Chapter 89
“H-haah..! How was it?!”
ㅡclick!
ㅡbeep-beep!!
ㅡkiet….
“Hyaah!! Success!!”
“Good work, Princess.”
The cheer dance received unanimous approval. Minyumi gave me a thumbs-up even when I fell while dancing, while Daengdaeng got high marks, perhaps because it had unexpectedly gained experience shaking its butt.
And we succeeded after even getting a nod from Suri, who was stricter than anyone in the world.
“Ugh, that was so tiring. Minyumi, give me some water.”
ㅡclick!
“Thanks.”
Instead of doing gymnastics today, I practiced this. It looks like a children's exercise dance, but when you actually try it, it's much harder and more exhausting than you'd expect. My arms and legs feel like they're trembling all over.
“Princess, abruptly stopping physical activity after exercising can cause problems with your muscles.”
“Eugh, really?”
“That is correct. I will help you with your cooldown stretches.”
With Ophelia's help, I even finished the final stretches.
“U-uuugh..! Urrrgh..!!”
I was in the middle of my cooldown stretches.
“I-I touched them..! I reached all the way..!”
I mean, my fingertips touched my toes.
“S-stop..! I'm going to break..!!”
I mean, the backs of my thighs are going to break.
“Your flexibility has improved considerably.”
“Haaah, I thought my legs were going to break….”
I definitely remember having trouble touching my fingertips to my toes when I first started, but now I can stretch forward until they almost reach my wrists.
Of course, true masters can bend their waists forward, backward, and sideways like a bow without any help, but that's still difficult for me. If Ophelia presses down on me, I can just barely get my toes to touch my wrists.
“Hweeeek!! I feel like I'm losing my mind!!!”
“161 degrees... Good. You have become extremely flexible.”
“Eheheh….”
I'm also pretty good at doing the side splits. I was being a little dramatic, but it honestly didn't hurt that much.
“Ugh... But I don't even fight, so why am I training my physical abilities this hard….”
“It is true that you do not participate in actual combat, Princess. However, if you possess basic physical strength and mobility, the troops under your command can move more efficiently.”
“Hmm, I see.”
That means I need to be good at running away so Minyumi, Suri, and Daengdaeng can fight without worrying. But when I saw them before, they all fought perfectly well without my orders. Couldn't I just stay home and rest as a princess while everyone else went out to fight?
I wanted to say that, but it also sounded like something a bad superior would say. Why should I go there? It sounds like I'm telling them to go instead.
And more importantly, if the golems need cheering while they're fighting later, I'll need to use my abilities to strengthen them. According to Ophelia, the farther away they are, the more the efficiency drops, so staying nearby is the most powerful option.
“That concludes today's schedule. Let us rest after your bath.”
“Okaaay.”
* * * * *
“Mmm.”
A school enrollment notice arrived. What that means is...
“Huh..? Fourth grade of elementary school? What are they trying to do?”
“Is there some kind of problem?”
“Ophelia, I think something is wrong with the world. Wouldn't it be fine for someone as smart as me to skip straight to high school?”
With Nova's help, my enrollment at Seoul Aegis was processed incredibly quickly. But, shockingly, a notice arrived saying they were going to put someone as smart as me in an elementary school class.
Actually, this was the regular academic class; for special activities, I was assigned to Class A. That's the class where they teach Hunter activities. I thought I was in Class A because my Hunter rank was A, but apparently not. Students are assigned to classes at random, and I just happened to get Class A.
“So do I attend this together with students from the other grades?”
“That is correct. The special-activity classes, commonly called Hunter classes, are operated as integrated classes from upper elementary school through the third year of high school, since there are not very many students.”
“As expected, Korea's low birth rate is a problem..!”
“There are not many underage Awakeners to begin with.”
“That makes sense too.”
Then maybe the Hunter class would be more fun? I'm in a completely different league from elementary school students, to begin with. Putting someone with my highly intelligent brain in the same class as grade-schoolers is a bit much.
Putting that aside, school. It's been so long that I don't even properly remember what school life was like. I think I went to a bottom-of-the-barrel high school, climbed over the wall with the other kids from my orphanage, and bought lunch at a nearby convenience store.
Why did we do that back then? Looking back now, being a model student seems cooler than being a delinquent, but that's just how things were. The teachers used to line the kids up and beat the hell out of them with wooden brooms, too.
“Heheh.”
The Awakener Gallery regulars talk funny and use tons of cute emoticons, but in truth, they're people whose knees ache and whose backs make metallic noises. For those Awakeners who set out water and pray for an awakening every day, then fall asleep on tear-soaked pillows, school must be a nostalgic subject.
[LifeAintRuined : I'm going to school
How about it, jealous??? I'm awesome]
-ㅇㅇ : Not particularly jealous, though?
ㄴ LifeAintRuined : Liar;
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : I got beaten up by everyone in my class every day when I went, so what's there to envy?
ㄴ LifeAintRuined : Oh
“What do I do….”
ㄴLifeAintRuined : Sorry;
-Daramong : Little friend, are you going to school?
ㄴ LifeAintRuined : I'm going to an amazing school, hehe
ㄴ Daramong : I heard the news. Good luck.
ㄴ LifeAintRuined : Gasp
Come to think of it, Daramong was one of those veteran Hunters who had a battle of nerves with the Chinese Hunters at the West Sea Gate. Judging by what he said, it seemed like he knew I was enrolling at Seoul Aegis. Did he have someone he knew there..?
