Rules time.
The homeroom teacher still hadn’t arrived in the classroom.
The students were either dozing off with their heads on their desks or chatting idly with friends.
“What did you do last night that has you sleeping now?”
The teacher walked into the classroom, waking up the drowsy students.
And a girl walked in behind him.
“Not a transfer student… but an exchange student from Japan. She’s taking the spot of Park Sang-jin who’s gone to Japan in her place.”
I pricked up my ears at the familiar name.
Park Sang-jin was the one who used to threaten me to join Yang Min-seo’s gang in the past.
‘There was talk of reporting me, so I asked Yang Min-seo to take care of it…’
After Yang Min-seo handled it, the subcontracting business of Park Sang-jin’s father, which was with K Electronics, was terminated, and it went bankrupt completely.
Moreover, Park Sang-jin, who usually strutted around with his money, had considerable karma coming to him.
In the Awakened society, there’s an unspoken rule of survival of the fittest. So, someone like Park Sang-jin, who had mediocre power yet acted arrogantly, was bound to be disliked.
The teachers turn a blind eye to my infractions because I’m strong.
Anyway, once word spread that his family had fallen and that he was disliked by Yang Min-seo, he started being ostracized.
Though I lost interest in him afterward, I occasionally caught sight of him.
The last time I saw Park Sang-jin, it was rather pitiful.
“Hey, you son of a bitch!”
Walking down the corridor, Park Sang-jin was thrown forward by a dropkick from behind.
When Park Sang-jin painfully stood up and turned around, the group that liked to cause trouble in the academy was gathered there, laughing mockingly at him.
“Ugh.”
Park Sang-jin gritted his teeth, but he had no allies.
He had annoyed the teachers by meddling in everyone’s business, and once I won the tournament, he was outright labeled a problem child.
Sensing that his academy life was over, Park Sang-jin must have applied to be an exchange student in Japan.
“Hello! My name is Ashikaga Hitomi from Japan! Nice to meet you all, and please take care of me!”
Black and white dyed hair forming a striking combination.
An hourglass figure with striking red eyes, this beautiful girl introduced herself before us.
Her smile was inviting, and her tone lively, making a likable impression at first glance.
“A female transfer student, huh?”
“Trading places with Park Sang-jin, what a good deal.”
“Damn, she must’ve begged a lot. Haha.”
The boys whispered among themselves.
They were the ones tormenting Park Sang-jin.
They acted as if having Ashikaga in the school was their personal achievement.
“Something feels off.”
“Why is her makeup so heavy…”
On the other hand, the girls reacted negatively.
Ashikaga’s face was covered with heavy makeup, and she had piercings in her ears, giving her a slightly delinquent vibe.
“Let’s see.. Ashikaga-san, the vacant seat next to Shinnoda will be perfect. Shinnoda, please take care of her.”
The homeroom teacher, despite being quite authoritarian, has recently been kinder toward me.
Instead of calling students things like ‘Hey, you!’ or ‘You there!’ like with everyone else, he politely refers to me as ‘Shinnoda student,’ using honorific language.
Apparently, my attitude towards him changed after winning the tournament.
Our academy has free seating like a university, yet for some reason, the seat next to mine has always remained empty.
“Next to Noda? What?”
“Oh, she’s fucked. As a girl, it’s like game over.”
“Noda is known for being a tough guy since middle school. She’ll get a rude awakening in Korea.”
“Is the teacher crazy? Noda is known for wiping out half the class if someone sits next to him.”
The classmates murmured quietly, spreading rumors about me.
A strange mix of rumors about Shinnoda’s infamous past and my current reputation.
Wild accusations like battling one-hundred gang members alone in middle school or supposedly burying people alive whom I didn’t like.
‘Thinking about it, some of those are actually things Dark Knight would do, huh? Hmm….’
Anyway, because of these rumors, the classmates began avoiding and fearing me.
Even the delinquent groups bowed their heads and tiptoed around me.
Ashikaga, seemingly unfamiliar with the language, didn’t seem to pick up on what they were whispering about her.
She sat modestly next to me.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Shin.”
“Alright.”
Though her tone was gentle, the heavy eye makeup made her gaze sharp. She stared at me intently, and I felt uncomfortable, turning my head away first.
.
.
.
Time passed quickly, and soon it was fourth period.
Ding-ding-ding.
The sound signaling the end of class rang out.
During lunch break, the kids lingered nearby, watching me carefully.
