Chapter 28
If It’s Unfair, Get Stronger
Glancing around the training ground, Kang Hyeon quickly assessed the situation.
First, he noticed the red handprint on Seo Haein’s cheek. Then he spotted the middle-aged swordsmanship professor seething before her.
‘I see what happened.’
He had been on his way to the faculty building when he heard the sharp crack of a slap. He hadn’t expected to find Haein at the center of it.
“Professor Kang Hyeon? You’re just in time.”
The middle-aged professor spoke as though Kang Hyeon’s arrival had come at just the right time.
“I was going to let it slide since she’s your student, but she crossed the line. Do you know what she said? She said I wasn’t even fit to stand at your feet.”
He jabbed a finger at Haein, his voice rising.
“She used the Three Calamities Swordsmanship during the Clear Wind Swordsmanship evaluation. When I pointed it out, she talked back and insulted me. For the sake of the Academy’s discipline, this can’t just be overlooked, can it?”
The professor lifted his chin, looking smug.
Kang Hyeon listened in silence, then took a sip of whiskey.
Just as the professor’s eyebrow twitched at his relaxed attitude…
“Seo Haein.”
Kang Hyeon stared at her.
“Is that true?”
Her cheek still burned, but Haein met his gaze without flinching.
“It’s true that I unconsciously used the Three Calamities Swordsmanship during practice.”
“And?”
“That professor insulted you, calling you an incompetent scammer. So I merely said what I thought. He slapped me after hearing that.”
“You merely said what you thought? So you did insult a professor, didn’t you?”
“T-That’s…”
Haein faltered, and Kang Hyeon’s gaze turned cold.
“Besides, who asked you to act as my spokesperson?”
Haein’s eyes trembled.
It was as though a hammer had struck her in the head.
She had assumed he would take her side. She had proven the strength of the Three Calamities Swordsmanship and, above all, she had spoken up because she couldn’t stand hearing him insulted.
Yet instead of praising her, he was blaming her in front of everyone.
Haein bit her lower lip hard.
She hadn’t cried when she was slapped, but at those words, tears welled up in her eyes.
“Apologize.”
The watching cadets fell silent.
‘Why is he doing that?’
‘I thought he’d protect her…’
‘So even the drunkard professor knows to bow his head before a full professor?’
He could tell exactly what they were thinking just by looking at their eyes.
At last, the tears she had been holding back spilled down Haein’s cheeks. With a trembling voice, she bowed her head toward the middle-aged professor.
“…I apologize for being arrogant.”
“Ahem.”
The middle-aged professor cleared his throat and crossed his arms. Kang Hyeon then spoke to Haein.
“That’s enough. Go outside and clear your head.”
At those words, Haein spun around and ran out of the training ground.
The middle-aged professor straightened, looking smug.
“At least you have some common sense. Since you made her apologize, even if it was late, I’ll let this matter slide.”
Kang Hyeon didn’t answer him.
He merely glanced at the professor and walked out of the training ground, as though the man wasn’t worth answering. He took another sip of his whiskey.
“Y-Y-You… you insolent bastard!”
The middle-aged professor’s face twisted with rage.
Ignoring him while he was speaking? If he’d made the student apologize, shouldn’t he, as an educator, have bowed his own head as well?
He couldn’t just let this go.
“Class is dismissed for today!”
After disbanding the cadets, the professor stormed after Kang Hyeon.
* * *
The trail behind the faculty building.
“Hey, Professor Kang!”
The middle-aged professor finally blocked Kang Hyeon’s path.
“What do you think you’re doing? I don’t care if you came crawling in here as a contract professor; when a full professor like me speaks, it’s basic manners to listen until I’m finished—Hīk!”
The professor’s tirade died in his throat as he involuntarily sucked in a breath.
Kang Hyeon had stopped.
A demonic look filled his eyes.
“Manners?”
Kang Hyeon took a step toward him.
“Don’t delude yourself.”
“What?”
“The only reason I made her bow her head was because she had the nerve to run her mouth without the strength to back it up. Not because you were right.”
In Murim, the weak were trampled by the strong. That was simply the way of things.
And the modern world was no different.
“It’s simply because Seo Haein is weaker than you.”
Had Seo Haein said something like that in Murim?
She’d have no right to complain even if they cut off her head for it.
“What nonsense is this! Are you saying Cadet Seo Haein was right?”
“Then what part of what she said was wrong?”
“Excuse me?”
“She said you weren’t even fit to stand at my feet. Was she wrong? At least I don’t have to hit a student just because I can’t control them.”
“…!”
The middle-aged professor’s face twisted with shame and rage.
“What the hell is this lunatic saying? You want to fight me right now?”
A fierce aura burst from the middle-aged professor. The force sent fallen leaves whirling around them.
However.
Something felt wrong.
A normal Hunter would take a step back or draw their weapon. Where was his confidence coming from, standing there completely defenseless? Was it arrogance?
Just as the professor finally snapped and raised his hand.
“That hand.”
A crushing presence bore down on him.
‘What?’
His raised right hand froze in midair, as if nailed to the sky.
He wanted to pull it back, but he couldn’t. It was as though invisible shackles had bound him to the air.
“You’ve been using that hand rather freely.”
Kang Hyeon drew the sword at his waist. Even then, the professor couldn’t move an inch.
