Thank You, Teacher
Truth be told, Sunghyun didn't really know himself either.
He'd always thought he did. But that was just his personality — a sense of self he'd figured was a little better than most people's. Not the things he'd just heard. Not his parents. Not Zeus. Not talent.
So Sunghyun answered honestly: even he didn't know who he was.
Hermes suppressed a smile.
"Hey, though — you've seen me before, back when you were a kid. Remember?"
Sunghyun stared at him with a look that said, What the hell are you talking about?
We've met before?
"Just watch."
Hermes's body glowed, shifting and reshaping itself. Huh? The moment he settled into the form of a middle-aged man in glasses, Sunghyun recognized him at once.
"Teacher?"
It was the face of his elementary school homeroom teacher — the one who'd been suspiciously kind to him.
"Haha, yes, young Sunghyun. Do you recognize me?"
"No way. You're telling me my elementary school teacher was Hermes? Am I dreaming?"
The look on Sunghyun's face said he was about to unload a stream of venom, and Hermes broke into a broad grin as he shifted back to his true form.
"Hahaha, this is fun. Back then you just wore that blank expression all the time — I kept wondering if the kid even had emotions."
According to the myths, he's a prankster on par with Loki…
Sunghyun rubbed his temples at the string of sudden revelations. Ugh, my head hurts.
"Haah… so why are you here, Teacher?"
"Huh? Don't you want to know why I played the teacher role in the first place?"
"No need. It's not that important, and it doesn't help me right now. Just tell me why you're here."
Hermes beamed at Sunghyun's attitude.
"Haha! You've been blunt since you were little, and you still are. Fine, I'll tell you. First off — this is my planet."
What was that supposed to mean? Sunghyun nearly blurted something out in excitement, but Hermes waved a hand to settle him down. Once Sunghyun had calmed, Hermes began to explain, slowly relaying everything he'd told Hayato's party when they were summoned.
"So those guys are in a place called the Rom Kingdom right now."
Hermes nodded.
"What about the Hero? Can he take down the Demon King?"
Hermes's face lit up with mischief.
"Why? Gonna take him on yourself if he can't? Nah, no way. Leave the Demon King to the Hero. You've got your own job to do."
What Sunghyun had to do. The reason Zeus had wanted to make him a Hero.
Could it be—
"The Gigantomachia?"
Hermes smiled at that.
"Figures — Earth-born, so you're solid on the myths. That's right. A new Gigantomachia is coming soon. We don't know the cause or how it'll end, but every last one of us on Olympus knows it's going to happen."
But that wasn't all.
"Asgard. Their end is approaching too. A monster that makes the Demon King on this planet look like nothing."
Hermes scowled hard, as if just imagining it set his teeth on edge.
Ragnarok. That had to be what Hermes was talking about. But as far as Sunghyun knew—
"Hasn't Ragnarok already happened?"
Hermes's eyes went wide.
"What are you talking about? I've checked all kinds of media on Earth and never seen anything like that."
Huh. That couldn't be right. Something felt off. Sunghyun was about to open his mouth when—
Stop. Don't say another word.
His Instinct screamed it. So he didn't.
"Ahaha… I must've been mistaken."
Hermes narrowed his eyes and studied Sunghyun for a moment.
"Never, ever say that kind of thing anywhere. Especially not in front of the Aesir. They'll kill you on the spot."
If it felt like a prophecy of their own destruction, Sunghyun could see how that would go. He nodded.
Hermes steered the conversation elsewhere.
"The Hero's walking what you'd call the royal road. Though… compared to you, he's still way behind. Can't really help that, I guess. My turn to ask. You — where did you get Audumbla's milk? There's no way to get it here."
Hermes glanced at him sideways, almost without thinking.
"With your talent, sure, maybe it's possible. But even so — the shop Heroes use doesn't stock Audumbla's milk, does it…?"
Sunghyun answered.
"You already know a fair amount about my talent, so this should go quickly. Yes — Zeus mentioned it too. Originally, I was destined to be a Hero. But he also said that destiny changed when I came here."
Hermes nodded along.
"Father said that? Ah, right — so you met Father through Audumbla's milk and came back. Yes! That's exactly why I was so shocked. Destiny! If things had gone according to fate, you should've been summoned to another dimension ages ago and become a Hero. But instead you suddenly get summoned into my dimension? How was I supposed to stay sane?"
