069. Knowledge from the Future (1)
069. Knowledge from the Future (1)
After the Interpersonal Combat Practical ended.
I dragged my corpse-like body toward my next lecture.
'Ugh, I'm dying....'
Sparring with Kang Do-hee alone was exhausting enough, but rolling around on the floor wrestling together left me absolutely drained.
It felt like every single cell in my body had been wrung dry.
'Well, grappling naturally burns a ton of stamina....'
And my partner was none other than Kang Do-hee.
The only thought in my head was that I wanted to shut my eyes and collapse onto a bed.
'Still, I can teach Kang Do-hee grappling now. So it's good.'
How could I, a non-specialist with no expertise in martial arts or hand-to-hand combat, teach her grappling?
No matter how strong my grip strength was, it honestly made no sense.
I wasn't some former MMA fighter; I was just an ordinary casual Player holed up at home.
But there was one reason I could confidently say I'd teach her.
Because I have Instructor Baek Seol-hee.
I planned to make a special request during my major class tomorrow.
About the grappling I wanted to teach Kang Do-hee.
Seeing Baek Seol-hee square off against Kang Do-hee in hand-to-hand combat during basic training, she clearly had expertise not only in swordsmanship but also in martial arts.
'The opportunity came faster than I thought.'
It was a thought I'd had after the last major class.
That I would absorb Instructor Baek Seol-hee's teachings myself and pass them on to my party members.
'Except, to do that, I ultimately have to use what's in Alice's Box.'
Honestly, I felt some resistance to cracking open an item whose future uses were still unknown.
But if the payoff was an increase in stats, it was more than worth it.
Lost in thought, I found myself arriving at the lecture hall before I knew it.
As always, eyes turned toward me the moment I entered.
I slowly scanned the room, searching for Shin Se-hee.
'Where'd she go?'
This class was 「Understanding Party Roles, Formations, and Organization」.
A course related to party management, one of the intelligence-boosting classes.
I'd picked it thinking it would help me as party leader and Shin Se-hee as operator.
My wandering gaze stopped at the very back corner of the room.
There was a girl with long, straight black hair, hunched over with her head desperately lowered.
No matter how much she tried to hide, she couldn't conceal her uniquely radiant aura.
'So she's that embarrassed about the drunk texts she sent yesterday?'
I raised one corner of my mouth into a smirk and walked toward her.
"Shin Se-hee, what are you doing over here? Sleeping?"
I stood beside her and asked.
Flinch—
Her body trembled.
Creak—
Stiffly, she raised her head and stretched both arms upward.
It looked like she was trying to claim she'd gotten there first and accidentally dozed off.
"Ah, Jin Yu-ha. You're here? I'm sorry. I got here early and fell asleep for a moment."
She turned my way and spoke, her face the picture of casual indifference.
"You must have been tired. Are you feeling sick?"
"Yes, a little...."
Shin Se-hee bobbed her head.
I placed one hand on my own forehead and reached the other over to hers.
'Huh? Is she actually sick?'
Her forehead felt hotter than I expected.
"You're warm. You sure you're okay?"
I sat down beside her with a worried look.
"W-wait! J-just a moment! I-I'm fine!"
Shin Se-hee squished herself further into the corner.
Then she kept sneaking glances my way before finally opening her mouth.
"Um, Jin Yu-ha...."
"Yeah."
"S-so, I mean. You deleted the texts, right?"
"Of course I did. You said they had a virus and told me to delete them right away. I erased them without checking."
"Did you...?"
Shin Se-hee looked at me, her eyes trembling with a complicated tangle of emotions.
She was even biting her lip.
Well, honestly, the urge to tease her was squirming inside me even now, and it was hard to hold back.
But she's sick, so teasing her would be mean.
'I'll tease her later.'
I'd just gently ask her about what happened yesterday after class ended.
"Alright, let's focus on the lecture."
I sat next to her and sprawled face-down onto the desk.
'Gonna nap until the instructor gets here.'
* * *
Shin Se-hee bit down hard on her lip.
'Jin Yu-ha told me not to lie....'
What was the condition he had set when he agreed to accept her into his party?
─ Be completely honest in front of me. If you ever try to deceive me, even once, it's over between us that day.
But the shameful texts she had sent while drunk the night before couldn't be undone.
─ But you reully believed it right? Honestly I was touched then,
─ Hah...but wut does that matter. I know I'm not the one, and I know I really shouldn't want it.
─ Did I maybe do something weird to you? Honestly I had desirz for you but really I did nothing? For real.
The moment she woke up that morning, she checked her phone. There were sentences she had no memory of writing.
As soon as she saw them, her fingers had instinctively fired off a lie.
'Believed it my ass!!!'
As the texts she'd sent replayed in her mind, Shin Se-hee's face flushed and heated up again as if ready to burst.
She flailed her feet under the desk and shadowboxed inwardly, trying desperately to shake off the mortifying memories.
'Seriously. I've never been like this when I drank before. Why am I like this lately....'
She cupped her burning-hot face with both hands.
Truthfully, she still couldn't quite judge whether this fell under the category of "lying" as he'd defined it.
She simply didn't want him to see this shameful side of her.
'Jin Yu-ha trusted me.'
Maybe he was even now giving her another chance.
Carrying that tangled feeling, Shin Se-hee turned her head to the side.
There he was, asleep with his eyes closed.
He must have been tired; Jin Yu-ha had exchanged just a few words with her before passing out instantly.
Shin Se-hee mirrored him, curving her back slightly and resting her head on her arms as she lay down on the desk.
Their faces were now directly opposite each other over the desk's surface.
'...His eyelashes are insanely long.'
The sharp bridge of his nose.
