Chapter 204

Chapter 204

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 204“Huff. Huff. Huff. Huff.”

The first thing I saw when I entered the classroom early in the morning wasn't exactly a pleasant sight.

Jin-woo was warming up in one corner of the classroom with dumbbells first thing in the morning.

“Ah! Boss, you're here?!”

The bright expression on his face when he spotted me made him look like a puppy seeing its owner return home.

“...

What are you doing?”

“Hm? Ah, training.”

“No, I'm asking why you're doing that in the classroom.”

While making weird noises too.

“Uh... just because?”

Right, as if you'd have some reason for doing this.

Unlike Jin-woo, Young-je was quietly seated at his desk, regulating his breathing.

It'd be better to run simulations in his head like that...

“Huff! Huff!”

“Hm?”

Young-je's legs were moving busily beneath the desk.

Something resembling a pouch was attached there.

“...

What's he doing?”

“He said today is leg day.”

Our kids really have become gym rats. How does every single one of them manage to do something outside my predictions?

“Still, Boss, we're the normal ones. Look over there.”

“Hm?”

Jin-woo said that and pointed outside the window.

When I looked where he was pointing, I saw a sky-blue-haired girl swinging her sword diligently in the middle of the athletic field.

“...

Choi Yeon?”

“We only started doing this a little while ago, but she's been at it since morning, you know?”

Yeah. At least I could've predicted she'd do that.

Because Choi Yeon had always been that kind of girl.

Still, seeing the kids preparing this diligently somehow made me feel reassured.

Jin-woo alone, for example, was originally the kind of guy who found everything in the world bothersome and only cared about money.

“I bet my entire fortune on myself winning. With a five-minute handicap too! The payout is five times! I absolutely have to dominate...!”...

Or not?

______________

The first match was Young-je's turn.

And beside it, Jin-woo's match was being prepared.

Young-je's opponents were the small group ‘Freeze Tag,’ a group of mages specializing in ice magic.

There were four participants in this match.

A party consisting of two Freeze Tag members and two mercenaries.

“I heard those club people are preparing to transfer into a combat club. Do you think Mr. Young-je can win?”

Se-ah watched the monitor showing the sparring room while holding popcorn she'd bought from who knew where.

“A mage who trains his lower body can't lose.”

And Choi Yeon was even sharing Se-ah's popcorn.

“Right. Strength mages are the truth!”

“Yeah. Strength is the truth of the world.”

The two even nodded in perfect sync, though I had no idea when they'd started getting along this well.

A one-versus-four battle.

Perhaps because the opponents were practically combat-club members, the betting club's displayed odds were 3:1.

If Young-je won, the payout would be triple.

“Glaaaasses! I bet my entire fortune on youuuuu! You better win, bastard!!”

And Jin-woo was cheering for Young-je harder than anyone instead of going to his own match──“Kim Young-je! Kill all those bastards! Hey! Jin-woo Vivald! You need to run to your own sparring room! What the hell are you doing!!”──along with Ji Su-hyeon.

Our club sure was functioning wonderfully.

Wait a second, could it be...

“Se-ah. Choi Yeon. Did you two bet on Young-je too?”

“Huh? Of course? It's a guaranteed win anyway.”

“Se-ah said I'd make money if I bet on Young-je. So I did.”

Wow, seriously. Wow...

“Are they still taking bets?”

“Aagh! Mr. Eugene, don't bet! If you put money in, the payout will drop!”

I wasn't planning to put in that much...

Thanks to Se-ah desperately blocking me, I sat back down and looked at the monitor.

The match was about to begin.

Perhaps yesterday's commentary had gotten a good response, because Instructor Pa Do-yoon was handling today's commentary too.

-All right! We have a total of three matches scheduled today! And the first match of the day! Familia's Kim Young-je versus the members of Freeze Tag! And mercenaries! This will be a four-versus-one match! Wow~ trying this thoroughly to trample a freshman! I'm an Academy instructor, but seniors really are scary! And in the sparring room beside them, we'll have Jin-woo Vivald against the small group Domino!

As expected, from an outsider's perspective, this match looked like one-sided bullying by the seniors.

Of course, from the other students' perspective, they seemed to be cheering for Freeze Tag, where they'd placed their money.

-All right! Both sides ready! Once in a lifetime! A matter of utmost importance! Can Familia show overwhelming skill again today, following yesterday?! Match staaaaaaart! Begiiiiiiins!!

At the Instructor's shout, the screen switched to Young-je's sparring room, whose match was starting slightly earlier.

“tranquillo(Quietly).”

Young-je cast magic the moment the match began and concealed his body.

Normally, a mage gathered firepower from the rear while receiving support from the front line, but when fighting alone like this, a mage had two choices.‘Build your own field, or hide and wait for an opportunity.’It seemed Young-je had chosen the second.

The moment Young-je vanished, the Freeze Tag mages planted their staffs into the ground and began pouring out mana.

They were casting detection magic to find Young-je.

However, mages were creatures who had to stay several moves ahead of their opponent.

“sognando(Dreamily).”

