The Kids' Fight (1)
The Kids' Fight (1)
The last weekend morning of April.
"Nnnh, haah...."
Baek Ha-na, fresh from sleep, stretched and let out a short breath. A soft sliver of light settled over her clear sky-blue eyes, which still looked a little dazed.
"Nn...."
Baek Ha-na grimaced and sat up very slowly. Unkempt strands of hair fell messily across her eyes.
She pushed the bothersome bangs aside with one hand and picked up the smartwatch beside her pillow.
AM 07 : 03
On an ordinary weekend, she would have been home right now, eating the breakfast he made and chatting happily. But today she had just barely opened her eyes.
-No, I mean, she's the top seat, right? Then she's obviously flawless in her own field. So what I'm saying is, if it were me, I'd kill two birds with one stone—meet our dear Executor and apply for personal tutoring with the much-talked-about Professor Baek.
Those were Idni's words from a conversation two days ago, on Thursday evening. They were the reason Ha-na was sitting on her dorm bed on a weekend instead of going home.
"This is all because of Claire...."
Having barely managed to sit up, Baek Ha-na flopped back onto the bed, hugging the pillow tight and rolling around.
'If it weren't for Claire, I wouldn't even be worrying about this...'
The reason Baek Woo-jin's lectures were so popular.
The reason Baek Woo-jin was drawing attention.
It had all started with Claire.
Claire's reputation and high profile had drawn students' eyes, and naturally, their interest in Baek Woo-jin, who was always beside her, had grown as well.
'If it weren't for that, no one would've even tried to listen...!!'
Its status as a non-major elective certainly played a part, but the real hardship for students was the mountain of assignments he handed out every single session. With barely enough time to focus on their majors, who would want an elective that buried them in homework?
Even now, with those terrible reviews circulating, upperclassmen and classmates alike were still pestering the Administration Department practically every day, desperate to get into the Basic Rift Studies lecture.
"Ugh...!!"
This situation was no different.
Idni had only mentioned it offhand, as if it seemed plausible, but the assumption was convincing enough to make everyone present, including herself, flinch.
A position that others coveted but she didn't care about in the slightest.
She had to secure it for the sake of future happiness.
"Just endure a little longer...."
It wasn't even a month. Only three weeks and she'd make it through. Then vacation would arrive. Two months, sure, but she could stick close to him like before. So just until then... No, maybe she only had to endure today.
No matter how outstanding her opponent's awakened ability might be, it couldn't hold a candle to the man she respected second most in the world.
"Um, Ha-na...?"
"Hmm?"
Baek Ha-na, who had been rolling around in bed, turned her head at the sound of her name from the other side. There, wrapped in a blanket with only her face peeking out, was Lee Na-young.
Seeing her looking more worn out than usual, Baek Ha-na shot upright. Lee Na-young, who had been about to say something, flinched and started stammering.
"W-why?"
"Why do you think? We have to go eat breakfast."
"Huh...?"
Lee Na-young's eyes flew wide open as if startled, and Baek Ha-na strode over, closing the distance between them.
"No, I-I was gonna sleep through lunch today so... kyaaah?!"
"Nope. You can sleep after breakfast."
"B-but I only slept two hours...!"
"I'll wash you up."
"...Uh, umm...."
The flailing Lee Na-young quieted down, and the two made it to the dining hall on time.
**
After breakfast, Baek Ha-na and the three others dropped off the half-asleep Lee Na-young at the dormitory, then headed toward today's destination.
"Whoa, this place is huge?"
Idni quietly marveled at the enormous training room, visible even from afar. Beside her, Maria narrowed her eyes and flexed her hand.
Even ordinary students typically checked out the facilities they'd be using at least once out of curiosity. So hearing an exclamation like that from a cleric of the God of Amusement—an apprentice, yes, but one who should be the most sensitive to information—naturally ticked her off.
She wanted to smack Idni squarely on the back. But two days ago, she'd made a promise to herself, so she had no choice but to hold back.
"It really is big, though. Are we seriously using this all by ourselves?"
"Huh? Uh, yeah."
Maria had been glaring at Idni's back when Baek Ha-na's question came from behind. She straightened up and answered.
Like the dining hall, a few academy facilities were reserved for first-years only. The sparring arena was a prime example, and the training room they were heading toward was the second.
The dining hall was separate simply so that students could eat a bit more comfortably. The other facilities didn't have any grand reasoning either—they were just divided because the structural needs differed depending on their purpose.
Take the sparring arena, for instance. Since first-years don't know each other's skill levels, they immediately throw down in Cession Battles whenever a dispute arises. The arena was designed to handle several students at once by splitting the area into sections.
Upperclassmen, by contrast, already had a general sense of each other's abilities, so Cession Battles were far less frequent among them. Their facilities were designed with bigger stages and more advanced technology that could create specific environments.
The training rooms were separated for similar reasons.
