Adventurer Academy.
It was a place where those lacking talent, or those just beginning to dream of becoming adventurers, gathered.
Most of those at the Academy were novice adventurers.
And among these novices, there was a girl who proudly recorded the lowest score.
The girl's na was Kang Harang.
She was a lovable child who seed perfectly crafted.
Yoon Hyunseo, rembering her own past when she couldn't even enter the Academy, invited the girl Harang into her party.
Han Taehwi was a long-ti friend who got along well with her, so there was no need to ask his opinion.
They both had younger sisters around the sa age too.
'We're not lacking the skills to get first place...'
Yoon Hyunseo and Han Taehwi's skills were top-tier even at the Academy.
Even with a slightly clumsy girl, they wouldn't lose in the rankings.
It seed unbelievable that they hadn't gotten first place until now.
'This ti, we must get first place.'
Getting first place would give them bonus points for collaboration with the Sacred Guild, and they could get the badge that all adventurers dread of.
For wizards, the tomato badge ant an increase in ability.
It was that difficult to obtain.
But then.
"Take any badge you need from here."
The girl who had scored the lowest at the Academy held out a pouch full of badges.
Yoon Hyunseo could tell these were real from the unique mana emanating from the badges.
They said you could attend any class for three months while the mana was emitting.
Why does Harang have these precious things?
There were even different types of badges in the pouch.
"H-Harang, where did you get all these...?"
"They just give these out at Yeomyeong Guild. They're super easy to get."
"T-that can't be right...?"
She'd heard that initially, a child nad Gyeoul had handed out many badges.
But then too many applicants flooded in, so they changed the distribution thod.
There was a limit to how many they could teach, after all.
Now, only thirty badges per field were supplied each month.
Yet there were thirty badges in Harang's pouch.
"Harang, are you... so kind of big shot...?"
"N-no...? I'm nothing special..."
Harang took two badges out of her pouch.
Then she put the pouch back in her bag.
Yoon Hyunseo could see it the mont Harang opened her bag.
A Black Dragon business card stored in the side of the bag.
'Oh my.'
The Black Dragon business card.
It was a famous organization in this area.
The Black Dragon Society, a violent organization that didn't bother ordinary people, so even Yeomyeong Guild didn't touch them.
They were like those organizations from movies that value righteousness and loyalty.
'No way...'
Is Harang the daughter of soone high up in the Black Dragon Society?
That would make so sense.
The Black Dragon Society operated in Yeomyeong's territory after all.
If they wanted to get badges, they could get as many as they wanted.
'Oh my goodness.'
I thought she was just an innocent child.
But she's actually the precious daughter of the Black Dragon Society.
Yoon Hyunseo swallowed hard and looked at Han Taehwi beside her.
Han Taehwi seed to have similar thoughts, looking tense.
It seed they had ended up in a party with an extraordinary girl.
------
I handed out one badge each to the two of them.
When they hesitated to take them, I slipped them into their pockets.
"Let's go catch so slis now."
"O-okay. Shall we...?"
"...? Why are you suddenly using formal speech...?"
"Ah, no, yeah."
Yoon Hyunseo stuttered and moved closer to , gripping her staff.
Han Taehwi also drew his sword, his weapon.
"Now we need to find slis. Do you know how to find them, Harang?"
"Yes, I do."
"You do?"
"Yes."
The slis that appear in Level 1 dungeons were weak enough for even non-adventurers to catch.
The problem was finding them.
They move slowly, so they don't leave traces.
Their slimy liquid dries up quickly.
Thanks to this, they were easier to catch than goblins, but harder to find.
Of course, for with my keen senses, it wasn't a problem at all.
"I'm actually quite good at searching for monsters."
"R-really? Then why don't you try finding so, Harang?"
"Okay."
I led the two of them around, searching for slis.
Through bushes, trees, and even rocks.
I listened for the squishy sounds unique to slis and searched here and there.
Yoon Hyunseo and Han Taehwi did the actual sli catching.
"W-what's going on? How are you finding them so well?"
"Yeah..."
The two of them started to get suspicious.
I blurted out an excuse before my identity could be revealed.
"I have really good eyes. That's why I'm good at finding and distinguishing things."
"R-really? This isn't just good, it's..."
"...We've caught three tis more than expected."
The two of them looked surprised, but they didn't doubt .
They just exclaid in admiration, saying I had an amazing ability.
That's how we managed to catch an incredible number of slis in two hours.
The sli cores filling Yoon Hyunseo's bag proved this.
"Wow... We caught so many thanks to Harang. Shall we head back?"
"Let's do that. It's about ti to gather."
"Okay."
Yoon Hyunseo humd a tune, seemingly in a good mood from the heavy bag of slis.
Han Taehwi also looked quite pleased.
When we arrived at the gathering point, we handed over the bag full of sli cores to the instructor.
