Chapter 10: A will, not a reflection

"Ugh!"

I heard a sudden gasp and turned around. Standing there was a person I hadn't expected to see here. At the same time, I also thought it was good timing.

"Oh, I was about to go see you, good timing, Kim Hogun."

"I, th-that is..."

Kim Hogun stammered, looking back and forth between me and Kim Somi. He tried to run away, turning his back, but Kim Somi quickly grabbed him by the collar.

"You did it, didn't you?"

Kim Hogun blinked at Kim Somi's question as if he had heard something nonsensical.

"What...? "

"Perverted stuff. You used the girls' underwear... and you framed Han Hyunho for it, right?"

"Wh, who told you that? I, I'm not a pervert!"

Even in this situation, he insisted on his innocence, as if his own reputation was important. Kim Somi threw him towards Park Seokcheol's corpse.

"Hick! Hieeek!!"

Kim Hogun, startled, struggled, splattering himself with blood.

"Kim Hogun."

I lowered myself and looked at the face of the guy who had contributed to making me a pervert. Honestly, this was the decisive factor. Things like embezzlement and abuse of power were difficult to prove and didn't emotionally resonate with people. But saying he had done perverted things to the female students was easy to appeal to emotions. I became nationally disliked. Even the students who were directly taught by me, those who knew me well, all turned their backs on me. Of course, from my perspective, they were all accomplices, since no one knew the truth and tried to find out what happened. It meant that they didn't see me as anything more than a professor who was paid to work, even though I was serving them. I had earned my salary, at least for a while, by allowing them to experience a sense of growth. Considering how much illegal drugs and ineffective supplements that create similar delusions are traded for, I had actually provided labor cheaply.

"S, save me!"

Kim Hogun, who had finally grasped the situation, crawled over and grabbed my pants.

"Han Hyunho... no, teacher! You must have misunderstood! It wasn't me! It was all him... I..."

He suddenly got up and kicked Park Seokcheol's head, which was in the puddle of urine.

"It was this bastard's doing! He made me do weird things on purpose, and he swapped my face with yours! I don't know how humiliating it was for me! Please! I will do my best to restore your honor, teacher!"

"Let's see."

"Uh...?"

Kim Somi had already taken Kim Hogun's phone and was looking at it. My perception of movement had gotten extremely good after gaining the S-rank Sword Master ability. I saw her take the phone out of Kim Hogun's pants pocket in a flash and unlock it with his thumb.

"Ah! What are you doing!"

I pointed my sword at Kim Hogun's neck, who was trying to get to Kim Somi.

"Stay still."

"Ugh..."

Kim Hogun's body trembled slightly. He looked like he was filled with fear, wondering what was going to happen next.

"Haaah... You're so devoted."

Contempt filled Kim Somi's face.

"You even created profiles for the students, organizing them into folders. What do you think those kids' parents will say when they find out you took their underwear and did these disgusting things?"

"Why are you taking someone's phone and doing this! It's illegal! Besides, how do you know if that picture is real or not... Ugh!"

I put a little more pressure on the hand holding the sword. Kim Hogun's skin cut, and blood flowed.

"A professional can tell if it's real or not. The same goes for the things Han Hyunho is said to have done, we can tell if it's real or not."

"Ah..."

Kim Hogun collapsed to his knees.

"I, I was wrong..."

"You know it's not over with an apology."

"Wh, what should I do, teacher? I, I'll give you money! Since you're retired anyway, wouldn't it be better to live comfortably? I can come up with about 10 billion won right now! If you want, I can sell the real estate I own and give you ten times that amount. Please, keep it a secret from my father..."

"Your father must be really scary."

Kim Hogun's father was a politician. Even I, who wasn't interested in politics, knew his name and face. He was usually on TV for the wrong reasons. Seeing that his son, who had no ability, was able to enter Alpha Academy and collude with the chairman, I could guess that his influence was still great.

"Please, teacher! I'll do anything you want!"

"For real?"

"Yes! Of course!"

"Let's start with a confession."

"A, a confession...?"

"Even if you say that now, you're going to stab me in the back once you leave this door. How can I trust you?"

"Ah! I understand! I'll write a hundred, a thousand if you want!"

"Those guys last night, you sent them, right?"

Kim Somi, who was still looking at Kim Hogun's phone, said. She must have found something in the call log or message log.

"I know you won't believe me, no matter what I say! But it wasn't my intention! It was just something Chairman Park Seokcheol made me do by threatening me!"

"That's enough, write a confession."

"Yes!"

He seemed to think that he would be spared if he really wrote a confession, so Kim Hogun quickly got up and sat at the chairman's desk. He quickly prepared a pen and paper and looked at me.

"What should I write, teacher?"

I told him what Kim Hogun needed to write.

"I am human trash."

"...What?"

"You're not writing it down?"

"Ah, yes! I am human trash..."

"I am a pervert who can't be cured. I came to Alpha Academy because I wanted to steal the underwear of the top female students."

"I am a pervert who can't be..."

Even though he looked dazed by the harsh reality check, Kim Hogun wrote down everything I told him.

"I was manipulated by Chairman Park Seokcheol, who was jealous of Professor Han Hyunho, and I framed him for my perverted acts. Contrary to what everyone knows, Professor Han Hyunho has nothing to do with the unfortunate incidents that occurred at this academy. The perverted acts that are unspeakable are all things I did, not him..."

"...Are you done?"

Kim Hogun looked at me with a face that looked like he was going to cry. It was an expression of shame that he couldn't hide, rather than one of repentance.

"I know I can't undo the wrong I've done. A vermin like me, who wears the mask of a human, deserves to die."

"Y, you... ?"

