Life Is the Real Deal (2)
After returning from the field trip, the scene that greeted me left me utterly speechless. In all my years, I never imagined I’d witness my own classmates getting hazed like this.
I called out to the student at the very end of the line who was holding a plank position.
“Excuse me.”
“Ugh… Huh?”
He lifted his head at my voice. The moment our eyes met—well, his eyes met my bandages—he flinched violently.
“Wait… Baran?!”
In the next instant, every student’s gaze snapped toward me. It seemed they had all been desperately waiting for someone to put an end to this nonsense.
I ignored the burdensome stares and asked calmly, “Is the reason you’re all in this position because of a senior?”
“Y-yeah… The senior told the A-class students to hold this position here.”
Just as I suspected. Some stuck-up senior was enforcing his own twisted version of military discipline. They say people are the same everywhere, but I never expected this kind of absurd hazing to exist in both this world and my old one. Anyone watching would think this was actual military boot camp. Even the modern military doesn’t pull this crap anymore.
‘Still… this really gives me the creeps.’
I swept my gaze over the students enduring the punishment. I had known the training grounds would be mostly empty because of the field trip, but this was still ridiculous. The majority of those being disciplined were commoners or low-ranking nobles.
‘I really want to see the face of whoever’s behind this.’
People who did this sort of thing usually had rotten personalities. As that thought crossed my mind, an irritated voice cut through the air.
“Huh? What the hell? Why aren’t you down there with them?”
When I turned, I saw a yellow-haired delinquent tilting his head at a cocky angle. His face screamed “bully” so loudly that anyone would have recognized the type immediately.
Then his eyes landed on me.
“Huh? The blind kid? Oh, so you’re that one? The guy with the eye condition who’s supposedly good with a bow?”
He stared at my bandages and flashed an obnoxious grin. I might be pretending to be blind, but being mocked like this still pissed me off. Apparently I wasn’t the only one—Miroel’s eyes had narrowed into sharp, furious slits beside me.
“Are you the one who ordered the students from our class to do this?” I asked.
“Huh? Yeah, that’s right. I heard the freshmen these days don’t even bother greeting their seniors. Especially you A-class kids.”
He dug at his ear with a finger as he gave a half-hearted answer. What the hell does he mean, “greeting”? We’re not even acquaintances.
As I stood there dumbfounded, he looked me up and down and continued.
“Kids these days really are something else. Back in my time, we couldn’t even make eye contact with our seniors… Ah, right. You can’t see. Anyway, we couldn’t ask questions, we just bowed at ninety degrees. But the second I get back from a mission, everything’s gone to shit.”
Anyone listening would think he’d lived through half a lifetime of hardship. He was only one year older than us.
‘That little brat talking like he’s seen the world… How absurd.’
The first High Elf, who had undoubtedly lived for several centuries, wore a genuinely flabbergasted expression. Her lips were even trembling with indignation.
“Whatever. Blind or not, you get down there with the rest of them.”
The delinquent gave the order as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
I thought about my age before possession. I had been twenty-seven. That made me roughly six years older than the punk standing in front of me. If he had lived in modern Korea, he would have just become a private in the military—or, if he were a student, he would only now be entering his second year of university while I had already graduated and entered the workforce.
And this kid was pointing at me and ordering me to drop into a plank position.
This was the kind of situation where even a monk would snap and crack the bastard’s skull with a wooden fish without a single word of complaint.
‘I need to mess him up properly, but I don’t have any justification…’
As I seriously contemplated how best to destroy him, the delinquent sighed.
“Haa… Why can’t you understand simple instructions?”
He swung his fist at me without warning. While I was still wondering how to create proper justification, he had kindly provided it by initiating violence first.
I leisurely dodged his punch using Mind’s Eye. Then I smiled—a rather wicked smile.
“You started this first, senior.”
Mind's Eye
***
Kiesa, a second-year student, could not comprehend the current situation at all.
