Chapter 7: Heart-Pounding Secret Friends (End)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 7: Heart-Pounding Secret Friends (End)
A transmigrator’s morning starts early.
Actually, I had a desperate urge to sleep in like crazy, but I was forced awake by someone who had come to visit me first thing in the morning.
“I’m sorry for coming so early. Did I wake you?”
“No, it’s fine.”
It was none other than Professor Cathy.
She was still looking at me with eyes full of worry. Honestly, having a beauty so surreal it felt unrealistic constantly fretting over me was still a bit overwhelming.
“It’s nothing much, but I brought some things that are good for the body.”
As she said that, she held out a truly diverse array of health foods.
The brands were incredibly strange.
Mana-infused 10-year-old Red Ginseng Extract, Alien Turtle Extract for vitality, and even some nutritional drinks I’d never seen before.
Her heart was in the right place and I was grateful, but honestly, I really didn’t want to eat them.
They were bound to taste terrible.
However, she stood there quietly watching me, as if she intended to stay until I consumed at least one.
“I’ll eat it later, slowly.”
I tried the traditional Korean way of expressing a lack of desire to eat something, but she didn’t take the hint.
“Still, please try at least one.”
“I, uh, haven’t had breakfast yet…”
“I figured as much, so I bought one that’s fine to take on an empty stomach.”
Fine. I couldn’t afford to throw away the Affection Level I’d worked so hard to raise just because I didn’t want to eat red ginseng.
In the end, I steeled myself and downed a pouch of the red ginseng extract.
It was bitter as hell.
Ugh.
“It’s more edible than you thought, right?”
No? Not at all.
“Yes, it’s the kind of taste where you can feel your body getting healthier just by drinking it.”
In other words, it was bitter and tasted like crap.
“I’m glad you like it.”
But it seemed my sarcasm had no effect on someone who accepted others’ goodwill so earnestly.
From now on, I should probably speak more bluntly to Professor Cathy or the protagonist.
After cruelly watching my suffering with a look of satisfaction, she brought up the main topic.
“I mentioned that I’m an Academy professor, right?”
“Yes.”
“Actually, after seeing that you were an enrollee this year, I looked up the Academy’s student records and contacted your family.”
“Pardon?”
What kind of nonsense was this?
I’m from an orphanage. Where would I have a family?
Ah, right.
My brain must have been scrambled from eating something so bitter so early in the morning.
Of course, “family” didn’t mean my family, but the family of this body—Kang So-hyun’s family.
Good grief.
In Academy-themed webnovels featuring transmigrators, it’s practically a law of the universe to get rid of any existing family, but it seemed I had gained a family I didn’t even know I had.
“Yes, I expected that reaction. I’m sorry for acting on my own. I had no idea your relationship with your family was that bad.”
I had only frowned because I didn’t understand what she was talking about, but she clearly interpreted my expression differently.
“Your Noona said you pretended not to know who she was and hung up when she called.”
And it seemed I had completely trashed my family relationships without even knowing it.
Thinking back carefully, I think there was something like that in the Setting Book.
Unlike Kang So-hyun, whose role was to be the very first to die in this novel, his sister and father were characters who appeared several times in the original work.
In fact, the father was a minor villain in the early stages who, after his son died at the Academy, became half-villainous and put economic pressure on the school. The Noona was a character who regretted not reconciling sooner and eventually turned into a villain through various circumstances.
Well, since I survived, those things probably won’t happen here, but it felt a bit awkward knowing I’d inadvertently fueled the fire of a bad relationship.
“But it’s okay.”
Why? Because I had already planned to go straight to the Academy dormitory today upon discharge instead of going to my family home.
It was an early move-in, but I’d made the decision because the Academy had better training facilities, and I felt I had to discipline this pathetic body even a little bit.
To be precise, I hadn’t even thought of a “family home” to begin with.
“Still…”
She didn’t seem to believe me when I said it was fine, but considering her personality, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
To her, wouldn’t I look like a naive boy hiding his own pain to be considerate of others?
“Is that why you brought all this stuff, because you felt bad? You really didn’t have to.”
“No! It’s not like that. I just wanted to express my gratitude. Actually, I gained a small realization yesterday.”
Oh, it seems she did achieve something, just as I expected.
I hope she keeps getting stronger and becomes a reliable helper for the protagonist and a powerful backer for my comfortable Academy life.
“I didn’t really do anything.”
“No, it was a very important matter to me.”
I suppose so.
Cathy.
A possessor of a C-rank Talent in martial arts, she was born with meager talent but was a hard worker who grew into an A-rank Hero with the help of the Chairperson and her own efforts.
However, her setting was that she had hit a wall that effort alone could not overcome.
Because of that, she had a complex about talent. Hearing this much, one might think she was a character similar to the early-game villain Choi In-ho, but instead of being jealous of what she lacked, she admired it and wanted to help others reach the heights she couldn’t.
That was why she chose the path of a professor rather than being on the front lines.
Well, the Chairperson’s influence probably played a part, but ultimately, she was just a damn good person.
“It’s really okay. And I was planning to move into the dormitory immediately without stopping by my family home anyway.”
“Ah…”
But my professor’s expression darkened again.
She probably thought I wouldn’t be able to endure Academy life and would face despair—or to be more blunt, that I would meet the end of my short remaining lifespan.
But I’m not terminally ill anymore.
As someone with over ten years of webnovel experience, I can say with certainty that in Academy stories, the terminally ill characters almost never actually die.
“I want to try as hard as I can.”
Of course, regardless of the truth, the way she looked at me wasn’t bad.
In fact, it was quite good.
