Chapter 328: Great Elsa

Chapter 328: Great Elsa

The first sheet of paper lifted so slowly that Jin thought someone had opened a door.

He glanced toward the procedure-room entrance. It was closed.

Beyond the observation window, Elsa sat reclined with a thin line secured at her arm. The serum had been administered a few minutes earlier. She was breathing as instructed, hands resting on the chair, while two staff members watched the readings beside her.

The paper turned over in the air.

A second sheet rose from the tray. Then a sudden gust scattered the stack across the room and sent a loose gauze packet tumbling beneath a cabinet.

Elena caught Arthur’s arm.

The staff reacted immediately. One steadied the tray while the older doctor kept her attention on Elsa. The monitoring equipment was secured; only light supplies and papers skittered across the cleared floor.

"Stay with me," the doctor said. "Keep breathing. You’re all right."

Elsa’s fingers tightened on the armrests. The technician raised one hand, and the air near the chair gradually settled beneath her intervention.

Jin didn’t know what ability she was using. He was watching his sister’s face.

Elsa opened her eyes as the last sheet slid down the wall.

"Was that me?"

The doctor smiled. "Yes. Let us check how you’re doing."

The examiner arrived with a reader and went through the verification while Elsa sat very still.

Jin could see her trying to look at the display. Each time the examiner moved it, she followed with her eyes until the doctor gently reminded her to face forward.

He would have done exactly the same thing.

The examiner checked a second reading, compared it with the first, and then turned toward the observation window.

"Soul Talent: Wind Control," she said. "Verified grade: S."

His mother made a sound beside him.

Jin barely heard it.

S?

He had prepared himself to be pleased with whatever Elsa received. He had imagined helping her work out a difficult support talent or reassuring her if the grade disappointed her.

He had not prepared for this.

Arthur sat down on the bench, still holding Elena’s hand. Jin found himself leaning toward the glass as though getting closer would make the result easier to believe.

Inside, Elsa stared at the examiner.

"S-Rank?" she asked. "You’re sure?"

"We’ve verified it," the woman replied. "Only SS and SSS are above it on the recognized scale. Congratulations, Elsa."

Elsa looked straight toward her family.

Jin grinned before he could think of anything useful to do. She saw him and began smiling too, uncertainly at first, then so broadly that the doctor laughed.

They were allowed in once the staff finished checking her condition.

Elena reached the chair first. Arthur followed, touching his daughter’s hair and asking whether she felt all right. Jin hung back long enough to let them have her without trying to crowd around the arm with the treatment line.

Elsa kept looking between all three of them.

"I’m all right, Dad," she said, catching his hand before he could check her forehead. "Really." She held on to him anyway, rubbing her thumb over his knuckles while she tried to explain.

"It felt strange," she said. "Before the wind. I could feel—" She stopped, frustrated. "I don’t know how to explain it."

"You don’t need to yet," the doctor told her. "We can try something small when you’re comfortable."

She held a dried leaf on her open palm.

"Just a little movement above my hand. Don’t try to repeat the burst."

Elsa concentrated. Nothing happened at first. Then one edge of the leaf trembled and lifted, fell back, and lifted again.

Jin realized he was holding his breath and let it out carefully.

The leaf hovered a finger’s width above the doctor’s palm for perhaps three seconds. Elsa’s forehead creased with effort. When it dropped, she slumped back against the chair.

"That was hard," she said.

"And enough for today," the doctor replied.

"I could try—"

"You’ll have time to try again. Right now you rest."

Elsa looked disappointed, but nodded.

"Does it only do that?" she asked after a moment. "Moving air around something?"

"Wind control can be used in many ways. Force, movement, sensing disturbances, defense, precision work." The doctor set the leaf aside. "You learn how to apply it. Your grade gives you excellent potential; it doesn’t give you the practice."

Jin watched Elsa absorb that. Her eyes had returned to the leaf, but this time she didn’t try to lift it.

When their parents moved aside, she reached for him.

"Jin."

"I heard," he said, taking her hand. "S-Rank. You’re going to make me say it several times, aren’t you?"

"S-Rank," Elsa repeated with obvious satisfaction.

He laughed. "That’s incredible, Els."

"You really didn’t know?"

"No. I had no idea." Jin squeezed her fingers. "The serum didn’t buy that. That was yours."

She looked down at their hands. He could almost see her fitting the result into everything she had imagined about her future.

Then she straightened in the chair and lifted her chin.

"All right," she said. "I’ve decided something."

"What?"

"I’m taking care of you when we’re older."

Jin glanced at his parents, but neither seemed inclined to rescue him.

"You’ve done enough," Elsa continued. "You paid for this, and you’re always looking after Glitch and doing things you won’t explain. Now it’s my turn."

"Once you’ve practiced moving the leaf?"

She narrowed her eyes. "You should be more respectful. I’m going to be very impressive."

"I’m sure."

"Call me Great Elsa."

Arthur covered his mouth. Elena didn’t bother hiding her smile.

Jin looked at his sister, exhausted from three seconds of wind control and already planning to become responsible for him. He had been worried she would feel indebted to him. Apparently she intended to repay him by becoming unbearable.

He was so happy for her that it hardly seemed a problem.

"Sure," he said dryly. "Great Elsa."

She blinked. "You’re just agreeing?"

"I’d like to stay on good terms with my future provider."

Elsa laughed and pulled him closer. He bent carefully around the line at her arm and let her hug him.

"I’m serious," she whispered.

"I know," Jin said. "Get good at it, then."

They stayed until the staff cleared Elsa to leave. Jin listened while her parents went over the instructions, and Elsa checked her verified result again on the clinic tablet.

On the way out, Elena fell back beside him.

"She means it," his mother said. "About looking after you."

"She told me."

"And perhaps she’ll be able to." Elena looked ahead at her daughter walking beside Arthur. "I keep thinking about what both of you might do now."

Arthur turned when he heard that.

"Your card said C-Rank," he told Jin. "People were quite happy to tell us what you wouldn’t manage with it."

Jin felt himself becoming embarrassed. "Dad."

"First-Class. The League. Paying for your sister’s chance." Arthur shook his head. "You don’t get there doing nothing, whatever you pretend."

"He thinks you work when nobody’s watching," Elena said.

"I do work," Jin admitted.

"Too much, if you ask me." Arthur’s expression sobered. "Then you end up in a hospital and we hear about your blood count. It’s difficult not to wonder what you’ve been putting yourself through."

Jin looked at the floor for a moment.

They were right about the hidden effort. Ordinary overwork still didn’t explain what had happened when the Heart ended, and neither his doctors nor the Engine had given him the missing answer.

"I haven’t been pushing," he said. "I’m keeping the appointments."

"Keep resting too," Elena told him. She squeezed his arm before catching up with Elsa.

He watched them go, relieved that today his mother had something wonderful to worry about.

The receptionist called them back before they reached the exit.

"Your verified result has been filed with the regional talent registry," she told Elsa. "You may receive recruitment inquiries quite soon. Make sure your family reviews them with you."

"Before entrance?" Elsa asked.

"For an S-Rank talent, yes. Schools won’t necessarily wait for exam results before approaching you."

Elsa looked at Jin. This time she seemed too surprised to boast.

Her phone sounded while they were still beside the desk.

[Regional Talent Registry — Result Registered]

[Astor, Elsa — Wind Control — Grade S]

She showed it to her parents, smiling again.

Before she could put the phone away, another notification arrived from an academy none of them had contacted.

Elsa opened it with both hands.