novelraw Chapter 203 : Chapter 203
Chapter 203 : Chapter 203
Chapter 203. Clean-up
Ji-an stealthily added.
“And while you’re at it, please pat my head.”
It was a small request that Ho-cheol had not expected at all.
“Huh?”
As his eyes widened in surprise, Ji-an, in turn, was flustered, even putting down the blanket and waving her hands.
“Ah, no! I’m sorry! Please pretend you didn’t hear the last part!”
At his clearly troubled reaction, she quickly retracted her words, as if she had made another mistake.
Ugh.
I’m going to get scolded again.
As expected, I should have just said one thing, but I got greedy and ended up losing both.
Ji-an lowered her head deeply.
It would be a relief if she were just scolded, but if she were to be disliked or disappointed, she would be even sadder.
Ji-an had been gloomily chewing on the blanket, but.
“Ji-an.”
At the low voice that came from Ho-cheol's mouth, she belatedly raised her head.
He was looking at her with a light smile.
“If it’s a request like this, by all means. In fact, I’m sorry that I didn’t call your name so much that you had to worry about it. You had every right to be upset.”
It was just that he instinctively shied away from forming a deep relationship by calling someone's name, due to his long life as a villain.
But with So-hee too, in a way, it was natural for her to be upset.
“No, don’t apologize! It’s my own greed…”
Even after saving hundreds of lives and possessing overwhelming strength, in the end, in front of Ho-cheol, she was just a love-deprived kid who only needed his attention.
Ho-cheol's hand stroked Ji-an's head.
“Actually, if you had made a demand today under the pretext of a reward, then probably…”
The hand that had been stroking her head pulled her head closer.
Ho-cheol also lowered his head and whispered a ‘reward’ in her ear.
“……would have been possible too. You’re surprisingly humble.”
Ji-an's eyes widened, and she hurriedly changed her words.
“Me! Me me! With that! Please let me change it to that!”
“No.”
It was a joke in the first place.
Ji-an, who had missed out on a reward beyond imagination that made her face flush bright red just by imagining it, had a tearful face.
An amusement park for just the two of us!
A zoo!
A botanical garden!!!
But even that disappointment quickly melted away thanks to Ho-cheol's hand stroking her head.
Her body, mind, and brain, it all seemed to be melting away in the touch and warmth of Ho-cheol's palm.
She turned her head this way and that, feeling his palm with her entire face.
Although her condition was at its worst, if she could feel a moment and a feeling like this, wouldn't a few brushes with death be a cheap price to pay?
Ho-cheol silently stroked her head for a long time.
How much time had passed?
This should be enough.
And if he were to take his hand away, Ji-an would pout her lips, so how many more times had he patted her?
If I get caught here for any longer, I’ll be stroking her all night until my fingerprints wear off.
Ho-cheol took his hand away again.
This time, Ji-an, with a rather satisfied expression, readily let Ho-cheol go.
“You’ve been sitting for too long. Lie down and get some rest.”
Looking at Ho-cheol, who had stood up from his chair, Ji-an asked cautiously.
“Where are you going?”
“I was wandering around outside by myself when this mess happened at the academy, so I have to clean up the mess diligently now.”
Of course, Ho-cheol hadn't just been playing around, but he felt a considerable sense of responsibility for the current series of events.
In the first place, this incident had really been his fault.
“You’re coming back, right?”
At Ji-an's worried gaze, Ho-cheol chuckled and placed his hand on her head again.
“Of course.”
Ho-cheol went to a hospital room on another floor.
The intensive care unit.
Despite the doctor's dissuasion that he still needed absolute rest, Ho-cheol opened the door of the hospital room without a care and entered.
Beep— beep— beep—
The dean, with an oxygen mask on his mouth and all sorts of complicated medical devices attached to him, was lying down.
And in the chair next to him, Ha-rin was holding the dean's wrinkled hand tightly and muttering something.
“Hey, sorry to interrupt your moving family time.”
The gazes of the dean and Ha-rin simultaneously turned to Ho-cheol.
“Can I come in?”
Before Ha-rin could say anything, the dean chuckled.
“You’re already in, and you’re asking so early.”
The dean raised his remaining hand and took off his respirator.
“Grandpa!”
Ha-rin shouted in a fluster, but the dean waved his hand as if it was alright.
“The doctor was making a fuss. It’s not this bad.”
Ho-cheol chuckled and entered the hospital room.
“What do you mean, a fuss? Your voice sounds like you’re on the verge of death.”
Of course, he had heard the explanation that he had passed the critical point.
In the first place, if he had really been on the verge of death, he wouldn't have come to visit like this.
“You…”
Ha-rin looked at Ho-cheol with a gaze filled with complicated emotions.
Just a few hours ago, they had faced each other as villain versus villain.
She found it very difficult to accept the discrepancy between the memory of that time and the current situation.
Of course, that only applied to Ha-rin.
For Ho-cheol, who had changed sides as if it were a daily routine, it was a memory that was not a big deal.
He just waved his hand at Ha-rin casually, without much thought.
Turning his gaze back to the dean, Ho-cheol scoffed.
“You’re glad you took her in, right?”
“I can’t deny it.”
Of course, it was about Ji-an.
Originally, not only Se-ah, but also the dean, had been against letting Ji-an into the academy.
Not only because of what she had done, but also because she was virtually uncontrollable.
If it hadn't been for Ho-cheol's persuasion, which was close to coercion, how much blood would have been shed today?
Just imagining it was dizzying.
“Tell her I said thank you.”
“Not just that kid Se-ah, why doesn’t everyone say thank you in person?”
“It’s awkward.”
“Is that so?”
The dean slowly raised his empty hand.
Staring blankly at his hand, he said shortly.
“This is it for me.”
