Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: The First Request
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The students began resting in their own ways.
I wanted to rest during the break as well, but I still had something left to do.
I stood up from my seat and approached Lee Seojun.
“Lee Seojun.”
When I called out to him, Lee Seojun looked up at me.
“Why?”
“When are you going to do the assignment?”
“Hmm. Over the weekend? This week’s busy. Because of the special elective activity.”
I nodded at Lee Seojun’s words.
“Yeah, that’s true.”
Then, as if it had just occurred to me, I brought up the main topic.
“Oh, right. What did you pick for the special elective activity?”
“Mercenary experience for me. You?”
“Mercenary experience for me too.”
“Really? Nice. Our choices keep overlapping.”
Lee Seojun muttered in surprise. His words made me feel a bit guilty for no reason, so I gave an awkward smile.
“Huh? Yeah. Weird, huh? Haha. Oh, then want to be in the same group as me?”
Special elective activities were always done in groups, as usual.
This mercenary experience activity was no exception.
According to the school announcement, the group size for this experience would be 3 to a maximum of 4 people.
To get involved in the original story’s events, I had to be in the same group as Lee Seojun.
“Hmm. I’ve already got people I promised to group with. But we’re three, so there’s one spot open. Want in?”
“Who’s in it?”
“Me, Choi Seoyun, Lee Hyunju. They’ll probably be fine with it.”
I nodded.
This matched the original story’s flow as well.
In the original, Choi Seoyun and Lee Hyunju were in Lee Seojun’s group too.
“Alright, then the four of us in a group?”
“Got it. I’ll tell the others.”
Thursday morning at 10 a.m., when the special experience activity was scheduled.
I arrived at the school bus stop in front of the gathering point for the mercenary experience activity.
Even though it was an activity for the whole school, looking around, there were only about 70 students.
The reason was simple.
People preferred simple monster hunting or dungeon clearing over doing errands for others as mercenaries.
“Hey, Kim Sunwoo’s here.”
I was looking around for Lee Seojun when his voice came from afar.
“Why’d you come so leisurely.”
“Leisurely? I came right on time.”
I pointed to my watch showing exactly 10:00. Not a second off. Lee Seojun looked at me with a fed-up expression.
“Hello.”
Then Lee Hyunju greeted me from behind Lee Seojun.
It felt like it had been a while since I talked to her.
Lee Hyunju didn’t talk much with anyone except Lee Seojun and Shin Youngjun.
It wasn’t that she had poor social skills like Yoo Ara; she was just the type to focus more on the people around her.
“Hey, hello.”
“Senior, hello!”
This time, Choi Seoyun greeted me with her usual fake smile beaming. Maybe because there were a lot of people watching, her smile was brighter than usual.
“Hello.”
“Alright! Welcome, everyone. As you all know, this special elective activity will take place over three days. For those three days, you’ll be deployed on-site to experience mercenary work.”
A teacher appeared amid the noisy atmosphere.
The surroundings instantly quieted down as everyone focused on the teacher’s words.
Of course, I already knew most of it, so I was just yawning.
“Now, we’ll announce the mercenary corps each group has been assigned to. 2nd Year Kim Taehoon’s group: Taskmaster Mercenary Corps…… 3rd Year Jung Jinhun’s group: White Dogs Mercenary Corps.”
The announcements continued.
“……2nd Year Lee Seojun’s group: Scorching Mercenary Corps.”
The massive mercenary corps located in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, ‘Scorching’.
Just like in the original plot, Lee Seojun’s group, including me, would be working at the Scorching Mercenary Corps for three days.
“It’s bigger than I thought.”
The Scorching headquarters was a spacious six-story building.
As we approached the main entrance, I spotted ordinary citizens there to request jobs.
The jobs they requested were usually things like finding people, bodyguard work requiring strong power, or combat mercenaries.
Occasionally, someone would pay big money to secretly request an assassination.
“Let’s head in.”
