Why Only Me? (3)

"…"

I walked into the quiet alley with my body wrapped tight in a Rune Barrier. Every nerve was wound taut, ready to snap into motion the instant something came at me — but there was no enemy in sight.

My footsteps echoed off the walls. The farther I pushed into the dark, the thicker the lingering traces of mana became. In a hush broken only by the steady rhythm of my own breathing and the sound of my boots on stone, I pushed Mana Sensitivity as far as it would go, trying to pin down my opponent's presence.

The fight itself was stacked against me. They would stay hidden and strike from the dark, and I was the idiot who had walked straight into the trap.

A dagger of condensed mana came screaming in from dead ahead.

Clang!

From the front?

Clang! Clang! Clang!

They weren't stupid enough to give their position away. Almost in the same instant the first blade came from the front, three more burst in from above, from the right, and from behind. The mana blades themselves were simple things — but they were fast, and they hit hard. I tried to trace the threads of mana clinging to each dagger back to their source, but my opponent severed those threads the moment I reached for them. Tracking was useless.

The attacks are weak.

It was like tapping a watermelon to see if it was ripe. They were testing the strength of my barrier with light, probing strikes.

Clang! Clang!

Every time I took a step forward, another mana dagger came flying. I sharpened my focus. Whoever was hiding out there was clearly a cut above me. If I wanted any kind of real fight, I had to get a look at their face. Strong or weak didn't matter until I could actually fight them — that was when possibility started.

It was a race. Either I found the one hiding in the dark, or they punched through my Rune Barrier first.

Clang!

After batting away dozens of incoming mana blades with the barrier, I stopped walking.

"…That's strange."

It was strange. There wasn't just one thing I couldn't make sense of — there were several.

First, this alley. I could walk and walk and the end never came. I had the entire layout of the academy shopping district memorized, every backstreet and shortcut, specifically so I would know where to run if I ever got jumped. I had been pushing through this alley for over twenty minutes, blocking blades the whole way. I should have spilled out onto the main road a long time ago. And yet the dark stretch ahead of me still had no end in sight.

Time was already running against me. Once night fell, a hidden opponent would have an even bigger advantage. But there was something more important than an alley that refused to end.

The killing intent rolling off them was genuine. The weight of the mana pressing down on me was high-level — I could tell their realm itself was far above mine. The quality of their mana, their sheer caliber… it wasn't even in the same conversation as mine. It was the same feeling I'd had when I first met Lim Sol and Rebecca. The reaction my body had already learned, the one that fired when I stood in front of a true powerhouse.

And yet, compared to all of that, the attacks coming at me were weak. The magic was far too feeble for mana of that quality. People like that existed, sure — but anyone who had climbed into the ranks of the genuinely strong wouldn't have a balance that broken. If they did, they never would have become strong in the first place. Just as gathering every regional first-place finisher and making them compete would produce a new first place, only a genius among geniuses ever became someone like Lim Sol.

And while the attacks themselves were weak, the follow-up was exceptional. The way they snipped their own mana to keep from being found was first-rate work.

Are they going easy on me?

That was a villain thing, wasn't it. Hold back, toy with the hero, then get the tables turned on you. Classic cliché. But there was no way that kind of garbage actually happened in real life.

"…"

I ran through it fast. An attacker who was strangely strong. If they were after my life, they should have finished this as quickly as possible — and instead they were dragging it out. Safe to assume they wanted something from me, then. Or they were some kind of deranged pleasure killer… except none of the pleasure killers in this world were this strong. Not as far as I knew.

And then there was the timing. If I walked back through everything that had happened to me recently, I could narrow the attacker down pretty well.

First, Pandemic's skull-mask crowd. There had been an attack not long ago, and they were clearly targeting Mun Su-rin and me. But those people would never waste time like this.

Next, Rebecca. Our first meeting had been an ambush, sure… but she had no reason to come at me now.

Someone overwhelmingly strong, with a connection to me…

I turned over memory after memory, and one hypothesis clicked into place.

The Iris Guild.

I had taken on Elise's massage just two days ago. That was exactly why I had been worried enough to peel Scarlet off me and send her away ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— because I was afraid the Iris Guild's hopelessly daughter-obsessed guild master might come sniffing around.

Isaac, the guild master, hadn't been a major character in the original. He was strong, no question, but he wasn't the kind of figure who showed up in an eroge about capturing heroines. Honestly, he had never even gotten a proper face on screen. So I hadn't really thought he would come at me like this, but…

"…"

Yeah. I couldn't think of anyone else.

