Chapter 212: A Resurfacing Conflict
Chapter 212: A Resurfacing Conflict
The sight was familiar. Slightly wavy, silky hair cascaded over her shoulders. I caught a glimpse of a slender, pale face. Looking closer, I could see thin eyelids that traced a gentle curve. It was Kim Hanbyul, who had gone through the Rite of Passage with me and the others. She was asleep, looking utterly pitiful.
I stared at her for a while before carefully closing the door. Then, with footsteps as quiet as possible, I closed the distance between us.
“Snore…”
“……”
A faint, nasal sound escaped her. Her face, unlike before, was incredibly haggard. Her brow was slightly furrowed, even in sleep. As if having a nightmare, she would occasionally let out a pained moan. For some reason, the very atmosphere around Hanbyul felt tinged with a deep gloom.
With a gentle touch, I lifted Hanbyul into my arms. Her frail body settled into my embrace. I had no other intentions. The sun would rise in two or three hours anyway, and rather than wake her, I wanted to let her sleep comfortably for the time she had left.
“Mm…”
I thought I had been careful, but perhaps she sensed my presence, as Hanbyul’s eyes slowly fluttered open. Through the narrow slits, her pupils looked clouded. The sharpness and intelligence she had often shown in the past were nowhere to be found.
“O…ppa…?”
“Yeah. It’s okay. You can go back to sleep.”
Hanbyul’s voice was thick with sleep. I soothed her as I laid her down on the bed. Her lips moved a few more times, but only unintelligible sounds came out. Soon after, she tossed and turned once or twice before her breathing evened out.
Watching Hanbyul fall asleep with a much more peaceful expression than when I first came in, I was lost in thought for a moment.
Six months had passed since we completed the User Academy. It was true that I had thought of Hanbyul a few times during that period. I now believe the disappointment I felt when she didn’t choose me stemmed from the regret of losing a Jewel Mage.
But seeing her like this, I felt nothing. Well, perhaps a little pity. I didn’t know the exact details, but it seemed she wasn’t adjusting well within her clan. I had thought I might feel something special upon reuniting with her, but honestly, I just felt indifferent.
I let out a long sigh and turned around. The reason I had initially thought there was only one bed was that the two were pushed together with only the slightest gap between them. At a glance, it looked like a single, wide bed.
I took off my gear, placed it to the side, and immediately lay down on the empty bed. As I closed my eyes, the day’s events began to surface in a chaotic jumble. The promotion, the Call to Arms, Han Soyoung, the matriarch, my clan members, Ahn Sol, the academy, the instructor meeting… A laugh escaped me as I thought that Ahn Sol’s tears might have been because of all this.
A little time passed, and darkness slowly began to creep into my mind.
………. ………. ………. ………. ………. ……….
I did sleep, but not deeply. I could sleep so soundly in the arms of Jung Hayeon or Ko Yeonju. It was truly a mystery. Still, a light sleep was better than no sleep at all, so I decided to stop complaining and slowly open my eyes. I could feel a steady gaze on me from the side.
“……”
When I turned my head, I saw Kim Hanbyul standing quietly beside me. Her expression was cold and silent. The corners of her eyes twitched for a moment when our gazes met, but she quickly regained her composure.
Hanbyul did not speak, and neither did I. Questions like “Oppa, why are you here?” or “This is my room” were meaningless for people with our personalities. We both understood the circumstances well enough.
I sat up in bed and spoke in a calm voice.
“It’s been a while. Oh, wait, we saw each other yesterday, so I guess it hasn’t been that long?”
“…It has been a while, O…ppa.”
“Right. I heard the details from Park Hyunwoo yesterday. I’ll be in your care for the next three months.”
“…Yes. I’ll be in your care as well.”
Hanbyul’s voice sounded strained, as if she were forcing the words out. It seemed she still felt awkward around me. I decided to maintain a composed demeanor. Since she was quick-witted and sharp, she would surely understand the meaning behind my actions. I didn’t want to place any unnecessary burden on her, nor did I want to feel uncomfortable myself.
To achieve that, I needed to draw a clear line in our relationship: a professional one between a Head Instructor and an Assistant Instructor. And so, despite already knowing, I feigned ignorance and spoke.
“Thankfully, it looks like I did not sleep too deeply. Do you know this morning’s schedule?”
“……”
“You don’t know?”
“…You are to wake the new Users with the Lifestyle Instructors… and then hand them over to the Discipline Instructors.”
“Ah, I see. Thanks.”
When I asked again, a chilly reply came from her lips. Yet, underneath it, there was a quiet sadness. I gave a simple acknowledgment, turned around, and opened the door in front of me.
She was someone who could take care of herself. Believing she could overcome her current hardships on her own, I quickly left the room.
*
Despite numerous twists and turns, the User Academy had finally signaled the start of its training. Since everything had been handled in a mad rush, I wondered if it would even run properly. However, it seemed Park Hyunwoo’s desperate delegation of roles had paid off, as the first week had run reasonably well.
I had several reasons for coming to the User Academy, even postponing my original plans. I certainly hadn’t accepted the instructor position just to help new Users. As such, I intended to act on multiple fronts, and it was necessary to do so.
The first reason was to build connections. Whether the future was twisted or not, networking was a crucial element in the Hall Plain. This time, many of the most prominent members from each clan had joined the User Academy as instructors. They would surely be interested in me, and I, in turn, planned to maintain as good a relationship with them as possible.
