Chapter 15: The Kind of Person Every Academy Has (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 15: The Kind of Person Every Academy Has (4)
“Take it easy,” my ass, you son of a bitch, Lilac.
These bastards clearly didn’t understand the meaning of the phrase “take it easy.”
It was my mistake to nod when they suggested we lightly lap the field to help digest our lunch.
“Ugh…”
I wasn’t even joking—if I hadn’t forced myself to hold it back, the lunch I’d just enjoyed would have manifested back into the world in a gruesome form, deciding it liked the outside world better than my stomach.
How on earth, you crazy bastards, do you lap the field at what feels like 30 km/h while calling it “light”?
I couldn’t keep up even at a full sprint. They only noticed I’d been abandoned on the track after completing another full lap, and now they were each looking down at me with rather peculiar expressions.
“You said you were weak, but you’re a total weakling.”
“Huh?! I’m so sorry, So-hyun. I didn’t know.”
“We weren’t even running that fast yet.”
From the top, it was Kang Ha-ni, Lilac, and Lee Yu-na.
Two of them looked at me with pathetic pity, while one was genuinely worried. I felt incredibly sorrowful.
Part of me wanted to scream that I was actually much healthier than before, but that would only add more pity to their gazes.
“Huff…!”
Disliking those looks, I forced myself to stand up.
Lilac, you bastard, after everything I did for you, you screw me over like this?
I even ate tomatoes because of you…!
Tucked inside my shirt was the Will of the Saint, which I had originally intended to give to Lilac, but my mind was now made up. I was giving this to Professor Cathy.
Of course, it wasn’t strictly Lilac’s fault that my stamina was pathetic compared to the average cadet, but I couldn’t forgive him for daring to suggest a bet for drinks with a smiling face and then sprinting around the field immediately after lunch.
After that, the kind Lilac and my friends adjusted to my pace and ran with me carefully, as if they were escorting a small child.
Damn it, I think this is even more embarrassing. Is it just me?
* * *
After forming that unexpected bond, my next lecture was finally time for my secret friend.
“Nice to meet you. I see a few cadets from my own class here. I am Cathy, the professor in charge of Basic Combat Arts.”
Whenever I’d seen Professor Cathy before, she’d always been wearing something akin to a formal suit. Perhaps because this was a combat arts lesson, today she was wearing a rather tight-fitting training outfit.
Her large breasts, which had already boasted a significant presence even under a suit, drew the gazes of most of the male students.
Not me, of course.
I didn’t want to do anything that would lower Professor Cathy’s affection level.
Professor Cathy herself seemed to be in a good mood, perhaps interpreting the students’ glittering eyes as academic passion.
Her tendency to interpret people with such excessive goodwill was both her greatest strength and her greatest weakness.
“Everyone has a good look in their eyes. Longing for strength is an essential mindset for a hero. It’s a good attitude.”
Setting aside whether what those guys were longing for was actually “strength,” I was feeling a bit of anxiety.
Would this subject, Basic Combat Arts, actually be useful?
I mean, it seemed worth taking just for the professor alone, but I was worried she might suddenly start talking about how “true strength lies in bare-handed fighting” or “martial arts for inner growth.”
Why? Because Lilac wasn’t taking this class.
“Many of you might be thinking: ‘Isn’t combat arts useless unless your talent is in the bare-handed fighting category?’ I can tell you with certainty that the answer is no.”
Fortunately, she didn’t tell us to start meditating.
“Combat arts are important even when handling weapons, not just bare hands. Of course, if you use a sword, swordsmanship is most important, and if you use a spear, spearmanship is. But combat arts that supplement them will undoubtedly be helpful. And it goes without saying for those whose talent is bare-handed fighting.”
Cathy pulled up a hologram video.
It showed a battle between a hero and a villain, both of whom were swordsmen using blades.
“The value of combat arts is most apparent when two people of similar skill levels with the same weapons fight, as seen in this video.”
In the video, the moment they entered a struggle of strength while clashing blades, the hero relaxed his strength slightly and used a low kick to shatter the leg of the villain, who had lost his balance.
A small exclamation erupted from the cadets.
“In fact, it’s precisely when you’re handling weapons that you must think about attacking the openings. This leads to survival if you lose your weapon, and even if you don’t, it can be used to catch an opponent off guard when their entire focus is on your weapon, as you just saw.”
How should I put it?
The lesson was more informative and better than I expected.
Well, it was obvious when I thought about it.
She was a professor, but she was also an A-rank hero.
It wasn’t a philosophy class, so she wouldn’t be saying anything insane.
