13. Hero Lee Seoyeon
13. Hero Lee Seoyeon
Hero I Seo-yeon.
To her, being summoned to this world felt like a stroke of luck.
She had spent her whole life buried in studies without ever getting the grades she wanted, and even after finally scraping into university on her second attempt, every passing day reminded her that she was a drudge, never a genius.
At home, all she ever heard was, "If you've got no ability, at least bring home a decent man." Day after miserable day, her entire existence felt denied.
But what about this world?
'W-we've succeeded! This is a power that will be classified at the highest rank among all heroes we've ever summoned!'
'Celebrate the birth of a new Hero!'
Yes, from the very beginning, everyone put her on a pedestal.
Unlike the other failures who were expelled from the Imperial Palace, everyone around her willingly offered her opportunities.
That reality soon hardened into pride, and that pride twisted into arrogance, making her see herself as the center of the world....
'I'm the protagonist. I can do whatever I want.'
And now, having even secured the youngest professorship at the Mage Tower, I Seo-yeon had come to believe that anything that displeased her deserved to be removed immediately.
Nobles. Fellow members of the Mage Tower.
And one day, while checking the tower's funding ledgers, the anomaly she happened to discover was no exception.
'What's this? Why is this person being allocated so many funds?'
A name that even she, who had met countless celebrities in this world, could not remember.
Yet that very person was receiving funding several times greater than her own, and many scholars were even participating in testing the results.
It was astonishing that this had been operated so covertly that it had never been uncovered until now.
At that point, one might have sensed something suspicious, but I Seo-yeon herself had no interest in who Vivian was or what her research entailed.
Only one thing mattered: that this person had been funded more than her—the protagonist of this world.
"Hero I Seo-yeon. The Tower Lord summons you."
Now, believing she had succeeded in eliminating that bothersome person's research through a criminal syndicate.
I Seo-yeon, who had been grooming herself alone in her room, rose with a thin, wry smile at the words of the regular professor who had come for her.
"Alright. Finally, my era has come, hasn't it~?"
Now that that nobody's research had been derailed.
She had no doubt that the most attention in this tower would now be hers.
****
Blood River was a syndicate that even the Imperial House dared not touch within the Empire.
Thus, whatever they did, there would be no repercussions, and the risk of being caught was extremely low.
She had not yet received a report from them, but given how much time had passed, they must have successfully sabotaged the work.
"Tower Lord. I've come as summoned...... Hm?"
So confident was she when she answered the summons that what I Seo-yeon encountered was an alien sight, something she had never seen since arriving in this world.
Inside the conference room where the elders, the Mage Tower's highest authority, and professors like herself had gathered.
But what hung in the air here today was far from the solemn atmosphere unique to a conference room.
As if terrified by something, every single one of them had their heads bowed and was trembling.
"......Hero I Seo-yeon."
A strained voice reached her amid her confusion.
The voice came from the old man seated in the place of honor at the center of the conference room, who then fixed his anxiety-ridden eyes on I Seo-yeon and quietly asked a question.
"Is it true that you secretly commissioned a criminal organization to steal Vivian Platonice's research data?"
"......Vivian?"
What was that name again?
After a brief moment of thought, I Seo-yeon let out a short laugh and answered him.
"Yes, I did. Is there a problem?"
So that was the mage she had commissioned the organization to rob of research data.
Of course, she had told them to store the data safely, since she could use it someday.
She had planned to retrieve it once things settled down, but it seemed the fact that she had orchestrated it had been discovered for some reason.
"Why on earth did you do such a thing?"
"Because it was absurd, that's why. Leaving a Hero like me aside and funding some nobody mage that much......"
If the name did not even stick in her memory, then at best, she was just a commoner with a slightly sharper mind and a bit of creativity.
Rather than sinking large sums into someone like that, would it not be far better for humanity to hand over those research results to superior individuals and continue the work?
"...Do you not know who she is?"
So now that she had been caught, she had intended to propose exactly that.
