TRPM 396

“No, why would you bring a sports drink in a glass bottle to confuse us?!”

“I thought it was alcohol.”

“That’s a prejudice. Sports drinks can be in glass bottles too — what’s wrong with that?”

Wait, sports drinks can actually come in glass bottles? Hearing us scold him, Lee Dumin answered boldly. He said it so confidently that we almost felt like we were the ones in the wrong.

“…Be honest. You brought it in a glass bottle on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Was it obvious?”

At my question, Lee Dumin grinned and admitted it.

Why on earth would he bring a sports drink in a glass bottle…

“Well… think about it. The teachers see a glass bottle and assume we brought alcohol and storm into the room to check. But when they actually open things up and see it’s just a sports drink—”

“……”

“……”

“……”

At that, we pictured the teachers opening the fridge to inspect our bags, finding the glass bottle, getting angry and trying to confiscate it, and then realizing too late that it was just a sports drink.

“Oh.”

How embarrassed would that be.

“Isn’t it funny?”
“It’s not so much funny as I feel sorry for the teacher who falls into that trap.”

They’d end up being the people who angrily took away a perfectly ordinary drink students had brought to drink.

“So tonight we’ll pretend to be loudly drinking alcohol. If we make noise, the teachers will come to our room and check whether we’re really drinking.”

As Lee Dumin explained his plan with an evil smile, Ryu Amin, Elliot, and Jin Cheonha listened with dazed faces as if drawn in by his voice.

And I…

“…I’ve got lots of snacks in my pocket space. Should I spread them out like we’re laying out drinking snacks?”
“How many do you have?”

I decided to join Lee Dumin’s plan. If I’d known, I would’ve bought some jerky I sometimes snack on as drinking food.

“Ah, I also have cups.”
“…Why do you have those?”

Well, I use them for secretly drinking alone sometimes. I didn’t say that out loud. Hearing me, Lee Dumin looked puzzled but then happily incorporated it into the plan.

Then, briefly…

“Guys! We should head out!”

Voices of girls calling us from outside our room came through the door. Checking the time, we still had some time. Since things seemed to be timed well, it would be better to get there early and sit rather than fight through the crowd.

“Hey, let’s go.”
“Isn’t So-in’s packing still not done?”
“What are you doing? Packing just means leaving a suitcase in the corner of the room.”
“I brought the ink and inkstone and paper to draw talismans in advance…”
“…Never mind why you brought that, you don’t need it now. Later.”

At my words, Jin Cheonha put the things she’d taken out back down with a disappointed look.

‘Isn’t performing a concept to that extent a little insane?’

Thinking that, I left the room and locked the door. I put the key into my pocket space, then headed to the auditorium with the kids from our class.

“Does anyone know what’s next after the opening ceremony?”
“Lunch.”
“…Ah, right. We should eat lunch.”

Technically, it was already kind of late for lunch. The bus had arrived at this training center around 2 PM, and the opening ceremony was scheduled to start at 2:30 PM.

‘Shouldn’t they have fed us before the opening ceremony then?’

We arrived at the auditorium and sat in the same seats as before. I wasn’t particularly hungry — probably because I’d eaten lots of snacks I had on the bus. Other classes were probably the same.

‘…I wonder if the training center predicted this.’

If so, that’d be a little creepy.

“Huff… huff….”
‘…Huh?’

While I was thinking about the training center’s intent, it was already 2:30 and time to start the opening ceremony. A man on the stage blew into the microphone to get everyone’s attention.

“You all must be hungry, so I’ll keep this brief. Welcome to all students visiting our training center. The staff of the training center will give students unforgettable memories. Students, please follow the control of your homeroom teacher and staff…”

…You said you’d be brief.

Everyone looked at the man on stage thinking the same thing.

“…That’s all. We will now move, starting with Grade 1, Class 1, to the dining hall under staff direction.”

…Still, he hadn’t gone on forever. Saying he’d be brief wasn’t a complete lie.

“Guys, let’s go.”
“Yes~.”
“Yes.”

“Grade 1, Class 1, right? Uh… you’re Teacher Son Ji-hye, correct?”

There was a small embarrassment when a staff member who likely was assigned to our class looked surprised at seeing our homeroom teacher Son Ji-hye, but when Teacher Son put a finger to her lips to signal secrecy, the staff member caught on and led us to the dining hall.

‘…The paperwork that staff saw must’ve said Teacher Son Ji-hye was a man.’

Because she is, technically.

After lunch and a little free time to digest, we started the training center’s program. Since free time had ended and it was already close to 4 PM, we would only do one activity today.

