Choi Daeun, Her Perspective
Today was the day of Flote Academy’s entrance exam, and Choi Daeun headed there with her nerves tied in knots.
Don’t get nervous... Just stay calm and do your best...
She didn’t have connections, and she certainly wasn’t from a wealthy family. That didn’t mean she was destitute, either, but taking on the entrance exam for the country’s most prestigious academy was still a serious financial burden. Flote Academy’s application fee alone was a staggering 1.5 million won each time.
I guess it’s instant noodles for the rest of the month...
She’d scraped together the fee with the money she had saved from various part-time jobs. The reason she had worked so hard to save up and get into this place was simple: money. Flote Academy awarded scholarships to anyone who entered with a score above a certain threshold, and on top of that, students could earn additional stipends through club activities and outside competitions whenever they achieved results. It was money that couldn’t even be compared to ordinary part-time work, money she could earn while studying.
Pull yourself together, Choi Daeun... Come on... If I work hard, my younger siblings can live well.
She had two younger siblings. The problem was that their father and mother had divorced and were living separately. Even worse, both of them treated their children like burdens.
Choi Daeun and her siblings spent some time at their mother’s place, then some time at their father’s. The adults had promised to divide their duty of raising them in half, and so even in the turbulent years of adolescence, when changing environments should have been hard to bear, Daeun never really rebelled or complained.
But the real problem was her siblings.
“Unni... I want ice cream.”
“Noona... I want to live where Dad is... all my friends are there.”
With an environment that kept changing and a family that never had much to spare, the two children had to give up more than they should have. Daeun had given up most things herself, and because of that, she wanted at least her only siblings to live comfortably. That was why she had come all the way here and spent so much money to take Flote Academy’s entrance exam.
Still... I think I might have some talent for swordsmanship...
There were many kinds of Awakened people in the world. Some used magic, while others controlled bizarre creatures. It was a strange phenomenon that had appeared after monsters had begun to emerge in Korea, and of course there were also rare cases in which a person’s physical abilities were enhanced.
In other words, Choi Daeun was an Awakened, and her aptitude was for swordsmanship. If she used her abilities to achieve excellent results at Flote Academy, she could make sure her siblings lived comfortably. If she kept up with outside activities as well, she might even be able to rent a small room and live happily with her siblings, without having to stay in the homes of a mother and father who both found them troublesome.
- Squelch-!
“Huh?”
As she walked along, lost in thought, someone in front of her dropped a wallet. Because it had rained the day before, the wallet fell straight into a puddle on the ground.
Oh no...
Looking around, she saw a man walking ahead of her. There was no doubt the wallet belonged to him. Choi Daeun hurriedly picked it up. Dirty water dripped from it in thick drops. Inside, she could see two ten-thousand-won bills.
...With this, I could buy my siblings some meat...
The owner probably didn’t even know he’d lost his wallet. And with this money, she could buy her siblings, who had been left hungry because of their neglectful parents, all kinds of food they’d been craving. Hadn’t she been so busy covering the academy fee lately that she hadn’t had time to look after them properly? It was a way to wash away some of the guilt she’d been carrying.
No...
For a moment, she hesitated—but then she chastised herself and ran forward.
I almost did something stupid. If I try to do something for my siblings through a bad act, it would mean nothing. I need to be able to hold my head up. The reason I want to get into the academy is so I can protect my siblings with my own strength.
Thinking that, Choi Daeun called out to the man ahead of her.
“Excuse me!”
But after staring blankly for a moment, he suddenly turned around and barked, “Fuck!”
“Eep...!”
She flinched for no reason. Had he noticed that she’d opened the wallet? Or did he think she’d tried to steal it? Or was it because the wallet had gotten dirty? She suddenly felt guilty for some reason and wanted to leave right that instant.
“I-I’m sorry! You dropped this!”
She shoved the wallet at him in a hurry, then practically ran off toward the academy.
Did he realize I looked inside the wallet...?
Even after arriving at the academy, the thought kept bothering her. What other reason could he have had for cursing at her so suddenly?
If he saw me rummaging through it to see whether there was any cash inside, I guess he’d be angry...
