Episode 8 — The Top Trainee (3)

The Awakeners broke into a murmur.

"Whoa. Whoa!"

"Oh—that was six just now, right?"

"He shut down the right shoulder and countered, so yeah. Six. Parade Sixte Riposte."

"That one was the left leg. Septime. The numbers aren't far off the English, huh."

"Just match the motion to the number. Five is the head, six is high right, four is high left..."

Watching me toy with Kim Kang-oh, someone gaped.

"Holy shit. He's insane."

I caught a glimpse of Lee Hae-il clapping a hand over her mouth and dragging in a sharp, empty breath. At this point, if that wasn't a woman, that would be the bigger problem.

"Jeong Jae-ha! Jeong Jae-ha! Jeong Jae-ha!"

Someone took up my name and wouldn't let it go.

"Everyone! Don't cheer—watch!"

I hauled down the corner of my mouth, which kept trying to climb all the way to my ears, and carried the lesson on.

"Starting to make sense?"

"Yes!"

"That was incredible to watch!"

"Long live Parade-whatever Riposte!"

By the time I had shown them the six defensive guards thoroughly enough, Kim Kang-oh was twitching on the floor like a pile of ground meat. He was in no state to fight any further. A shame—not because he was hurt, but because I couldn't keep fighting an opponent who was throwing everything he had into beating me. With a pang of regret I lifted the practice sword and drove it hard into his knee, so he could finally go down.

"Ghk!"

Kim Kang-oh screamed and pitched forward. The shiv ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠spilled from his hand. I kicked it far across the floor, then set the tip of my practice blade lightly, firmly, against the hollow of his throat and pinned him there.

"Kim Kang-oh."

I went on, low enough that no one else could hear.

"Do I owe you something? You raise hell because I wouldn't teach you?"

"Khak—ghhk."

"It's not like you handle a blade better than I do."

Part of me wanted him to get back up and come at me again. The rest wanted him gone, never to show his face in front of me.

"If you're going to demand something from me, you need to be more in the right than I am, or stronger. One of the two."

"I'll kill you! I swear I'll kill you!"

Kim Kang-oh snarled it.

"Kill me?"

It was the kind of snarl that pulled a snort out of you.

"The only reason you could come looking for me is because you figured I couldn't kill you. You're right. I can't. I've got too much to lose."

I knew, because I'd already tried it once. At that quiet mutter, Kim Kang-oh flinched.

"What I can do is beat you like this all day. Come after me again, or let me hear you laid a hand on anyone who came here to learn from me, and you take another beating. In front of everyone."

I stared straight into his eyes.

"...!"

Kim Kang-oh trembled, then dropped his gaze.

"He crafted a shiv and attempted to attack a fellow trainee. I request that he be severely punished."

I called an instructor over, handed Kim Kang-oh off, and went back to the lesson. Everyone was so hungry to learn that we drilled without noticing the time. Working through them one by one put enough strain on my right leg that I felt it, and that strain taught me something else. Even if I wasn't going all out, once the fatigue stacked up, the leg answered. I needed to start killing monsters, and soon.

A few Awakeners stayed after the session, determined to keep practicing.

"Haa—haah. Damn. Holy shit, that was brutal. Whoa. Athlete Jeong. Shit—no. Thank you. Seriously. I learned a hell of a lot."

"Good work."

One of them was Lee Hae-il.

"You did well."

Her blade work was solid. Clean footwork, a good sense of timing, and no fear of closing in—sabre might suit her.

It wasn't as if the place lacked female model inmates. I didn't know why she was passing as a man, or how she had made it from the detention center all the way to prison without being found out, and I didn't particularly want to know. But Kim Kang-oh's strange behavior earlier had dragged my attention back. Rage issues or not, would he really forge a shiv and come after me just because I wouldn't teach him swordsmanship? A man who had called fencing nothing but poking with chopsticks, wanting to learn from me? It didn't add up. The swordwork wasn't the problem. It made more sense to think he had been wary of someone slipping out from under his eye.

"..."

I had no interest in what did or didn't hang between Lee Hae-il's legs.

"Lee Hae-il."

"Ah, yes! Hyung-nim!"

Even so, a student I had taught for all of two hours, one who had shown decent talent and real fire, was worth a swordsman's attention.

"This might be out of line, but I used to have a friend I learned fencing with."

"Yes. Ah, you can speak however you like, Hyung-nim."

"Appreciate it. Hmm. He worked like mad, and even I could see he truly loved fencing, but the talent wasn't there. He never set foot on the world stage."

"Right."

"But he studied so hard that he got good at teaching. Ended up an instructor at a big fencing club in Gangnam."

I had the feeling I'd taken the long way around it.

"Teaching the wives of company presidents, he made far more than most gold medalists. I don't know how he's doing now, but he lasted in the business longer than I did."

So I just said it outright.

"You'll make it out. You can. Even if you can't yet, don't throw away the will to. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Lee Hae-il stared at me for a moment, then gave a deep nod.

"Yes. Hyung-nim."

Hong Si-yu kept her word.

"Early graduation, you mean?"

Whether as punishment or simply the next step of it, Kim Kang-oh was processed for early graduation at once.

"Yes. They say Chief Hong ordered it herself."

"Then where is Kim Kang-oh going?"

"There's a Black Guild that took thirty from the last cohort and lost every one of them within a month, so they were barred from the program this time. They sent him there."

The two weeks left until the tutorial vanished in a blink. We kept at swordsmanship and marksmanship, hunting theory and first aid, and all six of the lessons were held on schedule. Then the day came. More than a thousand Awakeners sat once more in the great hall where we had gathered on the first day.

