Chapter 80
As I stepped out into the hallway to head to the student council room, I could see a familiar head in front of me.
Choi Yeon.
Heir to the Sword Saint, one of Korea’s greatest heroes of the present day and a renowned swordsmanship master from the past and into the present, and the top enrollee at the Seoul Hero Academy.
Her distinctive light aquamarine hair, which stands out from the rest of her classmates, proves that she has Sword Saint blood in her veins.
‘I guess that’s why she has the habit of sending challenge letters.’
The two recent challenges I received were indicative of the atmosphere in her home.
“I think she grew up dueling with people she thought were similar or stronger than her …….”
As the mantra of the Sword Saint Family is “Reap the harvest in blood,” spilling blood was a natural way for her to become stronger.
Furthermore, she had a number of outlandish traits, as if she were blessed by the world.
And among them was the one that had the greatest impact on her growth.
[Warrior Race]
[1.The more you survive a fight with an opponent equal to or stronger than yourself, the stronger you become]
It’s a simple enough description, but it’s more than that, it’s ridiculously powerful.
The more you fight, the stronger you become?
An environment full of opponents, a talent for swordsmanship, and a personality unafraid of challenges.
For a monster like Choi Yeon, these were traits that could give her more than just wings, but boosters.
“……?”
Suddenly, Choi Yeon stops in her tracks.
There was no reason to talk to her or walk alongside her, so I, who had been keeping my distance, also stopped and looked at her.
Without looking back, she suddenly stands there in a daze and starts walking again.
Thinking it’s nothing, I start walking again.
Something tells me that the distance between me and Choi Yeon is getting closer and closer.
……Was she slowing down to keep pace with me?
As a test, I slowed down even more, and I could see that Choi Yeon’s pace had also slowed down significantly.
No, she’s really doing this to keep up with me?
Eventually, with a sigh, I reached her first.
“Why are you slowing down when you could just ask me to come with you?”
Only after walking next to her does Choi Yeon resume her normal pace.
All the while, she’s still staring straight ahead, not looking in my direction.
“…… It’s not like that.”
“You’re not even making eye contact with me.”
“My grandfather told me not to make eye contact when I’m pouting.”
Huh?
“Are you trying to tell me that you’re pouting?”
The side of her face started to turn red as she listened to me.
“……Don’t make eye contact with me.”
She’s tougher than I thought but I wondered why she was trying to keep pace with me.
“Then I’ll walk a little further away.”
When I finally gave in and stopped walking, Choi Yeon-yeon, who was going along fine, suddenly slowed down significantly.
“I told you not to make eye contact, so I gave you some distance, and now what?”
“Nothing but …….”
“What?”
She’s mumbling something, and as I get closer, I can finally hear her properly.
“I don’t know where the student council is.”
“Oh.”
Recalling a feature of her that I’d forgotten, I shook my head.
“Then you can just follow me.”
“Yeah.”
And just like that, we were walking down the hall side by side again but for some reason, I kept feeling uncomfortable stares from her.
I glanced over and realized that Choi Yeon was staring at me.
Oh, we made eye contact.
“Why again.”
“What?”
“You keep looking at me.”
“I’m not.”
“Why not, you just made eye contact.”
Choi Yeon finally nods in acknowledgment of what just happened.
“It’s just. I was just wondering why you didn’t show up at the place on the challenge last week.”
“…… Oh. You mean the challenge, I threw that away.”
“What?”
Choi Yeon stops dead in her tracks.
“You threw it away?”
“I don’t remember saying I’d accept the challenge out of my own mouth, and just because you sent it doesn’t mean I have to go.”
“That’s true, but…… it also rained that evening.”
“I know.”
“I waited in the rain in the training center.”
“I thought the Academy’s training grounds were inside.”
“……I didn’t bring an umbrella, so I walked home in the rain.”
Doesn’t it seem like she keeps changing her mind?
And there’s something strange about it.
In this part of the world, especially in Seoul, the Korean Meteorological Agency boasts a 99% accuracy rate for its near-predictive abilities.
This is why most people wake up and look at the weather.
But walking in the rain?
“You forgot to look at the forecast and didn’t bring an umbrella or something, did you?”
Her eyebrows moved.
“I’m sure you’re not avoiding……the duel this week.”
Right, so she forgot and didn’t bring it, and she’s using it to play on my guilt.
It’s a little too obvious.
I realized that she is the exact opposite of me and I had a weakness for these people.
“Try …….”
“I don’t want you to try, I want you to give me an answer.”
In other words, she wanted me to become a sacrifice to the 【Warrior Race】 as soon as possible.
Although it wasn’t a bad thing for Choi Yeon to become stronger, I couldn’t watch her grow up alone, so I needed to be prepared in advance, and I changed my words a bit.
“First of all, I have my own schedule, so I need to confirm it, and to be honest, your request to duel me is more of a notification than an offer.”
