Hong Yeon-hwa had been enduring some very difficult days recently.
Whoosh!
Hong Yeon-hwa quickly took a step back and poured fire magic in front of her. Her field of vision was filled with flames along with the intense heat.
But Dang Gyu-young burst forth out of the fiercely burning flames and started throwing punches with vigor.
Hong Yeon-hwa barely managed to defend against the incoming fists.
However, her defenses started to falter as she grew increasingly weary.
Thud!
A large shadow foot kicked her squarely and sent her flying in the air.
“Gah.”
Hong Yeon-hwa rolled on the ground as the air was knocked out of her.
The force of the kick was so strong that she rolled a considerable distance.
After rolling around for a while, she flopped down and didn’t move as if she were dead.
Dang Gyu-young looked down at her with an expressionless face and coldly uttered two words,
“Get up.”
“……..”
Being knocked down and rolling around was not a new experience for Hong Yeon-hwa, especially in her one-on-one sessions with Dang Gyu-young. Each time, she would usually rise promptly at her command.
She had learned through harsh experience that hesitating only made things harder.
But Hong Yeon-hwa’s continued stillness signified that she no longer had the strength even to twitch a finger.
Dang Gyu-young was aware of this and decided it was time to conclude the day’s sparring.
“Let’s call it a day. Go rest.”
“……”
Hong Yeon-hwa remained glued to the ground long after Dang Gyu-young had left the arena, like a piece of chewing gum stuck fast.
Soon, a pitiful whimper escaped her,
“Aaahhh…”
It was the third day of the mentoring program.
And today as usual, she had a one-on-one close combat sparring session with Dang Gyu-young.
Dang Gyu-young used her shadow magic and replicated a variety of attacks that a melee class could execute.
As proven on the very first day of mentoring, Hong Yeon-hwa had no chance of besting Dang Gyu-young in a one-on-one fight.
The restriction to melee combat only made the odds more insurmountable.
In the end, she could do nothing but take a beating.
Still, it seemed like it was worth the beating as her skills improved so rapidly and steadily.
In an effort to reduce the number of hits, she twisted and turned her body which actually helped hone her close-combat skills without her realizing it.
For instance, if she took 100 hits on the first day, she managed to reduce it to 99 on the second, then 98 and 97 on the following days…
However, a serious concern was whether her mental strength could endure.
Surely, her skills would rapidly improve by the next day, but that still meant enduring 96 hits, didn’t it?
Moreover, a day or two might have been bearable, but the mentoring was scheduled for 4 weeks, wasn’t it?
It’s only Wednesday…?
Three more weeks and four days of mentoring still to go…?
The more Hong Yeon-hwa pondered, the darker her complexion became.
Another source of despair was the realization that despite her rapid growth, she hadn’t even come close to touching the stickers.
Dodging was challenging enough; how was she supposed to peel off a sticker in the midst of it all?
It seemed she needed to improve her skills considerably more before even contemplating a duel battle as it was highly likely she would end up with a 50-point deduction with her current skills.
While the scores of other members remained unknown, for Hong Yeon-hwa—who had already lost many points in duel battles mainly to Kim Ho—losing another 50 points was devastating.
“Phew…”
Hong Yeon-hwa who was doubly disheartened lay face down and let out a long sigh.
Let’s go inside and rest…
She picked herself up with great effort and started trudging toward the Ruby Magic Tower club room.
Perhaps a piece of cake left in the club room might slightly ease the stress?
Her steps that were dragging before felt a tad lighter at the thought.
***
However…
It seemed fate had no intention of letting Hong Yeon-hwa rest peacefully.
Upon entering the club room, she instinctively looked for her sister as she always did.
“Unnie, you didn’t touch the cake I bought yesterd… Oh.”
You didn’t touch the cake I bought yesterday, right? Is what she meant to say but her words were cut short by an involuntary gasp.
“……..”
An utterly unexpected person was there.
Kim Ho who was sitting gracefully tilted his teacup.
When he heard Hong Yeon-hwa’s voice, he slowly shifted his gaze toward her.
And when his cold gaze turned towards her, she instinctively shrank back.
Opposite to him was Hong Yeon-hwa’s sister, Hong Ye-hwa, who was also the president of the Ruby Magic Tower club.
And Hong Yeon-hwa’s cake was placed between the two.
She seemed to have arrived just before the cake was about to be forked.
Normally, it would have been a situation where she would have been furious, but Hong Yeon-hwa found herself too taken aback to even get angry.
“No, what, how, just, what is this.”
She was so bewildered that her words came out in disjointed fragments.
In contrast, Hong Ye-hwa seemed to have been expecting her and welcomed Hong Yeon-hwa with a calm demeanor.
“You’ve arrived just in time. We were actually talking about you.”
“Unnie, unnie, just come out for a second.”
“Why?”
“Just, quickly, please.”
Without waiting for a response, Hong Yeon-hwa impulsively grabbed her sister’s wrist and pulled her out of the room and away from Kim Ho’s attention.
“What is it?”
“What’s what?”
“That!”
“What ‘that’?”
“That person!”
Hong Yeon-hwa was frantically pointing in the direction where Kim Ho was seated.
Her urgency resembled that of someone who had unleashed a fearsome beast in the room yet Hong Ye-hwa’s reaction was lukewarm at best.
In fact, she seemed to hold Kim Ho in quite the high regard.
“He seems quite decent. Respectful to his seniors, and well-mannered too.”
“Wha, what?”
Hong Yeon-hwa doubted her own ears.
Decent…?
Well-mannered…?
Was this the same Kim Ho she knew?
