01. A sword for you (24)

The place where Lee Hyeon-woo, who had lost his mind, woke up in the academy’s health room.

“…… Ah….”

Like someone who just woke up from a binge, his body is heavy and his head is wet.

I tried to ask for water because of my burning thirst, but my vocal chords seemed to have been damaged, so a voice like scraping metal came out.

“Kuk, kuk… ! Ugh!”

It was only when I realized my physical condition that the pain came flooding back.

All the bones in my body throb, and all the muscles in my body tremble as if they were torn apart.

I don’t know what the hell happened. Why did my body become like this, how did I end up lying in bed?

‘So….’

I think about it slowly with my head that creaks like a rusted hinge and doesn’t turn well.

Competing against Yoon Seo-hee in the final performance, taking her medicine and taking out her sword, and then her lightning strikes.

There he lost consciousness.

“Yoon, Seo Hee… !”

Lee Hyun-woo, who recalled that far, distorted his expression as he gritted his teeth.

Yeah, it’s all because of Yoon Seo-hee. If it wasn’t for Yoon Seo-hee, my academy life wouldn’t have been a problem.

Never forgive. I will do whatever it takes to avenge the humiliation I received. It seemed that her anger would not be resolved unless she made her academy life, no, her life, into hell.

When I forcibly raised my trembling body with such a resolution.

Smart. Drooling-

“You woke up.”

The door to the health room opened and two men and a woman came inside.

Park Jin-hoo, homeroom teacher for 1st year class 1, and Lee Song-ha, homeroom teacher for 1st year class 3. Both of them were combat instructors, so they were familiar faces to Lee Hyun-woo.

“Teacher… ?”

The visit of an unexpected person raised questions and anxiety on his face.

Of course, it is not morally strange for a teacher to visit a student who has collapsed from illness. However, Lee Hyun-woo was uncomfortable with the two visiting. To be precise, Park Jin-hoo’s visit was like that.

Because he’s blunt and doesn’t know what he’s thinking, he deliberately kept away from him, and Lee Hyun-woo always felt that his homeroom teacher was monitoring his actions.

At least, I didn’t feel like I was going to visit the hospital because I was so worried.

“Are you okay?”

“Kuh….”

I tried to say, “Do you look okay?” But my mouth couldn’t open. Lee Hyun-woo tried to adapt to his body condition while controlling the pain.

“Don’t overdo it. Ahn Young-mi said her internal injuries were more serious than her battle trauma. I don’t know what I picked up and ate.”

At those words, Lee Hyeon-woo immediately came to mind.

An enhanced elixir that was secretly studied and stolen from the house. He knew that there would be side effects due to less stabilization, but he did not know that it would be so severe.

It was the hindsight that he shouldn’t have taken it if he had known it was such a drug. With or without this, the result of losing to Yoon Seo-hee would not have changed.

Looking at the student in charge who didn’t say anything with her head down, Park Jin-hoo continued her words slowly.

“Looking at his expression, I can guess. But we’re not here to talk about that.”

“… Yes?”

If it’s not about visiting the hospital or talking about medicine, what kind of business are you talking about?

That question was quickly resolved.

Sensei Lee Song-ha, who had been listening behind her until now, opened her mouth with a heavy expression.

“Hyunwoo. You said you tried to take the sword from Lee Jin-yi this morning by having the kids from class 1, is that true?”

“…… !”

Yes. It was because of it.

“No, I am, cool!”

Every time I speak, I feel pain as if my throat is cracking, and I cough loudly.

Seeing this, Lee Seon-ha took a cup of water and handed it to Lee Hyun-woo, and barely opened her mouth when she drank the water and emptied the cup.

“… Nope. It’s something I don’t know at all.”

“Are you sure? Really?”

“Yes, I don’t know.”

Hyeonu Lee calmly lied and spoke in a voice that sounded like scratching iron.

To him, lying was as familiar as breathing.

This kind of interview was common even at my old school, and there were several times after entering the academy, but every time I strongly held back, the teachers couldn’t say anything directly, even though they looked suspicious.

Because there was no evidence. The situation is suspicious, but what can you do?

I was fine with claiming that I was unaware of the fact that the followers had acted on their own out of excessive loyalty.

So far, that’s been enough.

“… So? Then, the teacher brought something for you today, would you like to listen to it?”

“Yes?”

Lee Song-ha takes her smart phone out of her pocket. She wasn’t her thing. This is because the hunters are all given exclusive equipment called Holo Devices and rarely use smartphones.

As you manipulate the unlocked smartphone with a corner of the screen broken, a recorded voice flows through the speaker.

[…] … Either knock it down and steal it, or take it anyway, just take the sword. Understand?]

[That, but Hyunwoo. If we are caught using violence outside of school, we are also disciplined….]

[Hey, Dongchul Kim. Who will use violence? You said you could steal it. Isn’t it okay if you act straight and don’t get caught?]

