Episode 84: Exchange Battle (7)
Time continued to pass, and the exchange match was now just around the corner.
And today was the day before it.
The class we were currently attending was Introduction to Authority Studies.
It was a mandatory course that every first-year student at Gaon had to take—no exceptions.
The professor in charge was a former personal trainer of the leader of the number one guild, now retired from active duty.
He had extensive real-world experience, but he was the kind of person who always emphasized growth and direction over raw combat.
With an expressionless face, he neatly wrote three words on the board.
Will, Experience, Choice.
Then, he set the chalk down and continued speaking in a calm voice.
“…And so, the growth of a hero and the expansion of authority isn’t achieved simply through time or repeated battles.”
He slowly circled each word he had written.
“All those outcomes ultimately depend on which path you choose for yourself—not what someone else told you to do, but the path you chose.
Depending on the direction of your discipline and will, your expanded authority will respond to you in completely different forms.”
A brief silence fell over the lecture hall.
Some students nodded slowly, while others stopped writing and quietly reflected on his words.
I was no different.
As someone who had to guide the growth of key individuals, it was an excellent message.
And for me—someone who needed to unlock the second stage of the Fragment of Harmony—it was a lesson I had to take to heart.
Even if it’s something you already know, hearing it like this makes it hit differently.
It really was a great lecture.
‘This feels strange.’
A scene where someone—especially someone with authority—professionally explains the settings and concepts that I created and planned.
It was quite a fascinating thing to witness.
“This concludes the lecture.”
With the professor’s final words, the stillness was broken.
In that moment, students all over the room stood up at once.
But speaking of authority, authority…
‘I wonder how things are now.’
I suddenly became curious about the systems of the people around me.
Until now, I had only known what I could gather, guessing based on what I observed.
Except for Yoon Chae-ha.
I’d recently confirmed hers directly.
Thinking back on it now, that was quite an unusual event.
I had lost my cool and asked her outright, which I wouldn’t normally have done.
I was grateful that she had agreed so willingly.
Sharing your system with someone else holds a lot of meaning.
If it falls into the wrong hands, it can become a vulnerability and pose serious risks.
It had even been discussed on TV broadcasts.
Even top-ranked hero couples reportedly avoid sharing their systems with each other as much as possible.
Even if you love and trust someone deeply, your system is the one exception.
To put it another way, it’s like showing someone your naked body as a hero.
That’s how sensitive and delicate the issue is.
So after that day, I made sure to take some time and apologize to Yoon Chae-ha in private.
When she heard my apology, she looked at me for a moment, then turned her head and said:
—“It’s fine…”
I was lucky she had such a cool personality.
I organized my thoughts and turned my head to the left.
“Yaaawn…”
Cheon Yeoul stretched with a big yawn, like she had just woken up.
She rolled her shoulders and stretched, then smiled faintly when our eyes met.
“Good morning.”
“Don’t ‘good morning’ me.”
I promptly flicked her forehead in punishment.
Smack!
“Ow!”
Cheon Yeoul winced and rubbed her forehead.
“If you won’t even pay attention to this, what will you pay attention to?”
Look at Kang Arin and Yu Hana up front.
They didn’t miss a single word from the professor during the entire lecture.
Model students always show their discipline in class first.
She just grinned and kept rubbing her forehead.
Then I turned my head to the right.
“……”
Yoon Chae-ha.
She was still lying face-down on her desk, not moving a muscle.
I definitely told both of them to pay attention to this instructor’s lecture.
“…”
Eyes closed, breathing steady.
Was she unaware that the class had ended, or did she simply want to keep sleeping?
“What a troublemaker.”
Chun Yeoul muttered coldly beside me. Though, she’s not really one to talk.
“Sigh.”
Well, in her case…
She’s already gone through all the basic expansions, so I guess it’s understandable.
Still, it’s annoying nonetheless.
I picked up the iced coffee in front of me.
The condensation on the cup made my fingertips cold.
And slowly—
Slide.
