Chapter 148
In fact, there was nothing legally wrong with the video Dayeon uploaded.
When Name first played World of Arseria, video sharing was enabled for the broadcast.
But that didn't erase the guilt I felt over profiting from someone else's video without even asking permission.
“It was...”
“I'm kidding. You gave me candy, so I'll forgive you.”
Name gave me a sly smile.
After all, it had brought even more people to my streams.
“What are you talking about? You stream too, kid?”
“Whoa, what is it, what is it? Let's look it up right now! What's the channel called? Can we find it by searching V-Tube?”
“Wait, you're saying you're NoName...?”
“Who's NoName? Are they famous?”
“You don't know NoName?”
One of the four men's faces paled, just like Woo Dayeon's.
He didn't recognize NoName's main avatar, but he was one of the viewers well acquainted with NoName's exploits in WoA.
Hee-jin was still standing there blankly, completely bewildered.
“What's going on? Is there something else I don't know?”
Knock-knock-
The sound of two knocks cut across the noisy room.
Professor Cheon peeked into the lab, which had instantly fallen silent, and beckoned to me.
“Name, could you grab your things and come out?”
Clunk-
Name gathered her belongings and said goodbye.
“Don't go around casually revealing my age. It's still a secret.”
* * *
I thought they would give me harder problems if I kept getting them right, but sadly, they must have been underestimating my abilities.
Since I was good at mental arithmetic, I used to put on little magic shows like this from time to time when I worked at the Mage Tower. It already felt like a distant memory.
And then there was my age...
I would have to reveal it someday, but several problems that would arise afterward came to mind.
First, I would have to explain everything I'd done over the past seven years.
It was hard to say whether that counted as an explanation or a revelation, though.
If I was going to do it, the best time would be when as many people's attention as possible was focused on me.
This was South Korea, where even something I expected to be a huge event could draw a more lukewarm response than anticipated.
In a world plastered with all kinds of sensational news, I even wondered if one person like me might amount to nothing at all.
I didn't want to muster up the courage to reveal everything, attract attention for a moment, and then end up as one of those common cases no one remembered a month or two later.
Some people disparaged this Korean trait as “boiling-pot mentality,” but I saw it a little differently.
The unfortunate murders and traffic accidents that still occurred without fail in the 2050s—and not just in Korea, but all over the world—kept pouring in.
People simply became too exhausted to keep paying attention to every single one of those incidents, so forgetting them was unavoidable.
By the time I finished wondering when and how to reveal everything, I had reached the meeting room.
Professor Cheon and a Korean man who looked to be around his age rose from their seats.
“Hello, young lady! I'm Robert Kim. Nice to meet you.”
Let me correct that. Judging by his accent alone, he had a perfectly American accent.
After accepting his handshake, I sat beside Professor Cheon and rested my arms on the dining table, where a cold glass panel had been placed. I still wasn't used to my feet floating above the floor whenever I sat in a chair.
“Did the kids keep you entertained?”
“What do you mean, entertain me? I was the one entertaining them.”
“Hahaha, they're even more incorrigible than Name. Ah, let me introduce you. This is my friend, Mr. Robert Kim, and Robert, this is my daughter, Name.”
“Translation magic is too impersonal, so my Korean is clumsy, but I'll do my best to speak it. Nice to meet you again.”
“Yes, likewise.”
The portly man smiled warmly.
It seemed we'd finished most of the conversation on the way here, so there was no unnecessary preamble.
“Actually, it's nothing much. Gyu-jin Chan said his daughter was very sick—no, he said she was very sick, so I stopped by to see for myself whether he was telling the truth. Solid potions aren't supposed to be ready for commercial use yet, but he kept pestering me to come all the way to New Jersey!”
“Really?”
“More than that, we were both dying to come because it was so fascinating that Gyu-jin had a daughter! I won four games of rock-paper-scissors in a row, so I got the business trip to Korea!”
He told us about what had happened in America in halting Korean.
“Tsk! Now that I've met her, isn't that enough? I'll attach the paperwork when I leave.”
“Hey, don't be so mean! I flew for hours...”
After arguing back and forth with Professor Cheon several times, Robert finally raised the white flag and left the building.
“You must be happy to have such a really cute daughter, Gyu-jin.”
“You should hurry up and badger your son into giving you a granddaughter.”
“Ha! Jason declared himself DINK, so it's not that easy!”
“That's a shame.”
“Well then, Name, I'll be going! Bye-bye! Oh, right, this is a gift. You said you like sweet things, so you'll definitely like it!”
I saw him off to the very end as he left in a taxi.
“He's a friend who works at Johnson & Johnson. He may look like that on the outside, but he's insanely smart.”
Professor Cheon muttered. Well, he certainly seemed like it.
Judging by the shabby checkered clothes he had worn—the symbol of engineering—he had to be the genuine article among genuine articles.
“Is anything bothering you physically? No pain around your heart or anything?”
“No. Honestly, if I hadn't gotten a doctor's diagnosis, I wouldn't even have known I was sick.”
“Anyway, tell me immediately if there's even the slightest problem. And apparently, we may be able to expect good news about an EDMD treatment from the pharmaceutical company soon.”
“That's wonderful.”
“Yes. Luckily, they've been conducting research in that area for years. I'm sure they'll be able to cure it completely.”
Even though he spoke hopefully, he must still have been worried about me.
After all, heart failure was the primary cause of death from muscular dystrophy. Once it developed, it was practically game over.
Robert's gift was none other than Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
Along with them, Professor Cheon showed me a small container filled with black pills.
“This is the solid potion sample I brought back. What do you think?”
“Wait, you want me to swallow this?”
“You can chew it, but then it wouldn't really be any different from taking it in liquid form, would it?”
