The Princess and the Queen
When she was born, the first thing the princess and the queen saw was the face of their genetic father. He was baring his teeth. "Oh, did it work? It worked!"
From the very beginning, she possessed a minimum level of knowledge. She had a sense of self. She had a body, too, but it wasn't hers.
"The entire process is complete. Your daughter's ability has been successfully sealed before it could bloom," said the man in the white coat, explaining the situation from the father's side.
"Good. Chae-mi doesn't need any sort of ability! Whether they're heroes or villains, let the clowns play those games. I will raise Chae-mi into an excellent child who will take over the company—my company!"
A smile spread across the father's face. There was no fatherly love there. It was filled only with the cold, calculated interests of an adult driven by filthy desire. Understanding exactly what that meant, she felt a wave of nausea rising from her stomach, and she wanted to twist him apart. This man believed he had been excluded from the company's succession because of his bloodline. He didn't doubt his own lack of ability for even a second. So, he intended to use his daughter as a tool to try again.
Since ability users were restricted from entering top-tier educational institutions, he had nipped that bud from a young age. 'What on earth does he think I am?' She wanted to scream in frustration. But her body moved on its own. The clear, beautiful voice that emerged from her throat rang out perfectly.
"Daddy, congratulations! When you smile, I'm happy too!"
Hearing that voice, she felt utterly miserable. There was no anger, no hatred, no resignation, and no pessimism in those words. There was only positivity and happiness. Absolute goodness.
What surprised her even more was the father's subsequent reaction.
"Y-yes! You endured well, Chae-mi. You've worked hard."
The man who, until a moment ago, had only been calculating how to use his daughter to gain power, had been moved by that goodness. Without realizing it, he felt a warmth and reached out to gently stroke her hair.
She began to wonder. Who is this? No. Who am I?
"Wow, this is so amazing! I never knew a younger sister would be born inside my head!"
"Why am I the younger sister?"
"Oh my. I'm seven years old, you know?"
"I have those seven years of knowledge, too."
"Really? You already know so much, that's incredible!"
One body, two minds. It was a little different from a split personality. It felt like sharing a single vessel. Even while one was inside the other, they could both perceive the outside world. The two of them exchanged the body and talked. Yoo Chae-mi, who had spent her entire life studying, only knew about social interaction through books, and she quickly poured her affection onto her peer and younger sister.
"What should we do about our names?" Yoo Chae-mi asked her. She couldn't answer right away.
"I'm not Yoo Chae-mi. I'm a personality created as a side effect of sealing the ability. Maybe I am the ability itself."
"Isn't that up to how we think about it? Does our little sister like the name Chae-mi?"
"...Not really."
"You like it, don't you? Yes. Then let's both be Yoo Chae-mi."
"Then we won't be able to tell each other apart."
"Maybe that's more convenient? It's our own secret."
"Yeah, that's true..."
"Want to read a book together?" With that, Yoo Chae-mi pulled out a fairy tale book. Yoo Chae-mi read the story with her. Even though they shared the same vocal cords, why was there such a difference in their voices? She wondered. Yoo Chae-mi's voice made her heart feel clean and at ease just by listening to it.
The fairy tale was about a princess knight and a queen mage who joined forces to defeat the Demon King. Both characters were protagonists, and they were very cool.
"Was it fun?" Yoo Chae-mi asked after closing the book.
"Yes."
"It's my favorite story."
"I think I'll love it the most, too." She agreed with Yoo Chae-mi.
"Should we call each other by the names in here? Yoo Chae-mi as the name for both of us." Yoo Chae-mi suggested. She liked it. She liked the princess, the queen, and their names, but most of all, she liked Yoo Chae-mi's consideration. After all, this body and this name belonged to her. She was just an uninvited guest who had suddenly appeared. Yet, within hours of meeting her, she was cherished, loved, and cared for.
"...I like it." She answered shyly.
"Which one will you choose?"
She slowly pointed her finger at one of the characters. It was the queen mage standing proudly.
"Hehe. Then I'm the princess. I'll be counting on you from now on, 'Lena'."
"...Yes, 'Ellie'."
It was the moment their secret nicknames were born.
Ellie and Lena grew up together. If they had one advantage, it was that they didn't need to sleep. When Ellie slept, Lena woke up and moved. Their physical growth and the knowledge they acquired remained. Although the time they spent together during the day decreased, they both strove toward their goals.
"I don't want to own Ellie Corporation just because of my father," Ellie said when they were sixteen.
