Seo Moon-jin's Assessment
"Ah~ Cheon… I lost. I'm so frustrated."
Yee Eun-chae approached me and let out a complaint in a slightly sulky tone. She seemed genuinely upset about losing to Seo Moon-hyun.
"I'll help you starting tomorrow, so don't worry. You'll be able to beat Seo Moon-hyun soon enough."
"I'll be counting on you."
Yee Eun-chae's eyes were filled with deep trust as she spoke. She didn't harbor a single shred of doubt toward me.
Ah, this is really unnecessarily stimulating.
Even beneath the academy girls' uniform, Yee Eun-chae's well-developed, healthy figure was obvious and stirred something in me. She was lightly covered in sweat, but as a mana awakener with no impurities, the scent drifting from her on the breeze—combined with the visual effect of her black hair tinged with violet swaying in the wind—only heightened the stimulation.
If I wanted, I could probably take this innocent girl straight to bed right now.
But I have no intention of doing anything like that.
It was only natural for all sorts of thoughts to arise when looking at such a beauty. Still, those thoughts were meant to remain just that—imagination. The story of Yee Eun-chae truly becoming my woman would come later.
"Um… Cheon. I'd like to ask for your help tomorrow too."
Yoo Eun-chae followed right after Yee Eun-chae, carefully requesting training as well. She had secured a comfortable victory against a suitable opponent, yet her expression didn't look refreshed. That made sense—she was determined to find her mother and avenge her father. Yesterday's attack by the villain organizations had left a deep ripple in her heart, and she had probably overlapped her own image as a victim of villains with Arian Liberin's appearance.
"Eun-chae."
When I called her separately, Yoo Eun-chae flinched. She still wasn't entirely used to me.
"Yes, Cheon-ah."
Still, she had improved a lot compared to the beginning and seemed to be growing somewhat accustomed to me. Through the classes starting tomorrow, she would grow even closer to me.
"I don't mind teaching you, but do you have a reason for wanting to get stronger?"
"…Yes, I do."
Yoo Eun-chae nodded, but she didn't immediately explain her circumstances to me.
"I thought as much. Tell me when you've sorted out your feelings. I'll listen."
"Okay! Ah, yes. Thank you."
Yoo Eun-chae had been nodding happily at my words, but she quickly composed her expression and showed a cautious attitude. She had been delighted that I would finally listen to her story and that she could naturally share her circumstances, but it seemed she now felt self-loathing, wondering if her actions were too calculating.
"That aside, starting tomorrow I'll be teaching you along with Arian and Eun-chae, so you'll work hard, right?"
"Yes, I will."
There was no reason to refuse becoming stronger.
"Lord Cheon, what do you plan to do with the remaining time?"
After finishing my conversation with Yoo Eun-chae, Arian Liberin asked what I intended to do with the time we had left. We still had about forty minutes of free time. That was one of the advantages of the sparring class.
Usually, the idea is to watch other students spar and learn from them.
Neither Arian Liberin, Yee Eun-chae, nor even Yoo Eun-chae needed to watch the other students spar. Their skills were far ahead of everyone else's in the original story, except for Seo Moon-hyun.
"Hmm? How about we do a quick review among ourselves? Why don't I demonstrate how I operate my mana first, and then you try following along?"
"Yes, let's do that."
"That sounds fun! I approve!"
"I think that's a good idea too."
Since Arian Liberin, Yee Eun-chae, and Yoo Eun-chae all agreed, I was about to slowly begin operating my mana when—
"Arian, Eun-chae, Eun-chae-ah."
Seo Moon-hyun approached with a gentle smile, calling out their names. His natural refusal to say my name left me feeling displeased. Even if he had called my name, it wouldn't have felt good, because I could sense his underlying desire to openly exclude me.
That guy has always been like that.
At age four, and even when I was expelled, he never showed his face. Back then, I could chalk it up to him being young. But even at fourteen, ten years later, the attitude he displayed had made Seo Moon-min-hye realize his true nature and begin to grow distant from him. The reason was simple: my existence as his older brother was nothing more than an obstacle that shouldn't exist in his eyes.
If I exist, then it makes no sense for him to be the heir of the Seo family.
