There's No End to Training (2)
Today's training had focused almost entirely on breathing.
It was honestly a difficult concept to grasp.
It wasn't the kind of thing you understood the moment you heard it explained, so the training had proceeded by demonstration and imitation — I showed them, they followed along.
"How was today's training, Ms. Seo Yoon?"
"I believe utilizing the breath this way is a highly practical method. There is a great deal to learn from it."
"Honestly, we didn't expect you to keep up this well. Teaching you is a genuine pleasure."
Even so, Seo Yoon had kept up far better than even Lee Jun had imagined.
Most of the material she absorbed after a single explanation, executing it immediately.
Calling her a star pupil didn't even begin to cover it.
"Hmm... Jun, are you sure this is really her first time learning this today?"
"Of course. At least as far as my memory goes."
"Really? She's keeping up awfully well for a first-timer..."
It was only natural for Siara to find it strange.
Her retention bordered on excessive.
She was clearly not a genius of the caliber Siara herself would acknowledge.
And yet the speed at which she absorbed instruction was outright nonsensical.
At this point, it was fair to say that this comprehension and learning ability were simply her particular trait.
"Alright, we'll think about the results of today's training later. For now, let's clean up the training hall."
"Understood, Boss."
At those words, Seo Yoon immediately set about gathering the toppled training robots.
"Cleaning up" really just meant piling them into a corner, but even that was a tedious chore in its own right.
Yet Seo Yoon followed Lee Jun's instructions without a word of complaint.
Nearly ten straight hours of training would wear anyone down, and she showed not the slightest sign of fatigue.
The complaint came from an unexpected quarter instead.
"Ehhh, me too?"
"Obviously. You're the one who beat them to pieces the most."
"If I'd known this was coming, I would've gone easier on them."
"You'd have done the same anyway."
Grunting all the while, Siara gathered up the robot wreckage.
She did as she was told without fail, yet still found room to whine about it.
Even seeing this again after so long, some things clearly never changed.
She worked diligently — and at the same time, her mouth never stopped.
"Maaan, what kind of master makes his disciple do all the work? That's supposed to be the master's job..."
"What makes you a master, exactly?"
"I'm passing down my techniques, so that makes me a master!"
"Then show some exemplary behavior as one."
"Ughh, I am working, aren't I?"
Clank—
Siara hauled off several robots at once, each far larger than her own body.
Her mouth, of course, kept grumbling the entire time.
Lee Jun snorted at the sight.
And Siara, taking that as agreement, barked at him.
"Jun! Why aren't you working!"
"Fine, fine, I'm going."
Under Siara's indignant pressure, Lee Jun began stacking the shattered robot remains into the corner as well.
Even while doing so, he replayed the day's training results in his head.
It really is strange.
Seo Yoon's talent was ordinary.
Yet her rate of acquisition was overwhelmingly fast.
That contradiction — the gap between the two — was what had made Siara tilt her head.
Lee Jun, however, had nodded instead.
So that's just what she is.
Every training session so far, Seo Yoon had mastered everything in a single attempt.
Back then, even Lee Jun had found it odd — but once things reached this level, it simply became the easiest explanation to accept.
That learning speed... it has to be a unique constitution or an innate ability.
Whether she knew she had bloomed or remained unaware of it.
Whatever form it took, it was unmistakably an ability of some kind.
Nothing else could explain this sense of wrongness — so by process of elimination, that had to be the answer.
And the odds were even higher that she already knew it herself.
If an outsider could sense the strangeness, there was no way the person living in her own body hadn't.
She'd surely realized it in one way or another.
Which meant that vague feeling Lee Jun had gotten before — that Seo Yoon was hiding something — most likely pointed here.
Well, given more time, she'll tell me.
Frankly, keeping an innate ability or unique constitution secret was the smarter move anyway.
The more cards you kept hidden, the better your strategic position.
Things like this never appeared on a basic status window, so they wouldn't surface during Association registration either.
Well... growth-related abilities were arguably a slightly different case, but whether to reveal them or not was entirely the individual's choice.
He would leave this to Seo Yoon's judgment.
It might not be an ability at all, you know?
Fair enough — Silhouette had a point.
It could simply be Seo Yoon's personal talent, nothing supernatural about it.
But... with apologies to Seo Yoon, she didn't seem to possess talent of that magnitude.
At least, that was how it felt to Lee Jun.
Take Siara, right beside him, for example.
The moment she awakened, she took down dozens of B-Class monsters single-handedly.
That was absurd, cheat-level talent.
Even among S-Class hunters, that kind of start was hard to find.
You could easily call it compensation for her inability to use magic.
But compared to that, Seo Yoon is... uncanny.
It wasn't the same as talent.
How to put it — it felt as if she'd already experienced it somewhere before.
Even Siara showed a clumsy phase whenever she learned something new.
