Cute Revenge (1)
People each value different things.
For me, it was survival.
Getting onto Kim Hyunsung’s bus had always been my top priority, and I clawed my way forward just to stay alive with no talent to speak of. I had even risked my life to go find Cha Heera and throw the dice, and I’d spent all day turning my brain inside out trying to figure out how to get rid of some insane old bastard who was impossible to deal with.
In other words, I had spent the entire day thinking about how to climb higher.
I knew better than to look down on other people, and I also understood that everyone had their own values, but to be honest, Yoo Ahyoung’s worries didn’t strike a chord with me all that much.
I get it, but...
Of course, I could understand it.
She was still in her early twenties. In a place crawling with monsters where life and death hung in the balance, she probably needed somewhere to put her heart. There was definitely value in that.
For one thing, simply having a promise like a relationship went a long way toward giving both people emotional stability.
I couldn’t know everything she was thinking, but I guessed the reason she’d been able to endure the Tutorial Dungeon in the first place was that she had someone she could rely on mentally.
In my case, I guess I could map that onto Kim Hyunsung.
Obviously, I remembered feeling an enormous sense of emotional and physical peace in the warm embrace of a regressor too.
It might be a little different from Yoo Ahyoung’s situation, but when I thought about how desperately I’d struggled not to let go of Kim Hyunsung...
...okay, I get it now.
Even the little experiment I was about to run with her camera was pretty amusing if you thought about it.
If there were a third party who realized Kim Hyunsung was a regressor and that third party tried to steal him away from me, it was absolutely the kind of situation that could make your eyes roll back.
When I glanced sideways, Yoo Ahyoung came into view, looking oddly tense.
“Are you really sure this is okay?”
“Yes. It’s fine. I do feel a little bad for Oppa, but... after listening to what Deokgu Oppa said, there were a few things I couldn’t stop worrying about. I want to check them with my own eyes.”
“From a trainee’s perspective, you might be a little shocked...”
“I can handle it. More importantly, is it really invisible now? And can other people not hear us talking either?”
“Yes. I’m certain. It wouldn’t work on those sensitive to mana or warriors with sharp senses, of course, but this is the training ground. At most, the only people who could see or hear us would be the instructors. The raid party wouldn’t be able to see us either.”
“Amazing. Magic really is something. It can even make bodies transparent. Or should I say Instructor Jung Hayan is the amazing one here?”
“I doubt anyone else could handle magic this perfectly.”
If you asked for the type of magic Jung Hayan excelled at besides attack spells, naturally it would be this kind of stalking magic.
Jung Hayan was an outright specialist when it came to things like tracking locations, invisibility, and sleep magic.
It was no wonder people in the Mage Guild had started talking about needing to establish a Jung Hayan school.
She’s probably developed magic I don’t even know about.
It was only a hypothesis, but when I considered the fact that she was probably checking my heartbeat too, it didn’t sound impossible at all.
“Anyway, I think it’s best we wait a little longer. Let’s kill time with some small talk.”
“Will... will they come?”
“Trainee Yoo Ahyoung, you should be hoping that person doesn’t come.”
The fact that they were coming to an empty lecture hall after class was already enough to make them fail in my book.
“I see...”
Just as she slowly nodded and I was about to head for a corner seat, the classroom door began to creak open.
Unlike my expectation that it would be one of the experimental boy or girl, four women appeared instead.
The faces of three of them seemed strangely familiar, and when I saw the doll being dragged between them, I immediately realized who the women were.
Those are Han Sora’s maids.
Of course, by now they were the ones taking the lead in bullying Han Sora.
And the identity of the woman they had in their grasp was obvious.
Han Sora, with bandages wrapped around her arms and legs, wearing an eye patch, and limping on one leg.
Holy crap...
This wasn’t exactly what I’d come here to see with invisibility magic, but this sudden forced event made me worry all the same.
Yoo Ahyoung can’t find out about this...
