Chapter 140
“I'm Ryuuzaki Kyou, a first-year student. Nice to meet you!”
ㅡClap clap clap
There are two exchange students who joined our class, one boy and one girl. After the boy's relatively bland self-introduction, it's been a while since Teacher Baek Sangjun actually gave us a real class.
Normally, during auditorium classes, Teacher Baek Sangjun was usually busy pinning some senior guy he didn't like down and sitting on top of him, but maybe because we have exchange students today, he's teaching properly.
“Hmm, what should I do.”
“Why, teacher?”
“I need to explain things properly to the Japanese kids too, but does anyone in our class speak Japanese?”
At Teacher Baek Sangjun's words, Class A started looking around. A few people turned their eyes toward Sana-senpai, but Sana-senpai just hugged her legs and buried her head.
Even to me, Sana-senpai looks like she'd be good at Japanese. For some reason she has that kind of aura. But then, once the stage is set like this, not being able to speak Japanese is also a very typical reaction.
“Mmmhmm.... Ah, right. Dangdang.”
ㅡBeep?
“That thing from back then, you know. The in-ear interpreter.”
ㅡBeep? Beep!
“Yeah, yeah. The one we used in England. Could you make that and give one to each of them?”
ㅡBeep....
“What? I don't get anything good out of this, so why would I buy you a snack....”
ㅡBeeeeep!
“All right.... I'll buy it, okay....”
In exchange for buying puppy treats for Dangdang, the deal was sealed.
ㅡBeeeeep..!
Dangdang trembled and strained like it was taking a dump. Before long, the two round earbuds dropped out of Dangdang's butt...
ㅡPlop....
“Ugh....”
It was a little awkward since everyone had been watching, but whatever. Dangdang is a machine now anyway.
“Th-then... Reika? Kyou? Put this in here like this....”
“Ah..! Thanks....”
“Th-thanks....”
The two exchange students took the earbuds, one each, with reluctant expressions. They couldn't understand what was being said, but since they just looked like regular wireless earbuds, they quickly figured it out. After checking them from side to side for a moment, they put them in their ears and nodded.
“Can you hear me?”
“Eek! You speak Japanese so well! Where did you learn it!?”
“No, I'm not good at Japanese.... This thing is translating it for you to hear.”
“A translator! Amazing!”
The other people listening nearby were also shocked. Naturally so, because the exchange students' voices started coming through translated into Korean exactly as they spoke.
“Wow, what is this, Eve? Does it translate what I say into Korean too?”
“Eh! Do I sound like I'm speaking Korean right now?”
“Yeah, it sounds like Reika is speaking Korean.”
“Amazing! Thank you! Etto....”
“Ah, I'm Eve.”
“Eve-chan! Amazing! Thank you very much!”
“Ehehe.”
It seems the Japanese-specific 'etto' doesn't get translated into Korean. Teacher Baek Sangjun kept nodding happily and praised me to no end.
“Wow, your ability is great too.”
“Of course. Ahem.”
“It'd be nice if you learned some modesty too.”
“Yep....”
I am using a truly absurdly tiny amount of mana, so it's fine. It'd be a pain if it caused trouble in conversation.
“All right, since we can understand each other, let's have a relaxed class.”
Teacher Baek Sangjun's proper class routine goes like this. First, stand up from your seats and do some rough warm-up stretches. Then, run a few laps around the auditorium at an Awakened's pace.
I usually just do the stretching and skip the running, because my body doesn't have an Awakened's physical abilities.
“Reika, are you good at running?”
“Ah, I work hard! I'm not very good at it, though....”
“Really? Want to have a race?”
As the eldest sister, Yeonwoo unni is taking care of Reika, while Senior Byeongho and Senior Gyeongwon, who had lost the girls they were talking to to Unni Yeonwoo, are talking with Kyou.
“Kyou, you said? You got some strength? Are you good at running?”
“Yes! I do have some strength! I'm confident in running too! I'm a combat class!”
“Good. Then it's a 10-lap race around the auditorium.”
“Sounds good!”
Our side is integrated elementary, middle, and high school, but the other side is high school only. Since this is probably their first time here too, they might feel uncomfortable, so the seniors here are taking extra care of them.
“Yeonwoo unni, Reika unni, fighting~”
“Aren't you running, Eve-chan?”
“Ah, I'm not very good at running....”
“I see! Hang in there!”
After everyone finished stretching, they could just run as much as they wanted at their own pace. You might think it'd take forever because the auditorium is huge, but that's naturally a luxury Awakened don't worry about. Even the slowest, Sana-senpai, runs at an average speed only slightly below Usain Bolt's top speed.
ㅡThump!
“Wow, you're running well.”
Senior Gyeongwon, being a mage, is slow, but Senior Byeongho is a tank, so he's excellent at using his body. He's really fast at running too, and Kyou isn't half bad either.