ㄴ LifeAintRuined : How did you know;?
ㄴ Daramong : (crown-wearing mint twin-tail emoticon)
ㄴ LifeAintRuined : What is itㅡㅡ
It hadn't been long since I submitted my application, and Nova must have processed everything incredibly quickly after contacting them, so how could the news have spread this fast?
[Daramong : The horrible life aboard ship is over
(Photo)
Goodbye to those stinky Chinese bastards, lol. I'm heading back to land]
-Kim Heukgan : What, you're back?
ㄴ Daramong : Got work.
ㄴ Kim Heukgan : Don't tell me you're going to Silence Lab?
ㄴ Daramong : Classified
-Husta : Hyung, are you finally coming?
ㄴ Daramong : Buy me food.
ㄴ Husta : You're the one who makes the most money.
The photo showed Chinese Hunters standing on what looked like the deck of a Chinese ship locked in a battle of nerves, with the West Sea Gate at the center in the far distance. The phone's hundred-times zoom had blurred their faces badly, but they were still recognizable to some extent.
“Gasp... So this person is coming back too.”
I think it was the Incheon Open Gate, or something like that. A massive open-type Gate once opened in Korea. The Gate that opened then was A-rank, and Liam Coleman, the world's second-ranked Hunter, was mobilized for the A+ open-type Gate that opened in Milwaukee last time.
Of course, I heard someone else took down the boss, but it was still possible to infer just how powerful the ordinary monsters pouring out of it must have been.
A dream team made up of fifty A-rank Hunters nearly suffered a major disaster together at the B+ Desert Mausoleum, after all.
I believe Daramong was one of the people who participated in the Incheon open-type Gate incident back then. What was Chaerin unnie doing at the time? I don't really remember.
It was probably about fifteen years ago, so Chaerin unnie was probably still a non-Awakener. Anyway, Daramong was basically a battle-tested veteran who had survived the Incheon Gate back then.
“That's kind of cool….”
I want to get a nickname like that too. Something like the Black Reaper would be a little much, but Battle-Tested Hero sounds pretty cool. It gives off a Worst Generation kind of vibe.
It's not like I want a Gate to burst open somewhere and cause trouble, though.
“Hmm.”
ㅡbeep?
“Huh? No, Daengdaeng. Keep eating your dog treat.”
But Daengdaeng doesn't really give off that kind of vibe. It's just Daengdaeng. Should I have given it a cooler name? Something like Doberman or Sebastian.
But looking at it, that would feel like a scam. It'd be no different from naming a Shiba Inu Dachshund.
“Hup.”
I stood up and walked over to the vanity for a moment. I don't really wear makeup, but it's a place where I sometimes sit because there's a mirror.
“Mmm….”
Honestly, my face feels more like that of a child model or a social-media influencer than a battle-tested hero. It would've been nice if I were about twenty instead of ten, incredibly tall, and looked like Chaerin unnie, Utaha, or Maxy.
ㅡscreeech
I searched through the clothes in the dressing room beside the vanity and found a children's suit that I'd bought but never really had a chance to wear, so it was still brand-new.
“Whoa..! A suit is proof of adulthood!”
A custom-made black-and-white suit with a very grown-up look. It was even from Mayfair, so it was fairly expensive. Wouldn't this make me look extremely mature, like Chaerin unnie?
Chaerin unnie wore an all-white suit with pants instead of a skirt, but it was still the same category of clothing.
ㅡswish
“How do I look, Daengdaeng?! I look really grown-up, right?!”
I was actually an adult, but since my appearance was like this right now, wearing a suit made me look even more mature. Even I thought I looked pretty cool.
ㅡbeep!!
“Huh? Sunglasses? Want a pair too?”
ㅡbeep-beep!!!
“Hehe, all right.”
I took out another pair of sunglasses and tried to put them on Daengdaeng, but unfortunately, Daengdaeng's ears were attached to the top of its head rather than the sides. The arms of the glasses kept sliding down, so it couldn't wear them.
“Hmm, I don't think this will work. Should I get some tape and stick them on?”
ㅡbeep….
“No, wait. Can't you just project the sunglasses onto your face?”
ㅡbeep..!
“Mwahaha!! Oh, seriously! That's cheating! Why are you so cute, Daengdaeng?!”
ㅡbeep..!
Even with sunglasses on, it shook its butt around wildly, and I really couldn't handle how cute it was.
“Haaah, wait a second. Let's take a video.”
ㅡbeep!
I don't know where it learned it, but Daengdaeng's dancing skills seemed to improve day by day. I should show this to other people later.
“Hehehe... come here!!”
ㅡbeep-beep?!!!
As a reward for showing me something cute, I gave Daengdaeng a vigorous petting.
“Princess. Do you have a moment?”
“Oh, Ophelia? What is it?”
“I just received a message from the Association. It seems a B-rank open-type Gate has appeared within a fifteen-kilometer radius.”
“Gasp..!”
A B-rank Gate was much more dangerous than the one that had appeared in Han River Park last time. It was the kind of situation that required about two twelve-person A-rank assault teams to defend against.
“Let's go! I'm already dressed!”
“The current perceived temperature in Seoul is minus seventeen degrees Celsius.”
“I-I'll put on one more padded jacket….”
I couldn't freeze to death just because I wanted to look cool.