novelraw Chapter 13 : Chapter 13
Chapter 13 : Chapter 13
Chapter 13. Clumsy Justice (1)
After Im Seong-cheol's storm-like evaluation ended, I was at the noisy Cadet cafeteria, just as I had promised the two of them.
"I heard today's menu is Hamburg steak and egg soup? It sounds delicious."
"Hmm! Meat is efficient for recharging vitality. It is a good menu!"
Kim Su-hyeok and Oh Jin-eon chatted excitedly after seeing the menu.
What were they so excited about over a mere Hamburg steak?
A small laugh leaked out for no reason.
It felt as if all the stress that had built up so far was being completely relieved by this somewhat ordinary daily life.
As expected, people really need to live with some leisure.
Just then, Kim Su-hyeok called my name from afar.
"Yu-seong! You can come over here once you get your food!!"
Before I knew it, Kim Su-hyeok had already gotten all his food and was sitting at a table.
I waved my hand to show that I understood, quickly got my food, and headed to where Kim Su-hyeok was.
SLURP, CHOMP.
The mealtime began like that.
At first, we just inhaled our food without a word, but soon remembering the meaning of eating together, we began to converse.
"Yu-seong, you are coming to the training room today too, right?"
"Yeah. I have to go."
"Oh! If it is alright, may I join as well? I was a little bored training alone every day."
"Of course! It sounds like it will be more lively and nice if Jin-eon comes too!"
Training together with Oh Jin-eon... It did not sound bad.
If that happens, wouldn't Kim Su-hyeok's attention be drawn elsewhere a little, giving me some room to breathe?
Honestly, it had been too exhausting.
"But Yu-seong."
"Huh?"
While I was stuffing food into my mouth, Kim Su-hyeok suddenly called out to me.
He had been carefully watching my left hand for a while now, so why was he calling me?
"You are really bad at using chopsticks."
"......."
"Hmm, I think so too. From what I see, you drop half of what you pick up."
Even Oh Jin-eon added a word from the side.
These guys, a person can be a little bad at using chopsticks. Aren't they being too harsh?
Do they think there is nothing they can't do... Now that I think about it, there really seemed to be nothing Kim Su-hyeok could not do...
"I have no problem eating."
"Haha! I am not saying it is a problem. It is just fascinating that you swing a sword so well but are so bad at using chopsticks."
"...Is that a compliment or an insult?"
"Of course it is a compliment! When it comes to Yu-seong, you are the god of deflecting!"
If I did not have such a frail body, I would have cut everything down instead of deflecting it.
It felt a bit strange to be complimented on a technique I used to compensate for my weakness.
It was definitely a compliment, but it did not feel like I was being complimented?
Still, since he was smiling like that and calling it a compliment, what could I do?
I was about to say thank you to Kim Su-hyeok.
"Right, thanks for the compliment..."
However, I could not finish the rest of my sentence.
CRASH!!
Because a loud noise that sounded like something crashing rang out.
Kim Su-hyeok, Oh Jin-eon, and even I all turned our heads toward the source of that sound.
"That is..."
Kim Su-hyeok muttered something and furrowed his brow heavily.
Oh Jin-eon, who was beside him, did not show it much, but I could tell he was not in a very good mood either.
And it was the same for me.
"Kahaha! Look at this bastard. He is hilarious."
"As expected, the floor is fitting for trash!"
A group of people mocking and bullying a single Cadet.
It was an obvious fact that anyone could see this was not something fellow Cadets should do.
"Those bastards really...!"
Eventually, unable to hold back, Kim Su-hyeok stood up from his seat.
However, I grabbed Kim Su-hyeok's hand and stopped him.
"No."
"What do you mean, no! You know that is something they shouldn't be doing!"
He was not wrong.
Nevertheless, I had no choice but to stop him.
"Even so, you can't."
"Why do you keep saying... Ah."
Soon, Kim Su-hyeok, who had been about to argue against my words, shut his mouth.
Kim Su-hyeok did not shut his mouth for a convenient reason like 'because he understood my intentions.'
"Yu-seong, you..."
My hand holding onto Kim Su-hyeok was shaking severely due to extreme anger.
Was it because my personality was one that could not tolerate injustice? Not at all.
Because I was not exactly the type of person to burn with a sense of justice.
