The Angel Forming a Club (4)
‘To think an apology would come from Park Jinho’s mouth. What on earth is he going to ask for?’
Refri asked cautiously.
“What’s the request, sir?”
“Sometimes……” Park Jinho muttered, as if he had no choice.
“Sometimes, act like an angel for me.”
“…Pardon?”
His expression looked somehow sad. The Park Jinho who would kill so many lives in the future, showing such a human side. Refri felt uneasy deep down.
“Act like an angel in front of Hexi. I’ll pay you handsomely.”
“It’s not about the pay……”
Right now, Park Jinho was boldly saying he’d deceive Hexi with lies. Of course, Refri wasn’t a fake angel but a real one, the only person who could truly calm her. But still.
‘Right now, Park Jinho is saying it doesn’t matter if Hexi gets deceived by me. And what did he say earlier? That Hexi’s rampages are a necessary card to catch the Demon King…? He’s treating people like tools.’
The suspicions kept deepening. And then.
‘This means if he can control Hexi, Park Jinho would do anything. Which means, perhaps……’
Refri came to a conclusion.
“Professor, you knew that Professor Hexi was taking drugs provided by the Seocheon Yu family.”
“…That’s right.”
“And to put your proposal plainly… You want me to act like an angel and keep feeding her those drugs?”
“…Yes.”
Park Jinho’s immediate answer. The conviction in his eyes was almost frightening. But Refri didn’t back down. Even if he was a lazy angel focused only on self-preservation without any convictions… he had no choice but to keep questioning.
“No, you want me to feed her drugs? Wait, hold on… Then you know Professor Hexi is leashed to the Seocheon Yu family… that she’s being mistreated by them.”
“That’s right.”
“Hexi is your colleague! How can you hand her over to the Seocheon Yu family?”
But Park Jinho’s response was unflinching.
“For humanity and our people.”
“Pardon?”
“Hexi’s rampages are among the strongest cards humanity holds. But a card is only useful if it can be controlled.”
The air around them grew strange. The Archery Department students began glaring at Park Jinho with resentment. Of course, true to his title of Sword Saint, he didn’t flinch at such glares.
But when he saw Refri’s disappointed look, even he couldn’t bear that gaze.
“Thus, control was necessary. Even if it meant unreliable drugs from the Seocheon Yu family……”
Refri looked at the youthful, beautiful professor using his knee as a pillow. Hexi. She was probably the youngest among the professors. Likely not even thirty yet.
“That’s no different from the Demon King’s army! Drugging a colleague, deceiving her, and selling her off……”
“I won’t make excuses for that.”
Park Jinho answered gravely, his expression unchanged.
“But Hexi had no other path.”
“No other path?”
“Do you think everything she killed in her rampages was only Demon King’s Army monsters?”
The cruel words continued.
“Hexi lost her family, her territory, her friends—all by her own hand. Do you think I’d be the one to first recommend this trash drug?”
“No way, Professor Hexi was the one who……”
“Yes, Hexi had already been addicted to this drug for a long time. We professors judged that without it, she’d rampage constantly due to the withdrawal symptoms.”
Park Jinho showed a human side once more.
“So you just left Professor Hexi alone? Without helping her?!”
“Yes, we could have trusted Hexi and endured the withdrawal together. However……”
His expression looked so sorrowful.
“We couldn’t gamble like that. If Hexi was already beyond saving… we thought the right thing was to help her fulfill her duty as a hero to the end.”
“Do you know what the side effects of that drug are?”
“I know. In the underworld, it’s called……”
But Park Jinho reverted to his iron-blooded demeanor.
“Narak.”
Park Jinho pointed at the fallen Hexi with his finger.
“Look. Hexi is already no different from being trapped in Narak. See that……”
At that moment, Hexi began to twitch again. With it rose a golden fighting spirit. Hexi was rampaging once more.
Seeing this, Park Jinho picked up the drug container beside her.
“She’s already living in Narak. Give up.”
With those words, he approached Hexi.
“No!”
“Step aside.”
“No more drugs!”
“Step aside! There’s no other way!”
The golden aura grew thicker. Park Jinho also revealed his own golden fighting spirit and took a stance.
But Refri was stubborn.
“That boy… He’s standing against Park Jinho for Professor Hexi?”
“He’s protecting our professor from the vice principal……”
The Archery Department students gathered one by one beside Refri. Even the ones who had fled from Hexi’s earlier rampage, all the students who had stayed…… Regardless of year, they stood by Refri, glaring at Park Jinho.
“What are you all doing?!”
“That boy is right.”
One student shouted, holding back tears.
“Vice Principal, please don’t give our professor any more of those drugs.”
Hexi stood up. Everyone except Refri swallowed dryly, watching her next move.
“Angel… don’t leave……”
She looked around—looked around—stared at Refri’s face, then drifted back to sleep with a peaceful smile.
“The drug’s effect should’ve worn off by now… Could she have overcome the side effects……?”
Park Jinho muttered in disbelief.
Seeing this, Refri declared:
“I’ll become an angel.”
He looked at Park Jinho and said:
“Not for some grand reason like the world or our people, but for Professor Hexi and all these Archery Department students……”
He looked back at Hexi.
“I’ll become an angel.”
Of course, that wasn’t the only reason he’d act like an angel.
