Festival (2)
Festival (2)
[ Grand Auditorium ]
Seats arrayed to accommodate a hundred thousand spectators.
It was not a small number by any measure, yet right now, not a single empty seat could be found in the stands.
Even five people muttering together makes a racket. A hundred thousand people chattering at once is nothing short of a natural disaster. At least, it is for me.
"A transparent soundproof barrier... I'll practice it myself the moment we return."
"Shut your mouth and go bring me coffee."
"Ahem, yes sir."
Jaden rose from his seat and stepped out past the barrier. Then he called over Kang Han-na, who was saying something to the students gathered in front.
"Cheon Ji-ho."
"Yes, Professor."
"Tell him to go get it himself. And let him know that if he doesn't, I'll slam his face into the floor."
"Ah... yes."
Cheon Ji-ho hurried from his seat and approached Jaden, who was already heading back this way.
After a short exchange, Jaden rushed off toward the waiting room, chasing after Kang Han-na, who had broken into a sprint.
"Message delivered."
I gave Cheon Ji-ho a single nod as he returned to his seat, then rose and stood before the students.
The students had been glaring at the F.A. bastards waiting across from us, their eyes brimming with hostility. The moment I stepped forward, they flinched and the fire drained from their gazes.
In the span of a single blink, they'd shifted from wild beasts to docile lambs. The transformation pulled a dry laugh out of me.
"Anyone who goes undefeated until the ceremony ends will receive a personal gift from me. But anyone who loses even once gets special training until vacation is over. Those who accept, raise your hands quietly."
Fwoosh─!!
Baek Ha-na, seated alone in a chair that looked far too nice to belong to anyone else, was the first to raise her hand. Nam Seo-hee and Yoon I-seul, standing on either side of her, followed.
With those three leading the way, the rest of the students raised their hands without much hesitation, until all thirty of them had accepted my wager.
"I hope you achieve good results."
Leaving Jaden behind as he returned with Kang Han-na carrying canned coffee, I went back to my seat.
"Ha, haha. They didn't have any stick coffee..."
"I told you to do it yourself, not fob it off on someone else."
"Yes sir..."
Psshh.
When I popped the tab, the familiar scent of canned coffee wafted out—the same cloying smell I'd gotten sick of back then. The taste didn't differ much from what I remembered either. Just mediocre canned coffee.
And yet, it was also the only flavor I'd found myself missing.
-This is Operations. Please send your first student up to the stage.
The small radio attached to Jaden's front pocket crackled to life.
He stood and walked over to the students. A first-year followed Jaden toward the stage.
"Kang Han-na."
-Y-yes?!
Just as the match was about to begin in earnest, the woman who'd been trying to slip quietly toward the back spun around, eyes wide with alarm.
"Come sit."
"Ah, yes, yes sir."
She looked flustered for a moment, then gathered herself quickly and hurried over, dropping into Jaden's vacant seat.
"You'll take over the second-year combat arts lecture."
"Huh? Ah, yes... yes?"
She nodded with a blink, then her eyes flew wide open and she stared up at me with fresh shock.
"Me, the second-year lecture... me?"
"Yes."
"Well... if you're assigning it to me, I'll work hard..."
I'd expected her to ask a few questions—whether she was really qualified, whether the other professors would mind. But she accepted it faster than I'd anticipated.
"Your salary will go up too. Just keep doing what you're doing."
"......!!"
Kang Han-na, who'd been staring blankly up at the stage with a dazed expression, opened her mouth wide and whipped her head back toward me.
"I-I'll work hard!!"
She shot to her feet and bowed so deeply her back was perpendicular to the floor.
"Sit."
"Yes sir!!"
Not long after Kang Han-na settled back into her seat, the two students on stage lunged at each other.
"Huh? Why can't I hear anything...?"
Kang Han-na had been watching the stage with an elated face. It took several clashes between the two students before she registered that no sound was reaching us.
"Professor Baek put up a barrier, apparently."
"A barrier? But I don't see one...?"
At Cheon Ji-ho's answer, Kang Han-na's head swiveled around.
"It's distracting. Sit still."
"Ah, yes sir."
Maybe she wanted to prove she prioritized my orders over her own curiosity. Kang Han-na promptly locked her wandering gaze back onto the stage.
Soon enough, the match ended.
"Yesss...!!"
The moment our first-year took down the opponent, Kang Han-na clenched both fists and let out a tiny burst of joy.
"Ha, these vicious little bastards."
Cheon Ji-ho shook his head, but a faint smile tugged at his lips—he was pleased, whether he admitted it or not.
The first-year had deliberately thrown himself into an attack he could easily have dodged, closing the distance in the process. The cost was a deep gash across his left leg that laid the bone bare, but he swung his arm without an ounce of wasted motion—like a man who felt no pain—and drove his blade into the opponent's abdomen.
