Academy Delinquent in Charge, Episode 21
Today as well, the sunlight illuminating the world crept in through the curtains and tapped at his eyelids. Baek Iljin, his brow deeply furrowed, pulled the blanket up over his head.
Ring— Ring— Ring—
But once the alarm rang too, he could no longer hide beneath the blanket. Baek Iljin opened his eyes with difficulty, turned off the alarm, and rose from his bed.
Even after waking, he sat blankly in place for quite some time; only after the final alarm sounded could Baek Iljin finally get up.
“Waking up is the hardest part.”
Having slept as much as he pleased his entire life, it was no easy task for Baek Iljin to open his eyes at a set time every morning.
To Baek Iljin, who had overslept every single day in Rare, Baek Myeonghak would always say:
“You sleep in order to wake up.”
Heh.
“That’s right.”
Since his newly ordered uniform hadn’t arrived, Baek Iljin had come to school in casual clothes again today and sat in the very back row with the Hwangbo twins.
“Iljin, did you get home okay yesterday? Why are your eyes so sunken? Didn’t you sleep last night?”
“I slept ten hours.”
“R-really? You slept well, then. But why do we have two classes today…….”
“Can’t be helped. The entrance ceremony was pushed up by a day because of the Princess’s birthday, so they have to adjust the professors’ schedules.”
“Shh, the professor’s coming in.”
Shortly after, the professor who entered the classroom was the one who had proctored the written portion of the entrance exam.
‘So that was Professor Sama Jin.’
While not as long as Baek Iljin’s, Professor Sama Jin’s brown hair was worn fairly long and loose, and his appearance was impeccably neat.
Not a speck of dust or a single wrinkle could be found on his clothes. Combined with gleaming silver rimless glasses, his strict, fastidious impression only added to that effect.
“Welcome.”
“Yes!”
“The freshmen still don’t have a class president, do they?”
“No, we don’t.”
Sama Jin scanned the room and spotted a familiar face. The brat who had gotten up by himself during the entrance exam and left after solving every problem. He had thought the kid was trash, but the boy had quite a bit of talent.
‘He’s the only one my judgment was wrong about. That’s why I pestered Professor Jegal into giving him special admission, but…’
Yet seeing the sorry sight of him wearing a school uniform, Sama Jin was already beginning to think, ‘Was giving him special admission a mistake?’
‘Well, I’ll find out if I watch.’
Sama Jin pointed at Baek Iljin.
“Then, the student over there who came wearing casual clothes all alone.”
Baek Iljin rose from his seat at Sama Jin’s call.
“Yes. Written Exam No. 200, Baek Iljin.”
“Good, you shall lead the greeting.”
“Attention, salute.”
“Greetings—!”
The students who greeted in time with Baek Iljin’s command took out their textbooks and placed them on their desks.
Professor Sama Jin’s lecture was Zhenfa Studies, and the academy’s students universally feared this class the most.
Because once the placement exam ended and classes were assigned, students could freely choose the rest of their courses aside from major requirements, but Professor Sama Jin’s Zhenfa Studies was a mandatory subject regardless of which class one was in.
Moreover, the textbook was as thick as three major textbooks from other subjects put together, and its difficulty was notoriously, terribly high.
“Eek— why is the book so thick.”
“Y-yeah. It’s thick enough to be almost strange.”
“Hmm…… it sure is thick.”
Under normal circumstances, Hwangbo Sujeong would have snapped at Hwangbo Cheolsu for making a fuss, but even she empathized with Hwangbo Cheolsu’s outburst after seeing the book’s thickness.
Even Baek Iljin nodded in agreement with their assessment.
“Today, along with a simple explanation of Zhenfa, we shall learn a basic Zhenfa.”
Tap— tap— tap—
Sama Jin wrote on the blackboard—[Zhenfa Studies – 1. What is Zhenfa?]—and turned toward the students.
“Now, open to page 15, and read aloud together.”
“What is Zhenfa? All Zhenfa are derived from the fundamental Daoist principle of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements…….”
The roughly 600 students began reading in perfect unison, not a fraction out of sync.
“The methods of using Zhenfa are broadly divided into two. The first is arranging the terrain and natural features to borrow the power of nature. Such Zhenfa include the Bagua Formation, the Jiugong Formation, and so on. The second is cooperating with comrades to become the terrain and natural features, becoming a part of the Zhenfa. Such Zhenfa include Shaolin’s Luohan Formation, Huashan’s Meihua Sword Formation, and so on.”
The Martial Arts and Magic track students, excluding those from the Written Exam track, couldn’t understand what any of this meant even as they read.
“Good. Is there anything you don’t understand or are curious about? If not, we’ll move on.”
“Excuse me, what are the Yin-Yang and Five Elements?”
“A good question. Which student was it?”
“I’m Laika of the Magic Track, number 2.”
“I shall award bonus points.”
“Thank you.”
Laika, the Magic Track student who had received praise from Sama Jin, sat down with a bright smile, bowing deeply.
“The Yin-Yang and Five Elements can be said to be a term encompassing the principles of all things. Yin-Yang refers to the two energies that create all things in the world. By definition, Yin refers to that which is hidden, the reverse side, and so on, while Yang refers to that which is revealed, the front side, and so on. Do you follow?”
“Yes!”
Sama Jin nodded slightly and began writing the explanation on the blackboard. The characters he wrote in a single breath were truly exquisite, as though the epithet Tianbi had not been bestowed in vain.