The person before him was clearly a freshman. Not only that, but a blind one. So how the hell was he dodging every single one of his attacks?
Whoosh!
Every punch cut through nothing but empty air. Kiesa was in the A-class of the second-years. Even if he was at the bottom of that class, he still ranked in the upper tier overall. Yet here he was, being toyed with by a mere freshman.
Grind.
Finally losing his temper, Kiesa pulled a wooden sword from his spatial pouch. He had brought it just in case he needed to properly discipline a rebellious freshman. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined using it on a blind person.
“That’s enough!”
Furious, he swung the wooden sword. The blade cut through the air with far cleaner form than before.
Yet—
Whoosh!
Baran dodged it just as leisurely as before. He looked at Kiesa and gave an incredulous smile.
“You act so high and mighty just because you’re one year above us, but your skills are truly pathetic.”
Those heavy words made the veins on Kiesa’s forehead bulge. He had never imagined being disrespected like this by a blind freshman of all people.
Whoosh!
This time, he released his mana. Using mana just to discipline a junior—if any professors saw this, they would have stopped him immediately.
“Dieeeee!”
Emitting killing intent, Kiesa swung the wooden sword with all his strength.
Without hesitation, Baran poured mana into the Bow of the Beginning.
In the next moment—
Vwoong!
A single arrow made of pure mana formed in his hand.
Kwaaaang!
Baran blocked Kiesa’s attack with the arrow. Kiesa’s pupils dilated dramatically as he realized his full-powered strike had been stopped.
“What the…?”
He had swung with everything he had. Even though it was a wooden sword, any average student of the same year would have been sent flying by that blow. But this guy had blocked it—not with a sword, but with some strange bow.
“What do you mean, ‘what’? You’re simply weak. That’s all there is to it.”
Baran raised the corner of his lips in a mocking smile that only Kiesa could see. Kiesa’s face twisted in rage, and he continued swinging his sword wildly.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Each strike tore through the air with a vicious sound, but—
“Hoo… Hoo…”
Not a single attack even grazed Baran’s body.
Kiesa had always been respected. Being humiliated like this by a mere freshman made his blood boil.
‘No choice then.’
He hadn’t planned to use magic, but if he let this continue, his dignity as a senior would be completely destroyed. Just as he prepared to cast a spell—
Thud!
‘Huh?’
His attack suddenly connected. Kiesa’s eyes widened in shock. The guy who had been dodging perfectly until now had suddenly taken a hit. For a moment he wondered if it was an act, but seeing Baran drop to one knee suggested otherwise.
Something felt off, but—
‘This is my chance.’
If he hesitated now, the situation might reverse. Ignoring the strange unease, Kiesa pressed the attack.
Strangely, Baran’s movements had grown sluggish.
Thud! Thud!
Every strike landed with a dull impact that echoed across the training grounds. The first-years watched with hands over their mouths.
“S-shouldn’t we stop this?”
“Yeah…”
“Someone do something…”
“How are we supposed to stop that?”
They wanted to intervene, but the opponent was a second-year from Class A. A mere extra trying to stop him was laughable. Besides, getting involved would likely mean ending up in the same state.
“Haa… Haa… You damn blind bastard. Should’ve just stayed quiet.”
Kiesa looked down at the bloodied Baran with a satisfied smile. He continued speaking to the crowd.
“You all saw that, right? If you act out in front of your seniors in the future, this is what—”
“What exactly is ‘this’?”
A voice cut off his sentence. Kiesa turned, wondering who had the nerve to interrupt.
“P-Professor Dale?!”
Dale stood there with a chilling smile on his face.
While Kiesa stared in horror, Baran was secretly smiling with deep satisfaction as he looked at the message before him.
Sub Quest: Mess with 2nd-Year Kiesa
You have successfully humiliated him in a completely unexpected manner.
Reward: Granted to the Player
Life is the real deal, you rookie.