Act Up Just Enough, Then Get Lost
Choi Daeun, Min Sua, and Lee Taehoon all arrived at the test site together.
Choi Daeun asked with a worried expression, "Th-then... do you think I'll really be able to do well...?"
Now that the pressure of the test, which had been put off for a while, was closing in on her again, anxiety began to creep in. Lee Taehoon spoke to the uneasy girl.
"That depends on how hard you work. The result changes with that."
"That may be true, but..."
"You worry too much. Even someone like me, who was basically a walking corpse, got an S-grade. So why wouldn't you be able to do it?"
Lee Taehoon said this while flopping his own skin-and-bones arm around. Choi Daeun, who had been tense, let out a snort of laughter at his ridiculous behavior.
"Looks like you’re relaxing a little now. Sorry about this morning. I really had something awful happen, so I cursed in the moment. It wasn’t aimed at you, so I hope you won’t take it personally."
Min Sua, who had been listening from the side, asked, "Are you two lovers or something? That’s surprising. I didn’t think you were interested in women at all. Ah... so that’s why you were looking at Choi Daeun when she was collapsed just now..."
At Min Sua’s words, Choi Daeun waved her hands in a panic and answered, "L-lovers? Absolutely not! We only met this morning! He just picked up my wallet because I dropped it!"
Lee Taehoon nodded after hearing that.
"Choi Daeun’s right. We met for the first time this morning."
Suddenly, the image of Choi Daeun from the past flickered through Lee Taehoon’s mind. He could never forget the dark, tormented expression on her face as she dug through a monster’s innards, sobbing and screaming apologies while trying to find the arm that had been cut off saving him. He could feel her frustration and despair as clearly as if it were his own. She had saved his life, but in doing so, Lee Taehoon had lost his arm, and the future he had dreamed of as a swordsman had been utterly ruined. Maybe it was guilt. She had cried for a long time after that.
Useless memories.
The reason he had saved her even at the cost of losing an arm. Choi Daeun—she didn’t know this, but Lee Taehoon had known who she was long before the academy entrance ceremony. He had watched her from the other side of a wall while she dashed around every morning delivering milk and newspapers. Back then, he had thought she was working herself to the bone. Watching her had also reminded him of his little sibling—the one who had once tried to find part-time work at such a young age just to help the family, and made him even sadder because that sibling was already dead.
...Thinking about it now won’t change anything.
He had regressed, but his sibling was already gone. Nothing was left. The only thing this damned body could still do was revenge. He would find the Creator, the one who commanded the monsters, and kill him. But before that—
"Choi Daeun, why do you want to enter the academy? Depending on your answer, I might be able to help you."
He had been curious about that even before she died. And after she was gone, there had been no chance to ask. She was always in view from the window, rising before dawn for part-time work, then running out with a sword strapped to her back to train. No, it was only natural that he saw her so often. Choi Daeun always moved at the same time, every day.
"H-help me...?"
Choi Daeun thought for a moment, then, as if she had made up her mind, spoke honestly. "The reason I want to enter the academy is... because I don’t want my younger siblings to live the way I do."
"Your siblings?"
"Yes... I have one younger brother and one younger sister at home. But our family isn’t exactly well-off, so I always feel like they’re holding back on everything they want to do..."
"If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to just work more part-time jobs?"
Choi Daeun shook her head and smiled bleakly. "Even if I worked all day and saved up money, it still wouldn’t be enough. With that kind of money, I can’t give my siblings everything they want to eat or do. They’re only going to get older, too, and if they want to go to academy classes later on, then part-time income won’t be nearly enough. But Flote Academy gives scholarships just for entering with a certain level of performance, and on top of that, it pays a lot of additional allowances and support. If you’re selected as an outstanding student, they even help your family to a degree... Looking at it long-term, I thought it was a place where I could grow, earn far more than I would from part-time work, and then, after graduating, work as a hunter killing monsters. In terms of both the future and income, I figured there was nowhere better."
"I see."
It might have been natural to ask whether her parents couldn’t shoulder the responsibility of raising her siblings, but Lee Taehoon didn’t. If she was essentially raising them alone, then either her parents weren’t there, or they might as well not have been. It had to be one of the two.
"Min Sua. Why did you come to the academy?"
"To learn swordsmanship. That is all."
It was a curt answer. The reason he had asked that unnecessary question was because, before the regression, he had been curious in a human way about what kind of lives the two people who had died in the explosion incident had wanted to live.
Before the regression, after Choi Daeun died, what had become of her siblings? What had Min Sua been thinking before she died?
I’ve gone sentimental like an idiot. I should be worrying about myself.
