“No matter how I look at it, this doesn’t make any sense.”
Kang Hana walked along, deep in thought.
She had done as promised, notifying him about Jung Yuhyeon’s demotion to Bronze. When she got there, a student’s exam was in progress.
It was a Silver exam, the same one she herself had taken right after entering the Academy. It wasn’t difficult. She had enough skill, and the exam itself wasn’t strict.
At the Academy, Silver is practically the bare minimum. Staying in Bronze for too long results in an academic warning for lack of effort.
She felt sorry for those students, since it looked like they were being put down for being Bronze. She understood, though, that if you failed to grow, it wasn’t simply a matter of falling behind. Anyone who Awakens but can’t get field experience meets a grim outcome.
Lee Hyunwoo, a first-year Weaponry-type, looked solid in that regard. His potential was visible, so other examiners would have no problem granting him Silver.
'But examiner Baek Seojin didn’t.'
She couldn’t figure him out, beginning from his spar with Jung Yuhyeon.
He said he was not a faculty member but a dispatched civil servant. If he was a Silver-level examiner for the government, the best he could be was around C-rank as a Superhuman. That would normally put him on equal footing with other Silvers.
“It should be natural for him to be weaker than Jung Yuhyeon. That’s how it’s supposed to work.”
Yet the results said otherwise. A student clearly good enough for Silver, like Lee Hyunwoo, remained stuck, and a decent Gold-level Awakened like Jung Yuhyeon got dropped to Bronze.
She did apply some pressure to that process, but she saw the fight. She was certain that if it had continued, Jung Yuhyeon still wouldn’t have won easily. She even had a hunch that he would lose in an even worse way.
He’s no ordinary fighter. His judgment, his moves, even the look in his eyes. It all belonged to someone who had been in real battles, at least a couple dozen times. She had some experience in real combat too, so she could tell.
'Come think of it, the other day'
She remembered what her father, Kang Inbeom—Master of the Tower of Magic Clan—had said a few days ago.
He felt there was something off about the Elder’s sudden retreat after attacking the students. There were a few minutes when the Elder could have done whatever he wanted, yet the data for those few minutes had vanished without a trace.
“Officially, they said Director Ma Hakjun held the Elder off. Doesn’t that sound strange? I don’t mean to belittle Director Ma, but that was the Elder. There’s no way he blocked him repeatedly on his own.”
Kang Hana wished she had been there. The Student Council members were scattered all over, each dealing with their own fights.
She thought about what Yoo Dasom said, that maybe Baek Seojin was some kind of special agent. It sounded more like reality than a joke now.
“Plus, a moment ago, I told him about the forces behind Jung Yuhyeon, and it barely even surprised him. He also brushed off the possibility that guy would put everything on the line. A typical Silver examiner wouldn’t do that.”
Could Baek Seojin have some huge sponsor behind him? It probably wasn’t a major clan like hers, because she would have heard something about him. It was unlikely to be a corporation’s backing, unlike Jung Yuhyeon.
“Dasom said she doesn’t know him.”
Yoo Dasom, the Treasurer of the Student Council, was the granddaughter of a major corporate group called ‘Mirae.’ She had far more connections in the business world than Kang Hana did, so if Dasom didn’t know him, it meant he probably wasn’t from that sphere either.
“That leaves one possibility…”
She recalled Yoo Dasom’s words that he might be a Superhuman cultivated by the government in secret, operating outside of official channels against monsters or villains. In other words, a special agent.
That explanation fit every mystery.
He has no family, yet he doesn’t kneel before powerful backers. He’s officially a Silver examiner, yet he exhibits a higher level of skill. He completely rejects anyone who isn’t up to his standards. He claims he has no real combat experience, but his responses look thoroughly battle-hardened.
“It makes me so curious! I’m dying to know!”
Normally, Kang Hana was calm, but once she got interested in something, she couldn’t rest until she uncovered the truth. Yoo Dasom nagged her to fix that habit, but it was impossible to change.
“I can’t help it if I’m curious.”
She wondered if she should ask her father to investigate. Mulling that over, she spotted a female student heading toward the main building.
“Oh, hello, Senior.”
“Hi, Suhyeon.”
It was Kim Suhyeon, granddaughter of the late heroic figure Kang Minseong.
Kang Hana’s father, Kang Inbeom, revered Kang Minseong more than anyone. He was thrilled that they shared the same family name.
“They actually have different ancestral lines, though.”
