Back to Work Right After Discharge
Back to work right after getting discharged from the hospital. That’s just who I am.
Once again, I found myself in the hellish commute to work. Amid the usual chaos, a sudden question popped into my head. How could the Academy be functioning again so soon after the attack? Buildings had burned, structures had collapsed—massive incidents like that don’t just vanish overnight.
“…Is this even possible? It looked incredibly serious just a week ago.”
“It’s the Academy, after all. They restored everything right away, except for the parts that actually take time.”
“Whoa… I guess there really is nothing money can’t fix…”
I could hear students whispering behind me. They were right—money really can solve almost anything. If there’s something it can’t fix, it’s usually just because the amount offered wasn’t big enough.
How the hell did they rebuild all this in a single week?
From a distance, the Academy looked almost completely normal. Not everything was perfect, but most of the damage seemed to have been dealt with. Once again, I was reminded that in capitalism, nothing is truly impossible.
“Hey… that guy walking up ahead. Isn’t that him?”
“Yeah! I’ve been telling you since earlier.”
“When?”
“From the subway! Weren’t you listening?!”
Hey, kids. You do realize I can hear everything, right? If you’re going to gossip, at least lower your voices. That’s basic manners.
“Because of the attack, they apparently rejected every applicant trying to reach Silver rank.”
“Weren’t the ones who applied pretty skilled?”
“Exactly. Their personalities sucked, but their abilities weren’t bad at all.”
At least it wasn’t malicious gossip. In that case, there’s no need to tell them to quiet down. Go on, kids—feel free to keep talking.
“He must be something else.”
“Yeah, really something.”
…No, just stop. How big is the age gap supposed to be for you to call me “mister”? I never expected to be called that at twenty-four. If you’re going to address me, just call me Examiner. That would hurt less.
I suddenly felt bad for all the times I called soldiers “mister soldier” as a kid.
“Welcome back, Examiner Baek Seojin.”
The same security guard from my first day greeted me again. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to have been caught up in the major incident.
“I heard you were hospitalized due to injuries. Are you feeling better now?”
“Yes. As you can see, I’m perfectly fine.”
“That’s a relief. Still, returning to work immediately after discharge… You’re quite the dedicated person.”
All I could do was smile. Who would’ve guessed that Kang Minsung would personally arrange my work schedule? He said he didn’t go back to work right after discharge himself…
More importantly, from the way the students and the guard reacted… it really does seem like everything was covered up.
I’d already gotten a rough idea from the news while I was in the hospital. Someone had buried what happened between me and the Elder. There were witnesses, but everyone had been too busy fighting to pay close attention. Even if someone had seen something, they probably just thought it was a brief scuffle—an examiner who happened to get in the Elder’s way, only to be swatted aside like a fly.
Well, surviving after blocking an Elder’s path doesn’t make any sense to begin with.
The only person who truly knew what happened that day was probably Kim Suhyun. But given her personality, she wouldn’t go around telling others.
Now that I thought about it, Kim Suhyun had come to see me every single day until I was discharged yesterday. She kept thanking me, apologizing, and greeting me over and over. Even when I told her she didn’t need to visit anymore, she refused to listen. I couldn’t stop her.
A fresh wave of anger rose in me toward the villains who had turned such a kind person into the “Red Witch.” If they had created a villain out of someone who was already rotten, it wouldn’t feel this frustrating.
Anyway, it’s probably for the best that the incident stayed hidden.
It wasn’t even a real fight—I was just one-sidedly beaten. The last thing I needed was some headline screaming “Man Survives Getting Pummeled by an Elder!”
I glanced around. The Academy looked no different from the first time I’d come here. Even with memorial altars set up and flowers placed in front of them, even while people prayed for the deceased, everything had returned to normal so naturally, as if nothing had happened.
They probably wanted to show it—to the public and to the villains. No matter how hard you shake them, ability users will never waver.
“Found you! Hey! Over there!”
A voice called out, sounding urgent. I turned my head without thinking.
And the person who entered my sight was…
…A foreigner?
Blonde hair tied in a tight ponytail, blue eyes behind glasses. She had the kind of appearance that made people instinctively think “foreigner.”
“It’s you, right? The examiner. Yeah! I knew it the moment I saw you!”
Yet from her mouth flowed incredibly fluent Korean. No—calling it “fluent” didn’t even do it justice.
“Uh… me?”
“Yes, you! You’re the one my sister mentioned… Ah!”
She muttered to herself so naturally that I almost wanted to tell her to watch her language. At this point, she wasn’t a foreigner at all. She was just Korean.
The woman glanced around before suddenly grabbing my hand. Then she started dragging me somewhere. It happened so fast that I didn’t even have time to resist. By the time I came to my senses, we were already in a deserted area.
“No one’s here, right? Doesn’t look like it. I heard from Jiyun unni. You really blocked that water ghost bastard and survived? She wasn’t lying, was she?”
I stared blankly at the foreign-looking woman in front of me. There were too many things in her words that demanded a reaction.
First, her Korean was so perfect that only her appearance gave away any foreign blood. Second, she casually called S-rank ability user Han Jiyun “Jiyun unni.” Third, she mockingly referred to the being everyone feared as an Elder as “that water ghost bastard.” And finally, she knew every detail of an incident that was supposed to have been completely covered up.
