Ch 131
Became a swordsmanship instructor at the academy
Chapter 131
"Let's stop here. It's almost time to go to work."
It's been a while since I sparred with Se-jin, and she's definitely become much sharper with her sword after experiencing so much real combat.
"Ah... Can't we do just one more round?"
"Overexerting yourself isn't good either. You need to go eat and get ready."
Looking at her white clothes stained with sweat, she must be quite tired, but Se-jin is indeed too diligent.
"Here. At least wipe your face with this. And drink this too."
I used subspace magic to take out a towel and sports drink for her.
"Ah, thank you."
"Why only give it to her? Give me some too!"
Luciel grumbles from the side.
This girl who wouldn't even glance at anything that isn't chocolate bars.
I used subspace magic again to take out a chocolate milk.
"That's not your taste. You drink this."
"A space where time flows 30 times slower, it really seems great."
"It's not all good. Being here means you age 30 times faster than other people."
"Huh? Now that I think about it, that's true."
Of course, Se-jin has also learned internal energy cultivation and is at the pinnacle level, so it wouldn't be too serious of a problem.
When I declared that I wouldn't date either of them, I thought there would be severe backlash.
But surprisingly, everyone easily accepted it.
Luciel grumbled a bit, but she allowed Se-jin to come here.
Se-jin, who had been complaining, also seems quite satisfied.
With Se-jin coming here, I occasionally oversee sparring sessions, so my work has increased a bit, but this much is fine.
Luciel has gotten slightly more irritated, but I think this much is fortunate.
In the worst case, I thought there was a possibility of becoming awkward with everyone, but neither Luciel nor Se-jin's attitude toward me has changed much compared to before.
"Hey, aren't you leaving?"
"I'll leave when Teacher leaves."
Luciel glares at Se-jin and picks a fight.
The atmosphere suddenly became strange again, but honestly, it's not a big problem.
The two still don't get along well, but they don't fight violently—they just bicker like this.
The possibility is slim, but if the two became friends...
No, let's not think about that.
"Alright. Then I'll have to leave first."
"What time will you come back? I think I'll be able to come around 7 PM after getting off work."
I said I'd come at the right time and tore a leaf, and the familiar ceiling came into view.
It's the hotel where I'll stay during vacation.
Luciel immediately pops out too.
"Let's go play."
"Play what. I have things to do."
"What things? That ugly girl said vacation is for resting."
"...I'm going to meet someone. I'll order you delicious desserts, so stay here."
"I don't want to. Anyway, I can't get far from the necklace."
"Then just take it off."
I try to remove the necklace but... What?
There's no clasp.
"Luciel, how do you take this off?"
"You can't take that off."
"Can't take it off? Stop joking and take it off quickly."
"I'm not joking."
"Then I'll break it."
As I create Sword Energy on my finger, Luciel makes a serious expression.
"Are you trying to choose that ugly girl?"
"No, I'm asking you to take off the necklace. Why are you saying such random things?"
"I told you that half of my soul is contained in the necklace. If you break the necklace, my soul will break too."
"What?"
"The other half over there would also suffer great damage. I'd sleep for at least a thousand years or maybe immediately fall..."
It's nothing short of blackmail.
"I won't break it, so please take it off. What am I supposed to do when I need to wash or go to the bathroom? Are you really going to watch all of that?"
As Se-jin said, this girl is really perverted.
"Wh... Who would watch such things! I won't watch, I just won't watch."
"How can I trust that? You might watch and pretend not to. Please respect personal privacy a bit."
"Now you're being newfangled... You can just come out like this."
"Didn't you say you can't get far from the necklace?"
Now I see that it's not a necklace but more like shackles.
"Where are you trying to go? Are you going to meet another woman?"
How did she know?
"What, why no answer? Are you really going to meet another woman?"
She's glaring so fiercely that lasers might shoot from her eyes any moment.
"I'm going to meet Teacher Kim and come back."
"Teacher Kim, you mean that girl who confessed, not the ugly one, right?"
"Right."
"Why are you meeting her! You originally said you were going to choose the ugly girl instead of that woman. Then isn't she eliminated in the preliminaries?"
Eliminated in the preliminaries... It's not wrong, but what an expression.
Where did she learn to say such things?
"I said I wouldn't date anyone. I'm meeting her to sort things out."
Actually, there's also the possibility that both Luciel and Se-jin might fall for Kim Do-hyun, so there's no need to refuse in advance.
Teacher Kim also didn't ask for an immediate answer and said she'd wait...
But if I continue with an ambiguous attitude toward Teacher Kim without giving any indication for such reasons, that would really make me trash.
Teacher Kim isn't insurance either.
If Luciel hadn't interfered, I was going to confess to Se-jin and apologize to Teacher Kim.
Although I chose Se-jin instead of Teacher Kim, Teacher Kim is also a precious colleague and acquaintance.
I can't give her false hope when I know there's no possibility.
If I reject her, we won't be able to be as close as before, but I'll have to endure that.
My mouth feels bitter.
***
"Luciel, go inside now."
I explained the situation, but the necklace really can't be removed, so I had no choice but to come with her.
"You're not including that woman in your sorting out, are you?"
"How many times are you going to ask? I said no, so go inside."
"I'll be watching everything."
With those words, Luciel disappeared with a flash of light.
The weather is quite sunny, but my heart feels too heavy.
I took a deep breath and took out my phone from my pocket to call Teacher Kim.
—Yes, Teacher Kang.
"I'm in front of your house right now."
