Chapter 748: Thank You

The swordsman couple were leisurely spending time at the cafe on the second floor of the campus store, apparently because Han Somi had strongly demanded it.

Knowing Go Hyeonwoo’s personality, he would obviously have gone straight to the training center as soon as midterms ended.

Still, since he had decided to rest, he seemed to be resting comfortably enough. The atmosphere itself looked fairly pleasant.

When we approached, both of them turned toward us at the same time and waved.

“Brother Kim, Dang Gyu-ri.”

“It’s been so long!”

We exchanged brief greetings and talked about how we had been.

Then I got straight to the point.

“I asked to see you because I had something to give you.”

What I took out were A-rank elixirs.

I explained to the two of them as their eyes went round.

“You’ve worked hard so far, midterms included. Especially Han Somi.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Thanks for sticking with him and training together all this time.”

“I’m just doing it because I like it?”

“I know. Still, thanks are thanks. Building up your foundation will help you for a long time from here on, so take it.”

“Okay!”

Han Somi accepted the elixir without thinking about it for long.

She must have felt the need to build her foundation too.

Especially now, after leaving the Discipline Committee and losing its support.

Of course, the elixir was more like an appetizer.

Next, I placed two bottles of T.E.B - 002 on the table.

“While you’re receiving things, take these too.”

“......!”

Both of their eyes went round again.

Go Hyeonwoo recovered his composure first and carefully examined the T.E.B.

“This must be the potion that has been surrounded by so many rumors lately.”

“That’s right. I heard the next version came out, so I brought some.”

“It seems to me it would be better for these to go to others rather than myself.”

“I’ll give them to the others later. Right now, you two are first.”

“.......”

“Isn’t it about time you challenged the inheritance again?”

At those words, he slowly nodded.

“Lately, I have been receiving a stronger and stronger intuition. That the end is not far.”

“If anything at all ranks up, I think you’ll get closer.”

“......That is difficult to refute. In that case, I will not refuse.”

Go Hyeonwoo took the potion bottle with a bitter smile.

To Han Somi, I said the same thing as before.

“Foundation.”

“Foundation!”

“Give it a drink.”

“Okay!”

Soon, the two of them exchanged a glance, opened their respective [T.E.B - 002] bottles, and drank them down in one gulp.

Then they closed their mouths and waited quietly for the effect to circulate.

“.......”

“.......”

Some time passed.

The first to break the silence was Go Hyeonwoo.

A bitter smile rested on his lips.

“Regrettably, it seems to have failed.”

“Goodness.”

The probability was fairly high, but apparently it had not gone through.

Then again, 001 had failed for me too.

Go Hyeonwoo continued.

“I do not mind. If one fails today, one succeeds next time. Is that not the principle of the world?”

“That, too, is correct.”

It sounded like something an enlightened monk who had mastered all things would say, but the question, Isn’t that just the gambler’s fallacy? flashed through my mind.

There was no need to ruin the mood, so I did not say it out loud.

“Separate from success or failure, I am grateful to Brother Kim. There are surely people who would not even be given such an opportunity.”

“It’s the price for your hard work.”

I answered as if it was nothing.

Then Go Hyeonwoo bowed politely to Dang Gyu-ri.

“I am also always grateful to Dang Gyu-ri.”

“......Me?”

“Yes. You guide us in many ways. We are constantly indebted to you when we go down to the underground floors as well.”

“That’s true, but.”

“I also want to thank you for being with Brother Kim.”

“......Uh, sure.”

Dang Gyu-ri jerked their chin with a somewhat uneasy look.

But Go Hyeonwoo’s parade of gratitude seemed to have only just begun.

The next target was Han Somi.

“I am grateful to Miss Han as well. Training with me cannot possibly be only easy and enjoyable, yet you keep accompanying me without complaint.”

At this point, Dang Gyu-ri seemed to sense something unusual.

They glanced toward me and exchanged looks.

Why did he turn into a thank-you doll?

Looks like a side effect.

Ah, a side effect.

Apparently, the side effects appeared differently from person to person. In Go Hyeonwoo’s case, it seemed to be “unstoppable gratitude.”

That’s pretty harsh, now that I think about it. He failed, but he still gets side effects?

I think much of the blame lies with Byeongcheol.

I have no choice but to agree. Let’s set a date and hit him with a bat once.

Still, isn’t this fairly mild?

True, this much is.

However, the situation did not seem likely to improve from there.

Han Somi, who had been quiet until then, answered Go Hyeonwoo.

“How could you say it isn’t enjoyable?”

In an exceedingly graceful and gentle tone.

Her expression, too, was not her usual bright, beaming smile. It was closer to the refined smile of a well-bred young lady.

Whether or not he noticed that part, Go Hyeonwoo nodded.

“At times, you seemed to wish for training to stop, so I wondered if I had gone too far.”

“Not at all. I merely thought it was important to find the proper balance.”

“A balance between training and rest. Then this occasion, too, must be part of that.”

“You saw it exactly.”

“To think you would consider me so deeply. I wish to express my gratitude once again.”

The two of them laughed pleasantly together.

Meanwhile, Dang Gyu-ri sent me another look.

She turned into Soso, huh?

It would seem so.

What a terrifying side effect.......

Wouldn’t that be better, actually?

Considering how 001 had left black-mark memories for countless users.

This much was mild enough to pass off as a light incident.

As I thought that, Han Somi—no, Han Soso—gave us a gentle smile.

