You Know About Unknown, Right? (3)

But Lee Junwoo was different.

Even in the face of Song Sia's blatant disregard, he treated her the same as the other two in Aegis — even to the same degree as An Yumin, the girl he seemed to like. He took an interest in Song Sia herself, and as the party's operator, he gave everything he had.

Let's do it together! Party play is surprisingly fun, you know.

At the casually recalled image of Lee Junwoo's smiling face, Song Sia hurriedly shook her head.

It's over.

But it was the same as the past two months. Inevitably, that day of exile from the party returned — the words Lee Junwoo had shouted with a twisted expression overlapping once more.

Just watch how well you do without me. You'll definitely regret it.

The usual Lee Junwoo would never have spat out such harsh words, and so those words — that expression as he said them — were strangely impossible to forget.

Her chest felt tight. No — rather than tight, it would be more accurate to say it hurt. Anguish or regret might have explained it, but Song Sia did not know those emotions.

If Lee Junwoo were by her side now, perhaps she would. He had always tried to explain the various feelings she had never possessed before.

At times like this, you just need to laugh together. It's fun, right?

But he was not here now. And that brightly smiling face of Lee Junwoo's overlapped again with the anguished expression from the day of his exile — until Song Sia's legs gave out without her realizing it.

......I don't know.

What Lee Junwoo had tried to teach her — now that he was gone, she could not know. They had already exiled him when he was no longer needed. She had thought that would be better. But at the very least, she felt they should not have ended it that way.

Still, spilled water could not be unspilled.

"Huff... huff... That crazy bi— no, Yumin, why are you running so fast!!"

But her thoughts shattered in that moment. Ha Yeeun came running late. Her body seemed even more sluggish lately, and she was breathing hard, her upper body swaying wildly.

Song Sia denied the agitation in her heart from moments before and spoke coldly.

"Hurry up and catch her. If we lose that villain, it'll be a total disgrace."

With families and a father who looked favorably on Aegis's activities, mistakes were not tolerated.

The two finally caught up to An Yumin. But An Yumin, who had arrived first, stood there dazed, her sword hanging limp in her hand, staring at someone.

And the moment Song Sia confirmed who that someone was, she froze on the spot.

"Lee Junwoo? Why are you here!"

Ha Yeeun shouted. Just as she said, Lee Junwoo was there.

At the same time, Song Sia saw the scene — Lee Junwoo arresting the villain Dark Snake. His clothes were dirty, probably from the fight. But his expression was calm. Then she watched the final moment as he delivered the finishing blow to Dark Snake.

Is that a sword imbued with holy power?

This was Lee Junwoo — the incompetent who took hours to kill even a single goblin and would faint after barely managing it. But the figure from moments ago was absolutely not that of an incompetent. Holy power blazed from that blade. It was a strike containing enough holy power to neutralize a villain in a single blow. Dark Snake, whom Aegis had lost, was completely incapacitated.

What happened?

It had only been about two months since his exile. Even if he had luckily achieved his 2nd Awakening, basic sword skills could not rise so suddenly. But moments ago, the sword path that strike traced had been perfect.

Song Sia was a mage, but having received education from her family since childhood on dealing with every kind of class, she had more than enough eye to confirm that skill.

Could it be that in Aegis... he deliberately hid his abilities?

For a moment, the thought occurred to her. Given the Lee Junwoo she knew, he was the kind of man who would deliberately keep himself out of sight to focus attention on the other three.

She saw An Yumin's hand trembling. Song Sia snapped back to her senses. Whatever the truth ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was — whatever the reason for Lee Junwoo suddenly becoming strong — the fact remained that here, the three of Aegis had exiled that Lee Junwoo together. That much was unmistakably true.

Then, having finished the arrest, Lee Junwoo turned and looked at Aegis.

"Sorry. Were you guys trying to catch this villain? But what should I do — I caught him first."

A calm smile with no mocking intent at all. No — rather, he seemed genuinely troubled, just as the words suggested. Facing the three who had driven him out, Lee Junwoo was smiling kindly, no different from before.

At that sight, Song Sia's chest throbbed even more than when she had thought of him moments ago.

Again...

At that moment, An Yumin opened her mouth toward Lee Junwoo.

March. And today was the day of the freshman entrance ceremony.

I stepped through the main gate of Theia Academy.

No matter when I look at it, it's truly enormous. A prestigious academy renowned the world over — and as such, Theia Academy's campus grounds were vast. Vast enough that a commercial district had been built on part of the campus and in front of the school. So it was a leading academy with extremely high recognition even among ordinary people.

No wonder Uncle Yongcheol's employees were hyping me up. The Theia prestige is real.

Anyway, looking at the cadets heading to school, I felt a renewed sense of emotion. Everyone was no longer a student but a cadet. Theia Academy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was a military school for training elite hunters.

Unconsciously, I recalled a scene from the original work — the scene where the original protagonist An Yumin enters through Theia's main gate, steeling herself with new resolve.

The developers put a lot of effort into it. It was really high quality.

Not just an illustration cut — they created an animation to stage that scene. The art direction was well-received by countless users. I myself was drawn into the original through that animation ad, so that says it all.

