I Possessed a Broken Academy Instructor
Chapter 111 : Should He Kill Jin Crow‘Should he kill Jin Crow?’
That question remained an unsolved dilemma that plagued Baek Hwi-young's mind until he closed the notebook and stepped into the training hall the next day.
The galaxy was vast, and Baek Hwi-young was probably the person who had traversed it more than anyone else.
Wasn't that only natural?
The difference in time alone was overwhelming.
He had gone to the Empire's Imperial Palace to establish a ceasefire, only to be caught in a civil war and stranded in a remote region. He had raged at the miserable conditions on a Colony Planet. He had even been swept into the schemes of political rivals and left drifting through Hyperspace.
‘Most of those outcomes were created by unforeseen variables.’
Baek Hwi-young was a superhuman, but even he could not predict and prepare for every possible future.
It would be the same no matter how many times he regressed.
History was simply too immense for a single individual to reshape alone.
Because he understood that better than anyone, he had built a faction and formed a military warlord family.
He would probably do the same in this timeline.
If possible, he wanted to bring Instructor Jin Crow with him.
That was, if Jin Crow's objective was the same as his.
But was that really the right choice?
‘He's not someone who can be controlled.’
He was not talking merely about strength or martial power.
In fact, that was the least important part.
Just because someone was a Penta Gear–class superhuman did not mean they could not be killed.
He himself could no longer even estimate how many Penta Gear opponents he had killed.
And Jin Crow was among them.
A life he had already taken countless times.
Could he not take it one more time?
The real problem was Jin Crow's utterly unpredictable personality and way of thinking.
Wasn't the current situation proof enough?
‘There wasn't the slightest sign he'd change. Then one day, out of nowhere, he suddenly began watching the Creatures.’
Calling it a whim would be too mild.
It was closer to a natural disaster.
That was the kind of man he was.
One moment, he seemed like an unwavering ally who would support him to the end.
The next, he might lose his mind and recreate the massacre of Earth.
“Hwi-young, what are you thinking about?”
“Ah, Miel.”
His thoughts came to an abrupt halt.
Miel had rushed over the moment she heard about the spar, blinking her distinctive light brown eyes as she called out to him.
A head shorter than him, she looked up with a bright smile before glancing across the training hall at Dokgo Ran, who was busy warming up. Then, standing on tiptoe, she whispered to him with an unusually serious expression.
“Ran's secretly a huge crybaby, so go easy on her.”
“Okay.”
If even kind-hearted Miel was saying that, just how bad could it be?
Suppressing the smile that had unconsciously formed on his lips, Baek Hwi-young lifted the practice spear and walked forward.
Already standing in the center of the training hall, her face flushed with excitement, Dokgo Ran was waiting for him.
“I'll spar with you from time to time, so try to hold back a little.”
“That's a promise?”
Was it just his imagination, or had she ignored the part about holding back and only heard the part where he promised to spar with her more often?
He shook his head.
Then again, if Dokgo Ran could be restrained so easily, she wouldn't be Dokgo Ran.
Perhaps that was why he could never dislike her.
At the very least, she never changed.
“Here I come!”
The instant the signal light announcing the start of the spar lit up, Dokgo Ran kicked off the ground and charged straight at Baek Hwi-young.
KRAAAK!
The dirt laid down for the cadets' safety exploded into the air, while even the concrete beneath it cracked from the tremendous recoil.
‘He won't be able to dodge this!’
Thinking that, Dokgo Ran twisted her waist with her advancing step, using centrifugal force to whip her leg toward Baek Hwi-young's temple.
It was not just an ordinary roundhouse kick.
Pivoting on her planted foot, she spun her body before wrapping her leg in Psionic energy and bringing it crashing down.
Naturally, it was not an attack that could be casually blocked or deflected.
It was proof of just how serious she was about this spar.
Perhaps because he sensed that, Baek Hwi-young's expression instantly turned ice-cold, as if the smile on his lips had never existed.
Gripping the blunted shaft of his practice spear, he threw himself backward without the slightest hesitation as her explosive assault closed in.
BOOOOOOM!
Like a bomb detonating, the ground where Dokgo Ran's foot struck caved in, sending violent tremors through the arena.
Watching from afar, not only Miel but also the late-arriving Hino Kanae, Famille, and Beatus could only force awkward smiles as they observed the spar.
“Ran looks completely serious.”
“Y-Yeah? Famille, shouldn't we stop them?”
“Forget it. Even I can't stop her when she's like this.”
“...I'm just glad it's not me. Haha.”
They had exchanged only a single clash, yet it already reminded them of the incident at the beginning of the semester.
Sure enough.
The staff, sensing that something was very wrong, checked who was sparring before quietly sighing and walking outside.
“It's them again.”
“This is the first time I've actually missed Instructor Crow.”
“Exactly.”
Judging by the voices behind them, the staff sounded like they had years of pent-up resentment.
Fortunately, none of that reached the inside of the training hall.
Meanwhile, the spar between Dokgo Ran and Baek Hwi-young only grew fiercer.
“Aaaah! Die!”
Dokgo Ran had completely lost herself as she relentlessly pressed Baek Hwi-young.
She raised her guard and drove her left fist toward his liver.
When that attack was blocked, she grabbed his spear shaft, twisted it aside, planted her free hand on the ground, and launched a kick straight at his head.
“You're slow, Ran.”
Baek Hwi-young had no intention of letting her win so easily.
He rolled her incoming punch away with his shoulder and deflected the strike aimed at his side with the spear shaft.
Then, as she planted herself and brought her kick crashing down toward his head, he simply released the spear and drove his foot into her solar plexus.