She was so flabbergasted that she found herself at a loss for words.
It was natural for there to be a difference in perception between the sisters.
Unlike Hong Yeon-hwa, who had firsthand experience with Kim Ho in the duel battles, Hong Ye-hwa had only heard about her younger sister’s defeats.
She couldn’t help but adopt a relatively neutral stance.
When Kim Ho suddenly came to the Ruby Magic Tower club, she was a little wary but thought it prudent to at least hear him out and welcome him as a guest.
The large ruby that she believed to have been given to him by Hong Yeon-hwa was also reason enough to welcome him as a guest.
After sitting together and engaging in various conversations, she found the exchange quite enlightening and satisfying.
She had many questions about Kim Ho that remained unanswered due to Hong Yeon-hwa’s reluctance to talk, but now she felt that a significant part of her curiosity had been satisfied.
“Are you in the same mentoring group with him?”
“Did he tell you that?”
“I asked him first, why?”
Since Kim Ho was also a first-year, the conversation naturally shifted to mentoring.
She had casually asked if he was participating in mentoring and never expected him to be in the same group as her sister.
This was yet another topic Hong Yeon-hwa had been silent about, which prompted her to ask further. Kim Ho saw no need to hide anything and shared what he knew within his limits.
“I heard you couldn’t even take off a single sticker, huh? I always told you to practice close combat more, but you never listened. I knew this would happen.”
“What, just me? None of the others managed to either!”
“Must be nice, huh? Having friends in similar situations?”
The sisters exchanged growls as usual, but with a guest present, they refrained from hurling verbal fireballs at each other.
Hong Ye-hwa spoke in an authoritative tone.
“Anyway, in this upcoming contest, you’re going to remove all the stickers. I’ve already asked him to help you.”
It seemed there had already been some sort of agreement between the two.
Since Kim Ho was paired with her, it was natural for him to help, but the crucial task of sticker removal was specifically left to Hong Yeon-hwa.
In return, she must have offered him a corresponding reward.
Hong Yeon-hwa let out a disbelieving scoff.
“Why should I do that?”
“So, you’re planning not to? Just planning to coast through?”
As Hong Ye-hwa’s expression grew colder and colder, Hong Yeon-hwa responded in a smaller voice as if shrinking back.
“It’s not like that… Fine, I’ll remove them all, okay?”
“That’s more like it. Also, Song Cheon-hye and Kwak Ji-cheol are in your group, aren’t they?”
A blazing fire burned in Hong Ye-hwa’s eyes.
“I understand if you lose to Kim Ho for now. But you must absolutely defeat those two.”
It seemed there was a significant skill gap between her and Kim Ho, so it would be an unreasonable request to immediately surpass him.
After all, didn’t she sign up for mentoring precisely to improve her skills and defeat him?
Besides, rumors weren’t spreading as quickly as she expected for some reason, so there seemed to be no urgent need for a revenge match.
But the situation with Song Cheon-hye and Kwak Ji-cheol was a bit different.
Song Cheon-hye, though a member of the Disciplinary Committee, she was closely associated with the Topaz Magic Tower, and Kwak Ji-cheol belonged to the Emerald Magic Tower.
As members of the same Magic Tower Association, they were allies yet also rivals in a constant competition.
Should talks like “the Ruby Magic Tower is inferior to the Topaz and Emerald Magic Tower,” reach Hong Ye-hwa’s, it was uncertain what lengths her uncontrollable anger might drive her to.
Hong Ye-hwa emphasized it again.
“It’s okay if you can’t remove all three stickers. But you must remove more than them, understood?”
“I know.”
On this matter, Hong Yeon-hwa shared her sister’s sentiment.
They could not afford to lose to the other Magic Towers, especially.
In particular, since she strongly disliked being compared to Song Cheon-hye, she was determined to outperform her by any means necessary.
When Hong Yeon-hwa’s eyes began to blaze with determination, Hong Ye-hwa felt a surge of satisfaction.
Hong Ye-hwa was a little worried when she saw her sister start to get scared as soon as she encountered Kim Ho, but it seemed her fighting spirit hadn’t been extinguished just yet.
“Of course, that’s how it should be. Let’s go in now.”
“Go in…?”
Suddenly, Hong Yeon-hwa found herself thinking about whom she might see again. In an instant, her pupils darted from side to side before she slowly started to back away.
Hong Ye-hwa quickly grabbed her sister’s wrist.
And she asked with a sly grin,
“This is the club room; where do you think you’re going?”
“Oh, no, I was just thinking of heading back to the dorm today to rest. I’m not feeling too well—”
“Come on, we shouldn’t keep our guest waiting any longer.”
Hong Ye-hwa firmly pulled her sister along and they entered the club room.
There, Kim Ho was exactly as they had left him, sitting in the same spot and tilting his teacup in the same manner.
As they drew closer, the fervor that Hong Yeon-hwa had been burning with until just moments ago seemed to rapidly fade away.
Hong Ye-hwa looked at her sister with a mix of disapproval and worry before letting out a sigh internally.
Time will take care of it…
She harbored a faint hope that constant interaction during the mentoring would naturally lead to overcoming the issue.
She quickly composed her expression and put on a professional smile.
“Sorry for the wait, have you been here long?”
“Not at all. I needed some time to think as well.”
“Then, as we discussed earlier, I’m counting on you to take good care of Yeon-hwa.”
“Yes, Senior-nim.”
The soft and gentle Hong Ye-hwa and the respectful and polite Kim Ho.
The disparity between this and their usual demeanors was striking.
Hong Yeon-hwa found herself at a loss for words and she merely observed the exchange between the two.
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