Hero Academy (3-48)
Yoon Jia used a status-ailment recovery skill on Song Ara, drew in a deep breath, and calmly opened her mouth.
"There. All done. There shouldn't be any major problems for a while."
"Thank you…."
Song Ara listened to Yoon Jia's words and stared hard into the distant darkness that swallowed everything from sight.
Yoon Jia rested a hand on Song Ara's shoulder and spoke again.
"Are you worried?"
"…Yes."
"…."
Yoon Jia was just as worried.
If Sung Suho had been a full instructor, she would not have fretted this much. But the man who had gone out to rescue them, however skilled he might be, was only an assistant instructor. And the opponent was strong enough to overwhelm a proper Hero.
…Should I have pulled rank as an instructor and stopped him?
At the time she had been so overwhelmed by Sung Suho's presence that she had simply followed his orders as if being dragged along. Even for someone as naturally dependent as Yoon Jia, she had never let an assistant instructor lead her around like that. Yet the man she had only just met guided her with effortless ease, and she had obeyed him without thinking.
Have I met him before? Someone with that much charisma… I couldn't possibly forget him….
Yoon Jia tried once more to dig through the strange, mismatched memories. What floated up by chance had nothing to do with the present crisis—it was Go Chungshin.
Haa… Just thinking about Oppa makes me mad….
Thanks to the dreams that had been tormenting her lately, the mere thought of Go Chungshin sent irritation surging through her. It had only been a dream, yet the way he had begged her to die kept overlapping in her mind. And in those same dreams, right beside Go Chungshin, the archer character Plunderer kept appearing as well.
…I wonder if he's doing okay.
Her condition had been poor because of the dreams, and she had been so busy she had even forgotten she was supposed to log in. Lately he was one of the few people she could lean on—alongside Sung Suho—so the fear that the connection might break had started to gnaw at her.
And then, in that exact moment—
Come to think of it… their voices sound kind of similar….
Yoon Jia gave her head a sharp shake, pulled herself together, and forced her attention back onto the watch.
I can't let my mind wander at a time like this. Focus.
"Hah… hah… Stop right there!"
Park Huiyeon was chasing the assailant while clutching Oh Jin-ho's severed arm. Blood soaked her clothes, and the arm she held was already beginning to cool.
It's only an emergency measure, but I have a high-grade potion. As long as it hasn't completely necrotized, I can reattach it. If I just catch that bastard!
Yet the distance between them refused to close. Even while carrying Oh Jin-ho over one shoulder, the figure's footsteps looked impossibly light.
Even in the frantic pursuit, Park Huiyeon began to regain her composure.
What if it isn't just one of them…?
The thought had barely formed when the lightly sprinting figure suddenly found itself at a dead end, stopped, and casually turned around.
The moment she saw it, Park Huiyeon snapped into a proper stance and raised the tip of her sword toward the assailant.
"Hah… hah… You really thought you could run from me, you fucker?"
"…."
"Who do you work for? No—asking that is pointless. You wouldn't tell me anyway…."
Park Huiyeon kept her gaze locked on the figure, never once looking away from the Oh Jin-ho slung over its shoulder. She had chased this far not for the assailant, but to save Oh Jin-ho.
"Put that man down right now and leave. Then I won't chase you any farther."
"…."
"You don't seem to know who I am…. I'm with the Church. If you walk away now, at the very least your life will—"
While she was delivering that plea wrapped in a threat, footsteps sounded behind her.
Thud. Thud. Thud….
Park Huiyeon briefly closed her eyes, furrowed her brow, and twisted her body just enough to check the rear.
Two more cloaked figures stood there at their ease.
…Fuck.
It was the worst possible situation. She had already judged she could not win against one. With two more added, the fight was as good as over.
One of the figures behind her wore the cloak flipped inside out, yet the difference in physique was still obvious.
Bat wings. A cat's tail….
Park Huiyeon muttered toward the three of them.
"Fuck… so you really were freaks after all…."
Nine times out of ten, this kind of shit was the work of those monsters.
Surrounded, she ground her teeth and demanded,
"What the hell do you want?"
"…."
None of the three answered.
"Haa… Right. You were never the talking type. All of you can just die—"
She tightened her grip on the sword, ready to charge with death already accepted, when a voice cut in.
—Hold on.—
"…?"
Park Huiyeon heard the electronic voice laced with static and slowly turned her head toward the two standing figures. Their cloaked forms were completely unreadable; even gender was hard to tell. The only clues came from the lower bodies the cloaks did not fully cover.
The one with bat wings was a woman. The tall one beside her was a man. That much she could guess.
And the one I fought earlier looks like a woman too….
The lines that flared out so blatantly were curvy enough that even someone who wanted to remain ignorant of the gender would have no choice but to notice.
As if answering her silence, the man spoke again in that noise-filled voice.
—Our objective is complete. If you do not pursue us any further, we will spare your life.—
"Hahaha…. What a load of bullshit. After coming this far…."
—You have no desire to keep the man alive, then?—
"Grrk…."
Oh Jin-ho entered her vision. The blade in the assailant's hand was already angled against his throat, ready to draw a diagonal line.
The instant that blade moved, every effort Park Huiyeon had made to save him would turn to foam.
Even so, hearing those words let her grind her teeth and, at the same time, feel a measure of relief.
I can't win anyway…. Luckily it looks like they want to get out of here fast too….
She had no intention of stalling just to try and take them down. Her entire focus stayed on keeping Oh Jin-ho alive.
"Fine…. Then put my comrade down and get the hell out."