We opened the door and went inside. As we looked around, a man in mercenary gear approached us.
“Hello. What brings you here?”
“We’re from the Korean Wizard Academy for the mercenary experience.”
At our response, the man’s mouth fell open as he acted like he knew.
“Oh! I heard about it. Please follow me this way.”
Following the man’s guidance, we entered a room on the second floor.
We sat in chairs and waited briefly until the door opened and a man in his thirties walked in.
“Nice to meet you, Wizard Academy students. I’m Jeong Hajun, 6th Team Leader of the Scorching Mercenary Corps.”
Jeong Hajun.
He wasn’t someone with any special background.
Since he didn’t stick in my memory, he probably had almost no role in the original story either.
“Hello.”
We bowed politely to Jeong Hajun.
Jeong Hajun scanned us over with a gentle smile.
Then, as if recognizing Lee Seojun’s face, he showed a slightly surprised expression.
“You wouldn’t happen to be Student Lee Seojun?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Oh…… Nice to meet you. I didn’t expect such a famous person to come. And now that I think about it, the others are famous too.”
Jeong Hajun muttered in wonder, looking back and forth between Lee Hyunju and Choi Seoyun.
They might not match Lee Seojun’s fame, but they were all top prospects in the Wizard Academy’s history.
Especially Lee Hyunju, who specialized in summoning magic, was called the “hope of summoning mages” with an embarrassing nickname among summoning wizards.
Then Jeong Hajun looked at me. His gaze was full of expectation.
“And you are……?”
“I’m Kim Sunwoo.”
“Kim Sunwoo? What’s your ranking?”
“72nd.”
“Ah, I see.”
His expectation turned to disappointment in an instant.
Well, hanging around famous people like Lee Seojun or Yoo Ara, this happened often. I was used to it by now.
“Ahem. Anyway, enough chit-chat. Let me explain. You’ll be doing the mercenary experience for three days starting today. And you’ll be taking on simple requests alongside actual mercenaries.”
We would receive a total of two requests over the three days, as Jeong Hajun said. And just like in the original, two incidents would occur during those two requests.
“You’ll be handling D to F-Rank requests. Things like simple escorts or finding people. As excellent talents from the Wizard Academy, I’m sure you can manage.”
Mercenary requests were divided into ranks, from D-Rank up to SSS-Rank.
Of course, even in the original, SSS-Rank requests only existed in name and never actually appeared.
If an SSS-Rank request ever happened for real, it’d probably be something like taking down a demon “king” or assassinating Chairman Kim Jincheol.
Of course, that was just talk—a single mercenary corps couldn’t possibly assassinate either of those.
“Alright, before we take the first request, let’s start with basic training on what it means to be a mercenary.”
Meanwhile, at the massive immigration portal gate in Incheon.
Powerful magical energy surged from the portal gate, followed by a bright light as six people walked out from inside.
They walked along the long corridor. Ahead of them, people were lined up waiting for immigration checks.
“Welcome to Korea. I’ll check your passport.”
Time passed, and it was their turn. The blonde white woman at the front pulled a passport from her bag.
The name on the passport was ‘Charlotte,’ but it was a fake name.
Even the photo in the passport and her current face weren’t real. But the checking officer had no idea.
Thud.
A stamp was placed on the passport. The blonde woman said “Thank you” in fluent Korean and walked forward.
A man behind her spoke to her.
“Bert, it’s been a while since Korea, huh?”
“Yeah. About six years?”
“What now? Actual rest for a bit?”
“Yeah, official activities on break for the time being.”
The man behind her nodded.
Time passed, and the rest of the group finished their checks and walked over.
“Whew. Why so many questions? Thought we got caught forging the passport for a second.”
“Idiot. It’s because you always get unnecessarily tense. And don’t stutter during checks.”
“Got it, got it.”
“Heh. Anyway, vacation sounds nice.”
Bert turned around and looked over her group.
“Everyone here?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s go.”
