Chapter 85

[Translator – Bob ]

[Proofreader – ilafy ]

Chapter 85

The day after the expedition…

The clubroom was unusually rowdy.

“Eyy, it’s our party leader! He’s back!”

“YuSung-ah, Sumire. Congrats, both of you! Conquering a rank 5 dungeon, huh?!”

Amy and SiWoo welcomed them both with glittering eyes. Sumire, despite being the one to contribute the most, was embarrassed by their reception.

“I-I didn’t do anything! YuSung-ssi did…”

“W-wait, hold on!” Amy interrupted in fascination. “When did you drop Party Leader-nim’s surname, Sumire?! Did something happen while I wasn’t around?!”

Sumire frantically waved her hands. “N-no! Th-that’s just…!”

“Hey! What do you mean by, ‘did something happen’? Who do you think YuSung is?” rebutted SiWoo, easily dispersing Amy’s suspicions. 

The girl in question sighed and shook her head. “Haah, if my schedule wasn’t packed… I could’ve helped out in the raid myself! Ah, and I could’ve showed off my skills, too~”

Chortling, Amy moved right beside YuSung and began whispering to him.

“Fufu, you checked your account, yes? I gave you your portion of the money we earned during the Representative Selections! I’m pretty thorough about stuff like this.”

“Thanks, Amy. Your donations have been a great help in maintaining our clubroom, and I can even save some of it.”

“Saving money~ nice~ who knows what’ll happen someday, after all.”

Amy nodded in agreement, then looked back at Sumire.

“Hehe~ speaking of… expedition raids give you a bunch of commission money, don’t they? Congrats, Sumire~!”

“Eh? Commission?”

“For getting rid of the threat towards the citizens. It’s a rank 5 dungeon, to boot, so you’ll be getting a couple dozen million won at the least.”

“Eh… eh?!”

Sumire’s eyes widened comically.

“…A C-couple dozen million won?”

The only money Sumire had earned up to that point was the grant given to the Sevens students, and even then, most of it was sent back home. She had been living a rather meager lifestyle due to that, considering her status as a Seven. 

To think that just one job could net her tens of millions of won… But Amy had an even more surprising fact to tell her.

“They give you more for dungeons that contain expensive material. To be honest, a place like that castle is on the lower end.”

“S-several dozen million won… is… on the lower end?”

“Yes.” YuSung stepped in with a calm voice while Sumire was busy trying to recover from her shock. “Our commission was 40 million won. If we divide that by half, it’s 20 million.”

“Uu, uhh… I-I don’t need… that much money…”

The shock seemed to spur Sumire on to refuse the reward, despite the fact that she was the one who needed it the most.

YuSung shook his head. “No, you must take it. This is your half of our earnings.”

Her circumstances were different from EunAh’s. To EunAh, it was a case of ‘really not needing it’ to the point where she hadn’t accepted the money because it was chump change that she couldn’t be bothered to sign for. It was clear, however, that the commission money from the raid would be of huge help to Sumire.

“20… 20 million won…” she muttered.

Amy sipped her cup of black tea and chose that moment to speak up. 

“Hey, Party Leader-nim~ You know that it’s going to be the ‘Tower Day’ festival soon, right?”

Tower Day…

It was an international holiday held to celebrate the day when humankind had first conquered the 60th floor of the tower. 

It was a celebration of especially great importance to hunters. Thanks to that fact, all hunter academies, including Gaon, celebrated hunters who had conquered the 60th floor on ‘Tower Day’ and held festivals in order to share the joy.

SiWoo shrugged. “Their true intentions are so obvious. Holding our school festival at the same time as an international holiday? It’s just a ploy to reduce the number of breaks we have.”

Amy laughed. “Aw, so what? It’s still fun! We can all eat yummy foods together! Dance together! Participate in events together! Broadcast together!”

“…Why did you shove broadcasting in there? Don’t tell me you’re planning on making money off our YuSung…”

“Huh?! N-naw… I mean, I’d be really happy if our party leader did an interview for me, but… and the viewers would really appreciate it, too, but… I wasn’t actually going to ask him that right now, you know? Hehe.”

Amy turned her narrowed gaze towards YuSung.

“Who are you going to go to the festival with, Party Leader-nim? You’re so popular… I bet you’ve already gotten a bunch of partner requests…”

She wiggled her eyebrows, mouth stretched into a bashful smile. 

YuSung shook his head.

“Not a single one so far.”

“What? No partner requests, YuSung?”

SiWoo’s face seemed to say that he found this fact hard to believe. Of course he did. By SiWoo’s standards, the idea of YuSung not getting any partner requests literally did not compute to him.

“Th-that’s really weird. Even I got three requests…”

“Is that so?”

YuSung didn’t seem to be particularly interested in the festival. To him, the time he spent with his party members and the bond he shared with his comrades was enough.

On the other hand, Sumire, who had been listening in, was giving looks off to her side—towards YuSung.

‘I-I want to be…’

It was something that she wanted to be selfish about, just once. Even as she tried to work up her courage, however, the clubroom just had too many people in it at the moment.

‘…YuSung-ssi’s festival partner!’

In contrast to her thoughts, all Sumire was doing on the outside was fiddling with her fingers.

Not knowing the other girl’s inner turmoil, Amy spoke up.

“Come to think of it, Party Leader-nim~ you have kind of a fantastical image, right? People might have a hard time approaching you! Why don’t we do some broadcasts to fix that? Oh, and some interviews!”

The corner of YuSung’s mouth twitched up into a smile as she attempted to appeal to him. 

“Sure, I’ll think about it.”

Sumire’s heart sank as she watched all of that happen.

