Chapter 93: Seo Ye-in Wants to Rest
On the walk to class after a quick breakfast together, something about Seo Ye-in's step had changed from the day before. Her gait was as unhurried as ever, yet somehow lighter—and every now and then her feet blurred at the edges, as if leaving afterimages in their wake.
She was casting Featherwalk.
Let's put that to the test.
I plucked a single leaf from one of the trees lining the path and flicked it casually her way. The leaf went fluttering down toward Seo Ye-in's head, but just before it could settle—perhaps a hand's breadth above her hair—it began to wobble erratically, dancing on some invisible current, before whisking off into the distance.
As though it had flown into a patch of turbulence. One of Featherwalk's effects.
"...?"
Seo Ye-in reacted a good three seconds after the leaf had passed. She tilted her head and stared at me steadily, as if to ask, What was with the leaf?
"Wanted to see how far you'd gotten with Featherwalk. You're already D-rank, huh."
"Mm."
I had gauged her approximate rank from the level of turbulence the skill kicked up while active. Well learned. Fast, as expected. It had been Tuesday when we met Ahn Jungmi and settled on a plan going forward, and once you counted the time it took even to get her hands on the skill book, Seo Ye-in had owned it for only a few days. And already D-rank. I'd thought it plenty of times before, but her talent truly stood in a league of its own.
Of course, the student's talent was talent—but the teacher's toil deserved its share of the credit too.
"Thank you for your hard work."
I said this not to Seo Ye-in, but to the empty stretch of path behind us. A reply floated back in a scrupulously courteous tone.
"I have merely done my duty."
The air shimmered faintly once, and Ahn Jungmi revealed herself—dressed in her usual business suit, a translucent garment folded over one arm. She had been shadowing Seo Ye-in this entire time, concealed within the Transparent Ghillie Suit.
Ahn Jungmi bowed with perfect courtesy. "You knew I was there, then."
"I have a useless knack for this sort of thing. I was only half-sure, but it seems I called it."
"A mere hunch could never pierce my concealment. That was skill, Kim Ho-nim—yours."
There was a look about her that wanted to ask precisely how I had detected the Transparent Ghillie Suit, but I had nothing useful to offer.
I just take one look and I know. Any explanation along the lines of "I'm a grizzled veteran player, so I can size up most things at a glance!" was never going to persuade her. So I eased us back to the original topic instead.
"From what I could see, Featherwalk looks to have hit D-rank already."
"Yes. She achieved that over the weekend."
Ahn Jungmi's gaze as she looked at Seo Ye-in was steeped in pride and satisfaction—much like a master craftsman beholding the work of a lifetime. The young lady who had once been so impossible to manage was now following her training meekly, her rank climbing exactly as taught. Of course she was proud.
"C-rank won't be far behind, I take it?"
"Of course. At this pace, I expect it within the week."
"Outstanding."
"Her training, likewise, is proceeding with an emphasis on making the most of her mobility—"
Ahn Jungmi reported on the past week's training and the schedule ahead, down to the smallest particular, and I nodded along, thoroughly satisfied. To think she was this capable.
The curriculum was so flawlessly assembled that I had no need to meddle at all. One glance was enough to tell it was the fruit of a plan drawn up long ago and refined through revision after revision. The plan had always existed; it had simply sat on hold because the person it was for wasn't ready.
And yet even this seemingly perfect curriculum harbored one fatal flaw.
"That said... I can't help feeling this is rather too much of a forced march."
The schedule was stitched so tight that I genuinely wondered whether Seo Ye-in could run the whole gauntlet to the end. She took her mentoring separately, but we sat in every class together, so I watched her condition from the next seat each day—and day by day she was sagging like seaweed left to soak. Even now she didn't look good. And with mentoring only a single week in, the odds of trouble down the line were very high indeed.
"...As it happens, that is exactly what I hoped to consult you about, Kim Ho-nim."
"Glad to hear it. The party concerned is right here with us, so let's find a middle ground together."
First, I held my fist up to Seo Ye-in's lips like an interviewer's mic.
"A word from you, please. One week of mentoring under the butler. Your impressions?"
"Boring."
Just like that, Seo Ye-in drove a dagger straight into Ahn Jungmi's chest. The butler's frame gave the faintest shudder, yet she seemed to hold her composure through sheer, beyond-human patience.
For my part, I pretended not to see and kept the questions coming.
"'Boring,' I see. And which part, specifically, bored you?"
"She keeps making me do the same thing over and over."
This remark she apparently could not let pass; Ahn Jungmi cut in, her tone that of a patient tutor.
"Miss, repetition is the bedrock of all training. Did you not repeat the very same motions when you trained with Kim Ho-nim?"
"It's boring when the butler makes me."
"Then when Kim Ho-nim—"
"Kim Ho's fine."
"?"
"???"
Ahn Jungmi and I traded looks of pure bewilderment. The exact same training was boring on the butler's orders, yet fine on mine? It made no sense whatsoever. Pressing further promised no coherent answer, so I let it slide and moved on.
I raised the fist-mic again.
"Any other grievances, speak without reserve."
"She won't even let me nap. Keeps waking me up."
