Deal (1)
Deal (1)
Arena Academy contained several locations whose purpose remained obscure.
The most famous of them was the place called the Infinite Labyrinth.
A giant wall of hedge, growing in a spot isolated from every other academy facility.
No matter the season, the hedge kept a vivid green and bloomed with unfading white flowers.
But anyone who stepped inside, lured by those beautiful blossoms, would pay for it dearly.
"Nngh..."
A girl crouched against the enormous hedge, sniffling.
She lifted the wrist that wore a smartwatch. The battery was barely holding on.
It was a model that could pick up a signal even inside a rift, yet for some reason its screen now read Out of Range.
She cursed the girl she had been two hours ago—the one who had been laughing and chattering away.
―It's seriously huge.
―And we're supposed to be attending this place starting next month.
―Did you see the dorms? They're as big as my living room.
The girl, Kang Han-na, had awakened her abilities at fifteen and graduated from an Awakened Special High School with top marks. Then she had applied to Arena Academy and passed the entrance exam.
She had come with her fellow admitted students on a visit to explore the academy where they would be living from the following month. The visit itself had been more than satisfying.
The only blemish came just as all they had left to do was go home, when someone started spouting nonsense.
―You guys know about the Infinite Labyrinth?
―What's that. If it's a maze, why call it infinite. The guy who made it some kind of pervert?
―That's not what I mean. My older sister heard from a friend who goes here...
The Infinite Labyrinth.
A mysterious place at Arena Academy.
Rumor among the academy's alumni and current students had it that an incredible artifact was kept at its end, or so the story went.
The maze had earned the name "Infinite" because even graduates who had made a name for themselves in the world claimed they had never seen its end.
If even those graduates couldn't reach the end, could a bunch of brand-new students really expect to?
Common sense said that was the right answer. But the girls, at their age, thought a little differently.
What if...?
Among famous Awakened, stories often circulated of becoming stronger or obtaining special equipment through a "fortuitous encounter."
And most Awakened wished they could be the protagonist of such an encounter.
These girls were no exception.
"I've lost my mind... Nngh."
Facing a wind that bit into her bones, Kang Han-na sniffled, her nose dripping nonstop.
She'd definitely been with her friends when they entered the maze. But then—one step, two steps, exactly three steps in—she hadn't even blinked, and the friend walking ahead of her vanished without a trace. The ones following behind were gone too.
That alone was disorienting enough.
But the maze showed no mercy to the intruders who had carelessly set foot inside.
Her mana scattered.
Her abilities sealed.
After five years as an Awakened, Kang Han-na reverted to the ordinary Kang Han-na.
Coming to her senses in a cold she hadn't felt for ages, the first thing she did was try to retrace her steps.
Just three steps.
A distance so short it felt embarrassing to even call it retracing.
But ten steps, twenty steps later, the entrance she had come through was nowhere in sight. Her next move was to try climbing the hedge.
Even without her mana, she hadn't neglected basic physical conditioning. She grabbed onto the hedge and pulled herself up without much trouble.
Up and up she climbed. Then, somehow, her feet were back on the ground.
Her hand had clearly touched the top of the towering hedge, but when she came to, she found herself standing on the ground again.
As her stamina began to wane, she chose her last resort.
Pushing straight through the maze.
After walking about an hour, however, she slumped to the ground. That was when it hit her.
'Ah. I'm fucked.'
She'd tried to pluck a white blossom to mark her route and see if she was going in circles, but she couldn't tear off a single petal, let alone a flower—or even a leaf from the hedge.
That was the moment the dreaming girl Kang Han-na turned back into the Awakened Kang Han-na.
Waking from the sweet dream, she faced reality.
Even the academy's distinguished graduates—whom she felt unworthy to compare herself to—had never conquered this place. There was no way she could.
Kang Han-na had no intention of becoming a donkey chasing a carrot on a stick.
Fortunately, the maze reportedly expelled everyone inside when the sun rose the following day.
She just had to hold out and conserve her strength until then.
That was why she was now collapsed on the ground.
"Nngh..."
She was staring blankly at the smartwatch's fading screen when it happened.
Swoosh—
A shadow suddenly fell over her, and Kang Han-na looked up.
Unkempt black hair, disheveled.
A sharp jawline and a nose sharp enough to cut.
Shoulders and chest so broad the coat he wore was pulled taut.
Long legs.
'I want to take them off...'
The man had appeared out of nowhere.
Normally, surprise and wariness should have come first, but as Kang Han-na looked up at him, her mind was filled entirely with the desire to remove the glasses hiding his face.
Just as she was staring up at him, the man was looking down at her.
He spoke first.
"Kang Han-na."
"...!!"
Startled by that low, rich voice that seemed to melt her ears, Kang Han-na snapped back to attention.
Thump—! Thump—! Thump—!
The instant she came to, her heart started pounding like mad.
She cleared her throat for no good reason and carefully parted her lips.
"Y-You know who I am...?"
"Your name tag."
With that curt answer, the man pointed a thick, long finger at her chest.
Kang Han-na's gaze naturally followed his finger downward.
"Ah..."
She spotted the temporary student ID hanging around her neck.
Kang Han-na's face flushed red like a volcano about to erupt.
'You crazy bitch!! Who do you think you are!!'
Mentally mauling herself, she couldn't lift her head. She was far too embarrassed to look at his face again.
Into her lowered field of vision came the man's clenched fist.
Or more precisely, the Black Ring wrapped around his finger.
