4. Outsider
‘Hmm…’
Break time.
After briefly looking around the classroom, Han Seol could realize that the situation was more serious than expected.
‘When did they get so close?’
Even if it’s ‘suddenly’, it’s already been half a year.
Rather, at this very moment, Han Seol’s gaze, which looked at his classmates as if seeing them for the first time, could be said to be stranger.
‘This is troublesome.’
If it were just passing the midterm exam, it would be no problem doing it alone as it is.
As long as he passed the 1:1 evaluation match and mock battle, he would surpass the cut-off line.
However, after hearing about the privilege for the top 3 from Yoo Jun-sang, his goal changed.
Unconditionally first place in the year.
The value of a D-grade skill book ranged from a minimum of 1 gold to a maximum of 5 gold per book.
1 gold had a value equivalent to 1 million won in old currency. If there were three books, it meant a product worth a minimum of 3 million won to a maximum of 15 million won.
If he could get it just by being first place, there was no need to give it up, right?
He expected that with the skills he had trained so far, being first place in the 1:1 evaluation match and mock battle wouldn’t be difficult.
The problem was the 3:3 group match.
Han Seol, who showed up on the training ground instead of the infirmary for the first time in a while, could see students already gathering in threes and focusing on training.
‘That guy is…?’
While looking around at the students training like that, one child caught Han Seol’s eye.
It was a kid who couldn’t participate in the training and was just sitting far away watching what the others were doing.
The number of people in one class was fifty.
If they formed teams of three, two people would be left in the end, so one of them was Han Seol, and the remaining one was that child.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
Perhaps because Han Seol spoke too overbearingly, the student who was just spectating responded using honorifics without realizing it.
Of course, Han Seol didn’t care about that fact at all.
“Are you alone?”
“Well, that’s… yes.”
‘Was it a girl? I couldn’t tell because the body was too skinny.’
Han Seol, who realized through the voice of the responding… no, her voice, that she was a female student, not a male student, asked her.
“Couldn’t find a team?”
“Well… I have a weak body and actually didn’t enter this academy because I wanted to become a hunter…”
She was also a case where her parents forcibly put her in the academy.
“So you have no regrets about going back home like this?”
“I can’t do anything anyway. I’ll just be a burden to the other kids.”
“I’m the one who decides that, not you. Stand up.”
At Han Seol’s sudden order to stand up, the female student looked up at him with surprised eyes.
“Why all of a sudden…?”
“It means I’ll test whether you’re really a useless person here.”
The female student couldn’t understand what Han Seol was saying.
However, she could clearly feel that Han Seol was serious right now.
The female student reluctantly stood up from her seat.
She thought that once he got to know her, he would give up on his own.
“Position?”
“I’m not confident in close combat, so I’m currently learning the bow…”
“Shoot.”
“Huh?”
“I said shoot at me. Don’t worry about me.”
Just because he said that, it wasn’t easy to pull the bowstring.
Wasn’t she the one who always compared herself to others because she couldn’t even properly hit the target in the first place?
“In the first place, you won’t die from being hit by a blunt training arrow, and before that, I have no intention of letting your arrow hit me. So shoot without worrying.”
“But still…”
The female student, who was fidgeting, had cold sweat forming on her forehead.
Her gaze, which was looking around, was conscious of others.
Although no one was paying attention to her as they were focusing on training, she alone was extremely conscious of others.
“This won’t do. Let’s change locations for now.”
“Change locations? Huh…?”
Han Seol quietly observed her and then grabbed the female student’s hand, leading her behind the school building.
This was the place where Han Seol did his personal training at night, and no one passed by here during this time when classes were in full swing.
Naturally, the female student became anxious when an unfamiliar man brought her to an unfamiliar place.
Nevertheless, the reason she didn’t run away was not only due to her timid personality but also greatly due to Han Seol’s mature gaze and serious atmosphere.
“What, what are you trying to do here…?”
“There’s nothing to look forward to, so don’t imagine weird things.”
“Are you crazy? Who’s looking forward to anything…!”
When Han Seol suddenly spouted nonsense with a serious face, the female student shouted with a blushing face, but Han Seol went to the wall, leaned against it, and stood facing her, not caring either way.
“This distance should be enough. As you can see, there’s no one around except you and me. It should be fine here, right?”
“What do you mean it’s fine? Don’t tell me you want me to shoot you here?”
“Are you crazy?”
If such a timid girl says this at the first meeting, this situation must really be absurd.
But Han Seol wasn’t someone who cared about such things.
“As I said before, it’s a training arrow with near-zero lethality. Even if it hits me, which I don’t intend to let happen, it will only hurt, not kill me. Above all, in the test, you’ll only encounter guys who won’t let you hit them even if you shoot to kill, so if you don’t have the guts to shoot even at someone who’s willing to be hit, it’s better to drop out here. I’ll take responsibility for bringing you here and accompany you to the faculty office.”
“That, that’s…!”
Han Seol’s words were reasonable and irrefutable.
But she couldn’t abandon the faces and expectations of her parents who believed in and waited for only her to drop out and return.
In the end, she had no choice but to make up her mind.
“I’m really going to shoot. Even if you get hurt right before the test, I don’t care.”
“Got it.”
‘Phew…’
The female student seemed to have made her resolve.
She took a deep breath, organized her thoughts, then picked up the bow and nocked an arrow.
Then she pulled the bowstring far back and aimed at Han Seol.
Twang!
