Approaching Naturally
When I pulled back out of Im Hana’s dream, the crack that had split the world vanished as if it had never been there in the first place.
Lying on her stomach and idly rolling around, she rested her chin on her hands and asked, "Looks like you did a good job."
"Haha..."
It was a little embarrassing to look her in the eye after I’d just spent who-knew-how-long tangled up with another woman, so I couldn’t quite meet her gaze properly.
She gave me a sidelong look at that and went on, "How was it?"
"Uh... how was it, you ask..."
"No. I’m asking whether the connection was properly established. Honestly, men."
"..."
I had done exactly as she’d told me, but to be honest, I still wasn’t sure whether I’d done it right.
When I tilted my head with a puzzled expression, she let out a quiet sigh and took my hand in hers.
"Hmm. You did well. For your first time, that was rather excellent."
"Really? It doesn’t feel like much of anything."
"The sensation is weak because her power is still meager. Once her level rises, you’ll feel it clearly enough."
"Well, that’s a relief."
After a little more aimless lounging beside her, I woke up from the dream.
As always, I headed off to the center for work, and at the entrance a familiar face caught my eye.
By yesterday, she’d only been someone I’d met once, but after one night she had become a familiar face. Im Hana.
She was making her way into the center with a faintly flushed face, hovering awkwardly as though unsure of herself. When she spotted me, she hesitated and gave me a tiny nod in greeting.
I nodded back and walked over slowly, speaking to her as I approached. "You came early."
"Huh? Oh, I... didn’t sleep very well."
Ah. So she’d had a rough night. Well, the dream probably had been a bit shocking.
It was the first time I’d ever tried to guess what someone was really thinking like this, but strangely enough, it was fun. Maybe because I knew a secret no one else did.
"I meant to say this yesterday, but I think I should apologize first."
"For what...?"
"About what happened at the Gate. I think I said some pretty harsh things without meaning to. I’m sorry."
Im Hana’s eyes went round when she heard me, and then she gave a wry smile and shook her head.
"It’s okay. I’ve always been like this, so... I’m sure I’ve made a lot of people frustrated."
Seeing her already looking glum, I quickly steered the conversation somewhere else.
"By the way, how did you end up doing internship work here?"
"Well... I talked to the instructor, and he said it might be a good idea to work in the center’s infirmary on a temporary basis."
Well, you couldn’t exactly keep clinging to something that wasn’t working. Thankfully, healers were needed in plenty of places even if they weren’t going on Gate expeditions. No matter what else, they were fast and effective when it came to trauma.
"I see. Actually, it’s kind of the same for me."
"Seha... you too?"
"Just call me Seha. We look about the same age, anyway."
After checking, I found out she was actually a year older than me. She’d been surprisingly youthful-looking.
Using morning coffee as an excuse, we moved together while I said, "Then I’ll call you Hana Unni from now on. You can call me casually too."
Just saying the word Unni made my tongue want to curl in on itself, but I forced it down and swallowed the embarrassment.
Come to think of it, unni had been used by men too, back in the Joseon era. So there was no need to be embarrassed. No need at alll.
"I-is that so?"
After settling the matter of what to call each other, we drank our coffee and I brought the conversation back to what I’d been saying.
"Actually, I got caught with a dual class during training too. I was known as one of the top prospects, but thanks to that, it all went down the drain."
"Oh dear..."
As I kept talking at length like that, her guard seemed to loosen a little at a time.
"Then what exactly do you do in the support team?"
"You know the stats they give us after training, right? Sorting those out is basically the support team’s job."
"Ah, I see."
"Usually we stay in the office, but if there’s a shortage of people like there was that day, we’ll go out to support the field too."
"I get it."
Im Hana hesitated for a moment, then asked cautiously, "Then... do you maybe know a lot about skills too?"
"Skills? Why?"
"Well... I mean, there’s one skill I got that I don’t really understand."
Of course there was. Naturally.
"What skill is it?"
"Dark Elf of the Dark Forest."
"That’s the skill name?"
"Yeah."
"It’s definitely an unusual name. I’ve never heard it before either."
"Right? I thought so too..."
In truth, no one knew that skill better than I did. I was the one who’d given it to her, after all. In more ways than one.
But that didn’t mean I should blurt out that I knew all about it. That was the sort of thing only an idiot would do.
"I’m not totally sure, but the support team might have some materials on it. I’ll look for them for you."
"Really? That’d be too much trouble."
"It’s nothing. That’s basically what the support team is for."
We agreed to contact each other again once I’d found out more, and exchanged numbers. This was exactly why I couldn’t just say I knew right away.
I used to be bad at this kind of thing.
They said the Dark Elf skill also boosted my talent for magic, so maybe my intelligence had gone up a bit too. I hoped so.
I got through the day at a reasonable pace, and when lunchtime rolled around I contacted Im Hana to tell her I’d found some information.
Since it was a good excuse anyway, we decided to have lunch together and headed down to the cafeteria.
"Let’s eat while I tell you. The cafeteria here is actually pretty good."
