24. Rookie Hero Yi Ga-ram
24. Rookie Hero Yi Ga-ram
Adventurers.
In an era of ceaseless danger and calamity, they were an absolute necessity. Even so, the ruling class regarded them as little more than substitutes for Heroes — or at best, a means to assist them.
That perception had spread even among the Heroes who enjoyed that ruling class's patronage. For the newly arrived Heroes, a visit to the Adventurer's Guild was nothing more than a formality born from that very mindset.
'A-Are you sure... it's really okay to do this?'
'Why wouldn't it be? We're Heroes.'
'You saw it too, the moment you got to this world~ Even nobles and royalty bow and scrape in front of us.'
'W-Well, that's true, but.......'
'You probably went through a lot of crap in your original world, too. Don't you think it'd be a waste not to enjoy a stroke of luck this huge?'
'Let's just accept the obvious. We are more special than anyone else.'
'M-Me, special.......'
But maybe it was because she was still a teenage girl who hadn't even gotten her ID card back in her original world.
Yi Ga-ram had been in this world for only a few months. Even after following the advice of those trailblazers and making her way to the Guild, she couldn't shake her anxiety.
No matter how much the powers that be in this world propped her up, it simply didn't feel real that mere custom gave her the right to push the masses around.
'S-So this is... an adult bar....'
The curiosity of stepping into such a place for the first time in her life. The hostile glares from the people around her.
She was a little daunted by it. But the ones she expected to pick a fight withered the moment they recognized who she was, silently averting their gazes and focusing on their drinks.
In that moment, she saw exactly how the people who took on the dirty, dangerous work treated a being called a Hero.
As even her unease gradually faded in that atmosphere, Yi Ga-ram felt the corners of her lips unconsciously lift.
'Heh, heheh. Can I really... just do whatever I want?'
Her lingering doubts were slowly erased. The confident voices of the trailblazers who had arrived before her echoed in her head, over and over.
Words telling her that she was the protagonist. That the people around her were just NPCs. That anyone who showed hostility was nothing more than experience points.
-Twang~♬
Just as anticipation and a sliver of anxiety coexisted inside her, the sound of a lute rang out.
Drawn by the voice that accompanied it, her gaze shifted. She found herself face-to-face with a woman continuing her performance at the center of the tavern.
A bard, playing a melody as pure and beautiful as her appearance.
Yi Ga-ram felt herself unwittingly charmed. But even that interest couldn't wholly please her. Her senior Heroes' advice rose up in her mind.
'First, go to a guild or a tavern and grab the most conspicuous bastard there. Beat 'em half to death.'
'H-Half to death......?'
'Yeah. The more attention they've got on 'em, the bigger the impact when you break 'em~'
'The reason doesn't matter. Pick a fight over anything. As long as you don't kill 'em, the nobles sponsoring us will cover it up.'
A Hero is a being who stands above adventurers.
A performance was absolutely necessary to imprint that fact. That meant she had no choice but to use her own hands to pin down that woman — the first person who'd caught her eye.
It wasn't a matter of choice. It was a mission she absolutely had to accomplish.......
'What happens if I mess up?'
'Mess up? You mean a Hero getting owned by some adventurers?'
'Haha, that'll never happen. But on the off chance it does, they'll rip that Hero label right off you. See those guys lining up outside the window? They got summoned just the same as us. But if you fail to get certified as a Hero, you're better off seeing yourself as a slave.'
Even with the fate of a protagonist, there was a risk of becoming a slave.
Driven by an urgent dread — a fate she absolutely had to avoid — Yi Ga-ram hastily gathered power into her hand.
-Crash!
The chair, shoved by that force, scraped violently across the floor and toppled into the center of the tavern.
For a moment, she wondered if she'd used too much force. But deciding she had to push through regardless, Yi Ga-ram steeled her throat and shouted.
"Wh-Who's making all that racket over here!?"
The stir in her heart subsided. Everyone in the room began focusing on her.
Their eyes were filled with bewilderment and fear as they recognized who she was. Yet not one of them was reckless enough to open their mouth.
