The Academy's Deceased Ate It All

Chapter 16

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“Hey, Ji-Hyuk. Did you decide which club you’re going to join?”I nodded at Choi Hyun-Woo’s question as he called my name in a friendly manner.“Yeah. I roughly decided.”“Oh, really? What are you going to join?”“Alchemy, Reading and Archery.”The last decision was made after a lot of deliberation.After all, in the case of the other ones, I could adequately replace them with other ones, but I had a feeling that the opportunity to practice archery would be hard to come by.‘Even though I can use the bow of the World Tree, it would be a waste to give up right away… .’While I was thinking like that, Choi Hyun-Woo made a surprised expression.“What, you want to join three?”“Well. There are so many things I am interested in.”“I only joined kendo for the hunting… .”“That’s too bad. There’s no overlap.”Even with my formal words, Choi Hyun-Woo nodded as if he agreed.Then he looked at Han Soo-Young as if something was bothering him.“Soo-Young, what did you say you were going to join?”Han Soo-Young, who was reading a book thick enough to be used as a weapon, answered his question in a low voice.“Reading and Magic exploration.”“Huh, what. you two are overlapping in Reading?”Despite Choi Hyun-Woo’s words, Han Soo-Young nodded nonchalantly and became absorbed in reading again.“…  .”The sight of her made me came across a new appearance that I had simply skipped over in the game.Even though they were evaluated by their master for having unparalleled talents, these two were so-called ‘geniuses who work hard’ type who spared no effort in honing their own talents.In the game, Choi Hyun-Woo just went to the training ground repeatedly, and in the case of Han Soo-Young, she got the results by simply reading and doing magical experiments.But in this world, Choi Hyun-Woo swung his sword so hard that it tore his palm, and Han Soo-Young spent all her time reading and experimenting even to the point of losing sleep.Unlike games, that didn’t mean that they could immediately see tangible results.These two were thorough and extremely hardworking people themselves.“…  .”It was when I was once again impressed by these two.The front door of the class seemed to open slightly, and a female student carefully pushed her face in.“Um, excuse me… .”The class was noisy, probably because it was still before the morning ordinance, and there were small groups of students here and there making a lot of noise.Nevertheless, her voice was clearly heard.Almost at the same time, most of the students in the class looked at the girl who had spoken out.As their gazes were instantly drawn, the girl shrank as if embarrassed.‘That girl… .’Small body and light dark brown hair.Skin that suits the word pale rather than white.And even though it wasn’t too cold, she was wearing a dress that covered her entire neck.She was Lee Yu-Na, one of the two students who entered the top.“Are there Choi Hyun-Woo, Han Soo-Young, and Yoo Ji-Hyuk here?”I reflexively got up from my seat at her question.I was sitting in the front seat, so I was able to approach her almost straight away.“What’s going on?”To be honest, I had no idea why Lee Yu-Na came to us now.The first time she would be with Class A would be at the joint training a few days later…?“Oh, the professor called. She asked all three of you to come with me.”“Professor? No, more importantly, all three of us?”“Yes.”Lee Yu-Na nodded.What the hell is going on?While I was thinking like that, Choi Hyun-Woo and Han Soo-Young were standing next to me, as if they had heard us.Lee Yu-Na, who had been looking at us, or more accurately at them, with slightly blank eyes, shook her head as if she was trying to regain her composure.“So I did tell you for sure? Go see the professor in charge of you. At a glance, it didn’t seem like a bad thing.”With the words, Lee Yu-Na waved and disappeared into her class.The three of us stared at each other for a while, and then headed for the staff room, not needing to say who was first.“I wonder what is going on.”Han Soo-young frowned at Choi Hyun-Woo’s not-so-soliloquy soliloquy.“Isn’t it because of that loser from yesterday?”“But she said it didn’t look like a bad thing.”“How can you believe that?”“Huh?”“What should I do with him…  .”Han Soo-Young shook her head slightly and muttered as if lamenting.I was walking a little apart from the two of them, and Han Soo-Young suddenly turned and looked at me.Instead of glancing at me, she was almost staring at me, and I couldn’t stand her gaze, so I asked her.“Do you have anything to say?”“No.”Han Soo-Young responded almost reflexively and turned her head away.‘… What?’As expected, she has an exhausting personality.As I was thinking this, Choi Hyun-Woo burst into a small laugh.“Soo-Young, You’re worried about the scar on Ji-Hyuk’s cheek, aren’t you? and you’ve been looking for a magic to get rid of scars these days… Ouch!”Choi Hyeon-Woo, who was laughing as he spoke, got his shin kicked so hard that it made a puck sound, and then just fluttered, unable to speak properly.Han Soo-Young looked at Choi Hyun-Woo with a red face, and clenched her fist and began to hit him a few more times.