Chapter 12 – A Butterfly Needs a Flower

–In accordance with the contract, a magic core will be lent for 10 minutes in exchange for six months of Han Sijoon’s life.

That’s a filthy lot you’re taking.

Magic supplements were typically taken three times a day. By consuming them all at once and combining that with the side effects, the price of the huge magic core had also gone up.

This is my Innate Ability [The Scale, Libra].

Its name is Libra, following the law of equivalent exchange.

Something couldn’t be gained from nothing after all.

The skill pertaining to my “beginning,” it is a grudging ability to use since the only price to pay is your own life span.

The mana’s energy gradually began to circulate in my body.

“…I could’ve sworn they wrote down that you had no innate magic.”

“Who did? About me having no magic?”

So long as I pay the price, I can possess the power which rivals an S-Rank hero for a short period of time.

Except, Libra demanded a high price in return.

I thrust my magic-powered gun at Na Yoona.

Facing my direction, she began to sputter out words.

“You’re gonna keep going? You think you can beat me just because you have magic? You can’t be more wrong. Just stay put. I’ll end you.”

I saw her grabbing hold of her spear again.

She looked like she couldn’t contain her anger since I hit the nail on the head.

“If I had a mirror, I’d want to show you.”

“…Show me what?”

“You don’t know what kind of face you’re making right now, do you?”

Yoona furrowed her brows.

Her face had always remained expressionless.

So what about it?

It meant that she didn’t seem to realize that her mask had come off.

“You’re blatantly losing it.”

The NAVI company wasn’t in her mind in the slightest.

“Also that…”

Smirk.

With a smile tugging on my lips, I pulled the trigger.

Bang!!

My target was four Yoonas.

I shot all the remaining four bullets at her, whether they were real or an illusion.

With magic bullets different from before.

I applied mana on the rotational rounds.

Its angular speed per second was 3000.

There was a clear gap between the speed and angular velocity.

My magic stat was currently between 6 and 7.

That was enough destructive power to keep Yoona on her toes.

This is…the power of magic.

The sound of the hollow bullet shot from the barrel of the gun echoed throughout the stadium.

A bullet made purely of mana.

For someone with a low physical ability like me, there was no better weapon than destructive power.

That magic bullet made contact with Yoona on the shoulder, whose eyes were wide open in disbelief.

“Kyaa…!”

She let out an uncharacteristically girlish scream.

It hit the spear resting on her shoulder, sending it flying high up in the air.

The unexpected hit made Yoona fall on her behind.

No matter how remarkable her vision was, she couldn’t overcome my doping of magic power.

Unable to fathom what happened, Yoona was moving her golden eyes around.

“D-Did I…just get hit and fall down?”

How?

The flow of mana was visible for a second, but by the time the impact spread throughout her body, Yoona was already one with the floor.

She had dropped her spear, so I approached the perplexed Yoona.

“You don’t wanna admit it, do you? That you lost to me.”

“……”

There’s no way she wouldn’t be shocked.

My stats were the worst.

My weapon was an outdated pistol.

The outcome must be difficult to accept for someone like her who had been walking the promising road of an elite.

“…I can’t accept it.”

That’s right.

That is how it should go.

I lost to a weapon like that?

I can’t accept this!

A perfect excuse for a loser.

I approached Yoona, who was shaking in anger.

Click.

Since Yoona’s magic barrier didn’t break, the sparring match continued.

 
All I needed to do was pull the trigger on her.

“How are you feeling?”

“…Frustrated. It’s humiliating seeing you look down at me from above. I’m seething that I lost to the likes of you.”

That’s extreme.

I wanted to tease her a bit. But I decided against it since it felt like I’d get stabbed by her spear in my sleep.

That was that.

They said something in the game.

Following the rules, I went to Yoona, who was lying down after the match, and spoke quietly.

I understand you, Na Yoona.

I was going into her roots.

The “Butterfly” episode boasted the highest level of difficulty.

The mental and physical deterioration of an elite with a Devastation tag.1

That’s something I didn’t want to go through whatsoever.

Even so, this place isn’t a game, it’s reality.

Since I have a mouth that can speak freely, I only had to save her.

Forget them, just live your life, Na Yoona.

I brought the gun to her head.

“You’re done now, right?”

“Nngh…”

She began to groan.

It looks like she did hold some fear of losing for the first time in her life.

I pulled the trigger on her like that.

Flick!

“Eek..!”

But, what rang out was not the sound of a gun, but a dull impact sound.

The finger flick made Yoona let out a gasp and grab her forehead. Then 10 seconds later, realizing what had happened to her, she shouted at me.

“W-What are you doing?! Not finishing me?! Are you pitying me?!”

“I’m not doing it out of pity.”

The 10 minute time limit.

There was no strength left in my body to shoot a magic bullet anymore. Even if I loaded it and fired a regular bullet, it wouldn’t be effective on a superhuman body like hers.

The flick on her forehead was the best I could muster.

To Kang Suho, who was staring at me absentmindedly, I said, “No.38 Han Sijoon. I will withdraw from the match.”

