Academy’s Delinquent in Charge, Episode 45
“Baek Iljin, what are you doing here……?”
“You don’t need to know.”
The moment Ji Taegyeong confirmed that the one grabbing his arm was Baek Iljin, his eyes flared open. He quickly channeled internal energy into his arm to pull away, but it didn’t budge an inch.
Baek Iljin turned his head to look at Elia, then shook Ji Taegyeong’s arm roughly.
“Go.”
“What? I’m going to fight too.”
“You’ll get in the way.”
Elia clenched her fist and insisted on staying to fight. But with Hairin joining as well, she had no choice but to turn around.
“Mr. Baek Iljin, thank you.”
A nod—
Ji Taegyeong felt like he was going to die.
Perhaps his words about making him never hold a sword again hadn’t been empty threats. Even as Ji Taegyeong’s arm turned black, Baek Iljin refused to loosen his savage grip.
Perhaps because the blood had stopped circulating. His hand trembled before going limp. With a clang— the sword he held rolled across the floor.
“Uwaaack—!”
Swish—
Three North Wind executives who heard Ji Taegyeong’s scream appeared, fluttering the unique cape of Blue Wind, and charged at Baek Iljin.
But Baek Iljin, who was focused on Ji Taegyeong, didn’t notice their arrival. The Heavenly Demon Sword noticed the ambush first and shouted.
—Look behind you!
“Behind?”
Before he could turn his head, a North Wind executive struck Baek Iljin’s head with a palm technique. Baek Iljin, hit squarely in the back of the head, rolled across the dusty floor.
The one who had unleashed the palm technique spoke, stroking his lower lip with his thumb.
“What’s with the tough act? This bastard.”
“Damn, you’re late.”
Despite the cursing, Ji Taegyeong’s voice was filled with relief.
“Ah, sorry. I got held up clearing out some small fry.”
“Small fry?”
The North Wind executive jutted his chin toward the back from where they stood. There, the Fiesta members lay collapsed in bloody heaps.
“They’re from that baking club or whatever. Tougher than I thought.”
Ji Taegyeong picked up the fallen sword from the floor and went over to the collapsed individuals to examine their faces. Finding them familiar, he looked closer and saw it was Hwangbo Cheolsu and Hwangbo Sujeong.
“Huh? These are the Hwangbo Sega twins?”
“What?!”
“Wait, the Hwangbo Sega?”
At the mention of Hwangbo Sega, worry suddenly washed over them, and their faces paled.
Ji Taegyeong shook his head. No matter if they were the young master and lady of the Five Great Clans, inside the academy they were just ordinary students.
Hadn’t he himself acted recklessly toward Namgung Jongsu for that very reason?
“Shit, don’t chicken out. We’re from the Six Great Sects too.”
Of course, there was a clear difference between ordinary disciples of the Six Great Sects and those who were set to become the next heads of the Five Great Clans, but Ji Taegyeong didn’t think that way.
‘I just need to become the sect leader of the Gongdong Sect.’
He had lost a lot of face to that strange fellow called Baek Iljin recently, but he was confident in his strength.
‘But did that bastard really go down in one hit?’
No matter how hard the back of his head was struck, he had collapsed too anticlimactically. Ji Taegyeong approached Baek Iljin, who was sprawled out, to check.
Baek Iljin lay on the ground, unable to move.
“This bastard was acting so cocky, serves him right…….”
At that moment, Baek Iljin grabbed Ji Taegyeong’s ankle. And then he yanked it back hard.
“Shit.”
Ji Taegyeong fell flat on his back and tried to turn his body to get up, but Baek Iljin’s foot was faster.
“That bastard’s up!”
“Catch him!”
In an instant, Baek Iljin trampled Ji Taegyeong and leaped up, raising both hands to slam the faces of the two charging North Wind executives into the floor.
“Ack—”
“Urk—”
Along with sounds that shouldn’t come from a human body, the two executives lost consciousness.
Baek Iljin raised his head and glared at the last remaining one.
“S-stay back.”
Recognizing the voice and certain that this was the guy who had struck the back of his head, Baek Iljin walked toward him with heavy steps.
“It was you.”
The North Wind executive with a large mole on his face staggered backward.
