Master (2)
Master (2)
A single tree grew in the corner of the old-style training yard.
I didn't know the exact species, but its roots were firmly set, and its green leaves brimmed with vitality.
The foliage was lush enough to cast a wide shade—a perfect retreat on days when the sun beat down. And because it was open on all sides, a cool breeze always blew through, perfect for cooling a heated body.
After combat major class, I'd drag my exhausted body over and flop down in the shade, where I could truly relax.
Right now, Professor Atra was leaning back against that tree, and I was asleep in her arms.
'?'
I couldn't quite grasp it. I had come to my senses and found myself cradled in Professor Atra's arms, gently held.
Dazedly chewing on nothing, I examined Professor Atra with the Observation Authority.
She had me seated facing her on her lap, as though I were something deeply precious. She had wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me close. With our builds so different, my face naturally ended up buried against her chest.
It was an incredibly embarrassing position, but Professor Atra didn't mind at all and simply stroked my hair.
Basking in those strokes, I recalled what had just happened.
I'd known for a while that Professor Atra's mood today was strange. Ever since I arrived at the old-style training yard, her expression hadn't been very good. Of course, since she usually wore a blunt, cool expression, it was hard to read, but the atmosphere she gave off was so obvious that I couldn't help noticing. And even without sensing that air, after spending so much time together, I could tell from her face alone.
She wasn't pleased while checking my physical condition either, and once we started sparring, her air of discomfort only grew.
I asked out of concern, but Professor Atra only evaded with a "I'm fine."
Since we were mid-spar, I planned to ask properly after today's lesson ended.
With that thought, we carried on.
Then Professor Atra abruptly stopped the spar, scooped me up, and simply sat down in the shade of the tree, holding me even tighter.
'Why is she doing this?'
The question hung unanswered. I knew something was off today, but I didn't know the reason behind her behavior.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, Professor Atra let out a ragged breath and pressed my head in firmly.
My head sank deeper into her voluptuous chest.
Soft skin brushed my face, and the warmth of her body through the thin shirt seeped into me, heating my cheeks.
Even so, breathing was relatively easy. Even as she clutched me tight, Professor Atra adjusted her posture so I wouldn't suffocate.
'...Ugh.'
It was an embarrassing position.
The sensation of our stomachs rubbing together, and the way the softness pressed and pushed against my face, made my face flush hot.
And yet...
[Happy]
[Comfortable]
[Stable]
It was a tremendously warm and comfortable position.
Beyond the flush, I felt a stability that was hard to put into words.
It was also a familiar posture.
From about three weeks ago until a few days ago, I'd lived with Professor Atra in the recovery room. Mentally unstable at the time, I'd instinctively craved human touch and warmth, and Professor Atra had been the one to satisfy that need.
I was held in her arms practically twenty-four hours a day.
My face was always buried against her chest, and my head was always stroked.
When phantom pain from my periodically vanished left arm hit and my breathing grew ragged, a warm touch would pat my back.
Nearly every day was like that. Without the least sign of being bothered, Professor Atra held me.
So now, this posture of being buried deep in her embrace—'familiarity' loomed far larger than 'embarrassment.'
But that didn't mean I felt no embarrassment. Even now that my mind had recovered, it was still embarrassing.
And the situation itself was something. Her mood had seemed off, and then suddenly in the middle of sparring she'd just grabbed me and held on.
I tried to pull away. I tried to tap Professor Atra to gesture for release, and I tried to voice "let go" through the Confession Necklace.
- Pat, pat...
...I couldn't go through with it.
Before my own desire to stay wrapped in her arms even entered the equation, it was because Professor Atra's eyes, looking down at me cradled in her embrace, looked so achingly pained.
It was an emotion that didn't match her usual cool impression in the slightest.
So I stayed still in her arms for a little while.
But now I'd reached my limit.
[Sleepy]
[Nice]
[Happy]
The soft sensation wrapping my whole body and the characteristic human warmth. My consciousness steadily blurred under the touch patting my back and stroking my head.
I was already sleepy to death, and being held by Professor Atra made me feel like I'd drift off any moment.
