Chapter 233

"What am I supposed to do..."

Yoon Seul-hye sat there racking her brain, groaning with the effort.

Back when she'd first received the order, she hadn't even imagined things would go this far off the rails.

"So annoying, seriously...!"

Gnawing roughly at her nails, Yoon Seul-hye chucked the phone she was holding at the wall in irritation.

Sinking petulantly into a cushion, she quietly began to sort through the thoughts surfacing in her mind.

Her train of thought started, first of all, with this: Yoon Seul-hye was a person whose worth couldn't be easily priced, even if she put the stingiest possible value on herself.

A wildly successful idol known across the globe.

A flagship hero of the Association and a member of the Six Stars.

A young sprout with a bright future, one people couldn't wait to see a few years down the line.

The holder of countless connections—entertainers, heroes, Hunters, politicians, business figures, and more.

And on top of that—awkward as it was to say it about herself—a beauty with an exceptionally pretty face, skin and a figure you could fairly call gorgeous thanks to constant upkeep.

But still...

"So annoying..."

Yu Ji-hyeok.

In front of him, all of it simply faded to nothing.

A member of the World Tree clan's main family, of which there were said to be only two.

And, with the current clan head's absolute protection and backing, the person most likely to become the next leader.

That alone was more than enough to trample everything she'd built for herself.

And that wasn't all.

The World Tree clan, of course, but also the Ten Powerhouses, and even Ahn Ju-hyeok and Ahn Do-hun, the de facto successor line of the towering conglomerate Iwon Group—all of them were favorably disposed toward Yu Ji-hyeok.

The story of how, while he was hospitalized, every last one of the Ten Powerhouses had come to visit and even stayed at the hospital as though standing guard was fairly well known in their circles.

How she'd marveled, watching the press—who must surely have caught the sensational scent of it—fail to produce a single article on the matter.

And more than anything, she knew well that the Ten Powerhouses weren't the sort to cling to someone simply for their background.

It probably meant Yu Ji-hyeok had some "something" she didn't know about.

And Choi Jun-hyeong was no doubt pushing so recklessly to get close to him precisely because of that "something" he possessed.

"......"

She was curious what it might be, but Yoon Seul-hye decided right away to throw that curiosity out.

Because she knew full well that sticking her face into pointless matters out of idle interest could get dangerous.

And on top of that, if she ever got caught doing something like that...

Choi Jun-hyeong would surely never let it slide.

"Ugh."

Yoon Seul-hye gripped her own body tight, finding it trembling without her meaning it to.

The moment she pictured a future where she'd fallen out of his favor, her whole body shook like mad.

The Choi Jun-hyeong she knew was more than capable of it.

And if it came to that...

"No."

Somehow, she had to draw Yu Ji-hyeok out the way he'd ordered.

At the very least she had to get close to him, or, if even that proved too hard, lure someone from around him.

But...

"Hoo..."

She remembered all too clearly how, at their first meeting, she'd planted every bit of wariness and hostility in him that she possibly could.

So rather than push to get close, Yoon Seul-hye had taken a step back and investigated his surroundings—and let out a sigh before she knew it.

"It's not like he's some delicate little princess. Just how many people are stuck to this guy, anyway."

Han Su-yeong, Jin Ye-seul, Choi Hyun-woo, Ivan Hunt, Lee Yu-na.

At least one of these five was always glued to his side.

Lee Yu-na especially—that girl, maybe because of the way Yoon Seul-hye had needled her that time, would fix a furious glare on her and watch her closely the instant she so much as showed her face.

And it wasn't as if the boys were any easier to get close to, either.

Choi Hyun-woo—that boy who'd been handsome enough to make her freeze the moment she saw him—treated her with a firm, flat coldness like a wall thrown up between them, and Ivan Hunt looked at her with eyes that seemed kind yet bored straight through her, eyes that gave her the creeps.

And the looks those two, Han Su-yeong and Jin Ye-seul, had given her especially...

They were beyond unnerving—enough to nearly stop her heart.

"...And it's not just those five, either."

Kath Ryle, Kang Yeon-kyung, that Shin Woo-seok who'd come in as an external advisor, even Ahn Do-hun.

And on top of that, Lee Ye-eun, who supposedly couldn't make it to the academy because she was busy with clan matters.

She had no clue whatsoever where to even begin digging in to lure him out.

"......"

