Do Not Throw at People

"Hey, you squat little punks over there! Yeah, you — the ones standing there stupidly looking around. If you saw me, then hurry up and come out already!"

Hold on a moment.

……Why is that guy talking like that?

For a split second, I honestly thought someone other than Kwon Haeseong was speaking.

But no matter how hard I rubbed my eyes, it was Haeseong all right. He was even planting his feet in an awkward staggered stance, looking faintly nervous — but it was definitely him.

Look, I'm the one who asked him to draw aggro, but… I never asked for quite this much.

That's right. We had agreed on a pincer operation.

The plan was for Haeseong to draw the blade-wielding thugs' full attention, and once their guard slipped, I would use the opening to quietly extract Taejae.

"Wow, you guys actually live here? What is that over there, some kind of hovel? What even is that. Well, in that case, I'll plow the whole thing under for you. You're better off building from scratch anyway — think of the demolition costs you're saving. Not a bad deal, eh?"

Except… that wasn't aggro anymore, was it?

Going by his words alone, the man sounded like he had lost his mind and set out seeking death.

"Ahh, and no need to thank me. I'm not exactly hurting for ingredients — the elderly and children will do just fine. Your brains must be as short as those stubby little legs of yours, so I suppose you can't even manage a proper word of thanks? No, no, it's all right. That, too, I shall graciously forgive."

Dumbfounded, I pressed a hand to my forehead behind the boulder, unable to do anything at all.

I could only pray the man wasn't actually deranged enough to want to die.

"Whew…."

Still, worries aside, a smile of deep satisfaction crept across my face. Look at that. Wasn't it working absurdly well?

Turns out being too good at your job is its own problem.

The Vermon pack began slowly advancing on Haeseong, all together. Thoroughly enraged, at that.

The hands gripping their blades pumped up and down in quick, jerky motions. Beneath their small bone masks, bloodshot eyes glared daggers at Haeseong.

Our man answered in kind — by bringing his fist down on the boulder beside him.

BOOM!!!

The boulder shattered into pieces and scattered across the ground.

Whoa…. I don't know what that is, but it's incredible.

In that instant, I understood at last why Awakeners were all so obsessed with ability amplification.

Come to think of it… the glimpse I'd caught of Haeseong's status window earlier flickered back into my memory.

Could that 'A-' in parentheses be his ceiling after amplification?

Then that explained his absurdly swollen strength. From B-rank all the way to A-.

That wasn't a boost that pushed past one's limit by a 'little,' apparently.

But the thought that followed was calm to the point of apathy.

What a waste.

If it weren't for the penalty of ability amplification, he could use something like that every single day. And if so, I couldn't help thinking, Haeseong wouldn't be at a kindergarten at all — he'd have been snapped up by some prestigious outfit somewhere, living large on a hefty salary.

Of course, happiness doesn't come from money alone….

He seems like he was always a fighter by trade, though.

If he'd quit his old line of work over one of the usual reasons — an injury, say — and taken up kindergarten duty because of it….

No. Never mind.

It wasn't that I couldn't spare a thought for wasted potential and all the rest, but I was getting ahead of myself. And this was hardly the time for it.

Not when the situation might demand I bolt out there at any moment.

"What's this, scared? Well, can't be helped. Height and courage are directly proportional — a well-known fact — so I'll be understanding. As for me, as you can see… well, I don't need to say it, do I?"

Was there ever such a saying, that height and courage are proportional? And for the life of me, I couldn't tell whose speech patterns he was imitating.

Anyway, circling back: Haeseong was doing all this while shouldering the penalty of ability amplification — the side effects.

He's pushing himself too hard.

Side effects vary wildly from person to person, sure, but watching him go this far made a person feel guilty.

GWOOOOO!

At Haeseong's final provocation, every last Vermon's eyes rolled back in fury. They came stampeding at him in a pack, stubby legs scrambling.

Meanwhile, I could see straight through the suddenly emptied heart of the maze.

My palms were slick with sweat.

Focus. Do this right.

And so that his sacrifice would not be in vain, I reached the barred cage in record time.

The barred cage holding Taejae sat in the most tucked-away corner of the maze garden's center.

Controlling even the sound of my breathing, I crept toward it.

Haeseong has come through for me better than I expected.

It felt like emerging from a road jammed solid with traffic onto a wide-open highway.

And thanks to that, I could finally call out the name I'd been longing to say.

"……Taejae!"

"……Teacher?"

The boy, who had been sprawled flat on the floor, scrambled up and hurried toward me.

"Huh? Nam Taejae? Where do you think you're going all of a sudden?"

The faces of the figures drawing steadily closer came into view.