[But… It’s not easy….]

[Don’t worry. Don’t you know who my father is? Serim Group Chairman. You’d faint if you knew how much the academy feeds my family. No matter what happens, I’ll cover it well.]

[Really? I really… ?]

Click. As if listening to that point was enough, Lee Song-ha stops the recording.

The eyes of the two staring at each other as if they had nothing more to say.

Lee Hyun-woo’s face turned blue from embarrassment and anger.

‘Kim Dong-cheol, you useless bastard… !! Do you dare to record?’

The smartphone Lee Song-ha was holding was something Kim Yi-jin gave her this morning.

Kim Yi-jin also had experiences of being bullied as a child, so she thought that her followers did not do this out of loyalty.

Dangerous work that may lead to severe punishment or expulsion. That’s why I thought that whether the followers were blackmailed by Lee Hyun-woo, paid, or both, they must have left some evidence.

I wondered if it would be fortunate to have at least a message, but Kim Dong-cheol was much bolder than I thought.

He turned on the tape recorder whenever he needed it because he thought that someday Lee Hyeon-woo would pretend not to know him or throw him away like cutting off a lizard’s tail.

It wasn’t until today that it was delivered to Lee Song-ha.

First of all, Lee Hyeon-woo, as always, decided to keep pretending.

“I don’t know. No framing, no manipulation, whatever. It’s the first time I’ve heard a conversation like that.”

“With all this evidence, are you still going to say you don’t know?”

“Oh, I really don’t know!”

Boom! Hyeonu Lee twisted his face and hit the wall.

Even at a glance, his expression stained with bewilderment, nervousness, and anger was not normal, and it was easy to guess that he was lying.

I looked at Lee Hyeon-woo, who was being transported, as if feeling sorry for him, and sighed deeply.

“Yeah, then it can’t be helped. I have no choice but to show you this.”

“What, what?”

What else do you mean? Any other evidence?

Lee Hyun-woo’s pupils, who lost their composure due to tension, contracted greatly and their pupils trembled.

After taking a few steps back from the transfer, he manipulated the device by himself and displayed a holographic image in the center of the health room.

An elaborate 3D image is played in front of Lee Hyun-woo’s eyes.

It was a familiar scene in the first grade classroom.

[Hyunwoo. I brought the sword you said. So that, now our house….]

A boy with a timid impression is holding a sword in both hands with a hesitant expression. Lee Hyun-woo in the video watching the scene crumples his expression.

‘What is it?’

It was a scene that Lee Hyun-woo knew, but it was unfolding at a point where Lee Hyun-woo did not know at all.

‘Fuck, what is this?’

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Video? Videos? When did you film this? My head is dyed white with panic.

‘No. Um, stop Stop this right now… !’

He doesn’t understand his feelings at all, and the video continues without stopping.

[…] Hey. Are you kidding?]

[Huh? No. My, what did i do wrong… ?]

[I told you to take care of it, when did you bring it in front of me? Are you crazy? Do you really want to see me sitting on the street at your house? Uh!?]

Lee Hyun-woo threw his chair in his hand while screaming. Unable to avoid it, the student hurriedly opened his mouth as he was beaten.

[Sorry! I’m sorry, Hyunwoo! It’s my fault!]

[Take that away right away. Keep in mind I’ve never seen it and you never brought it here. Did you understand?]

The hologram video ends only after showing that scene.

Lee Hyeon-woo with a devastated expression. He pursed his lips several times, but no words came out.

“Jo-“

“Don’t say the word manipulation. This is a teacher’s skill.”

What? Skill?

A skill?

“This is a skill called [Flashback], And it can bring things that happened in the past into reality, albeit briefly. It was just a video that was taken with a camera.”

“No….”

This is nonsense.

It’s a lie.

Hyunwoo Lee is not an idiot. He would have been much more careful if he had known that one of his teachers had those skills. Lee Song-ha’s skill wasn’t called a flashback.

His head couldn’t comprehend what had happened.

Lee Song-ha smiled bitterly as he looked at him with an expression that he did not understand.

“Didn’t you know? The teacher has two unique skills. That’s one in tens of thousands… That’s not what’s important right now.”

Flashback looks very useful, but it’s actually not as easy to use as it looks.

To see the scene you want, you must accurately recognize the date and time. Use time is only 30 seconds.

And once you use it, you can no longer use it for a month after that.

If the date and time had not been recorded in minute units in the voice file in the cell phone delivered by Kim Yi-jin, it would have been a long time since Lee Song-ha had secured evidence of Lee Hyun-woo’s crime through a flashback.

“Hyeonu, teacher, you are much worse than I thought. I just met the student teacher from the video. I heard that not only Seohee and Lee Jini, but also the kids in class 1 were bullied a lot?”

“No, that… That’s not it….”

