Chapter 29: Even the Childhood Friend

The first thing I did after returning to my room was to sit down by the door, lean against the wall, and stare at the ceiling.

Compared to that tiny house in the slums, compared to that small room in the lab, this should be a huge room.

It should be a clean, nice room, a place I can always leave and live comfortably, but it felt incredibly small.

I took off all my clothes, went into the bathroom, washed up quickly, then climbed onto the bed without even drying myself.

After spending a sleepless night like that, I rummaged through the bag and chewed up a stimulant.

‘The bag, come to think of it, I brought the large bag filled with Si-hyun unni’s things.’

‘Inside was the pistol unni always carried, the shotgun used when something big happened, bullets with labels warning to handle with care due to containing explosive mana(magic), and the rabbit mask – that’s all.’

I pick up the rabbit mask and bring it to my face.

As expected, perhaps due to some treatment, there’s almost no bitter smell, and it fits my face perfectly.

‘I can’t use this crude shotgun during the tournament.’

‘The teacher said it’s fine even if someone dies, or that it’s no problem if someone dies, but apparently the academy wants live students rather than lumps of meat.’

‘It’s a bit ridiculous that they say it’s fine to use grotesque blades as much as you like, but aside from pistols, no other guns are allowed.’

‘What kind of idiots made those rules, but they’re surely barbarians who run around with knives.’

‘The kind who, just because their awakened abilities are a bit strong, don’t even view those below them as human…’

Anyway, I roughly organized my things in the wardrobe and headed to class in my uniform.

Sparsely empty seats, and a few new students.

A new teacher, who looks quite enthusiastic, is standing at the podium introducing himself.

This time, it was a man.

His body was covered in various scars, and he wore an eyepatch over his left eye.

He’s quite old.

Probably in his late 50s.

Apparently, he graduated with excellent grades among the B-ranks.

He said due to injuries, further activity became difficult, and so to cultivate successors to subjugate villains, he directly applied, but frankly, it doesn’t move me at all.

While the kids gave half-hearted applause, I just rested my chin on my hand and stared at the blackboard.

‘Come to think of it, the tournament isn’t far off.’

‘The scene of those kids dying pointless deaths, of hearts being ripped out in my head, still hasn’t faded, but they’re organizing a dogfight, giving tasty food to the excellent dogs.’

‘It must have been those well-bred dogs who killed Si-hyun unni.’

‘Well, I guess even those guys have their own sense of justice and rules.’

“You’re not focusing in class from the very first day?”

Lost in thought and gazing out the window, the new teacher lightly tapped my head with a booklet and said with a smile.

“It’s not my first day.”

“Same goes for the kids here.”

“Still, you have to listen in class.”

“Does listening even mean anything?”

“What, are you trying to find some kind of meaning?”

“No.”

“I know many died.”

“Even my student who stood at this podium until recently died.”

“That’s why I applied.”

“So you weak kids can also live.”

Come to think of it, they said the teacher was C-rank.

But he went alone to fight, barely holding onto a single sword.

Though he got nothing but a mocking duel and died.

‘Was it a pointless death, or was it a noble death buying time to save the students?’

‘My teacher’s teacher became my teacher.’

‘It sounds like a word game, making me feel inexplicably amused.’

“At least you won’t lose anything learning from me.”

“I’ll make sure even kids with insufficient abilities like yourselves can fight against those anti-social terrorists with strong abilities.”

‘That would be great.’

‘If I make holes all over the bellies of the great heroes, maybe Seo-jun will come looking for me someday.’

‘But he’ll only make us able to fight, he won’t make us able to fight and win.’

‘Even thinking about that person who already died, who grabbed a sword without hesitation and ran off to kill villains.’

The teacher goes back to the podium, grabs a piece of chalk, and starts the class.

It wasn’t anything special.

“Those socially maladjusted individuals, anti-social terrorists, criminals, as you all saw recently, treat us like walking wallets, insane bastards who don’t care how many ordinary people die.”

His voice was rather low-pitched.

As a result, it’s quite tiring to listen to.

“At first, even the government, even the association, offered various compromises, but those guys have no center in the first place, so it was useless.”

“Even the ones who were persuaded would backstab us shortly after.”

He clearly seems like a tiring personality.

“The conclusion is, well, we have to kill them all to erase the pain you’ve experienced, and the danger your families might experience someday.”

The teacher continues.

He says if their families are hiding villains, they should be killed too, even if it means unavoidable sacrifices.

He says what does it matter since our friends and families died?

The kids seem quite enthusiastic.

They must be thinking about revenge or something.

Recalling the guys who came for the hearts the other day, I figured he wasn’t exactly wrong, so I just spaced out, passing the time.

‘It’s just, in the eyes of the higher-ups, the strong ones, anyone they dislike is probably a villain.’

‘If those people are displeased, is everyone going to turn into those kinds of humans?’

