Chapter 104
“Ang-nyang-nyang....”
“Is Eve tasty?”
“Huh..? Ah, yes....”
“Those boys were swearing and fighting and all that, so you must've been really scared~ Want me to go tell the teacher? Should I have them expelled on the spot?”
“N-no! I'm fine.”
“Hey, you saw that, right? In front of such a sweet kid, what were you trying to pull?”
“I'm sorry.”
“It was my fault.”
The senior Ahn Gyeongwon and senior Na Byeongho, who had been throwing around some pretty nasty words right up until I arrived, got thoroughly put in their place by another unnie sitting with them.
Choa, eating next to me, was laughing at the whole thing.... Choa didn't seem bothered at all, but maybe because I hadn't heard people cursing in a while, my heart was pounding.
“Then Eve must be a transfer student? You were at a regular school before?”
“Ah, no! I was just.... at home..?”
“Homeschooling? Well, these days that can happen. It's dangerous even just getting to school.”
The older sister with the super kind way of speaking and enormous mom energy is Senior Hayeonwoo. Together with Senior Gyeongwon and Senior Byeongho, she's a second-year high school student, and right now she's basically the de facto top senior.
By the second semester of sophomore year, everyone goes out on practicum as Hunter apprentices to large guilds or crews, and then by third year they practically stop coming to school and live out there almost full-time. Of course, there are plenty of second-year seniors besides those three.
Choa had mentioned it before, but by the end of the term the middle- and high-school seniors go to the third-grade elementary class and talk with the kids who'll start Hunter Class next year, or something like that. I came straight into fourth grade, so to everyone I'm a face they'd never seen before.
“B-ya. The seniors aren't fighting or anything—they're just close. You know that, right?”
“What the heck is B-ya even supposed to be?”
“Isn't your surname Lee? Are you from the Gyeongju Lee clan? Or the Seongsan Lee clan?”
“Byeongho, that brain-dead move is seriously legendary.”
“Why are you picking on me again, damn it.”
And I was dumbfounded by a nickname I'd never heard before. So they thought my name was just “B,” after all?
“Senior Gyeongwon, I told you to watch your language in front of the kids.”
“Ah, right. Sorry.”
“I-it's okay....”
There were even middle-school third-years and high-school first-years, so the age range was all over the place. There was even a sixth-grade elementary senior.
“Eve and Choa, take your time eating, okay? Unnie will wait for you.”
“Yes, unnie!”
“Thank you....”
“I'll wait too, oppa.”
The second-year senior who'd come early and was eating had come early because the three of them had to go prepare before using the auditorium today. When Yeonwoo unnie said she'd wait for them, Gyeongwon senior and Byeongho senior tried to stay behind too....
“You two hurry up and go. You're on duty today, aren't you?”
“No, but you are too, Hayeonwoo.”
“What did you say?”
“All right, I got it.”
“Gyeongwon, hurry up and eat.”
At Yeonwoo unnie's kick-out order, the two seniors slurped down extra-large triple-seafood jjamppong like vacuum cleaners and disappeared. Since we had come early, lots of Hunter Class seniors kept coming in after that.
“Whoa, unnie, who's that next to you?”
“Her? That's Eve. She's a fourth-grader, and from now on she'll be taking class with us~”
“No way. She's seriously freaking cute. Can I touch her cheek?”
“No, Eve is eating right now~”
“Eve, say hi!!”
“H-hello....”
“She said hello!!”
Since it was a polite greeting, I would've thought “hello” was the obvious thing to say, but everyone squealed over it anyway. Choa seemed to know all the seniors, so she chatted away happily, but...
I'm not good with this.
They're people I've never met before, after all....
And the pork cutlet set meal had way too much food. I tried my best to eat quickly because I felt bad making Yeonwoo unnie wait, but there was a mountain of rice piled up and way too many pork cutlets.
“Eugh....”
I left about one-third of it.
* * * * *
The large auditorium Nest, where the chairs had somehow all been cleared out. The interior that had looked cramped at the opening ceremony was incredibly spacious without the chairs—so spacious you could practically run around in it.
Since it was the first day, apparently it was fine not to change into gym clothes.
Hunter Class is divided into 14 classes across all grades. They're not split into Class 1, Class 2, and so on, but by letters, and I'm in A Class, just like the one written on my enrollment notice.
Among the roughly 2,800 students, the Awakened rate is under 10 percent for elementary schoolers, around 30 percent for middle schoolers, and over 50 percent for high schoolers.
If you exclude the third-year high school students who are out on practicum, there are only about 600 Awakened students left at the school? You might think a Hunter academy with only that many Awakened students is ridiculous, but Awakened people are rare to begin with, so this is the worldwide standard.
Getting 100 percent of your student body to be Awakened is just a money sink, so it's basically impossible. Even in the U.S., they don't build schools that burn money like that.
Among them, Awakened students who want to go into tech development or research—people like Baek Sua unnie—rather than the field are left out, so about 400 are the actual number who learn to fight and need to use the auditorium.
And A Class, which includes me, Choa, Yeonwoo unnie, and the rest, is using the auditorium today. But since it's the first day of the semester, they aren't really doing proper classes.
“All right, everyone's here?”
-“Yes~”-
A teacher who looked like a haggard old man, with a bristly beard, messy bedhead, a haphazard ponytail, and hollow eyes, came into the auditorium. He was even wearing something like a shabby tracksuit.
Over there, Senior Gyeongwon and Senior Byeongho were doing the face-down punishment position. The reason was that they got caught goofing off instead of preparing for the auditorium practice.
“Now then, anyone who wants to know my name. Anyone who thinks they absolutely have to know it, even if they die? None of you, right?”
