Calamity Flame is a Troublemaker (1)
Calamity Flame is a Troublemaker (1)
After the cross-dressing contest ended, I kept the disguise on and wandered the streets to test the growth of my All-Rounder ability.
The festival was already on its third day, but the crowds were still thick.
Plenty of outsiders, and quite a few cadets who'd just finished their tower runs and were out enjoying themselves.
Which meant a lot of eyes on us.
Walking around openly in disguise like this was incredibly difficult...
Before yesterday I wouldn't have attempted it, but since it might be connected to my unique ability, I had no choice but to go on foot.
'Looks like external interaction really is the trigger...'
After enduring the embarrassment and going around, that was my conclusion.
I could sense the All-Rounder ability genuinely growing through outside influence.
It was both good news and bad news at the same time.
Figuring out the growth direction was great, but the method itself was a bit inconvenient...
My head was a mess trying to work out how to use this going forward.
[...Yeon-hwa, when are you taking that off?]
That wasn't the only thing cluttering my head.
I glanced at Yeon-hwa. She was still in her disguise too, same as me.
Meaning, she still had her chest bound down with bandages...
"Why? You're still in disguise, Ha-yul, so why wouldn't I be?"
[I have my reasons... you don't have any, Yeon-hwa...]
"What, I'm just having fun with it anyway."
Yeon-hwa shrugged nonchalantly. On the surface, anyway. The twitch at the corner of her mouth made it obvious she was messing with me.
My cheeks puffed out on reflex.
[...Isn't it uncomfortable?]
"I used to go around like this all the time."
"?"
"Oh, right. You didn't know, Ha-yul?"
Yeon-hwa giggled and reached out a finger. Pfft— air leaked from my puffed-up cheek.
"I don't do it lately, but back then my chest just got in the way during combat, so I'd wrap it up with a magic tool. Baek A-rin, didn't you do that too?"
"Mhm, I did, yeah. It's uncomfortable when you're moving around a lot, and it gets in the way when you're putting on armor. They sell magic tools made for that, you know? Or you could just get a custom one."
Baek A-rin, who was walking along the main street with us, chimed in.
It made sense that a large chest would be a nuisance in combat.
Baek A-rin also hadn't dropped her disguise. She glanced at me briefly, then curved her eyes into crescents.
"Hmm... I definitely go 'without' these days... but maybe I should start wearing it all the time now?"
[I'd hate that...]
"Ehehe, why?"
Her tone seemed almost to herself, but I argued back before I knew it. Baek A-rin, as if she'd been waiting for it, grinned mischievously and pinched my cheek.
"Oh my, does Ha-yul prefer it without?"
[Stop teasing me...]
"I'm not teasing, I'm asking."
Mischievous prodding came from both sides. One warm, one cool.
I'd let my vulnerability show a little and now I was getting gleefully teased for it. It didn't feel bad, exactly, but it was hard to deal with, and my face pulled into a pout without permission.
[Hm?]
Then it happened.
Among the crowd a short distance away, a child who'd been squirming behind their parents' legs suddenly approached.
The child, worked up to determination, had their gaze fixed on me, clutching a letter in one hand.
Surprisingly, this wasn't the first time.
Disguised though I was, walking around without a perception-obstruction spell meant a fair number of people had come up to me.
"Uhm..."
The child chewed at their lip, hesitating. I stopped walking and waited quietly for them to continue.
Soon, the child steeled themselves, bowed their head, and held out the letter with both hands.
"Hero Lee Ha-yul... back then... in Sipnaha... thank you for saving me..."
Sipnaha. Normally that name sent a chill through me, recalling the threat of death, but a thank-you like this brought up a small sense of pride instead.
'Though I'm not a hero yet.... Wait, am I? Didn't the Association give me an honorary hero title after?'
Anyway.
I didn't stop the smile from forming and bent my knees to meet the child's eye level.
[Thank you]
"Ah...!"
I'm not great with words, so it's hard to say much. I gave my thanks, accepting the letter with both hands, and the child's expression brightened.
Seeing that, my smile deepened too.
[Want to look here for a second?]
It felt wrong to just take the letter and send them off. I wiggled my right hand, and the child's gaze locked onto it.
[Ta-da?]
"Whoa!"
Between my wiggling fingers, a flower suddenly bloomed. A vivid red rose—one even people who know nothing about flowers recognize—that I pulled from my subspace.
To the child, who had no way of knowing the trick, it was a miracle. Their eyes went perfectly round. I smiled and held out the flower.
[A present]
"Thank you!"
The child answered brightly and carefully took the flower. Warm gazes from the people around us followed.
'So there was a reason they told me to walk around.'
Everyone kept telling me to go around without a perception-obstruction tool; they must have guessed something like this would happen.
And honestly, receiving thanks in person like this didn't feel bad at all.
"Thank you!"
The child thanked me again, and I nodded back—
"Big sister!"
[I'm not a girl.]
"...?"
The brightly smiling child tilted their head. That reaction, full of pure confusion, stabbed right through my proud heart...
[...Let's head back now.]
My face burned at the giggling from behind me. The experiment was over now anyway, so I wanted to drop the disguise and go home...
.
.
.
Even with the Birth Festival still going on, I didn't skip training completely.
If anything, I was keeping my training short but intense to make up for the lost time.
— Craaash!
