There was one goal in the Hero’s Game and it was simple: learn more about your opponent than your opponent learns about you.

Hana and Seunghyo played it for fun during quiet moments, especially when they were on long trips heading into battles or to quests in dungeons. In better days, they would play it before birthdays or Christmas to give each other hints at what present the other got them.

But at this moment, it was an opportunity. A chance for Hana to learn more about what was going on here and what Seunghyo was really up to.

“Is my father really here?”

Seunghyo cocked an expressive eyebrow. “Yes.”

Hana looked at him, beckoning him to continue.

“From what I know, a friend of his brought word south to the Player Society that they were heading north to investigate an SOS message,” he responded with a shrug.

“Dae Han,” Hana whispered. “Is he up here?”

Seunghyo shook his head. “I doubt it. You only got up here because the Player Society sponsored your train tickets. At best, he’d be two weeks behind the two of you.”

Hana stared at him. Seunghyo smiled that same boyish smile he’d always had on his face. In the beginning, she’d always thought his smile was handsome, but eventually she got tired of being unable to see what was behind it.

“What happened to the rest of your team?”

Seunghyo’s easy grin faded from his face. “We came up from the south, not far from where you guys came in. It took us a few days, but we made it through the mountains and into Pyong-gang when we ran into the wraith. Only two others survived with me, but we met up with the other survey team.”

The memory disturbed Seunghyo. His party had felt ready for anything when they arrived, but the wraith had been nothing like anything they’d faced. They moved out of the tunnels under the city hoping that the open ground would give them an advantage. Instead, it gave the wraith two days to pick them off one-by-one as they tried to run from cover to cover.

“I… Thank you for helping kill that thing. It meant a lot. To me.”

She didn’t know what to make of his answers. They’d come so easily that she was given to believing they were real. Regarding her father, they’d know the truth soon enough. And the truth of his team made sense with everything they’d learned so far.

But now she only had one question left. And she had to make it count.

“How did you know about sin?”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Seunghyo smiled. He hadn’t been certain, but he’d been expecting the question.

“The labs that we passed through are running on emergency power now, but they had power until a few days ago. Before you arrived, Hana.”

One of the first things that Seunghyo had done after getting away from the wraith was recon the labs to collect intel. While many of the computers were locked and inaccessible, there were enough that he could piece together what the scientists were working on.

“They were researching gates and monster attributes including sin. The labs in the outer provinces are running on reserve power, but Pyong-gang should still have enough power to run their systems if you want to take a look.”

One part of his response stood out more than the others. “Gates?” she repeated.

But Seunghyo shook his head. Rules were rules and Hana had asked all three of her questions. Now it was his turn.

“How do you know about sin?”

The question caught Hana off-guard. Regardless of how Seunghyo knew about it, there wasn’t any plausible explanation for how Hana would know what sin was. Not without giving away information about her brother that might put him in danger.

Seunghyo smiled again and continued on quickly. “Fine, how about another question. What class is Jinyoung?”

“He’s a fighter,” she responded.

He continued just as quickly. “Right, he’s a low-level fighter who has access to speed buffs and apparently something that allows him to see attacks before they come.”

Hana shut her mouth. Games had always been Seunghyo’s forte, not hers. And she cursed herself for falling into his trap. So far she’d avoided one question and lied once, both of which Seunghyo knew.

“Last question, Hana.” he taunted.

Her mind reeled, trying to guess what question he might ask. All this time, Hana, Jinyoung and Willow had put their minds together trying to figure out what Seunghyo might be keeping from them. They assumed that he had slipped up a few times and given away information that he didn’t mean to.

They never even thought that he might be probing them for answers to see what they knew. This foolish game was bait and she had fallen for it.

Seunghyo smiled. “You… you told Jinyoung that I left because you were depressed. That I couldn’t handle what you were going through and I chose my career over you.”

The words came out slowly as if they hurt Seunghyo to speak them. “Is that really what you think happened?”

For the weeks that followed, Hana would stay up late thinking of that night. This simple game played with someone she had known intimately for almost half her life.

Something about the tone of his voice made Hana feel like it wasn’t an act. Like he wasn’t putting on a show or trying to find the upper hand.

She considered lying, she remembered that. After all, she owed him nothing, least of all answers. At her lowest point, he had left her alone. So why did she hesitate?

But more than anything, she remembered his smile. It looked warm, but it was frozen. As if Seunghyo were holding his breath. Before and after she answered, his expression didn’t change. There was no sigh or sign of dour expression.

“Yes,” she had answered.

And all the while, his face was frozen with that warm smile.