He'd siphoned off every scrap of mana that wasn't strictly necessary for bodily protection and focused it into a single point. That thrust shattered the mana barrier the F.A. student had wrapped around himself.
The match was over right there.
The first-year's sword didn't pierce the opponent's stomach. Both sides' head professors intervened immediately. So it was a win by decision for us.
The leg wound was by no means light, but it couldn't compare to having a sword run through your gut and your insides torn apart.
Claire—no, someone at Jaden's level might have been able to continue fighting, but for students at their current caliber, that was out of the question.
'I'll have to put that one through the wringer too.'
I shot a sidelong glare at Cheon Ji-ho, who was sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with Kang Han-na simply basking in the victory, and observed the opposing camp.
-It's fine, Bill.
-Yeah. Who would've guessed he'd charge in like that?
-Thanks to you, we've got a rough idea of their strategy now. So lift your head.
-We'll get revenge for you.
The opposing team didn't seem particularly bothered by the loss. They were busy consoling the student who'd just come off the stage and rapidly drafting new strategies, saying the match had shown them what kind of tactics we intended to use.
And what about our side?
-Keh, so it really does work!!
-Fuck, they're all dead. Straight for the skull.
-Attacking the head's a disqualification, you dumbass.
Students and faculty alike, neither group was thinking things through.
No—Yoon I-seul and a few others seemed to have recognized the problem, but they still showed no sign of voicing it.
'I'd decided to be content with them being favorably disposed toward Baek Ha-na... but next time, I should invest more time and educate them properly.'
If these kids were meant to be used and discarded, I could leave them as they were. But the children gathered here weren't for my sake—they were gathered for Baek Ha-na. So that she could continue forming connections with all kinds of people even after graduating from the academy.
I'd had Lee Ye-sol screen them for decent talent and character, but watching them now, they were lacking in more ways than one.
I took a single sip of the canned coffee I'd been holding and watched the next match, the can resting against my lips.
"That's right...!!"
"Kheuu~!!"
"Whoa, nicely done!!"
And as the wins kept piling up, Greed began to slither into Kang Han-na's eyes beside me.
'Match prediction, is it.'
She'd been showing an obsession with money since last year. How she spent her honestly earned cash was her own business, so I had no intention of faulting her. I could see exactly what was coming next, so I simply considered how best to work her harder.
"Let's go, Kang Seok-ho!! Show 'em the dignity of the Iron Knight, you punk!!"
By now she'd apparently forgotten I was sitting right next to her. Kang Han-na shot to her feet and started cheering Kang Seok-ho on.
-Let her be.
-Yes sir...
I sent a telepathic message to Cheon Ji-ho, who'd been about to rein her in, then shifted my gaze to the stage.
Kang Seok-ho. An Enhancement-type Awakened who could transform parts of his body into steel. His primary weapons were a heavy sword and a one-handed shield.
The F.A. student was a textbook Enhancement type who strengthened his muscles. His main weapon was a metal rod with a sharpened tip.
For Kang Seok-ho, who fought by converting his body into steel and bulldozing forward with stubborn force, this was the worst possible matchup. The opponent not only wielded a metal rod with superior reach, but could amplify his strength up to tenfold depending on how much mana he invested.
If Kang Seok-ho tried to block halfheartedly or counter with partial transformation, he'd lose his center of gravity in an instant and be pushed onto the back foot. Converting his entire body into steel and closing in would cost him the mobility to close the distance.
In other words, this was a fight that demanded a strategy of giving flesh to take bone.
But these kids had already given up far too much flesh against opponents they could've beaten with a little patience—flesh they never needed to surrender.
"Let's gooooo!!"
Kang Seok-ho had been blocking attacks with his whole body converted to steel. Now he released the ability as if he'd made up his mind and charged at his opponent. The metal rod came flying, aimed straight at Kang Seok-ho's left shoulder.
The moment he lost the arm holding his shield, Kang Seok-ho was as good as beaten. So that incoming rod had to be dodged—or he needed to concentrate his ability to somehow neutralize the impact.
Kang Seok-ho didn't convert his left shoulder. He converted his waist and both legs into steel instead. A choice to keep his stance from collapsing even if the rod smashed into his shoulder.
And then Kang Seok-ho's sword slashed diagonally, aiming for the opponent's flank.
"Huh...?"
A stunned noise slipped from Kang Han-na's mouth.
The metal rod crushed Kang Seok-ho's shoulder, exactly as expected. But Kang Seok-ho's sword never reached the opponent's side.
Had the head professor intervened?
Wrong.
As if he'd been waiting for it, the opponent used one knee and one elbow to trap Kang Seok-ho's blade.
-Knew you'd come at me like that.
-Fuck...
The metal rod that had pulverized Kang Seok-ho's shoulder now swung toward his ribs.
And then.
"Aaaaaagh!!"
The scream that should've come from Kang Seok-ho tore out of Kang Han-na's mouth instead.