Yet the Tower Lord Marcellus, far from wiping the worry off his face, merely scolded her in a trembling voice.
"You...... Are you telling me you committed this act without knowing that that name has been deliberately concealed from the public!?"
Even the head leading this great and arrogant assembly
was feeling terror toward something nearby.
"What on earth......"
"Heh, hehe."
Before she could even guess what that something was, a faint giggle reached her ears.
Then the owner of that laugh began to flaunt her presence with deliberate, clicking footsteps.
The corridor she herself had used when passing the conference room earlier.
Emerging from there was a woman with hollow eyes, dressed in shabby clothes.
Yes, a person utterly unsuited to this moment of glory she had anticipated.
"Ooh~ Right. So that's why you, you interfered with me?"
"Who the hell are you? How dare you come here......!"
Just as she was about to vent her irritation at such unpleasantness, a 'Riiip!' sound tore through the air.
Simultaneously, the pain that assaulted her arm and slammed into her mind made I Seo-yeon crumple her expression, her eyes shooting to where her hand should have been.
As if torn off by some tremendous force, the spot where her hand belonged had been savagely ripped away, scattering blood.
"Kyaaaaaaah! My hand! Why is my hand!!"
"O-oh? That's, weird."
Even as a scream burst from the pain and shock of that phenomenon, the suspicious woman merely tilted her head in puzzlement.
"I-I definitely aimed for the head. Why, why did the arm fly off?"
"Y-you crazy bitch! What the hell have you......!!"
She did not know the reason, but some phenomenon had made that woman tear her hand off.
A clear act of aggression.
Realizing that, I Seo-yeon's eyes flipped, and an immense amount of mana began gathering around her body.
"How dare you pull this shit knowing who I am!!!"
Even though her hand was gone, there was no problem casting magic.
What mattered most in using magic was the will and knowledge to gather mana, plus the technique to wield it.......
And her inborn ability was a 'power to interfere with space' that reacted to such magical power, producing a phenomenon that was fundamentally impossible to defend against.
"Be torn apart alive and die! You filthy whore!"
Spatial Distortion.
If she gathered mana at a point she designated, that point would warp according to her will, and the distorted space, ignoring physical laws, would form a zone isolated from the world.
Simply put, if the targeted space was twisted, then any solid matter existing in reality would be horribly crushed along that distortion.
But......
"...Aha. So that's what it was?"
Her attack was not working on the opponent at all.
Rather, the woman merely stroked the distorted patch before her eyes with her palm, then swirled it and erased it from sight.
"Heh, hehe. Annoying, ability. The attempt to isolate space is being, blocked by that ability, and refracted."
Not only had she blocked the ability, she had perfectly seen through its very foundation.
Startled by that preposterous analytical power, I Seo-yeon struggled to calm her frantic heart and raised her voice at her.
"A-aha! Right, you must specialize in spatial magic too. But what now? I'm immune to spatial magic......"
Whatever the case, she was certain her opponent could not defeat her.
-Oooong.
At that moment of certainty, a vibration rang out, and soon a translucent barrier formed around her.
Above and below, and on all sides, front and back....
The moment six walls began to slowly close in on her.
"Wha, what? What on earth...... Ukh!"
When those walls finally touched her body, no matter how she tried to push them away with magic, they gave no sign of retreat.
On the contrary, the resistance generated by her own spatial interference was reacting to the approaching barriers, attempting to repel their force......
"But still, that, that defense...... It's only limited to your own body, right?"
A barrier that, by mere contact, isolates the point from this world and annihilates it forever.
And not just one but six of them, controlled with enough precision to surround a single person—and on top of that, she was exerting power that overwhelmed the resistance I Seo-yeon was emitting.
While her resistance could prevent her body from being erased entirely,
if she could not surpass that force, her body would inevitably be crushed by her own resistance pressing back against her.
"Ah, aaaaaaaaaaaah!"
As the pressure generated by her own power was now compressing her body in turn.
