Always Be Careful of Fire (3)
Always Be Careful of Fire (3)
Day 3 of Tower Entry.
Half the schedule had already flown by, and the boss—effectively the final assignment—had been discovered and subjugated within hours of its appearance.
The main event was effectively over.
With the tower entry nearing its end, competition among the cadets was only growing fiercer.
Hong Yeon-hwa and the others hastily withdrew, dragging the dazed Lee Ha-yul with them.
Everyone had expended considerable stamina and mana to take down the boss.
Baek A-rin had launched an aggressive offensive to draw its attention. Ellia had showered the combatants with every strengthening magic and buff she could muster for a decisive blow.
And Hong Yeon-hwa had pushed her Calamity Flame's output to its absolute limit—to the point of using her Expansion Ability.
They couldn't afford to engage the cadets who'd sensed the commotion and come swarming.
They put some distance between them and dug a tunnel into the earth. Then Baek A-rin layered supplementary magic over it and hastily rigged a temporary base.
Constructing temporary shelters and foxholes was occasionally necessary knowledge for dungeons and the frontlines, so it was a proud part of Siyoram's curriculum.
Some time passed after they'd hidden away to recover their stamina.
Inside, only a small opening admitted a faint trickle of sunlight.
The group sat in a triangle around a luminescence spell cast in the center, using it as their light source.
...There were four of them, but they still formed a triangle.
Baek A-rin sat diagonally to Hong Yeon-hwa's left, and Ellia diagonally to her right. Both had their gazes fixed on her.
Their stares were blank, the atmosphere awkward. Curiosity practically radiated from them, yet neither seemed able to bring herself to ask.
Hong Yeon-hwa carefully adjusted her posture.
- Squeeze.
"Eek..."
The breath tickling her nape grew stronger. The corners of Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes trembled.
The bundle in her arms squirmed, then burrowed deeper. The warmth pressed closer.
Hong Yeon-hwa glanced down at her embrace. There, with one cheek pressed against her chest, was Lee Ha-yul, eyes squeezed firmly shut.
'Ugh...'
Her eyes clamped shut as her heart gave a violent lurch.
The world commonly described Hong Yeon-hwa's temperament as hot-tempered and fiery. That wasn't entirely wrong.
She was the type to throw a punch before she'd try to talk someone down.
But what most people didn't know was that what others saw was already the result of her holding back.
The output of Hong Yeon-hwa's Calamity Flame was unprecedented in her family's history. And the emotional escalation that accompanied it was the most extreme yet.
Even as a child, she'd been far from calm, and after manifesting Calamity Flame early, the tendency only intensified.
That was why, from a young age, she'd been taught to prioritize the harmonization of Calamity Flame and her emotions above all else.
In other words, despite appearances, Hong Yeon-hwa possessed remarkable patience.
And that patience was being tested in real time.
She barely managed to suppress the rising impulse and patted Lee Ha-yul's back with the hand supporting him.
"I'm not going anywhere... It's okay..."
Where had his usual bashfulness gone, that he was burrowed into her arms and whimpering?
She had her suspicions. So she quietly offered her embrace and soothed him like this.
As she whispered that it was all right into his ear, the squirming gradually subsided. With the continued patting, his ragged breaths evened out.
The tightly wound Hong Yeon-hwa let out a sigh of relief and continued stroking his back.
As she did, a gaze bored into her. Hong Yeon-hwa lifted her head. Baek A-rin was wearing an exceedingly enigmatic expression.
"Yeon-hwa, you're so awkward when you act like this."
"What do you mean, awkward?"
"You're not the violent Yeon-hwa I know..."
Hong Yeon-hwa scowled at Baek A-rin's exaggerated reaction. She knew this kind of teasing was just Baek A-rin stalling before getting to the real point.
Baek A-rin's Changhae Family had long maintained a deep relationship with the Calamity Flame Family.
As the heir of the Changhae Family, Baek A-rin had often interacted with members of the Calamity Flame Family and been exposed to their unique ability.
So there was no way she wouldn't recognize the identity of the flames that had bloomed around Lee Ha-yul.
It would be hard to find a superhuman who didn't know of the unique ability called Calamity Flame to begin with.
Ellia had excused herself during that brief exchange. Judging by the presence she sensed above the ceiling, she'd read the mood and given them privacy.
Uncharacteristically hesitant, Baek A-rin darted her eyes around, then carefully spoke.
"Lee Ha-yul, was he... from the Calamity Flame Family?"
"I don't know."
"Huh?"
"I said I don't know."
Hong Yeon-hwa answered curtly. She easily ignored the look that said, 'How can you not know?'
But she couldn't help the tangled state of her heart.
The Calamity Flame Family had been a power for two hundred years.
The blood of Ancestor Hong Yeon continued, and with it, the unique ability Calamity Flame had been passed down.
Just as people's natures change with each generation, Calamity Flame had undergone many variations, but its fundamental core had never faltered.
Not everyone who shared the ancestor's blood manifested Calamity Flame.
Some couldn't awaken their mana, some couldn't manifest a unique ability, and others manifested ordinary fire attributes or an entirely different attribute type instead.
Even the rarely manifested Calamity Flame differed slightly from user to user.
Being a member of the Calamity Flame Family didn't guarantee you manifested it.