“Beating up friends and stealing things. Do you know that this is something you shouldn’t do?”

Yes, I know. It’s like expulsion if caught.

So I was very careful not to get caught.

What if this is known to the family? Saying that his father was useless, he was already afraid of what he might say to him when he saw him.

Father.

Yeah, that’s right. There was a father

Your only salvation. One and only rope. You can eat as many curse words as you like. If only I could get past this crisis….

“… Ah, father. Please call my father.”

With his shoulders shaking, Lee Hyun-woo looked for his parents with an infinitely small figure.

I looked at him while he was being transported and was silent for a long time without answering.

The kind eyes slowly and coldly sank.

“… I should have apologized there. Hyunwoo.”

He took a step back as if he had finished what he had to say. Then Park Jin-hoo nodded her head heavily and opened her mouth.

“Actually, Hyunwoo, someone who wants to see you is waiting outside.”

“Yes?”

At those words, Lee Hyun-woo’s complexion brightened.

Father! Father came to visit him. Still, he said that he was the only son and was taken to the health room. Did he come to see his face because he was worried?

Explain the current situation and ask for help. It wouldn’t be enough to hit him on the head a few times to prevent expulsion, but he certainly wouldn’t throw himself out. Anyway, how much money did you spend on me at home?

If you overcome this crisis somehow, you can rise again.

After that, he will definitely repay the humiliation he suffered from Yoon Seo-hee and Kim I-jin in double. Not only those two gnomes, but also the class 1 students who betrayed me, and the two teachers in front of me.

Lee Hyun-woo’s head was twisted and filled with hope. But the reality was very different.

“Come in.”

“Yes~”

The person who opened the door to the health room was not Lee Hyun-woo’s father, Chairman Lee Kang-hoo.

A tall man dressed smartly in a suit and wearing sunglasses. In his first impression, he felt a freewheeling and playful atmosphere somewhere.

“Uh… ?”

Although he wasn’t the father, Hyunwoo Lee knew that person’s face. No, not his face, but because the way he wore those sunglasses was familiar.

“Director Park Min-seok?”

Director Park Min-seok of the Korea Hunter Association. He was one of the people in the VIP bleachers today watching the freshman’s final performance. I don’t know why he suddenly came here.

“Ah, that is a superficial status. This today.”

Director Park Min-seok takes out his ID card from the inside pocket of his suit and shows it.

Certificate of civil servant registration engraved with the rose of Sharon, the symbol of a national institution.

[Hunter Public Security Department Park Min-seok Team Leader]

Lee Hyun-woo takes a breath. No, he forgot to even breathe.

The tinnitus rings in my ears and my head feels distant.

“Public security… Hunter… ?”

Recognizing his identity, Hyunwoo Lee’s expression became terrified.

Public Security Hunter. An Awoken hunter who is authorized by the state to hunt Awoken people.

I have heard of that terrifying prestige. If he gets caught in the Public Security Hunter’s interrogation room, he won’t come back alive, and that each Hunter is a killing machine built to kill the Awoken.

And I also heard that most of the rumors are true through his father.

“Why, why did the public security hunter….”

Lee Hyun-woo’s manner of speaking was quickly followed by politeness. It was an action that revealed Lee Hyeon-woo’s character, who was weak to the strong and strong to the weak.

“Hey, student Hyunwoo Lee’s exam. I watched it interestingly. But there are some things that take a while.”

Park Min-seok pulls a chair and sits across from him with a good laugh.

His mouth was smiling, but his sunglasses-wearing eyes were looking at him coldly.

“The magic that student Lee Hyeon-woo showed up earlier. Do you drink that? You can fool others, but you cannot fool your own eyes.”

“Yes, yes!?”

“How heinous are the crimes of devil worshipers these days, why are you wearing something like that? Then get caught Well, that’s why I came.”

Magirani.

You mean the one that demons use instead of mana?

I don’t know. I just took the medicine I brought from home.

Lee Hyeon-woo tried to make an excuse, but Park Min-seok’s gaze at him made him unable to move as if he had become a frog in front of a snake.

“I want to hear how the student came to be able to use magic. Yes?”

The gaze of a predator that does not allow lies.

Those pupils slowly squeezed Lee Hyun-woo’s heart.

“Ah, stand, line, teacher… !”

I might die. Feeling such fear based on instinct, Lee Hyun-woo knelt on his knees with his body shaking on the bed. His eyes were on Lee Song-ha and Park Jin-hoo.

“Okay, I was wrong. I was wrong. All, I won’t do that again. So please, save me… !”

Park Jin-hoo, who is about to leave the health room, stops for a moment and looks back at her.

He stared at that desperate gaze calmly and opened his mouth heavily.

“… This time, even your father will have a hard time saving you.”

“Ah, uh, ahh… !!”

A face contorted in despair.

Park Jin-hoo slowly closed the door of her health room.