The Spirit’s Name

Ro-un’s foot stopped in midair.
The two following behind him also stopped outside the barrier.

“This place is finished now.”

Snap!

Along with Proprietress Gu So-ye’s voice, which somehow sounded like she was in a bad mood, she snapped her fingers.
The barrier slowly narrowed.
The gap Ro-un had been about to enter through had closed before he knew it, and the barrier compressed with the otherworld residents still trapped inside.

Geugeugeuk, geugeugeuk!

The otherworld residents being crushed together with the barrier could be seen indistinctly.
The sight of them clawing at the wall looked like a scene from a painting of hell.

“Hehehehehehe. I’ve shown you something unsightly.”

Snap!

When she snapped her fingers once more, even the indistinct view of the inside disappeared.
All that could be seen was the barrier growing smaller and smaller, and all that could be heard were sounds like something bursting and being crushed.

“Uh, uh. Uh.”
“She’s still inside. Is that all right?”
“It’s fine. Proprietress Gu is an extremely skilled barrier caster, so she’ll be protecting herself even in there.”
“Hohohohoho.”

See? She was perfectly fine.
She was not weak enough for others to worry about her.

“This is too rough a sight for someone precious to see, so please wait there for a moment.”

Crunch, crack, kwajik!
Kkeu… eee…!

“Hiiik!”

Joo Hee-jun clung to Ro-un’s back.

“W-what is she? What the hell is that person? Lee Ro-un, just who exactly have you been spending time with?”
“Don’t cling to me.”

She’s not a person.
And I only met her two days ago too, you know?
Ro-un shook his shoulder and threw Joo Hee-jun off.
Then, from inside the barrier that had grown so small it seemed barely large enough for one person to stand in, the sound of fingers snapping rang out once more.

Snap!
Crash!

With the sound of glass shattering, the barrier broke into pieces and vanished.
The otherworld residents compressed inside it were likewise shattered to pieces while trapped within the barrier, sharing its fate.

Hudududuk.

Something scattered like fragments and violet liquid fell to the ground.
Among the pieces of the otherworld residents’ torn flesh, Ro-un saw Gu So-ye, without a single speck on her, shake off her twin swords and slide them into their sheaths.

‘This is… Proprietress Gu So-ye’s power.’

A powerhouse capable of compressing a barrier and dealing with the collapse of an otherworld passage estimated to be A-rank in a single stroke.
Seeing how relaxed she looked, it was clear she could have ended it right away but had deliberately dragged it out.

‘Was she waiting for support?’

She had meant to make it look like she had been caught up in it by coincidence in the first place, but thanks to the Association executive’s trolling, all of it had become pointless….
He had prevented relations with the tiger from souring, only for relations with the fox to look like they were about to sour.

Click, clack.

Through the shattered pieces of the barrier, Gu So-ye walked out looking as immaculate as when he had first met her.
At her appearance, which looked like something from a pictorial, Ro-un stared blankly for a moment before approaching her.

“Proprietress. Are you all right?”
“Were you worried about me? Thank you, Saint. Truly, I don’t know what would have happened if not for you.”
“Hahahaha. It was a good field trip.”
“Um. Good work!”
“I thank the Saint’s friends for coming as well. You were a help.”

Had they really been a help?
It seemed like she could have handled everything alone from the beginning.
Joo Hee-jun gulped.

“I’m glad it was resolved safely.”
“Exactly. Do you know how many buildings I’ve bought here?”
“……”

No way.

‘Was the reason she needed me today not anything else, but her buildings…?’

Ro-un didn’t know whether he should congratulate her on the fact that Gu So-ye’s real estate was safe, or lament that even nonhuman beings could be materialistic.
Gu So-ye looked warmly at Ro-un and the two who had come running to help him, then suddenly smiled with a face full of mischief.
Ro-un reflexively became wary.

“This is my thanks for protecting my buildings.”

Gu So-ye held out a hologram code.
When Ro-un scanned the code, Gu So-ye’s contact information was saved to his D-Watch.

“If you need information in the future, contact me anytime.”

Gu So-ye smiled brightly.
Was that it? The mood had definitely seemed like she was going to play some kind of prank.
What was this? Had he misread it?
Had he worried for nothing?
Ro-un relaxed his guard, turned off the hologram, and lowered his hand.

“Oh, right! Here’s something extra.”

Gu So-ye pressed her lips to Ro-un’s cheek.

Smooch!

When Ro-un flinched in surprise and turned to Gu So-ye while clutching his cheek, she gently closed one eye and spoke playfully.

