Collapsed Root Cave (2)
The Border Hall of Cheonmu Academy was a building that gathered together the dungeons where the academy's students could get a taste of real combat. The name meant exactly what it sounded like — a hall that bordered another region: the dungeon.
It was a slightly different building from the training hall I had entered with Lim Yujin last week, though the two stood close enough to each other.
"There are way more gates than I expected…."
"……."
The moment we stepped inside, Han Sora wandered this way and that, taking everything in, while Do Yoonchae kept a quiet, wary eye on her surroundings — watching me and Sora with just a hint of suspicion.
She had come along to pick up my item, true, but honestly this wasn't a bad arrangement for the two of them either. It was about time I gave the girls a taste of real field training.
In the original story, they grew just fine on their own trailing behind Seo Woojin like ducklings, so it hadn't mattered….
But now that I was in the Combat Support Department, I had to manufacture the events myself if I wanted them to accumulate combat experience.
Of course, it might sound a little strange, hearing me talk about "giving them real-world experience" — to Han Sora, who had fought alongside me several times already, and to Do Yoonchae, who had trained more than once in her family's private dungeon.
Still, the two of them also needed to prepare for the mid-semester Teamwork and Strategy evaluation.
"So, which dungeon are we heading to? Did you have somewhere picked out?"
"Not really. I just figured I ought to get some field training in at some point, so I didn't plan that far ahead."
"That's hardly methodical. And yet you suddenly call me out here because you 'need' me?"
"Aww, Yoonsung! Don't be such a grump about it~! We can just look around first and decide~."
"…I wasn't grumbling. I was merely stating the obvious."
You were totally grumbling. Thank goodness Han Sora was so good at lightening the mood.
It wasn't as though I'd come unprepared, after all. I'd only said that because admitting I'd planned everything in advance seemed likely to feed her paranoia for no reason.
Besides, even with the Border Hall open to us, there were only a handful of D-rank dungeons freshmen were allowed to enter. Cheonmu Academy was no fool — the genuinely dangerous dungeons were flat-out off-limits unless you followed the proper protocols to the letter.
"Let's check which ones we can enter right now! There's the Red-headed Eagle Prairie, the Dead Ancient Tree Forest, the Collapsed Root Cave…."
"The Collapsed Root Cave or the Dead Ancient Tree Forest look better. The Red-headed Eagle Prairie seems like there'd be nothing for me to do."
"Huh? Why would there be nothing for you to do, Seonho? Even if all you did was hand out buffs, you'd still be pulling your weight."
"That's true for now, but further down the line, support types end up doing a lot more. I figured I'd take this chance to practice things like pathfinding and trap detection out in the field."
"Ohh, so support students do stuff like that too. I had no idea…."
"Anywhere is fine with me. Pick whichever and let's get this over with quickly."
With Han Sora deferring to everyone else's preferences and Do Yoonchae shrugging that she couldn't care less either way, the choice naturally drifted back to me. And the moment I put the Collapsed Root Cave into words—
"Then, to get a feel for a variety of situations, let's go with the Collapsed Root Cav—"
"…So, Sora!!"
"Huh? Seo Woojin?"
…Ah, for fuck's sake.
"Wh-what are you doing here, Sora?"
"…What am I doing? I'm about to go into a dungeon with my friends."
"Ah. R-right, your… friends…."
…I hadn't seen him around lately, so I'd honestly forgotten he existed. If I'd known I'd run into this bastard, I would've just hurried inside. Why the hell does he have to pop up at this exact moment?
The thought even crossed my mind that he might have stalked Han Sora here. But judging by the girls trailing behind him, that didn't seem to be the case.
"Woojin? What are you doing over there!"
"We agreed we'd go into the dungeon together~!"
"……."
A pack of female students clung to Seo Woojin's back.
Extras, apparently — and they all had perfectly forgettable faces to match. Stack all three of their looks together and they still might not beat a single Han Sora standing right here.
"Ah, g-guys…."
"…Who's this?"
"Hey, who do you think you are, hanging off our Woojin?"
"…Huh? Wh-what?"
Maybe it was the bumpy shape of her head, but her personality seemed every bit as jagged in a number of ways.
Granted, the idea of Han Sora "hanging off" another man was a bit of a stretch to begin with — but since the man in question was Seo Woojin, the accusation at least made a certain kind of sense.
Whatever else you could say about his rotten personality, the guy was still handsome enough to give even crossdressing Do Yoonchae a run for his money.
"D-don't talk to her like that, guys! She's my friend — I was just saying hi! Her name's Han Sora, and she used to live next door when we were kids…."
"…A friend?"
"Since they were kids…."
"……."
The moment Woojin's introduction landed, the trio glared at Han Sora with sharpened hostility rather than any hint of relief.
The cheat code of "childhood friend who's known him since we were little" had been dropped on them out of nowhere, and their open flusteredness gave them away completely.
In novels, the childhood friend is always the losing heroine — but by the logic of the real world, a friend of the opposite sex you'd known since childhood very often does end up becoming your wife.
"Okay, done with the introductions? Let's go, Woojin. We came for the Teamwork and Strategy class — to do our mock dungeon run, remember?"
"R-right! That's why we're all here!"
"Sorry, but Woojin's busy. We'll be taking him back with us now."
"…Yeah. Sure. Do whatever you want."
No wonder those faces looked familiar — they were the girls from Seo Woojin's group in the Teamwork and Strategy class.
