This World is too Cruel to Men

I had no intention of immediately opening negotiations with the adults just because I had acquired weapons suitable for use in negotiations with them.

What I had secured so far were merely the basic requirements.

What if I opened the negotiation table right away?

It would be like going into war with only a gun.

The best option would be to not even pay attention to such a dangerous place… but I’m in a position where I have no choice but to go.

If I have to go anyway, it would be much wiser to be fully equipped.

Therefore, the most important thing to do right now was mental preparation.

I had just barely managed to meet the conditions to appear like a genius, but if my behavior was obviously that of a child my age, there was a high probability that the hard-won right to speak would fizzle out.

Yun-Seo probably wasn’t a second-rounder like me, so even if it was impossible for her to act like a real adult, I thought she needed to at least show a sharp image.

That way, she wouldn’t be underestimated.

And thankfully, it didn’t seem that difficult.

Although she sometimes felt a bit precocious, Yun-Seo basically had a sharp personality compared to other children her age.

“Yun-Seo?”

“Yes…?”

“Remember just one thing, okay?”

I instilled the crucial point using the language of a seven-year-old to Yun-Seo, who tilted her head with a questioning look on her face, as if she didn’t quite understand what I meant.

After neatly finishing the coordination of the mask to wear in front of the adults—

“Now, let’s tell the adults too.”

After a long discussion with Yun-Seo, we decided to reveal the Awakening to the adults.

Of course, persuading Yun-Seo wasn’t easy.

The sad back of Bora, who had to suddenly leave kindergarten, was still vividly etched in Yun-Seo’s memory, so she reacted with fear to my suggestion of telling the adults.

After persuading Yun-Seo over and over, I finally got her to nod.

After receiving Yun-Seo’s consent, I had to decide how to reveal the Awakening.

Naturally, that wasn’t easy to decide either.

So, the method I chose was—

“Dokgun, I’m thirsty… Could you get me a glass of water?”

“Huh? Water? Okay.”

—to use the kindergarten as a stage.

As per the script I had written beforehand, I filled a cup with water in response to Yun-Seo’s request and returned to where she was waiting.

And when the distance was appropriately narrowed, I pretended to stumble on a block I had placed there earlier.

“Oops…!”

As expected, the water in the cup overflowed as I staggered, and it naturally flew towards Yun-Seo, who was in my path.

I gulped, watching the scene unfold slowly as if filmed in slow motion.

So far, it was going according to plan, but the really important part was from now on.

What if Yun-Seo gets drenched by that water?

My grand debut would be ruined, and I would have to start planning from scratch.

It would be ridiculous to pretend to be a genius if she couldn’t even stop water from spilling on her.

Perhaps because of the sound I made as I staggered, the eyes of the children around us, as well as the teacher sitting by the wall watching the children play, were all focused on us.

Did she think Yun-Seo would be completely drenched in a few seconds?

The teacher, whom I checked again through a sidelong glance, was already getting up from her chair.

‘Please…!’

I hoped she would block it successfully.

To get straight to the point, my earnest wish seemed to have some effect.

Yun-Seo perfectly blocked the water that splashed towards her like a wave without spilling a single drop.

The sight of the pouring water stopping in mid-air, as if time had stopped, was surreal no matter how many times I saw it.

And the scene Yun-Seo created literally turned the kindergarten upside down.

It started with the teacher who was running towards Yun-Seo.

“H-How…”

Was the sight she witnessed so unbelievable?

The teacher, with a bewildered look on her face, cast a disbelieving gaze at Yun-Seo.

For a moment, the emotion that flashed through the teacher’s eyes was jealousy.

That emotion was clearly evident in the teacher’s eyes as she looked at Yun-Seo.

That made my mouth taste bitter.

Thanks to the teacher’s reaction, I was able to clearly realize that this world was dominated by talentocracy.

Perhaps she felt a pang of envy, thinking that she would have to spend her whole life watching children in this place, while her student would soon become a Hero candidate and later a Hero admired by people.

But well… an adult is an adult.

Seeing her erase the emotions that momentarily appeared on her face in the blink of an eye.

“Yun-Seo? How did this happen?”

The teacher’s question was just the beginning.

Before Yun-Seo could answer, the children around her started to flock to her.

“Wow!”

“Yun-Seo, how did you do that?!”

“Can you do other things too?!”

“Lion! Can you make a lion shape?”

As I’ve said many times, in this world, a Hero is not just an object of admiration.

A Hero is a wannabe, someone they want to become if they can.

