The Girl Who Hid Herself

Time flew by.

The affair surrounding Tak Yoonil had mostly been laid to rest, and I had begun opening trade with Park Unhyeok's guild.

"Good ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠heavens, a potion this pure. This is top-grade at the very least. And you're already producing potions at this level...?"

"Not bad, right?"

"'Not bad' doesn't begin to cover it. At this level, it ranks among a handful of the finest in the world."

The alchemist Park Unhyeok had brought along marveled aloud.

"Honestly, at this rate the contract terms are far too favorable to us. Are you sure that's acceptable?"

"Then we'll raise them, won't we."

"But if we do, the Ministry of Economy and Finance will have something to say..."

"It's fine. I'll just put my name on the line."

And so I received my payment.

"The fact that Tak Yoonil was a demon was news to us as well. But what's done is done. I know it won't sit well with you, so our guild shall offer you compensation by way of apology, Mr. Lee Seoha."

Compensation was duly paid out by Cheonryu Guild.

"To be honest, finding a reward that would actually suit you proved a tricky business. We were told to disregard the budget ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠entirely, but a 'gift' must satisfy its recipient. A present the receiver doesn't want does nothing but leave a sour taste, after all."

The guild member, having delivered this long preamble, handed me a pair of rings.

"They are two separate 'artifacts,' but they are the Rings of the Sun and Moon — relics that reveal their true power only when the two are united."

I appraised them with Talent Insight.

"..."

I had received a pair of rings.

They were better than I'd expected, which genuinely surprised me. Being rings, I could wear them at any moment, too.

'These are actually pretty good.'

It seemed Kim Seohyun had told them all sorts of things about me. Every last item was something I needed.

Items carrying the moon's power usually served to refill mana, but this one replenished spirit instead.

"I'll gladly accept the gesture. I don't imagine I'll be holding any grudges against Cheonryu Guild from here on out."

"I'm truly relieved to hear that."

The conversation that followed was all warmth and good cheer.

Once I'd finished talking with the Cheonryu Guild members, I headed for the Red Tower.

"It's been a while."

Hong Yuhwa's grandfather greeted me warmly.

"Come to think of it, I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hear you've been receiving quite a lot from every direction. So I decided to look after my own pride as well, and prepared rather a lot," the Red Tower Lord said with a grin.

"If it were up to me, I'd be offering you my granddaughter... but matters between a man and a woman are hardly mine to meddle in."

With that, the Red Tower Lord handed me a single sheet of paper.

"You really have been showered with gifts from all quarters, haven't you? Ah, don't misunderstand — I haven't been prying into your affairs. Word simply drifts in from here and there. So we resolved to offer something else in place of all that."

The paper was a form, and what it asked was what kind of artifact I desired.

'A custom order, huh.'

I crossed my arms and sank into thought.

"If there's something you want, any attribute will do. I need only call on the other magic towers for cooperation."

That widened my options enormously.

"And there's no need to settle on it this very instant, either."

"I'm fine. I believe I can decide right now."

I activated Talent Insight to examine the customization possibilities and performance of the artifacts I had in mind.

Then a brief simulation. I selected the most worthwhile item and wrote it down.

"Oh ho. Quite the interesting artifact. I shall prepare it personally, so don't you worry."

With the Red Tower Lord's firm assurance in hand, I headed back to the office.

'...Is this really the right way to live?'

It struck me suddenly that I was living far too diligently. A life of far denser stuff than my previous one.

I was a student, for heaven's sake. It was vacation, and I was commuting to a company.

Go to work, learn this and that, cram it all into my head — then push my body half to death.

'What an alarmingly wholesome life I lead.'

Mocking myself inwardly, I stepped into the training hall. Not the one everyone used, but the one reserved for Kim Seohyun alone.

Call it a perk, I suppose.

The training hall Kim Seohyun used was fitted with equipment far superior to the others, so I'd been recommended to it.

When I arrived, Kim Seohyun was already there.

"Hi!"

"...Hey."

I faltered for a moment.

Because of Kim Seohyun's outfit.

Gray leggings clinging to every line of her legs, sneakers, a black tank top — and Kim Seohyun's figure was so good that there was nowhere safe to rest my eyes.

'...Is it just that this body's young?'

My body reacted. A little blood rushed to my head.

With my Talent, Tranquil Mind, I quickly steadied my heart.

'So she's given up on crossdressing in front of me?'

Once my heart had settled, I could look at her objectively.

These weren't the shorts or short sleeves Kim Seohyun wore at school.

Her body had grown a touch more delicate, her face even lovelier. And for some reason I couldn't begin to guess, her chest had gotten bigger.

Roughly a C-cup... no, maybe a D?

If the Kim Seohyun at school had been an androgynous beauty, the Kim Seohyun before me now had become a beautiful woman whose cropped hair suited her perfectly, to anyone's eyes.

