The Train to the Academy (2)
The Student Disciplinary Committee was the student organization responsible for maintaining order both inside and outside the Dragon Slayer Academy.
By tradition, first-year committee members enrolled earlier than the other new students and, after memorizing the basic protocols, were deployed straight onto the train — the whole point being to give them at least a taste of real field experience.
And Shin Byung-cheol appeared to be about to become their field experience. The reason for that would become clear very soon.
The female student held out her hand to him.
"This is your final warning. Hand it back."
But Shin Byung-cheol showed no intention of doing any such thing. Keeping that grin plastered across his face, he kept darting glances over the girl's shoulder, no doubt racking his brain for a way to secure an escape route.
"Aw, c'mon, lemme hold onto it a little longer. What's the big rush, chasing me down like a debt collector? I'll use it with care and return it in mint condi—gack!"
- Zap!
A short burst of electricity struck Shin Byung-cheol square on. The simple lightning spell, Zap.
Lightning-attribute mages are rare.
Until now I'd planned to simply watch without getting entangled in any of it, but this changed the equation. My Skill-Copy slot happened to be empty — maybe I should casually insert myself and pick something up?
The lightning-fast calculation was finished in an instant.
Shin Byung-cheol, caught in a mild paralysis, shuddered from head to toe and toppled sideways. He barely caught himself on the compartment table, but his entire weight came crashing down on it, and the recoil smacked straight into my elbow.
- Clack!
Now.
The homemade cookie I'd been nibbling away at piece by piece slipped from my fingers and rolled across the floor. Then the train gave a gentle jolt, carrying it even farther out of my reach.
Too late now. Food that has spent three seconds on the ground is food no more.
Excuse established.
All that remained was to pick my moment.
Shin Byung-cheol staggered upright, shaking off the paralysis, and his hand began creeping toward his back pocket.
"Ah~ this is awkward. I'm not so confident in a head-on fight, you see..."
"Then I will subdue you."
The female student pulled a dusky gray glove onto one hand — an artifact of fairly fine craftsmanship, by the look of it, stitched with golden embroidery and studded here and there with pinprick topaz gems. She snapped her fingers, and the glove erupted with brilliant light, spitting out crackling currents of electricity.
The snapping current took on the shape of a tiny hummingbird and shot forth, homing in on Shin Byung-cheol.
[Hummingbird]
- Zaaap!
But the hummingbird dealt Shin Byung-cheol not a scratch — because midway through its flight, my outstretched hand blocked its path. A miniature explosion of current burst against my palm, scattering sparks.
Having taken the hit myself, I could say for certain: it looks D-rank, but it's E-rank.
I shook out my tingling hand, and the girl watching me do it furrowed her brow slightly.
"You have an accomplice? I don't recall seeing you on the persons-of-interest list."
"Not an accomplice. I just suddenly remembered some business I had."
"What business, exactly?"
"My cookie."
"...Pardon?"
I pointed at the half-crushed homemade cookie that was even now rolling back and forth across the floor.
"It fell because of you people. You can't buy that anywhere, not for any money."
"You stepped in over a mere cookie?"
"It's a mere cookie, sure. But if you were the one eating it, you'd be furious too."
The girl's expression settled into one that said, I've seen every kind of lunatic now. Still, perhaps my words held some semblance of logic, because instead of acting at once, she hesitated.
Taking advantage of the lull, the young nobleman who'd been observing from the rear of the disciplinary trio stepped into the compartment, resting his hand on the golden sword at his hip.
"You're picking a fight over nothing. Sit down in your seat — or I'll have you taste something hotter than a cookie."
"I would advise you to consider your actions carefully."
Go Hyeon-woo cut into the exchange and rose slowly from his seat.
"If you mean to draw that sword, you should know I have no intention of standing by and merely watching."
"..."
The nobleman's gaze locked onto Go Hyeon-woo — and when his eyes confirmed the sheath in the young man's grip was a cheap iron sword, a sneer spread across his face.
"Not merely watching? And what, pray tell, do you intend to do about it?"
"..."
Nobleman and swordsman glared at each other, the tension in the compartment climbing by the second —
"One moment, please."
The female student raised a hand and stepped in as mediator, though she wore a look of half-doubt as she studied me, as if to ask whether this would even work.
"I'll send you a dessert voucher. You can use it at the student cafeteria. Will that do?"
"Fine, let's go with that."
