The Reason He Fell
While I was facing off against the Academy President, voices echoed from the passage this time.
"Kanp! What the hell are you doing not blocking them?!"
"Just a second! This thing's disappearing!"
"What do you mean by that?! Huh? Mine's not coming out either!"
"Everyone, be careful! There's a nullification ability user here!"
Maybe my words carried beyond the wall Elsia had created. Right on cue, the men's excited voices rang out.
"The President's finally stepping in!"
"We'll break through soon! Any second now!"
"We'll kill every last bastard behind this!"
"Kill the humans! Rape the animals!"
The sound of many footsteps rushing forward echoed as Elsia's wall vanished. But the footsteps suddenly stopped, replaced by an abrupt silence. Just as I wondered what was happening, someone stammered in terror.
"W-w-w-why is that demon here!!!"
"Shit! I still have so many animals I haven't fucked yet! I don't want to die!"
"Save me! I've only managed to screw two so far!"
Fear spread among the men. They must have recognized Hye-ji. When some of them panicked and tried to run—
"Hey! Wait! The President can nullify her powers too!"
someone shouted desperately. Another silence fell. But this one felt different. Instead of fear, a sense that they could actually take her on began to form among them.
"Yeah! Without her powers, she's just some worthless flat-chested bitch!"
"She only acts tough because of her abilities! Without them, she's nothing—just like her pathetic chest!"
"We're not scared of some chick with tits smaller than a pigeon's anymore!!!"
The sound of several men charging forward reached us. The situation was turning against us. The heroines' combat strength came entirely from their abilities. Without them, they were extremely vulnerable. Just as I was trying to figure out how to help—
"Quit getting distracted. Kids these days have no focus."
"Someone like you isn't worth my full attention, you piece of shit."
The President swung his baseball bat horizontally at me. A simple yet powerful strike aimed at my right arm. I quickly ducked and slid toward the wall.
"Running away? How pathetic."
"Yeah. Counterattack time."
Fighting bare-handed would be a disadvantage—for me and for Hye-ji outside. I grabbed a hammer from the tools scattered on the floor.
"Hye-ji, catch!"
"Come, Mjolnir."
I tossed it to her. The moment she caught the noble hammer, she called out to the other heroines.
"If you don't want to die, get behind me."
"Of course!"
"Thank you!"
"Got it-nya!!!"
At her words, everyone hurriedly dragged the Academy President's son behind Hye-ji. In that instant, one man charged at her, swinging a wooden plank.
"Die, you flat-chested bitch!"
"How amusing."
Hye-ji easily dodged the plank and smashed the hammer into the man's knee instead.
"Aaaaargh!!!"
She immediately followed up by slamming the hammer into his groin, rendering him combat-incapable. The others, clearly impressed by the display, clutched their own groins while hurling nothing but curses at her.
"You vicious bastard! He just got a fox wife!"
"Have you even thought about how heartbroken his fox wife will be?! His rabbit kids will be devastated too!!!!"
"He hasn't even had kids with them yet, and you're doing this?! Are you even human!!!"
Hye-ji grinned and made a scissoring gesture with her right index finger between her left index and middle fingers. The men could only hiccup in terror, unable to speak anymore. The two sides were now locked in a standoff.
One side consisted of the men, each armed with weapons. Their numbers were enough to fill the entire passage. Even without abilities, that sheer quantity represented overwhelming violence. They couldn't be dismissed as mere fodder. The other side was Hye-ji, facing them alone. She couldn't use her powers—only a single hammer. She stood in a desperate last-stand formation with no retreat. Behind her were Elsia, Ayeon, and Caersi, plus the deadweight that was the Academy President's son. To any observer, Hye-ji looked hopelessly outmatched. But her thoughts seemed to differ.
Suddenly, Hye-ji thrust the hammer in her hand toward the men. "Just because I've gotten weaker—" She rested the hammer on her shoulder, then flashed a vicious smile. "—doesn't mean you lot have gotten any stronger."
It sounded like a line straight out of some Japanese academy city story. Enraged by her words, the men surged forward like a wave.
"Unni! Be careful!"
Elsia's worried cry rang out urgently. But—
"Aaaargh!!!"
"It hurts!!!"
"Shit! Are you sure she has no powers?!"
Her cry was rendered meaningless by how well Hye-ji fought. She stomped on the first man's foot with the hammer. As he doubled over in pain, she drove the hammer cleanly into his jaw. At the same time, she elbowed another man trying to swing a sickle in the solar plexus. Before he could even cry out, she struck his shoulder and ribs with the hammer in rapid succession. This wasn't the usual Hye-ji. It was the old version—the return of "Old Hye-ji."