“I was late in telling you. Mine succeeded.”

“That’s very welcome news.”

“In particular, the rank of a core martial art rose. I will be able to support Brother Go better now.”

Why was the word “Brother” suddenly coming out here?

But before I could voice the question, Go Hyeonwoo took over the conversation.

“After going around and around, the benefit ultimately returns to me. No matter how much I thank Brother Kim, it does not feel sufficient.”

“Sure. Since it turned out that way, work hard.”

“Of course. As I said just now, the end is not far. I will soon challenge the final inheritance.”

The fact that he used the word “final” meant he was certain of success.

So I asked him,

“When do you think it’ll be?”

“At the latest, around the next PvP week.”

“So one or two weeks at most.”

“It is good to be cautious, but I intend to avoid dragging things out too long. Since I am grateful to Brother Kim, I must repay—”

Every sentence ended in gratitude. More gratitude. Infinite gratitude. Overwhelming gratitude.

Han Somi laughed gently beside him and agreed with him.

At that, Dang Gyu-ri sent me another glance.

How long does that last?

There are individual differences, but usually about half a day.

That’s low-key long.

Shall we go now?

Yeah, I’m starting to get dizzy.

We had given them everything we came to give, so it was only proper to leave and let the two of them spend time together.

Dang Gyu-ri, for their part, seemed to want to be alone with me.

So we cleaned up our seats and stood.

“Then have a nice time, and train hard.”

“Thank you for coming, Brother Kim.”

“I hope the two of you have a nice time as well.”

Then, after waving one last time to Thank-you Hyeonwoo and Han Soso, we left the campus store.

We had not even taken a few steps before Dang Gyu-ri naturally draped an arm over my shoulder.

“.......”

“.......”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because you’re too normal, even though you drank the same potion.”

They did seem slightly more proactive, but they were not showing any attitude or behavior noticeably different from usual.

Dang Gyu-ri must have found that part strange too, because they fell into thought for a moment.

Then, as if something occurred to them, they asked,

“Other than those two, what were the other kids’ side effects like?”

“You saw Seo Ye-in during winter break, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I saw.”

The first side effect that appeared at the Dang Family during winter break was Fast-Luckless—fast, talkative, and diligent.

The second was the highly possessive possessive sloth.

“The 001 side effect mixed those half and half into Fast-Possessive-Luckless.”

“And the others?”

“Hong Yeonhwa seemed to have her true feelings pop out every now and then.”

Looking back over her quotes at the time—

—Isn’t it about time I got to peck too?

—I worked hard, right?

—I want a consolation prize too—

And Song Cheonhye had turned into a hedgehog with its spikes removed.

Thanks to that, we had grown closer while sharing several deep conversations, but to her, it had remained an enormous black-mark memory.

After hearing up to that point, Dang Gyu-ri let out a brief “hmm~” and said,

“I think maybe it reveals the way the person wants to be deep down.”

“That’s a plausible hypothesis.”

More precisely, the way they wanted to be deep down but had not dared to realize.

For example, Seo Ye-in might be affected by her bloodline and find everything bothersome and sleepy, but in her heart, she may have wanted to be a diligent, sharp version of herself.

Go Hyeonwoo, too, was probably thinking he should express gratitude to the people around him more often and more fully.

Han Somi is just an idiot.

—would be a bad thing to say, wouldn’t it?

Since she had such an innocent, unpredictable personality, perhaps she sometimes wanted to be a refined young lady.

Of course, these were only hypotheses.

More samples would have to pile up before it could be proven.

And since the descriptions of 001 and 002 differed slightly, there would likely be differences in their side effects too.

By this point, another question occurred to me, so I threw it out as-is.

“In that case, what about you?”

“What about me?”

“You don’t have anything you want? That doesn’t make sense.”

At that question, Dang Gyu-ri lowered their hand from my shoulder and naturally interlaced their fingers with mine instead.

Then they smiled bashfully and answered,

“I do things right away. Like this.”

In other words, it was not that there were no side effects, but that they did not appear in unexpected forms.

As I nodded, Dang Gyu-ri tugged my hand.

“Let’s sit over there.”

Then we sat side by side on a bench a short distance away and continued talking.

“We got interrupted earlier because of Byeongcheol, but if you had fun with Seo Ye-in, you have to have fun with me too.”

“Of course I do.”

“Next week, you’re going around with me?”

“I was already planning to make a reservation.”

There were many reasons to go down to the underground floors during this raid week.

And Dang Gyu-ri was the undisputed best guide.

They could go in and out of the deep layers without even getting caught, after all.

When I gave them a firm answer, Dang Gyu-ri finally seemed to completely shake off their sulky mood.

They placed our interlaced hands on their lap and hummed.

While we were spending that peaceful moment, I noticed some vaguely familiar faces in the distance.

First-years.

The promising freshmen gathered around Han Gaeul, Han Gyeoul’s younger sister.

Soon after, they seemed to discover us as well, because they stopped walking and stared at us.

Judging by how their atmosphere was similar to before—

“Looks like they’re still suspicious.”

“If anything, it probably got worse.”

There’s been nothing to clear it up, Dang Gyu-ri said with a shrug.

Perhaps because of that, the promising freshmen did not hurry along their way like before.

They glanced toward us and seemed to discuss something, then slowly approached.

Then Han Gaeul spoke as the representative.

“Dang Gyu-ri.”