Hero Academy (3-50)
Wrong answer. Begone, alchemist….
"Damn it."
Honestly, I'd gone into this round of Subjugation with real expectations.
But once again, the mark I wanted refused to appear on Park Huiyeon's lower abdomen.
I'd even slipped into Dream Intrusion right after, manipulated her, and gone another round. That failed too.
All three lottery tickets—scratched, worthless.
So a lottery ticket really is just a lottery ticket…
Like with Yang Jihyeon, huh?
The conclusion was the same as what I'd done with Yang Jihyeon before: some baseline of mutual agreement was required. I'd failed to place the Subjugation, but the experiment had still yielded critical information.
Subjugation was broken, no question—but it came with conditions to match. Whether it was a wager or a signed contract, something resembling mutual consent had to exist. And it had to happen in the real world….
Still, I'd thoroughly enjoyed her body either way, so it wasn't a total loss. If she tried the same stunt again, I'd just screw her over by a different method.
More than anything, I'd taken my compensation from Park Huiyeon in the form of pure physical release. And from Oh Jin-ho…
This orb. Someday I'll find a use for it.
I'd walked away with a ten-billion-won sphere. I handled it carefully, half-expecting it might trigger on its own. If it were an item that produced a specific, predictable effect, I could toss it around however I liked—but the randomness meant one wrong move could backfire straight onto me.
So I have to hide it like a Death Note, huh…
Getting my hands on something that expensive felt great, but it came with a fair share of headaches. Items created with Enel could be freely brought back to the ship. External-world objects like this one couldn't—so concealment was everything.
Alright. Oh Jin-ho and Park Huiyeon are both wrapped up. The kids should be fine, right?
Barring another situation as special as this one, the cadets with Yoon Jia would have no real trouble getting out. And given how urgent things were, they'd probably catch a short rest and then move immediately to find the exit.
Once they get close to the exit, the path I already cleared should let them find it fast enough.
I turned my gaze back to Park Huiyeon.
There she was—underwear soaked in semen stuffed in her mouth, legs spread, still leaking what I'd poured into her. The original goal had been the Subjugation experiment. Walking away and leaving her like this wouldn't have caused any real problems.
But…
Playing the rescuer is still the cleaner move. Fewer loose ends.
"Mmh…."
Park Huiyeon forced her heavy eyelids open with a low groan. Her mind only truly came online after she'd blinked herself awake and confirmed she was inside a cave.
"Ugh— wh-where…."
"Are you all right?"
"Eek!?"
The man's voice beside her made Park Huiyeon jolt upright in a panic, scrambling to fix her posture. The moment she was up, she checked who was speaking.
"Assistant Instructor?"
"Yes…. Though if you sit up like that—"
"Huh? Wait— Kyaaaaah!"
Park Huiyeon took one look at the state of her own body and let out a nightingale shriek the likes of which I'd never heard from her, frantically covering herself. She was completely naked beneath a single thin sheet. She yanked the cloth back up over her body and shouted.
"W-what is this!?"
"Well… I'm not entirely sure what's going on myself…."
"Huh?"
Park Huiyeon followed Sung Suho's gaze. Nearby, several monster corpses lay sprawled across the ground.
"What… what is…."
"I'll explain."
Sung Suho laid out the situation in careful detail for Park Huiyeon as she clutched the sheet around herself. He'd gone out alone searching for her and Oh Jin-ho, he said, and when he found them they'd been surrounded by monsters. In the emergency he'd cut the creatures down first, then checked the area—but aside from the monsters, there had been no one else.
Those bastards. Said they'd take care of everything, and then… at least they didn't kill us.
Park Huiyeon concluded that the masked men had promised to handle it and then simply run.
Wait… then why am I not wearing any—
She carefully looked down at her naked body beneath the sheet.
Haa… haa… shit!!!
Taking in the full state of herself, she pieced everything together—and tears welled hot in her eyes. This was a woman who had endured brutal training at the Hero Academy and faced down life-threatening situations with the Church without shedding a single drop. But looking at the wreck of her own body, the tears finally came.
Everything she had buried as a woman—humiliation, rage, disgrace, shame—rose up together and wet the corners of her eyes.
