that Writer.
One sentence out of my mouth and she'd seen straight through the real reason I'd brought up Marin's authority in the first place.
I pointedly ignored her, fed coins into the machine, and punched out everyone's orders, one drink at a time.
<Can you hear me, dear reader?>
"Loud and clear, so you can stop nagging. Everything's going exactly according to plan. What is there to worry about?"
<Of course I'm anxious! You're the only one who can change this story, and all you ever do is think about nonsense!>
The god of this world.
The absolute authority.
And yet all she could do was watch. She had no power to change how things unfolded — not one shred of it.
Her frustration, I'd admit, was understandable.
"Sure, I've shown you some less-than-trustworthy behavior, but none of it has derailed our design. I get that it's stressful, but hearing that from you actually stings."
Joining Chloe's study group had cost me plenty of comfort and convenience, and all for the sake of prying Chloe and Eva apart.Objecting to my methods at every turn was, frankly, a bit rich.
The Writer — who knew full well what I'd been putting in — seemed to realize how unfair the jab had been, because her mood plunged all at once.
"As long as you got the message, we're good. You don't need to apologize — just keep watching, and answer my questions properly when I ask."
Arms loaded with drinks, I headed back to where the kids had gathered.
From a distance, Eva and Marin were still bickering, and Chloe still stared into the void.
Exactly the same scene as before I'd left.
With one difference.
"Writer. You seeing that?"
<Yes, dear reader.>
Off in the distance, from behind one of the training ground's pillars, an unfamiliar gaze was watching them.