His straight, clean eyebrows.
His snow-white skin.
Even the color of his red lips.
A feeling of admiration arose, as if looking at a piece of artistic sculpture.
She wanted to keep gazing at his sleeping face forever, but―
Clack.
Clack.
The sound of hard dress shoes shattered Shin Se-hee's thoughts.
"Hello. I am Instructor Park Jin-soo, in charge of 'Understanding Party Roles, Formations, and Organization.'"
Startled by the instructor's voice, she bolted upright.
The instructor leading the lecture was a cold-faced man.
Just looking at him, you could tell he was the strict type.
"Don't expect an early dismissal just because it's the first day. Everything from today onward is on the exam, so take proper notes."
True to his appearance, the instructor opened his book in one hand and began writing on the holographic board that had appeared behind him.
"Jin Yu-ha. Jin Yu-ha."
Shin Se-hee gently shook his shoulder and whispered in a low voice.
Jin Yu-ha's eyebrows twitched.
"Wake up. The instructor's here."
"Wanna sleep more...."
Jin Yu-ha whined in a low, husky voice.
"......You're going to sleep more?"
"Mmhmm...."
Shin Se-hee flinched.
Gulp.
Staring down at him for a moment, she slowly closed her eyes.
'Mm. Then it can't be helped.'
She clenched her fist tightly.
'I'll take notes on the entire lecture. And after class, I'll show him the notes and confess about what happened yesterday.'
That way, she could keep her promise to be honest with him, and since he'd already deleted them, she wouldn't have to tell him what the texts actually said.
*
Scratch scratch─
The lecture hall was quiet as a grave.
The only sound was the scratching of students' pens and pencils.
"The formation and positioning of a party must be arranged as meticulously as fitting together a puzzle. The tide of battle shifts dramatically depending on where each member stands and what role they take."
And the indifferent voice of the cold-faced instructor delivering the lecture.
"You have two B-Rank Healers, four C-Rank Damage Dealers, and one E-Rank Tank. In front of them are four A-Rank Monsters. In this scenario, how must the party be deployed to secure victory without losing a single member? Draft a strategy while considering the characteristics of this terrain."
The instructor manipulated the hologram as he spoke.
Immediately, each party member's status window, equipped items, and other data materialized into numbers on the board.
'...This class is way tougher than I expected.'
Since she had experience running and managing parties even before entering Velvet Academy, she'd felt confident about this course.
But surprisingly, it demanded considerable reasoning and operational planning skills.
Judging by the pale faces of the other cadets, everyone was struggling to keep up with the content.
'Two B-Rank Healers, four C-Rank Damage Dealers, and one E-Rank Tank.... Four A-Rank Monsters.'
With clever movement paths, it seemed possible to take down all four monsters.
But the condition that no one could die was the sticking point.
'This really is a class I need, huh.'
Jin Yu-ha had recommended this course to her, insisting she had to take it.
He'd said it would help her manage the party going forward.
That's when it happened.
"You there. Male cadet."
The instructor stared toward the sleeping Jin Yu-ha and called him out with an expressionless face.
'Oh no.'
Shin Se-hee shook Jin Yu-ha's shoulder.
"Mmrrm...."
"Jin Yu-ha. Wake up. I think the instructor's calling you."
"......What."
Jin Yu-ha lifted his head, rubbing his eyes.
"You fell asleep before my class had even started, cadet. And you've remained asleep this entire time. If you have no intention of listening, I'll give you a chance to leave now."
"I'm sorry."
Jin Yu-ha bowed his head, sleep still lingering on his face.
The instructor, who had been staring openly at him, furrowed his brow slightly as if displeased.
"No, perhaps my class is simply too easy for you."
The instructor stroked his chin and nodded.
"Fine, I'll assume you already fully comprehend my entire lecture. Then, come up front and solve this problem."
'Ah...!'
Shin Se-hee's face crumpled. She subtly tried to slide the operational plan she'd drafted out from under her arm.
'Jin Yu-ha, at least take this....'
But Jin Yu-ha didn't even glance her way.
He simply stared at the board with half-closed eyes, then gave a nod.
Plod. Plod.
Jin Yu-ha stepped forward.
Shin Se-hee watched his back, feeling a pang of anxiety.
'There's absolutely no way he can get this right if he didn't listen to the lecture!'
Jin Yu-ha didn't even know the terrain's characteristics or the monsters' traits.
Of course he didn't. Those details hadn't been displayed on the screen.
They were the parts the instructor had just explained verbally moments ago.
Which meant Jin Yu-ha had to devise a strategy with no information about the enemy, relying solely on his allies' status windows.
Once up front, Jin Yu-ha swept his eyes over the given status windows,
then skimmed the monster placement diagram.
Then he reached a hand toward the hologram.
Without a moment of hesitation, he began positioning the party.
Tap.
Tap.
But his choices were utterly unexpected.
Jin Yu-ha immediately dropped the Healers—who had zero combat capability—into the Tank slot.
And as if that wasn't enough, he pushed the Damage Dealers and the actual Tank far, far away.
'He's putting the Healers... at the very front?'
Next, Jin Yu-ha started manipulating the sequence of each party member's skills, items, and movement paths.
'...Huh?'
Then, finally catching on to his intent, Shin Se-hee's eyes went wide.
"I think this would work?"
Jin Yu-ha turned his head and spoke to the instructor with a sullen face.
"......Are you absolutely certain this would really work?"
The instructor stared at the deployment diagram, his voice trailing off.
Jin Yu-ha nodded firmly, as if completely sure of himself.
"Yes, it will work."
The instructor's icy expression cracked, a look of pure bewilderment briefly surfacing.