ch 242
Became a Swordsmanship Instructor at the Academy
Chapter 242
A mountain of approval documents piled up like a mountain,
I work hard to check and process them every day, but there's no sign of them decreasing at all.
A few days ago, my master told me not to try to bear everything alone, but this is something I have to do by myself, so there's no choice.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
With the sound of knocking, the door opens and Eunseo enters wearing an elegant business suit.
Haha.... Both her hands are full of documents.
On top of that, seeing her dark expression, it seems like some problem has arisen.
Did I perhaps make a mistake with the documents I approved earlier?
That's not it....
"Eunseo, why do you look like that? Is something wrong?"
"I'm not sure if I should call this a problem.... Take a look at this first."
THUD!
Eunseo put down the documents on the desk.
"What is this?"
"It's the list of first-term trainees and their personal files sent from countries around the world."
"The trainee list and personal files? I see."
Excluding Korea, we limited it to 2 people per country, so did they mindlessly push people in?
Even if they pushed them in, if we don't accept them, that's the end of it, I thought as I turned over the cover.
[Korean Trainees
—Nam Il-seong, Seo I-gyeong, Choi Mun-seong, Seong Jin-cheol.
American Trainees
—Scarlett Brown, Peter Johnson.
British Trainees
—Conrad Rowell, Clay William.
Japanese Trainees
—Hiro Genzo, Raito Takahashi.]
I immediately understood why Eunseo said that.
I skimmed through it and while there are some unfamiliar names, most are familiar names.
Most of the Ten Stars who are the world's strongest Hunters, and in our country too, the honorary directors of the Hunter Association called the Ten Strong, and in other countries too, they're all S-rank Hunters who are the best in each country.
No, no matter how much I didn't talk about restrictions other than the number of people, this is still an academy, so these kinds of people....
Eunseo even calculated the average age next to it.
49.5 years old, nearly approaching 50 years old.
My academy is becoming a senior citizens' university....
Of course, if you teach capable people, those people will learn well and distribution could be faster.
"What should we do? If the trainees are this incredible, it might be difficult for the faculty to control them."
Control is the problem, just like Eunseo said.
Teacher selection is already finished.
We'll divide them into 2 classes and spend most of the education time teaching internal energy cultivation methods, but we can't teach internal energy cultivation methods all day long.
Since this is a place to show the level of Korean Hunters to Hunters from around the world, we sought cooperation from major guilds and composed the faculty with capable and experienced A-rank Hunters, but the trainees are S-rank Hunters?
They'll do a great job educating them.
As for the control problem, if we say we'll expel them if they don't follow instructions, everyone will be careful, but it's not like the faculty won't feel pressure.
"If we accept trainees like this, it'll become a senior center rather than an academy."
"A... senior center?"
Eunseo chuckles at my lament, but this is no time to laugh.
"What should we do? Should we tell them to select and send again?"
"There's not much time left until opening, and if we say it's completely impossible now, there will be great backlash."
Decisively, there's also my mistake of not explaining properly from the beginning.
"Instead, we can't accept them like this. Only 1 senior per country is possible, and the remaining 1 person should be a junior. Juniors should be in their 20s at most, so tell them to select again."
"Even so, I don't think much will change...."
"My thoughts are a bit different. If they live together with their juniors, they'll naturally be careful about their behavior."
Would that be too painful for the juniors?
If they use the same dormitory rooms, that might certainly happen....
Even if we have them do classes together, for dormitories at least, we should separate seniors with seniors and juniors with juniors.
"Yes. I'll convey it right away."
"Please convey it quickly."
I don't want to see my academy become a senior citizens' university.
***
"Chan-seong, this is wrong. If you substitute the formula, you get 0 and 1. If you substitute this here again and do it like that, it's 12."
Even though it's vacation, Ji-an who came to school is kindly explaining next to me, but I don't understand at all.
"Ah, sorry. I'll try solving it again."
"Should we rest a bit? I'll go get some drinks. Try solving it once more while you wait."