Kim Hogun, who had been fiddling with the pen, looked up in surprise. That's right. What I had made him write wasn't a confession, it was a suicide note.

"I, th..."

Kim Hogun, terrified, looked back and forth between me and Kim Somi. But neither of us were going to save him, nor did we have any reason to.

"It's a figurative expression. If you don't want to write a confession, don't. I want to finish this quickly and go home."

"Ah, no, I'll write it! I'm writing it now!"

Kim Hogun quickly wrote down the words I had told him. His hands were trembling.

"If I quietly leave this world alone, it wouldn't be polite to the many people who have suffered because of me, so I decided to kill one evil person and leave this world with him."

"T, teacher..."

Tears streamed down Kim Hogun's face. His body trembled like an aspen leaf.

Kim Somi held the knife to his neck.

"Write quickly."

"Y, you're really going to spare me...?"

"If you don't write, you'll die now."

Tears from Kim Hogun's eyes fell onto the paper. This made the dramatic atmosphere of the suicide note even more intense.

"I'm done..."

Plop-

As soon as Kim Hogun put down the pen, Kim Somi plunged the knife into his neck. Kim Hogun collapsed on top of the suicide note he had written, unable to even make a sound.

Kim Somi put the knife on the desk.

"Good."

Thanks to Kim Hogun's timely appearance, we were able to make Park Seokcheol's death look like his doing. I had planned to use a different method, but this looked more natural. Besides, I had already made up my mind to not let Kim Hogun live either. I had originally wondered if I needed to kill him, but when I found out that he was the one who sent the assassins last night, I realized he didn't need to live.

I went to the desk and pressed the intercom.

"Secretary, please come in."

Kim Somi looked at me with curious eyes. She was looking at me because she didn't understand my intention.

Soon, the female secretary knocked and entered the room.

"Ugh!"

She was an ordinary person, so she froze on the spot, witnessing the brutal tragedy that had unfolded in this room. Her back was against the door, and her legs were trembling. She couldn't even think about running away.

"Don't worry. I have no intention of harming you, Secretary."

I said to the terrified secretary. She was tall and slender, reflecting Park Seokcheol's taste. All the secretaries he had hired and fired before had similar appearances. It made me think, how typical, he was exercising his power in a disgusting way.

"Secretary, you are going to be the witness who testifies that Kim Hogun killed Park Seokcheol."

"Ah..."

The secretary's eyes moved from the corpse to me.

"You're... going to spare me?"

"I told you. I have absolutely no intention of harming innocent people. Unlike those two."

"..."

The secretary straightened up. She put her hand on her chest and calmed her breathing. She was much tougher than I thought.

Kim Somi reached into her inventory and pulled out cash. She pulled out several bundles of thick bills in a row and said to the secretary.

"This is a reward. If you can't find a job when you leave, you can use my name."

"No, I won't take that money."

The secretary bit her lower lip and glared at Park Seokcheol's body with anger.

"Thinking about what that man did to me, I actually want to thank both of you. That pig used my parents' loan shark debt to blackmail me. I wanted to die every day. I'll do anything you ask. I, I don't know much, but I also know that Professor Han Hyunho was wrongly accused and resigned."

"Then I have another favor to ask."

Kim Somi shook Kim Hogun's phone in her hand.

"This contains evidence of Kim Hogun's perverted acts. You should be able to access the network as a secretary, so please upload this data. To all the students, individually."

"Yes! I'll do as you say!"

Kim Somi went to the secretary with the bundles of cash.

"Take the money. You said you owed money to your parents?"

She gave the secretary the bundles of bills she had already taken out and pulled out a few more bundles and gave them to her.

"Please take good care of yourself."

"Yes! Thank you! Thank you!"

The secretary bowed to me and Kim Somi repeatedly. Tears fell from her eyes, dropping onto the floor.

"This won't solve everything, will it?"

Kim Somi asked on the way back.

"Well, it'll clear my name as a pervert, but they'll realize that it wasn't Kim Hogun who killed Park Seokcheol."

"Is this a warning?"

"Well, we'll have to wait and see how they react."

"Huhuhu."

"Why are you laughing?"

"If I had known that Han Hyunho was such an interesting person, I would have gotten closer to him sooner. Preconceptions are scary. When I came to the academy, there were already a lot of bad rumors about Han Hyunho."

"Well, it's okay."

I put my clasped hands behind my head.

"People aren't interested in the truth. They're only interested in things that are stimulating and fun. I'll just do my own thing."

"Are you not going to teach students again?"

"No, it's time to take back what I gave."

"Take back what you gave?"

"There's something like that."

I sat in the passenger seat of the car and logged into an online shopping mall. I had proven my ability as an S-rank Artisan, so now it was time to put it to use. You can never have too much money.

[Hyunho, what's going on?]

Kim Mincheol called and asked in an excited voice.

"What?"

[The news is out! Professor Kim of Alpha committed suicide leaving a suicide note. The fact that he died with the chairman is a big deal, but the news is overshadowed, but it turns out that the perverted stuff that you were accused of doing was actually his doing!]"Hmm, I see."[What? You knew?]"Didn't they say Kim Hogun killed the chairman and then committed suicide?"[That wasn't in the article? They just said that it might have been a murder and that they were investigating. What? You wouldn't...]

Kim Mincheol, who was quick-witted, asked.

[...Did you do it?]

His voice trembled. If I was the one who killed the two of them, it wasn't an ordinary matter. Park Seokcheol and Kim Hogun themselves were nobodies, but the two of them had backgrounds that couldn't be ignored. Ultimately, I had essentially declared war. This is your turn, so wash your neck and wait.

"I did go out today."