Be...auty
Be...auty
"The winner of the Cross-dressing Contest is...! First-year, Ipchun Class! The cadet everyone's been talking about, Lee Ha-yul!"
- Clap, clap, clap, clap!
"......"
As most people expected, I was the winner.
I held the trophy engraved with "Birth Festival XX, Cross-dressing Contest Winner: Lee Ha-yul" and did my best to maintain a straight face on stage under the heavy applause.
I'd expected it, but actually winning left my feelings a tangled mess.
Compared to the effort and suffering the other contestants went through, I hadn't really done anything.
I just grew my hair a little longer and threw a ceremonial gown over some comfortable clothes. That was it, yet I'd still walked away with the winner's spot for free.
I had no idea whether I should be happy about this or upset...
"Next, the winner of the Male-dressing Contest is—! Oh my! Coincidentally, the exact same class, first-year Beginning of Spring! Cadet Baek A-rin!"
"It's an honor~"
The winner of the Male-dressing Contest was Baek A-rin. She smiled brightly on stage and waved casually.
The contest had fewer participants than the Cross-dressing Contest to begin with, and after a close contest with Hong Yeon-hwa, Baek A-rin took the trophy.
In truth, the winner was decided more by the voters' favorability than the level of the disguise.
Meaning, Baek A-rin, who'd built up a better public image, was the winner.
"Whoa~ your hair's just a little longer, but you've got a whole new look, huh?"
[?]
The award ceremony had just ended. The moment I turned and tried to step off the stage, Baek A-rin came pattering up beside me, giggling.
With the trophy in one hand, Baek A-rin swept her gaze over my appearance.
That gaze stung a bit. I instinctively hunched my shoulders, turned my face away, and avoided her eyes.
"Hmm... Oh-ho?"
[Don't tease me...]
"That's my honest opinion, you know? I really think something's changed..."
Baek A-rin tilted her head and brushed my cheek. Her hand then reached up, took hold of a lock of my lengthened hair, and rubbed it between her fingers.
"Did you get prettier...? Wait, did you secretly use some magic?"
"Hey, why are you touching him as you please."
Hong Yeon-hwa, who'd dashed up onto the stage, smacked Baek A-rin's hand away.
After glaring at Baek A-rin, Hong Yeon-hwa promptly grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into her arms. I didn't resist and went along with it. Soon, a plush sensation cradled my head...
- Sink...
[Shock]
'......'
There wasn't much cradling.
Since Hong Yeon-hwa hadn't removed her disguise, her chest was smaller than usual. Through Observation, I knew she'd wrapped it tightly with bandages, but it was still a shock.
My eyes quivered faintly at the hollow sensation.
"Ahaha! Look at that face—like you've lost the world! Exactly what I expected!"
Baek A-rin, who'd seen my expression from the front, burst out laughing. She also hadn't removed her disguise, so her chest appeared smaller on the outside just the same.
"Pfft."
Looking down to check my face, Hong Yeon-hwa swallowed a laugh too and stroked my cheek.
"What's wrooong~? Is something weird?"
When I tilted my head back, I saw blatant mischief written all over her face. Her voice, brimming with teasing, filled my ears, and I found myself nodding without thinking.
[It's weird...]
"Really? Doesn't it suit me?"
[No... it does suit you... but, uh, I think you'd better take off the bandages...]
"Hmm, I wonder...?"
[Uugh...]
Hong Yeon-hwa smiled without a word and pressed both my cheeks with one hand.
"Ha-yul, you haven't forgotten our promise tomorrow, right?"
Soon, a small whisper sounded next to my ear, and heat rushed into my face.
The promise I'd made with Yeon-hwa for the final day of the Birth Festival. There was no way I could forget it.
[Yeah.]
"Mm, good, then."
When I nodded slightly, Yeon-hwa smiled with satisfaction and pulled her head away.
.
.
.
After quickly cooling my burning cheeks and coming down to the waiting room, Master and Professor Liana, who'd been watching from the audience, soon came to find me.
But Lee Ji-yeon had followed along as well. When I turned my head in that direction, Lee Ji-yeon gave an awkward smile and waved hello.
"It's not a wig, it's your real hair? And you're saying this isn't your Unique Ability?"
"As if any wig could possibly match this kind of hair."
"Sniff sniff... the scent's the same, too."
The attention immediately followed.
The main point of interest was, unsurprisingly, my hair. Most of them fiddled with the lengthened locks and showed their fascination—even Yeon-hwa, who buried her nose in it to inhale the scent.
I sat in a chair with Seo-yul in my arms, feeling the hands that kept reaching for me from all around.
"Aside from the hair, I feel like your overall aura's changed a bit?"