‘At least, Si-hyun unni I knew wasn’t like that.’

‘Regardless of what she did outside, she wouldn’t blatantly kidnap kids and lock them up in basements to conduct human experiments like you guys, would she?’

‘She wouldn’t tell us we’re not even human, dismember those people alive, feed them to test subjects, saying it’s to awaken abilities, would she?’

Feeling the urge to sew his mouth shut and then completely blow his brains out, I deliberately ignored the new teacher and looked out the window.

Snow is falling outside the window, and down below, Seo-jun and I are playing.

Innocent and incredibly beautiful.

Beautiful enough that it’s hard to believe it’s the scenery within that village.

‘That village was beautiful, wasn’t it.’

‘Back then, it felt like I could do anything.’

‘Now, left alone, it feels like I’m flailing in a pit.’

‘Until the final act, I want to live fulfilling my desires, what I wish for.’

‘Even if it means forcing it on others.’

‘Though I’d have no words if you ask if I wasn’t always like that.’

After class ended, I went to the auditorium.

The place where the E and F-rank students were lying down.

Then I walked towards where the class president was lying.

‘What was his name?’

‘Well, that doesn’t matter.’

‘What matters is, to me, this kid looks incredibly pitiful.’

The girl who always sat next to the class president and took care of him, whether girlfriend or not, wasn’t there.

‘She’ll probably appear after dinner.’

The boy couldn’t even make the scared expression he had when thinking about the time to move.

Unable to fulfill even one wish, just holding onto his broken head, mouth open and drooling.

‘This isn’t living, I know it all too well.’

‘That’s probably why I didn’t really want to live even back in the lab.’

‘And I don’t really want to now either.’

‘Because I just want the ending to be incredibly beautiful.’

‘I want everyone to remember my name.’

‘In any way.’

‘I want them to never forget, firmly etched in their minds forever, you know.’

My eyes met the boy’s.

‘Was this how Seo-jun felt?’

The intelligence he showed before, the brightness in his eyes, the drive to improve even while seemingly content with his current life – none of it could be seen.

Even to me, he wasn’t the same person.

Just someone else wearing that person’s skin.

I bit my tongue slightly to draw blood, then spat the blood that gathered in my mouth onto my hand.

The blood splattered onto the floor, then slowly started crawling, making its way into the boy’s nose and ear holes.

A short while later, red things started spewing out of his nose, mouth, ears, and eyes, and the boy sitting up in bed began to tremble uncontrollably.

A doctor, or a healer, noticing something strange from afar, came running, but it won’t be of any use.

‘I already turned his brain into mush.’

‘He was already just a head for hanging hats from the moment his head got messed up, so it probably doesn’t matter whether it’s there or not.’

‘And it’s surely better to be buried in a grave and remembered only for good memories than living as a hat rack.’

‘Of course, he might say he wants to live more, that he wants to live even in this state, but as I see it, if someone must die, then they must die.’

‘It’s just.’

‘This is how I want to live.’

‘I’d like them to quickly notice that what’s flowing from his nose isn’t a nosebleed, but slightly pink.’

‘Because the sight of clinging onto a lump of meat with no consciousness and showering it with powers is quite unsightly.’

‘Hey, Seo-jun.’

‘You see.’

‘You should save even a kid like this, you know.’

‘Not that plaything you mess around with, nor your pathetic friends.’

‘If possible, your childhood friend too.’

‘If it were possible, my unni too.’

I found a suitable spot and lit a cigarette.

Maybe because the academy loves water, or because it’s built next to a river, there are a lot of ponds and such.

“…You, do you think it makes sense for a student to be smoking inside the school?”

I turned my head towards the direction of the voice, but there was nothing there.

Looking up, I finally saw the girl floating in the air.

I don’t particularly care, too preoccupied with thinking about the boy who said he was sorry he couldn’t stop me after I killed the kids who were bullying him, even though I’m the one who killed them. They disappeared and he felt sorry he didn’t stop me.

“Hey.”

“Are you even listening?”

‘What did he say?’

‘When it’s time to move, he said he didn’t like being frozen like a coward, unable to move, was it?’

‘I really dislike that too.’

‘So I always kept moving.’

‘Though nothing was resolved even then.’

‘Since I liberated the boy who couldn’t move, shouldn’t I receive thanks instead?’

‘Though he’s already dead.’

“If someone is talking, you should li–!”

Suddenly, I pushed the girl, who was trying to snatch the cigarette butt from my hand, by accident.

Seeing her staring at me with a furious expression, I sat down on the bench, crossed my legs, took out a new cigarette, stuck it in my mouth, and said.

“Hey, I’m feeling agitated, so will you shut up?”

‘When I see someone I have a rough idea of who they are, I hate this too.’

‘The boy’s death feels just like… a bunch of letters melting away by an eraser, completely meaningless.’