"Then stop interfering and step aside."
I pretended to mull it over for a moment, then returned to my seat. Go Hyeon-woo, catching the flick of my eyes, withdrew as well, looking mildly dissatisfied about it.
Considering how boldly he'd squared up, his compliance was so swift that several of the committee members regarded me with open puzzlement.
I'd already gotten what I wanted.
Skill-Copy activated.
Target's skill Hummingbird (E) registered to slot.
▷ Skill-Copy [1/1]
1. Hummingbird (E)
I had stored Hummingbird as a skill and Elemental Resistance as a trait. To acquire any further skill or trait, I would have to expand my slots or overwrite an existing one.
"!"
Shin Byung-cheol, who had been biding his time for an opening, clearly decided this was it — and lunged forward. He wriggled like a soft-bodied mollusk, trying to slip through the gap, but from the girl's fingertips another hummingbird of lightning took wing.
- Zaaap!
"Gwaaagh!"
He folded over in a crumple so graceless that watching it made my own brows knit. Add the forward momentum of his lunge to the collapse, and his head slammed into the half-open compartment door with a resounding bang.
That one's got to hurt.
Wouldn't be surprised if a fat lump had sprung up on that buzz-cut head of his. Between the blow to the skull and the full-body paralysis from the hummingbird, Shin Byung-cheol could only twitch feebly on the floor.
The girl knelt on one knee and rummaged through his coat — and out of it came a whole fistful of luxuriously flowing hair.
"You stole the station attendant's wig. Your pranks have gone too far."
"Oh no..."
"Poor guy..."
We all looked down at Shin Byung-cheol with pity.
So this was worth the committee chasing him down after all. Byung-cheol was a bad man. How could anyone commit such a half-inhumane atrocity as stealing a bald man's wig?
The disciplinary quartet recovered the wig and sealed it in a zip-lock bag. Before departing, the girl tipped her chin at Shin Byung-cheol, who was still drifting in and out of his senses.
"Fair warning: Shin Byung-cheol is a student we keep a close eye on. Best you avoid entangling yourselves with him if you can. If he causes trouble at the academy, we will not look the other way."
"That's for me to decide. You all take care now."
"Hmph."
The girl shot me one last look of open disapproval, then turned her back. The young nobleman had a parting word for Go Hyeon-woo as well.
"You — remember my face."
"Likewise."
Then they closed the door and were gone.
"..."
"Aaargh... aaargh, my aching bones..."
A short while after the committee left, Shin Byung-cheol hauled himself up with theatrical groans, static electricity crackling off him with every movement. For the price of stealing a bald man's wig, it was probably a bargain.
Go Hyeon-woo, who had been watching from the side, gave a wry smile.
"They say the Dragon Slayer Academy houses a formidable force of students known as the Disciplinary Committee. I take it these are they?"
"Urgh — yeah. They're the elite handpicked from among the elite, so there's no way they're weak. You saw the girl who hit me with the hummingbird? Know who she is?"
"My own knowledge runs narrow, I fear. Would you enlighten me?"
"Hint: it's Song."
Go Hyeon-woo's eyes narrowed at once.
"Song... as in the Song clan, masters of the Topaz Magic Tower?"
"Got it in one. And she's Song Cheon-hye — granddaughter to the Thunder Lord himself."
"Ho. She struck me as no ordinary young lady, but a granddaughter of the Thunder Lord? My horizons widen a great deal today."
Go Hyeon-woo breathed a low whistle of admiration.
The Thunder Lord stood at the very summit of the countless heroes who had wielded lightning — a title bestowed upon only the single strongest among them. Needless to say, he ranked among the mightiest figures in the entire world of the Dragon Slayer Academy.
"The three waiting in the rear each have their own pedigree too. The big fellow is Jo Byeok, and the girl giggling away was Han So-mi — disciples of the Fist King and the Sword Empress, respectively."
"And the identity of that young nobleman?"
"Geum Jo-han. Young master of the Golden Lotus — and as you saw for yourself, an insufferable piece of work. He's probably skilled enough to have squeaked into the committee by the skin of his teeth, but compared to those first three, he falls a shade short."
"Remarkable. Does the committee gather none but such people?"
"Near enough, I'd say."
By then the paralysis had apparently worn off completely, because Shin Byung-cheol was swinging his arms in windmills like a man doing morning calisthenics.
"Anyway, nice meeting you, folks. If we cross paths later, pretend you know me. Take it easy!"
