Academy's Bully-in-Charge, Episode 12
Seeing Decant barge through the infirmary door as though he might break it, Bang Baek-tong—the Tian Shouxinyi (天手新醫)—furrowed his brows deeply and set down his Go stone.
"Do you not know of this thing called knocking…."
"Huuuk."
"Good heavens! Your complexion, poor as it was before, has completely gone to rot. Has something happened?"
Decant collapsed onto the bed without replying. Before anyone knew it, his entire body was drenched in sweat.
"F-first… please call Gabi…."
"Gabi is away on business…. I shall treat you."
Having spoken thus, Tian Shouxinyi snatched Decant's hand and took his pulse before Decant could even respond.
"Oh my, your qi and blood have suffered greatly. Were you perhaps on your way back from catching a drake?"
"Not you, Divine Doctor, Gabi…."
"Goodness, I told you [he] is away on business."
There was a reason Decant refused Bang Baek-tong's treatment. Although his skill was exceptional, befitting the moniker Tian Shouxinyi, the process of being treated by him was simply too painful.
'It could be fixed with a single holy magic spell….'
And sure enough, Decant saw Tian Shouxinyi approaching with an incredibly thick silver needle clenched in his mouth.
'Th-that's not a pair of chopsticks, is it?'
Gulp.
He swallowed his saliva involuntarily.
Regardless, the approaching Tian Shouxinyi plunged five thick needles, infused with internal energy, into Decant's body. The needles were so thick that each insertion made a thud—
"Qihai, Jianli, Zhongwan, Danzhong, Xuanji."
"Kuaaaaaaaack!"
"My friend, the acupoints along your Renmai are heavily damaged. Please refrain from using magic for the time being."
"Please, g-gently!"
"Goodness, such a crybaby… What's a noisy fellow like you doing in a quiet place, Decant?"
The man playing Go with Tian Shouxinyi heard Decant's agony-filled scream and began to laugh uproariously.
"A-hahaha. Mr. Decant, you look a sight."
"Kkeu-eung…."
Normally, Decant would have burst into a rage, but seeing the laughing man, he swallowed his anger inwardly and turned his head away with a snap.
'Dean Armut….'
Armut the Omnipotent.
He was the dean of the Magic Department and a 9-star Archmage capable of using magic from all affinities to their utmost limits through nine magic circles. His appearance seemed to be in his early thirties, but his most impressive feature was his thread-like eyes, which looked as though they were perpetually closed at a glance.
'That monstrous Zhuyan Shu still works, I see.'
Armut's plump skin was no different from when Decant had first met him fifteen years ago. No, he actually looked younger than back then.
"What is a dean doing playing gambling Go at this hour?"
"I had something to discuss with the Divine Doctor. And I've already won 100,000 gold, you know."
"That cheapskate Armut won't let me win a single move!"
It was always like this. Armut's appearance doing work was so rare that Decant sometimes thought, 'If only Sword Emperor Na Hyeokjung, the dean of the Martial Arts Department, were in the Magic Department….'
'And despite having won 100,000 gold….'
Even though he raked in money from gambling Go every day, Decant had never seen him pay for anything during group meals. It was as if a ghost obsessed with money had possessed him.
'Hmph! Armut the Omnipotent? More like Armut the Cheapskate.'
"Ah, yes… I suppose so."
"By the way, Mr. Decant, you went in to teach a class, so why have you returned in tatters?"
"I overdid it a bit while demonstrating magic."
Armut made an exaggerated gesture as though deeply shocked.
"Hieek! Our Mr. Decant overdid it during a demonstration? What kind of magic was it! Could it be you even showed them Meteor?"
"Ah, no, I was demonstrating barrier magic and…."
"Then could it be you were overpowered in mental strength by a student…? Eyy, no way our Mr. Decant would do that. Nope!"
Seeing Armut teasing him with a mischievous expression, Decant's injured insides churned even more.
'Hoo, I can't even blow his head off….'
* * *
As soon as break time began, the Hwangbo twins ran over to Baek Iljin.
"Iljin, are you okay?"
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
"I'm fine."
Even though he said he was fine, Hwangbo Sujung took something out from inside her clothes and held it out. It was a jet-black medicinal pill, and the stench was so foul that it filled the entire lecture hall.
