Chapter 32 - I Walked Out
Translator: Elisia
Editor/Proofreader: SemiPickle
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“Hello. I’ll see you again.”
“I am Cheon Yoo-Seong, who has enrolled in the Academy.”
The kid who said we wouldn’t run into each other, why is he here?
Yoo Seo-Ah is looking at the Academy’s ranking board.
The test scores have been released.
Since the results were announced online, there’s no need to look at the bulletin board in the hallway.
“Well, you’re ranked 28th.”
She says while looking this way.
I had hoped she wouldn’t notice, but since it’s come to this, I might as well have a conversation.
“Yes. How about you?”
“That’s classified.”
Even if she says that, I could just look up her name, and everything will come out.
I looked through it all, but there’s no name Yoo Seo-Ah in the top 100.
Yes, there’s none.
Outside of the top 100.
Below the 100th rank, the Academy and the individual are the only ones who know their scores.
“Well, good luck.”
“I’m not bothered by it.”
But her face looks like she’s about to cry.
Unlike usual, she isn’t even wearing her eye patch.
“What about the eye patch? Didn’t you say it was sealing something?”
Her eye color doesn’t seem different or anything.
“Oh, um.”
She touches her eyes, embarrassed.
It seems she only just realized the eye patch is missing.
“…Ah, these things happen in life sometimes.”
What does it matter if the score is a bit low?
It’s natural to feel disappointed if the results don’t meet your expectations.
She must have been so shocked she forgot to wear her eye patch.
“……”
With a bitter expression, she raises her hand to her eyes.
Is she thinking of an excuse?
“Well, this is just an ornament. It’s fine without it. That’s all.”
She easily admitted it was just for decoration.
She seems a lot less confident than when I saw her before.
“Aren’t the bandages just for decoration too?”
I decided to ask openly.
It might be rude, but I’m curious what she’ll say.
“…Heh.”
She laughs.
It seems I touched something I shouldn’t have.
Was that a slip of the tongue?
Touching a sensitive area was indeed rude.
“I wish it were.”
She mumbles quietly to herself.
I wonder if the bandages really serve some purpose.
“Anyway, don’t worry too much. You can do better next time.”
“…No, it’s too late. That won’t do.”
“Pardon?”
“I said I’m not ranked first.”
Yoo Seo-Ah isn’t even ranked second, let alone first.
First place is Cheon Yoo-Hwa, my younger sister… and second place is Han Si-Hoo.
I heard the ranking was decided by a slim margin.
“I was always first. In everything.”
I guess Yoo Seo-Ah has always been ranked first in everything until now.
Coming to the Academy and seeing her rank must have been a shock.
It’s unfortunate, but it can’t be helped.
“You’ll get better as you train.”
Hard work always pays off in some way.
At least, that’s what I believe.
“It must be because I didn’t train enough, right?”
“That’s quite possible.”
“…I see.”
She seems to have accepted it.
She seems to be thinking of increasing her training.
“Training time, huh…”
I wonder what kind of training she does.
I’m curious about what abilities she uses too.
I was going to ask, but it seems she’s about to leave.
“Anyway, you’re lucky. You’ve had the chance to talk with me again. We probably won’t see each other much from now on. Farewell.”
She said something similar last time too.
Why do I feel like we’ll meet again?
There are so many strange people at the Academy.
***
I checked the ranking board.
I’m not first.
Why?
First place was supposed to be mine.
Han Si-Hoo isn’t in first place?
The main character is always number one.
Whatever he does, Han Si-Hoo is supposed to be the best at it.
The most outstanding.
He’s supposed to be the absolute best.
“Not enough training time.”
Cheon Yoo-Seong was right.
Training and real battle experience make you stronger.
However, these days, Han Si-Hoo has wasted too much time because of me.
Time thrown away.
Anyway, Yoo Seo-Ah is the problem.
At this rate, the novel’s progression is going to be too twisted.
If even the main character falls, there’s no hope for the world.
But it’s still the entrance ceremony.
The main character is still strong.
There must be a way.
[17 hours 4 minutes]
“…What should I do now?”
It’s the afternoon, and all the classes are over.
The streets are filled with students walking around.
Most of them are moving in groups.
When people think of school life, they probably imagine something like that.
Although, compared to a normal school, I see a lot of strange things.
What about me?
Am I even a student?
Being the only one in my class, it’s not like this is some rural school.
Even in the countryside, having just one student must be rare.
Besides, all the other classes are full of students.
I head towards the dormitory.
Since I’m a student, I get a dorm room.
So, I guess that makes me a student.
But still, I feel strange for a student.
Even though I’m a student at the Academy, I don’t have any friends.
I’m also dissatisfied that I’m forced to kill animals like dogs.
I hate how the drug’s effects are being wasted.
Click.
The door opens.
When I enter my dorm room, I see ropes and knives lying around.
The blood was only half-heartedly wiped away.
Is this really a student dormitory?
“Student…”
Since coming to the Academy, I haven’t felt at ease.
There are too many strange people.
“Am I?”
This isn’t what I expected.
Just entering the Academy was like a miracle, but it’s only because of Han Si-Hoo that I was formally admitted.
I know that.
I don’t deserve to enjoy school life.
