What Did He Say to An Yumin Inside the Barrier? (2)
Villain Bonchina.
He was a B-rank villain.
Not quite officer material in Crimson Teeth, but still.
The truth was, a villain's threat level skyrocketed starting from B-rank.
Theia Academy ran on a two-year system.
That generally meant second-years were the stronger cadets.
But even among the so-called Golden Generation of elite second-years, those holding actual B-rank hunter licenses were vanishingly few.
Naturally, for the current crop of cadets packed with C-ranks and D-ranks, Bonchina might as well have been a wall.
Most of the instructors are B-rank too.
There were A-ranks like Lee Suyeon or Seong Junhyeok, sure.
But A-rank hunters sat in the top ten percent of active professionals, so their numbers stayed low.
The instructors assigned to this Hell Interval were solid, no question.
The problem was that the infiltrating villain just happened to be Bonchina.
I gave the barrier a light tap with my Holy Knight's Sword.
"Solid. This thing isn't coming down anytime soon."
An Yumin checked the barrier's condition herself.
Clang—
Even her blade, laced with ice mana, left the barrier completely unmoved.
The instructors' waiting room will already be sealed under a barrier too.
If anything, that side would have been prepped far more thoroughly than this training ground full of cadets.
For this exercise the instructors and assistants weren't intervening directly—they were monitoring from the waiting room.
In the original story, no help from the instructors had been possible either.
In short, the cadets were screwed.
"Damn it!"
An Yumin swung her sword again, but the barrier refused to break.
True to his moniker, Bonchina wove barriers out of a chaotic mix of monster bones and magic stones.
His raw power was weak for a B-rank, but that mass barrier-generation ability alone had been enough to push him into the rank. A real pain in the ass.
It'll take at least five minutes for this to drop on its own.
The silver lining, such as it was:
According to the original, slaughtering cadets wasn't his top priority.
Theia Academy's foundational protection system—the one that kept its students safe.
Leticein's Ark.
Confirming the vulnerabilities in that defense system firsthand had been his real objective.
So for the early phase he simply watched the Ark's response from behind a barrier loaded with open hostility.
An Yumin, of course, had no way of knowing that.
She was still panicking over a barrier that refused to shatter.
But wasting strength on the wrong target would only hurt me in the end.
I spoke quietly.
"That man we just saw wasn't an instructor. And villains who can spin barriers out of mixed bones like this aren't exactly common. Looks like Bonchina's the one who slipped in."
"Bonchina? The B-rank villain?"
"Yeah. This barrier will dissolve on its own in five minutes. Don't burn energy for nothing."
An awkward silence settled between us.
Come to think of it... is this the first time we've been alone together since I left?
I'd spoken one-on-one with Song Sia, another Aegis member, just a few days ago.
But this was different.
If Song Sia had been an accomplice to my exile, An Yumin was the one who had personally brought it up—the ringleader and prime mover.
And I found myself surprised all over again.
An Yumin...
A mental fortitude stat of ninety.
Plus the title Cold Fire Avenger, which kept absolute composure against the three members of Aegis.
Even so, standing alone with An Yumin like this, my hands trembled faintly.
For three years I had poured everything into her alone.
Just to get close to a girl who had rejected me from the start.
I treated her better than any gentle man in the world ever could.
She hadn't even been my girlfriend.
Yet for An Yumin I would have given everything I had.
That was why I had fought so desperately to help Song Sia and Ha Yeeun as well.
Through the Aegis activities we shared, An Yumin had been able to grow into the person she was now.
That was how much I had loved her.
And that was why my hands shook.
I had been betrayed by the very An Yumin to whom I had given my entire heart.
The nightmare of that exile day—the day that had crushed three years of sincerity in a single blow—still sat in the deepest part of me.
Back then I had pretended to be cool and denied it, but the truth was that being cast out by An Yumin had hit me hard enough to trigger a panic disorder.
Our eyes met.
"......"
An Yumin looked like she had something she wanted to say.
In that instant I found myself hoping, against my better judgment.
I had turned Song Sia into a marionette without a shred of pity.
My heart as an avenger had grown that cold.
But because of that vicious love-hate, I still wanted—at least from An Yumin—to hear a single sincere apology first.
So that my three years of devotion wouldn't have been completely wasted.
So I could feel even a little compensation.
Then An Yumin opened her mouth.
"Lee Junwoo. Are you dating Choi Hana now?"
Something inside me snapped with an audible crack.
Mental fortitude and the title kept the panic-level stress from spiking, but they couldn't stop the ugly words from leaving my mouth.
"What the fuck kind of bullshit is that?"
Silence fell between us again.
An Yumin's eyes trembled.
She spoke as if she couldn't believe what she'd heard.
"W-what did you just say?"
"I asked what the fuck kind of bullshit you were spouting. Me, dating Choi Hana?"
"Th-that... you went on a date with Choi Hana in the downtown area not long ago! I saw the whole thing!"
I felt hollow.
To the very end, An Yumin still saw me as nothing more than a womanizing blonde-tanned punk.
And of all people, it had to be Choi Hana again...
The fact that the target of her misunderstanding was Choi Hana only made it funnier.
Choi Hana was someone I needed to cooperate with as Unknown.
And she was nothing like An Yumin.
At the very least, she had come to me carrying dozens of pages of a heartfelt résumé and personal statement.
It was true she needed me for her goal of rebuilding her organization, but she had never forced me to join her party.
She had offered every condition and reward she could possibly give, and left the answer—and the choice itself—entirely in my hands until the end.