And just like that, he vanished out the door like the wind.
Go Hyeon-woo laughed awkwardly.
"Heh. Truly a restless sort of fellow. Wouldn't you say so, Brother Kim?"
"You would."
I turned my gaze quietly to Seo Ye-in, who had been watching the whole spectacle from her seat.
"Sorry. The cookie was delicious, by the way."
"I'll make more."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
And just like that, I'd walked away with a promise of cookies.
Seo Ye-in, drowsiness apparently creeping back up on her, slid silently down onto the table the moment the words left her mouth and went completely still.
"..."
"..."
Perhaps because a storm had just swept through, the quiet afternoon stillness of the compartment felt welcome. Go Hyeon-woo and I said nothing, both of us simply gazing out the window.
After a long while, he spoke up.
"By the way, Brother Kim — may I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"Was it truly over a cookie that you intervened?"
"..."
"I suppose a man has a right to anger when his snack time is disturbed... but somehow it seems there was another reason."
Sharper than I expected.
For someone who looked like the very model of an upright youth, his mind worked fairly well. Feeling mildly refreshed by the observation, I began my explanation. The biggest reason, of course, had been fulfilling the conditions for Skill-Copy — but even setting that aside, there was more to it.
"She's an exceedingly rare lightning-attribute mage. I wanted to get a light look at what she could do."
"Hmm... Yet all you actually did, Brother Kim, was receive a single strike from Lady Song. Was that not rather insufficient for taking a measure of her?"
He was saying that a lone parried blow hardly counted as an assessment. I answered with a question of my own.
"How much do you know about the spell called Hummingbird?"
"Today was the first I have laid eyes on it."
"Then what was your impression, seeing it for the first time?"
"Hmm..."
Go Hyeon-woo closed his eyes and fell into thought, apparently replaying the scenes in his memory.
"It was blindingly fast — difficult to track with the naked eye. And rather than dealing damage to its target, it seemed a technique focused on controlling the enemy, through paralysis and the like."
"Half right."
"And the other half?"
"Watch closely."
I conjured a hummingbird above my open palm. It was only about the size of a fly — an embarrassing comparison next to Song Cheon-hye's — but I had yet to build a mana reactor, a Core, so I couldn't properly manifest even a low-grade spell at full scale. Still, for demonstrating the movement alone, this size would do.
The hummingbird rose from my hand. Following my control, it traced figure-eights through the air, or darted in erratic zigzags.
"It's called Hummingbird because its flight is modeled on the real bird."
"Ah, I see. Such movement would make it quite troublesome to deal with."
"And its performance varies wildly depending on the caster's proficiency."
Go Hyeon-woo tilted his head, still not quite following.
"And what has that to do with Lady Song's skill?"
"Think of it in reverse. If the bird's movement changes with the caster's proficiency, then..."
"...Ah! Then one could gauge her skill from the movement of the hummingbird itself."
"Exactly."
If Song Cheon-hye were truly a seasoned mage, the moment she registered my interference, her hummingbird should have changed its behavior somehow — swerving around my hand, say, or dropping back momentarily before resuming its course.
Instead, her hummingbird had flown straight into my palm. That was evidence that her spell control — or her combat experience — was still green.
"To think so much information was packed into a single strike of Lady Song's."
And that's not even all of it.
Judging from the hit I'd taken firsthand, while the spell was technically E-rank, its power was strong enough that you could fairly call it D-rank in practice. Either she'd learned a potent trait that supplemented her magic, or her raw mana reserves were simply monstrous.
Either way, it meant her potential was enormous.
Granddaughter of the Thunder Lord, indeed. She lives up to the name.
I added Song Cheon-hye's name to my mental list of heroes to recruit someday.
Go Hyeon-woo nodded with a smile.
"We've known each other scarcely a day, and already I am learning so much. It can only be called a rare stroke of fortune."
"Hardly worth calling a fortune. This much, I can teach anyone."
"How generous you are. I chose well in my first friend — I'd say my eye for people is not half bad. Haha."
That was Go Hyeon-woo for you — finding the bright side of absolutely everything.
Then his expression turned suddenly serious.
"If ever you have need of my strength, speak the word at any time. I will aid you with all that I have."
"Will you? Well then, since we're on the subject—"
I rose from my seat.
"Come somewhere with me."
There was a hidden piece I intended to go pick up.