Chapter 25 : Promotion Offer

An unprecedented incident where someone delivered a soccer kick to a fellow classmate’s face right in front of the professor.

Aside from the perpetrator, everyone was too shocked to even breathe.

The only one who could break the heavy silence was, naturally, the professor, Ji Gyeeun.

“Haah…”

After letting out a deep sigh, Ji Gyeeun spoke to Yang Woobin.

“For now, take those two to the infirmary since they’re disrupting class, then wait for me in my office. And you—sit down at your seat.”

“Yes.”

“Ah, y-yes!”

After coolly responding to Ji Gyeeun’s orders, Yang Woobin grabbed the legs of the two delinquents whose faces had been crushed and started dragging them out of the classroom.

Just as he was about to step outside, as if he remembered something, Yang Woobin suddenly turned his head and called out to Fuyuno Tsubaki, who was heading toward a corner seat.

“Oh right. Hey, Tsubaki! Wait here until I get back. I have something to say to you.”

“Eh?”

“Alright, I’m off. If you run, you’re dead.”

Completely ignoring the professor’s presence, Yang Woobin finished what he had to say and disappeared from the lecture hall, dragging the two punks behind him.

Thus ended Yang Woobin’s truly storm-like debut in Class B.

***

After casually tossing the two nameless bugs in front of the infirmary, he entered Ji Gyeeun’s office and sat in a chair.

“Whew… That was intense.”

There was no one else in the office, so this was the one place he could take off his mask.

Born in the so-called Land of Eastern Etiquette and possessing the typical mindset and sensitivity of a modern person, the idea of acting like a thug in front of a professor was naturally uncomfortable for him.

“Well… It was pretty successful overall. This much, I can handle.”

Of course, having personally witnessed the family’s reputation dropping in real time thanks to his behavior, he had no intention of stopping any time soon.

“I’m sure I’ll get used to this eventually.”

Humans are creatures of adaptation, and having adjusted to a life confined by his family for 20 years, playing the thug was something he could easily get used to.

With that resolve, he pulled up Fuyuno Tsubaki’s status window, which he had secretly checked earlier when he helped her up.

***

[Name: Fuyuno Tsubaki]

[Gender: Female]

[Age: 20]

[Trait: Body of Extreme Yin (EX)]

[Mana Sensitivity: ???]

[Total Mana: 3]

Target’s trait is currently sealed.

“Body of Extreme Yin… I never thought I’d see that trait here.”

Even though the Solar Physique had manifested in order to capture Hobabas, and even though my entire body had been engulfed in its heat, flames, and explosions, I didn’t suffer a single burn.

It was all thanks to one person present at the scene—Fuyuno Tsubaki.

More precisely, it was thanks to the trait she possessed: the Lunar Physique of Extreme Yin.

As the name suggests, the Lunar Physique of Extreme Yin is the polar opposite of the Solar Physique.

While the Solar Physique holds extreme heat, this trait harbors extreme cold.

The searing heat from the Solar Physique had been neutralized by the frigid energy of Fuyuno Tsubaki’s trait, which was why I hadn’t been burned.

“I’d only ever seen it mentioned in the lore of Heroes of the Reversal. It never actually showed up in the game. Makes sense now.”

The Solar Physique could be found in the Great Calamity held by the Witch of Disaster, but the Lunar Physique of Extreme Yin was never more than a mention—not even a trace of it could be found in the deepest corners of Heroes of the Reversal.

But for Tsubaki to be the one with that trait—it explained everything.

Because in the game, Fuyuno Tsubaki was a character who was fated to die no matter what.

No matter how you played, she was the one unavoidable casualty.

The one person you could never save: that was Fuyuno Tsubaki.

And since an EX-grade trait can only manifest in one person per era, her death meant the Lunar Physique vanished along with her.

“Whew, now that I know all this… I feel even better.”

Knowing the whereabouts of the long-lost Lunar Physique—and realizing that the person I had saved was its owner—filled me with a sense of achievement… and excitement.

And to be honest, the excitement far outweighed the sense of achievement.

If I could make someone with the Lunar Physique my ally, it’d be a massive advantage in the story to come.

I couldn’t help but wonder: How should I raise her?

This is going to be fun.

Creeeak—

I’d been happily lost in thoughts about a fitting development path for someone with the Lunar Physique, when the office door, which had been closed, suddenly opened—class must have ended already.

I quickly composed my expression, debated whether to stand up… and ultimately chose to stay seated.

A real delinquent would do just that.

So I remained seated, even crossing my legs, putting on the cockiest attitude I could manage while facing the door—

—and was met with a totally unexpected face.

“…To think you’d sit there all smug, even after being told to wait in a professor’s office. How impressive.”

