Chapter 27
The Cheonmu Academy personnel appeared not long after we had subjugated the Owlbear.
They had probably confirmed that a monster they could not control—not one they had released—had appeared and hurriedly begun searching. There was no way the academy could have failed to notice the sudden appearance of an Owlbear.
Above all, the goblins and orcs roaming around the dungeon were genetically modified specimens created by the Cheonmu Academy, making them monsters that could be controlled in an emergency.
Even Korea’s top Hunter Academy would not get away with something as insane as herding applicants into an actual dungeon. They had deliberately withheld that information so they could evaluate the applicants’ ability to collect materials from real monsters.
‘If the applicants hadn’t managed to subjugate the Owlbear in time, quite a few staff members would probably have been fired.’
Perhaps that was why the expressions on the academy employees’ faces when they found us were worth seeing.
My injuries were severe enough to be obvious at a glance, and if they had arrived even a little later, someone really might have died during the practical exam.
Still, true to their status as Cheonmu Academy employees, they quickly wiped the momentary panic from their faces and began handling the situation.
“...Did you applicants really subjugate this?”
“Yes.”
“...I see. In any case, it’s almost time for the practical exam to end, so we’ll conclude your exams here.”
“Huh?”
“I-I still have one materials slot left....”
“......”
“Ah, I misspoke. This monster was the boss monster prepared by our Cheonmu Academy for the first-round practical exam, so all students who participated in its subjugation will be considered to have passed. Also, since this monster was prepared for a secret test by the academy, you must never tell the other students about its existence.”
“What...?”
“P-pass....”
“......”
To come up with an excuse on the spot and deliver it without batting an eye—once again, even the employees of the Cheonmu Academy were remarkably capable of handling a crisis.
...Of course, there was bound to be someone who stepped forward to object, as though dissatisfied with such an improvised excuse.
“Is it really okay to make applicants fight and subjugate such a dangerous monster?! It’s only because there happened to be a student from Recovery that he didn’t die for real....”
“It’s okay, Han Sora.”
“Hey, Lee Seonho. You nearly died, and you’re saying....”
“I said it’s okay. I only need to get into the academy. If nearly dying and coming back to life gets me into the Cheonmu Academy, that’s a cheap price to pay.”
“......”
The opportunity to enter the Cheonmu Hunter Academy was precious—so precious that once you had it in your hands, you could never let it go.
Especially since I, a student in Support, was saying this despite being unable to enter through my own abilities alone, even Han Sora would have no choice but to realize that arguing further would not be in my best interests.
“I-I mean.... If that’s what Seonho wants, then I don’t really mind....”
“...M-me neither.”
“Haa, seriously. If both of you put it that way, what does that make me...?”
“...Then may I take it that none of the parties involved have any complaints?”
“Yes.”
“Y-yes!”
“......Yes.”
-...Nod.
In the end, Han Sora quietly nodded, though she still seemed somewhat dissatisfied.
She had made an entirely reasonable objection, but I had cut her off and forcibly ended her complaint, so naturally, she was unhappy about it. Since the person who had suffered the most was saying he was fine, she had no choice but to swallow her feelings and let it go.
“Han Sora.”
“......What?”
“Thanks for worrying about me.”
“......Yeah.”
That was why I naturally did not forget to thank her. For someone with Han Sora’s personality, that alone would probably be more than enough to smooth things over.
“Then the applicants who participated in that battle—Kim Isabel, Seo Woojin, Lee Seonho, Cha Eun-joo, and Han Sora—will be considered to have passed the practical exam at the Cheonmu Hunter Academy....”
“W-wait a minute!!”
“...Is there another problem, Applicant Han Sora?”
“Why is he passing when he didn’t participate in the battle and ran away the moment the monster appeared?!”
“What? Aren’t Applicant Han Sora and Applicant Seo Woojin in the same group?”
“What does being in the same group have to do with anything? He didn’t participate in the battle at all! He even abandoned us, which is why Lee Seonho ended up this badly injured. It makes no sense for him to pass!”
After hearing Han Sora’s words, the academy employee turned toward Seo Woojin with a stiff expression.
To confirm the facts, the employee immediately asked him the same question as well.
“Is that true, Applicant Seo Woojin?”
“......”
“I asked whether Applicant Han Sora’s statement was true, Applicant Seo Woojin.”
“I-I wouldn’t say I did absolutely nothing.... Ah, n-no, that’s not what I mean....”
“What?! Are you kidding me right now...?”
“Please be quiet, Applicant Han Sora. I’m asking Applicant Seo Woojin a question right now.”
“......”
He hadn’t contributed anything to subjugating the Owlbear, but did he still want to get into the academy despite that?
Well, I understood the feeling perfectly. What Hunter hopeful would want to throw away the chance to enter the Cheonmu Academy?
