Chapter 55: Sprouting
Chapter 55: Sprouting
The gym's director, who introduced herself as the Incarnation of "Beating Lionheart," was a talkative person.
To be precise, she was a person overflowing with energy.
She strode with long strides, shook hands as if swinging her arm around, had a booming voice, and let out a thunderous "Wahaha!" at the slightest provocation.
The name Lionheart brought to mind a certain historical figure...
I was burning to ask whether she had come from a world similar to mine,
but it would have been awkward to abruptly ask her to connect me to her Constellation, so I listened to her explanation first.
Since Kim Ha-eun was staring blankly at my profile in a complete daze, I figured I should at least pay attention.
"This is a fairly well-known story, but since you, Constellation, don't seem to know it, I'll explain. Would you like something to drink first, though? I only have health drinks."
"I'll have apple-carrot juice."
Eyes turned to Kim Ha-eun, who was sipping cold water and leaning wearily back in her chair,
and then to me, frowning because the apple-carrot juice was nowhere near as sweet as I'd expected.
It seemed the whole office had overheard the director's earlier bellow of "You're a Constellation?!"
With every eye in the office fixed on us, the director launched into her explanation with sweeping gestures.
"Our Constellation, 'Beating Lionheart,' presides over protection and training. That's why most of her Incarnations stay inland rather than deploying to the front lines."
The explanation that followed was, indeed, lengthy.
It went on until the staff who had gathered to gawk at a Constellation who'd descended into their gym grew bored and fled.
The gist of it, anyway, was that the building itself was practically a sanctum of Beating Lionheart.
To ramble about something that simple for nearly twenty minutes.
"So the terms are the same as before. Acknowledge that you awakened in my building and sign your name, and you receive 50 points. Undergo a month of rigorous training with me, and you receive 500. I may not look it, but I'm an Incarnation, and the chance to receive personal training while being paid is rare. You should build up your body before you enter the Academy."
She confidently thumped her chest, looking less like a woman and more like a valiant barbarian warrior.
"So, what do you think?"
"Huh? What?"
When I turned to Kim Ha-eun, who still hadn't come to her senses, she replied with a dumbfounded stare.
I'd asked because—modeling gig or personal training—it was something she had to want for herself, but I ended up having to sit through the entire twenty-minute explanation a second time.
It wasn't a particularly pleasant experience, and the carrot juice didn't suit my taste, so I just leaned against Kim Ha-eun.
"Why not? It's a good deal, isn't it? There's still time before you enter the Academy."
The Academy in the center of the continent accepts Incarnations on the first of every month, but there's no rule saying you must enroll immediately after contracting.
Non-combat types like the gym director in front of me, farmers, or artists usually don't attend the Academy at all,
but seeing you run until your joints were begging for mercy today, professional training seems wise.
If she's an Incarnation who was granted a hundred-story building, her ability should speak for itself.
"Then, I'll go with the personal training..."
"Excellent choice! Starting today—no, you've already worked out quite a bit earlier. Rest today and come starting tomorrow. I'll personally take charge of you... Is 10 AM tomorrow all right? Or any time you prefer? No, let's do a simple fitness test today."
Kim Ha-eun, now recovered, found herself swept up by the muscle-bound director and spirited away.
This is the first time since I turned into a handsome guy that I've been flat-out ignored as a Constellation—how refreshing.
As the director's muscular female frame overwhelmed her and led her off, Kim Ha-eun shot me a pleading look, but I scattered my clone without hesitation.
[The Constellation Lethargic Nightmare requests that you take good care of his Incarnation.]
"Yessir! Just leave her to me!"
Laughing heartily into the air, the director hauled Kim Ha-eun away.
Was it just my imagination, or did it look like a big cat dragging its prey back to its den?
'Still, a protector, huh...'
I returned to my Constellation's room and discreetly minimized the screen,
but aside from the capital, Han Ye-ji's neighborhood still looked like a 3D game running on a broken graphics card.
Since I'm bored anyway, maybe I'll watch whatever Kim Ha-eun gets up to until nightfall.
※
The world shimmered violet, as though she'd put on the wrong lenses.