However, only a very small number of those who Awaken their talent become Heroes, and a being who might belong to that small number appeared right before the children’s eyes.

Moreover, she was a friend from the same kindergarten… It was no wonder the children went wild.

Thanks to the children who started to run amok, the atmosphere in the kindergarten became like a marketplace, and the commotion only subsided after the teachers from our class and other classes lined up.

And after the children calmed down?

It was the teachers’ turn to go wild.

“Amazing. Two awakened children in just a few days…”

“I know… Is there some special energy flowing in this room?”

“By the way, is that… Yun-Seo? She’s going to have a smooth path ahead of her.”

“Right. Come to think of it, isn’t it rare to Awaken at seven years old? Usually, it happens in elementary school…”

“I heard that children are Awakening earlier and earlier these days… but it’s still rare.”

“I wonder if she’ll become a famous Hero and be interviewed on TV or something later.”

“Oh my, should we treat her well now?”

“Nah, we won’t see her after tomorrow, so what’s the point?”

Listening to the teachers chattering in front of the principal’s office where Yun-Seo had entered, my mouth tasted bitter.

And that made me even more worried.

‘I wonder how she’s doing…’

As Dokgun worried about Yun-Seo, coincidentally, Yun-Seo was also thinking about Dokgun.

“Yun-Seo, the Principal has something she’d like to ask you. Is that okay?”

“…Yes.”

“Um… what you did in the classroom earlier. Could you tell the Principal how you did it?”

-‘Remember, if someone asks you how you did it…’

Yun-Seo recalled the conversation she had with Dokgun, as his voice naturally overlapped with the Principal’s voice.

Then, she slowly opened her mouth and answered the Principal’s question.

“…I don’t know.”

“Is that so? Hmm… I guess…”

Dokgun had told her.

If the person who asked the question spoke like that, she should say just one thing.

“It just… happened.”

He had clearly said that the other person would be flustered.

And this time too, Dokgun’s words seemed to be correct.

As soon as she said those words, she could see the Principal’s bewildered expression.

As Yun-Seo’s faith in Dokgun deepened, the principal of Sunshine Kindergarten, momentarily stunned by Yun-Seo’s unexpected answer, regained her composure and continued with what she had to do.

“Yun-Seo?”

“Yes?”

“Do your parents know that you can do such a thing?”

The principal, who asked Yun-Seo that question, had no idea that the question was also included in the list of expected questions Dokgun had prepared for Yun-Seo.

“…No.”

Therefore, Yun-Seo’s answer was exactly as she had agreed upon with Dokgun.

“I-Is that so? I see…”

“It just happened suddenly… Did I do something wrong? The principal’s office is where children who misbehave are called, right?”

“T-That’s not true…! I was just a little worried…”

Taking the initiative from the beginning had a definite effect.

Thanks to the testimonies from the teachers, who could be considered the first witnesses, that she was an extraordinary child, the image of ‘Yun-Seo = extraordinary child’ naturally settled in the minds of the agency officials who came after receiving the call.

Of course, that didn’t immediately translate into a right to speak.

Their role was to talk with the parents of the child who had Awakened their talent, not to listen to the child’s opinion.

“In such cases, if you look at this section here…”

As a result, Yun-Seo was naturally pushed to the back burner in the conversation, and that, in turn, deepened her trust in Dokgun.

It had to be that way, because that too was within the scope of Dokgun’s predictions.

So, Yun-Seo started to act exactly as she had discussed with Dokgun without any doubt.

‘It feels a bit humid…’

The first person to notice the change was the agency staff member who was discussing the future with Yun-Seo’s parents.

Feeling a sudden humidity in the surroundings, the staff member, thinking she might be a little nervous, slipped her fingers into her collar and loosened it slightly.

Her eyes widened as they moved towards Yun-Seo.

It was because of something floating above Yun-Seo’s palm, dripping water droplets.

It looked as if a piece of a dark cloud floating in the sky had been detached and brought here.

The staff member was momentarily speechless at the sight of the object, which was clearly a manifestation of talent.

According to what she had heard before coming here, it hadn’t even been a day, let alone a few hours, since the girl had Awakened her talent.

So what was she looking at now?

Could this really be the level of control a child who had Awakened her talent just a few hours ago could display?

‘This doesn’t make sense…’

She had seen such nonsensical cases several times while doing this job.

Therefore, she already knew what to call such cases.

The kind of people who could do things that were impossible to explain with common sense, things that ordinary people could never do even if they died and came back to life.

In society, such people were often called—

‘Could she be… a genius?’

—by that name.