Chapter 206:
Chapter 206:
Chapter 206
The results of the first test were graded by letters, taking into account the foreign students.
The grades ranged from the highest A to the lowest F.
The evaluation was absolute, not relative.
The criteria for scoring were how fast they defeated the phantoms, how fearless they were in front of the phantoms, how good their combat skills were, and so on. Several instructors watched and judged them objectively.
The students checked their grades from the first test and some sighed in disappointment, while some breathed a sigh of relief.
“Yes! C rank! That’s average, right?”
“Damn it. E rank. I should have just fought harder.”
“Well, at least I didn’t get F.”
The students who got F rank were almost dead.
Kang Yura and Seo Sumin also found their names.
It was not hard to find them.
Their names stood out because they were in the high ranks.
[Seo Sumin: A rank]
[Kang Yura: B rank]
Even though it was only the first test, the two of them scored very high.
Kang Yura got a B rank because her boldness and movement were not perfect compared to her power, but she did not complain about it.
A rank was not even 10 people, so B rank was not low at all.
There was a break before the second test. The students gathered with their guardians or people they knew and chatted with each other.
However, some of them had their own agendas and moved accordingly.
“Hi, where are you from?”
“Wow, you were amazing with that sword. Do you have a famous master or something?”
Some students approached Kang Yura and Seo Sumin and acted friendly.
They thought it would not hurt to make friends with the two of them who showed their skills from the first test.
More than that, they were interested in the person behind them.
The ones who talked to them were mostly C rank or lower.
“Hey, move.”
“Who are you… Oh, oh?”
A group of students pushed through the crowd and came to Kang Yura and Seo Sumin.
There were five of them, all male.
The leader walked with his hands in his pockets, as if showing off himself. T
he students around him recognized him and moved out of his way.
Seo Sumin narrowed her eyes at him.
‘Did he already make a gang?’
From the whispers around her, she guessed that he was from a well-known family.
“You, you’re A rank?”
He stood in front of Seo Sumin and asked bluntly.
Seo Sumin just nodded without saying anything.
Seeing that she did not say anything, he scanned her with his eyes.
It looked like he was trying to evaluate her.
Kang Yura flared up at his disrespectful gaze and stepped forward.
“Who are you to ask that without even introducing yourself?”
“You don’t know me?”
He asked back as if he was surprised. What was she supposed to say to that?
Kang Yura made a face as if she could not believe him.
Seo Sumin looked at him with an unreadable expression.
“So, who are you?”
“Lee Pyeongwon. You’ve heard of me, right?”
Lee Pyeong-won was a rich kid who had the chairman of Daeyeong Group, a large corporation, as his father.
And Lee Pyeong-won was one of the only ten students who received an A-rank in the first test.
“So what?”
Seo Su-min asked indifferently, as if she didn’t care about his prestigious background or his A-rank.
She was not interested at all in him, whether he was handsome or not.
“So what? Don’t you know who I am?”
“It doesn’t matter who you are or what you are. What matters is why you approached me and what you want from me.”
“…”
Lee Pyeong-won was speechless for a moment, as if he didn’t expect Seo Su-min to answer like that.
Most people would bow their heads and listen to him as soon as he spoke to them. Even adults were no different.
He was born as the youngest of four siblings and grew up without lacking anything.
Everyone bowed their heads when they saw him.
He took it for granted.
But Seo Sumin was not like that at all.
Lee Pyeong-won felt a strange anger rising in him, but at the same time, he thought that she deserved to be an A-rank like him.
“I just wanted to see who else got an A-rank like me.”
“There are other people besides me, right?”
“I already know the other ones.”
In fact, he knew the basic information of the other nine students who received an A-rank, except for Seo Sumin.
It was natural to keep an eye on the potential rivals before entering the academy.
But they had an unexpected troublemaker, and that was Seo Sumin.
“Hmm. And then?”
“And then? Don’t you get it?”
“I don’t get it.”
“I’ll make it simple. You, join our side.”
Lee Pyeong-won got straight to the point.
He found Seo Sumin to be a very attractive student.
She was not just pretty.
She had an A-rank, which meant she had enough qualifications to stand shoulder to shoulder with him.
So he confidently told her to come to his side.
Kang Yura, who was listening from the side, wondered what kind of nonsense this was.
‘Did he watch too many dramas?’
To her, who had lived a normal life until now, the behavior of the rich kid who had been trained to be a collector since childhood was nothing less than a lunatic.
‘Or are all collectors like this?’
Fortunately for Kang Yura, Lee Pyeong-won was actually an odd case in this field.
If he was the average student, Kang Yura would have seriously reconsidered her admission to the academy.
Kang Yu-ra wondered what to do in this situation. Should she intervene and stop him? Or should she just go along with him?
At that moment, Seo Sumin opened her mouth first.
“No thanks?”
Gasp!
The sound of people swallowing their breaths could be heard around them.
Lee Pyeong-won’s face crumpled at the blunt rejection, and his followers behind him also looked unhappy.
Seo Sumin still seemed unimpressed and retorted.
“Why should I join your faction?”
“Because you’re an A-rank…”
“So what if I’m an A-rank? What’s so good about joining your faction?”
“Well, you see…”
Lee Pyeong-won was dumbfounded. In his life, girls his age were usually clingy and annoying, pestering him with words as soon as he spoke to them.
Of course, there were a few exceptions, such as some people who competed with him at the academy, but at least that’s what Lee Pyeong-won thought.
But Seo Su-min openly rejected him in front of his face. And to someone whose name he hadn’t even heard of until then.
Lee Pyeong-won’s face turned red with anger.
“You seem to be ignorant of something…”
“No. I think I know enough. What you’re doing is ultimately faction play, right? You’re just inviting me because you want me, right? Sorry, but I have no intention of joining in on those kids’ games.”
