The Worst Possible Timing (3)
It wasn't long after we took down the Owlbear that personnel from Cheonmu Academy finally showed up.
They'd probably confirmed that a monster beyond their control—something they hadn't released themselves—had appeared, and rushed to start a search. There was no way the Academy could have missed the reaction of an Owlbear suddenly materializing.
After all, the goblins and orcs roaming the dungeon were genetically engineered specimens created by Cheonmu Academy, monsters that could be controlled at will in a crisis. Even the top hunter academy in Korea couldn't afford to play it safe if they went around dumping exam candidates into a real dungeon unprepared. They'd deliberately withheld information from the candidates precisely because the test was meant to evaluate their ability to gather materials from actual monsters.
If the candidates hadn't taken down the Owlbear in time, quite a few staff members would probably have lost their jobs.
Maybe that was why the expressions on the Academy staff's faces when they found us were a sight to behold.
Even at a glance, my injuries were obviously severe, and this had been the moment where, if they'd been even a little later, someone might have genuinely died during the practical exam.
True to form for Cheonmu Academy employees, though, they wiped the momentary panic off their faces almost instantly and got things under control.
"…Are you certain that you candidates were the ones who subdued this creature?"
"Yes."
"…Understood. The practical exam is about to conclude anyway, so we'll settle everyone's results here."
"Huh?"
"I-I still had one material slot left, though…."
"……"
"Ah, my apologies, I misspoke. That monster is the boss of the first practical exam prepared by us here at Cheonmu Academy, so every student who contributed to its subjugation will pass. Furthermore, since its existence was a secret test monster prepared by the Academy, you are absolutely not to breathe a word of it to the other students."
"Yes…?"
"I-I passed…?"
"……"
Spitting out a prepared excuse without so much as blinking—the crisis management skills of Cheonmu Academy really were exceptional, down to the last employee.
…Well, of course, there was bound to be someone who objected to such a transparent improvisation.
"You were seriously going to make exam candidates fight something this dangerous?! If a Recovery Department student hadn't happened to be there, he could have actually died—"
"It's fine, Han Sora."
"Hey, Lee Seonho. You just came back from the brink, and you're—"
"I told you, I'm fine. All I need is to get into the Academy. Dying and coming back for a spot at Cheonmu? That's a bargain."
"……"
The chance to enter Cheonmu Hunter Academy is precious—so precious that once it's in your hands, you must never let it slip away.
And since I, someone in the Support Department who couldn't get in on personal ability alone, was saying this myself, even Han Sora couldn't help but realize that arguing further here wasn't the right move for me.
"I-I mean… if Seonho says it's fine, then it doesn't really matter to me…."
"…M-me too."
"Ugh, seriously. If you're all saying that, what am I supposed to be…."
"…Then I'll take it that none of the parties involved have any objections?"
"Nope."
"N-none here!"
"…No."
-…nod.
And with that, Han Sora quietly nodded her head, looking somewhat disgruntled about it.
She'd made a perfectly reasonable protest, only for me to cut her off and shut it down, so of course she wasn't happy. But when the person who'd suffered the most was saying he was fine, there was nothing more she could say without looking like the villain, so she had no choice but to swallow it and let it go.
"Han Sora."
"…What."
"Thank you for worrying about me."
"…Yeah."
Which was why I didn't forget to offer my thanks, either. Knowing Han Sora's personality, this alone would be more than enough to smooth things over.
"Then the following candidates who participated in the battle—Kim Isabel, Seo Woojin, Lee Seonho, Cha Eunju, and Han Sora—are hereby declared to have passed the Cheonmu Hunter Academy practical exam—"
"W-wait a moment!!"
"…Is there another problem, Candidate Han Sora?"
"He didn't participate in the battle at all! He ran off by himself the second the monster showed up, so why does he pass?!"
"I'm sorry? Candidate Han Sora, aren't you in the same group as Candidate Seo Woojin?"
"Same group, schmame group—he didn't fight, period! If anything, he's the one who abandoned us and ran, and that's why Lee Seonho got hurt like this! How is it fair that he passes?!"
The Academy staff member turned toward Seo Woojin with a face gone stiff at Han Sora's words.
And sure enough, she immediately pressed him with the same question, just to confirm.
"Is that true, Candidate Seo Woojin?"
"……"
"I asked whether what Candidate Han Sora said is true, Candidate Seo Woojin."
"I-I didn't really do anything— I-I mean, no, I didn't…."
"What?! Are you kidding me right now—"
"Please be quiet, Candidate Han Sora. I was addressing Candidate Seo Woojin."
"……"
So he contributed nothing to subduing the Owlbear, but apparently he still wanted to get into the Academy.
Well, I understood the sentiment a hundred times over. What aspiring hunter in their right mind would want to throw away a chance at Cheonmu Academy?
Especially when it was a free pass requiring zero effort—way too precious to just give up.