Still, it couldn’t have been easy to tell people to treat the field she had dedicated her life to as a mere “supplementary weapon.” She truly was a person worthy of respect.
“Well, I’m sure you’d rather do practical work than boring theory, right? Today, to gauge your levels, we’ll pair up and have simple mock battles.”
…Excuse me?
I can’t do that.
A duel is an act that only has meaning when the participants are of a similar level.
But I wasn’t joking—you could search the entire Academy and you wouldn’t find a single student who could fight me on equal terms.
Why? Because I was too damn weak, that’s why.
I wished Lilac or Kang Ha-ni, who knew my situation, were in the same class, but unfortunately, there wasn’t a single familiar face here.
“Hey.”
Wait, there was one.
It’s just that we didn’t have a very good history.
“Wanna go with me?”
Butt, the prospective president of the Cheon Yu-hak Fan Club, approached me with a quite fierce expression.
What the hell was her problem? Why was she messing with me, unlike in the original story?
Originally, Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak have a falling out because Lilac is angry that Cheon Yu-hak didn’t save people at the entrance ceremony despite having the power, while Cheon Yu-hak finds it frustrating to watch Lilac struggle because he’s trying to protect others.
Afterward, this girl, who likes Cheon Yu-hak, spreads bad rumors about Lilac or picks fights with him simply because Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak are on bad terms.
In reality, she’s a tragic character who gets ignored by Cheon Yu-hak—who hates thugs and underhanded people—for being low-class, and after being rejected, she ends up being bullied by those around her.
The extras messed with her because they were afraid they’d get rejected by Cheon Yu-hak too. Later, she escapes the bullying with Lilac’s help, and just as she’s about to show favor to Lilac (being “light-butt” as her nickname suggests), she becomes a victim of an incident and dies.
A character whose role was to act like a clown, create disgust, and then serve as a plot device for one of the early villains to make Lilac angry.
That was the role she played in my friend’s novel.
Perhaps because Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak hadn’t fallen out yet, her attention had turned to me for rejecting Cheon Yu-hak’s offer.
“Why? Scared?”
I didn’t think she’d dared to challenge Lilac directly because he was so strong, but she was being quite aggressive now, probably because she’d seen how pathetic I was during basic physical training.
“Um, did I do something wrong to you?”
I decided to ask gentlemanly first.
“No? Who said anything? You’re pretty full of yourself, aren’t you? I’m just saying let’s spar.”
Haha, you’re a “friend” with a real talent for backhanded insults!
I felt some pity for a character my friend had created as a mere disposable tool, but her behavior was so unlikable that I honestly didn’t like her much.
I hadn’t shown it because I’d only met nice people so far, but I wasn’t that kind of person.
At the very least, I didn’t have the temperament to be generous toward someone expressing unilateral hostility without any real justification.
Of course, I didn’t mean I could win, but I felt like I could give her a surprise if I used Reinforcement.
So, what should I do?
“Stop.”
But someone stepped between us.
It was Professor Cathy.
“Cadet Kang So-hyun is physically weak, so for the time being, the professor will guide him personally.”
“What? How is that fair? Isn’t that discrimination?”
“It might look that way, but the Academy’s principle is to strive to prepare training suited to each cadet. Besides, I cannot authorize a duel when you are showing such blatant emotion toward a fellow cadet.”
Professor Cathy was cold and logical.
It seemed she had intended to spar with me from the beginning, but she’d stepped in after seeing the atmosphere.
Oho, I knew I could count on you, damn it!
Cathy, you’ve got it all figured out!
Butt looked quite displeased, but she seemed to realize she was being emotional and started looking for another partner.
Well, I hadn’t done anything that wrong, so she’d probably get tired and give up on her own.
“Now then, Cadet Kang So-hyun, shall we begin?”
“Yes, Professor.”
“First, I need to see your skill level, so try attacking me freely.”
Um, I’ve never fought before?
I couldn’t just do nothing, so I took the boxing stance I’d seen most often in manga and charged.
I threw a straight punch toward her abs, but she didn’t even dodge; she just took the hit.
I was surprised for a moment, but it didn’t take long to realize that a punch from someone like me couldn’t possibly hurt her.
She looked at me as if asking, “Is this really your full power?”
Yes, it’s my dead-serious full power.
Her eyes wavered for a split second, but she began her explanation.
“Cadet So-hyun, first of all, a straight punch isn’t a technique for hitting the abs.”
Eh, really?
“And it’s not a motion you swing with just arm strength, either.”
Ah, I think I remember hearing in manga or novels that you have to use your steps and your waist.
