‘I should respond even if it’s hard to.’ (Tak Geo-san)
The silence became longer.
What broke the silence was Bang Yoon-sub’s voice that sounded as if he was crying.
“Why aren’t you saying anything! Shit….”
“Bread shuttle……”
“Ugh, seriously! Where did you hear that word!”
At an important and serious moment, the atmosphere was ruined.
Tak Geo-san might have called Bang Yoon-sub by his nickname to show friendliness, but this time, he should have called him by his name.
It seemed like Tak Geo-san, without knowing the meaning of ‘Bread Shuttle’, thought that ‘Huhu. that is how students call my temporary disciple. Should I call him that way too?!’.
“……I heard that so many students from all over the country are making a line to be your disciple. So stop bothering me and go see that little kid or the ones who are lining up.
Bang Yoon-sub said his last sentence without energy and ran out of the special teacher’s office.
He was surprised to see me leaning against the wall near the door, then he muttered a swear, and ran out of the first-grade building.
‘What should I do….’ (Jo Eui-shin)
Bang Yoon-sub is a dishonorable, pathetic adolescent smoker.
The things he did deserved criticism. Even after being punished, he would be intimidated only for a second and would go around again doing foolish things.
In terms of the game, he has a characteristic enough to get beaten up and sent off while playing around to highlight the coolness and fairness of the main character.
‘If Bang Yoon-sub becomes stronger, Eungwang High’s level will rise as well so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to force them to be in a teacher and disciple relationship.
There was also a way to seize him with the “Fire Tweezer of Promise,” or sell him to Tak Geo-san with a bigger shackle under the pretext of terminating the contract.
If I suggest something, Bang Yoon-sub will obviously accept it to bluff.
But for some reason, I didn’t want to do that.
‘It’s kind of hard to force him with a light heart like how I did during the Eungwang training retreat. Being the first disciple of Tak Geo-san means a lot.’
I remembered the students in my class enjoying eating bread that he bought.
The kind kids in my class would give short words of appreciation to Yoon-sub whenever they happen to see him. They greeted and treated him so friendly that they sometimes even gave him snacks or milk.
‘Let’s see how it goes for now.’
With that in mind, I knocked on the open door of the special teacher’s office.
“Hello, Mr. Tak Geo-san.”
“…..You’re class 0 vice president. Come in.”
When I entered the teacher’s office, there were boxes everywhere.
Tak Geo-san was pushing in his uniform and plaque into the box. I couldn’t really understand what was going so I asked.
“Are you moving to a different teacher’s office?”
“No…. I’m planning to leave since I no longer have a disciple.”
“What?”
“I have a promise made with Hyo-don, and I hurt that bread shuttle’s feeling by acting indifferent.”
Tak Geo-san was staring at the box with wrinkles on his face.
“That dude has no talent, no toughness, no patience, and is bad-tempered, but….
After calling him as bread shuttle, he started dissing Bang Yoon-sub.
Just like how he previously mentioned that ‘no one can diss his disciple but him’, he poured out never-ending criticisms towards Bang Yoon-sub.
All the things he said were true, though.
“Although I thought he was a really insignificant boy, I still taught him hard at the thought of having Hyo-don as a disciple. But the more I teach him, the more I stopped disliking him and I began to find it fun to teach him..”
Tak Geo-san looked towards the door where Bang Yoon-sub ran out.
With Tak Geo-san’s ability, he could have easily caught him at once even if Bang Yoon-sub ran away with his air board.
Still, he seems to have let him go because of the thought that he had hurt him.
“….I’m glad that I won’t be causing any hindrance to the school schedule since it’s almost holiday. If there’s any chance, please tell those two that I’m sorry.”
Tak Geo-san seemed determined to step down from his position as he felt guilty about what Bang Yoon-sub said.
I shook my head.
“Don’t leave.”
“Pardon?”
“Where are you going leaving your disciple alone?”
Tak Geo-san seemed as if he couldn’t believe what he just heard.
“Before the holiday is over, Maeng Hyo-don will become Mr. Tak Geo-san’s disciple. So please don’t leave and wait.”
“What did you say?!”
Tak Geo-san’s eyes widened.
He seemed like he didn’t believe what I said but I was convinced.
It was a conclusion I made considering Maeng Hyo-don’s behavior, speech, and personality I observed.