“Excuse me, but who are you?”
“I asked first. So the handsome oppa should answer first!”
…Right. She did ask first, so I should answer. Not because she called me handsome oppa. Definitely not.
“Yes. Well, I got beaten to the brink of death but survived by sheer luck.”
“Liar.”
She cut me off immediately. Then she leaned in close and said,
“It wasn’t luck. That water ghost’s spear can’t be blocked even by gods. Get stabbed and you die. Get hit and you’re crushed. That’s normal. Luck? Something like that couldn’t have interfered.”
“What are you…”
“In short, this is what it means. Examiner Baek Seojin is hiding something.”
She stared at me as if asking for confirmation, and I flinched. Because she was right—I was hiding something. But there was no need to shrink back. I wasn’t a villain’s spy, nor was I plotting anything evil. I was just an ordinary civil servant who had gained a special trait. So I could afford to be confident. I had to be. Otherwise, I’d only invite more suspicion.
“Am I wrong?”
“If you’re going to ask another question, that’s unfair. Please answer mine first, Miss.”
I threw her own tactic right back at her. The blonde, blue-eyed woman let out a “Heh?” and smiled, as if she hadn’t expected me to dodge like that.
“Fine. You asked who I am? Hmm, but haven’t you already gathered all the hints?”
“Excuse me?”
“Jiyun unni, the water ghost, and this ridiculously beautiful blonde woman right here!”
Wow. Calling herself ridiculously beautiful with her own mouth? That made her look genuinely strange. But since it was also true, I couldn’t exactly deny it.
“If you still can’t figure it out, I’m going to be disappointed!”
So what exactly was I supposed to figure out? She looked like an absolute beauty, but her behavior was slightly unhinged…
Wait. Unhinged?
A certain someone flashed through my mind. The villains, who were infamous for being out of their minds. Even those same villains had given a certain ability user a nickname out of sheer disgust.
“Crazy Yellow Bitch.”
Third Eye has been activated.
◎ Irina: Combat calls to me!
◎ Details: A specialist capable of engaging in any form of combat. All abilities are overwhelmingly enhanced upon entering battle. Fatigue from combat accumulates slowly. Never weakens even when injured. Does not break even in extreme situations.
Right. Irina. That Crazy Yellow Bitch.
The woman standing before me was an S-rank ability user on the same level as Han Jiyun. Only twenty-one years old, yet her combat prowess ranked among the top five in the entire world. She was also the woman most frequently mentioned whenever people discussed the strongest in South Korea.
The problem was that she was extremely eccentric. Her energy was impossible to predict, and she had an excessive obsession with combat. It wasn’t for nothing that even villains had given her the nickname “Crazy Yellow Bitch.”
Oh, and for the record—Irinа wasn’t mixed race. She was purely Western. Even so, she was more Korean than any actual Korean. Her parents had naturalized in South Korea, and she was born here, so it made sense.
“…I didn’t expect you to recognize me like this. Miss Irina.”
“Eww. Why are you adding that creepy ‘miss’? Just call me comfortably.”
“Irina-ssi?”
“That’s still a bit awkward, but it’s less cringy than ‘miss.’ Let’s go with that!”
She even clapped for herself. As expected of Irina—her energy was completely unpredictable.
“Anyway, it’s my turn again, right? Tell me. You’re hiding something, aren’t you?”
“Uh…”
“And don’t say ‘no.’ We’re not lying to each other. It’s obvious.”
I wanted to argue that asking a question when you’ve already decided the answer was pointless, but the moment I met Irina’s eyes, my mouth shut on its own. It was a different kind of dangerous aura from what I’d felt from the Elder. If I said “No, I’m not hiding anything” again in this situation, I had a feeling it would only lead to bigger trouble.
I quickly racked my brain. There had to be some way to escape this situation—something even Irina would have no choice but to accept and back down from… There was!
“Let’s go back to—”
“Irina-ssi. Now that I think about it, my turn isn’t over yet.”
“What?”
“I mean, my turn to ask questions still isn’t finished.”
“…What kind of situation is this supposed to be? One question, one answer. That was the rule, wasn’t it?”
“It was. But you didn’t give a proper answer to my question. I had to guess. So it’s still my turn.”
It was a bit of a stretch, but I had no choice. Otherwise, I’d be forced to answer whether I was hiding something. Now, Irina’s reaction was crucial. Would she accept it, or would she tell me to stop spouting nonsense? Knowing Irina, she would probably…
“Ahaha! Ahahaha!! What the— I thought you were just handsome, but you’ve got brains too? You must be popular with women! Oh, wait, don’t tell me you’re not? Are you unpopular? Don’t tell me you’re a lifelong single guy?!”
Wow. The moment she realized she was losing, she went straight for the throat. Her appearance might be blonde and blue-eyed, but her insides were one hundred percent Korean.
“Hmm. Don’t do that, oppa. If you act like that, I’m going to get even more interested, you know?”
I’d already been added to the Elder’s list, and now it looked like Irina was about to join it too. Just as I was wondering what to do, I heard footsteps behind me.
“Examiner Baek Seojin?”
The owner of the voice was Kang Minsung’s granddaughter—the girl who had almost become the Red Witch.
“What are you doing here?”
“Uh… Suhyun? Why are you…”
It was Kim Suhyun.