The truth was I had racked up so many sins that Mun Su-rin's grandfather — the academy chairman — scared me a little too, and so did the Association I had stolen Baek A-young from. But those people weren't going to jump me in an alley.

"Hah."

If they had wanted me dead, they would have thrown a real attack a long time ago. An assassin has no reason to stall. I was better off moving under the assumption that this was Isaac.

I dropped the Rune Barrier wrapped around my body.

And then—

Thump— thump—

I forced my mana circuits to expand. The flow of mana smoothed out, and the density of power radiating around me thickened to match. In this state, I could react the instant an attack came and shut it down.

Against anyone else, there would have been no reason to put myself in a position this dangerous. But if my opponent really was Isaac, this would work. I had exactly two pieces of solid information about the man.

One: he was an outrageous daughter-doting fool.

Two: his pride was filthy.

And even if it wasn't Isaac, it didn't matter. If my provocation pissed them off enough to show themselves, that was even better. If they started hitting harder, I could track the mana and find their position that way.

Not a bad play.

There was risk, but at this rate I couldn't do a damn thing. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I had to drag them out, even if I had to force it. I pulled my mana up, ready to answer whatever came flying, and walked deeper into the alley.

"Whoa, not bad. He's blocking pretty well. Genius mage, huh? Yeah, the kid's the real deal."

Clang— clang—

Isaac flicked mana at Lee Ho-yeon and nodded to himself, looking almost pleased.

"…"

This lunatic.

Scarlet stared at Isaac's back and kept her face carefully blank. She really needed to ditch this damn guild already and jump ship to Lee Ho-yeon. He looked exactly like a boy taking revenge, the kind who said this is what happens if you touch my stuff. Not that he thought of Elise as an object… he just treasured her so much he had clearly lost his mind.

"Scarlet. What's on your mind?"

Isaac turned his head with a grin. Scarlet flinched, then slid smoothly into an expression of sympathy for Lee Ho-yeon.

"…I believe it would be best if you revealed yourself soon, sir. A considerable amount of time has already been wasted."

He had been at this bizarre little game for nearly thirty minutes. Scarlet was starting to lose her patience. Powerful people always had one thing about them that was off. Lee Ho-yeon was obsessed with women. Isaac was obsessed with Elise. Same idea.

"The kid isn't even scared. And that barrier of his is unnecessarily solid — I can't even establish dominance. I'm shooting so it doesn't hurt, you know."

As if anyone in the world would just stand there and take flying blades without blocking them. Scarlet tried, as reasonably as she could, to talk him down.

"…Even so, occupying a public path for this long is likely to cause problems."

"Yeah? Don't people usually just go around something like this? Figure someone's fighting and keep walking?"

"Korea's public safety is quite good, sir. That sort of thing rarely happens here."

If they were unlucky, some high-ranking hunter could wander by and file a report. This neighborhood had plenty of bad people, but it also had a strange number of decent ones.

"Haa. Fine. Let's wrap it up, then. I think I played around a little too much myself."

There was also the part where he was genuinely surprised a mere cadet had kept blocking his attacks. He had pulled a lot of power out of them, of course… but most of the people who walked around calling themselves hunters couldn't even stop a strike of that level.

Ending it like this would be a shame.

That was the kind of dominance he had wanted to establish. But coming out looking ugly after his long-range attacks had failed… that didn't sit with his philosophy at all. If he was going to show himself like that, he would rather just run away.

That was when Lee Ho-yeon suddenly started doing something strange. He dropped that bizarrely solid, unidentified barrier of his — himself — and started walking deeper into the alley. The magic stretching the space had been forced into place; if Ho-yeon came much closer, there was a real risk it would start to show.

"The hell is he doing?"

"…"

So Lee Ho-yeon wasn't normal either. Scarlet gave up on understanding and settled in to watch the two lunatics collaborate.

"He's provoking me right now, isn't he?"

"…I wouldn't know, sir."

She genuinely wouldn't. Why would he do that? All it was going to do was make Isaac angry.

"Scarlet."

"Yes."

"I really have dragged this out too long, haven't I. A cadet is provoking me."

"…He wouldn't have known you were the one he was facing, sir. Please calm down first, and then Cadet Lee Ho-yeon—"

"I'm going in myself. I'll have him on the ground within a minute, and then we'll talk. Follow me."

"…Yes, sir. Understood."

Haa.

Scarlet closed her eyes and fell in behind him.

I'm done. This is not my problem anymore.

