Ch.91You, Don’t Tell Me?! – 2

After paying the taxi fare, I was on my way back to the Academy.

Rina Lee, who had been chatting away just moments ago, was now unusually quiet.

The silence was so uncomfortable that I felt like saying anything just to break it.

“Um, I heard from Soohyun. That you two have been sparring whenever you have time.”

“Sparring? I’m just beating her up every time. She just keeps getting hit.”

Of course that would be the case. No matter how skilled Soohyun might be, even as “The Crimson Witch”…

Her opponent is none other than “The Yellow Madwoman” Rina.

When it comes to pure combat ability, she’s undisputedly the strongest in Korea, barring any anomalies.

For Soohyun, who’s just reached the first stage of becoming the Crimson Witch, winning is impossible.

“But despite getting beaten up, she’s annoyingly perceptive.”

So that’s how she expresses that Soohyun grows with each confrontation.

Maybe it’s because we meet so often, but I’ve gotten quite used to Rina’s way of expressing things.

Crazy woman, crazy woman—I used to think that so often.

Isn’t it said that the scariest thing in the world is becoming accustomed to something?

Indeed, now that I’m used to it, I’ve reached the point where I just laugh.

[You will arrive at your destination shortly.]

I deliberately kept the navigation on in case we might end up somewhere strange again.

Though it earned me a glare from Rina, even she didn’t complain about it.

She already got me to pay the taxi fare she demanded.

And we spent an extra 10 minutes going back to the Academy.

If she asked for anything more, she wouldn’t be human. Seriously.

“Thanks for the ride.”

A natural expression of gratitude before opening the door to get out.

But Rina remained silent. She was acting very differently from usual.

The way she just sat there staring ahead gave me the feeling she wanted me to close the door quickly.

“Don’t forget to return this car. Those people might be in a difficult position otherwise.”

“Don’t worry. It’s registered with the Superpower Association. I can just have my secretary take care of it.”

I’m envious. She already has a personal secretary?

Even for an S-rank, that’s something to covet.

“Well then, take care, Miss Forever-Single Rina.”

“…”

“No response? Miss Forever-Single Rina?”

“Oh, come on! That’s enough…”

“You always do this to me. Haven’t you heard of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes?”

It’s something we learn endlessly in ethics class.

Maybe the curriculum was different in Rina’s time?

“So I’m just putting myself in your shoes. Returning the ‘forever-single’ favor.”

Forever-single, forever-single. Wow, it feels so good to say, so good.

This must be why Rina kept calling me forever-single despite being one herself.

It’s quite satisfying, I’d say. It’s definitely a word that has a certain sting to it when teasing someone.

And it works as an area-of-effect provocation whether the person is actually single or not.

Maybe I should try using it when fighting villains? It seems like it would be quite effective.

“Hey. Could you stop teasing me? Please?”

“Why? Are you feeling offended, Miss Forever-Single Rina?”

“Don’t ask such obvious questions!”

Honk honk—!

She’s so agitated that she’s even honking the horn.

If she touches the steering wheel any harder, it might break completely.

“Then you can tease me too. If we both call each other ‘forever-single,’ we’ll both feel bad and it’ll be a tie.”

“That’s—!”

It would be unfair. Me, who’s not single, and Rina, who is.

If we both call each other “forever-single,” who would take more damage?

Rina knows this too, which is why she’s reacting that way.

“Take care. I enjoyed the coffee today.”

She clearly demanded this date with confidence, but she doesn’t actually know how to date.

Time was passing, and all we were doing was walking aimlessly.

At this rate, we’d just be doing cardio for the entire 40 minutes.

So I decided to enter any café that caught my eye and sit down.

I don’t know what kind of date Rina wanted.

Or perhaps even Rina herself made the suggestion without any real thought.

So when I guided her to a café, she surprisingly followed without complaint.

“…Is a café really essential for a date?”

Rina asked, as if she had given up.

At this point, it seems safe to assume she has absolutely no dating experience.

“No.”

“Then why did we come to a café?”

“Because time is tight. We have exactly 31 minutes left.”

“…Ugh.”

This wasn’t the Rina I had seen and experienced until now.

A somewhat strange woman with an overwhelming power that couldn’t be resisted.

A crazy woman who acts on impulse without any sense of justice or conviction.

That’s how she had appeared to me, but her demeanor in the café was different.

If what the world had seen until now was “The Yellow Madwoman,”

What I was seeing now might just be “Rina herself.”

“Why are you standing there? Aren’t you going in? Should I kidnap you again?”

I should go. I should, but I wanted to watch her leave before going in.

It seems a bit rude to just turn your back on someone who gave you a ride.

“I was going to watch you leave first. Do you mind?”

“Forget it, just go in quickly. I’ll really watch you enter the Academy before leaving.”