“If only I hadn’t become an Awakener…”
It would have been better if Han Si-Hoo and Yoo Seo-Ah were just ordinary, attending a normal school.
That seems more peaceful.
An Academy that sends children to the battlefield can hardly be considered a good educational institution.
It would have been better if there were no monsters or Awakeners in the first place.
Life would have been more peaceful than this.
Yoo Seo-Ah wouldn’t have ended up taking the wrong drug either.
-Thunk.
“…Heh.”
I end up laughing.
Because the drug makes me feel good.
[21 hours 5 minutes]
A drug?
The time has increased.
Why did I use it?
I feel happy.
Maybe it’s because I took it while in a stable condition.
“Ahaha.”
There was still plenty of time left.
Why did I bother using more?
I can endure feeling a bit bad.
So, there was no need to take the drug.
There are eight doses of the 4-hour drug left at home.
It’s an amount that normal self-control wouldn’t be able to stockpile.
But I just used one of them.
For the simple reason that I felt bad.
“…Hehe.”
Thunk.
I can’t resist.
With the little time gained from this, saving them doesn’t even have much meaning.
The tingling feeling in my nerves is nice.
“Ha, ha.”
Thunk.
The third one.
The more I take, the better it feels.
It feels like that sensation from long ago is returning.
There’s a particular pleasure to it.
[26 hours 55 minutes]
The amount of time gained is decreasing.
This happens when you use them in succession.
That’s why the efficiency is poor.
But that’s not the problem.
Clang.
I hear the sound of the syringe falling.
There’s only one left now.
When did I use it all up?
[33 hours 1 minute]
Is there no more?
For now, it’s fine.
It’s a happiness that I like.
I don’t think about anything.
Someone else will handle whatever comes next.
At least, it won’t be me.
For now, I’m just safely staying in this pleasure.
Future me?
Why should I care?
Right now, the present is always the most important.
Putting things off again and again doesn’t solve anything.
No.
I had been planning something.
I was trying to do something, at least.
“…Huh?”
The door is open.
This feels familiar.
The door that was definitely closed is now open.
Is it the doctor?
No one would just walk into my place except for the doctor.
“Doctor?”
“…Ah.”
A very flustered voice.
“Who is it?”
I can’t see well because of the backlight.
It doesn’t matter.
It might be a dream.
“What are you doing?”
It’s a familiar voice.
Is it Han Si-Hoo?
“Heh…”
I’ve been caught.
But I don’t care.
I’m feeling good for the first time in a while.
Now I understand why I’ve been dragging myself along, barely staying alive.
It’s for moments like this.
That one moment when my mood pierces the sky.
The moment when I don’t want to fall.
The moment when I can’t even move my body.
“Don’t come.”
Han Si-Hoo, what do you think you’re going to do?
I know you’re good at removing drug effects.
So not now.
Let’s meet later.
“Get out.”
I said with a smile.
This is my room.
I grab the last remaining syringe.
I was just thinking about when to use it.
I was going to use it when my mood sank.
I think now is the moment.
I’m hiding it behind my back because I feel like Han Si-Hoo might take it away.
Get out.
Get out.
I wish you’d just disappear.
“Yeah, let’s go out.”
Together?
I don’t understand what he means.
I’m telling him to leave on his own.
“Let’s quit the Academy and go home. We’re going back.”
I never expected those words to come out of Han Si-Hoo’s mouth.
Not Yoo Seo-Ah, but Han Si-Hoo.
He’s saying we should leave the Academy?
He must be out of his mind from the effects of the drug.
It’s probably some kind of hallucination or delusion.
“Home?”
“If we just leave, we might get wanted notices, but if we go far to another city, we’ll be fine.”
“Uh, oh, yeah?”
He’s talking about running away.
Can the main character really do that?
There’s still so much left to be done.
The main characters haven’t even had their moments to shine yet.
There are important characters that I’ve only seen once or twice.
The story has just begun—can he really do this?
“So, let’s go together.”
Han Si-Hoo looks like he’s in pain.
He seems desperate.
No matter how strong the protagonist is, if the situation stays hopeless, his mind is bound to wear down.
I feel sorry for him.
“Hey, what about the drugs?”
I’m here because there are no drugs.
It’s not like I particularly want to be stuck at the Academy either.
“I found a supply route.”
What Han Si-Hoo is holding is the drug given by the Academy.
But the Academy must have stopped giving drugs to him by now.
“I can get the drugs even without the Academy. So let’s leave.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Of course, it’s Si-Hoo.
He’s amazing.
As the protagonist, he can even accomplish things that seem impossible.
Compared to someone like me, the difference is clear.
He can get the drugs without Lee Yu-Ram’s help.
“We’re going home?”
“It might be hard to go back to where we used to live, but we can find a new place. There’s no need to stay at the Academy. It’s just dangerous here.”
I agree that the Academy is dangerous.
There are really too many strange people.
It’s definitely not the school life I had hoped for.
It’s an escape.
It feels like I can see the light.
It feels like the wind is blowing.
I feel refreshed.
Is it because of the drugs?
I haven’t even used the one I’m holding yet.
“So, let’s go.”
“When?”
“…Right now.”
Han Si-Hoo is serious.
It’s a hope that feels like hope.
It’s hope that I’m seeing for the first time in a long time.