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Final exam for third-year students of Eungwang High.
Professors were busy preparing test questions, supervising, grading, and handling grades before and after the final exam period, but Kim Shinrok found some time to relax.
Finally, the subjects he had to torture were decreased by one — Cadmus the Dragon Slayer.
Kim Shinrok finished the case and obtained meaningful information from Cadmus.
‘I got valuable information. Good thing I sorted that out before dealing with the Oath of the Three Knights.’
He’s now in the hands of the Dragon Clan, but Cadmus is still considered a legend.
There’s a limit to the information that he could obtain through physical and mental manipulation, but Cadmus’ torture went smoother than the bears.
He was a dragon slayer, but Cadmus himself is a dragon.
He tried to kill Yeom Junyeol, but the tables turned completely when he was captured.
The cooperation of the Dragon King could easily destroy his spirit.
‘They blocked off information in case he gets caught. They’re very thorough…’
The people who worked with Cadmus seemed to have assumed the possibility that he’d get caught.
The information he obtained was quite limited.
In the end, he could only obtain two pieces of information from Cadmus.
The first one was what Cadmus was trying to do for those people.
‘I didn’t get this information out of him though. It was Cheongryong and the shamans.’
Cadmus moved intending to exterminate subjects with certain abilities.
At the time of the broadcasting station attack, Cadmus aimed for Yong Jegun and Yeom Junyeol’s guard, but the ultimate goal was Yeom Junyeol.
It seemed that he tried to remove the other dragons, including Yong Jegun, perhaps as part of his plan or they just got in his way.
The reason why Cadmus targeted Yeom Junyeol was as follows;
— Our Junyeol-ie is technically a descendant, but he can summon a dragon. They say that descendants with that kind of ability are subject to extermination.
If so, then why was Cadmus going after people with light skill that can call a dragon?
Cadmus didn’t really know the reason.
He only accepted the contract to exterminate people with such powers.
‘It’s because of his light skill then.’
Kim Shinrok’s light skill is similar to Yeom Junyeol’s Summoning Hongryong.
The name of his light skill is also quite similar as if the Tiger Clan version of the skill.
Kim Shinrok thought about it for a long time, but he couldn’t figure out why people with that skill were targeted even though it is indeed a formidable ability.
‘I’ll have to focus on the information that I got.’
The second piece of information he got from Cadmus; the reason why he accepted a contract in the first place.
No matter how much the people he went into a deal with tried to hide information, Cadmus’ motivation couldn’t be hidden.
He collapsed under the influence of the Dragon King, but Cadmus tried to hide his motive in the end.
Through Kim Shinrok’s persistent torture though, his resolve was of no use.
What Cadmus wanted was to be reunited with his wife, Harmonia the Goddess of Harmony.
‘I can’t believe Elysion was also affected by otherworld collisions.’
After the occurrence of otherworlds, Cadmus, a dragon, was classified as a royal lineage, while Harmonia was classified as a superior being.
When the otherworld conflict began, all the gods in Elysion disappeared to the divine world.
The estranged couple tried to find their way but to no avail.
Cadmus became a dragon, but Harmonia, a goddess, was too sacred to come down to the human world as a royal lineage.
It was also impossible for Cadmus to be regarded as a superior being because he was recorded as a hero in human accounts.
Superior beings were able to interfere in the human world in the form of order, miracles, possession, descent, and revelation.
Those people approached the desperate Cadmus.
They offered a deal in exchange for him being reunited with Harmonia to which Cadmus agreed.
‘Do those people have the power to call superior beings down to earth? There must be something they showed Cadmus to have him agree.’
It was already late when Kim Shinrok finished writing the report to Hwangho.
Since the reports couldn’t be written in the faculty office, he had no choice but to work in the private units for faculty members.
As he started working, Kim Shinrok got absorbed into finishing the report until late at night.
A box of dried persimmon gift sets caught his eye.
His evil friend, Yong Jegun, left it there when he visited suddenly on Sunday morning.
‘That dragon looked exceptionally happy.’
He felt reluctant for no reason at the thought of the unpleasantly excited Yong Jegun, but he judged that the dried persimmons were innocent.
Kim Shinrok picked up a piece.
Yong Jegun naturally came to his mind since the gift was from him, something that Kim Shinrok found unpleasant.
‘That damned dragon.’
Yong Jegun recently had a drink with his beloved father.
Jeokho was drunk enough that he fell asleep defenselessly in front of Yong Jegun.
Shortly after Kim Shinrok took care of him, Jeokho quickly regained his sanity, but Kim Shinrok was still displeased.
