Ch 169
Became a swordsmanship instructor at the academy
Chapter 169
"Everyone, quiet down. Some students may know the situation, but there will be others who don't, so I'll explain. Chan-seong had an accident when he was in his second year of middle school and was lying in the hospital for a long time before recently regaining consciousness."
"Teacher, then shouldn't Chan-seong return as a third-year student?"
"It seems he studied hard after regaining consciousness. He also passed the tests conducted by the school. There shouldn't be any problem attending classes. Right?"
"Ah, yes."
"His past memories aren't completely intact yet, so everyone please treat him kindly. Well then, everyone attend class well and I'll see you at the closing ceremony."
Classes?
Does Hunter School have regular classes even on the entrance ceremony day?
I don't think it was like that when I went to school before, but this is quite disappointing.
"Yes!"
"Chan-seong, do you remember me?"
Several children approached the child called Chan-seong, seemingly having some familiarity with him, and I'm really at a loss.
The teacher said it was an accident, but according to the memory that just surfaced, Min Chan-seong didn't lose consciousness due to an accident.
Min Chan-seong was in the same class as Lee Ji-sung in his second year of middle school, and he was the kid that Lee Ji-sung bullied very severely.
The culprit behind Min Chan-seong having to lie unconscious in the hospital for over a year was also Lee Ji-sung.
For the reason of buying the wrong bread, he called Min Chan-seong aside after class to beat him up and pushed him, but unfortunately Min Chan-seong fell and hit his head on the corner of the stairs.
If this piece of trash Lee Ji-sung had quickly informed the teacher and taken action, it wouldn't have led to a vegetative state.
This garbage that's not even human contacted his mother first before the teacher, and Lee Ji-sung's mother, who cherished her child dearly, covered up this incident.
Min Chan-seong had fallen by himself, and Lee Ji-sung was the one who discovered Min Chan-seong and reported it.
Several students testified that Lee Ji-sung had called Min Chan-seong out and frequently beat him up, but it was useless.
Since he normally caused so many accidents, Lee Ji-sung's mother had already fed the teachers plenty of money.
It wasn't something that happened in the classroom in the first place, and it was something that happened after calling him to a CCTV blind spot, so there were no witnesses or evidence.
There might have been traces of beatings left on Min Chan-seong's body, but they probably solved that by bribing the doctor too.
If there had been parents who took interest, the situation might have been different, but Min Chan-seong is from an orphanage.
Lee Ji-sung's mother covered up the situation and scolded him, saying it was fortunate that he was a helpless orphan without parents, so they could at least manage to handle it.
Does that bastard remember?
I immediately got up from my seat.
I can transcribe the original work later.
The most urgent thing right now is to confirm whether that bastard remembers that fact.
Lee Ji-sung's image is already completely that of a trashy scoundrel, and if that bastard reveals that fact, image recovery will become even more difficult.
No, it's not simply that image recovery will become more difficult—there's even the possibility that I might get expelled from school.
The original work progresses with Hunter School as the background, and to utilize the information I know, I absolutely must be at Hunter School.
The teacher said earlier that his memory isn't perfect, but if I were Min Chan-seong, after regaining consciousness, I would have tried to figure out why I ended up lying like this first.
Of course, the vice principal who came with him earlier didn't say anything special, and there was no separate summons for me, so it seems he didn't say anything.
There's a high possibility he doesn't remember, but I need to be certain about this kind of thing.
It's possible that he remembers but isn't saying anything.
If he remembers, I need to shut his mouth by any means necessary.
I guess giving him a few bucks would do the trick.
If I tell Lee Ji-sung's mother, she'll easily provide hush money.
I feel a bit reluctant because I seem to be becoming trash too, but in my current situation, there's no other way.
"Hey, Min Chan-seong. Let's talk for a moment."
"Who... Do you know me too?"
Huh?
Does he not remember me at all?
Looking at his expression, it doesn't seem like acting...
"Hey, Lee Ji-sung! Don't bother Chan-seong!"
A female student with long straight hair blocked my way.
Looking at her name tag, Seong Ji-an?
So Seong Ji-an was in our class.
Come to think of it, the protagonist Kim Do-hyun has several heroines around him, but most of them are met in their second year of high school, and only one main heroine is in the same class in their first year.
