Hospital Vi?sit (1)
Hospital Vi?sit (1)
After the chaos of the Great Cataclysm subsided, the world entered a modern era of peace.
In the decades-long, fiercely competitive global survey of career aspirations among young people, two jobs have never once fallen out of the top two spots.
Hero or Hunter.
Those two professions occupied an unshakeable throne as idols.
There were many reasons for this.
For one, it's a career you can only even attempt if you're blessed by the 'Awakening' phenomenon, a stroke of luck that only a fraction of the population experiences.
There's also the fact that the average income is astronomical.
And the public perception of the Hero and Hunter professions was immensely positive.
Heroes are the swords who slay the catastrophe called monsters, the shields who protect humanity.
Hunters are explorers who utilize their abilities to the fullest, traversing unconquered lands and unearthing all manner of treasure.
Gather five little kids together, and you'll hear plenty of chatter about real-life heroic tales.
That was the fruit of the Association's tireless image-making for the Hero and Hunter careers.
Those who know the reality understand it's just people, all the same, the product of a PR campaign, but still, deep down, everyone harbors something akin to admiration.
Regardless of rank, the looks you get when you become a Hero or a Hunter proved it.
After all, while it was image-making, they weren't fabricating lies.
Countless individuals have truly fought and died against monsters for the sake of humanity.
Some achieved great deeds and had their names etched into history, and even though they might not have been given that honor, there were certainly great people who sacrificed themselves for humankind.
Siyoram is an institution of unparalleled prestige among the training organizations that produce such Heroes.
To be compared to an institution run by one of the Five Towers is embarrassing in itself.
Naturally, any news from Siyoram is something everyone, not just industry insiders, tunes in for.
[Author: Anonymous]
[Title: Special Admission <--- What is this?]
[Wasn't this just some ancient, decorative policy? Why did it actually happen?]
News of a cadet holding the title 'unprecedented' in Siyoram's over-a-century-long history was a massive hot topic.
[Comments]
- The whole industry is in an uproar over this, yeah
- So it's not just a rumor, it's for real? I just dismissed it as obvious bullshit
└It's stamped on the enrollment status: Special Admission Cadet. Info will probably be released soon?
└Wow, fuck, it's real, I'm so damn jealous
└Looking at the state of the community, I wouldn't be jealous...
[Author: Anonymous]
[Title: I looked up Siyoram's school regulations]
[From the regulations on admission procedures
②General Admission candidates shall be selected through an examination designated by the Siyoram Central Administration.
⑦Recommended Admission candidates shall be selected through evaluation by the Siyoram faculty. This is conducted to measure a cadet's qualities under the faculty's professional judgment.
㉑Full authority for the selection and management of Special Admission candidates rests with the Headmaster.
This was literally in the charter the year Siyoram was founded.]
[Comments]
- So that's over 100 years ago? That's my grandpa's era school rules lmaooo
- A century-long build-up, that's insane
...
A topic that rocked the world.
In other words, it was absolutely perfect fodder to be picked apart and chewed over, so it was only natural that the internet was ablaze.
[Siyoram's Special Admission Cadet, appearing 100 years after its founding. Their true identity: a blind person who cannot see?]
[Comments]
- Do heroes these days fight with their eyes closed?
└I heard they're an observation-type superhuman? Can't they just substitute their sight with that?
└Observation abilities aren't that precise or convenient.
On top of that, the Special Admission Cadet's characteristics made them an even bigger topic.
Blind, unable to see. Mute, unable to speak.
These were fatal flaws for a Hero whose job mainly consists of combat, and an ill-fitting tag to attach to the unprecedented status of a Special Admission Cadet.
Thus, public opinion on the Special Admission Cadet, Lee Ha-yul, both online and offline, was...
- Why is he so fucking handsome?
- Seriously, why is a guy prettier than me?
- Ah, such is the state of a life gacha rolled badly.
...surprisingly not bad.
There was the favorability coming from his strikingly handsome looks and unique atmosphere.
Sympathy and pity arising from his unfortunate family background.
And a general consensus that the Tower Master of Growth wouldn't have selected him without a good reason...
Of course, there were people who thought nothing of him and were mired in envy and jealousy, but those who openly spewed such thoughts were a tiny minority.
The modern internet wasn't the same network as before the Great Cataclysm.
The undersea cables that once connected the world were long since obliterated by sea-dwelling monsters.
Satellites launched into space couldn't function properly due to mana wave disturbances.
The current internet, the virtual network, is a function stemming from the Authority of the Tower of Harmonization.
If you recklessly spewed outright depravity, you could end up with a summons from the Association, so the online space had become relatively pleasant.
So time passed.
Industry insiders nodded along as they heard reports of the Special Admission Cadet's growth from Siyoram, acknowledging there was a reason the Tower Master of Growth had chosen him.
The general public, who didn't have access to that information, simply lived out their peaceful daily lives, thinking they'd find out eventually.
[Local time, 12:15 PM. A chain dungeon outbreak has occurred centered around the Sipnaha region of Scotland.]
It was a few days ago that this terrible news struck their peaceful daily lives.
Even in an era that prided itself as an age of peace, the catastrophic news that struck during an already tranquil period sent deep reverberations throughout the world.
At the same time.
The deeply moving actions of a young Hero, who spared no effort to protect countless people amidst the catastrophe, also spread far and wide.
"...Grrrk."