Just as her senior Heroes had told her. The moment they realized she was a Hero, they all chickened out and shut up.
"Excuse me......."
But maybe that atmosphere made no sense to the bard?
As if still trying to grasp the situation, the woman wore a dazed expression, her slender gaze slowly moving to where Yi Ga-ram stood.
"What you just said... was that directed at me?"
The bard asked with pure intent, as if she genuinely couldn't understand.
Her demeanor felt so utterly composed that Yi Ga-ram hesitated for a moment. But she eventually shook off her embarrassment and yelled back.
"D-Do you seriously not get it and you're asking? Who else here is pissing me off besides you?"
"Huh? Pissing you off......?"
"This isn't your own private room, is it? And you've got the nerve to belt out some crappy song like that? Wouldn't it be weirder if that *didn't* put me in a foul mood?"
The moment such abusive language — she almost surprised herself — spilled from her lips.
She folded her arms and threw her chest out to mask her anxiety. The bard tilted her head in bewilderment, then looked over to the innkeeper at the counter.
"How strange. The innkeeper clearly offered me a meal in exchange for a song...."
"Ah, Miss. Y-You've only just arrived in the Empire, so you might not understand. For now, just... go along with her."
"Why should I? I clearly got the innkeeper's permission beforehand...."
As if utterly unable to read the malice directed squarely at her, the bard turned her slender eyes back toward Yi Ga-ram.
"Did I perhaps commit some rudeness that displeased that little miss over there?"
Pinned by that innocent question, Yi Ga-ram flinched and her expression crumpled.
'L-Little... did she just call me a little miss...?'
It was true that she was very small in stature.
Unlike the other Heroes, she wasn't even an adult yet, and her growth was slower compared to her peers.
In her old world, she would have just swallowed those words and moved on.
"Ha, haha. What did you just say? You called me a little miss?"
But the person she was now felt no need for patience. On the contrary, she was gearing up to let her emotions run wild.
Unlike her past self, she now had a body that never needed to hold anything back.
She'd been told before coming here that she could do whatever she wanted. So why should she have to endure words that humiliated her?
"How dare you, some lowly busker who just strums a lute, disrespect *me*, a Hero!?"
In that fit of rage, the power she had gathered in her hand was about to manifest outward.
-BOOM!!!!
A thunderous sound rang out. Her body flinched, shrinking back as her gaze shot to the side.
As if telling her that all the presence she had mustered had been utterly eclipsed, everyone's eyes simultaneously locked onto that spot.
The source of the attention — a man who had barged in, clad in smoothly polished light armor — had slammed the butt of his spear into the ground.
"...You."
The man strode through the silence that had fallen over the scene.
And then, his eyes fixed sharply on her, he spoke.
"What the hell do you think you're doing to my woman?"
The words came with a ferocious threat.
"Uh, uh?"
Yes, it was a threat.
While her body instinctively recoiled from the unexpected act, the crowd's attention — which had been on her — shifted and began to focus entirely on him.
"Gasp! That guy!?"
"Wh-What? What is it?"
"Woo Hyosung... That bastard is Woo Hyosung!"
It was a name Yi Ga-ram didn't recognize.
After all, she'd only been summoned to this world for a few months, and even those months had been spent training under noble patronage and focusing on socializing with other Heroes.
In other words, she lacked even the wherewithal to judge whether the rumors circulating among adventurers were true or false.
"Woo Hyosung? Who's that?"
"Haven't you heard!? Every single Hero in the parties that bastard joined ended up dead!"
"No way, the Hero Killer?"
"A Hero Killer appearing in front of a Hero......."
Flinch, flinch.
Her body reacted reflexively to the voices she heard. The cold sweat beading on her face began to multiply.
A man who bore the title of 'killer' had just appeared proudly before her — her, puffed up with the confidence of being a Hero.
How could she not be terrified?
"Hey, shorty."
But his attention wasn't on the raucous crowd. It was fixed solely on her.
He spoke to her, still standing there in a daze, in a menacing tone.
"Looks like you haven't been here long. I'm telling you now while I'm being nice — back off."