—It’s your fault for letting your guard down and getting hit.
‘Shut up.’
As Baek Iljin approached, the mole-faced man’s knees trembled.
He wanted to use his movement technique to flee this place immediately, but like a mouse before a venomous snake, his feet were frozen and wouldn’t obey.
Seeing the figures collapsed behind Mole-face, Baek Iljin’s eyes grew even darker.
‘Charles, Sujeong.’
Baek Iljin, who had already approached, grabbed Mole-face by the hair. And then he rammed his fist straight in. It was a bare fist without any internal energy.
“If I hit you with a bare fist, you’ll last a while.”
Kwaang— The mole-faced man’s nose bent at will.
Kwaang— His teeth were threshed like corn and sent flying.
Kwaang— All the blood vessels in his eyes burst.
Even after taking three more blows, the mole-faced man’s consciousness faded. Only then did Baek Iljin release his hair and walk toward the Hwangbo twins.
First, Baek Iljin laid Hwangbo Sujeong on his knee, opened her mouth, and poured a potion in. Fortunately, Hwangbo Sujeong wasn’t seriously injured.
Next was Hwangbo Cheolsu. Baek Iljin instinctively disliked laying a man on his knee, so he dumped the entire potion on his face instead.
Having used up an entire bottle of potion, Baek Iljin slumped down in place. The Heavenly Demon Sword, which had been watching everything, spoke.
—In my opinion, you really are a peculiar fellow.
By the Heavenly Demon Sword’s common sense, it couldn’t understand.
‘How can someone possess this level of internal energy while having such a weak body?’
This guy’s physical durability was weaker than expected. It had been the same when Seol Hayoon went berserk last time, and it was the same today.
“What do you mean?”
—Never mind.
In truth, it was because Baek Myeonghak had sealed the energy leaking from his body, but the Heavenly Demon Sword, unaware of this, found it wondrous.
Just then, with a loud boom echoing from afar, dust carried by the wind covered the surroundings.
* * *
Bigri hoisted the fallen Ludens onto his shoulders. Then he glared at Alberto with eyes as fierce as a lion’s.
“Alberto, have you lost your mind?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you think just because you said you’d be doing missions separately as a second-year that we wouldn’t have anything to do with each other anymore? What are you going to do when we run into each other in class after pulling something like this?”
This was precisely why the Four Great Clubs had been growling at each other without actually fighting. Most executives were in the same class even after leaving their clubs, so they would see each other often.
“It doesn’t matter.”
Blue magic circles formed in both of Alberto’s eyes. As the circles spun, thorny branches sprouted from the bare ground and bound Bigri’s body.
“Keuk.”
Alberto’s body flinched at Bigri’s scoff.
‘He’s laughing?’
He was clearly caught in the spell. Yet the corners of Bigri’s mouth rose even higher, and his eyes curved like crescents.
“Alberto, did you really think petty binding tricks like this would work?”
Bigri turned his gaze to the branches binding him. After blinking three times, the branches lost their strength, loosened, and soon turned to powder.
“Hoo-hoo— hoo—”
And when he blew through his mouth, that powder reversed to bind Alberto instead. Alberto thrashed to break free, but his already-bound body couldn’t move an inch.
“Alberto. What exactly do you gain by eating up the center like this?”
“…….”
“Fame? Or the position of next student council president or head of the disciplinary committee? Are you really starting a war over something like that?”
Bigri shook out his hand. At the same time, the powder binding Alberto scattered.
“Stop doing things that won’t work and get lost with your club members.”
“…….”
Alberto didn’t answer. Instead, a clear voice came from behind Bigri.
“No, that’s not going to happen.”
“Frey.”
“It’s been a while, Bigri.”
The two silently looked at each other for a moment. It was Frey who broke the silence first.
“Bigri, just leave. Even now.”
“And if I refuse?”
Frey gestured toward Ludens, who was draped over Bigri’s shoulder.
“You’re going to fight while carrying that?”
“…….”
“Just hand over the center to us. You aren’t interested in the student council president position anyway. As long as we don’t touch your territory, isn’t that fine?”
Bigri gently laid Ludens, who was still unconscious, on the ground and pointed at Alberto.
