Mis...understanding (2)
Mis...understanding (2)
Disaster Events.
That was what the original story called them, but in this reality, the word "catastrophe" was more accurate.
A catastrophe usually meant an unforeseen tragic accident, a natural disaster, something along those lines.
There were also words like "calamity," which carried a lesser sense of scale, or "man-made disaster" for things caused by people.
The most representative catastrophes in this world were dungeons and monsters.
When a dungeon went on a rampage, the surrounding environment and its people were swept away wholesale.
These days, the Observation Corps identified the precursor signs of a dungeon rampage, but before long, unprecedented rampages that couldn't be read in advance—like the Sipnaha Incident—would start happening in droves.
If a single high-rank monster set its mind to running wild, human lives were snuffed out like flies.
The moment a monster even began to muster an army corps, things escalated to the point of needing to form a subjugation force.
And even then, some monsters emerged that were too difficult to subjugate.
Even without a Tower invasion, all manner of catastrophes sprang up one after another.
It was nothing new.
Only a hundred years ago, the world had been in a Chaos Period where people worried about the survival of their species. Another such era arriving wasn't strange at all.
When you factored in Tower invasions, the future looked quite bleak.
Of course, these weren't catastrophes that would strike right away.
If anything, staying holed up inside Siyoram for the next few years would be safe.
The Disaster Events on the scale of the original story didn't begin until the second year.
They continued through the third and fourth years.
There was no need for the Player to rush out and resolve them immediately.
Plenty of powerful factions existed out there in the world.
The most representative one was the Association.
When a catastrophe occurred, they dispatched investigation teams to assess the incident and formed subjugation squads or subjugation armies to resolve it.
For covert, closed-off incidents where a large-scale force was hard to mobilize, they deployed internal combat divisions or the Execution Department to root out the cause entirely.
Territorial powers existed everywhere as well.
Few groups welcomed outside interference in their domain.
Typically, they resolved things on their own before calling on the Association for help.
Even if catastrophes appeared and the damage was immense, the world would not be allowed to fall apart to the point of ending.
Even if a large-scale dungeon rampage sealed an entire country inside the dungeon's bounds, even if a 2nd-Rank monster went on a full-blown rampage, even if a new Demon Realm formed—the Player inside the Cradle was safe.
So long as I was at Siyoram, I could grow safely, in an optimal environment, free from any threat.
The problem was after graduation: facing a world weakened by the catastrophes that had unfolded during my time at Siyoram.
A world so utterly trashed you couldn't even tell where to begin fixing it, with no corner to grab hold of.
At first, I'd thought about just growing my strength safely during my Siyoram years and running off to some remote place to hide... but now, even that was impossible.
So the roots had to be pulled out in advance.
And naturally, that process was going to come with danger.
'Insurance.'
Casualty insurance. Who ever wanted to suffer a loss?
Health insurance. Who ever wanted their health to deteriorate so they could groan in a hospital bed?
[If I were to die... would you be able to help Seo-yul?]
Life insurance. How many people ever wished for death?
For a living being to desire death was extraordinarily rare.
I was no different.
I didn't want to die.
If I had my way, I'd throw everything aside and just laze about, eating and playing all day.
But people still took out insurance.
Because no one knew what the future held. Because no matter how much I hated it, there were incidents that would inevitably be thrust upon me.
To prepare for them, even a little, people took out insurance.
Asking Lee Ji-yeon for this was in that same vein.
Our personal relationship was a bit shallow, which was, in a sense, part of why I asked.
If I'd brought this up to Hong Yeon-hwa or my master... my prosthetic arm would've been ripped off on the spot and I'd have been confined to the mansion.
But Lee Ji-yeon and I weren't that close privately.
Publicly, she'd even gone so far as to call me her benefactor, so she'd at least hear me out.
"Die? Who's dying?"
[Bewildered]
And that was precisely why her reacting so intensely left me bewildered.
"You're going to die? 'If I die, help me'? Don't talk bullshit."
Her whole demeanor shifted in an instant.
The awkwardness she hadn't been able to hide before, even while trying to look my way. The way she'd sometimes blush to herself and avert her gaze. The deferential way she'd called me her benefactor, the timid air as she tiptoed around my moods.
All of it changed.
The awkwardness vanished in a flash, replaced by a roiling, simmering emotion spilling outward.