Baek Iljin felt an instinctive revulsion at that suffocating smell, but he accepted it upon seeing the worry-filled gaze of Hwangbo Sujung.
"What is this?"
"It's our clan's specially made secret medicine, the Pahwangdan! If you eat it, it'll heal minor internal injuries right away."
"Pahwangdan…?"
"I-Iljin! Don't eat tha—ugh."
Hwangbo Cheolsu, standing far away and holding his nose, had tried to stop Baek Iljin from accepting the Pahwangdan, but he failed as Hwangbo Sujung's fist drove into his stomach.
"Don't mind him, hurry up and eat it."
"Ah, okay."
Seeing Hwangbo Cheolsu's reaction, whatever little desire Baek Iljin had to eat it vanished completely. However, looking at Hwangbo Sujung, who was giving him a look as if telling him to eat it right now, Baek Iljin let out a small sigh and tossed the pill into his mouth.
'Well… it's not like I'll die, right?'
Gulp—
"Urk."
The Pahwangdan melted instantly like a liquid the moment it entered his mouth. As it traveled down his esophagus and approached his stomach, dry heaves overtook him.
"Blergh—"
That terrible smell tormented him even more than Decant's barrier magic had. Baek Iljin gulped down the water beside him to stop the constant dry heaves and asked,
"This medicine… is it the kind that cures you by moving the pain somewhere else?"
"What are you talking about! It's such good medicine!"
"Puhahaha, see? That's why I told you not to eat it."
"Charles was right."
Hwangbo Sujung glared at Hwangbo Cheolsu, who was giggling away. Cheolsu, who had been cackling, quickly hid his laughter at Sujung's venomous gaze.
"It's because of you."
"What do you mean because of me again…."
"Because of your nonsense, Iljin got swept up in it too."
Based on Hwangbo Cheolsu's experience, he had a feeling Sujung's nagging was about to start again. At times like this, he had to quickly change the subject.
"By the way, Iljin."
"…?"
"How was it inside the barrier? It's the first time I've seen barrier magic in my life!"
Hwangbo Cheolsu asked this and that like the magic maniac he was. Baek Iljin recalled the situation inside the barrier and opened his mouth.
"Hmm… well, nothing much. First, I saw an illusion."
"Illusion magic! What kind of illusion?"
"In a dark place where nothing could be seen, a very large eye was staring at me."
"A giant eye?"
Hwangbo Cheolsu shuddered as though he had experienced the illusion himself. Before anyone knew it, Hwangbo Sujung had subtly placed her hand over her mouth.
"Weren't you scared?"
"Rather than scared… it was somehow a warm gaze."
As his words suggested, that gaze could only be described as truly warm. It felt like how a grandfather would look at him.
"And then?"
"My body felt a bit heavy. And then, since Professor Decant didn't seem to be using his strength properly, nothing much happened."
It was something that would shock Decant if he heard it, but the Hwangbo twins nodded their heads.
[Ding-dong, ding-dong—Class is now in session.]
Just then, the bell signaling class time rang. Hwangbo Cheolsu looked like he wanted to ask something more, but Hwangbo Sujung dragged him back to their seats.
Left alone at his seat, Baek Iljin closed his eyes and kept recalling the giant eye he had seen inside the barrier magic.
'It was definitely a familiar gaze….'
While he was thinking deeply, the front door of the large lecture hall opened and Decant entered.
"Now! Attention."
Decant's voice was hoarse, unlike the previous period. The chattering students recalled those who had fainted from being hit by lightning magic and fell silent in an instant.
'Damn it, I can't skip class either.'
Decant had a mountain of desire to cancel class and rest, but he couldn't because of the placement exam next week.
The academy's placement exam tested across ten subjects. And the purpose of the placement exam was to assign students to classes matching their aptitudes based on the results.
The problem was that the formulas of the mana breathing technique they would learn this period would be on the placement exam. Thus, he couldn't miss class.
"In the last period, you learned about barrier magic. What did I say we would do this period?"
"You said you would teach us the mana breathing technique."
"Correct."
Saying so, Decant wrote the method for using the mana breathing technique on the chalkboard.
