Way Back Home
A high-end café with refined interiors, soft jazz music drifting gently through the air.
Anastasia and I sat facing each other at a window-side table where the drowsy afternoon sunlight poured in.
……What the hell kind of price is this for a single cup of coffee? It's the cost of a whole bowl of gukbap.
I clicked my tongue inwardly as I stared at the amount printed on the receipt.
Thankfully, though, I still had a solid fortune of about 496,000 points left untouched.
If you roughly calculated the value of points here as 1 BP equaling 10 won, the market rate lined up pretty well.
In other words, the moment I enrolled at the academy, they had stuffed a cool five million won into my hands.
Never in my life had such a large sum ever appeared in my bank account.
Sitting in front of me was an adorably tiny cup filled with pitch-black liquid.
Espresso.
I saw on the community boards that real tough guys always order nothing but espresso when they go to a café.
Truth be told, this was the first time I had ever set foot in a proper café and paid for something with my own money.
My entire coffee history up to now had consisted of the sweet mix coffee I used to stir into paper cups during breaks on construction sites before the possession.
Which was why, when I tried to order earlier, an absolute disaster nearly unfolded.
"Would you like to order? Single shot or double? For here, or takeout?"
"Huh? Uh, that's, single…? Double…? Takeout…?"
My social skills maxed out at absolute zero, I had completely blue-screened under the employee's rapid-fire questions and stood there stammering. Anastasia, waiting behind me, finally couldn't take it anymore, grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, and ordered for me instead.
After all that ordeal, I took a careful sip of the espresso I had received and barely managed to keep myself from spraying the coffee across the table as a vicious bitterness stabbed all the way down to the root of my tongue.
Tough guy, my ass. This was just poison!
My lips trembled as I desperately tried to keep my expression under control, and I snuck a glance at Anastasia sitting across from me.
She held a glass in one hand and was happily slurping a strawberry-colored fruit smoothie through a thick straw.
She looks like she could down a bottle of vodka any second, yet she likes sweet stuff like that…
No, wait. Bears are omnivores that eat fruit as well as salmon, so maybe drinking a fruit smoothie was perfectly natural providence after all?
I was entertaining that ridiculous thought when Anastasia pulled her lips off the straw, fixed me with a look, and spoke.
"……About what that bitch Chloe said while we were eating earlier."
"Huh?"
"I'll say it again. You absolutely do not need to accept a deal like that."
Her voice was utterly firm.
I quietly set down the remaining poison—no, espresso—and asked the question that had been bothering me.
"But…… what's the big difference if I hide my ability……?"
Wouldn't everything get exposed eventually anyway?
I couldn't see why she had to go as far as making threats just to keep it secret.
Anastasia snorted as if my innocent question was absurd.
"Ha. You really don't know a damn thing, do you? The academy is a way more fucked-up political cesspit than you think."
"A political cesspit?"
"Yeah. The second those bastards find out exactly what power you have and how far you can push it, they'll latch onto that one thing, suck you dry until there's no juice left, and spit you out. Hell, they'll even sell the analysis of your ability to other guilds and pocket the profits. That's exactly the kind of shit those American dogs pull."
……I feel like Russia has the stronger image for that kind of no-holds-barred behavior.
I raised the objection only in my head and carefully changed the subject without daring to say it out loud.
"……But Noona, you also started grilling me the second you woke up in the infirmary earlier, didn't you……?"
At those words, Anastasia's shoulders gave a sudden jolt.
"I-I never pried into what your ability actually is……! I just thought it looked pretty useful and was curious why you were unaffiliated, that's all!"
She cleared her throat and quickly averted her gaze before continuing.
"A-Anyway! You and your country must've put in some work to keep your power hidden. You've managed not to get caught this whole time, so if you go and flip your cards first here, it'd be a massive waste."
……I never particularly tried to hide it, though.
But that wasn't the important part right now.
I stroked my chin and continued questioning her seriously.
"But Chloe said earlier that even if I don't talk, there are plenty of ways they can find out somehow…… She said it really meaningfully, didn't she? How would that even……"
At my question, Anastasia's previously confident gaze once again slid evasively into empty air.
