Chapter 35
『 Translator – Divinity 』
[Notice Regarding Restricted Access to Study Rooms]
“What’s this?”
As I headed to the study room as usual, a “no entry” sign was plastered on the door.
Apparently, there was a minor issue with the drain pipe that ran through the ceiling of the study room, and it was prohibited to use it for the time being.
If that was the case, why not post a notice on the website? What was the point of just putting up a sign at the location?
“This is troublesome.”
If I were studying alone, I could just go back to the reading room.
But today was a bit different.
“What’s up? Can’t we use the study room?”
Lee Ha-ru peeked out from behind me.
“It seems so.”
I was currently with the Constitutional Law study group members.
We had decided to study other subjects together as well, as we unexpectedly got along quite well.
Study groups were always a good strategy, as we could complement each other’s weaknesses and add structure to our study schedule.
“We need to find a different place,”
Kim Seung-pil said.
“A place with seats for six people where we can discuss things out loud without any problems.”
“How about the lounge? There’s a big table there.”
Han Seol suggested.
It was a pretty good solution.
It was originally a place for resting and chatting, so there wouldn’t be any issues, and not many people actually used it, so there was little chance of being disturbed.
The others seemed to agree, thinking it was a good idea, so we packed our things and headed to the lounge.
The problem occurred there.
“What are all these belongings?”
The table was piled high with someone’s bags, tumblers, and books.
Judging from the Commercial Law and Criminal Procedure textbooks, it was clearly the work of a second-year student.
It was difficult to use the table like this.
But I wasn’t keen on touching a senior’s belongings without permission.
As an awkward atmosphere settled, Han Seol stepped up.
“This is against the rules.”
She walked straight to the table and moved the belongings to a corner of the lounge.
“Leaving personal belongings in the lounge or monopolizing a specific spot is prohibited by the student regulations. If you have any complaints, go to the student council.”
“…Is that okay?”
It was refreshing, but openly clashing with a senior in the legal field, where connections, reputation, and information were paramount, could be quite disadvantageous.
Therefore, I had to ask,
“You’re aiming to be a judicial research officer, right? They do reference checks for government positions, don’t they?”
Reference checks.
It’s a system where, before appointing someone to a government position or selecting a candidate for a law firm, they contact people around the candidate to check if there are any flaws in their character or reputation.
Because of these reference checks, even if there were disagreements in law school, things were often smoothed over with the mindset of “let’s keep things amicable.”
“Ah, don’t worry about that,”
Yoo Ye-seul interjected.
“Judging from the bag design, I know that sunbae. I heard he got an internship at Taejong this year… Reference check? It’s that sunbae who should be worried about it, not Han Seol-ssi. Hehe.”
Come to think of it, we had the daughter of the representative of Taejong, a major law firm, with us.
Among the students hoping for a career at a law firm, there were few who didn’t apply to Taejong.
As Yoo Ye-seul said, it wasn’t us who had to worry about reputation.
‘This is reassuring.’
To be able to exercise my legitimate rights according to the rules without any repercussions. This was the taste of power.
It might sound strange, but in the legal field, riddled with unfair practices and authoritarianism, you needed power to be able to act with integrity.
Anyway, thanks to that, we were able to comfortably settle down and proceed with the study group as planned.
We each solved past midterm exam questions in advance, shared our answers with each other, and filled in any misconceptions or missed issues.
“I got stuck on this question.”
When Yoo Tae-woon showed his answer sheet, I glanced at it and replied,
“Ah, that one. You got the timing of the retroactive effect of the main registration wrong. That’s the main registration based on the second provisional registration, not the first.”
“Oh? Ah, that’s right! Then, the mortgage registration isn’t canceled here, but…”
Since they had all studied, they quickly understood with just a small correction.
“There’s also a precedent with the same facts for that.”
“It wasn’t in the textbook?”
“It’s a recent precedent. From last year.”
“Ugh. I have to add that in.”
It wasn’t just one-sided help either.
For some of the questions I solved relying on general legal principles, there were actually precedents that perfectly matched the facts.
They were somewhat minor or recent precedents that weren’t included in the textbook.
Han Seol would somehow memorize those cases and add them in.
‘It’s a good thing I realized it now.’
