The Demon of the In-Seoul Retake Class
"...I'm going to kill her."
In the corridor leading to the strength testing area, Baek Seol spat the curse with raw emotion. Her target was, of course, the cross-dressed Yoo Ji-tae.
The two maids supporting Baek Seol by the arms quickly chimed in.
"I seriously thought she was insane. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw her kick Unni's leg earlier."
"The way she's already strutting around, you'd think she'd already taken first place overall. Right?"
Baek Seol ground her teeth. The second maid's words carried a sharp edge. The retake academy ranked students strictly by performance. First place could ignore everyone else, while last place had no right to complain even if they were beaten to death. Those with poor grades were considered worthless. That was the academy's rule.
Baek Seol held first place—and she was special. She received special management from the upper managers, and anyone who stayed close to her could obtain medicine at less than half the market price. Who wouldn't want to befriend her? In the In-Seoul class of the retake academy, she was the reigning dictator.
Even Baek Seol had her worries. Those who couldn't bear the weight of the crown would be crushed, but her crown was particularly heavy. It came with a loan attached.
Baek Seol's thirty billion won interest-free loan would convert to a fifteen-percent annual interest loan if she failed to maintain first place. The clause hadn't existed when she first borrowed one or two hundred million, but as her skills grew and confidence soared, she had pushed the loan up to thirty billion and accepted the condition.
And then there was the message she had received earlier.
[Nokjeong Pharmaceuticals Manager]: [Please don't disappoint me.]
Baek Seol stared ahead with unfocused eyes. There was a woman trying to steal her first place—a woman who had to be crushed. On top of that, male students would soon be entering the academy. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. She could not afford to lose it. Falling here was not an option.
Baek Seol struck the Steel Witch statue with everything she had. She poured every ounce of strength into the blow and recorded a value of 4.2. A single strike that shaved 4.2 points off the statue's durability. That score was comparable to the lower ranks of the elite university class.
"Good. With this—"
The next moment, Baek Seol witnessed the Steel Witch statue shatter into dozens of fragments that scattered in every direction. It disintegrated before it could even scream.
Baek Seol's gaze snapped to the electronic board.
1st — Lee Se-rin — Steel Witch Statue Strike: 6.5
2nd — Baek Seol — Steel Witch Statue Strike: 4.2
Baek Seol's world collapsed.
EP 5 The Demon of the In-Seoul Retake Class
My overall ranking was second. The magic power test had placed me fiftieth. Even with the Taeguk Cheonji Simbeop, my level was still low. I could feel that my training in the magic power department was still insufficient.
Truthfully, I had expected as much. Currently, my physical stats were 6.03 strength, 6.18 agility, and 5.35 magic power. By specs alone, I fell far short of the In-Seoul class average of 7. The only reason I had achieved these scores was thanks to the performance of my magic. If anything, my current ranking was excessively high.
Lunchtime. I ate with the lower-ranked students.
"That was seriously amazing. If it weren't for the magic power test, you would've taken first overall, right?"
"Exactly. At this rate, Unni might even become the official wife of the male student who's coming. Do you think I could squeeze in between you two?"
"What are you saying? Men don't like tall women, you know?"
I had grown used to chatting among the lower-ranked female students. Part of it was adaptation, but I suspected the Simbeop was helping as well. If I entered university, I would have to study among women anyway, so getting used to it in advance wasn't a bad idea.
While eating, I felt an uncomfortable gaze. I looked up and saw one of the lower-ranked students resting her chin on her hand, staring straight at me. Without thinking, I turned my head away.
It wasn't just fear. Those who trained in magic were beautiful. In the Refined Realm, women who would be considered idols or one-in-a-generation beauties in ordinary high schools were everywhere. Having one of them direct such an intense gaze at me made my body react a little.
"Unni."
"Yeah?"
"Looking at you like this, you're really cute."
When I checked her expression to see if it was flattery, it seemed sincere.
"Somehow... you feel like a man."
Laughter erupted around us.
"What are you talking about? Stop reading so many comics. A cross-dressing man entering a girls' academy? That doesn't make sense."
"Right? Why would any man go that far just to come here?"
"Even so, that's not it."
