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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“…What are you doing?”
I spoke to her in a cold voice.
Pretending not to know someone I knew.
It was the thing I tried hardest to do in this life.
It felt like my acting skills were improving a bit.
I treated Ji-eun, who had attacked me, as a complete stranger.
“I told you not to go anywhere.”
I didn’t think she was being serious.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t seem to be from our academy.”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know. I can see through it.”
While she was acting, I still couldn’t figure out how she knew it was me.
No. Before that, I couldn’t even understand why she was here in the first place.
“Ji-eun!”
A student wearing our academy’s uniform approached us from the other end of the hallway.
“Is this the person you were looking for?”
“Yeah. I’m sure.”
The two seemed to be friends.
Then did that person let Ji-eun in here?
“Si-hyun. Do you know this person’s name?”
The student named Si-hyun stared at my face and then spoke as if she remembered something.
“Ah. The one who appeared in the 1st-year pair finals…”
As expected, everyone came to recognize me.
“It’s Choi In-wook.”
Since it would be revealed anyway, I said it myself.
“Choi In-wook… So that’s your name.”
Ji-eun repeated my name, looking straight into my eyes.
“That may be so, but who are you to rudely try to strike the back of my head?”
When I spoke seriously, she suddenly bent her waist 90 degrees and bowed her head to me.
“I’m really sorry!”
I couldn’t help but be startled by her completely changed attitude from a moment ago.
What, does she have a split personality or something?
“I had to confirm something, so I was being rude. I never intended to hurt you.”
Since she apologized to this extent, I had no choice but to accept, so I nodded with a reluctant expression.
“Ah… Yes… Well… Don’t do that again.”
I didn’t have much to say since I wasn’t actually hit.
“In-wook.”
“Yes?”
Ji-eun’s red eyes sparkled brightly.
“Why are you pretending not to know?”
She looked at me with an incomprehensible expression.
“Is there a reason you can’t talk about it?”
It was her friend who stopped her from getting too close to me to the point of being burdensome.
“Ji-eun! I think you’re misunderstanding something. The person who helped you probably isn’t In-wook.”
“…What do you mean?”
“In-wook was injured and couldn’t come to the academy for a while, right?”
When she spoke while looking at me, I nodded in agreement.
Sometimes there are good people who help me out.
I cheered inwardly.
“…I knew it.”
I don’t know what she was thinking, but her words seemed to be even more convinced.
…That’s not the reaction I wanted.
“Si-hyun. Can you give us a moment?”
“But… I really don’t think it’s In-wook…”
“It’ll only take a moment. Really.”
“Then I’ll wait for you on the 1st floor. Come there.”
With those words, Si-hyun went down the stairs.
In the deserted hallway with no one around.
After making sure there was no one around, Ji-eun asked me again.
“Now tell me. Is there a reason you can’t be caught being there that day?”
There were many reasons.
Even if it wasn’t because of my ex-wives, I wasn’t supposed to be there.
I had trespassed on the facility without permission and even knocked out two security guards.
If I got caught, it would be a mess of troublesome things.
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Black.”
Black?
“It was the first time. Seeing someone with the same color of mana as me.”
The color that rose when I drew out mana to use techniques was indeed black.
And certainly, even I had never seen black mana manifested in anyone other than myself.
…Except for Ji-eun.
However, in the previous incident, I didn’t use any techniques strong enough for mana to be visually manifested.
In the first place, I couldn’t even use them because of Egeon.
Then how did Ji-eun figure it out?
“And the moment you dodged my attack earlier, I recognized you right away. That it was you. So don’t try to play dumb.”
“…What do you want?”
Realizing that she wasn’t just making a guess, I became curious about her purpose.
What did she come all the way here to do after finding me?
Was she going to thank me or something?
“…In-wook. Take me.”
After taking a breath, she continued.
“Take me as your disciple!”
What is she saying now?
…My head started to throb.
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Since the day I awakened my mana, my world changed.
To be precise, the way I perceived the world was divided into two.
The first was the world visible through sight, no different from others.