So in the early days after Full Moon's Grey City launched, An Yumin was popular. Being the protagonist and game mascot, it was natural. But Full Moon's Grey ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠City was a mobile gacha game. As such, An Yumin — a native 3-star character usable from the start — had limitations.

Naturally, for the developer's revenue, the native 4-star characters appearing as later pickup characters had much better performance. There were some buffs in the main story content, but she still fell behind those gacha characters. She couldn't compare to certain characters considered essential. Her popularity naturally declined.

Later she was used even less than Jiyu.

Jiyu was a native 4-star after all. So even in the main story, many users didn't pick An Yumin for their decks. Except for people like me.

An Yumin was my favorite character, after all.

And that connection — or rather, now it would be a bad connection. After being possessed into this game and recovering my memories, I desperately created points of contact with An Yumin. No matter how much she fell behind essential characters, a protagonist is a protagonist. There was no reason for contact with me, a mere extra — so I put in truly enormous effort to get close to her.

But maybe I let my heart get ahead of me too much. The real An Yumin was far more beautiful than the one in the game. Embarrassingly, I fell for her at first sight. So I volunteered as her exclusive trainer, helped An Yumin, and eventually even confessed.

I knew it wouldn't work, though.

Even in the original, An Yumin had no interest in romance at all. Following in the footsteps of her mother, a renowned hunter, always came first.

Sorry. I have absolutely no intention of dating a guy in high school. Not until graduation.

An Yumin rejected the confession with that predictable line. But she clearly said until graduation. Unable to give up after one rejection, I eventually even created Aegis and raised her — while also caring for the mental state of that An Yumin who was surprisingly strong on the outside but weak inside.

Before I knew it, I had entered the auditorium where the entrance ceremony was being held. On the stage above, I could see An Yumin preparing for the ceremony. She had even become Theia's freshman representative. So my efforts weren't wrong.

Well, still — An Yumin and I are a finished relationship.

In the end, that unrequited love ended with the exile ending. From that shock, I even developed panic disorder. But now, even recalling the moment of that exile, I was calm enough to form a light smile. The memory of liking An Yumin remained like a sentence. But as an emotion, truly nothing remained now.

Do your best, An Yumin. Until you reach the truth of Theia Academy.

I found a seat among those placed in the auditorium and sat down.

I looked around.

Since many had advanced from Theia High School, most faces were familiar. Even those from other high schools — as a heavy user of the original, all those faces were truly familiar. On the other hand, no one recognized me.

Has my face changed that much?

My current self had the blonde-tanned look fade a bit over the past few months. Checking my smartphone, it seemed Jiyu hadn't arrived yet.

I had left Jiyu's house and moved into the dormitory. Both of Jiyu's parents said it was fine to keep living there, but I declined for the sake of future activities. Whether for my growth or villain activities, there would be many things I'd need to go out for even at night.

The uncle settled the wages for that one month of part-time work right away.

Even after paying this semester's tuition, I had five million won left.

I did work a lot, but he clearly paid more than minimum wage. As expected, Jiyu's parents were angels. On top of that, since I personally caught the villain Dark Snake and turned him over to the Hunter Association, I took the bounty too.

So I, who had been so poor I had to live in a net cafe, already had ten million won in hand. Of course, an awakener's growth requires a great deal of funds, so it wasn't a large sum — but still, I could breathe.

Dark Snake. He was more manageable than expected.

The speed after using the Shed skill couldn't be ignored. But securing vision through Multiple Mirrors, plus the fear debuff through Unknown, and him being extremely terrified of my fireball which he was weak against — his wind skill made my clothes a bit dirty, but I easily delivered the finishing blow and finished him off. Instead of Aegis.

Thanks to that, not only the bounty but quest clear was recognized and I secured gold too. With the title Avenger applied, the reward was doubled to 10,000 gold. Naturally, having gone through combat, I gained experience for authorities and skills too.

Not only that — simultaneously completing the achievement meant user level experience too. Meaning the moment I could use extended stats was approaching.

Just like this. The strength I was worried about had already risen to 19. The other stats were still pathetic, but it meant I was definitely growing.

Not just growth — there's a lot to do at the academy.

There's a class assignment evaluation this week, so preparations for that evaluation were already done. Not just getting into the middle class — the score was important for selecting the desired professor ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠too.

I briefly turned off the system notification windows. And just as I was about to check Jiyu's messages that had been coming in continuously, someone suddenly spoke to me.

"Hey! You there, freshman. Are you by any chance Lee Junwoo?"

I looked at that person. A red-blonde female cadet. She was looking back and forth between my face and name tag. She was wearing her cadet uniform top quite tightly — a pretty foreign female cadet who had also shortened her skirt considerably. She gave off the feeling of a quite high-class young lady.

Having confirmed my name, that female cadet beamed.

"It really is Lee Junwoo. I heard you were the blonde-tanned type, but your style has completely changed? Well, with looks like this, you pass with flying colors! You're qualified to set your sights on Hana!"

Looking at the academy emblem color on her top, she was a second-year. Meaning a senior.

At that moment, I immediately looked at a female cadet standing demurely beside that second-year cadet. Black long hair with a calm expression — a freshman. Choi Hana. She looked at me and bowed her head in greeting.