Professor Liana, who had snuck a sniff of my hair after watching Yeon-hwa, tilted her head. Then my face was lifted by a hand gently cupping my chin.
At that remark, everyone's eyes focused on my face.
The hands moved to my face. Forehead, eyelids, the bridge of my nose, cheeks, lips—hands glided over every part of my face, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
Even Seo-yul, nestled in my arms, stroked my face curiously.
"...I think so too... No, it really has changed, right?"
"Hmm... has it changed a tiny bit?"
"You've gotten prettier."
"Da?ddy? Pretty..."
[Th, ank you...]
...The unanimous conclusion was that something had changed. Even I, who'd been observing myself with Observation, had to agree.
Because I possessed the Authorities of Observation and Knowledge, I could tell even more precisely.
It had definitely changed. My bone structure had shifted a little, and as a result, the aura I gave off had changed as well.
'So All-Rounder has this kind of function too...'
A feature that provided corrections to various aptitudes. I'd assumed that was all there was to it, but I hadn't expected it to include an appearance correction as well.
And if my guess was right, its growth method fell into a rather unique category.
My Unique Ability was already difficult to train as it was, but this wasn't a matter of simple training—it was a type that required a special external stimulus.
'There were only a few of those even across the iterations... Off the top of my head, the Unique Abilities of the 1st Iteration and the 3rd Iteration?'
Patting Seo-yul's back, I sank into thought.
Putting together the comments everyone around me had made, the change was in a positive direction.
I'd become prettier... More precisely, they said I'd transformed into a 美形 (bishōnen/beautiful form).
'What counts as "beautiful form"?'
Your hair getting longer and wearing pretty clothes? Is that a beautiful form?
If so, does that mean short hair and ordinary clothes are ugly?
Is there even an exact standard of beauty? Can there be an absolute standard for beauty and ugliness?
Can you divide beauty and ugliness precisely, as if measuring with a ruler?
If All-Rounder cultivates its manifester into a beautiful form, by what standard does All-Rounder distinguish beauty from ugliness?
My own standard as the manifester of All-Rounder? Or an inherent standard held by the Innate Talent itself?
I didn't know yet. I'd only just realized this. In the first place, I wasn't even sure that this was truly an appearance correction. It might be some other function similar to it.
'Whew.'
All-Rounder was my own Innate Talent. Others might be able to offer advice from the sidelines, but in the end, figuring it out and reaching an awakening had to be done by myself.
* * *
During the Birth Festival, many people gathered at Siyoram.
Cadets' families, affiliates of the organizations they belonged to, even representatives of groups who'd come specifically to recruit talent.
Because of that, the Birth Festival often became a venue for reunions and catching up with many people after a long time apart.
"You seem to be in a good mood."
These two were no exception.
Lee Ji-ah, the head of the Taesan family, spoke during a momentary lull in a long conversation.
At that, the man seated across from her let out a small, throat-clearing cough.
"Ahem, well, that is true, but is it that obvious?"
"Yes, somewhat."
The man talking with Lee Ji-ah—the former head of the Calamity Flame family, Hong Seong-jin—wore an uncharacteristically gentle smile.
'How could I not be glad?'
As Lee Ji-ah had said, his mood was good. Not just moderately good, but extremely good.
And that wasn't limited to Hong Seong-jin alone—likely, the majority of the Calamity Flame family members felt the same way.
It was now the fourth day of the Birth Festival, and yesterday, footage of the cadets entering the Tower of Growth and fighting one another had been broadcast.
Naturally, Hong Seong-jin had watched her too.
'He's grown splendidly.'
The tremendous growth Hong Yeon-hwa had displayed could only bring joy to a grandfather's heart.
He'd been worried that the sheer output of her Calamity Flame might bring her harm, but that wild, reckless troublemaker had, before he knew it, become so adept at handling the Calamity Flame.
It seemed he could set aside his worries about the next heir of the Calamity Flame, at least for the time being.
And also...
"Heh heh."
Recalling a certain memory, Hong Seong-jin let out a hearty laugh.
Along with Hong Yeon-hwa, Lee Ha-yul was the child he'd been scrutinizing with the utmost attention.
That child was... difficult to evaluate with words.
Superb? Amazing? Of course, those words were correct. The skill that child had displayed was enough to leave even Hong Seong-jin thunderstruck.
What had pleased Hong Seong-jin wasn't simple martial force, but the child's handling of the Calamity Flame.
'Using magic with the Calamity Flame? Not with a fire-attribute artifact, but with the Calamity Flame's very essence?'
Calamity Flame Manifestors found magic difficult to learn. They could twist their whole bodies to force it, but when it came to that, just dousing something with Calamity Flame once was a hundred times more efficient.