“Ouch! Aww! Hey. Don’t hit me with magic, it really hurts!”“Shut up, please… !”As I watched it, I shrugged as Han Soo-Young glanced at me.“Do you want me to be the referee?”“… No.”It was a different ‘no’ than before.Then she washed her face dry and nodded with a resigned look.“That’s right. I’ve been trying to find a way to treat the scar on your cheek. I was going to tell you about it when it was definitely possible.”And she sighed.“The dagger had an unusual appearance, so I looked it up and found that it’s pretty famous. You can’t get rid of that scar.”At her words, I touched my cheek.True to her words, the scar had indeed healed, but it could not be erased.That said, the scar wasn’t too ugly or unpleasant.Rather, it was a scar that resembled the scar I had in the past, before falling into this world, and I even felt a certain familiarity with it.However, from Han Soo-Young’s point of view, it didn’t seem to be the case.“You don’t have to pay much attention to it. It’s not even that big of a scar.”At my words, Han Soo-Young just shrugged her shoulders a little.After that, the three of us went to the staff room without a word.It was a staff room, and since there were so many sites and buildings, it had just been built in each building so that the professors could easily take a break and do office work.As soon as I walked in, I met someone I had never expected.‘Huh?’A person who should have died at this point in time.He was Lee Myung-Joon, the first important person I had met in this world.“Oh, there you are.”Alice Blessbuck, who was conversing with Lee Myung-Joon, happily beckoned the three of us to come closer.I sneakily tried to get as far away from Lee Myung-Joon as possible, but for some reason, he looked at the three of us with guilty eyes.“Are these three right, Professor Blessbuck?”“Yes, Hunter Lee Myung-Joon.”I glanced at the papers on Alice’s desk, wondering what was going on.And I could tell he had come with a matter related to Esmeralda Lysnerger’s arrest.“I’m sorry that I’m giving you another concern at this chaotic time, but I hope you understand.”Lee Myung-Joon, who had brought us to the private interview room, started to bring the main topic out after much consideration.“First of all, the evidence and testimonies confirm that the three of you contributed to the arrest of Esmeralda Lysnerger. So, the three of you should receive prize money along with a plaque of appreciation… It was like that.”He let out a small sigh.“For more details, internal circumstances and security regulations… Well, anyway, I can’t say anything recklessly because of various things, but that’s the point, it’s an adult situation. That’s why I don’t think it’ll be possible to award you guys a certificate for a while.”‘Isn’t this a development I’ve never seen in the original?’My expression hardened for a moment, but I focused on his words, thinking that it must have happened due to variables such as  Lee Myung-Joon’s survival and Esmeralda’s arrest.“Of course, the prize money will be paid properly. So you don’t have to worry about that.”“Excuse me, may I ask how much will be paid?”“200 million won per person.” [Approx. 168660 $]For a moment I wondered if I had heard it wrong.Then, Han Soo-Young, who was leading the conversation among us, raised her eyebrows softly as if she was surprised.“You’re doing things really fast.…? Excuse me, but as far I know, in the case of these international bounty criminals, due to procedural problems, you have to wait for three months at the earliest and a year at the latest.”“That’s right.”“It’s been about a month now… Does it have something to do with the reason Hunter Lee Myung-Joon came all the way here?”Lee Myung-Joon nodded.Then, as if troubled for a while, he closed both eyes, quietly caught his breath, and immediately looked at Alice.Then, as if she knew, she briefly signed and got up from her seal and locked the door of the interview room.Han Soo-Young, the only one of the three of us with any knowledge of magic, tilted her head at the action.“Blocking off the sound?”At her words, Alice smiled once and said to Lee Myung-Joon.“I don’t think there will be any leaks of our discussions here.”“Thank you for your help.”Like that, the two talked in a more relaxed manner.‘Come to think of it, the two of them were friends and classmates.’Certainly, it was mentioned in the original story that Alice was digging into the information of Isabelle Gaudi, who had originally killed Lee Myung-Joon.“The first thing I want you to do is to listen to what I’m about to say here and forget it. It’s a story I’m talking about on my own, so it will become very difficult if it flows somewhere.”At his words, the three of us reflexively adjusted our postures.Alice leaned at an angle by the locked door and stared at us with unknown eyes.“I’m not supposed to tell you this, it’s a second-class secret, but since you’re all involved, I thought you should know.”