The Benefactor (2)

When I came to, I was inside a car that smelled of something pleasant.

A heater warmed my body, and beyond the window the world changed too quickly to follow. The one at the wheel seemed to be the man who had come to fetch me.

"……."

"……."

Our eyes met awkwardly in the rearview mirror. I flinched, and he looked away at once, fixing his gaze on the road ahead.

For a long while neither of us spoke. The wheels simply kept turning.

Red, blue, yellow.

Cars and people shifted in orderly time with the three lights. I stared blankly at all those people who belonged to the world's most ordinary rules.

…And me.

How many times, in the whole of my life, had I actually seen a scene like this with my own eyes? I had been locked inside the clan for so long that the air outside felt like something from another lifetime.

A thread of cold slipped in through the gap at the door and pushed back the heater's air — thick enough, by then, to choke on — just far enough that I could breathe. I was still reeling, but for now it was enough to lean against the door and feel the cold and the warmth at once.

I drew my arms around myself and let out a breath.

"I imagine this must all be very confusing."

"…!!"

The man who had come for me had spoken.

From the presence he gave off, he could use supernatural power as well. I could have told as much from the way he was dressed. A suit cut together with traditional hanbok, and a gat — that black horsehair hat — on his head. No one but an Exorcist went about like that.

…I had no particular wish to trust an Exorcist.

When I turned a wary look on him, the man dropped his eyes from the mirror again and spoke in a calm voice.

"I will explain everything once we arrive. Until then, I was ordered to say nothing."

"…I understand."

"There is a light refreshment beside your seat. It should help you recover your strength."

The scrupulous deference he showed a fifteen-year-old only made him more suspicious. Even so, unease or not, I could not refuse what he told me to do.

"I'll eat."

"……."

After that he offered nothing more, and I did not go out of my way to speak either.

It was a strange feeling. A hunger for revenge, and a longing, stirred together in equal measure.

…Could I even call it jealousy? I had never been jealous of anyone, so I could not say. All I knew was that, right now, I envied this man who had been born an Exorcist from the very start.

My head began to ache. I gave up on thinking altogether and pressed the button beside my seat. The center console lowered, and an assortment of snacks appeared.

"……."

Red ginseng candy. Whoever usually rode in this car was clearly getting on in years.

I glanced over them and slipped a grape candy into my mouth. Fortunately, eating it did not make me drowsy, and my whole body did not begin to hurt. Most of the candies I had been given in the clan were that sort of thing, so I had gone on guard without meaning to — I could not even remember the first taste. The longer it melted, the sweeter it grew, wrapping my tongue in a pleasant warmth.

I had been dozing against the seat when a voice reached me.

"Lady Inhwa Rang, we have arrived."

"Ah……."

The door opened slowly. The man bowed his head and helped me to my feet. It was still raining, so he followed close and held an umbrella to keep me from getting wet.

Uncomfortable.

No — not uncomfortable so much as strange. No one had ever gotten wet themselves simply to keep an umbrella over me. Was this how the direct heirs of other clans felt?

I shook the thought off and looked ahead. What met me was an enormous hanok, a traditional house so vast it would not have looked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out of place beside a king's palace. For a moment I lost myself staring at it.

"This way."

"…Ah, I— I'm sorry."

The man's voice startled me, and I ducked my head. His expressionless face wavered. He hurried to tilt the umbrella over me again.

"Ah……."

"It is enough if I am the only one who gets wet, my lady."

"What?"

My lady — I could not think what he meant by it, but the confusion passed quickly as I became aware of the state of my own body.

"Ah."

"Any later, and the head of the house will scold me."

My feelings were a tangle, but I had no wish to be the reason someone was scolded, so I hurried a little toward the mansion.

The man produced a token much like an old identity tag. A red flame flickered, and the great gate swung wide.

"What… is this."

Supernatural power could do even this? I could not help opening my eyes wide.

