Ch.3636. Teaching Assistant Min-seo Choi’s Beginning

“So you’re… Ms. Lee Lu-a.”

Choi Minseo savored her name. Jung Ui-seok gently placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Let’s start training, Minseo. You have the best fundamentals in the Dragon King Sentai, so you’ll be a huge help to your junior.”

Hearing those words, Choi Minseo quickly forgot her earlier unease and smiled.

“I-I have good fundamentals?”

“Of course. The other guys are so unreliable. Can’t trust Ji Se-hwa or Shin Yukyong. You’re definitely the best.”

“Hehe. Hehehe.”

Choi Minseo wiggled her body. She and Lee Lu-a entered the training area.

“I’ll transform now!”

[QUETZALCOHUA’TL!]

[On your Way!]

[Here comes the Dragon Lord!]

Choi Minseo attached the green dragon switch to her transformer. She transformed into Green Nature.

Meanwhile, Lu-a simply took a stance.

‘Since she’s my junior, I’ll start with basic combat!’

Choi Minseo lightly stepped forward and approached with a punch. It was a fighting technique she learned from Jung Ui-seok.

Even though she only handled rear support, she was still an S-Sentai member. Her fighting, swordsmanship, and shooting skills were world-class among heroes.

But.

Swoosh— Papak, Paak!

Lu-a’s movements were faster. In an instant, she deflected Minseo’s arm and struck Minseo’s chin repeatedly with the base of her palm.

‘Huh? What?’

Her helmet shattered instantly. Her lips felt hot. Choi Minseo only realized she was bleeding when she touched her chin.

When she turned to Jung Ui-seok in confusion, he wore a strange smile. Choi Minseo decided to focus. This hero was quite strong.

As training continued, Choi Minseo gradually began to get serious, but she couldn’t even scratch Lu-a.

Rather, it felt like Lu-a was the one supervising her training.

Choi Minseo’s breathing grew heavy. Just as her injuries were multiplying…

Woong— Kwang!

Lu-a delivered a spinning kick to Choi Minseo’s abdomen with power incomparable to before. Minseo spat out blood-mixed saliva and rolled ungracefully on the floor.

“Okay, that’s enough. Let’s both take a break.”

When Choi Minseo heard Jung Ui-seok’s voice, she pretended to be fine, stood up, and dusted off her thighs.

Jung Ui-seok approached her with a benevolent smile.

Somehow, Choi Minseo thought it was an unsettling smile.

“As expected of Minseo! I didn’t know you’d spare yourself so much for your junior. You didn’t use your abilities at all because you were worried Lu-a might get hurt, right?”

“What? Ah… y-yes, that’s right.”

“Look at you. You remember what I taught you well. You’re so smart.”

Jung Ui-seok patted her back while praising her. Being praised made the pain from getting hit feel worthwhile.

“Hehehe. Th-that’s true, but… what does our junior do? She’s better than I expected…”

“Hmm. She’s a hero I might scout. I’m thinking of accepting her as a new member of the Dragon King Sentai.”

“A new member? We already have six people, isn’t that too many?”

Jung Ui-seok frowned slightly at those words, but only for a moment.

“Haha. It might be hard to manage, but some previous S-Sentai teams started with nine members.”

“Is that so… Then did you train her yourself, Ui-seok?”

“Yes. She’s talented.”

She’s talented.

At those words, anxiety began to bloom in Choi Minseo’s chest.

“H-how much?”

“Quite a lot. Her future looks very promising. I can’t even see her growth limit yet.”

“M-more than… me?”

Feeling anxious that Jung Ui-seok might abandon her, Choi Minseo unconsciously grabbed his collar.

“Haha, no way. You’re the best hero I’ve ever seen.”

“He-hehe.”

“Well, the others are a mess. Ji Se-hwa, Shin Yukyong, Kang Yerin—none of them are any help to me.”

“R-right? Help…”

“I only want to keep people who help me well by my side. I’m thinking of reducing the Dragon King Sentai’s numbers. There are too many, don’t you think?”

Choi Minseo gulped. She clung to Jung Ui-seok’s chest and looked up at his face, which was quite high above her.

“I-I’ll help you!”

“Really?”

“Of course!”

“Hmm. Actually, I’ve been having a problem recently.”

“Really? What is it?”

“Well, someone broke into my house. I lost something I was using and it’s been troubling me.”

“Something you were using…?”

Choi Minseo tilted her head.

“I think the Association President stole it. I don’t have solid evidence, but…”

Hearing that, Choi Minseo had an idea of what he meant.

No, she knew exactly.

Currently, her memories were in a state of confusion.

More precisely, she remembered everything that had happened so far—the Association President, handling Pestam, the Galaxy Empire.

But overlaid on that were memories shown by the pink cloud, a drug made from Pestam, creating noise suggesting those memories were reality.

