A Girlish Scream
A girlish scream.
The staff Seonghyeon swung tore space itself apart.
The pressure from a staff swung inside a building is manifesting outside?
As if the blow had been delivered from beyond the walls, it shoved aside only the space where the Snake occupied.
This is... not an easy opponent for a mere fragment of myself.
The Snake marveled at the spectacle unfolding before its eyes.
It was no holy relic. It was not even a proper weapon. Just a table leg ripped from a dining table — a scrap of ordinary wood. And yet the martial art Seonghyeon unleashed through it was breathtakingly beautiful.
KWA-DU-DU-DU-DUK!
Space collapsed. Along the path the wooden staff had carved, pure white fractures bloomed. Like glass shattering under impossible strain, space itself screamed and broke apart.
...!!!
The rupture should have roared with a deafening crash — but the overwhelming force swallowed even sound, snuffing it out. That single strike, devouring noise and shattering space alike, landed on the Snake.
PAAAAANG!
Struck square in its gaping maw, the Snake was hurled backward.
As expected of the Saint Lady Stella chose.
Striking a spiritual body was normally impossible. The soul was inviolable territory. Even those who had awakened the power of the soul were forbidden by the laws of the world from striking a soul directly.
And yet Seonghyeon had done it.
Not because she was a Saint. Not because she was connected to a goddess. Pure martial skill. With pure martial skill alone, she had smashed the laws themselves.
Truly... magnificent...
The Snake was sincerely impressed. Even a Hero draped in every blessing imaginable would struggle to reach this level — and yet someone chosen not as a Hero but as a Saint had attained martial mastery of this caliber. No amount of praise would ever be enough.
But that was all.
Which is why it is such a shame. Your talent, Seonghyeon. How bitterly I resent that I must be the one to break you while you are still blooming so beautifully.
Even a blow that had left the Demon King with a fatal wound left the Snake completely unharmed.
Sssssssssss...
The Snake's body began to swell. The form that had once coiled around an apartment building now grew vast enough to swallow the world itself. A monster serpent that could devour creation. Even as a mere fragmented portion of the whole, a strike from a human who had not yet reached divinity could never truly touch it.
Zzuuuk—!!
The Snake's pupils dilated wide. Its authority began to interpret Seonghyeon.
The Snake's power was omniscience — the perfect analysis and interpretation of all things. And once the analysis was complete, it could unravel its target. Even if that target was human.
Moments later, the Snake succeeded in fully interpreting Seonghyeon.
Then... farewell.
The Snake offered its parting words. Just as its authority was about to take effect—
Flash!
"...!!!"
A thin wash of moonlight suddenly descended, illuminating the Snake.
What was that? Am I imagining things?
I had definitely felt the presence of something enormous. Something so vast that comparing it to the Demon King — no, even calling it Demon King-class would have been an insult — had come crashing down over my head. Under that crushing pressure that squeezed my heart, I had, without thinking, smashed the dining table, fashioned a wooden staff from its leg, and launched a Heaven-Rending Smash into empty air.
Must have been a false alarm. I mean, something greater than the Demon King? Impossible unless it was a goddess.
I must have been under a lot of psychological strain since arriving here. Sensing weird presences and everything. Honestly, how was anyone supposed to stay sane when the guys around here plastered their faces with makeup and walked around in skirts? A little sensory confusion was only natural. Yeah.
As expected of me. I had accurately assessed and diagnosed my own condition. Most people who weren't right in the head never even realized they weren't right in the head — but me? I was practically ready to slap a pair of doctors across both cheeks with how sharp my judgment was.
"Hhk..."
A choked, hiccuping sound came from beside me. I turned toward it.
"Ah..."
The moment I saw them, a sigh escaped me.
Jia and Jihu were huddled in the corner of the kitchen, trembling violently. Jia had Jihu's head pulled tight against him, muttering in what looked like a full-blown panic.
"I-I'm sorry... s-sorry..."
"..."
"I-I'm sorry, Mom..."
There was no trace of the bold, snippy Jia I knew. His face was deathly pale, his eyes unfocused.
Wait, why is he like this?
Yes, I had briefly lost it, kicked the dining table, and started swinging a table leg around. But was that really something to be this terrified of? Suddenly kicking a table and waving a wooden stick around was, well...
Yeah. That'd be scary.
I would have been scared too. If some perfectly normal person suddenly went berserk, smashed a dining table, and started swinging the broken leg around, even if it didn't trigger a full panic attack, it would still be terrifying.
I was a man who knew when he was in the wrong. I had frightened them, so I would apologize — a man with the courage to own his mistakes. The relevant anatomy might have fallen off, but my heart was still the same.
I put on the gentlest, most humble expression I could manage and spoke to Jia.
"Uh... Jia?"
"Uh... uh... Mom..."
He was even calling for his mother.
"I went a little cr—"
Seeing how serious his state was, I abandoned the five-hundred-word preamble I'd been about to deliver and decided to just apologize first.
But in that moment—
"I'm sorry, Mom..."
The person Jia was addressing in his terror was not me. He wasn't afraid of me.
Mom...?
Yes, my actions just now had left him trembling in fear. But I was not the object of that fear. He had said "Mom."
Surely his mother couldn't have done something that would—
"Jihu... just not Jihu..."
"..."
"I'm the one who did wrong... I'm the one who messed up, so... please don't hit Jihu... please..."
With every word, Jia's voice grew more hoarse and broken.
Zzzt...!
Watching Jia so deep in panic that he couldn't even recognize me, that strange memory from earlier tried to surface again. It felt like someone was rummaging through my head without permission, and it was deeply unpleasant.
