episode_0033

Liana enjoys drinking, but she doesn’t hold her liquor well. Therefore, she drinks in large quantities until she gets drunk.

She’s not someone who would be labeled as an alcoholic, but it’s true that she loves alcohol.

Moreover, she ranks among the top heroes, having spent several years as a mercenary on the African front, amassing a tremendous amount of money.

Even after consuming expensive bottles worth millions, she shows no signs of being affected.

“Hahaha…!”

As a result, she ends up drinking heavily and getting halfway drunk.

Her face turns bright red. Her flushed cheeks seem to scream, “I’ve been drinking.”

Her lips curl into a tipsy smile. Unlike her usual demeanor of maintaining a kind smile as part of her image management, she now appears busy giggling away.

“Come on, have a drink! It’s the Water Droplets of Wilisilla, one of my top 10 favorite drinks!”

Liana extends a glass filled with blue liquid to the side. Inside, Artla, soothing his stomach with warm milk, sits with a sour expression.

“No thanks. You can have it.”

“Oh, come on, we’ve come this far, and you’re only going to have a few drinks? Even if our dear Artla here is weak with alcohol…”

“Stop nagging and have it yourself.”

In response to Liana’s rather cold reaction, she lets out a chuckle. Was it said that it was ridiculous for her to go around with a kind expression as part of image management?

‘Kick, I’m losing.’

Even pretending, Artla’s expression is grim. Always strutting around with narrowed eyes and pretending to be superior, Artla is weak when it comes to alcohol.

This is evident from the change in his tone.

‘No,’ ‘Yes,’ ‘I just don’t like it’ and so on… His stiff manner of speaking sheds off, revealing a more ordinary tone.

In other words, his true feelings are starting to show. That was the intention. Unless he’s fed alcohol, this person, with such a strong facade, will wear a strange mask or mechanically repeat formal responses like a parrot.

“Yul Sangdo, aren’t you being too harsh?”

The atmosphere became tense. It was time to get to the point. Artla’s hand abruptly stopped.

“You could be a bit kinder. Do you really have to push it like this?”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

Artla’s face twisted in annoyance. He roughly placed the glass of warm milk on the table.

“Kinder? Push it? Do you even have the luxury for that?”

“Um…”

Liana looked perplexed. It was just a brief poke before getting to the main point, but the reaction was slightly aggressive.

After rolling her eyes back and forth, she spoke up.

“…The situation isn’t all that great.”

Yul Sangdo is a special admission student. The first student to be admitted through the special admissions category at Siyoram.

If you were to ask about the origins of the current top heroes, eighteen out of twenty are graduates of Siyoram.

The protection and nurturing provided by Siyoram are extraordinary, and Siyoram is an unparalleled institution for nurturing superhumans.

Since there is no equal, Siyoram earnestly hopes for various human resources to come to them. It’s a sort of virtuous cycle.

And that’s where it all began.

Interest is piqued. It’s only natural.

The problem arises because this interest isn’t solely positive.

“The Headmaster, that crazy bastard. What the hell is he thinking…”

Artla clenched his throbbing head. Thinking about it made his head spin.

Good interest… Just how much potential does he have to be seated as a special admission by the Headmaster? Can we bring him into our faction in the future? It would be nice if he participated in the future Operation Cleansing…

Bad interest… Just how much potential does he have to be seated as a special admission by the Headmaster?

Let’s cut him off beforehand.

Since the Great Upheaval 200 years ago, the world has seen countless changes, but as long as the race of humanity exists, what remains unchanged is the existence of emotions and desires.

“Basically, sons of bitches who can’t be judged by ordinary moral standards exist in any space and time.

Artla had received help from the former principal in the past. It wasn’t help to the extent of saving his life, but it was certainly enough to owe a debt.

Of course, that help was only through the vice-principal.

Anyway, using that debt as a pretext, the principal requested Artla to teach the special admission student.

However, there were no additional instructions after that. That was the end of it. Suddenly, at a meeting inside Siyoram, the vice-principal appeared and said, ‘We have admitted a special admission student,’ and that was the end of the discussion.

“Damn. Shouldn’t we do something more about this?”

Just bringing them in like that, is that all?

At least there should have been some reason given for admitting the special admission student. Since I brought the student here, I entrust them to you. So, educate them well in the future. They are under my protection, so if you mess with them, you’re dead… and so on, isn’t that what should be done?

Why isn’t there any further action? This shitty handling caused Artla great stress and doubt.

