Conquering the Academy with Just a Sashimi Knife (Novel) - Chapter 93 - Finals (3)

Chapter 93 – Finals (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The moment we emerged from the completely faded barren woodland, a wasteland spread out immediately before us.

Just from looking at it, it wasn’t all that different from the gray-white scenery of the forest from a little while ago.

Even so, it felt a bit easier to breathe. There was a kind of refreshment that came from the wide-open view.

“Haah, ha! We finally made it out of that insane forest!”

“…Seriously. Thank goodness.”

The faces of Rachel and Hana senpai brightened considerably, like people who had spent a long time seasick and had finally gotten off a boat. I too let out a sigh mixed with relief.

‘That’s one burden off.’

I took a deep breath. Air laced with magic power filled my lungs. Unlike at the beginning, when it had stung, I barely felt anything now.

The resistance was building so quickly it even surprised me. Was it because my name had the character for demon in it?

Back then, I had thought my name was only embarrassing, but now it somehow felt like it was benefiting me. If not, then maybe Kang Geom-ma just had an unusual constitution. That latter possibility didn’t seem especially likely, though.

Suddenly I thought of the parents of this world, the ones who had given me the name Kang Geom-ma. Of my father grinning broadly and congratulating me in a hearty voice.

-`Wahahaha. Geom-ma, you’re the pride of our Seori Kang clan! Just as expected, with a name like that, you were born under lucky stars. Well done, my son!’

They were faces I no longer remembered. And yet vague, nostalgic emotions still lay deep in my chest like drifting smoke.

I wrinkled my nose. I could uncover that sort of backstory bit by bit later. Right now I needed to focus on resolving the current situation.

I turned my head. Choi Seol-ah was sniffing the air, nose twitching as she detected magic power. She had the body of a human, but the things she did were exactly those of a dog.

Feeling my gaze, Choi Seol-ah scratched her cheek awkwardly. Shrinking in on herself, she approached hesitantly. Then, as though afraid someone might hear, she whispered softly.

“…Geom-ma sir, I can feel a dense concentration of magic power from the northwest. I think if we walk that way for about ten minutes, we’ll find the first checkpoint…!”

Choi Seol-ah stretched out her index finger and pointed the way. She was playing her role better than I’d expected. I stared at her for a moment, then nodded.

“Good work.”

“Hehe, thank youuu.”

Even at such a cold, bare comment, Choi Seol-ah scratched her head as if embarrassed. Her reaction was exactly like that of a pet dog that had fetched back the disc its owner had thrown far away.

Since Choi Seol-ah had lived as a subordinate of the Fifth Legion Commander, her passive attitude was understandable at a glance. Of course, that didn’t mean I had erased my suspicion.

Right now she acted humble and deferential, but villains were the sort that might club you in the back of the head at any moment. Killing would cost them neither a reason nor a hesitation.

Even now, she was probably still carefully preserving her grudge against me while wagging her tail obediently.

‘Still, thanks to her, we didn’t have to wander around lost in the woods.’

I raised my eyes and looked out over the plain. Even though we were indoors, the horizon stretched far into the distance. Maybe the magic power rippling along the ground was interfering with space and expanding it. Or maybe not.

‘…Something about this feels a little strange.’

The longer I stared at the horizon, the more unease welled up inside me.

If only I had my sashimi knife on me, I could make full use of my sensory range, but for now I had no choice but to rely on my natural instincts.

“Hey, Geom-ma.”

While I was taking a moment to gather my thoughts, Hana senpai came up quietly.

“Oh, senpai.”

“…It’s just that no matter how I look at it, Rachel’s condition seems really bad, so… wouldn’t it be okay if we rested for a little while? It feels like we found the path faster than expected. There’s still thirty minutes left before the time limit, right? At least go and ask her.”

I glanced over at Rachel.

She was pouring out cold sweat and breathing in harsh gasps. Out of all of us, she was the one visibly struggling the most.

An article I’d skimmed in my previous life suddenly came to mind.

Some little piece of trivia about how healthy people were, ironically, more vulnerable to germs.

I seemed to remember it saying that because their metabolism was more active, germs also multiplied faster.

‘Is magic power like a virus to humans?’

If that hypothesis was right, then I could roughly understand why Rachel was breathing so sharply. Of all the cadets I knew, there wasn’t one healthier than her.

