The One Who Conquered the Mage Class with a Single Fist #6
The One Who Conquered the Mage Class with a Single Fist #6
...!
A surge of pure terror shot through him, but Chairman Ahn didn't let it show. Never cower in front of a superhuman. The old instincts hammered that into him.
"Chairman Ahn. You've been out of the field for a while, maybe you've lost your sense for these things, but in our world, the most important factor is who started it. Isn't that right."
"That may be so, but there are still limits!"
Chairman Ahn knew the rule.
But his grandson getting beaten that badly over a few insults was a different story. This was a clear overreaction. He believed that, and that's why he stood his ground.
"Of course, just because someone insults you first doesn't mean you can kill them. If someone dies in an incident like that, the fault lies squarely with the killer. But Kim Geun-cheol didn't kill Ahn Do-min. He roughed him up a bit, but any superhuman would shake off those injuries in no time."
...
"Adults shouldn't be meddling in this, should they?"
Licking his lips, Chairman Ahn suddenly swung his aim toward Instructor Kawar.
His grandson's instructor.
"You! You, Instructor! If you'd taught these kids properly, none of this would've happened! What were you doing? I asked what you were doing!"
"Ahaha, why blame me just because the home training fell apart."
"What?!"
Chairman Ahn felt like he was losing his mind.
"What did you just say?! Hey! Do you think this is acceptable?! An instructor screws up the teaching and pins it on me!"
All the taxes he'd paid over the years, all the post-war service as a superhuman—and now he had to take this kind of treatment?
"The school should've done its job right!"
"No... well, Chairman Ahn, sir? So you expected a kid who grew up a total shitbird to be magically turned into a decent human being in a single semester? Maybe with one of those old brain surgeries they used to do, but normally? Impossible."
"Wh-what...!"
Chairman Ahn's mouth flapped open and shut.
Nobody in society had ever dared treat him like this. The title—conglomerate chairman and former superhuman—was that absolute in the civilian world.
"Besides, character education is usually the family's job, not the school's, isn't it? Of course we do corrections. But that's for the upper years. The first year is for, well, gaining experience. Getting to know superhuman society naturally. We build the foundation and the mindset, then we do the character work. Most kids don't cause serious trouble before that point. It's the ones who got a bad upbringing at home that stir things up."
Kawar kept going.
"You think values shaped over seventeen years of life just change overnight? If you want to take a swing at my educational philosophy, maybe you should get your own house in order first?"
Once Kawar finished speaking.
"Ugh, urgh...!"
Chairman Ahn couldn't shut his mouth.
"Hm, my apologies for this."
The Chairwoman, who had been silent till now, opened her mouth calmly.
"Ah, Chairwoman, ma'am?"
"Instructor Kawar. I'm well aware of the work you've done to dramatically raise the character standard of the mage class kids. Your philosophy—to shape every last one of them into a hero before graduation—sat very well with me."
The Chairwoman rested her chin on her clasped hands and stated it gravely, without a hint of her usual quirky punctuation.
"Ahaha, thank you, ma'am."
Kawar scratched the back of her head.
"However, this situation arose because the curriculum was suddenly changed. I did not foresee it either. So, Kawar, you bear no responsibility."
"Thank you."
Kawar smiled.
"You fucker!"
—Boom!
Chairman Ahn slammed the desk.
"Chairwoman, isn't this too much! Nobody's taking my side here! The instructor was in the wrong! If the character education had been done right, this wouldn't have happened! A few swear words and he gets beaten to a pulp! Am I supposed to just let this slide?!"
"The judgment has already been handed down rationally, Chairman Ahn. And if you don't let it slide?"
The Chairwoman spoke quietly, and Chairman Ahn screamed back.
"I'll do everything in my power! So that bastard Kim Geun-cheol pays the price!"
That instant.
"Hey!!!!"
—Bwaaaaang!
The Chairwoman's Lion's Roar erupted.
"Chairman Ahn!!!!!"
"Huh...?"
"Shut your goddamned mouth!!!"
