Chapter 22: When Is the Right Time to Move?

The classes are boring.

School staff, teachers whose names I don’t know, bring out loads of weapons from somewhere and make us practice handling them.

The kids, who are merely strong or sturdy, just continue their training with grunts and groans.

Occasionally, they even hold mock battles one or two times with blunted weapons to avoid injuries.

I tried fighting with a sword too.

Though I quickly dropped what I was holding and surrendered to the kid who pointed his blade at me after I fell triumphantly.

“You fight well.”

“Didn’t you say this was your first time using something like this?”

I didn’t answer.

Nevertheless, the boy with an ordinary appearance, whose name I couldn’t recall, helped me up.

Smiling quite brightly.

‘Come to think of it, I think this kid was the newly elected class president.’

I remember seeing him standing in front of the blackboard when I glanced over because I heard clapping while looking out the window.

“We don’t really need to use things like this.”

“Most people just carry pistols, or rifles after graduation.”

“Then why bother using them?”

He speaks with a face quite full of dreams.

He’s probably just a bit stronger than others.

The boy who helped me up supported me and took me to a place with a good view of the mock sparring area.

“Is your leg okay?”

“The one you twisted when you fell earlier?”

At his words, I rotated my leg a bit.

It seemed slightly sprained.

It didn’t hurt much, so I nodded.

And then, awkward silence.

Likely because we weren’t close.

“Um, sorry for just standing by when Ye-jun’s group was bothering you.”

“Who?”

“You know, the kids who were bullying you.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s fine.”

“I don’t care.”

After keeping his mouth shut for a long time, he speaks quietly, like a confession.

“…I was scared.”

“Why?”

“That friend’s father was someone quite high up.”

“Enough that even the teachers couldn’t do anything.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Watching the kids enter the mock sparring area and fight hard was quite amusing.

Because everyone was burning with passion, playing a game that probably looked like monkeys playing to those friends wearing fancy uniforms who were merely strong.

Everyone is excited, saying they might be able to beat E-rank, maybe even D-rank students in the sparring matches starting tomorrow.

Though usually, the fighting would just be among ourselves.

The boy stops watching and starts talking again.

“But still.”

“Someday I’ll have to stand on the front lines, beat down villains, and lead people into battle.”

“I thought I shouldn’t just stand still scared, so I brought up the idea for us kids to try and beat E-ranks, or D-ranks if we’re lucky.”

“Really?”

‘I have little interest.’

“When the time comes to move, I can’t be frozen.”

The boy says it like a vow.

“I hope you can do it.”

“Yeah.”

The boy answers with a bright face.

He probably thought I accepted his earlier apology.

‘Though honestly, I don’t think it was anything to apologize for.’

After those friends who died in my room, whose names I don’t even remember, disappeared, no one really bothered me, and aside from the friend next to me, almost no one talked to me.

I was always alone everywhere, but at least here, the fact that I was alone wasn’t so painful.

Because people weren’t looking at me as just a conveniently useful object or something to covet.

Even now, I didn’t have a hobby of approaching the group of kids creating a good atmosphere among themselves just to throw cold water on it, so I just watched from afar.

Although, for some reason, the person who should be in the middle of that group boosting their spirits is sitting next to me.

It’s incredibly peaceful.

‘Maybe because they live in this kind of atmosphere, they can’t catch the villains who are always obsessed with something.’

I met quite a few people while living at that hideout.

The only name I remember is Lee Si-hyun, though.

It was similar in that it gathered many awakened individuals, but it lacked the fresh, vibrant feeling or passionate atmosphere of this place.

It seems like everyone there was either deeply sunken and depressed, or angry.

Since I was always grinning foolishly, maybe I was the mood-lifter there, at least.

Someone captivated by drugs, unable to feel the value of life without them.

Someone clinging to old memories of lost family, moving based on them.

Someone who simply couldn’t stand having someone above them…

“…?”

Suddenly, the ground trembles.

It seems I wasn’t the only one who felt it; the kids who were in a bright mood just moments ago are slightly frozen.

Including the boy sitting next to me.

And not long after, a building exploded.

‘Did something like this happen?’

‘How would I know.’

‘Who in the world remembers every single detail of something they read for fun?’

‘It might have happened because of me.’

‘Since it was one of the buildings I sent photos of.’

‘After hearing it was a place where students learning magic-like things gathered.’