"……That's……"
"Yes?"
She mumbled vaguely, dodging a clear answer.
The way she avoided my eyes and muddied her reply didn't inspire much confidence.
But……
"……Alright. I'll do as you say, Noona."
When I nodded obediently, Anastasia finally looked satisfied.
If you looked closely, her rough manners and harsh way of speaking weren't all that different from the female delinquents who used to treat me like a bread shuttle back in my school days before the possession.
No, if anything, she was worse.
Yet…… strangely, beyond that grizzly-bear exterior of hers, something that felt like genuine sincerity came through.
Not like she was just trying to use me, but like she was actually getting angry out of real concern.
It might have been nothing more than my own stupid imagination…… but at least in this unfamiliar world, the only shoulder I could lean on was Anastasia's.
So rejecting Chloe's offer means……
It also meant I would have to survive and graduate from this brutal academy relying solely on my own strength.
Just thinking about the evaluation next week already made my vision go dark.
I needed a good score on that evaluation if I was going to dilute my catastrophic grades of "all F" on the entrance exam and "D-" in the welcoming battle even a little.
Clutching at straws, I carefully voiced my worries.
"Um…… Noona. There's the evaluation next week, right?"
"Hm? That gate evaluation?"
"Yes…… I really need a good grade on that…… What should I do?"
Anastasia answered my desperate question half-heartedly.
"What do you mean, what. Just go in, kill the monsters properly, and come out."
"No…… I mean, that is correct, but…… the thing is, actually……"
"……What's the problem? Stamina? Strength? Or is it…… mana after all?"
When she hit the nail on the head, I hung my head and answered in a tiny voice.
"Yes…… I think I need to increase my mana a bit……"
My trash ability had the fatal side effect of completely draining all my mana every time I activated it, knocking me out cold on the spot.
I couldn't afford to use the ability once during next week's evaluation only to sprawl out on the floor in a big X again, so I desperately needed the mana stat to support me somehow.
"Hmm…… Mana is mostly a vessel decided at birth. Even if you train until you cough blood, there's no way you'll grow it meaningfully in just one week."
"Ah……"
At that merciless verdict, I slammed my forehead onto the table in despair.
Getting stronger in a single week really was something that only happened in fantasy novels, huh.
At this rate, I'd just end up fainting after another round of desperate fleeing in the next evaluation too.
As I buried my face in the table and trembled, Anastasia must have found the sight pitiful enough, because she tossed out a comment almost casually.
"……Or just boost it with a magic tool."
"A magic tool?!"
I jerked my head up. Gear advantage! Right—if the stats fell short, you just bulldozed through with item power!
Like someone who had spotted a ray of light, I urgently asked,
"H-How can I get one of those?!"
"Well, either commission one from a workshop, or just buy one at any of the magic tool shops scattered around the city."
"Really?!"
I immediately pulled out my phone and started digging through the map app.
Just as I was about to search for the nearest magic tool shop, she cut in.
"But they're ridiculously expensive."
"It's fine! I've got tons of money!"
I thumped my chest and declared loudly.
My account had a full 496,000 points! With five million won in my pocket, what was there to worry about?
But in response to my bold shout, Anastasia snorted and dropped a brutal fact bomb.
"You've only got 500,000 BP, right? Even the shittiest junk magic tool costs at least a million BP."
"……What?"
"A million BP. Anything actually useful goes into the ten-million range."
Thud—!
It felt like a giant anvil had dropped from the sky and smashed me straight on the crown of my head.
I froze with a blank expression.
A million? That's a full ten million won in real money……!
More than double the points I had received as academy enrollment funds.
How the hell was I supposed to scrape together that insane amount of points in a short span of only one week?
I was seriously considering whether I should take out a loan when she spoke again.
"If you're that broke, you could try the Black Market."
"The Black Market? There's something like that at the academy?"
"I told you. This academy city has villains and an entire underworld too. Black Market, fences, illegal commissions…… There's all sorts of stuff."
