I’d been thoroughly thrashed by Professor Atra, and now I was marked with bruises. They were evenly distributed all over my body, leaving no place untouched.

It was okay when I was on my way back to the dormitory since there weren’t many people around. However, thinking about attending classes with a bruised face tomorrow, I knew I’d draw unnecessary attention.

Applying ice packs managed to reduce them a little, but it didn’t make much of a difference; my appearance was still eye-catching.

While clothes could cover the bruises on my body, the problem was, inevitably, my face.

‘Even getting beaten requires skill…’

It might seem like the blows were haphazard, but a closer examination of my body showed that there weren’t any particularly damaged spots.

Although bruises had formed, pressing them with an ice pack and seeing them go down proved they weren’t serious injuries.

By the next day, the bruises had faded even more. At this rate, it seemed like they would disappear entirely soon.

Still, my face remained a bruised mess, so I contemplated what to do about it. I even thought about going in a hijab or something, but I decided just to leave as is.

It felt like I was making a fuss over nothing, and regardless of whether I covered up or not, I’d attract attention.

The embarrassment of showing my beaten face… I decided to endure it. It’s not like these are shameful scars; they are the result of training with a professor, after all.

All the way to school, I was the focus of many eyes, and I arrived at the classroom slightly late.

“Hey Hayul! Good morning… oh my goodness!”

Liana, who had arrived earlier, turned her head with a welcoming smile. She started waving at me but froze as her gaze landed on my face.

Her eyes widened as if she’d seen something she shouldn’t have, and covering her mouth with both hands, she abruptly stood up.

“Hayul! Hayul! What happened to you!”

She kicked her chair away and hurried over to me, looking horrified.

Her over-the-top reaction drew even more attention.

“What happened to you? You’re covered in bruises!”

She peered closely with a face full of worry, shocked to see bruises not just on my face but elsewhere too.

[It happened during the major class.]

“Wha… What kind of lecture could possibly…?”

Liana’s lips quivered; then she brought her hands together, mustering her mana. I could feel the steady flow of mana materializing from within her and reached out, gripping Liana’s wrist firmly.

“Hayul?”

Confused by my action, Liana looked even more perplexed when I shook my head. Stepping back a few paces, I tapped my smartwatch.

[You can’t heal me.]

“??”

Questions clouded Liana’s face, multiplying rather than dissipating.

“Healing is not allowed…? Why?”

[It’s for recovery training.]

“??”

Liana furrowed her brows and tilted her head, the confusion evident. The others, who had followed her with exclamations of their own, were similarly puzzled, question marks practically floating above their heads.

“Recovery training? Is that a thing?”
“I don’t know; my major class is different.”
“No, but are many people undergoing that kind of training?”
“…I’ve never seen it, at least.”

Liana’s expression got even stranger, perhaps picking up on the whispers around her.

‘Was it not a commonly used training method?’

After suffering a crushing defeat in my first life, I had adopted this method starting from my second life as a standard way of leveling up.

It was a system where intentionally keeping one’s life force (HP) low would gradually increase one’s stamina, durability stats, and life force recovery rate.

In the early days when every second was valuable, it was a training method I often used.

However, if too much life force was drained, it could result in permanent loss, and if not enough was drained, the method would be ineffective. So, it was crucial to find the right balance.

Even I was skeptical at first, but after hearing something similar from Professor Atra, I decided to practice it.

It was then that Hong Yeon-hwa entered my spatial perception.

I sensed Hong Yeon-hwa crossing the corridor and heading to the classroom within the slightly narrowed range of my perception.

– Slide

Shortly after, the back door opened, and in walked Hong Yeon-hwa, wearing the same red jumper as yesterday, trudging into the classroom.

She glanced around the room and then her gaze turned towards me. Approaching with a light smile, Hong Yeon-hwa greeted me.

“Hey Hayul. Have a good—ah… Ch—”

Her words stumbled and scattered into the void. A cold breeze seemed to blow from somewhere.

“……”

Hong Yeon-hwa’s friends, who had been chatting and following her in, wore startled expressions due to the sudden shift in the atmosphere. They looked back and forth between me and Hong Yeon-hwa and their faces paled.