Kang Hana remembered that the two had once met and shared a conversation. This gave her multiple ties to the Kang family, so she got to know Kim Suhyeon through that.
“Where are you headed?”
“Um, I have somewhere to go…”
“You’re on your way to the exam site, right?”
“Huh?”
“You’re heading in the direction of the exam area.”
Indeed, Kim Suhyeon was walking toward the same place where Examiner Baek Seojin waited.
“Are you really going for an exam?”
“I’m not taking it right now… I’m planning to do it next week…”
“So you do plan to take it.”
Kim Suhyeon nodded.
It felt a bit sudden, but also a relief. Kang Hana knew how burdened Suhyeon felt by everyone’s expectations and judgments.
She was still a new student, but she hadn’t settled in well. That was unfortunate. Paying too much attention to her might pressure her more, so Hana had kept her distance. It felt good to see she was doing better.
“Hang in there, Suhyeon. Try not to let people’s comments get to you too much.”
“Thank you, Senior.”
“You can still call me Unni if you want. It’s alright to keep it the way it was.”
She smiled, and Kim Suhyeon hesitated before nodding in return. She was one of the few who saw Suhyeon simply as she was.
“Alright, I’ll be going, then. Take care, Suhyeon.”
“You too, Unni. Good luck with Student Council.”
They exchanged brief farewells, and Kim Suhyeon continued on her way. Kang Hana stared at her back and let out a small “Huh?”
“Wait. Has Suhyeon ever gone looking for someone before?”
She couldn’t recall a single time.
She never took the initiative to ask for help or show her own intentions. She always just followed others because she was exhausted from the enormous expectations forced on her.
Yet now, she was heading to see someone all on her own. That person happened to be Examiner Baek Seojin, who already seemed suspicious.
Kang Minseong’s family had close ties to government agencies, even though they never formed their own clan. Her family itself was large enough to be considered a clan. They had deep connections in the political world, the business sector, everywhere.
So the fact that Kang Minseong’s cherished granddaughter, Kim Suhyeon, was seeking out this possibly mysterious Examiner Baek Seojin…
“Suhyeon, Kang Minseong, a Great Hero, Baek Seojin, a special agent…”
Her curiosity, which had begun to settle, suddenly flared up once more.
*
In a small bar located in the nightlife district, there were people gathered who were neither Superhumans nor villains, just folks who didn’t fit either category.
“…So that’s the target, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“How do we handle it? Abduction? ‘Surgery?’ Or a set-up?”
The scarred man’s question caused the man in a suit to click his tongue.
“He’s still a public official. Doing anything too crude will create headaches.”
“Then kidnapping is the same thing. An Academy-dispatched official is tricky to handle.”
“It’s not like there’s no way. Our client only asked that we ruin him socially, so that might be enough.”
The man in the suit handed something to the scarred man.
“Take your pick from this list. Pick one and have her make the approach.”
“Hope they aren’t second-rate amateurs.”
“Don’t worry. They’re all desperate for money. They’ll do whatever it takes.”
It was a set of files on a few women, each with personal information. They varied in age and appearance, but they all had one thing in common.
Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.
They were Superhumans who ended up in prison for wrongdoing, and they got expelled from their clans, so they had no means of survival.
“It’s easy. Twist the situation somehow so those two end up alone together.”
“Men should fear three things: losing a hand, letting their mouth run, and that other thing.”
“That other thing?”
The scarred man pointed at the suited man’s lower body. The suited man grinned and nodded.
“He’s a public official, so getting involved in any scandal could be fatal. Then we step in with the finishing touches, and the media pounces. ‘Sex offender civil servant’ is a headline that makes them drool.”
The scarred man picked up the files.
“So why is that well-off ‘Young Master’ asking for this?”
“Who knows. Seems he’s rubbed the wrong way by someone again. It’s been quiet for a while.”
“The Chairman won’t like it if he finds out.”
“He’ll still side with his grandson in the end. He hates letting ‘ants’ crawl all over him.”
The scarred man nodded at that.
“I guess one unlucky civil servant’s about to hit rock bottom.”
“Nothing we can do. He stepped on the wrong toes.”
“Baek Seojin… We’ll see a ‘Baek so-and-so Official Commits Suicide’ article soon enough.”
They were about to wrap up their conversation and stand.
Thump—
They were forced right back into their seats.
“I just heard something really interesting. Wanna repeat that?”
A golden-haired, blue-eyed “stunning woman” wearing glasses and a tied-back hairstyle smiled at them.