The Shadow of the Whip
"Hnn… hah…"
Cho Seo-hyun sat at the desk, her cadet uniform disheveled.
Her left arm was trembling violently, and she was clutching it with her right hand, trying to steady it.
But even her right arm could not find any calm.
"Please…"
Three months after enrolling at the Hero Academy, Cho Seo-hyun had already been branded a walking liability in class thanks to her severe hand tremors.
Only one person ever called her that to her face, though.
Hong Mi-sun…
Even so, Cho Seo-hyun never once doubted her.
'There's a reason… There has to be. I must be doing something wrong…'
Three months of endless beatings, and still she never questioned Hong Mi-sun.
This was the Hero Academy.
And Hong Mi-sun was…
'A hero…'
Cho Seo-hyun wrapped every flicker of suspicion in reverence for the woman, never realizing it was driving her straight toward ruin.
When class ended, Cho Seo-hyun was summoned by Hong Mi-sun again.
She was summoned every single day without fail.
And Hong Mi-sun beat her as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Crack! Crraack!
"Nngh… hup!"
"Good… You've learned to keep your mouth shut and take it. At least you're not a complete idiot."
Crack! Crack!
"Hup… hah…"
"I give you one compliment and you start grinning like an idiot? You think this is funny?!"
Hong Mi-sun swung the whip with a ferocity she had never shown before.
Crraaack!
"Aaaagh!"
"That's more like it!"
From that point on, Hong Mi-sun unleashed a merciless barrage of lashes.
Cho Seo-hyun couldn't even track the whip's path with her eyes, and each strike was strong enough to punch straight through the protective aura she carried.
What Hong Mi-sun was doing was no different from whipping a civilian off the street.
With every blow, Cho Seo-hyun rationalized it to herself.
'There's a reason! There has to be a reason!'
Without that rationalization, she would have broken long ago but surviving unbroken only dragged her deeper into the swamp of despair.
After a long while of whipping, Hong Mi-sun left with a smile that reeked of rot, her steps light and unbothered.
"Clean this place up before you go. Got it?"
"Hnn… Yes… Thank you… for today…"
"…Hmph."
With a snort, Hong Mi-sun left the sparring hall.
Inside, Cho Seo-hyun lay collapsed in a pool of her own blood, barely reacting at all.
For a fleeting moment, she thought she might die but her lips trembling, Cho Seo-hyun stubbornly forced her bloodied body upright.
"I… have to… clean up…"
Three months in, and Cho Seo-hyun had no one.
No friends, no instructors she was close to, there was only Hong Mi-sun.
And that terrified her.
She began to be consumed by the fear that if even this woman were gone, it would mean she had spent three months learning absolutely nothing.
She didn't want to admit that she had wasted such a critical period of her life..
"I have to… clean…"
She muttered the words, but her body wouldn't move.
Every limb felt paralyzed, trembling uselessly, refusing every command she gave it.
"Ah… haha…"
In that instant, it felt as if everything was collapsing.
She hadn't shed a single tear until now, but her tear ducts, which had been resisting, began to be stimulated by the creeping paralysis.
Just as the tears were about to fall—
Shaaah.
What ran down her face wasn't tears. A stinging potion, tinged with a reddish glow, poured over Cho Seo-hyun's face.
Her eyes found the man pouring it over her.
Seong Su-ho.
And yet she couldn't place who he was.
'The assistant instructor? …Assistant… instructor? Now? No… later?'
Dreaming of Seong Su-ho, Cho Seo-hyun felt the confusion wash over her even as the wounds on her face began to close.
However, not only her external injuries but her internal organs had been battered so severely that she couldn't utter a single word.
She stared up at him with vacant eyes. Seong Su-ho slowly stroked the cadet's hair.
Watching him do it, the agony that had frozen solid in her chest like diamond began to melt.
That melted anguish tried to spill out as tears.
'No… no… I can't…'
Looking up at Seong Su-ho, Cho Seo-hyun broke down and wept.
I shook Cho Seo-hyun awake.
"Instructor Cho Seo-hyun?"
"Hah… hah… hah… Where…?"