After thanking Hana senpai, I moved right up beside Rachel. As I approached, Rachel forced the corners of her mouth up even while dragging in long breaths and said.

“Haah, haah. Sorry, sorry. I finally got to be team leader, and now I have to show this pathetic side of myself in front of you, Geom-ma. Kind of humiliating.”

Rachel forced firmness into her weakening voice. As if to say this wasn’t much of a big deal, she tried to urge her steps onward again.

“……”

I had forgotten for a moment, but Rachel was the leader. Maybe because of that, a sense of responsibility clung to her unsteady steps.

Her words and behavior were definitely bitchy most of the time, but she too was a proper hero carrying on the lineage of the Shooting Star House. And one of the main heroines who, together with Leon the Hero, would eventually face off against the demons.

Even if it was still in the future, the duty and responsibility of standing in for humanity rested on both her shoulders. Whether she wanted them there or not.

‘In that sense, Rachel really is impressive too.’

Willingly laying down your life to fight for countless strangers was something that deserved respect. For now, though, she had no such self-awareness at all and was only serving as a trigger for my headaches…

Even so, it was unpleasant to watch her panting like that. At this rate she might drop unconscious at any moment, and then I’d end up carrying her around on my back for the whole exam. I had no confidence I could handle Rachel’s sturdy weight.

“Hold on, Rachel.”

“H-hm?”

I grabbed her by the arm. Rachel jumped in surprise.

The firm biceps in my grip twitched once.

“Let’s stop here and rest for a bit.”

For once, Rachel looked flustered enough to stammer. Her heart-shaped eyes had gone round. Even if I couldn’t treat her warmly, I could at least suggest a short break. No matter what, we were on the same team.

“Looks like we’ve basically come most of the way already. So I think we could afford to rest for about ten minutes.”

“…How does Geom-ma know we’re almost there?”

Rachel stared at me with puzzled eyes. The explanation had been far too lacking.

But it wasn’t as though I could say I’d secretly been using Choi Seol-ah as a magic-sniffing search dog.

I’d just had to smooth it over somehow. Scratching the edge of my brow, I answered.

“I’ve got good instincts, you know. I was the first one to notice the demon showing up during the midterms.”

“Mmm, that’s true.”

“And even if we’re a little late, so what?”

“H-hm?”

“It’s not like getting disqualified means we fail right on the spot. We can just do better on the next test. Since you’re the leader, don’t burden yourself too much.”

“……”

Even if we failed the final exam, it wasn’t more important than Rachel’s well-being.

No matter what, she was a talent destined to become a great hero, the right hand of the Hero Leon.

If she got injured somewhere meaningless like this, there was no knowing how far the butterfly effect would spread.

“Rachel, I’m saying this because not just you, but Hana senpai looks like she’s having a hard time too. The decision is yours as team leader, but my vote is for resting. Right, Hana senpai?”

At my question, senpai silently gave me an OK sign. I turned my gaze back. Rachel looked back and forth between me and senpai’s face. Then, after a moment, she lowered her gaze to the ground and gave a small nod.

“…Then three minutes.”

“Three-minute curry? When you’re sick, you need to rest properly. How about ten minutes?”

Rachel lifted her head. Her eyes had gone red.

Maybe it was because I had said curry to the blonde? She had reacted intensely before too when Choi Seol-ah had teased her by calling her pickled radish.

Rachel parted her lips, then soon let out a small laugh. It was the same bright, healthy laugh she usually wore.

Right after that, she wiped at the corner of her eyes and declared loudly.

“All right! Ten minutes, let’s go~!”

I smiled faintly inside.

‘Now she feels like Rachel again.’

Only then did Hana senpai collapse onto the ground in relief. I too planted my backside down against an ashen tree trunk.

As I sat there blankly, Choi Seol-ah casually squatted down beside me. I thought about waving her away, but the speed at which she plopped herself down was faster.

Choi Seol-ah pulled her knees up tightly, as though trying to block her voice from carrying, and spoke in a tiny voice.

“…Geom-ma sir, there’s something I wanted to tell you.”

At some point, the highest level of honorifics had settled firmly on Choi Seol-ah’s tongue.

She stayed quiet as if asking for permission to speak. I asked with a suspicious look.

“What is it?”

“…Well.”

Choi Seol-ah sorted through her thoughts for a moment, then opened her mouth.

“Geom-ma sir, your skill at charming women is seriously no joke! Mad respect!”