Seong Ji-an is one of Kim Do-hyun's heroines, and her father was the guild leader of one of the top 10 guilds... I don't remember the name well, but anyway, one of them.
She's a character overflowing with a sense of justice just like the protagonist, but I guess it's because she's a heroine?
She feels better than the senior I saw at the entrance ceremony earlier.
"What did I do? I was just trying to talk..."
"I heard everything about how you terribly bullied Chan-seong in your second year of middle school. Are you trying to bully him again as soon as he woke up?"
"No, I really just wanted to talk..."
"Get lost! If you try to bully Chan-seong or any other kids in our class, I won't let you get away with it."
I really was just going to talk, but I'm getting slightly annoyed.
"This is ridiculous. I just said I wanted to talk, but you won't even let me exchange words. Who are you? Are you Chan-seong's guardian or something?"
Since it's just the entrance ceremony, she probably isn't even the class president.
"The one who's being ridiculous is me. Don't you even think about what you've done?"
"..."
"Do you think there's a student in our class... No, in our entire grade who doesn't know you're a delinquent?"
...I'm angry, but it's not wrong, so I can't say anything.
It's true that this bastard Lee Ji-sung is trash and his image is completely ruined, but I haven't done anything yet...
Is this my current position?
It seems like continuing to argue would only make my image worse, so I returned to my seat.
Still, seeing that Min Chan-seong doesn't recognize me, it seems like he doesn't remember that incident either...
I feel really disgusted.
Of all the possessions, I had to possess this kind of trash bastard. It might have been much better if I had just been an ordinary extra.
Hah... I really can't help but sigh.
I need to shed this trashy image as soon as possible...
I thought it wouldn't be easy, but it seems like it'll be much more difficult than I thought.
***
"Chan-seong, don't talk to that bastard from now on."
"Ah, okay."
"But do you really not remember me? We were really close in our first year. We were desk partners several times too. You remember when we fed rabbits together..."
"Sorry. I really can't remember."
"No, what do you have to be sorry about? Considering that trashy bastard bullied you, it might be better that you don't remember. Let's quickly prepare for class."
"Ah, okay."
I'm grateful that she's looking after me, but it's slightly burdensome.
If I were really Min Chan-seong, it would have been different, but I'm not Min Chan-seong.
Actually, I didn't intend to become Min Chan-seong from the beginning.
I decided to erase Kang Shin-hyeok from the world, but I had many concerns.
The biggest problem was that to coordinate the changes, I would need to stay by the protagonist's side and watch, but how could I stay by his side?
Even if I erase Kang Shin-hyeok from the world, not everything would return to the original work.
While I was pondering methods, I received a contact from Choi Seo-ra.
She said she attended the school management council meeting and heard about a student named Min Chan-seong who collapsed at school last year and became a vegetative patient.
Until now, the school had been paying for life support costs out of moral responsibility, but since there was no sign of recovery even after a year, a proposal to discontinue it was submitted.
As soon as I heard that story, I said I would help.
Choi Seo-ra, who usually likes children and students, was worried about a student dying and contacted me, but that proposal passing was something for the distant future anyway.
In the original work, the name Min Chan-seong doesn't come up, but when Lee Ji-sung becomes a third-year and is doing well, that proposal passes and Min Chan-seong dies.
Then there's an episode where one of the teachers who received money and covered up the incident makes a confession of conscience.
Looking at the whole picture, it didn't have much significance and was such a frustrating part like sweet potato that I had completely forgotten about it, but I thought this was exactly it.
If I can't be at school as a teacher, I can be there as a student.
Rather than a teacher, being a student would allow me to watch much more closely and respond more conveniently.
Most of all, this friend Min Chan-seong, like Kang Shin-hyeok, was from an orphanage with no family or relatives, making it easy to switch identities.
The real Min Chan-seong is being cared for at a safe house arranged by Se-jin.
Although he was destined to die anyway, and disappearing would be the cleanest way to prevent future problems, stealing a life when I'm already borrowing an identity isn't something a human should do.
Anyway, I wanted to have a conversation with Lee Ji-sung once...
Still, it's not without any gain.
