The Calm Before the Storm
Yu-ha’s eyes widened in genuine shock. It was the first time she had ever seen Tana like that. Considering how rarely she showed her true emotions behind that usual calm mask, her surprise was understandable.
A heavy silence fell between us. Yu-ha dumped the remaining ice from her drink straight into her mouth and began crunching it loudly, as if she needed the time to process everything. It made sense. Even though they hadn’t seen each other in a long time, they clearly had some kind of history. Seeing someone like that suddenly act so strangely would shock anyone.
I finished off the rest of my own drink while waiting for her to finish devouring the ice.
“Did you ask on purpose?”
Yu-ha finally spoke once she’d drained her cup and started fiddling with the ice again. Her expression was more resolute than I had ever seen before. I could feel it instinctively—if I answered wrong here, my relationship with Cheon Yu-ha would be over.
I wasn’t entirely sure how much she had understood from the question she’d thrown at Tana. What mattered was that Tana had fled as if terrified by my question, and Yu-ha wanted to know whether I had done it deliberately.
“To some extent.”
I answered calmly. Getting flustered and claiming I truly had no idea would have been far more suspicious. After all, I had naturally brought up the topic of her family the moment we entered the café. If I had said I didn’t know anything, I would have been out on the spot.
“To some extent? How much exactly did you know?”
“Exactly what I said. When I saw the surname Erhen, the only thing that came to mind was that famous pharmaceutical company.”
That much was true—it was information I had seen after possessing this body and entering Final Academy.
“But she suddenly clammed up whenever the topic of her family came up. So I got curious and asked. That’s all.”
And this part was the memory I had added based on my experience playing Final Academy. In reality, I had never actually spoken to Tana about her family, but Yu-ha knew I had talked with her several times. It was entirely plausible that the subject of family could have come up during those conversations. Knowing that, Yu-ha’s expression grew complicated.
“Then… you don’t have any more questions, right?”
Leaving Yu-ha to wrestle with her tangled thoughts, I slowly rose from my seat. She looked up at me, lips parting for a moment before closing again. There was nothing left for her to say.
I quickly left the table. Unlike when I had told the truth earlier, this time I had mixed in lies. If she caught onto my unique habits, there would be no taking it back. So escaping before she could read me was the best option.
After all…
“I don’t even know how many more lies I’ll have to tell in the future. Getting caught now would be a pain.”
As I dealt with the future using my knowledge from Final Academy, someone was bound to grow suspicious about my information. I would need to prepare appropriate excuses, but if Yu-ha saw through my lies, the source of my knowledge would become murky. That was why staying unreadable was crucial.
“Tsk.”
Still, the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. The image of Tana’s soul, trapped in the past and running away in fear, was burned into my mind. Even if it had been necessary to save her, dredging up those memories wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience.
“Haa…”
I reflexively reached into my pocket, then remembered I hadn’t smoked in a long time and simply scratched my head. Ever since I’d possessed this body, I hadn’t once craved a cigarette, but today I suddenly wanted one.
The next day, Tana’s face was easy to spot during our shared general class. Since our timetables were arranged so that we took most of the same major courses, I had expected to see her in the next lecture, but…
‘I didn’t think she’d look like that.’
Tana had completely erased her previous expression and was wearing an exceptionally cheerful smile. When I stared at her with wide eyes, surprised by how much brighter she seemed, she must have felt my gaze. She turned toward me.
“Sorry!”
She approached me in a single stride and bowed her head. When I asked why she was apologizing, she explained that she had ruined the mood by suddenly running out of the café. I had thought it would take her some time to return to that bright face, but here she was, back to normal after just one day. And she seemed even more polished than before. It meant her mask had grown even thicker.
And that was not a good sign at all.
“How should I deal with that…”
“Deal with what?”
“I mean Tana Erhen. She seems to be hiding a lot. I’m not sure how to get her to reveal it… Wait, who are you?”
I had been lightly jogging around the academy grounds when I unconsciously answered the question someone threw at me. Startled, I turned to look beside me.
“Hello?”
There stood the crazy bitch… no, Elesia.
Elesia was smiling brightly as she jogged alongside me. My body was far from superhuman, and I had started first, yet here she was. I might be slow, but she was definitely fast.
“What do you want?”
