Chapter 134
“Hyah, princess action sequence!”
ㅡPaaaat!
In an instant, five veteran soldiers were summoned from inside the gate. Naturally, the reaction was explosive.
“Wow, for real. I saw that on Reels.”
“Whoa, they come out that fast? That’s a total cheat skill.”
“Ahem….”
ㅡBeep!
ㅡClack!!
Senior Binho and Senior Gyeongwon kept showering me with praise, and everyone else was amazed too. Since the A Class of 24 had been split into two raid parties of 12 last time, Senior Gyeongwon, who ended up on the other team, looked very disappointed.
“Damn, I’m jealous. Binho’s gonna have it so easy.”
“That’s not true, Gyeongwon. I’m the raid leader, after all.”
“But doesn’t Na Byung-ho basically do nothing?”
“Yeonwoo….”
“I told you not to call me without my surname.”
And so on. In Senior Gyeongwon’s raid party, there was also a summon-user named Lee Hansol, a chuunibyou middle-school girl, but when I summoned five golems all at once, she suddenly started sighing nonstop.
“That’s unfair…. We’re on completely different levels….”
“Hansol, I believe in you. You’re good at this!!”
“Shut up, oppa. Go away.”
What Hansol summoned was one reconnaissance magic-pigeon familiar with ridiculously sharp eyesight, and one boar familiar of a fairly ordinary size. The boar was wearing shiny armor and looked like it could really fight.
Our team’s allocation must have been off, because aside from Senior Binho, the A-rank tanker, our front line only had two people, including Song Siwoo, a first-year high school B-rank swordswoman. Luckily, I’d brought plenty of front-liners, so it didn’t seem like a problem.
“Okay, the teacher won’t interfere much, so watch the electronic map carefully and each take your assigned route to go around once.”
“You’re going to sit here and rest, sir.”
“This is why I like gate-clearing classes.”
This was basically Teacher Baek Sangjun’s daily routine, almost like a bee’s. Today he was planning to dump the class on the senior students and sit here to rest.
It takes at least two hours to clear one gate, so since it’s third period now, we won’t be able to get back out until after fourth period. Right after lunch, Choa and I won’t go back into the gate, and only the seniors will make two rounds through it. But it’s basically no different from a walk.
Because the school-owned gate’s difficulty is incredibly low, running it this overpowered in a real raid would be basically the same as saying you’re going to wipe out every monster inside. At best, this place is C+ rank.
“Alright, let’s go. Repeat after me. Safety good good good~!”
-“Safety good good good!”-
ㅡBeep, beep-beep beep-beep!!
ㅡClack clack!!!
The gate raid was basically a stroll. The soldier golems I summoned were almost at B-rank swordsman level, and not just ordinary B-rank at that—they were veteran attackers who had spent a long time training in coordinated combat.
If all five of them rushed in together and hammered the monsters’ heads into mush, the monsters would go ugyagyak and keel over. The things that came out inside this gate were beast-type monsters, and except for the hyena-like ones that sometimes traveled in packs, our golems could take them down without any trouble.
“This really is no different from a walk, huh, bro.”
“Is that so….”
“I mean, that’s a good thing. It’s not like we want to fight tooth and nail for our lives here.”
I just lay on the back of the upgraded doggo and got carried around. They say we’ll sometimes go to really difficult external dungeons later on for actual practice, and that’s when I should really give it my all.
“So leisurely….”
We were also taught that the loot obtained inside would be divided fairly by the raid leader, under the teacher’s supervision. But Senior Binho glanced over it once and said he’d give me all the loot from this run.
“Really, is that okay?”
“The others didn’t do anything. You guys, no problem, right?”
“Yes, hyung.”
“No problem.”
In the end, partway through, everyone stopped and decided to just have fun using their abilities as much as they wanted. Originally, until an Awakened person gets their hunter license, using their abilities carelessly outside could run afoul of the law.
To be precise, it becomes illegal if you do something that harms another person. Protecting someone is fine, which is why even non-Awakened people participate in easy open gates.
“Ah, um, I….”
While casually walking along our raid-party route, everyone chatted and played around, but Senior Sana was walking alone a little way apart.
When the topic of distributing the internal loot came up, Senior Sana barely parted her lips and spoke up in the loudest voice she could manage. But it was so quiet that other people couldn’t hear it.
‘Could Senior Sana maybe be short on money..?‘
* * * * *
“Sir, we’re back.”
“Jinseo, wake the teacher up for me.”
“Sir!! We’re back, I said!”
Teacher Baek Sangjun was snoring away in a proper nap, going rrrr-khuk-khuk through his nose. We’d just come back, and it was almost lunchtime; I could also see Senior Gyeongwon’s raid party returning in the distance.
“Oh, what? Binho, is it lunchtime?”
“Yes, sir. Let’s go eat.”
“Good. Nobody’s injured, right? It’s not the teacher’s fault. Don’t file a complaint later.”
“Wow... Mr. Sangjun is seriously the worst. Right, Eve?”
“Ah, um…. Well, I mean….”
Yeonwoo unnie just flat-out badmouthed him in front of Teacher Baek Sangjun. But Sangjun didn’t care about that sort of thing. He just kept his hands in his pockets and idly stroked his beard, taking it in stride.
“Ha Yeonwoo, you try getting this old. All the things in the world become a pain.”
