Chapter 14: Say, How Old Are You This Year? (1)
Chapter 14: Say, How Old Are You This Year? (1)
A hotel room, not my familiar home. Sitting on the bed, I looked down at the two Magical Girls kneeling on the floor before me.
"What were your names again?"
"I'm Baek Si-hyun! I look forward to working with you!"
"I'm... Han A-bin."
Their reactions were polar opposites.
Baek Si-hyun looked up with a beaming smile, while Han A-bin kept her head down, mumbling in a tiny voice.
I could deal with Baek Si-hyun. But why was Han A-bin here?
I looked away from the two of them and directed my question to the high-ranking official standing blankly in the corner of the room.
"Park Hyun-seok. I thought I only had one disciple. What's going on?"
"I'll tell you later."
"Later, my ass. Bringing her here means you want me to take her as a disciple, doesn't it?"
Flinch.
At my swearing, Han A-bin curled into herself even more, as if it were her fault. I felt bad for her, but business was business.
"Who is she anyway? Was the person fighting the Black Marauder a duo? There was nothing like that in the files I received."
"She's a Hero unrelated to the Black Marauder. Her name is Han A-bin."
"I'm asking who she is."
"I'll send the files later. I'd like you to train her as well."
I didn't understand why she was becoming my disciple. Judging by the situation, it didn't seem like he was going to give me a straight answer anytime soon.
"Fine, let's leave Hyun-seok and his non-answers aside."
I turned to the two girls, who were staring at me with their mouths agape, seemingly shocked by how casually I treated a high-ranking official of the Management Bureau.
"First of all, you two. Do you really want to be my disciples?"
"Yes!"
"I... for now, yes."
One voice was full of spirit, the other was weak and trailing off.
Was Han A-bin really the same Hero who had burned with such fighting spirit back then? Was she the type who only changed when the real battle started?
"You might die, you know?"
I grinned.
If they became my disciples, I had plenty of things for them to do.
I knew just the place—a spot crawling with B and C-Rank Mutants, perfect for training.
"I don't care! To beat the Black Marauder, I'm prepared to die!"
I'll leave that hot-blooded idiot alone for now.
"What about you?"
I shot a glare filled with killing intent at A-bin. It was a level of pressure that would make a weak-hearted person run away or faint instantly.
Her teeth began to chatter, and cold sweat poured from her forehead. Her pupils even started to lose focus, so I naturally expected her to refuse, but...
"If I can... if I can just get stronger... I want to do it."
Unexpected.
Justice and courage are two different things. I was curious why she craved power so much, but I figured I'd find out in due time.
"Main weapon?"
"The same as you, Master Crimson★Hammer! A hammer!"
"A... bow."
Can't I do something about that damn nickname? I should seriously check if the Management Bureau has a name-change system.
I decided to ban them from calling me by my Hero name later and continued questioning my prospective disciples.
"Is it okay that you're both Magical Girls? I'm a pure physical type with no way to teach you magic."
I knew how to dismantle magic or how to cancel it with a single weapon, but I couldn't manifest magic myself.
"A trained body can surpass magic!"
"I can barely use magic anyway..."
They really were like night and day. Well, they both seemed to have the resolve...
Should I try one more test?
"Hyun-seok."
"What?"
"Block your five senses and curl up. I'm releasing my Limiter for a second."
"...Understood."
As Hyun-seok crouched in the corner, the two women looked at me with tilted heads, completely oblivious. In that moment, I unleashed my power.
Thud.
The mattress I was sitting on was crushed, and the blankets flew into the air. Miscellaneous items around the room either floated up or shattered.
Crash. Shatter.
As countless objects in the room were destroyed, I turned my head toward the two Magical Girls.
"This is the kind of master I am. A madman who can't control his strength and has to forcibly suppress his emotions. Are you really okay with me?"
My voice vibrated through the room just by speaking. This was my own way of testing them, of putting them under pressure.
"Yes. Because this is the power I've admired."
Baek Si-hyun’s voice was calm and low. But her eyes were shining brightly, like someone witnessing something they had long yearned for.
"I... I actually didn't know about Crimson★Hammer until Si-hyun told me."
Han A-bin’s eyes were hazy, and she swayed as if she were about to faint, but she somehow pulled herself together and spoke.
"A skilled Hero who participated in numerous O-Rank subjugations despite having no power... If I could become like that..."
"I can't guarantee you'll become like me."
"Even so... I don't want to regret not trying."
"Fine."
I calmed my emotions. Everything in the room was smashed to pieces, but the building itself shouldn't have warped.
"Is it over?"
"Yeah."
Hyun-seok, who had been crouching, stood up and looked around.
"Do you have the money to compensate the hotel?"
"No. Put it on the Bureau’s tab."
"Understood."