Sung Suho held out a handkerchief to the tearful Park Huiyeon.
"I'm sorry. If I'd gotten here sooner…."
"…It's fine."
Park Huiyeon wiped her eyes with his handkerchief, then immediately searched for Oh Jin-ho.
"Ah! My friend—!?"
"No need to worry. He's lying right over there."
"Haa…."
Seeing Oh Jin-ho stretched out a short distance away, she exhaled in relief. For a moment, the simple fact that she and Oh Jin-ho were both alive was enough to steady her.
But that didn't erase what had been done to her.
Those sons of bitches… I'll kill them… If I catch them, I'll feed them into a grinder alive…
Eyes still shining with tears, Park Huiyeon swore her revenge in silence. And right alongside the vow, an uneasy thought surfaced: someone knew what had been done to her.
"If this ever gets out…."
"I will never speak of it."
"…."
Despite her anxiety, hearing Sung Suho's words shifted something in how she measured him.
We didn't even care if this man died… and he…
Solid skill. Sound judgment. And above all, a sense of responsibility that stood out more than anything else. Even after hearing from the cadets how dangerous those masked men were, she had never imagined an assistant instructor would actually come after them.
Park Huiyeon had done her own time as an instructor. She'd seen plenty of assistant instructors come and go. Not a single one of them, she had been certain, would throw themselves into danger to save a colleague. Today was the first time that certainty cracked.
No matter how selfish a woman Park Huiyeon was, receiving help like this couldn't help but turn the selfishness she'd built up into guilt. And the higher her estimation of him climbed, the more the fact that he was seeing her in this wretched state made fresh tears gather.
Of all the ways for him to see me…
Before covering her with the sheet, Sung Suho would have seen everything—every last detail. If she'd still hated him the way she used to, this feeling wouldn't exist. She would have simply shut his mouth by whatever means necessary. But this wasn't then.
While Park Huiyeon was still trying to sort through the chaos in her head, Sung Suho stood and spoke quietly.
"This is a problem."
"…Why?"
"My comms equipment is broken."
He explained that once he found the two of them, his plan had been to call in another group and exit the dungeon together. But the fight just now had shattered his smartwatch.
Park Huiyeon immediately checked her own wrist.
"Then use mine— wait, what!?"
"…?"
"…They must have stolen it."
Nothing but bare white skin greeted her on her wrist, and a search of the surrounding area turned up no device. Park Huiyeon clenched her teeth hard and swore it again.
I'll kill him. That bastard—I'm going to fucking kill him!!
While Park Huiyeon changed, I kept my eyes averted and handed over her clothes. From what I could tell at a glance, she wasn't putting any underwear back on. She'd looked at her own ruined undergarments with pure disgust, glanced at me, and flung them onto the pile of monster corpses.
In other words: Park Huiyeon was currently going commando. And that fact created a rather critical problem.
"Ah, shit…."
The warm load of my semen still sitting in her womb seemed to keep leaking out the moment she stood. No chance to wash, no way to clean herself out—nothing to be done about it.
Once she finished dressing, it was time for the main event: checking on Oh Jin-ho.
Park Huiyeon took one look at the unconscious man and started stammering with her mouth hanging open.
"Th-this is… what…."
There was no joy at Oh Jin-ho being alive. No relief that his arm had been reattached. Just Park Huiyeon staring blankly at a man whose arm now bent outward in ways that proved just how thoroughly it had been put back wrong.
Thanks to the nightmare she'd already been through, she managed to get a grip on herself quickly.
"Haa. At least he's alive…."
That settled the immediate mess. But the road to the exit wasn't going to be a leisurely stroll. While Park Huiyeon had been out, I'd moved all the weapons and comms gear far out of reach. Oh Jin-ho, the one who could use magic, was unconscious. Which meant the only combatant still standing was me.
Well, someone at Park Huiyeon's level could still fight fine without a sword.
Once everything was ready, I asked her.
"Shall we head out, then?"
"Yes. Let's go."
"Haa… haa… we're aliiiive."
