The Hero of the Highest Caliber
The hero of the highest caliber.
His name was Ah-ho. His surname, Lee.
In Western circles he was known simply as Lee Ah-ho, and now he stood watching Lee Seoha.
He looks like a freeloading brother-in-law.
While Han Seokwoo, hailed as the most perfect hero alive, or Yoon Hangyeol, the so-called Ice Prince, were fielding staggering recruitment offers from every direction whenever they so much as sneezed, Ah-ho's popularity had never extended beyond men. And that had led him to a certain conclusion.
Cheongyeon, the Transcendent said to possess the finest eyes in the world—eyes that could see anything—had once spoken of a friend of his. That friend might surpass even his own sight, he'd said, perceiving the very things Cheongyeon himself could not. A man who had abandoned magic entirely in devotion to the principle of 'Entertainment.' One of Cheongyeon's possible futures, he'd called him. Someone who had discarded everything to concentrate his talent solely on the eye.
Ah-ho looked around. People were gradually gathering on the training grounds. This had originally been his space, but Kim Seong-ho had come up grinning and asked for permission from him, Lee Seoha, and Kim Ara.
"We'd like to use this for a promotional video, if that's all right with you? Ah, and of course there'll be separate compensation for you, Seoha. If you've bought a building, you need to furnish it, no? I'll treat you to something nice."
Those had been the terms. Three hundred percent of his monthly salary as a bonus, plus a single accessory pulled from a dungeon. Ah-ho had agreed without hesitation.
Snapping out of the memory, he looked ahead—at the violet-haired woman and the black-haired man chatting away in the warmest of moods.
Annoying.
He stole a glance at the woman in violet.
Kim Ara. The younger sister his boss, Kim Seong-ho, doted on endlessly. And that very woman was gazing at that man with eyes practically dripping honey as they talked. The conversation was one-sided, too—Kim Ara asked, Lee Seoha answered. That was the entire pattern.
"So, last time......"
The first time he'd laid eyes on her, he'd nearly fallen for her on the spot. Which was exactly why he'd needlessly tried to show off—and promptly made a fool of himself. Ah-ho stared down at his hand. Even now, it felt as though the crushing pressure of that handshake still lingered in his palm, from the moment Lee Seoha had gripped it with that easy smile.
He turned his gaze back to Lee Seoha.
I can't figure him out.
Nothing about that boy made sense to him. Even against a fellow top-tier combatant, this close a distance should have told him something. But that presence refused to yield anything at all.
As if it denied everything it touched. And yet it burned, it devoured, it seemed to hold the very power of the origin within it.
Instinct told him that even if he unleashed every tool at his disposal, he would learn nothing about that being. It was probably just one more manifestation of the talent or mystery the boy possessed.
Ah-ho rubbed his wrist absently, lost in thought.
You made a mistake.
Lee Seoha never should have revealed his strength. He wouldn't be caught off guard again. With that hardened resolve, he would show that woman exactly how impressive he could be. So thinking, Ah-ho waited—while in his imagination, he married Kim Ara and fathered three children with her.
Then a familiar face appeared, and his expression froze.
"Uncle's here."
Kim Seong-ho said quietly.
The man called 'uncle' emerged, radiating presence. A middle-aged man with pomaded hair much like Kim Seong-ho's, a cigar clamped between his teeth, dressed in a gray suit with a coat draped over it.
What an overwhelming presence!
Truly fitting for a man rumored to have a place reserved among the top tiers a few years from now. True, he'd recently taken a serious beating in his clash with the parasite Kalia—but looked at another way, that meant he had survived Kalia.
Ah-ho regarded him with eyes full of admiration.
"Seong-ho, is that the boy?"
"Yes, the one Father has his eye on."
"Is he, now?"
Kim Ho-seop studied Lee Seoha with languid eyes—then something flickered in his expression.
......He knows how to hide himself.
At that age, boys wanted to flaunt what they had; even those who possessed a talent worth concealing tended to find ways to exploit it anyway. Lee Seoha was not one of them. He was actively suppressing himself. And yet—the body. Even swallowed by an oversized hoodie, that physique refused to disappear. It had been tempered to such an extreme that it simply could not be hidden.
But that alone wouldn't be enough to draw the attention of his older brother, the man they called the Overlord. There had to be something more.
"Then let us begin the spar. Everyone—fight without regrets."
Kim Ho-seop stepped between Lee Seoha and Lee Ah-ho. Ah-ho focused. His opponent was strong. But he had lingered in the highest tier for a long, long time.
If his specialty is the single strike, then I'll answer in kind.
He had confidence in short engagements too. The Ultra Overlord Fist, learned after joining the guild under the Overlord—he would end this in one blow.
"Begin."
The instant the word left Kim Ho-seop's lips—
Lee Ah-ho lost sight of Lee Seoha entirely.
What......?
His mind went blank for a moment. He couldn't claim to have eyes on par with anyone's, but he had trained his martial perception through the senses. And his own senses had just lost him? That meant the boy was at the very least above—
He felt a hand settle on top of his head. Reflexively, Ah-ho threw a punch while kicking out with his leg at the same time.
But Lee Seoha brushed the arm aside with one hand and caught his leg.
As he lightly deflected the attack, black flame flowed down along Lee Seoha's fingers.
Ah-ho reflexively sheathed himself in Ki Armor.
A technique he rarely used, so punishing was its drain on his internal energy. Will alone shaped his qi into a suit of armor—but the black flame denied it, and burned straight through.
"Shi— heck!"
Swearing through gritted teeth—
Ah-ho's head struck the ground.
KRA-KOOOOOM!
The impact webbed the floor, cracking it apart around his skull.
