Chapter 86

Chapter 86

Wednesday lunch.

Even though it was lunchtime, the children were uncharacteristically slumped, their cheeks glued to their desks.

"Duels......I'm tired......."

"Why can't we do club activities on days when we have duels...... I don't want to do it because once I have duels, I'm out of it...... I just want to eat sweets in the break room......."

It's driving me crazy listening to their whining back and forth.

I had to get over the fact that I had to participate in duels like this with one main story request left, but it was even crazier to hear the sound of his exhaustion.

"Mr. Jin-woo. By the way, where did Mr. Young-jae go?"

"Young-jae? He didn't come to school today because he's studying with his mentor. He really sucks all the honey by himself......."

Hearing Jin-woo's words, Se-ah sat up.

"Mentoring? Right! I had a mentoring class! I need to find my mentor right now......My mentor is teacher Ji-hyun!!!"

Se-ah gets frustrated again.

"......why didn't you go to your mentor's class?"

"......Huh? Me?"

Jin-woo suddenly jumped up at the sound of Se-ah calling out to him.

"......I like duels."

"What?"

"At least duels don't hurt, and that crazy woman......I'll just go to duels."

I couldn't imagine what kind of activities he usually did that made him look like that.

"Uh...... what about Mr. Eugene, you didn't go to any mentor classes this week, did you?"

I still hadn't heard from Kwak Chun-sik.

Judging from the missing 1 next to the message, he must have read it, but why didn't he reply?

"He said he has something to think about, but he doesn't get back to me."

"Aaah......there's a reason for everything, haha, you're going to the duels after all."

When Se-ah muttered that and was about to fall down on the desk again.

[Eugene Han. Student Eugene Han, please come to the academy's faculty office, I'm relaying this once again. Student Eugene Han.......]

Suddenly, a broadcast calling for me echoed in the classroom.

"Boss. Did you get into an accident?"

"Don't think I'm you."

"I've never been in an accident!"

I ignored Jin-woo's protests and stood up from my seat.

A call from the staff room, has anything happened lately that warrants a call?

"Hmm......."

It's hard to guess with so many things going on.

Before I know it, I'm in front of the faculty office. I open the door and step inside, and all eyes are on me.

Why are they all looking at me like this?

...... Huh?

Somehow, I recognized someone who shouldn't be here.

"......you?"

Why is he in the academy's staff room when he should still be in Gangwon Province?

"Disciple, long time no see."

Kwak Chun-sik giggled, probably because my panicked face was so funny.

"Elder, what are you doing here......."

"You asked me to come, didn't you, and I've been organizing and dealing with things, so I'm here now."

I asked him why he hadn't contacted me until now, and he said he had been preparing nonstop since that day.

"Well, there are a lot of eyes on us, so why don't we go out? Yunho, can I take my disciple out?"

He suddenly asks Park Yunho, the first-year teachers leader, if he can take me out.

"Senior. In the afternoon, the first-year students' duel is──"

"Write──! Uh-huh!"

"......Senior."

No matter how stern and rigid Mr. Park is, his opponent is Kwak Chun-sik, who has been called the hero of heroes and is like a president.

On top of that, he had trained under Kwak Chun-sik before.......

Still, it was the first time he had ever seen Park Yunho so nervous.

"You said that I can miss three times a week for mentor classes, isn't that enough?"

"That's true, but there's no precedent for leaving during class, so──"

"Then we can just make the first case this time! If I say we're going to do it, then do it! What's the point of arguing?"

"......."

Because the arrow wasn't pointed at me, I felt so comfortable.

Someone once told me that it's so comforting to have an asshole with both power and age on your side.

I was feeling it in real time.

"When your elders tell you that, you know it's true, because that's how it was back then. When my seniors told me something I replied with 'Yes, senior.'"

"Ah...... understand, senior."

"What?"

"......I think you can take cadet Eugene Han with you, senior."

"Right, see?

"Ah, yes."

Was Park Yunho the kind of human who could make an expression like that?

He looks like he's at a loss for words, and Ji-hyun is behind him, biting her lip to hold back her laughter.

It was a stark contrast between the two of them.

After following Kwak Chun-sik out of the faculty room, I asked him as he walked ahead toward somewhere.

"Sir. Where are we going?"

"My house."

"Your home?"

"We need to talk about what's been going on, and there are some things we shouldn't talk about here......."

The mood suddenly changed.

I nodded, having a bad premonition about something.

"Then I have a good place for you."

"A good place?"

"Yes, a place where you won't have to worry about people or sound leaking out."

"Hmm, is there such a place? Let's go there."

"Sure."

I take the puzzled man with me and we head to Familia's club room.

Familia is a place I built from the ground up to raise my 'family'.

From the beginning, it was already imprinted with security measures to prevent sound from leaking out. Add to that the fact that my office is magically impenetrable to eavesdropping, and it's the perfect place to talk about secrets.

"Is this...... the club hall? Are you planning to go to an empty club room?"

Oh, I hadn't told the old man yet.

"My clubhouse is here."

"Huh? Aren't you a freshman?"

"That's right."

"But the club is...... No, you have your own club?"

"Yes."

"And you're the president?"

"Yes."

After hearing all of my answers, the old man let out a chuckle as if he was full of energy.

