Archery Training (2)

Somehow I'd ended up playing the role of a barrier blocking Seo Woojin from getting close to Han Sora again, but the truth was that the reason I'd shown my face at the Archery Department training grounds was to help with Han Sora's archery training.

After all, people naturally feel the most affection for someone when they're helped in a moment of trouble. Of course, there's always the type who takes advantage of that situation and treats their helper like a pushover, but at the very least, Han Sora wasn't that kind.

For one thing, the characters called "heroines" in the original story were all girls with a conscience and some sense of shame. Girls without those things wouldn't have deserved to be called heroines in the first place.

'The problem is just how to shake off that annoying leech.'

With that guy hovering nearby, it would be difficult to create opportunities to get close to Han Sora and lay the groundwork for my suggestions.

For now, I planned to simply apply Suggestion: Artemis's Soul and earnestly play the helpful training partner, but sooner or later I intended to use Suggestion: Hypnosis on Han Sora as well and win her over slowly, the same way I had with Cha Eunju.

And while someone was under Suggestion: Hypnosis, even a pair of decent eyes would become a nuisance. All the more so with Seo Woojin, who did nothing but nitpick every single thing I did.

"Thanks for the handkerchief~. Hmm, isn't it all soaked through though?"

"It's fine. I've got a spare. Besides, that's what towels are for — wiping off sweat and drying your hands."

"You're not going to take that and secretly sniff it later, are you? Like, sniif sniif, huffing Han Sora's sweat smell, kheheh."

"Oh, nice. Thanks for the tip, Sora. I'll put it to good use~."

"Ugh, hey! Give it back! I'll wash it and return it to you!"

"Nooope~. Try taking it from me, if you can~."

"Gah! Hey!"

Han Sora pressed herself against me and hopped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up and down, trying to snatch the handkerchief from my raised hand.

She was fairly tall for a girl, but that meant nothing next to the 190cm frame of Lee Seonho.

Arms stretched ten centimeters short, she strained to grab the handkerchief dangling from my fingers.

Of course, her protests were all lip service. Her face was brimming with laughter, wearing the pleased expression of someone whose jokes were actually being played along with.

'Honestly, this kind of relationship isn't half bad either.'

I liked this innocent, genderless sense of closeness. Cha Eunju's docile sort had her own charm, but eating the same flavor every time got a little stale.

You shouldn't fixate only on sweets — you need a refreshing personality like this to cleanse the palate now and then.

"H-hey, stop it!"

Just as I was teasing her with her own sweat-soaked handkerchief, lost in that thought, it was Seo Woojin who suddenly lunged in, seized my arm, and yanked it downward.

Just like during the entrance exam — the guy still couldn't read a room to save his life.

"Ah, ow, ow…."

He hadn't gripped me particularly hard, but I made a show of wincing and let my raised arm drop. Meanwhile, wide-eyed Seo Woojin didn't spare my reaction so much as a glance — he simply snatched the handkerchief from my hand and offered it to Han Sora.

In his own head, he'd probably been doing it for her sake, but when you pull a stunt like that in the middle of a laughing, joking moment, the reaction you get back is obvious.

"S-Sora, are you okay? Here's the handkerchief…."

"Seo Woojin, what do you think you're doing, grabbing Seonho's arm out of nowhere like that?"

"Uh, uhh…?"

Did he actually expect to be thanked for confiscating the handkerchief out of my hand?

He'd crudely wedged himself between me and Han Sora and wrecked the mood, so naturally it was time for him to pay the price.

"N-no… I just, since Lee Seonho was bothering you…."

"Bothering me? Please. It was just a bit of teasing. No need to grab anyone that hard over it."

"I-I didn't grab him all that hard…."

"…Whew. Whatever. I'm fine, so don't worry about it, Sora."

It genuinely hadn't hurt, but I feigned pain — or rather, made a show of suppressing it — and rubbed my right elbow with my left hand, the one he'd grabbed.

Serves him right for butting in without an ounce of situational awareness.

"Sorry, Seonho. You're not hurt anywhere?"

"Do I look like the kind of guy who gets hurt every single day? I'm fine."

"That IS literally what you look like, though."

"……."

Setting aside the handkerchief he'd brought over to worry about my wellbeing instead — I had to admit, it did feel pretty good.

We'd only known each other two or three weeks, and already I seemed to rank above a childhood friend of ten years.

Only after confirming I was truly fine did Han Sora turn her gaze back to Seo Woojin, pluck the handkerchief right off his outstretched palm, and hand it over to me.

"Here, the handkerchief. I'm giving it back."

"Thanks."

"……."

There was no mood left for more teasing, so I accepted it flatly this time. Which only made Seo Woojin's expression rot a little more with each passing second.

He really shouldn't linger around here — he should just go hit on some other girl.

With a face like that, he could walk out onto any street and have his pick. Why cling to this one fixation, right here of all places?

I understood that with Han Sora beside him, no other girl even registered in his eyes. But unless he got strong enough to hold his own first, he'd never get her to look back at him later.

'The more I think about it, the more it boils my blood. That in the original story, Lee Seonho lost to a half-wit like this.'

Well — leaving Seo Woojin to his own devices, it was about time I got to the real reason I'd enrolled at the Academy in the first place.

Getting Han Sora accustomed, little by little, to my mental-type buffs under the pretext of archery training — and making her dependency on my power grow, bit by bit, with every session.

This work was best started before the entrance ceremony, so I couldn't afford to put it off any longer. The only option was to proceed while giving the heckler a suitable amount of disregard.

"How's training been going? I remember you saying you couldn't hit the moving targets last time. Any improvement?"

