If You're Wronged, Get Stronger
Kang Hyun cast a quick glance around the training grounds and took stock of the situation at once.
First came the red handprint rising on Seo Hae-in's cheek.
Next, the middle-aged swordsmanship professor standing before her, seething through clenched teeth.
I've got a pretty good idea of what went down.
He'd been heading for the faculty building when he heard that sharp slap of flesh and come to check... only to find it was Seo Hae-in.
"Professor Kang Hyun? Perfect timing."
The middle-aged professor spoke as if things had just worked out in his favor.
"I was going to let it slide since she's a student in your class, but she's gone way too far. Do you know what that girl said? That I can't even reach your toes?"
He jabbed a finger at Seo Hae-in and raised his voice.
"During the evaluation for the Clear Wind Sword Style, she just starts swinging the Three Talents Sword Style out of nowhere. When I pointed it out, she insults her own instructor and talks back. Considering the academy's discipline, this isn't something we can just overlook, is it?"
The middle-aged professor lifted his chin high.
Kang Hyun listened to the long-winded speech in silence, then took a sip of the whiskey he was holding.
As the professor's eyebrows twitched at that leisurely attitude—
"Seo Hae-in."
Kang Hyun fixed his gaze on her.
"Is that true?"
Seo Hae-in's cheek burned, but she did not look away.
"It's true that I unconsciously used the Three Talents Sword Style during the practical."
"And?"
"That professor insulted you, calling you an incompetent fraud. So I simply said what I felt. And that's when he slapped my cheek."
"You said what you felt? So that means you did insult a professor, then?"
"Th-that's..."
As Seo Hae-in faltered in panic, Kang Hyun's eyes turned cold and heavy.
"And who told you to play my spokesperson?"
Seo Hae-in's eyes shook violently.
It felt like she'd been struck over the head with a hammer.
She had assumed he would naturally take her side. She had proven the power of the Three Talents Sword Style, and more than anything, she hadn't been able to stand by while her professor was insulted.
Yet instead of praise, he was blaming her in front of everyone.
Seo Hae-in bit down hard on her lower lip. Tears that hadn't come even when she'd been slapped now welled up at that single remark, reddening her eyes.
"Apologize."
In that instant, even the watching cadets held their breath.
Why is he doing this?
I thought he'd at least cover for her...
Even the drunkard professor tucks his tail in front of a full professor, huh?
Their thoughts were plain from their eyes alone.
Drip. Drip.
Unable to hold them back any longer, tears streamed down Seo Hae-in's cheeks. In a trembling voice, she bowed her head toward the middle-aged professor.
"...I'm sorry for being so insolent."
"Ahem."
The middle-aged professor cleared his throat and crossed his arms as Kang Hyun spoke to Seo Hae-in.
"That's enough. Go outside and pull yourself together."
At those words, Seo Hae-in spun around and bolted from the training grounds.
The middle-aged professor squared his shoulders arrogantly.
"At least you have some basic sense. Since you made her apologize, even if late, I'll bury this matter myself."
Kang Hyun did not answer. He merely glanced at the professor once, then walked out of the training grounds as if the man wasn't worth a reply—sipping his whiskey as he went.
"Y-you... you... you hooligan!"
The middle-aged professor's face flushed red and purple. Ignoring him while he was speaking? After making her apologize, shouldn't he, as an educator himself, bow his head as well? This couldn't just be let go.
"Class is over for today!"
Dismissing the cadets, the professor strode after Kang Hyun.
On the path behind the faculty building.
"You there, Professor Kang!"
The middle-aged professor finally blocked Kang Hyun's way.
"What do you think you're doing? Even if you did crawl in here as a contract hire, when a full professor is speaking, the least you can do is listen to the end out of basic courtesy—hiek?"
The words pouring out of him cut off as he swallowed a startled breath. The eyes of Kang Hyun, who had stopped dead in his tracks, looked like a demon's.
"Courtesy?"
Kang Hyun took one step closer to the middle-aged man.
"Don't get the wrong idea."
"What?"
"I made that kid bow her head because she was weak and still ran her mouth—not because you were right."
The weak get crushed. That was the law of Murim. And it was no different here in the modern world.
"Simply because Seo Hae-in is weaker than you."
If she had said something like that in a fit of temper back in Murim? She would have had no right to complain even if her head had been cut off.
"What nonsense is this! Are you saying Cadet Seo Hae-in was right?"
"Then which part of what she said was wrong?"
"What?"
"She said you can't even reach my toes. That's not wrong, is it? At the very least, I don't raise a hand because I can't control a single student."
"...!"
The middle-aged professor's face twisted hideously with shame and rage.
"This crazy bastard—what did you just say? Are you looking for a fight right now?"
Whoooosh!
A rough aura exploded from the middle-aged professor's body. As befitting an A-rank hunter, the surrounding leaves scattered wildly.
But—
Looking at Kang Hyun's indifferent expression, the middle-aged professor felt a sudden sense of wrongness. A normal hunter would have stepped back or drawn a weapon. What kind of confidence let this man stand there completely unguarded? Arrogance?
Just as the professor finally lost his reason and raised his hand—
"That hand."
Kuuung!
An overwhelming presence suddenly crushed down on the professor's entire body.
Huk?
The right hand he had lifted froze midair as if nailed in place. He wanted to lower it, but he couldn't. It was as if invisible shackles had locked it in the empty air.