“Whoa, you're fast!! I won't go easy on you anymore!!”
“Yes! I'll give it my all too!”
The two of them dashed around the outer track of the main gymnasium. On Reika and Unni Yeonwoo's side, Reika is unfortunately clearly faster. That's because Unni Yeonwoo is a mage too, and her body conditions make fast running difficult....
“Ha, ha..! Reika! You're incredibly fast!”
“I'm an archer class, you know! Distance control is essential!”
“Hwah! You're really good at running!”
I crouched near the track and watched the match between Senior Byeongho and Kyou up close. Normally swordsman classes do have slightly better agility, but Senior Byeongho is A-rank, while Kyou is a B-rank swordsman.
“Na Byeongho wins!!! Yeah!!!!”
“Wow~ You run well~”
Senior Byeongho was genuinely overjoyed, doing 500 somersaults in the air because he beat a younger exchange student of a lower rank at running. Meanwhile, Unni Yeonwoo and Reika on their side circled the track slowly enough that they could still chat quite comfortably.
“Teacher, what are you doing.”
“Thinking. What should we do?”
“Whoa, you didn't prepare any lesson plans?”
“Yeah.”
Teacher Baek, who had been lying on a soft sports mat, fell into very deep thought because he hadn't prepared the lesson content.
“Then how about a 1-on-1 tournament or something?”
“Hmm, not bad.”
“Huh? I was joking.”
Teacher Baek was going to take something said as a joke and do it exactly as is. He doesn't even prepare lesson content and still freeloads ideas—what a true educator of this era.
Everyone had run around the track as much as they wanted and gotten warmed up. Teacher Baek scratched his side, walked over to the gathered students, and said we'd be going out to the field.
“All right, we're doing a 1-on-1 tournament. Since it's a spar, don't take it easy—keep going until I tell you to stop. Got it?”
“No, teacher. We catch monsters, not people.”
“You brats, don't talk nonsense. Then did this teacher go catch monsters for the whole year last year?”
“Ah, right.”
Kyou and Reika tilted their heads at hearing this for the first time. Reika asked Unni Yeonwoo, who was sitting next to her, about something she was curious about.
“Did Teacher Baek go catch villains..?”
“Villains? Ah, criminals? Not that—he got into a bit of a spat with Chinese Hunters in the West Sea...? He was in a standoff for a year.”
“Eeeh, amazing..! I've got a whole new respect for you, Teacher Baek.”
“Ahem, well now.”
Teacher Baek bashfully scratched the tip of his nose at Reika's praise. Anyway, today's class is a 1-on-1 class. Normally catching awakened criminals is the job of Hunter Police officers, so the career path is a little different, but just in case. There could be someone aiming to become Hunter Police, right?
That's just a made-up excuse. The class consensus is that he just couldn't think of anything.
“I'll set the bracket arbitrarily. Anyone who wants to sit out, raise your hand.”
There were originally 24 people in the class, but with the exchange students added, that made 26. Four people not suited for one-on-one combat—Han Yoo-eun, Jang Tae-hoon, Kim Do-yoon, and Lee Sana—sat out, and a 22-person 1-on-1 match began.
“Dangdang, contact Ophelia right now. I need to do a 1-on-1, so ask if I can summon anyone.”
ㅡBeep! Beep-beep-beep!
“Oh, Minyum is resting right now. Okay, okay.”
The moment the 'message sent' emoji appeared on Dangdang's face, Ophelia's reply arrived right away. The gate subjugation had progressed somewhat, and they were waiting for the boss monster's respawn cooldown, so I could use Minyum. One Minyum is enough.
A 1-on-1 spar naturally has certain classes that are advantageous, but even taking that into account, a Hunter still has to be able to fight well.
“I don't care if some criminals are bad matchups for you, and I don't need you to hold back because of that. Got it? If you run into a hard counter, just accept it as fate.”
-"Yes~"-
Out of the 22 students sparring, we went down to 11. One person got a bye, then 10 people fought, leaving six, and then they fought again to get down to three.
The last three then take turns fighting each other to determine 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.
My first opponent is Minharin-senpai, a C-rank telekinetic first-year middle-schooler. Unfortunately, Minyum is completely covered in my mana, so a telekinetic can't do anything.
“Eve, why aren't you summoning anything?”
“I'm about to. Minyum! Answer the princess's summons!”
ㅡFwoooosh!
When I stretched out my hand and called for Minyum, blue light gathered and Minyum appeared with a thud-clank, landing in full hero fashion.
“Eee! So cool! Do your best, Eve-chan!”
“It's a Gundam! Amazing!”
“Heehee. I'm super duper strong, you know.”
