Ability Reveal (2)
Ability Reveal (2)
Just as Yoo Sia had ordered, I couldn't take my eyes off her.
She was challenging Stage 8.
It was a difficult trial that required closing in on and destroying a golem resembling a fixed turret.
Before the regression. During the First Round entrance exam.
It was the trial where she'd suffered a crushing defeat.
But,
—TBOOM!!!
"Hraaahhh!!!"
'She was fighting well...?'
Right at this moment.
As Sia surged through the hail of Magic Bullets, I didn't feel the faintest trace of the helplessness she'd shown back then.
It was baffling.
Her innate ability was A-rank, Shadow Walker.
It allowed her to manipulate shadows to support her in combat.
Wasn't this the absolute worst possible matchup against Stage 8, with its deluge of Magic Bullets illuminating every direction?
And yet, as she charged, she wielded her ability as if to prove that was irrelevant.
She accelerated by using the fleeting shadow cast by her feet.
She turned the faint shadow on the hem of her clothes into a barrier against the incoming attacks.
And then,
"D-die!!!"
—BOOM.
Having closed in that way, she pierced the golem's barrier and struck.
The battle was so overwhelming that I heard people around me exclaiming, "As expected of Cheonhwa."
...The problem being, it was the sort of feat impossible with a mere A-rank skill.
'It wasn't that her combat sense had changed. She'd simply steamrolled it with the effects of her skill, just like Alice.'
My wives had changed completely from before the regression.
It made my head a complete mess.
Could they have regressed alongside me?
No. Only their abilities had grown stronger; their combat technique and the way they used those abilities were still at a beginner's level.
If they'd retained their memories, they would have kissed me first.
Did something I did cause a butterfly effect?
There was no way. Maybe after more time had passed, but only two weeks had gone by. There couldn't have been much of a butterfly effect yet.
Besides, Alice had only just arrived in Korea.
No. Probably.
...There was no harm in checking, just in case.
"Yujin, aren't you staring awfully hard? Do outfits like that turn you..."
"Alice, we're fellow Pine Bud Drink fans, so let me ask: what rank is your ability?"
"......Huh?"
I asked nonchalantly.
It was information only the awakener herself could know—a secret that, as a rule, should never be revealed to anyone else.
However,
"If you tell me, I'll tell you mine too."
"Hmm... well, telling you the rank should be fine. It's S-rank."
Alice answered nonchalantly.
She seemed to have decided that while revealing the exact ability was off-limits, sharing its rank would be fine.
She might have been lying.
But given her personality, she was overwhelmingly likely to be telling the truth.
I mean, she was absolutely not the type to oversell and overhype her own ability.
In other words, this applied to Alice and, most likely, Yoo Sia as well.
Compared with before the regression, they'd awakened skills one rank higher.
Keeping my gaze fixed on Sia, who was fighting spectacularly, I sank into a quagmire of unanswerable questions.
'What on earth was going on with the Second Round...?'
Why had their abilities evolved?
Was my regression the cause? Had it created some kind of change in my wives?
Was this world real? How had I even regressed in the first place?
'What on earth was I...?'
"Hehe. Then what about you, Yujin? Is yours S-rank too?"
"Mine's EX-rank."
"Really?!! Oh God, oh God!! That's amazing... Ah, hoho. Yujin."
"Huh?"
"If we put the letters for our two ranks together... it spells sex, doesn't it?"
"—PFFT!!!"
...That needlessly posh sex joke wiped my tangled thoughts completely clean.
What the hell was with that dirty joke? Was this what Westerners were like?
"A-ahem. Ahem. That's not something a girl should say."
"Kuhuhu. Why so flustered? It's just a dirty joke... hmm, I don't know what you call that in Korean."
"Just don't. Unlike England, Korea's conservative about that stuff."
"Hmm~ Embarrassed? How cute."
'It was because when a girl ten years younger than me acted like this, I felt like I was going to get arrested!! Sure, she was twenty-two, and physically I was actually two years younger, but still!!'
Thanks to that, I forgot my worries and started awkwardly hemming and hawing.
"Hmph... hey, you!! I told you not to take your eyes off me!!"
"......!!!"
'Sia was sulking!!!'
After fighting her heart out, Sia came back thoroughly sulky.
—Snicker. Mutter, mutter.
"Nothing to look at anyway, so it's only natural. Why's she so mad, I wonder..."
"Haah? Hey, you. What did you just say?"
"Huh? I didn't say anything?"
"You were mumbling something while looking at me!!"
Alice bickered with Sia.
...At a glance, it might have looked like they were fighting, but that probably wasn't it.
Alice wasn't the type, and Sia wouldn't pick a needless fight with a candidate she was scouting, either.
'It looked like the adrenaline hadn't worn off for either of them. I'd been the same in the First Round. Yep. Ah, to be young.'
"Honestly. Anyway, go away. Yujin and I are going to talk about Pine Bud Drink."
"...Do you guys really drink that stuff?"
And so the entrance exam ended with the three top scorers getting to know one another.
* * *
One thing led to another, and the three of us ended up sitting together.
We were in the spectator seats for the entrance ceremony held immediately after the exam.
