Chapter 136
Chapter 136
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 136
Chapter Title: How to Steal the Protagonist's Woman
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' 'Is he really aiming those shots?''
Cho Seo-hyeon was taking in Seong Su-ho's figure, genuinely awed.
If she were in a position to provide support from that far away, could she shoot her bow like he was doing right now?
'No way in hell...'
Cho Seo-hyeon certain of her own limits. She absolutely couldn't.
It had nothing to do with archery proficiency.
Even if she could aim as precisely as Seong Su-ho, she was dead sure she still wouldn't dare fire.
There was no way she'd let her pride push her into risking actual injury to the cadets just to prove her skills.
Yet Seong Su-ho didn't so much as twitch as he nocked an arrow, drew the string taut, and lined up his shot.
And he wasn't just loosing arrows wildly, either.
Only when he deemed it absolutely necessary did he fire—precisely curtailing the cadets' movements every time.
The cadets, flustered for a split second, quickly steadied themselves and charged straight at Cho Seo-hyeon .
'Alright, time for me to focus on these kids.'
The reason Cho Seo-hyeon was conducting this sparring session was as a training exercise based on the premise that there would be no variables.
Knowing her own personality well, Cho Seo-hyeon regained her stance to ensure she showed the cadets as few openings as possible.
Unlike her initial worries, she handled Group 6 with plenty of breathing room.
But she couldn't afford to stay that relaxed forever.
'Ugh... she's way faster than before.'
While Cho Seo-hyeon focused on the other members, Song A-ra slipped toward her flank.
And then—an arrow streaked toward Song A-ra.
Shwaaak!
'Perfect. If I can stall her just a moment... What?!'
Swish! Thwack!
Song A-ra whipped her sword in a diagonal arc, batting the incoming arrow aside.
The arrow lost its momentum and fell limply to the ground, but Song A-ra's spirit only burned hotter.
"Haap!"
"Ngh...."
Facing the threatening arc of the blade, Cho Seo-hyeon stopped her movement and began to focus entirely on evasion.
Soon, she was tasting the full brunt of Group 6's close-quarters barrage.
'Th-this is bad.'
Slightly flustered, Cho Seo-hyeon let her hands fall from behind her back as she dodged countless blades.
Unlike the relaxed attitude she had shown until now, she was now dodging with all her might.
In the midst of their deadlock, a lone arrow hurtled toward her.
It wasn't from Seong Su-ho.
"Ugh!"
A cadet's arrow.
The threat bore down on her; she attempted to dodge
Shuuk! Clang!
The cadet's shot collided midair with another and ricocheted harmlessly away.
'Nice one!'
Cho Seo-hyeon couldn't help but cheer inwardly, her eyes flicking to Seong Su-ho with delight.
But vanishing ranged threats didn't fix the bigger picture.
The biggest problem was that she couldn't attack and wasn't even holding a weapon.
She was in a situation where she had to rely solely on evasion for every single attack.
The four cadets encircled her, hammering away relentlessly. Song A-ra's strikes cut the sharpest, most vicious path through the chaos.
'Damn it... At this rate...'
Beads of sweat began to form on Cho Seo-hyeon's forehead.
She was starting to tense up.
Seong Su-ho's arrows, which had been helpful earlier, were now only blocking threats coming from a distance; they couldn't directly assist Cho Seo-hyeon in the melee.
Instinct told her no help was coming in this scrum, and her chest tightened with every heartbeat.
'No way! I can't look pathetic in front of the cadets...'
While she was distracted by that thought for a moment—.
"Haaap!"
Song A-ra raised her sword to strike down at Cho Seo-hyeon, who had left an opening.
Even if the blade she swung reached Cho Seo-hyeon, it wouldn't have caused actual damage.
Genius or not, a cadet couldn't pulverize an active hero's aura in one swing.
But it was plenty to shatter her composure.
For a frozen heartbeat, Cho Seo-Hyeon stared wide-eyed at the descending blade in panic.
Shuuuuk! Twaang!
