Talks (4)
Talks (4)
"Ah, fuck. We ganged up on him and still got wrecked."
Hong Jin-hyeok, having returned to the spectator seats, grimaced. As he slumped against the seatback, breathing hard, Hong Jin-seon nodded.
"Yes, not a single clean hit got through."
Even after the Calamity Flame unleashed by the Earth Dragon swept the arena, the match hadn't ended.
That was because all three of them had poured every last ounce of their strength into protecting their barriers.
Or more precisely, because someone chose not to finish it.
Either way, the match continued, but the tide never turned. If anything, it kept tilting steadily in one direction.
"You think you would've done any different, brother?"
"No, I doubt I'd have fared much better."
Hong Jin-seon shook his head without hesitation.
Hong Jin-hyeok was Hong Jin-seon's younger brother, and had been considered alongside him as a candidate for the next clan head in their youth.
Though he had ascended to the position of Jeonghwaju of his own will, he was a powerhouse fully capable of holding the clan headship.
If a Jeonghwaju of that caliber had been humiliated this thoroughly, it stood to reason that Hong Jin-seon's situation wouldn't be drastically different.
"Even now, I'm not confident I could beat you, brother... but 'humiliated'? Isn't that a bit harsh?"
"Would you prefer I sugarcoat the objective truth?"
"Tch, yeah, fine."
As the one who'd genuinely been thrashed, he had no comeback. Hong Jin-hyeok scowled fiercely and let his head fall back.
"Hm... hm-hmm..."
"..."
"Ahem..."
It was, by her own measure, a subdued whisper of breath. But the undertone of superiority and satisfaction bleeding through it was impossible to conceal.
"...Young Lady, does hearing your nephew-in-law praised really put you in that good a mood?"
"Hm? Oh, ahem. A little?"
Hong Yeon-hwa, whose lips had been twitching, let out a dry cough and dropped her gaze back to the arena.
The arena where Calamity Flame, Azure Sea, and Taesan kept erupting one after another. The first match was over, and the next up were the elite units each family had brought along.
The Calamity Flame Family's Jeonghwa Unit.
The Changhae Family's Changpa Unit.
The Taesan Family's Pure Life Unit.
But they didn't clash with each other. Instead, they cooperated, slowly tightening a noose around the center.
And standing at that center was Lee Ha-yul.
- Fwoosh!
A Jeonghwa Unit soldier hurled Calamity Flame. Facing the fire rushing at him head-on, Lee Ha-yul simply threw a fistful of Calamity Flame right back.
His Calamity Flame was deliberately dialed down in output.
With roughly equal output, they should have cancelled each other out. Instead, Lee Ha-yul's Calamity Flame flared wide and swallowed the opponent's flames whole.
Lee Ha-yul reached a hand into the Calamity Flame now caught in midair.
The rocky gauntlet encasing his arm blazed with the vitality of its engravings, and then wooden stalks burst from the stone, piercing straight through the mass of Calamity Flame.
- WHOOSH!
The stalks blazed pitch-black in an instant, coiling around the Calamity Flame before splitting into dozens of branches that swept across the entire forward zone.
"This crazy—!"
The shocked soldier kicked off the ground, but it wasn't enough. Tree roots wormed through the gaps in his awareness and wound tightly around his body.
"Gaaaah!"
His aura was shredded, and the Calamity Flame he summoned was devoured by the roots. Crunch! His barrier finally gave out, and he was reverse-summoned out of the arena.
Over a dozen others tried to exploit Lee Ha-yul's exposed rear, only to kick off the ground in similar shock.
- CRACKLE!
From the carapace on his back, thickly grown Azure Sea thorns extended. From their tips, surging water energy and cold energy stormed across his rear flank.
Having subdued both front and rear, Lee Ha-yul stretched his arms out to both sides.
The rock gauntlets on his arms swelled, and his innate talent rose.
- CRRRRUUNCH!
Stalagmites erupted densely from the ground.
Few were actually swept away since they'd been waiting in anticipation. But not a single face looked pleased about it.
THOOM! A fissure tore through one of the heaving stalagmites. The undead within it detonated.
- KABOOOOOM!
"The hell— goddamn."
Hong Jin-hyeok wore a thoroughly fed-up expression at the ear-shredding blast. Having been on the receiving end of it personally just moments ago, it was even more daunting.
"Just what happened in one year... He's a completely different person now."