Everyone knows that the principal has practically stopped all activities over the past few decades. The one active within Siyoram is the vice-principal.

According to the vice-principal, the final decision-making power lies with the principal, and he just follows that, but both officially and unofficially, the principal disappeared from sight decades ago.

After decades of silence, the vice-principal broke the silence. He emphasized that the selection of the special admission student was ‘the choice made by the principal after much deliberation.’

That’s it.

This subtle handling left people with various doubts.

It also attracted unfavorable attention.

Within Siyoram, it’s fine. The Tower of Growth may be silent, but the principal is here.

Siyoram, which has existed for over a hundred years and more than twenty years, has never allowed a single intrusion or harm to the students within Siyoram.

“Damn it…”

But outside? The principal’s protection doesn’t reach there. Examples prove that. Beyond the walls of Siyoram lies a harsh reality. What happens outside cannot be prevented. When Ihayul is alone outside, if he can’t solve things himself, it’s over.

You can’t protect him all the time. It’s not a job to shadow him for life.

Assigning guards? To what extent, and can those guards really protect him in every situation? In situations that exceed the capabilities of the guards, in crises that come dangerously close to Ihayul’s life, if he can’t handle it himself…

Thud- Artla gritted his teeth. Emotions surged, burning like fire.

– Stop worrying! You’re not going alone, it’s in a party, so stop worrying so much! Am I that unreliable?

Unpleasant memories resurfaced. It’s always like this when Ihayul is around.

Therefore, he tried to quickly raise his strength. At the very least, he wanted to be able to protect himself in case of any mishap.

From the second day onwards, he handed him weapons and sparred with him. From the perspective of an active superhuman, it wasn’t particularly tough.

But for Ihayul, who was still just a first-year student… recently awakened Ihayul, it was a challenging schedule.

Usually, you improve basic physical abilities. It’s highly inefficient to hammer techniques into a weak body.

First, elevate the body to the level of a superhuman, and then teach skills befitting a superhuman.

Ihayul was different.

The inherent protection of growth, the amplified protection as a special case, the steep growth curve due to recent awakening, and the absorption capacity for the lessons—all these factors indicated that Ihayul had the potential to digest the training adequately. He could elevate both his physical level and skill level simultaneously. As time passed, this became even more certain.

“Ugh…””

Lianna’s lips tightened against the relentless waves of complaints. The reaction was more intense than she had imagined. It seemed like quite a bit had accumulated.

Lianna also knew a bit about Atra’s past.

She had one disciple. They had met by chance. At that time, Atra was a high-ranking hero, and the disciple was just an ordinary academy student.

Atra had a prickly exterior but a tender interior. Their weaknesses weren’t easily exposed due to their strong personality, like an external toughness concealing inner gentleness.

So, at one point, Atra had shown sincere affection. Despite their inexperienced teaching methods as a first-time mentor, they had tried to impart as much knowledge as possible.

The disciple seemed to appreciate this effort, following Atra like a close sister and living together like family.

“There was such a disciple. But not anymore.”

“I don’t know what the headmaster is thinking, but it’s right to get stronger as quickly as possible. If you relax thinking there’s plenty of time… it might be irreversible.”

Lately, the situation was delicate. The number of monsters pouring out of the Demon Realm was steadily increasing. Villains running amok in the world after escaping into the Demon Realm were also on the rise. Although not yet prominently noticeable, the dungeon spawn rate was also increasing.

It seemed like a significant event would unfold soon. Such an atmosphere was prevailing these days.

“…In the midst of all this, there’s no room for leisure…”

Atra stretched out over the table, muttering. Perhaps the alcohol had hit them suddenly, as their voice became slurred.

“I understand. Things are tough, so get stronger quickly, I get it, but… Can’t you say something nice?”

Despite Atra looking completely disinterested, they still spoke.

“It doesn’t matter. Just hate me if you want. It’s better that way…”

Watching Atra, who kept repeating the same words in a broken record-like manner, Lianna let out a deep sigh.

‘Ugh.’

She understood. Aversion to building relationships. Not wanting to get close due to past wounds, yet also not wanting Iharul to be engulfed in something dangerous.

Given the circumstances, she pushed for rapid growth through tough training. If resentment naturally arose from harsh training, she preferred that mindset.

“Better to be hated than to die…”

‘It’s a dead end…’

There was no solution. At least for Lianna, there was no corner left to delve into.

She sighed deeply.

* * *

The next day.

