Saturday morning.
A loud alarm blared from Professor Hwang Yerim’s tablet while she was enjoying a rare sleep-in at the faculty housing.
“Ugh.”
Rubbing her sleep-crusted eyes, she woke up and checked the screen.
[Emergency Call!]
[Multiple patients reported in the Medical Center!]
“…On a weekend morning?”
She hurriedly threw on a coat and headed to the medical center, only to find the inside was already in complete chaos.
On every bed, cadets were shivering uncontrollably under their blankets.
“What is the situation?”
Hwang Yerim grabbed the on-duty nurse and asked.
“A group of them came in at once, but there are no visible signs of external or internal injuries. It’s not symptoms of Qi Deviation either.”
“Pulse?”
“Unstable. Their heart rates are spiking, and their breathing is irregular. It seems they’ve suffered severe psychological shock.”
Hwang Yerim’s eyes darkened.
Right in the middle of the Academy, and to a whole group at that, what kind of incident could have caused this state?
She approached the bed of a cadet who looked to be in the least severe condition.
His focus was hazy, but he was at least coherent enough to talk.
“You. What is your name?”
“21st term… Yoo Sangcheol.”
“A freshman? What happened?”
“Well, I went to attend a class.”
‘A class?’
Hwang Yerim’s brow twitched.
“Which class?”
“The Saturday special lecture. Special Guidance.”
“Ah.”
She knew it too.
The contract professor’s class that was causing the most uproar inside the Academy recently.
“How was that class?”
“The professor drew a line. He drew a line in the sand with a sword and… told us to cross it.”
“A line?”
“Yes, he said if we crossed it, we were qualified to receive his teachings, and if we couldn’t, we never had to attend the class again… but suddenly.”
Yoo Sangcheol’s pupils trembled slightly.
“I felt like I was going to die.”
“…”
“I mean it. It wasn’t just a level of being scared; it truly felt like my neck was going to be severed right there. I really tried to cross it, you know? But my legs wouldn’t move, and my body just froze up… sob.”
As if overcome with a sense of injustice, his voice cracked.
Hwang Yerim silently checked his pulse again.
The pulse was still unstable, but it had calmed down a bit compared to earlier.
‘His body isn’t broken.’
His energy core was perfectly fine.
There were no signs of his energy or blood vessels being severed either.
“Did the professor personally lay a hand on you?”
“N-No. He just… stood there.”
That was even stranger.
He didn’t directly strike them.
Nor did he inject internal energy to shake their blood vessels.
He sent this number of cadets to the medical center entirely through sheer momentum alone?
Did that make any sense?
‘Furthermore.’
As Hwang Yerim lightly flowed her true qi into him, her pupils dilated slightly.
‘The energy flowing through his blood vessels is unusually clean.’
It was similar to the state of having just consumed a spiritual herb or elixir.
Nonsense!
‘Nah, must be a mistake.’
Standing up, Hwang Yerim checked the pulses of the other cadets.
The results were exactly the same.
‘Really?’
Hwang Yerim wore a blank expression.
He cleared the impurities in their blood vessels with sheer momentum alone?
It wasn’t perfectly clean, but it was still beyond common sense.
‘Just… what on earth is happening?’
* * *
The training ground.
Kang Hyeon looked down at the five who had crossed the line and were panting.
“You’re terribly weak.”
Kang Hyeon specifically looked at Cha Yusik.
Didn’t you say I should be able to easily subdue at least one student here?
How about it.
Is that an answer for you?
“…”
Cha Yusik could not lift his head.
Rather than out of shame, it was because he felt like he would throw up the moment he opened his mouth.
‘Insane.’
When he first faced the killing intent, he could at least forcefully endure it.
But that was merely the beginning.
One step, two steps.
The closer he got to the line drawn, the density of the killing intent shifted.
‘When I crossed the line.’
Cha Yusik experienced the vivid sensation of his neck being cleanly severed off.
‘I honestly thought I died.’
He still couldn’t tell.
Maybe he was actually already dead?
Was he already dead and just experiencing a hallucination?
“Y-You…”
Cha Yusik barely managed to open his mouth.
“What is your true identity.”
“What else? A parachute contract hire.”
“That is not what I am asking.”
Though Cha Yusik flared up, Kang Hyeon replied indifferently.
“Does that matter? I said I would teach you how to get stronger, and the prerequisite was that only those prepared to die should come.”
He slowly swept his gaze over the five of them.
“And.”
He spoke in a low, heavy voice.
“You all just stepped past death.”
The five cadets flinched and looked up at Kang Hyeon.