Put him down in a minute. If Isaac had said it like that, he was going to go all out. The other party was still a cadet, and an acquaintance of Elise's, so he wouldn't kill him. She just hoped he wouldn't get hurt too badly. Scarlet prepared a high-level shield she could throw up on the spot, and walked into the alley.

…So that wasn't it.

The provocation had worked, that much was certain. They had come out themselves.

Clang! Shhhk—!

The problem was that they were far too strong.

Krrrang!

I caught the mana screaming toward my Rune Barrier. The concrete that made up the alley crumbled under nothing but the leftover force of the strikes I had blocked.

Clang! Fsshh—

At the same time, a vicious shock slammed through me. Something was hammering my barrier over and over, at a speed I couldn't even see.

I poured focus into my eyes and tried to lock onto them, but I couldn't catch a thing. The wall between us was that enormous. The one stroke of luck was that I had met Rebecca yesterday. Thanks to her, my Rune Barrier had been hardened and upgraded, and it was the only reason their attacks weren't tearing through me. Without it, I wouldn't even have been able to think about fighting back.

Fwoooosh—

Flame poured along my hands, clung to the ground, and drew a circle ten meters across before roaring up into the sky. My mana was threaded through every scrap of that fire.

Szzzt—

A discrepancy. Faint, but it was there. No matter how well they hid their body, as long as they existed in space — as long as they hadn't stepped outside the laws of physics — they had to touch the flames. I slammed the fire toward that point.

FWOOSH—!

KRRRANG!

Something tore free of the blaze and slammed into my Rune Barrier again. I gritted my teeth through the shock and stepped forward. Mana unspooled from the soles of my feet and reached after their shape like vines. They fell back, of course — which was exactly what I had wanted. I had been drawing a magic circle the whole time I was pretending to chase them.

Fire bloomed through every inch of the space once more. They had forced their way ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out of the last one, so their stance had to be broken. This time I was going to put it on them for real. I had locked down a ten-meter radius. Dodging this should have been nearly impossible.

But—

"…You've gotta be fucking kidding me."

They vanished. Literally. Inside the ten-meter sphere of fire I had been controlling, my opponent simply ceased to exist. Had they bolted outside in an instant? I could have believed that — except this felt completely different. The mana occupying that space had just… disappeared. The same way Nam Da-eun carved through space itself, ignoring the laws of physics. As if they had been cut out of the world entirely.

BOOOOM!

A handsome blond man appeared right in front of my face. His jaw was clenched, his pride clearly stung — and yet he looked like he was enjoying himself, just a little. He swung his arm straight through my Rune Barrier.

Crack— CRASH—

The barrier, already chewed to pieces, shattered like a pane of glass. I had no choice but to give ground.

"Haa…"

A good-looking blond man stood in front of me. Behind him, Scarlet was trailing along like a secretary.

So it is Isaac.

The blond hair alone wouldn't have been enough to be sure, but Scarlet behind him made it certain. She wouldn't even meet my eyes. She was probably refusing to create any point of contact at all, just in case we got found out. Fortunately, Isaac didn't seem to know about our relationship.

Huff— huff—

I was panting like I had just run a marathon. Isaac looked like he had been out for a stroll.

He is so fucking strong.

I had thrown everything I had. I hadn't been able to get an opening big enough for something like Spiral — and that, too, was his ability. This fight had been my absolute ceiling.

Of course I couldn't do it. Trying to stand toe-to-toe with one of the strongest people in the world this early would have been shameless.

Isaac walked toward me, and that was when I finally felt it.

"How the hell am I supposed to beat this?"

With his presence completely unrestrained, the difference in class was unmistakable. I had only been scraping by on the broken cheat that was the Rune Barrier Rebecca had taught me. What had just happened was not a real fight. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠We had only been able to trade at all because Isaac hadn't been trying to take my life.

Thump— thump—

Isaac held no killing intent toward me. But the gap in power was so vast that Combat Sense had my heart slamming against my ribs anyway. If he got even a little bit serious, I would die on the spot. I knew that the way an animal knows it.

He came closer. This was a man who could have killed me whenever he wanted. If he had still spent more than ten minutes brawling with me anyway, he had something to say.

I wondered what he could possibly want badly enough to back me into a corner like this.

Isaac stopped in front of me, and that was when I noticed it. His breathing was just slightly off. A little of my pride came back.

I looked at him, every muscle still wound tight.

He clicked his tongue, smacked his lips, and opened his mouth.

"…Pass."

"…?"