How to Defeat Aegis in the Joint Training (2)
“Kyaang?”
The man in front of me let out a startled scream.
Platinum-blonde bob, fox ears peeking out—Yoho tribe. I already knew who it was.
Jeong Ungyeong.
“Kyaaaah…”
Apparently embarrassed by the feminine scream she’d just let out, she hastily switched to a more masculine register.
I already heard the whole thing.
Well, from her perspective she was still cross-dressing. I pretended not to notice and spoke to her.
“This is the Middle Class dorm. High Class is over that way.”
“Huh? Oh! Right. I must have taken a wrong turn.”
Jeong Ungyeong made her excuse and started to leave. Then she stopped, as if something had just occurred to her.
“Wait a moment. How did you even know I was standing here?”
She carefully opened her half-lidded eyes. I could feel the wariness in her gaze.
Ah. Yeah, that would seem strange.
The Yoho were masters of shamanic arts, and Jeong Ungyeong came from one of their prestigious houses. Someone as meticulous as her would absolutely have cloaked herself in darkness.
Darkness, huh.
Which was exactly why it was useless against me. My second authority—the Throne of the Shadow Mirror. True to its name, anything hidden in shadow stood out crystal clear to my eyes.
Probably because her arts are darkness-attribute.
But there was no need to explain that.
“Just felt a presence. Came over and found you.”
“That’s impossible! Even my family acknowledges my skill with shamanic arts! There’s no way an ordinary cadet could detect—wait. No. If it’s you…”
In that instant Jeong Ungyeong looked at me again.
“I suppose we should introduce ourselves properly. I’m Jeong Ungyeong—Aegis’s new operator, succeeding you.”
“That so? Nice to meet you.”
I held out my hand. For a second her face flushed as she shook it, but the wary look returned almost immediately.
“I have a question, Lee Junwoo. Why did you hide your true ability while you were in Aegis?”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t.”
“Thinking back, it never made sense. You understood perfectly how to handle Awakened. Someone who could operate that flawlessly… yet performed like a complete civilian? That doesn’t add up.”
She was thoroughly misunderstanding things. I was just a hardcore player of the original game who knew exactly how to babysit those three. And I’d poured an absurd amount of time into it.
“I watched the replay of your class-placement evaluation against Song Sia—you fought extremely well. And today, during training, I saw you hold out to the very end with my own eyes. So that means you…”
Jeong Ungyeong kept pressing her suspicions.
“You deliberately hid your strength to make Song Sia look better, didn’t you? If you had openly shone as well, her share of the spotlight would have shrunk. Song Sia was already losing popularity to An Yumin and Ha Yeeun.”
The theory was so ridiculous I couldn’t even answer for a second.
“But if you got on Song Sia’s good side, your future as an Awakened would be set. So you played the incompetent.”
“Bullshit. If that were true I would’ve stayed in Aegis.”
“No. You’d already achieved your goal.”
I couldn’t follow her logic at all. What came next was even more absurd.
“You’re already dating Song Sia, aren’t you? So there’s no further need to keep working with Aegis.”
“……”
I was so dumbfounded I could only sigh.
“Don’t say weird shit.”
“I saw you recently. At the student council rest area—you and Song Sia having a private rendezvous. And it seems Song Sia even joined the same club as you. That picky young lady, joining a shady club that reeks of crime?”
Knowing that much, the misunderstanding was almost understandable. But whether she misunderstood or not had nothing to do with me.
“Think whatever you want. I’ll never date Song Sia even if I die. Anyway, go back to your dorm.”
“Heh. Trying to lower my guard won’t work! I understand your ambition perfectly.”
If anyone here had big ambitions it was Jeong Ungyeong, but since I fully intended to become a named villain myself, she wasn’t entirely wrong.
“And that meticulousness and patience—hiding your full strength so thoroughly… I absolutely want to learn it. If you managed to seduce the ice-cold Song Sia, you’ve achieved the greatest feat a man can. From now on, you’re my rival! I will never lose to you!”
With that declaration, Jeong Ungyeong left.
I still couldn’t quite follow the leaps in her thinking, but watching her burn with determination was somehow pleasant. Even if Ha Yeeun kept punching holes in the party, this one would probably patch them up somehow.
Suffer properly. I’ll be taking the rewards.
Once I confirmed she was gone, I returned to the dorm. It wouldn’t be easy, but there was something I absolutely had to tell the Middle Class cadets.
“Can I have a word for a second?”
Every Middle Class cadet turned their attention to me at once.
Tomorrow night was the full moon.
Song Sia was a half-vampire. The full moon’s power was already stirring the demi-human strength inside her.
Cold…
Compared to the mansion she usually lived in, the place was rundown, yet the National Park shelter-style dorm wasn’t actually cold. Still, Song Sia felt a chill—because of the single person who kept rising in her mind.
Lee Junwoo…
High Class and Middle Class trained together, so their dorms were separate but close enough to walk between in minutes. Meaning it wouldn’t be hard to go see Lee Junwoo.
I want to see him.
Rational thought was already impossible. Yet she desperately suppressed the bloodlust and carefully entrusted her body to the night’s darkness. Her form melted into shadow and became a blood-red crow.
Just… just look at his face and come back.
She flew carefully toward the Middle Class dorm. The moment she settled on a tree with a clear view of the window, she heard a familiar voice.
Jeong Ungyeong’s.
“You’re already dating Song Sia, aren’t you? So there’s no further need to keep working with Aegis.”
“……”
And as the conversation continued, Song Sia’s body locked up completely.
I’m… dating Lee Junwoo?
