Club (1)
Seong Hyeon turned the problem over in his mind, brow furrowed in thought.
A few days ago had been pure chaos. Looking back across both his previous life and this reincarnated one, he could not recall a single stretch that had left him quite so rattled.
Terrorism at the academy.
Spies and criminals tried to slip inside Warna Academy on a near-daily basis, but this incident had been something else entirely.
At least it happened at the academy. If it had been somewhere ordinary people made up the majority…
Seong Hyeon shuddered. The sheer volume of monsters that had poured into the grounds—he had never seen numbers like that in his life. The experience had been so jarring he almost feared it would start invading his dreams.
No—even now Lee Jiwoo was clinging to him, claiming she had nightmares and showing up at his house.
"Hyeon, I really had a nightmare, okay?"
"I know. I know. You came yesterday too."
"If you know, then move your hand~!"
Lee Jiwoo pulled an indignant face. She had woken him from a sound sleep and was now trying to burrow straight under the covers.
"Come on, you're supposed to be nice to a patient! How can you be this cold to someone who just had a nightmare?"
"Haa… fine. Get in."
Seong Hyeon sighed and gave her permission. Lee Jiwoo lit up and dove under the blanket.
"Nice! That's more like it!"
Once inside, she looked up at him. They had been childhood friends. Even back then Seong Hyeon's mental age had already been well past twenty; he had looked after the scatterbrained Jiwoo from top to bottom, practically raising her like a parent. Her mother still treated him more like a son than she did her own daughter.
He had raised her like a little sister… yet having her this close still made him painfully aware of her.
That's exactly why I tried not to let her under the covers.
And yet here she was, nestled against him again.
"You've got family at home. What are you even doing…?"
"It's fine. My family's your family and your family's mine, right?"
Lee Jiwoo grinned. For a second Seong Hyeon had no answer. What was this girl even saying?
Maybe it's because we've been around each other since we were kids.
"Our sisters fought too. Aren't you worried about them?"
Lee Jiwoo lifted her head.
"Yun-unni? I already went and checked on her."
Seong Hyeon was the youngest of three. His middle sister, Seong Yun, was a third-year at Warna Academy walking the path of a fire mage. With her red hair and red eyes she looked every bit the hot-blooded type, yet she was famous for her calm temperament—though Seong Hyeon knew better. He knew exactly how fiercely she burned when she lost her temper.
And then there was Seong Yeon.
His eldest sister had graduated from Warna Academy and now worked as a mercenary. Born wild and free-spirited, she had chosen the mercenary life over their parents' objections and never looked back.
She said she was heading to Japan for a trip. When's she even coming back?
Right—she was supposed to be in Japan…
And yet the very person he had just been thinking about was standing right in front of him.
"Little brother! I heard monsters invaded the academy? Ahh, I shouldn't have gone to Japan. Missing out on all the fun."
While Seong Hyeon froze in surprise at Seong Yeon's sudden appearance, Lee Jiwoo poked her head out from under the blanket.
"Oh?! Yeon-unni! You stayed away pretty long this time!"
Seong Yeon glanced between the two of them and grinned.
"Keep it in moderation or your bones'll melt."
"What the hell does that even mean?!"
Before he could protest further she was already gone. Seong Hyeon let out a small sigh, certain she had gone off to harass Seong Yun.
"She goes to Japan and comes back with even weirder habits."
"Ahaha~"
Lee Jiwoo laughed awkwardly, face flushed.
"…Should we get out?"
Seong Hyeon lowered his head toward the girl still under the covers. Because her head was already sticking out, the motion brought their noses almost close enough to touch.
"Y-yeah, let's!"
Startled enough that her heart nearly stopped, Lee Jiwoo scrambled free of the blanket.
"What? Already over?"
Seong Yeon, now lounging on the sofa, asked the question with perfect nonchalance. Lee Jiwoo's face turned as red as Seong Hyeon's hair.
"Shut up with the nonsense."
"Hahaha! So, where did Yun go?"
"Noona? How should I know. Library or training hall, probably?"
"Yeah, that sounds like her. Then how about the three of us have a nice little private session for old times' sake?"
"What, a spar?"
"My little brother stating the obvious?"
Seong Hyeon nodded without hesitation. The recent incident had taught him plenty. If he ever wanted to achieve his goal of living a peaceful life free of worry, he needed to get stronger—painfully, unmistakably stronger. At the very least he had to reach a level equal to Baek Sejin.
Honestly, he had been more tense talking with Baek Sejin after the monsters were dealt with than he had been while fighting the monsters themselves. His sharp senses had picked up the ominous Black Mana rolling off the other boy. Even though Baek Sejin had no reason to harm him, Seong Hyeon's body had locked up the way a person freezes in front of a predator.
