Chapter 13
When she came to her senses, Jiseo realized she had completely trashed the virtual simulation training room.
She had deliberately booked a difficult course, but the dummies embedded with artifacts that reproduced virtual monsters were all destroyed. The walls of the training room, designed to withstand attacks from upper B-rank espers using extreme temperature changes or electricity—crafted from the cores of gate monsters—had chunks of ice embedded in them. Come to think of it, most of the technology in this training room also came from the infamous LS InnoTech.
“…….”
Jiseo felt a pang of sadness. She would have to go to the Operations Support Department and beg, but she couldn’t go in with a blank, expressionless face.
Sad thought, sad thought.
Bugatti Veyron… 300 million won liability limit… 900 million won in repair costs…
Just thinking about it made Jiseo’s expression sorrowful. She was about to head to Operations Support to report the damage when someone spoke.
“Um, did you happen to break this training room?”
The words didn’t matter—the tone was soft. Jiseo suspected she was the “someone” in question and turned her head calmly.
A man in a sleeveless shirt and loose training pants tapped one of the ice chunks embedded in the broken wall with his hand and smiled at her. His hair was a light ash gray. Jiseo knew who he was.
“Oh, hello. Kwon Yul, S-rank esper. Yes, I got a little carried away in training, so it went a bit too far.”
There were probably very few people in South Korea who didn’t know him: S-rank esper Kwon Yul. With a name reminiscent of a historical figure, his very appearance was shocking. He awakened at the gate collapse in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do, saved countless lives, and quickly became known as an S-rank esper. His high rank, his actions during real disasters witnessed by civilians, and his striking appearance made him famous.
Even more, it was the disaster at Hangjusanseong in Goyang City that he helped resolve. As a result, countless photoshopped images and praise posts periodically circulated online.
Though he worked at a headquarters in the Seoul metropolitan area like Jiseo, there was little chance of crossing paths. Moreover, there was no training room capable of handling an S-rank esper like him, so his presence here was unusual.
“Wow… I heard LS sponsored an upgrade recently, but it’s completely destroyed.”
“……”
Did she need a fortune reading this year? Did her horoscope predict destruction? What had she done to anger LS? Jiseo silently turned and walked away.
“Where are you going?”
Kwon Yul quickly caught up to her. He seemed even taller than Baek Dohyeok. Tilting his head down slightly, he smiled brightly as he looked at her. Jiseo, not wanting to ignore someone walking alongside her, answered politely.
“To Operations Support. To report.”
“Come with me.”
Why?
But Jiseo, though indifferent to most things, was not socially inept. She asked politely.
“Why are you going, Kwon Yul?”
“Well, I’ll say I broke it.”
Jiseo stopped in her tracks. Kwon Yul, standing beside her, smiled down at her. Seeing his lips twitch in anticipation, she sighed half-heartedly and responded in kind.
“No need. I wouldn’t hear anything nice anyway, and this wasn’t deliberate—it just happened during training.”
“They said it costs 1 billion won to upgrade each training room.”
“…….”
Im Jiseo… in just a month, she had racked up tens of billions.
“The Operations Support manager was bragging recently.”
“10 billion wasted. And it all got destroyed by a C-rank esper.”
“Wow, you’re C-rank? I thought you’d be at least B or A. No wonder I didn’t know your name.”
Jiseo nodded along as Kwon Yul chatted. He was surprisingly friendly. Even though she barely responded, he continued talking all the way to the Operations Support office.
Jiseo took a deep breath. Operations Support staff generally saw espers as humanity’s saviors who might ruin budgets. Respect for those risking their lives was expected, but managing supplies and equipment within a given budget was their job, and these reckless espers…
Before she could finish that thought, Kwon Yul stepped into the office ahead of her.
“Manager, I destroyed Training Room 3…”
Only a few staff belonged to headquarters’ Operations Support, yet Kwon Yul’s playful way of elongating his words while calling the manager left Jiseo no chance to interject. Though she could have taken responsibility, Kwon Yul playfully took the blame, giving her a thumbs-up behind his back.
“No, that looks like a pre-arranged trick between you and me,” Jiseo thought.
“Eh? Yul? Why again? Why!”
The Operations Support manager’s reaction to the upgraded room being destroyed was like a dog watching a cherished toy get torn apart. Kwon Yul cooed in a playful, almost childish mumble.
“Well, I just came in today, and it’s so noisy with the S-rank guide and everything… no one’s in the training room, so I wanted to nap… but I had a dream while sleeping…”
Despite the ridiculous scenario—an S-rank esper accidentally destroying a room costing billions with a cute, playful confession—the manager nodded understandingly.
“Oh, I see. Alright then. Be careful next time.”
“Yes, manager. I’ll bring coffee next time.”
Jiseo was baffled. That was it? A simple coffee would cover the destruction of the building? No formal report, no pay cut?
“Ah, Im Jiseo, esper. What’s the matter?”
Espers only had one reason to come to Operations Support: to report damages they’d caused. Yet when she saw Kwon Yul’s sharp eyes, she hesitated. He gently tugged her arm.
“Oh, I came with him. Ran into him on the way. Right, Jiseo?”
Kwon Yul addressed her as if they were old friends. Jiseo instinctively bowed.
“Then, let’s go.”
They left the office side by side. Though his intervention made things easier, it wasn’t exactly a random act of kindness.
“Why did you do that?”
“You looked like you might cry.”
“I don’t cry like that.”
“You almost did just now.”
“Oh, that’s…”
Kwon Yul must have noticed her sad expression as she planned to act pitiful at Operations Support. Despite her indifference to others’ emotions, she nodded in acknowledgment.
“Thank you.”
Kwon Yul, looking down at her deeply bowed head with her long hair tied up, spoke:
“I know you. I just learned your name. You trained under Jinwon-hyung, right?”
“Huh?”
Hearing him refer so familiarly to her trainer, Jiseo realized. Kim Jinwon, an S-rank esper, mainly trained new espers due to circumstances. He seemed close with Kwon Yul.
Jiseo smiled awkwardly.
“Any esper who awakened in the last five or six years probably trained under Instructor Kim Jinwon.”
“I know. I trained under him too. He mentioned you sometimes—a unique C-rank esper named Im Jiseo.”
“Excuse me?”
Jiseo had never heard of that. The idea that Jinwon talked about her to others was unbelievable. He was a man of few words outside of training—three words a day was a lot for him. Sure, she was a bit unusual, but not enough to circulate rumors among S-ranks.
“Don’t you want to know what he said?”
“No. Thank you for your help today. That’s all.”
Jiseo’s immediate, uncompromising reply made Kwon Yul lift his dark brows in pure surprise. Normally, someone would respond, “Yes, I want to know.” But she just turned and walked away.
“Unnie! Unnie!”
A small girl ran up calling her name. Jiseo caught her as if accustomed to it. Behind the girl, a large man walked slowly. Kwon Yul paused, watching Jiseo smile at the pair. Her lips, normally firm, were slightly parted, and her gentle eyes curved softly.
“Im Ji… isn’t that person Kwon Yul, the esper? Do you know him?”
