Custom-Tailored Play

-KAKAKAKAKAK!!

-KAKAKAKAKAK!!

Tylos rolled around on the floor laughing, kicking up a thin haze of dust.

"Is he…… going to be okay, like that?"

Kwon Haeseong muttered, briskly brushing the dust from his trousers.

"If we let him go…… do you think he might kill us instead?"

He was laughing with tears actually welling up in his eyes, and by now it almost looked pitiable.

Well, I figured laughing that much in one lifetime couldn't be a bad thing.

"Laughter brings good fortune, you know."

Haeseong had…… a great deal he clearly wanted to say to that gem of wisdom, but his face settled on holding it in for now, and he declared in a low voice:

"Later…… you'll tell me. There's…… a lot I want to ask."

I shrugged and picked up the bag lying on the ground. Whatever was in it, I had no intention of answering later either, so it didn't matter.

So he instinctively figured out that I did something to his body.

This was my first time using it on someone in his right mind, so I'd only just now realized that this was a problem. He could have shamelessly played dumb and been done with it.

"Now, let's go find Taejae."

We'd found the kids, which meant we needed to move quickly to accomplish our original purpose.

"Teacher, why is he doing that?"

Before that, though, we had a certain issue to resolve.

When the child pointed at Tylos, who was rolling on his back and cackling his guts out, I gently took the kid's face in my hands and turned it away.

Don't look. You'll rot.

"That's…… a monster. It almost killed all of you—"

"I think he had fun playing with us!"

Kwon Haeseong, silence.

If the kids found out they'd nearly died moments ago, would they quietly stand there? No. They'd panic and scatter in every direction, and that would be the end of it.

So after some stubborn deliberation, I made my decision.

A judicious blend of truth and innocence.

"You saw Teacher Haeseong playing with it, right? He played with it super hard. It's laughing because it's so happy."

"That was playing?"

"I'm never playing with the Seal Class teacher again!"

"Teacher, please be kind to animals."

Blasted out of nowhere, Kwon Haeseong stared at me. His eyes said, Why…… is the conversation going like this…?, and I quietly shook my head.

Take one for the team.

"Teacher! Why did you hit the animal? If you play like that, I wouldn't like it either!"

"Me neither."

"Me too."

……Ugh, seriously.

With Kwon Haeseong continuing to stare at me in silence, I finally raised both ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hands in surrender. He was the one who'd suffered against Tylos, so I suppose his nerves were frayed.

Thankfully, the kids just treated Tylos as a slightly larger animal, or things could've been worse.

"Hmm, right. I suppose it might have looked like Teacher Haeseong was handling the animal roughly."

"Yeah, the animal looked so sad."

Right, they'd watched him try to cave a monster's face in with a rock, so believing that was more than fair.

"But Teacher Haeseong wasn't…… bullying it. Actually, he was playing with it too well. It looks a little rough, but that's not really what's happening. That's why it's laughing so hard, tee-hee-hee~ out of pure joy. Isn't that right, Teacher Haeseong?"

"Yes…… it was customized play."

Having successfully extracted that awkward bit of support from him, I stole a glance at the kids' reactions…

"Really? I thought the Seal Class teacher was torturing it."

"No way~ Teacher Haeseong loves animals! The animal friend was just too big and dangerous, so he played with it in our place."

Still, kids were kids.

They didn't seem able to connect the dots to the control collar—the one Manager Lee Wonwoo had handed over—that had reduced Tylos to this sorry state a moment ago.

In other words, the kids currently believed the monster Kwon Haeseong had beaten had been so shocked by the experience that it had lost its mind.

Me snapping the control collar on at the end probably looked like a drop in the ocean next to all that.

Watching the furrows in the children's brows smooth out, I judged they'd more ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠or less bought it. Relieved, I shook the dust out of my hair with a satisfying snap.

"Then since I'm small, please play gently with me!"

Noah made this request of Kwon Haeseong with the gravity of someone taking a great vow—still clutching Taejae's sneaker in a death grip, mind you.

"Yes, I'll…… do my best…."

Apparently Noah had concluded somewhere along the way that size and play intensity were directly proportional, because he held out his pinky finger toward Kwon Haeseong.

"……"

It was a resolute promise, as solemn as swearing an invisible oath.

