Chapter 32: Absolute Proposition (13)

[Trickster Basic Skill :: Perception Interference is activated!]

“W-Woah, my head feels totally fuzzy.”

“I have an evil alignment, so people who see me use skills get their minds scrambled.”

“You knew that, and you still poured your spirit energy all over me at school?!”

The next day, a small privately owned cafe downtown.

Lude and Min Jaeyoon, still in his school uniform, were seated in a corner. Lude was sipping an iced Americano through a corn straw, and Jaeyoon kept shaking his head, looking awkward.

To keep anyone from recognizing them and posting online, Lude had used Perception Interference on both of them. It looked like Jaeyoon had taken a mental hit from it.

“You’re a mage of a Constellation that handles demons, and if your mental barrier can’t even take that, you should just terminate your contract with your Constellation. Right?”

Seeing that his Constellation’s pride seemed wounded and was grumbling through a red indirect message, Min Jaeyoon’s eyes sparkled and he grinned.

“So why did you call me?! I got a message from Ihyun and nearly had a heart attack. Don’t tell me you missed me?!”

“No, it’s not that.”

Lude leaned back in his chair, thinking about how to say this. How was he supposed to explain? With his hand on his chin, wearing a troubled look, he hesitated. Jaeyoon tilted his head.

“What. What happened?!”

“Well…”

Lude, still torn, pressed his fingers into the bridge of his nose. Either way, this was his responsibility to handle. He shut his eyes tight, let out a heavy sigh, then carefully continued.

“I tried to hide it, but they found out you were involved with magic stones in that incident at the school. So…”

“Ohhh~”

“It’s, uh, I know how much you hate revealing yourself, and I know how stressful it is when it gets out. I wanted to cover it for you. I’m sorry. You were forced into a situation where…”

Lude had to tell him that the circumstances made it unavoidable to expose the fact that Jaeyoon had been hiding his strength. He kept his head bowed and spoke quietly.

“Oh, then I have to testify that I didn’t register as an Awakener, right?”

“…Yes. I’m sorry. I really tried not to say anything if I could help it…”

“I’ll do it!”

“Eh?”

Lude snapped his head up at the crisp, cheerful answer. Min Jaeyoon was smirking. Behind his half-rim glasses, his red eyes gleamed.

“Come on, if it’s just that, you don't need to worry about it~ I was going to register as an Awakener anyway! Ihyun’s message sounded so serious that I thought something had exploded, so I got scared for nothing!”

“Wait, but you were desperate not to get caught. You said your grandfather would hate it! Now you suddenly want to do it?!”

“Ah, well…”

Min Jaeyoon awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. After thinking for a long moment, he shrugged and smiled.

“Hm, I’m not sure. I guess everything would be solved if I do this.”

He rapped his fingertips on the glass in front of him. The dark blue school jacket and the green name badge stood out.

Come to think of it, it was the weekend, and school would have been closed, so why was he in uniform? As Lude wondered, Jaeyoon spoke, looking self-conscious.

“If I don’t become a Hunter, I think I’ll be stuck in that school for the rest of my life…”

The fingers tapping the glass tightened into a grip. His fingertips went white, and his face turned pale.

[That’s called trauma, the Lord of Chaos butts in.]

‘Ahh.’

Lude let out a deep sigh. No matter how high your grade as an Awakener, even with a Constellation, there was no simple answer in the face of trauma. Nari, for instance, went straight into a panic whenever she stood in front of a camera.

“If you become a Hunter, it’ll be hard. You’ll get a lot of hate. Are you sure you’re okay with that?”

“I’ll be fine. People with talent are always targets for jealousy, right? Besides, I did something neither number one nor number two could do. I built a school!”

“That’s true. You can’t do that with holy power or spirit energy.”

“See, I’m going to be a huge help to society. I wasn’t going to college anyway because I never studied much, so this worked out great!”

“That really is a relief…”

Sensing the stiff mood, Min Jaeyoon crossed his arms and finished with an exaggerated smirk.

“Anyway, do you want me or Kang Ihyun to help? We can recommend you for a position.”

“No, no. I’m not going to the Sanctuary. I’m going to White Night. I think that’s where I’ll get the best support for dealing with demons.”

“Ahh… yeah, White Night would indeed be better for you.”

“Exactly! I’m going to be S-class soon, too! I already picked my epithet. Red Devil!”

“That overlaps with 2002, so no. Touching the Red Devils nationalist hype is a grave offense.”

“What happened in 2002?”

“Forget it. Never mind. You were probably a fertilized egg then.”

Even so, he did not look too bad.

All the things Nari had worried over so earnestly did not seem to weigh on him much at all. Lude recalled the guildmaster’s warning not to make careless guesses about other people’s hearts.

“Anyway… that settles it. I’ll notify the police and the Sanctuary side. Let’s break up here. Good work.”

“Ahhh!! Wait a second!! I have something to say!”

Hmm? Lude half opened his eyes and chewed on his straw. In front of him, Min Jaeyoon twisted himself up with nerves. Suspicious, Lude thought. The next moment, Jaeyoon dropped a bomb.

“Noona, will you go out with me?”

“Eh?”

It was “Eh?” Not “What,” not “Huh.” That showed how confused she was.

Lude finally processed the meaning exactly thirty seconds later.

“…What?!”

“Exactly what I said. Date me, noona. I’ve fallen for you.”

Lude’s eyes widened slowly. Once the situation settled in, she shouted.

“Hey! Wake up! You’re a student, and I’m in my mid-twenties!”

“Age doesn’t matter in love!”

“It matters!”

“Hmph! Then I got no other choice.”