With that cold hand, I gently grabbed the back of Yoon Chae-ha’s neck.
“Eek!”
She sprang up from her seat as if she’d been shocked.
As she looked at me, startled, I calmly took a sip of my coffee.
“Awake now?”
“... Ugh.”
Still groggy, Yoon Chae-ha frowned slightly and rubbed the back of her neck.
Her messy hair revealed a face filled with confusion and a hint of irritation.
That was when—
“Let’s go, Haein!”
A cheerful voice called out from a distance.
Yu Hana approached, smiling brightly and waving her hand.
Since the exchange competition is tomorrow, today they’re revealing the group mission.
Yoon Chae-ha and I got up and followed our team leader, Yu Hana, to the auditorium.
The path to the auditorium was more crowded than usual.
Unlike the blue emblem of Gaon, we saw bright red and golden uniforms—a distinct contrast.
They were students from Kalos, who had arrived yesterday.
Though we’d be clashing tomorrow, for now, it was just an awkward period of observation.
“There’s a ton of people.”
“It’s noisy.”
Yu Hana muttered quietly while turning her head, and Yoon Chae-ha grumbled.
In the meantime, the entrance to the auditorium came into view.
As we stepped inside, the projector on the ceiling flickered to life with grand lighting.
We took our seats and waited for instructions. The opposite side of the auditorium, usually empty, was packed with Kalos students.
A professor holding a microphone gave a brief greeting and a few warnings, then got straight to the point. Everyone’s eyes turned to the large screen behind the podium.
“We will now reveal the group mission for tomorrow’s exchange match.”
The screen changed, revealing a bold title:
[Exchange Match Group Mission: Guardians of the Ancient Ruins]
A crumbling ruin soaked in a blue mist appeared on screen like a backdrop.
Below that, the key details of the mission began to display in simple terms.
The rules were straightforward: each team would be assigned a base.
There would be ten consecutive waves.
All teams would face the same enemies simultaneously.
The team that completely clears each wave the fastest will earn points based on their ranking.
It was modeled after the monster crisis I had stopped a year ago.
The key was how steadily and swiftly each team could endure and eliminate the waves across all ten rounds.
I felt someone’s gaze from beside me, and when I turned my head, Yoon Sang-hyuk was staring at me with a greasy smile.
“I’m counting on you.”
“Ugh, gross.”
I responded with a dry laugh.
Honestly, it wasn’t a particularly difficult task.
After all, the main event was the individual matches.
The professor tapped the mic once, then looked back at the screen.
“Next, we will reveal the matchups for the individual exchange matches.”
The screen darkened again, and a bracket-style tournament chart appeared.
Names started appearing one by one, drawing everyone’s attention.
Yoon Chae-ha.
Her name appeared.
‘Should be easy.’
The first round was easy—losing would be harder than winning.
Even looking ahead to rounds two and three, there were no threatening names.
But on the other side of the bracket…
It was the same for Joo Seo-jun.
Unless something unexpected happened, Yoon Chae-ha and Joo Seo-jun were bound to face off in the finals.
I turned to look at Yoon Chae-ha, who was sitting next to me.
“Someone asked me to pass this on.”
“What?”
“They said you’ve changed a lot since the old days. Just… wanted you to know.”
“Is that so?”
Yoon Chae-ha stared blankly into space for a moment, then turned her head toward me.
And then, she gave a faint smile.
“That goes for me too.”
Her voice was calm, but it carried confidence.
With the individual match brackets confirmed, we got up from our seats.
Team Yu Hana—eight members in total—gathered one by one at the front of the auditorium.
“Anyway, let’s really do our best tomorrow.”
Kim Da-hyun, who was usually composed, surprisingly spoke with an excited face.
Everyone nodded in agreement in their own way.
Then suddenly—
-Dding! Dding-dding-dding!!
A loud, frantic alert blared from Yu Hana’s watch.
“What the…?”
As she frowned and looked at her watch screen,
Her eyes widened and her lips trembled.