“May I ask you a question?”“I think I know what it is. What would happen if you told someone else about this or they found out? Do you mean something like that?”Choi Hyun-Woo nodded, and Lee Myung-Joon replied as if it was no big deal.“I don’t think you’ll be disadvantaged much, just have your affairs tied up for a while? And although it won’t be on the surface, you’ll have a hard time deciding which way to go later. And I’ll probably be branded a spy or a traitor and subjected to intense interrogation.”Choi Hyun-woo’s expression hardened at his words, who replied indifferently, and Han Soo-Young sharply looked at him and Alice alternately.I had a pretty good idea of what was going on, and I just wanted to hear a detailed explanation from him as soon as possible.“First of all, as you may already know, Esmeralda Lysnerger is an international criminal and part of villain group… she’s part of the Red Case, an S-class wanted group.”Red Case.It was a villain group that appeared quite a few times in the original story and is about the middle boss.Executives and other important characters appeared occasionally after that, but….‘Now we, no. This is not information that Choi Hyun-woo and Han Soo-young would know.’“And inside the association, there was a secret operation to wipe them out. It’s been a long time since we cooperated with various countries. But they’re a group that’s been around for years. That’s how well-prepared they were.”The truth was, the associations and police groups in this world were not very competent, but I was still listening to him with a serious expression.“To be honest, even though I knew that their spies had infiltrated the association, I couldn’t do anything about it. No matter how we thinned it out, the information kept leaking out. And without knowing their exact location, it was next to impossible to take them out.”But.He licked his lips, which were completely dry from the first glance, and spat out those words.“But an unexpectedly big fish was caught. But the main characters we caught were three academy prospective students who were not even adults… It was complicated for us in many ways.”Lee Myung-Joon said with a small smile.“I’m saying this now, but there was an opinion that you and she were in the same boat and you were up to something. Of course, it was immediately dismissed.”He cleared his throat a few times.I wondered if he wanted us to start laughing.“We were able to take Esmeralda Lysnerger, who was also a major figure in the Red Case, and we were even able to find a spy within the association who tried to contact her. Thanks to this, we were able to lay the foundation for a cleanup operation.”“Oh.”Surprised by what he said, I exclaimed softly.Originally, the association was excitedly beaten by the Red Case and almost cried to ate mustard, but in this world, they were in a position to make the first move.[Crying and eating mustard ‘울며 겨자 먹지’ means – Bite the bullet! (I think)]“So we wanted to give you, our biggest contributors, all the rewards we could, but… .”“Is it because there is a fear of instilling caution on their part if we are outed in the situation?”In response to Han Soo-Young’s question, Lee Myung-Joon nodded his head in agreement.“There’s that, and you guys might be in danger.”He mumbled and then looked us straight in the eye.“Of course, I have no intention of asking about your achievements like this. I’m just asking for a little time until you get the remaining rewards. Because frankly, if anything were to happen to you guys, it would be indescribably embarrassing from our perspective.”“Is that grace period after you clear up the criminal group called Red Case?”“Probably so.”When he finished, the three of us looked at each other as if we had made a promise.It seemed like we were going to agree on what to do, but frankly, I didn’t care what happened as long as the money came in.‘If it’s 200 million won, it’ll give me some breathing room.’It was a huge amount of money that I had never thought of, so I had no intention of pushing him any further.It was even more so because I was well aware of the fact that Lee Myung-Joon would not back down after wiping his mouth due to his personality, and that I could cut him off at a later date after the situation had developed to some extent.When I glanced at them, Choi Hyun-Woo and Han Soo-Young also seemed convinced to some extent.I shrugged my shoulders as the two of them stared at me.“Then we will trust you and wait.”“Thank you for trusting me.”Lee Myung-Joon bowed his head at my answer.Thinking that the story had been sorted out to some extent, he glanced at the clock on the wall of the interview room and murmured.“There are only about ten minutes left before the start of the first class. You’d better go back now. Today’s class is really important.”At his words, we all stood up.And just as I was about to leave, a voice stopped me.“Student Yoo Ji-Hyuk.”No way.And I had no choice but to complain inside at the voice that followed.“Can I talk to you for a second, student?”_________