Hide and Seek (2)
Hide and Seek (2)
Click.
Idni secured the sword engraved with a chess pawn into her belt and checked her gear one more time, only looking up once she confirmed everything was in order.
"Are we done?"
"Wait just a moment."
Maria stood in front of Lee Na-young, meticulously fastening the clasps so the pure-white concealment cloak wouldn't catch the wind and fly off.
"Done."
"Th-thank you."
Lee Na-young was only a second-year. Just memorizing the vegetative distribution of stage-based rifts in detail already consumed all her time, so she had no knowledge of how to use and wear equipment like this.
"Na Yeon-ju. You absolutely sure you've got everything on?"
"Yes'm. Checked it all real careful-like."
Na Yeon-ju might also be a non-combat class, but her roots were in the clergy. She'd been trained since childhood to prepare for entering rifts at any time, so she'd put her equipment on without difficulty.
"Confirmed. Then everyone line up in a row."
Idni, her baggage slightly reduced in bulk and slung over her shoulders and both hands, was the first to stand before the shimmering rift. Lee Na-young, Maria, and Na Yeon-ju lined up after her in that order.
"Nobody forgot anything? Even if you did, we're out of time now, so just say you didn't."
The twenty minutes Vuar had specially granted for the adorable children who'd shown up without any gear was about to expire.
"Didn't."
"I, I packed all my potions too."
"I never had nothin' to bring in the first place, y'see."
"Confirmed. Then on one, we all go in together."
Idni exhaled sharply and spoke with emphasis.
"Three, two...."
One.
On cue, the four who had lined up in a row threw themselves into the rift almost simultaneously.
**
"Pwah!!"
Idni, bundled head to toe in cold-weather gear, burst up out of the snow, which was soft yet carried a chill sharp enough to sting the skin.
"Ptoo, ptoo!!"
She spat out the snow that had gotten into her mouth and rapidly scanned her surroundings.
"Goddamn, starting off with bullshit already...."
With snow piled up past her waist, Idni's eyes crinkled slightly behind her goggles. But her complaints lasted only a moment.
Idni dashed over to a deep, person-shaped depression in the snow nearby and plunged her hand in without hesitation.
"Pwooeeh!!"
"Hey, hey, it's just snow. Calm down."
"Ptui, ptuii...! Haah, hu-haa...."
Lee Na-young, yanked up out of the snow by the scruff of her neck in Idni's grip, spat out the mouthful of snow and started catching her breath.
"Stay put for a sec."
"O-okay."
Idni slung Lee Na-young over her right shoulder like a sack of luggage, then moved on to her next target. This time, though, she didn't reach in with a hand. Instead, she extended her left leg far out and lifted it upward through the snow.
"Hoo... much obliged."
Unlike Lee Na-young, Na Yeon-ju had stayed calm and motionless while waiting to be rescued. She stepped off Idni's shin and planted both feet on the ground.
"Hey. You can get yourself out just fine."
Idni called out toward the last pit.
Fwoooosh—!!
Alongside a blaze of intense light, the thick snow piled up around the area melted away in an instant. And from the center, where the light had burst forth, Maria calmly rose to her feet.
"Holy power recovers slowly, you know. I should conserve it whenever I can, but I had to waste it because of you."
"You of all people, complaining about holy power—that's some absolutely shameless whining, don't you think?"
"Shut up and go get the bags."
"Yeah, yeah."
Uncharacteristically, Idni didn't snipe back at Maria and obediently moved as told. Watching the two from a short distance away, Lee Na-young and Na Yeon-ju both thought the same thing.
'They're both incredible.'
'I need to get my act together too....'
The harsh environment, combined with this unfamiliar side of two people who normally did nothing but bicker, left a considerable impression on the other two.
·
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"All done."
Na Yeon-ju finished assembling the sled cart in no time and stood up, dusting off her backside.
"There was a shit-ton of parts, but now that it's put together, it's not all that big."
"As long as we can load the bags and Na-young on it, what more do you want?"
"True enough."
As the party's sole tanker and melee dealer, Idni couldn't carry luggage around forever. So the four bags were laid out neatly across the bottom of the flat-packed snow sled—purchased by squeezing every last scrap of their budget after buying essentials.
"Big Sis Na-young."
"Yeah, thanks."
With Na Yeon-ju's help, Lee Na-young climbed onto the sled and sat down.
"The start was a shitshow, but at least we're about ready to move now. So where are we heading?"
"Good question. It'd be nice if we could find a forest or a cave or something, but with the area this wide open around us, it's not easy to make a call."
Maria answered her best friend's question with a note of difficulty and pulled a gold coin, slightly larger than a thumb, from a small pouch fastened behind her waist.
"Eugh, isn't that one of those luck-freak artifacts?"
"When you need it, you use it."
An artificial artifact sold by followers of the God of Luck, commonly known as a Lucky Coin.
By tossing the coin upward with a strong wish, there was a set probability that it would summon the most necessary item, or even a small phenomenon—a divine instrument.
A Lucky Coin's probability varied by color, the earnestness of the wish, and the user's present circumstances.
Of the five grades of Lucky Coins, gold was the second-highest tier, an exorbitantly expensive item that came with a base success rate boosted by thirty percent.
"You're broke as hell, so where'd you get that?"
"Hehe, do you want to know?"
"...Nope."
At the smile that seemed even creepier than usual, Idni swallowed unconsciously and shook her head.
"I need to concentrate for a bit, so keep watch."
"Got it."
Shing.
Idni drew her sword, put a moderate amount of force into it, and thrust it into the ground.
"Hup."