“……”

Choi Seol-ah’s purple eyes sparkled as if she were hoping for praise.

I didn’t know in what sense a woman stripped of her humanity meant it, but to me it sounded like sarcasm. My expression turned cold.

“If you’re going to live in Korea, start by learning how to talk properly.”

Choi Seol-ah looked genuinely shocked and buried her face in her knees. The hands wrapped around her shins trembled.

“S-s-sorry. P-please spare me.”

“……”

…How had this girl managed not to get kicked out of the Academy all this time?

* * *

After our short break, we started moving our legs again.

A long, barren wasteland stretched out before us. There wasn’t even the faintest trace of the smell of life.

No matter how widely I looked around, I couldn’t see any other teams besides ours. There were many of them, considering the exam included both first and second years, so it seemed quite a few had already dropped out halfway.

‘If we didn’t have this one, we’d have been eliminated a long time ago.’

Choi Seol-ah stayed close at my side and quietly pointed out the direction. Even in terrain like this, all you needed was a human navigation system.

…But come to think of it, what happened to the teams that gave up midway? We had Choi Seol-ah, but other teams didn’t, right? The question occurred to me suddenly, and as we walked, I asked.

“Hey, how do the teams that drop out in the middle get back?”

“Ah, that? Well, let’s see… it should be in here somewhere.”

Choi Seol-ah paid no mind to my brusque tone.

She plunged her hand into the subspace shoulder pouch and rummaged around for something, and before long she pulled out a small case.

A jet-black box small enough to fit in one hand. It wasn’t something I had ever seen even during my player days.

“…What is that?”

“This is a magic power locator! Like this, if you open the lid, ta-da!”

Choi Seol-ah proudly flipped open the top of the case. Right in the center sat an old-fashioned red button that looked like something out of an arcade from decades past.

“See this button? If you press it, the holder’s location shows up on the admin office screen.”

“That works even inside the Special Hall? How?”

“…Uh, I don’t really know the principle either. It was developed at one of the Hero Association’s labs and distributed to the Academy for educational use… I heard they made it by degrading one of the artifacts. Ah, and for the record, these subspace shoulder bags were also provided in bulk to the faculty by the Association!”

Choi Seol-ah lifted the shoulder bag with two fingers and showed it off. She wore an oddly proud expression, as if she herself had invented it.

I ignored her completely and observed the black case and the bag. Choi Seol-ah let her mouth droop and muttered in a tiny voice.

“…I worked so hard explaining it, you could at least give me a word of praise…”

“……”

I was about to say something, but turned my gaze away again.

‘The Association is already making things like this?’

Artifacts.

Relics made in the mythic age, back when magic and blessings had not yet been distinguished from each other. Items that contained unknown power, and whose value could supposedly never be converted into money. There weren’t even ten of them left in existence in the modern day.

World-class treasures that made even the handful of S-rank weapons treated as national treasures look like trash by comparison.

Maybe because of that, it was considered a violation of international law for a single nation to possess one, which meant their handling and management were all overseen by the international organization known as the Hero Association.

To explain the reason simply, it was to maintain the balance between nations.

‘To degrade one of those and mass-produce it for distribution…’

Instead of positive expectations, ominous questions rose up one after another. Because I had no information about this part at all. This was probably something that wouldn’t be revealed until much later in the original story.

‘But is this thing expensive? Even if it’s only standard equipment, its base was still an artifact. If I sold it, it felt like it’d bring in a pretty decent amount.’

When I smacked my lips, Choi Seol-ah noticed at once and jumped in alarm. Then she quickly whisked it behind her back.

I frowned. She immediately equipped watery eyes and said.

“N-no, this one’s not allowed. The workers’ compensation insurance is tied to the holder, so if it gets lost or anything, I’d have to pay for it myself.”

Her voice was desperate. She had sold her humanity to a demon, yet she still put on the act of being pitiable.

And hearing her babble about workers’ compensation, poor wages, and how this was skinning a flea’s liver made me dumbfounded.

For a villain, she sure lived while carefully keeping up with all that stuff. It was fucking ridiculous.

And what, did she think I was some robber? Sure, my clan name might be `Seori Kang,` but… I had just taken interest in it. While Choi Seol-ah was lamenting the sorrows of the salaried life.

“F-found it! The first checkpoint!”

Rachel, who had been walking at the very front, shouted.