The intense attention that had avoided me before now sharpened, slicing toward me.
"Why is your death the starting point here, huh?"
Even her honorifics were cast aside.
Her tone had turned quite... no, blatantly murderous, sending a shiver down my spine.
[P-Please don't curse at me...]
"Do I look like I'm in any state not to curse right now?"
Grind. I heard the sound of her teeth grinding.
Interwoven with her boiling emotions, it couldn't have sounded more ferocious.
My shoulders hunched even further.
[W-Why are you getting so angry...]
[I didn't say it as a guarantee...]
[I was just... just preparing for the worst, asking on the off chance...]
I responded cautiously, keeping track of her reaction.
It wasn't that I couldn't understand her response at all.
Good and evil were tremendously complex, subtle concepts, but by my common-sense standards, Lee Ji-yeon was unambiguously a good person.
Someone who empathized with others' suffering, who grieved with them. Someone who, if her people were in trouble, sincerely extended a helping hand. Someone who didn't look away from injustice and could openly say, "This is wrong."
But we didn't have a particularly deep connection, so I'd thought she'd just accept a precautionary request like this, maybe with a bit of an uneasy feeling...
"What if... on the off chance... preparing... hah, 'if'?"
Lee Ji-yeon murmured in a low voice.
Her voice hadn't risen, but that cold, creeping tone was terrifying.
"Huuuh..."
Eventually, she swept her bangs up and let out a deep sigh.
I could feel the frustration and anger in the gesture, and I inched backward.
— Grab.
[Ngh.]
A hand suddenly shot out and seized my wrist.
Startled, I jolted.
The force yanked hard, and my body was pulled helplessly along.
As the Manifestor of Taesan, her base physical strength was enormous, so that was a given.
Not that I was completely unable to resist.
My growth, boosted by the Growth Boost, was astonishing enough to surprise even me.
I could've shaken off this level of restraint in an instant.
"Come here."
But I couldn't shake her off.
Lee Ji-yeon right now carried an overpowering intensity that made refusal difficult.
The coldly issued command made it too hard to defy her.
Pulled by her grasp, my body was drawn deep into her embrace.
My face was buried in soft flesh.
One hand pressed firmly on my head, burying me in her chest. The other arm wrapped around my waist and pulled with all its strength.
[Mngg...]
As if she meant to trap me there, I flailed my hands in the air, smothered.
"Die? Who's dying?"
Lee Ji-yeon's murmur came from above my head.
"You're going to die? 'If I die, help me'? Don't say things like that."
The words were the same as before, but the emotion they carried was a little different.
If the first time had been fury, this time there seemed to be a kind of resolve behind them.
[Nngh.]
The hand pressing my head loosened.
Instead, Lee Ji-yeon's hands cupped my cheeks. Her somewhat brusque motion tilted my head upward.
"You are absolutely not going to die. I won't let you. It's alright, you won't die."
I could feel an intense stare boring into my closed eyelids.
The fierce, forceful will behind it felt like it might pierce straight through me.
"You... why would a good kid like you die? I won't let you. Got it? Don't go talking about dying."
'Ah...'
Taesan. A towering, enormous mountain.
The Manifestors of Taesan generally possessed towering self-regard.
They controlled the earth to bring forth life, and commanded even the dead and the undead. The unique ability itself was said to work upon its wielders, building a sense of self-respect as lofty as a great mountain.
I hadn't felt much of that imposing air from the Lee Ji-yeon I'd personally met. From the moment we first encountered each other at the Lake of Mana, Lee Ji-yeon had been too busy blushing and avoiding my gaze. She'd been dependable during the fight against the Twin-headed Poison Dragon, but when we reunited at Siyoram, she'd grown even more inclined to walk on eggshells around me. It had been the same since. She gauged my reactions constantly and never asserted herself much. In short, that timid impression had been overwhelmingly strong. Too strong.
Now she was different.
A fierce resolve radiated from her.
The hands gripping my cheeks displayed an unyielding stubbornness.
She seemed to be considering my opinion while simultaneously steamrolling over it, roughly forcing her own assertion onto me.
With that towering ego as her foundation, she was compelling my acceptance.
[Y-Yes.]
[I understand.]
[I won't die...]
