Chapter 225: Change of Seasons (1)

Lair, which was being operated by relatively younger staff members compared to other educational facilities, often carried out sweet events.

[Five Transcendent Cadets of Ha Sukmoo Selection Test] was one of the examples.

The original 'Five Transcendents of Chaliovan' were the select few chosen by the chairman of the Association, Chaliovan. It wasn't decided by official ranks, and the title was only given when the individual's power allowed them to confront legions of superhumans.

Lair was simply carrying out an informal version using the name of the principle of Lair, Ha Sukmoo.

Only the 2nd grade cadets were allowed to take the special exam, and five cadets with the best scores were given the title, 'Transcendent Cadet'. It acted as a type of certificate or a licence that proved their worth. Even their name badges would have a Transcendent Cadet sticker put on and people would glance at them and say, "Hoh, look at them."

However, the cadets did not like this event. It was because of the name of the qualification.

"Uhh, it's so old-fashioned I hate it."

Team Mochi - Yu Yeorum, Sophia Vorkova, Kim Ji-in and Hisaki Soujiro. Four of them were talking inside a cafe.

Sophia grumbled.

"Like, those dotards must be crazy. What the hell is Five Transcendent Cadets? Who the hell came up with a name like that?"

"I know right. What's wrong with their word choice..."

Kim Ji-in nodded with a serious expression on her face. For the sensitive cadets in their teens to early twenties, the name 'Five Transcendent Cadets of Ha Sukmoo' was a fairly embarrassing title to speak of.

"But at least it's better than stiff titles, actually, isn't it quite cool? The proof of a cadet exceeding the standards-"

"You weeb, what are you saying..."

"Eh? Ji-in. It's not just a deceptive title, is it? If I became one of the five transcendent cadets for example, our village would probably make a placard you know? Isn't it a suitable name for the qualification of both power and authority?"

"Oi. Soujiro."

"Hai?"

"Whenever you say things like that, I really want to chase you out of the team. Like, seriously."

"Eht."

"Me too."

"W, wait."

"Next weeb please..."

"Please shut up Soujiro."

The energetic Soujiro shrunk after hearing a mouthful from Sophia and Kim Ji-in.

"So mean..."

For some reason, Yeorum was a lot quieter today so the cadets looked at her.

"Yu Yeorum. What do you think?"

"Huh, huh? Me?"

"Isn't the word five transcendents, like super old-fashioned?"

Yeorum, who had been quietly sucking the coffee, replied.

"Mhmm, it does sound retarded."

"Right?"

Yeorum's response sounded energyless as if her soul had left her body. Twirling her long hair in circles, Sophia was observing her expression when Soujiro jumped out with a question.

"By the way, Yeorum. Are you going to do it?"

"Huh? Do what?"

"Of course it's the transcendent cadet exam. If you're going to attend, that's already one seat less right?"

Yeorum blankly thought to herself.

She had already proven her qualification by coming first place in the campus competition. All the strong superhumans of their era were in Lair, and she had already proven the fact that she was strong enough to represent the grade.

Thus, there was no reason to bother getting another proof. They won't even be a match for her, so a competition was pointless.

"Hmm, I can't be bothered though."

"Heeh. But that's really cool. The fact that you can choose to come first or not."

One thing that was a shame was that she hadn't had the chance to fight the two strongest cadets of their grade last year.

Yong Taeha of the Yong household.

And Tyr Brzenk, the son of Oscar Brzenk.

Although she had wanted to fight and crush them, the five transcendent cadet exam did not have any interpersonal fights in it.

"Ey. You can't go back on your words okay?"

Sophia, who had been slightly interested in one of the five transcendent cadet positions asked that, and Yeorum nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders in response.

"I'm not interested in childsplay."

"Hohh, confident."

"You b*tch. You think you're a world ranker or something," grumbled Sophia.

Yeorum quite liked her own words, and liked even more how those words had naturally left her mouth.

I am the strongest.

There weren't any cadets that could refute her words, at least in the second grade.

"Try your best, you dipshits."

*

Do you want to try taking the five transcendent cadets of Ha Sukmoo exam?

Hearing Yu Jitae's words, Kaeul blinked her eyes.

"Unn? Me?"

Gyeoul also blinked her eyes from the side. Why are you...

"Now that you know a bit on how to fight, it might be a good idea to try fighting even if it's virtual."

"Uhh, umm. Uhh..."

Kaeul scratched her head in confusion, before asking yet again.

"Me?"

"Yes you."

"Uhh... I'm not confident though..."

"It's alright. You don't necessarily have to be in the top 5."

Yu Jitae gave her the handout. Kaeul opened it up and read through it while Gyeoul and Bom both glanced at it from the sides. The handout included a map of the dungeon as well as the contents of the exam.

"Just give it a go."

"..."

Kaeul vacantly touched her head.

It was as he had thought.

Kaeul wasn't learning combat magic because she wanted to. In fact if she had enough self-esteem, she would have refused learning combat magic altogether, since she didn't even want to learn it. However, she wasn't even able to say that.

After failing and giving up numerous times, the child had become dispirited and her self-esteem that had dropped to the bottom made her susceptible to being carried by the opinions of the surroundings.

"Okay?"

"Okay. But, y, you can't blame me even if I don't do well, okay...?"

"I definitely won't. You don't have to feel pressured."

"Okay..."

Even now was the same. She was only listening to him since he, the guardian, was showing her the direction and calling it the correct path. According to Bom, there needed to be a continuous source of fuel that could motivate her even in the slightest.

Bom shouting at her during training, and Yu Jitae complimenting her after the training. The two of them were just barely maintaining the flickering ember of her motivation.

However, the test would be carried out with a lot of attention from the crowd.

