An Obvious Truth
The first time I saw her, I couldn't believe my own eyes.
"Ah, excuse me. This is the Hero Party. About the order we placed last time—"
"Yes, yes. This is Jeong Hayan of the Hero Party… ah, yes. I'm sorry. Unavoidable delays have—"
"This is Jeong Hayan of the Hero Party. Ah, yes. Understood. Please leave it in the parcel locker."
"This is Jeong Hayan of the Hero Party. Yes. Yes. Um…"
"Um… Elysia? About this business trip—eep! Ah, yes. Yeees. Yeeeeees…"
"…?"
The phone rang without a moment's rest. On top of that, she was handling every call with perfect multitasking precision—and more.
—Tadadadadadadadadak!
"Next on the purchase requisitions is… huh? A plane? To Italy, of all places? Why? Huh? Aaaaaah?!!"
Her fingers hammered the keyboard without pause. Windows and documents stacked endlessly across the screen—reports, proposals, purchase orders, armory request forms, and more. Even the sudden, last-minute demands that came flying in, she covered them all.
As someone who had once led a party myself, the paperwork looked familiar enough. But for a single person to take on every last scrap of it alone? At that speed? With that accuracy? Without a single mistake?
Is she the god of busywork?
And from what I understood, this wasn't even her real job. Her actual role was healer and support for the Hero Party—the one responsible for recovery and buffs during their raids. Watching her like this, though…
…Isn't this completely backwards?
Who, looking at that, would ever think she was the Hero Party's support? Which was why, every time our paths crossed, I would make the same offer.
"Would you ever consider working with us?"
"Pardon…?"
"Nature needs someone like you."
"…???"
"I'm sorry. Elysia did it again…"
"It's fine. That racist bitch doesn't pull this once or twice."
The racist bitch who had screamed and launched spirit cannons until she was bored had simply turned around and left. Fortunately, she hadn't warped the mana density enough to wreck the set or affect the dungeon. Normally, when two A-Class awakeners locked horns, something was bound to break—but this time I'd focused entirely on defense, so "a blessing in disguise" felt like the right phrase for once.
—Tadadadadadak!
"Still going strong, I see. Hayan. If anything, it looks like you've got even more work than before…"
"Ahh… we just took on a lot of new people this time… but it's manageable for now. Once we started filming for Dungeon Cleaner, I could finally focus just on the paperwork. And once the new hires settle in a bit, everything should go back to normal!"
"Back to normal, huh…"
"…Ahaha."
Even she seemed to have nothing to say for herself, fingers still flying over documents. Counting the windows buried underneath the ones on top, there had to be close to ten or twenty open at once. Some were mid-transfer, and putting it all together, I found myself wondering how her laptop was even still alive.
Laptops these days really are impress—
—Wheeeeeeeeee!!!
"…Hmm."
I could hear the laptop grinding itself down right along with its owner. The heat coming off it looked ominous, too. It wasn't so much that the laptop was holding up as that it was being forced to endure a workload far past reasonable.
—Beep♪
"Ah."
A timely alarm. Not for work—just a low-battery warning. Right. If the battery died mid outdoor work, she'd have no choice but to stop and—
—Click.
—Beep-ro-ring♪
"There."
"…Is that what's in the document bag you're carrying?"
The bag opened to reveal black bricks—no, portable battery packs. High-capacity ones, fully charged at a glance. When I asked, half out of curiosity, Hayan answered as if it were nothing.
"If someone ever said they couldn't finish their work because of a dead battery, that would be the most ridiculous excuse imaginable, wouldn't it?"
"…Oof."
She'd always been like this, but by now it bordered on mania. How was a person supposed to live like that?
In my case, the work had grown familiar over time, and the volume of paperwork barely changed, so I usually finished early. With Hayan, the load only seemed to grow. And yet she still finished every last scrap of it. Watching her, I couldn't help wondering which of us was really the monster.
[…Papa.]
"Hm? What is it?"
Nox spoke up from inside my chest.
[That unnie. Could you look at her thighs for me?]
"……"
Nox. Why are you trying so hard to socially bury your papa?
I shook my head in silent refusal. Nox stamped her feet and pleaded.
[Please, Papa… just once. Just one look…!]
"…Tch."
Nox almost never asked for favors. When she did, it was half as a joke, and she never asked for anything that would put me in real trouble. Pure malice mixed with ignorance was one thing—but she never kept pushing after I'd said it was hard.
So something must actually be there.
I carefully approached Hayan and asked,
"Could you lift the laptop up for a second…?"
"Huh? Oh, sure."
So absorbed in her documents that she raised the laptop without a second thought. And in that same moment, I understood exactly what Nox had been trying to tell me.
"Her skin is… no. Wh-what the…"
The skin was swollen an angry red. Low-temperature burns—deepened, it seemed, from continuous exposure, leaving scar-like marks behind. Even as the sight stole the words from my mouth, Hayan kept her eyes fixed on the paperwork.
"Um… does it not hurt? Your thighs?"
"Huh? Oh, I'm fine. I'm a healer, remember?"
And later on, even the pain goes away, so it's really fine!
She waved her hands, insisting she was okay—but for anyone watching, this was not something you could just let slide.
"Why not just wear pants, at least…"
"…I know, right? Pretty stupid of me, isn't it? All I had to do was put on pants."
"Ah."
Her expression darkened in an instant. I knew right away I'd touched something I shouldn't have.
At times like this… right.
I quietly asked Seiren for a thin film of water.
