Pyo Do-seok watched with bored eyes as the discipline officers went at the cadets like men hunting rats.
'I wonder whether they're doing well.'
For the record, the cadets being scolded right now were not his subordinates, the ones he had sent to stomp Ya-hwi. They were cadets he had identified over the past week, not of his faction but belonging to the same low sort as he was.
The sort so low, for instance, as to bring cigarettes and alcohol into the military academy from the very first week.
'I dragged out this much time for them, so surely they haven't failed.'
The method of 'stomping' decided by the die was physical violence.
But even so, does it do to be involved in school violence from the very first week? Setting aside the record being kept, wouldn't the family raise hell?
Especially his 'strict' and 'thoroughgoing' and 'fair and upright' 'mother,' who would be furious?
Therefore Pyo Do-seok made a point of not being among those who laid hands on him directly. He did not even designate the method of laying hands.
On the surface, what Pyo Do-seok had been involved in was exactly three things.
Continually and subtly egging his subordinates on with, 'That son of a bitch is so unbearable, I wish somebody would teach him a lesson. If there were a brave kid like that I'd get along well with him.'
Feigning ignorance and connecting his subordinates, who were floundering for a way to screw him over, with accommodating upperclassmen: 'As it happens I know an upperclassman; would you like to consult him?'
And last, at his subordinates' request of 'today we're going to do a thing, oops. It'd be a problem if the discipline officers are on the first floor, so could you drag out some time for a moment?', drawing away the attention of every discipline officer.
Truly, that was all.
'From the look of it they used the upperclassmen and cleaned out the Phantasm management zone as well.......'
That was not something Pyo Do-seok had schemed. It is a major incident where, if caught, even those merely connected would be expelled; would he be mad enough to get involved in a job like that?
What Pyo Do-seok had expected was about the level of some moron mistaking his family for a backer of his own and inflicting an injury. Beyond that he had not particularly hoped for anything.
Not out of any guilty conscience, but because of the thought 'surely they aren't that far gone?' It was a fact that they were stupid enough to be used by him, but he had not known they were incapable of telling up from down.
But his subordinates were astonishingly stupid, and for all that their capacity to act was good. Absurd though it was, it was also something he was more or less pleased with.
In any case, it was not as though he had drawn up a plan for them, nor had he been told anything in advance. Evidence that he was connected to the incident simply did not exist.
Meaning that however things turned out, no harm would come to him.
Even if his subordinates clung to him begging to be saved...... with no clear 'evidence' that he had put them up to it, what does it matter?
The ones who committed an act that looks brain-fold-free in order to get in his good books are the morons.
So Pyo Do-seok waited for the result soon to be announced with the mind of a very comfortable onlooker.
WEEEEEEEEE—!
Soon a sound that would belong to that result came.
It was the alarm that operates when a Phantasm rampages inside a building.
'What a waste of making them come all the way up to the fourth floor.'
No — or perhaps, since none of the discipline officers were at their posts, they had chosen this method of calling. Because however stupid his subordinates were, they would not have rampaged inside the building too.
"Wait here!"
Some of the discipline officers who had been rounding up cadets hurried outside. Pyo Do-seok quietly followed behind them.
Since he was not among those being scolded, that was permitted.
'That is.......'
Hwaso Hall, the cadets' dormitory, was in a squared-off U shape, and the female cadets' and male cadets' rooms were divided at the lobby. The lobby also had a void structure, so you could look down at the first floor even from the fourth.
That Pyo Do-seok could see a bull rampaging on the first floor was entirely thanks to that.
"What is going on here!"
The discipline officer did not use the stairs or the elevator. Having gotten down to the first floor in ten seconds by vaulting the railing, the discipline officer shouted.
Right after, the bull crunched through a piece of raw radish that had been thrown onto the floor.
The bull became a person. Vivid blond hair brushed at Pyo Do-seok's eyebrow.
"Cadet? Are you yourself, right now——"
"There's a Yeommae in the rear garden, cough."
Pyo Do-hyeok.
"One cadet, is buying, ti——"
He collapsed.
The twin with whom he was on worse terms than a stranger vomited blood and fell.
***
Ordinarily a swung sword belongs to physical force.
But what if the swung sword is no ordinary sword. And what if it goes as far as being the Twin Dragon Swords?
