124. The Hunt (4)
124. The Hunt (4)
"......Huh? No, I'm not."
All of a sudden, she lunged—Shin Se-hee was grabbing the blade, trying to drive it into her own throat.
What the hell is this crazy girl doing.
Whoosh!
Alarmed, I yanked the sword away from her neck.
I was so dumbfounded I couldn't even speak. What kind of mental gymnastics leads to a conclusion like that?
"Why would I kill you?"
"......Pardon?"
When I asked her that, Shin Se-hee blinked rapidly, looking bewildered.
"Th-that's, it's not? I, I'm of no use to you....... I've always been left out of the actual fighting, and, and if you catch me, you can get a ton of Coins from me, can't you......?"
I let out a hollow laugh at her reply.
Hah.
"So...... you thought I came to take your Coins to pad my own score? Harsh. You really took me for a complete piece of trash, huh?"
"Th-that....... W-well, that's......."
"And were you planning to sneak out of this dangerous situation all by yourself?"
I asked it in a teasing voice.
Finally catching on that she'd misunderstood everything, Shin Se-hee frantically waved her hands, her face flustered.
"......N-no, no! It's not that I meant to sneak out all alone!"
I smirked.
"No, of course not. You practically said it yourself."
Hmm, so because I've always excluded you from combat, when things like this happen now, your first instinct is to physically remove yourself from the equation. You think you don't belong out here.
It wasn't because Shin Se-hee lacked ability;
it was because her chemistry with Lee Yu-ri was so poor when they were in the same party.
Even if you pushed her, she was still a 4-star regular.
One with area attacks, no less—a character who couldn't be dismissed anywhere.
Sure, a completely superior version of this kid was slated to show up later,
but that didn't mean Shin Se-hee herself was weak.
Granted, that other ability of hers—party management—so completely outclassed her combat power that it'd overshadowed her, but still.
This works out nicely. The task I'm about to hand off was worrying me for exactly that reason. Once this is over, she might regain a little confidence.
The biggest highlight scene was inevitably going to be stolen by the new character, Sofia—no helping that—
but what she was about to do now wasn't exactly a breeze either. It was a job that required overcoming her own elemental disadvantage—that alone would be a considerable burden.
First things first, though.
I took hold of Shin Se-hee's hand and pulled it toward me.
As if she'd only just registered the pain, she winced.
"Ah—ow!"
It was the hand she'd grabbed the blade with, bare-handed.
In my rush to pull the sword back, I'd left a straight laceration gaping open across her palm, bright red blood dripping steadily.
I clicked my tongue at the sight of it.
"Tsk, so who told you to suddenly pull a dangerous stunt like that? You startled me so much I yanked the sword away, you know."
I was about to summon Sofia immediately, but I remembered I'd just given her a mission and stopped myself.
Instead,
Riiip—
I tore a long strip from the cadet uniform I was wearing.
"......Urgh, um, J-Jin Yu-ha? You d-don't have to go this far for me......."
"Shh, hold still."
I stopped Shin Se-hee from squirming and trying to pull her hand away, and I wound the torn strip of cloth around it, tightly.
Snug—
I tied it firm so no more blood would seep out.
"I'll have Sofia shoot an arrow your way later. Don't use that hand much so it doesn't get worse."
"Uh, yes....... Th-thank you."
"Since the healing's gonna be late, it might scar. Such a pretty hand, too."
"......."
Shin Se-hee's face turned crimson and she hung her head.
"S-So, so! Wh-what was it you wanted to a-ask of me!?"
As if unable to bear the awkward atmosphere, Shin Se-hee raised her head and asked urgently.
"Ah, that. It's nothing else. I need you to take the role of leading all of the cadets."
"......Pardon?"
"Of course, it might be a bit of a burden on you, but this is something only you can do."
And after hearing my plan, Shin Se-hee stared at me with round, startled eyes.
*
"......."
The place Jin Yu-ha had left.
There was nothing left there but a profound silence, as if he'd never even been there at all.
Shin Se-hee covered her burning-red face with both hands.
'......So embarrassing. So shameful. How mortifying!'
What kind of misunderstanding had she jumped to?
She'd always prided herself on objectively assessing a situation, piecing together the extracted clues, and deducing the true picture with remarkable accuracy.
The given facts were that Demonized Humans would crash this Midterm Evaluation, and that Jin Yu-ha intended to deal with them without a single cadet casualty, then wrap up today's exam.
In a situation like that, who was the most endangered person on this battlefield?
The answer was none other than herself.
Shin Se-hee.
Why?
Because she was ambiguous.
Her role was managing Utopia.
In combat, she was always one step removed—a party member who handled pre-battle and post-battle processing, not direct fighting.
But at the same time, she was slightly stronger than ordinary cadets and wouldn't die easily.
In other words, for the other cadets here, if they were endangered by a Demonized Human's attack,
Jin Yu-ha could step in and quickly finish the threat before it reached them.
In her own case, with her middling defensive ability, if the timing was off by just a little, she might well end up dead from the Demonized Human's attack faster than from Jin Yu-ha's blade.
And so, Shin Se-hee had concluded:
Jin Yu-ha had come to kill her in advance, so as to exclude her from the coming fight.
And since she held the most Coins in this entire place, dying at his hand would mean he'd get all the Coins she was carrying.
Of course, that wouldn't erase the record of the Coins she'd collected, but still—
in the end, her exam would stop here.