Since they were neither pretty nor worth scheming over, they'd slipped naturally out of my memory, but hearing it spelled out like that, it did come back to me.
"S-Sora! I'll contact you later, so—"
"Woojin, Woojin! Which dungeon should we go to? I've always wanted to try exploring a cave — let's pair up with our vanguards and…."
"Caves are all damp and gross. Forget that — let's do the prairie…."
Whether it was because they couldn't stomach how close Seo Woojin and Sora looked, the girls hurriedly dragged him away to put distance between them.
They weren't girls I particularly liked — but just this once, I found myself in rare agreement with them. I didn't exactly relish the sight of Seo Woojin standing next to Sora either.
"Uuuugh…. What's with those girls? Talk about making a scene…."
"It's because you're pretty, Sora. They didn't like it. I could tell from a mile away — every one of them had that look of someone with a thing for Seo Woojin."
"Well, he is kind of handsome, I guess. Just a real piece of work otherwise. You don't like him either, right, Seonho?"
"…Can't say I have warm feelings toward him, no."
I'd never actually voiced any ill will toward Seo Woojin in front of Sora — but we had gotten into an argument about him once, midway through our "hypnosis training" session.
And when it came down to choosing between the two of them, Han Sora had already picked the one standing closer to her — me.
"Alright, enough of that — let's hurry in. The Collapsed Root Cave, right?"
"Yeah. I heard from a senior I know that it's dangerous enough to be a real challenge, but not so dangerous that freshmen can't explore it and make it back in one piece."
"If you say so, Seonho, I'm in. What about you, Yoonsung?"
"…Anywhere is fine."
"Okay then! Root Cave it is. Let's not go too deep, though — just the first floor or so…."
There was Han Sora, not sparing Seo Woojin so much as a glance anymore, fully turned toward my side.
Leaving Seo Woojin's party behind us — still bickering at the dungeon entrance over where to go — we stepped through the dungeon gate.
Border Hall of Cheonmu Academy, first floor. The entrance to the D-rank dungeon.
Arriving one step behind Lee Seonho's group, Seo Woojin pretended to listen to his own party's chatter while quietly fixing his gaze on a single spot.
-Sreeek.
"……."
Lee Seonho. And Han Sora, passing through the dungeon gate alongside some blue-haired male student he didn't recognize.
Watching them disappear into a dungeon called the Collapsed Root Cave, Seo Woojin quietly clenched his jaw.
Lee Seonho….
A revolting, hate-filled bastard.
A mere support-department student who had not only outscored him on the entrance exam but had also gone and ruined his relationship with his childhood friend, Han Sora.
If only that guy didn't exist, his relationship with Sora would never have drifted this far apart.
If only it weren't for that guy….
Granted, he couldn't claim to bear no responsibility himself — but the primary cause of the rift between him and Sora was, without question, that guy.
Because of him, Seo Woojin's chances to mend things with Sora had been obstructed time and time again. Worse, whenever Sora was with Lee Seonho, she seemed to deliberately avoid him.
Which meant that if he ever wanted to repair his relationship with Sora, he'd have to make peace with Lee Seonho first — and obviously, that was easier said than done.
The bastard can't even hide how much he hates me. Why the hell would I….
Just moments ago, when Seo Woojin had approached Sora, the guy hadn't even bothered to disguise the sour look on his face.
A support-department student with no combat ability worth the name, and yet he kept rubbing Seo Woojin the wrong way at every turn. Did he think he was somebody special just because he'd entered as the school's second ranker thanks to Sora?
…But wait, come to think of it — what's that guy even doing in a dungeon?
Seo Woojin himself had only been dragged here by these shrieking women, but Lee Seonho — that ill-tempered bastard — didn't seem the type to be led around by anyone.
Sora certainly hadn't dragged him there, and the blue-haired guy was nearly silent the whole time, which meant this was almost certainly Lee Seonho's expedition.
Compared to Seo Woojin's own group assignment, they were one person short. He was fairly sure Sora's team had also included a pink-haired senior girl.
Something about this is off.
Don't tell me he's using the dungeon exploration as an excuse to do something… strange to Sora in there.
Having witnessed that scene at the training grounds two weeks ago, such suspicions came to Seo Woojin all too naturally. The image of Lee Seonho, hiding behind the pretext of "training," pressing his body against Sora's inside the grounds, engaging in unnatural skinship.
Back then he hadn't been able to say a word — he'd simply turned and walked out. But if that bastard went so far as to put Sora under hypnosis inside the dungeon and attempt something…
"N-no way!"
"…You scared me."
"Woojin? What do you mean, no way?"
Right. There's no way he doesn't have some scheme going.
He should have realized it the moment he saw two men escorting Sora inside without the pink-haired senior among them.
He had to catch up with them as fast as he could. If he was careless, that bastard might leave a wound on Sora that could never, ever be washed away.
"L-let's go into the Collapsed Root Cave! Now! Quickly!"
"What? I told you, I hate caves! They're all damp and creepy…."
"Excuse me? If Woojin says we're going, we're going. Any complaints, get lost."
"I'm scared of caves, so you have to hold my hand the whole time, okay, Woojin?"
"Fine, fine — just hurry up already!"
They were women who clung and nagged at every step — but for once, Seo Woojin found himself thinking they might just prove useful. And with that, he hurriedly stepped through the warp gate of the Collapsed Root Cave.