As soon as she woke up, Cho Seo-hyun looked around to check her surroundings.
They were in the faculty office, and upon realizing the situation, she immediately began wiping her tears with her t-shirt.
"Nngh… Just a second…"
"Here. Use this."
"Nngh… Thank you…"
I handed her a handkerchief and spoke over the comms.
'Armonia. Tell me about Hong Mi-sun.'
I had been interrupted every time before. It was time I finally heard it.
I watched Cho Seo-hyun diligently explaining things to the cadets inside the VR.
I had a rough idea of what kind of person Hong Mi-sun was.
What I still didn't understand was why she had abused Cho Seo-hyun that way.
And in order to find that out, I had searched for Hong Mi-sun's whereabouts, but…
Missing?
Yes. She went missing eight years ago, and no leads of any kind have surfaced since.
There was a reason Armonia, who normally fed me information instantly, had taken this long.
Personal records existed, but the case wasn't considered important, and enough time had passed that it had been largely forgotten.
Even the villain organizations knew almost nothing about it.
However, according to the Zodiac, there are some puzzling aspects.
She hadn't gone missing inside a dungeon.
She hadn't been kidnapped by villains either.
The public assumed a villain abduction, but Zodiac insisted they had never taken her.
On the day she vanished, she had just finished her service at the Hero Academy.
'Well, damn…'
Truthfully, my request to investigate Hong Mi-sun was driven largely by curiosity.
I simply wanted to know why she had done those things to Cho Seo-hyeon.
I thought that knowing the reason might help my relationship with Cho Seo-hyun.
Hong Mi-sun was the root of Cho Seo-hyun's trauma but the problem was, I didn't believe Hong Mi-sun would have abused her in that way for absolutely no reason.
'…Does Cho Seo-hyun know the reason?'
If I wanted answers about Hong Mi-sun, the conclusion was clear: I needed to keep using Dream Intrusion on Cho Seo-hyun.
If she herself didn't know why Hong Mi-sun had done it, nothing will appear in the dream, but at the very least, I needed a hint.
'Next time, I'll go in with Dream Intrusion and do some manipulating.'
The problem was that the windows for Dream Intrusion were limited.
Right now, I could only use it on Cho Seo-hyun when she dozed off in the faculty office.
It was far better than with Seong Sua, who had no opening for it at all, but...
'Not like I can pull the insane stunt of breaking into the dorms…'
I absolutely do not recommend under any circumstances.
The Hero Academy wasn't some place you could sneak into just because you knew a few stealth tricks.
Get caught and every weapon and spell under the sun would reduce my body to atomic dust.
Even if I survived, I'd end up on the front page and socially annihilated.
Fuck. Just thinking about it gives me chills…
I believe it would be wise to get a more definitive understanding of Cho Seo-hyeon-nim's lifestyle. For example, her weekend patterns…
I was turning over future plans when Cho Seo-hyun called out to the cadets.
"All right! Break time!"
The cadets clustered into little groups with their friends and started chatting.
Being inside VR, none of them showed any of the exhaustion they usually did during regular training.
By chance, I caught the conversation of the cadets resting near me.
"Hey, is Instructor Cho Seo-hyun always gonna look like that?"
"Guess so. But… damn, isn't Instructor Cho Seo-hyun crazy pretty?"
"Pretty, sure… but it feels like I'm getting scolded by my little sister the whole time."
At those words, the cadets giggled while stealing glances at Cho Seo-hyun.
Perhaps because of what happened earlier, Cho Seo-hyun kept glancing at me from a distance.
The cadets found her changed demeanor strange, but went right back to whispering.
"But that cadet uniform looks really good on Instructor Cho Seo-hyun."
"Honestly, it looks way better than those baggy jeans and T-shirts she always wraps herself in."
"Do you know why Instructor Cho Seo-hyun wears long T-shirts and long jeans even in summer?"
Suddenly the conversation got interesting.
Come to think of it, Cho Seo-hyun's outfits changed every day, but she always covered herself head to toe in jeans and a T-shirt.
I hadn't thought there was any particular reason.
It had just seemed like a personal preference.
