Despair's Embrace
Yoo Heeyeon stared blankly at the crowd of people. Every single one of them looked at her with eyes full of resentment. Even her own father, Yoo Hanbeom, gazed at her with utter contempt.
“I… I didn’t do anything like that… Why would I ever do something like that? I faced this match with complete confidence…”
At that moment, Park Taeyong stepped forward from the back and shouted.
“Stop lying, Yoo Heeyeon. You’re the one who ordered Shin Junho to do everything. I was right there watching and listening the whole time. What the hell are you saying now?”
“…?”
Yoo Heeyeon looked at Park Taeyong in disbelief. Until just recently, this was the same examiner who couldn’t even speak a single proper word to her. She knew he was close to Shin Junho, but even so, how could he so casually pin his friend’s crimes on someone else? What kind of grudge could justify this? What exactly had she done to deserve such a false accusation?
“Have you lost your mind?”
Forgetting that people were watching, Yoo Heeyeon began to lash out at Park Taeyong.
“When exactly did I ever order Shin Junho to do something like that? Think about it logically. If I really commissioned him, why would he attack me, the client? This is completely absurd.”
Park Taeyong immediately started yelling back at the top of his lungs.
“That’s because Shin Junho was corrupted by demonic energy and couldn’t tell right from wrong! And now you’re trying to weasel your way out? There’s a limit to how shameless you can be. You think we don’t know you set everything up in advance because you were scared of losing to Lee Hyunseung? And don’t even get me started on the F-class annihilation match. You smuggled in an external artifact to sabotage him. What, are you going to call that a lie too? There’s evidence for all of it.”
This was a gamble where Shin Junho had staked his life. Since he had already lied to save his friend, Park Taeyong had to do everything possible to make the false accusation stick. The moment the truth came out, both he and Shin Junho could very well die.
“That’s…!”
Yoo Heeyeon started to protest but suddenly realized the truth.
She was trapped. She had fallen into a vicious snare.
If she denied any involvement in the F-class annihilation match here, what would happen when the truth came out later? She would face severe condemnation, and everyone would naturally assume she was involved in this incident as well.
But if she admitted it?
Then people would conclude that someone who interfered with the F-class match would obviously have done the same in the A-class match.
And above all else—
“I… I heard it clearly too. Shin Junho definitely said he was acting with Yoo Heeyeon’s permission.”
The A-class students seized the moment and began stepping forward one after another.
“That’s right. She even promised to pay him if she won this match. If you look at it closely, doesn’t that count as cheating too?”
The crowd began condemning Yoo Heeyeon. They had already decided on their answer.
There was only one reason they could act so boldly.
Yoo Hanbeom.
He had told them to say everything they knew, everything they wanted to say. He promised he would handle any consequences, so they should reveal every piece of information they had. He wanted to hear it all and judge the situation objectively.
Yoo Hanbeom stared at his trembling daughter with shaking pupils.
Yoo Heeyeon. Is this really true? Just how much do you intend to disappoint me before you’re satisfied?
He simply continued to watch her.
“I… I didn’t do it… I had no reason to do something like that…?”
Yoo Heeyeon, who had always stood in a position of absolute power, was completely unaccustomed to this kind of interrogation and pressure. The situation where she was suddenly being framed for something she hadn’t done felt utterly alien to her.
Was this a dream? No, the sensations were far too realistic to be a dream.
Seeing Yoo Heeyeon standing there in a daze, Park Taeyong decided this was his chance and began pressing her even harder.
“No reason? You had more than enough reason. Right before Shin Junho used the Demonic Orb, you were getting completely beaten by Lee Hyunseung, weren’t you?”
Before Shin Junho cast the Spear of Longinus, Yoo Heeyeon had been stomped on and pummeled by Lee Hyunseung. She had thought he was eliminated and had moved with a small group, only to be caught off guard.
But she still had something to say in her defense.
“I… I admit I was being pushed back by Lee Hyunseung. But did you really think I would lose from the very beginning? No. It would be perfectly normal to think I held the advantage. There was absolutely no reason for me to do something as insane as using a demonic artifact just to beat someone like him—!”
Park Taeyong let out a hollow laugh.
“Hah.”
And inside, he thought, Got her.
He quickly pressed his advantage.
“You didn’t think you’d lose from the start? Then why did you bring over forty people with you the moment the match began to hunt down Lee Hyunseung? Weren’t you feeling so threatened by him that you thought dozens of people were needed to take him down? Logically, you should have focused on securing territory first instead of sending dozens of people after one guy. Just looking at that tells us how much you feared Lee Hyunseung, yet you’re still lying? Before the annihilation match even started, Lee Hyunseung had already suppressed Han Seonggil, who possesses the Berserker trait, inside the academy. You saw that power and got scared, didn’t you?”
