The Curtain Falls on the Midterms
When Kang Hyun stepped into the infirmary, Han Tae-ho had just woken up.
Staring blankly at the ceiling, the boy jolted upright the moment he saw him.
"P-Professor!"
"How's the jaw?"
That single, indifferent question snapped Han Tae-ho fully back to reality.
Ah. I lost.
Cleanly, too.
Without thinking, he touched his jaw. It throbbed, but it didn't seem broken. The ache in his chest hurt worse.
"I'm fine…"
He chewed his lip for a moment, then finally lowered his head.
"And… I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I lost."
It wasn't just his own defeat. Professor Kang Hyun would be dismissed, and because of that the seniors wouldn't get what they wanted either. That weighed on Han Tae-ho far more than the loss itself.
"You lost, so why are you apologizing?"
"Huh?"
"It's not over yet, is it?"
"…?"
Han Tae-ho lifted his head in a daze. Kang Hyun asked, unhurried:
"Don't tell me you're already thinking of giving up?"
He couldn't grasp what that meant. He had lost in the quarterfinals. He had collapsed right there in front of everyone. What more was there to do?
"I never told you to beat Do Jeong-hyeok. I told you to take a spot in the Top Five."
"…!"
No way.
Was he supposed to sweet-talk the full professors into giving him fifth place at least? Impossible. The professors didn't merely dislike the Five—they hated them.
But Kang Hyun said nothing more on the subject. He didn't care about dismissal in the slightest, and he had no intention of taking back the condition he had set. Make the Top Five and he would hand over the secret manual. Fail, and that was the end of it.
A well is dug by the one who is thirsty.
Kang Hyun had nothing to lose in this situation. So why had he come to the infirmary at all?
In truth, the ultimate reason he had come to the Academy was to find the materials for the Seven Star Array. And he had found them all here.
Baek Yu-yeon. Baek Yu-seol. Do Jeong-hyeok.
His original goal was already achieved. Yet Kang Hyun had made a private vow: saving the world mattered, but he would also live this one life of his properly. He would take responsibility as a professor as well.
"Why did you pull your power at the end?"
Kang Hyun's sudden question made Han Tae-ho's shoulders flinch. He hadn't told a soul. He hadn't even planned to bring it up—it would have sounded like an excuse. Yet the man in front of him had seen even that.
"…I thought he might die."
So he spoke the honest truth.
"If I'd driven it in all the way, I really thought he could die. It was a spar… that wouldn't have been right."
A brief silence settled. Kang Hyun looked down at him for a moment, then said flatly:
"Well done."
"What?"
"I said well done."
If Han Tae-ho had been blinded by the exam and failed to control his killing intent, Kang Hyun would have cast him out without mercy. A martial artist swallowed by killing intent was eventually swallowed by his own martial arts as well.
"If that had been a real sword instead of a wooden one, and a real fight instead of a spar, you would have won."
He meant it. No matter how much of a Vajra Body someone possessed, a hole through the throat still meant death.
"…Thank you for understanding."
Han Tae-ho's eyes reddened slightly. More than any other words, that comforted him.
"Doing well is doing well," Kang Hyun said over his shoulder as he turned away. "Don't wear that pitiful look like it's already over. I never taught you to give up that early."
"Pwahahaha!"
Professor Park Gwang-woo made no effort to hide the laughter bursting out of him.
"I knew it! How was a top-ranked entrant supposed to win with the Three Talents Sword Style of all things?"
"I feel so refreshed."
Professor Kim's mouth was stretched so wide the corners of his lips looked ready to reach his ears.
"Did you see that guy running off?"
"I did. He was scrambling like his life depended on it."
"Exactly. If you're a contract professor, act like one and stay in your place. Playing games with the cadets? Hwahaha!"
"How about samgyeopsal and soju after this?"
"Perfect! On a day this good we have to drink properly!"
Even Jin Myeong-hoon didn't rein in the rampaging professors this time. Barring some miracle, Kang Hyun's dismissal was locked in. Listening to their mockery with quiet satisfaction, he focused on the next match.
In the waiting room, the atmosphere among the Five was heavy.
"Haa."
Kwak Do-jin raked his fingers through his hair in irritation.
"What the hell do we do now?"
"…"
All the strength had drained out of them. Even if they won from here, what good would it do? The professor was getting kicked out either way.
Seo Hae-in sat slumped. Yoon Hyun-jong wordlessly stroked the cast on his left arm.
"First," Cha Yu-sik broke the silence, "everyone give it everything you've got."
"What about the professor?"
"Don't worry about that."
His own head was pounding, but he felt they still needed to show something.
"Focus on us. We have to show the other cadets. That the professor's way wasn't wrong."
"Ah."
Yoon Hyun-jong's eyes widened.
"Make the cadets want the professor!"
"Well… that could be one way."
If every cadet wanted Kang Hyun, how exactly were they supposed to fire him? Dismiss him and the backlash would be brutal.
Next match! Cadet Seo Hae-in!
"Seo Hae-in."
"Yes. I'll give it my all."
"You're going to win."
"Huh?"
"You're just going to win."
Cha Yu-sik had blocked her sword before. Even he, top of the 19th batch, had felt that jolt. There was no way the juniors could stop it.
"Th-thank you."
Seo Hae-in bowed and walked out onto the stage. Less than ten seconds later—
W-winner! Cadet Seo Hae-in!
The referee's shout rang out. The remaining three felt every hair on their bodies stand on end.
"Holy shit."
Kwak Do-jin spat the curse.
"No joke, our junior Seo."
A strange feeling rose in them. Every dawn they had climbed the rock wall together, shed sweat and blood together as fellow disciples under the same master—and out there she was shocking the world.
