First Mission and Domestic Bliss (1)
First Mission and Domestic Bliss (1)
After I revealed my ability.
I'd thought everyone would freak out, but unexpectedly, there wasn't much reaction.
Alice even kept pestering me to hypnotize her.
Once the entrance ceremony was over, there was an unexpected consequence.
I ended up surrounded by my classmates and had to hold an impromptu talent show.
[The target falls 'completely' under hypnosis.]
"Alice, raise your left hand."
"Ooh! My body's moving on its own! This is amazing!"
My partner was Alice.
As soon as she raised her hand, the crowd around us burst into a chorus of oohs and ahhs.
"It really works on her... Oh, Yujin. How much control do you have, anyway?"
"It depends on how deeply the subject is hypnotized, but right now, probably anything."
"Whoa, that's incredible, Yujin!"
"......."
This really wasn't something to be taken so lightly.
Didn't they see it earlier? How I'd made the succubus and doppelganger kill themselves?
That kind of thing could happen to them too.
And yet they were so nonchalant.
This went past innocence and straight into a complete lack of safety awareness.
A sigh escaped me before I knew it.
"Haah. Alice, you might not realize it, but..."
"———Cadet Alice Littenwood. And Cadet Seo Yujin. What do you think you're doing right now?"
"Huh?"
I was about to start lecturing her when the Chairwoman cut in.
This time, her brow was deeply furrowed in displeasure.
"First, Alice Littenwood. What possessed you to let someone you'd just met use his ability on you?"
"Huh? No, I mean... I was curious...."
"You just handed someone complete control over your life and death. Even an ordinary person would know better, let alone an awakener."
".......?"
She was saying exactly what I'd meant to say.
That was a sharp rebuke worthy of one of the only seven S-rank awakeners in the world.
"And Cadet Seo Yujin. No matter how much she begged, using your ability on a classmate? Were you out of your mind?"
".......?"
"This won't do. Follow me to my office."
'What's with this old lady all of a sudden?'
I hadn't expected the sparks to fly my way too.
* * *
After Yujin was summoned away by the Chairwoman.
Alice let out a deep sigh.
It was a sigh tinged with guilt.
"Because of me, Yujin..."
"Yeah. It's your fault."
"...Yoo Sia."
Beside her, Yoo Sia curled her lips as if to say, 'Serves you right.'
"Thanks to you, it looks like he got on the chairwoman's bad side. Did causing him that much trouble make you feel better?"
Her pent-up resentment had erupted in full force.
If it weren't for Alice, she could've had Yujin all to herself today.
Sure, when it was actually just the two of them, she'd gotten so shy she could barely speak. Anyway.
That alone was already infuriating, and on top of that, Alice had spent the whole time blatantly picking a fight with her.
So naturally, now that she had the chance, Sia was spewing venom.
'And above all, the thought of him getting scolded seriously pissed me off. I didn't know why.'
Even considering that, her words were a bit too harsh.
But as far as she was concerned, that was still a mystery.
Under the harsh criticism, Alice hung her head.
"...I'm sorry."
"Tch."
'This sly little bitch. Making me go soft, seriously.'
Thanks to that, Sia's anger subsided a little.
Alice was genuinely dejected, and Sia could clearly feel how sorry she was for causing Yujin trouble.
Once some of her anger subsided, it gave way to genuine curiosity.
"So. Why did you ask him to hypnotize you? You don't strike me as dumb enough not to understand how insane that is."
Who didn't know how dangerous an ability like hypnosis could be?
Alice had just watched him force a succubus to harm itself right before her eyes.
And yet, she'd begged him to use it on her?
There was flirting, and then there was this.
What on earth had been going through her head?
"I just... wanted to get closer to Yujin."
'...Was her head full of flowers or something?'
What an utterly naive classmate.
Sia stared at her in disbelief.
Unable to hold back, she added one more cutting remark.
"Have you got no sense of fear? If he told you to die, you'd have to die, and yet you...."
"No. Yujin would never do that."
But this time, Alice didn't stay quiet.
Her eyes, full of certainty, turned toward Sia.
"Yujin would absolutely never make me do something like that."
"...Well, sure, he wouldn't tell you to die. But he's still a guy, so... all sorts of things."