The Black Market! If it wasn't an official channel, maybe I could get stolen goods or shady items dirt cheap.
"Where is the Black Market?"
"……You're going alone? A bottom-feeder reeking of 'easy mark' like you crawls in by yourself, you'll get dragged into a back alley, stripped down to your underwear, and dumped naked."
Hiiiik……!
The image of myself sniffling, surrounded by rough-looking awakeners in a dark alley after having even my underwear stolen, flashed through my mind and sent a chill down my spine.
"Th-Then how…… Is there no one who could go with me……"
Trailing off, I slowly turned my head and gazed at Anastasia sitting across from me with the most pitiful eyes I could muster.
Catching my wet puppy-dog stare, Anastasia's eyebrows twitched.
"……What."
"Noona…… could you maybe come to the Black Market with me?"
I put on the most miserable expression possible and clasped my hands in prayer. She crossed her arms as if the whole thing was ridiculous.
"Oh, for fuck's sake. Why would I go there with you? What are you going to give me in return?"
"M-My…… love?"
"Wh-What? You little shit."
Anastasia's blue eyes flooded with sudden fluster.
"I treat you nice and you start climbing all over me? You actually wanna die?!"
"Hiiik……! S-Sorry……! I must've gone crazy for a second!"
After glaring at me and seething for a long while, Anastasia eventually let out a deep sigh and irritably brushed her hair back.
"……Just buy me a meal later or something."
"Huh?! Ah, yes! Of course I will! Then when should we go?"
At the dramatic acceptance, I wagged an imaginary tail and asked eagerly.
"We'll go on the weekend. We've got classes on weekdays."
"Understood!"
I nodded vigorously.
Just then, Anastasia pulled her smartphone from her pocket and slid it across the table toward me.
"Put your number in. It'll be easier to set an exact date and time for the weekend if we have each other's contacts, right?"
"Ah, yes!"
I took her phone and started entering my number.
I had worried it might have changed, but luckily it was still the exact same phone number I had used in reality.
When I finished entering it and glanced through the contacts list to make sure it saved properly, I saw the address book was completely packed.
What a real-life social butterfly……
After I finished inputting the number and returned the smartphone, Anastasia immediately called my number.
Bzzz— bzzz—
My phone vibrated in my hand, and I opened the screen so I could save Anastasia's number, which had registered as a missed call, into my contacts.
What should I save her name as?
After a brief moment of thought, I looked at the woman slurping her smoothie right in front of me, recalled the superhuman strength that could tear a person apart, and quietly tapped the keyboard.
The symbol of Russia and the essence of who she was. A simple yet perfect naming.
Siberian Albino Grizzly Bear
I finished saving it in Korean and was smiling contentedly when Anastasia propped her chin on her hand and asked,
"Hey, what did you save me as?"
"……What about you, Noona?"
"Me? I saved you as 'Tiny Dick'."
"……Why?"
Why that particular word when there was a perfectly normal name available?
At my unfair expression, she snorted.
"Then what should I save you as? Ching-cha—"
"Ah, no……! Just leave it like that……"
I hastily cut off the racist remark that had almost flown out of that rough mouth and wiped away a cold sweat.
Yeah, Tiny Dick was better.
"I told you mine, so show me yours too."
"Huh? Ah…… okay."
I cheerfully turned the phone screen toward her.
Since I had written it in Korean, I figured there was no way this Russian noona could read it.
Anastasia took a glance at the screen, and her brow gradually furrowed.
"……What? You fucking bastard. Siberian Albino Grizzly Bear? You really wanna die today?!"
"Wh-What?!"
A hand shot across the table in an instant and clamped onto both of my cheeks.
"Gyaaaah……!"
Anastasia stretched my cheeks out to both sides with genuine intent to rip them clean off.
The pain brought tears to my eyes and forced my mouth open like a frog's.
D-Damn it! I didn't know even the writing got translated……!
No, wait. Come to think of it, the café menu and the text displayed on the monitors during the entrance ceremony had all appeared in Korean to my eyes as well.
In other words, even text was automatically being translated into the other person's native language and shown! And I only realized it now!