"Grk!"
The descending blade was struck by an arrow, veering off course and stabbing harmlessly into the ground.
After staring blankly for a moment, Cho Seo-hyeon checked Song A-ra's condition, snapped back to her senses, and reorganized her stance.
'I to to break this encirclement first!'
She slipped past the other Group 6 cadets' swings, prying open some distance.
Even after that, threatening attacks continued to rain down on Cho Seo-hyeon, but each time, Seong Su-ho's arrows intercepted them by striking the cadets' weapons.
"You all worked hard today. I'll score this subjectively myself and hand out printed evaluations after lunch, so if you've got objections, save 'em for after class."
"""Yes, ma'am!"""
Normally she would just ping their smartwatches for easy access.
But with the network down, Cho Seo-Hyun explained she'd print them manually, one by one.
Stepping down from the podium, she turned to Seong Su-ho.
"Please come to the faculty office for a moment."
"Yes, ma'am."
Seong Su-ho gave his usual clipped reply and fell in behind her.
Listening to his steady footfalls, Cho Seo-Hyun replayed his performance from today.
'His destructive power and range are definitely at the level of an average cadet... no, even a bit below. But in terms of accuracy and rate of fire, he was at the level of a high-rank hero.'
Taking everything into account, his overall level was that of a low-rank hero.
Cho Seo-hyeon's assessment was that he was not someone who belonged at the 10,000th rank.
Back in the staff room, she dropped into her chair and looked up at him.
"Today... you really worked hard."
Thanks nearly slipped out; she caught it just in time.
Seong Su-ho met her gaze with his trademark stone face.
"No big deal. You had a tough one too, Instructor Cho."
"Anyway, tomorrow's class will proceed in the same way."
Cho Seo-hyeon explained that she would continue the sparring sessions tomorrow, though she would add some different methods.
The difference from today was...?
"I'll have my main weapon out tomorrow too."
"...Won't that gap be too wide for the cadets?"
"Like today, I won't throw a single attack."
Today's drill honed their pursuit instincts against a lone target.
However, she explained that tomorrow's lesson would focus on improving the cadets' adaptability by utilizing movement and defense in a wide sparring arena.
"Those kids have good skills, but they're still inexperienced in dealing with specific situations. This is normally a second-semester course, but it shouldn't be a problem to do it a bit early."
"Got it. So... why'd you call me in?"
"...Try to build up your stamina a bit."
"[Understood.]"
Even as the words left her mouth, Seo-Hyun winced inwardly.
'Ugh, that's not what I meant.... It sounds like I'm scolding him.'
Regretting her words, she spoke again.
"I mean... we're going to keep working together. With that level of stamina, problems could arise."
And she regretted it again.
'Dammit!! I just meant he should take care of his health so he doesn't get hurt, why does it come out like this!'
Cho Seo-hyeon, who had almost no experience offering words of comfort or encouragement, cursed her own vocabulary.
Her usual brusque tone made it sound like another jab at his fitness.
Seong Su-ho brushed it off.
"I understand. I'll manage it."
"Haa..."
Thinking that saying any more would only make things worse, Cho Seo-hyeon spoke in a deflated voice.
"Dismissed. See you tomorrow."
"Roger. Good work."
Once she confirmed that Seong Su-ho had left the office, Cho Seo-hyeon immediately began scouring through the documents in her desk.
She placed a single piece of paper on the desk and stared at it intently.
"...There really is nothing here."
What she was looking at was Seong Su-ho's profile.
However, despite being called a profile, the experience section was completely blank.
Only basic physical records and personal information were listed.
"Sigh.... He seems like a decent person."
When Cho Seo-hyeon said "decent," she meant as a human being, not as a man.
Assistant instructors joined the academy every year, and Cho Seo-hyeon had worked with many of them.
She hadn't always been this prickly.
In the first place, she didn't expect much from someone who wasn't even from the Academy; she was content as long as they performed their duties diligently.