"Uh... okay."
When I first woke up in the hospital, I couldn't understand the situation at all.
Hunter Kang Shin-hyeok who treated me, and Ji-an who's walking over there to buy drinks now, both said I had woken up a year ago, but my memory stops when I was in 2nd year of middle school.
Hunter Kang Shin-hyeok said it seemed like my memory was lost as a side effect of the treatment.
Of course, waking up even with some memory loss is much better than remaining in a vegetative state forever, but....
I'm still confused.
They said the me from a year ago who had woken up was very good at studying.
I finished the 3rd year middle school curriculum in just two months and even entered high school with my friends.
Not only that, but I was the first in Hunter School history to get a perfect score and rank first in the entire school, and my magic skills were also top-level.
I couldn't believe it at all, but the person performing in various videos that the school and Ji-an got for me is definitely me.
Did the side effects make my memory disappear, my magic disappear, and even my intelligence regress....
But what confuses me most isn't the lost memories or the time that has passed.
"Hey, Min Chan-seong. Why are you alone? Didn't Ji-an come today?"
That guy is approaching me with a bright smile right now, Lee Ji-sung.
The culprit of all these incidents.
That guy is at the end of my last memory.
Early in the semester, he started bullying me for the simple reason that I looked annoying.
The day I became a vegetative patient, he called me out separately too.
After getting beaten by him for a while, I thought I might really die, so I tried to avoid him, missed my footing, and became a vegetative patient just like that.
I can't get used to that guy who bullied me, calling me and acting friendly with an innocent face.
While I was unconscious, that bastard completely finished his image laundering.
Victory in the martial arts tournament and even WHCU victory.
In the recent terrorist incident where I became a vegetative patient again, he even saved people.
Yeah, these things don't matter anyway.
But according to Ji-an, I had already forgiven that guy.
Forgiveness?
I forgave that piece of trash?
There's absolutely no way that could be true....
Of course, it wasn't simple forgiveness, and they said I beat him up tremendously.
He got into quite a bit of trouble when it was discovered that he had made me a vegetative patient and covered it up.
Even so, whether he really changed as a person, when I became a vegetative patient again from the terrorism, that guy supported all the hospital expenses.
He was also the first one to ask Hunter Kang Shin-hyeok to treat me....
Like Ji-an, even though it's vacation, he comes to school often like this to see me.
"Min Chan-seong, you know that seafood buffet I mentioned before? It's finally opening tomorrow. Let's go there for dinner today."
"You said it opens tomorrow, so how can we go today...."
"I asked them to open early for you. Oh, Ji-an was here too. Ji-an, let's go together."
Whether it's because he feels sorry, he keeps trying to do things for me and take care of me, but it's unbearably burdensome.
"Lee Ji-sung, why did you come again?"
"I came to disturb your couple's date. Seafood buffet for tonight?"
"Not today. My older brother is treating us to dinner tonight."
"Older brother? Aren't you an only child?"
"My cousin."
"Cousin? Oh... is it a meeting with the family?"
"Wh-what meeting with the family...! Don't say such ridiculous things! My brother just said he'd treat us to dinner since he's visiting Korea after a long time."
Ji-an's fist strikes Lee Ji-sung's back.
Thwack!
"T-talk with words. I got it. Then how about going tomorrow?"
"Yeah. Well, if it's tomorrow, I'm fine with it."
Ji-an looked back at me, so I nodded.
"Then let's bring Ji-hyeon too."
"Why are you including her?"
"Ji-hyeon likes seafood too. Let's go together."
The two seem quite close.
Could it be that Lee Ji-sung, that bastard, is using me as an excuse and is actually interested in Ji-an?
"Don't try to disturb our studying again. Go away. We need to study."
Ji-an seems to like me, but... honestly, compared to someone like me who has nothing and is worthless, Lee Ji-sung is much more....
"Haven't your memories come back yet? If only your memories came back, this kind of thing would be a piece of cake."
"......."
"Don't say unnecessary things and just go."