‘The training center prepared five programs. They split the freshmen into five groups to run them, right?’

Group 1, which our class was in, consisted of Class 1 and the adjacent Class 2. The program our group would do today was…

“Paintball, huh….”

Holding a rifle-type paintball gun, I remembered the time before my regression. Back then, I had felt excited about paintball but got hit and was out before I could even properly fire the gun.

‘I wanted to pull the trigger at least once…’

With that in mind I set aside my self-defense device for now. It would be cheating to play paintball while retaining the self-defense device. Besides, with my sensing ability and physical skills, I could probably see and dodge incoming paintballs. But when the real game started, I’d lower my senses as much as possible.

“How shall we play? Defensively? Or charge?”
“If we had more people we’d spread to surround them, but since we’re outnumbered, let’s play defensively.”

I didn’t know what the other groups would do, but our team was simply Class 1 vs Class 2. Of course, our class only had ten students so we were at a numerical disadvantage, but no one complained. There were too many strong students in our class to complain about numbers.

“Elena? What will the teacher do?”

By the way, teachers were also participating in the paintball game. They weren’t supposed to, but Teacher Son Ji-hye looked so excited that she joined.

“Teacher, have you ever fired a gun?”
“Of course. I used to shoot sometimes when I was in a guild.”

…Wasn’t her previous guild a cleaner guild? A cleaner guild focuses on dungeon clears, not criminals. Why did she fire a gun there? I wanted to ask, but…

‘…Her stance is proper.’

Having regularly received shooting lessons from Woo Ji-min for months, even I could tell Teacher Son had a solid stance, which erased any doubts I’d had.

“I became a high school teacher to settle an old score from high school. I’m reliving that revenge today.”
“…You became a teacher for that reason? What happened back in high school?”
“I fired all my paint rounds but didn’t hit anyone.”

…I don’t know the details, but I could tell Teacher Son was very motivated.

Unlike her, someone in our group looked totally unmotivated.

“…Ugh… it’s heavy….”

Kim Eun-yeon muttered as if even holding the gun was a burden. She didn’t enjoy outdoor activities, so she didn’t seem enthusiastic about paintball.

‘Earlier the staff warned that without protective gear it could hurt a lot.’

Ah, of course Kim Eun-yeon’s complaint about the gun being heavy was an exaggeration. And the staff’s claim that being hit would hurt was also exaggerated. For civilians it might be heavy and painful, but Kim Eun-yeon is an Awakened even if she’s non-combatant. The weight wouldn’t be that much for her, nor would the paintball sting that badly.

“Come here, it’s not heavy. Step forward.”
“……”

Kim Eun-yeon shut up at my words.

“It looks like it’s about to start, so stop fooling around and get ready.”

Elena, who’d volunteered to be our leader, said that and everyone aimed their barrels toward the Class 2 kids, ready to shoot.

Seeing us and the Class 2 kids, a training center staff put a whistle to his mouth.

“Prepare…!”

At the staff’s signal…

Beep…!
Bang!
“Ah.”
Bang!
“Huh?”

Two of our team were out immediately.

…Me and Teacher Son Ji-hye.

Before I knew it, our face guards were splattered with paint. Right at the start…?

“What? Is Geon-woo out?”
“The teacher’s out too?”

Our classmates hid behind obstacles with startled looks. Being out from the start — and having both our ace and the teacher out — was shocking.

“It can’t be helped. Looks like Class 2 aimed at me and the teacher from the start.”
“…We’ll try for a late-game comeback.”

Teacher Son and I muttered and headed for the eliminated seats. While walking there, the teacher was already planning how to act in the late game. She seemed quite upset about being taken out before she could do anything.

But I was thinking something else.

‘At this distance, using paintballs — not real bullets — and targeting only me and the teacher…’

And they’d hit our face guards precisely. That’s not student-level skill. It suggested someone with some paintball shooting experience.

‘It must be Class 2’s homeroom teacher.’

Compared to our homeroom teacher, that other teacher had been appointed longer and likely had more experience at this kind of training center paintball. Whether they shot us early to ensure a win or to let the strong kids skip the play while the students had fun, I couldn’t tell.

“Ugh… if we stay like this, we’ll definitely lose…!”

Despite everyone being at a disadvantage after Teacher Son and I were out, Elena didn’t give up. She left her cover, aimed at Class 2, and pulled the trigger. The paintball from Elena’s gun flew and started to accelerate in midair…

‘…Wait a minute.’

A paintball that has already left the muzzle can’t keep accelerating physically. That meant Elena had used spirit magic to speed up the paintball… Even if she really wanted to win, did she have to go that far?