‘They must want to talk to Ashikaga.’
It’s a rule in schools: the new student attracts attention.
I moved away from my seat.
Because of me, no one would dare approach her anyway.
‘Why is my image so harsh?’
As if on cue, the kids swarmed around Ashikaga, bombarding her with questions like ‘What are your hobbies?’, ‘What rank are you?’, ‘How do you like the Japanese Academy?’
I had to leave since I had something to do anyway.
‘I should check on Yongcheonhwa.’
It’s true that Yongcheonhwa is suspicious as the next host now that Shaks has escaped.
“Hehe. My Korean is not good, so I can’t understand everything! But Mr. Shin, would you mind showing me around the school?”
“What?”
Just as I was about to leave, a cheerful voice reached my ears.
Caught off guard by Ashikaga’s sudden request, I reflexively asked in return.
This was her best chance to make friends.
‘But she’s turning it down?’
Ashikaga Hitomi was smiling brightly.
“Hi-iik.”
“Oh-oh!”
When I approached, the wall of people surrounding her split apart like the Red Sea before Moses.
One of the boys who looked weak tripped awkwardly and fell on his butt.
“I just arrived, so I need to make friends with the kids.”
“Can’t I befriend Mr. Shin? I would like to get along with Mr. Shin first.”
“Hmm. That’s reasonable.”
I could sense a power similar to that of the National Intelligence Service agents I recently met from Ashikaga Hitomi.
She’s at least of B-rank.
For a first-year high school student to be of B-rank means she’s a prodigy of the nation.
‘I’ve never seen her kind before.’
In the original story, none of our students went to Japan nor did any from Japan come to ours.
I didn’t even have any prior knowledge of ‘Ashikaga Hitomi’.
And as far as the Japan arc went, it was all about dismantling the Gospel of Salvation.
“Alright. Let’s go. I’ll show you around.”
I left the classroom with her.
A first-year being at B-rank makes a conversation worthwhile no matter what.
*
Ashikaga Hitomi 足利仁美.
A direct descendant of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the Shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate, she comes from a prestigious noble family that is now a conglomerate tycoon in modern times.
The reason she came to Korea is simple.
If she didn’t come, she would have been expelled.
<Mr. Yamana, “I have the original recording file of Ashikaga Hitomi's murder.”>
<Ashikaga's brutal assault on a member of the Gospel of Salvation, while police remain silent!>
<Can the daughter of a tycoon get away with murder?>
The Japanese press relentlessly attacked Ashikaga, and by now, even her father couldn’t do anything about it.
Though Hitomi had never killed anyone, and the recording was false, the public believed it after the media spread the story.
Japan had already been infiltrated by the parasite known as the Gospel of Salvation to its core, with evil overshadowing good for a long time.
This country was silently dying.
“I’m going to Korea. I heard there’s one spot for an exchange student. If I’m out of sight for a while, the issue should die down.”
Hitomi knelt modestly before her father and declared her self-sacrifice.
“Thank you. I will not forget this. You’re the only one who thinks of the family.”
“If you’re thankful, how about canceling the engagement?”
His face hardened.
Hitomi had been arranged to marry the son of another conglomerate long ago.
“That’s why you did this, huh.”
Her father sighed.
Hitomi was, in the end, no different.
“Am I not valuable? I’m an Awakened One. The other party is only a third-generation tycoon.”
Her words were not without merit.
A prestigious noble bloodline, a conglomerate, and an Awakened One.
A bride with all these titles is rare, and her value was immense.
“The engagement was decided before you Awakened. It’s regrettable now, but it cannot be undone.”
“Is the family’s face more important than me?”
It wasn’t as if he didn’t find it regrettable, but the family she was engaged to was the top conglomerate in Japan, no small feat.
Breaking the engagement now on the grounds that she has Awakened would not only harm the Ashikaga family’s prestige but would also greatly harm the other family’s honor.
“You were born into our family, so you only eat expensive food and wear expensive clothes. Why do you take without giving back?”
This was the repertoire her father always used when the topic of breaking the engagement came up, and Hitomi shook her head from side to side in response.
“…I will go to Korea.”
“Good.”
She left the room with a gloomy expression, muttering to her father.
“If, if … I bring back someone capable enough to restore our family to its former glory, would you cancel the engagement?”
“If he’s someone capable enough to wield influence over this country, I would have to recognize him even if I want to.”
Ashikaga Hitomi made a resolution.
To find that husband in Korea.
