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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Chaos
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“Waaaaaaaaah!”
A ground-shaking roar erupted from the spectator stands.
The other professors and headhunters, buzzing with excitement, pointed at Han Min-ha and chattered among themselves.
“Professor Kyo, how did you train her to change so drastically?”
Professor Yoo Hyun-joo asked casually, but I simply smiled in response.
Han Min-ha’s strategy had been brilliant.
Against an opponent who used Aerokinesis and refused close combat, she had used that very ability to propel herself, launching a creative and successful attack.
I had expected her to simply deflect the air currents with angled barriers.
But she had connected them in a semicircle, creating a slide.
Han Min-ha had trusted in the strength of her Aura; that was why she had taken that final, deadly gale head-on.
The sight of her turning sharply with a violet tail, accelerating towards Song Do-yoon, had been a spectacular performance.
The media was full of images of heroes overpowering villains with superior skills and strength.
But it was rare to see someone objectively weaker completely turn the tables with an ingenious strategy.
Moreover, Han Min-ha was at the bottom of the lower class, while Song Do-yoon was the ace of the upper class.
It was a dramatic comeback victory, the kind you only saw in movies, and Han Min-ha would likely receive a high score.
And the interpersonal combat evaluation carried significant weight.
Well done, Han Min-ha.
It wasn’t the Secreto way, but it was truly impressive.
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The interpersonal combat evaluations were over.
After the spectators had left, the faculty concluded their assessments.
We checked each student’s evaluation forms for omissions, errors, or missing information, then sealed them in envelopes and stamped them.
The final rankings would be determined by combining these scores with the written exam results, and the next semester’s class assignments would be based on those rankings.
I checked my phone and saw that most news outlets were filled with articles about Han Min-ha’s victory.
There were some articles mentioning Yoo Hee-won, but they weren’t as sensational as Han Min-ha’s win, so they were being pushed down the newsfeed.
Yoo Hee-won’s match had been impressive, but the skill gap between her and her opponent had been so vast that it had ended anticlimactically.
What kind of headlines were these?
[The Academy’s Bottom-Ranker’s Delightful Rebellion]
[The Perpetual Last-Placer Does ‘This,’ and the Academy Is Turned Upside Down]
[Graford Freshman Appears Before the Crowd in a Revealing Suit]
Revealing suit?
It had just been torn a little during the fight.
The articles featured close-up pictures of Han Min-ha’s chest.
Disgusting.
As I scrolled down, one article caught my eye.
[The True Mastermind Behind the Upset Victory]
[This Year’s Top and Bottom Students Share the Same Advisor]
What was this? Mastermind?
My name had been briefly mentioned during the advisor assignment period.
Yoo Hee-won was currently the most famous student at the academy, a promising hero with a bright future.
And coincidentally, Han Min-ha, who had just gained attention, was also my student.
Naturally, as the common denominator, I had become a subject of media interest.
But I wasn’t pleased.
I didn’t like this public attention.
It would die down soon enough, as always.
I made a mental note of the reporters who had written the most sensational and outlandish articles.
“Wasn’t Min-ha amazing, Professor?”
Professor Jin Se-young said, leaning close to me.
“Just a while ago, she couldn’t even exceed the minimum altitude, and now look at her…”
“She’s a student with great potential.”
“I heard you trained her separately. How did you do it?”
“I just taught her the way I used to train. Nothing special.”
“Hee… that’s still amazing… Teach me too!”
Professor Jin Se-young looked up at me with sparkling eyes, like a puppy.
“Yes, I’ll tell you later.”
I smiled politely and stepped back slightly.
Talking to Professor Jin was enjoyable, but I needed to see Han Min-ha, who had been taken to the infirmary.
“Kyo Soo-hyun.”
Someone called me from behind.
When I looked back, the hero who had met my eyes and waved from the stands earlier was now smiling at me.
“Ahn Joon-hyuk?”
The tall, well-built man, over two meters tall, grinned and extended his hand.
“It’s been a while.”
“Indeed.”
I felt immense strength in Ahn Joon-hyuk’s grip.
He was still ridiculously strong.
“Huh…? Legalmight? Professor, do you know him?”
Professor Jin Se-young whispered behind me.
I nodded.
“We worked together before.”