The elastic bowstring’s tension burst out, and soon, one arrow rushed towards Han Seol at high speed.
She shot the arrow aiming at his chest, not his face, to avoid injuring Han Seol as much as possible, but…
Tak.
“What the…”
The female student let out a dejected sigh as the arrow was limply caught in Han Seol’s hand.
“Keep going.”
At Han Seol’s request, she continued shooting at Han Seol until the quiver was empty.
At first, it was a mix of worry and fear, but later, she became motivated and didn’t hesitate to shoot even at his face.
Of course, not a single arrow hit as she intended among them.
When she reached back and found no more arrows to grab, the female student shouted at Han Seol in a shocked voice.
“No way! Don’t tell me you caught all of them? This isn’t catch ball…!”
“I wish it were a joke too. It’s my first time seeing arrows flying so weakly.”
At the sharp evaluation without a single word of encouragement, she lowered her head, feeling discouraged.
“Sorry…”
She didn’t know why she had to apologize, but the peer in front of her instinctively had an atmosphere that was difficult to deal with.
‘Is it because of the way he speaks?’
“Still, don’t be too disappointed. It’s not completely hopeless. Although lacking in power, your grouping wasn’t bad. As for the rate of fire, if you learn the knack from now on, you can train it to a usable level. The biggest problem is indeed confidence…”
“Wait, wait! Why are you evaluating me and worrying about me in the first place?”
Her question was valid, but Han Seol’s expression looking at her as if she was saying something out of the blue.
Because of that, she was even worried that she might have asked a strange question.
“Isn’t it natural for a team leader to worry about a team member?”
“So when did I become your team member…?”
“You probably don’t want to be expelled here either.”
“Why are you deciding that on your own…?”
Instead of answering, Han Seol grabbed her hand and flipped it over so that her palm was facing up.
Then, her hand, which had calluses and peeled skin with blisters from just half a year of practice, was revealed.
“It’s the hand of someone who practiced until blood soaked the bowstring. You can proudly think of this hand at least. And being able to do it and wanting to do it are clearly different questions. My answer to that is you seem to be both. Any objections?”
Something welled up in her chest.
She was always lacking.
Both physically and mentally weak, she was always told to do things moderately first.
So she was more stubborn, but no one said she could do it.
So at some point, even she had given up on herself, but…
“You’re a strange one.”
“From my perspective, you seem stranger than me.”
She wanted to be of help to Han Seol, who told her that even someone like her was needed, one last time.
“Let’s say that’s the case. But when did you transfer here? I don’t remember anyone transferring to our class…”
Huh? Why do you have that expression? Like someone who bit into poop.”
“…”
* * *
The name of the girl he learned after half a year was Seong Yu-ra.
She was also quite surprised to find out that he was not a transfer student but an enrollment peer named Han Seol, but she coolly brushed over that part.
In the first place, if it weren’t for this situation, it wouldn’t have been strange if she didn’t know until graduation, not just now.
“By the way, how do we find the remaining one?”
Seong Yu-ra’s concern was extremely natural.
Currently, Han Seol’s team only had Seong Yu-ra, so they had to find the remaining one quickly.
Everyone had already formed teams and finished training according to their positions, so there was no way anyone would change teams. Naturally, it would be difficult to find someone.
“Team leader, do you have any good ideas? At this rate, we might get expelled without even taking the test.”
“I won’t be expelled even if I can’t participate in the group match. But this is certainly a tricky situation.”
“Seriously, even when I’m talking…”
As Han Seol looked around the classroom, ignoring Seong Yu-ra’s sharp gaze, a boy who was gathered with his teammates discussing strategies caught his eye.
Excluding Seong Yu-ra, he was the only classmate he had exchanged names with.
“Come to think of it…”
“What? Did you think of a good idea?”
“I heard that if the number of students in a class doesn’t match, duplicate participation is also possible.”
“Ah, that! Right, in cases like our class where the number of team members doesn’t match, it’s possible for one person to join another team as a duplicate. In this case, for the team member who chose to participate in both, the best score is selected as the result among the overlapping teams. But I heard it’s not common because it’s too tiring. Honestly, it’s already exhausting to match breathing and practice with one team, so it’s difficult to do it twice. But where is he going without even listening to the end of the story?”
The person Han Seol went to find, leaving Seong Yu-ra’s words halfway, was none other than Yoo Jun-sang.
As Han Seol had never approached anyone first before, Yoo Jun-sang and his teammates were quite surprised when he appeared.
“Oh, Han Seol? Do you have business with me?”
“I heard duplicate team members are possible.”
When he brought up the topic of duplicate team members, the atmosphere of the place suddenly changed.
Yoo Jun-sang’s teammates implicitly signaled him to refuse.
It would be putting the cart before the horse if participating in the other team’s training hindered their original team.
Yoo Jun-sang also wanted to refuse, but it was difficult to refuse easily due to Han Seol’s unique atmosphere.
“I know your situation too. But I’m not particularly good either… I’m sorry. I’m already struggling with just training in my current team.”
“I don’t mean to ask you to match our training. It’s fine if you take the test with your team first. Just come to our team during the test and fill the headcount. That much shouldn’t be an unreasonable request, right?”
“Even if you say that… Do you really just want me to fill the headcount? You don’t care about the rest, really?”
If it was just that much of a request, Yoo Jun-sang couldn’t refuse.
So he made it clear in front of his teammates.
“That’s enough. I’ll take care of the rest.”
And so, the midterm exams were approaching.
