102. Academy (15)
102. Academy (15)
Having seen nearly a thousand humans so far, there have been barely a handful from Earth like me.
There was the man brimming with confidence who got one-minute'd by Gluttony, Na-rim who had no combat ability but possessed Michelin three-star level cooking skills, and Viviant who charged in claiming she'd kill me and become the Saint.
In the half-year since I opened my eyes to this world, I've seen a total of three.
Frankly, spotting three people in a single country is already a lot, I think.
Transmigration, reincarnation, possession—these are extremely special events.
Kind of like cheating, I guess? To that extent, transmigrators, reincarnators, and possessors gain incredibly special powers.
Just look at me now. Reincarnation? Or possession? I gained absurdly overpowered strength.
To the point where if I wanted, I could completely destroy this world.
That's how strong transmigrators, reincarnators, and possessors are. Which makes me even more curious.
Will the human I meet be one that needs to be taxidermied in a museum, or one that should be exhibited in a human zoo?
Honestly speaking, Charlotta is strong, but she's not a human that stirs any possessiveness in me.
She's just strong. That's it.
Of course, being strong is good, but actually, strong humans are plentiful.
If prime Gwen fought current Charlotta, Charlotta would probably lose without lasting a minute.
As time passes, my evaluation of Gwen keeps rising.
The Academy is the same.
Comparing academy students to the knight commander of an entire city is already unfair, but every time I see those kids, this thought naturally comes to mind.
Compared to Gwen, they're just so lacking.
Only someone on Gwen's level makes me feel creative urges—wanting to impregnate them, experiment with them. If they look weak, they don't even qualify as toys; they just look like food.
So at the Academy, I planned to focus only on unique abilities rather than toys.
The problem was that even the unique abilities weren't things I particularly wanted.
First of all, there were very few humans who even possessed unique abilities.
Thinking about it, it makes sense that after fighting the knights, students wouldn't be satisfying.
But transmigrators, reincarnators, possessors—in other words, otherworlders—would be a different story.
Every otherworlder I've met so far has been a human that pleased me.
So the human Charlotta is introducing has a high chance of being pleasing too.
Looking forward to how interesting this human might be, I walked alongside Charlotta.
==
Jin-won, who reincarnated into this world after working as a hunter in Korea.
He used the name Jin-won in Korea, but currently lives as Lambert.
He had spent happy times since reincarnating into this world.
He was born with a stronger body than others, granted a unique ability more powerful than anyone else's. And for some reason, he retained the abilities he had when working as a hunter before reincarnation.
His parents were nobles, so he grew up without lacking anything.
Though this world had many dangerous things—monsters, demon tribes, devils—they weren't particularly frightening to someone who had worked as a hunter.
The unique ability, this world's power, plus the ability he'd had as a hunter.
With two powers, he possessed overwhelming strength compared to others.
From childhood, countless people called him a genius and praised him, but Lambert never became arrogant.
Even when he was a hunter, he was an A-rank hunter.
People around him called him a genius, said he was talented. But in the end, he stopped at A-rank.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't break through the S-rank wall.
So Lambert didn't become arrogant; he steadily added effort upon effort and lived until now.
As time passed and Lambert entered the Academy, he realized this world was truly vast.
Though he'd decided not to be arrogant, perhaps subconsciously he had been arrogant, because when he came to the Academy and saw people stronger than himself, he was shocked.
Especially Charlotta.
Professors and director-level positions were older than him with more practical experience, so he could understand that to some extent.
But Charlotta was his age. No, considering his past-life memories, he had more combat experience, yet he still couldn't defeat Charlotta.
And so his first goal at the Academy was set.
Over three years attending the Academy, Lambert and Charlotta grew close.
It couldn't be helped—at the Padix Academy, Lambert was the only one capable of sparring at Charlotta's level.
Lambert naturally came to like Charlotta.
She was as strong as him, and her body, which visibly showed the effort she'd put into becoming strong, was enough to make any man take notice.
It wasn't just her body.
Her character and diligence were remarkable too.
A strength like this wasn't achieved through talent alone.
Whether physical or magical, everything requires effort.
Even when learning magic, you have to master it, understand it, and manifest it. To strengthen your body, you have to train until you're practically spitting blood.
Charlotta also had feelings for Lambert.
She became interested in Lambert's character, which was completely different from the noble men who had approached her until now.
Just like Lambert, over those three years they sparred together at least three times a week, exchanging feedback, and naturally started eating meals together—that's how it developed.
He was a noble and strong, but he never looked down on others.
Since Lambert had memories from Earth, where class systems didn't exist, he treated everyone equally and kindly.
And so, while they weren't dating, the two had mutual feelings for each other.
Lambert received a message on the communication magic tool available only at the Academy that Charlotta had a student she wanted to introduce, and so he was waiting for her in the club room.
In three years, Charlotta had never introduced anyone before, so he was curious what kind of student had caught her interest.
Knock knock.
"Come in."
As if on cue, a knock sounded, and Lambert told them to enter.
The door opened, and Charlotta came in first.
"I'll introduce you. This is a hoobae-nim from Class A who entered as a first-year this year. Her name is Leah."
Charlotta stepped aside, revealing Leah behind her.
"Hello."
Leah moved her face, trying to put on the prettiest expression possible to maximize her favorability.
"This hoobae-nim says she came from another world, just like you. I'm not sure if it's the same world as yours, but I thought you two might be able to relate to each other. Oh, and for the record, Leah hoobae-nim is incredibly strong. Lambert?"
Charlotta spoke proudly about Leah, then tilted her head when she saw that Lambert, who would normally say something to anything, was just staring with wide eyes, completely speechless.
==
His entire body broke out in goosebumps.
The moment Charlotta, introducing the student she'd mentioned, entered the club room and showed the student behind her, his whole body froze.
Thousands—no, tens of thousands of eyeballs were staring at Lambert.
The unique ability Lambert had gained through reincarnation in this world was Visualization.
It was the ability to visualize the essence of something when looking at it.
It wasn't limited to just living things—it worked on attacks, magic, weather, anything visible at all.
When he looked at Charlotta, he saw the form of a warm, blazing knight.
Just looking at it naturally made him think she was magnificent, dependable, and beautiful—Charlotta's visualization was enough to ignite the viewer.
But Leah's form was the most eerie and hair-raising thing he had ever seen.
Tens of thousands of eyeballs moving—there couldn't be anyone who saw that and didn't get goosebumps.
Even if she had such an essence, she might not be a bad person.
He had seen countless things until now: monsters, people, criminals.
People who committed violent crimes like murder and rape appeared as sticky, dark, rotting human forms.
But what was that?
An essence of tens of thousands of moving eyeballs.
It was impossible to interpret.
But one thing was certain—she wasn't a normal person.
A normal person wouldn't have an essence like that.
Since she entered the Academy, she probably wasn't a criminal.
Especially these days, the Academy's security was tighter than ever.
Besides, he knew the name Leah well.
She was the one who entered the Academy on special admission, along with an elf.
Elf, special admission.
That alone made it clear that this person named Leah wasn't a dark mage or a bad person.
But Lambert, certain that she was someone he absolutely must not get close to, grabbed Charlotta's hand and pulled her.
It was to put even a little distance between Charlotta and Leah.
"What's wrong?"
"It's nothing..."
At Charlotta's words, Lambert realized his mistake.
He was the only one who could see that essence right now.
Neither Charlotta nor Leah understood Lambert's actions.
But before long, Leah smiled.
Because through her status window, she understood why he had shown hostility toward her.