EX rank supporting role's replay in a prestigious school

Chapter 903

The Black Mask has Cheongho’s body.

And for decades, he’s been carrying Seong Hyeong-woo’s corpse.

‘That training belt must have been with Cheongho’s body. If so, does that mean Cheongho and Seong Hyeong-woo were in the same place?’

A hypothesis I thought might not be very pleasing to the Hojok emerged.

Considering Seong Hyeong-woo's Gwangrim, I didn’t have a good feeling about this.

I decided to ask about something that needed clarification.

"How does this compare to where Unsa was?"

"They passed through the same place."

"Do we know the time?"

"We can't pinpoint an exact time, but it's highly likely they were in the same space around the same time."

Unsa, Seong Hyeong-woo, and Cheongho’s training belt were all close by.

It couldn’t have been a coincidence.

The Black Mask doesn't like to gather valuable pieces in one place like that.

The Black Mask prefers to gradually accumulate pieces and tighten the opponent’s grip, until they can’t even twitch a finger when they realize what’s happened.

To avoid a situation where everything could change in one move, any potential clues would be scattered around and fake clues would be hidden, creating confusion for the opponent’s mind.

The example of how only Muji-gi was found in the TC research lab was one such case.

‘If the Black Mask preferred to collect and manage everything in one place, Muji-gi and Unsa would have been together. But they weren’t even in the same place or on the same path.’

Considering all of this, the idea that those three were in one place seemed strange.

There must be a reason behind such an unusual event.

‘There must have been a reason for them to be in the same place, even if only for a short while. Unsa likely provided the power, Seong Hyeong-woo acted as a vessel for the precious Gwangrim, and Cheongho... What was his role there?’

If Unsa and Seong Hyeong-woo used their respective powers and skills, then what about Cheongho?

It would be easy to assume Cheongho played the same role as Unsa, pulling power, but my thoughts were different.

If more power was needed, they would have kept one of them safe and brought Muji-gi, not placed Unsa and Cheongho together.

The sense of unease I had about Cheongho was beginning to solidify.

"Jo Eui-shin, you’ve got something on your mind. Speak up."

"It’s hard to say. I’m not sure yet."

"Is it hard to say because you’re unsure, or is it difficult because you’re not sure and also don’t want to say it?"

It sounded like the same thing, but it wasn’t.

Strictly speaking, it was closer to the latter, but I found it hard to respond.

"Both."

"So it’s a difficult guess, huh?"

Hwang Ji-ho, who had been wearing an unreadable expression, softened his tone and relaxed the tension around his eyes, almost as if trying to reassure a child.

"Even so, I want to hear it."

"It might be wrong."

"And what’s the problem with that? I won’t blame you, so relax."

He said that, but he’d been nagging about missed messages and other things. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t scold me if my guess turned out wrong.

It was clear that the old tiger wouldn’t say much if my guess was wrong.

Hwang Ji-ho, when it came down to it, seemed to ignore or laugh off the real moments when he should be scolding or giving advice.

Still hesitating, Hwang Ji-ho added.

"As the leader, I didn’t even know the threat my friend was facing or that I couldn’t save them. This time, Cheongho might be saved by someone other than the Hojok. I trust you."

He said that, and it was hard to remain silent.

It felt too early to say anything, but I decided to speak on what I was certain about.

Before I spoke, I asked one more question.

"Have you found any family or blood relatives of Han-i yet?"

"No. At least within my reach, I haven’t found any of Han-i’s blood relatives. If they do exist, they’ve either died without participating in society or are simply surviving somewhere, doing nothing."

But if Seong Hyeong-woo’s Gwangrim worked, Cheongho would have been asleep, seeing his past, regrets, future, and fear.

During the final exam preparation period, Class 0 of the second year formed a study party, just like always.

A total of twelve people participated.

The participants were Kwon Lena, Kim Yoori, Dokgo Miro, Maeng Hyo-don, Mok Woo-ram, Min Green, Sa Wolseum, Song Daeseok, Jin Jeongmook, Han-i, Hwang Ji-ho, and me.

Except for the two attention-seekers and the two who refused to go to school, everyone else was there.

So, we rented the largest study room for the exam period.

Today, since it was the weekend, we would have our study meeting in the rented place.

‘Since everyone has their schedules, it’s rare for all twelve to show up, but there’s no harm in securing a large place.’

Kim Yoori always made sure to prepare plenty of snacks in case the school refusers showed up suddenly.

Whether she knew how hard being the class president was or not, unfortunately, after the exam preparation period started, I hadn’t seen any of those four even once.

Also, some kids were frequently absent.

Like Song Daeseok, who was busy with the association project, and Sa Wolseum, who had joined other study parties.

"During the summer vacation, we’re planning to do group training for capturing the wanted criminal, Choi Pyeondeuk. With the Korea-China-Japan Youth Exchange coming up, there are a lot of bad people doing things, right? We plan to train to hunt them down."

Sa Wolseum shared news about the wanted criminal hunting party.

After joining that study group following the midterm exams, Sa Wolseum seemed to plan on continuing to be active there.

The hunting party set its goal in line with the Korea-China-Japan Youth Exchange.

‘There are also goals unrelated to the Youth Exchange, like rooting out moles planted by other schools or betting agencies, uncovering scalpers for the major games, and hunting international wanted criminals who might cause disturbances during the exchange...’

There were some unsavory goals, but I decided not to point them out.

Meanwhile, I received messages from the attention-seekers, still following the school refusers.

[Gu Seulbi] We’re in big trouble. We might become super famous and get a lot of attention.

[Ong Gildong] I think I’m the first to take the lead as a fellow thief, sorry. But there’s some risk involved. If anything happens to us, we hope you’ll carry on the thief’s will!

[Gu Seulbi] Oh, stop talking as if our lives are on the line. Master Merlin said if we’re unlucky, we might sleep a bit longer, but there won’t be any major problems.

[Ong Gildong] But if we, people who are already in the spotlight, take a few days off, it’ll cause a huge loss to society! So we need someone to take our place.

[Gu Seulbi] That’s true...

[Ong Gildong] Exactly, we are important!

[Gu Seulbi] Right!

Did they forget I was in this chatroom?

I decided to ignore them, not wanting to disturb them, and left a message saying I’d check in after the exam period.

Since they seemed busy with their own event, I figured I wouldn’t see their faces until the final exam was over.

‘I bet it has something to do with the leaders of the two factions. They planted clues to coax the school refusers into following them.’

According to Merlin, it didn’t seem too dangerous, so I decided to leave them be for now.

I’d need to check if they’re still awake during the exam period since falling asleep during that time would be a big deal.

‘Honestly, the Martial Artists they got to attend school have been attending consistently. It’d be nice if they followed their example.’

Jin Jeongmook faithfully showed up at the study party and studied quietly.

When I told him about the attention-seekers, he responded seriously.

"They sent a letter? Tell them I hope they study hard with the exams coming up."

Jin Jeongmook, who was drawing something on rice paper, spoke.

I thought he was practicing his drawing to relax, but when I looked closely, it was writing.

It seemed like he was studying, but his calligraphy was still a mess.

‘I wonder if Han-i’s power couldn’t do anything about Jin Jeongmook’s terrible calligraphy...’

Then I realized I hadn’t seen Han-i.

There was still time until the study meeting started, but she had come early on the day she had promised, which made me uneasy.

"Where’s Han-i?"

"I was with her during breakfast at the dorm. She said she was just stopping by Taeho Kwon’s small group meeting..."

Kwon Lena trailed off.

Now that I thought about it, Hwang Ji-ho was also missing.