Advisor Assignment (6)
The quest could only be completed if you became S-class, and only by completing the quest could I too… Hm. What would happen to me once the quest was finished?
The expected reward that should have appeared alongside the quest window never showed up. Even if I successfully guided Han Min-ha to S-class, no one could predict what would come after. Would it cure my lung disease? No. I had no need for that. Returning to my original world was the only outcome I wanted. The worst-case scenario would be another linked quest appearing right after I pushed her to S-rank.
No. I wouldn’t think about that now. I would focus solely on completing the quest I had been given to the best of my ability. Just as I had told Han Min-ha, I too would survive.
“Student Han Min-ha.”
“Y-yes…?”
“Let’s survive this together.”
Han Min-ha couldn’t manage a clear answer. She simply lowered her head. Perhaps from embarrassment, a strange scent rose from her body. At first I wondered what it was, but it was simply the smell of old clothes. It seemed she used neither fabric softener nor perfume.
“Please attend class starting this afternoon. Think it over carefully and give me your answer tomorrow. This is something that requires your consent as well.”
“Um… Professor…”
“You were the one who said there was nothing for you outside the academy. I’ll wait.”
When she remained silent, I straightened my knees and stood.
“See you later.”
Even as I left the room, Han Min-ha stayed seated on the bed, staring blankly into space.
Assistant Bae Ye-bin, who had been pacing anxiously in front of the dormitory, came running the moment she saw me.
“How did it go? Did you talk to her? What did she say?”
“We agreed to speak again tomorrow. She’ll probably attend the afternoon class.”
“Really… That’s a relief…”
Assistant Bae Ye-bin let out a sigh so heavy it seemed the ground might crack open beneath her.
“When she suddenly announced she was dropping out today, I was so shocked… I’ve lost count of how many times this has happened…”
All the students under Assistant Bae Ye-bin’s care belonged to the lower classes. Without assigned advisors, she had to manage everything from their daily lives to their studies. When those students began to feel the limits of their talent and started leaving one by one, it must have been incredibly difficult and exhausting for her. Submitting Han Min-ha’s withdrawal form to the administrative office had probably been a last resort after her own attempts at persuasion failed. She simply had no one else to turn to.
“If you hadn’t come, Professor, Min-ha definitely would have left the academy today. Her grades are poor, and the academy has no real reason to keep holding onto a student like her…”
“You’ve worked hard, Assistant Bae.”
“Haah… Thank you… I should go speak with Min-ha now.”
After bowing deeply to me, Assistant Bae entered the dormitory. I turned my steps toward the lecture building.
As I walked, I glanced up at the sky. Far away at the flight training grounds, a brilliant golden radiance flashed. Someone was soaring high with dazzling aura before plummeting rapidly. Golden aura… It had to be Yoo Hee-won. From what I knew, Professor Jin Se-yeong produced a brown tail matching her hair color when she flew. Even though she had crashed midway, the fact that a freshman could achieve such rapid ascent was astonishing. Her talent was truly exceptional.
I was spending my free period after lunch in the classroom when the message arrived. It seemed she had changed her mind. Or perhaps the sight of her professor coming all the way to her room, kneeling, and speaking so earnestly had made it impossible for her timid personality to refuse. Whether she came willingly or was dragged there, the important thing was that she remained at the academy.
Honestly, I felt no personal emotion toward Han Min-ha. It might have been the influence of my Mental Barrier, but more than that, I was perfectly aware that I was a possessor in this world. Everyone around me wasn’t real—they were merely characters from a novel.
In some stories, the possessor becomes overly immersed and begins to mistake themselves as a native of the world they entered. Some even assimilate completely with the original character’s personality, identifying as them entirely. But I had my Mental Barrier. It shielded my mind from external shocks and helped me maintain cool, rational judgment at all times.
I still knew I was the possessor, and I viewed the other characters as figures from a ruined academy novel that had already gone off the rails. That was why I felt no panic at all when the department head summoned me shortly afterward.
“Professor Kyo, you may not realize it, but the academy is in complete chaos right now.”
“What sort of chaos are we talking about?”
“What else? It’s obviously Yoo Hee-won.”
“Did her parents call the dean directly?”
A former S-class hero and current Advisory Chairman of the Management Bureau for a father. An only daughter who had taken first place in Graford Academy’s basic evaluation, which was considered the finest in the country. A family so powerful that, with only slight exaggeration, a single cough from them could slash the academy’s budget and subsidies in half. When such a family called the dean directly over something as trivial as a regular professor’s student assignment, calling it “chaos” was no exaggeration whatsoever. And this was the second time.