“Gah!”
Her breath was knocked away, and her body flew helplessly through the swirling cloud of dust in a wide arc.
Though countless attacks had been exchanged, from an outside perspective the entire exchange had lasted only seconds.
Naturally, the Ability-types struggled to follow what had happened.
But Beatus and Hino Kanae, both Martial-types, immediately recognized just how high the level of the fight truly was.
“...Hmm. As expected.”
“Ran lost.”
“Amazing, Baek Hwi-young. I already knew after Mercato.”
The other cadets might not realize it.
But they did.
Mercato.
They had witnessed firsthand what kind of feats Baek Hwi-young had accomplished on that brutal and merciless battlefield.
...He was already far beyond the level of a cadet.
Dokgo Ran knew that better than anyone.
That was precisely why she charged at him with everything she had.
‘Honestly, Ran's unusual too. Most people wouldn't accept it so easily.’
Through her long eyelashes, Hino Kanae turned her deep crimson eyes toward Dokgo Ran as she slowly rose from the dust.
Her unsteady movements made it obvious she had taken considerable damage.
“Ptoo. That stings.”
She wiped the dirt from her cheek with the back of her hand and spat the grit from her mouth.
Then she looked at Baek Hwi-young, who had already set down his practice spear and was staring at her expressionlessly.
A bitter smile crossed her face.
‘This is the gap?’
How could she fail to notice what Hino Kanae and Beatus had seen from outside?
Even in their previous spars, she had felt the difference.
Now, it was unmistakably clear.
This was not simply a difference in Gear.
It was a gap earned by crossing the line between life and death countless times.
A difference that could never be imitated or easily acquired.
Grinning with fierce competitiveness, Dokgo Ran looked straight at him and shouted,
“Jin Crow's behind you!”
The instant Baek Hwi-young instinctively turned his head ever so slightly, Dokgo Ran lowered her body and drove her fist into his abdomen.
BOOM!
A sound like a bursting balloon echoed through the arena.
Satisfied that her punch had landed cleanly, Dokgo Ran immediately prepared to follow up—
Only to freeze when Baek Hwi-young spoke in a low voice.
“...Did you really think I'd fall for that, Ran?”
His voice sounded almost pitying.
Ran instantly widened the distance and lashed out at his thigh.
The only thing that came back was Baek Hwi-young's perfectly executed elbow strike.
“Urgh!”
Avoiding her kick, he folded the left arm that had just intercepted her punch to his abdomen and slammed his elbow directly into Dokgo Ran's cheek.
Perhaps because what she thought was her decisive blow had failed, she was unable to block the follow-up elbow.
She was sent flying once more before forcing herself back to her feet.
“Damn it....”
Blood trickled from her nose.
Even so, her eyes only burned brighter as she prepared to charge again.
At that moment, however, Famille—who had been sitting beyond the training hall, calmly working on an assignment on her device—spoke without even looking away from the screen.
“Dokgo Ran. Ring out. Defeat.”
“Huh?”
The muscles that had been tensed to charge Baek Hwi-young instantly relaxed.
Only then did Dokgo Ran lower her head.
Seeing that one of her feet had undeniably landed outside the boundary line, she cried out in despair.
“W-Wait! I can still keep going!”
“Ran, you're hopeless.”
“Sit down, Ran. I'll shoot you.”
“Ah, ow!”
“If you move now, your bones will heal wrong, Ran.”
Hino Kanae and Beatus, who had already been waiting, immediately sat her down, and Miel hurried over to begin treating her.
As Miel had said, if she moved while treatment was underway, a rib could heal incorrectly and pierce her heart.
There was nothing Dokgo Ran could do.
“I-I can really keep going.”
“He said he'll spar with you again next time, Ran. Mm.”
“Mmm....”
Dokgo Ran was especially weak when it came to Miel.
So when Miel personally took out a tissue and wiped the blood from her nose, she had no choice but to give up her stubbornness.
Watching them, Baek Hwi-young lightly stretched his slightly stiff body and walked out of the training hall.
“I'll spar with you again next time. That's enough for today.”
“You promised. Tch....”
Warmth once again filled the gray eyes beneath his slightly unkempt ash-colored hair.
More than that,
a faint smile rested on his lips.
‘...Baek Hwi-young has changed, just a little.’
Ever since the incident at the Mercato Safe House, Famille had been quietly observing him.
Every now and then, an indescribable sense of incongruity made her knit her brows.
‘Why does he look at us with eyes like that?’
The other cadets might not have noticed.
But she certainly had.
She had seen the true Baek Hwi-young reflected through his Psionic energy.
‘A monster, reduced to rags, covered in countless wounds and shackles, swimming through a sea of corpses only to drown within it.’
She had been terrified at first.
Yet after witnessing that, Baek Hwi-young's personality had subtly changed.
Before, aside from Miel, he had been quiet, withdrawn, and largely indifferent to the other cadets.
Now, he occasionally smiled not only at their group but at other people as well.
Simply saying they'd become closer...
The sense of dissonance she felt was far too great for that explanation.
Even so, it was difficult to ask him directly.
So she turned her gaze back to her device.
Rather than dwell on something she could not understand, finishing the theory assignment due tomorrow was far more urgent.
‘There are way too many assignments.’
Even if she could not graduate first in the class, she had to at least secure second place.
That was the minimum line she had set for herself.
With that thought, she placed her hands back on the keyboard.
Or rather, she was about to.
“What's so impressive about that? They're making such a fucking fuss.”
“Leave it. That's what you'd expect from an orphan. The greatest achievement of his life was blowing up a single Training Dummy.”
If not for the mocking voices that drifted into her ears.
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