I Became The Only Healer In The Academy [EN]: Chapter 53

53

Before Seonghyun stepped out, a scream echoed from behind.

It sounded like thick teeth tearing into flesh, the unbearable pain channeled into a scream.

“…A fitting end.”

Seonghyun waited at the door until the scream died down before exiting.

He didn’t know what Choi Hoon would do in the future, but now that he had faith, he would at least keep the promises he made to Seonghyun.

Originally, Seonghyun had planned to keep using this one-person-only gate, but he decided against it.

In Seonghyun’s memory, Choi Hoon was the one who cleared this gate, and Seonghyun didn’t want to take away that opportunity from him.

Now that Choi Hoon had faith, his strength was no different from Seonghyun’s.

“…He’ll probably do well on his own.”

As a hunter who would later be known as one of the representatives of South Korea, Seonghyun didn’t need to worry.

As he was about to head home, he received a call from a very unexpected number.

“Hello.”

“Oh, Seonghyun, my student!”

Slightly surprised that he didn’t recognize his voice, the person on the other end cleared their throat before continuing.

“It’s a little…disappointing if you don’t recognize your homeroom teacher’s voice…”

“Ah…yes…what is this about…”

“Ahem, I was wondering if you could come to the academy with Inhwan and Sangyeon tomorrow.”

There was a hint of pride in the teacher’s voice.

‘Why is the teacher…?’

It sounded like he was preparing something.

“Okay. Should we come at the usual time?”

“Yes. Just don’t be too late.”

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay, okay. Take care…”

Seonghyun hung up without listening to the rest.

Every time he acted so friendly, it reminded him of the past, making him more reluctant to deal with him.

“I’ll find out what it is tomorrow.”

Seonghyun left messages for Inhwan and Sangyeon and went home.

“But what’s with the teacher all of a sudden?”

“He didn’t say what it was.”

“It’s obvious. He’s definitely not the type to do anything proactively.”

Inhwan and Sangyeon, who he met before going to school, were yawning and looked annoyed.

“Still, the Inter-Academy Competition is coming up, so if he called us, there must be something.”

“Yeah, even if the teacher is clueless, he can’t be that clueless, right?”

Sangyeon shook his head vigorously at Inhwan’s words.

“He’s definitely the type to be that clueless.”

As they talked, they arrived in front of the classroom.

As he was about to enter, he heard the teacher’s voice from behind.

Turning around, he saw the teacher waving with a bright smile.

“Oh! Come to the faculty room right away.”

When they arrived at the faculty room, all the other professors were gone because it was almost time for class to start.

“It’s so hard to see your faces.”

“What’s going on?”

At Sangyeon’s curt reply, the teacher cleared his throat and took an envelope from his desk.

“Here, take one each.”

Opening the envelope from the teacher, they found a small letter and an airline ticket.

“…?”

The three of them looked at each other, clueless.

“Before you check the ticket, check that first.”

As the teacher said, they first checked the letter that came with the ticket, and the first thing they saw was the academy’s official seal.

[To the academy’s proud…]

They quickly skipped the useless words and checked the most important content.

[…For this reason, the academy is giving you a special gift before the final Inter-Academy Competition this year.]

“A gift?”

Inhwan and Sangyeon had also checked everything, and they were expressing their confusion at the word ‘gift’.

“Now, check the ticket. As it says in the notice, this year we are giving you a special gift before the final Inter-Academy Competition.”

It was time to check the remaining airline ticket.

It was a round-trip ticket for a 3-night, 4-day trip.

“Jap…an?”

“No, why this…”

“Are you kidding me?”

The teacher looked a little embarrassed at the unexpected reactions.

“It’s good to train, but sometimes it’s good to take a break like this.”

In fact, it wasn’t such a bad idea.

Until now, their only rest was when they didn’t have any special schedules.

The days when they didn’t go out to clear gates were their days off.

“Have…have you guys ever been to Japan?”

Inhwan, who had initially shown a confused reaction, seemed a little excited by the scenery of Japan unfolding in his head and asked Seonghyun and Sangyeon.

“No? I haven’t.”

“Same here.”

“Then maybe we should go…”

“Well…that might be okay.”

“A new experience wouldn’t be bad.”

As the conclusion was roughly reached, the teacher let out a sigh of relief and said.

“The departure is in two weeks. Just prepare by then and you can go.”

But there was something strange.

In Seonghyun’s memory, the academy had never done anything like this before.

“I don’t mind the gift before the Inter-Academy Competition, but why Japan all of a sudden? This has never happened before.”

At Seonghyun’s question, the teacher stretched his neck and looked out the window for a moment before whispering.

“I don’t know why, but the academy in Japan asked if we would like to have this kind of event first.”

“Directly from Japan?”

When the name of another country came up, Inhwan and Sangyeon’s eyes turned to Seonghyun.

Anyone could see the intention, but only the teacher seemed to be unaware.

“Our prestige ranking is higher, couldn’t we have refused?”

“Well, there’s no reason to refuse… If you harm a student from another country’s academy, it’s the same as declaring war on all countries. You know that, right?”

There was an international treaty that prohibited harming the family or the student themselves.

“Don’t ask me for more details. I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes.”

“Then can we go now?”

The teacher spoke in a slightly subdued voice, as if he had something left to say.