Although I was granted a “Free” role, I made sure to present myself as diligent as possible. This was because I occasionally felt certain gazes observing my actions. It was plain to see that the Discipline and Lifestyle Instructors would report on my daily life to the Training Instructors from their own clans.
As the saying goes, what looks good, tastes good. If I acted irresponsibly, relying only on my potential for growth, I would be devaluing myself. The good impression I was making could serve as a favorable stepping stone for future meetings with the influential Training Instructors from each clan.
Next, I had to see if there were any Users worth recruiting as new clan members. This was perhaps the biggest issue. Proving one’s qualifications in the Rite of Passage on the fifth day was a surefire guarantee of a User’s extraordinary nature.
It was a bit foolish, but from the very first day, I activated Third Eye on each and every new User. I didn’t just look at their simple stats. I opened their Player Status to the maximum, meticulously reading, calculating, and considering every possibility, worried I might miss something.
I stopped this tedious task after a full three days. After checking about thirty people, I realized just how inefficient this method was. Of course, if I continued, I would eventually see them all, but analyzing the various possibilities for a single Player Status window was exhausting. On the other hand, I hated the thought of just glancing over them and having to start from scratch later if I missed someone.
Since I had plenty of time, I decided to be a little clever about it. It was still the first week, so they were only getting a simple taste of things, but specialized training was scheduled to begin soon. When that happened, the Users’ levels would start to diverge. Depending on their individual stats and potential, they would either break through their limits or hit a wall. In other words, I would be able to gauge their suitability as combat Users.
There was a saying: an awl hidden in a sack will eventually pierce through. In other words, a person with exceptional talent would naturally stand out even while hidden. If I waited a little, the remarkable Users would begin to distinguish themselves, and I could evaluate only the combat candidates then. If no one emerged even after that, I would have to conduct a complete survey.
Haste makes waste. With those two main goals in mind, I proceeded with my plans slowly. Of course, there were one or two other things that bothered me in the meantime.
I always kept Ahn Sol’s words, spoken before she left Barbara, in my heart. But there were no signs, no omens. It wasn’t as if I could just bluntly ask, “The Golden Lion Clan’s matriarch didn’t seem well, how did she end up like that? And has anything been going on lately? I feel strangely anxious.”
So, for now, I decided to proceed with the academy plans and wait. My worries might just be baseless, and it wasn’t a matter I could carelessly talk about. If there was no clear solution from within, I would have to borrow strength from the outside. I decided to consult with Ko Yeonju when she arrived after the second week.
The other matter was Kim Hanbyul.
“Mercenary Lord. Is there anything inconvenient about your life as an instructor?”
“Soohyun. How is academy life? Is your assistant instructor helping you much?”
Park Hyunwoo and Sung Yubin would occasionally visit me and subtly bring up the topic. Honestly, I couldn’t help but find them pathetic every time. When I heard about it from Jung Hayeon, I just thought, ‘Is that so?’ but experiencing it firsthand, I could feel just how rotten things were.
Whenever they asked, my answer was always the same.
“Yes. Kim Hanbyul is a very capable User. I understand now why you spoke of her that way. Having her as my Assistant Instructor is certainly convenient.”
“Haha. I’m receiving a lot of help from Assistant Instructor Kim Hanbyul. Thanks to her, my life at the academy has become much easier.”
I was sorry, but I had no intention of getting involved with Kim Hanbyul. I didn’t want to be played by their schemes, and forming a deep relationship with the Golden Lion Clan now would bring more harm than good. As it was, various clans were already drooling(?) at the sight of me. Right now it was just a trickle, but I planned to make them drool in streams soon. I wanted to preemptively block any actions that could lead to misunderstandings.
The most important thing here was Kim Hanbyul’s position. I thought she would be in a rather difficult spot, caught between me and the executives, but thankfully, she hadn’t shown any particular change in attitude so far. No, in a way, it seemed she had understood my signal. As time went on, the initial awkwardness faded, and she would occasionally show her true self. I was satisfied with just that.
Sometimes she would come back to the room with a flushed face. Most of the time, I would just ask as a formality and let it go. For example, “What’s with your face? Are you sick?” “No. It’s nothing.” And so on. It was a bit pitiful, but it wasn’t something I could help with, and she didn’t seem to want to talk about it.
And so, the hectic, momentous first week of the academy passed.
After the first week, the User Academy recorded an unprecedented zero dropouts. The academy had set the difficulty for the first week considerably lower than in the previous round, and the reason was obvious without needing to be said. Having gone from a full stomach back to a hungry one, it seemed they intended to drag everyone along as much as possible. They said they would raise the difficulty starting from the second week, but that remained to be seen.
In any case, after the first week, Park Hyunwoo could be seen sighing in relief in the cafeteria. He must have thought he’d gotten off to a good start amidst the chaos.
But the academy was just beginning. The conflicts between the clans still remained, and a subtle sense of competition over the new Users was beginning to show. There were even a few instances of strange tension forming while carrying out the Lifestyle and Discipline roles.
It wasn’t severe enough to become a problem. However, with nearly twenty clans involved in conflicts, I felt it was bound to explode eventually. It was only a matter of when, and who would be the one to start it.
Then, around the middle of the second week, an incident finally occurred, proving me right.