"In order to handle mana easily, the first thing you must learn is the mana breathing technique."
The mana breathing technique Decant was writing was not the cheap, common one found everywhere, but the proper mana breathing technique learned in the Magic Tower. For some reason, Decant wrote everything by hand without using magic. The students found this strange, but no one pointed it out.
"I'm sure all mages know that mana and internal energy are fundamentally the same."
Most magic-specialty students nodded, but martial-arts-specialty students tilted their heads with expressions that said they didn't know what he meant.
"Many martial-arts-specialty students probably don't know. Unlike most mages who study in the Magic Tower, martial arts are mostly learned in individual private sects."
Having said that, Decant rested his hand on the podium and continued the lesson.
"Sending energy from the dantian through the body's Renmai and Dumai is internal energy, and releasing energy through the magic circuits in the heart—that is mana."
Baek Iljin and the martial-arts-specialty students perked up their ears at this first-time story and focused on the class.
"However! Now that you've enrolled in the academy, it is only natural for martial-arts specialties to learn magic, and magic specialties to learn martial arts!"
Decant, who had been explaining something for a while, pointed at the chalkboard. And he tapped the board with a marker as he spoke.
"Therefore, those who fail to memorize all of this mana breathing technique today will not be able to go home."
The moment those words ended, the students began to sigh. Because the mana breathing technique written on the chalkboard looked to be about 5,000 characters at a glance.
Decant too let out a secret sigh after finishing speaking. Decant plopped down into the chair in front of the podium. His right leg, seated in the chair, trembled like that of a newborn calf.
'Damn, I don't have the strength to stand any longer….'
Thanks to Tian Shouxinyi's treatment, he had been able to come to class, but his condition was not normal.
'Tsk, I'm really quite frail.'
Then a student stood up raising his hand. He was a magic-specialty student who looked completely unremarkable.
"I'm Lat X, number 128 of the magic specialty."
"What."
"We magic-specialty students already know the formulas for the mana breathing technique. What should we do?"
Decant looked at the student named Lat X and waved his hand dismissively.
"Leave."
"Yes?"
"Must I make you repeat yourself. I'm saying magic-specialty students may go home."
"Yes…. Thank you."
Hearing those words, the magic-specialty students began to stand up in droves. They finished greeting Decant and began to leave the classroom.
Baek Iljin also stood up and started to leave the classroom to follow them. But Decant called out to stop him.
"Wait. You there, the written exam student."
"Yes."
Decant looked at Baek Iljin, who had turned around, and frowned, thinking 'Damn, that guy again?'
He inwardly felt like he didn't want to get involved, but rules were rules. There could be no exceptions for any student.
"I believe I clearly said you must memorize all of the mana breathing technique to go home."
"I've memorized it all."
The students who heard Baek Iljin's words looked at him all at once. Among them were students speaking with sneering remarks.
"Written exam rank 200 dares to say he's already memorized the mana breathing technique?"
"But he is a special admittee."
"How did someone who ranked 200th get special admission? I don't get it."
It was hard to believe that he, bearing the number 200, had already memorized it, when even Jegal Muhyeok, who ranked first in the written exam, would have found it puzzling.
Decant quieted the students and then called Baek Iljin.
"You, come out here."
"Yes, understood."
Baek Iljin maintained his usual expressionless face and stepped up onto the podium. Students who had been blocked by those leaving and couldn't see who it was murmured, 'It's that guy again?' upon seeing Baek Iljin step onto the podium.
"Recite it once."
"The mana breathing technique begins first by achieving sympathy with nature. […] The energies that travel through the duodenum are gathered in the dantian. […] When releasing, rather than passing through the Renmai and Dumai, they are expelled through the magic circuits in the heart."
For ten minutes while reciting the mana breathing technique, Baek Iljin didn't hesitate or stop even once.
With this, there was no grounds to say anything. Decant calmed his surprised heart and praised Baek Iljin.
"You memorized it perfectly without a single word out of place…. Truly befitting a special admittee."
"Thank you."
"You may go home."
The students watching him turn and leave displayed various fleeting emotions on their faces.
Envy, jealousy, disbelief, puzzlement, and so on.
But Baek Iljin, receiving all those gazes, merely exited the door without any change in expression.