Fame Rising
The ride home was spent in continued conversation with Han Jiyun. It started with light, casual topics, but gradually shifted into heavier subjects.
“Now that I think about it, there’s one thing I’m most curious about.”
“What is it?”
“That day—the day of the field training. The students were ambushed. I’m dying to know how the villains knew the exact details and pulled it off so precisely.”
The personnel heading out for external support, the professors escorting them, and even the date itself might be announced in advance. But the specific destination, which dungeon the training teams would enter—those details were only revealed on the day of the exercise.
Even if the villains knew the date ahead of time and checked the clear status of every dungeon, and even if they had perfect intel on the movements of every national ability user, the ambush this time had been far too accurate to be mere prediction.
Moreover, according to Han Jiyun, it wasn’t just our Team 5 that had been targeted. Every single team had come under a massive coordinated villain assault. Fortunately, none of the other teams had suffered any fatalities. That was an enormous relief. There was nothing more horrific than losing a student.
It seemed the main force of the villains leading the attack had all converged on our Team 5.
“We’re continuing to investigate that matter.”
“If you’re still investigating, then it looks like my guess was right.”
“What were you thinking, Seojin?”
“What else? There’s a spy inside the Academy.”
I didn’t sugarcoat it. I came right out and said it—there was an internal traitor. It probably wasn’t an ordinary student. The odds were high that it was a member of the faculty. Or perhaps a student who had received information from one.
Whichever it was, this was absolutely unwelcome news for the Academy.
Han Jiyun remained silent for a long moment before replying.
“For now, we are keeping that possibility under close watch.”
“The fact that you called it a ‘possibility’ means you aren’t one hundred percent certain.”
“There have been constant attempts by villains to infiltrate the Academy or plant collaborators. So far, every single one has been discovered and blocked in advance.”
“But there’s no guarantee that streak lasts forever, is there?”
“…No. There isn’t.”
They say no tree can withstand ten strikes of the axe. Even the Academy’s sturdy walls, which had held so well until now, were finally beginning to crumble.
“Since it’s finally happened, I imagine the Chancellor’s insides are burning pitch black right now.”
“He’s extremely concerned. The problem is we can’t single out any one person as the suspect.”
A spy who had managed to slip through the Academy’s tight security and settle in. Someone that skilled wouldn’t display any suspicious behavior that might draw attention. They were probably hiding their tracks perfectly, which meant finding them wouldn’t be easy.
If only I could step forward and dramatically expose the traitor myself. That would be nice.
Unfortunately, I knew absolutely nothing about the spy. It wasn’t that I had forgotten. The original novel had never mentioned a spy at all. Not their identity, not who they contacted, not even the slightest hint of suspicious behavior.
There were two possibilities. Either I simply couldn’t remember that part, or some trigger that was supposed to activate later had suddenly gone off early. Whichever it was, it wasn’t pleasant. An Academy that harbored a traitor… what a headache.
“Let’s drop this topic for now. My chest is starting to feel heavy just thinking about it.”
“You’re not suffering from any aftereffects, are you?”
“No, nothing like that. The doctors examined me thoroughly.”
This was something Ma Hakjun and Han Jiyun needed to handle. There was no point in me bringing it up further; it would only give them more headaches. And since both of them were trustworthy, they would definitely root out the spy.
When I changed the subject, Han Jiyun smiled as if grateful.
“While I was unconscious, did anything special happen?”
“Of course something happened. A lot, actually.”
With those words, Han Jiyun suddenly held something out in front of me. It was a screen compiling various internet articles.
Good grief. Every single one of them was about me.
That’s a lot of articles. Let’s see… if I summarize them…
“…Wow.”
“What do you think?”
“Even I feel secondhand embarrassment reading this.”
“Ahaha! This is how they write articles these days. It gets more clicks that way.”
Well, that was true. You had to bait people in if you wanted them to read it, whether to praise or curse. Still, wasn’t this a bit too cringeworthy? Anyone reading this would think I had saved the entire world.
“You didn’t expect this kind of reaction, did you?”
“I expected something… but not this much.”
I never imagined so many articles would be blasted everywhere like this.
“I thought the Chancellor and the professors would step in again and cover it up like last time.”
“Last time the eyewitness statements were all over the place, and the Elder hadn’t even been injured. This time is different. Academy students were involved, national ability users were involved, and Kwak Hyuk—that man left with an X-shaped scar on his chest and a broken spear in his hand.”
It was something I had done, but hearing it described by someone else made me realize just how insane it sounded. How on earth had I thought it was a good idea to pick a fight with an Elder? I must have had a death wish.
