Chapter 11: The Laws of Academy Possession Stories (End)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 11: The Laws of Academy Possession Stories (End)
Well, honestly, I thought it was a total joke.
I mean, think about it.
It’s just a father saying he wants to see his son because he’s worried. How much preparation could that possibly require?
I figured it’d be a formal check-in—asking how I’m doing, telling me to work hard, and then going our separate ways. That’s what I thought.
I expected him to just drop by while I was busy crushing a workout, but I never dreamed this kind of bullshit would go down the moment I woke up.
“I have come to escort you.”
Standing in front of my dormitory door was a white-haired butler who exuded the dignity of a veteran.
Though he hadn’t escaped the passage of time, he didn’t look shabbily aged at all. He might have been old, but he still carried an air of sophisticated refinement.
The problem was that I wasn’t the only one in the room.
Kang Ha-ni, who shared the room with me, looked back and forth between the butler and me with a completely blank expression.
This is so fucking embarrassing.
The butler was bowing to me at nearly a ninety-degree angle, and he showed no sign of straightening up no matter how long I waited.
“Uh, yeah. Okay.”
I answered on a whim, and surprisingly, it seemed he really had been waiting for my response, as he finally straightened his back.
Good god, what the hell is this?
If this was a tactic to make his son so embarrassed that he’d quit the Academy, I wanted to tell him he was a genius.
Then again, I suppose having a butler is possible.
Kang So-hyun’s father is a villain who tries to shake the Academy with money in the early stages of the story—which is to say, he’s filthy rich.
Aren’t transmigrators usually supposed to start out poor?
“The Master is waiting. Let us depart.”
“Yeah, okay.”
I almost fainted thinking there might be a limousine in front of the dorm, but fortunately, it was just a regular sedan.
However, to my surprise, the butler didn’t drive; there was a separate chauffeur. Instead, the butler sat in the back seat with me.
It was so incredibly awkward.
“Um, Butler-nim?”
“…Yes?”
What? What the hell?
Why are you so surprised just because I called you?
He was staring at me with wide eyes, as if he were looking at some strange phenomenon.
‘Butler-nim’ is a normal title. What did the original guy call him?
“No, it’s just… it has been a while since we last met, and I have shown a disgraceful side of myself.”
Was the Kang So-hyun modeled after me a total piece of shit who threw tantrums at his family and the servants?
There was no such detail in the Setting Book.
Then again, Kang So-hyun had very few settings to begin with.
I’d only heard he was based on me; since only his basic background and abilities were clearly written, it wasn’t that strange for there to be parts I didn’t know.
After driving for a long time, we arrived at a restaurant with a very nice atmosphere.
The kind of high-end place where you definitely shouldn’t walk in wearing a school uniform without even having washed up properly.
“Excuse me.”
“The Master has rented out the entire establishment, so it should be fine.”
Good lord, this butler was a goddamn mind reader.
Since he said the place was rented out, I couldn’t exactly insist on showering first. More than anything, I was a little scared that if I said I wanted to wash up, he’d actually take me somewhere to do it.
I followed him inside, and sure enough, there was only one person sitting at a single table.
His hair was pitch black—rarer than blonde in this world—and it seemed that was where my genes came from.
As I approached, he turned his gaze toward me.
He was a man with black hair and red eyes, just like me—or rather, like Kang So-hyun—but his aura was entirely different.
A solid build and tall stature. His presence, which felt like a sharply honed sword, gave off the impression that he was a formidable Hero.
They say that the higher a Hero’s rank, the slower they age. He certainly looked more like an older brother than a father.
“Hello. It’s been a while.”
I started with a standard greeting.
At that, a hint of surprise flickered across his expressionless face.
So-hyun, you bastard, what kind of life did you live? Why is everyone so shocked just because I say hello?
“Now that I think about it, I heard you called your sister ‘Noona.’ And you called Shuken ‘Butler-nim’ as well.”
His voice was as cold as ice.
What the fuck? Is he a vampire instead of a human?
Wait, more importantly, Butler-nim, did you snitch already?
“Sit down for now. We shall have a light breakfast.”
“Yes.”
I finished the appetizer soup and was enduring the awkward atmosphere when he stared at me quietly.
“You ate the soup quickly.”
What, what am I supposed to do about that? Is he nitpicking his son’s lack of manners after not seeing him for so long?
Sorry, but I dealt with plenty of that back at the orphanage. It doesn’t work on me.
“The last time I saw you, you screamed that you couldn’t swallow if there were any solids in it.”
Oh, never mind.
Wait, I did that…? Really…?
This kid was seriously weak as hell.
“I am not sure.”
“Pardon?”
“I do not know if you have softened because you truly decided to treat us as strangers, or if you have forgiven us even a little.”
True to his appearance, he came at me in a very direct and sharp manner.
I couldn’t be sure, but he seemed to be harboring a small amount of hope.
This was a question directed at the Kang So-hyun who was supposed to be dead.
And it wasn’t something I could just carelessly answer.
At the very least, I shouldn’t answer until I figured out what happened between them and Kang So-hyun, and why this rift had formed.
So, I decided to postpone it.
“I don’t know.”
“…What?”
“I don’t know my own heart yet. So, I’ll think about it after I become a Hero first.”
In the meantime, I’d look into what I needed to and make a careful decision.
“You still want to be a Hero. I see.”
He seemed to accept it on his own and gave a small nod.
“Yes.”
“Fine. If that is your wish, I will not stop you. It is a relief that you look healthier than the last time I saw you.”
I didn’t just look healthier; I actually was.
A 5kg dumbbell was no longer a match for me.
The main course that followed was a bit hard to understand.
I was served something like a transparent soup again, while the man across from me had roast beef.
What the fuck?