However, most of the assistant instructors who came lacked even a shred of responsibility, being nothing more than pathetic humans who constantly complained about their salaries and sang songs about paid leave.
She had assumed the person who came this time would be the same.
But seeing everything from his conduct to how he finished his work, Cho Seo-hyeon began to like him very much.
"If he builds up some stamina... and can raise his archery skills a bit more... he might be worth recommending to our guild."
Cho Seo-hyeon belonged to a guild herself and planned to return to it immediately after her term as an instructor ended.
A diligent individual with decent abilities for an assistant instructor.
She thought that if his skills improved further, he would be an asset to the guild.
But it wasn't just his position as an assistant instructor or his diligence that filled Cho Seo-hyeon's thoughts.
There was something about Seong Su-ho that Cho Seo-hyeon envied most.
"...How can he shoot arrows so calmly? I'm really jealous."
Cho Seo-hyeon had always envied archers.
The way they focused on firing arrows, which had to be used preciously one by one, always stimulated her.
However, being naturally far from calm, Cho Seo-hyeon could only admire them and could never pick up a bow herself.
And she envied Seong Su-ho, who possessed the ultimate qualities of an archer.
'I wish I could hit things that accurately.'
Cho Seo-hyeon leaned her chair back and closed her eyes, recalling Seong Su-ho as he had protected and covered her.
I left the staff room and headed for the cafeteria building.
'Good thing it worked against their level.'
[You currently have 300,000 Enel. Why not increase your Archery?]
'Maybe... Ah! You said before that the required Enel changes once a skill level exceeds 10, right?'
The Enel required for skill awakening is 10,000.
The Enel required to raise a skill starts at 100 and doubles with each level.
It doubles up until level 10, and from level 10 onwards, it costs 50,000 Enel to raise the skill level by 1.
'So the Enel consumption is broken down into increments of 5 levels.'
From 10, 50,000 per level.
From 15, 100,000 per level.
My current Archery level is 12.
'Let's raise it to 15 for now. My main strength is aiming rather than pure archery, so my skill won't suddenly jump, but it's better than nothing.'
'Wow... I'm glad I raised Archery beforehand.'
It would have been fine even if I had awakened it after hearing Cho Seo-hyeon's words, but if I had tried to learn and use it suddenly, there would have been some pressure.
Perhaps because of the experience of using it in a desperate situation during the tutorial boss fight in Yggdrasil, my archery skills turned out better than expected today.
I realized once again that my aiming ability is completely broken.
I had been quite worried since I was aiming at both the cadets and Cho Seo-hyeon, but I wasn't nervous at all and was able to fire arrows immediately.
Thanks to that, Cho Seo-hyeon's attitude toward me has changed a lot.
She still has a tendency to grumble, but I'll just let it slide as part of her personality.
As I arrived at the dining hall, today's menu appeared before my eyes.
"Wow... jackpot. Since when does a school serve beef?"
While I was admiring the menu at the entrance, I heard a throat-clearing sound from behind.
"Ahem...."
"...Oh."
I could tell who it was just by the sound.
I turned around and greeted her with a smile of genuine pleasure.
"Oh, Instructor Seong Sua! Hey."
"..."
"...?"
However, Seong Sua ignored my greeting, looking up at me with a pouting expression and narrowed eyes.
She looked like she was dissatisfied with me about something.
Come to think of it, while 20 days had passed from my perspective, only 2 days had passed for Seong Sua.
Or perhaps something had happened in the meantime?
'Did something happen?'assed from my perspective, only 2 days had passed for Seong Sua.
[These are the sly actions of a sly woman. Please be careful.].
'....'
Here she goes again....
Ignoring Armonia's words, I asked Seong Sua cautiously.
"Um... Instructor Seong Sua-nim, did something happen?"
"Yes, it did."
"What happened...?"
Cutting off my question, Seong Sua stepped close to my chest and poked me, saying,
"You didn't come for breakfast today either, did you?"
"Ah... haha... there were circumstances...."
Breaking into a cold sweat, I had to endure her nagging while getting my food