Shaking his head at the brutal slaughter, Hong Jin-hyeok glanced sideways at Hong Yeon-hwa again.
Hong Yeon-hwa was also gazing down into the arena.
Her eyes were fixed on Lee Ha-yul the entire time, their corners gently curved. The emotion flickering in her pupils was something deeply tender.
"And you've changed a lot too, Young Lady."
In a positive way, of course. Her abilities went without saying, and her personality had practically undergone a complete transformation.
"All thanks to my son-in-law."
Hong Jin-seon, who had been secretly paying attention, gave two firm nods.
Hong Jin-hyeok chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, he does seem to have a lot of women around him... but given his abilities, maybe that's only natural."
"Mm..."
On that point, Hong Jin-seon kept his mouth shut.
The image of the Three Great Families' heirs casting cryptic sideways glances at each other during the summit surfaced in his mind.
"...The decision is Yeon-hwa's to make, but it bothers me that the other heirs are entangled in this as well."
"You think? But wasn't it kinda similar back in your day, brother?"
"What?"
Hong Jin-hyeok, who had been resting his head against his interlocked hands, tilted his head.
Hong Yeon-hwa, who had been half-listening to what seemed like an important story, tilted her head too, while Hong Jin-seon's eyes faintly wavered.
"You know, you and Brother Wol-seon, and your first love who was— urk!"
"Shut your mouth."
WHAM! A fist wreathed in Calamity Flame clocked Hong Jin-hyeok square in the jaw.
* * *
"Waaah..."
Gazing down at the carnage unfolding in the arena, Lee Ji-yeon let her mouth hang open.
She was always aware that Lee Ha-yul was strong, but she couldn't help the gasp of admiration that slipped out every time she saw it firsthand.
'He was strong last year too...'
Lee Ha-yul, whom she'd first met around this time last year, had been strong then as well.
Naturally so, since he'd personally finished off that Undead Twin-Headed Poison Dragon.
'Just how strong is he now?'
Now, barely a year later, he had grown to a degree utterly beyond comparison with the year before.
It was, literally, monstrous growth. Even considering the Blessing of Growth and Siyoram's support, it was a result she simply couldn't comprehend.
'And this isn't even his full power.'
Right now he was mainly utilizing Calamity Flame, Azure Sea, and Taesan, but she knew that was just a fraction of the means at his disposal.
What was even more ridiculous was that this growth hadn't stopped.
Lee Ha-yul was still growing, and would keep growing in the future.
'...Hoo.'
The more she dwelled on it, the more staggeringly absurd his power became.
Standing beside someone like Lee Ha-yul, all she could see were her own inadequacies.
A feeling similar to when she had lowered her head, acutely feeling the gap between her and her mother, pooled in her chest.
'So I just have to try harder.'
This time, she didn't lower her head.
She didn't shrink her shoulders either.
Because she had learned firsthand that instead of burying herself in pointless self-deprecation, it was far more productive to just put effort into one more thing.
It wasn't a question of whether she could or couldn't.
Even if she could never surpass him. That didn't mean Lee Ji-yeon's potential deserved to be slammed into the dirt like a corpse and left to stagnate.
- Clench...
After absently clenching her fist, Lee Ji-yeon turned her gaze to the side.
Lee Ji-ah was staring fixedly down at the arena, maintaining an immovable posture like a boulder.
Eyes as impassive as ever.
At the end of that gaze was Lee Ha-yul, wielding Calamity Flame and Azure Sea as shockwaves boomed out around him.
"...Still not seeing three colors yet, I take it."
"Huh?"
"Nothing. Just talking to myself."
When Lee Ji-yeon asked back at the cryptic remark, Lee Ji-ah shook her head.
* * *
Somehow or other, I'd ended up going a round with the Three Great Families' elites too.
It hadn't been part of the plan, but there was no downside on my end either.
Weren't they the elites of the Three Great Families, after all? Most of them were outstanding superhumans who manifested Calamity Flame, Azure Sea, or Taesan.
'My proficiency has gone up quite a bit.'
Just directly responding to and observing their skills, techniques, and coordinated attacks had yielded results.
I nodded in satisfaction and left the wrecked arena behind me.
Thud, thud. I climbed up to the VIP seats. At the gazes that converged on me as if they'd been waiting, I spread my shoulders wide.
"Fufufu, not injured in the slightest!"