Upperclassmen had practical exercises, evaluations, and tournaments that determined their future paths, so their practice rooms were built as private chambers sealed off from outside view. Meanwhile—
-You dirty bastard!!
-Oh yeah. Why don't you run your mouth like that at the monsters too~
-Agh?!
-Someone toss me a sword over there!!
The first-year area was divided into zones but lacked actual partitions—essentially an open shared space. This layout was meant to let students observe and learn from each other's abilities.
"Looks like they spent some serious money here. The air's even fresher than outside."
"Right."
Baek Ha-na nodded in agreement with Idni's comment.
All around them, classmates were sweating it out. In some spots, plumes of pitch-black smoke or thick dust rose into the air.
With her sense of smell and hearing so heightened by her awakened ability, Baek Ha-na would have scowled on the spot if the facility weren't engraved with cleansing magic.
"So? Which way is ours?"
Idni, who had been looking around, asked Nam Seo-hee. Nam Seo-hee was the one who had secured the slot in the completely booked training room.
"This way."
The group started walking, following Nam Seo-hee as she led the way. Idni kept chattering nonstop, watching the other first-years.
"Huh, everyone seems pretty mediocre."
"It also feels kind of like a public gym."
"Whoa!! Is that a new-model strength tester?!"
"Why does this kid talk so much?"
"You two are the weirdly quiet ones, you know?"
At Maria's scolding, Idni pouted.
"And why's this place so big? Feels like we've already walked five minutes."
"It was built to handle two hundred people at once—of course it's huge. And our area's on the second floor."
"...There's a second floor?"
Idni looked up with a slightly daunted expression.
The ceiling was so high she couldn't touch it even if she jumped at full power. Though, looking again now, it definitely seemed lower than it had from outside.
"...Does student tuition really cover all this?"
"You think so? The academy takes a share of the profits when professors produce results using their research grants. That's how they afford it."
There were other sources of income too—by-products from rift training exercises, artifacts the Chairman brought in from outside to sell—but she didn't go into all that.
"It really is here."
Before she knew it, Idni was stepping onto the stairs leading up, blinking. The scene on the second floor made her blink again.
Unlike the noisy, sweltering heat of the first floor, here a group of classmates had gathered a short distance away, facing off as if in a standoff.
"What's this? What's with the mood?"
"I just walked up here with you, you know."
Maria clenched her fist and let out a short sigh. But despite the sigh, the moment she identified the faces of the classmates squaring off in the distance, she understood why the air felt so razor-sharp, like walking on thin ice.
"Sometimes I really don't get what goes on in Seo-hee's head."
"Sometimes? I'm like that all the time. That chick only ever hears what she wants to hear—except for when Ha-na talks."
"Shut up. Let's go."
"Huh? Why?"
Maria grabbed Idni by the hand and followed after Baek Ha-na and Nam Seo-hee, who had already moved far ahead.
CLANG!!
CLANK, SCRAAAAAPE!!
The sound of steel smashing and grinding against steel—sounds a standard practice wooden sword could never produce—began to echo across the quiet training room.
The increasingly violent noise came from the center of the crowd, which had split into two opposing sides.
The sounds stopped at almost the exact moment Baek Ha-na and the three others reached the scene.
-Grrk!!
-Huff, huff, haaah!!
In their place came a pained groan and rough, ragged breaths.
The coppery scent of blood brushed Baek Ha-na's nose, and she turned her head.
At the center of the opposing classmates.
A male student stood there, face twisted in pain as he clutched his left shoulder, which was soaked bright red.
Just as Baek Ha-na was about to say something, a female student wearing the pure white clerical vestments of an apprentice cleric emerged from the crowd and began healing the injured boy.
"So what's this mess about?"
Idni's voice rang out sharply in the previously quiet space.
The stares that had been fixed on the center snapped toward the four of them at once—and among those faces were Kang Seok-ho and Na Ju-hee.
Children of the Top 10 Guilds, and the followers who flocked around them.
That was the identity of the students gathered on the second floor.
The atmosphere was drawn taut.
It was the sort of mood where someone stepping forward to speak right away wouldn't have been surprising, given the sudden newcomers. But once they recognized the faces of Baek Ha-na and Nam Seo-hee, they quietly turned away as if nothing had happened.
"Ha-na."
"Yeah...?"
Baek Ha-na turned at Nam Seo-hee's call. Nam Seo-hee took her hand and spoke.
"Just wait a little. They'll be at each other soon too."
"Uh, yeah...."
Then, perfectly naturally, she led Baek Ha-na over to where Kang Seok-ho and Na Ju-hee were.
Watching this, Maria let out a small sigh and called for Idni.
"Should we go...?"
Idni, who had been right beside her moments ago, was gone.
Frowning, Maria turned to spot that eye-catching pink hair.
WHOOMP―!!
A heavy sound rang out, like something had plowed straight into a wall.
She turned toward the source.
And found the pink-haired girl in the center of the crowd, arm fully extended in a punching stance.