"If you're really going to study, since I'm already at school, I'll study with you before leaving. I'll teach Chan-seong what he doesn't know too."
"You?"
"Seong Ji-an, you're looking down on people too much. The difference between you and me on the last final exam wasn't that much. A coach doesn't have to be better than the player to coach, right? I might be better at teaching."
"What are you talking about, there was more than a 30-rank difference."
"Tsk tsk, you were originally good at studying, but I climbed up from the bottom. So for Chan-seong who's in a blank state, my teaching might be easier to understand."
"Your words really flow like water."
They seem to bicker on the surface but really seem close.
"I'll go to the bathroom for a moment."
"Huh? Okay. Hey, Lee Ji-sung, what are you doing? That's Chan-seong's."
"Being so petty over one drink. I can go buy one by the time Chan-seong comes back from the bathroom."
The bathroom is right in front of the study room, but I came to the lounge next to the bathroom and sat on the sofa.
Since it's vacation, the empty lounge has no one, so silence and quiet surround me.
I didn't want to go to the bathroom, but seeing the two of them made me envious and I felt too pathetic about myself, so I ran away.
Although it's a meaningless assumption, would it have been different if I hadn't lost my memory?
I just feel lost.
Even if I study like this now, will I be able to join those guys as a 2nd year high school student....
They said I don't have to take separate tests or anything, but I can't even properly follow the 1st year curriculum right now....
Everyone is moving forward and I'm the only one falling behind.
Even meeting Ji-an's cousin today is burdensome.
Ji-an said he's a cousin she was really close with since childhood, and it doesn't mean anything, he's just treating us to a meal, but what will that person think of me....
He definitely won't think well of me.
I can tell without even looking.
I'm really grateful that Ji-an likes me, but honestly... I know that Ji-an and I don't match.
When we were in middle school, we were young so we didn't think about these things, but now we'll be adults in 2 years.
With my current abilities and grades, I won't be able to go to a major guild, let alone a mid-sized one.
Wouldn't it be better to delay graduation and go back to middle school to start over step by step?
"Min Chan-seong, you were here? You weren't in the bathroom, so I thought you ran away, but if you're here, you'll be caught quickly."
"Um..."
I was thinking, and i was about going back, but Lee Ji-sung found me.
"You don't look well. Why, what are you worried about? Is Seong Ji-an pressuring you too much to study?"
"N-no. No."
"No way. You can tell just by looking. But still, Ji-an is doing all that because she's thinking of you, so be grateful."
I know that too.
"How much must she like you to come to school every day like this even during vacation to teach you?"
"Yeah...."
"What's this, why are you so lifeless? Did you not eat lunch?"
"N-no. I ate. Let's go."
"Why do you keep stuttering... Do you still find me scary? I'm really not the Lee Ji-sung from before."
"I know."
"I also hope your memory comes back quickly, but even without memory, if you're the you that I know, you'll overcome it and do well."
Is this comfort?
It's too different from the Lee Ji-sung I know.
The guy in my memory would never say something like this even if he died and came back to life....
Right. I've decided.
I'll go back to middle school instead of high school.
Ji-an is making an effort, but honestly, I don't have confidence.
She's having a hard time coming to school every day during vacation because of me.
She said she was fine, but....
I'm thinking of telling her to stop teaching me.
I don't want to make her struggle anymore.
As I was about to leave the lounge with Lee Ji-sung, I felt a vibration in my pocket.
"A call? Must be Ji-an."
"N-no."
It's not Ji-an, it's Hunter Kang Shin-hyeok.
"Hello?"
—Oh, right, Chan-seong. You're at school now, right? How's your body?
"Yes. Nothing wrong. Thank you."
—That's good. You know that the teacher is starting academy education in Gangwon-do next week, right?
"Yes. I saw it on TV."
—Good that you know. Ah, did you already hear about it by any chance?
"Yes? What story...."
—It hasn't been conveyed yet. The teacher requested to have you as a first-term trainee. It's already been discussed with the vice principal, so pack well and come on time.