Heavenly Secrets

Perfect timing. I'd just been struggling, moments ago, to scrub Shin Yuyu's face from my mind.

No matter how I turned it over, there was no one on Earth better suited to doing my bidding. Pleased with the turn of events, I helped her to her feet and seated her in the chair across my desk.

"Your hand..."

"It's fine. It heals fast."

"Anyone with eyes can see that's not a wound that heals fast."

"Wait a little and you'll see. More importantly, what brings you here at this hour?"

"Hmph. You think I came because I wanted to?"

That answer explained everything. So the Cheongirok had sent her trudging over yet again.

Unlike the Association hunters who shuttled busily between Earth and the Empire to run the Pamagok hunting grounds, Shin Yuyu had spent nearly all her recent time here. The real reason was rather amusing, in fact.

She had originally been hired to provide security for the Association's staff. But once the base camp established near Pamagok had settled in — the tribute paid, the hunting permits secured — there was no longer any reason to keep her contract.

From the Association's standpoint, paying out sums in the hundreds of millions to keep an S-Rank hunter on retainer when there was no danger to guard against was an unbearable expense. Even now they were bleeding astronomical sums buying magic stones from the hunters.

Yet they couldn't exactly cast aside a woman who had helped them, so someone in the upper echelons had come up with a clever solution. They quietly rewrote the screening regulations with a suitably generous standard so that she could enter and leave Pamagok like any other party — or so it should have gone.

"Failed the review again?"

"...Yeah."

"And I heard all you had to do was avoid a failing grade."

Apparently even that had proven too much for them to wave her through.

According to Moon Seoyoung, the list of disqualifying factors was astonishing. There was her record of demolishing several guilds and half-destroying a city in her fight against an S-Rank hunter, and she'd reportedly failed the personality and aptitude screening six separate ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠times. Worse, not a single teammate — not one person willing to party with her — could be found.

Fortunately, the rules as written only barred the Association from bringing her into Pamagok. They said nothing about expelling someone already residing there, so she was living inside the fortress more or less freely.

That, apparently, was the grievance.

"You could make an exception for one person's access, couldn't you!"

"Order is maintained through rules. If you came and went as you pleased, drawing upon the Association's resources whenever it suited you, how do you imagine the other hunters would regard their own authority?"

"Shut up, I didn't come here for a lecture. Anyway, must be nice for some people?"

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Unlike certain people, you've got someone right beside you waiting on you hand and foot."

Was she talking about me? Shin Yuyu grabbed the wad of papers sitting on the desk and shook it at me, making a show of it — the printed gallery posts Moon Seoyoung had reported to me that very morning.

"They're thanking you for teaching the Seven Great Powers a lesson, and begging you to hurry up and cross over to Earth. It's an absolute circus over there."

"They hardly know me. Idle flattery, nothing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠more."

"Your subordinates are just as bad! Especially this one — 'Great General Yuhyeon's true essential support is a single maid named Yeonri who stands at his side'... wait, what is this?"

"Hm?"

That last one, I had no idea about either.

In any case, Shin Yuyu looked distinctly sulky at the fact that she herself had apparently received no recognition. But her expression soon shifted, and she settled back with her arms crossed and even her legs crossed, as if she'd come already knowing everything.

"You need something from me, don't you? The old folks in the book told me all about it."

"They did."

"Let me say this upfront: I don't move for money. It's just that I felt sorry for the Association folks this time, and it was technically done for the country anyway, so I'm granting this one favor."

"Then what do you want?"

Magic stones? The imperial warehouses were practically rotting with them. But she could simply purchase those on Earth, so she'd hardly need any from me.

Her reason for coming here had surely been dictated by her ancestors from the start. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠listened intently, braced with anticipation, as Shin Yuyu swallowed hard and spoke.

"Bow your head to me yourself, and I'll do it."

"Very well."

"You can't actually do it, right? You, who always looked down your nose at me calling me a barbarian and whatever else, what would you even— what!?"

