The Duel Request Came Under Doyun's Name

The duel request came under Doyun's name, not Seorin's.

The applicant was Quarter Team 2. They were in the upper ranks, and their team leader was third year Ha Taeyun. The reason field had two lines.

Verification of the effectiveness of the temporary item for the bottom tier class. Upon defeat, the item is to be discarded and its score transferred.

Seorin read that second line twice.

Score transfer. The saved choice item had no score yet. Transferring a score that didn't exist meant taking that value in advance, in case it gained a score during the end of term verification.

Mirae checked the rulebook. "It's possible. There's a conditional transfer clause. Almost nobody uses it though."

"Why not." Garam leaned toward the rulebook.

"Because you have to wager a score that doesn't exist. Usually people don't wager it even if they're confident of winning."

"Then why did the other side wager it?"

Mirae didn't answer. Seorin did.

"Because their ranking is on the line."

Seorin had seen the post on the upper quarter team board yesterday too. If the marker becomes a score later, what happens to our ranking. That question wasn't mockery. It was a calculation.

If the saved choice item became a score, the rankings of the upper tier, risen through firepower, would be recalculated. Team 2 had filed this duel to protect their own position.

It was a legitimate reason. Seorin concluded that the fact it was legitimate was the difficult part of this situation.

"I'll take it under my name." Seorin pulled the request form toward herself.

The three of them looked at Seorin.

"My name is on the request." Doyun said.

"It can be changed. Team representative designation clause." Seorin cited the regulation number. "Mirae, check it."

Mirae checked. "It's possible. But why?"

"If Doyun goes out, it becomes the picture the other side wants."

"What picture."

"Ability against ability." Seorin said. "If Doyun wins, he won by personal ability, and if he loses, the item is useless. Either way it's their story."

Doyun followed that logic. "And if you go out?"

"I've never gotten a score from that item. I'm one line about managing an end time." Seorin didn't show her own record. "I've won twice by firepower. I won in a way the other side recognizes."

"So?"

"If the person who won that way says that way has limits, the other side has less ground to argue."

"And if you lose?" Doyun asked.

"The item gets discarded."

"That's not what I asked. I asked what happens to your ranking if you lose."

Seorin thought that question was precise. Until last week, this person didn't ask things like that.

"Review of my top rank eligibility."

"You're wagering that?"

"I'm wagering it." Seorin signed the request form. "If I don't, they won't accept it."

Garam raised a hand then. It wasn't a refusal signal. It was a signal that he wanted to speak.

"Seorin. My name is on that item."

"I know."

"Then I have the right to ask too." Garam didn't swallow the end of his sentence. "Are you doing this because of me?"

"No." Seorin answered. "I'm doing it because of me. I won by firepower, and I think it's wrong to decide rankings by firepower alone. That's my own thought even without you."

Garam took three seconds. Then he lowered his hand.

"No offbeat."

The duel was the next afternoon, at Training Ground 3.

Ha Taeyun's ability was compressed leap. It was a method of folding a short distance instantly, using an abandoned movement path as fuel, and he was ranked fourth in firepower.

Seorin came out carrying only her decision fixed sword. It had been six days since she returned the box the director sent.

"You're not using gear." The referee checked the equipment list twice.

"I'm not using it."

"Yu Seorin, your opponent is ranked fourth."

"I know."

Start signal.

Ha Taeyun folded first. Fifteen meters became two meters, and he appeared on Seorin's left.

Seorin wasn't there. Because right before the start signal, she had declared she was abandoning the left.

Declaring costs a price. Her right shoulder ached. Seorin had already calculated that price for up to ten uses today.

Second leap. Third. Ha Taeyun was fast, and each time Seorin named the side she was abandoning first.

On the third, the crowd noticed. Ha Taeyun wasn't coming to the side Seorin had named.

Folding uses an abandoned path. When Seorin declared she was abandoning the left, that declaration stayed on the training ground, and the remaining declaration dropped out of Ha Taeyun's fuel candidates. A path someone else had already abandoned wasn't his own abandonment, so he couldn't use it.

On the fourth, Ha Taeyun's leap distance shortened. The usable paths had decreased.

Seorin had held that calculation since three years ago. Six of the top ten in firepower at this academy used abandonment as fuel. To fight them, all she had to do was abandon first and burn away their fuel.

In exchange, she paid a price. She used her own shoulder to burn away the opponent's fuel.

On the fifth, Ha Taeyun changed his approach. Instead of leaping, he waited for Seorin's declaration.

"Yu Seorin. Try saying you're abandoning the right." Ha Taeyun's breathing was uneven.

Seorin didn't say anything.

If she didn't say it, she paid no price. But then she wouldn't know where he'd come from either.

