"You finally up?"
I struggled to blink my eyes open at the sound of the voice.
When I turned to look beside me, I saw Choi Hyun-woo from the side, sitting in a chair and cleaning his sword.
"Hyun-woo... it's you?"
I forced my oddly stiff body upright.
He chuckled at how flat my voice came out.
"You sound pretty disappointed. Then again — of all the people who could've been here, you got stuck with me sitting next to you. Can't blame you."
"What kind of nonsense..."
"There's water next to you, drink it. Listening to you is exhausting."
"Yeah."
He was right.
My mouth was so dry it had gone sticky.
I reached for the water bottle beside me, then stopped short, flinching.
My arm was long again.
He gave a quiet laugh.
"You went back to normal while you were asleep."
I glanced down at myself.
I was wearing the same clothes I'd had on in my younger form.
And as if reading my confusion, he explained right away.
"Apparently they're clothes that change size with the owner's state. Got a pretty entertaining show out of it."
"All sorts of weird stuff out there."
"Right?"
He kept on wiping the blade with a soft scraping sound, smiling.
"There are potions that make you younger, older, even change your sex... why wouldn't there be something like that?"
He lifted the blade to eye level and carefully slid it back into the scabbard.
"There are even abilities that restore your body to its prime. Like my master can."
"..."
Click.
The sword locked solidly into place as he set it down on the table.
It was the kind of standard-issue sword you could grab from the Academy with a single request.
"Hyun-woo."
The atmosphere had shifted strangely, and when I said his name, he shuddered like he was grossed out.
"What, you're at it now? Why are you getting all serious, calling someone's name like that?"
He laughed playfully, then quietly closed his eyes.
Then he opened them, looked at me with serious eyes, and said:
"...Can we talk for a bit? It's a little serious."
I nodded and pushed myself up from the bed.
Once I'd perched on the edge, he turned his body to face me.
He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, then suddenly blurted it out:
"I met Master again."
"What? When?"
"When you were still in dragon form."
Choi Hyun-woo hesitated, then let out a small sigh.
"...Su-yeong doesn't know yet. Honestly, I don't know if I should tell her. Part of me wonders if it'd be better to just keep it to myself..."
He watched my face carefully, then asked, cautious:
"Hey, Ji-hyeok. I don't mean anything weird by this, but can I ask you something?"
"What is it? Go ahead, ask whatever."
"Was your family situation... kind of rough? When you were a kid?"
I paused for a moment, then nodded.
Instinct told me he was about to bring up something he'd buried deep — something he'd never told anyone.
So it felt only right to share my own buried story in return.
"Pretty rough, yeah. Parents got divorced, basically raised my sister myself... pretty rough."
I didn't particularly want to dredge it up, but I was what people would call an illegitimate child.
My biological father called me disgusting; the father who raised me left to start another family.
My mother spent her whole life resenting me, again and again.
The only thing that kept me from going off the rails — the only reason I held on this long — was my little sister.
"Didn't mean to listen in, but you were talking in your sleep."
He nodded and went on.
"Like Yu-na said. When your body changes, your mind gets pulled along with it."
"What'd I say?"
"Just... some stuff. Nothing major."
He brushed past it, mumbling.
"It was just what made me decide to talk to you about this."
He laughed weakly and quietly began his story.
He added that it was a long story, but would I hear him out?
"You already know, Ji-hyeok, but Su-yeong and I are orphans — abandoned by our parents. Our names probably aren't even our real names. Choi Hyun-woo, Han Su-yeong... we both probably had other names originally. We don't even really know our birthdays. Overheard at the orphanage that they were just kind of picked at random."
He kept going with a smile.
"I don't even want to remember that time. All I remember is that it was really hard, and that from the moment we came to our senses, we were right there next to each other. And then... we met Master."
A faint smile crossed his face.
"Our lives changed after that day. She... Master really was our master, but she was also our parent, our family. We learned so much from her, got so much from her. I probably couldn't repay her in a lifetime. But..."