It was hardly a difficult thing. A free S-Rank hunter, effectively at my beck and call? Weighed against Shin Yuyu's strength and value, there could be no better terms. Back in my penal-conscript days, I had bowed my head even to Jang Mu. My mind made up, I rose from my seat at once — and she lurched backward in alarm, throwing herself across the desk. Her small white hands, brimming with mana, pressed down hard on my shoulders.

"Wait, wait! What are you actually doing it for!"

"You told me to?"

"Even so! A man shouldn't bend his waist so lightly in front of a maiden!"

Was it her attire, or her powers? Now and then, Shin Yuyu showed a streak more patriarchal than even a man out of my own premodern era.

"M-more than anything, you're the Great General of an entire nation!"

"Yuyu. You seem to be laboring under a misunderstanding about me."

"Huh?"

She had likely meant this as her revenge — to make me grovel in humiliation the way I had at our first meeting. She plainly had not expected me to agree so readily. Staring into her trembling pupils from a hand's breadth away, I corrected her error.

Nothing decided at this military council had been carried out by my own hand. Ferreting out the enemy, herding the magic beasts right to their doorstep — every one of those deeds had been the achievement of my subordinates.

"Do you imagine I force you all to bow because I'm drunk on my own authority? I do it to fulfill my role. And if fulfilling that role demands it, there is no reason I cannot bow my own head in turn. It is simple logic."

"And your role is what, exactly?"

"To protect this place, of course. Just as you did when you followed the Association here."

"I..."

"Barbarian or magic beast alike — I have a duty to shield those dear to me from every threat that lies beyond that wall."

"..."

Shin Yuyu fell deep into thought. If she started demanding a different price at this stage, I would be in an awkward spot indeed. Perhaps I should have simply bowed a little faster? While I was still weighing it, she opened her mouth in a voice that wavered.

"I'm inside your fortress right now too. So does that mean I count among the people you just said you have to protect?"

"Well..."

"Forget it. You're just going to say I'm a barbarian again anyway, aren't you?"

"No. Yuyu, you are..."

The book she carried squirmed against her. What on earth was I supposed to answer here? I had to choose my words carefully if I wanted to convince her — and then, in that instant, a word surfaced.

"Concub—..."

"What?"

"My Favorite Barbarian."

"?"

"Let's... go with that for now. Ahem. It is a very special designation."

Forget the etiquette. Forget the casual speech, too. The Cheongirok forced her to sit at my side so often that I remembered the subordinates half-joking among themselves about whether she was my favored concubine — and of all the barbarians roaming freely through the military compound, she was the only one I never once restrained.

Fortunately I'd swerved my words in time — though whether the replacement was any more acceptable to the person receiving it was another question entirely. No. To be precise, the question concerned Shin Yuyu and the ancestral gods she served. Frankly, if I were in the position of a father or grandfather, I couldn't imagine welcoming it gladly.

"Favorite..."

She never made an important decision alone. By my guess, dodging the God's Rod at the door earlier had been her second reading. To block the third and final omen from being cast, Shin Yuyu shot to her feet and thrust her arm toward the Cheongirok resting on the table — and I reached it first.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing at all. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Have you decided?"

"Roughly."

Her mouth had run three steps ahead of her, and her cheeks had flushed a strange shade. She was busy straightening her collar when she finally noticed that I was gripping her Cheongirok. I braced for her to shriek at me to hand it over this instant — but with barely a flicker of reluctance, she gestured toward the broken door panel and let herself out.

"I'll be coming back, so keep it."

"You don't need it? This is your—..."

"It's fine."

"Why?"

"Because it's not dangerous."

Even without the Cheongirok, it is not dangerous. Those were her parting words, and then she vanished into the night sky.

Having crossed the rift back to Earth, Shin Yuyu made for the East Sea.

