If You Stab with a Pen, They Die. (1)
Practical Evaluation Score: 528 points.
The day after Team 9 took first place despite receiving a penalty for the group assignment.
"I'm telling you, that bastard Kim Dojun hit me!!!"
Shim Yongseok looked at Go Seung-jun, who was making a huge fuss right in front of him.
No matter who saw it, the way Go Seung-jun was raising his voice with bulging veins in front of the instructor looked less like a student talking to his teacher and more like a spoiled kid throwing a tantrum.
And besides, Shim Yongseok was already not in a great mood after what happened the day before, so he felt his mood sink even lower as he replied.
"... So what do you want me to do?"
"... What did you say?"
"I asked, what do you expect me to do?"
"I mean...!"
Go Seung-jun, as if dumbfounded for a moment, stood speechless but quickly recovered and hurriedly continued.
"I mean, obviously students shouldn't hit other students! In the Sorcery Institute's rules, it clearly says violence between students outside of official competitions is forbidden!"
"Were you taking the practical exam at the Sorcery Institute?"
"... Excuse me?"
"I said, was the evaluation held at the Sorcery Institute?"
"Well, technically no... But it was still a student being violent with another student!"
"Ha...."
Shim Yongseok stared at Go Seung-jun, who was clenching his teeth and protesting.
"So, what does that mean for me?"
"Excuse me?"
"Let's assume Kim Dojun did hit you. Then why did he?"
"Wait, what's that supposed to—"
"Are you trying to say Kim Dojun hit you even though you did nothing wrong?"
Shim Yongseok's question.
In response, Go Seung-jun's face twisted slightly.
"... I did tease him a bit. But that's it! That's all I did!"
"That was your mistake from the start."
"What did you say...?"
"Don't kid yourself, Go Seung-jun. This evaluation wasn't just a class; it was based on real combat. And in such an evaluation, you taunted your own teammate?"
"No—"
"That was your fault. Taunting a teammate when you're supposed to be working together in a team is your fault, and getting beaten for it is also your fault. The starting point of this mess is you."
Shim Yongseok continued.
"Go Seung-jun, did you think that just because you're a chaebol heir and you whine like a brat, I'd do something for you? Even though you were the one who started the whole thing?"
"..."
"And one more thing, I'm giving you a ten-point penalty."
"What!?"
"Do you think it's appropriate to raise your voice in front of your instructor like this? I'll say this one more time, Go Seung-jun. Don't misunderstand. This isn't your playroom at home."
With that, Shim Yongseok dismissed Go Seung-jun.
"Anything else to say?"
"N-no."
Shim Yongseok even kicked out the student who'd come along with Go Seung-jun and thought to himself.
'Kim Dojun hit his teammate... huh.'
Honestly, even if he did, nothing would change.
After all, team 9 did receive a penalty, and since it was based on real-world scenarios, Shim Yongseok had no intention of intervening.
Moreover—
'They dealt with 500 illusion beasts as a pair, and supposedly spent nearly 30 minutes beating up another teammate in the middle of that?'
It made no sense logically, to the point of being impossible.
No matter how much of a genius Kim Dojun and Shin Se-yeon were, it was hard to believe they could take down that many illusion beasts in two and a half hours.
'Well, come to think of it, clearing 500 in three hours is still ridiculous.'
Thinking this, Shim Yongseok moved on to prepare for the next class.
Meanwhile, Go Seung-jun, who had only ended up with penalty points after trying to get Kim Dojun in trouble, stormed out of the faculty office.
"... Kim Dojun...!"
He ground his teeth and muttered that name.
####
After classes ended at the Sorcery Institute—
"That's all for today."
"Huff, huff."
"Why are you so exhausted?"
"Wouldn't you be tired too!!"
Shin Se-yeon, clutching a toy hammer with only the stick left, yelled at Kim Dojun, then collapsed flat on the ground beneath a bench, as if too tired to say anything more.
Kim Dojun, watching her, tossed away the stick in his hand and spoke.
"That's true."
"Haah, what is?"
"The saying that if you don't use your head, your body suffers."
"Hey!!"
Shin Se-yeon shouted at Kim Dojun's words, but he just replied as if it was no big deal.
"If you use astrology, you can foresee the future and dodge, right? In other words, if you could properly use astrology, you wouldn't have to suffer like this."
"You think using astrology is that easy!? If it's so easy, why don't you do it!!"
"I don't need to."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm not the one who has to kill my father—you are."
She glared daggers at him with her eyes, but Kim Dojun just patted her shoulder as she gasped for air on the ground.
"Anyway, that's it for today's training. Let's work on using astrology better tomorrow."
With that, he left Shin Se-yeon without hesitation.
On the move, he pulled out his phone and logged into the Sorcery-Institute site, browsing the latest posts.
'It should be about this time.'
He was waiting for a certain post to go up.
'Once that post goes up, the next day the story unfolds.'
Since that was the starting point of the second Sorcery Institute storyline, he had been checking the posts once a day.