...I just said it on a whim, but I guess it really can be expensed. Now that everything was settled, I had to say one last thing to these two.
"First, don't call me by my Hero name. Call me Master Ha-ram or Senior Ha-ram, whatever you want."
"Yes! Master!"
"I understand. Senior Haran..."
I don't need the 'Senior' part, and you even got my name wrong. It's Ha-ram, A-bin.
"Then we're done for today. I'll see you later."
I waved them off.
"What about the Branch Manager?"
"I still have things to discuss with him, so you two go on ahead. That okay, Hyun-seok?"
"Yes. I have things to say as well."
The two disciples nodded and opened the door to leave.
"It went well, didn't it?"
"Yeah... I didn't think he'd actually accept us..."
"I told you it would work out!"
The excited voices of my two disciples faded as they moved down the hall, and silence settled over the wrecked hotel room.
Once I was sure their presence was completely gone, my expression twisted, and I spoke.
"Tell me the truth, Park Hyun-seok."
"I will."
"What is the Management Bureau thinking? Why did you expose Baek Si-hyun to the media?"
The Bureau could have easily stopped her. Even if Baek Si-hyun was born with top-tier talent, she was still just a raw diamond. A trained Hero could have easily prevented her intrusion.
"Are you angry because you can't go home because she said your name?"
"Let's just call that an unavoidable disaster. The reason I'm angry is something else."
By now, reporters were probably swarming in front of my house.
I only felt bad for Un-ho, whom I'd left behind.
"Why didn't you stop her from appearing at the press conference?"
"Orders from above."
"Orders from above, my foot. They're obviously planning to use her as a scapegoat."
"..."
Hyun-seok remained silent, not even attempting to refute my words.
"Do you think the Black Marauder will be easy to defeat? You know as well as I do. This is a story that will last at least a year, maybe several. In the meantime, civilian casualties will only increase."
"Yes. Even if the Black Marauder is weaker than you, it will take her years to grow to that level."
"Then you should have hidden her identity even more. Every time she fails to repel him, the media's arrows will be aimed at her. Isn't the Bureau supposed to be the one taking those hits instead?"
"I have no excuse."
He looked at me with his usual expressionless face.
"Park Hyun-seok. Let me ask you seriously. Why are you trying to pass on the insults we suffered to a junior?"
The insults laced with emotion.
The rotten, stinking eggs.
The endless phone calls.
The graffiti on the front door.
The letters that made no sense.
"..."
"You of all people should know. How lonely and shitty it is to be a Hero who fights against the Otherworld but never receives recognition."
"Yes."
Another meaningless, short answer. This damn guy.
"Or is the higher-up's plan to let another Hero fall? Are they trying to have another S-Rank Hero turn corrupt and wipe a country off the map with a nuke again?"
"It's not like that."
As he said that, his expressionless face crumbled, and his gaze shifted somewhere.
The corners of the room.
Positions where he didn't need to turn his head to see.
He repeatedly glanced at those spots.
"I am simply following orders from above."
"I see."
Snap.
With a snap of my fingers, small Steel Marbles appeared around me. My only long-range and non-lethal technique.
"Orders from above, huh?"
I knew something was off.
There was no way this guy would just blindly follow orders. I snapped my fingers again, and the Steel Marbles flew out. Simultaneously, the sound of something breaking echoed three times.
"Eavesdropping?"
"Yes."
Purely mechanical devices are a pain to detect.
"Those lunatics. When did they install these so thoroughly?"
This was a hotel room I had chosen and decided on, yet they had installed wiretaps. If that was the case...
"Precognition? This is driving me crazy."
"No, they just installed wiretaps in every hotel you were likely to choose."
"Aren't they even more insane then?"
They scattered wiretaps in hotels that wouldn't be destroyed even if they were caught in my shockwaves? If they had that kind of money, they should have given it to me.
"Now that the bugs are gone, let's have a heart-to-heart. Why did you expose Baek Si-hyun to the media?"
I crossed my legs and continued the conversation with my old friend in a more comfortable posture.
"Your guess is correct, Lee Ha-ram. She's a scapegoat. As soon as the higher-ups saw the Black Marauder’s power, they judged that there was no way to eliminate him or suppress the damage in the short term."
So they're going to blame it on an individual's lack of effort?
To protect the Bureau’s integrity?
"And you just stood by and watched?"
"Yes."
"Oh, great job. Just wonderful, Hyun-seok. Where did the old you go—the one who said he'd join the Bureau for the sake of future Heroes?"
Even my friend, who had started from the bottom with such resolve, seemed to have warped after entering the Bureau.
Is it unavoidable?
Feeling bitter, I pulled a stick out from my pocket and bit down on it.
"That is why I assigned you as her master."
Crunch.
At his unexpected words, I bit down harder on the stick.