The words felt so sweet. If it were possible—of course she wanted that. She still didn’t fully understand the emotion called love, but if she dated him, she could bind him as hers alone.
“Don’t say weird shit.”
Then her heart plummeted. Lee Junwoo denied it immediately.
“I saw you recently. At the student council rest area—you and Song Sia having a private rendezvous. And it seems Song Sia even joined the same club as you.”
So that Jeong Ungyeong had seen them after all.
“Think whatever you want. I’ll never date Song Sia even if I die. Anyway, go back to your dorm.”
And with those next words, Song Sia took a massive blow.
I’ll never date her even if I die?
She had believed she had no emotions. But in this moment she knew with absolute clarity. It felt as if her chest were being torn to shreds.
No… that… that can’t be!!
It was total rejection. Confirmation that she occupied not even the smallest place in Lee Junwoo’s heart.
In that instant Song Sia returned to her original form. She barely managed to keep her collapsing body upright. For a second the events of the day flashed through her mind.
Even during today’s training she had constantly watched those two—An Yumin and Lee Junwoo. An Yumin had been staring at him with eyes full of lingering attachment, looking ready to speak the moment any chance appeared. At the very least, An Yumin had a higher chance of connecting with Lee Junwoo than Song Sia herself did. That much was certain.
Am I… not allowed?
Tears spilled from Song Sia’s crimson eyes. She didn’t even know how to cry properly, so the cold sensation wetting her cheeks felt completely alien.
“Haa… haa… haa…”
She fled the spot as if running for her life. Collapsing against a large nearby tree, Song Sia made her decision.
Tomorrow. I’m taking Lee Junwoo’s blood.
She had already refused the internship offer. No matter what she tried, she couldn’t think of any way to seduce him—except by following a vampire’s instinct.
Tomorrow was the full moon. Even as a half-vampire she would be able to use a vampire’s full power. He had shown unexpected skill in the class-placement evaluation, but she knew Lee Junwoo’s true level. As he was now, he would never be able to escape becoming her thrall.
Yes. Tomorrow, without fail…
When she returned to the dorm, the High Class cadets were eating snacks. Ha Yeeun was stuffing her face with pure bliss, but Song Sia ate nothing. She simply lay down on her bed and, tormented by bloodlust and chills, thought of Lee Junwoo all night long.
Choi Hana exhaled roughly.
“Haa… haa…”
The endless waves of monsters had finally thinned a little. Day two of Hell Week. Yesterday had been pure strength training; today was actual hunting practice—enduring continuous monster assaults.
Individually the monsters weren’t strong. The problem was that the exercise had kept them surrounded from morning until now.
“Once you enter a dungeon, multi-day continuous combat is common! Don’t start whining over something this light!”
The instructor bellowed. Today’s instructor was Jeon Hojun of the Warrior Department—an A-rank hunter of the classic warrior class, and a veteran of Valhalla’s Apostles who had survived countless real battles. So every cadet forced their collapsing bodies back up. Playing weak would only earn a blank stare from this man.
From a distance Choi Hana watched the other group fighting the same monsters—the High Class cadets.
Hm?
A scream rose from over there.
“I… I can’t hold on anymore!! My head’s spinning… I’m so hungry… Kyaat?!”
The blonde, large-chested nun—Ha Yeeun—collapsed on the spot.
Strange. With Ha Yeeun’s holy power she should be able to last longer.
They weren’t as close as she was with An Yumin, but in the high school practical evaluations Ha Yeeun had always ranked near the top. Overwhelming holy power in absolute quantity had let her breeze through every practical.
Can’t handle hunger, maybe.
It was already late afternoon. Day one had provided three decent meals plus snacks. Today was completely different.
Today’s live combat training assumes you have been surrounded by large monster packs! Extreme conditions with zero supplies and zero resupply—a test of your limits and will!
That announcement had hit the Middle Class cadets hard as well. All they had were the basic armor issued at yesterday’s entrance ceremony and their personal main weapons. Most importantly, no meals of any kind were provided today.
Awakened had high base metabolisms, so hunger set in fast. And after fighting surrounded by monsters all day, even if no one else fainted from starvation like Ha Yeeun, everyone’s morale and stamina were plummeting from extreme hunger.
Yet right now the Middle Class was actually holding up better than the High Class. Considering that the final stage of today’s training would be a joint time-attack with both groups, that meant something.
It means we might actually be able to beat An Yumin.
Defeat had been assumed for the Middle Class from the start, yet they were fighting far harder than expected. Choi Hana could feel An Yumin’s awareness of them. Her gaze kept flicking between Choi Hana and Lee Junwoo. Clearly An Yumin wanted to say something to him.
Right then—
“Lee Junwoo. Think it’s okay to eat the snacks now?”
In the brief lull between monster waves, a Middle Class cadet—Lim Jaeho—asked Lee Junwoo.
The Middle Class was a training class mixing cadets from multiple departments. Mixing classes for future party drills and security deployments was natural. And because Free Major mixed so many classes, plenty of Free Major cadets were visible even in the Middle Class training group.
Lim Jaeho. Our class president…
And he was carefully checking Lee Junwoo’s opinion first. Choi Hana briefly recalled the previous night.
Middle Class Group 1. After gathering all fifteen of them, Lee Junwoo had said something unexpected.
“You must not eat these snacks right now.”
Everyone had already had dinner, but Instructor Yong Hooncheol’s training had been so brutal that they were still starving.
“What kind of nonsense is that?!”
Cadets from other departments immediately pushed back. Choi Hana had stepped forward to calm them, but Lee Junwoo caught her sleeve and stopped her.
“It’s fine. I can convince them.”
With calm eyes, Lee Junwoo stepped in front of the cadets.