‘No matter how I think about it… the benefits of being able to act like an angel are too great.’
First, if the professors ever found out he was a real angel… he’d have an excuse: he was just pretending for Hexi.
Second, multi is always right. Hexi would probably shower him with angel power like Soya.
Third, he needed an advisor professor for the club.
Fourth, Hexi was insanely strong. Becoming her guardian angel meant gaining tremendous firepower.
No, he almost forgot the most important fifth.
If Refri ‘acted’ like an angel to calm Hexi, the professors would surely provide tons of benefits. The most crucial reason for profit-angel Refri.
Perfect. Refri decided to become an acting angel starting today.
“…Refri.”
The Archery Department students could only feel immense guilt and gratitude toward him.
Acting like an angel in front of Hexi would be ‘extremely hard unless you were a real angel.’ Plus, with her rampages unpredictable, no days off. And if she ever noticed it was an act and rampaged……
‘That boy would definitely die.’
Yet here he was, trying to save Hexi from the Seocheon Yu family and the other professors, essentially giving up his entire life.
‘No different from throwing away his future.’
A tremendous sacrifice.
…or so the Archery Department students thought.
They didn’t know Refri was a real angel who didn’t need to act, could easily calm her with his many angel power sources……
And Park Jinho was under the same misunderstanding.
Park Jinho slowly opened his mouth.
“…Am I wrong again?”
Refri was slightly surprised. Iron-Blooded Park Jinho was shedding tears once more.
“Should we have……”
Park Jinho slowly reached out to Hexi.
“…believed in Hexi like you……”
He grasped her hand and muttered.
“I……”
And so, a secret pact was formed between Central Academy Vice Principal Park Jinho and Refri.
Currently, Refri’s setting was an angel who had fallen to earth and infiltrated the academy. Further, the additional setting: infiltrating to protect a hero candidate student at Central Academy.
“If an angel came down to attend our academy… this setting would be the most reasonable.”
“Y-yes, I think so too.”
Refri swallowed hard.
‘Park Jinho… scary insight……’
He had no idea, yet he was so close to the truth.
Whether Refri thought that or not, Park Jinho continued.
“And Refri, suppose you happen to stop Professor Hexi’s rampage… and only she finds out you’re an angel. That setting would work well.”
“I think so too.”
“Your angel identity is a secret, and Hexi is the only one who knows. That way, she won’t blab about it.”
Refri nodded. It wasn’t wrong.
Rusa, peeling tangerines nearby, asked:
“Okay, okay. All good, but why hide being an angel? If I were one, I’d get the red-carpet treatment from fanatics.”
Hearing that, Klein shook his head, answering Rusa’s question in a voice hiding no irritation.
“Good grief, doesn’t this dumb elf even know that? If a real angel walked the earth… do you think the Demon King’s Army would sit idly by? And how many in the human realm hate angels.”
People who hate angels? Refri was startled.
“Professor, there are people who hate angels?”
“Plenty. It’s more resentment than hate, though……”
Professor Klein fiddled with his monocle, then continued.
“When the Otherworld Empire fell… despite all the prayers, not a single angel came down. How much would the survivors resent the heavens?”
“Enough.”
Park Jinho cut Klein off. Klein stepped back, respecting his will.
“Refri. You’re deeply disappointed in us.”
“Yes.”
“…But someday, you’ll understand us.”
“Yeah, that’s what growing up means.”
Rusa added apologetically. Still, Refri’s attitude remained cold.
“I’m still disappointed.”
“Ugh.”
Klein looked genuinely hurt by Refri’s cold words. Rusa suddenly stared outside…… And Park Jinho bowed his head.
“Take good care of Hexi.”
“Now you say that……”
Refri hesitated, then finally said:
“When everything’s over… apologize to Professor Hexi properly.”
With that, Refri left the professors’ meeting room.
“Professor Hexi!”
“Angel! No, Refri……!”
Hexi came running. He’d glimpsed her earlier, stamping her feet anxiously outside the meeting room.
“Don’t call me angel outside!”
“Yes, yes!”
“Not ‘yes,’ it’s ‘yep’!”
“…Yep!”
Hexi grabbed Refri’s hand and grinned ear to ear, as if it were the best thing ever. The fluid movements of a living angel, the warm hand with flowing blood. And that radiant smile blooming like a flower.
A living, breathing ‘my’ angel. Hexi asked again, as if in disbelief.
“…Right. Can’t let anyone know you’re an angel?”
“Yes.”
“And I’m the only one who knows……”
Hexi muttered ‘I’m the only one who knows you’re an angel……’ over and over. Her body shivered as if it were the sweetest drink.
‘Yeah, good thing it’s this setting.’
He couldn’t let anyone else find out he was an angel from now on. He’d be captured for research, or face new threats beyond the Demon King’s Army.
‘Those with grudges against the heavens……’
Refri was already getting scared. But scary was scary, and before becoming a homeless angel, there was work to do.
“Professor Hexi.”
“Yes?”
“Not ‘yes,’ it’s ‘yep’!”
“Yep!”
Hexi smiled so happily. She was over the moon that a living, breathing angel was talking to her.
The road ahead was long. Refri steeled himself and asked again.
“Can you be an advisor for the club I’m starting?”