Chapter 68

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Fortunately, Professor Blesbuck was in her seat when I arrived at the common office after a long walk.

The way she was constantly rummaging through the documents and muttering something was the first time I saw her serious.

… If I think about it, although Alice Blessbuck was originally a naive-looking character, she was sincere as much as she cared for her students.

But why on earth were all the images I saw of her were when she was tired from work, or just running away in surprise at the word Purification potion.

Anyway, it was when I was standing at the entrance of the office and waiting because I thought I would interfere with Professor Blesbuck, who was working hard.

"Oh."

Suddenly, she lifted her head and looked exactly at me.

She smiled pleasantly with a surprised expression on her face.

With her eyes filled with so much tiredness that she couldn't hide, she motioned for me to come.

As I approached her, she offered me a small chair to sit on.

"Hello, professor."

"Oh. Hello, Ji-Hyuk. What's the matter?”

I thought it would be better to bring up the main topic than to change the subject for no reason.

"I'm sorry to bother you all of a sudden, but can I take a week of sick leave starting tomorrow?"

At my words, she made an unexpected look.

“Sick leave? At this time?”

"Yes."

She looked more serious than before.

"Why all of a sudden?"

“Actually, it’s not that I’m sick, but I have personal reasons. I think it will take at least a week...… .”

At that, Professor Blesbuck fell silent.

She must have already been well aware of my personal information, so I just wanted her to misunderstand.

Professor Blessbuck opened her mouth quietly, as if she had finished thinking about it.

“Then I think it would be difficult to get a sick leave. Of course, you'll need a medical certificate and a statement of reason. You know that going out of the academy without permission can even lead to expulsion in extreme cases, right?”

"Can't you do something? It’s really urgent.”

She hesitated for a moment at my request.

"If you need about a week, there's a way…… .”

With those words, Professor Blesbuck handed me a piece of paper with a look of unwillingness.

Temporary leave of absence.

At the top of the paper, it was written like that.

"A leave of absence?"

When I asked back in surprise, she raised her hand as if to say not to worry.

“It’s literally a temporary leave of absence. As students from all over the world come to us, there are often circumstances or pressing incidents that cannot be discussed. It was recently created for such students...… But since the academy's rules can't be changed carelessly, we've named it a temporary leave of absence, so that they can't complain. In principle, a leave of absence can be approved immediately without miscellaneous regulations as long as you're willing to do so."

"Aha…… .”

“This will give you a week or so of time you want. Instead, during this period, of course, it is impossible to process attendance. … Are you okay with that?”

"Yes."

Professor Blesbuck let out a small sigh at my immediate answer.

"Yes. If you've come all the way here, it means your worries are already over. If that's what you mean...… .”

She signed the temporary leave of absence form in beautiful handwriting and handed it to me along with a pen.

After signing, I politely handed her the leave of absence form, and she took it and put it in the file.

“Don’t worry too much, the permit will be issued within today. The permit will probably be mailed to your dorm room.”

"Thank you."

“Oh, Ji-Hyuk.”

“Yes?”

Professor Blessbuck, who called me, thought for a moment and then waved her hand as if it was nothing.

“Yeah, no. I forgot to tell you that if the period of leave of absence is too long, it will be treated as a real leave of absence, and that during the period of leave of absence, you will not be treated as an academy student. Please be careful.”

"Yes. All right."

"Yeah…… .”

After saying that, she turned her head and began to look through the documents again.

I bowed my head once to her, and immediately left the office.

* * *

If there's one thing I've overlooked, it's that I've been involved with Lee Myung-Joon so often that I forgot that he was one of the busiest people in the world.

Since he originally came to the academy as an advisor, he probably had a lot of work to do.

On top of that, there was the attack at the time of the guild invitational, three large criminal groups involved, the meeting with six guild masters, and the problem of spies and traitors discovered…… .

It was only natural that he would be very busy right now.

The problem was that if I couldn't contact him at all, I would be in trouble.

‘What should I do…… .'

There were a total of three so-called Hidden Pieces, which I concluded that I could definitely find them during my leave of absence by raking up the knowledge I could remember.

To be honest, I was just waiting for the right time because I knew that the process of getting them all was cumbersome, the clear conditions were difficult, or the cleanup and after-storms would be at a level that could not be ignored.

But who said it?

What's the point of saving it?

No matter how good things are, if you can't use them when you really need them, they're meaningless.

In other words, I was no longer in a position to care about such things.

However, even so, it was of course good to reduce the risks that could be reduced as much as possible.

And the first place I decided to go was the place with the greatest risk.

Apart from the other two hidden pieces, this one was a must-visit.

That's why I purposely accumulated contributions to Lee Myung-Jun and his guild, Thunder Lord's Hammer...… .

But I couldn't contact him when it was really important.

I fiddled with my phone with a broken screen.

In the end, I texted him asking him to contact me later, and it was when I was about to put my cell phone in.

“What's wrong with your phone?”

Jin Ye-Seul, who suddenly raised her head, asked in a whisper.

On the way back from meeting Professor Blesbuck, Jin Ye-Seul, who had been standing blankly until then, came to her senses when she saw me and soon began to follow me.

I couldn't stop her from following me, so I left her alone and she followed me to the library.

“You know. The one before.”

"Oh."

At my words, she nodded her head as if she understood.

Then she looked at it closely and frowned.

“But no matter how I look at it, it looks like it’s broken.”