I opened my mouth to say something, then simply closed it again.

A misunderstanding to this degree is probably fine….

We said nothing more about Tylos and swiftly left the scene behind.

The deeper we pressed into the maze, the more small but unmistakable changes appeared.

There are more of them than when I first came through here.

The number of glowing blue stones set into the ground seemed to be steadily increasing, and with them the surroundings grew brighter still. Blue light rippled across the ground at our feet like waves.

How long had we walked, wary of these subtle shifts?

Kwon Haeseong, leading the column, glanced back and gave me a light hand signal.

Something's ahead.

That was the entirety of what his mouthed words conveyed.

I gathered the three children and crammed us into the hedge of brush. One adult and three kids wedged into a hollow cleared beneath the tangled foliage filled it to capacity.

The unspoken agreement was that no one came out until Kwon Haeseong signaled again.

Hmm, this one's running long, isn't it?

We'd been through this pattern more than five times now, but never once had the signal taken this long.

Thirty minutes gone by? For some reason, I was getting uneasy.

I debated for a moment, then finally decided to take a quick look outside.

"Hm? What's that sound? Ah~ Teacher Haeseong says something? I need to step out for a minute, so you can stay put right here, right? Perfectly still?"

Naturally, no sound had actually reached us.

It was pure self-answering setup. I had to keep planting the impression that it was nothing serious.

At my words, the children huddled together nodded vigorously. Good, I'm counting on you, kids.

Slipping out of the brush, I closed in soundlessly on Kwon Haeseong, who waited a short distance away.

"Is something wrong?"

"……"

Crouched low to the ground, he turned to look at me. Embarrassment and bewilderment flickered across his face, quick and fleeting.

"……I found Taejae."

"Where is he?"

It should have been good news, but something about Haeseong's expression gave me pause.

His long index finger pointed to a spot inside a corner of the maze wall. When he stepped aside, I stretched my neck out to peer past it.

A vast plaza opened up—perhaps the very center of the maze.

And…

Son of a—what the hell is that.

"Please tell me what I'm seeing isn't real."

"……It's not real."

"I appreciate it, even if it's just words."

The fact that I was asking Kwon Haeseong for such garbage spoke to how badly I wanted to reject the reality in front of me.

……Beyond that corner were monsters worse than the Tylos we'd just dealt with.

Dozens of them, at a glance.

"They're small, but…"

Kwon Haeseong whispered, the very texture of a headache.

The monsters were small. Small enough to be miniature versions of Tylos. Sure, their size would make them easier to handle.

So what was the problem, you ask?

Every last one of those peanut-sized bastards was carrying something in its hands.

Sharpened tools.

Scythes, hatchets, and even shovels…. What variety.

"……Let me look one more time."

I squeezed out whatever courage I had and stuck my head out again.

And right on cue, a status window floated up in the air.

Forager of the Maze Garden, huh.

Somehow the small ones are scarier.

Amid all that, I made one good discovery too. Just as Kwon Haeseong had said, I found Taejae.

Through ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the scurrying Bermons, a large barred cage was visible in a secluded corner. And inside those bars stood a familiar figure.

An eye-catching yellow bag, a yellow activity uniform, and a face I knew.

Taejae.

"That's him alright."

"Yes…… it looks hard to get close, so I was deliberating…"

Hard was an understatement. Fighting through dozens of monsters to reach that cage was…. about as close to impossible as it got.

They're nothing short of armed maniacs.

I glanced back at the brush sheltering my body, Kwon Haeseong, and three small children, and started weighing options.

What method could get us there undetected?

Several plans formed and were promptly deleted, over and over, until…

I guess there's no way around it.

I presented the least terrible option to Kwon Haeseong.

"Here's what I came up with. If it seems too hard, just say so."

As the explanation went on, Kwon Haeseong scrunched his brows until it looked like a valley was about to carve itself into his face.

Is it that ugly?

Looking like a rotten orange, he stewed for a long while after I finished, then finally bobbed his head as if he couldn't help it.

"It's not bad…… but shouldn't we swap my role with yours?"

Yep, I knew you'd say that.

"Teacher Haeseong's part is dangerous, sure, but if things go wrong and the remaining kids end up at risk, having you close by would help more than having me there."

