Keep Tomorrow Open
Keep Tomorrow Open
Siyoram.
An educational institution founded by Neriel Claidia—once known in her active days as the Silent Mage, now called the Tower Master of Growth.
It is also the world's unparalleled and finest superhuman training institution.
It is no exaggeration to say it is the place where every young talent across the globe desperately wishes to set foot.
And within such a place, a cadet granted overt favor by the Headmaster's will is what a Special Admission Cadet is.
A position without a single precedent in the past 120-odd years, treated as little more than a symbolic figure to boost the academic drive of other cadets.
Yet a cadet appeared to fill that role.
The first in Siyoram's history—a cadet whom the Tower Master of Growth has effectively proclaimed she holds special expectations for.
It was only natural the world stirred.
Thus the name Lee Ha-yul spread far and wide.
Special Admission Cadet. Trailing behind that, Lee Ha-yul.
And behind that came the descriptors: blind, mute, a frail body, a detection-type unique ability, an orphan.
His eyes are blind, his throat is closed. The body meant to move for him is frail, and his unique ability itself is unsuited for combat.
These were not qualifications for a hero meant to close dungeons and fight monsters.
In a sense, the doubt that followed was inevitable.
[Scotland, Sipnaha: Serial Dungeon Outbreaks Occur. A Catastrophe Struck Without Warning.]
[Scottish Administration Declares State of Emergency: "Currently assessing the scope and scale."]
[The shattered outer wall of disaster. The hero who saved the city was a Siyoram Cadet?]
Doubt followed, and Lee Ha-yul always proved himself.
The impossibly smooth feats whispered within Siyoram reached those in the know, and the heroic deeds reported from Sipnaha reached the public.
The news had been heard.
But few had witnessed it firsthand.
News trickled in subtly. Blurry videos cut short to a few dozen lines of articles, citing cadet information protection.
Those were enough to prove his qualifications, yet a minority remained not fully convinced. Some still could not feel it viscerally.
"Crazy..."
One person who hadn't been fully convinced muttered.
The others seated near him heard the muttering but couldn't retort.
They were all thinking similar thoughts.
The stage where the sparring unfolded sat far lower than the spectator seats. It was a height difficult to reach even if a few adults stacked their shoulders and stood on tiptoe.
- Crash...!
A wave surged. A wave with more than enough momentum to swallow several people crashed against the barrier and dissipated.
The spectators seated at the very bottom flinched and curled up, startled by the wave thrust right before their noses.
The stage had long become a sea surging with blue, as if a tidal wave had swept in. The floor was invisible, and a turbulent ocean had settled in.
- Crash!
At the center of that sea, two figures collided.
A colossal vortex raged. The waves were torn apart and scattered in all directions, and the shock of the impact shook the ocean.
The clashing vortices canceled each other out and dispersed. The aftermath shook the sea again, and new, different vortices clashed repeatedly.
"Whoa..."
"What in the world..."
No one could close their mouths.
The blue surging up to their feet.
The violently raging waves ready to crash down at any second.
The vortices that would pulverize an ordinary person's bones in an instant.
These images had driven themselves deep into the minds of everyone seated in the audience.
Two people were waging a fierce battle on the stage.
Baek A-rin. Heir to the Changhae Family. A budding star whose track record clearly marks her as a mainstay of the next generation.
Everyone knew this. The might of the Changhae Family and information on the heir set to inherit it occasionally even appeared on public broadcasts.
But information on her opponent, Lee Ha-yul, was scant at best.
Most of the people seated here did not properly know Lee Ha-yul's potential, his true ability.
In fact, a good number had visited with the ulterior motive of trying to ascertain that potential for themselves.
As a result, those who had set out with such goals had achieved part of their purpose.
Once today's verdict spreads, even the minority who couldn't shake their doubts will mostly vanish.
* * *
'Oh...'
Admiration escaped her. Her mouth opened on its own, and an exclamation nearly spilled out.
Had she phrased it too simply? Baek A-rin chewed over the expression.
Admiration? Surprise? Shock? Satisfaction? A small hope? Earnestness?
It was so complex that separating each was difficult. And it didn't seem necessary to express them in such fine detail.
Just—that whole tangled mess was her current emotion.
Baek A-rin smiled brightly as she watched the scene before her.
The stage had long filled with water and become an ocean.
Expansion Ability, Tidal Wave.
A type of expansion ability that accounts for the environmental dependency of attribute-type ability users by transforming the surroundings to one's advantage.
It devours mana endlessly... but for someone like Baek A-rin, born with naturally huge mana reserves and raised stuffing down elixirs like meals, it was a bearable cost.
Since it was an environment built for her, Baek A-rin could stand lightly atop that sea.
- Boom!
She wasn't the only one standing on the sea.
At a slight distance, a small figure tearing through the waves was glimpsed.
Energy flickered around that figure. An aura—stained distinctly bluer than before—swallowed and pushed aside the waves as it closed the distance.