“Don’t even look at the Association for the time being. They’ve lost face because of this incident, so they may take it out on you. And refrain from outings to Seoul as well.”
“For the time being?”
“Yes. I think the Association is going to be turned upside down.”

Gu So-ye’s eyes shone blue as she smiled menacingly.
Proprietress Gu seemed to be a little… very angry.
Seeing that smile head-on, Ro-un straightened his posture and bowed without realizing it.

“I will keep that in mind.”

He just hoped Proprietress Gu would not beat them so badly that the Association’s functions were paralyzed.

‘I won’t even look toward Seoul for a while.’

And so Ro-un’s long, long outing to Seoul came to an end.

Ro-un returned to the academy halfway up Jirisan with Cheon Su-ho and Joo Hee-jun.

[Woof!]

Along with Hyung, who had been reborn.
Looking at the white puppy, whose tail didn’t stay still for even a moment, Ro-un smiled warmly.
The fur brushing against his palm was soft.

“But Lee Ro-un. Is that dog really your Hyung?”
“It could be, and it could not be.”

Since he was a spirit, he might not be the Hyung Ro-un knew.
But Proprietress Gu So-ye had taken something from him to hatch the spirit, and then a spirit that looked exactly like Hyung in his childhood had appeared.

‘So wouldn’t it be all right to think that Hyung was reborn and came back to me?’

Ro-un smiled as he kept touching the puppy-shaped spirit.
He knew he shouldn’t do this, but he wanted to keep touching him.
A spirit was a being without a physical body, but the warmth against his hand and the soft texture against his fingers kept Ro-un from pulling his hand away.
Even if that sensation was only something conveyed by the mana used for the spirit’s manifestation.

‘Hyung is dead. So this must be a false warmth made by mana.’

Ro-un’s mood sank when he became aware that it was a false warmth.

Lick.

“Ah.”

Lick, lick.

“Hyung.”
[Woof!]

The spirit barked energetically, licked Ro-un’s hand, and looked up at him.
His black eyes reflected Ro-un’s face smoothly.
When their eyes met, the spirit closed his eyes and rested his face on Ro-un’s hand.

‘It’s Hyung.’

It really is Hyung.
Whenever Ro-un was feeling bad, Hyung would come over, place Ro-un’s hand on himself, and rest his face against that hand. This was exactly the same.
Ro-un grabbed the spirit with both hands and lifted him high.

“Hyung. No matter what anyone says, you’re Hyung.”
[Woof!]
“Hahahaha! You brothers get along well, Lee Ro-un.”
“No, you can clearly see one of them is a spirit and the other is a person, and that’s what you say? Lee Ro-un, is this spirit really your Hyung? Why is he a puppy? Were you actually one of the dog people? Why did your Hyung become a spirit?”

What the hell is he talking about?
Lee Ro-un looked at Joo Hee-jun as if he were pathetic.
He wished he would just get lost and go back to his own room.

“Hey! You just thought you wished I would get lost, didn’t you! You’ve been making that face since last time, so just say it out loud.”
“Get lost.”
“Ugh. H-hearing it out loud makes it even more shocking.”

What do you want me to do about that?
Ro-un gave Joo Hee-jun a disdainful glance and sat Hyung on his lap.
The spirit pressed at Ro-un’s thigh with his paws, then lay down on his belly.
Seeing him blink slowly, he seemed to be getting sleepy.

“Hyung, are you sleepy? You can sleep.”
“But do spirits sleep too?”
“He’s a young spirit, so perhaps he might sleep. Lee Ro-un’s esteemed Hyung is still young, so he may well sleep.”
“Is that so?”

I don’t know much about spirits either, so I have no idea.
Among the other owners of spirit eggs, some had filmed and released footage of their spirits hatching, but no one had uploaded videos showing what a newborn spirit did or how it grew.

“Our academy doesn’t have a spirit summoning-type teacher, does it?”
“Summoning-type students mostly go to Geumseol Academy. They have an extremely excellent teacher for spirit summoning there.”
“Hahahahaha! Enhancement-type and transformation-type students often advance to Baekdu Academy, while magic-type and summoning-type students often go to Geumseol Academy, and production-type students often go to Halla Academy. Bukhan Academy is similar to ours, so Awakeners with various traits gather there.”
“…Are you an academy PR officer?”

It was not about being a PR officer. Any adolescent Awakener had to look into the academy they would attend and decide.

‘Bukhan Academy is for people with both money and talent, so it’s embarrassing to even call it similar to ours. To put it simply, Bukhan Academy is a modern noble academy, while we’re more like a commoner academy.’