“Wait, I have to go first! Haein! See you tomorrow!”
She dashed off without another word, without even looking back.
What’s going on?
I wondered to myself.
What could’ve made her react like that so suddenly?
“What the…?”
As someone muttered under their breath, another person checked their watch and shouted urgently:
“Guys, look at this!”
Everyone crowded around, all eyes landing on the small screen of the watch.
There, a freshly updated news alert had popped up:
[Breaking News] [‘Blue Cloud Sword Emperor’ Yoo Mujin ends seclusion training… Announces return to the front lines after 5 years.]
For a moment, silence fell around us.
Ah… so that’s what it was.
Yu Hana’s father.
The head of the Yu household.
Yu Mujin was back.
Only then did I fully understand why Yu Hana had run off like that.
His return after five long years.
And to her, he was the one and only family she had.
***
The head residence of the Yu family, a place no one had been allowed to enter,
Today welcomed many people with bright faces for the first time in a long while.
Yu Mujin, the head of the Yu family.
Today marked the end of his long and intense seclusion training.
“The Yu family will rise again…”
“Cheongpungdae (Azure Wind Pavilion) will become the best once more.”
A flood of visitors.
Amidst the joyful crowd and the disciples of Cheongpungdae,
Yu Hana walked forward quietly, yet proudly.
“Congratulations, young miss!”
Yu Hana responded to the stream of greetings with a smile.
Nodding and waving her hand, she quietly asked:
“Where is the head of the household?”
One of the attendants pointed to the largest tile-roofed house.
Yu Hana nodded silently once more and walked toward the entrance.
-Clack.
She carefully opened the grand door.
A clear and serene energy filled the room.
A man sat in meditation with his back turned—yet even from behind, his presence was overwhelming.
“You’ve come.”
At Yu Mujin’s deep, low voice, Yu Hana took in a sharp breath.
Something stirred in her chest.
But she held it back tightly.
“It’s been five years, my daughter.”
No.
To her, it hadn’t been just five years.
Yu Hana slowly knelt down and bowed deeply,
Barely keeping her trembling voice in check as she spoke:
“Daughter of the Yu household, greets the head of the family. It’s been… far too long, sir.”
“…You’ve grown so much. My daughter.”
Yu Mujin slowly turned around, his gaze landing on her with a complex expression.
Pride. Bitterness. Guilt.
All those emotions quietly surfaced on his face.
In his hand were photos from Yu Hana’s school life and several newspaper clippings collected during his seclusion training.
It was already well known—
He was a hopeless daughter-lover.
To have left such a beloved daughter alone and locked himself away must have been like swallowing blood—a painful, soul-wrenching decision.
His eyes slowly scanned over Yu Hana.
The energy she radiated wasn’t just the swordsmanship of the Yu family.
There was something different—an unfamiliar aura that blended in harmony with their style, forming a unique essence of her own.
And the red-sheathed sword at her side—
Its presence was unmistakably extraordinary.
She had already stepped out of the Yu family’s shadow, forging a path of her own.
Yu Mujin narrowed his eyes.
He was curious.
How she had grown this strong.
Who she had walked this journey with.
But as a father—
That wasn’t what he wanted to know the most right now.
“…Daughter.”
With a trembling hand, he lifted one of the photos he held.
“Just who is this guy, exactly?”
His shaking finger pointed to a handsome young man standing next to Yu Hana in the picture.
Judging by the photo, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he had been with her for half—or maybe most—of her school life.
That man had become an inseparable part of her world.
Following her father’s gesture, Yu Hana lifted her gaze slightly.
Looking at the photo, a soft smile bloomed on her lips.
But it only lasted a moment.
She soon bowed her head deeply again.
In the suffocating silence, she spoke the name.
“Jung Haein.”
A breathless exhale—
Followed by a voice filled with unwavering conviction.
“He is the man I will serve and cherish as my husband for the rest of my life.”
The moment those words left her mouth—
Yu Mujin stopped breathing.
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Link: https://ko-fi.com/astrascans
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