After two days buried in darkness, the cadets spilled out into sunlight and each of them let out a voice thick with raw emotion. Miasma. Foul air. Monsters that never stopped coming. An environment where you couldn't even tell night from day. For cadets who hadn't so much as set foot on the path of a Hero, it had been a brutal initiation.
Only once they saw the cadets emerging from the cave did the drivers waiting outside scramble over to check on Yoon Jia.
"It took so long we were getting worried."
"Haa… contact the Church first."
Yoon Jia explained the situation, and one of the drivers called the Church on her behalf to request support.
Alright… at least they've been notified.
Once the Church knew, support would move fast. But even while that support was en route, Sung Suho was still inside the dungeon. Yoon Jia started wrestling with herself. Her head ordered her to run back in and save him—but her body refused to move.
It wasn't fear. It was the sheer pressure he'd radiated when giving orders that kept her rooted in place. More than that, Yoon Jia was a recovery mage. She wasn't a combatant; she'd need someone with her—and she couldn't exactly drag the cadets back in.
But I can't just sit here and wait either…
In the middle of that dilemma, Song Ara off in the distance started gathering her gear piece by piece, slung her bag over her shoulder, and stood. Yoon Jia looked at her with a puzzled expression.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Back in."
"…."
Unlike the other cadets, who looked ready to collapse, Song Ara's face carried real resolve. But resolve alone wasn't enough to let this slide.
"No. We've already called for support. You need to wait—"
"We don't know when they'll get here! At least let me check near the entrance—"
Just as Song Ara shouted in desperation and started toward the dungeon mouth, a man's voice drifted out of the darkness that cut the light like a blade.
"And what if you cross paths and miss each other doing that?"
"Huh?"
A figure slowly resolved out of the dark. The man looked up at the bright light and gave a hollow little laugh.
"You all did well."
Sung Suho, Park Huiyeon, and the still-unconscious Oh Jin-ho—every last member of the party stepped out through the exit, and just like that, the field trip was over.
Once we were out of the dungeon, things moved at a sprint. Park Huiyeon got Oh Jin-ho into a car immediately, keeping him as far from the cadets' eyes as possible—protecting both her own condition and the state of his arm from discovery.
I checked the cadets over and loaded them into the vehicles as fast as I could. When I tried to send them off ahead of me, Song Ara asked,
"Ssaem… aren't you coming with us?"
"Don't worry about me. And…."
"Ow!"
I gave Song Ara a light knuckle to the forehead and smiled.
"Constantly fretting over an adult like that is a little rude, you know."
"Huu… yes."
"I'll head back as soon as things are wrapped up here."
I packed every cadet into the cars and sent them off. Once they were gone, several vehicles from the Church arrived and the area started getting noisy. In the middle of that noise stood Yoon Jia and me.
"You did well."
"You did well too. I'm sorry. I wasn't any help at all…."
"Not at all. Thanks to Instructor Yoon Jia, all of us made it out safely."
"Instructor Sung Suho, there's something I wanted to ask. If you—"
"Excuse me."
Just as Yoon Jia fidgeted and started to speak, someone cut in and walked up. Park Huiyeon.
"I need a word with you."
"…? Of course."
"I— um, I was—"
Yoon Jia floundered at being cut off. Park Huiyeon looked at her and spoke in a tone that left no room for argument.
"Ms. Yoon Jia, head back first. I have something to discuss with him."
"…Yes."
Yoon Jia answered in a shrunken voice, lingered on me for a long look, then walked alone toward the vehicles.
"This way."
Once Yoon Jia was in a car and gone, Park Huiyeon led me over to hers. Oh Jin-ho, who'd been riding in it earlier, was already nowhere to be seen.
Figures… they'll need to put him back together like a set of Lego bricks as fast as possible.
I smirked inwardly and climbed into the car with Park Huiyeon. She'd somehow changed into a full set of fresh clothes. Cleaned up and composed, she started the engine without another word.
Being hauled off like this with zero explanation was starting to make me a little uneasy.
Did she figure it out?
Armonia was right—the odds she'd caught on looked basically zero.
"So… what did you need to discuss…."
"…."
Park Huiyeon drove in heavy silence for a good ten minutes before she finally asked, quiet and serious:
"What happened earlier… how am I supposed to trust that you won't tell anyone?"