Chapter 271 – Epilogue (4)

“So, you went out for a morning workout.”

“Yeah.”

“And the principal of Raon Academy…”

“Yeah.”

“was getting beaten up by some delinquent Awakened who’d been expelled, so you helped him.”

“Right.”

“And he offered you a job?”

Olivier summarized the situation and asked.

Hyunbin, arms crossed, answered arrogantly.

“Does that even make sense to you right now?”

“He recognized talent when he saw it.”

“Sir Hero, isn’t it because of your divine power that people can’t recognize you?”

Hyunbin’s once-burly muscles were gone, replaced by a slim physique. That alone made him hard to recognize, but with the addition of divine power, his features had subtly changed.

In other words, no one would look at the current Hyunbin and think of the Delivery Man.

Unless they were someone who saw his face quite often.

“Maybe it’s a security guard position or something?”

“It’s a tea-cher po-si-tion.”

Olivier was speechless for a moment.

If it were the old Delivery Man, Lee Hyunbin, any Hunter academy would welcome him with open arms. But the disguised Hyunbin was just an ordinary person with no experience.

For Raon, the most prestigious of the Hunter-related schools, to scout such a man… It didn’t make any sense.

“Are you sure the principal didn’t recognize you, Sir Hero?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“But hiring a complete stranger as a teacher… I didn’t think that place was so poorly run.”

“Perhaps he saw my character?”

At Hyunbin’s words, Olivier narrowed her eyes and muttered.

“If he saw your character, that’s all the more reason not to hire you.”

She chided him, but it wasn’t bad news for Olivier.

Hyunbin having a job meant he wouldn’t just disappear.

In other words, she could keep seeing him.

“But why get a job all of a sudden?”

“A man’s got to work. If you loaf around too long, your body gets rusty.”

“It’s not because you have such strong sadistic tendencies that you now want to break some kids, is it?”

“Break them? I’m hel-ping them get stron-ger.”

Seeing Hyunbin flash a toothy grin, Olivier felt sorry for the students.

‘He does enjoy teaching people.’

He taught soldiers in the other world, and he trained his juniors in the modern world.

In a way, teaching the next generation suited him well.

He would no longer have to live soaked in the blood of that dreadful war.

‘It might suit him better than I thought.’

Olivier thought that while the Hero had his perverted tendencies, the role of a teacher was a good fit for him.

“Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“We need to get you fitted for a suit. If you’re going to work.”

Olivier said arrogantly, shaking her wallet.

If she didn’t prepare his clothes, he was the type of person who would undoubtedly show up to work wearing a bow tie.

***

I had lived day after day where if I didn’t fight, someone would die.

Now that I was the strongest being in the dimension, growing as a Hunter was meaningless. And I despised the idea of being put on display as the hero who saved the world.

I could feel that Katrinne was also doing well.

She probably feels my presence too.

I didn’t go out of my way to see her.

The child who had never left my side was now trying to break out of her shell and find her own path.

I decided to simply trust and wait for Katrinne as she left my nest to become independent.

In the meantime, Olivier came looking for me.

As if she thought I might leave at any moment, she stuck by my side, never taking her eyes off me.

Perhaps because she was a succubus specializing in stalking. It seemed she had failed to stand on her own all this time.

So, I figured it would be okay to stay by her side a little longer.

It’s not like I had anywhere else to be right now anyway.

I decided to step away from the battlefield and enjoy a comfortable, ordinary life.

-Juvenile Offender Commits Brutal Murder with Awakened Ability. But No Relevant Punishment Laws Exist.

-Debate Over Abolishing the Juvenile Act.

-Awakening Phenomenon Among Teenagers on the Rise. But Educational Methods Remain Outdated.

Was it thanks to the Demon World’s invasion? The world was now seeing more and more Awakened abilities manifest.

The rate of Awakening was especially high among teenagers in their prime.

What would happen when adolescents, at an age where their personalities are still forming, suddenly gained superhuman abilities straight out of movies or comics?

The world was still facing a wave of change.

This changed world would need new rules, and I intended to live my daily life in a different way. Not through fighting.

I glanced at the bed.

Olivier was fast asleep, dead to the world.

A bitter smile escaped me as I looked at her sleeping defenselessly, her stomach exposed.

