The Support Ate it All

Near the Topaz Magic Tower, in an open lot.

Thunder Lord Song Gyeonguk was facing his granddaughter.

When he gave a slight tilt of his chin as a signal, Song Cheon-hye kicked off the ground and shot forward as a single bolt of lightning.

— BZZZT—!

But Song Cheon-hye couldn’t close past a certain distance.

A thick barrier blocked her.

Song Gyeonguk stepped forward.

Sparks crackled through the air—

and then bolts began dropping in streaks.

— KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG—!

Explosions of lightning flipped the ground over again and again.

Even so, Song Cheon-hye stayed calm, slipping her body into the gaps between the falling strikes, then surged in again and hammered the barrier.

— KWA-RRRRUMBLE!

Thunder Lord Song Gyeonguk felt immensely satisfied.

‘She’s improved so much I barely recognize her.’

It had been that way when she returned after finishing her first semester at Dragonslayer Academy.

But now, after the second semester, her growth was even more dramatic.

Especially in close combat.

He’d already heard what had happened from the Song father and son.

‘She found herself a private tutor.’

At first, he’d found it baffling.

Not faculty at Dragonslayer Academy—so what, a classmate?

What could a bunch of kids possibly teach each other?

Of course, it couldn’t have been some ordinary first-year.

Even with the Fixed Zone rules attached, she’d beaten Song Cheongi—who was a third-year—and he’d heard she’d played a decisive role in taking down the Witch of Depletion.

‘That means the kid has something.’

Still, he hadn’t fully trusted it, so he’d wanted to confirm it himself through sparring.

How much the tutoring had actually accomplished.

Whether it was worth paying with a treasure of the Topaz Magic Tower—

or an item from his own Inventory.

And the result had surpassed his expectations by a wide margin.

Unable to hold back his curiosity, Thunder Lord Song Gyeonguk asked,

“What method did you use to train?”

“Mostly one-on-one sparring.”

It was an answer so plain it was almost insulting.

Instead of resolving his question, it only made it worse.

‘Didn’t I do one-on-one sparring too?’

All through summer break, he’d stayed on her, teaching with everything he had.

So how had a first-year produced better results than him—an S-rank hero?

What kind of know-how did that tutor have?

Thunder Lord Song Gyeonguk had no way of knowing.

No way of knowing that her so-called tutor had been mercilessly pounding his granddaughter with a squeaky toy hammer.

Even now, something like an auditory hallucination brushed past Song Cheon-hye’s ear.

— POK! POKPOKPOK! POKPOK!

‘Credit what deserves credit.’

It stung his pride, and it even felt like something precious had been taken from him—

but the fact remained: his granddaughter had grown stronger.

There was more than enough value in continuing the tutoring.

He even found himself thinking he could hand over an item or two from his Inventory.

‘But this is awkward now.’

What was he supposed to teach her from here?

Not that he lacked material.

Her potential was still limitless, and he’d ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ even heard she’d recently reached Core Rank A.

‘The problem is that tutor.’

What if that kid taught her better than he did again?

His pride would get ground into the dirt again.

And even if she didn’t say it out loud, wouldn’t she compare them in her head?

He could almost see little Song Cheon-hye beaming as she shouted,

— Grandpa! You can’t teach!

But could he just let go entirely?

That would feel like admitting defeat, which would hurt his pride even more.

So Song Gyeonguk stood there, stuck, swallowing a groan—

when Song Cheon-hye opened her mouth in a respectful tone.

“Grandfather, there’s something I’d like to ask of you.”

“……Speak.”

“Stealth… I mean, concealing my energy… I feel I’m lacking a lot.”

Over the past year, Song Cheon-hye’s tailing success rate had been a perfect zero percent.

Most of the time, she got caught the moment she tried.

Sometimes, her tailing attempts were turned against her, and she ended up in even greater danger.

Of course, the disciplinary committee club knew about this too.

“I couldn’t participate in important matters again and again.”

For example, every time there was an operation at the temporary storage facility, she’d get placed off in some remote position.

It was partly because she lacked the strength for battlefields where second-years and third-years were clashing—

but a major reason was her lack of stealth.

“I want to cover my weaknesses as much as possible… and show a better version of myself next year.”

“…If that is your resolve. Fine. I’ll teach you.”

Thunder Lord Song Gyeonguk nodded, pleased.

But there was something Song Cheon-hye hadn’t mentioned.

She recalled a conversation she’d had with Kim Ho not long ago.

— I heard So-mi’s leaving the disciplinary committee club.

— You should just leave too.

— I’m staying for now. I still have something I want to do.

— What is it.

— It’s a secret. That’s what you always say.

Then she remembered another exchange from finals.

— You’re saying you’re going to openly break the school rules.

— I have to. World peace is on the line.

— Still, you should follow what needs following. If you try to break the rules again, I’ll stop you.

Kim Ho had lifted his gaze in that infuriating way.

— Can you?

— Why do you think I can’t?

— Because you’re….

‘…No, I’m not!’

Song Cheon-hye’s fist trembled.

She reaffirmed her vow.

She would personally arrest Kim Ho’s crew with her own hands—

and stuff them full of demerit points and disciplinary action!

Who was “pathetic” would be decided by the results.

*****

The spar with the Twin Heroes of the Dang Family didn’t end until evening, and we returned to the guest annex.

Dang Gyu-young immediately stretched out flat on the bed.

It felt like I could hear a little dying sound effect.

