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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Chaos
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“Professor Kyoooo!”
Professor Jin Se-young, clad in her hero suit, landed right next to me, her auburn Aura trailing behind her.
“It’s Brown Tail…!”
People, seemingly having forgotten the recent chaos, swarmed around Jin Se-young, snapping pictures.
She was a B-Rank hero famous for her dazzling aerial acrobatics.
Combined with her innocent smile and pretty face, she was incredibly popular.
It was no wonder people were going wild, having a hero appear right before their eyes.
“Hello, Professor Jin. Are you on standby today? Working hard on a Friday.”
“Where’s the villain?”
I nudged the barrier on the ground with the tip of my shoe.
“Huh? This is it?”
Professor Jin looked down curiously at the villain’s body parts wriggling inside the small barriers, as if begging to be released.
“What kind of idiot causes trouble right in front of the academy?”
“The Administration will figure that out. Judging by its behavior, it seems to be a mindless villain.”
“That makes sense. Are you alright, though? No injuries?”
“I’m fine. As you can see, I’m perfectly unharmed.”
“It’s a good thing you were here, Professor Kyo. Otherwise, the damage would have been much worse… well… it’s already pretty bad…”
Jin Se-young trailed off, looking at the injured people protected by the barriers.
No, this was relatively minor.
If I hadn’t been here, this place would be a bloodbath by now.
In that sense, Han Min-ha and Yoo Hee-won’s actions, though reckless, had been a very effective initial response.
If it weren’t for them, dozens of people would have been slaughtered while I was figuring out the situation and getting here.
I wasn’t sure why they were here, but…
Regardless, it took considerable courage.
“Huh? Min-ha? What are you doing here?”
Jin Se-young’s eyes widened as she saw Han Min-ha sitting behind me.
“Ugh… My whole body aches…”
“Hee-won…?”
Just then, Yoo Hee-won stumbled over, and Jin Se-young looked at me with a bewildered expression.
Any professor would have the same look on their face if they saw two academy students in dirty, torn training clothes at the scene of a villain attack on a Friday night.
Yoo Hee-won and Han Min-ha had broken academy rules, and it was a serious matter.
Unauthorized departure.
Unauthorized flight, judging by their attire and how they got here.
And they had almost been killed.
This could escalate into a huge incident, potentially leading to not just damage to the academy’s reputation, but even its closure.
Yoo Hee-won might be spared, but Han Min-ha could be expelled.
I activated my specialized skill, “Making Excuses,” honed alongside my defensive abilities.
“We were out for a mentoring session and dinner.”
I interjected before any of them could speak.
“It’s Friday, after all. Since it’s Friday…”
“I see. Well, I’m glad everyone is safe. Hee-won… are you okay?”
“I’m just a little sore.”
Just then, Chae Ga-yoon pushed through the crowd and ran over.
“Professor Kyo Soo-hyun!!”
“Huh? Director?”
Jin Se-young and Chae Ga-yoon, having spotted each other, exchanged bewildered glances.
“On standby…?”
“What are you doing here…?”
This could get awkward for me if things got twisted.
Time to use my special skill again.
“I ran into Director Chae in front of the spicy stir-fried intestines restaurant and joined her, Professor Jin.”
Chae Ga-yoon, about to object to my blatant lie, noticed the two students standing next to me.
She looked at Han Min-ha, Yoo Hee-won, and then at me, and burst out laughing, waving her hand.
“Ahaha! That’s right. I was craving spicy stir-fried intestines and came here, and I ran into Professor Kyo and the kids.”
Her quick thinking was impressive.
That’s what it took to become an administrative director at her age.
Fortunately, the naive Professor Jin believed her without a doubt.
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The police and ambulances arrived at the scene a little later.
Professor Jin Se-young, as the hero in charge, handed over the scene to the police.
The still-wriggling body parts of the mindless villain were placed in separate super-alloy boxes to be sent to the Administration.
“Well… I’ll be going now.”
Jin Se-young, having finished everything, said goodbye.
She was holding a bag of egg bread I had bought for her.
Since she had to stay on duty all night in her suit, I had bought it for her to snack on when she got bored.
“Take care, Professor Jin.”
The crowd cheered as Jin Se-young ascended rapidly with her auburn Aura.
“Let’s go too. Before the reporters show up.”
I led Chae Ga-yoon and the students through the crowd.
“Oh! My phone!”
Yoo Hee-won suddenly exclaimed, patting her pockets.
“Damn it… I must have dropped it when I was thrown back.”
Just then, I noticed something under my foot.
It was a phone with a cracked screen.
It was Yoo Hee-won’s phone, the one she always had in her hand.
“Is this it?”
I picked it up, and the screen lit up as I accidentally pressed a button.
But the lock screen…
“Give it back!”
Yoo Hee-won snatched the phone from my hand angrily.
“Why is a guy over thirty sneakily snooping through a high school girl’s phone…”
She muttered something and quickly shoved the phone into her pocket.
Hmm… strange.
I could have sworn the lock screen was a picture of my side profile.
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I had intended to take the students straight back to the academy, but that proved difficult.
They hadn’t eaten dinner, and what kind of advisor would send their students back on empty stomachs?
So, we found a small, out-of-the-way kimbap restaurant.