"……Ha. Honestly."
"Ugh…."
"……"
Of course, the way the heroines looked at Seo Woojin after that display was far from pretty. Even Kim Isabel's contempt bled through her veil plain as day.
"I-I mean, that boss monster totally interrupted me while I was collecting materials, and if it weren't for that thing, I probably would have finished my whole set…."
"……"
"I-if not for the damage I took from the boss monster, I would've passed, s-so shouldn't you just go ahead and pass me, t-too…?"
"……"
Seo Woojin had a real talent for rendering everyone speechless—the heroines and even the Academy staff all stared at him in sheer disbelief.
Forget getting stronger from female affection—maybe Seo Woojin's true ability was freezing everyone around him solid. Otherwise, there was simply no explaining this frigid atmosphere.
Naturally, openly failing Seo Woojin would put the Academy in an awkward position too. They needed to admit every candidate who'd been involved, however loosely, to keep any word of the Owlbear from leaking out.
I could faintly sense the staff member's flustered realization that their prepared pretext had just been torpedoed, but there was no way I could step in here and say, Let's just count Seo Woojin as having participated and pass him too.
After building up all that goodwill with the heroines, saying something like that would tank their affection for me in one stroke. Han Sora, who couldn't stand injustice, or Kim Isabel, who already harbored a trace of resentment toward the man who'd abandoned her.
"…Candidate Seo Woojin. Let's have a word with you privately."
Perhaps unable to bring herself to suggest passing Seo Woojin amid this atmosphere, the Academy staff member put off her announcement with careful delicacy.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
The day after the Academy practical exam.
Diagnosed with compound fractures and full-body muscle tears—an absurd set of injuries—I was hospitalized in the church located inside Cheonmu Hunter Academy.
Since the world had an official occupation called the Recovery-type Hunter, most of its medical technology had been replaced by people with awakened abilities.
That's not to say the medicine of my original world didn't exist here as well. But the general public lumped everyone working in those fields together with church personnel and called them all "Recovery-type Hunters."
The best way to put it is that what hospitals did in my old world, hospitals and churches split between them in this one. And for the record, "church" here doesn't refer to those storefront chapels sprouting up like convenience stores all over Korea—it means an institution of this world, genuinely equipped with facilities to care for patients.
There was a brief dispute over whether someone with compound fractures and torn muscles should be transported to the Academy's hospital or its church, but thanks to Kim Isabel's courageous intervention, I was receiving treatment at the church instead.
"S-Seonho is being treated with my-my holy power…. S-so I believe it's only right that I continue his treatment here at the c-church, r-rather than another f-facility…."
It was genuinely moving. A girl with androphobia, of all things, insisting she would take responsibility for me to the very end and asking to have me admitted to the church.
Thanks to her, here I lay on a church sickbed receiving treatment. My limbs were bound—all except my right arm—in the spirit of not moving carelessly until my broken bones and ruptured muscles had fully knit back together.
It wasn't the strange sight of a man wrapped head to toe in bandages straight out of a manga; instead, chains of Light Binding, conjured from holy magic, held down my arms and legs. Not that it made being unable to move any less true.
If I'm going to do bondage play at all, being the one doing the tying beats being tied, I'll admit.
Still, I supposed I should count myself lucky that even one arm was in working order. It meant I could pet the head of Cha Eunju whenever I pleased—like now, as she dozed off kneeling beside my bed.
-pat, pat.
"Mmnh… mmmnh…."
…Honestly, she's unbearably cute.
When I got hurt, and again when I was told I'd be hospitalized at the church, the one who worried the most was Cha Eunju. She'd even dragged in a folding cot meant for guardians and slept in my room alongside me, insisting nothing could be allowed to happen to me.
Part of it was surely that she was the only one I'd properly begun my "conquest" of, but even accounting for that, her devotion was extraordinary.
The date I'd planned with her after wrapping up the practical exam event had been postponed, but strictly speaking, spending our days together in a hospital room like this was its own kind of date—so it wasn't all bad.
The one thing that didn't sit right with me was making my woman sleep on an uncomfortable folding cot. In my heart of hearts I wanted to tell her to climb into my bed with me, but with my body in this state, that was asking a bit much.
-pat, pat.
"Mmm… mm…?"
"……"
-pat, pat.
"…Nnngh… hmmm…."
Cha Eunju would stir awake at the sensation of my hand in her hair, realize in her half-sleep that someone was stroking her head, and carefully close her eyes again.
Her unconscious seduction was so consistent I half wondered if she was doing it on purpose—and my lower half stiffened accordingly.
Impressive. Even in this state, everything below the belt operates perfectly.
Once my body healed, I'd have to find some way to push things a little further with Cha Eunju.
There was still about a month until the entrance ceremony. Enough time, one way or another, for us to share our first experience together.
And then, with Cha Eunju completely made mine, I'd simply add to the roster—one woman at a time.