Regurgitating Hatred (1)

“Shin-hyuk!”

“Ah, get out of the way.”

“As soon as you see me, your reaction is bad!” The morning after Kang Shin-hyuk returned from Mirotoz, Baek In-ha came to his room. What that meant was now he was also a part of the Royal Class. It was natural, given that he was elected vice-president of the student council.

“You can’t enter the student council so casually.”

“If only I didn’t have to pay attention to something like the student council…”

“Well, come on.” Kang Shin-hyuk conceded and let Baek In-ha into his room. Although it probably wasn’t different from his room, Baek glanced through the room with a curious expression before quickly finding a small hedgehog eating a piece of iron in the corner.

“Is that the hedgehog you were taming? Rumors are circulating everywhere. That you have a taming-like trait…in other words, a double trait.”

“That’s just an urban legend…” Originally, it was thought that a capable superhuman could only have one trait, but people liked to argue that it was possible to have two. Usually, it just turned out that someone had a broad trait or a special skill, however, when it was suspected. Of course, Kang Shin-hyuk actually knew a person who had two traits…but she was an exception in many ways and thus didn’t count.

“It was just an artifact.”

“Is that so? At least, everyone is talking more about skills. Shinyoung’s current hot topic is that you tamed a flame wyvern and enjoyed a sky date with Algiers.”

“These damn guys are on vacation. Why don’t they go out and enjoy it instead of staying here?” The flame wyvern was too huge to hide. Moreover, the Wyvern Knights didn’t skip their activities during vacation, so perhaps all of the students were already aware of the flame wyvern by now. Kang Shin-hyuk was still his owner, too. He thought he would hand it over to Douglas Payne, but he would be graduating before too long. It would be a pain to switch owners twice.

“So be honest. How far have you gone with Algiers?”

“To a gate.”

“Ah, please.”

“I didn’t do anything.” Even though he responded honestly, Baek didn’t believe him.

“You haven’t been at school lately. Have you been with Algiers all this time?”

“No, I was with another woman.”

“Casanova!” He had only said so to see Baek’s reaction and make fun of it. Before entering the gate with Eleanor, he had been with Shin Eunah, but that was a special training course from hell. Then, after all of that, he had been in Mirotoz at Halo’s request. There were a lot of beautiful elves there, though, so it wasn’t technically a lie.

“Betrayer.”

“I’m kidding. I just returned from training in some new environments.”

“I know.” Baek nodded.

“You’re much stronger. How did you grow so much? Once my agility hit S-rank, my growth slowed down to a crawl.”

“Well…that’s a secret.”

“Still a traitor.” Baek attacked him with his arms wide open, but Kang Shin-hyuk wasn’t easy to catch. Baek stopped angrily after a couple of tries.

“Really fast! This is S-rank…you’re agility is S-rank!”

“Keep it a secret.”

“I don’t even believe it!” Baek was stuck to the spot in shock, but soon he recovered.

“I have to practice.”

“Yes, be strong.”

“Ah, and sir.” Baek turned around before he left, speaking up cautiously.

“It’s said that the frequency of gate occurrences is strange these days.”

“Why…are there more?” No one could control the generation of gates. Humans could predict them to an extent, but they couldn’t prevent or adjust it. There were times, however, when the incidence rate would increase to a noticeable degree. Usually, it was treated as a harbinger of disaster.

“There have been many cases concentrated in one place. The large guilds are busy moving, as well as the Superhuman Association.”

“Ah…I see.” Shin Eunah had seemed busy these days. However, she had not put out a call for ‘Shin Eun-hyuk.’ Which meant it wasn’t a problem that could be solved by his hand.

“There is also talk about whether or not a fourth countercurrent is occurring.”

“…” Countercurrent. That was the name of the disaster that claimed Kang Shin-hyuk’s parents. Baek could tell what he was feeling and made a serious face.

“So be careful for the time being. Then, I’m off.”

“…Okay.” Baek left, leaving Kang Shin-hyuk alone with an ominous feeling of dread hanging over him. No matter how strong he was currently, he couldn’t take on such a disaster alone. Now was the time to forget about all of that and continue practicing.

***

“Did you hear that band?”

“It’s such an unfortunate sound.”

“Here’s the Moscow mule!”

“I’m heading off now.”

That night, Kang Shin-hyuk was working at the frontline bar serving drinks to a crowd of customers in the full bar.

“Something will happen sooner or later.” Claire was muttering drowsily with the cigarette-like chocolate in her mouth. It would be embarrassing if the other customers knew it was only chocolate, and he wondered if he should inform them.

“Everyone is noisy.”

“Today, five gates occurred in the adjacent area. This is for table three.”

“Five…? No wonder there’s an uproar.”

“It’s better to be prepared for it, it’ll get busier.” The guests of the bar were rather noisy today. It made sense, though, given that it was a place where superhumans flocked to. As he moved, a female guest sitting near him gently grabbed his hand to pull him back to sit near her.

“He’s ranked.”

“Uh, did you see that?!”

“Look.” They had just been trying to play a joke, but then they realized the bartender had naturally avoided them. The female customer went silent as she looked at Kang Shin-hyuk.

“Don’t only famous people come here these days?”

“Isn’t the most famous person in front of you?”

“That’s true.” Kang Shin-hyuk laughed in response to Claire.

“I guess everyone wants to get a buff. There are quite a few people who come to invite me to a guild.”

“You get rid of people like that right away.”

“Yeah. Soon enough, I think they’ll attempt the same with you. Look…”

“Ah…” there were several people whispering quietly and motioning at Kang Shin-hyuk after witnessing his movements.

“What?”

“You’re rumored to be Shin Eun-hyuk.”

“Well, Eunah is coming every day…” That same Shin Eunah had shown up for one drink today. She had hung unto his arm before she left reluctantly, but it seemed there was something she had to take care of.

“Wait a minute, then don’t they know I’m affiliated with the association?”

“Well, not that really matters for guild recruitment.”

“Wait a second, I just looked it up, but there’s an article with the three of us.”

‘The attractive male bartender of the Frontline Bar is Shin Eun-hyuk?! Shin Eun-hyuk, a man loved by the Alchemist and the Thunder Empress!’ Kang Shin-hyuk sputtered upon reading the title, ‘Suspicious love triangle.’

“I’m sorry, sister.”

“No, it’s rather good.” Claire read the articles with a smile, but soon her eyes narrowed.

“Our cute Shin-hyuk is much better than this scandal.”

“Well, it’s alright, I suppose.” Kang Shin-hyuk busied himself cleaning lasses while Claire giggled. Once he had a second, he approached her again.

“We had an appointment for a date, by the way.”

Only

“Oh, that’s what I promised.” She had promised to go out on a date during vacation once he had returned home. Claire was acting as she had forgotten; Kang Shin-hyuk could tell it was a lie. She remembered but was waiting for him to speak up.

“Let’s go on a date.”

“Huh, yes. That tone was okay, but you’re still far away…”

“I’ll be stronger from now on.”

“From now on.” He wasn’t wrong. Claire was aware of how much he had grown during the vacation so far. It wasn’t a joke; it seemed like he could get into the ranks at the age of seventeen. If that happened, they might stand together on the same battlefield. Claire let out a laugh as she imagined it. If she wanted to take her shot with Kang Shin-hyuk, there was one boss in her way that she’d need to defeat.

“Is that the first step to our date…?”

“Hm?”

“No, it’s nothing. I’m fine tomorrow, so let’s go on a date then.” Claire laughed abashedly.