"An entrance ceremony right after the exam? That's unusual, Yujin."
"You really are a foreigner. They hold the exam first so no one gets a swelled head at the entrance ceremony. Everyone gets a taste of reality before anything else."
"I was asking Yujin. Why are you answering for him, Sia? How unpleasant."
"This bitch, I swear."
Alice on the left. Yoo Sia on the right.
I had a beautiful woman on either side—the proverbial flower in each hand—but I couldn't honestly enjoy it.
Because I could feel everyone staring daggers at me.
—Mutter, mutter.
"Ha, if only I hadn't stumbled then, I might've gotten a word in with him."
"He looked good-looking from a distance, but right up close..."
'...All these stares were killing me.'
From everyone else's perspective, I was one guy surrounded by two women on the very first day.
That had to be how it looked to everyone else.
Honestly, even I thought I looked like a sleazebag.
In the First Round, I'd shamelessly declared, 'A hero is expected to have three wives and four concubines,' but...
the current me was just a promising newcomer.
If I did that now, I'd instantly be branded as trash.
So, while they were chattering away on either side of me,
I added one item to the top of my mental to-do list.
'I had to prove myself as quickly as possible, before my wives' reputations and mine were ruined.'
The media would soon turn their attention to me.
The press wasn't merciful enough to let prey like a prospective S-rank escape.
And the first article they would run would decide our reputation.
At this rate, I would be branded a skirt-chaser, and my wives cheap women who let themselves be led around by me.
I could take being treated that way, but my wives couldn't.
'In that case....'
"That concludes the entrance ceremony, but we have one urgent additional event. Cadet Seo Yujin?"
My name was called while I was deep in thought.
As the same events from the First Round unfolded, I slowly steadied my breathing.
I accompanied it with a light Self-Suggestion.
'I, Seo Yujin, would not be flustered under any circumstances for the next ten minutes.'
[The target falls 'completely' under hypnosis.]
"Could you come out for a moment?"
"Yes. Sia, Alice. I'll be back in a bit."
"What? Wait, what...?"
"Yujin?"
I rose as I answered.
Their gazes—and everyone else's in the auditorium—converged on me.
No. Trying to put it like that was an understatement.
A camera stood in front of the podium.
It was broadcasting the entrance ceremony live to the entire world.
Right now, I was walking out to face the world.
[This is Telepathy. I'm sure it's your first time, but don't be alarmed. Listen. I'm sorry, but I have a favor to ask...]
[An interview, isn't it? Of course.]
[Hm? How do you already know how to use Telepathy?]
[My ability happens to be of that sort.]
I skipped the chairwoman's explanation.
It was absolute chaos out there because of you. If things went on like this, it wouldn't end well for you. We'd guide the questions appropriately, so just say a few words.
I didn't need to hear a predictable explanation like that twice.
I walked onto the podium and took a spot where the camera could capture me clearly.
[...Huh. You're a quick-witted young man.]
"Top scorer of the entrance exam, Cadet Seo Yujin. I'll ask you to represent this year's class in a brief Q&A session."
"Yes."
The chairwoman stood beside me.
A rapid-fire Q&A followed.
The questions covered admission to the academy, areas that needed improvement, future aspirations, and so on.
Questions that no one would really be all that curious about.
The true purpose of this interview, the thing everyone was really curious about, only came out at the very end.
"Then, one last question... This is purely personal, asked as a senior awakener. What category does your Innate Talent fall under? I couldn't begin to guess."
[Just give them a rough category—melee, ranged, magic, support, something like that. I'm truly sorry.]
In short: What was my ability?
Everyone's attention, which had waned during the dull questions, sharpened again.
It seemed like deep down, everyone had been dying to know.
...Well, naturally.
That was understandable after what I'd shown during the entrance exam.
I'd wielded a sword, reflected magic, and even known every pattern.
It was only natural for them to wonder what kind of ability let me do all that.
'Normally, you weren't supposed to answer something like this.'
At the same time, it was a question that even Yoo Sia hadn't dared to ask until now.
Going around publicizing your Innate Talent was usually tantamount to suicide.
Asking about the exact ability was something that could get you slapped, and even asking about the category was a slightly rude action.
The fact that even the chairwoman, Korea's sole S-rank awakener, kept apologizing over Telepathy said it all.
Even so, my decision was already made.
I had no intention of hiding it.
"EX-rank."
"—Hhgh?!!"
I delivered the words at a carefully calculated moment.
The Chairwoman choked on her own breath.
It was a rank only two people in the world had ever possessed, my master included—and one countless awakeners had falsely claimed.
An EX-rank Innate Talent—the hallmark of the S-rank No. 1.
Because I'd revealed that I possessed it.
And I had just matched a record only my master had ever set.
It was no wonder that even a battle-hardened veteran like her was flustered.
[Y-young man. Just a moment. Setting aside whether it's true, there's no need to even reveal the grade.]
"My Innate Talent is...."
Unconcerned, I kept speaking.
It was the one breakthrough I'd come up with.
To build an image of myself as a 'decent young man.'
"———Hypnosis. Complete Hypnosis."