114. Sofia (1)
114. Sofia (1)
Huff—
Huff—
Her breathing was faint, as if she might topple over at any moment.
Her once-lustrous blonde hair was matted with grime, and her smooth skin had turned dull and rough.
"Why am I, why the hell am I here...!?"
It was a question she'd already cried out hundreds of times, but the blonde girl muttered her protest once again. There was no one there to answer it.
Sofia.
She was mixed-race—born to a British mother and a Korean father. Until recently, she'd been a world-famous model.
Two years ago, a job had brought her to her father's homeland of Korea, and she'd been working diligently as a foreign worker. That was all it was supposed to be. She couldn't understand where this place was, or why she was here.
No—actually, she had an inkling.
A year ago, she'd suddenly undergone an Awakening. Naturally, she'd felt a powerful urge to become a Hunter.
Being the type to act before she thought, she hadn't hesitated long.
She'd immediately applied to Velvet Academy, and had even gone so far as to take the entrance exam.
It was just a test she'd taken lightly, without any special training, so she hadn't expected much.
But what do you know.
She ended up passing outright!
There were, however, people who couldn't accept this: her parents. The admission certificate and her cadet uniform from Velvet Academy had been delivered straight to her house, and they'd gotten their hands on the package before she did.
The night the letter of acceptance arrived, Sofia found herself face-to-face with her parents.
— Sofia, being a Hunter is a very dangerous profession.
— Mama, I know that...!
— Sofia, you took the academy exam without a word to us.
— Papa, I, that's!
— Why don't you think it through one more time? Other kids start specialized training when they're very young. But even just seeing a monster from a distance still frightens you. I don't mind you becoming a Hunter, but taking it on with such a light heart is an insult to those people.
— And if you abruptly enter Velvet Academy, what do you intend to do about your modeling work? You've already signed contracts with partners. The penalties for breaking your commercial contracts would be an astronomical sum. Surely you've thought of a contingency plan for that?
Her parents tried desperately to stop her.
They started with the practical concerns, then launched into a lecture on the dangers of the Hunter profession, not giving her any room to argue. It was as if they'd prepared for this for days on end.
In truth, Sofia's parents knew their daughter's personality well. Ever since she'd Awakened, they'd been bracing for something like this to happen.
— Fine. I guess I can't help it...
Their thorough, watertight preparations paid off. In the end, Sofia relented. Though she'd passed, she never set foot inside the academy again. To be fair, her Awakening was late compared to others, and she was just an ordinary person with zero real combat experience, so her parents weren't entirely wrong. After that, she'd shelved her Hunter dreams and continued her successful, burgeoning modeling career.
Whenever news from Velvet Academy reached her, a corner of her heart would ache, but she'd always shake her head and tell herself it wasn't her path.
So, what in the world had happened?
On her way home after an early-morning shoot, she'd suddenly been kidnapped to this bizarre place—and standing right in front of her was the Magic Emperor, Rina, whom she'd only ever seen online!
She quickly realized something had gone terribly wrong.
"Ugh, and of all people, I had to be first, so I couldn't say a single word...!"
She'd planned on protesting to Rina after the test explanation was over, but she'd been dropped into this place before anyone else, so she never even got the chance to open her mouth.
That was why she was now shivering and wandering around this uninhabited island.
"...My feet hurt, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I want to sleep... I want to wash up...!"
Two days had already passed since she'd been dumped on the island. Her stomach was plastered to her back, and her throat was completely parched. Without a proper night's sleep, she'd run out of the strength to keep moving.
The one thing she had with her was a pair of bright red high heels, which she'd brought with her after her last modeling job. But what on earth could a pair of heels do for her here?
Right now, Sofia was wandering aimlessly, trying to find the Shop that Rina had mentioned.
[ 2000 Coin ]
The one silver lining was that since she'd Awakened as a Healer, she'd been given a base amount of 2000 Coin. If she could just find the Shop, she'd be able to solve her immediate problems.
"But where is it? I don't remember the map, and I have no idea where I am...!"
Cursing her stupid brain wasn't going to help. At the time, she'd panicked and the whole situation had been so incomprehensible that all she could do was stare blankly at Rina.
"What if a monster just pops out all of a sudden?"
Clutching her high heels like a lifeline, she scanned her surroundings.
Plink.
Plink—
Whoooosh—!
"Rain!?"
To make matters worse, it started to pour from the sky.
This would solve her thirst, but what about everything else? Even with zero survival knowledge, she was aware that getting her body soaked by rain right now was dangerous.
Then, her eyes caught sight of a cave.
The cave was halfway up a mountain deep in the wilderness.
"Could I get out of the rain in there?"
She forced her nearly unresponsive legs to move, stumbling up the incline.
After a long while, she found herself standing before the pitch-black mouth of the cave.
"Hellooo—. Is anyone in there...?"
She called out in an awkward voice, trying to gauge the situation.
'There's no one here?'
Even so, it didn't hurt to check. She tiptoed cautiously inside.
Splash.
Splash.
'...Water?'
A strange splashing sound echoed from deeper inside.
Gulp.
Sofia swallowed dryly and stepped into the darkness.
The sight that greeted her...
"Ah!?"
Sofia's golden eyes went wide as saucers.
Wet black hair that gleamed like the night sky. Firm muscle sculpted over skin as pale as white jade. Dark, melancholy eyes. A sharp, prominent nose.
Even for her—a model who'd seen countless gorgeous men in her profession—his looks hit her brain like a physical shock.
A man was bathing.
"...Wow."