Minharin-senpai, standing as my opponent, folded her arms into an X, then spread her fingertips out to both sides and took her ready stance.
“All right, ready.... Start!”
At the signal, Harin-senpai ripped chunks of dirt from the field and hurled them at Minyum like bullets. But before I even gave an order, Minyum pulled out a shield, turned on the jet boosters on its back, and blasted forward with a whoooosh.
ㅡSwish!!!
“Eek! I-I surrender!”
“Oh my gosh. Minyum, do that thing—what was it again? You need to control your power....”
ㅡClack!
After Minyum gave a thumbs-up, one win was added to the tally. With the hyper jet charge, it neatly sliced a straight line across the floor right in front of where Harin-senpai had been standing, so she surrendered right away.
As the other students won their matches and moved on, all the second-year seniors and the two exchange students were still alive. The teacher said he had made the bracket arbitrarily, but it would've been awkward if the exchange students got eliminated instantly, so I guess he handled it well.
“Reika's so cuteㅡ!!!!”
“Byeongho, please lower your voice.”
“Ehehe.... Thank you!”
As expected, archers have something about them when they're taking aim. I guess you could call it kind of pretty; the focused look is cool.
“Ah, what is this, you fatso.”
“Hahaha, Gyeongwon. Long time no see.”
Among the 11, Choa got a bye and advanced, and Senior Gyeongwon fought Senior Byeongho and lost, so for the round of six it became me, Choa, Kyou, and Reika. And then Senior Byeongho and Unni Yeonwoo advanced too.
“I'm strong, you know? If you don't go all out, you'll lose.”
“Ahh, okay. I'll go all out!”
Kyou matched up against Choa, but Choa was way too strong for an elementary school kid. Both self-healing and physical enhancement were high-level skills, so she didn't get pushed back at all even against a first-year high schooler.
“Graaah!”
“My victory!”
“Ooh.”
Since Choa just grabbed Kyou's sword with her super-expensive mana gauntlet and pummeled it, she won easily.
Next was a match between Senior Byeongho and me.
“Phew, my Gundam buddy! You'll go easy on me, right?”
ㅡClack!
He was extremely sturdy thanks to his A-rank tanking ability, but because he's a shield user, his mobility slows down when he holds a shield, so he was basically just a perfect punching bag.
“Graaah!”
“Woohoo, Minyum did great!”
ㅡClack clack!
Next was the match between Unni Yeonwoo and Reika. Naturally, Reika the archer has a much bigger advantage over Unni Yeonwoo the mage. This was the real hard counter.
“Ms. Yeonwoo! Please don't hate me if I win!”
“Don't worry, because I'm going to win!”
Since her class rank is A, you never know. Unni Yeonwoo had already won the previous two fights by just using hand-to-hand combat, after all. To be precise, it's more like she was holding back her full strength.
Senior Byeongho, who had been beaten up hard by Minyum, and Senior Gyeongwon, who had burned through all his mana trying to get through Senior Byeongho's defense, trudged over and sat down next to me.
“Who do you think will win?”
“Ahh, B-ya. You still don't know Yeonwoo's strength.”
“Reika will probably lose.”
“Eeh, that much?”
Even Sana unni, who had sat out, started repeating the embarrassing line from before exactly as well.
“Ha Yeonwoo.... the Witch of Curses....”
Did they say the exact class name is curse sorcerer? Honestly, I don't really know what the difference is from a normal mage. This side is also a rare class with an extremely small population.
“Reika, let me tell you in advance, I'm strong, you know? If we're talking pure one-on-one records, it's about a seven-win streak?”
“There won't be eight wins in a row. Ms. Yeonwoo's streak ends here..!”
Sensing the unusual atmosphere, Kyou, whose pride had been cut in half after being hammered by Choa, sat next to Senior Gyeongwon and struck up a conversation.
“Um... is Ms. Yeonwoo strong?”
“Ha Yeonwoo?”
“She's strong.”
“She's good enough to be called the strongest of the first generation.”
“Uh.... What does 'first generation' mean..?”
“Her nickname is Shiro Oni.”
“Shiro Oni..!”
After the terrifying war of nerves between the two pretty older sisters, Teacher Baek Sangjun raised a finger.
“All right, get ready.... Start!”
The two immediately took their stances. Reika, nocking a practice arrow with weak impact, infusing it with mana and aiming at Unni Yeonwoo, and Unni Yeonwoo, crossing her palms and smiling coldly.
“Wrist.”
At Unni Yeonwoo's quiet murmur, Reika reacted immediately.
“Ouch!?”
ㅡClatter....
The bowstring slackened, and the arrow that hadn't been properly nocked dropped helplessly to the floor. Reika looked at Unni Yeonwoo with a startled expression.
“Left eye.”
“Aaaah!”
So Unni Yeonwoo really was a scary person....