"He wouldn't do those things either. Yujin isn't that type of person."
Inside Alice's head, the day's memories were rewinding.
Yujin, who'd been flustered and fidgety when she'd stuck close to him.
How horrified he'd looked when she'd made a slightly risqué joke.
Such an innocent young man.
There was no way someone that innocent would do anything bad to her.
That was the conclusion she'd reached after spending a whole day with him.
'More than anything, I'd felt it the moment we met: no matter what happened, this person would protect me.'
The reasoning was just tacked on after the fact, anyway.
She'd been sure of it from the very first encounter, for some reason. Anyway.
'I really couldn't picture him doing anything awful.'
Sia found herself agreeing with Alice.
Could she imagine Yujin hypnotizing her and doing those sorts of things?
No matter how much she thought about it, the image just wouldn't form.
As if her own subconscious was protesting that he'd never do that.
'In fact, he'd probably frustrate me to death by absolutely refusing even if I asked him to.'
Instead, the opposite occurred to her.
She imagined the woman he eventually dated asking him to use hypnosis for this or that.
He would adamantly refuse, waving his hands and saying he'd feel too guilty.
He'd be so frustratingly upright it would drive her crazy.
"Yeah, you're right. He wouldn't do it even to a girlfriend. How frustrating."
"...You think so too, Sia?"
"Oh, you agree?"
"Yes!! I told him he could hypnotize me and play a little prank, and he was genuinely appalled..."
It was no coincidence that an inexplicable frustration seeped into their conversation.
* * *
Meanwhile, Yujin had no idea they considered him a frustratingly upright young man.
Walking along behind the Chairwoman, he was busy thinking up dozens of excuses.
He was trying to come up with excuses for using hypnosis.
'I could swear I'd never use it on another cadet... No, I had to use it sometimes. How could I convince her I wouldn't use it for anything strange?'
Given the chairwoman's educational policy, he'd assumed she wouldn't object, yet she'd unexpectedly flown into a rage.
He was beyond worried about how to spin his hypnosis use.
But, fortunately.
His worries proved entirely unnecessary.
"... Cadet Seo Yujin. Take this."
"This is...?"
"It's a card verifying that you are an A-rank awakener."
'So suddenly? Wait, why was she giving it to me this early?'
She held out the card the moment they arrived at the chairwoman's office.
Once he realized what it meant, Yujin's mind filled with question marks.
The card was proof that its bearer was a nationally certified awakener.
During the First Round, he hadn't received one until after graduation.
And being given it now meant...
"With that in mind, I have an urgent favor to ask—not of Cadet Seo Yujin, but of Awakener Seo Yujin."
He was no longer merely a student under her instruction.
She intended to treat him as an equal awakener.
"So you weren't going to chew me out over the hypnosis...?"
"Would I crush the spirit of greenhorns over something like that? As long as you don't cause any incidents, I don't care."
'Just like I thought. Same as the First Round.'
Yujin straightened his posture.
'This old lady's an efficiency nut, so of course she heard about my ability and thought of something she wants me to do.'
"Seo Yujin, A-rank awakener with the Korean Awakener Association. I look forward to working with you, President Seol Hayeon."
"...You act like someone who's been at this for ten years. Quick on the uptake, too."
"I've just seen it a lot in dramas."
"Heh."
Even Seol Hayeon—chairwoman of the academy and president of the Awakener Association—was impressed by the poise backed by roughly eleven years of experience.
But Yujin didn't care in the slightest.
To him, this wasn't posturing. It was simply a mission, and he had to carry out his orders.
He had no idea how it looked for a newly enrolled student to act like a ten-year veteran.
"It's something that requires hypnosis, isn't it?"
'Sharp as a tack, too... This guy's worth cultivating!!'
The Chairwoman's eyes gleamed.
She'd already made mountains of money, and her joints were beginning to ache.
She wanted to chuck it all and live a life farming in the countryside.
Wasn't she the one still toiling away into old age because of the title of Korea's only S-rank awakener?
And now this prospective S-rank before her was showing himself to be an ace in every respect?
He wasn't just powerful; he knew how to get things done too?
For a rookie, he was cheeky. I’d have to make him a grad student... no, my successor.
Such were the thoughts that left her mouth watering.