“My cute junior looked like he was deep in thought, so I thought I’d offer some counseling while we train together?”
“I never asked for that.”
“Think of it as a senior’s special favor. There are tons of people outside the academy who’d kill to have me counsel them, you know.”
Setting aside her meddling, it was true that many people beyond the academy sought Elesia’s counsel. Even if she hadn’t yet earned the title of Saint, the fact that she could clearly wield Holy Power—a true miracle—hadn’t changed. Those who believed in gods or desperately wanted miracles would naturally seek her out again and again.
‘Of course, things didn’t always go well.’
There was one famous anecdote about her. A devout bishop had insisted that if she was truly a saint, she should convert to the faith and devote herself to God, and that all her assets should belong to the church. In the middle of his sermon, Elesia had flipped the table and declared right in front of the bishop that God was dead, so he should stop looking for her.
A saint who wielded divine miracles telling a bishop that God was dead—the impact must have been enormous. It was also what caused the rumor that she was insane to spread even further.
“So, what’s this about Tana hiding something?”
This woman didn’t even sound out of breath while running. She naturally matched my pace and kept chattering away with questions.
“Just what I said. I have a friend who’s always hiding secrets. I want to help her reveal them proudly.”
“Hmm. So you asked her directly.”
“Yes. But she practically had a seizure. It doesn’t seem easy.”
“Hmm…”
I had expected Elesia to respond in her usual playful way, but surprisingly, she seemed to be taking the counseling seriously. She thought for quite a while before giving her answer.
“Just beat her up a few times and she’ll spill everything—”
“I’m leaving.”
“Ahhh! I’m kidding, I’m kidding! Of course I’m joking! Why can’t you take a joke!”
Elesia threw a playful punch in embarrassment, but I easily dodged it. Yeah, I figured. It was my fault for expecting even a slightly normal answer.
“Before I give you an answer, why are you so determined to solve this for her?”
“Why? Well, because…”
“If you’re just going to give me the obvious ‘because she’s my friend’ answer, don’t bother.”
My mouth snapped shut. Elesia’s eyes were fixed on me. There was a tired, jaded look in them, as if she had seen far too many people like me. It was probably something she had developed naturally after counseling so many people. No matter who you were, when you listened to enough stories, you ended up facing every kind of human nature. Even the bishop story I had just recalled proved it. Demanding she hand over all her assets and devote herself to the church for life? That was no different from demanding unpaid labor forever.
Helping someone should be something to be grateful for, not taken for granted. And Elesia seemed to have seen far too many people who treated that help as obvious and even demanded compensation in return.
“Because I need her too.”
“You need her? Why?”
“She’s the runner-up, just like I’m the top student. That means she’s the second-best among the freshmen, and we’ve already built a relationship. It would be stupid to just sit back and watch a talent like that retire…”
“Pfft.”
When I laid out the answer I had prepared in advance, the corner of Elesia’s mouth twitched upward. She tried to hold back her laughter but finally burst out.
“Hahahahaha!”
I looked at her with a puzzled expression. I hadn’t said anything wrong. As always, I had simply hidden a lie behind the truth. It was true that I needed her, and if I couldn’t peel away that mask, I would end up watching Tana retire without doing anything. Of course, that didn’t mean I couldn’t stop her from falling.
When I stared at her like that, Elesia waved her hands wildly.
“Ah, sorry, sorry. It’s just surprising that a freshman would think like that.”
“There are plenty of surprising things. Like a freshman beating a second-year. Isn’t that shocking too?”
“Ugh. So embarrassing. Anyway.”
Elesia ruffled my hair with her hand and said,
“That was a good answer, junior.”
It seemed I had passed.
“Hmm, since I got a good answer, shall I give you a hint as payment?”
“What do you…”
“In the end, only those who don’t run away obtain anything.”
After saying something cryptic, Elesia added,
“So, you’ll have to hold onto her tightly so she doesn’t run away, right?”
At first I couldn’t understand, but the moment I heard the last part, it clicked instantly. I stared at Elesia with wide eyes. Seeing her show such a serious side for the first time, I briefly wondered if she too had a past I didn’t know about.
“Did that help?”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s date!”
“On second thought, I don’t think so.”
“Hmph.”
Of course, that thought was completely shattered in less than five seconds.