Who Are You?!
Who are you?!
“……W-who are you?!”
The guild master.
Her name was Nayeon.
She stood frozen in the doorway, backpack still slung over her shoulders.
And beside her, the secretary. Jihyun, face just as stiff.
Why did they have to show up now of all times?
If they’d come even five minutes later, I could’ve prepared…
…No. My fault. I’d had plenty of time, but I’d wasted it goofing around instead of actually thinking anything through.
But what was I supposed to do?!
It was the first free time I’d had in ages!
The first unlimited dopamine in ages!
Anyone would’ve done the same…!
Calculations spun wildly through my head.
How did this picture look to those two?
An office they’d returned to after two nights and three days away.
The sword they’d left behind nowhere in sight, and some strange blue-haired kid sitting there wearing one of their short-sleeved T-shirts like she owned the place.
I needed to explain. Fast.
Calmly. Coherently.
But before I could open my mouth, Nayeon moved first.
She strode straight over and crouched down in front of me.
“Hey, where’s your mom? How did you get in here?”
Worry first.
Fair enough, I supposed. What would a little kid like this even be doing, stealing from someone else’s office?
“But wait. Isn’t that… my T-shirt?”
…She was sharp.
Meanwhile Jihyun still hadn’t moved from the doorway.
The only thing moving was her eyes, flicking rapidly.
Me. The sofa. The window. The entrance.
“…Senior. The door was locked, right?”
“Huh? Yeah. I just unlocked it with the key…?”
“Only the two of us have keys to the office. And the windows are still locked.”
Her voice was low. Not angry so much as…
“…Then how did this kid get in? There’s no way in from outside.”
Good.
My turn to explain.
Alright, listen up.
I was picking my words carefully, just about to open my mouth, when—
“?!”
My body moved on its own.
Both hands came neatly together in front of me.
My waist folded cleanly in half.
“W-welcome home, Master!”
……What?
My waist was still bent at a perfect ninety degrees.
I strained with a grunt; it didn’t budge an inch, only now slowly, barely, starting to straighten.
“W-what did you just say? Master?”
“…Senior. So you finally went and—”
“No! I don’t know what that even means, but I really don’t know anything! I’ve never seen this kid before!”
Half a dozen question marks floated over both their faces.
Same here.
I had about a hundred of my own right now.
“…!”
A thought flashed through my mind out of nowhere.
This person had bought me.
So she was the owner.
Owner meant… Master.
Was this a side effect of becoming an Ego Weapon?!
What the hell kind of nonsense was this!
I was screaming internally when Nayeon’s gaze slowly slid downward.
Under the baggy T-shirt.
To my bare white legs.
“Wait a second. Are you… only wearing that one thing?”
“Uh… yes?”
Was that really the question for this situation?
Well… I’d had no choice.
The only clothes in the office had been short-sleeved T-shirts.
…Don’t worry about cleanliness!
It would sound pathetic to explain, but this body didn’t even use the bathroom, so it was extremely clean—
“J-Jihyun! Grab some pants…!”
“Why me… Ah, okay. Just a second….”
Jihyun opened her backpack and started rummaging.
“H-here, put these on. They’re my workout pants—the smallest ones I have.”
What she tossed over were dolphin shorts.
Nayeon caught them and hurriedly began stuffing them onto my legs.
“U-ugh. M-Master…!”
A guy in dolphin shorts?!
I tried to yank my legs free in horror, but—
If I just thought of it as being sheathed, it wasn’t that big a deal, right?
I was a sword.
Instead of a scabbard, this time I was being put into pants.
…I was used to being put into things.
After they somehow got the tiny dolphin shorts on me, the two of them finally let out a breath.
“There. That gave me a scare.”
But that wasn’t what mattered right now…?
Didn’t we have something we were talking about?
…The moment I thought it—
“…Senior.”
Jihyun’s voice dropped flat.
Her gaze was locked on the desk.
“The sword is gone.”
“Huh?”
“That two-hundred-thousand-won piece of scrap metal. We left it lying on the desk. It’s not there.”
Nayeon whipped around.
On the desk.
An empty spot.
“Hek?! Our sword! Where’s the sword?!”
Nayeon jumped up in pure shock.