Even if you applied the legal principles to the case and solved it, you would still get points.
However, for questions that blatantly copied precedents, the intention was essentially “Do you know this precedent?”
Therefore, it was naturally advantageous for scoring to mention the precedent if there was one.
“It’s actually more surprising to me that you can get the answer without knowing the precedent. How is that possible?”
“That’s because Park Yoo-seung has the blood of Dean Kang Chang-soo flowing through him! With his innate legal mind…!”
“You, be quiet.”
“Yes! I apologize!”
Yoo Ye-seul’s Park Yoo-seung worship time almost made a comeback.
She had tried to slander me with my blood relation to the dean, and now she was trying to praise me for it at every turn.
‘It’s a good thing she at least listens well.’
As I was sighing, Yoo Tae-woon groaned, holding a stack of answer sheets.
“Ugh, this is really not easy.”
“What is?”
When I asked, he waved the answer sheets.
“The Civil Law III past midterm exam questions. Since the model answers aren’t available, we have to solve them all individually and then compare our answers. And even then, we can’t be 100% sure if our answers are perfect.”
“Ah.”
Professor Jeon Gyu-wan, who taught Civil Law III, Property Law, didn’t collect the midterm exam papers.
Therefore, all the past exam questions were publicly available, but the problem was that there were no model answers.
If model answers were available, it would be easier to study.
Not only could we see the conclusions and key issues, but we could also grasp which points the professor awarded or deducted points for, which would be a great help in setting the direction of our studies.
On the other hand, if the correct answers weren’t available, we had to prepare for the exam by fumbling around.
We had to search through textbooks and lecture materials to check if we missed any issues, and compare our notes to find all the points the professor emphasized.
That’s what we were doing now.
“It definitely takes a long time, but still, Civil Law is worth investing that much time in. The more effort you put in, the more it sticks in your memory and becomes ingrained.”
“That’s true…”
Yoo Tae-woon seemed to agree and lowered his head.
His strength was his diligence, never giving up despite his complaints.
Perhaps due to writing so many answers, calluses had even formed on his fingers.
It was an attitude to applaud, but to be honest, I wasn’t without complaints.
Professor Jeon Gyu-wan, if I had to categorize him, was a scholar-type professor similar to ConLaw.
Although he tended to choose more ‘exam-oriented’ issues than ConLaw, he had his own firm style when it came to creating and grading exams.
Therefore, there was no guarantee that the answers we squeezed out would match the perfect answers in Jeon Gyu-wan’s mind.
“It’s true that the process of effort is valuable… but it would be nice to have model answers.”
Han Seol interjected, echoing my thoughts.
I naturally picked up on that and explained,
“Actually, they do exist.”
“Oh? Really?”
“Yes. Have you heard of the Property Law Society?”
There were various student-run societies at Hankuk University Law School.
The Financial Law Society and the Criminal Law Society were relatively famous, and among them was the Property Law Society, led by Professor Jeon Gyu-wan.
“The Property Law Society has all the materials related to the exams Professor Jeon Gyu-wan has set.”
This was because Jeon Gyu-wan had handed over his entire database to them for research purposes.
It could have been a matter of fairness, but since Jeon Gyu-wan was in charge of the first-year curriculum, and the Property Law Society only accepted second and third-year students as members, it didn’t become a big issue.
“Then, can’t we just go to the Property Law Society and negotiate? We have two well-connected people.”
Yoo Tae-woon pointed at Han Seol and Yoo Ye-seul.
“No.”
But things didn’t always go smoothly.
“The Property Law Society was disbanded two years ago.”
The nationwide pandemic and the era of non-face-to-face interaction were the causes.
At that time, even law schools conducted all academic activities online, and as a result, many student organizations that required face-to-face activities, such as societies and clubs, were disbanded.
The Property Law Society was one of those cases.
Therefore, there was no one among the current students who had been a member of the Property Law Society.
“Actually, there is one person, if we don’t limit it to current students…”
The last president of the Property Law Society before it was disbanded.
She was currently preparing to retake the bar exam in the law school dormitory’s self-study room after failing it after graduation.
In any case, she was still at the school.
“It’s not an option I would recommend.”
The reason was simple.
I had already met her in person.