The underground training hall in the mansion. I stood at its center and slowly steadied my breath.
I reviewed my memories and senses. The focus was yesterday—the fight in the Tower of Growth.
There was much to learn, but above all I recalled the memory of fighting the 5th Iteration.
Fwip-fwip-fwip! The books storing the memories flipped open one after another.
Memories collected through Observation and recorded through Knowledge were as vivid as something happening right this moment.
I replayed them and worked my mind at the same time. Found the parts I'd lacked back then and compensated for them.
Analyzed the skills the 5th Iteration displayed and adapted them to suit me.
The brief review ended.
I exhaled heavily and manipulated my mana.
Flick-flick! Sparks of mana leaped along my right arm. My circuits twisted and reassembled. Where they were insufficient, I carved new pathways. The changes occurring inside made my arm twitch.
Mana flowed through my right arm. Craaash! In an instant, dozens of spells erupted and slammed into the wall.
Magic of various attributes. The barrier spread across the wall surface burned, shattered, was soaked through, froze over, and was ripped apart by arcing electricity.
'Ooh...'
An attack unleashed in a single moment. I returned the circuits in my right arm to normal and let out a quiet exclamation inside.
'I've grown. So much.'
I couldn't help marveling. With my left hand I felt over my right arm from top to bottom.
The outer skin? Fine. The muscles packed inside? Fine. The bones weren't broken, the blood vessels, nerves, and circuits hadn't ruptured.
No injuries. The cross-sections of the circuits had surfaced on my skin like tattoos, but that was a trace that would fade on its own over time.
Compared to the days when casting a single type of magic would rip my arm halfway apart—this growth was practically a transformation.
'How long would it have taken to get this used to it on my own?'
I have plenty of talent, so it wouldn't have been impossible, of course.
But reaching this level would've demanded a huge amount of time and injuries.
Taking wrong turns and doubling back, smashing into dead ends and bouncing off, tripping over obstacles and sprawling out...
That's what it means to be the trailblazer. People who pioneer the unknown without predecessors' records have always had it hard.
'I got here fast thanks to the 5th Iteration. The rest will go the same way.'
It isn't that hard right now.
Because the 5th Iteration, the trailblazer who smashed his head into the unknown countless times, gave me abundant teachings.
Pioneering a path, versus walking a path that's already been cleared.
The difference in difficulty is painful to even put into words.
— That thing you just copied... circuit spell formulation. Do you really have to learn and use that?
...The technique's creator might self-deprecate and call it useless, but I'm confident I can use it well.
I smiled slightly and this time sat down in place.
I controlled my mana for a moment, then extended my right arm again.
I pulled up mana from my core. I didn't touch the circuits specifically. Instead, I stirred my inner innate talent strongly.
'Manifestation, Homogenization... Azure Sea.'
My body and mana, influenced by the swollen innate talent, began to change.
— Crick... crackle...
Frost formed on the surface of my outstretched arm. A chill and water energy swirled around it, and a new innate talent settled in.
Azure Sea. Specifically, a talent imitating Baek A-rin's.
'I'd like to get Azure Sea incorporated as a unique ability too...'
The Calamity Flame I imitated through Homogenization wasn't originally my innate talent, but at some point it had naturally settled into me.
On top of that, it had even bloomed with traits all its own, different from ordinary Calamity Flame.
Unique abilities imitated through Homogenization settling into me—aside from Calamity Flame, I hadn't had another case yet, but if possible, I'd like Azure Sea to do the same.
The advantages and benefits if Azure Sea became a unique ability need no explanation.
And personally, I need to deeply understand Azure Sea in order to solve Baek A-rin's problem.
'...Though what happens if Azure Sea and Taesan get incorporated together?'
Running my own optimistic projections, I suddenly touched my chilled right arm with an uneasy expression.
A Calamity Flame manifestor's mana carries a fiery nature. So if cold energy enters the body, it fiercely resists.
I'm different. My mana still holds a pure white quality, and only the mana in the part where Calamity Flame is manifested temporarily takes on a fiery tint.
Thanks to that, Calamity Flame can settle as an innate talent in me while I still imitate and use Azure Sea.
The problem is, if the Three Great Families' unique abilities carelessly clash inside one body, they cause Three Ends.
'Three Ends is...'
The realm the 3rd Iteration first achieved. It's not that no one in the last 200 years ever conceived of a fusion technique for the three abilities—the 3rd Iteration was just the first to pull it off.
The reason isn't special.
However drastically different the innate talents, if they're talents contained within a single person, there will inevitably be points of commonality.
That's how the 3rd Iteration, holding all three unique abilities in one body, could attain Three Ends.
...For reference, the 3rd Iteration died when the energies inside him spiraled out of control and his body burst.
'If all three get incorporated, do I have to live my whole life being careful?'
My full combat power would rise dramatically, but the chances of danger shooting up alongside it are high.
I melted the frost on my right arm with Calamity Flame, then let out a deep sigh and stood.
A check of the time showed I still had a little to spare.
'...Should I step out for a bit?'
* * *
"...What's this?"
Hong Yeon-hwa blinked. Right across from the underground training room door—the room directly opposite, visible the moment you stepped out—the door was open.
Through the gap, one spot inside the room snagged her gaze.
"A potion?"
A test tube stood upright. Inside it, a pink liquid shimmered mesmerizingly.