“Yes, yes~”
“Has Gyeongwon’s team come back too?”
“Yes. You’re awake today.”
“We just woke you up.”
“That figures.”
“Cut the chatter. Elementary school kids, eat and head out; middle schoolers and up, make sure you eat well and then come back in.”
“Yes~”
“And if there’s anyone saying they’re too stuffed to move after eating way too much, I’ll teach you how to empty your stomach right away, so handle yourselves.”
And so, the raid parties headed off to the cafeteria for lunch. Choa’s team apparently even had its own monster-hunting charm, but on our side, five soldier golems just went at it and whacked everything to bits.
ㅡDing-ding
“Oh, it’s Ophelia.”
Ophelia texted me to say the truck for collecting the soldiers was already in the visitors’ parking lot. So I took the doggo and the soldiers and headed to the visitors’ parking lot before going to the cafeteria.
ㅡClack, clack!
“Huh? What?”
ㅡClack, clack-clack….
“S-so it’s okay? Can you find the way?”
ㅡNod-nod
But along the way my pace got slow, and the soldiers said they’d go to the visitors’ parking lot on their own, so the princess should just go eat. So I just went to eat.
“Ugh, where was the way again.”
But surprisingly, the ones who actually knew the way were the soldiers, not me…. Come to think of it, I didn’t know where the visitors’ parking lot was, and I had just been following the soldiers.
“Oh my gosh. Which way am I supposed to go.”
ㅡBeep-beep….
“Ah, really? Over there?”
Still, thanks to the doggo, I was able to find the way. On the way to the cafeteria, I also spotted Senior Sana walking separately for some reason. Seeing the bread-like thing and chocolate milk in her hands, it looked like she was planning to skip the cafeteria and grab lunch from the school store.
I really thought maybe it was true: could a healer be short on money? Maybe because she still hadn’t gotten her hunter license…. I’d heard that because a healer’s ability is directed at people, getting a hunter certificate is a bit more complicated than for other professions.
Overseas, there was even a healer who didn’t use their own mana for healing, but instead drew on the target’s life force, and that caused a huge scandal. So apparently they’re extremely strict about checking for side effects and the like.
‘Hmmm.’
I stood there for a moment behind the bench, just blankly watching, and it looked pretty pathetic.
ㅡPlop….
“Heh heh, my retainers. Sorry, but I can’t give you the red bean part. That flavor is reserved only for me, the Great Mage.”
‘Oh my god. I’m embarrassed for her.’
She was even tearing off a little bread to feed the wild pigeons while babbling away to herself nonstop. And once the pigeons finished the bread and tried to get at the one in Sana senior’s hand for more, Sana senior flailed her arms around going ugyagyak and sent them all flying away.
Without bread, she can’t even properly handle her retainers. What an absolutely ridiculous Great Mage.
‘Ah, right.’
I quietly approached Sana senior, who was eating alone, and spoke to her.
“Senior Sana.”
“Eeek..!”
“S-Senior Sana?!”
Sana senior, startled out of her mind, ended up with the red bean bun she was eating stuck in her throat.
“D-drink the chocolate milk! The chocolate milk!!”
“Khk, e-uh….”
Sana senior brought the chocolate milk, still without a straw inserted, straight to her mouth and sucked it down in one go. After a little while, once she seemed to calm down, she let out a huge sigh of relief and looked at me.
“Wh-why are you here…?”
“Ah, well. I think I might be hurt.”
“...Where?”
“I think I twisted my ankle when I got down off this doggo. My ankle’s kind of tingly. Could you heal it?”
“An ankle…. With my healing ability, that’s no problem.”
ㅡWhoooosh
Sana senior’s healing magic felt like a cool breeze. Of course, I hadn’t actually injured my ankle, and I didn’t feel any pain at all, but it was kind of fun to watch.
“How is it? Is it better?”
“Whoa, awesome. Senior Sana is the best.”
“R-right. This much is a piece of cake.”
“Since Senior Sana helped me, I’ll give you half of the gate payout later.”
Sana senior’s half-closed eyes went wide as she looked at me, as if wondering why I was bringing that up all of a sudden. But maybe because she had pride, she abruptly returned to her usual expressionless face and snapped her head away.
“I-it’s not like I’m short on money or anything.”
“I’m sharing it fairly because you helped me.”
“You were the one who killed the monsters.”
“I did one and Senior Sana did one, so isn’t 5:5 right?”
“I-I guess….”
Sana senior stared blankly at the red bean bun in her hand, then, perhaps noticing my gaze, hid it behind her right side.
“...If you insist.”
“Yay. I’m definitely collecting it later. Got it?”
“Yeah. Got it.”
“Then bye-bye. I’m going to eat.”
Isana watched Eve’s retreating back from a distance and took a bite of the red bean bun.
“...A strong and kind kid.”
ㅡBeep-beep..!
“Hic?!”
The doggo was still sitting beside Isana, not having left yet.
ㅡBeep-beep….
“Wh,what..?”
ㅡBeep!
The doggo stared at the red bean bun in Isana’s hand, licking its lips. Isana saw that and hid the red bean bun behind her back.
“N-no... This is my lunch.”
ㅡBeep….
The doggo immediately looked up the brands of the red bean bun and chocolate milk and came up with the convenience-store price.
[1800₩ + 1600₩ = 3400₩]
ㅡBeep, you’re broke.
“Kgh….”