He hoped it would lead to a decent result.

"Are you doing it too?"

Yu Jitae asked Yeorum who was lying on the floor in the middle of the corridor. She pretended to have missed his words and ignored him.

"Yeorum."

"..."

"Yu Yeorum."

Only then did she turn her head.

"Are you doing this or not. Don't you like things like this."

"None of your business..."

Yu Jitae stopped and stayed still.

When he suddenly turned silent, Yeorum glanced at him in an attempt to see if he was angry or not but Yu Jitae was simply gazing down at the table.

He was in deep thought.

These days, Yeorum's improvement had slowed down.

Was it because she played around too much? No. She was still persistently training. She crushed her own body and zealously tried to get stronger.

The biggest cause for her slower improvement was because she was doing it 'zealously'. After all, until a few months ago, she had been doing it 'to the point that she could die'. It was because her sense of crisis had diluted.

Yeorum would die the moment she stops.

Only 'advancement' allowed her to survive. That was the reason for her Amusement and was moreover the meaning behind her life. It was why she was obsessed with getting stronger to the point that she gave up on the favourite activities of the red race, alcohol, gambling and sex.

However, now that she was so far ahead of others already, it made sense for her to be unable to feel a constant sense of crisis. There might be an inward fear of the day of her return but that was in the distant future.

There had to be procedural crises and that's what was lacking right now.

There even was the proof.

Even though Yeorum acted like she hated him, he didn't care about it because her favorability floating on the Eyes of Equilibrium was still 'like'. She in fact didn't hate him.

Despite that, she was refusing to be taught by him, and that was bad.

Yu Jitae could use the mana of the red race. He was the one and only suitable teacher for this young red dragon who had accidentally arrived on Earth.

If she had even the slightest of those procedural senses of crisis, it did not make sense for her to refuse his teaching. That had been on his mind but fortunately a good competitor had appeared.

"Gyeoul. What if I get bashed by the monsters?"

"...Don't worry."

It was Yu Kaeul.

*

He thought about the future.

Firstly, he would make them compete against each other.

The most important thing was to not create enmity between the two of them. Conflicts and competition whilst not making them hostile to each other would result in a positive influence for both of them.

The problem however was that he couldn't really imagine how the strife between the young dragons would span out.

Therefore, he asked the specialist for advice.

"Nn? Ahh, I think it sounds good. Yeorum had never even considered Kaeul a competitor. Also, the red race always thinks very importantly of hierarchy. If Kaeul suddenly became stronger and became her rival, she would probably feel very threatened."

"What are the odds of their relationship being negatively affected?"

"Hmm... 50%?"

"That's too high."

"Then 0.1%?"

"What's the difference."

"The first one's if you simply leave them be, and the second one is if Yeorum ultimately wins."

Bom's words sounded a little strange. Yeorum ultimately coming out victorious was literally the result. Isn't the process what breaks down relationships?

He thought for a bit and finally understood her statement.

"So you want me to tell Yeorum that she will be winning in the end?"

"Yes. It will be even better if she does win right?"

Yu Jitae didn't reply to her question.

"Ah, and it would be very helpful for Kaeul. Kaeul knows a lot about how great Yeorum is. She doesn't make it obvious but she actually does admire her quite a lot. If she wins against Yeorum for a bit or comes close to defeating her, it would help set her pride back."

He nodded his head.

"It would be a headache if something goes even slightly wrong in the process though."

"Yes. It is a very sensitive topic..."

"Can you mediate the two of them well?"

"Okay," replied Bom.

***

At night,

While the kids were all sleeping,

At the shallows of the abyss, Yu Jitae was administering the body of Jung Taebaek. While removing thousands of sharp fragments of the chimera resembling fish hooks one by one, his mind brought him back to the past.

Was it because Taebaek had red hair?

A red dragon appeared in his mind.

- What the fuc* are you?

She wasn't Yeorum.

- Do you even know who I am?

- Oi, are you crazy? Huhh? Let go right now!

- Go away! Fu*k, d, don't you hear me... kuuk!

After being grabbed by the neck, she was dragged to the underground labyrinth.

- Oi. Oi! You fuc*ing piece of shit-!

- Open the door righhhhtt noowwwwww—!!!

It was the memory of a girl,

A girl that looked awfully like Yeorum.

In the 5th iteration, while Yu Jitae had yet to be perfected as a superhuman.

In the 4th iteration, he had seen a new possibility but when the light was about to vanish from that possibility, he had to address what he had been avoiding as the central topic.

He didn't have enough power to protect his conviction and there were a lot of things he had to compromise with. Thus, he had to become stronger.

Ranked 3rd worldwide, one of the Five Transcendents of Chaliovan, possessor of the Dungeon Free Pass...

Although he was known as a powerhouse, what couldn't be concealed from all those miscellaneous titles was the fact that he was still weak.

In order to become stronger, he locked the hatchlings inside the underground labyrinth and moved. He had already discovered the locations of the hatchlings in the 4th+ iterations so it wasn't difficult in the slightest.

- What did I ever do wrong? What have I even done to you...

- Why are you doing this to me...

A red hatchling that burned her own heart to escape the underground labyrinth. She furiously set herself ablaze while he wasn't there. The suppressed urge for violence erupted while her mind had gone crazy.

The hatchling waged wars and endlessly wreaked havoc and became humanity's enemy.

By the time he heard the news and rapidly returned to catch it, the entire body of the hatchling had already been torn to pieces, crushed and crumbled beyond repair.

The child had never once complained about pain when she was locked up, but staring at the Regressor with her only remaining eye,

- I, it hurts.

- My heart, hurts.

She moved her cracked jaws and requested him for a favour.

- Please, kill me...