“……An unfamiliar ceiling.”
“What was that cliché line? Have you been reading strange novels?”
I slowly raised my upper body.
My arms moved normally, my vision was not especially blurry, and my legs still had strength.
“I have finished most of the treatment. The curses clinging to you have also been dispelled. There will not be any aftereffects from them later.”
Only after confirming that my body had recovered did I turn my head. Hwa Yejin was seated in the chair beside my bed.
“Calling it cliché is a little harsh, considering that I am sort of your benefactor.”
“Then by that logic, I treated you as well, did I not?”
It was a rather rude remark, but it did not annoy me.
I knew Hwa Yejin’s personality well enough.
After bluntly saying it, Hwa Yejin seemed pricked by her own words. She hesitated for a while, then lowered her head deeply.
“……Still, it is true that I owe you a great deal.”
She continued while fidgeting with her fingers.
“You moved everyone below C-Rank away from that place, and you froze the building to delay its collapse. Without your help, the damage would have been far greater.”
I did not say anything.
My silence put far more pressure on that kind of person.
Leia was a useless case with regrettably poor intelligence, while Yu Danyeong was a pushover regardless of age, gender, or good and evil……
Hwa Yejin was a fool whose weakness was her conscience.
“So, I will do as you asked. I will not even suspect that you conspired with the people behind the terrorist attack. If you had, you would not have helped the lower-ranked people or risked your life to save me.”
Her hand touched my chest.
A ticklish warmth traveled from her hand into my chest.
[‘Kang Seon’ receives a Skill transferred by ‘Hwa Yejin.’]
[Skill 「Nightingale Pharmacy」(B) is transferred.]
=====
「Nightingale Pharmacy」(B)
Once, there was a person who wished to save lives more than anyone else. The light cast by the lantern held by that woman brought reassurance to patients and fear to illnesses.
The woman, who devoted all her time to others, passed on her lantern.
You now carry that lantern. When you use this Skill, no illness, disease demon, or harmful germ may enter the designated area, ‘Ward,’ and injuries within it recover rapidly.
The effect of this Skill becomes stronger as the size of the ‘Ward’ becomes smaller.
=====
While I read the Skill window floating before me, Hwa Yejin asked,
“Are you sure this is all right? Many people misunderstand because of the name, but this is not exactly a healing Skill. Strictly speaking, it is more of a support Skill. There are better Skills if you want one. Something like 「Tears of Blessing」 or 「Fleeting First Dream」.”
“You already gave me the Skill, so why are you asking now? It is fine. I could not properly use those Skills anyway.”
“You are a strange person. Few people would be satisfied with a B-Rank Skill even if they were offered an S-Rank Skill.”
What choice did I have?
Not every S-Rank Skill was good. No, the higher a Skill’s rank was, the greater the burden it placed on the body and mind.
The current me could only handle up to B-Rank. I could somehow use an A-Rank Skill once or twice, but if I used anything above that, the side effects would be no joke.
Since it was before the fact that high-ranking Skills were high-risk, high-reward became widely known, this was a kind of goodwill that was not quite goodwill.
After looking at me for a while as though I were some strange creature, Hwa Yejin spoke.
“I am sorry, but I investigated you a little. Your name is Kang Seon, right?”
“That is right.”
“All right, Mr. Kang Seon. You do not belong to a Guild, correct?”
“Yeah, as you already found out, I am D-Rank. No place would take me. Most Guilds only accept people from C-Rank onward.”
CLAP!
Hwa Yejin firmly grasped my hand with both of hers and looked at me intensely.
No, this woman. What kind of trick was she trying to pull?
“Your courage, judgment, and mental strength. Every one of those qualities is exceptional. The only thing you lack is your rank. When a rank is low, physical ability is inevitably lower as well.”
Those were correct words.
If a D-Rank body could survive being shot with an ordinary handgun, a C-Rank body would not even be injured by it. From B-Rank onward, it could not leave so much as a scratch on the skin.
“At All Magic Tower, we will spare no support in helping your rank grow. So, Kang Seon, will you join All Magic Tower? I want to give you a more fitting reward.”
Those were very kind words.
Calling it “support” was one thing, but equipping ten C-Rank members with full-body gear and weapons was far cheaper than raising one D-Rank person to C-Rank.
What Hwa Yejin was saying was no different from, ‘For the person who helped us, I will only punch a few holes in the finance officer’s stomach!’
It was a good offer with no disadvantages for me, but……
“Sorry, I decline.”
“What?! Are you serious?!”
“Yeah.”
“No, why?! This is All Magic Tower! We are second place just by Guild ranking! Even then, excluding the Guild Master of the first-ranked Guild, we are overwhelmingly the strongest balanced Guild! Is it because of the image of a Mage group? It is fine! We have plenty of Tanks and Hunters specializing in close combat, too!”
Oh.
She was rapping now.
It would benefit me, but a Guild was not especially important to someone like me, who knew information through regression and could survive with Mimicry even without proper resources.
Besides……
“Sa Ujin made me sign a contract.”
Hwa Yejin’s mouth, which had been pouring out words in a flustered tone, abruptly closed. Her panicked expression instantly became calm.
“Tell me the details.”
***
“……You.”
