An Absurd Reason
Suwon Station.
That was where I had agreed to meet Kim Seohyun. I was on my way there now, Heukcheon tucked snugly into my guitar case.
-You look rather presentable this time.
'…I was thinking the same thing.'
Black jeans and a crisp black shirt, picked out with the help of a shop clerk since I'd had no clothes to my name. She'd complained that the color scheme was a bit dull, but if I was heading into a dungeon, black was simply the right choice.
'Blood gets splashed around, after all.'
The moment I stepped off the train, gazes snagged on me from every direction.
"Wow, what is with that face?"
"Is he a celebrity? No, seriously, those features and proportions were made for the screen…"
"He's probably small, right? A guy that handsome has to be lacking somewhere."
I made my way toward the meeting spot. A crowd had gathered near it — all because of Kim Seohyun.
At school, my presence overshadowed hers, but outside, Kim Seohyun was enormously famous. Her background alone made her a household name, and on top of that, she was gorgeous enough to eat most actors alive. She had never even made a public appearance, yet her official fanclub counted over a hundred thousand members.
"Ah, I'm sorry. My party just showed up, so I have to go."
"No worries! You're super handsome, oppa!"
After the small impromptu fan meeting wrapped up, Kim Seohyun and I headed for the restaurant district.
"So, what do you want to eat?"
"Hmm, let's just grab something light. A heavy meal before a dungeon run is a pain."
I agreed with her reasoning. We ate a casual lunch at a nearby Western-style restaurant, then set off for the dungeon.
"That rose pasta was pretty good, by the way."
"Really? I found it too greasy, honestly."
"…Is it just because I like Western food?"
Kim Seohyun laughed awkwardly. Then we made our way to Gwanggyosan together.
The mountain had grown far larger and far lusher than it had been in my past life — thanks in part to the rich infusion of mana, and in part to the spiritual dragon vein flowing beneath Korea itself.
"Stay sharp. There are a lot of beast-type monsters here, and one bite will turn into a real hassle."
"Got it. Want me to cast concealment magic on you?"
"…I'm good."
I walked in utter silence using the Soundless Swift Steps I'd learned from Heukcheon as payment for maintaining her blade. The Heaven-Reversing Physique was a blessing in most situations, but this was not one of them. It couldn't receive healing, and buffs were worthless on it unless they came from a Miracle.
It wasn't that buffs failed to apply at all. It was that their efficiency was truly abysmal. The mana it took to buff me alone could cover ten average students instead. And even then, the buff never fully took — the qi of the Reversing Heaven would scatter it almost immediately, leaving a duration of barely a few seconds.
Just in case, I doused myself in a repellant potion designed to drive off beast-type monsters. It gave off a strange smell.
"…You sure you're okay?"
"Yeah. Let's go."
We started up the mountain.
"Feels like there are way more people than usual."
"Tell me about it."
Kim Seohyun and I climbed with puzzled expressions — until a man stepped into our path on the trail.
"Halt. The mountain is closed to hikers today."
"We're students at Korea Hero Academy. Would you mind telling us what's going on?"
"Ah, Korea Hero Academy, is it? An upper-grade demon escaped custody, and we're conducting a search."
"…An upper-grade demon?"
"That's right. So unless it's a matter of life and death, I wouldn't recommend going up."
The man didn't forcibly turn us away, though — because most of those who'd made it into Korea Hero Academy were either scions of famous houses or monsters who'd surpassed their lineage through sheer talent. On top of that, they all held provisional hero credentials. In truth, the overwhelming majority of them could pull their own weight at just about any organization you dropped them into.
"We're not planning to go too deep. Is it still dangerous?"
"Not as such. We received reports that the demon has been cornered near the mountain's edge."
I drew Kim Seohyun back behind me and spoke with her quietly.
"What do you want to do?"
"…Let's go in."
It couldn't be helped. If we skipped the dungeon today, we'd have to push it to next Sunday, and that would eat up far too much time. Above all, heroes swarmed this area — and even against an upper-grade demon, the two of us could hold our own well enough.
"Fair enough. Shall we, then?"
"Yeah."
From there, we climbed for close to twenty minutes. Whenever we unavoidably crossed paths with a beast-type monster, we took it down.
Shhk—
Kim Seohyun scattered the beast's blood with practiced ease. I gave the sword she'd used — Gram, still wearing its rusty, worn-out shell — a puzzled look.
"I think I got scammed. This feels like a seriously good sword."
"It is a seriously good sword."
"…Right?"
Kim Seohyun slumped in defeat. At the weapon selection, she'd chosen the old blade deliberately, for the sake of her own training. Honestly, it was late in coming anyway — Gram was durable enough that it almost never broke.
"It's a sword that leans hard into durability. It'll suit you better than anything."