"Uh... uh..."
It was absolutely not because I was worried about some guy assigned the role of my childhood friend Jia crying. Absolutely not.
Thud.
I dropped the wooden staff from my hand. Afraid the sound of it hitting the floor would push him deeper into panic, I caught it once with the top of my foot and then pinned it under my sole to kill the noise. Then I slowly approached Jia.
The closer I got, the harder he trembled. When I was nearly right against him, Jia squeezed his eyes shut in terror.
I placed a hand on his head and spoke.
"O Goddess. Bestow your courage upon the children who must walk toward battle."
Hymn of Valor
I activated a divine spell that could keep a mind intact even when marching toward death. As sacred power seeped into him, Jia's trembling visibly subsided.
I spoke to him.
"Open your eyes."
"Hhk..."
"Open them before I pry them open myself. It's me. Kang Seonghyeon. Not your mom."
"Seonghyeon...?"
Jia opened his eyes and looked straight at me. Unlike before, his focus was clear and sharp.
"Do you know who I am?"
"..."
A nod. Jia dipped his head once in answer.
"..."
The arms holding him fell away, and Jihu carefully peeled his face free from Jia's chest, peeking out with cautious eyes.
"Where am I supposed to dump this again?"
"Go out the apartment entrance, straight ahead, then turn right — you'll see the trash area. Leave it there and stick a disposal sticker on it."
"Got it. Be right back."
Seonghyeon hoisted the four-person solid-wood table in one hand and walked out of the house.
Once she was gone, Jia began sweeping up the smaller debris — sawdust and wood chips — with a dustpan. As he cleaned, Jihu spoke up.
"Just now... Noona was exactly like back then, wasn't she?"
"...Be quiet."
"Okaaay..."
Jihu clamped his mouth shut. Both hands carefully cupped over his lips, he entered full self-mute mode. Watching him, Jia burst out laughing.
"Pfft...! What are you doing..."
"Mmph...! Mmph...!"
"You can just take your hands off, you know."
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Jihu made an X with his fingers and pressed them over his mouth. His fierce determination to obey Jia's order to stay quiet was palpable.
"Heh... Enough. Go fill the bathtub so Seonghyeon can wash up when she gets back."
"Mmph!"
"I said stop already..."
Even as he told him to quit it, a smile tugged at Jia's lips at his little brother's antics.
Charged with the critical mission of preparing Seonghyeon's bathwater, Jihu entered the bathroom and turned on the tub faucet. Warm water poured from the spout. Because it was Seonghyeon's bath, he stuck his hand in and carefully adjusted it to the perfect temperature.
And while he was at it—
Splash splash.
"Kyarrk!"
—he spun little whirlpools in the water and played around.
I want to wash up too...
Of course Noona would bathe first. Washing in her leftover water was fine, but with his hands already in the water like this, he desperately wanted to climb in right now.
Jihu fretted over it for a moment.
Huh? Wait a second... Nobody said Noona has to bathe alone.
A brilliant idea struck him. Jihu immediately jumped up, ran to Jia, and shared his stroke of genius.
By the time I came back from dumping the table, warm water was already drawn and waiting.
They'd prepared it for me first. I already felt terrible enough, and now they were being considerate on top of it. That only made the guilt worse.
But in complete defiance of that guilt—
Ugh... the bathtub is pulling me in.
—my body drifted toward the tub of its own accord.
Splash!
"Aah... how long has it been since I last had a real bath..."
The moment I sank into the water, a groan of pure bliss spilled out automatically. My body wasn't even particularly tired, but the second I hit warm water, those sounds just came out on their own.
Come to think of it, I'd barely bathed while preparing for the Demon King fight, hadn't I? I'd cleaned myself with that mage girl's Clean spell and my own Purification magic, but actually immersing myself in water like this... it really had been ages.
People really do need to wash with water...
It felt like the warmth of nature itself was seeping into my body. Just being cradled by the water seemed to wash away every ugly thought.
I sank in deep and rested my head against the rim of the tub. Every little ripple threatened to send water into my mouth, but I decided to think of it as receiving nature's grace, and that made it bearable.
And so, lost in the narcotic sweetness of a long-overdue bath—
Knock knock.
Someone rapped on the bathroom door.
"Noona..."
Jihu, huh?
"Yeah... what's uuuup..."
"Earlier, when we fought... you got really mad, right...?"
Jihu mumbled awkwardly from outside the door.
Ah... he thinks I smashed the table because of that...
Feeling a little bad about the misunderstanding, I answered right away even though my whole body had gone soft and lazy and talking felt like too much work.
"No. I'm not mad. Don't worry about it..."
"So, um, we were partly at fault too... and I wanted to scrub your back at least. Is it okay if I come in?"
"Uh... sure..."
Right. When guys fall out with each other, they scrub each other's backs nice and hard and make up. Hahaha.
...
Come in?
Splash!
"Wait, hold on—"
I surged upright in a panic and shouted.
But—
Bang!
The door was already open. Through it walked two brothers, each wearing nothing but a single white towel.
"Noonaaa! Jihu'll scrub your back for you."
"E-excuse me..."
"..."
Thin frames completely covered by a single towel. That much was fine. But below that — the part the towels were only barely managing to conceal. Even with the fabric in the way, it was jutting out with magnificent, unmistakable presence.
"Uh... uh..."
"Noona?"
"Ah... ah..."
I stammered under the shock, scrambling to cover myself. And once my thoughts finally caught up, what came out of my mouth was—
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"
A girlish scream tore free.