Maybe because his body had grown younger? Or maybe because he himself had hit his limit and died so futilely that he sympathized with their misfortune? His mind was full of useless thoughts, and he shook them off.
"Well, whatever the case, Choi Daeun, you’ve got no reason to refuse club recruitment now, do you? If you join a club, you get subsidies, and if Min Sua’s with you, the academy will pay even more attention. I actually felt bad earlier because it seemed like I was dragging you here by force, but you do want to join, right? If not, you can just say no."
Choi Daeun quietly nodded.
"I want to join. Honestly, I’d already been worrying about how I was supposed to find a club. But I couldn’t really react properly because I felt like I was getting ahead of myself, hoping for something before I’d even been accepted..."
"Hmm..."
Lee Taehoon looked at Choi Daeun and said, "What grades do you need to make the cutoff in the qualification exams?"
"I need a B-grade in both the first-stage and second-stage qualification exams. At the very least..."
"Yeah, hearing it like that, the cutoff really is high."
Lee Taehoon had passed the cutoff by earning an S-grade in the second-stage qualification exam, but if it hadn’t been for that exceptional result, he would have failed as well. Choi Daeun didn’t seem especially lacking in physical ability, yet she still had to score at least B in each stage just to be in the safe zone for passing. It was surprisingly high. He also couldn’t help thinking that if it had been his former self, he would never have passed.
"Don’t worry about anything else. Once the test starts, just focus on me. Listen properly to what I say and do what I tell you. If you do that, you’ll be able to get B-grade in both stages easily enough."
As Lee Taehoon spoke, Song Minwoo, who had been watching from afar, burst out laughing and came over.
"Puhaha! What the hell is this bastard talking about? Did you hear him, guys? 'Just focus on me'? Jesus, that’s hilarious. Does he think he’s something special? He got lucky and took down a Core Entity in the qualification exam, then got an S in the second-stage qualification exam because he happened to have some kind of pain disorder."
At once, the people around them started murmuring.
- What? He had a pain disorder? I thought he just powered through it with sheer will...
- I thought he was amazing, but it wasn’t that after all?
- Wow, I’m jealous... if he can’t feel pain, then the second-stage qualification exam was basically free for him.
A disorder? There was no such thing. Of course Song Minwoo knew that. Logically, it didn’t even make sense. During the exam, I had nearly blacked out several times from horrific pain, and at the end, I had even fainted. But what mattered to the people here wasn’t that.
"And hey, I dug around the records a little, and this bastard got in through the basic welfare track, didn't he?"
At that, the people nearby began to buzz again. This time, too, he had obviously just looked at my appearance and blurted out whatever nonsense came to mind, but the words he’d thrown out were true. I had been broke at the time, so I had gotten lucky and secured qualification through the basic assistance track.
While I glared silently at him, Song Minwoo kept talking, energized by his own voice. "Look at this guy. He’s some penniless bum, dressed like a beggar and so underfed his whole body’s skin and bones. And this kind of bastard got lucky enough to take down a Core Entity, then got an A in the first stage and an S in the second because his body’s fucked? Does that make any sense? Isn’t that unfair? Yet you’re taking advice from some loser like this? You’d be better off asking me. I know swordsmanship inside and out, and I’ve been on the elite track since I was a kid."
Watching Song Minwoo’s exaggerated reactions, I could tell what sort of person he was. This bastard was feeling inferior to me right now. There are many ways to deal with inferiority. When someone you can’t reach climbs to a place above you, some people strive to surpass them, while others choose the easy route and try to drag them down. Song Minwoo had chosen the latter.
He was venting the humiliation and shame of being overwhelmed by someone he’d dismissed as talentless—Lee Taehoon—in both the first and second exams like this. There was no need to humor a guy like that. Lee Taehoon ignored him and spoke to Choi Daeun instead.
"Anyway, once you go in, don’t get nervous and just follow what I say. It’s a test where advice between cadets isn’t forbidden."
"Huh?"
Apparently deciding that he’d been ignored, Song Minwoo stomped forward and spoke to Choi Daeun.
"Don’t listen to that trash over there. Look at his body—does that look like an adult’s body to you? It should be someone like me, right? Besides, you’re pretty, so if you listen to me, I’ll make sure you can live easy. You’ve got a decent body and a decent face, too. Right up my alley."
In an instant, Choi Daeun’s face twisted.
"Disgusting."
"What?"
He moved in threateningly and shouted, "What did you just say, you fucking bitch? Say that again. What? What the hell did you say? I was trying to help you because you’ve got a nice face, you fucking slut!"
- Whack!
The moment Song Minwoo raised his hand to strike Choi Daeun, Lee Taehoon grabbed his wrist and said coldly, "Act up just enough, then get lost. Before I kill you."
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