That was why, to Seo Moon-hyun, my existence as his older brother Seo Moon-jin was something that had to disappear. The very fact that I existed was wrong. And even if I did exist, I had to be incompetent, useless, and so disgraceful as a brother that it would be shameful. In his standards, any world where that wasn't the case was wrong.
Having received special treatment as the heir from Seo Moon-kang-hyuk since childhood, he had become immersed in it. The kind and righteous image he showed those around him was essentially an act. The distinctive thing about him was that he was so absorbed in projecting this image of himself as righteous and kind that he didn't even realize it was an act.
And right now, my existence as the top student is an obstacle to him.
He believed he should have entered the National Hero Academy as the top student and remained the top student. In the original story, Seo Moon-hyun had indeed been that way, which gave him peace of mind. But now, though he hadn't yet realized it because he was too immersed in his own act, he harbored an inferiority complex toward me. The heir to the world's largest corporation, Yucheon Group, the top student, and the sight of beautiful women like Arian Liberin, Yee Eun-chae, and Yoo Eun-chae naturally sticking by my side. Even his own younger sister, Seo Moon-min-hye, was following me more than him.
To him, I was someone he needed to eliminate the moment he found an opening. He was probably racking his brain right now, trying to frame it as a righteous act of defeating a hidden villain.
Just looking at Min-hye should tell him everything.
Even seeing how Seo Moon-min-hye followed me, he might suspect that I was his real older brother Seo Moon-jin, but he would never admit it even if it killed him. Even if I told him directly, he would deny it. In his mind, his older brother Seo Moon-jin had to be incompetent. Otherwise, the legitimacy of him becoming the heir and me being expelled would weaken. To him, that would be a complete denial of his perfect self.
Even though he's the one who twisted the story of my expulsion into me leaving of my own accord and deluded himself into believing it.
He was even convinced that Seo Moon-kang-hyuk had taken good care of me, fabricating things no one had ever said to rationalize it. And this kind of behavior, driven by his self-absorbed delusions, continued even now.
"Cheon, let's move."
Yee Eun-chae urged me, clearly unwilling to deal with him.
"Yeah, let's go."
I nodded at Yee Eun-chae's words and spoke to Arian Liberin and Yoo Eun-chae as well.
"Arian, Eun-chae-ah. Let's go."
"Yes."
"Okay."
Both of them seemed to feel the same as Yee Eun-chae and tried to ignore Seo Moon-hyun and leave. However, Seo Moon-hyun was persistent even in this situation.
"Huh? Arian, Eun-chae-ah, Eun-chae-ah. What's wrong? Can't you hear me?"
He genuinely looked like he couldn't understand. That was exactly why I disliked him and had marked him as a target for revenge.
If he had even a little bit of remorse toward me, I wouldn't have planned to bring him down.
But he was showing that he had no need to feel sorry at all. Since he saw me as someone who simply had to disappear, I was only returning the favor in kind.
"Eun-chae-ah!"
Seo Moon-hyun reached out to grab Yee Eun-chae's hand, the one closest to him. He was trying to stop her from ignoring him and walking away. I blocked his action.
"That's enough. Seo Moon-hyun, what do you think you're doing right now?"
When I asked coldly, Seo Moon-hyun's expression twisted slightly.
"Cheon, thank you."
Yee Eun-chae expressed her gratitude from behind me for stopping Seo Moon-hyun. However, since I was currently facing off against Seo Moon-hyun, I wasn't in a position to smile at her and respond kindly.
"Eun-chae-ah, stay back for a moment."
After saying that, I glared at Seo Moon-hyun again and detected the hatred toward me in his eyes.
I wasn't planning to bring him down just yet.
But Seo Moon-hyun, whose true nature was beginning to show, was acting in a way that made him fall even faster than my plans had accounted for. I could truly feel how much the top-student position and his smooth sailing in the original story had hidden this essence of his.
If I had to pick the most unexpected variable in my plans, it was how easily Seo Moon-hyun's true nature was revealing itself.
"Seo Moon-jin."
Seo Moon-hyun called my name.
"What exactly did you say to Eun-chae? No, what kind of slander did you spread to Arian and Eun-chae to drive a wedge between us?"
Seo Moon-hyun, grinding his teeth in anger, blurted out words he couldn't even control himself.