“Kids’ games?”
It might have felt like an insult to Lee Pyeong-won, but Seo Sumin was serious.
Who was she?
She was once the leader of the Heavenly Horse Sect, which made the Central Plains martial world tremble with fear.
To her, Lee Pyeong-won’s faction and other students’ factions were nothing but cute pranks of children.
Even the arrogant juniors of the martial world alliance were better than them.
She had only one thing she wanted.
To quickly prove her qualifications at the academy, get the privilege, and enter the world of thought with Yu-hyun.
The academy was not her goal, but just a process to step on and pass by.
“Do you know who I am…”
“I’m not done talking yet. What, I guess you looked down on me a little because I didn’t even have a name before. Do you think I should be grateful and happy if you talk to me?”
Lee Pyeong-won’s face turned completely red like a boiled octopus.
How many times had he been insulted like this in his life?
It was obvious to Seo Sumin, but it was the worst insult to Lee Pyeong-won, who had a lot of pride.
He was amazing, but he was still a student who had to enter the academy and a minor.
He hadn’t learned how to control his anger.
“How dare you…!”
Lee Pyeong-won raised his right hand.
He seemed ready to hit Seo Sumin.
In fact, Lee Pyeong-won was full of thoughts of hitting Seo Sumin, who was rude to him.
The students who were watching in silence opened their eyes wide, and it was the moment when Lee Pyeong-won’s hand was about to swing.
“That’s not good.”
Someone grabbed his wrist.
“Who dares…!”
Lee Pyeong-won turned around with blood in his throat, feeling that he had been interrupted.
He could see it.
A man in a black suit who had approached him without him knowing was staring at him intently.
The moment he saw his pumpkin-colored eyes, Lee Pyeong-won unknowingly closed his mouth.
“You shouldn’t cause trouble from the start. Right?”
“Let go of me! You bastard!”
Lee Pyeong-won tried to shake off the man’s hand, but it wasn’t easy.
Even if he put strength into his arm, he didn’t budge at all. Lee Pyeong-won realized then that this man was not an ordinary person.
“You, you. Who are you? Do you know who I am? If you touch me carelessly…”
“Do I have to know that? There are so many people here who saw you trying to hit our lady first.”
“What?”
Yu-hyun didn’t answer Lee Pyeong-won’s question.
Instead, he looked at Seo Su-min and asked.
“Sumin. Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m fine.”
The two talked as if Lee Pyeong-won didn’t matter.
Then Lee Pyeong-won’s guardians also stepped forward.
“Enough already.”
“You’re being too rough.”
Several people in black suits and sunglasses approached Yu-hyun and warned him.
Their words were polite, but their voices implied that they would use force if he resisted even a little.
Yu-hyun shrugged his shoulders and let go of Lee Pyeongwon’s arm.
Lee Pyeongwon, who was barely released, rubbed his arm that Yu-hyun had grabbed.
It didn’t seem like he squeezed it too hard, but his arm was throbbing.
Before he could yell at him, the suits blocked his way.
They were all on Lee Pyeongwon’s side.
“It was just a little argument between kids, don’t you think you went too far?”
Yu-hyun retorted.
“An argument is one thing, but you’re not going to stop him from using a knife? And you should be grateful to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“If I hadn’t stopped him, that kid over there wouldn’t have been able to walk home today.”
Gulp!
The suits frowned at Yu-hyun’s provocative words, but Yu-hyun had no intention of correcting them.
He meant what he said.
If he hadn’t intervened, Seo Sumin would have smashed Lee Pyeongwon to pieces in front of everyone.
It was rather because he stepped in that it ended in a gentlemanly manner.
“You’re exaggerating. How good is that kid of yours anyway?”
“At least better than yours who gets angry over a few words and tries to attack.”
“…Are you picking a fight?”
“If that’s how you heard it, then I can’t help it.”
The man who seemed to be the representative of the suits spoke with a hint of annoyance at Yu-hyun’s words that scratched their pride.
“Be reasonable. If you don’t, we won’t stay still either.”
“What are you going to do if you don’t stay still?”
“What, this guy…”
Just as someone next to the representative was about to shout in anger,
“What about this guy.”
Yu-hyun was already in front of him.
The suits who didn’t notice Yu-hyun’s movement broke out in cold sweat.
‘F-fast.’
‘I didn’t see him move.’
They instinctively realized who was the strongest in this situation.
Yu-hyun spoke softly to the person who tried to step forward.
“Do you think I’m easy because I’m being polite? Do you think I’m weak because I’m smiling?”
Yu-hyun exuded an irresistible pressure.
“Just remember this. The reason we’re staying still is partly because there are eyes around us, but mostly because we don’t want our ladies to get involved in unnecessary trouble.”
After saying that, Yu-hyun chuckled and lightly tapped the shoulder of the tense suit man.
“Don’t be so frozen. People might think I’m trying to kill you or something.”
“…”
The representative took off his sunglasses and glared at Yu-hyun.
His eyes had a large scar on one side and looked like a wild beast.
Yu-hyun didn’t back down either and met his gaze.
Unlike him who looked like he wanted to kill him, his eyes were calm as ever.
But.
“…Ugh.”
The one who avoided eye contact was rather the representative.
The representative felt like he was falling into an endless darkness when he looked into Yu-hyun’s eyes.
He stepped back with cold sweat and Yu-hyun smiled slyly.
“Then, show me what you’ve got in the second test later.”
“…You’ll regret it.”
“That’s a welcome word.”
Yu-hyun’s pumpkin-colored eyes flashed with red light.
“I haven’t seen anyone who said that to me and came out unscathed.”