The Rain Weapons membership she gifted me had genuinely helped my growth.
So even if she harbored ulterior motives, she was someone I couldn't treat carelessly.
Naturally, if An Yumin caused Choi Hana any harm, it would be a massive loss for Unknown as well.
I decided I would no longer tolerate An Yumin's disgusting misunderstandings—or this irritating false charge hanging over me.
"Choi Hana and I are just classmates in the same department, same class. Party members, nothing more. And even if I really were dating Choi Hana, what the hell does that have to do with you?"
"You... you said you liked me... and then you kept turning your eyes to other girls."
"Why do you always decide things on your own? Just because I breathe the same air as a girl, you're going to paint me as some shameless bastard again? That same bullshit again?"
"But Song Sia, and Ha Yeeun... and even the president of Ha Yeeun's fan club—you went after her yourself!"
In the end, that day came up too.
The incident where the whole of Aegis had chewed me out, yet I'd swallowed it because important hero work for the party was coming up.
"That goddamn fan-club president. Did any of you even know she was a complete psycho bitch?"
"What are you talking about?! Kim Joohee was a precious fan of Aegis! She always brought us gifts and—"
"That was just you idiots not knowing a damn thing! Kim Joohee was Ha Yeeun's obsessive sasaeng. Stalker-level. I gathered the evidence, confronted that bitch, and settled it!"
"Th-that's impossible. Then... holding hands with Kim Joohee... that was all..."
I had secured every piece of evidence needed to report her.
But I couldn't afford to cause a scene for Aegis's sake, so I told her to shut up and stay quiet and I'd let it go.
That was when the crazy woman tried to snatch my phone.
"That's how our bodies ended up touching! You think I'm insane enough to go after her on purpose? I already knew she was a total lunatic."
"Really... is that what actually happened...?"
The ugly memory rising again seemed to rekindle even the rage that the Cold Fire Avenger had been holding down.
"Why did you always jump to conclusions on your own? Did you ever once try to believe me? Before you threw me out, An Yumin—did you ever once try to look into the bad rumors about me, the truth behind the misunderstandings?!"
"......"
"You know I ended up with a panic disorder because of you, right?"
An Yumin stayed silent.
Even Song Sia had known I'd developed panic attacks.
There was no way the counselor would have told Song Sia, so the one who had heard it directly had to be An Yumin.
During that psychological counseling session where I received the panic diagnosis, I had talked at length about the misunderstandings Aegis had piled on me—especially the many things An Yumin had gotten wrong about me.
I kept going.
"You were the one who rejected my confession. And still I kept thinking there'd be another chance after graduation. Like an idiot I put up with every rumor and gave everything for you. Looking back now it was the most pathetic shit imaginable."
"......"
"But even after all that, fuck—I never once imagined An Yumin would personally drive me out. Isn't that just pure garbage? All of it was your doing."
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I... I was going to accept your confession after graduation too! And... for the things I misunderstood, I can still apologize now—"
"Don't make me laugh. Anyway, stop caring about me from now on. Don't talk shit behind my back either. I'm serious this time."
Five minutes were almost up.
Thinking about the rewards I would take from Bonchina cooled my head again.
With this, An Yumin finally knew the full truth about everything I had done during the Aegis days.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I... that's not... that's not it... all of it... all of it was because I liked you that much..."
So An Yumin was babbling like a broken record.
But no matter what she thought of that truth, my conclusion was singular.
An Yumin only needed to become a sacrifice for my future. That was all.
Even the love-hate had vanished now.
The Cold Fire Avenger completely ruled my reason.
"Anyway, stop hanging around me and get lost. I'm going to become a hero. I'm going to reclaim the life of an awakener that I gave up completely while focusing on Aegis."
Of course the truth was the exact opposite.
I was going to live as a thoroughly vicious villain—as Unknown.
"A... hero..."
At those words An Yumin's face went blank.
Becoming a hero was An Yumin's absolute goal.
So the moment I declared I would become one, she too would become obsessed with the path of a hero, as if bound by a curse.
That meant the original story would keep rolling forward.
Do your best on your own. So I can take Theia's truth for myself.
And beyond this barrier waited one more nuisance.
Villain Bonchina.
Crack—
Bonchina's barrier collapsed.
Two voices reached us at once.
"An Yumin-nim!"
"Lee Junwoo-ssi!"
Jeong Ungyeong and Choi Hana.
In the distance Jeong Ungyeong was sprinting toward us.
Choi Hana was already close, closing the remaining gap fast.
Huh? What's with her?
The rims of Choi Hana's eyes were red.
As if she had been crying.
But she wasn't the type to panic just from being trapped in a barrier.
It was a little strange, yet Choi Hana quickly shook her head and took my hand.
"It's dangerous—we need to regroup with the party right away!"
She was right.
As someone from the underworld who had dealt with villains often enough, Choi Hana had already realized this was no training exercise.
Focus. Even if he's only B-rank, if he gets serious he can slaughter cadets like nothing.
I moved out with her at once.
We quickly rejoined the mid-class cadets.
An Yumin was in extreme turmoil.
Lee Junwoo, furious, had hurled harsh words at her.
By nature she never let anyone curse her without answering back.
Yet even against Junwoo's stream of insults, she couldn't manage a single proper rebuttal.
Just what... have I done?
Every anxiety she had been carrying alone until now—
the vague dread that she might never again return to the way things had been with Lee Junwoo—
had become reality right before her eyes.
Countless thoughts flashed through her mind in that short span of time.