- Bubble, bubble...
Water Mirror Orbs drifted up behind Baek A-rin's back.
Last time, there had been only a dozen or so. Now that number had multiplied several times and was closing in on fifty.
- Bang!
Dozens of water jets ripped through the air. The explosive roar tearing the wind was completely different in intensity.
The raw output had increased, and she'd mixed ice particles into the fired jets, making them difficult to block with aura alone.
- Bang!
Water jets fired from the opposite side, too. Pressure-lines shot from Water Mirror Orbs floated up identically.
The number was barely over ten. The output was lower, and the count was insufficient.
He couldn't block them all. It was a gap too burdensome to handle even with aura imbued with water energy.
If you only saw up to here, this exchange appeared to be Baek A-rin's overwhelming victory.
- Rumble!
If you only saw up to here, that is.
Behind Lee Ha-yul's back, between the twenty-some Water Mirror Orbs, spreading mana formed a complex spell formula.
Parallel casting: executing magic alongside combat.
High-speed casting: to make it usable in urgent battle.
Multi-casting: manifesting not one, but multiple spells at once.
Complex formulas filled in densely, as if anticipating disruption and malfunction during the process.
A panorama of offensive magic at a level ranging from the lowest to at most mid-low tier blossomed.
Dozens of pressure-lines, and twenty-some pressure-lines supported by countless spells, collided in the air.
- Crash!
The rising wave, unable to withstand the shock, shattered into splinters. Lee Ha-yul didn't miss that gap and kicked off the sea to charge in.
Baek A-rin flicked her hand at the shrinking distance.
- Crack, crackle...!
The sea Lee Ha-yul had been kicking off froze solid. The conversion from water energy to cold energy took but an instant.
The frozen sea seized Lee Ha-yul's ankle, and spikes of ice shot up to shred his body to pieces.
Boom! An explosive roar rang out. The mid-to-low-tier magic 'Shock Wave' unleashed from Lee Ha-yul's leg shattered the clutching ice.
Whoosh! Skewers of flame kindled in the air collided with the ice stabbing up from below.
They couldn't melt it all, but the blunted spikes couldn't hold Lee Ha-yul back.
'He's so colorful.'
That was the impression she got from Lee Ha-yul, who briefly halted and then charged again.
Red. Fire spirits circling nearby kindled flames, evaporating the encroaching water and melting ice.
Green. Wind spirits deployed behind his back stirred winds to accelerate his form forward.
Blue. Water spirits hovering near his feet helped him step on the sea and calmed the surging waves and pressure-lines.
Brown. An Earth Spirit skimming the stage floor suppressed the excessively rising sea, dampened water energy, and occasionally shot up high to block attacks.
Fire, water, wind, and an Earth Spirit. They didn't participate heavily in direct combat, but they provided indirect help to make the battle flow smoothly.
There were no lightning spirits. Was he refraining because operating them here, where water energy was dense, was too demanding?
'Heh.'
Baek A-rin let out a dry laugh. He really did have so many talents.
The adept use of spirit arts, which is almost entirely dependent on innate qualities.
Martial talent that copies another's expansion ability on the spot and mimics the Changhae family's techniques.
The complex and rapid manifestation of magic that makes it hard to exploit gaps.
The abnormal level of mana control that makes all this flow seamlessly...
A detection-type unique ability that seems to grant him an unhindered field of vision despite his eyes being closed.
So many talents.
It was something Baek A-rin used to hear from people around her, but now she found herself saying it of another.
It was rather amusing.
No, this whole situation was simply quite enjoyable. It felt as if the faint hope she'd glimpsed had swelled in size.
And especially that.
The sight of the fire spirits melting the ice—she really liked that.
Baek A-rin smiled brightly and took up her spear.
A spear forged of Ice Purity. The shaft coiling in her hand was utterly frigid and unpleasant.
She drew out the mana from her core. A vast reservoir of mana flowed through her circuits and surged into the spear.
Crash! Appropriated frost and aura mingled and swelled in size.
A considerably massive spear now. A ferocious energy cloaked it.
It was a blatant harbinger of a finishing blow.
Lee Ha-yul reacted. He pulled his arm back, and the adhering mana and force swelled.
A signal answering the decisive strike.
He could refuse it. He could dodge the blow and cram in minor attacks.
But even on consideration, that was a disadvantageous assumption for Lee Ha-yul.
Dragging it into a prolonged battle wasn't exactly advantageous for Lee Ha-yul.
Moreover, if he won, he also had to think about the next match.
Winning after dragging it into an extended fight, with all his strength completely drained, benefited neither side.
There was no reason to force a drawn-out battle. Thus, he answered the blatant strike.
The fluid water energy Lee Ha-yul had been operating coiled around his forearm, looping like a serpent.
And then, the inner layer of water energy assumed a chill and crystallized.