They walked straight ahead. As they exited the immigration hall, a handsome blonde man, Jin, waved to them happily.
“Over here! Over here!”
At Jin’s call, they smirked and approached.
“Man, it’s been ages. Bert, you gained some weight?”
“Shut up.”
“But why only six? Where’re the others?”
Jin asked, looking over the group. Bert shrugged.
“Resting back home.”
“I see.”
“Jin! Long time no see! Oh, right. I’ll show you something cool I got from Rome. This artifact—”
The huge-built man started injecting mana into something from his bag to pull it out.
At that moment, a woman behind him smacked the back of his head.
Smack!
“Hey, you idiot! What are you doing with all these people around?”
“Right. Sorry.”
“Ugh, you blockhead.”
“Blockhead? Natasha, that’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?”
As a fight nearly broke out among them, Bert stopped them.
“All of you, cut it out.”
The fight stopped instantly. The huge man trembled as he spoke.
“I’ll let it slide this once.”
“Shut your stinky mouth.”
“Hey!”
“I said cut it out.”
Bert sighed and said to Jin.
“Where’s Lee Seojun?”
“Looks like he’s got some experience activity at the Wizard Academy today. Mercenary corps experience or something.”
“Mercenary experience? What’s that?”
Bert asked.
“Just some school job experience thing. They take requests like real mercenaries.”
“Hmm. They do all sorts of stuff.”
Bert muttered in wonder.
“But if they take requests like real mercenaries, could they take ours too?”
“Probably?”
“Really? Sounds interesting.”
Bert pondered for a moment before speaking.
“Let’s go see Lee Seojun first. Been a while since I saw his face.”
“Uwaaa……”
The lengthy two-hour basic training finally ended, followed by a 20-minute break.
Choi Seoyun, who had been dozing off at the long row of desks, face-planted onto the desk.
“Ugh, thought I was gonna die of boredom.”
Lee Seojun quietly chuckled at Choi Seoyun’s actions.
“But Senior, when does the request start?”
“Hmm, soon, I think.”
Lee Hyunju, sitting next to Lee Seojun, answered instead.
“Wonder what request we’ll get.”
“D or F-Rank requests are probably finding people or escorts.”
“Hmm. Still, hope it’s something worthwhile since we’re doing it.”
Choi Seoyun muttered to herself before suddenly turning to me.
“Oh, right. Senior.”
“Yeah?”
“Are you planning to do mercenary work later?”
Mercenary work?
“No.”
“Then why’d you pick the mercenary experience?”
I paused at the unexpected question.
What should I even say?
I just came along because I was worried about Lee Seojun.
“I want to do work involving people. Dungeon exploration and monster hunting mean dealing with monsters.”
Actually, this was Lee Seojun’s reason for choosing the mercenary experience. It seemed like a decent excuse, so I used the same one.
Lee Seojun, who had been eavesdropping from the side, gave me a strange look.
“Hmm…… I see.”
Choi Seoyun nodded as if convinced.
Then the door opened and Jeong Hajun entered.
“Alright, students. Get up. Your first request has come in.”
“Woo!”
The first request was finally starting.
We stood up and followed him.
“Since this is your first request, we’ve prepared something simple. Even an F-Rank mercenary could handle it alone, so the four of you together should have no problem.”
Following his guidance, we entered a room labeled ‘Request Room.’
Inside sat an elegant woman who looked to be in her forties. Jeong Hajun bowed politely.
“Hello. These are the Wizard Academy students who will be handling this request.”
We bowed to the client in unison.
“Hello.”
“Oh my, such handsome and pretty friends.”
The client looked back and forth between Lee Seojun, Choi Seoyun, and Lee Hyunju before turning to me.
“And a diligent-looking one too.”
We sat in the chairs opposite her.
Up close, she gave off a vibe similar to the client mentioned in the original story.
A woman in her forties, adorned head to toe in expensive-looking jewelry.