The Showdown (3)
The rarer the shaman, the fewer the Constellations willing to sponsor them.
It was a natural consequence of the fact that shamanism operated on a mechanism entirely different from magic.
As of now, exactly one Constellation in the world sponsored shamans.
Old Fox on the Back Mountain.
Every shaman alive, without a single exception, was under contract with this being.
Old Fox on the Back Mountain is addressing you.
"...?"
Iris Gostrick had been the youngest daughter of a storied shaman family.
In truth, half of all shamans in existence could be counted as members of her clan, Gostrick.
And among them, Iris — blessed with heaven-defying talent — had successfully contracted with a Constellation the very moment she awakened.
Yet even she had never experienced anything like this.
A Constellation speaking to her directly.
"Wh-what is it that you require of me?"
Old Fox on the Back Mountain snarls viciously and says: "My servant was struck down by that bastard."
"A-are you saying one of the shamans was taken down by a villain?"
From the Old Fox's perspective, it was indeed an enraging affair.
Shamans were already scarce; every time one died, it amounted to a devastating loss.
But that alone was no reason for the Constellation to personally reach out to her.
Old Fox on the Back Mountain says: "Kill that bastard's lackey."
"I beg your... pardon?"
The bastard's lackey.
Why wasn't she being ordered to kill the bastard himself — only his underling?
Come to think of it, why was she suddenly receiving orders to murder someone at all?
Bewildered, Iris stared at the message.
Old Fox on the Back Mountain says: "If you slay the bastard's lackey, I shall grant you an Incarnation Contract."
"...!"
Already drowning in confusion, she had no choice but to snap her eyes wide open at that message.
What was an Incarnation Contract?
The exclusive, direct contractor of a Constellation — the single individual a deity was permitted to take, no more, no less.
Whoever held an Incarnation Contract naturally occupied the supreme position among all who served that Constellation.
I-if that happened, I could restore Gostrick to its former glory...!
Gostrick.
A prestigious shaman family that had produced generation after generation of prodigies.
But with shamans such a rare breed, the clan had long since withered to a name and nothing more.
She, a shaman born of that line and gifted with innate talent, desperately wanted her family to rise again.
"But if I kill someone, doesn't that make me a villain...?"
The problem was that, as someone who aspired to be a hero, casually slaughtering an innocent person didn't sit right with her.
Old Fox on the Back Mountain says: "Once you become my Incarnation, it won't matter."
"..."
She had to admit — the logic held.
Imagine it: someone kills a person, and then abruptly becomes an Incarnation.
What would people conclude?
Ah! They killed someone, but the shamans' Constellation made them an Incarnation — so the guy they offed must have been a complete piece of shit after all!!
This was a modern age where Constellations reigned above humanity.
A Constellation's action was the judgment seat that determined guilt itself.
Old Fox on the Back Mountain says: "Right now, the only person suited to the task is you — the one closest to the bastard."
"...And who is the target?"
Old Fox on the Back Mountain answers: "Kim Hyunseong of the Academy's Class 1-F."
Kim Hyunseong of Class 1-F.
She knew neither his name nor his face.
But she had to decide.
If I refuse here, I'll fall out of favor.
Turn her back on the Constellation now, and she would be marked — no proper support, no blessings, nothing.
And then her lifelong dream of "restoring the family" would drift beyond her reach forever.
But.
If I kill him...
Kill Kim Hyunseong, and "the family's restoration" was guaranteed.
"I... I will do it."
And so Iris Gostrick resolved to kill him.
She would do it in a public duel for the entire academy to witness, showing them all her elevation to Incarnation in real time — sealing every whisper of doubt before it could ever begin.
And that decision would prove to be the single stupidest choice of her entire life.
Word of the duel spread through the academy in the blink of an eye.
Class F fighting Class A — naturally, it was fodder guaranteed to set the whole place on fire.
Nobody was going to skip it, of course.
Frankly, even I would've sprinted over to watch something like this — hell yes, that'd be hilarious!
"What weapon do you think I should pick?"
Seated in the waiting room, I asked while scanning the racks of training weapons.
Outer God Nyarlathotep says: "Grab whatever and go act cocky."
So it doesn't matter what the weapon is, apparently.
"...I'll just take what I'm used to, then."
Knuckles.
Swordwork and spearwork took far too long to learn, so I'd always relied on the simple art of punching people — and knuckles were the weapon for it.
In truth, they were the only weapon that had ever done me any good in a fight.
Well. Not that I'd ever actually won.
Sliiide.
I slipped the knuckles on, and a cold sensation settled between my fingers.