“Most of all, you just lack overall strength. For now, it would be better to focus on training rather than sparring while learning the motions.”
Good grief, I was going to be the “tag-along” in the combat arts class.
The pitying look Professor Cathy gave me was quite painful to my heart.
“Still, if you know the correct posture, there are many grappling techniques where muscle strength isn’t strictly important, so don’t worry too much, Cadet Kang So-hyun.”
She was trying to comfort me, but I couldn’t help my heart feeling heavy.
“I-it’s true, So-hyun. Even if it’s not striking, there are plenty of techniques, so don’t be discouraged.”
I must have looked so discouraged that Professor Cathy accidentally slipped into informal speech for a moment.
“Yes.”
Because Professor Cathy came close to correct my posture, jealous glares from the male students poured down on me.
So what?
If you’re jealous, go be terminally ill (not anymore lol) yourselves.
* * *
By the time the Academy’s classes were almost over, I felt the need to revise two of my thoughts.
First, regardless of Professor Cathy being kind, she didn’t go easy on me during training.
The way she kept making me redo the motions with a smile until I got the posture exactly right was truly terrifying.
I was a bit annoyed because the other kids were mocking me for not being able to do even that, but in the end, she smiled and said she was glad I seemed to have gained more muscle than she’d thought, so I didn’t really resent her.
Now, the second thing was that Butt girl.
Our Miss Butt was much more persistent than I’d expected.
Even if her direction was a bit shitty.
“Hey, does it feel good to have a woman protect you?”
“Pathetic loser. I heard you were whining like crazy over a 25kg weight in physical training class. Why don’t you just drop out of the Academy?”
Specifically, she sent these kinds of assholes to annoy me.
“Hey, I heard there’s a bad rumor going around about you. Something about you paying under-the-table money to get the professors to treat you well.”
According to the testimony of my roommate, Kang Ha-ni, the rumors were spreading incredibly fast, whatever she’d done.
For reference, the cause was her talent—her talent was specialized in incitement and fabrication.
“I told them it’s definitely not true, but it’s not, right?”
“Yeah, it’s not. I’m not even close enough with my family to have them bribe anyone for me.”
“I figured. Lilac also flatly told people in other classes that you weren’t that kind of guy.”
“Thanks to both of you.”
Lilac is a good person by nature, so that’s expected, but I’m actually quite grateful to Kang Ha-ni.
We’re just roommates, and since she hates men, she could have believed the rumors and distanced herself, but she seems to trust me more than I thought.
“No need for thanks. We’re, you know… friends, anyway.”
Hmm, “friends.” That’s a nice word.
“I’m going straight back. What about you?”
“I’m going to do some more exercise before heading back.”
“What? You did basic training this morning and almost died after lunch, didn’t you?”
“That’s why I have to do more. I’m graduating from being a weakling.”
“Oh, I guess you have more willpower than I thought?”
Is it just willpower?
If I told her that this body, which couldn’t even lift 500g, had been pulled up to this level in just a month, she might look at me differently.
Of course, that look might be one reserved for a crazy person, so I won’t tell her.
Yep.
“Anyway, I don’t like whoever started that rumor.”
“Why, you gonna go punch them for me?”
“Oh, do you know who it is?”
“Forget it. It’ll only make your image worse.”
After saying goodbye, someone blocked my path on the way to the training room.
“…Cheon Yu-hak?”
It was our egoist, Mr. Cheon Yu-hak.
“I heard a strange rumor.”
“Ah, yeah.”
“I know it’s not true, so you don’t have to worry. You might be weak, but you weren’t someone without grit.”
What the hell happened between you and the original owner of this body?
“Is that rumor because of you?”
“No.”
“Don’t play innocent. I’m used to those who call themselves my followers doing things like this.”
Seriously, I can’t get used to this.
You didn’t act like this in the original story.
You were supposed to just coolly look down on Butt, call her pathetic, and then leave.
“If you want, I’ll handle it for you.”
“No, it’s fine, Yu-hak. I won’t even take the thought.”
“I don’t intend to use this as an excuse to make you join my team.”
Sorry, but there’s no need for that.
Actually, if I were being lynched and beaten, I might think differently, but at least not right now.
If Cheon Yu-hak steps in and solves it now, the picture I’m drawing in my head will get distorted.
“I appreciate it, but I’ll handle my own business. I can’t let you have this one.”
Cheon Yu-hak studied me for a moment, then let out a smirk.
“Now you’re starting to seem like your old self.”
I have no idea what he’s talking about, but since he seems satisfied, I should go crush my workout today too.