—Crunch.
A sound like something snapping right next to his ear.
"Are you openly declaring, in front of me, that you intend to take revenge on a student?!!!"
"Aaaaargh!"
Chairman Ahn was blasted back by the pressure wave and crashed into the wall. A heavy thud rang out, and his body crumpled to the floor.
"This son of a bitch thinks just because I'm out of the field he can disrespect me!!! How dare you spout that garbage!!!"
"Uh, wha... crazy... my ears..."
His hands flew to his ears on reflex. When he checked his palm, it was smeared with blood.
"Hey, you piece of shit!!! Not listening to me?!!!"
In a flash, a joint kick flew into Chairman Ahn's shin.
—Crack!
A sound that could never come from a simple joint kick. The Chairwoman appeared in front of him and landed it cleanly, sending Chairman Ahn shooting upward into the ceiling.
"Gurk!"
"I was holding back because you're practically a civilian geezer, but you must've thought I was a total joke, Chairman Ahn!"
—Shoop!
The Chairwoman grabbed the ankle of Chairman Ahn—still embedded in the ceiling—and pulled him clean out. Chairman Ahn just couldn't process the violence that was suddenly raining down on him.
He'd lived far too distanced from professional violence.
"Daring to threaten a student right in front of me! You son of a bitch, just because they call you 'Chairman' you really think nothing can touch you! Hey, you motherfucker, one phone call and I can flip that whole corporation into my personal possession! Got it!"
The Chairwoman's walker-clad foot sank into Chairman Ahn's abdomen.
"Guh...!"
The Lion's Roar, ringing out like mad. The violence pouring down. As they overlapped, Chairman Ahn remembered the old days.
The past, when he fought monsters directly as a superhuman. Near-death experiences. Comrades dying. People crippled by massive injuries.
He'd hated it, so he became a corporate chairman.
"If you call an orphan kid an orphan bastard, of course this is what happens! Splitting superhumans into damn hierarchies and running your mouth! Chairman Ahn, if you'd raised your kid right, this wouldn't have happened! You raised him to be a goddamn human disaster and now you come whining at the school?!"
"S... save... save me... gugk...!"
"The bastard who runs his mouth recklessly is meant to get his ass kicked recklessly, Chairman Ahn. That's been an absolute truth ever since superhumans appeared. Know that? Think I'm just favoring a particular student? Absolutely not, you piece of shit. Go grab any other superhuman and ask them. Ask them what naturally happens if you walk up to an orphan and suddenly insult them as an orphan. Suing for assault and demanding compensation because you got beaten up after starting a fight—that's civilian business, you shit. Ahn Do-min's a superhuman too. You take responsibility for the words you say."
"Ugh, uuurgh...! Heugh!"
"This bat-like bastard, just because people call him Mister Conglomerate Chairman, he's got no goddamn fear... Haah. Enough."
With that, the Chairwoman stopped the beating and returned to her seat.
"Instructor Lee So-ra. Take care of him."
"Understood."
Lee So-ra answered briefly and dragged the limp Chairman Ahn outside. Looking at his slumped form, Lee So-ra spoke flatly.
"Chairman Ahn. You've been away from the field far too long. Lost all your sense. Whether you're a conglomerate chairman or not doesn't matter at all in our world. What matters is a righteous mindset and legitimacy."
...
Amid the ringing in his skull, Lee So-ra's voice cut clearly into Chairman Ahn's ears.
"You should've educated him properly. Even when normal people send their kids off to school, don't they do the character training at home?"
"Gugh..."
"Listen well, Chairman Ahn. For a hero to pick a fight by insulting an opponent and calling them an orphan without proper cause is an act that must never happen. But for the insulted hero to snap and commit violence is an act that is all too obvious and justified."
The calm voice continued.
"If you do not agree with this Absolute Law of hero society, then never show your superhuman side again and go back to the civilian world."
...
"This is not the civilian world where you get held up as Mister Chairman. It's superhuman society. Stop acting like some bat hanging halfway in between."