“Really…? That’s interesting…”
Ahn Joon-hyuk, callsign Legalmight.
An A-Rank hero with superhuman strength and unwavering righteousness, a rare trait among modern heroes.
He was incredibly popular and considered a strong candidate for S-Rank.
We had briefly crossed paths in Secreto.
“What are you doing here? Don’t tell me you became a professor?”
“Why else would I be sitting here evaluating students?”
Ahn Joon-hyuk chuckled in his characteristic deep voice.
“Doesn’t suit you at all. The Soo-hyun I knew, teaching students? What a sight.”
“Could you let go of my hand? It’s starting to hurt.”
“Ah, sorry.”
I rubbed my hand as he released it.
“So, what brings you here?”
“There’s only one reason an active hero would come here.”
“Looking for sidekicks?”
After graduation, heroes had several career paths.
They could work for the Administration as civil servants, join an agency to gain experience before starting their own office, or work freelance, taking on individual requests.
Ahn Joon-hyuk had joined Secreto with me, then left to start his own agency.
As a famous A-Rank hero, he had many requests and deployments, so he likely had several sidekicks working for him.
Sometimes, sidekicks handled minor tasks independently, so heroes running their own businesses desperately needed competent and reliable sidekicks.
That was why active heroes took time out of their busy schedules to observe the interpersonal combat evaluations.
“Yes. A few of my sidekicks are planning to go independent soon. I’m here to scout for promising talent.”
“What do you think?”
“That Yoo Hee-won student is quite impressive. I heard she’s the chairman’s daughter.”
“That’s right. She’ll probably graduate at least B-Rank.”
“She seems like it.”
I secretly hoped he would mention Han Min-ha.
But Ahn Joon-hyuk seemed to have been solely focused on Yoo Hee-won.
Hiding my disappointment, I said,
“Hee-won will be thrilled to hear that Legalmight is interested in her for his agency.”
“I never said I was scouting her as a prospective sidekick, Soo-hyun’”
Ahn Joon-hyuk said that and smiled.
“While I acknowledge her skills, I’m… hesitant about the fact that she’s the chairman’s daughter.”
Ahn Joon-hyuk disliked the chairman.
More than dislike, it was closer to loathing.
It was because of his righteous and unwavering personality.
Secreto was an organization created to handle the dirty work that the Administration couldn’t publicly acknowledge.
Their missions often required them to go beyond moral and ethical boundaries.
Ahn Joon-hyuk had constantly clashed with the chairman and eventually left Secreto, unable to endure it any longer.
Legal might.
His actions truly lived up to his callsign.
“I’d love to catch up, but I have to get back to the office.”
Ahn Joon-hyuk handed me his business card.
“If you have time, come by my office sometime. We can talk more then.”
“Sure. I’ll try to visit soon.”
I took his card and put it in my pocket, shaking his hand.
“See you.”
Ahn Joon-hyuk touched his eyebrow with his index and middle fingers.
“Justice and common sense are…”
Oh, come on. He wants me to do this in public?
Embarrassing.
But… I couldn’t refuse an old colleague.
I touched my eyebrow with my fingers and responded,
“Always in their place.”
Legalmight grinned, his white teeth flashing, and lowered his hand.
“See you again, Kyo Soo-hyun.”
Ahn Joon-hyuk left the arena with his sidekicks and staff.
“Huh? Wasn’t that Legalmight?”
Professor Yoo Hyun-joo, arriving late, asked, watching Ahn Joon-hyuk leave.
“He’s leaving? That’s a relief.”
“Why?”
“Goshawk is here.”
I followed Professor Yoo’s gaze and saw a short female hero talking to the other professors.
Goshawk, a hero who stood in stark contrast to Legalmight, the guardian of justice and common sense.
If Goshawk, whose methods bordered on villainous, had encountered Legalmight, it wouldn’t have ended peacefully.
Judging by her presence here, she hadn’t been expelled from the Administration yet.
It would be difficult to expel her.
If Goshawk was expelled, she would likely defect to the villains without hesitation.
It was better to keep her under some semblance of control.
Heroes like her were called “black heroes.”
Anyway,
The affairs of active heroes weren’t my concern.
I needed to see Han Min-ha.
As an academy professor, my students were my top priority.
I said goodbye to the professors and headed to the infirmary where Han Min-ha had been taken.
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