"You think?"
Kim Seohyun tilted her head, then nodded after a moment. "Come to think of it, Seoha, you only started learning martial arts this year, right?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"No reason. It's just — your stance is already taking shape."
She studied me with an expression of genuine fascination. "Every time you grip your sword or move, it shows. At the start, you looked like someone who'd only just picked one up. Now you read like a matured swordsman."
It was the natural result of her seeker-of-the-martial-path temperament.
'She's not going to start begging me to spar with her every day from now on, is she?'
Playing as a different character, Kim Seohyun would always come pestering you for sparring sessions once you passed a certain threshold of mastery.
"I'm starting to want a real, proper clash with you one of these days."
"…Later."
Needless to say, I had no desire to fight Kim Seohyun. That one was a monster. Even if I threw everything I had into it, I'd have maybe a coin-flip's chance of winning. Kim Ara was a monster too.
Another thirty minutes of climbing brought us to our destination — a spot a little below the mountain's midpoint.
'Even a demon shouldn't come wandering up here.'
I walked toward a tree that grew conspicuously larger than all the rest.
"This is the place?"
"Yep."
I closed my eyes and flicked the switch in my mental image. Click.
The Divine Star Eye came online, and the structure of mana unfolded before my sight. I lifted Heukcheon and swung at the weakest point in the formation, a faint thread of Reversing Heaven qi coiled around the blade.
Shhk—
Pasheut.
The scenery changed in an instant. The path within had opened — a passage beneath the tree's stump, wide enough for a single person.
"What a fascinating structure."
"Let's head in."
I led Kim Seohyun inside. We descended through what felt like a natural cave. The dark would have blinded anyone else, but with the Divine Star Eye, I could see just fine. Kim Seohyun had trained in dark-vision techniques too, so she seemed to manage.
After ten minutes of walking, a monster finally appeared.
-Kyek?
A colossal plant stood before us, over two meters tall, walking about on its roots. Where the flower sat, the maw split open in halves bristling with teeth.
A maneater — Sarracenia.
"Man-eating plants, huh?"
Kim Seohyun smiled with confidence and raised her sword. A small dragon of flame materialized along the blade's edge.
Nine Heavens Nine Dragons Divine Art.
The fire roared to life and hurled itself at the plants. The flame dragon swallowed the Sarracenias whole.
And that was that. The monsters crumbled to ash, leaving nothing behind but mana stones.
I watched Kim Seohyun with a fond smile. This dungeon was supposed to be notoriously tricky — plant-type monsters were supple-bodied things that struck from angles you'd never see coming. They were terribly weak to fire, though, and annoyingly resistant to everything else.
I wrapped the flame dragon around myself and simply watched her lead the charge, cleaving through the plant-monster horde. And whenever I moved to step in—
"Save your strength. My mana capacity is bigger than you'd think, so this hardly tires me out."
—she'd say things like that. How could a line like that not look charming?
We pressed steadily onward, cutting down plant monsters as we went. Another brisk ten minutes, and I stopped Kim Seohyun short.
"Hold on."
A wall that looked like nothing at all. Through the Divine Star Eye, I could see a faint warping in it.
"Why the wall…?"
"This is a shortcut."
No sense trading blows with plant-type monsters when we didn't have to.
Crash!
I channeled Reversing Heaven into my leg and kicked. The wall shattered, and a passage opened beyond it.
"Whoa…"
"Let's go."
We slipped through, and in the blink of an eye we emerged into the boss arena — an open clearing about the size of a school athletic field. At its center stood an enormous man-eating monster, its flower lined with teeth.
"I'll take this one."
I touched Kim Seohyun's shoulder to stop her.
Squish.
A certain softness registered under my palm. How to describe it — firm muscle beneath yielding skin? That peculiar texture unique to women who trained their bodies.
I fought desperately to keep my face perfectly composed.
"Just support me from the back."
"…Just support?"
Kim Seohyun answered a beat too late. I nodded and drew Heukcheon from her resting place in the guitar case.
Kiiiiiing!
Heukcheon trembled and shuddered. A razor-sharp killing intent washed over me — the power sealed within the Heukcheon Demonic Sword, drawing on the Paehon to transmute itself into pure killing aura.
-We agreed this would be reserved for strong opponents only.
'If I use it now, in a situation like this, I'll finally learn how to use it properly.'
Heukcheon had originally told me I wasn't to wield this power. Strengthening this killing aura, she said, served me better right now than tempering my true martial strength — she worried I would slack off on my training if I had it.
This was, properly speaking, a power I shouldn't be learning yet.
But the reason I was allowed to use it was simple.
'Because we reached an agreement: in exchange for cleaning her blade — wiping it down with oil-soaked cloth.'
It was, truly, an absurd reason.