Have we gotten that strong too?
The word "we." Somewhere along the way, a sense of belonging had taken root. The tight, unbreakable belonging of being Professor Kang Hyun's students.
"Can't lose now."
Yoon Hyun-jong stood.
"I can't beat Hae-in with this arm, but I at least have to make the finals, right?"
"Yeah, Hyun-jong. Go show them."
Kwak Do-jin gave Yoon Hyun-jong's back a solid, ringing slap.
Some time later—
Winner! Yoon Hyun-jong!
With an injured arm and nothing but the Three Talents Sword Style, he stormed into the semifinals. That fighting spirit on a broken arm set the stands ablaze hotter than ever. By now, more cadets were cheering for the Five than against them.
"I won! Seniors!"
"Well done!"
Now it was the 19th batch's turn.
"Don't worry about us."
"We'll be right back."
The results went exactly as expected. Kwak Do-jin crushed his opponent with that signature vicious edge, and Cha Yu-sik claimed an easy victory using only the Three Talents Sword Style. With that, every member of the Five except Han Tae-ho had secured a place in the semifinals.
The next day.
The semifinals and finals that began first thing in the morning swept through like a storm.
21st Batch Semifinal! Cadet Do Jeong-hyeok versus Cadet Kim Jin-cheol!
The whistle blew—and a thunderous boom exploded.
KRAAAAAANG!
"Guhk!"
Do Jeong-hyeok's sweeping spear strike sent his opponent flying clean out of the sparring ground.
W-winner! Cadet Do Jeong-hyeok!
The stands began to murmur. How was this less intense than the quarterfinals? Had the real final already been previewed?
Next up—21st Batch Final!
The final stage was even more one-sided. The whistle had barely sounded when a thrown spear flew, and a fist buried itself in the startled opponent's gut.
"Uwek!"
He vomited on impact and claimed an overwhelming championship. The whole thing had taken eight seconds from the start of the match.
One of the professors swallowed dryly.
What happens now?
They needed to put Han Tae-ho at eighth… no, at least sixth…
Jeong-hyeok, if you keep going this crazy, how are we supposed to give him sixth?
The shock continued in the 20th batch matches. Seo Hae-in and Yoon Hyun-jong breezed through the semifinals and faced each other in the final. There, Yoon Hyun-jong threw in the white towel.
"Forfeiting?"
"Yes. I took too many painkillers earlier—my body isn't listening."
"…Understood."
The assistant instructor nodded. An anticlimactic result, but what could they do? The arm hurt. Reaching the final with that arm was a miracle in itself.
Champion! Cadet Seo Hae-in!
The eternal last-place finisher had become first in the 20th batch!
Professor Kim's face went paper-white. Now the problem wasn't whether Professor Kang Hyun got dismissed. The problem was his own eyes for failing to recognize a monster like that.
Of course, the cadets roared their support as Seo Hae-in left the stage. From now on, not a single cadet would call her the eternal last place.
And then—
The highlight of the midterms!
The 19th batch matches!
No surprises here either. Cha Yu-sik and Kwak Do-jin advanced side by side to the final, burning into every cadet's eyes that the Five were still standing strong.
Han Tae-ho's narrow loss hadn't been because he was weak!
Do Jeong-hyeok had simply been a monster!
Cha Yu-sik made that crystal clear.
19th Batch Final! Cadet Cha Yu-sik! Cadet Kwak Do-jin! Take the stage!
"Cha."
Kwak Do-jin rolled his shoulders in loose circles and called out a little awkwardly.
"Yes, senior."
"No holding back, right?"
"Of course not."
Cha Yu-sik had to win. The name of Cheonrang was on the line.
I can't go demand the guild master seat from my brother after graduating top of the class with a runner-up record. That'd be too embarrassing.
"I'm not like Hyun-jong—I hate forfeiting and throwing a match. I'm going to beat you with everything I've got."
"I never asked you to throw it."
Both cadets' eyes turned cold.
The whistle shrieked—and the two of them shot toward each other.
KAGAGAGAK!
At first both used the Three Talents Sword Style. But this was on a completely different level from the earlier spars. Every time the simple descending, blocking, and thrusting cuts collided, explosive impacts ripped through the sparring ground.
"Waaaaaah!"
"That's the Three Talents Sword Style?!"
"I'm training nothing but Three Talents starting tomorrow. Don't try to stop me."
Even without flashy secret techniques, the heavy impact of every exchange had the crowd roaring. When dozens of exchanges passed and Kwak Do-jin's wooden sword still hadn't broken, Cha Yu-sik thought:
That vicious edge of his, at least, I have to respect.
Putting the Mad Dog down in one go with only the Three Talents Sword Style was impossible. In that case—
Cha Yu-sik's footwork shifted strangely.
Sssrk.
The path of the wooden sword in his hand suddenly curved with lethal sharpness.
"What the—!"
Kwak Do-jin flinched, but the strike was already boring into a blind spot like the fangs of a starving wolf.
The Cheonrang Guild's Wolf Fang Sword Art!
Before he knew it, the tip of the wooden sword was resting against Kwak Do-jin's throat.
"Y-you cheap bastard."
"We only agreed to use the Three Talents Sword Style until we made the Top Five, didn't we?"
"Wolf my ass, you fox-faced bastard."
"A common misunderstanding. Wolves are actually more cunning than foxes."
"I yield! I lost!"
19th Batch Champion! Cadet Cha Yu-sik!
"WAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Standing ovations and cheers erupted from the stands, shaking the Academy sky. The midterms closed on an unprecedented miracle: the Five trained by Kang Hyun had nearly all claimed top-two spots in their years.
And from that moment—
the Academy Net exploded.