Ahn Jungmi's face twitched faintly; she closed her eyes and quietly smothered the swell of feeling. Her mental discipline was approaching a monk's. Then, calm once more, she laid out her rebuttal.
"Miss, a nap must not run past four hours."
Honestly, fair point. Anything over four hours couldn't be called a nap by any stretch. Had I been in Ahn Jungmi's shoes, I'd have woken her too. Unfortunately, the hilt at this negotiating table was gripped firmly by Seo Ye-in, and being in the right counted for nothing here. So I resolved to hold a neutral line—at least outwardly—slipping a silent current of sympathy and encouragement toward Ahn Jungmi before raising the fist-mic to Seo Ye-in once more.
"Hmm, understood. Then what, might I ask, would restore your motivation, Miss?"
"Want to rest. Time to recharge."
"Time to recharge..." I traded a wordless exchange of glances with Ahn Jungmi.
— Just let her rest.
— But the schedule...
— There's no other way.
For every hour Seo Ye-in rested, small errors would creep into the "perfect curriculum" prepared by Hyeseong Group's Future Strategy Office, and the odds would grow that Ahn Jungmi failed to teach everything she'd planned for the mentoring period. But this was a case of penny-wise, pound-foolish: in dodging a small loss, we stood to forfeit something far larger. Seo Ye-in's motivation was already in steep decline; refuse her request, and it wouldn't be the curriculum drifting off course—the mentoring itself might capsize outright. If Seo Ye-in, the supreme authority in this arrangement, flopped over and declared, Boring. Not doing it, what earthly means would Ahn Jungmi have of making her train? If that had worked, she'd have done it ages ago.
"...Understood."
Ahn Jungmi exhaled a small sigh and nodded, and I set Seo Ye-in's demand on the table.
"If you want to rest, you should rest. How about a whole day of doing nothing but sleeping in?"
"..."
But to my surprise, Seo Ye-in shook her head side to side. My proposed solution had been the wrong answer.
"Then what do you want?"
Seo Ye-in studied me for a long moment, then opened her mouth slowly. The word that came out was one neither I nor Ahn Jungmi had remotely seen coming.
"Downtown. Ever been?"
"...!"
Downtown.
Dungeon Island was home to countless personnel beyond its students and faculty—the unseen many who kept Dragon Slayer Academy's facilities running as they should. These people made their homes mostly near the island's outskirts, and wherever a residential quarter sprang up, a commercial district inevitably followed, dense with foot traffic. A place lined with every manner of shop and establishment, overflowing with things to buy, things to eat, things to see and do.
Take, for instance, the strawberry fresh-cream cake I'd lucked into early in the semester and split with Seo Ye-in. The bakery that supplied that cake sat right in the downtown district.
Which meant Seo Ye-in's request was—
"You want to go out and have fun downtown?"
"Yeah."
"Somehow I don't see you having much fun going alone..."
"Come with."
"Miss, if it's the downtown district, allow me to escort you there."
At Ahn Jungmi's offer, Seo Ye-in shook her head at once.
"Boring with the butler. No fun."
"..."
Ahn Jungmi sulked and backed away a few steps. Had she owned a tail, it would surely have been drooping along the ground.
Having dispatched Ahn Jungmi in a single blow, Seo Ye-in now fixed her gaze on me, demanding an answer. Her gray eyes were sparkling with unusual brilliance—brighter, even, than the day she'd first laid eyes on the Feather Cushion from the random box.
Ahn Jungmi, mid-sulk, also stole a careful read of my expression. She seemed to feel she had no right to take up too much of my time—and yet, at the same time, she rather transparently hoped I would go along.
Well. I suppose I'm going.
I held a sizable stake in Seo Ye-in's mentoring. I was, after all, the very culprit who had coaxed a girl insisting it was all too much of a hassle into the program in the first place. Which made the aftercare, whenever her motivation flagged, my responsibility too. And on cold practical terms, it was no loss either: training hours would shrink a little, but a deficit that size could be more than recouped by scavenging a few hidden pieces while we were out there. Conclusion—a day's investment was well worth it.
To make the terms of trade explicit, I addressed Seo Ye-in.
"Fine, we'll go out together this weekend. In exchange, you keep doing as the butler says and keep your results up this week. Deal?"
"..."
Seo Ye-in swiveled her head toward Ahn Jungmi and stared, as if to ask, I have to put up with her for another week? Even so, in the end she bobbed her head slowly up and down.
"Okay."
Ahn Jungmi released a soundless breath of relief. Thanks to my brokering the deal, she had bought herself at least one more week.
She drew close and murmured, pitched for my ears alone.
"I know what a bother this must be for you, and still you go to such lengths. Thank you, truly."
"Think nothing of it. I did say I'd help a friend with all the strength I could muster."
And, incidentally, I'd get to enjoy myself downtown a little and eat something good while I was at it.
Even so, Ahn Jungmi wore the look of someone deeply moved, as though I were making some lofty sacrifice on Seo Ye-in's behalf. Then, in short order, her expression hardened with resolve.
"I will see to it that your time is never wasted, Kim Ho-nim."
[94] The Support Ate It All