“Then what about the responsibility for doing this to Ludens? Are you going to take the loss, Alberto?”
“……Ludens attacked first.”
Hearing that, Bigri smirked. Alberto and Frey felt as if the fine hairs on their bodies were standing on end.
“Then you attacked me first, so…….”
Bigri’s right eye turned green.
“I should repay you in kind.”
Six magic circles formed on the ground where Alberto stood. Soon the ground writhed and began to turn into a sticky swamp.
Alberto tried to lift his foot to escape desperately, but he was only dragged deeper.
Using flight magic, Frey rose into the air, grabbed Alberto’s hand, and pulled with all his might. Alberto, barely escaping the swamp, screamed at Bigri.
“Bigri! Don’t you know murder isn’t permitted within the Academy?!”
With a grin—
Bigri, his red hair tied back tightly, smiled instead of answering and cast his next spell.
“Green Snake.”
It was a magic Bigri had created himself. The ground-turned-swamp writhed and surged toward Frey and Alberto.
“Frey, what should we do? That bastard Bigri has completely lost it.”
“What do you mean ‘what should we do’? We have to take him down. Chain Lightning.”
Frey wasn’t idle either. Creating six magic circles, he unleashed a lightning strike spell.
“Alberto! Use Water Bomb on it.”
At that shout, Alberto hurriedly cast Water Bomb over Frey’s Chain Lightning. The thickness of the Chain Lightning roughly doubled.
Crackle—
The magic of Frey, Alberto, and Bigri collided in the middle. From the shockwave, the outer wall of the club building cracked.
After briefly catching his breath, Bigri pressed his middle finger and thumb together and flicked them.
“Dust Missile.”
Dust floating in the air formed sharp awl shapes. Frey used the same magic.
“Dust Missile.”
“Wind Tornado!”
Alberto conjured wind behind Frey’s spell to increase its power. Their magic rushed toward each other without yielding an inch.
Students who had fled outside the battlefield to avoid the explosion’s aftermath watched their battle with their weapons lowered, having lost the will to fight.
“They’re in the same year as us, right?”
“Bigri seems stronger than last year?”
Boom—
Dust rose thickly, hiding them from sight, and at the same time, the explosion’s shockwave swept over the students.
“Take cover! It’s dangerous!”
“We’ll get swept away! Be careful!”
One of the students who had taken a seat in a spot where the battle was clearly visible spoke.
“But how much mana do they have to fight like that?”
“I know, but if this is the case, is there any point in us fighting?”
“None. Whoever wins over there wins anyway.”
Baek Iljin also stopped beating Ji Taegyeong and turned his gaze that way.
—Magic is quite spectacular.
Even the Heavenly Demon Sword had to admit it; their battle was splendid and magnificent. Baek Iljin seemed to agree as well, nodding slightly.
Their magic battle showed no signs of ending. The fight had already reached a point where it couldn’t be called a simple power struggle between clubs.
The situation looked like it wouldn’t end until someone died, and gradually, the students began to worry.
“W-we should stop them, shouldn’t we? Isn’t this too much?”
“You go and stop them.”
“Shit, do I look like I want to die?”
As the risen dust slowly settled, Bigri appeared, limping on his left leg.
Frey and Alberto’s conditions weren’t normal either. Alberto’s right hand hung down, discolored black, and half of Frey’s face was a bloody mess.
Though he didn’t show it outwardly, Frey couldn’t hide his astonishment.
Of course, Bigri had won the tournament last year, but there hadn’t been such a large gap between him and Frey.
‘But now, even with Alberto and I fighting two against one, this happens…….’
Bigri was thinking something similar. He had thought that in his current state, he could easily handle Frey and Alberto, but that wasn’t the case.
“Let’s end this.”
“Yeah, let’s see it through.”
Gathering their remaining mana for the last time, they drew magic circles simultaneously without regard for who was first.
Right at that moment.
Someone walked leisurely in between them. And with the spear in his right hand, he shattered Bigri’s magic circle; with the spear in his left hand, he broke Frey’s magic circle.
“Stop.”
The students who recognized his face couldn’t hold back their shock, their mouths agape.
“Eon Cheoljin…… Senior?”
“The Head of the Disciplinary Committee? Why is the Disciplinary Committee here…….”