—Hello, sunbae-nim. My name is Park Yoo-seung, a first-year student this year. Actually…
—Get lost.
—Excuse me?
—I said get lost. It’s not like I’m trying to make fun of you for failing the bar exam, why are you bothering someone who’s quietly studying?
Failing the bar exam had turned the former president into a very closed-off and paranoid person.
The experience of going from being an elite everyone looked up to, to being treated like a burden, must have been a huge blow to her.
She pushed me away without even giving me a chance to explain myself properly.
—A first-year? Oh my, to think my younger sibling is in the same class as these guys. I should warn Hui-jin to be careful not to get hurt.
The only thing I gained was the knowledge that the former president had a younger sibling who entered the same year as us and that she still cared about her sibling despite her twisted personality.
But there was nothing I could do with that information alone.
For now, the best course of action was to diligently create the answer sheet.
We focused on the task again and managed to finish after a few hours.
It was at that moment,
“Huh? It’s gone.”
Among the students gathered in a group a little distance away, a female student with glasses muttered.
Her name was vaguely familiar, and her face seemed like one I had seen before.
Where did I see her?
The male student next to her asked,
“What’s gone?”
“My Civil Law I textbook and notes are gone.”
“Didn’t you leave them at your seat?”
“No, I always keep them in my bag.”
The female student with glasses made a sullen face, but that was just the beginning.
“What, you too?”
“I lost my Criminal Law I concept notes.”
“My Civil Law I lecture materials…”
“Actually, me too…”
Testimonies of lost textbooks, notes, and materials erupted from all directions.
If it were just one or two people, it could be dismissed as a coincidence, but with this many people, there was one thought that inevitably came to mind.
“Could it be that they were stolen?”
The thought that someone was deliberately stealing textbooks and materials from their classmates.
And that was the correct answer.
‘Hmm, it’s already time.’
This was an incident that happened right before the midterm exams in the original story.
The episode where textbooks and materials of classmates known for their good grades were stolen in succession, and Shin Seo-joon uncovered the culprit.
It was a chapter that received a lot of criticism, with comments like, “Why are people who have learned so much resorting to stealing and hiding other people’s books?”
But surprisingly, the author responded that it was based on a real incident and expressed frustration.
‘Well, I guess it makes sense.’
I didn’t know because I hadn’t experienced it in my past life, but I heard that the competition in law school could turn even ordinary people into monsters.
It was a system where your entire career could be determined by your grades.
Since it was a place where people who excelled in studying were gathered, it was only natural that everyone would desperately put in effort and cling to the competition.
But even if everyone worked hard, rankings from 1st to 150th would inevitably be assigned.
Even students who had lived their entire lives at the top, who had never experienced failure or defeat, would find themselves in unimaginable positions in law school.
If students with immature minds were thrown into such a harsh environment,
Some of them might waver, crumble, and commit wrongdoings.
‘Well, that’s not my problem.’
In the original story, the role of solving this case was naturally given to Shin Seo-joon.
He didn’t find the culprit himself, but he installed fake CCTV cameras and put up notices everywhere saying, “I know you’re the culprit. Return all the books and materials by today, and I’ll turn a blind eye.”
Originally, there were no CCTV cameras in the Hankuk University Law School reading room building, perhaps due to privacy concerns.
The culprit must have noticed this and committed the crime believing they wouldn’t get caught, so Shin Seo-joon’s plan was to shake that conviction.
Although it took some time, the culprit eventually returned all the stolen items to their original owners.
Most law school students were nerds who had never really deviated in their lives.
If it was an impulsive act committed in a moment of weakness, they could turn back with just that much.
Anyway, because of that development, even I, as a reader of the original story, didn’t know who the culprit was.
Actually, there were ways to find out, but there was no reason for me to interfere in something Shin Seo-joon would solve on his own.
“Oh no, what should I do? The midterms are so close, sob!”
Therefore, even when the female student trembled and burst into tears, I didn’t pay much attention.
Or rather, I tried not to.
‘Huh?’
The female student took off her glasses to wipe her tears.
‘Wait a minute.’
Her bare face, now revealed, looked exactly like someone I had met recently.
‘…She looks exactly like the president of the Property Law Society.’