Academy Designated Bully, Chapter 36
“Kurgh—”
A deathly scream spilled from Jitaegyeong’s mouth.
Jitaegyeong crawled across the floor, bracing himself against the ground to flee. Baegiljin, who had pursued him leisurely, kicked Jitaegyeong’s chin to lift him up, then grabbed the back of his head.
*Crunch—*
Jitaegyeong’s face was slammed into the floor once again.
The students, their faces pale, sent signals to Wonjin as if asking him to intervene. But under Baegiljin’s brutal aura, Wonjin couldn’t bring himself to move forward either.
“Amitabha….”
*Crunch—*
Red blood soaked the training ground floor. Perhaps unable to bear watching the scene directly, several students turned their heads away.
*Crunch—*
When his face struck the floor for the third time, Jitaegyeong’s arms went limp.
However, without a single change in expression, Baegiljin lifted Jitaegyeong’s head again.
At that moment.
“Enough.”
Dangyehong, who had entered the sparring stage at some point, grabbed his arm.
Only then did Baegiljin release Jitaegyeong’s hair and fling him to the floor.
Students rushed onto the sparring stage and flipped Jitaegyeong over. His eye socket was shattered, and his nose was crooked as if struck with a hammer.
Dangyehong, having ordered the students to move Jitaegyeong to the infirmary, looked down at the sparring stage with a grave expression.
The sparring stage was strewn with tangled hair and saliva mixed with blood, making it nearly impossible to look at.
“Use this to wipe that blood off.”
“Thank you.”
Dangyehong, who had handed Baegiljin a handkerchief, spoke while cleaning the floor of the sparring stage.
“Your hand is far too heavy.”
“It’s not even close to a six-month recovery.”
Seeing Baegiljin’s expression, Dangyehong swallowed a groan. This kid really had beaten Jitaegyeong with the intention of causing a six-month recovery period.
*‘In the end, a situation like this was bound to happen.’*
It was something he had been concerned about ever since he saw Baegiljin’s answer on the placement exam’s Personality Studies test.
*[Q. You have obtained a key capable of annihilating all hostile forces (Tower of Black Magicians or Demonic Alliance) at once. If you use this key, every operative from your own side who has infiltrated the hostile forces will also die. What choice would you make in this situation? Describe your choice and reasoning.]*
He couldn’t remember exactly, but the answer Baegiljin had written at the time had the nuance of not using the key and instead going in himself to kill them all.
Regardless of Baegiljin’s intent, Dangyehong had evaluated his personality like this after seeing that answer:
*‘I don’t know about allies, but his is a personality that regards the lives of enemies as lighter than those of flies.’*
He didn’t know what had happened, but Baegiljin seemed to have judged Jitaegyeong as an enemy.
*‘Otherwise, there’s no way he would use his hands so mercilessly.’*
Even now, he needed to correct what was wrong.
*‘If he continues to lose control of his strength and uses such excessive handiwork, he would be no different from a band of demonic heretics.’*
In Dangyehong’s eyes, Baegiljin was more talented and outstanding than any other student in the Academy, but as a human being, there seemed to be something lacking.
“Student Baegiljin.”
“Yes.”
“You are disqualified.”
Baegiljin said nothing and looked at Dangyehong. His opponent had provoked him, and he had simply responded in kind.
*‘But why am I disqualified?’*
He reflected on his actions and organized his thoughts, but he couldn’t think of a satisfactory reason.
A few minutes passed like that. His mouth opened.
“I’ve thought about it, but I don’t really understand why I’m disqualified.”
“Hmm… It’s because your hand was too heavy.”
“You, Professor, are the one who said that injuries around a six-month recovery period were within the allowed range.”
It was a valid point. But those words applied when it could be called a duel. What Baegiljin had just done was one-sided violence.
“Do you truly think that?”
“I wish to hear the reason.”
Seeing Baegiljin’s expression, Dangyehong quietly sighed, thinking it would be difficult to convince him.
“First of all, if you took my words about a six-month recovery literally, then I misspoke. I apologize.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“However, those words were a figure of speech. They weren’t an instruction to blindly inflict a six-month recovery.”
“…….”
“And if you had inflicted this level of injury in a situation where you and Student Jitaegyeong were of equal skill, I would not have disqualified you.”
Baegiljin nodded silently at Dangyehong’s explanation.
“But that’s not the case, is it? What you did was not a duel or sparring, but mere assault.”
“Yes.”
“We are of the orthodox path. Even if much of its meaning has been forgotten with the passage of time.”
For a moment, Baegiljin felt as if a righteous light flowed from Dangyehong’s single remaining eye.
“I hope that if you are an orthodox martial artist, you act like one. No, if you are a magician, then like a White Magician. And if not even that, then at the very least like a proper human being. That is the reason I disqualified you.”
Baegiljin did not immediately understand Dangyehong’s words. But he could feel the sincerity contained within them.
“I understand.”
Baegiljin bowed his head and walked out of the sparring stage. The students’ reaction was completely different from when he had stepped onto the sparring stage.
“So there was a reason he could enter the Special Class through the written exam….”
“Where the hell is he from?”
“I vaguely heard he came down from some mountain; is he a disciple of some reclusive master or something?”
The chattering students fell silent when Dangyehong and Wonjin came down from the sparring stage.
Dangyehong raised the right hand of Wonjin, who wore a somewhat conflicted expression, and spoke.
“By this, Wonjin will take on the role of class president of the Special Class. Class president, come forward and greet them.”