Just from the reaction he showed, it's certain that Lee Ji-sung has been possessed.
Well, I was worried earlier in the auditorium when he was hitting on Eunseo instead of Eunsu that maybe he hadn't been possessed...
Well, since we're in the same class, there will be opportunities to talk in the future.
But I don't understand why this Seong Ji-an character, being a main-level heroine, shows such interest in Min Chan-seong.
She's originally a righteous character and they were close in their first year, but she's almost at the level of a mother with how she's hovering around.
No matter how much Min Chan-seong was in a vegetative state for over a year before returning.
I wonder if other kids might misunderstand that they have that kind of relationship.
More than anything else, it's fortunate that no one seems to have noticed that I'm using Polymorph magic.
Polymorph magic doesn't exist in this world and I learned it from what Luciel taught me, but since it strictly uses magic, the flow of magic inevitably becomes unnatural while casting.
I got advice from Master and Luciel to hide the unnaturalness as much as possible, but Master said there's a possibility of being caught if an S-rank Hunter looks carefully.
Especially when I met the vice principal earlier, I was very worried about what would happen if I got caught, but the vice principal seemed completely unaware too.
"Chan-seong, Min Chan-seong!"
"Uh... Huh? Why?"
Haha... Maintaining the appearance changed by magic isn't that difficult, but the name still isn't familiar to my ears.
Over the past few days, I even had special training asking Luciel and Se-jin to call me Chan-seong...
"What's wrong? Are your ears bad too?"
"That's not it..."
"Let's look at the book together. You probably didn't get your textbooks."
"Ah, right. Thanks."
The morning classes ended.
It was nothing special, more than I thought.
There were some teachers who went straight into the curriculum, but mostly since it was the first day of the semester, they just introduced themselves and explained how they would conduct classes going forward.
It'll be a bit bothersome from now on, but Kang Shin-hyeok was quite good at studying, so I won't fail or anything.
Seong Ji-an, who sits next to me, asked me to have lunch together, but I declined with the excuse that I needed to get my textbooks first.
She really must have been very close, sharing her textbook with me throughout class and taking me around various places in the school during break time to show me around, taking care of me in many ways, but honestly, it was bothersome.
I already know all these facts anyway.
I spent two years at this school, so I should die if I don't know.
I looked around once and went to a corner to take out my phone, and there were tons of messages from Se-jin.
[Did you go to school?]
[What are you doing?]
[Seeing that you're not even replying, school life must be very fun.]
She seemed a bit sulky, so I quickly sent a reply.
[We can't use phones during class. Did you eat lunch?]
Se-jin was the problem when I planned everything and was about to execute it.
Se-jin's help is essential to execute my plan, and it's impossible not to tell Se-jin that I'm faking my death.
Fortunately, the excuse came to mind more easily than I thought.
Kang Shin-hyeok is not a Hunter School graduate.
Wouldn't it work to say that while teaching kids, I also wanted to experience life as a Hunter School student?
Honestly, it's half a forced excuse.
But I was able to get her agreement to help by talking about the hardships I experienced as a non-Hunter School graduate and asking if I could attend for just one year, with a little acting of making my eyes slightly teary.
It was a bit concerning that I said one year, but wouldn't it work to say that I like it after living here and want to stay a bit longer?
The first time is always the hardest with anything, the second time is easy.
Most of all, Se-jin is someone who listens to me well, so I don't think I need to worry too much.
[It's a holiday today so I ate breakfast late and didn't eat lunch. What about you, Teacher?]
[Me neither. I'm about to eat.]
[I want to eat school lunch too. Our school lunch was really delicious. How's school? Now that you're actually attending, it's not that great, right?]
[No. It's much more fun than I thought?]
Wanting to enjoy school life was an excuse, but it's quite fun.
Come to think of it, I even dropped out when I was attending high school in my previous life.
[It's because it's the entrance ceremony and you didn't have many classes. When exam period comes later, you'll be dying, right?]
[That might be true.]
[Oh, this probably won't happen, but just in case I'm saying this—I have many teacher friends at Hunter School who I keep in touch with.]
[Huh? What's that about?]
[I trust there won't be any incidents involving female students. If I hear such rumors, you know what happens, right? I'll immediately reveal your identity!]