"Ah…… if that's the case. I'm faster, so…"

I know, I know. I'm well aware your physical abilities are leagues beyond mine, but wouldn't it be better to minimize the risk of anything going wrong?

Thankfully, he offered no further objections. He understood completely, then.

"Then let's get ready."

"Yes…… please be careful, Teacher."

"You too, Teacher Haeseong."

I cinched the bag tight against my back, checked my shoelaces, and did a few light jumps in place to loosen up.

"Teacher, I'm all set…"

Kwon Haeseong called to me, his face lined with worry. I, meanwhile, looked toward the perfectly hidden children and let out a genuine sound of admiration.

"Your camouflage work is flawless."

"I used to do this kind of thing a lot, back in the day…"

He scratched his forehead, embarrassed, but he seemed sincere. And truly, the skill deserved praise.

Using the brush, wooden stakes, assorted stones, and other terrain features around the sloppy little spot I'd thrown together, he'd cleverly concealed our hiding place—it was, honestly, remarkable. Nothing about my hasty work remained visible.

That was clearly expert-level craftsmanship.

What on earth had he done in the past to get this good at camouflage?

"……"

……Right, what you don't know can't hurt you.

He probably made a name for himself in the Boy Scouts as a kid or something.

I swept away the idle thoughts and focused on the situation at hand.

"Did you brief the kids on the plan?"

Above all else in this operation, the top priority was the children's safety.

So Haeseong and I had agreed to hide the three children even more thoroughly, and the result was that magnificent shelter.

He'd only be moving around the immediate area, but better safe than sorry.

"Yes, I impressed upon them that no matter what happens, they must not come out."

Ooh, confident tone. I like it.

"Good. Then let's begin."

I hid myself behind a boulder as far from Kwon Haeseong as I could manage. Tucked between a rock face and hanging green vines, the spot let me hide without any unnaturalness giving me away.

Now…. I stretched out my right hand and flashed the okay sign.

And then, we waited in silence.

Through a slight crack in the rock, I could see Kwon Haeseong tracing the Sign of the Cross. Clean, precise movements.

In that moment, I understood it instinctively. There'd been no visible change in his appearance, but I could tell at a glance.

That gesture was a kind of condition for amplifying Kwon Haeseong's ability.

As an aside, it's common knowledge that Awakeners use their abilities as naturally as breathing.

But the problem—such as it was—was that this effortless, breathing-easy use of power came with a fixed limit for each individual.

Why else would ranks exist?

An A-rank had the limits of an A-rank, a B-rank the limits of a B-rank, and…. even a D-rank like me had the limits of a D-rank.

And what pries those limits open a crack is a kind of ritual.

The accepted wisdom is that the condition of the ritual is usually set to an action or turn of phrase the Awakener performs habitually…

Though they say some people go their whole lives without ever finding theirs.

In my case, it was touching my earring. The difference being that instead of amplifying my power like everyone else, what I got was a bizarre status window and outright nonsensical abilities.

This guy won't have a status window or anything, right? He's said he doesn't know even when asked about others so far, so…

-Ding!

Huh? Ding?

……What is this.

I stared blankly at the status window that had thoroughly mistranslated my thoughts.

So let me get this straight. That line of mine—this guy won't have a status window, right?—and the window interpreted it as show me this guy's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠status window?

I was too tired to even be surprised anymore. Hey, when did I tell you to make judgments on my behalf?

And what was with this bizarre nonsense filling Kwon Haeseong's status window, anyway?

Just as I was locked in a strange staring contest with the window…

Kwon Haeseong's voice rang out loud and clear from a distance.

"Hey, you stubby little punks over there! Yeah, you—the ones spinning around like idiots. If you've seen me, then hurry up and come on out!"

Hold on a second.

……Why is his dialogue like that?

"Wow, you guys live here? What is that, a hovel? What even is it. Well, since it's come to this, I'll just bulldoze the whole thing for you. You should really build a new one anyway. Demolition's on the house—pretty good deal, no?"

Also, that doesn't even sound like how he normally talks?

"Ahh, no need to thank me. It's not like I'm lacking in anything to use the elderly and children for cooking supplies. With legs that stubby, your brains must be just as small, so I doubt you could manage a single word of thanks. That's fine. I'll graciously forgive that too."

……Hey, you absolute lunatic.

We never discussed anything like this, did we?