“Teacher~ There are new kids here too, so please introduce yourself~”
“Well, would you look at that, there are new kids?”
At Yeonwoo unnie's words, while she was hugging me tightly from behind, the old teacher's gaze turned this way.
“Hayeonwoo. But what exactly have you been hugging since earlier?”
“A fourth-grade transfer student. Cute, right? Her name's Eve.”
“H-hello....”
“Hey now, you're greeting your teacher. Stand up and snap your waist into a 180-degree bow.”
“Gasp....”
“Teacher, why are you being so mean to the kid~”
I tried to get up, but Yeonwoo unnie was holding me so tightly that I couldn't. Maybe because he knew that, or maybe because it was a joke, the teacher didn't really say anything else even though I was just sitting there quietly.
“How dare you speak to a teacher as lofty as the heavens. Right, my name is Baek Sangjun. Those of you who know me know, but I wasn't here last year. Anyone know why?”
“Me, teacher.”
“What is it, Lee Hajin. Answer me.”
“You were disciplined, so you couldn't come out, right.”
“All right, go over there and get into the face-down punishment position. Next to those guys.”
“Yep.”
The teacher kicked the butt of the middle-school senior who'd stood up and was trudging away, then slapped the baton-like thing in his hand against his palm and continued speaking.
“Your teacher protected the country. You guys know that? I went over to the West Sea and spent a year playing sailor with Chinese people who couldn't even speak Korean.”
“Does that pay a lot?”
“If it didn't, I wouldn't have gone. They gave me enough to live on for the rest of my life.”
“Then why did you come back? If you made money, you could've just rested.”
“Gyeon Daehun, come out. Go over there and get into the face-down punishment position.”
“Yep.”
Teacher Baek Sangjun booted the butt of the senior headed off to do face-down punishment again. Playing sailor with Chinese guys I couldn't even communicate with? Somehow I kind of got it....
‘No way, Daramong..?’
The image was way too different from what I'd imagined. The Daramong I pictured was supposed to be a bit more gentlemanly, cool, and neat. This guy looked no different from some unemployed slacker.
“I came here to be a teacher so I can kick people I don't like around however I want. Got it.”
“Whoa... what a bad person.”
“Yoo Choa, kneel down and raise your hands.”
“Hmph. But I’m right.”
By the time the conversation was winding down, 80 percent of the boys in A Class were doing the face-down punishment, and 50 percent of the girls were kneeling with their hands up.
Just a bunch of chatter from start to finish, and then fifth period was over. Now that fourth grade was the only one that only had classes through fifth period, it was time to go home.
“Looks like there still isn't anyone in this class I like. Hayeonwoo, take the elementary class and bring them back to their classroom.”
“Me? Can't you do it, teacher?”
“Oh, no. I'm an excellent teacher who dumps all bothersome work on the students.”
“Eve, you definitely can't grow up to be someone like that. Right?”
With Yeonwoo unnie suddenly swearing right in front of him, Baek Sangjun, who'd been listening, added to it too.
“Hayeonwoo, good call. And you there, Eve? Does the teacher seem like a bad person? Or do those guys seem like they're the ones in the wrong?”
“W-well....”
“Eve! Say it confidently! Say Teacher Baek Sangjun is a bad person. Right?”
“Aaaagh....”
Since I kept hemming and hawing and couldn't answer for ages, Choa beside me eventually answered for me.
“The teacher is totally the bad one.”
“Look at these kids. Did you all gang up on me? Not a single one of them is on the teacher's side. Hayeonwoo, hurry up and take these ungrateful brats away. Now I'm in for a rough year.”
“Yes, yes~”
In the end, Choa and I followed Yeonwoo unnie back to our class. The kids who only took regular subjects had already gathered in the classroom and were getting ready to go home.
“Choa, you're here? How was Hunter class?”
“We just chatted, I guess? Since it was the first day, we didn't do anything.”
“Did Eve do well too? Were the seniors nice to you?”
“Me..? I mean... they were nice enough.”
After a little bit of chatting with the kids, the teacher came in and dismissal began.
“Students heading to the dorms, don't wander off anywhere else and go straight in~ Students going home, wait patiently until the school bus comes. Okay?~”
-“Yeeees~”-
* * * * *
The school bus wasn't just a ride home; it was a bus that took you all the way down to the foot of Cheonggye Mountain. By the time I got off, Ophelia was already there, having driven over to pick me up.
“Eve, is that your family's car?”
“Huh? Ah, yeah.”
“That's insane. Isn't that a Rolls-Royce?”
“Uh, yeah.... Probably..?”
“You're really rich. Are 1.21-million-follower influencers different or what?”
“I-I don't think that has anything to do with it....”
“So it was just your family that was rich? The world is unfair. Damn it.”
After giving an awkward smile at the excited fuss from Choa's Seoul cartel friends, I said my final goodbyes to the kids and bailed.
“We're taking the bus deeper inside. There's a bus that goes straight in from here.”
“I see....”
“See you tomorrow, Eve!”
“Bye-bye~!”
My last bit of energy had been completely drained too, so I reunited with Ophelia in a totally exhausted state.
“Princess. How was school.”
“Uuugh.... Ophelia.... I don't want to go to school....”
“Unfortunately, that's not possible.”
“Waaah.”
“Were you bullied or something?”
“N-no, not that....”
Rather, there were too many kids around me, which was the problem. I had been thinking, isn't having a lot of friends a good thing? But after experiencing it myself, I realized.
The friends I'd get would be little elementary-school girls who machine-gunned conversation topics at me—topics with absolutely no common ground.
If they'd been dumbass friends like the Gakboongs, that would've been better at least. My head's pounding.
‘Even Gakboong was a teacher..!’
“Agh....”
My future looks pitch-black.