"What's wrong? D-Do I look b-bad or something?"

"No. You're pretty."

The problem was that she was pretty enough to make me lose my grip for a moment there.

Sighing inwardly, I started my warm-up, and after that we threw ourselves into the workout.

"Ah, Seoha, could you help me with this?"

"Sure."

When Kim Seohyun called me over, I went to help her.

It was a bench press of sorts — a machine that clamped pressure across the whole body and weighted it with intensified gravity.

"It works wonders, but it's a real hassle to use alone. Lend me a hand, would you?"

"...Okay."

I fiddled with the machinery, adjusting this and that for her.

Every time, the scent of the perfume Kim Seohyun had dabbed on brushed the tip of my nose.

Naturally, I found myself conscious of her. I settled my heart with Tranquil Mind, helped her through it with composure, and returned to my own routine.

— ...Our Master is quite different from the previous one.

— The previous Heavenly Demon used to hit on any woman he so much as glanced at...

— Ahem.

Heukcheon cleared her throat pointedly.

I gave Heukcheon a brief look, then fixed my attention on the workout.

"Hngh."

Definitely not suddenly zeroing in on Kim Seohyun mid-squat.

Definitely not ignoring the Kim Seohyun beside me, darting glances my way and swallowing hard.

'...Endure.'

Working out like that, it was my mind that ended up exhausted instead.

Just before my spirit, rather than my body, gave out entirely, a notification window chimed out of nowhere.

"...Oh."

My head abruptly cleared, and I felt my mental strength climb.

The Spirit stat was a power folded into the conceptual stat, Defying Heaven.

In other words, the power of Defying Heaven had grown a little stronger.

'...Incredible.'

Conceptual stats were among the hardest powers to raise, thanks to their very nature.

And yet here was one I could raise by running ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my body into the ground.

I refocused and threw myself back into the workout.

Memories of earliest childhood don't come easily. What surfaced faintly was a world of green — sealed inside something like a coffin, doing nothing but breathe. Injected with the memories known as the Thousand-Year Martial Lineage, and trained in the martial arts by beings called masters.

That was how Kim Seohyun spent her childhood.

Once she had grown a little older, around the age of ten, the incident occurred. The place where she was kept suffered a terror attack of some kind. And it was there that she met her master — the one who would one day transcend the world and be called the Wizard of a Thousand.

"Hah. The 'Thousand-Year Murim,' was it? So far fallen that you'd entrust everything to a mere child like this?"

"Who are you?"

"Tsk, tsk, little one. I am humanity's greatest mage. Won't you take your revenge on the ones who locked you away in this place?"

"Revenge?"

"Yes — this is revenge. The one who inherits everything they ever built will master magic and become a transcendent. That is the revenge."

"...Do I get three meals a day?"

"...Of course."

And so the Wizard of a Thousand became her master.

Growing up like that, the girl hid herself. Call it a kind of trauma.

She tempered her martial arts while deceiving even herself. Deceiving everyone else's eyes with magic was the easy part.

She was the Wizard of a Thousand's disciple, after all.

Crushing everyone around her beneath an overwhelming talent, she had before long become the most promising hero candidate in all of Korea.

'How tedious.'

Honestly, it was tedious. In all of Korea, there was no one who could stir her.

And so she enrolled at Korea Hero Academy.

And there, the girl met a boy who blew her common sense to smithereens.

"Hello."

He was fascinating.

Curiosity became fascination.

The fascination kept growing.

"If it's you, you can do it."

Along with that tone of his — the way he spoke as though he knew everything about her.

It grew the most when he struck down the Sword Fiend.

When he devoured everything whole with a whirlpool like a bottomless abyss.

Interest became admiration.

And at some point, it swelled into a longing to stand at his side.

And honestly? His face was exactly her type. Sometimes, when he flashed that grin of his, she would catch herself staring blankly before she knew it.

'...Which is why I prepared all this.'

Kim Seohyun sighed quietly.

Truthfully, her current outfit was a little embarrassing. What kind of pants clung this tightly, anyway? She had no idea.

This went beyond merely showing off one's figure to another person, didn't it?

Of course, it seemed to have gotten through to Lee Seoha.

Very faintly — he had shown a flicker of interest.

But that was where it ended. The little confidence that had swelled up came tumbling right back down the moment he responded with all the impassivity he could muster.

'I can't believe I took her word for it.'

She had actually believed the line about how, if you just trusted yourself, you could seduce any man and walk him all the way to a h-h-hotel.

And yet.

It didn't feel bad. At the very least, she had learned that Lee Seoha was not a man who handed his heart to just anyone.

Watching Lee Seoha smile that contented smile at her, Kim Seohyun found herself wearing a foolish little grin before she knew it.