A Good Day
First of all.
For Yoo Hanseong, figuring out Yoo Hyewon's sudden moves was an absurdly simple task.
"Busan, at a time like this. Sudden."
Yoo Hanseong had a track record of obstructing Nature's debut right up to the end. Naturally, planting his own people inside the training center was nothing more than basic groundwork. Thanks to that, he already had a firm grip on where Hyewon was going and what she intended to do.
".....???"
And so, of course, he also learned exactly what had broken out in Busan.
"So that's why she suddenly went down."
A monster invasion in Busan. And Nature and Kim Sunwoo racing out to stop it. He had no idea how they had found out about it, but the details hardly mattered.
"...Tsk."
Right now the priority was responding to Yoo Hyewon's actions down there.
Just watch and wait?
Or throw a few carefully measured obstacles in her path? Lend a hand? Or maybe...?
While the options bounced around inside his head, a fresh piece of information arrived that stamped the decision for him.
"...Probability of handling it?"
"Right."
Nature. No matter how well they performed, they were still only D- to C-class awakeners at best. They weren't even dungeon clearers—they were an idol group that barely had anything to do with monsters. Even if Kim Sunwoo was an A-class awakener, taking down raid monsters was out of the question. At best they could hold the line.
In that case—he would send support.
And then swallow everything whole.
Not a bad plan. And not an unrealistic one either. Yoo Hanseong immediately summoned people and began preparing to send them down to Busan.
And then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world—
"......"
Anything Yoo Hanseong could think of, Yoo Hyewon had thought of too. Support reports came in at the same time, yet one question still lingered.
...They're going to help with that?
Even if they were an idol fan club, people willing to risk their lives against a monster wave? It was the kind of thing only someone who didn't value their own neck would do—and more importantly, something ordinary people would never manage. They might feel sorry from a safe distance, but they weren't the sort of beings overflowing with enough compassion to actually step forward and help one another.
And yet they were gathering and heading down... which meant—
"Ah. So that was it."
There was a center of gravity.
Oh Nari. He already knew she had been hanging around the training center after working as a bodyguard at Nature's recent fan meeting. Yun Ayoung too—he knew Hyewon had personally selected her as Nature's health-care manager.
But to think all of that had been prepared for a situation like this—no. Impossible. At least, the "little sister" named Yoo Hyewon that Hanseong knew was not a woman whose mind worked that way.
Which meant, in other words...
"...How tempting."
Kim Sunwoo.
The tiny wing-flap he had created was beginning to whip up an entire storm. A gravitational pull that sucked everything in without end. How far ahead was the picture he was painting?
Yoo Hanseong quietly shuddered in admiration at Kim Sunwoo's grand design. No matter how he looked at it, Sunwoo was talent far too good for Hyewon. How on earth had someone like that ended up at her side—
"............"
—He had been at her side because he belonged there.
What he had taken for a grand design turned out to be something the man himself had never even been aware of.
...As expected of him. As expected of him. As expected of him.
He had the power to draw people in, yet everything after that was full of holes. Hyewon was the same. Kim Sunwoo was the same. If he had been the sort of person who could paint that far ahead, the one sitting in this seat right now would have been Hyewon, not himself.
Even so, pulling out at this stage was the worst possible move among bad moves.
"If you're going to trade on the name of Yuseong Group, you should have stayed until the end."
He had never expected anything from Nature. Just one person. Kim Sunwoo alone would have been enough. That would have been enough to shift control of the battlefield—the center of this entire incident—over to Yuseong Group.
But retreating here meant they had poured out effort and then failed to claim a single bit of actual profit. The decision of a fool.
Not like him.
An action so unlike Kim Sunwoo that Hanseong found himself absurdly flustered. The old him would have stayed on that field even if it cost him his life.
Was Hyewon the problem? Or Nature?
Whatever the cause, only one thing mattered now.
"Take responsibility for your actions."
First, get Kim Sunwoo back into position. Somehow, make it clear that a "Yuseong Group affiliate" was still present. And while Kim Sunwoo was still holding that ground—
"Wait for me."
Yoo Hanseong himself would arrive and decide the board.