Then she stepped up onto the cross guard, which extended out on both sides to protect the hand.
Using sight, hearing, and the sword she stood on, she channeled mana into the ground and spread it out wide.
Once Idni was ready, Maria closed her eyes and flicked the coin with her thumb.
The gold coin spun rapidly upward, and when it reached its apex, a burst of golden light erupted.
What came down after the brief, intense light faded wasn't the coin, but a silver compass.
"Oh, we hit?"
"Looks like it."
Idni hopped down and sheathed her sword again.
"What'd you wish for?"
"For help finding a safe place."
"Jackpot."
Idni glanced at the compass resting in her best friend's palm and started moving.
"Na Yeon-ju. We're heading out, so get ready."
"Yes'm."
Na Yeon-ju moved to the back to push the sled, which had a weight-reducing magic engraved on it, while Maria climbed on beside Lee Na-young.
"You're not gonna start in about holy power again, are you?"
"If it were just the two of us moving, I might have, but the sled makes that difficult."
"Ha, I seriously don't know what sins I committed in a past life to end up tangled with you."
"When we get back, should I ask you to return all the allowance I gave you?"
"Maria. I love you. Wanna get married? I'm good at cooking, you know."
Maria let out a soft laugh at Idni's nonsense and created a small sphere of condensed holy power in front of Idni.
Patter, patter—!!
The snow touched by the light of holy power melted away quickly.
"That's amazing. What kind of magic is it?"
"Not magic. A small miracle, I guess you could say."
"Miracle...?"
Maria smiled kindly at Lee Na-young's question and explained as simply as she could.
"If magic manifests through mana, spell formulas, and the caster's image as its medium, then a miracle manifests through holy power and the caster's wish. Obviously, I can't produce a true miracle like the almighty ones can, but a wish along the lines of 'I hope the snow melts away safely' is the kind of miracle my holy power can still manage to create."
Beyond that, several other kinds existed, but the most famously known were healing, treatment, purification, and recovery—abilities only clergy members could use.
"If you're done yapping, how about you clear us a path so we can actually get moving?"
"Fine."
The sphere of holy power, a little larger than a fist, that had been floating in front of Idni slowly advanced. The surrounding snow melted away limply in its wake, and the bare dirt ground appeared in an instant.
"Na Yeon-ju. It's slippery, so be careful."
"Will do."
Maria's miracle was only meant to make the snow "melt away safely," so it couldn't stop the meltwater from hitting the frozen ground and freezing into new ice.
If that was what she wished for, she could solve that too, but manifesting multiple miracles demanded a considerable amount of holy power. And since they'd already mounted good spikes on their boots, there was no reason to waste the energy.
"Heading out."
Idni slowly moved her feet, following the direction the compass pointed.
**
Awoooooo—!!
A bright-yellow full moon had risen above the pitch-black sky.
Thwump—!!
"Ha, fuck. Finally got out."
Idni kicked through the snow piled up past her waist, burst forward, and let out a long exhale at the sight of grass blades sparkling under the moonlight.
"Yeon-ju, you okay?"
"Soles of my feet are a little sore, but I'm still fine."
"Just a little further. Hang in there."
"Yep."
The group had started walking across the snow-covered field early in the morning, right as the sun was rising. Only now, after sunset had faded into full night, had they escaped the vast snowfield and reached a forest where enormous trees grew as if they'd been standing for centuries.
"Shit, I think even my underwear's soaked."
"You worked hard."
Darkness had fallen as the sun went down. In that darkness, the sphere Maria had created with holy power blazed as bright as the sun, so to avoid provoking any monsters, Idni had no choice but to use her own body to break trail for the latter half of the journey.
Of course, if she raised the concentration of holy power, it could also deter monsters from approaching—but there was no rule that the enemy would only be monsters, so this had been an unavoidable decision.
"Ha, I figured it wouldn't be normal from the moment we signed the pledge, but at this point, isn't this just the professor not wanting to take on extra people?"
"Maybe. More importantly, let's move. Listening to that howl earlier, I'm pretty sure it was a werewolf."
"...I'm holding it in because we're right there."
A towering cliff visible even above the treetops.
Idni and Maria assumed the safe zone the compass was pointing to would be somewhere below that cliff, and they started walking again.
"Bingo."
"Honestly, I figured from the halfway point that it was a dud. Turns out I was wrong."
Both of them breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of a decently sized cave.
"Fuck, let's unload and eat something, quick. My stomach's about to glue itself to my spine, goddammit."
Idni strode briskly toward the dark cave, and Na Yeon-ju, thinking she could finally rest, hurriedly pushed the sled to follow.
And the moment they reached the cave entrance.
Flash—!!
"Ghk?!"
"Kyaa!!"
A blinding light engulfed all four of them in an instant.
Having lost her vision in a split second, Idni rapidly unfurled her energy sense and drew her sword. No—she tried to draw it.
"Fuck. And here I thought this was a safe zone."
At the cool sensation against her neck, Idni squeezed her eyes shut, her brow furrowing hard. In the wash of dismay that followed, she was just about to let go of her sword when—
-Wait a moment. Those children are Miss Ha-na's friends.
A very familiar voice sounded from inside the cave. At the same time, a startled gasp of "Oh!" rang out, and the coolness against her neck vanished.
-We had dinner together with Miss Ha-na at the hotel restaurant. I'm not sure if you remember.
At the given clue, Idni's mind raced furiously.
And without much difficulty, she was able to place the owner of the voice.
The woman who had become Student Council president a few days ago.
-Bring them inside.
Yoon I-seul invited the four of them in.