The ship the Ignis Guild had boarded had departed the port hours earlier, laden with magic stones and bound for the United States. A torrential downpour that had begun at dusk soaked the deck through.

"Mr. Lee. Someone's climbed aboard the ship, according to our hunters."

"Who the hell is it?"

"Confirming now. They should show up on screen any second."

"That's... Shin Yuyu?"

The ship's alarms shrieked the moment her radiating mana was detected. Lee Dowon scrambled up from the captain's quarters onto the deck, but Shin Yuyu paid it no mind, muttering to herself, alone.

"So he was a lord to be served and honored — and you just sent me over to sweet-talk some petty man?"

"Boarding our vessel is illegal! Leave at once, or we will file a formal protest with the Association!"

"Not that I'm complaining. Well — minus the talk, the behavior, the status, and the face, I don't exactly hate him, but this is way off from what I expected."

The truth was, she had already checked all three omens. From the moment her reason for staying in Pamagok had evaporated, she had had no idea what to do with herself.

At first, she had naturally assumed the ancestors meant for her to stay at Yuhyeon's side and help South Korea — a nation getting pushed around by the Great Powers.

"I thought my ancestors were the gods of commentary, and it turns out they're matchmakers. Kill me now."

"Listen here, Hunter Shin Yuyu! You know full well you can't lay a hand on us!"

Well, he's still better than a high-school-girl VTuber, at least. With that idle grumble, she threw on her changsam robe and drew out her bell and her fan.

Their clan was no longer a thriving nation. The happiness of the bloodline they had left behind was all the ancestors desired — and so, from the instant Shin Yuyu had chosen Yuhyeon, the restrictions on her unique ability had lost all meaning.

"If you have any sense, avoid an unnecessary incident and return to Korea right n—..."

"There are times, you see."

"Hunter Shin Yuyu?"

"Fools who think divination merely predicts a fixed future, already written in a book."

The sky split open amid the wind and rain, and from that rent above, countless threads of mana came pouring down, coiling around Shin Yuyu's body.

"A poor child who tore out her own roots by the ancestors' hand and spat up even her birthright with her own mouth."

Only then did Lee Dowon grasp what she intended, and he bellowed at the subordinates stationed across the deck. The Korean members of the guild had mostly failed to return from Yuhyeon's assault — the merchant ship carried only American hunters dispatched from headquarters.

They didn't understand a word he said.

"S-stop her...! She's leaking the secrets of Heaven!"

"I'm sorry — the what, Mr. Lee?"

"Fuck, is that what matters right now!? If you don't want to die, stuff her mouth any way you can!"

"You strode boldly through the gate, never knowing an elder sat beyond the border — shoes still on your feet."

The hunters belatedly sensed something was terribly wrong and unleashed everything on her at once. A wall of blue light, drawn up before Shin Yuyu, sent spells and hidden weapons ricocheting away in all directions.

With her eyes closed, she received every attack without answering a single one. She simply kept reading the heavens.

"Struck by retribution, you crawled back all the same, scheming to extort that house's heirloom as well — there is no graver injustice."

"M-magitech weapons! Bring every magitech weapon we've got!"

Tearing open a shipping container as it rocked in the violent waves, Lee Dowon seized one of the remaining God's Rods and fired it straight at her. An explosion bloomed with a deafening KRAK!, and the barrier shattered — but her clothing was merely singed at the edges. Still, a gap had opened at last; if they could just concentrate fire on it and bring her down—

"Damn it. DAMN IT ALL!!"

"Ahh, even were you to pray a thousand times to heaven, this is certain—"

The ship is fated to meet a raging storm and sink before it ever reaches port.

With those words, Shin Yuyu turned away without the slightest regret. She did not spare even a glance at the despair carved into Lee Dowon's face.

And a few days later.

"This is today's news?"

"Yes, it is indeed so, Great General!"

The newspaper Moon Seoyoung brought carried a brief article: the merchant ship carrying the Ignis Guild members had gone missing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.