Young-je's voice echoed through the field, and mana of different colors began spreading across it.

Sometimes red, sometimes blue.

The sight of mana constantly changing colors was truly fitting for the word dreamlike.

“Right, that guy's master was Arcobaleno.”

Ji Su-hyeon murmured while stroking her chin with interest.

It made sense.

Young-je's original master, ‘Arcobaleno(arcobaleno).’

The reason he had gained his epithet was also because of his rainbow-colored mana.

-Rainbow-colored mana fills the entire sparring room!! If things go this way, the Freeze Tag side, which spread mana to locate Young-je, has no choice but to fall into confusion! Young-je's mana already fills more than half the sparring room!

Had Young-je's move worked?

The screen showed the opponents, who had been spreading their mana, looking around in confusion.

Then.

Thud. Thud thud.

The mercenaries suddenly began collapsing.

-What is happening! Was there some secret hidden in the mana?! The mercenaries who were standing on the front line are falling one after another!

It didn't take long to figure out the secret.

“So it wasn't magic meant to avoid detection from the start.”

It had looked like he was trying to evade detection, but in truth, he'd eliminated the troublesome front line before they could raise their magic resistance.

sognando(Dreamily).

Magic that put the opponent to sleep.

And that method had worked perfectly on the mercenaries.

“W-what is this?!”

“What are you doing! Wake them up! Get up! Ugh! Put up magic barriers first and wake the mercenaries!”

But the mages, who had basic magic resistance, barely managed to endure and began gathering mana at the tips of their staffs.

To wake the sleeping mercenaries.

And to defend themselves from Young-je.

But.

“If you're going to raise a barrier, you should've used physical defense instead of magic defense.”

Like a water deer suddenly bursting from the fog, Young-je instantly emerged through the rainbow-colored mist and drove his fist toward a mage's face with all his strength.

Thanks to that, the shield meant to block magic was pierced with ease.

With a BANG, the bastard took the hit directly to the face and flew backward, while the other one stared at Young-je in horror.

“Does your club not have any normal mages?!”

“What are you talking about?”

At that, Young-je pulled out his fountain pen and aimed it at him.

“A healthy mind comes from a healthy body── that's the trend these days.”

Mana gathered at the tip of the fountain pen, and a bright red fireball fired out, ending the match in an instant.-So this is what a battle on an entirely different ‘level’ looks like! Kim Young-je's fight ended in an instant through a method no one expected! Everyone understands now, right? If you try to save mana by only defending against magic, you might end up like that, so if you haven't located your opponent, everyone, just put up a shield first!

As expected, D-rank level wasn't enough to be our opponent.

The moment the match ended, Young-je came out of the sparring room wiping sweat from his face.

“Phew. That was hard. Just like the President said. They have absolutely no countermeasures against our new techniques.”

“Right?”

And another advantage we had.

We could identify the enemy's combat strength first and send someone suited to counter it.

Meanwhile, the information they had on us was quite ‘limited.’

“Mr. Young-jeeeeeee, I believed in you! Si-ah! Si-woo! We're eating beef for dinner todaaaaaay!!”

And naturally, the kids who had bet on Young-je were overjoyed at the result.

-Ah, meanwhile! What's happening in the sparring room next door?! Let's watch the match between Familia's Jin-woo Vivald and Domino!

We only had a brief moment to celebrate while hugging Young-je.

-Aaaaaah? Huh? What?

The commentator's confused voice came from the speakers in the arena.

-A-an enormous wind! Domino cast wind magic, but for some reason, the wind seems to be attacking Domino's side...? Ah! Student Jin-woo! He's charging straight into the middle of their formation! It's as if the wind has a will of its own and is helping Jin-woo!

As the excited commentary continued, Young-je, who had apparently finished betting, looked up at the monitor with an exhausted expression.

“Jin-woo's the same as always.”

“Right. In class he acts so goofy and light...”──But among our Familia, he's still the strongest after Ms. Choi Yeon.

-Ah! The match ends in an instant! In less than five minutes, Domino's side is wiped out! At the center stands only Student Jin-woo, covered in cuts all over his body!

At the same time, the monitor showed Jin-woo dropping to his knees and screaming toward the sky.

-Student Jin-woo is screaming! He's even shedding huge tears as he cries toward the heavens! What could that mean?! Is it guilt over defeating his dear friends with his own hands?! Or lamentation over his own skill?! Truly a mystery!

No, that's obviously that.

“Isn't he doing that because he's scared Ms. Han Yeo-eun is going to stab him?”

“Looks like it.”

“Seems that way.”

There were more than ten visible cuts alone.

At the same time, I imagined Jin-woo turning into a pirate pincushion...

R.

I.

PAnyway, with this, what remained was our club's secret weapon and the second-ranked first-year.

-Finally, she appears! Once the strongest in the Academy, but now having yielded the title of strongest to Familia's president, Han Eugene! The former strongest! Heir to the Azure Sky Sword Clan and granddaughter of the Sword Saint! As the male students call her! The Academy's noble lily-of-the-valley!──Choi! Yeon!