Publicly, the story was that Han Sora had carelessly entered Jung Hayan’s magic laboratory and gotten hurt in an accident.
Of course, they could have announced that she’d been punished for trying to do something to that side, but looking at Han Sora’s condition, there was no way they could announce it like that.
“We made her a vegetable in a fit of rage because she was babbling about some sexual harassment nonsense!”
That would clearly be better than announcing the latter version.
On the surface, innocent Jung Hayan was stripped of her instructor’s license for negligently managing the magic laboratory.
Han Sora, the thief who tried to steal Jung Hayan’s magic, was spared punishment for trespassing into Jung Hayan’s laboratory and received a modest consolation payment, while Blue Guild magnanimously showed the trainees just how wide its mercy could be.
There was still a little time left, so whether they came in here or not didn’t really matter, but if those maids started going on about some sexual harassment incident and Yoo Ahyoung heard it, things could get complicated very quickly.
They took a hundred gold each, so they’ll probably keep their mouths shut.
I figured the maids would have their own thoughts after seeing Han Sora, so they’d probably stay quiet, but since something could always happen, I wasn’t exactly thrilled about them and Han Sora having their little event in this place.
Before I could even gather my thoughts properly, the forced event began.
They shoved Han Sora, who had been dragged in here, and she staggered before crashing into the corner at the far end of the classroom.
And of course, the jeering voices of the maids reached my ears.
“Serves you right. You acted like a queen, and now look at you, you’re completely disabled, Ms. Han Sora. Pfft.”
“I knew it the moment you started strutting around like that. Instructor Lee Kiyoung was exactly right. The ones who act the biggest always get screwed the fastest.”
“......”
“Look at that face. Look at it.”
“Go on, loosen up your face, you one-eyed bitch.”
“Why, what? Don’t tell me you don’t like us? You can’t possibly be feeling good right now. Your little maids, who used to lick your boots, are looking down on you now. That’s gotta sting, right? You must have cursed us out in your head a hundred times. But, Ms. Sora, isn’t it about time you learned your place?”
“......”
Watching the maids actively beating Han Sora made me a little flustered.
I knew she was being bullied, sure, but this seemed a bit excessive.
“Hey, hey. Don’t hit her too hard.”
“It’s fine. It won’t show. Just focus on where the bandages are.”
“No, but what if she dies? Her body’s already in bad shape. She can barely walk...”
“Don’t worry. The bitches who are really tough have the stamina to take a beating.”
I had to admit, that was kind of a quote.
“Not even a single scream. She really is tough. Hey, you there, Sora unni. Say something. Huh? Don’t you think it makes us even angrier that you’re acting like this?”
“......”
“Hey. Get that thing.”
“Ah... got it.”
With a little more thought, I could see why they were treating Han Sora this way.
Jealousy, that’s all.
Coincidentally, all four of them were students taking alchemy classes.
In Han Sora’s case, she had no choice but to choose alchemy after her mana circuits were shattered, whereas the other three had been put in a position where they had no choice but to complete the alchemy course.
The interesting part was that among them, the person with the best grades was Han Sora herself.
She already had a pretty sharp mind to begin with, so her grasp of things was quick, and when I saw how desperately she focused, it made perfect sense.
She really is persistent.
I wouldn’t call it talent, but she was obviously fighting with everything she had.
Those maids probably found that unbearable.
They didn’t want to see a queen they thought was completely finished quietly rising back up.
Yoo Ahyoung didn’t seem able to just stand by and ignore this either, because she spoke to me, but I just shook my head briefly.
“Shouldn’t we stop them, Instructor Lee Kiyoung?”
“No. Let’s watch for now. Of course, the three trainees will be disciplined later, and I’ll deal with Han Sora separately after this. It won’t do us any good to let it be known that we were hiding here with invisibility magic.”
“Ah!”
“I also have something I want to confirm personally...”
“Pardon? What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
In any case, Han Sora and the maids couldn’t hear us.
I couldn’t really understand why I was even whispering, but for now I had no choice but to focus on the scene unfolding in front of me.
