The Unicorn Ranch
"Oppa, you said participation was optional... Are you seriously going?"
"Y-yeah."
"But you were the one saying you wanted to quit the Academy as fast as possible. So why all of a sudden, and why of all things the gate field trip...?"
"There's a reason I absolutely have to go... slurp... there is!"
"Oppa...?"
Last night. Her brother Cheon Yujin had ambushed her out of nowhere with the announcement that he would be attending the field trip. Recalling that conversation, Cheon Se-ah turned the steering wheel. She had tried to talk him out of it, driven by a nameless unease, and he had brushed her off with an easy laugh, saying nothing could possibly happen on a field trip run by the Academy itself.
Right. Under normal circumstances, it would have been nothing more than an ordinary slice of daily life, a picnic come and gone without the slightest incident. But the person in question was Cheon Yujin. And worse, a Cheon Yujin tangled up with a gate...!
Ever since her brother had returned. The Indefinite Gate, the hunter exam... had there ever been a single gate involved that didn't end in disaster...!!! Cheon Yujin was, quite simply, the living icon of misfortune and ill luck. If such a thing as a lightning rod for catastrophic accidents existed, it would be her brother. Through these past few months of experience, Cheon Se-ah had finally, unavoidably come to understand it.
I know this is... paranoid worrying, but...
Cheon Se-ah tightened her grip on the steering wheel. Once again, reacting only after an incident erupted would be too late. As it happened, her brother's destination was a regional-type gate operated for tourism. Which meant that this was, on paper, nothing more than Se-ah going sightseeing. Under that pretext she would remain inside the gate, but not so close that her secret tailing would be discovered, and not so sudden that an out-of-nowhere family appearance would embarrass him. Stay within the gate under the guise of tourism, and the moment any incident broke out, respond immediately. That was how she had resolved to guard her brother's safety...!
Of all people, Cheon Yujin was currently a high school girl, on a school field trip no less. Judged by appearances alone, this made her feel exactly like one of those helicopter parents, and the awkwardness was unbearable. But weighed against another incident like the last one erupting, the awkwardness was easily the lesser evil.
And so they arrived, and while she was parking...
"...Huh. Why does that model look familiar. Nah, no way that bastard would be here."
A car across the lot finished parking at almost the same moment. Something about the familiar model made Cheon Se-ah tilt her head as she got out, but the instant she opened the door, her eyes locked dead-on with the person stepping out of it. A familiar face from a familiar car: her friend of ten years, Kim Jinhu.
"K-Kim Jinbuddy...?"
"Cheon Se-ah...?"
Why are you coming out of there? Cheon Se-ah could only stare at him, dumbfounded, while Kim Jinhu pulled off the sunglasses that had been suspiciously hiding his face and spoke.
"Cheon Se-ah, what are you doing here...?"
"That's my line. No, wait, what the hell is with that face of yours?"
"'What's with my face'...?"
"Why don't you try looking in a mirror?"
Kim Jinhu, sunglasses off. Just how little sleep did a man have to lose to end up with that face? The skin beneath his eyes was black and dead, his gaze that of someone whose soul had packed up and left. And above all...
"Where did you sell the Iron Blood Sword, and why are you carrying a bamboo sword...?"
"Huh?"
Just how far out of it was he? The famed blade, tempered from the materials of a named monster and engraved from guard to tip with a top-grade mana circuit, was gone, and in its place a single bamboo sword hung at Kim Jinhu's hip.
"No, shit. Where's my sword, and why is the Hell-Jinhu Blade here in its place?"
"The Hell-Jinhu Blade...? You gave your bamboo sword a name...?"
"...N-no, that's..."
His words caught. Kim Jinhu, scrambling desperately for an excuse, ended up simply averting his eyes.
"........."
"........."
A long silence. Just as she had her own unspeakable circumstances wrapped around her brother, Jinhu clearly had something of his own, and realizing that, Cheon Se-ah couldn't needle him the way she usually did. She only looked at him with sad eyes and jerked a thumb toward the gate.
"Hey... shall we head in...?"
"Yeah... sure..."
Unable to press each other for the truth, the two guardians entered the gate together.
"When people hear the word 'gate,' they tend to assume it must be extremely dangerous, largely because of the emission-type gates of the past."
The homeroom teacher continued.
"But you are the awakened of a new era. For all of you who will go on living in a changed world... I wanted to show you that being awakened doesn't have to mean walking the hunter's path, and that a gate isn't necessarily dangerous."
The Lake of Holy Water. Known by another name: the Lake of Unicorns.