Taejae, beside himself with joy — and a middle-aged man looking ready to collapse in shock.

"Teacher, I'm so glad to see you."

"……"

"……"

With Taejae stretching his hand straight through the bars in greeting, the man and I were struck speechless.

Reducing two grown adults to silence is no easy feat, you know.

And there was our Taejae, pulling it off.

Exasperated as I was, relief won out, and a chuckle escaped me.

"Taejae, when you vanish without a word, you give your teacher a scare."

"……I'm sorry."

Truly remorseful, Taejae did his earnest best to explain what had happened through his gaze alone.

To summarize: while we had all been floundering in the sudden darkness, this little tyke — annoyingly — had seen perfectly well. And so… he had simply walked. As usual.

Then a faint light had appeared at the end of the corridor, and he'd run straight for it, finding a round, wondrous cluster of glow.

"And then…."

"And then?"

At my prompt, Taejae's black eyes rolled around before settling on one spot.

…The bathroom guy.

To borrow Haeseong's phrasing, this man was quite possibly the chief culprit who had dragged us in here.

From the looks of it, he'd brought Taejae down into this place — and circumstances aside, I wanted to put my fist through his face.

But contrary to my violent imaginings, what actually came out of my mouth was remarkably mild.

"Once we're out of here, you and I are going to have a little chat."

My hypothalamus had been screaming that circumstances were irrelevant. But I had decided to listen to my rational prefrontal cortex instead.

My assessment of the man, however, I delivered without mercy.

Kidnapping bastard.

Anyone with two brain cells to rub together would know that dragging a child into a dungeon is insane.

"First, let's get out of here."

"…As you can see, there's no door."

At the man's mutter, I hastily scanned our surroundings.

"……"

Sure enough, nothing that could pass for a doorway was visible anywhere.

But there had to be one.

…The monsters back there weren't mages; there was no way they'd tossed two humans into a barred cage that had no entrance.

And this line of thinking proved correct.

After roughly five minutes of frantic scrambling, I finally found it — something glinting in a crevice between rocks at the back of the cage.

A faint seam.

A straight, clean line, so subtle you could barely make it out if you squinted.

I shoved my body into the gap without ceremony, gripped the window-pane inside the line, and gave it one hard shake.

CLANK!!

"……Something like this was here?? I looked everywhere and never saw a thing!"

The man came rushing over, spraying spit in his astonishment.

CLANK-RATTLE!

I hauled again, putting more weight into it, and the seam grew a shade clearer.

"Hey! That noise is way too loud…!"

Glancing back, the man yelped at me in a panic.

So what? Yours is louder.

"Ah…. Yes, sir."

Mindful of Taejae, I bit my lip and let it go at that.

Then, more carefully than before, I took hold of the handle and… pulled.

Claaank!

Along the door's edge, the seam split open in a long, crackling rush.

At this point, the door was confirmed, no question.

And one more piece of good news, as it happened.

"What the — why is it so flimsy???"

Just as the man said, the door had loosened from a few good tugs alone.

There was only one tiny problem: this flimsy contraption appeared to be wound tight with sharp, blade-like grass.

It would've been nice if, at minimum, the thing didn't shriek like a banshee every time I pulled.

CLANK! CLANK!

"Hey, hey! Go a little easier on it, would ya!"

"It doesn't exactly come off 'easy,' sir."

Would you shut up already. Let me concentrate.

"Mister Kim Pyo-sang, shh. Be quiet, please. Being quiet is how we help."

"Nam Taejae! Whose side are you on???"

Apparently the two of them had gotten fairly chummy in the interim, because the kidnapper was plaintively remonstrating with Taejae.

…What exactly are you expecting from a child?

I shot the man a look of pure incredulity, sighed, and wrenched my focus back.

"I'm not on your side, mister."

"Come on, Nam Taejae. We shared potatoes, remember!"

"You got spit on it…. Gross."

……Focus. Focus, Na Hwiyeon.

I genuinely could not fathom how these two had been stuck together this long.

Conscious of the sweat trickling down my brow, I hauled at the door again.

Just a little more, and I think we've got it.

CLANK!!

GWOOO?

GWOOOO!

That was the moment.

Was I too loud?

Sure enough, a few of the Vermons swarming Haeseong caught something off in the air and turned their heads this way.

"Shit! They've spotted us!"

"Watch your language in front of the child, would you."

"Teacher, I'm fine, really."

No, I'm not fine…. I seized handfuls of the tough grass, tearing at them with everything I had.

Gashes opened across my palms, blood seeping through. Sweat and blood mingled and dripped to the ground.

"Hurry, hurry!!"

Ignoring the urging voices, I wrenched the grass out one clump at a time.