“Y-you—did you see the sword?! The one that was lying right here!”
Good. Perfect timing for a perfect explanation this time.
I’m that sword. The night you stroked me and made a wish. It came true.
Just three sentences.
Here I go!
“I am th—”
Guh.
“I am th?”
“No, that…”
My throat locked shut.
Only a deflating wheeze came out.
…What?
Did I just choke?
Again.
“I’m actually that sw—”
Cough again.
Even the first sound of “sword” wouldn’t come out.
My voice simply evaporated at that exact point.
What is this.
What the hell is this!
I was pretty rattled, but if I couldn’t speak, I’d just write it.
I urgently reached for a Post-it on the desk.
Grabbed a pen—just four characters, “I am that sword”—
“…?!”
My hand wouldn’t move.
The pen tip just trembled on the paper, frozen in place.
Goosebumps raced over my entire body.
Status window!
Ego Weapon · Byeori
Owner:Nayeon
Sword Techniques Learned:5 / ∞
Physical Output:17%
Technique Fusion:Locked
Identity Seal:Active
…Identity Seal?
Owner, and now a seal on top of it.
Two new lines that hadn’t been there yesterday.
Hey, release it! Release this thing!
The status window coldly gave no answer.
I was going insane.
What good was having a mouth if I couldn’t talk!
While I flailed my arms in pure panic, the two of them tore the office apart searching.
“It’s gone… It’s really gone. We paid two hundred thousand won for it…”
“…Senior, think rationally. The sword vanished from a locked office, and there’s an unknown kid here. There’s only one person who would know the truth.”
Both their gazes turned on me.
Couldn’t speak.
Couldn’t write.
…Then there was only one thing left, right?
“Excuse me!”
I dashed over and planted myself in front of them.
“Master, please don’t be surprised. I am…!”
I closed my eyes and called up the sensation from when I’d been a sword.
Cool. Hard. The feel of solid metal.
Flash—!
Light flared.
The T-shirt and dolphin shorts plopped to the floor.
And on top of them, a single silver sword settled with a soft clink.
Not a single break. The me of my prime.
“…Huh?”
Silence.
Nayeon approached as if entranced and carefully lifted me.
The hand gripping the hilt trembled.
She turned the blade this way and that.
The blade she had polished with her own hands three days ago.
The place that had been broken, now seamlessly whole.
“This is… our sword…? The one I bought. But why is it fine? The broken part is gone…”
I flipped the sensation once more inside Nayeon’s hands.
Flash—
“Kyaa?!”
I was a girl again.
Unfortunately Nayeon freaked out and threw me, so I bounced on my butt for the second time.
“Hwing… my butt…”
As I rubbed my backside with tears welling up, Jihyun brought over a blanket and quietly wrapped me up in it.
Silence stretched for a few seconds.
The first to break it was Nayeon, starlight sparkling in her eyes.
“E-Ego Sword!”
“What?”
“Ego Sword! The ones of which there are only two in the whole world! Our sword… became that Ego Sword!”
Then she scooped me up and started spinning in circles.
“Hwek! I’m dizzy! Put me down, Master!”
“Jihyun! Did you see?! We’re not doomed! We’re saved! I don’t have to sell my kidney!”
Jihyun was plastered against the wall, mouth opening and closing uselessly.
“…Ego Sword? A-a national-power-level strategic weapon…? In our office… for two hundred thousand won…?”
She covered her face with both hands.
“I’m losing it. Senior, this isn’t a dream, right? Pinch me. Hard.”
Instead of pinching, Nayeon ran over with me still in her arms and answered by crushing all three of us into a group hug.
“Bueu…!”
Only I got squashed completely flat in the middle.
I got that it was good.
I even thought I’d be happy about it too.
“Eungmeueu…! Masteeer…!”
“Uwaaaa! We’re alive! We’re aliiive!”
Let me breathe…!
Only after a long while did Nayeon finally set me down on the sofa.
Then she crouched to match my eye level.
“Um… have you been listening this whole time? I mean, uh. From when do you remember?”
Here it came.
“Everything.”
“Everything?”
“The whole time I was a sword…? I forgot the little things, but I remember most of it.”
Nayeon fell into thought, then her eyes went wide.