The second way was the world shining with mana.
When I focused mana in my eyes, another world unfolded before me.
In a world that seemed black and white.
Only mana moved vividly and emitted light.
Red.
Blue.
Various colors resonated within the Hunter Academy.
However, among them, I never saw anyone with the same black color as me.
That was until the day our class went on a field trip.
The white particles floating after entering the mana control room of the Mado Tool Workshop.
In the eyes of my friends, it was thought of as a beautiful mechanism, but not in my eyes.
A warning instinctively rang in my head that I should avoid being exposed to it.
As soon as I noticed it, the man in a white gown standing behind us shouted for everyone to evacuate.
I don’t know if he was actually a researcher or not, but he shouted desperately and was dragged away by security guards.
At his words telling us to run away until the end, I quickly ran towards the opposite exit.
Even if our classmates and the guide didn’t believe his words, it was obvious that they wouldn’t believe my words either.
I wanted to tell everyone to follow me if I could, but I couldn’t explain a proper basis to persuade them.
‘I can see it! That this is a disaster!’
How many people would believe me if I said that?
For now, I wanted to go outside and observe the situation, but the moment I stepped out, the entrance was sealed.
A thick iron door descended from the ceiling, as if to strictly prohibit intrusion by outsiders.
The people inside must have sensed something strange too, as they started banging on the entrance.
It was clear that someone had deliberately put us in danger.
I tried to smash the iron door with force by swinging my sword with all my might imbued with mana, but it only left a scratch on the door.
It didn’t seem like it would open with force at all.
Another entrance.
I had to find another entrance.
With that thought, I immediately started running down the corridor.
And I saw the gowned man from earlier running towards me from the opposite direction.
When he told me to go out and seek help right away, I thought it would be better to do that.
But the ones who blocked us were men in fox masks who looked extremely suspicious.
Feeling like a battle would occur at a glance, I immediately focused mana in my eyes.
…They’re stronger than I thought?
In my eyes, they possessed white mana that was dazzling to the eyes.
Especially that man in the middle, the amount of mana he had was no ordinary.
On the other hand, from this gowned man who told me to step back…
I felt a faint black color.
At a glance, his mana quantity was below mine.
However, the fact that it was the same black color as mine surprised me greatly.
It was because I had never seen anyone with the same color of mana as me before.
He easily subdued the opponent with the little mana he had.
Although the ordinary people he faced were by no means strong, I couldn’t help but admire his fighting style.
It was too clean to be called clean.
Movements without any unnecessary eccentricities. A perfect control over his mana’s intensity and timing.
I could tell at a glance that he was far above the level of the Hunter Academy instructors.
When I said I would join the fight, he seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then he made a subtle expression and accepted my proposal.
He naturally flew towards the guy who was presumed to be the leader in the middle, and I was tasked with handling the remaining guys in accordance with him.
None of them were weak, but it wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t handle them.
In my eyes, I could clearly see where and how they concentrated their mana.
Although it was my first real battle and I was nervous, I calmly defeated the guys one by one with the techniques I had honed.
I could feel my whole body getting drenched in sweat.
I had taken down the last opponent, but it seemed the battle wasn’t over on the other side yet.
Moreover, the situation didn’t look very good.
The gowned man, who had been right-handed, was now holding his sword with his left hand.
Seeing that he couldn’t move his right arm properly, it was clear that it was broken.
Telling him to continue fighting was tantamount to suicide.
I told him that I would somehow try to handle it and that he should run away, but honestly, I wasn’t confident.
Because in my eyes, the white mana displayed a fierce force that seemed like it would devour us.
However, despite my urgent words, the gowned man didn’t leave his spot.
Rather, with a serious expression, he said he would make me win and told me to listen to his words.
At that moment when I was hesitating about what the right decision would be.
I discovered that the flow of mana inside his body was somewhat strange.
Completely different from ordinary hunters…
As if something was blocked…
What is this…?
Concentrating mana even more in my eyes, I couldn’t help but shudder.
Because inside him, an unfathomably deep abyss of black mana was swirling.
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