“Ugh, it’s so tiring to play the sunbae. Tiring, I tell you,” Seo Jun-Ho muttered out of the blue.
“What are you saying?” the Frost Queen asked.
“I’ve already taught around ten people this and that while matching. I played the role of a sunbae pretty thoroughly.”
In other words, he was just bragging. There was no need for her to say anything. They said that practice made perfect and that experience was the best teacher, so the Frost Queen casually ignored him and ate her cake and drank her tea. Her face turned cloudy.
“…Something is strange. I think the tea and the cake taste dull today…”
“Maybe it’s the time of reckoning…”
“You make no sense sometimes,” she commented.
The Frost Queen would probably never know what Seo Jun-Ho had been doing with her food—this was the price she had to pay for disrespecting him.
She spoke again as he looked down at her quietly. “Anyway, you somehow managed to gather all the Player Points in the end.”
“Yeah, somehow.” Seo Jun-Ho smiled softly as he looked at his points. He had a little over 800,000. Whenever he looked at the number of points he had, he couldn’t keep the smile off his face. It was much more thrilling than the feeling he would get when he collected restaurant coupons as a young man. “The Administrator’s shop will open soon. I think there’s about an hour left.”
“You can do matching again if you ever need PP again.”
“Mmm… Well, I won’t be able to do it for the time being.” Even if he wanted to, no one would fight him. Before he accepted the match with Gong Ju-Ha, he had spent an hour getting rejected by other Players. “Oh, now that I think about it…”
He remembered that there was someone he had to contact before the shop opened. Seo Jun-Ho opened the Community forums window. The Frost Queen’s face fell instantly, and she placed her tiny hands on his wrist.
“Wait. Stop.”
She really was?like a ghost. Could Spirits be considered a kind of ghost?
She looked up at him with a sour face. “I just got the most peculiar feeling. What were you about to do?”
“Well…I was just gonna contact Skayamon real quick…”
“I knew it! There was a reason that chills were crawling down my back and that my hands were sweating!” she exclaimed. Just how scared was she of Skaya? She spoke nervously, “Contractor…They say that you should not poke a bear with a stick. Why are you trying to contact her?”
“I have something to ask of her.” To Seo Jun-Ho, Skaya was simply a friend that had always provided him with what he needed, not a bear. He had even prepared a gift for her this time so that she wouldn’t complain about it.
“Sigh…?From now on, always tell me before you contact her,” the Frost Queen said, sipping her tea. Seo Jun-Ho got the feeling that she was doing that so she wouldn’t have to look Skaya in the eye. He finally messaged her over Community. Because Del Ice was classified as a basic city, he could use all the Community functions.
[Where are you?]
[Oh! My friend! My comrade! My captain! Good timing!]
Skaya greeted him very enthusiastically, which in turn made him very nervous.
“Why is she acting like this?” he muttered.
Generally, there were only two reasons she would act like this. The first was when she had invented something super impressive and was drunk on her own greatness and pride. And the other reason would be…
“Did someone make her really mad?” He hoped that it wasn’t the latter. Seo Jun-Ho tapped nervously on the hologram keyboard.
[What happened?]
[Let’s meet up first. Where are you? Wow, I sure went far.] .
“…Wait, how does she know where I am?” Had she put some kind of tracker on him without his knowledge? “No, I would’ve noticed if she did such a thing…”
“Why do you keep speaking to yourself? You are ruining the taste of the tea. Teatime should be spent quietly,” the Frost Queen complained, not knowing what was going on. Seo Jun-Ho shook his head.
“You wouldn’t know even if I told you. You were sleeping back…”
Wait, she had been sleeping. Seo Jun-Ho whipped around and lifted the Frost Queen.
“Eek?!”
She was still light, but she might become heavy if she evolved one more time. Of course, with Seo Jun-Ho’s strength stats, she would still be as light as a feather.
“W-what are you doing?! Let me down this instant! I am the monarch of Niflheim and…”
“Cool. That doesn’t really matter, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
“I am very?worried! And of course, it matters!”
Seo Jun-Ho turned her around in his hands as she squirmed, expelling some of his magic. And lo and behold, he found a spell attached to her mask.
“…As I thought, it was you…”
“Put me down. And explain what you mean,” she demanded.
He placed her down and explained the details, “Well, you basically let Skaya know where we are.”
“You made such a ruckus over something so minute. You would have told her the location anyways.”
“No, it’s completely different. Because…”
“What are you guys talking about?” Skaya said from behind them. She appeared like a ghost. Instinctively, the Frost Queen sucked in her breath and covered her mouth with her hands.
“…I told you, it’s location-tracking magic.”
“Kyaa!?It’s the Frost Queen!” Skaya ran over and spun her in the air. Skaya had placed the spell on the Frost Queen when she was sleeping; of course, Skaya would know where the latter was.
‘What a scary bastard…’?Seo Jun-Ho thought. Skaya wasn’t afraid to use underhanded tactics to get what she wanted.
The Frost Queen was so shocked that she wasn’t able to conceal herself. “Y-you can see me?”
“Yup! You’re as cute and pretty as always! I placed a spell on you when you were sleeping~”
“How…” Her face paled as if the world had betrayed her. Her head drooped.
‘I’ll remove it at some point, if she’s obedient…’?
“Hey, you can’t just come in here whenever you want. It’s members-only,” he said, getting something for Skaya to drink.
“Where is this place? Ooh, this house is really classy. Can I buy one too?”
“You can’t…”
Wait, would it be possible when the dwarves moved? It was hard to tell. There were no real-estate agents they could ask.
“This is the dwarves’ city,” Seo Jun-Ho said.
“Ah, dwarves.”
“…You’re not that surprised.”
“Huh? I am. Can’t you hear how much faster my heart is beating?”