Method one: beat them with facts.
The second way is to say, “I have a job to do, and what if you give me notice and blame me for it?”
For children who are extremely good and cannot lie this is the best method.
Choi Yeon listened to me and stood still.
I could see her pupils twitching from side to side as if she wanted something.
However, even though I knew she had no malicious intentions, I felt guilty just looking at her.
“Next time, the next time I’m free, I’ll call you first, is that okay?”
Only after I said that did Choi Yeon let out a sigh of relief.
Then she looks at me and blurts out something.
“……?”
“No. Your number.”
“Oh, give me your number.”
I gave her my number…
After writing down my personal number, Choi Yeon puts her phone back in her pocket.
“If anything happens, call me──”
“──Ah, here, here!”
At that moment, I could see a woman in the distance, running and waving at us as we exchanged numbers and walked side by side.
“The juniors seem to have a good relationship, so this senior is happy~ but……eh?”
The woman smiles coyly, covering the corners of her mouth as if she’s been watching me from afar.
When she recognized my face, she stopped and smiled wryly.
“What, you’re the junior’s freshman seatmate? What a coincidence – we’re old friends, right?”
Sharp eyes, long black hair, and a black name tag pinned to her neat Academy uniform.
“……Yes. It’s been a while, senior.”
It was the same female senior who had offered to show me the way to the health center after my confrontation with Jin-woo.
“I didn’t realize you were a first-year vice president, that’s quite a surprise. Oh, and you.”
Choi Yeon bowed her head at the senior’s words as if she knew her.
“Yes. I’m Choi Yeon.”
“I see. There aren’t many girls with that hair color in the academy. Then…… the junior’s name must be Eugene Han? I’m glad I didn’t get his name wrong then.”
No…… I was hoping she wouldn’t remember it.
She smiled brightly and extended her hand to shake ours.
“I’m Julie Rodman, Vice President of the Student Council, nice to meet you juniors.”
I feel a chill as I take her slender hand.
She may seem like just a friendly senior now, but……actually is nothing like that.
She is a European noblewoman from Romania who chose to study abroad to join the Academy.
She was also the next in line to become the head of a family directly descended from Count Dracula.
Of course, she doesn’t do anything recklessly, but she’s a bit of an unpleasant character to encounter often, knowing that……sometimes random outbursts happen.
If she’s not usually like this, why is she so close?
Still, she offered her hand, so I’ll take it.
“…… I’m Eugene Han.”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s nice to meet you too, juniors. Now, before we go in, can I give you a few warnings?”
She smiled as I accepted her handshake, but quickly wiped the smile off her face and held up her own finger as a reminder.
“First things first. It’s fine to say no, but don’t do anything rude. Understand?”
Choi Yeon tilted his head, unsure of what Julie meant.
Knowing what I already know about the Academy’s student council, it was a warning that made sense, so I just nodded.
“Okay, then second. It’s really important to note that the president…… may pull a prank on you, but it won’t be malicious or anything, it’s just a tradition of the academy, so you’ll just have to take it in good humor and say, “Oh, he’s just playing a prank like this,” okay?”
“A prank?”
Choi Yeon asks, still confused.
“Yeah, something like that,” Julie says, and smiles.
Of course, I, who can already guess what the prank is, know that smile is poison.
“Okay, then, let’s go in, with Yeon standing behind me and Eugene behind her.”
With that, Julie stands in front of the door to the student council room.
She straightened her clothes before entering and knocked on the door, speaking in a businesslike and calm voice, not the playful one she had been using earlier.
“I’m Julie Rodman, Vice President of the Academy’s Student Council along with first and second in command of the freshman class. We’re coming in now.”
There were no voices from inside.
Ding-dong.
But Julie still turned the doorknob and stepped inside.
When the door opened and Choi Yeon followed her inside.
“……Ah.”
I could see that the previously blunt woman let out an exclamation and looked around in admiration.
In response to her reaction, I walked into the room and looked around.
A chandelier with an antique design, a red carpet, and numerous picture frames and trophies adorned the surrounding walls.
The magnificent size of the room and the artwork are a study in how wealth and power should be displayed.
I couldn’t imagine how much money had been spent on this room alone.
And then there was the huge table in the center of the room with four figures seated around it.
These were the powers of the Seoul Hero Academy, the academy’s independent student governing body.
“Welcome, freshmen, seniors and juniors!”
The man at the head of the large table in the center of the room jumped to his feet and beamed.
He has blond hair reminiscent of the sun, piercing blue eyes, and a cool smile.
This is the man at the pinnacle of the Seoul Hero Academy, a man who is making waves in society and in Korea at the same time.
“My name is Ray Pendragon. I’m the president of this student council.”
And…
“We, the student council of Seoul Hero Academy, welcome you!”
A man who would one day become my enemy.
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