‘I-I really want to be his partner… no matter what…’

And just as she was about to grab his clothes to get his attention, YuSung stood up from his seat.

“Looks like it’s time. I’ll be somewhere for just a moment.”

Amy, quick on the uptake, immediately realized where YuSung was going.

“Aha~ you’re going to go sign, right?”

“Oh, right, the reward money!”

SiWoo nodded, also just understanding. The two waved their hands at YuSung in farewell.

“I’ll be back, then.”

Shut.

Like that, YuSung walked out and closed the door to the clubroom.

Sumire stared at the door, dazed. She had managed to lose her opportunity. But she regained her senses quite soon.

‘…Right, my P-Pocket!’

The usual Sumire had never sent a message to anyone first. That day, however, was the day where she would have to change that and gather up her courage.

Sumire clenched her fist and stared at her Pocket.

Translator – Bob

Step, step.

Gaon, the greatest academy in Korea.

Its size, and, of course, its facilities, were gigantic.

‘…Even the school’s interior is quite large.’

Two S Class students were walking towards him from the other end of the long, stretched-out hallway.

“Not even I could hold back. The heck was I supposed to do?!”

“And that’s how you guys started arguing?”

The owners of these voices were Lee ChaeHyun and Min SungHyuk, the latter being one of YuSung’s acquaintances.

“Those A Class guys don’t even know their place, trying to butt heads with us S class!”

ChaeHyun’s eyes crinkled under her bob-cut bangs. 

“You’re right, we can’t just let them do that,” replied SungHyuk calmly. “Those Class A people are getting real haughty now that Adela’s gone…”

“Set them straight, won’t you? Since Kim EunAh isn’t even around lately.”

ChaeHyun let out a short laugh until she noticed YuSung. She tapped SungHyuk to get his attention.

Only then did the S Class boy notice they had company. He gave YuSung a genial smile.

“…Hello. You remember me, right? We’ve met before.”

YuSung did remember. SungHyuk was the student who had asked him, in Shin HaYoon’s stead, to apply to her club.

“Yes, I do.”

“I watched the Selections. Winning against Adela… I can see why Shin HaYoon-sunbae wanted you… You know that she recently became president, yes? Student council president, that is.”

TL/N: Sunbae is a title given to upperclassmen in schools or seniors in your workplace of similar or slightly greater standing than you. 

—A threat coated with a smile. The power that Gaon’s student council president held in the school was immense. 

But that was all SungHyuk could actually do because YuSung had his skills, which won him the right to become Korea’s representative, and the backing of Kang YuChan and the Fist King behind him.

“I do.”

“Okay, then. Feel free to talk to me anytime you decide to change your mind. Our club’s doors are always open for you.”

SungHyuk ended his speech with a friendly smile.

YuSung shook his head. “No, I’ll refuse the offer.”

“…Is that so?”

The S Class boy didn’t like YuSung. When Adela returned back to her home country, he became the class president of S Class. On top of that, he had garnered the favor of the student council president, HaYoon.

The boy in front of him currently had the highest amount of authority among all of the first years.

‘Even so… I can’t touch him.’

First of all, YuSung was just too strong.

He was a monster who had beaten Adela, who herself had been a source of awe for her class.

‘…There’s no need to cause any trouble.’

Finishing his calculations, SungHyuk scratched his head in an apologetic manner and laughed.

“You shot down the offer so hard, I’m a little embarrassed about it. Just think on it for a while, alright?”

With that, SungHyuk and ChaeHyun disappeared. 

YuSung resumed walking along the corridor. It looked like some of the clubs were using their classrooms instead of their clubrooms in order to get ready for the festival.

“C’mon, you think people are actually gonna be frightened of what you made here? Not even a grade schooler is gonna be scared by this!”

Park HaWon, D Class’s president, was scolding a pouting Ju HaJIn.

‘…Ah, they’re preparing for an event, huh?’

Only then did dYuSung realize that the school was preparing something on such a grand scale. It  was due to the fact that he had been rather busy with his various extracurriculars.

‘A festival…’

YuSung, for the first time, tried digging into his mind for any memories of festivals he may have participated in. He had never gone to one on Martial Spirits’ Mountain, of course, but he had the faintest of memories of the time he spent with the Shin-oh family—back when he was less than five years old.

[Did you know? Tomorrow’s ‘Tower Day’.]

HaYoon had been five years old.

[Huh? I dunno. What’s that?]

And YuSung had only been four years old.

Back during his childhood, YuSung had always thought that his sister was someone incredible. Despite only being one year older than him, she knew so much more.

That was the reason why HaYoon had been called a genius, called an elite among a family of elites.

[Listen carefully. Tower Day is when we thank the hunters who conquered the Tower.]

[Why do we thank them?]

Tilt.

As little YuSung tilted his head in confusion, HaYoon—herself only five years of age—narrowed her eyes and smirked as if delighted.

[…Because they’re incredible people. Those without power are supposed to hold those who do in reverence.]

Despite her age, HaYoon was a genius who had already studied material at the high school level. Her words were much too complicated for four-year-old YuSung.

[I don’t… really get it.]

[I didn’t either. But I’m sure you will soon.]

She ended her sentence with a smile.

The YuSung back then thought HaYoon was amazing. But now, things were different.

Knock knock.

He knocked on the door leading into the private office; soon after, it opened.

“Come in.”

The person who had opened the door for him was a second year student at Gaon, Lee Hyuk. 

And the one in the office who was smiling as she greeted YuSung was…

“…So you’re here, little brother?”

Gaon’s student council president and the successor of the Shin-oh family, Shin HaYoon.