"…Ah, well…."

"Judging by that reaction, I'm guessing it's still a bit rough."

"…I-I mean, I think it HAS gotten a little better? It's just, it still doesn't go well…."

Figures. Han Sora's accuracy wasn't the kind of thing that improved overnight.

In the original story, she'd overcome it by brute repetition — firing as many arrows as she possibly could, in every way imaginable, memorizing in her head exactly which stance and how much force sent an arrow along which trajectory.

Despite her usual bright, easygoing air, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she was a heroine of the hardworking type — it was a scene I'd quite liked, honestly.

'But with me around now, there's no need for her to suffer through all that.'

Artemis's Soul was a suggestion designed to let an archer place an arrow exactly where she wanted it, with the right posture and the right amount of force.

In truth, it was a suggestion with no use outside of Han Sora. Most Archery Department students' awakened abilities came with some accuracy-related trait attached as a bonus, after all.

Since I'd built it for her and her alone, I ought to milk it for all it was worth. And it wasn't even a lie that the suggestion would help — once her body grew accustomed to proper form through it, the feel would carry over when she actually drew a bow on her own.

"If you don't mind, want me to help? I've got time to spare anyway."

"…Really?"

"Yeah. This is a method I used back when I trained with Cha Eunju, too. First, you train while under the buff and get the feel into your body, and then…"

"Hey, Lee Seonho. Didn't you say you were going to look around the Academy? Are you really going to stay here the whole time?"

"……."

"……."

Seo Woojin, apparently unable to stomach me being next to Han Sora, was now interfering with a complaint that didn't even hold water anymore.

At his tactless remark, it was Han Sora — more irritated than I was, by the look of it — whose brow twitched once.

"Seonho said he'd help me. Why are you butting in? If you're not going to help, Seo Woojin, then just go."

"Wh-what help is a Support Department student even going to be? What does he know about shooting a bow…"

"I just told you I don't care, so why are you sticking your nose in? Ugh, seriously…."

"I-I'm ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠just worried about you, that's all…."

"When did I ever ask you to worry about me? You know what actually helps? Standing quietly and watching. Why are you getting in the way over every little thing today? Hm?"

"Calm down, Sora. I'm sure Seo Woojin didn't mean anything bad by it."

"……."

Yikes. She was genuinely annoyed this time — it was all over her face.

That he could corner good-natured Han Sora like this with words alone really was an impressive talent, in its way.

I wouldn't have minded watching Seo Woojin spiral down into the abyss, but if Han Sora's stress piled up too high, it would throw a wrench into my own conquest plans.

Here, it was better for everyone — me and Han Sora both — to play the mediator, defuse things, and usher him off the stage as quickly as possible.

"Sora, can I borrow your bow for a second?"

"My bow? This one?"

"Yeah. I figure Woojin won't believe it unless I show him directly."

Though a flicker of doubt crossed her face, Han Sora handed her bow over to me without any real resistance.

Taking the bow and arrows from her, I summoned a single holographic goblin through the training ground's system, then applied a self-suggestion.

As someone who wasn't an archery expert, I didn't need to kill a monster in a single shot. What Han Sora needed right now wasn't power — it was accuracy.

Besides, a one-shot kill was impossible anyway. With the raw strength of an ordinary person receiving no assistance from an awakened ability, nocking a goblin from the dungeon with a single arrow simply couldn't be done.

Artemis's Soul was, after all, nothing more than a suggestion that raised accuracy.

'Gehegh!!'

The goblin took an arrow and came staggering toward me, wobbling left and right.

I calmly kept sniping, one shot after another, two, three in succession.

'Gehek, gehehegh!!'

Even after taking three arrows, the holographic monster only slowed down slightly — it endured, still advancing on me, club in hand.

Only after finally taking two more did it collapse to the floor, and at that the hologram dispersed, the words Training Complete flashing up on the training ground's console.

"Whew. Figures a professional-grade bow would be this exhausting to fire in rapid succession."

"…Whoa, what the heck, Seonho? Have you shot a bow before?"

"I'm not an archery major — where would I have ever shot one? This is actually my first time firing a professional-grade bow like this."

"Seriously, your buffs really are good, Seonho. I did feel that way back at Neverland too, but seeing it again…"

"My buffs just handle combat support, that's all. Your ability is way better, Sora — you killed an Owlbear in one shot. If you fought like this in a real dungeon, you'd probably get surrounded by other monsters in the time it took to kill a single goblin."

Watching even me — someone with zero connection to the Archery Department — land every shot without a single miss, Han Sora's face flushed faintly, as if a little worked up.

"……."

Seo Woojin, in contrast, was chewing on his lip with a face going thoroughly rotten, so I prodded him with a deliberately light touch of provocation.

"Well? With accuracy like this, even a Support Department student can be useful, don't you think?"

"…It takes you three whole minutes to kill one goblin. What's the point? All you're doing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is hitting the target…"

"That 'hitting the target' is exactly what I can't do — it's why I've been stuck in this training hall all morning. My apologies, Seo Woojin."

"N-no, that's not, I didn't mean it that way…"

The more words Seo Woojin let out, the more he scraped away at Han Sora's mood, so I pulled her attention back to my side before the atmosphere turned truly ugly.

"Let's start with you firing one shot under the buff, Sora. Come on, take the bow. Right?"

"…Okay, Seonho."

"This time, unlike before, focus on your posture and the amount of force as you release, and commit it to memory. Then once the buff wears off later, you'll be able to reproduce it. I'll apply the buff first, so relax your body and…"

"……."

From a distance, Seo Woojin watched my archery training with Han Sora in silence — and at some point, he slipped away without a word.