Olivier, who nagged me about smelling bad yet clung tightly to my collar, looked rather cute in her own way.

I pulled the blanket over Olivier.

“Cynthia… I won’t give her up…”

What is she even dreaming about?

Regardless of my existence, the world would continue to fight for its survival.

Back when I was active as a special Guarder, I’d once seen a team of academy students in a large-scale dungeon.

-Oh! Ooh! It’s Hunter Lee Hyunbin! The Delivery Man!

-Wow, it’s really Lee Hyunbin.

Like the curious kids they were, their eyes sparkled as they saw me, the hottest topic in the country.

Sometimes, when there was a shortage of Hunters, academy cadets would join dungeon raids as part of their practical training. Of course, the professional Hunters would handle the main assault, while the cadets were limited to clearing out mobs or scouting the surrounding area.

In a world where Gates opened, Hunters were a crucial resource, so training them this way wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

-Our instructor? Once our teacher gets here, we’ll be heading in too.

-I heard monsters drop items just like in a game, right?

-They say you can make money selling mana stones. I’m gonna buy some clothes if I sell one.

-Idiot, we don’t have mining rights, so we only get a stipend. Were you sleeping in class?

-What, really?

The chattering teenage Hunter-aspirants were filled with a light excitement and anticipation for their first hunting ground.

-Yes, we’ll do our best!

In response to my words of encouragement, a female student who appeared to be the party leader clenched both fists and struck a fighting pose.

Gates were places full of all sorts of variables. The dungeon itself was rated low-grade, but that was only due to the small number of monsters; in reality, it was closer to a mid-grade dungeon.

Thanks to that, the Hunters leading the main assault had a tough time hunting the dungeon boss.

-It’s a good thing you were here, S-Rank Hunter Mr. Lee Hyunbin. If things had gone wrong, four parties could have been wiped out.

The people who had cleared the dangerous dungeon with relative ease were laughing in relief.

I thought the academy cadets who had been waiting earlier probably didn’t even get to enter the dungeon. They had been so full of fighting spirit; I was a little worried they’d be disappointed about not getting to go in.

And then I saw it.

“…”

A female student, one eye covered in bandages and the other holding a dead gaze, was watching her friends—no, the things that *were* her friends—being carried away on stretchers.

Wiped out.

Due to the dungeon’s unexpectedly high difficulty, all the academy cadets had died, except for the female student who had been their leader.

-Hyun-jeong said she was going to sell mana stones to pay for her grandmother’s hospital bills… And Jun-ho said he wanted to earn money to buy a house where his mom could live comfortably…

The female student mumbled her grievances to me.

-Since I survived… does that mean I’m lucky…?

Her tears dripped onto her severed arm.

Being a Hunter was a job where you could earn a lot of money.

Of course, that was only how it looked on the surface.

The price of a single mana stone ranged from 50,000 to 100,000 won depending on the market. Sure, you could accumulate mana stones and earn money steadily, but then you’d have expenses like buying equipment.

Of course, things would be great if you could join a good guild under favorable conditions.

High risk, high return.

The greater the profit, the greater the danger.

Even adults forgot this simple truth, let alone children. And it was the role of the supervising teacher to restrain such impulses. But the instructor leading the cadets had reportedly run away as soon as things got dangerous.

I had always emphasized training to those Hunters who grew arrogant just because they had Awakened and gained an ability.

Even if you gained a superhuman ability, it would only shine through consistent training.

What good was an ability to shoot cannons? If you didn’t have the stamina to support it, you’d just collapse on your own.

The news of the accident where the cadets were wiped out briefly flashed across the news and was quickly forgotten by the public.

But it was not forgotten in my mind.

So I continued my activities as a Guarder, and after finishing the conquest of the Demon World, I had already decided what I would do next.

I would prepare a systematized educational system. To prevent any more absurd, preventable accidents from happening.

***

Class A, a collection of the most anticipated students since Raon Academy’s founding. However, contrary to expectations, they were so infamous for causing trouble that their homeroom teachers were known to flee.

A new homeroom teacher was assigned to this very Class A.

“Ah, shit. That crazy homeroom teacher.”

“Look at my legs, they’ve gotten thicker. What am I gonna do?”