Why was Jeokho, who he never saw drunk, let himself loose in front of Yong Jegun?
‘What did that dragon do? No, Jeokho-nim wouldn’t fall for that dragon’s tricks. If he has something like that up his sleeves, he would’ve used it a long time ago…’
Kim Shinrok continued to think while eating three dried persimmons, but he just couldn’t find an answer.
It’s easy to use psychological tricks for torture to see through a target, but it wouldn’t work on tigers or that bloody dragon.
Though it wasn’t just once or twice that Kim Shinrok was counterattacked while trying to play a trick against Yong Jegun.
Kim Shinrok felt greatly unpleasant so he decided to think about something else.
‘My students seem busy these days. Maybe I can do something to help?’
The Year One Class Zero that Kim Shinrok supervises was acting somewhat strange.
Not only them, but also the Jiikhoe who seems to have joined hands.
Kim Shinrok was worried that something might be going on, so he talked to Ahn Dain.
The response he got was that they were busy preparing for the festival.
Kim Shinrok offered to help, but she refused.
Ahn Dain stared at him with her seemingly cold eyes.
— Leave this festival up to us, Professor Kim Shinrok. You don’t have to worry.
His student saying that left Kim Shinrok speechless.
Ahn Dain looked very reliable.
He always felt sorry for Ahn Dain who was almost in charge of all the class work.
‘Come to think of it, Jeokho-nim asked how Ahn Dain was doing.’
Based on the report written by Jeokho, the year he spent through the Replay function involved Ahn Dain a few times.
Kim Shinrok briefly recalled Ahn Dain’s role, and he felt emotional when he remembered that he wanted the Replay function to be used on him again.
Unlike Jeokho, his replay is quite short.
Kim Shinrok thought he should appeal using that fact later on.
Although he can’t bring it up to Jo Euishin in front of Hwangho and the other tigers.
‘I want to get another replay though.’
While he was thinking of how to bring it up to Jo Euishin naturally, a message arrived that interfered with Kim Shinrok’s thoughts.
He doesn’t know if the sender intended it, but as soon as he saw the message, thoughts of the Replay function flew right out of his head.
[Yong] Shinrok-ah, wanna be a model? ^^
***
The final exam period for the third-year students was on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
Today was Wednesday, the final day of their exam.
They were playing around after the long exam period, except for the student representatives.
There will be a student representative meeting for the fourth quarter of the year after classes.
Until now, the quarterly student representative meetings have been held after the midterm and final exams.
‘Freshmen and sophomores haven’t taken the exam yet, but the festival is coming soon so…’
We’d have very little time to prepare for the festival if we held the meeting after the exams.
Because of this, representatives from the first and second years had to prepare while the third years were taking their final exams.
Although the seniors would still attend the meeting, the sophomores would lead the meeting this quarter, and so students from autonomous organizations had a busy time.
Kim Yuri, our class president and a part of the student association, was no exception.
“Thanks for helping me out a lot this time, Euishin-ah.”
Kim Yuri sounded sorry.
She was in charge of almost all class management matters during the first semester.
It’s only expected of me to help her now that she’s become busier.
“It’s alright. How’s the student association work?”
“Freshmen just did small work. The sophomores did all the complicated things…”
While we walked the hallway of the Student Association Hall, Kim Yuri began to praise our seniors.
The competent Kim Yuri wouldn’t have been assigned grunt work, but she seemed to diminish her contributions to raise up her seniors.
Well, when we become sophomores, Kim Yuri’s true value will be revealed.
As I admired my playable character and class president’s humility, we arrived at Conference Room A for the meeting.
“Whatever it is, I’ll cooperate! For the coverage, it’s not gonna be much but…”
“I’d appreciate it if you would help, Saeron-ah. But it’s not something I can decide alone.”
In front of the conference room, Moon Saeron and Ahn Dain were talking.
Behind Ahn Dain was Yoo Sanghoon, who didn’t seem too involved in the conversation.
Looking at the atmosphere, Moon Saeron must be pitching to get news coverage of what Class 1-1 was planning.
Yoo Sanghoon seems to remain neutral.
Seeing the three of them like that…
‘Where’s Joo Soohyuk?’
Usually, Ahn Dain and Joo Soohyuk talk to each other about books while Moon Saeron kicks out the other kids from interfering.
At that time, Ahn Dain suddenly looked up and stared across the hall.
“Ah…”
At the end of her gaze was Joo Soohyuk walking, something that wasn’t strange.
The problem was that Joo Soohyuk appeared while having what seemed to be a very friendly conversation with Oh Hyeji.
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