I looked at the Cadet who was being mocked while collapsed on the ground.
At the young man who was glaring fiercely, as if showing he had not yielded even while sitting collapsed on the floor.
'Do Gang-ho...'
An existence who stood shoulder to shoulder with other S-Rank heroes with nothing but a mere D-Rank talent.
A man who never gave up until the very end, no matter how desperate the moment was.
And... my hero, whom I truly admired.
'Damn it.'
That very hero was now rolling miserably on the ground.
It was only natural that an extreme anger surged within me.
But even so, I stopped Kim Su-hyeok.
Because I had to distinguish between when to step forward and when not to.
Stepping forward out of clumsy sympathy could actually end up causing even greater harm to Do Gang-ho.
Therefore, I spoke to Kim Su-hyeok, who was looking at me as if he still did not understand the reason.
"Kim Su-hyeok. They are in a different class from us. If you step forward here, it will only make things more difficult for him."
"Even so, that is..."
"I know what you want to say, but you still can't. Clumsy justice can become a poison, after all."
I poured out a sharp critique to Kim Su-hyeok.
Words that I had always wanted to say to him at least once if the opportunity arose.
Fitting for the protagonist of a world full of heroes, Kim Su-hyeok possessed a more heroic aspect than anyone else.
However, the choices Kim Su-hyeok made did not always bring about only good results.
And among those, the 'Do Gang-ho Incident' happening right now was also included.
'In the novel, Kim Su-hyeok stepped forward just like this too.'
But the result was the worst.
Kim Su-hyeok failed to protect Do Gang-ho, who was in a different class, and because of that, Do Gang-ho was forced to quit Glory Academy.
In the end, Kim Su-hyeok's clumsy sense of justice had actually come back as a fatal poison to Do Gang-ho.
'Of course, Do Gang-ho did not give up even after that.'
He strove to the very end and managed to grow on his own.
However, his end was ultimately death.
'The incident at the academy played a huge role in that death.'
After the incident at the academy, Do Gang-ho closed off his heart and never worked together with anyone.
Even the moment he met his death, he was alone.
Even though he might have lived if he had been with someone else at that very moment.
'Something like that must not happen again.'
That was why I stopped Kim Su-hyeok.
Because I was not ready to save him yet.
Because recklessly stepping forward would not change anything, I planned to help Do Gang-ho after making thorough preparations.
While I was making that resolution, Kim Su-hyeok spoke to me.
With a slightly gloomy expression, instead of his usual smile-filled face.
"Yu-seong."
"Yeah."
"I don't really know what this clumsy justice you are talking about is. But you mean that if I step forward now, it will only cause harm, right?"
"...Right."
"I understand. Then I will not step forward."
Kim Su-hyeok said that and then added something afterward.
"Instead, could I take a break from training today? I think I need some time to think."
"Do as you wish."
He looked fine on the outside, but he probably had a lot on his mind.
For Kim Su-hyeok, it was no different from being told to tolerate the injustice right in front of his eyes.
Kim Su-hyeok would surely agonize over the 'clumsy justice' I had mentioned for the rest of the day.
'But he has to do it.'
Now that I could intervene instead of just watching. I had no intention whatsoever of letting the story flow in the same direction as the novel.
That was why I incited Kim Su-hyeok's mental growth.
Since he had not yet seen what kind of results a wrong choice could bring about, that growth would be slow, but for now, just giving him an excuse to think was enough.
Right then, I had no choice but to fold my thoughts due to Oh Jin-eon's words.
"How about we get going soon too?"
"Huh?"
Turning my head at Oh Jin-eon's words, I saw an empty cafeteria.
It seemed everyone except us had already left a long time ago.
I guess I was so absorbed in thinking about Do Gang-ho and Kim Su-hyeok that I did not even realize they had all left.
I nodded my head at Oh Jin-eon's words.
"Let's do that. I don't think staying here any longer will change anything."
Besides, it seemed both Kim Su-hyeok and I needed some time to think separately.
Time for Kim Su-hyeok to think about 'justice,' and for me to think about a 'method' to save Do Gang-ho.
Like that, we cleared our trays and left the cafeteria.
Maintaining a slightly subdued atmosphere, unlike when we first walked in.
It seemed that leisure was a story from a distant land for me.
***
Evening, when the sun bowed its head and retreated.