"Sure."
As I tore into a pork cutlet set meal, I spun the story as though I’d had to dig hard for this information.
"This turned out to be a really rare skill. There wasn’t much information in Korea, so I had to dig around and only found anything on an overseas forum."
"Oh dear. Sorry about that."
"It’s fine. It’s not that big a deal. Anyway, after checking, it turns out this is a growth-type skill. Didn’t it have a level displayed on it?"
"It did."
"From what I found, as the level rises it boosts agility and intelligence. It also improves assassin and mage aptitude, and at higher levels it even unlocks spirit magic skills."
"Spirit magic? Really?"
"Yeah. In a way, the skill name packed in most of the information already. A Dark Elf living in the dark forest—assassin, mage, spirit magic. That makes sense, right?"
"It does."
Im Hana chewed her food thoughtfully, then asked another question.
"Then... did you find out how to raise the level too?"
I shook my head.
"I couldn’t figure that part out. Sorry."
Really, I was sorry. For lying.
"Don’t be. You’ve really helped me a lot."
Leveling up just meant working hard at dirty things in dreams. Obviously I couldn’t exactly say that out loud.
"Just in case, want to work out together in the training center after work? Since it boosts agility, maybe exercise will help."
"You think so?"
"Yeah. I usually train for an hour or two in the training center after work anyway. That’s actually part of why I’m doing the internship."
"Ah."
"The instructor looks a little rough around the edges, but he’s good at helping people train, so I think it’ll be useful. Even if it has nothing to do with leveling, exercise can’t hurt."
"That’s true."
And so Im Hana ended up spending every evening with me.
I was a woman too at the moment, so it wasn’t like I was trying to seduce her or anything. I was just thinking of her as my first Thrall, and figuring I should keep a closer eye on her.
In any case, I had to go into a private training room, while Im Hana would be using the equipment outside, so we wouldn’t actually be spending that much time together.
After practicing butterfly handling in the training room and coming out when the time was up, I saw Im Hana in training clothes, running hard on a treadmill.
She wasn’t very fast. At a glance, she didn’t seem to have much athletic coordination, which was probably why the instructor had left everything else alone and just told her to start with the treadmill.
I watched from the side, and after a while, Im Hana—panting as she kept running—finally noticed my gaze and stopped.
She was even a little dull in her senses. I wondered if that would improve once her skill leveled up too.
"Oh? When did you get here?"
"A little while ago. It’s about time to head back, so we should probably leave soon."
"Ah, it’s already that late? Wait a second, I’ll wash up and be right out."
Maybe she was worried I’d be waiting, because she came hurrying out without even properly drying her hair, having only changed her clothes in a rush.
"Dry your hair first. Turn around for a sec."
"I-it’s fine."
"It’s not fine for me."
After I roughly dried her hair with a towel and even brushed it out for her, Im Hana’s face went red with embarrassment.
"Let’s go. I’ll buy dinner."
"Huh? You really don’t have to do that."
"You looked up that skill for me, and I’m grateful for a bunch of other things too."
"Will that be okay? I eat a lot."
Im Hana suddenly glanced down at my chest and said, "It does look like you would."
"Hey, isn’t that sexual harassment? Your stare was way too blatant."
"No, it wasn’t."
It had only been a day, but thanks to my careful effort, the distance between us had already collapsed quite a bit.
For a moment I wondered if maybe I had some talent for this sort of thing, but then I shook my head. In the first place, when I’d been a man, I hadn’t looked like this at all.
I ate the pasta Im Hana treated me to and went home.
All right, then. Time to deal with the night shift again.
After showering and lying down in bed, I fell asleep at once.
Today’s setting was the beach again.
She was walking along the shore a little ways off, and unlike usual, she wore a white jacket with a hood over a blue bikini.
As I headed toward her, her appearance suddenly shifted in a flash.
Instead of the Dark Elf with bronze skin and silver hair, she had become a woman with black twin-tails and glasses.
So who was this character now?
As I moved closer, she grinned and tossed out a single line.
"Well?"
"If you ask me how it is..."
"That’s a pretty lukewarm reaction. So I guess I’m not very pretty."
"It’s not that. I just don’t know whether it’s really wise to start mastering a brand-new character when I haven’t even properly finished the Dark Elf yet."
As I rattled off my explanation, she turned on her heel and started walking, saying, "You don’t need to worry about that."
"Why not?"
"Not every character in the world is a fighting-game character or some fantasy RPG type."
"Meaning?"
"This one’s a civilian character. At the very least, she doesn’t have combat skills, so you can ignore that part."
I followed after her as I asked, "But wouldn’t it be better to finish the Dark Elf first?"
"No matter how delicious a meal is, if you keep eating it every day, you’ll get sick of it. Sometimes you start craving something sweet and sour, don’t you?"
"Ah..."
That was true enough. Up until now, I’d only dealt with characters who were absurdly strong in combat, so having someone whose power had nothing to do with fighting didn’t sound bad at all.