—That, however, is not so simple a problem.—
"Haa… Are you fucking with me right now?"
The same bastard who had just suggested they both back off was changing his tune again. Of course she was pissed.
—If, while we are leaving, you call for your comrades, that would put us in a difficult position.—
"Then take every damn communication device, you fucks."
—You look rather skilled. If you reach the dungeon exit faster than we do, even that would be meaningless.—
"No, fuck! Then what the hell do you want me to do?!"
Park Huiyeon spat curses, certain they were just toying with her.
The figure with bat wings and a cat tail tossed something toward her. She confirmed it was not an attack but an offer, and carefully snatched the slowly flying object out of the air.
It was a crude, transparent bottle. Only about 10 ml, with a tiny amount of liquid sloshing inside.
"What is this?"
—A sleeping drug.—
"…What?"
—If you drink it and fall asleep, we will leave the man and depart.—
"…."
Park Huiyeon stared blankly, mouth hanging open in sheer disbelief.
If she had been alone, she would have unleashed a double helping of curses and charged them on the spot. No matter how precious her life was, Park Huiyeon was not the type to accept such an absurd proposal.
But she was not alone.
"…How am I supposed to trust a word you say?"
—The fact that we are even bothering with a proposal this troublesome is proof enough.—
"…."
From the beginning they could have simply killed her without a single word of conversation.
Fuck… Why the hell are bastards like this inside a mid-to-low-grade dungeon….
She tried to make sense of the situation with zero information, but the three of them clearly had no intention of giving her time to think.
—Decide quickly. We are busy as well.—
"…So you want me to get eaten by whatever monster happens to wander by?"
—Do not worry about that. We will handle it. This is the last chance. Stall any further and there will be no next offer.—
The moment the man finished speaking, a thin line of blood began to trickle from the blade pressed to Oh Jin-ho's neck.
Park Huiyeon pulled a high-grade potion from her pocket, lifted it together with the severed arm, and spoke.
"Then at least let me treat my comrade first. Absolutely not before that."
—…Very well.—
With those words the figure presumed to be a man jerked his chin. The winged one approached, took the arm and the potion from Park Huiyeon, and went to Oh Jin-ho.
—Drink it at once. Then we will finish the treatment and leave immediately.—
"…Fuck."
Park Huiyeon uncorked the transparent bottle and dumped the entire contents into her mouth in one go.
"…."
Not long after, she crumpled to the floor.
Lying there while pretending, she muttered inwardly.
If it's an ordinary sleeping drug I can hold out quite a while. The second I see an opening I'll strike….
Through narrowed eyes she watched Oh Jin-ho's side. The two figures were fumbling around, trying to reattach the arm.
…At least it really looks like they're trying to keep him alive.
The moment she let her guard down even a little—
Splat.
A sticky liquid poured over her head, coating her eyes, nose, and lips.
"Pffht…."
—Even if you pretend, doing it so clumsily is a problem. No matter how potent the sleeping drug, it cannot put someone under that instantly.—
"…Kh."
Park Huiyeon bit her lip and turned her head just enough to glare at the speaker.
A presence whose face was completely invisible. Even when she stared hard into the cloak, the interior remained utterly black.
Where the hell did these bastards get cloaks like that…. Wait… no… I can't… fall asleep….
While she was still staring, her eyelids began to slide shut of their own accord. The last voice that reached her ears became a lullaby.
—I had so many experiments I wanted to run. How fortunate that experimental material showed up for me.—
"What… does… that…."
Park Huiyeon could not finish the sentence. Her eyes closed.
I picked up the bottle rolling beside Park Huiyeon and muttered,
Drinking plain water and still putting on an act….
The liquid I had handed her was nothing but water. What actually put her to sleep was not a drug—it was sleep magic.
She had clearly planned to fake the effects of a sleeping potion and wait for an opening.
Just as Armonia said, she must have been confident she could hold out.
Still, good thing it worked. Honestly I didn't think she would actually drink it.
Thanks to that I got a clear measure of how much Park Huiyeon cared about Oh Jin-ho.
Like I said earlier—I want to run a few experiments….
I left Armonia's question unanswered for the moment and walked over to Rena and Beatrice to check on Oh Jin-ho's condition.
Their behavior looked anything but ordinary.
"Beatrice, if you attach it like that…."
"Hnyang…. What am I supposed to do about this, nyang?"
"What's wrong? What happened?"
Both of them wore awkward expressions as they looked at me. Beatrice did not answer; she simply showed me the arm she had attached to Oh Jin-ho.
The arm was attached, all right. Attached… but—
"What the hell? Why did you put it on like that?"
Oh Jin-ho's palm was facing outward. If he bent the arm, it would fold the wrong way—completely reversed.
"Th-that is… I thought it would not stick properly if I just put it on normally… so while I was trying to make the potion soak in better, it ended up like this, nyang…."
"…."
Apparently she had aligned the cut surfaces and poured the potion. Then, determined to do a thorough job, she had rotated the severed face so the potion would penetrate more evenly. Somewhere in the middle of all that spinning, the pieces had fused—leaving Oh Jin-ho's arm permanently facing the wrong direction in a grotesque new configuration.
I looked at the reversed arm and patted Beatrice on the shoulder.
"Good work."
"Ehh? It's okay, nyang?"
"As long as you don't make the same mistake when it's our arms that need reattaching, we're fine…."
"Hehe…."
Having strengthened our family bond, I turned my head and grinned at the unconscious Park Huiyeon.
All right… time to begin the Subordination experiment!