Awakener Jeong Jae-ha (2)

"What does killing demonic beasts have to do with recovering my leg?"

I arched a brow. This wasn't some online game. Slaying a demonic beast was hardly going to pour experience into me of its own accord and bump me up a level.

"Ah. You wouldn't know about that, would you? When an awakener kills a demonic beast, they absorb the mana the beast was carrying."

"They what?"

"The amount varies enormously depending on the awakener's talent and the kind of beast, but they absorb it all the same. And every time they do, both their physical ability and their supernatural power grow stronger."

Listening to the Samjeong employee, though, it seemed reality had gone and outdone online games.

"It's the same for artificial awakeners who awakened through the Awakening Drug. We've observed it in other artificial awakeners over the past year, so it's certain."

The nausea sank away as if it had never been there.

"There's even a case where a leg grew back for someone who'd had a disability before awakening and was missing the leg entirely."

"It grew back?"

"Yes. They say that after he killed about a thousand orcs and goblins and reached D-rank, it grew back slowly. Nerves, at the very least, I can state with certainty will recover."

Five minutes was more than enough time to swing a blade a hundred times over. It wasn't as if I collapsed outright the moment those five minutes passed, and if the span would only keep lengthening the more I hunted, it was nothing to despair over. I thought back to my days as an athlete. Had there ever been an opponent I faced in earnest for more than five minutes and still couldn't beat? No one came to mind. The numbers were the same. A thousand. A great many, but not a count that felt beyond my reach. All I have to do is fight a thousand times, isn't it?

"Understood. Thank you. I'll give it everything I have."

I bowed my head to the staff around me. Fencing is a gentleman's sport. A fencer ought to know how to say thank you when thanks are due.

"Then let's get you ready."

"Yes."

I set about preparing for my release at once. I had my head shaved once more and finished a shower. In the mirror stood the me I knew. Whether it was the awakening or not, my body was in better shape than even in my active years—hair cut short and swept neatly aside, the way I'd worn it as an athlete; a face sharp, and yet never far from a smile; eyes carrying a faint, keen light.

"Ha. Hahaha."

Seeing that light gathered in my eyes, I burst out laughing again. It was the light of hope I had longed for all this time.

"Has it been four years?"

"Yes. Four years."

"Don't you feel it was unjust?"

"......I'll be satisfied with having come in on a wheelchair and walking out. And with the fact that I can swing a sword again."

That day, I left the island. The procedures moved far faster than I'd expected, so I still hadn't been able to get word to Chae-ha. The smartphone that had sat dead for four years wouldn't even turn on, as if something in it had given out.

"Could I borrow a phone, just once?"

Good thing I'd memorized Chae-ha's number.

"I have a younger sister. We exchanged letters now and then, but I wasn't in a position to use a phone, so she won't know what's become of me."

"Ah, use it as much as you like."

Holding a smartphone after so long felt awkward. Then again, I'd never been on particularly friendly terms with electronics. Chae-ha used to call me hopeless with machines, and I hadn't had the face to argue. It wasn't only that I disliked them—I truly had no talent for them. Press the wrong things and the computer would freeze on me more often than not, and Coach had always been the one to handle the electronic paperwork. I jabbed at the screen with a fingertip and placed the call.

The voice guidance started, then cut off.

"No good?"

"No. It didn't go through."

"That happens a lot. Plenty of people died, or got separated."

When I looked disappointed, the officials drifted over in twos and threes and offered this advice and that.

"If you were getting letters, you know the address, don't you? They give you leave once training's done, so go find her then."

"Oh, and the government set up a reunion site. Put a profile up there and run a search."

A reunion site. I'll have to look into that.

"Do you know where your sister's working now?"

"Yes. She said she's working at Saetbyeol, in a non-awakened office position."

"Then you've got nothing to worry about. You'll meet eventually. Or you could just join Saetbyeol yourself, Mr. Jae-ha."

"I heard it's a very good guild. Would they take people like us?"

"Do you have any idea how short on hunters we are right now? Score well at the training center and you can go anywhere."

On top of that, I learned about the phone-bill subsidies, the government-issued handsets, the housing support for refugees from the capital region—this benefit and that, all the things a person could receive in the changed world. Every bit of it helped.

Belated as it is to say so, the Ministry of Justice officials did their share of trying to scare us, too. Parole is not a special pardon. We would have to wear an electronic ankle monitor for tracking, overseas travel would be restricted, and there were any number of other constraints besides. It didn't feel like an exemption from the sentence so much as the sentence being served somewhere other than a prison. And the Awakened Association Training Center in southern Gyeonggi Province wasted no time making it clear that the Association had no intention of treating us as mere convicts.