"Because if I have power, I can listen to the voices of many people."
But at some point, Lena felt that the direction she and Ellie were heading was different. Ellie's brilliance, her radiance, could never be contained within her own vessel. It was a difference in their roots. My origin is the ability. Ellie is so bright that she cannot see behind the shadows. If darkness threatens Ellie, I am the one who must protect her.
Lena began to train her ability. While Word Spirit was a rare ability, her talent was monstrous. Ellie had initially tried to stop her, saying it was dangerous, but she understood once Lena convinced her it was for self-defense.
And then, one day when they were nineteen. On their way home from the academy, she got caught in an incident.
Bang! Bang! Along with the gunshots, Yoo Chae-mi's bodyguard fell. Even if they were a chaebol family, her branch of the family wasn't very wealthy, and they only had one bodyguard who doubled as a driver. They commuted in a regular vehicle.
"I hit him! I killed him!"
"Here's the girl! Drag her out!"
Ellie was the one in control at that moment. Frozen in terror, she couldn't even resist and was kidnapped and dragged into a van. The kidnappers were low-life punks who weren't even part of a villain organization. The goal was, naturally, money. Ellie's hands were tied with rope, and tape was placed over her mouth.
'Ellie, pull yourself together. Quickly, hand over the body.' Lena, who had been watching the situation from within their mind, called out to Ellie desperately, but all they shared was knowledge. They couldn't communicate through consciousness alone.
'Ellie!'
After trembling in fear for a long time, Ellie was finally able to think, and she handed control over to Lena. Yoo Chae-mi's gaze changed. Her mouth was covered, but that wasn't a problem. Word Spirit could be activated with just the vocal cords and tongue.
There were five punks in the van.
"'Burst'."
The moment that Word Spirit was spoken, the heart of one of the punks in the seat next to her burst. Boom! Someone jumped onto the van's windshield. It was a hero in a suit.
"I can't just walk past a crime scene! This is a great stage for my debut!"
"Who the hell is this guy?"
"Shoot him!"
It happened in an instant. A rookie hero nearby had intervened.
"Remember! I am Glass Pop! The man who will become an S-class hero! Take this!"
Glass Pop activated his ability. At the same time, clatter! The kidnappers' guns turned into glass shards and embedded themselves into their bodies.
"Argh!"
"Damn you!"
The kidnappers screamed. Glass Pop, emboldened, jumped into the van. The driver turned the wheel, and the van began to run wild. Naturally, this method of suppression was absurd while there was a hostage present. But he was a rookie who hadn't even debuted yet. No, he was practically an academy student. He just wanted to show off the name Glass Pop. He was an idiot who didn't even know how his own ability worked. That became a huge problem.
"Die!!"
One of the excited kidnappers pulled out a grenade and shoved it toward Glass Pop. As if he were going to shove it into his mouth. Glass Pop activated his ability on the grenade—
Kaboom!
The grenade exploded instantly, and tens of thousands of glass shards were fired in every direction.
"'Become hard—'"
Lena, realizing the severity of the situation, cast her Word Spirit. But at this time, she was still in the process of training her ability. She was a little too late. Before the Word Spirit could take effect, the exploding glass shards embedded themselves into her—into Yoo Chae-mi's—entire body.
"Ugh— Aaaaaaaah—!!"
She couldn't see in front of her. Oxygen was leaking from her punctured lungs. Her torn arms, chest, abdominal muscle fibers, and spilling intestines—a flood of pain shredded her synapses into a mess without warning. She was dying. She was definitely going to die like this.
While she was swimming in that inexplicable pain, suddenly—
Whoosh.
All sensation vanished. The pain that had been tormenting her until a moment ago disappeared as if it were a lie.
'Uh...?'
Her body wouldn't listen to her. Through the tape torn by the glass shards, her mouth, spilling blood, slowly opened and said something.
"...Lena, it's okay now."
Lena realized it. Ellie had taken control of the body to bear the pain.
'No, no!'
Ellie couldn't possibly endure that. It was pain that would have made even her lose consciousness. Come back, hurry back. It was my fault I couldn't protect our body. I should be the one receiving that pain. Hurry, hurry and fall asleep. Pass out quickly. It hurts, doesn't it? Why, why are you holding on? Why are you enduring it! Hurry and give me back the body!! If you keep doing that, you'll really, really— No. No. No. Ellie. Ellie. Ellie!! ...Ellie?