“It is Yin and Yang rejecting and yearning for one another that brings about creation, circulation, and change. That is Yin-Yang. Now, allow me to explain the Five Elements.”
Having said this, Sama Jin took off his jacket, hung it up, and rolled up his shirt sleeves.
The female students’ cheeks flushed slightly at the sight of the blue veins running from the backs of his hands to his forearms, but Sama Jin paid them no mind, extending his fingers and drawing up internal energy.
“The Five Elements, simply put, refer to the five energies represented by Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth. These elemental energies are similar to the elements you learn in magic, but they are a different concept, so do not confuse them.”
The energies emanating from Sama Jin’s hand turned crimson and became fire, then became flowing water, and presently darkened, hardening like metal.
“Wood signifies straight-reaching expansion, or life. Fire signifies eruption in the form of fiercely burning flames. Metal signifies suppression and obstruction, blocking erupting energies. Water signifies compression and storage, as it always stays below. Finally, Earth signifies neutrality, neutralizing all of these.”
The students clutched their heads upon hearing characteristics of the Five Elements more complex than they had expected.
“These Five Elements maintain balance within the natural order of Yin-Yang and operate accordingly. Thus, all things are born from Yang, and all things return to Yin. This is the Yin-Yang and Five Elements.”
“…….”
“It can be said that Zhenfa is precisely the artificial imitation of nature by means of the principles of this Yin-Yang and Five Elements.”
Only after hearing Sama Jin’s explanation did Baek Iljin’s curiosity resolve.
The thought: ‘Barrier magic belongs to Auxiliary Magic within Magic Studies, so why doesn’t Zhenfa belong to Auxiliary Martial Arts within Martial Arts Studies?’
‘So there was a reason Zhenfa was set apart as a standalone subject.’
Zhenfa was not something small enough to be confined within the framework of auxiliary martial arts. No, given that all martial arts themselves occurred within this Yin-Yang and Five Elements, it might be an even broader domain.
“Interesting.”
Hwangbo Sujeong and Hwangbo Cheolsu, startled by Baek Iljin’s muttering, looked at him as if to ask what kind of strange fellow he was.
“What?”
“Iljin, you actually find this class interesting? Everyone except you seems bored out of their minds…….”
Just as Hwangbo Cheolsu said, the lecture was so tedious that half of the roughly 600 students were already fast asleep.
Sama Jin did not wake them, treating them as if they did not exist as he continued the lecture.
‘What’s the point of waking up those lagging trash?’
A flicker of contempt crossed Sama Jin’s eyes.
He too had once tried to wake every sleeping student like Decant, and had tried to teach enjoyable lessons like Karis.
But in the end, what remained were not the students he had woken, but only those who had fought off their drowsiness.
Some might say this: isn’t going together with all of them the very responsibility placed before one who bears the name of teacher?
‘If that is a teacher, then I am not a teacher. I am merely an instructor who receives money to deliver knowledge at the academy.’
Sama Jin put the jacket he had removed back on, erased the blackboard, and began writing something new. It was a shape resembling both a diagram and some kind of cipher.
“This is a problem that will appear on the placement exam. It is the Wudang Sect’s Liuyun Zhen, which has now vanished. Depending on the arrangement, this Liuyun Zhen can produce twelve Shengmen and twelve Simen. You need only memorize this.”
“Excuse me?”
The arrangements of the Liuyun Zhen were not in a realm that could be memorized by rote.
Although it was said to have twelve Shengmen and twelve Simen, the number of possible arrangements was more than ten times greater.
In short, it was a problem that could not be solved without understanding Zhenfa itself.
“Then we shall end the class here.”
Unlike other professors, Sama Jin did not force students to memorize everything taught during class. He even gave them the problems; if he forced them to memorize the answers as well, ensuring every student scored well on the exams, where would the discriminatory power come from?
‘To be honest, I find this method of revealing placement exam questions in advance repulsive as well, but the regulations demand it, so it can’t be helped.’
The moment Sama Jin finished class and opened the classroom door to leave, the bell rang.
[Ding-dong-ding-dong— It’s time to take a breath of fresh air.]
As soon as break began, the Martial Arts track students flocked around Jegal Muhyeok, who had entered as the top scorer in the written exam.
The Written Exam track students gathered around Yeon Jihak and Ha Chaeeun, who had taken third and fourth place, while the Magic track students flocked around Luca Redstorm and Evan Morrison, who were second and fifth in the written exam.
The lower-ranked students, pushed out by them and unable to go anywhere, glanced furtively toward Baek Iljin.
“S-shall we go over?”
“Didn’t you hear the rumors? On the day the entrance results were announced, he suppressed that huge guy Bang Geochung with just a slap.”
“I heard that too. They say Bang Geochung lost all his teeth because of that incident…….”
“And look at that hairstyle. How did a delinquent like that get in as a special admit?”
A female student with emerald hair passing by glanced at them and muttered under her breath.
“What are you losers doing huddled together? You should be begging on your hands and knees to be taught, yet here you are scheming behind their backs.”
“What?! Hey, you brat, you’ve gone too far……!”
“Shh! That’s Elia. Third place in the Magic track.”
“Hup.”
Snorting, Elia passed them and walked up to Baek Iljin. At the same time, from the opposite side, Seol Hayun, the young lady of the Ice Palace, came looking for Baek Iljin.
“Hey!”
“Um…….”
The two who had spoken to Baek Iljin looked at each other. Soon, their gazes clashed in midair.
“Who are you?”
“Who are you, then?”