The Disciplinary Committee (2)
Rustle.
A small sound—undergrowth giving under a boot.
The instant he heard it, he turned his head, and there they were: solidly built men in guard uniforms.
"Sounds like a bomb went off."
"What is all this commotion, out of nowhere?"
They swept the surroundings the moment they arrived, and the second their eyes landed on Bihyung and Mina, they lit up.
"The entrance valedictorian and salutatorian."
"Was this the two of you?"
"We'll need your cooperation with the questioning."
Every last one of them was built like six feet would have been a comfortable understatement, and with those square jaws and fierce, glaring eyes fixed on him—
Oof. Heart's doing a little tap dance, though.
But Shin Bihyung had already seen this coming.
No. From the moment he fought Imiho, hadn't he more or less braced for things to end up like this?
...What can you do. The aftermath of the fight left the place looking like this.
Just as the Guardian Corps had said, the surroundings were a wreck, as if artillery had gone off. Trees lay snapped and sprawled across the ground with no intention of standing again, and the earth... well. It had been gouged deep enough to start a lake.
Bihyung steadied himself and stepped forward to meet them.
"Yes. We were the ones who did it."
"What happened?"
"Mina and I were caught up in a yokai's domain."
"The circumstances."
"It happened suddenly, in the middle of a date."
"Is that so. Understood."
The senior of the Guardian Corps nodded and immediately closed a ring around Bihyung and Mina.
"A committee will be convened, effective now. An alarm has already been raised at the main hall. The two of you will attend at once."
"Yes."
"Not a tremor. Did you already expect us?"
"Well... yes. If something like this happened, of course."
Bihyung met the Guardian Corps' eyes without flinching and added,
"Long before I came to the academy, I heard plenty about the Guardian Corps' reputation. And about your impartiality, too."
"Hrm."
"I've got nothing to hide, and I know you'll look into this properly, so I don't think I have any reason to be afraid."
At that, the rugged seniors of the Guardian Corps shot him a thumbs-up and grinned wide enough to show their teeth.
...You can smile like that all you want. It doesn't exactly make you less terrifying.
"Well said. We'll gather the circumstances ourselves."
With that, one of them clapped Bihyung on the shoulder.
"Go on. Attend the committee."
And just like that, the Guardian Corps set to searching the area at once—the gouges in the earth, whether a barrier had been present, why the two of them had set foot in a yokai's domain, and everything else besides.
Only after Bihyung had taken all of it in did he catch Mina's hand and start moving.
"...Bihyung. Will we be okay?"
There was no small amount of worry in Hwang Mina's voice.
The Disciplinary Committee. Once you entered the academy, there was no avoiding the rumors. ...Plenty of people came out of that committee on the wrong side of it and got expelled. From what he'd heard, there was even someone there with a blood art that could discern whether a person's words were true. Of course Mina would be worried.
But Bihyung, for his part, had a certain confidence.
The blood art, Whisper of Contrite Absolution.
Confidence that what the two of them had done would not be exposed in the Disciplinary Committee.
It makes you confess your sins on your own. A blood art that can reach into the domain of emotion, wasn't it?
For the record, back when he was playing Dokja Jeongi, Bihyung had been hauled before the Disciplinary Committee more times than he could count. Once a hardened veteran dropped into for-fun mode, incidents and accidents tended to follow. In the game he had been a walking disaster, an uncontrollable whirlwind no one could rein in. He already had more than enough data on how the committee was conducted—and on how to crack that blood art.
"Mina."
"...Yeah?"
Called out of nowhere, Mina tilted her head and looked at him, and the words that came out of his mouth left her no choice but to fluster.
"What do you think a 'date' is?"
"A d-date!?"
Mina's face went bright with shock, but Bihyung was serious.
"Yeah. A date."
"...W-why, all of a sudden?"
"Because, starting now, I'm planning to go on a real one."
Only until they reached the Disciplinary Committee, mind you.
"T-that's..."
The frail, unsteady air from before was gone. Mina was simply her usual self, thrown off, her eyes trembling hard.
Watching her, Bihyung asked again.
"It's important. Tell me your standard for what counts as a date."
At his question, Mina swallowed before she knew she was doing it—gulp. And then, unbidden, she remembered the feel of his large hand closed around hers....
"A h-hug... maybe?"
She said it shyly.
Bihyung looked at her for a moment, then dropped his gaze.
Uh... is this even doable? That's a brutal opening move.
...Still. It has to be done.
He seized hard onto the reins of his reason and drew Mina gently into his arms.
Caught off guard, she seemed just as flustered; the presence of her heart, pounding loud and fierce, came through all too clearly.
"Sorry. Bear with it a little."
At his words, Mina thought, Bear with it... bear with what? My self-control?
She swallowed, dry, again and again, and an instant as long as eternity passed.
Bihyung let the embrace go and said,
"Let's go."
"Already?"
"Hm?"
"...Ah, it's nothing! The words just jumped out wrong!"
Mina waved her hands in a fluster and hurried ahead to lead him.
"O-okay, then let's go!"
Leading the way was all well and good, but...
Mina? That's the exact opposite direction.
"Not that way. This way. Over here."
He caught her wrist and took the lead again.
They matched their steps and went slowly. The two of them walked the academy grounds as if they'd come for a tour.
"......"
"......"
Perhaps both of them were still frozen from what had just happened. There wasn't much in the way of conversation.
In the midst of that, only Eodugi was free to run his mouth.
"Lord! Lord!"
What.
"Krgh— that was truly magnificent, it was! To subdue that enormous fox yokai and stamp it flat with your presence alone! I was moved to the very depths of my soul, I was!"