"Now, everyone, look! Beautiful nature that can only be seen inside a regional-type gate, nature that does not exist in our world!"
True to its name, beyond a forest swept by a cool, clean breeze, an enormous lake spread out vast and shimmering. Outside, it was unmistakably autumn, yet the flowers bloomed bright and thick, as though spring alone had never left this place. A lake and a flower garden. Ordinarily, an artificially designed tourist garden would have been the prettier sight, but this scenery was utterly dominated by an air of nature so pure and untouched it seemed a fairy might step out from among the blossoms.
"Whoa, okay, this is actually kind of amazing."
Namgung Yurin breathed out in admiration.
".........!!!"
Bukgung Seol said nothing, both fists clenched tight, eyes sparkling.
"Om-nom-nom-nom!"
Bonjwa. The Blood Demon, Cheon Yujin. As if flowers and scenery meant nothing at all, he fell upon the fried ice cream before him.
"...You are genuinely unbelievable. With all those rumors going around about you, you still just keep proudly working through your snacks."
The last person he wanted to hear that from was the very person who had handed over the snack.
And then...
"...Tsk."
Bukgung Seol rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue, the very picture of disdain. And yet with every bite Bonjwa took out of that fried ice cream, the anxiety in her gaze mounted a little further. She wanted one herself, badly, which meant the tongue-clicking could inflict no psychological damage on Bonjwa whatsoever...!
"Munch munch... sho good..."
Above all, Bonjwa was the Blood Demon, Cheon Yujin. No matter how pure and lovely the scenery of this Lake of Holy Water might be, Bonjwa was a body that had toppled cliffs with a single technique and split rivers in two. In other words... every time he crossed blades with the supreme grandmasters of the absolute peak, the entire surroundings got shaved down to bare rock. He was environmental destruction incarnate...!!! From the very beginning, his only purpose in tagging along on the field trip had been the snacks. How could Bonjwa, the walking antithesis of purity, possibly care about a view!
And setting the scenery aside, as for the true, original purpose of a field trip...
"It's... nothing like what I imagined..."
Bonjwa spoke while gazing at the 'things' swarming together near the shore of the endless, water-colored lake.
"Ah, yeah, I know exactly that feeling. This is... yeah. I feel you."
Namgung Yurin raked her dyed hair with clawed fingers and laughed awkwardly, while Bukgung Seol, until that moment gazing at the beautiful scenery with shining eyes, shifted to an expression with faintly drooping brows.
"This..."
Bukgung Seol said, pointing.
"Isn't this just a ranch?"
Indeed. They called it the Lake of Holy Water, the Lake of Unicorns. He had pictured something like a single, dignified sacred steed appearing beside a beautiful water-colored lake, hooves clicking elegantly. What he got instead was a scene that brought to mind a nature documentary, herds of zebras crowding a riverbank to drink. Not one or two of them, but horned horses swarming together in numbers no one could hope to count...!
Yes. Just as Bukgung Seol had said...
"This is... just a ranch...!"
Truly, Bonjwa's homeland could only be the stuff of legend. Perhaps it always insisted on straying one step beyond ordinary fantasy imagination, every single time. But a unicorn ranch? What in the world was that supposed to be? And besides, the sight of the guild hunters controlling this gate standing around like security guards only deepened the impression....
Clip-clop. Clip-clop. A single unicorn came toward them, hooves threading through the grass, its pure-white coat streaming.
Bukgung Seol, who had been marveling at the unicorn's horn this whole time, exhaling "Hoh, hoh." in wonder, opened her mouth.
"But... wondrous as the horn truly is, just what manner of beast is a unicorn? That horn... would it be alright to touch it?"
Bonjwa, having spent a good while hopelessly addicted to the internet after his return, had picked up all manner of stray knowledge. But unicorns were... somewhat... there were certain details one rather hesitated to explain... weren't there...?
Besides...
"Why has everyone suddenly gone silent? I am quite certain there was nothing wrong with my question."
The one asking was Bukgung Seol, who in both speech and appearance came across as a foreigner...! And then as now, judging by how often she asked questions, her stock of common knowledge seemed even thinner than Bonjwa's, a returnee's. Age aside, she looked, far more often than not, exactly as she appeared: an unspoiled, pure young child. And in such moments, the person best suited to explain was, naturally, the teacher.
"Ah, a unicorn is..."
Just as the homeroom teacher moved to explain, as though it were the most obvious course of action, Namgung Yurin cut in slyly, still scratching her head.
"Uh... a virginity detector?"
"Y-Yurin...?!"
Namgung Yurin was, truly, a legend.... The students broke into murmurs, and the teacher's face went scarlet.