Is this some new kind of discrimination?
Is this why the kid turned out so twisted?
Actually, I think I get it. A kid who couldn’t even handle chunks in his soup obviously couldn’t eat something like roast beef.
But that was the weak Kang So-hyun of the past. The current Kang So-hyun MK.2 is different.
A body that’s always exercising needs protein. And some damn stimulating, delicious sauce, too.
“Um, why is it that only you are eating meat, Father?”
This time, a look of intense agitation appeared on that cold face.
Is that the kind of expression someone makes when they’re hit with too much information at once?
“You intend to eat meat? No, more importantly… ‘Father’?”
Even while agitated, he placed a piece of meat on my plate as if to test me, and I ate it.
Oh, this expensive roast beef was practically a liquid; the beef just melted in my mouth.
Professor Cathy, I’m sorry. My tongue has become one that can no longer be satisfied by omurice…!
After that, I received some allowance money.
A family that gives you allowance for eating your meat well…? Does such a place exist?
* * *
Kang Hyun-woo.
The owner of the Yuseong Group, one of South Korea’s five major conglomerates, and a currently active B-rank Hero. He had experienced so many shocking things today that he threw himself onto his bed the moment he returned home.
It was surprising that his son, who had been going through a rebellious phase, had suddenly returned to his old self, and that the boy who was so weak he couldn’t even swallow thin soup was now eating meat. But the most shocking thing of all was what had come out of his son’s mouth.
— Father.
When was the last time that child had called him Father?
In fact, when his daughter told him that her brother had called her “Noona,” he thought she had finally lost her mind.
Because since that day, the boy had never once smiled warmly at his family or the servants, nor had he addressed anyone by their title.
— Why did you do it?
The image of the child glaring at them with a cold voice that was hard to believe coming from a young boy was still vivid in his mind.
— Who do you think you are to do this kind of thing on your own?
— Did I fucking ask you to save me? I said I’d use my own power, so why the hell did you do this?
— Bring my mom back.
— Bring her back…!
The boy, who had been throwing a tantrum for a long time, had screamed those words through his tears.
The images of the past flashing through his mind were blurred by the voice of his daughter, who had returned at some point.
“Dad.”
“Ah, you’re here.”
“Did you go see So-hyun…?”
“Yes.”
“How was he? Will he be okay without a doctor on standby? Is he still screaming like he used to?”
“No, fortunately, he wasn’t like that. He actually looked healthier than when he was at home.”
“What…? Does that even make sense?”
Come to think of it, he had been too surprised to ask.
Even the Superhuman specialists had said that the penalty of the boy’s ability was beyond the realm of treatment. How on earth had he actually become healthier?
“I don’t know either.”
The words the boy had said—that he didn’t know if he could forgive them yet—lingered strangely in his heart.
He pictured his son’s face, who would have arrived back at the Academy by now.
He was strangely curious about what he was doing and how he had gotten healthy, but the distance between them was still too great to comfortably give him a call.
* * *
Immediately after arriving back at my room, I was bombarded with questions from Kang Ha-ni, who, for once, was waiting for me instead of going out.
“Hey, were you some kind of young master?”
“No.”
“What do you mean ‘no’? The butler literally said, ‘I have come to escort you!’”
No, seriously, you’re not the kind of character who acts friendly with people. Why are you suddenly acting like this?
“No, I’m just… it’s kind of nice to see, actually. I have a lot of burdensome people waiting for me when I go home, too.”
Ah, right.
She’s from a prestigious swordsmanship family.
In fact, her family’s traditions are significantly stricter and more insane than mine.
“Our last names are both Kang, we both have black hair… we have more in common than I thought.”
I’ll say it again: in this world, even in Korea, blonde hair is more common than black hair.
Kang Ha-ni said that with a faint smile on her cool face.
Since the person I’d just been meeting with had a face as cold as a vampire’s, even that tiny smile felt quite impactful.
“As I thought, I think I’ll be able to get along well with someone like you.”
Surprisingly, she was the first to offer a handshake.
Even though she was wearing gloves, this was truly a surprising development.
Well, strictly speaking, she just hates being touched first; in the original story, she eventually gets to the point where she can handle a handshake.
When I took her hand, she gave a small grin.
At any rate, it seemed I wasn’t hated enough to get stabbed out of the blue.
* * *
That night.
As I sat on my bed staring at my smartphone, I was reading some very unpleasant news.
“Yeah, I figured there was no way something like that was the Main Quest.”
The world isn’t soft enough to call a slightly twisted family drama a Main Quest when it has fuck-all to do with the protagonist.
The number one search term on the portal right now was none other than ‘Terrorist Choi In-ho Escapes,’ and the news was filled with reports that Choi In-ho had escaped with the help of an accomplice.
In other words, the family incident and the Main Quest just happened to overlap in timing, and the real threat was over there.
“Fuuuuck…”
I accidentally reformed one villain, only for the early-game villain I thought I’d finally gotten rid of to come back in his place.
It was a total pain in the ass, but it was fine.
If that bastard has a brain, he won’t come charging into the Academy without a Magic Tool right after escaping.
Without a Magic Tool, Choi In-ho is just a loser who’s only slightly stronger than me.
Let me repeat: he is stronger than me.
But if he’s at a level where Cheon Yu-hak can toy with him and finish him off, how is he going to get past the professors?
Still, it’s better to be thorough.
I figured it’d be good to set my first goal, while also making sure he can’t approach the Academy again.
The traitor inside the Academy and Choi In-ho’s accomplice.
I’ll have to figure out a way to catch and crush that guy as soon as the semester starts.
“Of course, I’ll have to build my body first to do that.”
I have about two weeks left.
To the current me, who has already conquered even the 10kg dumbbells, there is nothing to fear.