“I am Wonjin, entrusted with the position of leader of the Special Class despite my shortcomings. I look forward to the semester.”
The students, whose moods had lightened, burst into light cheers along with applause.
Dangyehong nodded and pushed Wonjin’s back. Wonjin went to the very front center of the students and took his position.
“Today’s class ends here. Class president, give the closing.”
“Attention, salute.”
“Thank you for your hard work!”
* * *
Clubs: groups of people with shared goals or interests.
At the Academy, there were no fewer than a hundred such clubs.
As their numbers grew, factions formed over time, divided into East, West, South, North, and Center according to the location of their club rooms.
And the influential clubs that represented these factions were called Representative Clubs.
The Representative Clubs included the Blood Lion Society, representing the East faction.
The Magic Research Club of the West faction.
The Jeongmudan of the South faction.
North Wind of the North faction.
And finally, Blue Rose, representing the Center faction.
Clubs belonging to a faction had to pay tribute to their Representative Club every month.
If they failed to pay, they would lose their faction’s protection and be unable to operate properly due to external pressure such as raids or vandalism.
The strength of the other Representative Clubs, excluding the Center, was roughly similar.
Blue Rose of the Center was weaker than the other four major clubs, but because of the unique position of being in the Center, it was difficult for other forces to touch them carelessly, allowing them to maintain their representative seat.
For example, if one club attacked Blue Rose to take the Center, the other clubs would not stand idly by.
But recently, that structure had collapsed.
For some reason, all members of Blue Rose had dropped out, leaving the Center empty.
Therefore, members of the four major clubs had urgently gathered for a meeting now.
Among them, in the North Wind clubroom.
“Kyahahahahahaha.”
“Puhahahahat.”
The students there were looking at someone and laughing so hard the clubroom seemed to shake.
Some students had tears welling up because they couldn’t stop laughing even after a long while.
The man who had been laughing the hardest finally stopped and pointed at Jitaegyeong, asking.
“What, you ended up like this after getting beaten by a freshman? Not by a professor or another second-year?”
“Watch your mouth, Frey. I wasn’t beaten; I let my guard down.”
“So what you’re saying is that your face is swollen up like an idiot thanks to a freshman’s handiwork.”
“Grr.”
Jitaegyeong lowered his voice and growled, but the man called Frey paid him no mind and continued mocking him.
“Shit, who would’ve known he was that strong?”
“No? It’s just that you’re weak?”
“So you’re not going to help me?”
“Hmm….”
Hearing that, Frey wiped the smile from his lips and asked the vice-president Alberto beside him for his opinion with a thoughtful expression.
“Hey Alberto, is it right to help him out?”
“Hmm, if a club member is humiliated, we should help. But Jitaegyeong, you’re not part of our club.”
“What? But we’re friends….”
“No. We can’t help you.”
Alberto coldly cut off Jitaegyeong, who asked back with a dumbfounded expression, and added a condition.
“This time, we’re planning to seize the Center. If you help us first, we’ll help you take care of that Baek-il… whatever afterwards.”
Frey nodded as if agreeing with Alberto’s words and said.
“Right, we need to conserve our strength right now. Now that Blue Rose is gone, the other bastards will bare their fangs to devour the Center.”
Jitaegyeong let out a hollow laugh as he looked at his friends drawing the line with serious expressions. He had thought they were cold-hearted even when they were in the same class, but to think it was this bad.
Jitaegyeong’s lips pouted as his expression hardened.
*‘These guys don’t have a shred of loyalty.’*
As if reading Jitaegyeong’s mood, Frey smiled brightly and poked Jitaegyeong’s side.
“This bastard’s sulking again. Hey, you think we don’t want to help?”
“Right, we need a justification to mobilize club personnel.”
Hearing them speak like that, Jitaegyeong relaxed his expression as if he had never been upset and nodded.
“Got it. I’ll join your club too.”
“Whew— We’ve been trying to recruit you since first year, and you’re finally joining.”
“Right?”
Having said that, Frey took something out of subspace.
It was a cloak printed with blue feathers, worn by the executives of North Wind.
“Since you’ve joined our club now, wear this. It’s special for a first-year to be treated like an executive.”
“Ah… This is exactly why I didn’t want to join.”
Jitaegyeong sighed, “Huu—” but draped the cloak over his body. Perhaps because he was so skinny, he looked like a child wrapped in a tablecloth.
Seeing Jitaegyeong like that, Frey and Alberto forced down the laughter trying to escape and gave a thumbs up.
“Wow, it really suits you.”
“Really? I do often hear that I wear clothes well.”
“Who’s spouting such nonsense? If it was a friend of yours who said that, smash their face in right now.”
Clicking his tongue with a “Tch—”, Jitaegyeong fluttered the cloak once and raised his hand to point at the map.
“Let’s get to the main point. Where do I need to go from now on?”
Frey grabbed Jitaegyeong’s hand that was pointing at the map and directed it to a spot on the map.
“Here, the clubroom that Blue Rose used to use. You only need to keep watch from six to ten.”
“Every day?”
“Of course, you didn’t come here to play.”
Jitaegyeong let out a deep sigh.
*‘What a waste of time….’*
Fortunately, the Academy banned all club activities after ten o’clock.
Jitaegyeong looked back and forth between Frey and Alberto and nodded. Frey and Alberto also nodded at each other.
Their eyes gleamed as they thought of their respective goals.
*‘Baegiljin, I’ll make you kneel before me in front of Seol Hayun.’*