“I don’t know how Bang Yoon-sub will respond to this….. but you might be able to have him as your disciple as well. But I have a favor.”
Hearing my words that came after, Tak Geo-san seemed confused but when he concluded that there will be no harm to his future disciple, he accepted.
“As you said, he seems clever, but…..”
As I was leaving the teacher’s office, I could hear him saying ‘suspicious’, but I decided to ignore it.
The hallway was silent since it wasn’t the time for students to arrive yet.
There was no trace of Bang Yoon-sub.
‘There is also an ‘open surrounding maps’ function of the exclusive menu, but it only reconfirms the topography or identifies the enemy.’
By only looking at the dot placed on the map, it would be hard to find where Bang Yoon-sub is.
But there was another way to find him.
<Gwanglim, use player’s trajectory.>
There was a system sound, then a card implemented by the impact of power rose in front of his eyes and disappeared.
The character I’m using is <Cheon Dong-ha, a member of a student council in the second grade who has a clairvoyance ability.
By borrowing his Gwanglim, it wasn’t difficult to look into the entire first-grade area.
<Target character’s Gwanglim, using ‘eyes that hold the sky and land’.>
As soon as Gwanglim was activated, I felt as if the inside of my head became broader.
To compare, I felt as if my brain was putting in information while having thousands of cameras on.
‘Found him.’
I immediately stopped the Gwanglim and headed to the place where Bang Yoon-sub was.
The place where I found him was the other side of the remote stone road in the first-grade area.
It was a place that students avoided because it only led to the warehouse where automatic cleaning machines were stored, and the roads were uneven.
How Bang Yoon-sub crouched in front of the warehouse and smoked, looked truly miserable and pitiful.
“Hey.”
“Ah, shit! Cough!”
Bang Yoon-sub, who was frowning hard and inhaling the smoke, began coughing as he was surprised.
This dude, who still can’t even properly smoke one cigarette, sneaked a peek at me and started smoking again.
“Why are you smoking when you can’t even smoke well?”
“It’s up to me, cough, cough!”
Bang Yoon-sub couldn’t even inhale the smoke once and started coughing again.
“Hey, Mr. Tak Geo-san will be waiting for you.”
“…..That’s none of my business.”
“No matter what brought you here, you should take the opportunity when it came to you.”
Bang Yoon-sub didn’t say a word.
Although he’s an idiot, he is a player who deserves to belong to Eungwang High. He knows that being able to become Tak Geo-san’s disciple is a great opportunity.
“Once you’re calm down, think about it again. When you change your mind later on, don’t think it’s too late and go see him immediately.”
Bang Yoon-sub, who unnecessarily stands on his pride, is very unlikely to visit Tak Geo-san even he changes his mind later.
I have no plan on forcing him to go but at least I wanted to let him know that there’s a door that will open when he knocks on.
Even after I finished my words, Bang Yoon-sub kept staring at the cigarette butt without saying a single word.
Instead of bringing it to his mouth, he was just holding it between his fingers.
He seemed like he wasn’t going to smoke any longer so I decided to say my final words.
“Go and buy the bread for me before the attendance starts. Buy a set of 12 seasonal fruit summer specials ice bread, with cool danish pastry.”
“Bitch…..”
“I heard that Kangwon-do potato bread and cornbread are also good….”
“Ugh, seriously!”
Bang Yoon-sub stopped swearing when he heard the word ‘Kangwan-do’ and started running towards the west gate.
It was a hot day. I felt happy to feed my students with cool snacks from the morning.
When Bang Yoon-sub disappeared from his sight.
“Eui-shin.”
Someone talked to me out of nowhere.
“I felt the energy of Dong-ha in the first-grade building. I was wondering if you used that ability again so I came to spectate.”
The voice was coming from the space.
Yong Je-gun was floating in the sky.
“If you’re done with spectating, let’s go to the classroom.”
“Haha, we’ve got some time before the attendance starts!”
Yong Je-gun stopped using his flying skill and landed in front of me.
When he landed, his loosely tied long hair drew an arc in the air.
At the time when Yong Je-gun was making a teacher contract, his long cyan color hair was a problem since freedom of hair color wasn’t yet generalized.
One of the conditions for his employment at Eungwang High was he either dyes his hair black or cuts it short. Between the two, he chose to dye his hair.