"You've been awfully free with that hand from the start."
Shiiing!
Kang Hyun drew a real sword from his waist. Even so, the middle-aged man could not move a single step.
"P-Professor Kang... wait—"
Kang Hyun approached slowly and lightly rested the tip of the blade against the inside of the middle-aged professor's wrist—the same hand that had struck Seo Hae-in's cheek moments earlier.
A sharp sting.
Skin split, and a bead of red blood welled up.
"Huuuugh!"
The middle-aged professor let out a deflated groan. What the hell was this man? Was he really just a contract professor? How could his presence be this murderous?
"One warning."
Kang Hyun pressed the tip of the sword a little harder against the wrist. A thin stream of blood ran down the professor's forearm.
"Next time. If you wave that hand around for no good reason again—"
His voice carried no particular inflection, yet the killing intent inside it was heavy.
"—it will fall before your neck does. Understood?"
The middle-aged professor opened his mouth to protest, but no sound came out. The moment he spoke, it felt as if his head really would leave his shoulders.
So—
Nod. Nod.
Without realizing it, he bobbed his head up and down.
Shhhk, click!
Only then did Kang Hyun slide the sword back into its scabbard. As if he had never released any killing intent at all, he strolled away down the path with lazy steps, the whiskey bottle clinking softly in his hand.
Thud.
His legs giving out, the middle-aged professor sat down hard on the spot, staring blankly into space for a long while.
On a bench behind the old building.
Seo Hae-in sat there. She bit her lip hard, trying to hold back the tears, but they kept spilling out.
There was resentment, but the sense of betrayal was stronger.
I only found the courage because I hated hearing him insult the professor.
And it had been the first time she had ever done so.
It hurt. She could not understand why she had been forced to bow her head and apologize. It was also humiliating. In front of dozens of her classmates, she had talked back to a professor, gotten slapped, and then apologized on top of it. She felt so pathetic and small she could barely stand it.
In the end, it was just my own delusion.
She never should have stepped forward. She should have just endured it the way she always had. She had only gotten carried away because training had been going well lately—
"What a pathetic sight."
A lazy voice drifted from behind her.
Startled, she turned her head and saw Kang Hyun leaning against a tree in the shade behind the bench. Seo Hae-in hurriedly stood and wiped her tears with her sleeve.
"I-I'm sorry."
She apologized out of habit, the way she always had.
"Drink."
Suddenly Kang Hyun held out a bottle of whiskey.
"Pardon?"
"When your guts are twisted with injustice, washing it down with hard liquor is the best cure."
"I've never had a drink before..."
She was twenty-one and legally an adult, but when had there ever been time to drink? She had trained every day just to barely scrape into the academy. And as the bottom of the class, if she didn't keep working she would be expelled soon enough.
"Then don't."
"N-no. I'll try it once."
For some reason, a stubborn spark flared up inside her. She took the bottle and tipped it back like a trumpet.
A moment later—
"Kek, cough, hack! Ah, it's hot."
A sensation like a fireball forced a fit of coughing out of her. It was an incredibly strong liquor. Yet strangely, the knot that had been clogging her chest seemed to melt just a little.
"Seo Hae-in."
"...Yes."
"What you said earlier wasn't wrong."
At that single sentence, Seo Hae-in's head snapped up.
"Then why did you tell me to apologize..."
"Shut up and listen."
Seo Hae-in quickly closed her mouth.
"The world never takes the side of the one who's right. It takes the side of the one who's stronger."
Seo Hae-in's eyes trembled finely.
"If you're weak, even the right words get your mouth torn open. If you're strong, even pure nonsense gets applause. That's how the world works."
Kang Hyun took a swig of whiskey and smiled.
"Feel wronged? Then get stronger."
That single line sank deep into Seo Hae-in's chest. If you're wronged, get stronger. Such a simple phrase, yet it dug into her heart with strange force.
No one had ever said anything like that to her before.
You have no talent, so endure it.
You're last place, so just hang on.
That's just how it is, so keep your head down and live.
But this man was different. He was telling her that if she felt wronged, she should become strong enough to crush them herself.
"You bowed your head today not because you were wrong."
Kang Hyun slowly tilted the whiskey bottle.
"But because you're still weak."
"..."
"Being weak isn't a sin. But using weakness as an excuse to crawl on the ground your whole life—that's truly shameful."
Seo Hae-in could barely breathe as she swallowed those words. Somewhere deep in her chest was growing hot. The sorrow and humiliation that had been crushing her moments earlier were changing into something else.
Anger.
And stubborn pride.
"Still, I'll give you credit for not backing down and barking at that piece of trash today."
"...!"
"At the very least, it means your sword has grown some pride."
When a person felt their own skill improve, pride naturally attached itself to their blade.
"But next time, prove it with your sword, not your mouth."
Seo Hae-in understood exactly what Kang Hyun was saying. The midterm tournament coming up soon. Prove it there. Show that unreasonable professor and the classmates who had laughed at her.
"I will..."
Seo Hae-in roughly wiped the remaining tears with her sleeve and continued.
"I will make the top five."
At those words, Kang Hyun let out a short snort of laughter and turned his back.
"As if a crybaby could."
Fine. Go ahead and try.
If we're talking pure sword talent alone, you might just be the top of this entire academy.