It was just that her clumsy period was absurdly short.
Seo Yoon had no such phase at all.
She digested brand-new instruction as if it were second nature.
If that was the ability she possessed, it was an enviable one, no doubt about it.
But hey — good was good, wasn't it?
There was another reason Lee Jun wouldn't say any of this to Seo Yoon.
Mana sensitivity overload. Impaired resonance control.
Post-awakening multiple mana runaway.
Those liabilities would become her weaknesses.
Lee Jun would never cast her aside over them — but from her own standpoint, she couldn't know that.
Anyone would want to hold at least one hidden card for peace of mind.
So once her conditions were fully treated, there was a decent chance she'd come forward on her own.
And the auction is coming soon anyway. She'll be treatable before long.
As she was now, Seo Yoon fought almost entirely on pure physical movement, barely touching her mana at all.
Given that gathering mana was nearly impossible for her, that much was only natural.
Once her problems were cured, she'd be able to use skills and even learn simple magic.
Her combat power would leap, and with it, an A-Class promotion would come within reach.
Joining the ranks of the very top hunters wouldn't be a dream either.
You really think everything will work out that smoothly?
It was a hypothesis, that's all.
Just picturing how things would go if everything broke the right way.
And if it doesn't?
If things went badly... the treatment would fail.
Then it wouldn't be her combat power in question — her life itself would be at risk.
The treatment wasn't that difficult once you had the materials, but there was still a probability involved.
"...Tch."
"...?"
Siara tilted her head at Lee Jun's sudden click of the tongue.
But she quickly lost interest.
This was hardly the first or second time he'd done this.
Probably fretting about something again, all on his own, like always.
She'd long since learned to let it go.
"Haaah, how do you have that much to think about."
Muttering her concern, Siara returned to her own task.
If this scene felt familiar, it was because it had been a fixture back in Arcana.
How much time had passed after that?
The three of them had piled every last hunk of scrap metal into one corner.
The mountain was considerable — proof that their ten hours had not been wasted.
"We can just leave it all here?"
"Yeah. That guy will come collect it on his own."
Better not to ask how he moved it all.
Learning about that astonishing technology would only breed fear.
"Shall we head up, then?"
Seo Yoon nodded at Lee Jun's words.
She was visibly tired.
He'd deliberately made the cleanup double as her cool-down, working the muscles in place of a proper stretching routine — but honestly, he should have just sent her up ahead.
"We made real progress today. Take tomorrow off — rest properly."
"I would like to say I am fine, but... I believe I should take you up on that."
"Meaningful results only come when you mix in proper rest. So tomorrow, do absolutely nothing and just rest."
"Yes, understood."
With that, Lee Jun sent Seo Yoon up first and finished the cleanup himself.
He switched off the training hall lights one last time and started up the stairs toward the first floor.
Just then, Siara — perched quietly on his shoulder — spoke up.
"You've gotten a lot better, you know."
"Better at what?"
"Most of the anxiety's faded away, and your bad habits are slowly clearing up too."
Something in her voice sounded faintly bittersweet.
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"It is a good thing."
"Doesn't sound like it."
"It's just... it scares me a little. Like you're about to bolt, way off into the distance, and leave everything behind."
"......"
Lee Jun remembered every moment of his time before the regression.
Through all those long, long years, he had shouldered everything alone.
But put another way, that also meant he'd had that much time to unload it all.
Or, to put it yet another way... despite all that time, I never managed to let it all go.
Everyone has a sore spot they can't bear to touch.
For Lee Jun, that sore spot was... himself.
The people around him had all been so extraordinary — and he had not.
He had survived for far too long.
"Hey, you know, I still feel like I'm dreaming sometimes."
Siara said it while leaning lightly against him.
Soft plush brushed against his hair.
"I'm still standing in place, but Jun... you've gone so far ahead. I think it's amazing."
"We're all still in place."
"...Liar."
"I don't lie."
Because that was his resolve.
She knew it, too — which was why Siara didn't argue the point.
"Yeah. What you say... has always been right."
"It's really not, though."
"Heheh. Right, you're correct. It really wasn't, was it."
Siara let out a happy little laugh.
Lee Jun gently patted her head.
The softness of the plush traveled up through his palm.
That sensation — so vivid it anchored him to reality — somehow left him feeling bittersweet instead.
When the two of them reached the first floor, the bustle coming from the kitchen drew them over.
Seo Yoon, who had gone up ahead, was there as well.
"What's going on?"
"The three of them are making dinner, apparently."
At that, Lee Jun glanced deeper into the kitchen and found Choi Jeong-hyeon cooking together with Jeanne.
Timothy, meanwhile, sat beside the sink watching the two of them work.
The trio made for a rather unique picture.
But that wasn't what bothered Lee Jun most.
"...Cooking, of all things?"