Lee Seoha dusted off his hands.
The gesture was as casual as brushing away lint. He looked at Kim Ho-seop.
"I won, right?"
"Th-that you did."
Kim Ho-seop could only manage the words with a dazed expression.
Well, that was anticlimactic.
Far weaker than I'd expected. And this was a fellow top-tier combatant—yet the gap in level was this severe?
No, to be precise, he's not even truly the same tier as me.
The Transcendents, Heukcheon, and Yeongcheon had all said the same thing: I had yet to form my Mental World, and so had not fully ascended to the top tier. My Mental World was so vast, so unfathomably vast, that completing it would take a great deal of time—and in exchange, the destructive power it would unleash upon completion would be beyond imagination.
Put the other way, you could say I'm only halfway onto the top tier right now.
Had I not built the Black Flame Radiant Star God, I might have genuinely struggled. But Heukshin had granted me a staggering boost in raw power. And the special stat Struggle was much the same.
It's even better than I thought.
I opened my hand, then closed it again.
Struggle was a stat that grew so long as an opponent existed—and so long as I recognized our conflict as a struggle. It couldn't raise conceptual stats, but still. That was already plenty.
Frankly, if it did, it'd be flat-out broken.
"It's over already?"
"What? It just started!"
"One exchange? No way. Even if he was caught off guard......"
The crowd murmured in disbelief.
"Now, now. It seems we have our winner, so you may both rise. Lee Ah-ho was far too careless—and Lee Seoha pounced on that carelessness without mercy."
Kim Ho-seop clapped his hands, dispelling the tension in the air.
"By the way, Uncle—did Mother not come with you?"
"......Let's talk about that later."
At Kim Ara's question, Kim Ho-seop's face stiffened. I tilted my head for a moment. I couldn't think of any incident that should have cropped up involving her mother just now.
"You said Lee Seoha, was it?"
"Yes."
Kim Ho-seop's eyes swept over me once.
"Impressive. No—no, you're a deeply strange existence, aren't you?"
He wore an peculiar expression, like a man confronted with something he could not comprehend.
"Is that a compliment?"
"......Hm. My apologies. I misspoke. If it's a compliment, then it's a compliment. I've been called a genius myself more times than I can count, and I've seen every variety of genius there is, but—"
Kim Ho-seop looked at me.
"I think I understand why my brother has taken such an interest in you. You are uncanny. Incomprehensible. And those are words I've heard often enough myself."
To ordinary people, a genius is indistinguishable from a madman. They simply cannot understand them.
Was that what he was trying to say?
"If you're interested, why not come to China?"
"China?"
That came completely out of left field.
"Yes. I believe I've seen martial arts much like yours in China."
"A power similar to mine?"
"Black flame. I have seen a black-colored fire."
At Kim Ho-seop's words, Heukcheon and Yeongcheon reacted visibly.
—Black flame, you say?
—If it's a wielder of black flame, there is only one being it could be.
—Go, my lord. That man's power must be absorbed, without question.
Why are you so eager about this?
—His power is a nuisance. Because he wields 'a flame that burns concepts themselves.'
—And he constructs his body with Reversed Heaven energy, which makes him terribly irritating to deal with! It kept him from ever growing his power to its true scale, but if he ever obtains the legacy of another Heavenly Demon and gains Reversed Heaven qi, he becomes the most troublesome opponent imaginable!
Yeongcheon explained with unusual force.
"You look curious. Should you require information on that being, I will provide it."
"Is this a deal?"
"Hm, no. Consider it my goodwill. I have no wish to stand against you."
Kim Ho-seop extended his hand with a good-natured smile.
"And I confess I'd like to lend a small hand to my niece's business as well."
He said it with a sidelong glance toward Kim Ara.
China, huh.
I let my thoughts drift over the country for a moment. China was vast. And it was also the land connected to the Murim Dimension. The legacies of the Heavenly Demons had to be lying in wait there, buried in abundance.
I know of roughly three sites off the top of my head.
I had been thinking it was about time to pay them a visit, honestly. The gatekeepers guarding those places had been ferociously strong—they'd left quite the impression.
Normally the academy schedule would get in the way, but.
Korea Hero Academy was currently on recess. No problem at all.
"Yes, I'd like that."
"Then contact me through Ara whenever you wish. I'll see to it you receive the very finest service."
"Thank you for your goodwill. Then, may I take my leave?"
"Ah, my—have I gone and detained a man with urgent business?"
"Yes. I need to recruit guild members."
"A guild, is it. Now, when it comes to guilds, I know a thing or two myself. Just say the word if you need anything. We may not rank among the Big Three, but our guild wields considerable influence in its own right."
"I'll let you know if anything comes up."
With that, I parted ways with Kim Ho-seop.
I dialed Seo Gayeon.
—A time that sparkles without reserve~
—Hello?
"Yeah, it's your darling."
—Pfft. So does that mean we're dating now?
My signature joke had apparently landed, because Seo Gayeon laughed as she said it.
From beside me, Heukcheon, who had been watching me the whole time, spoke up.
—My lord, does that sort of thing actually work on the youth these days? Stop spouting sweet nonsense and get to the matter at hand.
—Once in a while. A very rare once in a while, Seoha does land a joke I can't help but tolerate with......but today's is a bit of a stretch.
Sulking at the combined heckling of Heukcheon and Yeongcheon, I spoke to Seo Gayeon.
"Are you free today, by any chance?"
—If it's you asking, Seoha, I'd make time that doesn't exist.
"Good to hear. Then I'll come over to your place."
—......Right now?
"Yep. See you soon."
I hung up the call, gathered Kim Ara, and headed for Seo Gayeon's home.