She waited ten seconds. For ten seconds she made no declaration at all, and Ha Taeyun didn't move either.

And then Seorin spoke.

"I'm abandoning nothing."

Ha Taeyun laughed. "Then your sword won't turn on."

"It won't turn on."

Seorin threw the sword.

The sword wasn't an ability. If you don't turn on the blade, it's a metal rod, and a metal rod can be thrown.

Ha Taeyun saw the trajectory and leapt, in the direction that dodged the sword. Fifteen meters folded into two.

Seorin was standing at the folded spot.

She had walked there right after throwing the sword. On foot. Ha Taeyun's leap used a path he himself had abandoned as fuel. To dodge, he had to decide a direction to dodge in first, and deciding meant abandoning the rest.

Seorin had been standing in one of those remaining spots.

The moment Ha Taeyun appeared, Seorin's hand caught his wrist. There was no sword, and no ability.

"Surrender." The referee declared it. "Yu Seorin wins."

Ha Taeyun didn't pull his wrist free. To pull free, he would have had to fold again, and there was no path left to fold.

"You prepared this." He said.

"For three years."

"Why use it now."

"Until now I didn't need to." Seorin let go of his hand. "Because I could win by firepower."

The training ground was quiet. The fourth ranked in firepower had had his wrist caught by a student with no ability.

Seorin went to pick up the sword. As she picked it up, she looked inside the sheath.

Five notches.

Today she had declared four times, never withdrawn once, and in the end abandoned nothing. Yet the notches had increased.

It was the third time. Seorin didn't need to write that fact down on paper. She had it memorized by now.

During the awards procedure, the referee presented the rematch privilege.

"The winner may request a rematch under identical conditions. The conditional transfer clause applies at double."

Double. Part of Team 2's score could go to Team 7. Mirae tapped her calculator twice.

"Yu Seorin, if we do this our ranking goes up twelve steps." Mirae's voice sped up.

Seorin took the request form. And along with it, she took an objection form too.

"I'd like to file an objection."

The referee stopped. "About what."

"The conditional transfer clause." Seorin opened the rulebook. "This clause lets someone wager an item whose score hasn't been confirmed yet."

"That's the applicant's own choice."

"It's a choice. The problem is when the wagered item is another person's contribution." Seorin pointed to the saved choice item. "This item contains Lee Garam's record. Lee Garam didn't appear in this duel."

Mirae realized in that moment what Seorin was doing. Mirae's hand stopped.

"I won. But if the structure is that Lee Garam's item is protected because I won, then if I lose next time, that item disappears." Seorin set down the request form. "That means Lee Garam's record is tied to my wins and losses."

"Are you saying you'll give up the rematch?"

"I'm giving it up. Instead, please exclude third party contribution items from this clause."

The referee looked at the rulebook. "That's an academic committee matter."

"Then bring it up."

Ha Taeyun stepped forward then.

"I'll file the same objection." There was still a mark on his wrist.

The referee looked at him. "Why would the loser."

"My team has three members too." Ha Taeyun said. "I only just realized that what I wagered today wasn't only my own score."

Mirae wrote down that statement. Seorin didn't.

Instead she said to Ha Taeyun. "File your objection under your own name. Don't put it under mine."

"Why."

"If two people file separately, that's two cases. If together, that's one."

As they left the training ground, Doyun came up beside her.

"Twelve steps."

"I know."

"You know you gave that up."

"I know." Seorin didn't slow her pace.

Doyun said nothing more. Instead there was something he did. In front of the podium, he said a sentence loud enough for all the students to hear.

Student Yu Seorin won today without using her ability, and gave up the rematch. The reason was that she wouldn't wager her teammate's record on her own win or loss.

Seorin didn't interrupt that sentence. Enduring someone else explaining her own victory was the second hard thing today.

There was an envelope at the dormitory door.

Succession interview materials. Sent from the director's office. The title on the first page read this. Yu Seorin Succession Suitability Assessment, Decision Stability Item.

Seorin set the envelope on her desk without opening it. It was the spot where the returned gear box used to sit.

Instead she took out the sheath and looked inside again. Five notches.

Among the things she'd done today, there was one thing in common with the maze and the decision assessment. Not following the predetermined answer.

In the maze, she hadn't followed the direction the maze set. In the decision assessment, she hadn't followed the correct path the designer set. Today, she hadn't followed the way of winning by firepower.

All three times, the notches had increased.

One hypothesis remained, and Seorin didn't like that hypothesis. If what this sword measured wasn't the strength of resolve, then the reason the director used decision stability for the succession suitability item needed to be reread too.

She fell asleep with the envelope still unopened.