"Virginity... detection...?"
Bukgung Seol tilted her head, plainly unable to grasp what it meant.
"A-attention! Attentioooon!!! Seol, eyes over here too...!!!"
The teacher's desperate cry.
"Ahem! Yurin's... Yurin's explanation is not entirely! Entirely wrong, but... the commonly known traits of unicorns are exaggerated to a certain degree!"
"Teacher, what do you mean, exaggerated?"
"Unicorns are sacred creatures. What they cherish is, above all else, 'purity'... of a person's soul, their mana, their mind, everything that person is, taken as a whole. In other words, the virginity Yurin spoke of is merely a subset!"
Rushing the words out, face blazing red, the teacher coughed dryly again and again. With a single sentence from Namgung Yurin, the unicorn had been transformed into a perverted creature, and the homeroom teacher's struggle to avoid becoming the teacher who had led underage students before a perverted creature was heartbreaking to behold.
"The unicorn's criteria for judging purity are extremely strict... and because young children, especially little girls, so often pass them, the story was twisted and exaggerated along the way... Everyone understands, yes? It is, above all, about purity! Purity!"
"So bottom line, they still check whether you're a virgin. So I was right, then."
"Yurin, for heaven's sake, be quiet!"
Namgung Yurin just grinned, needling a teacher many years her senior. Watching her, Bonjwa couldn't help thinking that Namgung Yurin, every inch the lackey of the treacherous Namgung clan, would have a very hard time passing a unicorn's purity test....
"S-so then... look, a unicorn is coming this way right now! It won't attack you just for failing the criteria, so why doesn't everyone give contact a try?"
"Contact...? You said the criteria were super strict, teacher!"
"The unicorns here are very gentle. Even if you fall somewhat short, they won't strongly reject a young student! So there's no need to feel pressured!"
Just as the teacher said, the unicorn that had been approaching was suddenly close enough to touch.
"Prrrb!"
How to put it... it snuffled with its nose and bobbed its head about, looking for all the world like it was searching for something.
And then...
Bukgung Seol, who had been watching the unicorn's horn this entire time, stepped forward.
"Oh, Seol wishes to try first? With you, I am certain even the unicorn will..."
"Prrrrrb!!!"
"...Huh?"
The instant Bukgung Seol's hand drew near, the unicorn blew out a rough snort, wrenched its head aside, and bolted. There was even a faint hostility in its eyes, and fear.
"Why does it flee from me?"
"Ah, no, um. That's..."
Bukgung Seol's question was perfectly calm, as if she genuinely couldn't parse the situation. The teacher, unable to answer, had drained white as bleached bone, and the grin Namgung Yurin had worn until a moment ago vanished without a trace.
"You said even students who fall short... wouldn't be strongly rejected...?"
"Hey, shh!"
"Ah, ahh."
A dead silence settled over the students, who until now had done nothing but whisper. And so...
"........."
Because of that atmosphere, Bonjwa could not bring himself to speak the truth. What the unicorn judged was the soul, the mind, and the mana. Truthfully, Bonjwa, whose soul and mind belonged to a grown man, would certainly have failed that judgment, but little Bukgung Seol should not have. And yet. What Bonjwa's qi-sense caught was the unicorn's pure, utterly pure energy. And demonic qi was, by its very nature, the mortal enemy of precisely that kind of purity. The cause, in the end, was the demonic qi. Because of the demonic energy flowing through Bukgung Seol's body, the unicorn was simply a creature crushed beneath the presence of a dangerous natural predator.
".........?"
Bukgung Seol, still tilting her head, kept tentatively, tentatively reaching toward the horn of the unicorn that kept fleeing her. And every time she did, the atmosphere sank to depths too wretched for words....
Well, if this went on, a terrible misunderstanding about Bukgung Seol would take root. As a token of thanks for her part in the Forged Blood Art's progress, and to offer an explanation in her place, Bonjwa resolved to step forward himself.
"It's not like that, actually..."
"Prrrrrb."
"Huh?"
The moment he resolved to act, the unicorn that had been fleeing Bukgung Seol was suddenly standing right in front of Bonjwa. It snuffled at him with its nose, and then...
"Prrrrrrrb!!!"
...as though it had found the very thing it had been searching for, it lifted a foreleg high and burst into a cry of pure joy.
"Prrrrrrrb!!!"
"Prrrrrrrrrb...!!!"
And then, from beyond the lake, a maddened shrieking shook the sky, and...
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud...
...the very earth began to tremble.
"...Huh?"
Something... something was happening.