Change (2): A Change of Heart

Kim Jin-hyuk let out a short sigh.

"He held out on his own for about ten minutes."

Lee Si-hyun's eyes went wide.

"Ten minutes?"

"Seol Dam held the Gwang-a Wolf off for ten whole minutes?"

"...How is that even possible?"

Kim Jin-hyuk was silent for a moment.

"I don't know that either. But one thing I'm sure of."

"That's as much as I know. I didn't see how the fight actually went."

Lee Si-hyun quietly lowered her gaze.

Seol Dam held out by himself?

At school, Seol Dam had clearly changed. He didn't come talk to her anymore. He didn't trail after her the way he used to. He carried himself like someone who had truly moved on.

And yet.

Why? Why did he save me?

The gratitude was real — if it hadn't been for Seol Dam, she never would have walked out of that place alive. But a question still sat in a corner of her heart, separate from the thanks. Had he done it to get close to her again? Because he still couldn't let Lee Si-hyun go?

If that were it, he wouldn't have any reason to hide that he saved me.

She didn't know. She couldn't read what he'd been after.

I should look into this.

For the first time in a long while, she found herself wanting to understand Seol Dam again.

And if — just if — he really did save me with no other motive. If Seol Dam has truly changed...

A smile she couldn't quite name touched Lee Si-hyun's lips.

...Maybe we could go back to being friends. Like before.

"Wh... what?"

Why had her affinity gone up all of a sudden?

......

...No way.

Had Kim Jin-hyuk opened his mouth?

You've got to be kidding me. I'd trusted the guy out of loyalty and this is what I get?

Maybe leaving her with Kim Jin-hyuk was a mistake.

The reason I'd put him in charge of looking after Lee Si-hyun had been simple enough. That was how it had gone in the original novel.

He won't go around saying anything more than that... right?

That aside — why was Lee Si-hyun suspicious of me? She'd found out I saved her. A thank-you should have been the end of it. How did that turn into suspicion?

...Was I really that bad in my previous life?

To be fair, it had been more than seven or eight years ago for me. Not remembering every detail wasn't that strange.

"Ah, screw it. Whatever. Back to training."

I was at the 3rd Magic Training Ground. Every last schedule had been cut short thanks to the incident during today's dungeon exploration, and since the top-grade potion had left me feeling surprisingly decent, I'd come straight here.

"This is better than I expected."

I muttered it to myself, glancing at the ring on my finger.

It was the ring I'd received for reaching E-rank in Mental Strength. It had looked like junk at the time, but using it for myself, the effect was surprisingly noticeable.

A crackle of blue mana bloomed from my fingertips. The usual fraying — that sense of power slipping apart — had eased, and my mind felt a shade sharper. Only a little, sure. But a difference you could actually feel was what mattered.

"Fire."

A blue sphere shot straight at the target and slammed home.

"Hit."

"Nice."

Star Residue was harder to collect than I'd expected. One every two days. One a day, if I was lucky.

Not a bad haul for today.

"Just a little more."

I still had a long way to go. Even with my gear, skills, and traits more or less in place, I was still E-rank through and through.

I need to hit D-rank, at least. Fast.

Fighting the Gwang-a Wolf had taught me something. From here on out, the main story could veer off course at any moment — and I didn't have the strength to handle those detours. Not yet.

"...Hah. Still, I picked up Star Residue today, so that's enough training. Time to get back to the dorm and check the system windows that popped open."

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At the same time, a low hum filled the air.

Kang Ha-rin sat at the desk in her dorm room. Dozens of magic formulas hung in the air in front of her — the records from the tracking spell she had placed on Seol Dam. She moved her fingertips through empty space, unraveling the tangled mana constructs one by one.

"If I do it like this..."

A sharp crackle. The last formula locked into place, and the constructs floating before her began to slowly shift shape. A single scene resolved in the air: the fog-wreathed forest, and Seol Dam moving through it.

Kang Ha-rin watched the recording in silence.

"Hmmm..."

In the image, Seol Dam and the Gwang-a Wolf were locked in a standoff. At first he seemed to dodge by a hair — and then he just took hit after hit. Get struck, go down, get back up. Over and over. Objectively speaking, it was almost embarrassing to call it a fight.

And then.

"...?"

"The whole atmosphere just changed."

The same person who, moments earlier, couldn't even track the Gwang-a Wolf's movements had transformed. His footwork steadied. He started slipping the wolf's attacks as if he already knew they were coming. He spent a long stretch doing nothing but evading, and then Kim Jin-hyuk arrived late and finished it.

The recording hummed to a stop.

Kang Ha-rin was quiet for a moment. Then the corner of her mouth lifted, just slightly.

"Interesting. I should look into this after all. That's enough for today — back to training..."

A chime cut her off. The smartwatch on her wrist vibrated. The moment she saw the caller, her expression tightened.

Mom.

She hesitated, then took the call.

"Yes, Mother."

"There was a bit of an incident in the dungeon today, so I don't think they'll be tabulated."

A brief silence settled on the line.

"Yes. A student was attacked, so the schedule was suspended."

"......"

"No. No problem."

"...Yes. I'll take first place this semester."

The call cut off with a click. Kang Ha-rin slowly lowered her wrist.

"...Hah. This is exhausting."

The mattress gave softly beneath me.

Another long day. The moment I got back to the dorm I washed up and collapsed onto the bed.

And what was this now?

First Kim Jin-hyuk, now Kang Ha-rin? I was starting to get the uneasy feeling that I kept getting tangled up with every major character in the story.

"Well... alright. Let's check this first."

I tapped the question-mark button sitting on the system window.

Exactly what it said on the tin. Interest Level was a number tracking how much interest the other person had in me.

"Major characters, huh..."

Still not sure what to make of that.

"I'll just skip it. This isn't what I opened the window for anyway."

I had a different destination in mind.

"This is...?"

Fate Points. The price of stepping into the main story. Which meant everything locked behind those thresholds wasn't ordinary gear or skills —

"Something tied to fate itself, then?"

"......"

"So it's telling me to get more involved in the main story."

Either way.

If I want the details, I'll have to intervene more. No other way around it.

"Not that it doesn't already feel like the story's going to drag me in whether I like it or not."

"Hah..."

Intervening in the main story. Could I even pull that off? If I was going to try, preparing first was the only sane move.

"Alright then... let's start with this."

The reward from clearing the last main quest — emergency quest, whatever it was. A C-rank trait, no less.

I clasped my hands together.

"Please...! Just one trait I actually need. I'm begging you. Really, truly begging you!"

A deep hum rolled through the air. Names began to streak past in a blur.

The list of traits spun without pause.

Whoa. If something like Mana Amplification landed, that would be insane.

A chime rang out.

"Intuition?"

Just looking at the name, it didn't seem bad...

"It feels like it could be great or completely useless. Or is it actually good?"

Honestly, it was a long way from what I'd been hoping for.

"Mana Amplification would have been so much better."

What I needed right now was raw firepower. Something that could paper over the stats I didn't have.

"...Tch. Kind of a letdown."

Okay, fair. The system had a point.

"Still. At least I rolled something that looks usable. And besides — even if the gacha tanked, I already had a backup plan."

That backup plan being...

I opened the shop window.

"Yes! This is what I'm talking about!"

Looking at the points I'd stacked up from clearing the main story, I couldn't help smiling. Twenty-nine thousand one hundred and ten. A number I couldn't have imagined before. I used to pinch every last few hundred points, and now I could actually afford to browse.

"I'm actually tearing up..."

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the points."

I swatted the system window aside and focused on the shop.

"Alright. Shall we? Time to shop like a rich man."