"Young miss?!"
Hong Yeon-hwa's spirit, overwhelmed by emotion, was not just slashed to ribbons but brutally torn to shreds.
This happened before she could even fully recover from the previous times her spirit had crumbled.
It was spring.
.
.
.
Hong Yeon-hwa had been laid up for days, caught off guard by the Trial of Calamity Flame, something she hadn't even considered an obstacle.
The guilt she held toward Lee Ha-yul was far heavier than she realized. She couldn't move forward properly because of it.
If it had continued like that, it could have been dangerous. She might have had to call in the family elders for help, and even then, some kind of aftereffect might have lingered.
But she overcame it.
It was thanks to someone other than her family elders—outside help.
- [I made it.]
- [Compared to stuff you can buy, it's probably pretty shabby, but I'd be really happy if you'd accept it anyway.]
- [It's not your fault, Hong Yeon-hwa. So please, it's okay.]
- [Please don't hurt anymore.]
It was because the very person the guilt was directed toward came to her personally, comforted her, said it was okay, and pressed a gift made with genuine care into her hands.
The red handmade scarf was currently enshrined peacefully in her dormitory safe.
She could've worn it immediately if she wanted to. But she was too afraid of damaging it, so she couldn't. While carefully handling it with trembling hands, she realized the scarf itself was a Magic Tool with durability-enhancing and temperature-regulating spells embedded in it.
The emotions she felt then were immeasurable.
Buoyed by Lee Ha-yul's warm sincerity, Hong Yeon-hwa was able to overcome the trial.
That was a few days ago.
- "Young miss..."
- "What? Eri... what's with that face?"
- "It's just... the young master, he..."
- "...What is it? What happened to make you look like that?"
The day she rose proudly after overcoming the trial.
The day she heard the news that Lee Ha-yul had been caught in a dungeon outbreak and was isolated.
The day she was hit with the news that Lee Ha-yul was critically injured, unconscious, and transported to the Intensive Healing Center—that day was all the same date.
She'd truly lost her mind at the time.
If Eriel hadn't blocked her, she would've grabbed her gear and headed straight to Scotland.
Even though it would've already been too late by the time the news broke.
After spending several days in a hellish state like that, Hong Yeon-hwa crossed over to the United States via a Warp Gate.
The United States... specifically, the Washington D.C. area had been swept up by monsters once, but it still plays a crucial role in the world.
Part of it is leftover past glory, but the bigger reason is that the Tower of Space and the Association's headquarters are located here.
Lee Ha-yul was in the Intensive Healing Room at the Association headquarters. It was the world's finest healing facility, with dozens of high-grade Healers on standby at all times, and for urgent patients, top-grade Healers personally administered treatment.
That was also why the frantic Hong Yeon-hwa had managed to calm herself, at least somewhat.
Hong Yeon-hwa walked in silence. An unapproachable air settled around her.
People who occasionally passed by flinched in surprise and steered clear when they saw her complexion, but Hong Yeon-hwa paid them no mind at all.
To be precise, she had no energy to spare for them. Her entire mind was focused on Lee Ha-yul's condition.
"Don't worry too much... I mean, you should be worried, but still, don't be too downhearted."
Even so, her friend's voice barely managed to reach her brain.
When she turned her stiff neck, she saw Baek A-rin, who had come along for the hospital visit.
Baek A-rin waved the envelope she'd brought as a get-well gift and said,
"A top-grade Healer is assigned to him exclusively, and once he's recovered enough, they'll combine healing with medication, so his arm should regenerate."
Common sense had changed since the Great Cataclysm.
Losing a limb was still a serious wound, true, but in this world, it wasn't something impossible to recover from.
Hong Yeon-hwa knew that too, so she nodded.
Her family had plenty of resources. Money was a given, and they also had an overflowing abundance of medicines that were hard to come by even with money.
'What was the regeneration elixir again... well, I can just swipe everything.'
Calmly thinking a thought that would make her mother, Choi Ji-yeon, faint dead away, Hong Yeon-hwa came to a stop.
She saw a door. On the nameplate attached to it was written: Lee Ha-yul.
Her throat tightened involuntarily. She'd been briefed on his condition, but she was afraid to see it with her own eyes.
If the sight was more severe than she'd imagined...
- Clench...
She clenched her fist. She forcibly cut off the thought she didn't want to entertain.
Either way, she couldn't turn back now.
And if the injuries were worse than she thought, she'd just swipe more medicine from her family's Secret Storage.
It was all stuff she'd have authority over eventually anyway, so no one would say much if she used it a few years early.
With that resolution, she opened the door to the healing room.
And saw Lee Ha-yul clinging to Atra as if they were trying to press their belly buttons together.
"......."
Was it wrong that his arms wrapped tightly around her waist caught her eyes first, more than the flapping, empty left sleeve?
"Wha... aagh!"
Baek A-rin, who had followed Hong Yeon-hwa in, blinked at the sight before her, then suddenly shrieked in horror and leaped backwards.
She rubbed her forearm where the fine hairs were standing on end. She felt a terrible chill, a biting cold.
It was strange. A coldness that even Baek A-rin, who wielded the Azure Sea and specialized in ice, could feel?
Shockingly, this chill was emanating from Hong Yeon-hwa, the bearer of the Calamity Flame.
'Should I run?'
An escape route flashed through Baek A-rin's mind.