Was it because her hair and eyes had turned violet?
She'd come to the showers to cool down before her personal training,
but seeing her own pure white naked body in the mirror made even washing feel awkward.
'Did Incarnation contracts normally change your body this much?'
She'd heard urban legends about Constellations transforming their Incarnations into the same race,
but this was different.
Stories about a vampire Constellation in the Northern Continent infecting retainers,
or Incarnations from the Southern Continent turning half-beast like werewolves.
This was worlds apart from simply having your chest grow, your waist slim, your hips widen, and your skin whiten.
Anyone could see her appearance had shifted from that of a pure-blooded Easterner to something hard to find even on the Western Continent.
'Well, it's a good thing, but...'
Even after finishing her shower and being led by the muscular director to another floor, her vision hadn't changed.
The pale violet currents sent a tingle across her skin.
since it had started appearing right after the contract, it appeared to be her Incarnation ability.
"Um, something keeps appearing in my vision—"
"Hm, it's probably something like mana. I've heard that Incarnations with high sensitivity often perceive things like ki, chakra, and mana. Now, come over here and take a seat."
But before she could satisfy her curiosity, the muscle-bound woman was already dragging her along to use unfamiliar equipment, and the violet haze and everything else vanished from her sight.
Because she was tearing apart muscles all over her body that she had never even known existed in twenty-three years of living.
"One more. Good, one more, good. Is the changed body helping? Just one more—yes, just like that, last one more!"
"Urgh, hyaaap!"
But if you asked her whether it was unpleasant—it wasn't.
Because every time the violet haze tickled her, vitality surged through her body.
The problem was that the confidence that she could do anything came crashing right back down into muscle pain in under a minute.
'M-maybe I can do a little more...?'
But she had her pride as a woman; she didn't want to whimper that she couldn't go on.
Born with tits and now an Incarnation, she couldn't very well whine like some delicate young master about not being able to handle a gym.
And worse, given that a message had been sent, the Constellation might be watching.
'They said I'm the third Incarnation... so there's a 33% chance he's watching, right?'
Stubbornness flared, and she gritted her teeth.
She thought she heard her molars grind... but well, she was an Incarnation now, so surely this much would work out somehow.
She'd only added a single plate, but her arms, unable to keep up, trembled violently.
At the same time, perhaps from blood rushing, her ears rang and her vision blurred.
Could she not pull this off?
She felt like she could, so why couldn't she?
What was wrong?
Her trembling hand was gradually forced upward.
Why couldn't she manage to simply pull down a handle?
Irrational anger surged through her fogged mind.
The violet current—wasn't that mana?—
somehow the haze swirling in the air felt thicker.
She pulled her arm, pulled the mana, pulled her arm, pulled the mana.
Beyond her dizzy vision, she saw the director shouting that that was enough.
The violet mana was leaking from her.
'Was she absorbing someone else's mana? Because she's a Dream Demon?'
In the end, her arm, every ounce of strength gone, was pulled all the way up.
Because she didn't let go of the bar, she wound up with her arms raised in a "hurray" pose, armpits stretched, but she hardly cared.
Because she felt like she could pull at that violet haze.
"Stop. You can let go now."
The violet haze tickled her skin and wrapped around her face.
A soft "shh" as she inhaled, like breathing in mist from a humidifier.
She looked at her hand, pale and bloodless from gripping the bar.
She shouldn't be holding it like this.
In a corner of her mind, a small image seemed to surface.
An image of the director seated at the lat pulldown machine with a weight stack as large as a human torso, exercising with near-perfect form.
Some instinct told her she could copy it.
Now the violet current enveloped her entire body.
Not just her face, but from fingertips to toes, she felt it sheathe her like a second skin, and strength returned to her limp hand.
With a calmer mind than before, she lightly pulled her arm.
The bar descended smoothly.
The director's surprised expression.
A message that obscured her vision.
※
[The Incarnation Kim Ha-eun awakens her first Authority.]
[Authority Blooming: Hope Usurper]
"...What?"
It had been about an hour and fifteen minutes since the contract.
Before the sun had even set, my third Incarnation had awakened an "Authority."
What the hell?