Monster packs wandering up onto dry land. Ordinarily they would have been threatening, powerful beasts—but these were marine monsters that had merely crawled ashore.
"Stab them dead!"
"Nothing special! Just watch the water!"
"H-hyaaaaaaah!!!"
After Yoo Hanseong arrived, the support he brought with him immediately began holding back the monsters that had swarmed Busan. The battlefield reversed in an instant. The monster packs fell back. A field that had been full of blood and pain and screams was now filling instead with the blood and screams of monsters.
"Hahh, haaah... Thank you, Ayoung. Nari. You saved me."
"Huh? Uh... uuh... yeah."
"I'm glad you're safe...."
With Hanseong's intervention the situation had loosened enough that Nari could guard my surroundings while Ayoung healed me. Yoo Hanseong approached me at a leisurely pace.
"...You could have at least told us support was coming."
"Would you have believed me?"
".........."
If he had said it to my face I might have. But over the phone? From the same Hanseong who had always treated Hyewon so coldly? I never would have bought it that easily.
"There are different ways to handle a tool. When it comes to handling a human like you, this approach works better, doesn't it?"
"I've thought this for a while, but your personality is genuinely the worst."
"Is that so. I think rather highly of you, though."
"......."
Is he gay?
Don't tell me it's because of that time I cross-dressed?
I unconsciously clenched and glared at him. Hanseong opened his mouth with the same blank expression, speaking calmly.
"There's nothing more convenient than a simple tool with excellent performance."
"...You're just trash."
"The tools under me rather like it, actually."
"Well, that's..."
I didn't really have a comeback. Separate from treating people like tools, he was the type who knew exactly what to look after and what to provide for. If he weren't that kind of man, he never would have climbed as high as he had in the first place.
"In that case, shall we start moving soon?"
"What. You came all the way here just to tell me to do more?"
"If you don't want to, staying here is fine too."
"....Haaaah."
What the hell was he even trying to say with that? My head was spinning, but thinking about it was more trouble than it was worth. If he was offering to help, I might as well welcome it with open arms.
I stood up and looked ahead.
—Kwoooooooor!
—Piiiiiiik!
—Shyaaaaaah...!
"...Hnnngh."
Three raid monsters visible in the distance. Each one a powerhouse on par with S-class. And yet the steps carrying me toward them felt strangely light.
Because Ayoung had healed me? Possible. Because I'd used less power than expected? Also possible. But more than that—somehow, for reasons I couldn't quite name—
"I feel like I've seen this scene somewhere before."
It was familiar. It felt familiar. A sight I was seeing for the first time in my life felt uncannily well-known.
And around this point—there should have been no one left at my side. I didn't know why, but I expected that was how it would go. Because of the dream I'd seen that day. Because of everything I had lived through until now.
No matter how hard you try, you get abandoned.
No matter how much you love, you collapse.
No matter how hard you live, you get cut down without mercy.
So if I was going to be abandoned anyway, if I was going to collapse and fall anyway, I had decided I would die for the people I loved.
"Power Crash!"
"You're pulling aggro, you crazy bastard!"
The civilian defense corps intercepting and cleaning up the lesser monsters spilling out behind the raid beasts.
"Formation Three!"
"""Formation Three!"""
Hanseong's support troops managing the raid monsters' aggro and pressing the subjugation.
"Power Crash! Hup—Sunwoo!"
"Nice work, Nari! H-hyaaaaaaah!!!"
And then—
"Cough! Khh, I forced my mana circulation too hard..."
"Sunwoo-nim! Great Heal!"
Nari. Ayoung too.
".....Kh...!"
I hadn't been abandoned.
I hadn't fallen. I hadn't collapsed.
"Sunwoo!"
"Sunwoo-nim!"
"Khh... hah! Hahahahahah!"
I was alive.
"───Ah."
I was living.
"Nice."
I wanted to live.
"Really. This is nice."
Like this. In this way.
Without meaning to, that was the thought that rose in me.
So—
"Come out."
High above in the sky, through the gaps in the dark clouds, a pair of teal dragon eyes met mine.