"What are you talking about? Wasn't that an order from above?"
"It was my own decision."
"Why? What are you thinking?"
Crunch.
Go ahead, open your mouth and make an excuse, Hyun-seok. So that I can judge your sense of justice.
"Please protect her."
Now it was my turn to be speechless.
"There was no way to go against the higher-ups. Even if I had stepped down, they would have pushed through with it."
He wasn't wrong. Even if Hyun-seok held the highest position in the Korea Branch, he was just a single Branch Manager under the United Nations. There were plenty of ways to replace him.
"Baek Si-hyun was the perfect talent for the higher-ups to manipulate. She's clever in her own way, but simple and easily swayed by her emotions. On top of that, she has a sense of justice."
Just like we used to.
"Furthermore, the Black Marauder is not a Mutant who causes indiscriminate destruction."
A Hero whose retirement timing could be controlled to some extent. The Mutant in the story also prioritized targeting worthless Heroes rather than causing indiscriminate destruction.
"Therefore, I didn't know what would happen if she were left entirely in the Bureau’s hands."
At best, she'd be in an Assassination Unit. They'd use her until the day she retired.
Yes, I see it clearly now. A talent who was easy to use as a scapegoat and easy for the Bureau to exploit. As her mental state gradually deteriorated, the likelihood of her obeying the Bureau—her only support—would increase. In their eyes, she was the perfect pawn.
"I did what I could. Using my authority, I recommended Baek Si-hyun as your disciple."
"Are you telling me to be her shield?"
"Yes."
"There's nothing in it for me, though?"
"Yes."
Crunch.
My mouth hung open at the uncontrollable surge of emotion. Feelings I had sealed deep inside began to bloom.
"I like it."
That's more like it. That's my friend.
I didn't know what kind of flower of justice she would bloom into, but I wouldn't let her wither away while she was still a seed.
"I knew you would say that, Lee Ha-ram."
A smile also appeared on his face. And so, we both grinned at each other.
After a moment of sharing smiles, we both returned to our usual expressions.
"Well, that takes care of Baek Si-hyun."
I continued.
"What about Han A-bin? She's a D-Rank at best. No, an E-Rank Hero. What's the point of training her? She even has her own separate story."
She had plenty of justice in her heart, but she was far too weak.
Physical abilities only slightly better than an average person's, and a healing ability so weak it was practically meaningless. She seemed to have a talent for combat, but with such a poor foundation, it didn't matter.
"Don't put ranks on Heroes."
"Publicly, sure."
The Bureau claimed on the surface that all Heroes were equal, but in documents that weren't allowed to be released externally, they assigned ranks.
To make them easier to use in case of an emergency.
"Even if you don't like judging Heroes by rank, she's objectively weak anyway. Instead of making her my disciple, it would be easier for her to just live a quiet life and retire."
Baek Si-hyun had her reasons, but what was the point of Han A-bin, a mere commoner?
"She is a Hero similar to you."
"What?"
"She's a Hero whose enemy hasn't appeared for three... no, nearly four years."
"That's not common."
Considering some Heroes finish their stories and retire within a year, having no progress in a story for nearly four years was definitely rare.
I was in my 30th year, and it had been 10 years since my story had any progress. Thinking about it made me angry again. Those damn tentacle bastards.
"And like you, she's a Magical Girl who is almost completely unable to discharge mana."
"Ah. So that's why. That's a pretty rare case."
No wonder her healing magic was terrifyingly slow.
"Yes. We almost missed it if we hadn't done a precision scan this time."
"Still, after four years, her body should have developed to some extent."
Even if mana discharge is impossible, internal physical reinforcement is the most basic part.
If she had a constitution like mine where mana discharge was difficult, her body should have conversely strengthened rapidly. Of course, she hadn't trained as a Martial Artist like I had, so it would be slower, but still...
"Have you forgotten? It's not like the old days when we fought every single day."
"Ah. Right."
Unlike us, who fought every single day regardless of the story, she didn't have the time to train that. If mana accumulated internally but didn't lead to physical reinforcement...
"I get the gist of it. I'll try training her too. Though there's no guarantee she'll end up like me."
People who had difficulty discharging mana were rare, but I wasn't the only one. It's just that most of them died early.
"Then we're done. Anything else to say?"
"No."
As I said that and waved him off, Hyun-seok stood up and opened the hotel room door.
"I'll prepare a place for you to stay as quickly as possible. Rest until then."
He said that as he stepped over the threshold. I replied to him.
"Hyun-seok. Thanks for not changing."
At least Hyun-seok hadn't abandoned his old mindset and sense of justice. It was a short conversation, but I could tell. His justice had rusted and warped from being caught up in society, and it had taken on some filth, but The Core remained.
"I appreciate you saying that."
Creeak.
Thud. Click.