He quite liked those eyes.
“Right, now you finally have eyes worth using.”
It was a stark contrast to the eyes of the fifteen who couldn’t move, paralyzed by fear.
There was grit in their eyes… a desperate will to do something.
‘At the very least, they are kids who won’t take their own lives upon seeing Asura.’
In other words.
Kids with a meaning to teach.
“Then I suppose I should teach you how to get stronger as promised, right?”
Kang Hyeon pulled out a new, unopened bottle of whiskey from his jacket.
“Tomorrow morning at 6 AM. Come out to this training ground.”
“…T-Tomorrow is Sunday…”
Kwak Dojin, who had crawled across the floor, muttered in a hoarse voice, but Kang Hyeon paid it no mind.
Whether they came or not.
That was entirely their freedom.
It wasn’t an official class time in the first place.
“Kuuh.”
Chugging straight from the bottle again, Kang Hyeon wiped the liquor from his lips with the back of his hand.
“The liquor tastes sweet today.”
And just like that, he vanished out of the training ground.
Until his back completely disappeared from view, not a single one of the remaining five could open their mouth.
* * *
Even though it was the weekend, the rumor spread instantly.
It was because many students found out following the commotion in the medical center.
“Hey, did you hear?”
“Hear what?”
“The Saturday special lecture that opened this time.”
“Special Guidance? The one taught by that contract professor?”
“Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“They say all the kids who took it that day got carried to the medical center.”
“Huh? Why?”
“I don’t know. Did the professor beat them up?”
In the past, words without feet traveled a thousand miles, but these days, they easily surpass ten thousand miles with just a finger.
<Aca-Net>
Posts started appearing even on the cadet-exclusive community.
└ The professor beat the kids up?
└ Doesn’t seem like he hit them. The on-duty nurse said it wasn’t like that.
└ Guys. But wasn’t that Special Guidance class supposed to be canceled?
└ Nah, the Dean put problem cadets in as students.
└ ?? Is he even allowed to do that? Shivers.
└ Still, he’s the Dean of the Academy. If he did it, he must be allowed to.
└ But I heard CYS and the Mad Dog were there too.
└ CYS?
└ Omg
└ Shivers
└ Did CYS go to the medical center too?
└ No, he wasn’t there.
└ Turns out CYS was the one who beat the kids up, wasn’t it?
└ Could be the Mad Dog rather than CYS. CYS is actually pretty decent to students.
Accurate information was scarce, mostly just speculation and gossip, but because it was so loud, it eventually reached Jin Myeonghun’s ears.
Adjusting his attire, he headed straight for the dean’s office.
Knock, knock.
“Come in.”
“Dean.”
“I figured you would come.”
Pour.
Seo Ilhyeon was drinking tea.
That leisurely demeanor only frustrated Jin Myeonghun more.
“If it weren’t for you, Dean, that course would have been canceled originally. What is the reason you are going this far?”
“Calm down and have a seat. Anyone looking at you would think you had a blood feud with Professor Kang.”
Jin Myeonghun’s brow furrowed even deeper.
Instead of taking a seat, he stood perfectly straight and raised his voice.
“I am merely asking as the Chief Professor. A loach that suddenly barged in is disturbing the order of the Academy; standing by idly is a dereliction of my duty as well.”
Seo Ilhyeon quietly stared at Jin Myeonghun.
‘My friend. That man is not a loach, but a dragon (龍).’
“What order did Professor Kang disturb?”
“Too many to count on one hand. Drinking alcohol on campus. Sending cadets to the medical center. I even heard he kicked out fifteen cadets. Saying they lacked qualifications.”
“Hmm.”
The Dean set down the teacup he was drinking from and opened his mouth softly.
“Professor Jin. Let me ask you one thing. Did Professor Kang raise a hand against the cadets?”
“Pardon?”
“Or did he perhaps swing a sword and cause injury?”
“…I heard he exuded killing intent.”
“They are cadets of the National Academy, supposedly South Korea’s absolute finest elites. Is it Professor Kang’s fault that such kids wet themselves and collapsed because they couldn’t endure a single momentum exuded by a professor?”
“That is…”
“Rather, isn’t it something to be ashamed of that their true worth as frail greenhouse flowers has been exposed? Will they collapse citing regulations and abuse of power right in front of monsters in an actual dungeon as well?”
Overwhelmed by Seo Ilhyeon’s momentum, Jin Myeonghun only bit his lip.
“Kicking them out without permission is the exact same matter.”
Seo Ilhyeon rested his chin on his intertwined hands and continued.