Her sense of the current timeline had become ambiguous.

The biggest difference in information between these timelines was her relationship with Jung Ui-seok.

She perceived her relationship with Jung Ui-seok as the positive master-disciple relationship from two years ago, during the early days of the Dragon King Sentai.

The rest of her knowledge aligned with the present, but her understanding of her relationship with Jung Ui-seok was forcibly distorted to match the contradictions.

‘The Association President asked me to hide something of his recently, that must be what he’s talking about.’

That’s what Choi Minseo concluded. She forcibly rationalized not returning it immediately because Jung Ui-seok had been on a business trip to America during that period in her two-year-old memories.

She considered the argument with the Dragon King Sentai at the Pegasus battle as a minor trouble.

In her memory, Jung Ui-seok had never died.

‘So that was stolen. Then of course I should return it to him?’

Choi Minseo thought this, but…

“Minseo, what do you think? Do you know anything? I need it back immediately.”

At Jung Ui-seok’s words, she didn’t immediately offer to return it.

An inexplicable anxiety in her heart.

A baseless feeling of distrust that Jung Ui-seok didn’t trust her.

A compulsion to continuously create connections between them kept rising.

‘But if I pretend not to know anything, he might think I’m useless.’

With that judgment, Choi Minseo came up with a cunning plan.

“I know where it is.”

“Wow, really? It would be a huge help if you could bring it all back.”

“I can bring it to you. But…”

Choi Minseo trailed off.

“It’s in a dangerous place, so it’s hard to bring a lot at once. I could bring a little at a time. How about bringing it over ten… twenty times?”

For a moment, Jung Ui-seok’s expression froze. Choi Minseo felt something dangerous, but soon realized it was her imagination. Jung Ui-seok smiled happily.

“Really?! As expected, only Minseo can do this! I’m counting on you. Now, let’s continue training!”

“Oh. Right now…?”

Jung Ui-seok looked down at Choi Minseo with a smile. Somehow, it was an unfamiliar smile to her.

“You can do it, right? I’m expecting a lot. You won’t disappoint me, will you?”

He’s expecting something from me. Jung Ui-seok, from me.

I can’t disappoint him. I’ll be praised.

Only me, only me, only me.

Choi Minseo stood up on trembling legs.

◈ ◈ ◈

Finally, the training ended after Lu-a had beaten Choi Minseo to a pulp.

Of course, training against monsters is effective. The Galaxy Empire’s combatants have scenario bonuses.

But a villain’s main enemy is a hero.

Moreover, Choi Minseo of the Dragon King Sentai, an S-class with the S-Sentai title.

In this abandoned factory set up as an arena, Lu-a gained experience points with unparalleled efficiency.

“Haa, haa, huk.”

Choi Minseo, quite injured, was sprawled on the floor.

“Is this okay? You said you had something to get back.”

Lu-a came to me and asked after finishing her hunt.

“Yes. If that stupid girl hadn’t tried to pull a fast one, I was planning to treat her kindly today.”

“A fast one?”

“Saying she’d bring the Pestam in twenty separate trips—that’s too slow. I thought she’d just hand it over, but I underestimated her.”

“Can’t you force her? I could manipulate her emotions.”

“Your emotion manipulation affects real emotions, so there’s a possibility she might escape from her subconscious. If she properly recognizes the current situation, she might turn against us. That would make things more difficult. Currently, we don’t even know where the Pestam is.”

“Can’t we buy new ones through E.lena?”

“I’ve already swept up all the high-purity Pestam in the world. Making new ones would take too much time. What’s at the Association is all there is.”

“What a pain, Green Nature.”

Lu-a looked down coldly at Choi Minseo.

“Lu-a, are you annoyed?”

“A little.”

“Why?”

“…Geo, you don’t usually talk to me like that.”

“Actually, this way of speaking feels awkward to me too.”

“I know. Still.”

Lu-a fidgeted with her lips. I nodded.

“Well, I’ll use it occasionally.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“You promised.”

Lu-a grinned.

“What are you going to do with Green Nature?”

I approached Choi Minseo, grabbed her arm, and lifted her up.

“Minseo, want to sleep with me tonight?”

“Eh? B-brother… together?”

Choi Minseo looked up at me with flushed cheeks.

“Yes. You worked hard, and I have a gift you might like.”

“Wow. A gift?”

“Yes.”

I put a collar around Choi Minseo’s neck and handcuffs on both her wrists.

“Brother, this is…?”

“Our Minseo is so good. I think you look prettiest when you obey me. Good job, good job.”

When I patted Choi Minseo’s head, even her suspicious eyes began to dilate.

“Now, shall we do what our Minseo likes?”

Saying that, I held out a small envelope containing pink powder in front of her.

Like Pavlov’s dog, Choi Minseo began wiggling her bottom and sniffing.