Those called Half-Gods weren’t strong simply because their abilities were powerful. S-rank hunters were practically incomprehensible beings. Turning into shadows, leaping through the air in a single bound, continuing to fight calmly even after their chests were split wide open—things like that.
Even Han Jiyun sitting right in front of me is originally a monster.
One proper swing of her sword could slice an entire apartment building cleanly in half. The blade didn’t even need to make direct contact. Pure mana was enough. Everything within Han Jiyun’s line of sight was considered within her sword’s range.
However, because she was such a good person and constantly got called away to help everywhere, she often ended up arriving late like this time.
It’s the invisible penalty that always seems to accompany the strong.
S-ranks couldn’t abandon their humanity and remained tied to society. Elders couldn’t get along with each other and had to restrain themselves to avoid giving others an opening. Ability users found public scrutiny annoying, so they didn’t slaughter villains indiscriminately. And even villains, except for a few lunatics, didn’t actually want the world to end, so they only danced along the razor’s edge.
In this way, everyone carried strangely inconvenient penalties. Come to think of it, all ability users had something like that, whether they realized it or not. Kang Hana’s magic temporarily weakened in extreme heat. Yu Dasom’s healing ability dropped if she wasn’t at the very front lines. And me? I turned into an ordinary civil servant unless I was standing in someone’s way.
“We’re almost there.”
“Indeed. Go straight ahead and take a left. You’ll see a laundromat. You can drop me off there. I live right above it.”
“You’re not stubbornly attached to this place or anything, right?”
The sudden question made me turn to Han Jiyun with a puzzled look.
“I was thinking it might be better for you to move. The higher-ups will probably suggest the same.”
“Is this for safety reasons? Because my identity has been completely exposed?”
“That’s part of it, but they’re also trying to be considerate so you don’t get bothered. You may not know this, but being the center of the public’s attention isn’t as pleasant as it sounds.”
She wasn’t joking. Han Jiyun added the remark with genuine seriousness and advised me to seriously consider moving.
Moving, huh.
As far as I knew, the original Baek Seojin had lived here for several years. So the real him might have felt a tiny bit of attachment to this place.
But I’m not him.
First of all, the house needed to be spacious. Whether I lived alone or not, bigger was always better. Did they know the misery of having no space between the desk and bed to even put up a drying rack? If the country was offering to move me, I’d happily accept. Absolutely.
“Is this the place? The laundromat you mentioned.”
“Ah, yes. This is it. You can stop here.”
When I opened the door and stepped out, Han Jiyun followed me out of the car. She looked around a few times before nodding.
“It’s a bit empty, isn’t it?”
“Not at all. It’s quiet and nice. Better than being noisy.”
With those words, Han Jiyun gently opened the entrance door for me. Even though I was perfectly fine, she was still treating me like a patient. I felt a surge of gratitude and ended up smiling without realizing it.
“You don’t have to worry about work.”
“Pardon?”
“The Chancellor personally asked, and your department agreed. You suffered a serious injury. Even though the physical wounds have healed, there may be mental shock, so they said you should rest for about three days…”
At Han Jiyun’s words, I thought for a moment before shaking my head. Perhaps surprised by my clear refusal, she let out a small “Huh?”
“You’re not seriously planning to go back to work tomorrow, are you?”
“Yes. And coincidentally, tomorrow is a weekday. If it had been the weekend I might have taken it, but since it’s a weekday, I should obviously go to work. My body is fine and I’ve already been discharged.”
“But they gave you permission to rest more…”
“I’m truly grateful for the concern. Both from you, Professor Han Jiyun, and from the Chancellor. But there are things that need to be done. If you’re a civil servant—if you’re someone who lives off taxes—you should work even harder.”
I could no longer afford to slack off even a little. I had caused a huge scene against an Elder and even wounded him. From now on, the consequences were painfully obvious. That was why not only I, but the students as well, needed to grow faster. My return would serve as good motivation for them. After all, the news that I had fought an Elder would affect them one way or another.
“…Seojin, you really are an amazing person.”
“Even I think so. A mere low-level civil servant fighting an Elder. At this rate, I’m worried the public’s expectations for civil servants will get way too high. Anyway, thank you for driving me all the way here. I’ll see you at the Academy tomorrow, Professor Han Jiyun.”
“You can call me comfortably. No need for stiff titles like ‘Professor.’”
“Um… then, if you’ll excuse me. Jiyun.”
At that, Han Jiyun smiled brightly, clearly pleased.