Deep down, Shin Se-hee had thought of that choice as something pleasing.
She was grateful that Jin Yu-ha had come and found her out of genuine concern for her.
And the idea of dying by his hand, handing over her Coins, and being of use to him—that had made her happy too.
Her contribution to this battle was that minor, but even so.
But when Jin Yu-ha had told her that she, too, had a role to play, and had given her a separate mission, only then—
Had she been able to recognize the feelings she'd kept buried deep in her heart.
A bitter smile touched Shin Se-hee's lips.
'......I was upset.'
That every time something like this had happened, she'd always had to step back.
That while her fellow party members risked their lives in battle, she alone had to wait for them in a safe place.
Of course, she wasn't about to deny that role now.
Because doing so would be to deny her own ability—the one Jin Yu-ha held in such high regard.
Shin Se-hee objectively turned over her own feelings.
This was simply an emotion that had arisen because her stake in this particular event was so extremely small.
Because the role of delivering dungeon maps in advance, the role of identifying information about the enemies they'd face, the role of checking equipment and preparing countermeasures for every variable—
he'd seemed to be taking it all on by himself, without any help at all.
And so a little bit of hurt had been building up inside her.
'......Jin Yu-ha, honestly. I keep telling you I don't like being out in front. I'm the type who prefers to reign from behind the scenes.......'
Yet her lips curled upward on their own, and a pleasant hum escaped her before she knew it.
Hm. Hmm.
"Still, since you insist I'm essential...... for this once, I suppose I have no choice."
Shin Se-hee touched the cloth he'd wrapped around her hand lightly to her lips, then pulled it away, and looked out over the battlefield with clear eyes.
* * *
KABOOOOM—!
CRASH!
BOOM—!
A thunderous roar erupted as steel and fists collided.
It had already been going on for an hour.
Kang Do-hee and Lee Yu-ri were still locked in combat.
"Hah! How long do you plan on just blocking?"
"Hmph! You haven't landed even one hit yet, and you talk an awful lot!!!"
Kang Do-hee's eyes sank low.
True, if she used a skill right now, beating Lee Yu-ri would probably be easy.
But that would be the same as admitting she couldn't overwhelm Lee Yu-ri with her bare body alone.
For Kang Do-hee, who was practically the avatar of competitive spirit, that was not something she could swallow with a shrug.
Just as she launched herself into the air again and swung her leg down with brutal force—
"That's enough fighting."
Suddenly, a voice cut between the two of them.
"......Shin Se-hee?"
"What are you doing here......?"
Kang Do-hee and Lee Yu-ri both came to a halt, staring at Shin Se-hee with puzzled looks.
"The situation has changed. We have to stop the fighting now."
"Hah, and you think I'll listen just because you say so? Are you under some delusion that I've actually been working under you?"
"Exactly, I don't see any reason to listen to you either. You're our enemy."
Kang Do-hee fired back with obvious irritation,
and Lee Yu-ri likewise rejected her words outright.
Until just moments ago, the two of them had been beating on each other; now they both directed open hostility toward Shin Se-hee, but her expression remained serene.
'Well, there's a magic word for times like this.'
"Jin Yu-ha sent me."
"......Yellow Dogi did?"
"......Huh? Jin Yu-ha sent you?"
Instantly, the hostile atmosphere melted away, shifting into a mood of All right, let's hear it.
'I knew it.'
"Yes, it's urgent, so I'll explain the situation a little later. First—Lee Yu-ri. Can you use your skill at maximum output and draw the attention of every single cadet here?"
"......Is this something Jin Yu-ha ordered too?"
"Yes, it's important."
Shin Se-hee looked at Lee Yu-ri seriously and nodded.
'As expected, it still feels awful.'
Lee Yu-ri's Mana, still churning from the middle of combat, surged and clawed at the space around her.
Vulnerable as she was to Lee Yu-ri's Mana, just maintaining a poker face and speaking normally was exhausting Shin Se-hee's mental fortitude.
Lee Yu-ri, who had been staring intently at her, slowly nodded.
"......Fine, since you say it's something he ordered. But if this is a lie, you'd better be ready."
"As if. Would I ever lie while invoking Jin Yu-ha's name?"
Sssssssssssssssssss—
Lee Yu-ri slowly drew in a breath.
Mana, at a density incomparable to anything before, rushed in around her.
Even at that point, the cadets nearby stopped their own fights and turned their heads toward Lee Yu-ri.
Soon, she drew her shortsword,
and the moment she struck her shield—
CLAAAAAAAAAAANG—!
Along with a piercing metallic ring, the resonant sound spread outward, and everyone's eyes locked onto Lee Yu-ri.
Shin Se-hee bit her lip hard.
The violent Mana churned inside her, scraping at her from within.
Taking Lee Yu-ri's skill directly from this close range made her stomach lurch and her head spin.
Trickle—
Bright-red blood dripped from the corner of her fiercely bitten lip.
'It's okay. I can do this.'
Even though she'd already crammed dampened cloth into her ears, her head kept trying to turn away.
Thin veins stood out on Shin Se-hee's neck.
Hoooh—
After taking a deep breath, she slowly opened her eyes.
And then, eyes blazing, she addressed the cadets in front of her in the clearest voice she could manage.
"Everyone, stop fighting for a moment. Please, listen to what I have to say."