I’ll admit defeat.

My words caused a commotion in the stadium.

They couldn’t believe I was giving up when my victory was decided.

Is he joking? Regardless of how the match went, it won’t be a good look for him.

“Are you being serious?”

“Yes, I have no more strength in my body.”

I said as I waved my limp arm at him. 

Now was my limit.

A knockback from the appearance and disappearance of a magic core.

More and more of that pain came washing over me.

How exhausting.

Pain is pain.

I should wrap things up.

I looked at Yoona. 

She had an expression which found me incomprehensible.

I spoke to her. 

“If you want to rest, come find me. I’ll be waiting.”

“…What does that mean?”

Throwing away her mask and letting her break away from her expressionless self.

I’ll be the resting place, the flower, for the butterfly trapped in a cage.

I’ll gain the strength of a weak wind and go and topple down the tower.

I dragged my staggering body, and said with a bright smile, “Well, let’s just be friends.”

That’s what it means.

I collapsed right then and there onto Yoona, who was sitting on the floor.

My eyes slowly closed as the pain from the side effects came to me.

Let’s just sleep.

That will make the pain fly away too.

I passed out like that.

 ***

“……”

How should she express her current state?

Na Yoona couldn’t think of a word to describe this ticklish feeling.

“Just what could it be?”

Her opponent was nothing special, a man named Han Sijoon.

He was impertinent, indecent, and arrogant.

She didn’t like a single thing about him.

Experiencing her first defeat from him, she felt strange.

“What does it mean to be friends…”

Friend.

What Yoona knew of the word, friend, was a calculative term.

Give and take.

A clear and defined relationship.

Did he want that kind of relationship from her?

Han Sijoon didn’t look like that type though.

The granddaughter of NAVI.

An academy student with a promising future.

A lady with competence and looks.

The way he talked was as if he’d been watching her unmasked self not her masked one. 

It seemed like he was telling her, who was in the lonely birdcage, to dream.

“If I become your friend, can I go back to the old days…”

She stared fixedly at Sijoon who was lying down.

He looked vulnerable and delicate. Yet, on the inside, he gave the impression of a wall sturdier than anyone else.

Yoona swept up Sijoon’s bangs.

“…Looks like a complete idiot.”

At first, she was ashamed of the feeling she got.

She got angry at his words which hit home.

She couldn’t be honest with herself.

She quietly whispered to the sleeping Sijoon’s ear.

“I’ll do it, I’ll be your friend.”

With her mask off, it was small words of honesty.

This was a huge development for Yoona, who had always lived a lonely life.

“Friend…”

Wearing a smile, she stroked the unconscious Sijoon’s forehead.

His forehead held warmth.

The body temperature of a person that Yoona was feeling for the first time.

That was spring.

 ***

A hospital room with a white-ceiling.

This is probably the nurse’s office at the Hero Academy.

“Ah…”

I wonder how much time has passed?

Outside the window, the skies were already red with the sunset.

When I checked my body, I couldn’t feel anything else but a small aching pain in my chest.

It was a natural outcome since the existing magic core was removed.

Ah, that’s right.

What happened to Na Yoona?

I didn’t hear her reply.

The last thing I saw was Yoona’s baffled expression.

“I wonder if she’ll accept my words?”

If she doesn’t, things will seriously become a mess.

With that concern in mind, I peered out the window at the students leaving school.

“It should be around 6 o’clock…”

Wait, 6?

I took pills which strengthen my body three times a day. 

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

If that routine was broken, the effects would be halved.

I was currently in a patient gown.

I bolt up from the bed.

“My clothes, where are they? …My pills!”

The three days worth of medicine a day.

I carried it around in my pocket of the school uniform.

I had to take it now otherwise it would be half-effective.

As I rushed myself, a cough escaped from my mouth.

Cough.

Ah, is it the magic core’s side effect?

Red blood dripped from my mouth as I coughed.

“Damn it…”

For it to be this severe when I only used it for 10 minutes.

This body is seriously cursed.

I wiped the blood off my hand and took the pills out of my pocket.

Strength, Agility.

I plopped two of them in my mouth without drinking water.

“I didn’t have much time left, that was a close one…”

“…You don’t have much time left, you say?”

Thud.

It was the sound of something dropping and someone’s voice.

I turned my head to the direction of the voice.

It had been a while.

My red-haired homeroom teacher was standing there. But she was giving off different vibes than usual.

“Ms. Shin Sihwa?”

Did she come to visit me?

But why does she have that expression?

She had a sorrowful look on her face.

With her voice trembling, Sihwa spoke to me.

“What do you mean you don’t have much time left…”

“Pardon?”

The blood smudged on the side of my mouth.

The sight of me hastily stuffing away the pill.

This appearance of mine was enough to cause a great misunderstanding with Shin Sihwa.

Footnotes:

1To elaborate, there are very specific genres and tags in Korean novels. In this case, it is when an upper-class individual undergoes great hardships, one after the other, which wears down their physical and mental state. There is also a Devastation tag, where the individual goes mad after getting a taste of power or due to the mental exhaustion.