The once buzzing classroom fell silent. It became an area so quiet, you couldn’t even hear an ant walking.

The cause was right in front of me.

A seriously ominous energy was flowing around Hong Yeon-hwa. Everyone knew – they felt the immediate presence of a ticking time bomb, and thus, everyone held their breath.

I, directly in front of Hong Yeon-hwa, held my breath even more.

Her expression was chillingly stiff. Intermittent, ominous friction sounds leaked between clenched teeth and fists. Contrary to her expression, her eyes burned red like the flames of hell.

If I had my eyes open, I wouldn’t have dared to meet her gaze. To lock eyes with Hong Yeon-hwa in such a state would require an immense amount of courage.

Her lips, firm like a castle’s gates, finally parted. The voice that seeped through quivered with barely contained rage.

“Who did this?”

[M? Me?]

“What the fuck… Who did this to you?”

For some reason, Hong Yeon-hwa had refrained from using coarse language in front of me before.

But now, whether due to a lack of self-control or simply not caring, vulgar words spilled from her mouth.

“…ugh.”

I knew that Hong Yeon-hwa treated me with a certain gentleness. Though I didn’t understand exactly why, I sensed that in some way she was concerned about me.

So when I decided to go out despite being all beaten up, I did think about what her reaction might be, but I wasn’t particularly worried.

I never expected it to be this intense.

I sensed her facial expression through spatial perception. The friction between the clenched teeth, the tension in her fists.

And thanks to my love for mana affinity, I could even feel the ball of fire-like mana within Hong Yeon-hwa.

Her mana, influenced by the unique ability Gop-hwa and bearing the properties of flames, has always been distinctively identifiable.

Though there were others with flame-like mana, the difference with Hong Yeon-hwa was stark.

If others were torches, Hong Yeon-hwa was a wild flame that could consume even those holding the torches.

No chance for a misconception; the difference was too clear.

Hong Yeon-hwa’s Gop-hwa was special. Even among those with the unique ability Gop-hwa, and among its past possessors, her output was exceptional.

And now, especially, the usually rough raging fire seemed on the verge of a storm, burning with a madness like never before.

“Who did this to you…!”

The flame raged. In her eyes, a Gop-hwa that could engulf everything flickered. Emotions fed the flames, causing them to blaze even more fiercely.

“Ah, oh…!”

Her face turned ghostly white. Flames that seemed ready to lash out at any moment danced before my eyes.

My right arm began to throb.

– …!

A memory from childhood surged unexpectedly. It was a memory filled with complex emotions.

– …Ah!

Flames had flickered that day too. It was a day when the sky filled with black ash blurred my already hazy vision. My throat, which was already constricted, felt even tighter.

– Ahhh─!

It was the day my parents, who never truly acted like parents, were burned to death.

The day when the smell of charred flesh filled my nose and gave me a perverse sense of satisfaction.

The day I felt they had deserved such divine punishment.

They might have engulfed my arm as well, but at least you are gone and somehow that made me happy.

– Shit! Why did a fire start all of a sudden…!
– Ahhh! Please, save me─!

…It was the day the parents I once longed for love from burned to death.

That day.

The flames I had flailed against while sprawled on the stone floor, trying to shake off the fire that clung to my arm, and the fire before me now, seemed to overlap.

Why did they overlap? Was it because they were both relating to fire that the memory came back to me?

It was a moment when I sensed something incongruent.

The fervently burning Gop-hwa hesitated and then shrank from its formerly inflating size. The maliciously lashing flames slowly began to subside.

‘Huh.’

I was late to realize it since I had been recalling the past. From a certain point on, the perspective of spatial perception had changed.

Before this transformation, my spatial perception was like a radar. A perspective where only the Gop-hwa blazing before me was felt.

Nearby, a variety of smaller and larger mana signatures were conglomerating, and I could also sense the aura of water and ice, probably belonging to Baek Ahrin.

My spatial perception quivered, slowly changing perspective.

The viciously burning Gop-hwa ebbed, and in its stead, a flustered Hong Yeon-hwa took its place.

“Ah, oh…! Sorry! I’m sorry…!”

Hong Yeon-hwa was flailing her arms in panic. Her eyes, pooling with uncertainty, anxiety, and guilt, were dripping with cold sweat.