“P-Professor Kang… Wait.”
Approaching slowly, Kang Hyeon gently rested the tip of the blade against the inside of the professor’s wrist.
It was the same hand that had slapped Haein’s cheek just moments ago.
A sting.
The skin split, and a bead of red blood welled up.
“Huuuuk!”
The professor let out a strangled groan.
Who the hell was this guy? Was he really just a contract professor?
What kind of terrifying presence was this?
“I’ll give you one warning.”
Kang Hyeon pressed the tip of the blade a little deeper against his wrist. A trickle of blood slid down the professor’s forearm.
“If you swing that hand so recklessly ever again.”
His voice was flat, yet the killing intent behind it was suffocating.
“Know that it will fall before your head does. Understood?”
The middle-aged professor tried to open his mouth to argue, but no voice came out.
He felt that the moment he opened his mouth, his head would really come off.
So he could only nod.
Only then did Kang Hyeon slide the sword back into its sheath.
Then, as though the murderous intent had never existed, he casually strolled down the trail, the whiskey bottle clinking softly in his hand.
His legs gave out, and the professor collapsed onto the ground. He remained there for a long time, staring blankly ahead.
* * *
Behind the old faculty building, Seo Haein sat on a bench.
She bit her lip hard as if trying to hold back her cries, but the tears kept flowing.
The injustice stung, but the betrayal hurt even more.
‘I only found the courage to speak because I couldn’t stand hearing Professor Kang insulted.’
It was the first time she’d ever found the courage to do such a thing.
It was humiliating.
She couldn’t understand why she’d been forced to bow her head and apologize.
Hadn’t she just defied a professor in front of dozens of classmates, only to get slapped and forced into submission?
She felt so pathetic and wretched that she could hardly bear it.
‘In the end, I was just deluding myself.’
She shouldn’t have stepped forward.
She should have endured it like she always had. Perhaps she’d only acted out because her recent progress in training had gone to her head.
“Pathetic.”
A languid voice drifted from behind her.
Startled, she turned her head to see Kang Hyeon leaning against a tree in the shade behind the bench.
Haein hurriedly stood up and wiped her tears with her sleeve.
“I-I’m sorry.”
She apologized out of habit. Just as she always had.
“Drink.”
Kang Hyeon suddenly held out a bottle of whiskey.
“Pardon?”
“When you’re sick with frustration over an injustice, hard liquor is the quickest cure.”
“I’ve never had a drink before…”
She was twenty-one and a legal adult, but when would she have ever had the time to drink?
She had barely made it into the Academy after training day in and day out. She was dead last; if she didn’t work herself to the bone, she would soon be expelled.
“Suit yourself.”
“N-No. I’ll try it.”
Why, she couldn’t say.
A stubborn defiance welled up inside her, and she drank straight from the bottle.
A moment later.
“Ghak, cough, cough! Ah, it burns.”
The liquor burned like fire as it went down, and she broke into a fit of coughing.
The liquor was viciously strong.
Yet somehow, the knot in her chest began to loosen.
“Seo Haein.”
“…Yes.”
“What you said earlier wasn’t wrong.”
Haein’s head snapped up at those words.
“Then why did you make me apologize…”
“Quiet down and listen.”
Haein hurriedly shut her mouth.
“The world doesn’t side with those who are right. It sides with those who are stronger.”
Haein’s eyes trembled.
“If you’re weak, they’ll tear your mouth apart even when you’re telling the truth. If you’re strong, you get applause even if you spout pure bullshit. That’s simply how the world works.”
Kang Hyeon took a sip of whiskey and smiled.
“Is it unfair? Then get stronger.”
Those words struck something deep inside Haein.
If it’s unfair, get stronger.
It was such a simple phrase yet it cut deeper than she could have imagined. No one had ever said anything like that to her before.
‘You have no talent, so just endure it.’
‘You’re in last place, so endure it.’
‘That’s just how things are, so keep your head down and live.’
But this man was different.
He was telling her that if she felt wronged, she should get strong enough to trample them.
“The reason you bowed your head today wasn’t because you were wrong.”
Kang Hyeon slowly tilted his whiskey bottle.
“It’s because you are still weak.”
“…”
“Being weak is not a sin. But using weakness as an excuse to spend your whole life crawling at the bottom—that is shameful.”
Haein swallowed those words, barely able to breathe.
Something deep inside her chest began to burn.
The sorrow and humiliation that had weighed on her moments ago were giving way to something else.
Resentment.
And sheer grit.
“Still, I’ll praise you for not backing down and barking at that piece of trash today.”
“…!”
“It means you’ve finally developed some pride in your sword.”
Once you feel your own improvement, it’s only natural for pride to find its way into your blade.
“However, next time, prove it with your sword, not your mouth.”
Haein knew exactly what Kang Hyeon was talking about.
The upcoming midterm tournament.
He was telling her to prove it there—to show that unreasonable professor and the classmates who had mocked her.
“I will definitely…”
Haein roughly wiped the remaining tears from her eyes with her sleeve and continued.
“I’ll make the top five.”
At those words, Kang Hyeon gave a quiet chuckle and turned away.
“As if a crybaby could.”
‘Let’s see you try. When it comes to swordsmanship talent alone, you might just be the best in this Academy.’
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