Then they shot me a sharp glare.

“…Hey.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I told you I couldn’t handle it.”

“For someone who ‘couldn’t handle it,’ you did pretty well. I believed in you.”

They’d looked on the edge the whole time, but they’d still fought while continuously maintaining Umbral Garden and the Shadow Undead.

Dang Gyu-young reached for me with a look like they wanted to kill me—

then their arm drooped halfway.

“…Man, I’m exhausted. I can’t even bite your cheeks.”

“You worked hard.”

“Don’t you feel responsible? Seducing an innocent little Gyu-gyu and all.”

From the corner of the bed, Seo Ye-in chimed in too.

“Take responsibility.”

“Majority vote really is unfair. How exactly would you like me to take responsibility?”

Dang Gyu-young thought briefly, then answered.

“My shoulders are stiff.”

“Then I should loosen them up.”

I quickly moved behind Dang Gyu-young and started pressing their shoulders hard.

They seemed to rumble in satisfaction—then another order came flying.

“…My back and waist too.”

“Yes, madam.”

Seo Ye-in watched the massage with eyes full of curiosity, then pulled out the same word they always did.

“Me too.”

“You mean you want a Challenge Austerity quest too?”

“…Me too, canceled.”

Seo Ye-in quietly averted their gaze.

They were curious about the massage, but Challenge was too much, apparently.

Dang Gyu-young looked like they hadn’t expected much anyway. They clicked their tongue once and flopped back down.

Then, still getting a Kim Ho massage, they opened their quest window.

[Sub-Quest: Stage 18 Austerity] (In Progress….)

▷Objective: Achieve proficiency (8/100%)

“If it’s 8% after a whole day, that’s like… two weeks.”

“By simple math, yes. But in reality, it’ll be faster.”

“Yeah… since it’s day one.”

The range of [Umbral Garden] had spiked, and on top of that, there was the condition of maintaining undead at the same time.

Just handling that alone had been mentally overwhelming, so there’d barely been any room for actual combat.

But humans adapt. Once they got the feel for it little by little, they’d have more bandwidth for fighting.

Which meant the proficiency gained per day would increase too.

Factoring that in—

“I think it’ll finish in about a week, plus a day or two.”

“Oh…. Then why do I not feel happy.”

If we hadn’t added Challenge in the first place, there wouldn’t have been this much suffering.

Even if the total time got shorter by a few days, it was still suffering.

Dang Gyu-young narrowed their eyes at me.

“Responsibility… you’re taking it, right?”

“Let’s do three days of massage privileges.”

“What do you mean three days? It should be unlimited.”

“That’s greedy Gyu.”

After a long bout of bickering, I got hired as the official Gyu-gyu-exclusive massage therapist.

The contract lasted until the Challenge Austerity quest ended.

*****

The next day, sparring started again from the morning.

A pitch-black garden plot spread around Dang Gyu-young.

It was wide enough to cover about one-third of the training grounds.

And the shadows rippled ominously, to the point a normal person would hesitate to even step on it.

But Dang Ilbi and Dang Hanbi weren’t normal people.

They stepped into the garden without hesitation.

In response, shadows burst up in stabs and surges.

They took on human shapes and charged.

A big one swelled its upper body like a balloon, while another drove forward with a shadow blade.

— WHIIIIIIP!

The twins each stepped their footwork in different directions, evading Dark-Shadow Commander’s sword.

At the same time, their hands were moving so fast they were almost invisible.

— THUDUDUDUD!

Steel pellets and coins buried into the Gyu-Shadow Undead.

They shattered into pieces like they always did—

but in the next moment, shadows burst up right beside them and took the shapes of Lab Director and Dark-Shadow Commander again.

They’d been resummoned the instant they were destroyed.

‘They’re starting to get the feel for it.’

I looked at Dang Gyu-young standing at the very center of the garden.

Just like yesterday, they were still fighting to maintain their skills—

but the way their eyes glittered, it looked like they’d glimpsed a possibility with that move.

‘Using [Umbral Garden] differently.’

There was no rule that said they had to use it the old way—summoning shadow limbs, weapons, and butterflies.

Pouring all that bandwidth into undead summoning was a valid approach too.

‘Necromancers win by numbers.’

Umbramancer was a derived class, and it leaned toward elite refinement—

but there was no reason to throw away a powerful advantage.

If the undead were destroyed?

Just resummon them.

And there were plenty of shadows spread across the floor to use as material.

— THUDUDUDUD!

Dark-Shadow Commander shattered after getting pelted by coins, then got resummoned again and stabbed in.

Lab Director did the same, throwing his whole body at the twins.

“…….”

“…….”

Noticing the change, interest rose on both their faces.

They stepped their footwork smoothly, and at the same time, flung their metal toward Dang Gyu-young—the main body.

But Seo Ye-in and I were already assigned as support for exactly this kind of situation.

— CLANG, CLANG,

A few steel pellets struck the pot and bounced away, and some bent aside after colliding with the storm cloud.

Then Seo Ye-in shoved the barrel forward.

— TUDUDUDU!

The twins stepped through the rain of mana bullets—

weaving in with the newly resummoned undead.

We traded back and forth like that for a while.

Then—

“…?”

Seo Ye-in suddenly lowered the mana gun and stared somewhere.

Judging by the direction, it was where the front gate was, so I asked.

“Someone here?”

“…Butler.”

Looks like Ahn Jeongmi and the Hyeseong Group staff had finally arrived.