—Oh my, you've arrived already?
"It's not rush hour, so traffic wasn't too bad..."
—I see. Um, I think I need a little more time. Would you like to come in and wait? I'll show you our cats too.
"It's fine. Please call me when you come out."
After waiting about 10 minutes, the door opened and Teacher Kim came out.
A bright dress and quite high-looking heels.
At school, she always wore just lab coats, and even when we went portal raiding together, she only wore comfortable clothes, but she's all dressed up.
She probably thinks we're going on a date or something...
Should I have just talked on the phone like Luciel said?
No, no matter what, I can't have this kind of conversation without seeing her face.
"Teacher Kang!"
Seeing her approach with a bright smile makes my guilt grow even more.
"Hello."
"It's really hot today."
"Yes. It is. Shall we get in first?"
"Yes."
I seated Teacher Kim in the passenger seat and got in the driver's seat myself.
"Teacher Kang..."
"Yes?"
"Could you turn on the air conditioning? The car is like a complete steamer."
Ah... I have immunity to temperature so I originally don't turn it on, and Luciel isn't very sensitive to temperature either, so I didn't think of it.
She won't be staying long anyway, but I turned the air conditioning to maximum.
"Now I see Teacher Kang is the same style as my dad."
"Pardon?"
"My dad also rarely turns on the air conditioning because it drains gas quickly. Even though he has money, he should at least turn on the air conditioning when driving. I thought the car was a furnace, not a car."
"I'm sorry."
"You don't need to be that sorry... By the way, where are we going? It's not somewhere like the beach or valley, is it? I didn't bring clothes for that. Should I go get some now?"
She's completely high-energy.
"Um, well... I said I had something to tell you earlier, but I don't think I said we were going somewhere."
"The weather's nice. We can go play after we finish talking. What did you want to talk about?"
"You said you had feelings for me last time..."
"Huh? I was actually wondering since you asked to meet first... Could it be that you asked to meet today to give me an answer?"
Looking at Teacher Kim's cheeks turning red, it seems she thinks I'm going to give a positive answer.
"I'm really sorry, but I'd like you to put those feelings aside now."
As expected, her expression immediately hardens.
"May I know the reason you're saying that?"
Coldness flows from her words.
"The reason is..."
"Is it Se-jin?"
"Pardon? Why suddenly Se-jin..."
"I know Se-jin likes Teacher Kang."
"How do you know that? Did something..."
"I had a feeling, but it seems it really is Se-jin. I didn't hear it directly, it's more like women's intuition?"
"Pardon?"
"When Se-jin came to my house last time, the way Se-jin looked at you was exactly the same as how I look at you."
I had no idea...
Se-jin and I aren't dating, so should I tell the truth?
But then there would be too much to explain...
'I was torn between Se-jin and Teacher Kim and was going to choose Se-jin, but Luciel suddenly said she liked me, so I couldn't choose between the two and decided not to date anyone and not pursue relationships.'
Saying something like this would be like killing Teacher Kim twice.
"I'm not dating Se-jin."
"Then why... Could it be there's another woman?"
"..."
Thinking my silence means confirmation, she looks completely disappointed.
There's no choice.
If I had said I was dating Se-jin here, Luciel would have definitely popped out 100%.
That would make the situation much more complicated.
That's why I wanted to take off the necklace before coming...
"You're not lying, are you? If it's not Se-jin, then who on earth is it?"
"I don't think I need to tell Teacher Kim about that... I'm sorry."
She looks like she's about to cry... No, tears are already falling drop by drop.
I wanted to end this as nicely as possible without hurting her, but it seems that was impossible.
Well, it's not like I'm accepting the confession—I'm rejecting it, so there's no way to end it nicely.
In the end, Teacher Kim left the car.
This should be the right thing to do, but I feel so uncomfortable.
Light appeared as if Luciel was about to pop out again, but when I blocked the internal energy going to the necklace, the light quickly disappeared.
"I want to be alone right now."
If Luciel came out now and mocked Teacher Kim, I think I'd hate her too much.
***
"Teacher, isn't that airplane totally cute?"
"It's completely pink. The size is small too, so it's cute and totally my style."
"Class president, you think that's cute? I'm anxious. Teacher, doesn't that kind of airplane crash when the wind blows hard?"
Since there are hardly any people going to Muan Airport, the airplane is quite small.
The girls like it, but some kids look a bit anxious.
"If you're that anxious, Hyeon-sik, why don't you take the bus that takes over four hours?"
"Ah... No sir."
"Then stop talking nonsense and get on quickly."
The exterior feels more like a light aircraft rather than the usual passenger planes, but once inside, the interior isn't much different.
Actually, the seats are wider than regular passenger planes and the price is definitely cheaper even during peak season.
When going to Jeju Island, it took 30 minutes, but maybe because the plane is small and slow, it took about an hour to arrive at Muan Airport.
Initially, we were going to go to Hampyeong where Jae-hyeon's uncle runs a pension, but since his health deteriorated and he was hospitalized, we changed the location to a pension in Muan.
The schedule itself is only 1 night and 2 days, so it's not long anyway.
Since Muan is also by the sea, there's a beach too.
I called several taxis to divide the kids and arrived at the pension.
It's a city I didn't even know the name of, but since it's summer, there are quite a few people.
Of course, it's not a famous place like Haeundae or Gyeongpodae, so it's not completely packed.
Thinking about how the kids got hit on in Jeju Island last year, I'm a bit worried... But most are families, so it should be okay, right?