One of the maids walked forward with a bag in hand, and I could see the sneer on her face.
“Guess what this is?”
“......”
“Doesn’t it look familiar, Sora unni?”
“G-give it back.”
“Our Sora unni finally opened her little mouth, huh? Pfft. After acting so high and mighty, I guess this has become precious to you now?”
Wow... those are some real demons.
What one of the maids had pulled out was none other than a personal alchemy kit. It was a cheap practice kit distributed to students for training purposes.
“Give it back!”
Han Sora, who had been resisting up to then, pushed herself upright and lunged forward with a limp, but there was no way she could wrest it away from people who had healthy legs and hands.
Watching her being toyed with actually made my chest ache a little.
“G-give... it baack!”
“Your imitation’s hilarious! Puhahahat!”
“I told you to give it back!”
“You told us to give it baaaack? Sorry, we’re not giving it back. Hey, catch!”
“Okay!”
They tossed the bag with the alchemy kit around like they were teasing a little kid, and it was a pathetic sight.
When one of them dropped the personal alchemy kit, Han Sora limped over and hugged it tightly to her chest.
Of course, the maids saw that and started hunting her down like she was vermin.
Even so, the fact that she refused to let go of the bag was rather gutsy.
“Our Sora unni really is stubborn. Hey, let’s break it.”
“Huh? Really? But that’s school equipment for practice.”
“So what? She can deal with it herself. Whether she gets it back or not is her own problem, not ours. It’ll just count as something she broke because she was careless.”
“Don’t...”
“Don’t what? Sora unni, are you asking us not to break this? Sorry, but no. You used to call yourself a production-class nobody, and now you’re clutching this like it’s some priceless treasure. Hey, grab her!”
“I said don’t do it. I’m sorry. I was wrong.”
“Too late for apologies, Sora unni. Pfft.”
I’d bet my life those three had the makings of excellent villains in the future.
I’d already thought I was doing some pretty trashy things myself, but after watching them, I almost felt inspired to learn from them.
It was so absurd I nearly laughed.
The garbage tri-sisters were trying their best to stomp on the bag, while Han Sora hugged it desperately, protecting what was inside.
It looked almost like Park Deokgu trying to shield me.
But...
There’s no way she can stop them.
In the end, two of them grabbed Han Sora directly while the remaining one started enthusiastically stomping on the alchemy kit.
Because it was cheap, I could hear the brittle cracking sounds even though the kit was still inside the bag.
“Stop it! I told you to stop! You guys!”
“Sorry, we don’t wanna. We don’t wanna, pfft...”
“I said I was sorry, so stop it!”
“We don’t wanna. Hey, Sora unni’s crying.”
“Hngh... stop...”
Facing the trashiness of the garbage tri-sisters head-on, I found myself clicking my tongue without meaning to.
It had been a long time since I’d looked at someone and truly thought they were trash.
When I saw Han Sora clutching the broken bag and sobbing in broken gasps, it seemed the maids finally lost their enthusiasm too.
In the end, I could see them turning away.
“You should’ve acted like this from the beginning, Sora. Now do you finally know your place? Try not to act so damn high and mighty. Got it? Pretending to work hard just to get sympathy from people—that shit’s disgusting.... Come on, girls, let’s go.”
“Ah. Is it already that late? Sora unni, we’ll be going now.”
“Ptui! Get lost to Asgard, you one-eyed Odin bitch!”
“Puhahahaha, that’s hilarious. Odin, she said!”
Needless to say, Han Sora didn’t follow them. When she checked inside the bag and then pressed her face into the floor and wailed her heart out, I felt a faint, unpleasant twist in my chest for some reason.
“Huuuuuu...”
It was right then that the classroom door opened again.
Substitution time, huh.
Yoo Ahyoung, who had been watching Han Sora with a bitter expression, widened her eyes.
The first act—the garbage tri-sisters—had left, and now the second piece of trash had taken the stage.