“Then the night before we left—the things I said while polishing you. Do you remember those too?”
That you must have been in a lot of pain.
That we’d fix you now.
That we’d definitely take you to the forge.
That night.
The things this person had gently said to a sword.
Warm hands. Warm voice.
“I remember. Thanks to that, I changed like this too…”
I said it calmly, but this body shamelessly tried to turn on the waterworks again, so I looked away fast.
But I couldn’t help it.
In three years, this person had been the first to treat me like that.
There had been plenty of hands that rough-handled me, that flung me away calling me scrap.
But no hand had ever asked if I was hurt.
Whether she knew my heart or not, Nayeon pondered a moment, then clapped her hands.
“Aaaah! That night I made a wish! That you’d be a super cute kid! So that’s why you became an Ego Sword that looks like this!”
Yeah.
Thanks to someone, I ended up in this wonderful state.
Should I call her out on it?
Except the other party happened to be someone sparkling with pure joy….
“A-aut, th-thank you for giving me a body, Master.”
Ugh.
At the end, that weird title again, completely on its own….
“Kyaa! She said Master again just now! Jihyun, did you hear?! I’m the owner of an Ego Sword!”
“R-really the owner of an Ego Sword… wow.”
“She’s too cute…! Uuugh, what do I do!”
Whoosh—
Hugged again.
The more I struggled, the wider Nayeon grinned.
In the end I gave up on calling her out.
In this form, in this situation, it wouldn’t land anyway.
While Nayeon was stretching my cheeks, Jihyun rubbed her forehead and added a word.
“…Senior. That title—you can’t let her use it outside. With that appearance calling an adult Master, people will completely misunderstand what kind of relationship you have.”
“Ehh~ It’s just cute, what’s the big deal.”
“It’s not about cute… aigoo.”
Jihyun shook her head and opened her mouth again in a far more serious voice.
“And this—you can’t tell anyone.”
“Huh?”
“Every other Ego Sword is a strategic weapon managed by the nation. If it gets out that we have one, the Association or the government will come to take her immediately.”
Nayeon’s expression hardened.
The grinning face from a moment ago turned serious for the first time.
“…No. Absolutely not.”
“So outwardly, we just say she’s a new hunter our guild discovered. The real identity stays between us only.”
Oh….
This one definitely thought fast!
Hiding my identity was something I’d already decided on long ago too.
If it got out: national confiscation, foreign targets, a whole parade of headaches.
“So, do you have a name? What should we call you?”
“My name is…”
Guh.
That throat-blocking feeling again.
“……”
Did that mean I couldn’t reveal I’d originally been human?
Even if I said my original name looking like this, they probably wouldn’t believe me anyway.
“Hm?”
Seeing me just open and close my mouth, Nayeon stroked my head.
“We can’t keep calling you Sword forever, after all. Hehe.”
Well, fine.
It was an unavoidable problem for now.
If other abilities unlocked, maybe this seal would release too?
“…My name is Byeori. Just Byeori.”
My sword name came out just fine.
“Byeori…”
Jihyun chewed on the name.
She let out a long breath that could have been a sigh or a laugh.
“…Anyway, today’s Association paperwork wasn’t the real problem. Let’s talk again tomorrow with clear heads, Senior. My brain isn’t working at all right now.”
That night, the two of them bickered for a long time over where to put me to sleep.
Nayeon wanted to set up a whole room right away; Jihyun shoved the empty bank balance in her face.
The conclusion was to give me the best sofa entirely.
The thickest blanket.
Every cushion they could drag over.
“Sword… no, Byeori. From today, this is your home. Got it? You can’t disappear on us, okay?”
Tucking the blanket up to my chin, Nayeon said it.
Home.
To a scrap of metal that had floated from hand to hand for three years—a home.
Come to think of it, what had happened to my old studio apartment?
If I got the chance later, maybe I should look into information about the original me.
“…Yes.”
I answered shortly and closed my eyes.
Taking the two of them whispering as a lullaby.
At that same hour.
On the outskirts of the city, an A-rank dungeon that had been closed the previous year.
Inside the restricted line, in empty darkness.
A thin crack that had been splitting the floor silently widened a little more.
As if something inside were quietly peeping out at this world.