At the same time, the intense determination she radiated inspired belief in the listener, projecting an aura of reliability. This person would be fine. I could trust her. She wouldn't speak empty words; she'd take responsibility...
Overwhelmed by it, I nodded vacantly.
* * *
A short while later.
Seated on a nearby bench, Lee Ji-yeon held an oddly docile Lee Ha-yul in her arms and—just as she always did—infused him with vitality energy.
Lee Ji-yeon didn't supply all of that vitality energy herself. Normally, she drew it from the earth, filtered it appropriately, and then infused it into Lee Ha-yul. Because of that, vitality infusion usually required moving to an area rich in vitality.
That wasn't necessary here. The grounds of this mansion held a truly monstrous amount of dormant vitality. The dirt floor she sat on. The blooming grass, trees, and flowers. Every last thing was filled to brimming with vitality beyond its natural limits.
'The vitality here is incredible. This isn't natural. The Headmaster's mansion... did the Headmaster deliberately cultivate all this to hold so much vitality?'
Even after drawing the vitality from a flower petal, it replenished itself before long. The vitality slumbering in the earth itself was so monstrous that no matter how much she drew, she couldn't see the end of it. It was at a level that wouldn't be put to shame even by the spirit veins at her family's main estate.
With the vitality so vast, it was a perfectly suited space for Lee Ha-yul to live in, given his freakish deficiency of it.
'...I won't let him die.'
She paid that no mind. Instead, Lee Ji-yeon gazed down at Lee Ha-yul, nestled soundly in her arms, her eyes deeply pensive.
The vitality being infused. Crammed, stuffed into an empty vessel.
...It leaked right back out. As if riddled with holes, the vitality trickled steadily away.
'I won't let him die.'
Lee Ha-yul had spoken the word "death."
Afterward, he'd excused himself by saying it was just a what-if, an off chance, but Lee Ji-yeon didn't believe him.
In this world, of course, death was common. Especially for superhumans whose trade was combat and slaughter—death was always near. For a superhuman to speak of death wasn't an invariably heavy matter.
But when a child whose vitality was leaking from his body like this spoke of death, it wasn't light at all.
'I won't let him die. Even if he's on the verge of death... I'll save him. I will.'
Lee Ji-yeon even felt a sense of responsibility. She didn't know why he was in this state, but there was more than enough possibility that the damage he'd taken in the battle against the Twin-headed Poison Dragon—the one she'd fled from—had weakened him.
If Lee Ji-yeon had offered Lee Ha-yul sufficient trust back then...
"...All done."
The vitality infusion finished. A leaky bucket it might be, but she'd filled it to the maximum extent possible for now.
At her words, Lee Ha-yul, who'd kept his face buried in her chest, stealthily lifted his head. His face held just a faint touch of color.
...At the same time, likely because of the recognition Lee Ji-yeon now held, it also looked oddly lacking in vitality.
After staring at him for a moment, Lee Ji-yeon naturally patted Lee Ha-yul's back. Tapping near his neck, her hand stroked downward.
How many times did she repeat that?
— Urp.
Lee Ha-yul's body gave a small lurch.
— Urp, uurp...
Soon, a small burp escaped his slightly parted lips.
...A faint blush colored Lee Ha-yul's face.
'This scene is kind of bizarre.'
What was it? The whole sequence was a bit like feeding a baby milk and then burping it...
'Crazy bitch.'
Cutting off the thought, Lee Ji-yeon hastily shook her head. That shocking sight last night must've done something to her head.
Blindly playing with Professor Liana's chest, ending up sprawled out on top of her while sniffing at her nose... kneading Baek A-rin's chest and sticking fingers in her mouth to suck on... and then Baek A-rin, locking eyes with her, flashing a smirk...
'Urgh...'
[?]
Heat abruptly rushed to her face. Lee Ji-yeon let out a few dry coughs and continued patting Lee Ha-yul's back.
[Player Correction System: Affection]
Lee Ha-yul → Lee Ji-yeon
●●●●○○○○○○(49/100)
｢Successor of Taesan｣ ｢Good person｣ ｢Timid?｣ ｢Question｣
▽ Change ▽
Lee Ha-yul → Lee Ji-yeon
●●●●●●○○○○(49▷60/100)
｢Successor of Taesan｣ ｢Good person｣ ｢Forcefulness｣ ｢Coercion｣