The problem was that for every strand I tore free, the monsters closing in gained that much more ground — it was enough to drive a man out of his mind.

Damn it. Isn't there another way?

It ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even crossed my mind that if things went south, retreat was the only option — pull back and wait for the next opening.

My slick, slipping hands kept betraying me, but I pressed them back into service and tore at the stubborn grass by every means I could devise.

And just when I felt I'd cleared nearly half of it —

an utterly unexpected set of voices rang out.

"Hey! You guys, don't hit the Seal Class teacher!! Y-you ugly things!"

"…Noah said he was worried, so we came out."

"They're even louder than that chubby kid from earlier."

I knew it from the voices alone.

Those brats had….

They'd kicked down the hiding spot Haeseong had poured his heart and soul into, and come bursting out!

A chill ran down my spine. I couldn't turn ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠around — every fiber of me was bent on getting this door open — but I could see Haeseong's stricken face with perfect clarity.

CLANK!

CLANK-RATTLE!

I threw my whole body weight into the pull, and the strands began snapping faster.

Rip. Rip.

Screeeee—

Last one!

CLANK!

At last, the grass coiled around the cage snapped clean through, and with a wretched shriek of metal the door swung halfway open.

That's it!

I thrust my arm through the gap and scooped Taejae up first.

"Come on, out!"

Once I confirmed the man scrambling out after us and rounded the back of the cage, the Vermons that had been charging our way were nowhere to be seen.

Instead….

"What is all this? Now where are we supposed to go!!"

"……"

"And who are those kids? Hey, you said you're a teacher, right? Is that — is that allowed? What they're doing?"

An absolute three-ring circus was in full swing.

Cheonji and Noah, whose abilities ran to nothing offensive, were perched atop a boulder, screaming themselves hoarse cheering for Seoro and Haeseong.

"Be strong! Be strong! Aja!!"

"Aja, aja, fighting!"

And the recipients of all this cheering — Seoro and Haeseong — were, naturally, the stars of the circus.

From what I could see, Haeseong had Seoro tucked under one arm and was wielding him like some kind of bazooka….

"That way."

"Like this?"

"Yeah…."

"Oh, over here too."

"Right."

Haeseong would kick the swarming Vermons away one by one, and Seoro would snatch them up with telekinesis and hurl them far, far into the distance.

Needless to say, adding a second slam after the kick ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was considerably more effective.

Kick, launch.

Kick, launch.

They were a genuinely fantastic duo.

Were these really the same kids who, mere hours ago, I'd had to threaten into leaving poor Tylos alone?

Worse, one of them had apparently wiped all such history from memory and was now offering coaching on top of the cheering.

"Seoro, behind you! Look behind you!"

"Teacher, might I suggest you work just a little faster?"

My skull throbbed.

Having watched Haeseong take a beating against the Vermons early on, they seemed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to have completely flipped the script.

I squeezed my eyes shut, then opened them again.

……Yes. This is reality.

Denial of reality was a brief indulgence, and it was over. Cradling Taejae in my arms, I turned to the kidnapper trailing behind me and delivered my terms.

"If you want out of here, you cooperate. I won't ask much — just run in the opposite direction from where I'm carrying Taejae."

"Why should I do that."

I scratched my head once, let the silence sit for a beat, then spoke.

"Then you can stay here alone."

"You call yourself a teacher? What's with the attitude?"

"Am I your teacher?"

"……No manners, teacher or brat, the lot of you."

"Mister, shh."

With Taejae issuing one final admonition, the man grumbled a curse under his breath but nodded. Unsettled as I was, I handed Taejae over to the kidnapper.

Extraction had succeeded — that was half the battle. Now all that remained was getting out of here.

I looked back over the path we'd taken to get this far.

Getting back that way right now looks like a non-starter.

The wreckage of the boulder Haeseong had smashed, along with a pack of thoroughly enraged Vermons, had the maze plaza's entrance sealed up tight.

In which case… retreat first. Regroup.

"When I give the signal, grab the kid and run."

"What?"

I said, when I give the signal, grab the kid and run. Focus, mister!

"……Funny. Nam Taejae, you act completely different when it's just the two of us?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Hey!"

I fished a long, cylindrical canister out of my bag, where I'd dumped it haphazardly that morning.

The label stuck to its yellow film read as follows:

This morning, while tidying the storage room, I'd swept up supplies more or less wholesale.

One of the things that had gotten swept along in the process.

*Do not throw at people.

The caution written in red caught my eye, and despite everything, a smile tugged at my lips.

Right. A promise is a promise.

But then….

If I just don't throw it at a person, that's fine… isn't it?