I mumbled my rice and gave a half-hearted agreement.
"Yeah."
These girls... they're teasing me on purpose, aren't they?
The student in front of me wore a sly smile.
"But how are you so strong, Unni? Do you have some kind of secret? Magic? Or some special medicine? Ah, I'm just really curious. No other meaning..."
Her voice trailed off. She probably thought she had offended me. But I wasn't angry. In fact, a good idea had just occurred to me.
"Want me to teach you? I'll charge for it, though. How about five million won per person per session?"
"Huh? Really?!"
"Yeah. If you work hard, you might even surpass me soon."
A new source of income had appeared.
*****
Every group had a central theme that reinforced its characteristics. The military was a violent organization that obeyed orders from above, so its theme was absolute hierarchy. Volunteer groups gathered to help the unfortunate, so their theme was humanity. And the academy was a commercial organization that squeezed its students dry. In other words, its theme was capitalism.
Since the number of students was limited, the academy's goal was to extract as much money as possible from them. Long ago, the head manager of a certain academy had said on television:
"The gap in talent that exists among people. Our role is to let money overcome that gap."
Those words had echoed like a death sentence and ushered in the era of graduate school in Korea.
"Good heavens. What on earth is going on?"
The managers in the conference room covered their faces. On the advertisement board created jointly by the academy and corporations, Baek Seol had been completely robbed by a new student. And it had taken only a week.
"The problem is that Lee Se-rin isn't spending any money at all. She hasn't bought any of the medicines, private lessons, or equipment we sell."
"...This is insane. Where did someone like that even come from...?"
A student who spent no money had surpassed those who did. This proved that the academy's order was collapsing.
"This is terrifying...! How could anyone think of raising their grades through effort without spending money?! Aren't they ashamed?!"
"Exactly. And she's even sharing the training method she created with the lower-ranked students! For five million won per session!"
The managers were horrified.
"This crazy woman! If everyone starts taking such cheap private lessons, their sense of money will be completely ruined! They won't buy our lessons anymore!"
"The less money you spend, the lower your grades become. Lower grades mean lower expected future income. Then you reduce your current spending to match that lower expected income and just keep getting poorer. Lee Se-rin. That demon is determined to turn everyone's lives into hell."
"Without any medicine or enhancers! Without properly spending money, trying to raise grades through effort? This is an insult to Korea's educational philosophy!"
The managers united and marched to the representative's office.
"This is an act that destroys the academy's revenue and the merit-based social order... It's no different from terrorism! If this continues, the academy's order will be in danger!"
The representative answered.
"So you want to expel her?"
"At this rate, sales of medicine, enhancers, and private lessons will drop!"
"Can't they just go down?"
"......Excuse me?"
"If sales drop, we just reorganize the curriculum. If the pharmaceutical company complains, we find a new one. That solves it, doesn't it? What's the problem?"
"...Are you serious?"
"Yeah. I am."
Kim Su-jin, the representative of Hyeseong Academy, leaned back in her chair.
"I heard she climbed from the very bottom to the very top in just one week? At that level, she's bound to rank high in this year's Korea University entrance exam. And you want to hand her over to another academy? Why would I do that?"
The managers fell silent. The representative scratched her head.
"Well, I understand what you're saying. Her influence will probably reduce product sales. But so what? There are only two months left until this year's exam, right? You can't even endure two months and want to expel such a promising student? Hmm. That doesn't seem like good business sense to me."
The conclusion was reached.
"Rejected."
Kim Su-jin pointed at the door.
"What you should be doing is supporting her more. If you come to me with something like this again, you're all fired. Remember that."
At the representative's declaration of dismissal, the managers were utterly defeated.
They had failed to have her officially expelled. But even following the representative's words, the pressure from Nokjeong Pharmaceuticals was considerable. Losing an advertisement board they had invested thirty billion won in would be a painful loss, and for the person in charge, it would be a bolt from the blue.
In the end, the method the managers chose next was a rather classic one.
"Miss Baek Seol. Please find a way to drive Lee Se-rin out."
"...How?"
"Make her suffer. Enough that she'll want to quit the academy."
A vicious culture as old as human education itself. School violence. Also known as bullying.