Soon, the cold energy crystals, shattered with a crumble, mixed into the water energy and whirled.
Vortex Water Palm. A palm technique to utilize water energy in direct combat, with cold energy manipulation layered on top.
The process was smooth and unimpeded. He truly had studied it meticulously and thoroughly.
Baek A-rin smiled with satisfaction and drew the spear back.
The distance closed. Except for the fact that Baek A-rin brandished a spear, it looked similar to the initial clash.
'Expansion Ability.'
It was a little different. Lee Ha-yul, who had been charging, flinched briefly before thrusting out his palm technique wrapped in a vortex.
The vortex, an appropriate fusion of water energy and cold energy, surged across the sea.
Its output was exceptional. The hair tie had come undone, so his bound hair whipped wildly, and the force of the wind buffeting his body was ferocious.
A direct hit at this level would cause considerable damage even to Baek A-rin, who held an affinity for water and cold energy.
To that, Baek A-rin felt an odd mixture of regret and relief.
If Lee Ha-yul had also brought out Calamity Flame and Azure Sea... or other means besides... she wouldn't have been able to guarantee victory.
She raised the spear tip toward the vortex that had advanced right before her nose.
Expansion Ability.
An expansion ability manifested after Tidal Wave. She personally found it extremely awkward to use.
But still...
'I'm sorry, but I have to win this, even for the wager's sake.'
Baek A-rin thrust the spear forward.
Expansion Ability.
'Ice Sea.'
A small whisper. The ensuing expansion of mana and her innate talent.
The mana in the spear. The mana in her body. Every last bit of the water energy covering the surroundings—all of it converted into cold energy.
A fierce cold swept through.
.
.
.
The endlessly surging blue world was dyed silent and white.
The waves froze in place exactly as they had been crashing, and frost descended even on the shields of the audience seats.
- Crack, crackle...
The cold creeping gradually from her right arm had never been so unbearably unpleasant.
Enough to make even her masked expression twitch.
Just as the unpleasantness was surging.
Baek A-rin suddenly turned her gaze forward.
"......!"
Her eyes went wide and round.
A black palm stopped just a short distance from her face.
It was extremely close to where Ice Sea had manifested. Of course, it should have frozen and been dyed white.
But Lee Ha-yul hadn't frozen.
He had protected himself from the influence of Ice Sea. Only the palm encased in an arm sleeve was visible.
- Puff, puff...
The surrounding temperature was so low that his exhaled breath showed clearly.
It was apparently cold enough that his outstretched arm shivered faintly.
He seemed to have completely exhausted his strength, as he remained perfectly still.
But he didn't freeze.
He wasn't encroached on by the cold energy.
He wasn't stained by Bitter Cold.
If Lee Ha-yul had had a little strength left, the outcome of the match might have been reversed.
"......Heh."
A small laugh escaped. It felt like the tiny hope had substantially grown in stature.
The heart that had been still thumped loudly.
Something lodged in her heart felt displeased. To Baek A-rin, that was rather pleasant.
Baek A-rin smiled brightly and suddenly embraced Lee Ha-yul, who had stopped in front of her, pulling him in tightly. Lee Ha-yul's head was buried right against her chest.
Lee Ha-yul, who had been wearing an odd expression, jumped in alarm and thrashed about.
He flailed. Embarrassment.
There was no displeasure or rejection in it. Baek A-rin's smile deepened as she confirmed that.
It seemed the rejection had thinned enough that even an embrace was somehow permissible.
"I won."
Lee Ha-yul, who had been squirming in her arms for a moment, suddenly stopped moving. Then he rubbed his face slightly and lifted his head.
His eyes weren't visible, but a sulky air radiated, as if asking if this wasn't a bit too much.
Her conscience was pricked a little by that. Before making the first move, she'd unsettled his mood, then crammed in an expansion ability through the gap that formed.
"...Still, a win is a win, so I'll be claiming Ha-yul's day. So..."
Baek A-rin bowed her head. Her lips brushed against the objectively chilly—but by Baek A-rin's standards, warm—lobe of Lee Ha-yul's ear.
"Keep tomorrow free. Understood?"
Whispered words beside the ear. The escaping breath tickled the earlobe.
Lee Ha-yul's body trembled violently, and his head gave a small nod.
* * *
The underground contestant waiting room.
It had everything one could need. Soft beds and a sofa.
A fridge stocked with all sorts of drinks and alcohol, piles of snacks, and more.
And a hologram floating in the air was broadcasting the ongoing tournament main round matches.
The match had just ended... showing Baek A-rin pulling Lee Ha-yul into a tight embrace.
"......That."
In the hand of the figure leaning back against the sofa was a glass with ice floating in it.
- Plink!
The ice melted. It mixed with the drink, and even that mixture boiled and bubbled away into steam.
"What the hell is that bitch."
A swear word spilled from Hong Yeon-hwa's mouth as she steeled her patience to keep from shattering the glass.