As usual, Kim Dojun did his daily check.
"Huh?"
He found a post that wasn't what he was looking for, but was still quite interesting.
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[Sorcery-Institute Incidents Board]
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Title: Anybody see a first-year beat up other first-years like mad on the street yesterday?
Author: FlyingSquirrelKoyomeyo
Yesterday I saw something—seemed like a big fight between some first-years on the street, does anyone know why they fought?
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62 Comments
ㅇㅇ: I saw that too. You mean the one where the instructors rushed in to stop them? Most of the students were already knocked out unconscious before the instructors got there.
ㄴ Romeo: Yeah I saw, didn't look like they were hitting that hard but I was shocked seeing students fly. Didn't know there was another genius in first year besides Shin Se-yeon and Kim Dojun.
ㄴ Goriorigarri: I saw too, it was wild. I think it was divine descent, but it's the first time I saw someone do divine descent without a hand seal or sorcery formation. Definitely a genius.
OldGuyIs7: I can explain exactly what happened, want me to spill?
ㄴ AncientFoot: Go ahead
ㄴ OldGuyIs7: The ones who got beaten were kids from Class D, the Ju Yu-dam gang led by the daughter of a pretty famous guild. Looks like her gang kept bullying the kid who snapped yesterday.
ㄴ SodaPop: So the bullied one just suddenly awakened and beat them all up?
ㄴ OldGuyIs7: As far as I know, the bullied kid was Han Soyeon, not sure if she awakened or whatever, but she definitely beat them all up.
MyGoalIsProSorcerer: I'm in first-year Class D. Everybody in Ju Yu-dam's gang except Ju Yu-dam got wrecked by Han Soyeon and is hospitalized, so now Class D is super clean. Ju Yu-dam sits alone looking awkward lol
ㄴ WanderingWarrior: Must've really been bad if they got that kind of payback.
ㄴ MyGoalIsProSorcerer: They acted all high and mighty and looked down on people, so most didn't like them even if they didn't show it.
...
...
..
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Kim Dojun paused, then scrolled back up.
The name he saw: Han Soyeon.
At that, he couldn't help but smile.
'She did it...!'
It might seem strange to smile at a post like this, but he couldn't suppress his satisfaction.
According to this post, Han Soyeon, who had been constantly bullied, finally crushed those tormenting her. Which meant—
'Finally, another step.'
He had gotten one step closer to the plan he'd been weaving.
Unable to hide his good mood, he kept reading the thread.
"Ah."
A voice made him look up from his phone.
"I was looking for you, actually. Here you are."
He realized that the main character of the post was right in front of him.
Though Han Soyeon's usual gloomy vibe remained, her face looked somewhat brighter.
"You did it, huh?"
Seeing her, Kim Dojun smiled softly.
Han Soyeon smiled back.
"Yeah, it was easier than I thought. I did get a penalty point, but... Well, since they struck first, I won't be expelled."
Seeing Han Soyeon smile for the first time, Kim Dojun felt oddly proud, but immediately began planning the next steps.
After all, he couldn't stop here.
'Now that she's done it once, the psychological hurdle should be gone.'
For Han Soyeon to fully awaken, she needed to kill all the thugs who bullied her, so Kim Dojun quickly thought about how to persuade her and opened his mouth.
"Were you satisfied?"
"Sorry?"
"You got your revenge on those guys, right?"
"Ah, well. The main one who bullied me wasn't there, so I didn't get to take care of her. But I did get revenge on the rest."
"Is that enough for you?"
Kim Dojun asked.
Even if she said yes, he'd been planning to convince her to keep getting revenge, so he looked at her seriously.
Han Soyeon also smiled slightly as she replied.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that."
"Yeah?"
"See, until now, I've been hurt a lot, haven't I?"
"Yeah."
"So... I think it'd be a waste to stop now."
"Oh, yeah?"
Kim Dojun smiled, seeing Han Soyeon naturally move toward the answer he wanted without needing to guide her.
However—
"Right. After all you suffered, it'd be a shame to stop at one round of revenge, so just—"
"What do you think is the best way to bully them?"
"Huh?"
"Think about it—I've put up with this trauma for years, and just ending it with one act of revenge feels too anticlimactic, doesn't it? I want to bully them, too."
"...?"
—Feeling that something was maybe a little off from what he was aiming for, Kim Dojun blinked in confusion.
"Should I use the bat you gave me and secretly break their bones? Or should I shoot their arms and legs with a gun? ... No, that might be too obvious."
"They bullied me in secret, so I want to torment them secretly as well. You'd understand, right? You're the only one who understands me, so I trust you'll get it."
"So I was thinking—what if I mixed a bit of cyanide into their food, just enough for them to suffer horribly but barely survive? Wouldn't that be torment enough? Wouldn't they want to die?"
And at Han Soyeon's next words,
"Wha...?"
Kim Dojun realized that something about Han Soyeon had changed.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Yes, she has learned Dojun's teachings.
But, I don't think this is what Dojun wanted.
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】