“Before that, can I talk to Seonghyun for a moment…”

“Sigh…Professor. We need to prepare for the Inter-Academy Competition.”

The teacher flinched a little at Sangyeon’s annoyed voice, but he still seemed to have something to say to Seonghyun.

“Just for a moment. Will you go to the association first and wait?”

“No. I’ll wait.”

Sangyeon stared at the teacher with sharp eyes.

As if telling him to be aware of his presence.

The teacher smiled awkwardly and replied.

“I’ll, I’ll finish quickly.”

Soon, Inhwan and Sangyeon left, and the teacher asked cautiously.

“Do you perhaps remember what I asked you before? Haha.”

The reason why the teacher asked to see Seonghyun separately was simple.

It was because of the request he had made before to heal his acquaintance.

“Ah, you mean your friend?”

“Y-yes! You remember?”

It had been a while since then.

‘I didn’t answer back then.’

It wasn’t a big deal, so he had completely forgotten about it.

“I was wondering if you had made a decision now.”

“I refuse.”

“Thank…what?”

“I said I refuse.”

Seonghyun didn’t hide his displeasure and stormed out of the room.

“What did the teacher say?”

“The same thing as before.”

“You came out quickly, so you rejected him outright?”

“Of course.”

Satisfied with Seonghyun’s answer, Inhwan and Sangyeon smiled contentedly and got up.

“Are we going to the association?”

“We should.”

“Ah! If it’s okay, would you like to come to my house today?”

“Your house?”

“We’ve been doing well so far, but we haven’t really talked properly…”

“Well, maybe it’ll be okay.”

Seonghyun smiled lightly at Sangyeon’s unexpected answer.

“But from this early in the morning?”

“It doesn’t matter. No one’s home.”

“Should we take a taxi? Are you thinking of walking?”

“Ah, taxis can’t go in.”

“Huh…?”

Seonghyun and Sangyeon thought for a while about what Inhwan meant.

But they couldn’t think of any other meaning than what they heard.

“You’ll see when we get there.”

Fortunately, Inhwan’s house wasn’t too far away.

That in itself was a bit of a shock.

Seonghyun was living in a place supported by the academy, so he was close to the academy, but the house prices in the city center, where the gate outbreaks rarely occurred, were beyond imagination.

Having a house in the middle of such a city center was not just a matter of wealth.

“Here we are.”

“Here…?”

Seonghyun and Sangyeon were already deep in thought just because he had a house in the city center, but when they saw the building that Inhwan said they had arrived at, all those thoughts flew away.

“This is…a house?”

It was more appropriate to call it a building than a house.

“Only the 2nd floor on the roof is the house, and the rest is for business. I told them to leave it empty for a while, so there’s no one at home.”

Seonghyun and Sangyeon, who had been staring blankly at the building, came to their senses and tried to enter the building, but Inhwan blocked them and said.

“We have to go to another entrance.”

Looking at where Inhwan was pointing, they saw a huge iron gate in the back.

“Follow me.”

Inhwan was no different from usual, but for some reason, it felt like a lot had changed.

As if he suddenly had a lot of 余裕 [yoyuu – composure,余裕].

“…He’s like a different person.”

Sangyeon also looked at Inhwan with unfamiliar eyes, and Inhwan sighed softly as if he was used to such gazes.

“You guys shouldn’t be like that either. We’re at least a team, right? A team beyond a typical team.”

“…That’s right.”

Then, the huge iron gate opened, and an elevator appeared that was too big to be used alone—no, big enough for a car to enter.

“1, 18th floor…”

The elevator went up quickly, and the door opened with a quiet sound that didn’t match the huge door, along with a ding.

“Wow…”

“…Amazing.”

The scenery of the house they arrived at was spectacular in itself.

One wall was entirely made of glass, and the interior was neatly laid out in a duplex style.

A huge sofa and TV were located in the center, and the floor was covered with clean marble, as well as a carpet with a classic feel.

“What would you like to drink?”

“Uh…”

Sangyeon, who doesn’t get flustered easily, also looked around with wide eyes and answered absentmindedly.

“Everything to eat is there. Take out what you want to eat, and let’s have a party tonight.”

“Pa, party?”

“What are you expecting? Just grilling some meat.”

Sangyeon sat on the sofa with a slightly disappointed expression at Inhwan’s answer.

“Wow, it’s so soft.”

“There are a lot of game consoles there, so take out what looks good. Let’s play together.”

At Inhwan’s words, Sangyeon headed to the bookshelf next to the TV.

“T-this is!”

“Why?”

Surprised by Sangyeon’s urgent voice, Seonghyun also got up and approached.

“A, Animass 2nd generation, made with only 10 limited editions in the world…!”

Holding a rather old-looking game console, Sangyeon’s expression and voice were as if he had discovered a treasure, and even his hands were shaking.

“…What?”

“Um? Oh, when did you…ahem, I, I just know a little.”

“If you know that much about something so old, it doesn’t seem like just a little…”

“T-this much is common sense.”

Sangyeon passed Seonghyun with the game console and sat on the sofa.

“C-come quickly! Let’s start.”

Seonghyun had a lot of questions, but he felt like he would run out of the house if he asked any more, so he sat quietly next to Sangyeon.