'She'd train him even if she had to spend her own fortune. The shamelessly promiscuous little rookie.'
"Yes. The truth is...."
"Ahem, ahem."
'Nice. If I do a good job, I might be able to squeeze some funding out of her.'
Oblivious to all of that, Yujin focused.
He hoped that completing the quest well would earn her favor.
What a tragedy to be so clueless.
* * *
After the simple quest briefing was over.
I headed to the building's basement with Seol Hayeon.
It was for my first mission.
『Urgent Quest—Persuade the Unregistered Awakener!』
'If this were a game, a window like that probably would've popped up.'
The mission she gave me was simple.
A group of villains had recently attacked the academy.
My task was to persuade an unregistered awakener who'd taken part in the attack.
It was no major mission, but it contained a clue to why Korea was the world's strongest awakener nation.
—Are you sure they aren't a villain?
—Yes. They don't even have a criminal record. Besides, during the attack, all they did was smash up a few things before getting caught.
—Then why won't they cooperate?
—That's exactly why I'm asking you. They're way too talented to just throw into the Bottomless Abyss.
'It's a bit of a gray area, but as long as they're not a villain, well.'
Villains.
They were rare aberrations that appeared among awakeners.
They were evil incarnate, reveling in slaughter and committing acts of terrorism.
They were people even my hypnosis couldn't rehabilitate.
I'd tried everything during the First Round, and they were truly beyond saving.
Did they hate living decent lives more than dying? How was that even possible?
Anyway, nearly every country struggled with the villain problem because of that.
They pretended to be ordinary awakeners, only to cause a disaster and flee at the most critical moment.
It was only natural that people were constantly on edge, worrying that a villain was hiding among the awakeners.
But Korea, on the other hand?
『Sixth Sense (S Rank)—Transcends human limits in terms of the senses.』
'That old lady's intuition was right one hundred percent of the time.'
Seol Hayeon was an awakener from the earliest days of the Gate incidents and currently ranked fourth among the S-ranks.
She alone could identify a villain at a glance.
Her existence was why Korea had become the strongest awakener nation and why Pentagon Academy had been founded.
Every would-be awakener had to pass the chairwoman's scrutiny before working professionally, so Korea had far less reason to fear hidden villains.
Of course, villains could simply avoid attending the academy.
And it wasn't a perfect system since ordinary awakeners could still commit crimes.
'The problem was that anyone who'd fallen in with a pack of villains probably wasn't normal...'
That was also why this mission I'd just received was so peculiar.
A normal awakener would have struggled to survive among that pack of psychopaths.
Those people tried to kill one another at the drop of a hat.
And yet this person had attacked the academy alongside them?
And despite that, they hadn't killed anyone—only damaged the buildings?
It was a special case among special cases.
It was unusual enough to make me wonder why I'd never heard of the case during the First Round.
'Well, seeing as they got caught, they're B-rank at best, though.'
Of course, that was that and this was this.
Despite it being my first mission, I wasn't tense at all.
Capturing even an upper-tier A-rank awakener alive was nearly impossible.
So the fact that they'd been captured alive and unharmed meant they could be no higher than B-rank—or so I thought.
Even with my meager stats, I could find some way to handle someone at that level.
'I'd better finish this fast and get to the Training Room. And squeeze some pocket money out of this old lady.'
"We've arrived."
'Nice timing.'
I stopped walking just as my idle thoughts were winding down.
A heavy door slowly opened.
"The person you must persuade is...."
—Creeeeak.
"This person."
'Whoa, her eyes were completely dead. This would be easier than I'd thought...'
"She is an absolute top-tier talent even among A-ranks, so handle her gently."
"... ...!!!?"
Wait, why was an A-rank involved here, old lady?
And top-tier to boot?
That was practically someone experienced enough to serve as a senior clan executive, wasn't it?
Oh, this is a bit much.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Is it impossible? I had a feeling you could do it."
"... ...Haah."
'This old lady had always been rough when putting people to work. Maybe it was because she'd awakened in the early days, when one wrong move meant death.'
I wanted to refuse.
With my current stats, I couldn't simply one-click it.
But...
'Judging by her eyes, it looked like I could find an opening.'
"Well, screw it. Let's give it a shot."
Maybe I could pull it off somehow?