The Security Assignment
All the way to the Archery Department faculty office, I kept a running exchange going with Armonia.
What the hell is that bastard doing here?
From the looks of it, he has another scheme brewing.
They bragged about nailing the background checks, and the Academy still ends up this useless…
In a world with airtight security tech, there was always going to be tech designed to punch straight through it. Thinking about it, even I had managed to walk in here under a cover story cooked up by a spy from the freak organizations…
The guy with that distinctive name — Go Chungshin — was assigned to Security. Fresh hire, by the look of him. The real problem was that we still hadn't pinned down his actual affiliation.
Is he really with the freak organizations?
Zodiac claims they have no knowledge of him at present.
Great…
The freak organizations weren't a single unified bloc. Multiple groups operated under the banner of a central leader, and more than a few of them regularly slipped the leash. Armonia had already explained that Zodiac didn't have perfect visibility on every incident. Even the cloaked attackers who'd died during the raid had been unknowns to Zodiac — no word on the assault, no word on the infiltrators, and the abominations themselves had been complete news to them.
The more I think about it, doesn't it feel like there's someone else out there besides the freak organizations?
The probability is high. Zodiac has agreed to forward any information the moment they uncover it.
I haven't even gotten a look at Cho Kang-hyun's face yet, and the headaches just keep stacking up…
Still, just knowing there was a rat scurrying around me counted as a major win. If anything went wrong, I could pin it on him first and ask questions later.
The moment I reached the Archery Department faculty office, I sought out Cho Seohyun. She greeted me with a morning hello, then cut straight to the point.
"You want to go the manager route, don't you?"
"Your instincts really are terrifying."
"Heh…"
Cho Seohyun folded her arms, shot me a sidelong look, and smiled. So this was why people said you should build connections…
She launched into a full swagger about how she'd put in a strong recommendation for me.
"But… for free?"
"Haha… that favor you said I could call in — mind if I cash it in now?"
Cho Seohyun had once told me she'd grant me one request. Even when a favor wore the formal shape of a blank check, there was always a limit. And an open-ended favor, I figured, was best spent on something like this — a clean win-win for both of us.
Apparently that had been my thinking alone. The moment she heard it, Cho Seohyun pushed out her lower lip and grumbled.
"You're going to waste a favor on something this small…?"
"Pardon?"
"Hmph…"
Whatever had gotten under her skin, she kept her arms crossed, turned her back on me, and started tidying her desk.
"I'll talk to them. Come on — class prep."
"Yes, ma'am."
For the rest of the period she taught with that same pouty lip and a running stream of muttering. The sulky vibe had to be my imagination… right?
My morning Archery classes ran as sparring drills. The raid had made large-scale sessions impractical, so sparring was the safest, most straightforward option. That didn't mean it was low-level work. This world had freaks in it, and training against other people mattered just as much as anything else. Important or not, though, importance never cured boredom. The cadets threw themselves into the drills under Cho Seohyun's strict eye, but even they couldn't hide the glazed expressions by the time break rolled around.
When the rest period hit and the cadets sat clustered on the training-hall floor, Cho Seohyun came over to me.
"…"
"…"
She planted herself at my side without a word. She clearly had something to say, yet she just stared straight ahead and held the silence. It stretched until she finally managed to open her mouth.
"I thought it over carefully last night."
"Thought what over?"
"…What happened on the rooftop that day."
"…"
After the little rooftop performance had ended and we were parting ways, I'd made one request of her.
About what happened yesterday… please keep it secret.
What I'd meant was the covering fire I'd provided from the roof. What had surprised me was that Cho Seohyun hadn't pressed for details — she'd simply nodded.
…All right.
Honestly, it had caught me off guard. Someone like her, I'd figured, would have grilled me six ways from Sunday.
Back in the present, Cho Seohyun finished wrestling with her thoughts and spoke.