But everyone who manifested Calamity Flame was unmistakably a member of the family, and the especially 'potent' Calamity Flame had always belonged to the main lineage.
'......'
Hong Yeon-hwa looked conflicted as she stroked Lee Ha-yul's hair.
It felt unfamiliar against her palm for only a moment; seeing him nuzzle his head against her touch as if he liked it made her smile involuntarily.
"...Is this his first manifestation?"
"Seems like it."
Baek A-rin, who had been openly watching, asked, and Hong Yeon-hwa agreed.
"What are you going to do? Bring him into the family?"
"First, I need to find out if he was from the family to begin with."
Hong Yeon-hwa's expression hardened.
He had used Calamity Flame. Working under the premise that his bloodline had led to its manifestation, Lee Ha-yul was definitely a person of the Calamity Flame Family.
Then why had Lee Ha-yul been abandoned in an orphanage from infancy? How had the burn on his right hand come about, and who had done something so vile?
Nothing was certain yet, but she had to uncover those things first.
"Then would Lee Ha-yul become Hong Ha-yul?"
"What... That's... I should talk to Ha-yul about it first."
"Or are you planning to take him in as a son-in-law?"
"Wh-What? What the hell kind of...! Ahem! What nonsense are you suddenly spouting!"
Baek A-rin burst into giggles at the explosive reaction she'd anticipated. Hong Yeon-hwa ground her teeth, still careful to keep her posture steady so she wouldn't disturb Lee Ha-yul.
The awakening of mana and innate unique abilities was decided in early childhood.
When Calamity Flame first manifests, it discharges flames indiscriminately in all directions.
Fortunately, there are warning signs that allow preparation, but even so, it can still be dangerous.
Furthermore, while unable to control the Calamity Flame, extreme emotional escalation occurs simultaneously.
Lee Ha-yul's current state was precisely that. His mana was completely drained, so the Calamity Flame had ceased, but the emotional escalation persisted.
That was why... he'd jumped straight into Hong Yeon-hwa's embrace.
Emotional escalation, amplification, surge.
Call it whatever you liked. Regardless, regulating emotions became difficult in that moment.
But what remained consistent was that feelings that didn't exist before wouldn't suddenly be created.
You could hate someone you disliked all the more, but you couldn't come to like someone you hated.
Him burrowing into her arms like this... did that mean he'd always wanted to do so...?
The thought that suddenly crossed her mind made her face flush hotly.
The inside of the tunnel was reasonably bright thanks to the magic. She ducked her head low to hide her heating face—and buried her nose right into Lee Ha-yul's hair.
"...Snf snf?"
Gah.
Hong Yeon-hwa inhaled. A sensation beyond description shot through her spine. The subtle fragrance she'd been noticing from earlier slammed straight into her brain.
Lee Ha-yul's body scent filled her nasal cavity entirely. It was a peculiar scent she'd never encountered in her life... yet at the same time, paradoxically familiar.
If you mixed sweet grass with cloying honey, would it come close?
The fragrance wasn't overwhelmingly intense, but that understated body scent saturated her chest beyond her nose. Her body trembled at the blissful sensation.
'W-Whoa... what the... crazy shit!'
This was insane. Her reason, which had been melting away on a wave of impulse, snapped back.
Startled, Hong Yeon-hwa cursed herself. This crazy bitch, she'd been pulling an utterly absurd stunt.
She was about to jerk her head up but instead stole a furtive glance at Baek A-rin.
"......"
Baek A-rin didn't seem to be paying much attention. Eyes closed, she was idly tapping her fingers as if lost in thought.
She appeared to be mulling over the Calamity Flame Lee Ha-yul possessed.
Hong Yeon-hwa's own mind was a mess, but the current situation was far more stimulating than those tangled thoughts.
"...Ahem."
After a moment's silence, Hong Yeon-hwa stealthily lowered her head again. The bridge of her nose sank into the soft hair.
Sniff sniff...
Come to think of it, hadn't Ha-yul also given himself over to emotion and curled up in her arms? This was nothing more than emotional amplification. It didn't create feelings that weren't already there.
In other words, didn't that mean Ha-yul had secretly wanted to be held by her all along?
Then wouldn't this much be permissible for her, too?
Hong Yeon-hwa had completed her self-justification. Even if she'd focused on mental cultivation, she was still young and inexperienced.
'...What is she doing?'
Baek A-rin tilted her head, one eye cracked open.
She could clearly see the crown of Hong Yeon-hwa's head. When she strained her ears, she distinctly heard breathing that sounded outright perverted.
...No matter how much you try to muffle your breathing, sniffing someone so obviously...?
If you cut away the context, the sight was... no, even with context, it was an extraordinarily strange scene.
The image of a person clutching someone practically unconscious to her chest, burying her face in their hair, and sniffing away...
'Isn't that sexual harassment...?'
She briefly considered reining her in, then recalled the attitude Lee Ha-yul usually showed toward Hong Yeon-hwa.
...Given his oblivious personality, if she asked him to let her sniff him, he'd probably be horrified but would still agree.
Baek A-rin shook her head and rose to her feet. She intended to fetch Ellia, who was probably bored outside.
She strode briskly out of the tunnel.
- Ding!
Suddenly, the breath tickling his ear made Lee Ha-yul squirm.
* * *
- Ding!
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