“…”
It was Seo Jun-Ho’s fault for expecting her to react like a normal person.
‘I’d expect nothing less from Skaya Killiland.’?
He could only wish that she wouldn’t cause any trouble.
“So why did you come here in a hurry?” he asked.
“Oh! Right!” Skaya’s eyes started to burn. “Have you met that nosy dueoksini?”
“…Dueoksini?”
Formally known as dueoksin, they were demonic mythical beings that attracted both fear and respect.
“Goblin’s leader, right?” Seo Jun-Ho said. In the current age, there was only one person with that nickname: the Guildmaster of Goblin and one of the Nine Heavens, Shin Sung-Hyun. “You’re talking about the Controller of Space?”
“Ha!?People call him that ugly name? He’s only handsome on the outside. It’s cheesy.” She stuck out her lower lip.
“You look pretty upset. Did things not work out?”
“Of course not! He even gave me a death threat!”
“…What?” Seo Jun-Ho’s face fell as his eyebrows knitted.
‘How dare he threaten my friend!’?
Of course, Skaya could be weird at times, so she sometimes had to be reminded to tone it down. But only Seo Jun-Ho was allowed to do that.
“Are you telling the truth?” he asked.
“Why would I lie about that?”
“Tell me what happened, in detail.”
“Phew. I don’t know where I should even begin. It was all so shocking.” Her face was serious as she slowly started to speak.
Her story could be summed up in three lines.
“I went to meet that bastard. He’s only nice on the outside.”
“And then he gave me unsolicited advice out of nowhere. He said it seems dangerous to be hunting fiends and taking pictures.”
“He even ordered me to stop, saying that I’d die if I keep doing it.”
“…?” After hearing the whole thing, Seo Jun-Ho spoke calmly, “Is that all?”
“Yeah. He looked me in the eye and said politely, you will die if you keep this up. For real,” Skaya complained.
“That’s a little rude. You’re still 25 years older than him.”
“That’s what I’m… hey!” Skaya’s face scrunched up, but Seo Jun-Ho simply shook his head and sighed.
“I was wondering what the big deal was. What he said was right, so why are you so mad?”
“Wow, you’re gonna betray me like this? If Gilberto heard…!”
“He would’ve taken my side…”
“I-if Mio heard…”
“My side…”
“Rahmadat… Never mind, I don’t want that musclehead to take my side.”
Seo Jun-Ho won.
“Anyway, are you calling me a has-been like that busybody?” she asked.
“That’s not it…I’m just saying that what Shin Sung-Hyun said wasn’t wrong.” Frankly, Seo Jun-Ho himself had been thinking about those cold, hard facts on his own. Even Skaya herself probably understood it to an extent. That was why she was acting out after getting hit with reality. “I was gonna talk to you and warn you about the same thing.”
“…About hunting fiends on my own?”
“Yeah. It’s too dangerous.” This wouldn’t have been a problem if Skaya had still been one of the top dogs, as she used to be in the past. “After meeting Shin Sung-Hyun, you felt it a bit, right?”
“…” Skaya’s lip jutted out a little more.
“The Nine Heavens are strong. They’re stronger than we were back when we were leading the pack,” Seo Jun-Ho added.
“…If we hadn’t been trapped in the ice, we would have been tens of times stronger than them,” Skaya muttered.
“Either way, the fact of the matter is that they’re currently stronger than us.” Not only that, but there are fiends hiding in Frontier at the same level as them, if not stronger. “There’s nothing wrong with being careful—no, you have?to be careful.”
Skaya would take pictures and upload them onto social media whenever she hunted fiends. In other words, she was broadcasting her location.
“What will you do if the Fiend Association leaks false information and ambushes you?”
“I can just Teleport…”
“Do you really think they wouldn’t prepare for that if they want to kill the Archmage?”
“…”
Skaya had nothing to say. Her face was glum. “I miss the old days…”
“And you think I don’t?” Losing something was always harder than gaining something. “We’re the weak ones right now. We have to lay low and train while we wait for an opportunity,” he said.
There was even a saying for this. “The reason I kneel is not to submit to the enemy.”
“…It is to gain momentum?” Skaya finished.
“Bingo.” Skaya was prideful, which was probably why she reacted so badly. “Once you get back to the top, tell Shin Sung-Hyun this…”
“…Tell him what?”
“Don’t tell me how to live my life…”
“Pfft!” All her anger dissipated as Skaya began to chuckle. “I’m gonna train. And I’m gonna raise my level.” So far, she had only leveled up twice after returning, and it was only from hunting fiends. Perhaps her pride as the great Archmage had prevented her from hunting monsters.
“It won’t take that long. Because you’re… unfairly talented,” Seo Jun-Ho said.
“I was actually thinking about whether or not I should go to the Magic Tower,” Skaya added. But based on the look in her eyes, it seemed that she had already made her decision. “Jun-Ho, I want to go to the Magic Tower after the battle at Port Lane.”
“I’ll support you.”
It wouldn’t be easy for people who had once stood at the top to bow their heads to someone else. But if they took their time to sharpen their claws, it would be worth it in the end.
“When that idiot Rahmadat wakes up, I’m gonna bully him with my power a whole lot. Hehehe.” She smiled brightly, happy with simply the thought of it.
‘I bet it’ll be funny.’?
Rahmadat had a huge ego. What face would he make then?
Seo Jun-Ho smiled, while Skaya laughed.
1. A portmanteau of ‘Skaya’ and ‘Doraemon’, referring to the fact that she can provide anything and everything.
2. A Korean ghost/demon that is said to crush people’s heads. A severe headache is taken as a symptom of possession/attachment.
3. ’Dueoksin’ translates to ‘head-pressing ghost’. Think of ‘Dueoksini’ as a derived nickname.
4. A famous quote from a Korean comic.