...
"I hope today's events serve as a lesson."
Instructor Lee So-ra stopped there and grabbed Chairman Ahn, half-unconscious, like a supermarket bag and moved.
—Crunch!
She ripped the entire locked door off Chairman Ahn's car and stuffed him inside.
—Pat, pat.
She even dusted off her hands.
"Instructor Kawar. Kim Geun-cheol is in the supply room."
"Ahaha, yes."
She said that to Kawar, who had followed her out.
"Honestly, I should apologize. I'd actually been aware that Ahn Do-min has some character issues. But I judged it was just at an irritating level within the mage class, so I let it be... didn't expect it to blow up like this in a Combined Class."
"Well, this sort of thing happens everywhere. It's a home training problem. Nothing to say to me, so run along now."
"Yes."
—Pat, pat.
Lee So-ra clapped Kawar on the shoulder.
* * *
"Tap! Tap tap!"
"Kim Geun-cheol, I swear I'll make you talk nonsense!"
Before I knew it, I was in the supply room getting put in a rear naked choke by Leona! All I did was crack a few jokes!
"Let go, I'm sorry!"
"Reflect on your actions!"
"Okay, okay!"
Just as Leona started to ease up.
—Creeeak.
The door opened.
"Huh?!"
"Gah!"
I looked, and it was Instructor Kawar!
"Ah-ha. What's this? Did I interrupt a good time?"
"No, that's not it!"
—Whoosh!
Leona and I broke apart and shot back to our seats like we'd hit 16x rewind! Innocent faces. Innocent expressions.
"So, Instructor Kawar? What about Instructor Lee So-ra?"
"She's handling Chairman Ahn's post-mortem."
"Post-mortem?"
"Yes. Anyway. How should I put this... Well, I'm sorry, Kim Geun-cheol."
Wait, Instructor Kawar was apologizing?
"Normally character training—no, character education—is scheduled for the upper years. I had a policy of holding off until then and just observing, but the policy change led to this. Originally, first years don't really interact, so something like this probably wouldn't have happened."
"Ah, don't worry about that. When policy changes out of the blue, things are bound to get bumpy."
"Thanks for understanding. Still, it is my responsibility regardless, so I'll apologize."
"Why keep apologizing? Thinking about it, yeah, it does seem kinda off to blame the school for not doing the kids' character training."
That's a job for the home.
Bitching at a school to take a kid who grew up a total mess at home for over ten years and magically character-educate him into a normal human being is blatantly unreasonable.
Even by superhuman standards, it's absurd.
"Wow. I couldn't be more grateful. Still, if I may make an excuse... my mindset, honestly, was just that I had to fix them before graduation."
"Is that so?"
No matter how much of a disaster, an instructor who finds a way to fix them before graduation.
That, in its own way, is a true instructor.
"I've fixed them all so far. Think guys like Ahn Do-min are one or two in a batch? Arrogant, authoritarian, dripping with privilege. Mindsets totally removed from what a hero should be. And Mage-class Awakened are especially prone to that. Well, of course. All those seniors went through my guidance, and they're all decent human beings now, active in the field."
She had a point. If guys like Ahn Do-min were just released into society as-is, hero society would fundamentally collapse.
The basic virtues of a hero are justice and fairness. Peace. Society is maintained on that basis. If total bastards overflowing with privilege and class consciousness start lording over everyone?
The face of society would warp into something truly ugly.
Ordinary people would turn into slaves, and superhumans would become the monsters ruling over them.
"I get it. But Instructor Kawar? What exactly do you do to correct seniors like Ahn Do-min?"
At my question, Instructor Kawar tapped her temple and said,
"Illusion magic, professional counseling sessions, conversations with high-ranking government officials, drafting academy student records, indirect coercion, and so on. I've got a lot of that kind of know-how. No matter how big a disaster they are, after all that, they become human beings, as the story goes."
"Huh?"
No, shit, that already sounds shady as hell just hearing about it!
What exactly do the mage class kids go through in their upper years?!