That feeling made it hit home for real now: the duel was about to begin.
Nyarlathotep had said it'd be fine, but worrying was only natural.
We were separated by a whole five ranks — anyone who didn't worry at that gap would be the strange one.
Bzzt.
Just then, my phone buzzed.
A text telling me to head in.
I rose from my seat and walked slowly toward the arena.
Since the arena was treated as a kind of dueling ground, it was on the spacious side — easiest to picture it as roughly the size of a decent sports field.
The moment I stepped in, Iris Gostrick stood across from me wearing a grim, determined expression, and the spectator stands — apparently everyone had heard the rumor — were packed to the brim.
"WAAAAAH!!!"
The crowd roared their enthusiasm, blissfully unaware of anyone's actual feelings.
Every one of them wore the academy uniform.
"IRIS!!!"
And not a single soul was cheering for me.
Well, obviously. The gap in reputation was just too wide. Can't lie, it's kind of demoralizing.
I let out a long sigh and took my stance—
"GO GET 'EM, KIM HYUNSEONG!!!"
A colossal roar slammed into my ears.
I turned my head in confusion to find a familiar face waving a banner and screaming his lungs out.
[ KIM HYUNSEONG — STRONGEST IN THE UNIVERSE ]
It was Gu Haseong — the guy I'd brainwashed with my ability.
...I don't want this kind of support.
If a whole crowd had been behind me, maybe. But one lone lunatic? The embarrassment came flooding in from all sides.
I ignored him and set my stance again.
"You do realize you can't beat me, right? Perhaps you'd rather spend your time preparing to get hit as little as possible?"
Across from me, Iris lobbed a half-baked taunt.
Frankly, since I was walking away with five hundred million won whether I won or lost, I could afford to let that level of provocation slide.
Besides, if I taunted her back and rattled her mood, the one who'd suffer a public relations collapse was me.
I already had an unlikable image; I wasn't about to add "arch-villain" to my job description.
"Begin."
The teacher refereeing the duel lazily called the start.
Standing in the arena, Iris continued her grave deliberations.
Is this really right...?
For someone who dreamed of being a hero — was it right to kill a man whose crimes she didn't even know... no, a man whose guilt she couldn't even confirm?
A Constellation had given the order directly, so he was surely a bad person.
And if the reward on offer was nothing less than an Incarnation Contract, then he must have committed a truly enormous sin.
And yet the thought gnawed at her all the same: could she really kill a man she knew nothing about?
No. Killing him is the right thing to do.
A hero is one who kills villains.
Slaying an evildoer so wicked that a Constellation itself issued the order was justice.
He was, after all, the lackey of the villain who'd murdered a shaman.
Which made him a villain, beyond a shadow of a doubt.
I don't know what reason he has to be at the Academy, or why he's stuck rotting in Class F, but...
For the sake of her ultimate goal — the restoration of her family — she would kill one villain.
That was the only thing Iris allowed herself to remember.
Thud. Thud.
After a short wait, someone came walking slowly toward her from across the arena.
His face was scrunched up in full displeasure, as if none of this suited him at all.
He glanced around a few times, then his chin came to a stop, fixed on one spot.
Following his gaze, she looked the same way — and found a man proudly hoisting a banner so embarrassing that anyone who saw it would blush on his behalf.
[ KIM HYUNSEONG — STRONGEST IN THE UNIVERSE ]
...I'm embarrassed just watching.
She had no idea why he was cheering for Kim Hyunseong, but the sheer secondhand shame was unbearable.
This was the first time she'd ever felt pity for a villain.
But I have no intention of going easy on him.
Steeled once more, she opened her mouth toward Hyunseong with something like a sneer.
I was taught that every fight begins with a battle of nerve.
"You do realize you can't beat me, right? Perhaps you'd rather spend your time preparing to get hit as little as possible?"
She intended to win the war of words first.
She'd lost their last verbal exchange, but she firmly believed the psychological battle would be different this time.
Yet for all her resolve, he showed no reaction whatsoever.
No — his expression didn't so much as twitch, as if her words hadn't landed at all.
Tsk.
Mildly irritated by that, she took her stance to mirror his.
"Begin."
The Academy teacher's indifferent signal.
And her mind began racing.
First, a body-reinforcement shamanic spell...
FWOOSH!
"...!"
A massive fireball came hurtling at her with terrifying speed.
WHIZZ!
She barely dodged it, then stole a glance at the fireball's wake.
BOOM!
Devastating destructive power — and the flames didn't even extinguish, as if the sheer heat refused to die.
In that instant, she understood.
The question was no longer whether she should kill him.
It was how she was going to survive.