Jeanne and Timothy were not, to put it mildly, good cooks.
Jeanne's sense of taste itself was weak, so her seasoning swung wildly from dish to dish, and Timothy had never shown the slightest interest in cooking to begin with.
Which meant most of tonight's meal must be Choi Jeong-hyeon's handiwork, and...
"Hmm..."
Lee Jun glanced sideways.
The sugar specialist.
A woman whose tongue was made of saccharin.
Human table sugar incarnate.
"......"
Please, let at least one of them have made something edible.
No — it didn't even have to be good.
Lee Jun did most of the cooking around here anyway.
He just... wanted her to at least be aware that she couldn't cook. That was all.
"Boss! It's almost ready, just a few more minutes!"
Maybe it was because she'd grown close to the S-Class hunter she so admired.
Choi Jeong-hyeon looked absolutely delighted.
Forcing down his unease, Lee Jun took a seat at the table beside Seo Yoon.
Well — it was already made. What could he do about it now?
The least he could do was eat it with genuine appreciation.
"Joanna is cooking?"
"I know, right? No idea what's gotten into her."
Siara was surprised at the very fact that Jeanne had attempted to cook.
Lee Jun shared the sentiment.
She had never once volunteered to cook before.
Half hopeful, half anxious, Lee Jun waited for the food to come out.
Before long, Choi Jeong-hyeon brought out the finished dinner.
"Here you go! It's my pride and joy!"
Apparently the meal had indeed been mostly her work.
"Then, let's dig in."
Saying a silent prayer, Lee Jun took a spoonful of the kimchi stew.
From the side dishes to the soup, everything looked genuinely appetizing.
Seo Yoon seemed to feel the same, and for the moment, hope was kindled.
Gulp—
"......!"
Lee Jun couldn't help but be startled.
"...This is actually good?"
"Really?"
"Yes, it's really delicious!"
The spicy heat of the stew wrapped around his tongue, and beneath it, a deep, savory richness bloomed.
Kimchi stew wasn't a particularly difficult dish — but precisely because it was simple, elevating its flavor above a certain baseline was no easy feat.
Yet the kimchi stew Choi Jeong-hyeon had made cleared that ordinary bar with room to spare.
"Hehehe, I'm so glad it suits your taste."
Choi Jeong-hyeon smiled shyly at his praise.
Then she stole a covert glance toward Seo Yoon.
Hoping for her verdict as well.
"It suits my palate as well."
"Really?"
"Yes. I think it is delicious."
"Yes! Joanna, they both say it's tasty!"
"Good. I'm glad."
Choi Jeong-hyeon traded a high-five with Jeanne.
Since when did those two get so close?
Lee Jun found himself staring at this new side of Jeanne.
Seeing her bond easily with someone else was such a rare sight that it struck him as genuinely novel.
"Oh."
Perhaps she'd noticed his gaze.
Jeanne glanced at him with a tiny sound.
"...Heheh."
And then she smiled.
A smile that stood in stark contrast to her usual blank expression.
Small, but unmistakably a smile.
"......"
Lee Jun simply looked at her for a while.
He couldn't find the words for this moment.
He didn't want to ruin it by blurting out something unnecessary.
As Lee Jun held his silence, Jeanne spoke first instead.
"Oppa, does it suit your taste?"
"...Yeah. It's good."
"Is it?"
"Mm. Definitely."
"I see."
She let the faint smile fade and lowered her eyes slightly.
Her usual expressionless face.
But Lee Jun, well accustomed to it by now, could pick out what was different underneath.
Right now, without a doubt... she was happy.
Watching her, something stirred at the edge of his memory, and he pushed it back down.
Getting lost in trauma or sentiment in the middle of dinner would be unbearably uncool.
So he quickly turned his attention to Choi Jeong-hyeon instead.
"Ms. Jeong-hyeon."
"Yes, Boss!"
"Tomorrow's training is yours."
"Huh? Me?"
"Ten hours straight, so brace yourself."
"Wh-what? Ten hours?!"
This had been the plan all along.
It had been quite a while since Choi Jeong-hyeon joined the agency, yet a string of incidents had kept him from ever overseeing her personal training.
Which meant it was time to get a proper measure of her abilities.
Tomorrow would be devoted to exactly that — a full day for her alone.
"I-I'll give it my best!"
Choi Jeong-hyeon had clearly been caught off guard by this announcement of hellish training, but she quickly rallied and answered with spirit.
Yes — that attitude. That's what I like to see.
When the trainee brought the enthusiasm, it made it that much easier for him to push hard in return.
"Great. Let's do this properly tomorrow, then."
"Yes, Boss!"
Blissfully unaware of the pain to come, Choi Jeong-hyeon clenched both fists and steeled her resolve.
How long it would survive... well, it seemed the answer wasn't far off.