"You get that ankle monitor off?"

"They said I'm not supposed to take this off..."

A staffer whose build alone screamed awakener grabbed my right ankle as I stepped off the bus and tore the monitor away like tissue paper.

"Is this really allowed?"

"Electronic devices break anyway, once they're exposed to the mana inside a gate. And it's a little awkward to say this, but... never mind. Head on into the main auditorium."

He started to say something, then let the words trail off. I shrugged and made for the auditorium. The training center was lavish enough to hold its own against the lodgings from my national-team days. The cafeteria I'd glimpsed in passing called a hotel buffet to mind, and the main auditorium—big enough for well over a thousand—had a plush chair at every seat. Even the smartphone they handed out at the entrance was the latest model. To me, of course, it was an object on the order of a brick of about the same size. I made sure I could at least find the phone icon.

"Fuck! This place is nice as hell."

"Feels like I might actually get to live."

"That fucking cell. I'm never going back in."

The auditorium was already seething with a crowd of every stripe. All around, rough-looking men traded talk thick with coarse curses.

"Lucky I found you, you little shit! You sold me out to the cops?"

Farther off, I could see others with each other by the collar, as if they couldn't control the strength they'd gained after awakening. They were the sort I'd seen plenty of around training, so they didn't feel particularly strange.

"To everyone who applied for the Rehabilitation Hunter Service Transition System—welcome, all of you."

Just then the beam projector came on, and someone stepped up onto the podium.

"I'm Hong Si-yu, Policy Coordination Section Chief of the Special Cooperation Bureau at the Awakened Association."

She wore a vertically striped suit, her softly gleaming crimson hair cut in a sharp bob. She wasn't especially large, so even with a microphone in hand, not every parolee's eyes had gathered on her.

Fwoooosh!

That lasted only until Hong Si-yu opened her mouth wide and spewed a furious column of fire that reached all the way to the rear doors of that vast hall.

"Holy shit."

The fire alarm screamed and the sprinklers dumped water, but not one person protested. Even I could only stand there with my mouth hanging open, turning over what had just happened. I hadn't thought I'd ever see a person breathe fire in real life. Honestly, my pulse kicked a little. Doesn't that mean I'm an awakener, the same as her?

"Most of the people gathered here were incarcerated before the Open Gate Incident, so I'll begin with a brief explanation of how society has changed."

At Hong Si-yu's words, everyone straightened and focused.

"I'll be giving training points to whoever shows the best attitude, so listen carefully. Later, you'll be able to choose your posting in order of those points."

She smiled brightly, in a tone not unlike promising candy if we behaved. Even without that, it seemed everyone would be paying attention now.

"Four years ago, the Open Gate Incident first occurred in Paju..."

On a single slide, Hong Si-yu laid out the major events of the past four years. Gates opened, demonic beasts poured out, Seoul fell, and ten million refugees were made. Demonic beasts of the sea threw shipping into chaos, and the economy collapsed completely. S-rank Hunter Ban Hae-jin subjugated the major gates, and after the Samjeong Group developed the Awakening Drug and the technology to convert mana into electricity, the situation began to improve. Over the question of mandatory enlistment for awakened hunters, Hunter Ban Hae-jin defied the government's decision and moved as if to stage a coup, then negotiated with the government instead. The Association and the guild system were established, and the mana stone economy began.

"...And by entering the gates and hunting demonic beasts, you will create conditions in which mining teams can safely extract mana stones."

By the time she had said that much, even the parolees who had looked the most rebellious had gone meek as lambs. A vicious sense of unreality tore through my whole body.

"Next are the demonic beasts you'll mainly be facing."

Hong Si-yu advanced the slide.

Up on the slide loomed a monster that looked like a tangle of pumpkin vines. Flames burned inside a head resembling a Halloween pumpkin, and beneath it hung a half-human, half-beast body made of creeping stems. Murmurs rose here and there. Laughter spilled out, as if people thought the thing looked ridiculous. I had my own private doubts. What kind of life-form is that supposed to be, looking like some ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠brain-nut or whatever they call it?

"This one's name is Jack-o'-Lantern. You'll be calling it a pumpkin bastard far more often, though, so just remember it that way. It's the most common demonic beast after goblins, so you'll be seeing plenty of them."

Hong Si-yu was not smiling.