“T-that many people… I only brought that many to humiliate him! I wanted to crush him so overwhelmingly that he could never crawl back up again!”
Everything Yoo Heeyeon said was true. But in this situation, whose words carried more credibility?
Obviously, Park Taeyong, the one doing the accusing, held an overwhelming advantage over Yoo Heeyeon, who was being accused.
The reason was simple: Yoo Heeyeon already had a history of similar misconduct, and she was infamous for using money to buy people and manipulate relationships.
People thought to themselves:
Her image was something she had created herself.
“So it really was Yoo Heeyeon… No matter what, putting other people in danger like that…”
People judged this incident based on the image she had built for herself.
“W-why… Why isn’t anyone listening to me? Why are you all looking at me like that? Are you crazy? Have you all gone insane—!”
It had been an unfair fight from the beginning. It was far easier to accuse someone of guilt than to prove innocence.
For example, making someone out to be a thief is simple. Just say, “I saw that person stealing,” and they become a thief. But the accused person has to go through a long, complicated, and exhausting process—emptying all their pockets, opening their bag, showing CCTV footage from where they were at the time—just to prove they’re not a thief.
Inciting is easy. Refuting is hard.
It was an old saying considered to be common wisdom.
“You’re all idiots. What’s wrong with your heads? How can you believe such stupid nonsense and treat someone like a criminal—!”
As she was screaming, a sudden sense of déjà vu washed over her.
Huh…?
This situation. She had seen it somewhere before. This wasn’t the first time.
It was a familiar scene. Drawing conclusions from flimsy evidence and driving one person into a corner. Everyone pointing fingers, criticizing, and dragging that person down into the abyss while completely ignoring any defense.
— I told you I didn’t do it!
— Lee Hyunseung. If it wasn’t you, then who would do something like stalking…?
— I’ll make you regret this, Yoo Heeyeon. I’ll make sure you regret treating me this way.
— Try it if you can. Though it’ll be impossible with your abilities.
She remembered.
It was Lee Hyunseung.
This situation was exactly the same as what she had done to him, now being returned to her in full.
Cause and effect. Karmic retribution.
Just as she had done to him, Yoo Heeyeon was now bearing a false accusation for something she had never done.
“Ah…”
Her vision blurred. She didn’t know where to even begin explaining herself. It felt like she had walked into a meticulously woven net. No matter what she said, people wouldn’t believe her. No matter which way she tried to struggle free, the net would only tighten around her.
“Ugh… ugh…”
Fear finally set in. If she really ended up taking this false charge, and if her disappointed father didn’t stop at removing her as successor but actually abandoned her completely, what would happen to her life?
“Huk… huk…”
Her breathing grew rapid and shallow. She felt dizzy. Nausea surged up her throat.
“Yoo Heeyeon, just admit it. Admit that you did it.”
Park Taeyong pushed her even harder.
“Huk… huk…”
No words would come out. Her heart was pounding like it was broken, beating wildly out of control.
The people looked at Yoo Heeyeon as if she were trash. Their eyes were filled with resentment, as if to say she had nearly gotten many people hurt, nearly gotten them killed.
“I… I… I didn’t do that…”
The reflexive denial. She really hadn’t done it. It was so unfair.
And then the anger came. She wanted to tear Park Taeyong apart right in front of her. She wanted to scream at him, demand to know why he was doing this to her, what kind of grudge he held.
But she knew that would only make the situation worse.
—Swish.
She looked around. Even Kim Heera was blocked by Yoo Hanbeom’s hand and couldn’t do anything.
Among the people staring at her like she was an insect, there was one man who looked at her with a completely expressionless face.
—Tap tap tap.
Yoo Heeyeon desperately ran toward him.
The place she ran to was where Lee Hyunseung stood with his arms crossed, silently watching.
—Swish.
She grabbed his wrist and spoke.
“L-Lee Hyunseung…? Please say something. You were inside the stage too, so you know, right…? Me being in league with that guy… that’s ridiculous, isn’t it? The atmosphere wasn’t like that at all… right?”
Maybe Lee Hyunseung would help her. Since he had watched most of the situation, perhaps he would stand with her and testify to her innocence.
But he simply shook off her hand.
—Thud!
And then, Lee Hyunseung answered.
“I don’t really know. But one thing is certain. The first person Shin Junho targeted was me, and because of that, the advantageous position I held was completely overturned. That much is a fact.”
—Thump.
Yoo Heeyeon collapsed to the ground. Her vision went dark. Her world began to be dyed in despair.