SLASH!
Black Fang cut the Yeommae. Because I wished it so, so it was.
The rank the Twin Dragon Swords possess made even a blow that should not land land, limited to targets lower than themselves.
『Hun...... gry.......』
The Yeommae is a vicious thing that passes for the very highest among curses, but before the Twin Dragon Swords one blow was enough.
The Yeommae's body began to crumble. It was a little pitiful, and also a relief.
『Hungry.......』
"......Sorry. There's nothing to eat."
Deliberately starving a child again and again, just short of death, and then killing it when it is right at the edge of death, to make a curse. That is the Yeommae.
Of course, this was merely an individual born from such a tale; it was not as though there was a real victim.
"I hope you won't be hungry anymore."
『Hun.......』
Even so, it needlessly weighed on me. It was a thin sort of feeling.
I preferred living even if it hurt, but what about the Yeommae. I could only hope that it would at least be without pain.
I watched the Yeommae vanish. Soon the twisted baby monster that formed the Yeommae's true body turned to ash and disappeared.
The bamboo tube, which had remained to the very last, also began to crumble away.
"Hh."
Along with it my knees folded downward. It was a strange sensation. It felt as though I were overflowing with strength, and also as though I had no strength at all and wanted to collapse from the exhaustion.
It was like having replaced only the battery of an old, worn machine with the latest model. There was plainly energy, but the body would not keep up.
『Steady your breathing.』
Black Fang gently gathered me in. I did not refuse that advice.
Rather than moving unreasonably, I steadied my breathing and checked my condition. At that, the violent power churning about inside my body came properly into view.
"......I'm holding out somehow."
『You may be proud. This is a feat.』
In one light it might be an arrogance close to narcissism, I thought, but once I measured the power held in my body I was convinced soon enough.
Yes. This was indeed a feat. I did it myself, and yet I really do not know how I did it.
"But other than holding it I can't do anything more......."
『Your flesh is not yet complete. That alone is enough. Do not be greedy for more.』
"Is that so......."
Well, you cannot expect to be full from the first spoonful.
Enduring the desire to collapse right where I was, I tried to adapt to the power held inside me. Returning the power? If that could be done at once I would have done it long ago.
For me as I am now, even returning the power to the Twin Dragon Swords was an utterly overwhelming task.
『Yes, like that. You need only move it slowly.』
If I made even the slightest mistake this rough and destructive power would blow my body to pieces.
Faced with a fact I sensed instinctively, I became as careful as I possibly could. The power that had flowed into my body returned slowly to Black Fang.
"One surviving cadet confirmed! Commencing rescu——?!"
Around then, the adults arrived.
Honestly it was a bit irritating. If this is how it's going to be, come a little earlier. You arrive the moment I've forced my way through it? This is showing up after the fact!
"The Yeommae is not in sight! Cadet, do you happen to know where the Yeommae went——"
Still, what can you do. It is better than their not coming at all.
"I eliminated it just now."
"......What?"
"Just now, what did you just——"
At my one remark the movements of the busy instructors...... of the discipline officers momentarily stopped.
It felt rather like playing freeze tag. Despite the urgency of the situation, everyone stopped like frozen people and looked only at me.
Even in the darkness, eyes gone rigid were quite clearly visible.
"You eliminated the Yeommae?"
"Yes, sir."
"How on earth—— no, this isn't what matters right now. For now, transport to the medical corps......!"
"Ah, that won't do, sir."
Still, discipline officers being discipline officers, they tried to take control while forcibly swallowing down their shock. It was the sort of control I would normally have welcomed and that right now was a little awkward.
"In the course of standing against the Yeommae I took in part of the Twin Dragon Swords' power. But it's a little hard to control, so if I move carelessly......"
I strung my words together haltingly. That the discipline officers would find it frustrating was not my concern.
I was at a point where keeping hold of my own body alone was killing me. Right now it was the ones who had come late who ought to be patient.
"Wait, what? You used the Twin Dragon Swo...... good heavens."
Some searched the surroundings in preparation for any possibility, and some came over to me.
That last remark belonged to a person of the latter sort. Whether he handled a Phantasm related to 'seeing,' light came from his irises.
"......How? How are you alive?"
"Sir?"
