All-Master (3)

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"What… is this?"

Chairman Lee Jin-sung pored over the report that had just landed on his desk, his face slack with disbelief.

Its contents were simple: the Academy wished to bring in an outside lecturer to conduct special instruction. However much support the Chairman had thrown into building the place, there was no reason he needed to sign off on who taught its classes.

Except.

If the person in question were one of Cheonseong's own.

If he were, in fact, the Chairman's own eldest son — well, that changed the story considerably.

"The Hunter Academy wants Tae-hyun as a lecturer…?"

He turned the words over again and again, chewing on them, but they refused to sit naturally. Lee Tae-hyun. A lecturer. Specially invited by Korea's premier hunter academy, no less.

"What on earth are those people plotting?"

Lee Jin-sung forced the complaint out through a mask of composure, but there was no hiding the corners of his mouth — or his shoulders — which had been twitching upward ever since he'd opened the report.

"Hah, honestly. Tae-hyun, a lecturer? They're pulling out every trick in the book to butter us up, aren't they!"

His reason denied it, but his imagination refused to stop: the image of his son standing on a podium, bathed in the adoration of students, pointing the way forward for the next generation.

Until just recently, even as a joke, an offer like this would have been unthinkable.

But the world's perception of Lee Tae-hyun had changed, unmistakably. From a worthless, lowly degenerate into a hunter who had proven himself and clawed his way through hardship. Frankly, an invitation like this arriving wasn't strange at all anymore.

Of course, thinking it and seeing it happen were two very different things.

"Ahem… I-I must admit I'm curious what kind of scheme they're running."

It felt like recognition. The effort Tae-hyun was putting into changing himself. Those desperate, brutal hours spent thrashing at the edge of death.

"It's obvious as day! But a man must learn to dance along now and then!"

"…Pardon, sir?"

"Secretary Kim. The Academy wants to take on my Tae-hyun as a professor. Isn't that absolutely absurd?"

"That… is the report I brought you, sir."

In the end, Lee Jin-sung couldn't hold it in any longer and burst into laughter.

"BWAHAHAHA! It's so ridiculous I can't help myself! BWAHAHAHAHA!"

…And that, in short, was the situation.

"Son of a bitch."

Ordinarily I'd have tossed an invitation like this straight in the trash. The Academy clearly knew it too, which was why they'd pulled the sneaky move of delivering the report to my father instead of me.

Sly bastards, every last one of them. But fine, setting that aside.

"Seriously though, what is this?"

I couldn't read their true motive in inviting me as a lecturer. If it were merely some scheme to get in my father's good graces, it would stink a little too much.

"Whoa! Hyung's going to be a lecturer?"

Shin Min-woo, fresh off his thirty-fifth 'training session' of the day, wiped his sweat and lit up like a festival lantern.

"Looks that way."

"Insane! Every outside lecturer they've ever brought in was a monster!"

Well, fair. The place was already stuffed to the rafters with the country's top-tier faculty. If they were inviting someone extra, that person would need at least the stature of their standing professors.

Which, at least currently, I was not.

"…I don't know what they're thinking, but it's not like I can wriggle out of it."

It was less than half a day, after all. I'd just chalk it up as filial duty, phone it in, and come home.

"Anyway, I'll need to head over to the Academy for a bit because of this."

"Then I'm coming too!"

"Ah Seo-ah, don't you have an evaluation match coming up? With every minute and second precious, why would you—"

I waved off the ones trying to tag along and left alone. In the car heading for the Academy, I stared out the window and ran a retrospective on Shin Min-woo's growth so far.

Truly monstrous.

In mere days, Shin Min-woo had grown to an absurd degree.

I'd been a little worried since the skills from the Mimic were all over the place.

But he'd put together a combination so seamless it made that worry look silly. And thanks to the 'training hall' Gong Gi-hyun had designed, he was accumulating in days the kind of experience other hunters needed years to build.

Though, of course, digesting all of it and making it his own was another matter entirely.

"……"

Still. There was one thing nagging at me.

How does he not complain even once?