It looked twice as large as the enormous omega-3 supplements.
If that went down wrong, it would block my esophagus.
“Then could you give me just one?”
I took my tumbler out of my bag and looked back and forth between it and the pill.
A pungent smell was gradually rising from it, so I felt I had to swallow it quickly.
“Hk!”
Gulp-
‘Ah, fuck. This is why I wanted chocolate.’
It was still a hundred or even a thousand times better than the liquid potion, but even that brief contact with my tongue made my head tingle.
I swallowed the pill and immediately poured water down my throat.
I felt the unpleasant sensation of the pill's edge scraping all the way down my throat.
After barely soothing my tongue with a Ferrero Rocher, I was finally able to think rationally.
“This is... intensely unpleasant.”
“On the other hand, apparently you only have to take it three times a day.”
“Three times a day... That alone is a huge improvement.”
At least I definitely wouldn't be running back and forth to the bathroom as often anymore.
“I'll take you home, so let's head to the parking lot.”
“Oh, I can go by myself.”
“They say there'll be a shower soon, and you didn't bring an umbrella, did you? It'll be quick by car, so hop in.”
A shower in this weather? I could see a small dark cloud in the distance, but it didn't look like enough to bring down any rain.
Still, Professor Cheon looked bored, so I climbed into the passenger seat without protest.
“Isn't that working a little too hard, coming to work during your sabbatical?”
“Then should I skip everything tomorrow and just go to the amusement park with Name?”
“Come on, you know I don't like walking much.”
Since I didn't have much energy, I felt safest and happiest when lying down.
“Then how about a movie?”
“A movie wouldn't be bad.”
“Great! Then tomorrow is a date with Name, our first in ages, so I'd better clear my entire schedule!”
“You want me to skip the academy tomorrow too? Midterms are coming up.”
“Honestly, you want to as well, don't you?”
“Of course.”
Liking my academy friends and liking the academy itself were two different things.
People naturally grow tired of the monotony that comes from doing the same thing consistently.
Since I went to the academy every day, taking a day or two off actually felt pretty nice. Sorry, Yuna. I'll buy you something tasty later.
The main road, which had been jammed just a moment ago, was wide open.
Raindrops pattered against the windshield. It really was a shower.
The sun disappeared behind the pitch-black clouds, and the scenery turned gloomy in an instant.
They said it would rain all day tomorrow, so I supposed I'd have to put my date with Adela off for a while.
“Professor.”
“Hm?”
“How long have you and Robert been friends?”
“Ah, Robert? Let's see... Hmm... Has it been about twenty-five years?”
“At that point, you're practically lifelong friends.”
“Hahaha, I suppose we are.”
“Is there any secret to maintaining ties with people for so long?”
Judging by Robert's words, Professor Cheon seemed to know several people in America.
What must it feel like to stay in touch for decades without ever growing apart?
A little envy welled up inside me.
“I don't know... But if there's one thing that's important above all else, isn't it that neither of you lies to the other?”
Lies.
“I don't quite understand. It seems we'd be more comfortable as friends if we hid certain things appropriately.”
Exposing one's shame was the same as lowering oneself and revealing one's weaknesses.
Friendship was only possible when the two sides stood as equals. If the relationship tilted too far toward one side, I wondered whether it could be maintained.
“I haven't lived all that long either, but after living for more than fifty years, I've come to realize something. People who go out of their way to hide things may seem attractive at first, but eventually an uncomfortable gap forms between them.”
“Then what should you do when that happens?”
“Then you have to decide. Whether to leave the gap as it is and maintain the relationship, or make the effort to draw closer even if it means risking the relationship growing distant. But I'm not saying this applies to every human relationship. With ten billion people in the world, there are just as many different kinds of relationships.”
In the end, I was back at square one.
As expected, just as he said, it would be stranger if there were a single logic that applied to every human relationship.
What kind of logic applied to the relationships between me and my academy friends, me and my internet viewers, and me and Professor Cheon?
After a brief silence, a warm smile formed at the corner of Professor Cheon's mouth.
“Someday, I hope we can become close enough to be open with each other without pretenses.”
He neither asked nor demanded anything.
Sometimes, just having someone there could give you strength.
Were all parents naturally that kind of presence for their children? I didn't know.
‘Professor Cheon, aren't you curious about how I lived before I came to the orphanage?’
I considered saying it.
I slightly parted my lips, wanting to gauge that gap for no particular reason, but...
Rumble!
“Whew, the rain stopped, and now lightning's striking out of a clear sky. Korean weather isn't what it used to be.”
Since the weather was so bad, I closed my mouth again.
“Name, I thought I heard a text alert on your phone just now. Did the thunder drown it out?”
“Oh, I'll check.”
I almost never received texts or phone calls on my phone.
[Seoul Serious Crimes Investigation Agency
Case No. 2051-00628
To: Cheon Semin, NoName
Subject: Notice of the Result of Your Request for Reinvestigation
We hereby notify you that the following decision has been made regarding the case related to you, and hope for your swift recovery from the damage suffered.
Details: No grounds for prosecution
Reason: A prosecution has already been brought regarding the same case.
For this case, you may review the attached records of the reopened investigation (full text/summary).
※Article 2, Subparagraph 6 of the Regulations on the Scope of Crimes Subject to a Prosecutor's Initiation of an Investigation
※Article 3, Paragraph 1(b) of the Framework Act on Disaster and Safety Management]
‘Ah, damn it.’
It wasn't time to talk about it yet.
Yes, not yet.
“It was nothing.”
“Oh, really? Do people still get spam texts these days?”
“Professor Cheon... By the way, I was thinking of entering a tournament. Would you give me permission?”
“A tournament? What kind of tournament?”
“A gaming tournament.”
Let's make one big splash.