"All right! A month has already gone by."

Hong Si-yu took the microphone on the platform and launched in, bright and brisk.

"Tomorrow is already the final exam—the tutorial. You'll step through a Gate and fight monsters yourselves."

This time no one talked over her or kicked up a fuss. Everyone knew exactly how powerful an Awakener hunter she was.

"Now. Before I explain the rules of Pumpkin Forest, the Gate where this tutorial will be held, we'll settle the interim scores. The top trainee before the final practical is...!"

She tossed in a line meant to wind the tension up before the tally, but no one was tense.

"...Yes! It's Athlete Jeong."

Several hundred pairs of eyes found ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me, as if the result had never been in doubt.

"Just you wait."

In a far corner, Kim Kang-oh's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠crew—Kim Kang-oh himself nowhere among them—ground their teeth. Beside me, Lee Hae-il nodded.

"Hyung-nim. Congratulations!"

"Thanks."

Lee Hae-il had drawn a clean line between herself and that crowd. She stuck to my side in class and ate with me, and in first aid and marksmanship I was the one taking the help.

"Hyung-nim. Let's drill what we learned today, later."

Thanks to that, I had even picked up bonus points in first aid. Two weeks of extra conduct scores and the midterm check later, my total had climbed past sixty. Even if I wrecked the practical, it was enough to land me at a major corporation or a public agency. Of course, I was going to Saetbyeol Guild.

"Athlete Jeong. Come up here."

Hong Si-yu called me then.

"Huh?"

"What's this?"

"She gonna give him something?"

The Awakeners stirred, watching me. I stood and climbed onto the platform. Hong Si-yu opened a velvet box. An ivory ring lay inside.

"A prize for the top of the tutorial. Oh—I'm not awarding it yet, so don't get your hopes up. Left middle finger."

Half convinced, I slipped the ring on.

A low thrum rolled through me. My vision lurched, then settled.

What is this?

A message glowing blue had risen across my sight. Most of the fencing techniques I knew were laid out in a line, and the same list had appeared on the PowerPoint behind me. Whether because of that display restriction, only a handful of the unique skills showed up there.

"Whoa."

"What is all that?"

More than a thousand Awakeners stared at the screen in awe.

"Athlete Jeong. Would you try one of the techniques marked as a unique skill?"

At Hong Si-yu's word, I threw a light lunge.

Crack!

The word Lunge surfaced, translucent, at the edge of my vision and vanished, and I shot a good ten meters to a stop at the far end of the platform.

"Huh?"

A sensation I had no words for washed through me. It was ideal. Repeat a motion a hundred times, a thousand, until you no longer know which rep you're on, and once or twice something comes out that is your best and your peak. That once was here.

"You feel it, don't you?"

Hong Si-yu smiled, small and knowing.

"An artifact jointly developed by Dr. Seo Na-gyeong of Saetbyeol Workshop and Samjeong Psionics. The Status Window."

"A status window?"

"It artificially reproduces the status window that high-ranking natural Awakeners see. Motion assistance through Skillification, limited communication, and more. It will be lent to all of you for this tutorial only, and awarded to the top trainee and the runner-up."

She might as well have been asking, Well? Impressive, isn't it? I nearly broke into a wild laugh.

"It's an extremely expensive item, so please be careful not to lose it. Two cohorts ago, someone tried to pocket one and sell it, and was assigned to a guild with an eighty-percent fatality rate."

The price wasn't the point. Vicious of her. Don't get your hopes up, she'd said—after letting me feel something like this.

I could tell what the ring was giving me. More precisely, what the Status Window's skills were giving me. My best. The way a character in a game always uses the same skill the same way, it would let me put my best on display every single time. How radiant that was for a swordsman, I couldn't even begin to explain.

"Then I'll explain the rules of the tutorial Gate, Pumpkin Forest."

Even now I could feel, moment by moment, the sense of drawing that best out of myself. I remembered what she had said two weeks ago—that she would take care of me in style. I hadn't known she meant this much style. I wanted to use it in a real fight as soon as I could. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Sitting through the rest of Hong Si-yu's briefing was its own kind of torture.

"He's the temporary top trainee, they say."

"I knew it."

The silver-haired woman smiled, flexing an artifact gauntlet open and shut.

"That's him. The one who enjoys it—who laughs off the talented and the hardworking alike."

The reel at the gauntlet's wrist turned slowly, drawing in a thread of silver finer than a hair. Before her lay a monster's corpse, cut into dozens, perhaps hundreds, of pieces. Strangely, human arms, legs, and heads had sprouted all over the beast.

"He ought to have the Status Window Ring by now. Si-yu took a few through the Association, didn't she?"

"Didn't you authorize the release, Chief?"

"Hm? I don't know anything about that."

The silver-haired woman puffed her cheeks, the picture of innocence.

"Chief Jeong."

The man in the black suit held out a large towel, brow creased like a man who had heard what he was never meant to.

"The Status Window Ring is nice, though. With it you can see a monster's rank, and it displays just about every skill. Do names come up too?"

The silver-haired woman they called Chief Jeong kept her cheeks puffed, not the least bit concerned.

"Every registered monster species appears, and personal names can be set."

"Then I'd better change mine. In case he sees me."

"If it ever came to that, it would be a major incident."

"I know, I know."

"Even so—are you certain he'll take first in the tutorial as well? There are a thousand participants. There's no telling what variables might turn up."

The man in the suit put the question to her.

"Variables?"

Chief Jeong let the air out of her cheeks and answered, serious now.

"Do you know why he was the best?"

"Chief?"