Jaeyoon fished out his wallet and presented a card. It was his resident ID. Lude, dumbfounded, read the numbers. Jaeyoon spoke with utter confidence.

“I’m twenty right now! I got held back and repeated a year! I’ll be twenty-one in a month! No problem now, right?!”

“…”

“C-Could you not look at me like I’m ridiculous. That kind of hurts…”

“Take off the uniform first if you want to have this conversation…”

Jaeyoon removed the hand resting on his iced Americano and laced his fingers together on the center of the table.

At the unfamiliar sensation, goosebumps swept over Lude, and her expression slid toward outright horror.

[This is insanely entertaining, says the Lord of Chaos, crunching popcorn.]

‘Lord of Chaos, shut it!’

A sharp headache stabbed Lude’s forehead. She had used a mind-affecting skill on Jaeyoon, yet somehow her own head hurt.

“Kid, you must have plenty of good people around you…”

“Noona, it’s because I’m still a student, isn’t it! I will graduate in a few months!”

“Hey! With that high school crest stitched over your name badge staring me in the face, anyone who says yes is putting on handcuffs.”

Ahem. Regaining composure, Lude fanned himself and spoke.

“Why do you even like me in the first place. You don’t even know my true form.”

“I…”

Min Jaeyoon touched his cheek. Seeing it flush pink, Lude became scared.  

‘D-Does he really like me? Me? Why…? What did I even do, is this somehow my fault…?’

“I like strong women...”

“At least it’s not my fault. Thank goodness.”

Lude smiled with relief and pressed a hand to her chest. Jaeyoon’s bashful confession continued.

“Noona. When you put your hand on my head, you tried to use a skill to kill me or drive me mad. I keep remembering that moment, and I can’t sleep at night…”

“Isn’t that just Stockholm syndrome or something?”

“I’ve always liked older women... and I like a woman who’s strong enough to crush my skull with her bare hand.”

“U-Uh-huh…”

Lude began to avert his eyes. With his signature slippery confidence, Jaeyoon kept going.

“I’m serious, noona. Let’s just date for a month.”

“What… Huh… What do you mean by serious…”

“I’m serious that I can make you fall for me during that time. I’m confident. More than Ihyun.”

“Why bring Kang Ihyun into this? Also, if your grandfather sees you acting like this, he’ll collapse.”

“Come on, noona! Please!”

Faced with Lude’s ironclad wall, Min Jaeyoon pouted again. Lude sighed, flustered.

‘He’s really running wild. What do I even do? Just bolt?’

Still overthinking, Lude tried to pull his hands free. Ironically, a third party ended the outrageous scene.

“Min Jaeyoon.”

“Ah.”

Lude lifted his hand from his throbbing forehead and looked to the side. Kang Ihyun was gripping Min Jaeyoon’s wrist.

“That’s enough. You’re making him uncomfortable.”

He peeled Jaeyoon’s hand away. His voice was cold, completely unlike usual. A subtle tension settled around them. Ihyun looked down with an icy, expressionless face.

“…Ah~”

Watching Ihyun’s attitude, Jaeyoon stayed silent for a beat, then let out a soft, impressed sound and smirked. A taut wire of tension stretched between the two.

“So it’s this person? The one from your high school days. You should have told me earlier.”

“Min Jaeyoon.”

“I’ve told you again and again. Not like that, hyung. You can’t do it like this. You can’t even see what’s right around you right now, so how are you supposed to… F-Fine! I’m going. Just stop looking at me like that. Jeez.”

Snapping at Kang Ihyun, Min Jaeyoon sucked down the rest of his coffee in one go and shrugged into his coat.

“Noona, my grandpa’s been giving you a hard time, right? With his personality, he definitely is. This hyung didn’t know that, did he?”

“No. I told uncle. It’ll be handled soon. So stay out of it.”

“Your word isn’t enough. You don’t care about anyone except her.”

A sharp little duel flared between the two. Lude, gnawing helplessly on her straw, watched them with rising anxiety.

‘W-W-What is even happening right now.’

She stared, baffled, unable to process any of it. The Lord of Chaos popped up another indirect message in front of her.

[Our Nari is hopeless at reading a situation like this, says the Lord of Chaos, shaking his head.]

‘Eh?’

In a situation where most people would sense the subtle relationships and currents swirling around them, Nari was different.

No friends since middle school! Prickly personality! Half her words are swear words! Estranged from family! For ten years, the only person she saw regularly was the convenience store owner! Most conversations were with the Lord of Chaos!

So Nari was the type to earn dislike rather than favor, and in truth she had always heard more curses than praise in her life.

That included the years when she had been Lude.

Because of that, Shin Bitnari was hypersensitive to insults or negativity aimed at her, but when it came to signs that someone liked her, that sensor simply did not work. Even if it did work.

‘Well, if a kid I know tried that on someone in her mid-twenties, even I would have a massive reality check.’

Watching the two bristle at each other, Nari could only think things like that.

It was like when a fire alarm goes off inside a building, yet everyone just says, “Haha, probably a malfunction,” and keeps walking. She defaulted to acting as if it was not about her.

She had become the densest sweet-potato heroine, unable even to imagine that someone might like her!

[Nari! Do you not see the hashtag that says “multiple male leads,” cries the Lord of Chaos as they break the fourth wall.]

[I should have taught my little sister about this too… laments the Lord of Chaos with fierce regret.]

‘What are you even talking about?’

Nari could not understand what was going on. But she was certain of one thing.

If she had not used Perception Interference, there would have been a giant front-page article tomorrow.

Something awful like, “[Exclusive] Lude and Kang Ihyun caught in a cafe arguing over whether to date an underage male!”

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