“So, please don’t worry about me at the Academy, Professor. Just treat me like any other cadet.”
When a terminally ill student says they want to work hard until the end and asks to be treated normally, how many people would actually think, ‘Fine! I’ll work you to the bone just like the others!’?
“Yes, I understand…”
Saying that with a face that looks like you’re about to cry isn’t very convincing, you know.
“I have some work to do today, so I’ll be going now. Let’s meet next at the Academy, prospective cadet Kang So-hyun.”
“Yes, Professor Cathy. I look forward to working with you.”
I really do. We’ve promised to be secret friends now, right?
* * *
After I became, in Professor Cathy’s heart, a tragic protagonist burning the last embers of his life in his youth—a challenger who strives despite knowing his limits—I was able to smoothly go through the discharge process in the afternoon.
Do you know?
The fact that walking on your own two feet doesn’t feel like you’re about to die is an incredible blessing.
I realized that fact all too painfully over the past two days.
To go from a body that was on its deathbed to just a weak person in a single day was something that could truly be called a miracle.
“It’s been two days.”
Leilan Academy.
The place where I would be staying for a while, and the center of the story.
Since it had only been two days since the entrance ceremony, it was quiet with few people around, but this place would soon be bustling in both good and bad ways.
A place where a story of growth dyed in the colors of youth awaited, and where a story dyed in the murky color of blood also waited.
However, the murky colors would be greatly reduced now.
Because I would make it so.
Thinking of the future of this place that no one else knew yet, I crossed the school gates.
It was the true beginning of my Academy life.
* * *
“I’m telling you, I really didn’t know…”
The Academy rules weren’t written in the Setting Book.
“How was I supposed to know that early move-in for the dormitory starts tomorrow…!”
Surprisingly, the moment I crossed the Academy’s main gate, I was caught by a security guard and dragged away.
Fortunately, I succeeded in proving I was a prospective enrollee, so I avoided being kicked out, and I was currently receiving a kind explanation that early move-in was possible starting tomorrow.
The true beginning of my Academy life was tomorrow, haha…
Damn it, this is so embarrassing.
To make matters worse, they said they had to call a guardian, so I ended up having to call my secret friend already.
“So-hyun… I mean, prospective cadet Kang So-hyun…?”
And so, fulfilling the promise to meet next at the Academy, I was reunited with Professor Cathy.
In a way that was much faster and more embarrassing than I had imagined.
I wanted to die.
* * *
And now, I was at Professor Cathy’s house.
…Huh?
Why the hell?
This is what happened just a few minutes ago.
— You have nowhere to go? Ah, I suppose it would be hard for you to go back home.
The look in my secret friend’s eyes as she watched me—like I was a runaway teenager—was quite painful.
— Then, since early move-in is tomorrow, why don’t you stay at my place for today?
Is this the sense of distance between characters in a novel…?
Setting aside security since subduing me would be easy, is it really the right choice to bring a young man in his prime into a house where a woman lives alone?
Can you say that with confidence as an Academy professor?
“Would you like to wash up first? Or eat?”
“Let’s just say I’ll take whatever comes.”
“Pardon?”
“Ah, no. I was just lost in thought for a second and said the wrong thing. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. There’s no need to apologize. It’s natural to be nervous. It’s a stranger’s house, after all. Come to think of it, as a professor, I should scold you for being so unguarded.”
Oh? Is that so?
Thinking about it, maybe I’m the weird one for following an A-rank Hero to her house so readily.
“How are we strangers, Professor?”
We’re secret friends with a clear bond of gratitude and debt, having confirmed each other’s humanity in a dungeon.
“…It’s Professor, then.”
“…Pardon?”
For a very brief moment, she let out a dissatisfied tone, but she soon returned to her usual self.
“It’s nothing. You must be hungry, so shall we eat first? What do you like?”
“Are you going to cook for me yourself?”
“Of course. I might not look it, but cooking is my specialty.”
I know.
For the record, her best dish is omurice.
“Then, would omurice be okay?”
A trait of a transmigrator: if you know something, use it immediately.
But right after I said it, I thought this might not have been the best choice.
“…You like omurice?”
“Yes…”
Because the reason she became good at making omurice was…
“You really do seem to resemble him.”
…because it was the favorite food of her younger brother, who was murdered by a villain.
The more I looked at her settings, the more I wondered how this person could still trust and like humans.
“Um, Cadet So-hyun.”
“Yes?”
“If it’s not uncomfortable, could I speak informally to you?”
“Yes, of course, Professor.”
“And if possible, could you speak informally to me too?”
…That’s a bit much.
I’d been calling her a secret friend in my head as a joke, but that kind of distance with a professor is…?
“Oh my, what am I saying? I’m sorry. I must have lost my mind for a moment.”
Since it wasn’t a central setting, I had forgotten until just now. Her younger brother, who was originally frail, died at a young age in a villain’s terror attack.
If he were alive, he would have been the right age to enter the Academy this year.
It was a setting that only briefly appeared in a conversation she had with the protagonist, but it was definitely there.
It wasn’t intentional, but the situation lined up perfectly.
A student who was the same age as her frail brother, had a history of being caught in a terror attack at the entrance ceremony, and was a hard worker?
It made sense that she’d want to look after me.
But while I was fine with being secret friends, I didn’t think I could become family.
She probably knew that too.
She likely just thought of her brother instinctively.
“…If speaking informally is hard, could you at least call me Noona?”
Professor, I think that’s even harder…?
After that, I couldn’t sleep well because I had to deal with the professor, who came out after washing up and asked me once more if I could call her Noona.
Ah, it goes without saying, but I slept on the sofa.
…It was a bit of a waste, though.