It’s just a 7-story concrete building, but when it explodes, countless pieces of debris start flying everywhere.

Because the chunks are incredibly large, they seem to approach slowly when viewed from afar, but in reality, it’s incredibly fast.

And a few of them started flying towards here.

Numerous stone chunks crash down on the students who were just blooming with smiles and hope for the future moments ago.

Some students survived because a teacher drew their sword and sliced through the incoming debris, but it seems quite difficult for them to accept the fact that the friend they were just talking to has become mere lumps of meat.

A girl crying, clutching just a hand from a body crushed beyond recognition.

Two students who were sparring until just now, looking around the mock sparring area, perhaps their legs gave out.

The homeroom teacher, covered in billowing dust, breathing heavily and searching for students who are still alive.

And sitting next to me, trembling, is a boy who hasn’t yet become an adult, who knows very well that he possesses an inferior ability.

“You can’t be frozen, so you have to go.”

“Just like you said.”

Thinking he might have forgotten what he just said, I told him with a smile.

With trembling hands, he picks up the blunted training sword he had placed beside him and starts running towards the place where black dust is billowing.

‘If left alone like that, it’ll be a dog’s death.’

‘Though I don’t care.’

The teacher, who was tending to the injured students, fails to properly grab the boy running out, looks at the injured kids for a long time, and gives up on the boy.

His retreating figure soon vanished into the dust.

Since coming out to the surface after being stuck in the basement.

Hmm, what was I trying to say?

Right, the body is always dull.

And the heart was the same.

Perhaps it’s the result of trying desperately not to feel anything after being worn down so much.

I cross my legs and take out a cigarette pack from my pocket, opening the top.

Annoyingly, only two cigarettes remained.

First, I stick one in my mouth and light it.

It tasted somewhat stale.

Maybe because of the dust, or because I hadn’t even imagined something like this would happen.

‘Still, since I belong to the organization, maybe it’s okay not to care?’

‘It’s not like I deeply swore in my heart to become some righteous hero.’

Like I said last time, I needed motivation.

Things like life being worth living, words like that.

Occasional laughter, coffee whose taste I don’t know but smells amazing, and cheap cigarettes.

This much should be enough, and while it would be nice if some music accompanied it, it doesn’t matter if there isn’t any.

Back when I was stuck in the lab, Team Leader Joo put a violin inside for me when I asked for one.

At first, I was excited and played various songs, even playing for the passing guards.

Team Leader Joo, the Department Head, and even the guards praised my playing because I hadn’t taken out my anger on anyone back then.

Until one of the guards, dozing off while on duty, got annoyed by the noise, shoved a gun through the small slot used for delivering special meals, and shattered the violin I was playing intently with my eyes closed.

What did I do after staring blankly?

Ah, I probably tore his flesh with the shattered violin and used the gushing blood to pull the man through that special meal slot into the tiny room.

And it was from then.

That I started to feel strongly that everything surrounding me was breaking down.

Because it was my first murder.

Because it felt like something I cherished so dearly had been completely negated.

Ah, I’m talking about the music, not the person.

Anyway, it’s a bit off-topic, but I somehow feel like I shouldn’t just stay still like this.

I don’t know what I might lose, but I felt like if I stayed put, something would definitely disappear, so I stood up.

The image of that friend who just ran off also looked like my old cowardly self.

‘You really deserved to be misunderstood.’

‘Getting into the academy with a useless ability.’

‘If you’re stupid, you should at least try to think.’

‘As the idiotic b*tch who killed herself like an idiot.’

‘Then, like you said, you would have become famous.’

‘Think before you speak.’

‘Someone like you should have just died.’

“Hmm.”

I stuck the remaining cigarette butt in my mouth, sat down again, and crossed my legs.

Then I lit it, stopped looking around, and gazed at the sky.

Although dust was billowing up, it was still a clear, blue sky.

‘There’s probably nothing for me to do.’

‘Well.’

‘They’ll handle it themselves.’

But is it okay to just sit here like this?

‘No, I probably shouldn’t do this.’

Every time I thought that, thanks to certain words echoing in my head, I repeated the act of standing up and sitting down for quite a long time.

Until the billowing dust settled back down again.

‘When the time comes to move, you shouldn’t be frozen.’

The boy’s words came to mind.

‘When is the time to move?’

‘I don’t know if it’s because so much of me has worn away, or if I was always this lacking person from the start.’

‘I don’t know anything.’