The sight was so mesmerizing it made her forget her exhaustion, and the breathless exclamation slipped out of Sofia's mouth.
Then, the man's dark eyes slowly shifted toward her.
* * *
"...."
A beautiful blonde girl was staring at me, mouth agape.
My own eyes widened in a circle as I looked back at her.
The Tier-1 Healer, the Saintess—Sofia.
Yeah, I'd figured she might show up. I'd set myself up here in the first place to run into her.
'But I hadn't expected her to drop in while I was bathing.'
She was just staring at me with a fixed, unblinking gaze, like she'd turned into a stone statue.
"Hey, I need to put some clothes on, so could you give me a sec?"
Startled, she whipped her body around.
"S-Sorry! I—I didn't know anyone was in here! I-I wasn't trying to look! I-I-I'm not some pervert!"
Sofia stammered in a fluster.
"It's all right."
Splash.
I stepped out of the makeshift bath I'd dug into the floor.
"I-It's all right?"
"Yeah. As long as you stop sneaking peeks."
"...I-I'm sorreeee!!!"
Sofia snapped her head away again, tensed to the limit.
A soft laugh escaped me as I dried myself off and got dressed.
"Okay, done. You can look now."
Sofia slowly turned her head back, and when she saw me fully clothed, a strange, almost disappointed expression flickered across her face.
'Well, that's not important.'
"Who are you?"
Since it was obviously suspicious that I'd known she was coming and had been waiting here, I asked her the question instead.
"...I'm Sofia!"
"Sofia, huh? You're an academy cadet, right?"
"W-Well! I'm not actually a cadet! As for why I'm here, I don't really know either... Anyway, more importantly, you're Penis! The Penis, right?"
'...What?'
I frowned. Had she somehow gotten a glimpse of it? No, that couldn't be it. I'd had a towel over myself.
"I saw it in an article! The Penis on the Cliff!"
Ah.
Oh, for fuck's sake.
My epithet: Flower on the Cliff.
It was a title I hadn't heard anyone say to my face in a long time. Apparently the nickname had spread outside the academy.
"That's what people call it, so... I'm a foreigner, so I—I don't really know what that word means."
Maybe she'd interpreted the look on my face, because Sofia hesitated and quickly added the explanation.
'Come to think of it, wasn't one of her character traits that her Korean isn't perfectly fluent?'
Her lore was that she had a Korean father, so she was reasonably fluent, but she'd lived abroad for so long that she sometimes mixed up certain words.
'I saw a few scenes where that was used as a gag, but having it happen to me is a real trip.'
I shook my head and told her.
"...It means 'flower'."
"Aha!? Flower! Penis! I love smelling them! And I love looking at them too! I even have a decorative model of one at home!"
Sofia closed the distance between us, energetic as a friendly beagle. That's all great, Sofia. But, um... you do realize you still don't know what you're saying, right?
"...Just call me Jin Yu-ha."
My voice came out flat, off-balance.
"Sorry? Jjin—Yu-ha?"
"Yeah, that's my name."
"Oh! Okay! I understand! Your name! Jin Yu-ha!"
I looked her over carefully.
Golden eyes, wavy blonde hair, long, slender arms and legs. Two days of struggling had dulled her radiance, but her beauty was still unmistakable.
'So she knows who I am.'
When I thought about it, it wasn't that strange. The Utopia Party's reputation was still spreading like wildfire outside of Velvet Academy.
'...This is going to make things easier.'
I just stood there, watching her in silence. Unable to take the awkwardness, she spoke up first.
"I—I'm not supposed to be here! I don't know how I ended up here!"
"You're not supposed to be here? Aren't you a Velvet Academy cadet?"
I already knew her whole story by heart, but I played along, pretending I didn't.
"Yes, yes! W-Well, I did take the exam, and I passed, but I've never actually been to the academy!"
"So you are an academy cadet, then."
"...Excuse me?"
"That means you're still registered as a cadet at the academy."
"W-What do you mean? I never even signed up for classes!?"
Sofia's face filled with pure confusion.
Velvet Academy ran on a baseline meritocracy. If you had the skill, you were generally free to do whatever you wanted with your school life. That's how Kang Do-hee had gotten away with her audacious gambit during the initial course registration.
If it were otherwise, everyone would just be forced to sit in class during every event.
In extreme terms, it meant someone like Sofia—who had signed up for zero classes—could still graduate if she aced both the midterm and the final exams.
'...But for that to happen, Sofia has to place in the top three in this Midterm Evaluation.'
In the game, it was a given that Sofia would rank in the top three. Why? Because the story couldn't progress otherwise. If she didn't place in the top three, the next episode wouldn't even trigger. In other words, you were forced to Retry over and over until she got in.
But there was no convenient Retry mechanic now if she failed to rank. Failing here meant literal expulsion.
Which was precisely why I'd been waiting for her here.
"Why don't you rest for a bit? You look completely exhausted."
I spoke in a gentle voice to try and help her relax.
"...Uh, u-um, would that be okay? Weren't you already set up in here?"
"I'm not the one who made this cave. There's no reason I need it all to myself."
"...Ah."
"I'll get some food ready."
"I couldn't possibly impose on you like that..."
Grrrrrumble—!
Her stomach roared like thunder.
Sofia's face turned beet-red, and she dropped her head.
"Just sit tight. I'll whip something up for you."
"Okay..."
Right. Raising this girl's Affection stat had just become my top priority.
She was the entire reason I'd been deliberately holding out on finding a Healer until now.
'Hmm, what should I cook?'
I picked up my roughly-carved cutting board and a dagger, and gave the matter some thought.