The previous call had merely been a request to pay attention to the advisor situation. This time, the tone had clearly escalated.
“Just pair Yoo Hee-won with you for the advisor assignment. Consider it done.”
“Department Head. As I’ve already explained, I’m not equipped to handle Yoo Hee-won. Right now it might seem like a quick solution while the Chairman is pressing the issue, but in the long term it will only harm the academy. I’m a professor of an unpopular subject who has never mentored a single student before. If I can’t guide her to the level she expects, the consequences will be even worse than they are now…”
“Listen,” the department head sighed. “We can worry about that later. Right now we need to put out the immediate fire. Besides, let’s be honest—Yoo Hee-won will graduate as at least A-class anyway. Just keep her happy and give her what she wants. What more guidance does a kid like that even need?”
I wasn’t entirely unable to understand his position. When someone capable of shaking the entire academy was showing clear displeasure, a mere professor’s stubborn refusal wouldn’t even register. The only reason I was resisting taking Yoo Hee-won was Han Min-ha. If I accepted both at once, Han Min-ha would never be able to endure it. And Yoo Hee-won was not the type to simply leave her alone.
There were no other institutional barriers or special restrictions. Still… blindly refusing in the current situation wasn’t wise. If the department head and dean decided to force the issue, I would have no choice but to accept her. I could refuse, but it would create serious complications in my academic career and inevitably disrupt the process of raising Han Min-ha to S-class.
Yoo Hee-won and Han Min-ha… For now, I would accept them both and deal with whatever came next when the time arrived.
“Very well, Department Head. I will take Yoo Hee-won. However, I have one condition.”
“What is it?”
“Nothing complicated. There is a student I wanted to mentor named Han Min-ha. I’d like to take her as well. That shouldn’t be a problem, correct?”
“Han Min-ha? Who’s that?”
“The hero descendant bonus admission student from the lower class…”
“Do whatever you want. There’s no limit on the number of students anyway.”
The head waved his hand dismissively, as though nothing mattered as long as Yoo Hee-won got what she wanted.
“Thank you, Department Head. I’ll proceed on that understanding.”
And so the top freshman and the bottom freshman both became my students at the same time.
The rumor spread like wildfire. No one had deliberately circulated it. It simply leaked out naturally, and soon the entire academy knew.
A professor of a neglected subject who had never once taken an advisee suddenly declared he would accept students—and not just any students, but the ultimate golden spoon Yoo Hee-won, whose top graduation was all but guaranteed, and the fool Han Min-ha who had fainted during the basic evaluation. Even more shocking was the fact that Yoo Hee-won had chosen Professor Kyo Suhyeon of Basic Defense over Yu Hyeon-ju of General Combat as her desired advisor. If this didn’t become an issue, what possibly could?
The most agitated group was, naturally, the faculty. They had all hoped to claim Yoo Hee-won as their own student, so their disappointment was immense. It wasn’t as if I had particularly wanted her either. But what could I do? Yoo Hee-won had chosen me, and both the dean and department head had pressured me into accepting. Even Professor Heo Tae-hyeon, with all his accumulated experience and connections, would have found it impossible to dodge.
The one silver lining was that I had managed to slip Han Min-ha in as well. From the dean and department head’s perspective, the only priority was preventing Yoo Hee-won’s parents from making any more “coughs.” In that process, a student named Han Min-ha or Han Min-cho or whatever would barely even register.
Fortunately, most of the professors knew the inside story to some degree. Thanks to that, I avoided any misunderstandings that I had pulled strings to monopolize Yoo Hee-won. The only remaining question was why she had chosen me in the first place. Even I didn’t fully understand the reason.
In the original story, it had been a weak premise—the heroine simply becoming obsessed after falling for Professor Kyo Suhyeon’s appearance at first sight. But with Han Min-ha’s presence already twisting the entire plot, whether that motivation still held true was anyone’s guess.
“I’m jealous, Professor Kyo.”
Professor Yu Hyeon-ju of General Combat smiled faintly at me.
“To be chosen by such an outstanding student—congratulations.”
“It’s not something worthy of congratulations, Professor Yu. If anything, the pressure is so great I can barely breathe.”
Of course, that was a lie. With my Mental Barrier active, feeling burdened was impossible. I simply hoped that Yoo Hee-won wouldn’t do anything strange out of wounded pride at having to share her advisor with a student like Han Min-ha.