Unlike my usual routine of going to the training room at this time, I sat in front of the desk in my dormitory and recalled what had happened during lunch.
"Do Gang-ho..."
I had planned to help him in the first place, but I did not know I would end up having to help him this urgently.
I had intended to slowly build a friendship and then approach him, to think it would turn out like this.
"But still, how could I just watch him in that state?"
How could I hold back when I saw my precious hero suffering like that right before my eyes?
Then again, if things always went exactly as planned, who in the world would be unhappy?
Since it had turned out this way anyway, the right thing to do would be to properly plan a method to help him.
"But I really can't think of a good idea."
I kept on thinking, but no suitable idea came to mind.
"If that bastard was just an ordinary guy, I wouldn't even be worrying like this."
No, if that were the case, there was no way Do Gang-ho would have just stood still and taken it either.
Because Do Gang-ho did not have the personality to tuck his tail and yield to the strong.
'But that bastard's family background is the problem.'
Lee Ho-jae.
The son of a famous conglomerate and the ringleader leading the bullying of Do Gang-ho.
He had a certain level of skill as a Player, but he was a guy with a garbage-like personality that was absolutely intolerable.
He was a bastard who found satisfaction in trampling on those beneath him rather than polishing his own skills.
"What does it matter if Glory's policy is equality? In the end, that only lasts until Glory."
Glory's policy of never discriminating against Cadets based on their social status.
Right, within 'Glory', that is.
But a Cadet would eventually have to graduate and step out into society, and when that happened, one could consider Glory's policy practically useless.
"I am sure that bastard Lee Ho-jae brought up Do Gang-ho's mother."
I recalled the story of Do Gang-ho that I had read in the novel.
Do Gang-ho, who lost his father in a Gate accident and grew up in a single-parent household, living alone with his mother.
Hoping his mother could live a better life, he did not give up despite awakening with a low talent and succeeded in enrolling in Glory.
However, Lee Ho-jae started bullying Do Gang-ho as soon as he enrolled.
On top of that, Lee Ho-jae used his family and Do Gang-ho's mother to deny him even the room to resist.
'How do I deal with a guy like that?'
It could not be compared to Ryu Jin-oh's, but Lee Ho-jae's family was also of a considerable scale.
I did not have anything that could be used as a weakness, but at the same time, I had no suitable method to push Lee Ho-jae into a corner.
To go up against him, my background was practically a blank slate.
'In this case, I can't do anything by myself. In the end, I have to get someone's help...'
The first person to come to mind was Im Seong-cheol.
However, I soon shook my head.
'A fundamental solution is impossible with Im Seong-cheol.'
Though he cared deeply for the Cadets, he was ultimately an instructor.
In Glory, he could become a sturdy shield for Do Gang-ho, but he could not protect the Do Gang-ho out in society.
The ones who came to mind next were Ryu Jin-oh and Ju Ha-yeon.
But they could not be a solution either.
'Because we are not even close enough for me to ask them for a favor in the first place.'
Families on the level of Ju Ha-yeon's and Ryu Jin-oh's could naturally save Do Gang-ho, but there was no way for me to move them.
With Ju Ha-yeon, doing one training session together was all we had, and as for Ryu Jin-oh...
'I haven't even exchanged a word with him yet.'
Because him clicking his tongue upon seeing me in the training room was not a conversation.
"Damn it!"
Unable to come up with a good idea, I grew impatient.
Since it was a matter related to none other than my hero, it was difficult to maintain my composure.
As I was agonizing for a long time while stuck in front of the desk, trying to come up with a useful move.
"Wait a minute."
One person came to my mind.
An existence who had a background that could more than ignore Lee Ho-jae's background, an existence who had a possibility of granting my request when I asked a favor related to Do Gang-ho.
The figure who met all those conditions.
"Shin Yu-hwan."
If it was him, the one called the Spear God, it might be possible.
True to a Player who specialized in hunting Villains, he despised scum like Lee Ho-jae, so the possibility existed.
However, whether he would actually grant my request was unknown.
For now, both Do Gang-ho and I were simply Cadets with no particular merit for him to help.
'Still, the fact that there is a possibility is what is important.'
Therefore, I hurriedly stood up from my seat and headed to where Im Seong-cheol was.
I had to get permission to go out and meet Shin Yu-hwan even a little bit sooner.