Ch 141
Became a swordsmanship instructor at the academy
Chapter 141
"Tea... Teacher?"
Se-jin saw my changed appearance for the first time after returning from a 2-night, 3-day regional expedition with the guild.
I briefly explained the situation to the bewildered Se-jin.
"So that's what happened."
"Thief cat, don't you think Shin-hyeok looks a bit strange?"
"What do you mean? I think Teacher looks good in any style."
"That... That's how I feel too. Not talking about appearance."
Both Se-jin and Luciel say embarrassing things for the listener without any concern.
"Then what's strange about it?"
"I don't understand. If that Vice Principal bastard is being annoying, you could just quit. Why go this far? Do you understand?"
"Hmm, it does seem a bit childish."
"It's childish, and he spent a lot of money changing like this. With that money, how many chocolate bars could he have bought?"
That Luciel judges everything by chocolate bar standards.
"Hey, Luciel. Is that money your money?"
"Your money is my money."
This bastard says scary things too easily.
"What do you... SIGH, forget it. It's over anyway."
The Vice Principal threatened that while he couldn't fire me for my provocation, he could impose sanctions.
But I countered that I would take sick leave.
The Vice Principal countered again asking if I thought I could take sick leave at will, but according to civil servant regulations, you can take up to 6 days of sick leave per year without a medical certificate.
Teachers are also civil servants.
The reason we don't take annual or sick leave during the semester is out of consideration for other teachers who have to substitute when one person is absent, not because of regulations.
With the institution head's permission, you can take up to 60 days of sick leave, and if it's for work-related issues, up to 180 days is possible.
Of course, this requires the institution head's permission, but the institution head is the Principal, not the Vice Principal.
There's a saying that crayfish side with crabs, but if the Vice Principal wanted to go all the way, I was planning to take sick leave claiming that the wound from catching Bennett Krizia last time had worsened.
There's no disease called Qi Deviation in this world, but there are similar conditions like magic Poisoning and magic Dissolution Syndrome.
Manipulating such a condition wouldn't be too difficult for me.
I couldn't settle things in the Vice Principal's office earlier, but I called the Vice Principal a little while ago to declare surrender first.
I admitted that I had been unreasonable because of Teacher Kim and apologized.
He said he would cancel the supplementary classes and festival performance he had dumped on me if I didn't want to do them, but I said I would do them anyway.
Since I had already agreed to take them on, I couldn't dump them on another teacher now.
This was a fight I couldn't lose from the beginning.
Even with the difference between Vice Principal and regular teacher, we're both S-rank Hunters and I'm an Honorary Director with superior martial strength.
It would be absurd for the Vice Principal, who couldn't fire me at will, to stop me from causing a ruckus when I was prepared to quit.
But even after receiving the apology, I don't feel that great and the aftertaste isn't clean.
It's not because of the supplementary classes or performance.
The supplementary classes were something I originally agreed to do, and for the performance, well, I said there was a possibility I wouldn't do it if students applied for many festival events.
While this was something I did because I was provoked by the Vice Principal, I was actually feeling some self-loathing and reality check... What they call 'reality hitting hard.'
The students were happy because I always had them study on their own or play while ordering snacks, making classes easy, and my body was comfortable, but my heart wasn't.
No matter how much practice is better than theory and I had already covered a lot of the curriculum, the students did nothing wrong but suffered unnecessary damage.
Did I really need to go this far just to win a power struggle with the Vice Principal...
It's childish as Se-jin said, and as Luciel said, if I was going to teach kids like this, it would have been better to just quit.
I thought I wasn't taking teaching lightly.
But in reality, it seems I wasn't thinking that seriously about it and just packaging it with plausible words.
Should I quit?
Even though I made up with the Vice Principal, we'll keep running into each other if I continue teaching, and it'll be awkward...
I resolved to live as a popular person in this life, but honestly, I still don't really know what being popular means.
It wouldn't be bad to just go live in some quiet rural village like I wished for in my previous life.
With these two.
Of course, Se-jin has to be a Guild Master and has a bright future ahead at twenty, so she can't retire with me, but she can come and go with Warp Magic like now.
"Teacher, you said you made up with the Vice Principal, so is there some other worry?"
"Should I quit school?"
"What? Why?"
"Because it seems too childish like you said."
"No, that was just..."
"It's not wrong. It's true that I taught carelessly because I was having a power struggle with the Vice Principal. I caused damage to innocent students, and I don't think I'm qualified as a teacher."
With all the things I've done, the future must have changed, but with my current self, I should be able to control the changed future to some degree.
Even in the worst case where the protagonists don't grow properly and things go wrong, I can handle The Demon Lord myself.
There wouldn't be much difference between my current self and Lee Ji-sung who has grown by finding all the opportunities.
"I absolutely don't think that way."
"Huh?"
"The kids you teach all like you, Teacher."
"Well..."
"What do you mean 'well'? I saw it myself last year when I was doing supplementary classes. The kids really like and trust you, Teacher."
"That might be because I bought them a lot of food."
"They're not kindergarteners. Would they like a teacher just because he buys them a lot of food?"
"Is that so? Aren't you being too kind?"
"No. Even during summer vacation last year when the scandal with Eunseo broke out, all the Swordsmanship Club kids took your side, Teacher."
"Ah..."
Right. That happened.
At first, they all posted that she was my girlfriend, which was really confusing... But they all stood up for me.
"Besides, if you hadn't helped me, Teacher, I wouldn't be where I am now. The relationship with my father would have continued to be bad too."
"That's because I promised first..."