Chae Ga-yoon, a frequent visitor to Graford City, claimed it was a hidden gem.
She was probably hungry too, since she hadn’t eaten much at the spicy stir-fried intestines place before rushing out.
“So… you were supposed to have chicken with the professor… but he didn’t show up… so you went looking for him…?”
Chae Ga-yoon, having heard the students’ explanation for why they were in downtown Graford in training clothes, paused mid-kimbap, and chuckled dryly.
“Haha… Kids these days are so damn bold… Oh, sorry, sorry.”
I knew Yoo Hee-won was lying, but I didn’t say anything and continued cutting my pork cutlet.
Sometimes, the best way to hide something was to simply keep quiet, rather than busily trying to cover it up.
“Anyway… since the professor said so, I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything, but this is a serious offense. You know this won’t end with just penalty points, right?”
“Yes…”
Han Min-ha mumbled, her mouth full of tuna kimbap and reached for a pork cutlet kimbap.
Yoo Hee-won didn’t answer, picking out the rice cakes from her ramen.
“Rice cakes in ramen… That’s a new one.”
“Hee-won, are you listening?”
“I’ll be careful from now on. If the professor keeps his promises.”
“Professor, buy them some chicken. If you break another promise, they’ll all get expelled.”
I simply smiled faintly at Chae Ga-yoon’s words.
I was relieved that she had agreed to help.
She controlled the gate access records anyway, so it would be easy to manipulate them slightly.
I would talk to the teaching assistants too.
Bae Ye-bin would be easy to persuade, but Yoo Hee-won’s rude teaching assistant, Kim Yi-bitna…
It would be better to leave her to Yoo Hee-won.
“By the way, Hee-won, are you really okay?”
“I don’t think I’m injured.”
No matter how talented she was, Yoo Hee-won was still a student.
The academy taught students to never engage a villain, but to run and report to the authorities if they encountered one.
Even hero trainees weren’t heroes.
And the gap between the two was vast.
Yet, Yoo Hee-won had fought the villain head-on, bought time, and survived unscathed.
But she still needed to get checked out when she returned.
There could be internal bleeding or micro-fractures.
Perhaps, being an only child, she had inherited all of her father’s talent.
I wondered how strong she would be by the time she graduated.
Han Min-ha, on the other hand…
She was stuffing her cheeks with kimbap, still unable to use her Aura after what had happened.
In such extreme situations, the survival instinct usually triggered Aura activation.
I had no choice but to tell her everything about her parents and help her find a way to overcome her trauma.
I would send her back after she finished eating and talk to her tomorrow, since it was the weekend.
While academy students were generally allowed weekend leave, freshmen weren’t.
Their schedule was almost as strict as a military academy, with only a week of vacation.
“Eat a lot. You both did well.”
“But Professor, what kind of technique did you use?”
I answered Yoo Hee-won’s question kindly.
“Nothing special. Just an application of the basic barrier.”
“Hmm… You can do that much with just a barrier?”
Yoo Hee-won asked, her eyes full of suspicion.
“It’s not difficult. You just need to be able to create a barrier of any shape, strength, and at any location you desire.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
Yoo Hee-won grumbled, but Han Min-ha listened attentively, her eyes shining.
“Student Min-ha.”
“Y-yes!”
“If you can use your Aura, you can easily do what I did.”
“Ah… yes.”
Yoo Hee-won clicked her tongue as she saw Han Min-ha lower her head slightly.
“If you had helped me back there, we could have finished it.”
“Sorry. But I was so scared…”
“Do you even want to graduate?”
Han Min-ha didn’t answer, and Yoo Hee-won frowned in disapproval.
“And stop stuffing your face with kimbap and eat some ramen. Are you trying to choke to death?”
“The steam from the ramen fogs up my glasses, so it’s uncomfortable…”
“Then take them off and eat.”
“Oh… That would work.”
“Good grief…”
I spoke gently to Han Min-ha, who was being bullied, or rather, unilaterally abused.
“It’s okay, student Min-ha. You were very brave back there. Without Aura, you’re no different from a civilian, yet you tried to stop the villain. Of course, you almost died, but…”
Yoo Hee-won muttered something about the wrong person getting praised when she was the one who actually fought.
“And you too, student Hee-won. You ignored the academy’s warning to never engage a villain, but thanks to you, it didn’t turn into a major disaster. You did well. But don’t do that again.”
“I’m so touched that you’re praising me while twisting the knife.”
I smiled at Yoo Hee-won’s sarcasm and added,
“And… I’m sorry.”
“Huh…? For what?”
“For the hurtful things I’ve said and done to you.”
I had deceived myself into believing I was in Han Tae-woo’s web novel and had mistaken Yoo Hee-won for the ill-tempered heroine of that story.
So I had avoided and rejected her from the start.
But now, knowing the truth, I realized Yoo Hee-won had been constantly pushed away for no reason.
Of course… she was still ill-tempered, but I had to admit that my behavior towards her had been inappropriate.
And in such cases, it was right to apologize.
“Uh… Hmm… What’s this all of a sudden…?”
Yoo Hee-won, unaware of the exact circumstances, avoided my gaze and coughed awkwardly at my sudden apology.
A faint blush crept up her cheeks.
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