Although it was lacking compared to his prime, he had managed his body as carefully as possible to maintain a capability on par with an S-rank.
But he had lost an arm when Ji-an's organization had attacked last time, and his combat power had been halved.
“Well, since I’m old, even if I had managed to hold on, 3 or 4 years would have been the limit.”
In this battle, he had forcibly drawn out an output beyond his limit, and his body was completely ruined.
“It’s really, completely over.”
He could feel it instinctively.
He had used up everything.
All that was left were the smoldering embers and ash, and although even that was enough to be compared to only a handful of A-ranks, if a disaster like today were to happen, all he could do was provide rear support.
“That’s a shame.”
Ho-cheol turned his body and sat on the edge of the dean's hospital bed, in a tone that was not at all pitiful.
Although they did not exchange any particular words, just by exchanging a light glance, their intentions were somewhat aligned.
The dean turned his gaze and looked at Ha-rin.
“Go out for a moment.”
“Eh? But grandpa, right now…”
“It’s an important conversation.”
She was flustered for a moment, but in the end, she let out a sigh at his firm attitude and stood up.
“Alright. Call me when you’re done talking.”
“Thank you.”
After Ha-rin had left, the two of them could finally bring up the real core topic.
But neither of them opened their mouths first.
Just a heavy silence fell between the two.
The one who broke the silence first was the dean.
“The Peacemaker.”
In this raid, many buildings had collapsed and people had been injured, but in any case, it had remained there intact.
The only thing that had disappeared from the academy was the ‘Peacemaker.’
“There are only three people who know that it’s in my personal safe. Me, you, and my secretary.”
And the dean had not thought at all that any of these three would have leaked that information.
Yet the fact that they had come as if they were sure that the Peacemaker was here was surely.
“The Peacemaker had a lost and found tracking function. And the only one who could use that function was the registered owner…”
The dean let out a sigh.
Even while thinking it was absurd, it was natural to have a suspicion.
It wasn't completely out of the blue, and the keyword of reviving the dead was a topic that had come up several times between them.
“Is it what I think it is?”
Ho-cheol also nodded his head, with an expression of not wanting to admit it.
The dean's complexion, which had been bad to begin with, became even worse.
The worst-case scenario, which had the lowest probability among the few possibilities he had considered, had come true.
“This is a big problem. Was that Smiley?”
The dean did not know Smiley's name, of course, nor her real voice and face.
That's why he had not been able to identify her from the villain who had attacked today.
But he had a circumstantial suspicion.
“So that’s what her real face looks like.”
And that suspicion had become a certainty.
“Heo. To think she was really brought back to life.”
He let out another sigh and looked up at the ceiling.
“Was it a good thing that she had so stubbornly hidden her identity?”
Even an S-rank hero didn't know anything about her personal information, so how much more so for the media or the general public?
As long as she didn't go out of her way to announce her identity, at the very least, the media would not be foaming at the mouth and rushing in.
Moreover, the trait that Smiley possessed was also faint in its individuality.
She just became stronger by receiving the ‘cheering’ of others.
And since that cheering, and the becoming stronger, were not particularly noticeable, it was almost impossible to recognize her through her Trait.
“So is that the real Smiley?”
“No.”
Ho-cheol answered without a moment's thought.
“That’s a fake. For sure.”
“……Should I be glad, or should I be sad.”
To be simply relieved, the situation was too complicated.
If she had been the real one, he would have recalled her past good self and would have tried to persuade her somehow.
But the resurrected fake was blatantly leaning towards the evil side.
To harm so many people just to get back what she wanted was something the Smiley of the past would never have done.
The dean's worries soon shifted from Smiley to Ho-cheol.
“What are you going to do?”
The dean was not just asking about his future plans.
The key was Ho-cheol's heart and attitude towards that fake Smiley.
His close relationship with Smiley.
Depending on what feelings and thoughts Ho-cheol had for that fake, the balance of power could be completely overturned.
But Ho-cheol, unlike the dean's worries, answered very easily.
“That’s a fake. It’s an insult to the real one.”
At the very least, it seemed that he would not change his position, bewitched by a fake.
“I’m truly glad.”
The dean smiled faintly in relief.
Was it he who had not believed?
The bond between the two was so strong that even the dean could not dare to gauge it.
“Then what about dealing with her?”
Ho-cheol leaned forward and rested his chin on his clasped hands.
“She’s already a dead person. A walking corpse.”
Ho-cheol, as if he had already made up his mind, calmly distinguished between what he had to do and what he would do.
“I’m not killing her, I’m just peacefully returning her to her original place. Of course, I’ll have to do it myself.”
I'll handle it myself.
Beyond just subduing her and putting her in prison, it was just a roundabout way of saying that he would end her life.
At Ho-cheol's firm attitude, the dean was rather anxious.
Although he said she was a fake, could he really endure the situation of killing his precious person with his own hands?
Even while the dean was worrying, Ho-cheol was thinking something completely different.
He got off the hospital bed again and touched his neck.
“Until now, there was a separate purpose for the raid on the academy, and it was as if I had just tagged along but now it’s different.”
The one the current fake Smiley, Jeong Yu-hwa, was after was the real Smiley's power that he was keeping, and his own existence itself.
“They’re also guys who don’t shy away from any means or methods. If I have an enemy here, they’ll probably keep hitting Clington until they achieve their goal.”
And the damage would be borne entirely by the students and the people around him.
No matter how strong Ho-cheol was, if a raid like today were to happen several times, he would have no way of stopping it.
And he couldn't just stand by and watch others get hurt.
Then there was only one solution left.
“It all happened because of me, so I have to take responsibility.”
Ho-cheol said lightly, as if it were a trivial matter.
“I’m quitting as a professor.”
This is the best way.
At the very least, Ho-cheol could be sure of that.