The situation favored me.
Yes. The situation had favored him.
She was keeping her presence up on the nature steeped into Mina's blood, so she couldn't have brought her true body's full strength to bear.
Most likely, that shape—the one he'd taken for something out of the realm of illusion—had been the nine-tailed fox's caliber in life. If a being of that standing had wielded her original power... yeah. He didn't even want to imagine it.
"And yet, did my Lord not seize victory without a single wound, did he not?"
Without a single wound, huh...
At those words, Bihyung turned his awareness, on a whim, down into his lower dantian.
A sharp jolt.
Pain that had only begun to make itself known after the fight ended. Little by little, it was trying to grow stronger.
Dao power and yokai power are colliding, and the backlash is starting. Once the committee's over, I'll have to settle the clash between these two energies first thing.
There was no helping it. Dao power: the power humans wielded to kill anomalies. Yokai power: the power accumulated from the very moment one was born a yokai. The two energies were like points set in perfect opposition, incapable of keeping company. Ill-matched in nature, they had no sooner met than they bared their teeth and threw themselves into a fight.
"...Are you quite all right, are you?"
Eodugi's worried question reached him.
Bihyung shook his head inwardly and answered with room to spare.
Yeah. I'm fine.
Pain in the lower dantian. That much, he could endure well enough.
Looking at the reward I got this time, more than well enough.
Bihyung looked back at the messages that had flickered past during the fight with Imiho.
Technique, Ghost-Judging Combat Art, evolves into the next domain.
Spirit of Joyous Combat 【4th Rank】
A distinctive trait has been imbued into the technique, Spirit of Joyous Combat.
Technique acquired: Spirit of Joyous Combat 【4th Rank+】 ★
Plus grade.
Set against a technique of the same rank, it carried far superior power. A little short of the next rank. About that much. And if the effect of Bihyung's Path of the Apex was applied on top of it? Spirit of Joyous Combat could put out force on the level of a 5th Rank+. On raw technique alone, it might even land on the professors.
Of course, he'd need the energy to back the technique up. Even so, obtaining something like this at the very start of the story was an absurd accomplishment.
...But there's still too much missing.
He lacked a movement art to carry his body, and he had no footwork that would give him the edge in close combat. The fights Bihyung had shown so far were offense and nothing else—carried by a dokkaebi's instincts and the eye of a hardened veteran. Until I fill in what's missing and pile up the experience, I can't call myself the professors' equal.
For a moment he was coolly taking stock of his own shortcomings and weighing them without mercy when Eodugi put in, perfectly serious,
"Lord. The way you point out your own lacking points with such cold clarity is truly, truly admirable, it is. But, Lord."
"Whatever else it may be, there is nothing weightier than the body itself, there is not."
"I beg you, most earnestly, to treasure your precious person before all else, I do."
That grave voice wished for nothing but Bihyung's safety.
The corner of his mouth lifted before he knew it.
Don't worry. There's a way to deal with the pain in the lower dantian, too.
"...You mean it, do you?"
Yeah. You remember the Nine Yang Severed Meridians?
The ones that had become the Eight Yang Severed Meridians after he worked through a single strand.
The amount of yokai power I picked up this time should be just about enough to finish that off.
Resolve the Nine Yang Severed Meridians, and he would obtain the Nine Yang Divine Body; the reordering of his flesh would begin on its own. The dantian, too, was a kind of energy meridian. The pain in the lower dantian will disappear in the process, so don't worry too much.
"Whew. Then that is a relief, it is!"
Thanks for worrying.
"As my Lord's subordinate, it is only natural, it is!"
Bihyung couldn't hold it in. He burst out laughing.
Having someone who worried over you—it was a delight, just like this.
Which meant—
Best wrap up the Disciplinary Committee quickly and go put this body back in order.
So there would be nothing left to worry about.
He lifted his head and looked at the academy's main hall, which had revealed itself before he noticed. From it spilled a storm of immense dao power, overflowing. The academy's old monsters are all gathered.
And then, the moment Bihyung set foot inside the main hall—
"Ah, Lord! It is terribly dark in here, it is!"
Just as Eodugi said, a darkness in which he couldn't see an inch ahead rushed in on him.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Within it, as if lights were being thrown on one after another, he saw those who had gathered to pass judgment on whether discipline was due. Faculty, the Elder Council, and the academy's principal cadets, the Student Council President among them.
She's not here, then.
The Chair of the Morals Committee, the one he'd met in the library before. She, too, had the standing to render a verdict. Tch. If she were here, this would've gone a little easier.
He was thinking as much when—
"Cadet Shin Bihyung, entrance valedictorian."
At the low, resonant voice, his head rose of its own accord.
A density of dao power that could not be ignored. A heavy spiritual pressure that crushed everything around it. An exorcist who could not possibly be believed an old man looked down at him.
The Head of the Elder Council.
Otherwise known as the 8th Rank exorcist who resided at the academy.
In the game he was a cranky old bastard whose affinity was a nightmare to raise.
Even now that the man stood in reality, he didn't look much different.
Bihyung bowed his head without resistance and offered his greeting to the Head of the Elder Council.
"Yes. I am Shin Bihyung."
Mina followed his lead, bowing as she spoke.
"I am Hwang Mina."
The Head of the Elder Council took in the sight and nodded.
"The Disciplinary Committee is now in session. The two of you will report what occurred, in full detail."
Bihyung raised his head and slowly made to open his mouth.
That was the moment.
"I object!"
Someone came striding in, kicking through the very space where the Disciplinary Committee had been opened.
Bihyung looked at that person, and his eyes went wide before he knew it.
Why is that person coming out of there?