"Hyaat…?! Th-that… Sunwoo…?"
"You don't have to worry about shorting the laptop."
Pure water doesn't conduct electricity, after all.
A spirit-made liquid cooler, ice-cold. The laptop's heat began to settle, and the fan noise gradually died down. At the same time I gently soothed the burned skin with water, drawing the heat out, and Hayan's expression slowly eased.
"Thank you, Sunwoo. I'd love to repay you somehow, but…"
"How about repaying me by joining Nature?"
"I'm sorry, but I'll have to decline."
"The reason being…"
"…That kid. Without me, he can't do anything."
That kid meaning the Hero, no doubt.
What is this. Pure, devoted love, huh.
Never mind that the Hero himself was out there swinging his dick however he pleased. I found myself wondering whether he even knew someone behind him was sacrificing herself like this for his sake.
Hypothetically—if I'd had a woman like Hayan…
"…Haa."
Well. Pointless speculation either way.
What I really wanted to know right now was this.
How did you know? That Hayan's knees were all torn up like that.
[…I don't really know either.]
If you don't know, then who does?
I didn't want to put it this way, but this was the first time I'd ever seen Nox show this much interest in someone other than me. I'd assumed there had to be a reason—but maybe it was just a spirit's instinctive sense of kinship?
[‘Nox’ doesn't really understand… but ‘we’ saw that woman and didn't know what to do with ourselves.]
…But that doesn't mean I hate Papa! It's not that I'm tired of Papa or anything—I just, really, Nox doesn't know either!
Yeah. I get it. All of it.
I let Nox's flustered excuses wash over me and pulled out my own phone, settling in beside Hayan. If I left her alone, the laptop would heat up enough to burn her knees again—better not to let it start in the first place. And if I was going to stay, the decent thing was to stick by her side until filming wrapped.
Sitting around next to someone working while I do nothing is a little awkward, sure.
But I couldn't just sit there staring into space, either.
So I stayed by Hayan's side until the shoot was supposed to end…
"Hayan. What are you doing over there?"
"Sea?"
…or so I'd thought.
"Don't you know the newbies just caused a huge mess?"
"Aah! I'm so sorry! I'll be right there!"
Hayan was the kind of person who could have used ten bodies and still come up short.
"Hold on."
"…Huh?"
As she turned to bolt back to the set, I grabbed her sleeve without thinking.
I don't know if this will actually help, but…
I reached into the document bag at her side and pulled out the spent batteries.
"『Ran』. Charge these for me."
[Woof!]
Zzzt-zzzt-zzzt!
Happy to be called after so long, the spirit wagged its tail and fully charged the packs in an instant.
"You can't run out of battery, right?"
"…Thank you, Sunwoo."
Hayan bowed deeply, slung her bag back into place, and sprinted toward the set.
Man. She works herself to the bone.
Every time I looked at her, something misted over my vision. I watched her retreating back for a moment, sharing a quiet solidarity with a fellow office sufferer—
"Oh. Long time no see."
"Hm? Ah, yeah. Been a while."
Sea's voice. It really had been a long time. Almost half a year… longer than that, maybe?
"I see you on YouTube sometimes. Cross-dressing and dancing all over the place. Miss academy days that much?"
"Well… something like that."
"……"
"…..?"
She was suddenly glaring at me. Had I done something wrong? I thought it over carefully, but nothing came to mind…
"Nothing to say?"
"Say about what?"
"Really? Nothing at all?"
"…???"
I genuinely had no idea. I racked my brain for a moment, then something from before floated up, and I said,
"You're heading out on a raid soon, right? Yoo Jihye said you might die and asked me to help—if you can pull out of it, pull out."
"…Are you messing with me right now?"
"Ah—and I deleted everything you told me to delete. So don't worry about any of it leaking."
"What I told you to delete…?
…..Ah."
A look of recognition. Her eyes darkened in an instant. She pressed her lips tight and scowled.
What? I'd done everything she asked, so why this reaction?
"……"
"Well… I'm fine with it. You're not the only one who sends me that stuff."
"…?"
"Ah. I never mentioned it? Yeah—I've gotten the same kind of thing from other people besides you."
"What are you even…"
She looked utterly speechless. I was pretty speechless myself, being on the receiving end—but what was I supposed to do about it? These days the volume had dropped by half, and the other half asked me to delete it themselves, so it wasn't that much of a hassle. At least it was better than the four-drone video terror from the beginning.
[Sunwoo! Could you come over here for a second pleeeeease!]
"Suddenly? Ayoung's calling me, so I'm heading out."
"Ah—w-wait!"
"…?"
What did she want now? I was done waiting, so I just turned my head. Sea kept her face lowered as she spoke.
"I… missed you."
"…?"
An answer I hadn't expected.
"…I-I don't mean it in a romantic way! Strictly as a friend! And a colleague, too? And I was just wondering if you were doing okay—"
She seemed startled by her own words, babbling them out in a rush. Without thinking, I answered,
"—I didn't particularly miss you, though?"
"Eh…"
"Ah."
That wasn't right. I should have just gone with a simple "Yeah, okay" and moved on.
But is that really so easy?
I used to be able to shrug things off like that. For some reason, though, looking at Sea now, my feelings wouldn't quite stay in check.
"W… why… why would you say something like that…?"
I tilted my head the other way and asked the flustered Sea,
"Common sense. Why would anyone say they missed someone who walked out calling our party a pile of shit?"
"……"
It was perfectly common sense.
And a perfectly obvious truth.