Special Privilege (2)
Something was up.
I mouthed the syllable wea— and Angel's eyes bounced up and down like I'd nailed it. Just to be sure, I flicked my gaze toward my left finger.
Roll, roll.
This time those pupils went haywire, like I'd gotten it completely wrong.
Alright. Decision made.
"I'll take it as a weapon."
In the end, I decided to trust Angel. We were partners, after all.
"Ahaha! A weeeapon? You're really going to take it as thaaat?"
Angel's lips trembled as the pitch of that sentence climbed into the stratosphere. That awkwardness only made me more certain.
"Yeah! Give it to me as a weapon!"
"Understood! Just as the player wishes!"
Angel waved a hand through the air, and a familiar chime rang out as an interface window bloomed into existence.
Withered Old Tree Branch, huh. Let's see this weapon Angel was so desperate to recommend.
I opened my inventory with my heart pounding, and there it sat — a brand-new item gleaming under a glittering New! effect. I pulled it out, and a long wooden branch about the length of my forearm came with it. At a glance, it was just a stick. Nothing special.
But the real show started now.
Identify!
A branch that sprouted from a withered old tree.
As a result, it possesses high resistance to the fire attribute.
"...?"
I thought I must have misread it. I waved the branch around and appraised it again. Same thing.
"Th-this...!"
Convinced I'd been had, I whipped around to glare at Angel with my eyes rolling back in my head — and Angel just thumped that little chest with a look that said, Trust me, you idiot.
What the hell was this thing supposed to be? Deciding to give it one more chance, I pictured the branch as a sword and swung it through the air with everything I had.
Whoosh—!
Just the sound of air being cut. Still just a stick.
"What even is this?"
I finally just asked Angel straight.
"Aww, looks like it's just a fire-immune stick, hahaha—!"
Angel dodged the question, looking away. Then, ever so sneakily, those two little fingers formed a B.
B?
That was obviously a hint.
"Nngh..."
Alright. Let's think this through. For some reason, Angel was pushing this weapon hard but couldn't actually talk about it. Couldn't talk about it... then it was definitely because of Causality. Pretty much every "rule" around here had Causality baked into it. So that narrowed the hints down to two things: there was something here important enough to be locked behind Causality, and it was a weapon with a B in the name.
Wait.
A thought slammed into my head. No way. Was this...?
"A Blooming-type weapon?"
Angel's eyes lit up like fireworks at my mutter.
Hold on. A Blooming-type weapon? For real? The hand holding the branch started to shake. The moment I thought of it as one of those legendary Blooming-type weapons, that feather-light stick felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
Of course I hadn't thought of it at first. I'd already been so happy my stomach was about to burst just from my sidearm sword becoming a dedicated weapon. And now a Blooming-type?!
Blooming-type weapons. Weapons that look completely ordinary until you fulfill certain conditions — then they transform and reveal their true form.
Take the Demon's Magic Bullet, the absolute peak of shooter weapons, as an example. Before blooming, it looks like an ordinary revolver loaded with seven rounds. But true to its Blooming-type nature, meet the conditions and it transforms into a completely broken weapon.
The condition? Drive each of the different bullets into a different living being, then drive the final bullet into your own body. Clear that brutal requirement and the ordinary revolver becomes the Demon's Magic Bullet — a weapon that deals five hundred percent bonus damage of the demonic attribute, with a seventh and final round that never, ever misses.
"It's really a Blooming-type weapon?"
"Ahem. I wouldn't knooow~"
Angel clasped those hands behind that back, wearing a smug little smile.
You... you adorable little shit! C'mere!
I grabbed Angel with both hands and started spinning us around.
"Angel! I love youuuuu!"
"Yeeees~!!"
Me? A Blooming-type weapon?! A Blooming-type weapon!! The final-spec sword I'd used to clear Hard Mode last time just had a measly two hundred thousand bonus attack and that was it. And now they were telling me I'd gotten a Blooming-type? My chest swelled so hard I thought I was going to ascend.
"You fuckers! Shooters, ability users, I don't care — come at meeeee!!!"
Blooming-type weapons were gods, and Swordsmen were invincible.
"I can't wait! Angel! We're going to the training building, now!"
From this moment, I had one job. Figure out the conditions for this Withered Old Tree, no matter what.
Just hang on a little longer! I gazed at the Withered Old Tree Branch with eyes full of love.
Daddy's gonna bring you into this world real soon!
"LET'S GOOO!!"
I tore out of there like a madman, sprinting toward the Virtual Training Combat Building.
"Waaait for meee~!!"
Angel's wail drifted from behind, but unfortunately I did not have time to wait.
"Kyahahahaha!!!"
I had a beloved little branch to bloom, and I wasn't wasting a second.
Violet walked across campus with a troubled look on her face.
"Hahh."
She sighed, asking herself once more if this was really necessary. No matter how she turned it over, she couldn't think of any other way.
That morning, Jeong Jojun had been plastered to Alice's side like he was showing off that they were dating now — openly, shamelessly. Violet had used Search, one of her telekinetic skills, on him. It wasn't a skill she'd used with any particular plan. She'd just been curious — how much had that bizarre man who'd awakened his mana during the class ranking match changed since then? A little probe, nothing more.
And Violet was stunned.
Search didn't work.