A look of bewildernt flashed across the instructor's face as he checked the sli cores in the bag.
"Um..."
"What's wrong?"
"No, it's nothing."
Students who had returned handed in their sli cores like this.
With nothing else to do, I counted the sli cores other people had brought from afar.
Clatter-!
They poured the cores into the machine all at once.
It seed they were trying to count the sli cores with the machine.
In the slowly moving world, I could count all the cores falling into the machine.
'Seven... ten... nine...'
As I counted the slis the students had caught, I realized sothing.
We had caught more slis than average.
'We caught twenty-eight.'
I wonder if this will be enough for first place.
Just as my tail, hidden by the illusion, started to wag,
A man carrying a heavy bag approached.
"Huh?"
That team seems to have caught quite a lot of slis too.
I tensely counted the cores falling into the machine.
Clatter-!
The total number of falling cores was twenty-four.
They had an impressive number too, but it was four less than ours.
"Phew."
I wanted to get first place for my teammates.
Just as I was sighing in relief,
Beep-!
The number of cores that appeared with the machine sound was strange.
Thirty.
It was six more than what I had counted.
It seed only I, who could see the world in slow motion, had noticed this fact.
"Huh?!"
People's gazes turned to at my surprised voice, then quickly looked away.
Only Han Taehwi and Yoon Hyunseo's gazes remained on .
"What's wrong?"
"Twenty-four cores just fell, but the machine says thirty..."
"You counted them all in that mont they fell?"
"Yes... I have good eyes for this kind of thing..."
Will they believe without any evidence?
I looked up at the two worriedly.
Then Yoon Hyunseo nodded with a serious expression.
"I believe you. Harang's eyes are the real deal."
"I believe you too. We've experienced it firsthand."
"T-thank you..."
Everyone believing in .
I was truly grateful.
Was this the kind of corruption the guild had ntioned?
I thought I wouldn't be able to find it, but I discovered it right away.
'What should I do?'
As I was thinking with my arms crossed, Yoon Hyunseo started moving.
Towards a man wearing a sowhat sinister smile.
------
"Excuse ."
Yoon Hyunseo stopped Baek Ihyeon as he was returning to his seat.
Yoon Hyunseo barely managed to hide her curt tone.
"What is it?"
"Can I talk to you for a mont?"
"Hmm?"
A secluded spot with no people around.
Yoon Hyunseo took Baek Ihyeon to that place.
Realizing no one was around, Yoon Hyunseo carefully opened her mouth.
"Wasn't there sothing strange about the sli count earlier?"
"...What do you an?"
"We saw twenty-four, but..."
Twenty-four.
At those words, Baek Ihyeon's pupils shook.
Yoon Hyunseo hadn't studied psychology, but she knew that's how people react when hit right on the mark.
"...Is there a need to accuse an innocent person just because you're lacking?"
"Innocent person?"
Yoon Hyunseo smirked and took out her smartphone.
There was no evidence on the smartphone, but Baek Ihyeon couldn't help but feel tense.
He had fallen for Yoon Hyunseo's psychological warfare.
'Does she have sothing?'
Tsk.
Baek Ihyeon clicked his tongue and ran his hand through his hair.
If he used his connections, he could easily silence one Academy student.
"Look. You can't do anything anyway. Let's just let this go nicely."
"Why can't I do anything? If I make this public..."
"Ms. Hyunseo, silencing people is a daily occurrence for these folks."
Baek Ihyeon said a na she hadn't told him.
Yoon Hyunseo couldn't help but gape.
She felt like he knew everything about her.
"W-we have a scary person on our team too, you know?"
"A scary person?"
"D-do you know the Black Dragon Society?"
"...No wonder your score was abnormally high. I have no choice but to believe you."
Hah.
Baek Ihyeon let out a sigh.
Had she gained the upper hand?
Yoon Hyunseo felt a glimr of hope.
Baek Ihyeon muttered in a low voice, almost like a threat.
"Ms. Hyunseo, don't stake your life on such flimsy connections. The mont you think the Black Dragon Society is a big deal, you're finished."
"......"
Flimsy connections, the Black Dragon Society is no big deal.
Baek Ihyeon treated the Black Dragon Society as a joke.
Yoon Hyunseo could only keep her mouth shut.
"I'll be counting on you, Ms. Hyunseo."
Baek Ihyeon turned and left.
She couldn't stop his confident stride.
Only then did Yoon Hyunseo realize that the instructors had been helping and deceiving him.
It ant Baek Ihyeon was even more impressive than the formidable Black Dragon Society.
"Ah..."
Yoon Hyunseo lowered her head.
She rembered her past when she had missed first place by a hair, or in ridiculous ways.
Could it be that all this ti, she hadn't gotten first place because...?
Yoon Hyunseo couldn't move for a while.
---
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