Inside the estate, the surprises did not stop. That so vast a mansion stood empty was the lesser of them. Supernatural power was being used everywhere — and all of it by a single person.

"Have you always been able to read the flow of supernatural power?"

"…Yes. More or less."

I was not entirely without talent, so I could read the basic flow of energy. That was all, though. There was nothing beyond it. I did not bother saying so. I had not opened my heart to this man completely, and I did not want to.

After that, neither of us spoke. We simply walked on.

About ten minutes later we stopped before a room beneath a hanging plaque.

Knock, knock.

The man took the handle before me and rapped twice. A voice came from beyond the door.

"You are here. You took your time."

"I apologize."

"Enough. Bringing that bewildered child must have been weary work. You may withdraw. Inhwa Rang, come in."

"Yes."

The man bowed toward the door, then turned and gestured for me to enter.

"……."

There was too much I wanted to ask. And at the same time, I wanted to walk in. Perhaps because I knew it — I, who no longer had a single foothold of trust left, was looking at my last chance to believe in a person again.

I drew a breath, gathered myself, and opened the door.

What waited was an old-fashioned room, thick with the scent of coffee. I was staring blankly when the woman seated at the center smiled and offered a greeting.

"Welcome."

"……."

I only stared at her in silence.

This person. An aura heavier than any anomaly, and yet infinitely thinner than a human being's. Just how high a realm had she reached — I was still wondering when she spoke.

"Just as I thought. You have recognized it. An ordinary human could not so much as read my energy. Feel anything at all, and they would only shrink in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fear, wondering whether some anomaly lurked here."

The woman smiled, rose, and came toward me slowly.

"You must have many questions."

I nodded, and she nodded as well, signaling that I might ask — on one condition. One question at a time.

The first, then…….

"…Who are you, exactly?"

Her identity. She was no god of monstrous power. There was one person I could guess at. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Whether that guess was right, I did not know.

The woman nodded and answered.

"As expected. That would be the first."

"…Please answer me."

I spoke seriously into that playful look, and she laughed it off — said she had gone to such trouble making this face pretty, only for me to crease it — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠before she opened her mouth.

"Why should I hide it? I am the Principal of that Exorcist Military Academy."

"…You."

"You are less surprised than I expected."

A mystic among Exorcists, who went about with her identity concealed and rarely showed her face even at an entrance ceremony. No one knew when the Exorcist Military Academy had been founded. In all that time, its Principal had never once changed. I had already guessed that if any living Exorcist surpassed my grandfather, it could only be this person.

I did not pause. I asked the second question at once.

"Why did you bring me back to life?"

"Because it is a waste, letting a talented child be thrown away."

I asked whether that was truly all, but the Principal said nothing more. She only smiled and nodded.

"What talent… do I even have?"

All my life I had lived under the names of worm and filth. I had been born devouring my own parents, and there was nothing I possessed — only a body like a curse, good for nothing but erasing the clan's talent. That was why it made even less sense.

"Talent, you have in abundance."

"……."

"It is only that… your flesh could not keep up with it. The body is the vessel that receives the soul."

Supernatural power clings to the soul, and one can wield only as much of it as the vessel of the flesh can bear.

"Your power is yin at its root. And yet it was bound inside a body so overwhelmingly full of yang that it could never function as it ought."

"What… does that mean."

"It seems you were never taught even the fundamentals."

The Principal looked at me with something like pity, then grinned and said she would explain once all my questions were finished.

"Is there anything else you wish to know?"

"Then… what is the Admission Certificate?"

"The Exorcist Military Academy's Admission Certificate, of course."

That blank slip was an Admission Certificate for the Exorcist Military Academy?

I drew it from my robes. The Principal smiled and kindled a flame at her fingertip, and at the same moment the words written upon the certificate came into view.

Where the fire touched, the letters seemed to seep inward and carve themselves into the page.

"You said you wished to become a great Exorcist, like me."

The Principal grinned and stroked my head.

"…What?"

It had come so suddenly that my mind could not catch up.