“Yeah?”
“You are not in your right mind…….”
Yes, thank you for that neat summary.
After my suitable explanation, which concealed information about my regression and Yu Danyeong’s awakening, Hwa Yejin clutched her head in pain.
“No, the lunatic who chose to mess with a D-Rank when there was no one else to bother, and you, who stood up to that lunatic without backing down……. What is this? Am I lacking common sense? Am I missing something?”
Correct. Sa Ujin and I were the madmen.
“May I read the contract as well? If that is an impolite request, you may refuse.”
“It is not especially difficult, so sure.”
After taking the contract I pulled from my pocket and reading it, Hwa Yejin let out a deep sigh.
“At least it is not an excessive contract. Its contents only require you and Sa Ujin to enter the tenth Gate together. However, you know, right? What you really need to be careful of is…….”
“Not the contract, but Sa Ujin himself?”
Hwa Yejin lightly slapped the stack of contract papers with one hand.
“Correct. He bound you with a contract only to place psychological pressure on you. If he truly wanted to, there would be countless ways to drag you along without wasting an absurd amount of money on a high-ranking contract like this.”
“Correct again.”
“I do not know what this lunatic’s true purpose is, but the moment you do something that displeases him, he will probably kill you because you are troublesome.”
“That is also correct.”
Hwa Yejin looked back and forth between me and the contract a few times, then took out her phone.
“It is me. Sorry, but can we revise the plan a little? Yes, I know it is stubborn of me……. Change my part of the plan for the tenth Gate. I will send the details by email shortly.”
“……What did you do?”
This was another situation I had never experienced before.
“All Magic Tower was planning to participate in the Required Gate clear as well. I did not want to use this because it is a little inefficient, but…….”
[Hwa Yejin has used the Skill 「Doppelganger」(A).]
Hwa Yejin’s body rippled before my eyes, then became two Hwa Yejins. They smiled awkwardly and shrugged.
“I will use this. My original body will act with All Magic Tower, while my Doppelganger will move with you.”
“Do not worry. I may have two bodies, but my Skills and their power remain unchanged. My Mana is shared, though.”
The Skill that would one day earn Hwa Yejin the epithet ‘One-Person Army.’
The Skill itself was extraordinarily useful, but it consumed a great deal of Mana. It would be awkward to use inside a Gate where one had to remain for several days.
Especially at this point, when she had not yet acquired enough Mana.
In other words, this was excessive goodwill.
I would not mind accepting it, but Doppelganger alone was not enough.
“You do not have to go that far. An Ability that creates a clone while maintaining all your Skills and their power will exhaust your Mana quickly.”
“You do not need to worry about that. All Magic Tower has talented people who can restore my Mana and stamina. If I am only observing you, I can easily endure for around seventy-two hours.”
“……That is goodwill to the point of being burdensome.”
“What are you talking about? What goodwill? This is all an investment, an investment. If someone like you grows, what an incredible talent you will become! Even if you do not join our Guild, it is not bad for us to maintain a friendly relationship without becoming enemies!”
I desperately wanted to tell her, I am planning to neatly search for a gravesite once this contract ends, so withdraw your investment now.
But she would not listen anyway.
Hwa Yejin rolled up the contract, tied it, handed it back to me, and smiled as she extended one hand.
“Well? You feel a little less burdened now, right?”
“You do not seem likely to relent even if I refuse further, so let us say that I do.”
“Good. This noona will show you what she can really do. Once you see it, you will definitely want to join All Magic Tower.”
At that bright smile, I extended my hand and clasped hers.
“Ms. Hwa Yejin.”
“Yeah?”
“I am one year older than you.”
Do not call yourself noona.
***
“So, what are you going to do now? Even if you are moving with two S-Ranks, ranked second and third, one is an uncontrollable lunatic, while the other is a clone that is nearly identical to the original but cannot guarantee complete safety.”
“I need to make a few more preparations.”
“Hmm, will you tell me if I ask?”
I snickered.
“The price of information is rather high.”
“You are going to be stingy even though you can borrow me now?”
“I am joking. There are too many candidates, so it is difficult to tell you.”
Hwa Yejin rested her chin on one hand, made a quiet humming sound, then clenched and unclenched her other hand a few times.
White flames burned fiercely in Hwa Yejin’s palm.
“You said you have a Mimicry Skill, right? Do you want to take this with you? There would be nothing better for self-defense.”
“No, why are you taking such good care of me? You are not even a grandmother I met during a holiday vi—”
BOOM!
“……”
Hwa Yejin’s white flame struck the ground right beside my head.
“What did you say, Mr. Kang Seon?”
“I am truly grateful for your kindness. However, I have already decided which Skill to mimic, so I have no choice but to decline the favor generously offered by Hwa Yejin, the Guild Master of All Magic Tower and the Empress of Fire Wings.”
Hwa Yejin dismissed the white flame still lingering beside my head, then pointed between her eyes and mine as though to tell me to behave.
“Oh? But you said you had already chosen a Skill. What is it?”
“I can tell you this much. It is nothing special.”
When I raised one finger, grinned, and told her the name of the Skill I had chosen, Hwa Yejin’s expression instantly twisted.
“……Are you insane?”