‘If I were him, I would’ve just cut my hair.’
Yong Je-gun’s hair seemed to fall much longer than his waistline, although he tied his hair loose.
“Aren’t you hot?”
“I’m used to it. Do you have anything more to ask? I also have something to ask.”
Yong Je-gun’s eyes turned to him.
I nodded my head to tell him to continue with his words.
“It seems like you act knowing about the Tiger Clan’s ‘enemy’ you’re confronting with. Am I right?”
“…..Yes.”
“What if I fight with them myself? Will I win?”
That was a question out of nowhere but the answer was already there.
It would be impossible with only Yong Je-gun’s power.
Even Yong Je-gun with his teacher contract terminated would be difficult.
Seeing me not responding to his question, Yong Je-gun asked again.
“How about the entire Dragon Clan’s power combined?”
Yong Je-gun with the power of the entire Dragon Clan.
There was no need to think much.
‘It’s still impossible with the entire power of the Dragon Clan.’
When Yeom Jun-yeol died in his third grade. When the Red lion and its alliance, and the Dragon Clan brought the uprising.
After the Dragon King God’s shaman betrayed him after a fierce battle, Yeom Bang-yeol, who lost the Dragon King God’s protection, was burned to death by his own red flames, and the Blue Dragon fell into a deep sleep.
‘The story might have changed if the Dragon King God remained on the Blue Dragon’s side till the last. But the Dragon King God chose the shaman’s side.’
The survived members of the Red Lion and the Dragon Clan fought guerrilla warfare to the end and resisted, but ultimately failed.
‘Not only did they fail to defeat the darkness, but they also couldn’t even avenge Yeom Jun-yeol.’
After the collapse of the concrete floor, when Joo Soo-hyuk became a sophomore, Yeom Jun-yeol came to Eungwang High, returning from studying abroad.
Yeom Jun-yeol’s colorful in-game motions, illustrations, and character, which were released as PV, attracted new users.
After Yeom Jun-yeol’s death, the users faced mental breakdown and most of them quit playing.
But a very few fans were like ‘I need to see the Red Dragon’s avenge!’ ‘Our patience will be rewarded!’.
After seeing the horrible ending, however, the remaining fans eventually left, leaving countless massages of criticism about the game.
‘The game that was rated with one star in the application store was then rated with a zero star.’
People would sarcastically say ‘Thought it wasn’t a star rate but one’s eyesight.’. PMH’s star rate dropped dramatically to the point it became similar to the unit of thickness of a mechanical pencil lead.
“It’s impossible, isn’t it.”
“…..Why are you asking me this all of a sudden?”
“There’s something that keeps weighing on my mind.”
I haven’t been answering any of his questions, but Yong Je-gun, who was guessing my thoughts, asked me again.
“Eui-shin, it seems like you often wear that crow mask. Is there a special reason for that?”
“Why?”
“There’s this guy called the Crow Demon Lord who has a very different taste from mine, and recently, I’ve been seeing people associated with him.”
“……Do you know where the demon lord is?”
“No. Hmm, so the crow mask you wear definitely has something to do with the demon lord.”
He read my thoughts again.
Yong Je-gun, who’s been showing a serious face all the time spoke with a mischievous face.
“Although I don’t know where the demon lord is, there’s a human who received the lord’s protection and I know where he is and what he’s doing. You can ask me if you’re curious. In return, you should ‘answer my questions with everything you know.’”
The Crow Demon Lord of silence, Citelendium who remains as a bystander.
And a human who received his protection.
I was curious, but I made up my mind considering the game scenario and the current situation.
“I’m not curious yet. Can I ask you when I need it next time?”
Yong Je-gun made an uninteresting look on his face, but he retreated as if he had no intention of digging deeper.
And his face seemed like he didn’t have any further complaints.
My playable character was a dragon who knows how to retreat without holding a grudge, unlike Hwang Jiho.
*******
After finishing the conversation with Yong Je-gun, I went into the classroom.
I guess the conversation went on for a bit long since all the students were already there.
But for some reason, the classroom looked quite different from usual.
“What are you doing?”
In front of a mirror at the back of the classroom.
Kwon Lena was standing with a thinning scissor in her hand.
In front of her was Song Dae-seok, sitting with a confused face.
And……
‘Why is he……’
Hwang Jiho was also sitting beside Song Dae-seok.
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