"Are you... a professor?"
The man didn't answer. Instead, he extended his hand toward her.
Kang Han-na blinked vacantly at the offered hand.
'He's not asking for money... right?'
She'd read on a community board that the more exceptional the professor, the more eccentric their behavior.
"Aren't you leaving?"
"...Ah!!"
His voice melted her ears and, at the same time, wiped away every frivolous delusion.
"I-I, um, excuse me..."
Worrying that her heartbeat might transmit through the touch, Kang Han-na nervously took his hand.
The man's hand was large. And warm.
'I must be going crazy!!'
Practical drills happened every quarter. In the process, torn and broken protective gear was completely normal, and naturally, exposure to the opposite sex was just as normal.
But in life-or-death situations, no one had the leisure to care about that. Man or woman, Awakened were indifferent to seeing another's body.
Kang Han-na had believed she was no different, right up until she took his hand. That was when she realized she'd been very mistaken.
"Get up."
"Ah, y-yes! Yes!!"
Only upon hearing his words did she remember she'd been slumped on the ground. She hurriedly brushed off her backside and stood.
'Whoa...'
Standing with both feet on the ground, she now physically felt just how tall the man was.
At 175 centimeters, she was on the taller side for a woman, yet she barely reached his chest.
"Let's go."
"Y-Yes..."
Feeling as if she'd become a little child again, Kang Han-na held tightly to his hand and trotted after him.
**
"Th-Thank you."
With the man's help, Kang Han-na was able to get out of the Infinite Labyrinth before her failing smartwatch powered off.
"Um... I-I'm really sorry, but..."
After expressing her gratitude, Kang Han-na raised her head and fidgeted with her fingers before forcing the words out.
"My friends are still in there..."
"Did anyone force them in?"
"What? Ah, no! We just sort of..."
"Choices come with consequences."
"..."
Kang Han-na closed her mouth and gave a timid nod.
'Then what about me...'
As the thought surfaced, the man spoke again.
"Do you know which way to the Street of Light?"
"Huh? Ah, yes. I-I think I do..."
The Street of Light.
The name for the district where the temples were clustered.
"Which way?"
"Uh, well..."
As Kang Han-na was about to give directions, a thought flashed through her head.
"I'll guide you there."
She half-feared he'd refuse, but fortunately the man acknowledged her goodwill with a single nod.
"This way..."
The classmates still trapped in the maze vanished cleanly from Kang Han-na's mind the moment the man declined to help.
In their place.
"P-Professor, may I ask your name?"
"What subject do you teach?"
"Were you also trying to challenge the maze when you went in?"
Mustering her courage a little at a time, she chattered away to learn anything about him. But.
"Can first-years also apply—"
"You're noisy."
"...Yes."
The man answered not a single one of her questions.
Kang Han-na did not say another word all the way to the Street of Light.
"This is the Street..."
"Good work."
As if his business was done, the man breezed past Kang Han-na and quickly grew distant.
She watched his retreating back, growing smaller and smaller, and murmured to herself.
"...Was there a Black Ring?"
**
'So that's Kang Han-na in her student days...'
The face of the character I had always known only through text still held traces of girlhood, but it wasn't far off from what I had imagined.
And this street I was walking through now—likewise.
A street lined with temples of varying size and ornamentation.
I moved toward the largest and most splendid temple among them.
No one stopped me.
Since causing a disturbance in a temple invited divine punishment, there was no reason to station guards.
Instead, a woman who had been offering prayers near the entrance approached.
Waist-length blonde hair and blue eyes.
Features that gave off a cool, brisk impression overall.
A pristine white priestess robe without a single speck of dust.
'Claire Vin Asen.'
"What business brings you here?"
The priestess, whose voice was just as cool as her appearance, asked me.
"A private prayer room."
"...This way."
It was brief, but the moment I parted my lips, the priestess's shoulder flinched.
She led me up to the second floor, then pointed down a long, broad corridor.
"You may freely use any room without a sign on the door. If that is all."
Leaving only a silent nod, the priestess quietly walked back downstairs.
'She doesn't suspect for a second that I might cause trouble.'
In truth, I had no such intention. But in the not-so-distant future, that blind faith would lead to immense bloodshed.
'Though it's none of my business.'
I entered the nearest empty room.
A prayer room with nothing but a coat rack, a cushioned chair, and a statue of a beautiful child—difficult to tell whether a boy or a girl.
I wasn't here to stay long, nor to pray. So I kept my coat on, settled carelessly onto the chair, placed my smartphone in front of the statue, and removed my glasses.
Wooooong—
From my still-unrecovered eye, Void's intense hatred for gods poured out and began to engulf the statue.
Crack—!!
The instant a thin fracture line appeared across the child's statue.
Beep—!
The smartphone in front of it blared loudly, and the dark screen lit up.
【 (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞ What is this sudden violence!!】
[ (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞ What is this sudden violence!!]
A sentence that perfectly matched my memory.
I put my glasses back on.
[ (⇀‸↼‶) Rude person!!]
The messages clamored noisily, flaring up and vanishing in a messy stream.
A manner of speech that seemed flippant and frivolous. Yet the owner of this massive temple, the foremost being among countless gods.
'God of Amusement Vuar.'
The one and only with the power to locate the girl at this point in time. An eccentric who, even later when the girl awakened the God-Slaying Power, would not turn hostile.
[(｡ŏ_ŏ) Hey there say something please.]
I spoke to that eccentric.
"I've come to make a deal."