The abilities she'd never once doubted weren't working in the slightest.

And Manchas, who'd been so brimming with confidence, hadn't sent so much as a word.

Probably got found out and killed.

Once her thoughts reached that point, Yoon Seul-hye honestly wished she could just toss the whole thing aside if only she were able to.

"...Ah!"

Then a truly brilliant idea struck her, and she found herself springing to her feet without realizing it.

She had one more weapon she could bring to bear besides her abilities.

"Hello, Maxim? It's me. Yoon Seul-hye."

She quickly placed a call to the man known to be the wealthiest of the Six Stars.

And the instant the other end picked up, without even properly checking who it was, she blurted it right out.

"It's urgent. Hurry up and donate some money to the academy."

Enough to bend the school schedule and throw one little festival.

"It's a miracle."

Ahn Ju-hyeok, who'd been examining my condition, was silent for a long while before he spat out just that one phrase.

"I know how irresponsible it'll sound for me to say this, and I didn't want to say it either, but... in your case, Ji-hyeok, there really was nothing to do but leave it to the heavens."

I just lay there on the bed, listening to him.

After muttering that, Ahn Ju-hyeok nodded, carefully covering his mouth with his hand, as if genuinely relieved.

"Really... I'm really glad. It's pathetic, but there's no word I can use to describe it other than 'miracle.'"

In reality it was probably just the King of Thorns penalty fading as time passed, but I said nothing.

Ahn Ju-hyeok kept poring over the chart recording my condition, as if truly moved.

"Your physical abilities have come back almost to normal, too. To be honest, the numbers are low across the board, but a few days of rehab exercise and this much will bounce right back. And starting with mana circulation and discharge, your mana readings come out with no problems either... and above all."

He scooped a little of the salve off the stick in his hand and applied it to the inside of my elbow.

Then he stared blankly at me, and when I showed no reaction at all, he quickly wiped it off and said,

"This is a salve with a toxicity that stings pretty fiercely when it touches the skin... but it doesn't seem to bother you at all."

"Ah, that's..."

"It's fine."

He nodded, then glanced around.

It was just him and me inside the room.

"Has your resistance to poison gone up... It doesn't look like your skin's gone numb. I'd guess it's from being drenched in that Seven Calamity's blood... but this'll be hard to explain in detail too."

After getting that far, he scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish.

"Here, even if you called me pathetic, I wouldn't have a single excuse. But the number of people who came out fine after being drenched in a dragon's living blood is truly minuscule. And even with those few, the phenomena that occurred in their bodies were all different—plus, that Seven Calamity only had the form of a dragon, so we can't even be sure she was a true dragon."

[Minerva would have been furious if she'd heard that. What, was she a lizard, then?]

Sbeungali muttered in a bored voice.

[She may look like that, but in her day she was called the very sovereign of dragons. The dragons who'd submitted to her numbered in the hundreds. Back then, neither humans nor any other beings could stand against her. Every time she beat her wings, hundreds of dragons followed in her wake.]

That was quite a sight.

After muttering that, Sbeungali gave a "kuhng" of a cough, still in that bored voice.

[Then one of the dragons beneath her accidentally brushed her horn ever so slightly. Thanks to that she flew into an uncontrollable rage, and thanks to earning her wrath, hundreds of dragons literally evaporated and met their end.]

Bringing up the old days seemed to suddenly put him in a mood, and Sbeungali spoke with a wheezing laugh.

[Besides, if you're going to mock something for having no proper form, you should be making fun of Margo and Juno! Margo was practically a patchwork rag with all sorts of weird things stuck all over him, and Juno had a form that left you wondering what on earth she even was. Honestly, leaving aside that her personality was utter trash, Minerva really was beautiful, at least where looks were concer—!?]

Having gotten that far, he abruptly clamped his mouth shut, startled.

I'd been wondering what had gotten into him lately, and then I caught the sense of something stirring restlessly down by my feet.

Below me was only Henir's Shadow.

"......"

[......]

But by the time I looked down, it was utterly still, as if I'd merely imagined the whole thing.

Something's off—and around the time I was thinking that, Ahn Ju-hyeok snapped the chart shut and said,

"All right, you won't need the wheelchair anymore. Still, just to be safe, hold off on any rough exercise or activity for a few days..."

Ahn Ju-hyeok rattled off other precautions too—that just in case he'd prescribe painkillers and antibiotics, but it'd be better not to take them if possible, and that if anything went wrong with my body I should let him know immediately without delay.