"Heh, I knew you were a smartass, but a guy who just entered the academy has a club? That's ridiculous."

"As you say, I was a bit of a brat."

As a gesture of respect to the old man, I return to the back of the hall and activate the freight elevator.

"You have a ...... elevator?"

"Yes, it's one of the prides of our club."

I swipe my card through the card reader and descend into the basement.

"Let's go to the president's office."

"What the hell......."

Kwak Chun-sik, who was constantly grumbling about something, was eagerly looking around.

That's how the two of us ended up in my office.

After simply placing tea and refreshments in front of him, I opened my mouth to start talking in earnest.

"What the hell happened, Mr. Kwak, I didn't hear from you, and I didn't even know you were coming, so how did you manage to get into Seoul so quickly?"

Kwak Chun-sik was a case where instead of going to jail for killing a villain, he ended up in SilverTown.

On top of that, he would have had a hard time getting out due to the scrutiny of political figures.

Therefore, he would have needed my help or outside help to get out smoothly, and it's not easy to understand how he was able to do so.

"I guess you could say he got lucky."

"......Lucky. You mean?"

"Yeah, you know, that space wizard you captured the other day, the one who was supposed to be the 'new kid on the block'. I was listening to your story and gathering my thoughts, when all of a sudden I got a call from the prosecutor's office, asking if he really was the 'new kid on the block'."

Wait, a newcomer?

......Little by little, the pieces started to come together.

I can't believe this is how I saved Kim Se-ah's life.

With Se-ah out of the picture, the spotlight was on Shin Chul-Gwimol, and the attention turned to Kwak Chun-sik, who was said to have caught Shin Chul-Gwimol.

"They said that Shin Chul-Gwimol brought villains to Korea, those prisoners who were on the news. Do you have any idea?"

"They offered you a deal?"

"Yeah, that's it. They've been secretly asking me to make a deal with them, to help them find a villain infiltrating Korea."

"But I don't understand why they had to go so far as to ask you, an old man, there are plenty of heroes in the guilds, including the Association, who can help with the investigation."

In other words, there was no reason for the government to single him out.

However, in response to my question, Kwak Chun-sik smiled wryly.

"They said they'd give me a reward at first, but...... I have enough money and goods, so I made a deal just like you said last time."

That's why it was so easy to pass something that might have been rejected for political reasons.

"I was hoping it would work out for me, and if it didn't, I'd think of another way, but it was so much easier than I thought it would be, I wondered if there had been a change of heart in the high and mighty."

Somehow, I felt like I knew why.

"Perhaps my father has intervened."

"Father? You mean, your father?"

"Yes, although I'm not sure."

The other day, my father had asked me to have dinner with Mr. Kwak.

My father had been interested in Mr. Kwak ever since.

If so, Corleone, with our obvious political connections, must have heard about Kwak Chun-sik and could have done something about it.

"Since you're involved in Rate affairs......it would be a great boost to our power if you came forward.

Even if Kwak Chun-sik won't come to Corleone, he's still a useful bulwark.

Plus, it might divert the government's attention a little bit......so it was like killing two birds with one stone.

"Well, that's good."

"Yeah, and the timing was perfect."

"The timing......?"

"Judging by the state of the Association and the government, the workforce is extremely scarce, to the point where they need an old man like you."

Hearing my words, Kwak Chun-sik took out his cell phone.

He fiddles with them and puts on a video.

"The government and the Association contacted me this morning, saying they need my help."

It's a short video, about a minute long.

He presses play and the black screen shakes as the bars move.

[~~~♪]

The video begins to play what appears to be a foreign children's song.

[Ring around the rosie──]

"This is......."

"Do you know this song too?"

Ring around the rosie.

One of those foreign mother goose songs, very closely associated with the Black Death that once swept through Europe.

And......off the top of my head, I can only think of one guy who would put this song in his intro.

Villain Plague.

He's a walking biohazard weapon who can transmit the disease he carries to others.

One of the worst villains in the game, with a history of using his powers to wipe out small nations, he was one of the highest ranking members of the Villain Alliance.

And.

'The main villain of this episode of Terror.'

And then, as the eerie voice finished singing, the screen flickered to life with a message.

[Despair will land in Korea.]

The message can only mean one thing.

"......He declared war on the Republic of Korea."

"Yeah, they sent this video to the Association."

"And they're not releasing it to the outside world?"

"It's the first time a high-ranking member of the Villain Alliance has given us such a warning. They've decided to keep it under wraps for now because they're expecting a lot of confusion."

......Is this a continuation of the original story?

In the original, the government's misjudgment leads to numerous civilian casualties.

A series of named villains, each with a different personality, take it upon themselves to carry out a multifaceted campaign of destruction.

Some have a grudge against the government, some against the heroes, some have become villains to fulfill their own ideas, and some find pleasure in killing weak humans........

What they end up doing is terrorism but they didn't just target government organizations.

In that case, what I would do was predetermined.

"Hey, old man. Can you send me this video file?"

"Huh? You mean this? You can't possibly......."

At that moment, Kwak Chun-sik frowned and sent me a meaningful glance.

"Are you thinking of something strange?"

What a strange idea, this is all for the sake of justice.

"I won't be responsible...... No, Corleone will be."

I know what's coming, and it's times like these that I need to draw on the strength of my family.