Because of that, the Calamity Flame family never focused on developing its magic. Among those currently affiliated with the Calamity Flame family, most of the ones handling magic were those who could not wield the Calamity Flame at all.
But Lee Ha-yul was different.
He'd refined the Calamity Flame's own fire—not a fire-attribute artifact—into magic.
Was that all? He'd also splendidly exhibited the much-talked-about distinctiveness of the Calamity Flame.
Calamity Flame 劫火. Contrary to the precedent that it was a flame destined to destroy the world, it showed a harmless and warm side.
Yet, it was never gentle in all things, and when facing an enemy, it burned ferociously.
It was a different appearance from the Calamity Flame Hong Seong-jin had known all his life, but he hadn't felt the slightest discomfort.
'One must not deny change.'
Would the change be positive or negative? Progress or regression? Or would it stand still? Even for Hong Seong-jin, who'd lived a considerably long life by even superhuman standards, there was no certainty.
But intuitively, he guessed it would move in a positive direction.
The Calamity Flame was a Unique Ability handed down since the Progenitor. Over the course of that inheritance, the Calamity Flame had flowed through many Innate Talents.
The Progenitor's Innate Talent. His children's Innate Talents. The Innate Talents of the bloodline that branched from them.
Blending and manifesting, they had linked together.
An expansion some person's progress had achieved became Flame Bloom 開火. Another person's strides became Flame Advance 進火. And yet another person's step forward gave bloom to Sacred Flame 聖火.
The Calamity Flame of Hong Yeon-hwa and Lee Ha-yul would be the same. It might not appear right away, but their Calamity Flame would influence later generations.
"......"
As he dwelled on those memories, Hong Seong-jin suddenly tasted a bitter flavor spreading across the root of his tongue and swallowed the thought.
Hong Seong-jin had three sons.
The eldest was Hong Jin-seon, who had become the current family head. Setting aside his perspective as a father, he was a proud son who had grown splendidly and led the family.
The youngest was Hong Jin-hyeok, the current Jeonghwaju (Stop Fire Master). His aptitude was more than sufficient to compete for the family head's seat, but Hong Jin-hyeok never coveted that position.
The other one, the second son, was now gone.
He was a painful reminder—a disgrace who had committed a Capital Crime, a stain of shame and karma within the family's history, and had been ripped from the family genealogy.
Why?
He still asked himself that question even now.
Unlike the stoic eldest, his manner was light, but he was more solemn than the mischievous, frivolous youngest, and his thoughts were deep, contrary to his outward appearance.
His aptitude was decent, too. Though his aptitude was slightly lacking compared to the other two, the second son had accepted it easily and sought competition, not jealousy.
He had his rough edges, but even so, he was a proud son.
At some point, he vanished.
When he reappeared, he had committed an unforgivable Capital Crime and then disappeared without a trace.
The eldest was still persistently chasing the second son to this day. As the head representing the family, he intended to wash away the sin of the Capital Crime committed by his blood and personally condemn that shame.
But Hong Seong-jin knew there was another reason, too.
The eldest, Hong Jin-seon, wanted to spare his parents from the act of killing their own child. Thus, he meant to end his brother's life with his own hands.
'Truly, a complicated household.'
A corner of the Three Great Families. Perhaps because they were a faction with so many entangled histories, their circumstances were endlessly complicated.
At least the generation after his sons—the generation of Hong Yeon-hwa and... the child named Lee Ha-yul—put his mind at ease.
- Fzzzt
Then it happened. The hologram projected in the corner of the table changed. Swallowing the bitterness, Hong Seong-jin turned his gaze to the hologram.
"Hm?"
The scene was a diagonal, overhead shot of a main street crowded with people.
Hong Seong-jin's eyes widened. The two children he'd been thinking about just moments ago had appeared on the hologram.
"Hoh...?"
The reason his mouth fell open was that their appearance was extremely strange.
Lee Ha-yul, that pale white child, had his once-short hair now flowing long and full, and his whole atmosphere had changed considerably. He was darting his eyes around as if conscious of the gazes on him.
Next to him, Hong Yeon-hwa was holding hands with Lee Ha-yul and strolling down the main street with a bright smile...
'Is she tormenting the child again...?'
Hong Seong-jin first suspected his granddaughter.
She was a precious granddaughter, the apple of his eye whom he cherished more than anything, but he knew Hong Yeon-hwa—the one-time ruffian who had once rampaged under the impulse of the Calamity Flame.
Moreover, it was also true that Hong Yeon-hwa had actually asked for this.
It was a reasonable suspicion.
* * *
[Beginning Origin Awakening]
[Mental State 「Bea?uty」 is changing]
...
[Player Correction System: Pioneering Progress]
[Sub-quest 「Beauty」 achieved]
[Points are accumulating]
* * *