Ro-un swallowed the rest of his words as he looked at Cheon Su-ho, who said he had applied to Baekdu Academy and been rejected.
How would someone with <Mana Disability> get in there?
Looking to the side, it seemed Joo Hee-jun was thinking the same thing.

“Lee Ro-un. But do you really not intend to tell us about your Hyung?”
“I’m curious too!”

Joo Hee-jun quickly picked up after Cheon Su-ho.
Deep down, he seemed to want to change the subject away from comparing the different academies.
Ro-un felt the same, so he slowly sank into his memories while stroking Hyung’s back as Hyung lay asleep on his thigh.
Having reunited with a family member he had thought he would never meet again, Ro-un was gentler than usual as he answered the two.

“Hyung was my parents’ child even before my older sister was born.”
“Eh? Then your parents adopted a dog, and then you and your older sister were born?”
“That’s right. To be exact, my mother adopted Hyung first and was raising him, and when my parents got married, he became the eldest child of our family.”
“They were good people.”
“I heard there are people who give up their pets after getting married. They say people like that always end up being attacked by unknown animals!”

Where the hell did he hear that?
Ro-un looked at Joo Hee-jun, who seemed to pick up all sorts of things, with a complicated gaze.

“So, Lee Ro-un. After the two of them got together, you and your older sister were born, and you grew up with Hyung just like that?”
“That’s right. In fact, the reason we were able to be born at all was thanks to Hyung.”
“What do you mean, thanks to Hyung?”
“What does that mean?”

Cheon Su-ho and Joo Hee-jun urged Ro-un on with faces that said they didn’t understand.

‘Are these guys really not going back to their rooms?’

Ro-un glanced outside, where darkness had settled, then finally opened his mouth at the two’s urging.

Ro-un’s parents often sat the siblings on their laps and told them the story of how the two of them first met.

‘Ria. Ro-un. Your Hyung, your Oppa, was the one who brought us together so we could meet you.’
‘Really?’
‘Really. Ria’s Oppa brought your dad to me when I needed help.’
‘Dad, is that true?’
‘That’s right. Your grandmother and I were playing by the beach when a warning alarm for an imminent passage appearance suddenly went off. Your grandmother was so startled that she suddenly collapsed. Your mom was so flustered that she didn’t know what to do, and that was when your Oppa brought your dad over.’
‘Hyung brought Dad over?’
‘That’s right. I was filming our eldest evacuating when he suddenly pounced on me, bit my sleeve, and started pulling. I was flustered too, but once I was dragged over, I understood. This child had called me over to save your grandmother.’
‘Wooow!’
‘Wow! Hyung is amazing!’

The young siblings opened their mouths wide as they heard of Hyung’s achievement.
At the children’s reaction, their parents, who had the children sitting side by side on their laps, burst into laughter.

‘And then? What happened then?’
‘What do you think happened? Dad saved your grandmother in style!’
‘Wooow!’
‘Mom. Did Dad save Grandma?’
‘That’s right. You have no idea how dependable your dad was then.’

That was how his parents formed a connection and went straight on to marriage.
Apparently, they had been each other’s ideal type from the moment they first met.
And so the two got married, and they took devoted care of their eldest, who had brought them together.

“Hmm! Hyung-nim was the magpie bridge!”
“Something like that.”
“I saw this kind of story in a drama. Sniff.”

At the sniff, Ro-un turned his head to the side.
Did that guy just sniffle?
And why were his eyes red?
Ro-un ignored Joo Hee-jun’s reaction and continued the story.

‘Wow! That’s amazing!’
‘Right? Your Hyung is our benefactor.’
‘That’s why we took your names from Hyung too.’

Their parents had carefully chosen the names of their second and third children so they would remember that all of them were siblings.

“Wait, Lee Ro-un. Your name and your older sister’s name were taken from Hyung? What is Hyung’s name?”
“Hey, don’t interrupt the flow. Is that what you’re curious about right now?”
“Yeah, it is!”
“Ugh.”

Joo Hee-jun, who had been listening with great interest, glared at Cheon Su-ho.
Ro-un gave an answer to Cheon Su-ho, who was pestering him with his gaze as if dying of curiosity.

“Hyung’s name is Ray.”
[Woof!]

All three of them lowered their heads.
Before they knew it, the newborn puppy-shaped spirit had woken up and was wagging his tail with his mouth open.

“Ray?”
[Woof!]
“Wow. Isn’t this guy really your Hyung? Ray.”
[Woof!]
“Wow, look at this! He really reacts!”

Why are you the one making a bigger fuss?

‘This is why I can’t doubt that he’s Hyung.’

Ro-un gently stroked the back of Ray, his Hyung, who had returned to him.