"Living in this world, you learn everyone has their reasons. I've stuck my nose where it didn't belong before and only made things worse without knowing a thing…"
"…"
"…If you ever feel like talking about it, tell me then. I'll wait."
"Thank you."
She gave a short snort of a laugh and pivoted the conversation, resetting the mood.
"By the way — managers get picked by recommendation, sure, but is there a post you actually want?"
"Ah…"
The work was spread across security, kitchen, administration, and more. Specialized departments meant specialized managers for each. Earlier I'd wondered how anyone without real expertise was supposed to do the job, but—
They likely place people for form's sake without weighting expertise heavily.
Blood ran thicker than water, after all. Even if the gulf between instructor and assistant instructor was heaven and earth, that earth was still their own territory — enough of a foothold to hand someone a post even if they couldn't do the work properly. Becoming an Academy assistant instructor wasn't a job you just walked into because you felt like it.
If Cho Seohyun was going to speak for me, I figured it was better to name the post I wanted outright.
"Would it be all right if I asked for… Security?"
"Huh? Security?"
She looked at me with genuine surprise, as if she couldn't make sense of it.
"Of all the posts you could pick, why the most miserable one…"
Ask anyone at the Academy what the worst job was and every single person would name Security. Day and night flipped constantly, and you ran into real danger more often than not. The only reason I was volunteering for that headache was one man.
The fly-possession guy.
I wanted to watch him myself and figure out exactly what he was.
"After the Academy incident last time, I want to see how Security actually operates."
"Ugh… even so, why go out of your way for the hard job…"
Cho Seohyun shut her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose, and muttered under her breath before answering.
"Fine…. If it gets too much, tell me right away. I'll find a way to get you reassigned."
"Haha… thank you."
Honestly, no matter how rough it got, I doubted I'd ask for a switch midstream. A man had his pride.
Cho Seohyun's recommendation wouldn't guarantee the placement, but thanks to her I could breathe a little easier. And with that, the morning classes wrapped up.
"Are you really sure about this?"
"Yes — I'm the one who asked for it."
I'd eaten lunch with Seong Sua and was walking with her toward the Magic Department classroom. Sandwiched between Cho Seohyun and Seong Sua, I'd endured a lunch hour so stifling the two of them barely exchanged a single word, each watching the other for cues — until, by pure chance, one topic cracked the silence open.
My wanting the Security manager post.
After hearing it from Cho Seohyun, Seong Sua spent the entire walk to the classroom urging me to reconsider. I kept batting her concerns aside with variations of I'll be fine, until she finally exhaled like someone giving up.
"All right. If it ever gets hard or something goes wrong, please tell me. I'll help however I can."
"Haha… thank you."
Happy. Two women looking out for me… except, somehow, it felt less like they were treating me as a man and more like they were fretting over a child. Was that just me?
Truth was, neither Cho Seohyun nor Seong Sua had a complete picture of what Security actually involved. I was only applying so I could dig into whatever that fly guy was plotting. I made the same request of Seong Sua that I'd made of Cho Seohyun.
"Please keep what happened that day strictly confidential."
"…Why are you so determined to hide it?"
The arrow I'd loosed from the rooftop. Seong Sua was clearly replaying that shot as she spoke.
"A more thorough evaluation would be needed, of course… but with skill at that level, if you requested re-certification from the Hero Association, I believe you could be selected as a full Hero."
It wasn't only the yellow-light arrow. Even on basic archery alone, she insisted, I was more than ready for Hero promotion. Seong Sua wanted to elevate me from assistant instructor to a full instructor standing on the same level as herself.
For me, that was poison. I needed to stay as quiet as possible. But there was no reason to spell that out — and I had a perfectly good excuse ready.
"What I used that day was a desperate, spur-of-the-moment thing. Honestly, I can't even guarantee I could do it again."
"…Is that true?"
"Yes. I saw Instructor Seong Sua in danger and used it without thinking. Even then, it drained so much mana I nearly blacked out — I could barely stay conscious."