“Hey, Han So-yul. Your legs were already thick as daikon radishes, weren’t they?”

“You crazy bastard, I oughta rip the fat off your jaw.”

Thanks to the new homeroom teacher working them like crazy, all the kids were suffering from muscle aches.

Usually, the other teachers were either non-Hunters or, if they were former Hunters, they were mostly low-ranked. A Hunter with that much skill and power would have no reason to take a low-paying teaching job in the first place.

A single run through a high-level dungeon would net them a share of tens of millions of won.

That’s why, far from pushing the students, many teachers actually had less stamina than the top-ranking students.

As a result, the top students would counter-propose running another lap or even tease the teachers by asking for a sparring match. Because of this, the regular teachers, their pride wounded, all gave up on Class A.

“Guuuhhh…”

The class president, collapsed on his desk, let out a groan like an old man without realizing it.

It had been two straight weeks of intense training. Raon Academy was a special school for Hunters, but it also provided a standard high school education. Normally, they’d be busy dozing off, bored by the academic subjects, but now, theory classes had become the happiest time of their day.

“Our homeroom teacher, why doesn’t he get tired?”

Any other teacher would normally get tired and stop after running more than three laps. There was a certain pleasure in dragging such a teacher along.

But Han So-yul, one of the top three students, felt that the situation had gotten strange lately.

-Ahem, you can’t use your superpowers.

-You think superhumans don’t feel pain when they get hit? You need to build your stamina, right? That’s right, just lift that ten times. If you don’t want to, you can starve today. Ahem, I said no superpowers.

Likewise, Hong Jae-young, another of the top three and known for his aggressive nature, was picking at his lunchbox. Seeing this, Han So-yul, who was collapsed in exhaustion, snorted and said.

“Hey, you’re too exhausted to feel like eating too, right?”

“No. I got pissed and challenged the homeroom teacher to a spar, but he busted my lip, so now I can’t eat. Shit, that bastard is a damn good fighter!”

Han So-yul glanced over at Hwang Jae-hoon.

Whether it was because of his pride as the nephew of Yeomje, once the undisputed number one ranker, or because he was just a typical poser, Hwang Jae-hoon sneered coldly at Hong Jae-young’s whining.

“Whining over something like that is why you’re eternally number two.”

“Bullshit. You reek of pain relief patches, you punk!”

At Hong Jae-young’s words, Hwang Jae-hoon shut his mouth.

If the top three were like this, it was no different for the other kids in the class; they were all dying.

Something was strange. They were still students, fresh-faced teenagers. She couldn’t understand how he could work them all without discrimination, even a lovely female student like herself.

That’s why Han So-yul had once whined her way into asking to be excused from training.

-Oh dear, do you think monsters care if you’re a boy or a girl? You think they’ll sheathe their claws just because you’re younger than them?

He’d said that and pushed her even harder.

Han So-yul muttered as she flopped onto her desk.

“Damn, a man who’s firm as a rock… So damn attractive.”

“What the hell? Han So-yul, I think she’s lost her mind. Did she just call the homeroom teacher attractive?”

“To be honest, our homeroom teacher’s face is pretty decent.”

“That guy? Are you crazy? How can you say that after seeing him grinning while he works us to the bone?”

Hong Jae-young was dumbfounded, recalling their teacher smiling while drinking a protein shake. But his words didn’t register with her, a sucker for a pretty face.

“It won’t last long anyway.”

“Why? You gonna fight him too? You won’t fare any better.”

In response to Hong Jae-young’s words, Hwang Jae-hoon smirked while drinking bottled water.

“My uncle is coming tomorrow. For the parent observation day.”

“Your uncle? Yeomje?”

Hwang Jae-yeon, the nation’s greatest flame Hunter, whom Hwang Jae-hoon admired beyond measure.

Hong Jae-young was jealous, but at this moment, he had to admit it.

“Whoa, your uncle is coming?”

“For real? Does that mean we don’t have to train anymore?”

Hearing Hwang Jae-hoon’s words, the kids gathered around as if it were the best news they’d ever heard.

“When a pro of pros like my uncle sees the training regimen, he’ll point out what’s unnecessary. Even the homeroom teacher won’t be able to do anything against the nation’s top Hunter, right?”

Hwang Jae-hoon smiled arrogantly.