If I followed my desires, I wanted to bury my face in Professor Atra's chest and fall deeply asleep—but I felt I should learn the reason behind that pained emotion first.
I tapped Professor Atra's back with one hand.
[Let me go]
[Keep hugging me]
[No]
"...Are you asking to be held, or asking to be let go?"
Professor Atra was baffled by the contradictory voice, but at the continued demands, as if she had no choice, she slightly relaxed the force pressing on my back and head.
I popped my face out from where it had been buried in her chest.
- Huff...
[Cold]
When the cool air hit my face, my body shuddered on its own.
Barely suppressing the desire to bury my face back into the warm embrace, I raised my head.
My eyes didn't see, but it was a gesture that I was focusing on the conversation.
And I focused on the Confession Necklace. Fortunately, the Confession Necklace worked properly without any error. Even fairly long sentences operated smoothly.
[Did something happen over the weekend?]
"No, the matter resolved easily."
[Then why did you do that just now?]
Just now. We both knew what that meant.
The way she'd seemed anxious and hesitant all through sparring, and then finally pulled me into a fierce hug.
Trouble flickered across Professor Atra's face.
Squeeze... The hand wrapped around my waist tightened.
Just like before, I was being held tight, but I didn't press Professor Atra any further.
That was because I felt anguish and complexity flowing through her gaze.
"A long time ago... No, at most a few years ago, I once took on a disciple."
A little time passed before her firmly shut lips opened.
"At the time, I... was inadequate in many ways. Compared to now, my strength was lacking, it was my first time teaching, and I had no aptitude for it."
Professor Atra had once had a disciple. It was the first I'd heard of it, but since the explanation was still continuing, I listened quietly.
"I was clumsy at teaching. I couldn't properly point out my disciple's shortcomings, and even what I did supplement was shoddy. And on top of that, I couldn't steel my resolve, so I taught completely half-heartedly."
I blinked at those words. They didn't fit the Professor Atra of now at all. Throughout our lessons, she had accurately pointed out my shortcomings and shown me the path to fill and overcome them. She couldn't steel her resolve and taught half-heartedly? Yet every sparring session, I'd been beaten up while learning. The question lingered.
"Time passed like that, and that disciple entered some dungeon, got caught in an outbreak, and died."
With the next explanation, it made sense. The story to come was something I could roughly infer even without hearing it.
"It was only an outbreak from a Grade 4 dungeon. The level wasn't high enough to resolve the incident, but it wasn't a level where one should have died so vainly."
She'd had a disciple.
Now she doesn't.
"But they died. Vanished like a lie, leaving behind nothing but a single horribly torn-off arm. I dug through the wreckage searching for traces... but nothing came out."
Squeeze... The strength in her arms increased. Our bodies pressed together more than before, my face burying into her chest. Squirming, I lifted my head up.
"It goes without saying... I regretted it."
A gaze full of gloom—and punctuated with pain and regret—was staring straight down at me.
It was as if she was looking at me, yet also as if she were looking at something no longer here.
"I should have arrived faster. I shouldn't have been late. If I'd arrived in time, you wouldn't have died so meaninglessly. I should've taught you properly so you wouldn't die like that."
If.
If she'd arrived faster.
Even if her skills at the time were lacking and her strength insufficient to break the outer wall, if she'd somehow lent aid.
If she'd taught better.
They might have survived. If she'd given proper teaching instead of indulging them and wasting pointless time, maybe it wouldn't have ended that way.
"...Regret came far too late. They were already dead, so it couldn't be undone."
Professor Atra's eyes sank. Her gaze shifted. Now her eyes held only me.
"And so, I demanded especially harsh training from you."
Guilt seeped into her gaze.
"Because of my own personal circumstances, I forced unreasonable training on you, and I arbitrarily treated you coldly because I didn't want to feel loss again."
And then I got caught up in a dungeon outbreak.
It was the same situation as her former disciple.
I finally realized why Atra was reacting so strongly. Because a situation identical to an indelible past wound had struck.
"...I'm sorry. It's all my fault."
The arm wrapped around my waist trembled finely, as if I might vanish at any moment.