“Are you worried I might sneak off somewhere else?”

Rina nodded as if it was obvious.

“Fine. Yes, I’m going. I’ll treat you to a meal sometime.”

Do I really intend to? Well, it’s more of a courtesy statement.

One of the common greetings among Koreans is “Let’s have a meal sometime,” isn’t it?

Of course, the catch is that neither the listener nor the speaker knows when.

“Seojin.”

As I heard someone calling me and was about to turn around, I looked back at Rina.

“Is it really true?”

“What is?”

“Your measured rank. Is it really B-rank?”

I had told her my rank measurement results at the café earlier.

It came out as B-rank. I wasn’t being careless. I really saw it properly, I said.

I expected her to immediately say that’s impossible, why are you saying this, and so on.

But Rina just said “Really?” and continued sipping her mint chocolate latte.

This cursed mint chocolate lover. She even adds “Sol’s Eye” to it and says it tastes better.

“You heard me earlier.”

“Yes, I heard. More precisely, I heard and realized. That Seojin is still hiding something.”

No, woman. I’m not hiding anything. That’s the truth.

When you’re being measured, there’s nothing you can do about it.

“Well, fine. I know our Seojin is a bit unusual, so you must have your reasons.”

At this point, saying “I have no reasons, B-rank is the reality” would be useless.

By now, I’ve lost all desire to correct her misunderstanding.

Whatever. Let them think what they want. Let them misunderstand in whatever way makes them comfortable.

“If you go around blabbing about it, you’ll be in trouble.”

“Blabbing about what?”

“What else? Are you asking because you don’t know?”

“Yes, I really don’t know.”

“You’re really messing with me…”

Rina, who was about to shout, suddenly closed her mouth.

It seemed she had realized my intention in continuously saying “I don’t know.”

“Did something happen? I don’t remember. We were just talking about rank measurement, right?”

When you accidentally uncover a secret, it’s best not to pretend to know or spread it around.

Just when they start to forget, when they try to stand above me, I can give them a little poke.

“…See you next time.”

With those words, Rina drove away immediately.

It’s quite surprising to see her not driving recklessly this time.

It was different from what I had initially imagined, and a somewhat anticlimactic meeting.

When she suddenly mentioned a date, I was actually nervous.

I couldn’t figure out what that crazy woman was plotting.

In the midst of it all, I was able to obtain two useful pieces of information.

One is that Rina still thinks I’m hiding something.

And the other is that she is, in fact, forever single.

‘Especially the second one. This can be considered a truly remarkable discovery.’

Rina is far beyond just being boisterous.

Even when called crazy, she giggles. She has a natural talent for making others uncomfortable.

This could potentially be a tool to control her to some extent!

‘I should be careful though. If I use it too often, it might backfire.’

If I keep calling her forever-single, she might get used to it and only become angrier.

Using it moderately to subdue her through embarrassment was currently the best approach.

But it’s really funny. To think that Rina of all people is forever single.

She went around calling others forever-single, launching all sorts of provocations.

But as it turns out, Rina herself has zero dating experience.

“Arbiter?”

Looking ahead, I saw Hana Kang blinking at me.

“Did something good happen?”

“What? Why suddenly?”

“You were smiling the whole way here.”

The image of Rina with her face turning red, tears in her eyes, going “Siiing!”

Thinking about it was so absurd that I must have been smiling without realizing it.

“Did something good happen? I heard you weren’t around this morning.”

“I had some business. To be precise, not ‘good’ business. This morning…”

Wait a minute.

“Hana? Didn’t Soohyun—I mean, Soohyun Kim—tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“That I had a rank re-measurement scheduled today. I even took a day off, she was supposed to tell you.”

“Um… I did meet Soohyun this morning, but she didn’t say anything to me.”

Weren’t they close? From what I saw last time, they seemed pretty close.

“Uh, well… I guess Soohyun Kim forgot.”

“I suppose so? Or maybe she’s feeling burdened by all the attention she’s getting lately!”

I don’t think that’s it, but let’s go with that for now.

If not, it would make Hana look too pitiful.

“Anyway! So you had a rank re-measurement! So your rank is now…”

“B-rank.”

“…Huh?”

Well. As expected, the reaction I anticipated came out.

Especially from Hana, I expected this reaction even more.

After all, she was right behind me when I was fighting with that Elder guy.

“Um, Arbiter. Did I hear something wrong?”

“If you heard B-rank, then you heard correctly.”

After confirming it, Hana’s expression became even stranger.

“…You, the Arbiter, are B-rank?”

“Yes.”

“But you fought with the Elder.”

“That’s right.”

“And you even injured the Elder.”

“That’s also true.”

“Yet, you’re B-rank?”

After that, Hana struggled to make sense of it for quite some time.