"You stood up for me even though I wasn't in your class or your grade level. And just this May, that Minha girl? You didn't give up on the student who lost her arm and even developed magic."
"Hey, he didn't develop that. I taught it to him."
"Right."
"Was... Was that so? Still, you learned it from Luciel and treated her, Teacher. It's the result of your efforts."
"That's right."
Hearing this, maybe I'm quite a decent teacher.
"Thank you."
"Thank you for what? Teacher, when you first said you would help me, you told me to trust you, right?"
"Huh? Right, I did."
"This time, please trust me. I haven't lived that long, but in my life, there's been no teacher as good as you. I'm sure other students think the same way, so have confidence. You're really a good teacher."
Seeing Se-jin say this when she could have just dismissed it as complaining really makes me feel confident.
"Though I was a bit disappointed as a man."
"Uh... Huh?"
Haha... This isn't exactly giving medicine after giving poison.
"I have the same thought... Huh? Kang Shin-hyeok! Fishing rod!"
At Luciel's shout, I hurriedly lifted the fishing rod and jerked it, but I was a step too late.
"Pay attention. What were you thinking about to miss that?"
"Were you thinking about me?"
"What, what are you saying? You were just talking to the thief cat."
It was a joke, but Luciel's face turned beet red.
"So you're sulking?"
"Who says I'm sulking?"
She said more embarrassing things without concern just a moment ago, but now she's being shy.
"You seem to be sulking."
"Even you, thief cat... I'm not!"
Luciel makes an excuse that she can't catch fish because it's noisy and goes to the stern.
"Thief cat, you come too! It's a competition!"
"I'm going to win anyway."
Se-jin also makes a fighting motion with her hand toward me and follows Luciel.
My frustrated feelings feel much lighter.
I think I was taking it too seriously.
I can make up for teaching carelessly this time by teaching strictly from now on.
Even if I'm not the best teacher like Se-jin said, wouldn't I be decent enough?
***
"Good morning."
"Huh? Teacher Kang, your outfit is quite normal today?"
"Is your wandering phase over now?"
After talking with Se-jin yesterday, I returned to the dormitory and immediately put the Hawaiian shirt and ripped jeans into subspace.
The clothes themselves were comfortable, but the style didn't suit me, so it was uncomfortable.
Wind kept coming through the holes, and the thigh area was about to tear. How do popular people wear such things...
I also removed all the bothersome piercings and used magic to return my skin to its original tone.
"Your hair is the same though?"
I didn't change just the hair.
No, I couldn't change it.
I didn't have time to go to a salon, and compared to clothes or piercings, the hair wasn't that different.
Most importantly, when I dyed it, they said if I changed it again here, my hair could become completely damaged or I could get hair loss, so I had no choice but to leave it.
Anyway, if I don't do root touch-ups or anything, it'll change naturally as it grows.
"I didn't have time, and since it was already damaged from dyeing, they said it might fall out if I tried to change it back..."
By the way, hair loss cannot be treated with recovery magic or even regeneration magic.
According to Luciel, it might be possible if you carefully peel off just the scalp without touching the skull and use regeneration magic, but I don't want to experiment with something uncertain.
They complain that I was hard to approach because I was so on edge, and after apologizing and chatting, it's already meeting time.
Second-years start practical training today, so there's nothing special.
If I had to pick something, it would be deciding what each class will do for the festival and submitting a plan by next Wednesday.
"Has Teacher Kang's class decided what to do for the festival?"
"Ah, our class hasn't yet. I'm going to ask when I see them later and decide during Home room time this Friday."
"Our class kids said they're doing a cafe."
"Our class too."
"Our class also said they're doing a cafe."
"Huh? Our class too."
What, five out of ten classes are doing cafes.
"Cafes seem to be the most popular."
"Cafes are the easiest. Just bring a capsule coffee machine and make it. You can even sell instant coffee."
Instant coffee with capsule coffee machines seems too half-hearted, but it can't be helped.
Each class gets about 300,000 won in festival budget, but you can't buy a coffee machine like cafes use just for a few days of festival, and renting is difficult too.
"Even cafes are all different. Our class decided to do a cat cafe."
"Our class is doing maid or some kind of servant outfit concept."
They definitely compete with concepts like this rather than taste.
Since most customers are parents or relatives anyway, they don't really care about the quality of coffee the kids sell.
There are even 2 classes saying they'll sell food, but restaurants seem difficult.
If you do a restaurant, you have to compete with the cafeteria that's famous for good quality.
There's also a class doing a haunted house.
And a class doing theatrical performances.
Last year, I was mostly at the entrance dealing with visitors and preparing supplementary classes, so I barely got to look around.
It'll probably be similar this time, but homeroom teachers don't have to do visitor verification procedures, so it might be a bit better than last time.
Se-jin said she's coming too, so it would be nice if we could walk around together.
"Aren't you all working?"
The Academic Affairs Director comes over to scold us for being too loud.
Everyone bows their heads and starts working on paperwork.
I also turn on my laptop and open the supplementary class materials.
[Breaking Form]
It can be said to be nearly perfect, but after actually teaching it to the kids and using it in martial arts competitions, there are some parts that are lacking or need slight changes.
I need to fill in the parts I taught carelessly.
Of course, second-years start practical training today so there are no classes, but there are supplementary classes.
I look through the files one by one making corrections, and there are typos here and there with red lines drawn under them.
But I don't really want to fix them.
This file is the original file that Master directly typed and made, so even the typos are traces of Master.
The unkindly written explanations too, and looking at it continuously reminds me of Master.
It's also soon time for the first-year retreat, and to pull myself together, I should visit this coming weekend.