Hermes's voice climbed. Good grief, Zeus. He took a breath and met Sunghyun's eyes.
"Hoo… sorry for getting worked up."
"It's fine. By the way — can destiny actually change?"
Hermes glanced up at the sky, then his eyes lit as something came to him.
"It's not like there are no cases. Father's dodged fate a few times himself. But that was possible because he's a god — a top-tier one, at that. A human avoiding destiny, though… that narrows the possibilities way down. Only one thing comes to mind right now. Some kind of external power was involved."
External power? A scrap of information flickered through Sunghyun's mind.
"You thought of something, didn't you? Father knows about it too, right? Ha! No wonder he lent you his lightning so easily. You've got it on you now, don't you? I used to keep it in the dimensional vault here. So what is it?"
Zeus could pull a mountain of information just from looking at Sunghyun. Hermes, though, couldn't dig that deep unless Sunghyun told him. Sunghyun opened his mouth.
"My Trait grew with someone's help. I figure that someone is probably the one."
Hermes jolted.
"What? Your Trait — your talent? It grew? You've got to be kidding me."
He turned suddenly serious, sinking into a world of his own. Sunghyun watched, bewildered, as Hermes muttered to himself while staring at the ground.
This guy is completely impossible to read.
A free spirit through and through. Put nicely, a free-spirited Hero. Put less nicely, he only ever said what he wanted to say.
Once he'd finished sorting his thoughts, Hermes finally nodded and looked back at Sunghyun.
"Okay, now it makes sense. If something can grow your talent, it's got to be one of the ancient gods. That also explains how your destiny got rewritten. What I still don't get is why they did it… but I'll look into that myself. You don't need to worry about it. Anyway — how the hell did you survive this forest?"
Hermes looked around.
"Those marks and corpses over there — that was you, right? Those things aren't pushovers. Pretty amazing."
Sunghyun nodded.
"Once your talent grew, your growth rate became ridiculous. Looking at you, you can use the Coin Shop too, can't you?"
How did he know that?
"Hey, kid. With all the years I've put in, you'd just get crushed under them. That much I can tell at a glance. And that explains the unnatural growth rate too."
Hermes's eyes sparkled wide. He looked up at the sky for a moment, then frowned.
"I should get going soon myself. As a little gift for meeting again, I'll give you a choice. Want to head to where the people you were summoned with are right now? Or stay here?"
He could go? Honestly, he'd been lonely. He wanted to see people. He was about to choose to go to them — then Instinct rang out.
Stay here. You have to.
Once Instinct said that, Sunghyun's choice was already made.
"Haah…. I'll stay."
Hermes's eyes lit at the unexpected answer.
"Oh yeah? Surprising. I figured you'd want to go that way. Aren't you lonely?"
"I am. But… my Instinct is telling me I need to stay here."
And more than that — the thought that he had to earn enough Coins here first dominated his mind. Instinct was hammering the stay-here message at him with almost frantic urgency.
Hermes didn't seem to find it strange. Maybe he'd seen this kind of thing before.
"That so? If your Instinct says so, then that's how it is. Here — catch."
Whish—.
Hermes tossed him a stone. A smooth stone etched with a blue pattern. What was this?
"I put a spell on it so you can go to the Rom Kingdom whenever you want. Hang on to it for now."
Ah….
"Thank you, Teacher."
"Ha! Enough of that. What 'Teacher'?"
Hermes turned his head for a moment.
"I'm heading out, so do well on your own. Looking forward to seeing how you've changed next time we meet."
Wings sprouted from Hermes's ordinary shoes, and a staff appeared in his hand. He swung it, and a hole tore open in the dimension — through it, the cosmos peeked through. Something like a pull tugged at Sunghyun, and he leaned in for a closer look—
"Not yet. Grow first."
Hermes's staff blocked him. Then Hermes slipped into the hole without warning, and in an instant it was gone.
Sunghyun smiled — a genuinely good smile, for the first time in a while.
"Talking to another person… it's been a long time. Alright then. Time to get to the work I've been putting off."
He stretched once, then started walking.
Next target: the giant he'd seen before.
It was time for payback.