"This, this can no longer be called a human——"
"Hey! Pull yourself together! What are you saying to a cadet who barely survived!"
"Ah, right. You, the cadet is still......"
Another discipline officer stopped the one pouring out gibberish like a man out of his mind. Only then did the discipline officer with the shining eyes calm down.
"......Are you all right? You are in a state no different from having contained a natural disaster inside your body."
"It's a little hard, sir, but I'm all right."
"It was a dangerous attempt. One slip and it would not have been strange for your body to burst! Fortunately the result was good, or else......!"
"What wouldn't a person do to live, sir."
I had not known it would be this dangerous, but that does not mean I had not anticipated it at all. It was simply that my life was equally on the line either way, so I took a gamble.
Above all, is this my fault? If you disliked a cadet committing a dangerous gamble, you should have come earlier yourselves.
I put that sullenness into a slightly grumbling tone. The discipline officer washed his face with dry hands.
"......Yes, in truth it is not your fault. You truly held out well. Truly, truly well held."
"Hey, talking is all well and good, but now we really must transport him. If the curse gets worse at this rate his life will——"
"No. This cadet, this cadet is fine."
Through the gaps between his fingers, the discipline officer's pupils reflected me. What flowed behind his shining eyes was a formless language seeking my agreement.
"However thick a ghost's grudge, it cannot suppress a typhoon or a tidal wave. Is that not so?"
Uh, um. It does seem that since killing the Yeommae the curse that had been rotting my body has cleared away entirely, but isn't that simply because the Yeommae, the source of the curse, died?
But the discipline officer's gaze was too intense for me to pass it off that way. He was looking at me as though at something marvelous, something that could not exist.
"No, the kid's arm is festering right now, what are you talking——"
"Look carefully. At whether that is really 'festering.'"
"What?"
At the discipline officer's words another person tried to check my forearm.
Naturally my gaze went down to my arm too. Since the clothing had been corroded and torn by the Yeommae, there was no need even to roll up the sleeve.
Skin laid plainly bare came into my field of view...... what is this.
"Huh??"
Scales...... are they? Are they really scales? And why are real scales sprouting on my arm??
"Huh!?!"
Seriously, what is this!!
Whoaaaa!!!
***
Choe Ye-na, instructor for the Phantasms and Mysteries subject.
She barely succeeded in keeping hold of her reason in the face of an incident that made her mind go faint the moment she heard it.
"A Yeommae, which is only permitted to be taken out by fifth-years, was leaked to a first-year."
"Yes."
"And a first-year cracked that thing open in the middle of a fight among themselves?"
"Yes."
"The masterless Yeommae then ran wild and produced seven primary infections and forty-three secondary infections? With the tertiary and quaternary still being checked?"
"Yes."
"And on top of that, this situation broke out at the very time the discipline officers had left their posts, and because support was delayed by that, a cadet could not stand it any longer and eliminated the Yeommae single-handedly?"
"Yes."
"Fuck."
This was a plain man-made disaster. A man-made disaster where not only the students were at fault, but the school's own failure of management was added on top!
What happens if a fatality comes out of a situation like this? No, one may already have come out. It was the Yeommae's curse — a thing that could kill a person in the interval while she was being briefed!
Choe Ye-na prepared to dash out to the scene at once. The one making the report hurried after her.
"The condition of the primary infections?!"
"One is comatose, the rest have entered recovery."
"What? Wait, you do mean the primary infections?"
"Yes."
"......How on earth is that possible?"
That there were no fatalities was heaven's own luck. Truly heaven's luck...... but how it was possible was the question. The reason the Yeommae is called a curse of the utmost evil is that elimination is not the solution.
The Yeommae's sickness does not heal because you eliminate it. Only by ordering the sickness to be recovered along with the Yeommae when you recover one you have released does the curse come undone.
Meaning that a directly infected person would have to be in serious condition at the least. That was what Choe Ye-na had learned and experienced.
"Even if it was recovered at once and treatment begun, curse-breaking would take time as well......."
"That part is still under investigation, but everyone is guessing it may be due to the peculiarity of the cadet who eliminated the Yeommae."
"Ah, right. Who on earth is it? What first-year, of all things, took on a Yeommae——"
"It is that cadet. The one with the Twin Dragon Swords."
"......Ah, right. Okay."