If there was any mercy, it was that she hadn't smashed their heads with the hammer. Though even without dying, they probably wished they had. She'd only brutalized two men, but the effect was massive. The others refused to approach beyond a certain line, merely stomping in place. Then Hye-ji picked up a fallen sickle and raised it crossed with the hammer above her head. Sickle and hammer. Plus her red hair. The vibe was already there. As if driving the point home, she grinned viciously and muttered,
"Our academy. With your blood. Red. Red."
In an instant, Hye-ji had become a revolutionary madwoman. Fear began spreading among the men once more.
[...Just how strong is Hye-ji anyway?]
'I don't think I'll ever get to have a marital spat with her.'
Still, the beast-fucker had said earlier that Hye-ji would lose in the future before the regression. In a way, that made sense. The Academy President was a nullification ability user specialized in close combat, while Hye-ji's fighting style revolved around overwhelming firepower with her abilities. It all came down to who activated their powers first. And right now, the beast-fucker president had the upper hand. That was why Hye-ji lost. In any case, Hye-ji's side wasn't in immediate danger, but I couldn't leave her like that for long. No matter how strong she was, stamina had its limits. That only gave me more reason to finish off the President in front of me quickly.
I pulled several Japanese swords from the wall and tucked them into my belt. Honestly, I'd never used them properly before, so I had no confidence, but I had no other choice. This wasn't the time to be picky. Since fighting bare-handed against him would be difficult, I needed something—anything.
At that moment, a question occurred to me.
"With a body like that and nullification powers, shouldn't you have joined the ability user suppression team? Maybe lay off the steroids a bit."
"Ah, the suppression team..."
His voice carried a hint of nostalgia. I'd only half been throwing it out there, but—
"Those days existed too."
It seemed he really had been part of the ability user suppression team in the past. In other words, the man before me was a retired civil servant. The President momentarily set aside thoughts of fighting and began reminiscing.
"I worked in the suppression team for over ten years. Of course, I left of my own accord after that."
"And why is someone like that running a beast-fucker club and doing drugs?"
"I felt too disillusioned. With this country called Korea. And with this world."
There was a heavy weight to his final words. Heavy, not light. What he said next was quite shocking.
"I cleared dungeons over a thousand times. Fought against hundreds of crimes and terrorist acts, and in the process, saved countless people."
The main duty of the ability user suppression team was literally suppressing ability users—essentially a special police force that stopped crimes and terrorism committed by ability users. On the other hand, clearing dungeons like hunters was, at best, auxiliary work. Not mandatory, barely even recommended. Especially for a nullification ability user, it wasn't particularly useful in actual dungeons. That left only one option: fighting with nothing but his bare body. In the end, it meant the President had performed both the suppression team's duties and hunter work simultaneously in the past.
[.....Isn't that a labor law violation?]
'It's Korea. There's always a way around it.'
[Ah.]
They'd worked him far too hard. Whether it was voluntary or not, the latter seemed far more likely. Honestly, anyone would feel disillusioned with the country after that.
"They really ran you ragged for a government job. Sounds brutal just hearing about it."
"But it was rewarding. Clearing dungeons gave me a strong sense of accomplishment, and saving people was even more fulfilling. I would've kept doing that work if I could."
That made it even harder to understand. If he found satisfaction and fulfillment in such difficult work, why had he suddenly turned into a beast-fucker? As if to explain the reason, the President's voice suddenly grew heated.
"But! No one acknowledged me! I didn't even ask to be a hero!"
"What about the people you saved? The country aside."
"Yeah! Everyone was busy tearing into me for the pettiest reasons!"
The President finally exploded with pent-up resentment. Honestly, even though he was the head of the beast-fucker club, I felt a bit unsettled.
[He seems a little pitiful.]
'That's pretty harsh.'
Everyone has a desire to be acknowledged. Even the most devoted person would have some trace of that feeling. That only made me more curious—what reason had driven the President to the point of quitting his government job? And how had he become a beast-fucker? In that moment, the President shouted with all his fury, as if pouring out his resentment toward an unjust world.
"Just because I fucked a horse!"
Correction. He was just a son of a bitch. It was only natural people tore into him. The fact that they kept employing him in a government position even knowing that was the real miracle. Of course no one would acknowledge him.
"You fucking bastard! You're just a horse-fucker!!!"
Any sympathy I had vanished in an instant. All that remained in my heart was irritation and disgust. Piece felt the same.
[Shit!!! I shouldn't have felt sorry for him!!! Just kill that bastard already!!!]
'Of course a piece of shit like him would be like this!'
There had never been a reason for his fall. He'd started out as a crazy beast-fucker from the beginning. He was a disgusting bastard who'd been corrupt from the very start.