Just when she’d been thinking about her siblings and briefly entertained a pointless temptation, she felt like she’d been punished for it. Her mood soured. Wouldn’t that man now think of her as a thief? She decided she should avoid him as much as possible.
I want to clear up the misunderstanding... but even if I explain, he won’t believe me...
With that in mind, she quietly prepared for the exam.
Eek...!
And then, to her dismay, the same man from before came walking toward her.
“Ah...!”
When Choi Daeun took a step back, Lee Taehoon instead strode toward her even faster.
“Uh, my name is Lee Taehoon. I was too flustered earlier to even thank you properly. Thank you for picking up my wallet. And I’d like to apologize for what happened earlier. Something’s been bothering me lately, so I overreacted.”
It was true that she’d been tempted by his money. He must have noticed, which was why he’d yelled at her out of nowhere. But instead of that, he bowed his head and apologized to her. The guilt in her chest deepened all the more.
“Ah... It’s okay. I-I’m busy getting ready for the entrance exam, so I should get going...”
Had he seen her trying to steal from him, but was forgiving her anyway? Or was there some other motive behind this? She couldn’t understand him. She was also unreasonably uneasy. If, before she even entered Flote Academy, he went around telling people about it, she’d be branded a thief.
What am I supposed to do...?
Her worries only grew heavier.
Time passed, and Choi Daeun kept turning her head this way and that, looking for Lee Taehoon.
The man was in the middle of the physical ability assessment. She’d tried not to look, but her eyes kept drifting over. After what had happened that morning, of course she couldn’t help it. And his apology from a little while ago... she couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d meant by it, either.
“Huff... huff...”
“Lee Taehoon. Your physical ability test results are F across all categories.”
“Guhh...”
He had worked so hard that even after the test was over, he was still gagging and suffering. It made her feel sorry for him. Why was he going that far?
Then, all at once, her younger siblings came to mind.
Could it be... that man too...
She remembered the shabby wallet, with nothing in it but two ten-thousand-won bills and no card to speak of. Maybe he had his own urgent circumstances, and needed money desperately. If he was trying that hard, if he was working that relentlessly, then he must have some reason. His shabby clothes and shoes. The turtleneck shirt stretched out as though he’d worn it for years. Not even proper accessories or protective gear.
He came here through the basic livelihood track...
Flote Academy allowed anyone officially registered by the government as a basic welfare recipient to take the entrance exam for free. Of course, even that was only granted to a certain percentage through a lottery, but still—it was a privilege.
Her guilt only deepened. He was probably struggling too, and yet she, who was in a better position, had even considered coveting what might have been his entire fortune.
This feels awful...
She wanted to apologize right away. But what was she supposed to say? That finding the wallet had been a coincidence, but that she’d thought of the siblings waiting at home and hesitated over whether to take the bills? That she’d never really meant to steal them and had only called him over to return the wallet?
...
It would just sound like a pathetic excuse. So Choi Daeun kept drifting around near him, looking for the right moment to speak.
“We will now begin the swordsmanship qualification test.”
He was taking the first stage of the two-part qualification exam now. The more she watched, the more worried she became for no reason. A man who’d received F in every section of the physical test could never hope to catch a Dark Hound. She could only pray that it would end with as little pain as possible.
But contrary to her fears, the man displayed something astonishing.
- Kyaekyaeng...!
He broke the Dark Hound’s neck with his bare hands.
That’s impossible...
Her face froze in shock. But the surprise didn’t end there. In the second-stage test as well, he endured countless burns from raging flames and the Dark Hound’s attacks, and then was proudly awarded an S-grade.
“Test taker Lee Taehoon, I will now announce the results of your Flote Academy second-stage qualification exam. Naturally, it is S-grade. Congratulations. This is the first perfect score in history.”
Since Lee Taehoon had received F in the physical ability test, she had assumed he would naturally be eliminated. But with an A in the first-stage qualification exam and an S in the second-stage qualification exam, he surpassed the overall B-grade cutoff and passed. It was astonishing. She was amazed by the thought that a person who truly wanted something badly could push himself that far.
Just how hard must his circumstances be...? When the exam is over... I really do need to apologize properly...
Choi Daeun’s misunderstanding of Lee Taehoon only grew deeper.