Vicious a curse as the Yeommae may be, compared to the Twin Dragon Swords it is no more than a firefly before the sun.
Thanks to that, Choe Ye-na assented 'for now.' She did not completely understand. Understanding would come after she saw and examined everything for herself.
「Ye-na, no, Instructor Choe. You heard the news, right?」
"Yes, Instructor Kang."
Just then contact came from her senior and direct superior. Her senior too seemed to have just been briefed, as she had.
「Confirm the Yeommae's elimination with Instructor Kim, and once you're done, both of you go to the hospital and join Instructor Park. Instructor Min and I will take the management zone.」
"Yes, ma'am."
The proper work would be handled by departments such as the Inspection and Safety Office, the Military Police Battalion, and the Phantasm Management Battalion, but the Phantasm Training Office could hardly sit still either.
Part of checking the cadets' Phantasms overlapped with their duties. One slip and blood might splash on this side too.
'I wonder how many will be ground up over this business.......'
This was absolutely not a matter that would end with a reprimand. The students involved faced expulsion and imprisonment, and those who had failed at management faced confinement at minimum and, in the worst case, demotion in rank or reassignment.
And if you are reassigned over a thing like this, you are sent without exception to the front, and to the very front line directly connected to certain death. Meaning they deliberately send to the front people who came to the rear because fighting was impossible for them, or because they were unfit.
'Fuck! This is exactly why you shouldn't hand Phantasms straight to seventeen-year-old brats......!'
Choe Ye-na decided that once this business was over she would petition, please, pleeeease, not to hand out Phantasms right away. Rather than giving them out immediately, give us even a week, a week at the very least, to teach the brats about the dangers of Phantasms.
What would a week's delay in the Selection Ceremony change, she supposed, but even so it would be better than nothing! Better than a damn idiotic situation like this breaking out from the very first week!!
In any case, she hurried toward the cadet dormitory where the Yeommae had appeared.
The first-year dormitory was, very unusually, quiet. It was because the cadets had been shut into their rooms to block the possibility of curse infection.
From now on the first-year cadets would not be able to leave their rooms until it was judged there was no risk of transmission. If they were lucky, until tomorrow; if unlucky, several days or more.
"Loyalty."
"Loyalty."
In the lobby and corridors, emptied of cadets, soldiers bundled up in layers were going about. Most would belong to the Inspection and Safety Office or to the Military Police Battalion.
"Instructor Choe!"
"Instructor Kim."
Instructor Kim, whom her senior had ordered her to join, had already arrived. Behind Instructor Kim floated a shamanic-family Phantasm whose purification ability, whatever else, was outstanding.
"How far have you gotten?"
"We have finished identifying every place the Yeommae passed through. And now we are checking the place where it was eliminated, but......"
Instructor Kim glanced at her own Phantasm.
One Phantasm in a navy skirt, a long-sleeved white jangsam robe, a red kasaya, and a white gokkal hat. One Phantasm dressed in a dongdari and a jeonbok, holding the five-direction spirit-general flags divided between both hands.
"Seungmu, Sinjang-gut. Would you say it again?"
『When a dragon and death have stood together in one place, how should a mere ghost endure before them?』
『In this place there is no longer any grievance and no longer any rancor, so the curse too has no reason to remain.』
"So they say."
For now it was not bad news. It was only not bad news. Choe Ye-na was in the position of having to investigate, so she could hardly be glad simply that the curse was gone.
"Great as the difference in rank may be, are the Twin Dragon Swords enough to exorcise even a curse? And I hear they didn't just purify the area around the Yeommae but broke the curse on victims who were far away, too."
If the Twin Dragon Swords had at least possessed a tale of cutting down a ghost, of destroying a vengeful spirit, she would have been convinced at once.
But the Twin Dragon Swords' tale was not like that. That was the problem. There was something incongruous about being convinced by 'rank' alone.
『......』
『......』
At Choe Ye-na's question, Seungmu and Sinjang-gut exchanged a glance.
『What we are able to say is all of this.』
『There are times when it is better not to know.』
Again.
Just as the Seonang, Seongju, and Teoju deities had, they would resolve the problem yet once again shut their mouths about the full story.
In the end Choe Ye-na had no choice but to go to the hospital with nothing gained. It was time to obtain the cadets' testimony.
Tab 25