"My aunt was in the same class as Instructor Cho Seo-hyun at the Academy, and apparently back then…"
Just as I was leaning in to listen intently, someone suddenly tapped me on the shoulder.
I immediately turned my head to see who it was.
Cho Seo-hyun.
"Oh! Wh-what is it?"
"…I need to talk to you for a moment."
Wearing the cadet uniform, Cho Seo-hyun looked down at me with a serious expression and said she wanted to speak with me alone.
Thanks to that, I couldn't hear the rest of the cadets' conversation and had to follow her.
Once she'd led me somewhere well away from the students, Cho Seo-hyun carefully began.
"I'm sorry you had to see me like that earlier. I had a nightmare…"
"It's fine. If anything, I should apologize for being right there."
"…Please don't say that."
She was treating me with a heavier air than usual.
After staring at me and turning something over in her mind, she looked up and made a request.
"Would you… happen to be free after work today?"
Her request was simple.
She wanted me to enter a VR capsule and help her with the archery practice we had done in VR yesterday.
Naturally, I refused at first.
"Instructor Cho Seo-hyun. There are plenty of people far more skilled than I am. You'd be better off asking them…"
"I'm not a cadet. I could ask other instructors to teach me, but given my position… it's a little awkward."
Since she already used daggers as her primary weapon, it was an awkward situation for her to ask an archery instructor for guidance.
As I wore a conflicted expression, Cho Seo-hyun let her long hair sway and spoke.
"If you do this for me, I'll grant you one favor in return."
"Ah, in that case, I can do it."
She laughed at my response.
"You're not supposed to accept that fast. You sound like a total mercenary."
"Haha… When else am I going to get a favor from Instructor Cho Seo-hyun hanging over my head for life?"
"Honestly…"
She shook off the gloom from earlier and started to smile.
Long hair, cadet uniform
A version of Cho Seo-hyeon that felt very distant from the present. Regardless, I had been given an opportunity to approach her.
My original target had been Seong Sua, but there was no chance of gaming with her for a while anyway.
'This week, I focus on Cho Seo-hyun.'
A sound decision.
With that settled, I formally accepted her request.
"Then I'll see you at the VR training room once everything's wrapped up for the day."
Cho Seo-hyun gave me a soft smile.
"…Thank you."
After finishing the day's work and grabbing a meal, I headed straight to the VR training room as promised.
Cho Seo-hyun was already there waiting.
"I've got everything set up. Go ahead and get in the capsule."
"Yes, ma'am."
I climbed into the capsule with practiced ease, and Cho Seo-hyun started working the controls from outside.
In an instant, I was sucked into the VR.
After entering the VR, I immediately looked around.
It was a place I had seen many times before.
"…The Hero Academy?"
Not the current Academy, either—something that closely resembled the Hero Academy as it had been when Cho Seo-hyun was a cadet
Before I knew it, long-haired Cho Seo-hyun was standing beside me in a cadet uniform.
"It's an old Hero Academy theme."
"Ah…"
It looked different from the Academy now, but the layout had been recreated with remarkable precision.
As we walked toward the shooting range, Cho Seo-hyun filled me in.
"Do you know why the Hero Academy theme exists?"
"…No idea."
"It was created to prepare for the possibility of Villains invading."
"Ah… That's actually brilliant."
Even the Hero Academy, known as the Fortress of a Thousand Walls, occasionally allowed villain incursions.
This theme had been designed specifically for those scenarios.
As her explanation continued, we arrived at the shooting range. Once there, Cho Seo-hyun looked a little embarrassed.
"Um… thank you. I know it's a hassle…"
"Not at all. I like being here with you, Instructor Cho Seo-hyun."
"R-right… heh…"
Cho Seo-hyun let out a small nasal giggle and entered the range, and I followed behind her.
Once we had settled in, Cho Seo-hyun picked up a bow.
"But... I've been thinking it over."
"…?"
"Right now, I'm the one learning. So… I should adjust my attitude to match."
"…?"
I tilted my head, not sure what she meant.
Cho Seo-hyun let out a deep sigh, and with a flushed face, she looked up at me and whispered softly.
"Um… Instructor Seong Su-ho… please take good care of me… with the archery lessons…"