Even as a scream tore from the agony of flesh and bone grinding together, the force crushing her did not stop.
Crunch, crunch. Crack, craaack.
Amid the horrific screams, a bizarre noise resounded. Realizing that it was the sound of her own torment, I Seo-yeon, with bloodshot eyes, shouted at those who were merely watching the scene.
"Y-you bastards! What the hell are you gawking at!! S-stop that crazy bitch right nowwwwww!"
The elders, the professors—they only watched the situation.
No one even attempted to remove the walls suppressing her. As if teaching her that the one causing this absurd phenomenon was the very existence they feared above all.
"Wh-why on earth......"
Then, her hatred toward those who maintained their silence burst from I Seo-yeon's lips.
"You're the ones who put me on a pedestal, calling me a Hero! So why are you just leaving me here to rot! When you're the ones who insisted that only I could save the world!"
Betrayal......
The moment a lament burst from the mouth of the woman who had believed herself to be the protagonist.
"...Hero I Seo-yeon."
One of those listening reluctantly opened his mouth, gazing at her with pity.
"Do you know what the Hero Summoning Ritual originated from?"
Tower Lord Marcellus.
As if he alone possessed the courage to answer the question she felt, he spoke, though still rolling his eyes warily as if gauging the mood of the one crushing her.
-Crunch, crack!
But the woman merely giggled as if it were nothing.
And as her limbs were pressed and mangled by the added force, the Tower Lord, unable to watch that gruesome sight any longer, closed his eyes and continued his explanation.
"The Dimensional Leap Technique, which senses those on the verge of death, summons their souls to this world in advance, and calculates the resulting variable...... The one person who can uniquely interpret and inherit that secret art created by the witches of old—that is the person you meddled with."
Which was why they could not stop this.
Hero summoning was the last bastion of present-day humanity.
And while even that only maintained the status quo rather than bringing salvation, the only way to appease someone possessing the potential to reach beyond that was to offer up a single Hero as a sacrifice.......
"S-sa......."
But such truths no longer mattered to her now.
With her whole body crushed to its limit, all she felt was pure agony, and in the consciousness swayed by it, nothing remained to define feelings like pride or injustice.
Only one thing remained.
"Save......."
The single survival instinct that even mindless organisms possess.
-Crunch!
But even that vanished the moment her consciousness was severed, and at that point, her physical body rapidly compressed until it became a dot.
Muscle and bone, indistinguishable, were pulverized and then crushed to the absolute limit without any gaps between them.
Finally, the interior was transformed into a cube, a small rectangular solid in which only blackness was barely visible to the naked eye.
"......With this, the nuisance is gone."
Vivian picked up that heavy object, then, as though it were utterly insignificant, tossed it out the window.
Afterward, as the compressed force was liberated and a deafening 'Boom!' rang out, screams erupted from the passersby struck by it.
Yet that too was of no concern to her; she quietly turned her back on the scene of the tragedy.
"Will this suffice?"
"Yes, this will do."
Unlike before, when she had laughed like a madwoman, she spoke in a cold, detached voice.
And with that, Vivian briefly leveled an impassive gaze at Marcellus, then withdrew her attention and click-clacked toward the exit.
"The nuisance has been removed, and I still need your support to continue my research...... So please, ensure I am not troubled like this again."
"Ah, yes. We'll see to it that this does not happen again......"
"If it does happen again, you will share the responsibility."
A single warning.
But the weight contained within it made the hearts of all those at the pinnacle of humanity's magical world sink with a thud.
The fact that this was no idle threat was made clear by how she had disposed of a summoned Hero as easily as crushing an insect.
"...You understand what I mean, don't you?"
"Y-yes. I'll keep it firmly in mind."
Yes, no matter how many Heroes were summoned, their might could never compare to the one standing before them. Whether what would be summoned at the end of her research would be a god or a demon, she did not know. But whatever descended upon this land in the end would surely possess power utterly beyond comparison to any Hero.