"…All right."
Her saying she understood was a relief, but she was smiling at me harder than usual, and that smile sat just a little too bright.
We kept talking as we reached the Magic Department classroom — and the moment we stepped inside, I noticed something off.
"…Cadet Seo Jieun isn't here?"
"No. She sent word that after the raid, she won't be able to attend for a while."
Even setting her anxiety aside, Seo Jieun had always felt more like an observer than a participant. Whenever I sat waiting, her habit was to set a chair two or three meters away and simply watch the other cadets.
Seong Sua explained that fear wasn't the only reason she was staying home.
"It was a real blessing she went straight home the moment Friday's class ended. If she'd been face-to-face with those things, the problem wouldn't have been fighting them — she might have lost control all over again."
"Right… you said her own power turns its blade on her when she fights."
Seo Jieun's ability was shadow magic. Under normal circumstances she could command shadows at will, but at some point something had gone wrong, and her own shadows had started attacking her. Living with an assassin under your own feet wasn't something ordinary courage could endure. Missing the abomination raid because she hadn't been at the Academy that day had been pure luck.
Before starting class in front of the cadets, Seong Sua turned to me carefully.
"Instructor Sung Suho — would you be free sometime soon after class?"
"Yes, anytime."
Was this about Animal Village? That didn't need a formal appointment. A simple want to play? would have done it. Seong Sua smiled at my quick answer and explained why she needed the time.
"I was thinking of paying a personal visit to Cadet Seo Jieun's home soon."
"Ah…"
It wasn't that I disliked the idea. I just kept flashing back to the time I'd watched her from behind without meaning to, and the thought of showing up made me hesitate. What if I went and she treated me like some kind of weirdo…
Seong Sua, of course, had no window into that particular worry and started assuming I was dragging my feet because the visit sounded like a chore.
"Is it… a bother?"
"Come on, of course not…. I just don't want the cadet to feel awkward if I show up."
"It'll be fine. Once I have a time that works, I'll let you know."
We agreed that when the schedules lined up, we'd go together.
"Hmm…"
"…"
The moment Magic class ended, I was summoned straight to the principal. Not just me — the other assistant instructors had been called in as well. One by one we were ushered into the principal's office for individual interviews.
I'd caught a glimpse of him earlier, but the man's build was no joke. His forearms were thicker than my thighs. Looking at him, you could almost believe a freak had shape-shifted into a human and taken the principal's chair. A body roughly three times mine leafed through a stack of papers, then finally spoke.
"Instructor Sung Suho."
"Yes, sir."
"Are you on bad terms with Instructor Cho Seohyun and Instructor Seong Sua?"
"…? No, sir. I believe we get along well."
"Hah…"
Judging by his expression, he was reading the situation completely wrong. Even Cho Seohyun and Seong Sua — who didn't know the full details of Security work — had tried to talk me out of it. Two colleagues recommending me for Security could easily look, from the outside, like they were trying to stick me with something they disliked.
The principal set the papers down, arranged his face into the gentlest expression he could manage, and spoke.
"I'll assign Instructor Sung Suho as Security Manager."
He locked in the Security Manager post, gave me the bare minimum of an explanation, and sent me out. That explanation had nothing to do with the actual work. It was a promise that if problems arose from juggling assistant instructor duties and Security Manager duties at the same time, he would cover for me. Even if instructors and assistant instructors were treated differently at the Academy, an assistant instructor was still, on paper, an instructor. The more they worked you, the more they'd look out for you — and if something went sideways, they'd look the other way to a reasonable degree.
When I stepped out of the principal's office, a woman who looked like a secretary handed me several sheets of A4 paper and gave a brief rundown.
"This is the basic Security Manager manual, along with a few additional points to memorize. For the actual duties, you'll get a more precise briefing once you report to the Security Department."
"Thank you."
Manual and notes in hand, I headed straight for the security office.