The one who entered wasn’t Professor Ji Gyeeun, the owner of the office.

It was none other than Go Yeoryeong, the principal of Daecheon Academy and a hero of the Great War—known as the Soaring Dragon.

…Maybe I shouldn’t have crossed my legs.

Faced with the appearance of the undisputed number one in Daecheon, the one with the highest power and authority, I immediately regretted my earlier decision.

But regrets are meaningless now.

What was done was done.

And awkwardly uncrossing my legs would only look worse, so I kept up the cocky pose.

“Huh? What the—It’s not the professor, it’s the principal? What’re you doing here?”

“…What?”

At this point, no matter who the opponent was—Go Yeoryeong or whoever—I decided to stick with the act.

After all, I’d take full responsibility for what I’d done.

And if the consequences hit my family?

Even better.

“You came to see me, huh? Well, makes sense. I am kind of a big deal. The one and only direct heir of the Great Yang family.”

I exaggeratedly shrugged my shoulders and tilted my chin up.

It was the textbook image of an arrogant delinquent who didn’t know their place—

—and just as expected, Go Yeoryeong was not impressed.

“Tsk.”

Seeing her furrowed brows and the clicking of her tongue, I could feel Go Yeoryeong’s evaluation of me plummeting rapidly.

As a superhuman of commoner origin, Go Yeoryeong harbored prejudice against superhumans from prestigious families—and my current demeanor was the perfect embodiment of all those prejudices.

“When I heard that you sacrificed yourself to save a fellow cadet, I had some expectations… but it seems they were misplaced.”

Naturally, it wasn’t surprising that Go Yeoryeong’s expression twisted and she said something like that.

Getting on the bad side of someone like Go Yeoryeong was by no means a good thing—but even so, I didn’t mind.

Because I only ever do things I’m fully prepared to handle.

“Let’s skip the preamble and get to the point. What did you see that day, who did you meet, and what did you do?”

As soon as I heard Go Yeoryeong’s question, I understood why Ji Gyeeun had told me to head to her office, and why someone as high-ranking as the principal herself had come all this way to meet with a cadet from the lower class.

She had come to question me about the rift incident that occurred during the entrance evaluation.

Right.

It was serious enough to warrant the principal’s personal involvement.

After all, a demon had appeared—of all places—inside the academy.

Demons were the sworn enemies of humanity, often called beings of calamity.

For a calamity like that to suddenly emerge within a training facility for superhumans—of course it made sense for the principal to come directly to question me, one of the only two eyewitnesses alongside Fuyuno Tsubaki.

After sorting out the situation in my head, I answered Go Yeoryeong’s question honestly.

“A rift opened in the sky, a demon emerged from it, and I killed that demon.”

It was a simple, unembellished statement of fact.

But Go Yeoryeong didn’t seem pleased with my honest and straightforward answer.

Her already-stern face hardened further, her brows furrowing even more.

“…The mana trace detected at the scene belonged to a mid-tier demon. You may not know, but even if all the cadets present that day had joined forces, they still wouldn’t have been able to bring it down. And you’re telling me you handled that monster alone?”

To be fair, her suspicion wasn’t unreasonable.

As she said, a mid-tier demon was a monstrous entity that even the protagonist—who had just awakened their power during the entrance exam—couldn’t so much as scratch.

Still, the fact remained that I did kill it.

And after wasting an entire bloody month dealing with that insane mosquito bastard, Hobabas, it was irritating to be questioned like this.

“Yes.”

So I responded like a proper punk—lifting my chin, glaring up with rebellious eyes, and giving a curt, rude answer.

“…Ha, haha.”

Go Yeoryeong seemed dumbfounded by my attitude, letting out a few dry chuckles before nodding slowly and continuing.

“Fine, I’ll believe you. The mana trace of a mid-tier demon was genuine, and if you hadn’t killed it, there would’ve been casualties. Even if it’s still hard to believe…”

She just keeps picking fights for no reason.

Was my first impression really that bad?

I was grumbling internally at her weird remarks when suddenly, she said something I couldn’t afford to ignore.

“In that case, since you say you took down a mid-tier demon, your evaluation must be revised. You should also be given the opportunity to transfer classes.”

“…Excuse me?”

“Class F is a pit of worms. Occasionally, one or two crawl their way up, but most of them just waste away together and graduate with nothing but a diploma. It would be a loss to humanity to let someone capable of killing a mid-tier demon rot in a place like that, don’t you think?”

Go Yeoryeong lifted the corners of her mouth into a sly grin and made me an offer.

“So I’ll let you leave Class F and enter the real Daecheon Academy. What do you say?”

It was an offer for promotion.