…What exactly did Baek Sejin do inside the dormitory?
If Seong Hyeon had been stronger, he might have been able to enter that dorm himself. He might have learned the full story of whatever had happened—Baek Sejin going in and coming out, the principal and some gray-haired woman emerging together, the police taking that woman away.
That was why he could only say one thing.
"Let's do it now."
"Same rules as always—no mana?"
Seong Yeon faced him with a wooden sword and asked the question.
"Fine by me."
"Then… begin!"
The instant Lee Jiwoo shouted, Seong Yeon dropped into a crouch and exploded forward. She shot out like a spring, thrusting the wooden blade straight at him. Even though this was only a spar, the killing intent rolling off her felt close to a real life-or-death duel.
Seong Hyeon stepped in instead of back, letting the blade graze past him, and at the same time swept his own wooden sword upward from below. The strike connected. Seong Yeon took the hit and grinned.
"You're handling that one better now."
"You pull it every time I start to forget. I've gotten used to it."
"That so? Then how about this?"
She raised the sword high and brought it down in a fast, heavy arc. Last time he had tried to block that exact blow and ended up with a broken arm along with a shattered wooden sword. He knew full well that a half-hearted defense would leave him in pieces.
But things were different now. He had grown far stronger since then; there was room to try.
If it doesn't work, I just break an arm again.
A thoroughly protagonist-like thought. He met the descending blade with both hands, absorbing part of the shock through his arms so the wooden sword itself would not snap. His knees bent slightly to soak up the force.
"You blocked it?"
When he successfully stopped the attack, Seong Yeon grinned and kept pouring power into the downward strike. The pressure mounted until he had no choice but to pull back. The moment he retreated, her wooden sword smashed into the floor with a thunderous crack. The gouged floor slowly began repairing itself.
"Your turn. Come at me."
She beckoned. Seong Hyeon nodded and charged. Wooden blades crashed together, each strike trying to devour the other. Sparks seemed to fly from the friction—no, actual sparks did fly. The mana filling the training hall from both of them was producing real flame.
Locked blade to blade, Seong Yeon smirked.
"Pretty solid strength. You've been training hard, huh?"
"Look who's talking…! Hah—aren't you weaker than before? This is nothing."
She grinned wider—and vanished. Her body turned into a small log; the wooden sword she had been holding clattered to the ground.
"Oh, come on—!"
Caught completely off guard, his center of gravity lurched forward. Still driving with full force, he staggered. The vanished Seong Yeon reappeared beneath his stomach, snatching the falling sword's hilt out of midair and swinging it at him in one motion.
"Ghk—!"
He could not dodge. The wooden blade slammed into him cleanly.
—Thud!
His body flew backward and smashed into the wall.
"Hahaha! How's that? Substitution technique I picked up in Japan."
"That's completely broken. Where the hell did you learn it?"
"I told you—Japan."
"…So which—never mind."
"Haha, remember when I was still at the academy? There was a transfer student from Japan. Learned it from her."
Seong Yeon laughed heartily.
A ninja, huh…
Seong Hyeon let out a dry chuckle. Ninjas. So they actually exist in this world.
Ever since reincarnating he had never stopped being surprised. This world was similar to his old one and yet completely different—science and supernatural ability woven together so tightly. Even with abilities this widespread and this useful, the public revelation of "supernatural power" had only happened a few hundred years ago. It still felt hard to believe.
Whenever he looked at this world he found himself wondering: maybe the world he came from had possessed abilities too, and he simply never knew. After all, the history of this world before abilities appeared was almost identical to the one he remembered.
Not that there's any way to check now.
Seong Hyeon picked up his wooden sword again and walked toward Seong Yeon. She stood waiting in the middle of the training hall, sword ready.
"You've gotten a lot better. That was actually fun."
Seong Yeon looked down at Seong Hyeon sprawled on the floor and smiled. He was soaked in sweat from head to toe; she had barely broken a few drops. Still, it was better than a few months ago when he could not even make her sweat a single bead. He quietly congratulated himself on the growth.
"Yun, you want a turn?"
Seong Yeon asked Seong Yun, who had somehow arrived and been watching the spar.
"No."
Turned down, Seong Yeon looked at Lee Jiwoo.
"Jiwoo, how about you?"
"I'm good too…"
Seong Yeon made no effort to hide her disappointment as she glanced around, but no one else seemed eager to spar with her. Then Seong Yun's phone chimed. She pulled it out and spoke.
"Mom says to come up for lunch."