Chapter 15: Incomprehensibility

“Ha… Ha… I’m sorry. I… I was just startled…”

I didn’t know the reason, but it was definitely not because of me… Something must have surprised her.

“I managed to cover myself, but… how do I…”

She was sitting with her legs apart, her panties clearly visible under her skirt, and the yellow stain was obvious.

She seemed to be in denial about having wet herself.

The fact that the man in front of her had seen her panties didn’t seem to register.

I took a handkerchief from my inventory and offered it to her.

“Wouldn’t it be better to wipe it with this…?”

“Hic…”

Blushing furiously, she accepted the handkerchief and wiped herself.

“I’ll wash the handkerchief and return it later…”

“No, you can keep it.”

A handkerchief soiled with a girl’s urine… A prized possession for some, perhaps, but I had no such inclinations.

After wiping herself, she used her energy to evaporate the remaining liquid on the ground.

“I’m going to change my clothes, so could you look away…?”

She took spare clothes from her inventory.

“Alright.”

I immediately turned around.

Rustle.

Swish.

The sound of her lowering her skirt.

The sound of her removing her wet panties and putting on a new pair.

The sound of the new skirt brushing against her legs.

With my agility stat of 59, my ears picked up every sound clearly.

“I’m done. You can turn around now.”

I turned back after hearing her voice.

She looked much calmer, neatly dressed, and facing me.

“Thank you… If it weren’t for you, this would have been a disaster.”

“We all help each other. Anyone would have done the same.”

She shook her head.

“No. There are too many people in the world who want me to fail. If I’m in trouble, they wouldn’t help. They’d use it against me, spread it around to undermine me.”

As a public figure, her life was certainly different from mine.

‘This is why I don’t want to be famous.’

From the moment one became famous, they were plagued by rumors and had to be careful about every action, constantly dealing with people waiting for them to fail.

“It must be tough even being born into a good family…”

“Yu-won, you’re quite skilled. Are you from one of Korea’s prestigious families? Perhaps your father’s name is…”

From a prestigious family? She was underestimating me.

Born an orphan five times, tenaciously surviving, a specialist and top product of the orphan world – that was Kim Yu-won.

Prestigious family? I’d never even been born into an ordinary family.

If I had parents, they would have had a son who lived only 30 years, so I had no complaints.

But did I have to be an orphan in every life, even the last one?

I decided to share my family history with her after that awkward question.

“I’m an orphan. I don’t have parents, let alone a family.”

“What?!”

She was shocked. I’d just come out as an orphan to the person who’d saved her from public humiliation.

She fidgeted and spoke.

“I… I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to…”

In the news and on YouTube, she projected a confident, flawless image, but in front of me, she was just a normal 17-year-old girl.

‘Perhaps the image in the media is manufactured, and this is the real her?’

“It’s okay. How could you have known I didn’t have parents? Unless… you did know?”

I teased her a bit to lighten the mood.

“Absolutely not!”

She emphasized the “absolutely.” I knew she hadn’t meant it that way.

“Well, things seem to be settled, and I should get back to my group.”

A considerable amount of time had passed, so the exam results should be out soon. There was a second practical exam, so we couldn’t be late.

“Yes. Um, could you keep today’s incident a secret…?”

“I won’t tell anyone, don’t worry.”

Even if I did, few would believe she wet herself.

“Thank you… We’ll see each other at the academy anyway, so let me buy you a meal this weekend.”

The academy was primarily a boarding school, but weekend outings were allowed. A meal from a rich girl sounded promising.

“Alright. See you then.”

I dispelled the lightning energy surrounding us, parted ways with her, and headed towards the bulletin board where the list of successful candidates would be posted.

“Hmm… Who was that man…?”

Alice Strauss, heir to one of the world’s top 10 families and a girl wielding A-rank telekinesis, pondered the identity of the man she’d just met.

Apart from their awakened abilities, her family possessed a unique inherited power passed down through the head family’s direct lineage: the ability to perceive a person’s aura.

The aura varied depending on a person’s strength, abilities, potential, and status.

By identifying valuable individuals through their auras and recruiting them, the Strauss family had amassed immense power.

But something was strange about Kim Yu-won.

Incomprehensible.

He seemed to be a mixture of countless things, and she sensed so much from him.

He felt like a demon who had killed countless people, yet simultaneously like a hero who had saved the world.

He was an enigma.

Physical contact would reveal more, so she’d shaken his hand.

But the moment their hands touched, a torrent of his memories flooded her mind, overwhelming her, forcing her to shut down her family’s ability.

However, she was a little too late. She’d wet herself.

“But he concealed me to protect me…”

She’d lived a life of calculated relationships.

A cold-blooded father, a mother who pinned all her hopes on her, siblings waiting for a chance to usurp her position as heir.

Countless people who tried to undermine her, exploit her, or simply flatter her for scraps.

He was the first person to show her genuine kindness, expecting nothing in return.

If he hadn’t offered to buy her a meal at the end, he wouldn’t have asked for anything.

‘Why…?’

The position of heir to the Strauss family held immense value and influence.

Even with her position secured, her siblings were constantly scheming, hoping to seize the leadership before she officially inherited it.

“I need to keep an eye on him.”

She didn’t know what kind of person he was. Whether he would be helpful or harmful, she couldn’t tell.

For the first time in her life, she’d met someone she genuinely wanted to understand, despite having always judged people based on their aura.

A peculiar individual, unreadable even with her ability, and harboring no ulterior motives towards her.

“I want to know.”

What kind of person he was.

For the first time, a fire ignited within her.

“Wow, we all passed?”

After parting with Alice, I returned to my group just as the instructors posted the list of successful candidates. All our names were there.

“A natural outcome.”

Ha-yeon declared, and everyone seemed to agree.

“Passing the practical exam is one thing, but passing the written exam after only a week of studying is more impressive, don’t you think?”

Shin-woo was right.

Passing a written exam that typically required a year of consistent study for a C-rank Hunter, after just a week?

Considering we even spent a day studying Korean, it was unbelievable.

Their intelligence was at least that of an A-rank Hunter, if not higher.

“Shin-woo, you can speak casually. Aren’t we classmates?”

He looked momentarily flustered, then, with a determined expression, nodded.

“O-Okay…”

Knowing their approximate ages, it must have been difficult for him to drop the honorifics, but he did it.

“Now only the final exam remains.”

The successful candidates had been determined, but the entrance exam wasn’t over yet for one reason.

‘They needed to rank us.’

The previous exam, depending on one’s abilities, could be easier for some and harder for others.

It was sufficient for filtering out candidates but not for ranking them.

Thus, the first practical exam determined who passed, while the second determined the ranking.

The second exam’s content changed every year, so there was no way to prepare.

“All successful candidates, please follow the instructor into the building.”

The instructor entered the building where we’d taken the written exam, and those on the list followed.

“Let’s go.”

I followed the instructor with my group, blending into the crowd.

We’d taken the written exam upstairs; this time, it was downstairs.

The lower level was surprisingly spacious and contained 50 capsules.

“Those are…”

“Virtual reality devices, aren’t they?”

Extremely expensive equipment, each costing millions. Devices that allowed one to control a virtual body, a perfect replica of their own, to perform various activities.

The instructor standing before them began to speak.

“The theme of the second practical exam is Survival and Contention.”

Survival and Contention?

What kind of exam was that?