“I’m sorry for getting angered…! It was not at you…! It’s just, I got too excited…!”

While I was baffled by the drastic change from a moment ago, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything.

Trying to catch my breath, I nodded. My chest pounded. I clasped my hands over my heart and pressed down. Honestly, I felt like I was about to faint while still standing.

Facing Gop-hwa’s potential rampage head-on was bad enough, but the combination of spatial perception and mana affinity made me feel it more vividly than anyone else could.

[I’m okay.]

After some time, my heart finally calmed down.

Despite repeatedly conveying that I was okay, reassuring Hong Yeon-hwa proved to be more time-consuming.

I was the one who was scared, yet somehow Hong Yeon-hwa looked more anxious.

“…Recovery training? Are they still using such an antiquated method?”

There was still some time before the class started, so I had the leisure to explain the situation.

After settling down, I calmly explained to Hong Yeon-hwa—who was metaphorically digging a hole for herself and calling herself trash—all about it.

[Antiquated method?]

“Yes. I mean, it’s not that I’ve never used the method, but…”

She scrunched up her face in disgust.

“The efficiency is completely dog crap? No, no, I misspoke! The efficiency is just very poor? That’s why it’s a training method that’s been thrown out nowadays.”

[Yes]

Hong Yeon-hwa, who was grinding out her dissatisfaction as though smothering her emotions, jumped at her own use of ‘dog crap’ and, checking my reaction, hastily corrected her language.

I wondered why she had to change ‘dog crap’ to ‘very poor’.

It would have been fine for her to speak freely. In fact, it seemed very uncomfortable for her to filter her language like that.

However, despite my encouragement for her to speak comfortably, for some reason or another, Hong Yeon-hwa insisted on using a ridiculously polite tone, despite evidently considering her earlier words a mistake.

“Enhancing recovery? It’s not nonexistent. But the question is whether it’s a significant number… that’s also not the case. Instead, out there, if your body gets harmed, it gets harmed; there’s hardly a positive effect.”

[Aha]

So, it’s an early-stage method with poor efficiency.

And the body takes damage… It’s not unlike the original work, where you could suffer a permanent decline in life force. It certainly wasn’t particularly effective later on.

“Yeah. It’s not that there are no effects here. If you receive the growth correction, there’s undoubtedly an effect. But if you ask me if it’s worth doing, I wouldn’t do it.”

Having finished her explanation, Hong Yeon-hwa let out a deep sigh.

“Sigh… I’m really sorry about before. I lost control of my emotions again… But are you really okay? It’s not too painful…?”

[I can bear it. It’s not that terribly painful.]

My tears could dry up from the pain. I want to run away. I also wonder if it’s really necessary to do it this way.

But the professor knows better than an amateur like me… She must know how to teach better…

“…So? What’s the professor’s name?”

As I started packing up my belongings and preparing for class, Hong Yeon-hwa, who had been resting her chin on her hand and watching from the other side, asked.

[It’s Professor Atra Clyde.]

“Atra, Atra… Okay. Thanks for telling me.”

After responding reflexively, Hong Yeon-hwa nodded without looking at me.

…She might be facing away, but in my spatial perception, her expression was entirely visible. A seemingly indifferent Hong Yeon-hwa was mumbling something.

An inexplicable chill ran through me.

One must not ignore their instincts.

I remembered the intuition that shrieked desperately not to press ‘character creation’ just before coming to this world.

From the ominous muttering of Hong Yeon-hwa, I sensed an unsettling intuition.

Thus, every break time, I fervently insisted that Professor Atra had done nothing wrong.

She has been teaching me her best these past two days and has been instructing me well in handling arms.

This recovery training was also something I was undergoing with my consent, I repeatedly emphasized.

“Oh, I got it. I was just curious and wanted to know her name…”

As I consistently made my case to those around me, Hong Yeon-hwa’s frosty demeanor gradually subsided.

When I kept pushing her buttons, she blushed and gestured with her hands, prompting me to swiftly put some distance between us.

The yelling intuition quieted down.

I wasn’t sure why I had felt it, but had I left things as they were, something terrible might have occurred.

I exhaled a quiet sigh of relief.