Atra, waking up to late morning, opened their mouth while looking at the sunlight streaming in through the curtains.

“Damn it…”

It’s difficult for a top-tier transcendent to get drunk. While there are spirits suitable for transendents, those like Atra, who have evolved their bodies to the extreme, find it hard to get intoxicated.

If they willingly accept the intoxication, they can get drunk quite easily. That was the case yesterday. Emotions flared up unexpectedly, and they embraced the intoxication fully.

Some people drink themselves into a stupor and wake up the next day with no memory. Atra wasn’t like that. They remembered everything from the previous day vividly.

What a damn morning. Atra got up with a feeling like they wanted to spit out saliva.

Atra lived in a house within the Siyolam Estate. Not only her but most of the professors resided there.

While tidying up their appearance, the stench of alcohol ingrained throughout their body made their expression involuntarily crumple. How much did they drink the day before…

They stepped out onto the veranda connected to the second-floor bedroom. Taking a deep breath, the fresh morning air filled their lungs.

Feeling better, only to be reminded of yesterday’s memories and feel dirty again.

– Sizzle.

“Sigh…”

He touched the cigarette he hadn’t touched for a while. It was always with him on the front lines, but in a fit of frustration, he had carelessly tossed it aside.

An impulse arose within him. He took out a cigarette, roughly flicked his hand to light it. The damp yet refreshing smoke filled his chest.

It was made with an herb known for its excellent calming effects… a product favored by Atla.

Suddenly, the date came to mind, and he glanced at his smartwatch.

[ Tuesday AM 10:32 ]

Tuesday. The day the first-year students returned from dungeon practice.

“……”

Atla looked at the time with a complex expression. Starting tomorrow, she had to resume training under Yi Hayul.

Dressed casually, she left her house. She felt sluggish and needed to move her body.

At a moderate pace… considering her physical level, she swiftly traversed the neighborhood. Before long, the training facility came into view in the distance.

A small male figure stood in front of it.

‘Ah.’

Clad in a Siyolam robe, a large backpack on his back, two daggers and several pouches hanging from his waist.

The equipment Atla had prepared. Even though Tower of Growth was unknown, bringing such gear for dungeon practice was allowed.

And the magic wand hanging beside the backpack, although somewhat amusing, looked more quaint than funny thanks to the owner’s appearance.

Already out of the dungeon?

“……”

With a complicated expression, Atla continued walking. The direction was towards the training facility behind Yi Hayul.

She briefly considered turning back, but seeing Yi Hayul right at the entrance and feeling that going back would be ridiculous, she dismissed the idea.

– Thud thud

Suddenly, Yi Hayul turned his head in their direction. At his reaction, Atla raised an eyebrow.

‘The distance…’

It had decreased. The remaining distance was almost 300m away. However, he sensed it. Someone who always moved stealthily around him.

‘…Has his detection ability improved?’

It was a rapid growth. On the first day of class, he barely noticed someone approaching until they were right in front of him, but now he could react immediately from this distance.

Although he hadn’t reduced his stealth as much as before, it was still a remarkable improvement.

Proud yet indescribable feelings washed over him.

The distance narrowed.

Yi Hayul also approached. Since they had met, it seemed like he intended to greet her at least.

“Is everything finished with the schedule?”

Atla spoke formally. The distance had significantly shortened. Yi Hayul tried to manipulate his smartwatch.

No, he attempted to. His hand froze mid-motion. His legs, which were moving, also stopped.

“Hmm?”

Yi Hayul remained motionless, showing no signs of movement. After a moment, he tilted his head, displaying a puzzled reaction.

– Sniff sniff

His nose twitched. In that moment, his body jolted slightly.

‘What’s this?’

An incomprehensible response.

However, undoubtedly, his subsequent actions were not as intense.

Yi Hayul did not resist the harsh training.

He didn’t question the reasons behind it. He didn’t ask why the schedule was like this. Despite Atla’s stern and cold responses, he didn’t show any resentment.

Even when he forgot to give water during a brief moment of contemplation last time, he didn’t throw a tantrum.

Even though he could have asked with a hint of dissatisfaction, he simply followed the lecture faithfully as if trusting Atla.

That was Yi Hayul.

“Grr…”

Frowning arrogantly, he took a step back. An overt sense of disgust rose on his face, a reaction that seemed to distance himself from something dirty.

– Thud!

“……”

It felt like a massive boulder had crashed down, a dizzying sensation.

Atla’s eyes trembled slightly.