Professor Atra's explanation was fragmented and full of omissions. But I could understand the gist of it.
I sank into thought for a moment.
What should I say in response? How should I answer?
After a short deliberation, I came up with an answer.
I focused on the Confession Necklace. I took care so it wouldn't glitch, just in case.
[The training was extremely hard.]
At the first statement, Professor Atra's body trembled.
[Getting beaten with the wooden sword from the first day hurt, and after that, being constantly hit hurt too.]
Wince— Professor Atra's body flinched repeatedly.
[More than that, when lessons ended and you just handed me a water bottle and left without a word, that was upsetting too. Also, once you just left without even giving me water, which upset me more.]
"Hk..."
[I knew you were a good person, but being cold to me every day was sad.]
"Urk..."
As if a blade were being driven into her chest, Professor Atra let out a pained groan with every break in the voice.
I paused the voice for a moment. I sorted out internally the lines of the sentences I'd emit.
What I truly wanted to say came from here on.
Thinking about it, it was something I should have said long ago.
[If—]
Professor Atra's face filled with tension. It was a face filled with fear and regret over what further karmic retribution might come flooding in.
[—I hadn't had Professor's teachings, I'd definitely be dead.]
That face transformed completely at the voice that followed.
Professor Atra's eyes went blank. Her trembling eyes stared at me cradled in her arms.
She showed no sign of having expected to hear words like this.
[Even if I hadn't acted to save people, if I hadn't had what you taught me, I'd be dead.]
[I wouldn't have been able to save others either.]
[And I wouldn't have been able to be held like this now.]
Even without the Sipnaha incident, these were words I should've delivered long before that.
[It's thanks to you, Professor, that I lived.]
[Thank you.]
A thank-you was something I naturally should have said, but I'd ended up a little late.
Delivering it like this, with the atmosphere perfectly set, made me feel awkwardly self-conscious for no reason. Professor Atra's choked-up expression also amplified the ticklish sensation.
To hide my reddened face, I buried it firmly in Professor Atra's chest.
...Even so, my flushed ears were visible and couldn't be fully hidden.
I manipulated the Sky Wing Feather to carefully cover my ears, and the arm wrapped around my waist pulled me in with all its might.
- Whoomph?
My breath caught completely. It was different from the previous touch that had taken care not to obstruct my breathing.
As if she couldn't control the surging emotion, Professor Atra hugged me to her chest with all the strength she had.
My face buried deep into her voluptuous chest.
.
.
"I am a foolish person."
A moment later, Professor Atra spoke, having barely calmed her emotions.
I, who'd been faced with the danger of suffocation, gasped for air and tilted my head.
At my expression carrying a slight complaint of "do you still have something to say?", Professor Atra subtly averted her eyes.
"Unbecoming of the word sage, I have far too many shortcomings. In the matter of teaching someone itself, I have no particular aptitude or intention."
The sullenness in my expression grew.
Professor Atra read my mood and continued.
"I am such an insufficient person, but... even so, I want to teach you everything I have to the fullest."
This time my expression changed.
Professor Atra, with an uncharacteristically anxious expression, stroked my head and asked:
"Would you... consider someone like me your master?"
I thought about it very briefly.
And then a smile spread across my face.
[Yes.]
[Master.]
.
.
.
[I'm sleepy.]
[Please pat me.]
* * *
[Player Correction System: Affection]
Lee Ha-yul → Atra Clyde
●●●●●●●●○○(79▷80/100)
｢Master｣ ｢Expectation｣ ｢Stability｣ ｢Craving Affection｣
...
●●●●●●●●○○(80▷81/100)
...
●●●●●●●●○○(81▷82/100)
...
[Conditions to lift the ｢Curse of Silence｣ have not been met.]
[Conditions to lift the ｢Curse of Solitude｣ have not been met.]
...
[Player Correction System: Measurement]
▶ Mental State
...
｢Fatigue｣ : Mind or body is weary and exhausted.
｢Spoiled Child｣ : A desire to be cherished or to please someone.
｢Fullness｣ : Satisfied and filled to the brim.
...