"I-I'm shorry, I'm shorry……!"
With my cheeks stretched mercilessly, the pronunciation came out completely mangled.
"Your guts have spilled right out of your stomach, huh? Want me to tear that mouth of yours open too while I'm at it?!"
"I-I'm shorry……! I won't do it again……! I-It wash jusht a joke……!"
People's eyes turned toward the bizarre tragedy unfolding in one corner of the refined café, but I had no room to care about that. Tears streamed down my face as I frantically begged for mercy with both hands.
"Auuugh……"
I rubbed my blazing-hot cheeks and made a teary face.
Whether it was my imagination or not, it felt like the flesh of my cheeks had sagged like a bulldog's.
Once her anger had cooled enough that she started slurping her smoothie again, I carefully watched her reaction and gingerly asked something that had been on my mind.
"But…… is it okay to take something like a magic tool into the evaluation……? And if I got it from the Black Market, wouldn't that cause problems……?"
Even if this was a world that allowed item advantage, bringing an illegal item of unclear origin into a school exam seemed like blatant cheating.
But Anastasia answered my worry indifferently.
"Magic tools you buy or obtain here can be used in evaluations too. For fairness, though, you can only bring exactly 'one' into the evaluation area."
"Ah, so there's a one-item limit."
"And about the Black Market origin issue. With any of the previous chancellors it absolutely wouldn't have flown, but…… it's fine now. The current chancellor, Oh Yura, treats the Black Market as a kind of 'necessary evil.' She figures that forcibly sealing it off would just make it fester worse in the shadows, so as long as you don't cross the line, she accepts it to a certain degree."
"Is that so……?"
I nodded and thought to myself.
Was the academy chancellor position like a real-world presidency with a fixed term?
Maybe, since this was the center for awakeners from all over the world, the nations took turns holding the chancellorship.
Sluuuurp—
At that moment, Anastasia finished sucking up the last of her smoothie after the ice had melted and the bottom was bare, then stood up from her seat.
"Alright, so everything's settled then? I've got other things to do, so I'm heading out first."
"Ah, yes."
I quickly stood as well and saw her off.
Watching her broad back as she walked steadily toward the door, I suddenly thought back on the chaotic string of events that had happened from morning until now.
Toward her retreating figure as she was about to leave the café, I mustered my courage and spoke.
"……Hey, Noona."
"What. What else is the problem now."
"……Today was fun. See you…… tomorrow."
At my shy greeting, Anastasia's steps came to a sudden halt.
She turned her head halfway, then immediately whipped her gaze away and tossed out a blunt reply.
"……Whatever."
And then she fled the café with quick strides.
Watching her receding back, I smiled faintly before turning my eyes back to the table.
On the table sat the nearly untouched espresso, left all alone.
It's expensive. It'd be a waste to leave it.
I picked up the cup and, like a real tough guy, boldly tossed the entire contents into my mouth.
"Ugh……! Holy shit, it's even bitterer now that it's cold……!"
My face twisted from the tongue-shriveling bitterness as I also hurriedly left the café.
Outside, the sky over the academy city was already being dyed in crimson sunset.
The breeze was cool, I had a way to obtain a magic tool, and I even had a reliable escort promised for the weekend.
I stretched contentedly and muttered to myself.
"Alright, then…… time to head back to the studio apartment and laze around browsing the community boards?"
The studio apartment I lived in.
I opened the map on my smartphone and was about to stroll along leisurely.
"……Huh?"
The moment the map loaded, both my feet stopped as if nails had been driven into the ground.
Staring blankly down at the screen, my mind began to bleach pure white.
Wait……
Thinking about it, on the first day of the possession, I had rushed out in a panic just so I wouldn't be late.
……Where's my house?
In other words, I had no clear memory of where in the academy city that cramped studio apartment I had possessed into was even located, or even what room number it was.
In the middle of a vast, unfamiliar academy city of another world that was growing darker by the minute.
Left completely alone, I clutched my smartphone with trembling hands and muttered in a hollow voice.
"……Please send me home……"