Especially when it was a chance to get in for free without making any effort—it would be far too regrettable to simply throw it away.
“......Hmph.”
“Ugh....”
“......”
Of course, the heroines’ gazes as they watched Seo Woojin’s attitude were anything but favorable. I could even feel Kim Isabel’s contemptuous stare through her veil.
“I-I was also interrupted by that boss monster while I was collecting materials, and i-if it hadn’t been for that, I probably would have collected all of mine too....”
“......”
“I-I would have passed if I hadn’t suffered because of the boss monster, so shouldn’t you, um, just let me pass too....?”
“......”
Seo Woojin left everyone speechless, to the point that even the heroines and the academy employees stared at him in disbelief.
Could his real ability be not growing stronger the more he was loved by the opposite sex, but freezing everyone around him solid? Otherwise, there was no way to explain this chilly atmosphere.
Of course, the academy would also find it somewhat troublesome to openly fail Seo Woojin. They had to admit all the applicants involved somehow, so information about the Owlbear would not leak outside.
I could faintly sense the academy employee growing flustered after being unable to use the excuse they had expected to use, but I could not exactly say, ‘Let’s just count Seo Woojin as having participated too and let him pass.’
After going to all that trouble to raise the heroines’ favorability toward me, saying something like that would obviously lower it again. Han Sora could not stand injustice, while Kim Isabel still held a slight grudge against Seo Woojin for abandoning her.
“...Applicant Seo Woojin, please come speak with me separately.”
Perhaps unable to bring up the idea of passing Seo Woojin along with the others in this atmosphere, the academy employee cautiously deferred the matter.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
The day after the academy’s practical exam.
I had been hospitalized in a church inside the Cheonmu Hunter Academy after receiving the absurd diagnosis of multiple fractures and torn muscles throughout my body.
Since this world openly had a position called a ‘Recovery-type Hunter,’ most medical care here was handled by people with awakened abilities.
Of course, the field known as medicine in my original world also existed here. Still, people generally lumped together those who worked in that field and church personnel, calling them all ‘Recovery-type Hunters.’
You could think of it as the work hospitals had originally performed being divided between hospitals and churches in this world. For reference, this was not the kind of church that sprang up all over Korea like supermarkets, but a church in this world equipped with proper facilities for caring for patients.
There had been a brief debate over whether someone with multiple fractures and torn muscles throughout his body like me should be sent to the Cheonmu Academy’s ‘hospital’ or its ‘church,’ but thanks to Kim Isabel’s courageous statement, I was being treated in the church rather than the hospital.
‘L-Lee Seonho is being treated with my h-holy power.... S-so I think it would be b-better for me to continue treating him at the church than at another facility....’
It had truly been touching. A girl with androphobia had asked them to admit me to the church because she wanted to take responsibility for treating me to the end.
Thanks to her, I was lying on a church bed and receiving treatment like this. My limbs were bound, with only my right arm left free, so that I would not move carelessly until my broken bones and torn muscles had fully healed.
I did not look like some strange mummy wrapped from head to toe in bandages, as one might see in a comic. Instead, restraints of light created by holy magic were binding my arms and legs. I still could not move, though.
‘If we’re going to play restraint play, I’d rather be the one doing the restraining than the one being restrained.’
At least I could be grateful that my right arm was still intact. Thanks to it, I could stroke Cha Eun-joo’s hair whenever I wanted while she slept facedown beside my bed.
-Stroke, stroke.
“Hoo, hoo....”
...She really was cute, though.
Cha Eun-joo had been the one who worried about me the most, both when I was injured and when she heard that I would have to be hospitalized in the church. She had even used the small cot meant for guardians and slept in the ward with me because she said I could not be allowed to come to harm.
It was partly because she was the only heroine I had properly started pursuing, but even taking that into account, Cha Eun-joo was incredibly devoted.
Our date, which I had planned for after the practical-exam event, had been postponed a little, but spending time together in the ward like this technically counted as a kind of date too, so it was not all bad.
The one thing I disliked was having to make my girl sleep on that uncomfortable cot. Ideally, I would have asked her to climb into my bed and sleep with me, but with my body in this condition, that would be difficult.
-Stroke, stroke.
“Mmm, hmm...?”
“......”
-Stroke, stroke.
“...Snooore, snoooore....”
Cha Eun-joo unconsciously woke at the sensation of me stroking her hair, then carefully closed her eyes again when she realized I was stroking her head while she was asleep.
She was unconsciously seducing me so much that I almost wondered whether she was doing it on purpose, and my lower body stiffened for no good reason.
‘Even in a situation like this, my lower half is working normally.’
Once my body had fully recovered, I would somehow have to create an opportunity to take things a little further with Cha Eun-joo.
There was still about a month until the entrance ceremony, so we had to somehow manage to have our first experience together before then.
After making Cha Eun-joo completely mine, I could start adding them one by one.