"The Jack-o'-Lantern is not an especially strong demonic beast. The problem is the authority it wields."

Her tone grew heated by degrees.

"This pumpkin bastard absorbs flame. The moment heat above a certain temperature occurs within a certain range, it sucks it right up. Yes. That means you can't fire a gun."

Hearing that, I understood why the military had been rolled so easily. Guns are stronger than people think. Even I, who had been called the World's Greatest Swordsman, was put in a wheelchair by a single shot from a revolver.

"Most demonic beasts die if you shoot them. But if this thing is so much as mixed in among them, you can't shoot at all—so awakened hunters have to use their abilities or swing a blade and kill this bastard first."

And this beast, she was saying, wouldn't even let you fire a gun.

"The problem is that this pumpkin bastard is hard to kill even if you can use a gun. Its body is hard as old wood, it stands over three meters tall, and there are other demonic beasts beside it. If it's already absorbed heat, it comes at you breathing fire."

Leading in with a so, Hong Si-yu went on.

"Hunters of C-rank and below, the mid and lower ranks, and artificial awakeners created by the Awakening Drug died in enormous numbers. With no one left willing to volunteer, we ended up calling in all of you. From where you stand, I suppose we might even be your benefactors."

So that's why the facilities and the food here are this good. It has the feel of a last supper.

Hong Si-yu said so once more and advanced the slide.

"You will need to train with melee weapons. Greatswords, axes, spears, longswords, katanas, fencing—anything is fine."

Every kind of blade revealed itself.

"First, you have to cut this bastard down. Only then can the non-awakened hunters behind you shoot the goblins, the orcs, and the spiders."

A fencing blade. A katana. A longsword. A traditional Korean saber. A cavalry saber.

"If any of you hold something like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a dan certificate, note it when you fill out the application later. I'll give you additional points. Ah—boxing, jiu-jitsu, and judo don't count. Its body's covered in thorns, so hitting it only hurts your own fist, and the arms are vine tentacles that won't even break."

I had handled every one of them.

"No. First, let me see a show of hands. Is there anyone here with something like a kendo dan certificate? I'll give you a great many training points."

Then Hong Si-yu put a question to us.

"I do."

"So do I."

Hands went up here and there.

"I've got a few different ones."

I raised my hand without hesitation. I didn't know exactly where or how those points would be used, but if they were giving them out, it would be better to take them. From Hong Si-yu's tone I could also feel that she did not look on this Rehabilitation Hunter Service Transition System in an entirely favorable light. The sense that they needed mana stones, and so were dragging in even the likes of us. It didn't seem likely they would hold our lives particularly dear. But I'm not the same as the other inmates, am I?

"I'm Kim Kang-oh. I was the action leader of the Scorpion Gang. Third dan in kendo."

Most of the people who had raised their hands were of that sort. Men who had started out in sports, stepped onto a filthy road, and spent what they'd learned in filthy places.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Noted, for now."

Hong Si-yu's expression wasn't good either.

"And you there are... huh?"

She pointed at me, then looked uncertain.

"Jeong Jae-ha. I'm an Olympic gold medalist in fencing. I've won a number of other international competitions as well."

I gave her the answer she would want to hear.

"I hear he's gone into the training center? Congratulations. He really pulled it off."

A room sunk in darkness.

"I told you he would. He's strong. Stronger than anyone I've ever known."

The one-armed man and the silver-haired woman were speaking.

"So, want to go see him?"

"You're joking, right? I'd rather not go to prison with him."

"You waited four whole years. If things had gone as they should have, you might have met him in the second. You made half of it with your own hands, and you still couldn't trust it?"

"A fifty percent fatality rate makes it closer to poison than an Awakening Drug. I couldn't inject that into my brother."

"Anyway, you worked hard. Thanks to you, 2.0 came out well."

"In words only?"

The one-armed man smiled with easy leisure, and the silver-haired woman gave a thin little laugh.

"Of course I'll make it generous. Gold, cash, mana stones—name whatever you want."

"Is today the day the Saetbyeol warehouse gets cleaned out? What is this, 'the boss has lost his mind'?"

"Lost it is right... so you're really fine not going to see him?"

"I was prepared to wait ten years."

"......"

"I can wait a little longer."

As if craving something, she slowly curled the fingers of her metal-gauntleted hand, then opened them again, over and over.

"And I believe that if it's my brother, he'll climb this far without fail."

"All the way to the top of the world?"

"Experienced talent is what everyone wants these days. Someone who's already stood up there."