The necklace spoke for me:
[Joy at dispelling their worries]
[Excited at the thought of being praised]
Zero injuries!
Not that there'd be any injuries when they had barriers up in the first place, but what mattered was that I'd put their worries to rest.
My shoulders hitched at the feeling of Taesan abruptly surging up inside me.
"I was on pins and needles watching the whole time, so I'm truly relieved you're unhurt."
Professor Liana giggled and gently stroked my cheek.
"But we had barriers..."
"You came back injured from the Tower of Growth. How could I possibly put my faith in a single barrier?"
"...Pff."
[No words to refute that]
I had no words.
I let my lips jut out just slightly to show I was pouting, and Professor Liana, her eyes crinkling prettily, pressed a brief kiss to my lips.
- Smooch
"Ooh, ehehe..."
[Happy to be loved]
The lips I'd purposely pushed out folded back in.
The faint fatigue that had built up from the sparring was incinerated in an instant by the satisfaction.
'Maybe it's a little shallow of me, but...'
Pretending to pout by jutting my lips out to get kisses.
Using that pricks my conscience, but after actually getting one, I'm so ridiculously happy that I end up doing it again.
[Happy]
[I like kisses]
[I want more love—]
[Snap]
"..."
"..."
I closed the necklace, which had been blabbering endlessly if left alone.
The surroundings instantly quieted. Amid everyone's unreadable expressions, Ellia gently took hold of the Confession Necklace.
"Haven't the vocalizations gotten a lot more expressive?"
"Right? Now it even attaches the cause before the emotion sometimes..."
"It seems to be stating his desires more directly now..."
"Ahem! The match is over, so let's not do this, let's head down quickly."
I slipped the necklace from Ellia's hand and flapped both my arms, redirecting the group's attention outward.
"There's no more direct observation of the remaining summit sessions by outsiders, they said."
"As far as I know, only the banquet on the final day is left."
"Yep, there are no special participation schedules before the banquet."
On the summit schedule, there was a banquet on the final day, meant as a gesture of sharing the ceremonial gunpowder.
Finish all the official business beforehand. Then simply eat, drink, and deepen personal ties—or so the gist went.
The final day.
An event still several days away.
I wiggled my fingers with an inscrutable expression.
The hand was a little hot from the Calamity Flame, but earlier, when manifesting Azure Sea, it had been cold.
'...I wonder if I'll be able to handle it properly until the banquet.'
My head throbbed.
There was the strain of having greatly broadened the range of Observation, but more than that, it was the burden of intensively tracking the harbingers of the Special-Grade Dungeon.
'After the banquet... I'll have to come up with an excuse to stay longer.'
The timing didn't matter. The preparations were complete; whenever it erupts, I can move into action immediately.
"...Ah!"
[!]
At a thought that suddenly occurred to me, my eyes went round.
I, who had been gently ushering the group along, whipped my head around—and my face collided with Ellia's chest.
- Squish
"Pfft."
Saying it 'collided' felt wrong; 'buried' was more fitting.
The utterly plush sensation made my whole body go limp for a second.
Head tilting quizzically, Ellia gave a little laugh and gently stroked my hair.
"Oh my, is our baby getting tired of walking? Want me to carry you?"
"...Hhk."
[Tempted]
About to mindlessly entrust my body to Ellia, I flinched and retreated a few steps.
I'd nearly forgotten my objective. I put strength into my eyes and stared intently at Ellia's yellow eyes.
"A re-ward, please."
"A reward?"
"Yes, didn't you promise a reward if I didn't get hurt? I didn't get hurt."
I even had evidence I could submit wrapped up via the Authority of Knowledge.
No loophole to slip through.
I'd happily accept whatever the reward was, then express my thanks and give a return gift—textbook perfection.
It was a flawless plan.
"Aha."
Yellow eyes blinked at the word 'reward.' Ellia, who soon seemed to remember, let out a murmur of realization and tilted her head.
"Mm... today's my turn, right?"
It was a question with a dropped subject, but I knew what she meant.
I nodded up and down. Beaming, Ellia bent down and put her lips to my ear.
"I'll give you your reward tonight, when we're sleeping?"
- Press...
A large chest pressed against my collarbone. Along with the warmth of her body temperature, a sweetly subtle scent drifted up.
"...Yeah."
[Enormous anticipation]
I gulped and nodded.
* * *