Choi Hyun-woo mumbled softly.
"I don't know."
A small, faint smile sat on his face.
"I really don't know. Even when I met Master again that day... she was apologizing to me, and what could I have possibly said? What was I supposed to say, what is she even apologizing for? Master, Mo— she didn't do a single thing wrong. If anyone's at fault, it's me."
He cut himself off mid-word and blinked quietly.
"I thought I'd have my thoughts somewhat sorted out by then. But when I saw Master that day... there was this feeling I can't even explain. To the point where I almost wished I'd never known anything at all."
What could anyone say to a benefactor who would not stop apologizing to them?
There was nothing I could say back to Choi Hyun-woo on that.
Then suddenly he looked over and said:
"That's why I hate you, Ji-hyeok."
"...What?"
"Kidding. Don't look so serious."
Choi Hyun-woo broke into a chuckle.
"I don't hate you. It's just... I've got an inferiority thing about you."
"Hyun-woo."
Caught off guard by the confession, I said his name.
He acted like he hadn't heard and kept going.
"Every time I talked with Master, it clicked. What that feeling I'd been carrying about you actually was. And every time I figured it out... I had no choice but to admit you're really something."
He tapped a finger against the scabbard, tap, tap.
I suddenly wondered how many swords this was that he'd gone through.
The countless swords he'd carried had all been broken or shattered fighting for me.
"When we first met, you were weaker than me — so how the hell did you get so strong? Now I can't even stand next to you, let alone keep up behind you. And on top of all that, after going through everything you have..."
He seemed to choke up for a second and closed his mouth.
"...how can you hold up like that? I really want to know. Because if it'd been me, I never would have made it."
"...I'm not that impressive a bastard."
He let out a low laugh at my answer.
Then he quietly lifted his sword, gripped it in both hands, held it upright in front of himself, and said:
"You're impressive, all right, asshole."
He took the sword's hilt and drew it halfway, without a sound.
The blade caught the light with a chilling glint, and the Choi Hyun-woo behind it suddenly seemed like a different person.
"...Even should I stand before you, cut me down. If there is family, cut down family. If there is a monster, cut down the monster. If there is a friend, cut down even that friend."
I caught it immediately — what he was reciting was a Buddhist teaching.
And I could tell, too, that it was one of Nam Hyun-hwa's teachings.
To someone hearing it in passing, it might've sounded like he was indirectly hinting he'd cut me down, but I knew he'd never do that.
"A single sword — nothing more is needed. Therein lies the truth of the sword. And I stand here, now..."
He sheathed the sword again, just as quietly.
He shook his head and mumbled:
"That's what Master said to me on the very first day she taught me the sword. And somehow... when I was fighting Minerva, those words came back to me, and they haven't left my head since."
But I still don't know what it really means.
Seeing him laugh and brush past it, I could roughly tell.
The only ones who had finished awakening at this point were him and Jin Ye-seul.
What he'd just mumbled was almost certainly tied closely to his awakening.
And I could tell what he was struggling with right now too.
"...Listen to me ramble all over the place. I just wanted to get some stuff off my chest, maybe get some advice. Times like this, I really suck at talking."
"Someday."
"Hm?"
"Someday all of us are going to lean on you."
Choi Hyun-woo went blank for a moment, then broke into a grin so cool even another guy like me had to admit it.
"Now that I'm looking forward to."
"I'm not just saying it."
He stared at me for a moment, blank.
Choi Hyun-woo.
Along with Han Su-yeong, he was one of the so-called true protagonists, and one of the most popular characters in the game.
Where his rival Ahn Do-hun's main arc revolved around mental growth, Choi Hyun-woo's centered on reaching enlightenment.
Put another way, Choi Hyun-woo was already a hero complete in body and mind.
Every time I saw him, I genuinely wondered more than once if he was really ten years younger than me — or maybe older.
In raw talent alone, you could call him a once-in-an-era genius.
Always quiet, always relentless, training and training, drilling himself with cruel intensity.