“Weeding out who can and cannot be taught falls entirely under the exclusive authority of the professor in charge. In the first place, weren’t those seventeen kids I forcefully crammed in problem students on the verge of expulsion that even you all had given up on?”
“…”
“I will issue a warning regarding the drinking, though. Professor Jin.”
Seo Ilhyeon’s eyes sank heavily.
“Let me give you a piece of advice. Mind your own business.”
“Dean.”
“Isn’t Professor Kang merely a 1-year contract hire anyway? It is unsightly for the Chief Professor to get this heated over a single special lecture by a contract professor.”
“…”
“I trust you understood my words. You may go now.”
At the clear dismissal order, Jin Myeonghun’s fists trembled.
* * *
At that time, the safe house.
“What are you truly planning to do.”
Lee Seah, who had brought the tablet at Black’s summons, grabbed her head.
“Causing an accident like this right from the first day of class…”
“Stop making a fuss and recite the roster.”
“The roster?”
“Yeah, I need to see what kind of bastards they are now.”
“You said you wouldn’t look before.”
“That was because the roster had guys mixed in that I didn’t need to look at.”
“…Hold on.”
Lee Seah tapped the tablet’s screen a few times, bringing up the profiles of the five who survived.
[Cha Yusik, Kwak Dojin, Yoon Hyeonjong, Han Taeho, Seo Haein]
“Should we start with Cha Yusik first?”
“Yeah.”
“This cadet is incredibly famous even to the public. He is the second son of the Heavenly Wolf Guild Master.”
“Heavenly Wolf?”
“Yes, one of the three major large guilds… His older brother is Cha Dusik, the top graduate of the Academy’s 17th term. They should be fiercely fighting a succession war right now… The established theory is that he was practically pushed out when he got suspended this time.”
“Tsk, he couldn’t kill that temper.”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing, next?”
“Kwak Dojin. Nickname is the Mad Dog. Disciplined twenty-one times, and even held back a year this time.”
“With that many disciplinary actions, shouldn’t it be normal for him to have been expelled ages ago?”
“There seems to be a story behind it. Looking at the records, he only received those disciplines during his 3rd year… Apparently, he was a very good student until his 2nd year?”
“Is that so?”
The corners of Kang Hyeon’s mouth curled up.
Because the image of Kwak Dojin, crawling across the floor out of sheer stubbornness despite crying and snotting, came to mind.
‘A mere neighborhood thug bastard could never crawl through that killing intent.’
There must definitely be something fiercely burning hidden inside him, be it grit or anger.
“Next is Yoon Hyeonjong. Wow, this student!”
The tone of Lee Seah’s voice noticeably rose.
“He’s the student you saved by striking his energy core, Professor. His father is the CEO of a quite famous mid-sized company. Taejeong Trading, a company that primarily distributes secret manuals, elixirs, and hidden treasures coming out of dungeons.”
“A merchant family.”
“Yes, originally they hit it big early on with dungeon byproducts, but these days they are being pushed out, losing commercial rights to major corporations backed by large guilds. Ah, but honestly I’m a bit jealous.”
“Of what?”
“You’ve become the benefactor of a wealthy, silver-spoon student. Won’t he generously bring things like elixirs to repay the favor later?”
“He didn’t bring anything like that.”
“He was an ungrateful student, then.”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“Yep, next is Han Taeho. This friend is a 21st-term freshman. There’s almost no information. No family backing either. Still, seeing as he entered the Academy, he must have some skill?”
“He will do well.”
If he couldn’t…
He wouldn’t have been able to cross that line.
“And the last, the fifth is… oh, it’s a girl?”
Hunters, especially in the combat division, had an extremely low ratio of female cadets, around 10%.
It was inevitably due to the nature of a profession that required roughly rolling one’s body.
“Seo Haein. She has the lowest grades even among cadets of her term. It’s not like she was disciplined or anything… but her grades are all Fs. I wonder if this is purely a skill issue…”
Kang Hyeon’s eyes narrowed.
He remembered.
The image of the small girl who crawled tenaciously across the floor right next to Han Taeho, following behind Kwak Dojin.
‘Rather than lacking skill.’
She probably didn’t have a master to properly assess her condition and teach her.
Having scanned through the students’ records, Kang Hyeon waved the tablet away.
“Ah, and.”
“Yep.”
“We are moving out of here starting tomorrow.”
“Pardon?”
“We are moving our residence to the Academy faculty housing.”
“…Abandoning this place?”
“Yeah.”
Now that he was teaching kids.
If he was going to properly look for vessels as well, it would be better to reside there completely
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