Since the special training began, Shin Min-woo hadn't uttered a single gripe. Even Baek Seo-ha had once gotten worked up enough to spit out her frustrations — but Min-woo never showed his exhaustion, no matter how worn down he got.

Like a man possessed, he'd clench his teeth and bite down until his mouth filled with blood rather than admit it hurt.

Feels like he's got some other goal driving him.

I knew that look. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠That was the reaction of someone with a target they genuinely, desperately wanted to make suffer. The kind who would see their revenge through even if their body broke in the process.

…Shin Min-woo?

That pushover who grinned and agreed with everything anyone said?

No… thinking back on his personality from the All-Master days, it did track, actually…

Ugh, whatever.

If I'd known this was coming, I should've gathered more intel before the regression.

"Young Master, we've arrived."

Lost in thought, I looked up to find us already at the Academy's main gate.

"Ugh, what a pain."

Today was a 'light' meeting day before the lectures properly began — mostly a discussion of how things would run and what materials to prepare.

My plan was to delegate everything to the Academy side. I had nothing in particular to teach, after all.

I'll just read off their materials, hand out some self-study, and call it a day.

Sighing heavily, I made my way toward the headmaster's office. Just as I reached the door and raised my hand to knock—

"…Hm?"

Voices were creeping out from inside.

You drag me all the way here, then entertain other guests? You've got some nerve.

A conversation that was eating into my appointment time was fair game for eavesdropping. Focusing on my amplified hearing, I drank in every sound leaking from the headmaster's office.

"It worked. Lee Tae-hyun accepted the lecturer position!"

The headmaster's fawning voice groveled along the floor.

"Well done. And in exchange, no one withdraws from the Academy."

The one talking with him was—

Park Sung-chan?

Why was this bastard showing up here? And going by what I was hearing, it almost sounded like Park Sung-chan had arranged my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠invitation.

"May I ask… why you want to face Lee Tae-hyun so badly?"

"My reason? Hmm… my reason."

Park Sung-chan fell silent for a moment, as if mulling it over.

"Headmaster. Why do you swat the mosquito sitting on the back of your hand?"

"A m-mosquito? Well, because it's annoying and it keeps whining…"

"Exactly that. It's annoying. What other reason does one need?"

…Ha.

Look at this little shit.

"I-I see…. But this time, I'd ask that you not cripple anyone… if you turn Cheonseong's eldest son into an invalid, well, that would be rather…"

"Oh, Headmaster, please. When have I ever done such a thing on purpose? A few 'accidents' because I couldn't control my strength — that's all."

Accidents?

"……!"

In that instant, a hypothesis flashed through my mind like a struck match.

"Ah, welcome! Welcome, Hunter Tae-hyun!"

The moment Park Sung-chan left the headmaster's office, Tae-hyun arrived and ran straight into the headmaster.

"As I mentioned beforehand, we here at the Korean Hunter Academy would like to request a special lecture from you, Hunter Lee Tae-hyun…"

Throughout the headmaster's explanation, Tae-hyun held his silence. He would occasionally offer a curt reply, but never volunteered an opinion or gave anything away.

What's with this guy?

His demeanor was night and day compared to their last meeting. And this was an offer to serve as an external lecturer at the Hunter University-feeder academy, no less — such a lukewarm response?

He must not understand how the world works yet.

A rich family's brat, so he probably had no idea how much weight this position carried. If not for Park Sung-chan's threats of forced withdrawal, they never would have called him at all…

"In any case, here are the materials we've prepared. You can conduct your classes using these."

The headmaster slid a neatly bound textbook across the desk.

"Once the theory lessons are finished, we'll move on to simple mock-combat training with representative students from each class—"

"Hilarious."

"…Pardon? What do you—"

Tae-hyun's mouth, shut tight the entire meeting, finally opened. At the same time, he snatched the textbook from the headmaster's outstretched hands and began riffling through the pages, skimming the contents.

"Dressed up all nicely, but in the end it's a pile of useless nothing, isn't it?"

The course content laid out in the textbook was exactly what you'd expect. The proper mindset for a hunter. Handy tips for practical gate dives.