"Thank you. And I'm sorry for the trouble. Making you come all the way out here..."

"Hm? Sorry for what. The patient can't move around easily, so this much is only natural."

Ahn Ju-hyeok, who'd visited the academy just to check my condition, wore an expression that said it really was nothing.

And then, while he was actually thanking me for going along with his pushiness, he suddenly looked as if something had occurred to him.

"Uh, what was it. If it's okay, do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Huh? Ah, yes. Of course. If it's something I can answer, I'll answer."

At my reply, he put on a serious expression and asked me,

"Ji-hyeok, do you happen to like baseball?"

"Baseball? No, I'm not really into baseball. Why do you ask?"

"No, it's nothing major... but what do you make of a kid who never had the slightest interest in baseball suddenly buying baseball jerseys and cheering gear?"

Ahn Ju-hyeok muttered with a fairly grave expression.

"And it's a perennial last-place team, at that."

"Hmm, well..."

I answered without making much of it.

"Just, you know—maybe they got hooked on baseball out of nowhere. Or saw some cool moment in a game and got curious."

"And?"

"Ah, or if not that, then... maybe someone they're interested in likes baseball, so they're trying to make something to talk about?"

Hearing that, Ahn Ju-hyeok's eyes went wide, and then his expression turned so grave it was hard to even speak to him.

"Don't tell me...? No, but still..."

"Um, I'll be heading off, then. Thank you for everything."

At the sight of him muttering with an air there was no defying, I slipped out of the wheelchair and stepped away, quietly, as if making my escape.

He didn't seem to hear my goodbye.

"Ah, Ji-hyeok!"

When I opened the door of the room and stepped out, Han Su-yeong and Jin Ye-seul greeted me as if they'd been waiting.

Behind them, Choi Hyun-woo, who'd been sitting down, gave a slight smile, and Lee Yu-na awkwardly raised a hand.

"They say you can walk around now?"

"Yeah, but I'm not supposed to overdo it for a few days. Still, he told me to do rehab exercises, so I should be able to loosen up a little."

At that, Han Su-yeong glanced over at Choi Hyun-woo.

Choi Hyun-woo made a face like, what's that for.

"Don't you dare so much as ask Ji-hyeok to spar."

"Hey, c'mon. You think I'd do that even to a patient?"

Choi Hyun-woo muttered as if wronged, and right beside him Lee Yu-na gave a small nod.

You absolutely would.

She muttered it under her breath, no louder than a whisper.

"Should we get a cake or something to celebrate you being all better?"

Jin Ye-seul tugged gently at my hand as she spoke.

"There's stuff we need to talk about, too."

"Right, we've got a lot to talk about."

Han Su-yeong, carefully grabbing Jin Ye-seul and pulling her back, nodded.

She was holding my bag, and when our eyes met she smiled shyly and said,

"Oh, Ji-hyeok. Sorry... I slipped up earlier and dropped your stuff."

"It's fine. There was only stuff like books and a blanket in there anyway."

"......"

Just then, I could see Lee Yu-na's expression sink in a strange way.

While I was wondering what was the matter, Han Su-yeong said she'd carry it and slung the bag strap over her shoulder.

"By the way, Ji-hyeok, you've got really unusual taste."

As we walked together, Han Su-yeong sidled up beside me and said in a near-whisper.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"No, um... it's not like I looked because I wanted to. While I was picking up the dropped stuff, I just—honestly, just happened to see it, okay?"

Han Su-yeong said it while waving her hand as if not to be misunderstood.

"On the very first page it said, 'You who have taken up this book are worthy.'..."

"...What?"

When I looked at her, unable to make sense of what she'd said for a second, Han Su-yeong nodded with a strangely satisfied smile, as if she understood everything.

Then she said in a voice low enough that the others around us wouldn't hear.

"Oh come on, I get it. You wanted to write a fantasy novel too, didn't you, Ji-hyeok? Want me to help you out a little? Believe it or not, the novels I write are pretty popular."

She rattled on about how she'd even gotten an offer asking if she'd like to publish, how wasn't the opening laying it on a bit thick, how her main genre was romance but she'd read plenty of fantasy too, and so on—but I couldn't focus on a word of it.

In my bag there was but a single book.

Because the only thing in there was the "Nameless Book."