The man smoothly stepped in front of the bard, gripping his spear shaft as he prepared to face her down.
"I've watched countless bastards just like you die — arrogant little shits who thought their power was everything."
And there was no one in this place who thought the voice carrying those words was just a bluff.
Including Yi Ga-ram, momentarily overwhelmed by his presence.
'Th-This... seems like it's taking a dangerous turn....'
She didn't know the details, but his very alias was a Hero Killer.
On top of that, everyone's attention was now densely concentrated on him, not her.
Anyone who knew the root of that rumor — even a Hero — would have no choice but to feel a little daunted by the subject of it.
'If you don't wanna end up a slave, you'd better make a big splash and come back~'
But her confusion was only fleeting.
For a young girl, what hit closer to home wasn't an unverified rumor. It was the blatant malice that had just reared its head right in front of her.
Timid and passive.
If she — who had always shown herself to be easily swayed by fear — didn't produce results here, she'd surely be ignored and ridiculed in this world too.
"Damn it all! I don't give a shit if you're the Hero Killer or whatever the hell else!"
Yi Ga-ram screamed, pushing down her immediate fear with that anxiety of the future.
As if responding to her will, every piece of furniture in the tavern rocketed up, beginning to swirl in a chaotic vortex.
"Whoaaa! Get back!"
"Wh-What the hell, this crazy...!"
-Crash, bang!
The tavern plunged into chaos. Fierce confusion resounded through the air.
Feeling it on her skin, the smile painted on Yi Ga-ram's lips deepened.
'Yeah! Nothing to be scared of! I have this kind of power — who could possibly stand against me?'
The power she had awakened was Object Control.
It was on a completely different dimension from the telekinesis produced by mana in this world — a force best described as the manipulation of phenomena itself.
With this power, anything her eyes could reach could be a target, and anything within reach of her hand could be lifted and twisted.
As an exception, she couldn't use telekinesis to directly control a 'being with a will.' But she could still interfere with the tools they used, if she caught them off guard.
"What are you standing there all blank-faced for!? I haven't even started yet — don't tell me you're already regretting this!?"
"Just because some people inflated your head you thought you were hot stuff, didn't you? Well, I don't believe in any of those rumors — not one bit!? If you really are some kind of Hero Killer, then come at me like you mean it!"
Shiaak!
Amidst the chaos, the spear soared into the air, caught in her telekinetic grip.
Waggling her fingers to pull the spear to her side, Yi Ga-ram tried to manipulate its force and turn its tip back on him.
To threaten him by launching his own spear — under her control — back at its owner.
"It's too late for regrets! You'll pay dearly for looking down on me....... Huh?"
But why?
Even though she'd clearly manipulated the force, the spear's direction wasn't turning.
Instead, it straightened its tip toward her. And in that state, it began to fly back with even greater momentum.
'W-Wait.... Why is that spear coming at me...?'
Yi Ga-ram panicked at the incomprehensible phenomenon.
Even by the moment the spear — pulled by her own power — reached her nose, she still couldn't find the answer to her question.
Her ability, Object Control, was the perfect control of objects without a will.
So she had been certain that a 'weapon without a will' fell firmly within her range of control.
-KABOOOOOM!!!!
Shattering that preconception, the spear ultimately flew in and lodged itself right next to her head.
The moment she registered the brutality of it, Yi Ga-ram's face rapidly drained of color.
"Eh, eh?"
A penetrating force that sent not only the blade but part of the shaft plunging deep into the solid wall.
It was a result made possible not just by the spear's sharpness, but because the spear itself had exerted its own power.
What would have happened if that attack had flown directly into her head...?
-Step, step.
As if to signal that her imagining of that outcome was slowly becoming reality.
The spear's owner approached her as she lay crumpled on the floor and yanked the spear shaft straight out from the wall beside her.
"...You."
From the moment he pulled the spear free and recovered it at his side, there wasn't a shred of hesitation visible in him.
Even when facing a Hero that all others feared.
"If you go any further, you really will die."
As if teaching her that he could drive the final nail into that statement at any time.
He kept his icy gaze fixed squarely on her the entire time.