Maybe useful to someone. But did the students enrolled at a first-rate hunter academy really not know this stuff already?

"Teaching this garbage could actually stain my name. Why on earth would I follow it? This is my class, for the record."

"Ah… w-well, Hunter, you don't yet have much experience with pedagogy, so we were simply offering our assistance…"

"Save it. If the job is teaching this trash, I'm not taking it."

Tae-hyun crossed his arms and grinned, sharp as a blade.

"My class, my rules. Am I understood?"

Ring—

"…Hnngh?"

Lee Si-hyun, buried neck-deep in work, checked the alarm that had chosen this of all moments to go off.

The moment he saw the sender's name, his face crumpled. Ordinarily he'd have ignored it outright, but—

"……"

Somehow, this once, his fingers moved on their own.

"Ghk!"

This man truly had a gift — a single sentence out of him could shave ten years off your life.

Ring—

At Tae-hyun's follow-up request, Lee Si-hyun's head tilted slowly to one side.

"What exactly is he planning to do with this…?"

A clear morning without a single cloud. Ordinarily, I'd be supervising Shin Min-woo's training, or trading guild business with Baek Seo-ha around now.

"Good to see you all."

I stood before a sea of students, striking a bit of a pose.

Because today—

It's my lecture day.

I'd lived a lifetime and a half, and here I was, lecturing at an academy. Life really does love keeping you guessing.

"I'll skip the introductions, since you all know exactly who I am."

"So annoying… and yet I can't actually argue with that."

"Tae-hyun's coming as a lecturer. Is this real life?"

"Well, he does seem like he'd have something worth learning… I've watched every single one of his live streams. He's insanely strong."

"He even uses the Nameless Spear Art. I hope he teaches us that."

Little snippets of chatter drifted between the students. For the record:

'My lectures will make no distinction between classes. Class emblems and outer coats are strictly prohibited.'

Everyone gathered here today had stripped away the markings of their class. The blue coat that stood for B-Class. The red coat that stood for A-Class. Along with the name tags listing each student's name and class affiliation.

Every dividing line of class had been erased, leaving only one shared label: student.

'Except for exactly three.'

Three shameless individuals, heads held high in the black coats that marked S-Class.

Ah Seo-ah. Yoo Ji-an. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠And Park Sung-chan.

"Did you students over there miss the advance notice?"

"We heard it."

One of them rose — a girl who looked, at a glance, like precious pedigree given legs.

"We simply declined to comply."

"Why?"

"S-Class is not merely a categorization by potential grade. We are the exemplars of the other classes, and the future faces of this Academy. Frankly, blending in among students of lesser classes would be far more unbecoming of—"

"Okay, got it."

It promised to drag on forever, so I cut her off right there. Instead, I fiddled with the small terminal in my hand.

"Everyone over there gets ten penalty points."

"Excuse me? What… there's no way an external lecturer holds the authority to assign disciplinary point—"

Beep!

At that moment, alarms lit up the three students' smartphones. When Yoo Ji-an checked the notification, sheer disbelief flooded her face. The message probably read something like this:

"What the hell?! Who even are you, handing out penalties to us?!"

Ah Seo-ah, who'd been smirking obnoxiously off to the side, shrieked at the top of her lungs.

"Raising your voice in the middle of my class? Five more points for you."

"GYAAAAAAAHH!"

Rage curdled into terror in an instant. Within the Hunter Academy, merit and penalty points carried enormous weight.

They don't just decide whether you get disciplined — they feed directly into your grades themselves.

To those S-Class brats planning to graduate with a flawless record, a single recorded penalty would be nothing short of a stain on their honor.

'I don't need merit points — just give me the authority to assign penalties. And if any student feels a penalty was unfairly given, they're welcome to file a formal protest.'

"S-Class or otherwise, in my eyes you're all just students. Take off those coats, or I'll add ten penalty points every minute."

"Ugh……"

"……"

The two of them flushed crimson and glared at me like they wanted me dead. If I were an ordinary professor, I never would have dared think about penalizing them.

"Sixty… fifty-nine…"

I couldn't have cared less.