A hero who always held his post wherever he was needed, becoming a pillar for everyone.
That was Choi Hyun-woo.
The reason he was wavering right now was partly his master Nam Hyun-hwa, but the responsibility clearly fell on me too.
He felt powerless and doubted himself.
The only thing I could say to him was something like this.
That someday all of us, me included, would lean on him.
And I meant it.
"...I'm serious. I don't lie."
Choi Hyun-woo stared blankly for a long while, then suddenly burst out laughing.
Unlike his first laugh, this one was genuinely amused — almost relieved.
"Why don't you go say the same thing in front of Su-yeong, or Ye-seul? Or Senior Ye-eun, or Yu-na?"
"Hey, why are you suddenly bringing them into this?"
"So you do know it's your fault?"
He got up from his seat as he said it.
He set the sword he'd been fiddling with on the table.
"Let's go get something to eat. I held off so I could eat once you got up."
"What, what's this about. You're making it weird."
"Like you being a pain to me is anything new?"
He opened the door, and someone darted in like they'd been waiting for it.
It was Minerva.
"You! At last you have awoken! I thought I would die of boredom waiting!"
"Minerva? Why are you still in that form?"
"Because I have not received mana from you, who has returned to your original form."
Still in her child form, she said it with a satisfied smile.
Then she stretched both arms out toward me.
"Come, embrace me. Sweep me up in your broad arms. Be quick about it."
"If I send you mana, won't you go back to normal? Then— ugh!"
In an instant her tail shoved me back, and I tumbled onto the bed.
She immediately moved her tail to set me upright again.
"Nay. Embrace me as I am now."
Minerva shook her head, back and forth.
"I saw it earlier in a draaama. A man twice the woman's size scooped her up into his arms. I wish to feel the same."
"...Maybe you shouldn't be watching dramas."
"So what will you do? It is my heartfelt request — you shall grant it, shall you not?"
Her tail swayed slowly in anticipation, just like a puppy's, and I bent down.
She let out a small gasp of delight and clung to me right away.
"Mmm. So this is what it feels like."
Minerva muttered, looking pleased.
Then she moved her tail to wind around my waist, then my wrist, and laughed.
Just as I was thinking that becoming a child seemed to have actually made her childlike, someone knocked at the open door.
"Clan head?"
"You're back to normal."
It was Lee Ye-eun.
She leaned against the door with her arms crossed, watching the scene with a look almost like regret.
"You're hungry, aren't you? Let's eat first and talk after."
"...Sorry, did I sleep for a long time?"
"Not really. About three hours?"
Lee Ye-eun tilted her head.
"Though more than a couple of calls came in looking for you in that time — that was the issue. I told them you were busy and that whenever was fine, but they asked you to get back to them as soon as possible."
"Wait, two calls?"
Lee Ye-eun nodded.
Alice Blesbuck and Kath Ryle.
Evangelline Loengreen.
And the Smith of Yado.
If I were being greedy, I'd want it to be one of these three. But there was no way any of them would call back less than half a day after we parted.
My best guesses were Lydia or Esmeralda Lisnerger.
I'd learned through the World Tree's seeds that they had been doing spy work under the name Maxim Goldenberg, and that they'd been exposed when he was suddenly purged.
They were probably calling to fill me in on various things related to that.
'Then who's the other one...?'
After thinking for a moment, I shifted Minerva in my arms and asked:
"Could I ask who called?"
Lee Ye-eun nodded.
"The first one said you'd know her as Amelda."
Amelda.
That was the name Esmeralda Lisnerger had given when we first met.
Just as expected. As I nodded, Lee Ye-eun narrowed her eyes slightly and spoke the second name.
"And the next was Yoon Seul-hye."
"...Wait, who?"
"The Yoon Seul-hye you know. That Yoon Seul-hye — the Six Stars member and the idol."
Lee Ye-eun's voice was perfectly businesslike.
"She said she wants to put herself under your protection."