Which meant that Jeong Jojun — the same Jeong Jojun who'd been completely caught by her Search during the ranking match — had, in a matter of days, surpassed her total stat pool entirely. Unable to believe it, she'd used Search again. Same result. That suspicious man, smirking as he pulled Alice into his arms, wasn't just surpassing her. He was growing exponentially.
Crunch.
Violet nervously chewed the tip of her thumbnail.
Damn it.
The moment she realized she'd bitten the nail clean off, she muttered a quiet curse under her breath. That bad habit of hers — chewing her nails whenever she got anxious — only came out when she had no room left to breathe, and she knew it.
The Violet she'd always loved being — composed, languid, perpetually bored — had been crumbling, piece by piece, ever since that man appeared. The man who'd shown up with the Swordsman class, a class the board of directors had announced for a single person. The man who'd awakened his mana in an instant, cut her down, and casually stolen the class president position that had been her goal. The man who had no information on him whatsoever. Just how powerful was the backing behind him?
"Jeong Jojun..."
Violet murmured his name without realizing it.
For days now, Jeong Jojun had been stirring up everything inside her head. She'd told herself they'd settle things eventually. Then this morning, watching him grow at that impossible rate, she'd finally made up her mind.
I'll just ask him myself.
It was the simplest, most direct method — and one the usual, perpetually bored Violet never would have considered. But right now, with her head completely full of Jeong Jojun, her curiosity and interest in him had dulled her reason so badly that even her personality was starting to change.
A sidelong glance. She checked her phone one last time, just in case the information guild had finally dug something up on Jeong Jojun. Nothing.
"Hahh. Alright, Violet. You're doing this."
She placed a hand on her chest, steadied her breathing, and started walking toward the Virtual Training Combat Building.
Afternoon classes — the single biggest reason anyone enrolled at the Great Demon Subjugation Academy. That precious window when elite hunters dispatched from every guild poured out the know-how they'd earned with blood and sweat. And Jeong Jojun, that man, skipped it all to train alone in the Virtual Training Combat Building. Even if other hunters couldn't teach him anything about the sword because of his special Swordsman class, to just throw away the combat tips those hunters had built up in the field... He must have been getting private lessons after school, same as her — hired hunters, skilled experts. That ridiculous swordsmanship of his had probably been passed down by someone, too.
She walked, turning it all over in her head, and before she knew it she'd arrived at the Virtual Training Combat Building.
"Huuu."
She let out another long breath and organized her thoughts. The questions she'd ask Jeong Jojun when she found him. The benefits she'd offer in exchange. If she just walked up and asked, he'd refuse — the same way he had during the ranking match. But if the reward was sweet enough that even he couldn't turn it down, he wouldn't be able to refuse the questions either.
The reward she'd put on the table was a sword. Every "sword" currently circulating on the market was a mass-produced sidearm with no special functions attached, and the one that man carried was probably one of them. So the reward she'd offer wouldn't be some mass-produced junk. It would be a sword plastered with options tempting enough to hook even Jeong Jojun.
A sword with actual options — not just a sidearm — couldn't be bought on the open market. But her father was the CEO of a world-class military industrial complex. She couldn't buy one. But she could have one made. Jeong Jojun, who seemed so attached to his sword, wouldn't be able to refuse a custom-made blade built just for him.
"Alright."
Violet gathered her thoughts one last time, set her face with resolve, and pushed open the door to the Virtual Training Combat Building.
And right then.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
An enormous shriek swallowed the entire Virtual Training Combat Building.
"Kyaaah!"
The sheer volume of it startled Violet into a scream of her own, and she jerked back from the door she'd been pushing.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The shriek rang out again. She'd been too shocked to register it the first time, but that voice —
Jeong Jojun?
It was that suspicious man's voice.
"KYAAAAH!!!"
He should have been running out of air by now, but Jeong Jojun just kept screaming.
"I-is he insane?"
The words slipped out of Violet before she could stop them.
"Uwaaaughhh!!"
The shrieking gave way to something that sounded like sobbing — wet, hitching gasps that filled the whole hall.
"What on earth is going on in there?"
Going in felt wrong, but her curiosity had grown even larger. Violet eased the door open and slipped inside the training building.
"Hwaaaah! Fuck! Angel! I love you! I love youuu!!"
Jeong Jojun's voice came from below, screaming for an angel that didn't exist.
Is he actually insane?
What had been a suspicion was rapidly hardening into certainty. She crept down the stairs, and as she reached the first basement floor, the simulation rooms came into view.
"In all my life I never thought I'd actually get to hold this~ ngh! ngh!"
Listening to Jeong Jojun's cry — joy, grief, and everything in between mashed together — Violet looked through the transparent wall of the simulation room at the figure inside...
"Wha—?!"
She forgot she was supposed to be sneaking and cried out.
The sword Jeong Jojun was clutching in both hands, sniffling. A blade with a soft sunlight flowing through the body, the edge painted in what looked like transplanted crimson flame. That was no ordinary weapon. What in the world was it?
"Uwaaaaagh! Fuck! Levatein?! Even the name is badass as hell!!!"
Jeong Jojun dropped to his knees and hugged the sword to his chest. So the sword's name was Levatein. Even the name wasn't ordinary.
"Ah."
And just like that, the reward she'd been planning floated back into her mind. A custom-made sword. Violet stared blankly at the blade Jeong Jojun was hugging, and she thought: her offer was already dead.
"KYAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"
Jeong Jojun's joy-soaked scream erupted once more. And in perfect contrast, Violet just stood there, staring at him with a hollow look on her face.