"What?"

“Can I check it?”

With my permission, Jin Ye-Seul took my cell phone and called somewhere.

Then she stared at her own cell phone and nodded her head when there was no response no matter how much time passed.

“I think it’s really broken.”

"Oh, no."

She handed me back my phone and I clicked my tongue softly.

I thought it was strange, but I didn't know it was really broken.

I guess I'll have to go to town tomorrow to have it repaired, or I'll have to buy a new one.

“…… .”

In the meantime, it was when I seriously thought of the reason why I couldn't contact Lee Myung-Joon earlier, and became convinced, and was making an indescribable expression.

“Oh, right.”

In the meantime, Jin Ye-Seul clapped her hands slightly as if she had suddenly remembered and said to me.

“I think those two have finally come to their senses, so now I can dig up information.”

The two people she was referring to were the Red Case Killer who had attacked me a few days ago.

When I looked at her as if I wanted her to say more, Jin Ye-Seul lowered her gaze and said.

“Honestly, they were both so deeply wounded that I thought I couldn't do anything if they both just died, but……Somehow they managed to come back alive.”

"Okay."

I nodded.

When it came to interrogation, there was no one who could match Jin Ye-Seul.

Is there a better person than her who can extract information from a dead body? 

Even though I knew it was useless, I told her what I wanted to say.

“Don't let them run away or commit suicide by any chance. And you can't be caught holding them."

Then, Jin Ye-Seul replied with a bright smile.

"Don't worry! They can't do anything as I  have cut the tendon in their limbs and pulled out their jaw point. To be honest, I don't have that much power or right to speak in my family...… Still, there are people and places I can use separately, so don't worry about that. I've drugged them, but I've put surveillance on them just in case."

“… Oh, okay. Then please.”

For a moment, I felt sorry for the two of them, but it was only for a moment.

I wasn't a nice enough guy to let them off the hook for jumping on me to kill me and muttering about dissecting me alive and all.

No, that's probably foolish rather than nice.

The fact that I might have been in the same position, I struggled to throw it into the other corner of my consciousness.

“Yes, don’t worry. I'll make them divulge everything they know. And since I've got two of them, it'll be much easier."

Jin Ye-Seul looked at me and gave an expression as if to trust her.

“Because that means I can kill up to two people.”

“…… .”

I looked at her for a moment, lost for words, and all I could finally make out was a voice that said 'Don't kill unnecessarily until you get the important information.'

At my words, she meekly nodded her head.

Honestly, I didn't have much faith, but I had no choice but to believe her.

“Then why have you suddenly come to the library? That's also…… Well, where the philosophy books are.”

I didn't answer her question.

That was because there was no need to explain that there was a skill book hidden in the area where the philosophy books were placed in the library, and that I was looking for it now.

“Well, there is a saying that in order to make life fertile, you have to sow the seeds of philosophy.”

"But I think you're just skimming through them."

As I glared slightly, Jin Ye-Seul covered her mouth in surprise.

Then she shook her head as if she hadn't said anything, and I clicked my tongue small and turned my head away, and continued what I was doing.

In fact, it was what she said.

I couldn't help but sigh when I thought about how reckless it would be to find just one book among the tens of thousands of books.

It was also structured in such a way that you had to read the text directly on one of the pages to expose the hidden contents, so I had to go through every page of the book at least.

I think I've looked through at least a few hundred books, but I can't figure out how many more times I'll have to repeat this.

The skill I can find here wasn't absolutely necessary, but it was a skill that didn't hurt to have.

That fact alone was enough to make me sell my feet like this.

I don't know how many days it will take, but I can find it within a few months, it was when I was thinking positively like that.

"Ah, lunchtime is almost over."

Thanks to Jin Ye-Seul, who muttered quietly, my pulse was relieved for a moment.

Jin Ye-Seul put on a look like she couldn't understand again this time, until I inserted the book I was holding into the bookshelf with a sigh.

* * *

Han Soo-Young was heading to the common office, holding the files in her arm.

The professor in charge of the Magic Exploration Club said that he had some documents to send to Professor Blesbuck urgently, and asked her if she could give them to her on her way back.

It was not a burdensome request, so Han Soo-Young readily accepted the professor's request.

“…… .”

She was recalling what happened in the previous club earlier.

The upperclassman, who had been bothering her for a while, hadn't approached her since that day.

Thanks to that, she was able to get close to the people in the club that she had become estranged from, and she was not reluctant to go to the club.

Then, she felt him staring at her in the club earlier, and she remembered that she had deliberately swept her hair back as if showing off.

Thanks to that, her earrings caught his eye, and he frowned, and disappeared somewhere.

Even when she thought about it, it was a little childish behavior, but she felt better.

She then muttered to herself, saying, if I had known this would happen, I should have stepped up and cut him off.

She realized that she had been fiddling with her earrings while nodding her head without realizing it.

At that fact, she slipped her hand down and straightened her posture.

When she felt her face getting hotter, she took off her cardigan complaining that it was hot for no reason.

The weather was still chilly, but it was hot for her.

Anyway, that's what happened.

"Excuse me…… .”

When she opened the door to the office and entered, it was very quiet inside.

Since it is a common office, she only guessed that it might be because there are many professors who use private offices rather than using it.

“Oh, Soo-Young. What's going on?”

"Hello. professor."

Then, one of the professors who was teaching liberal arts class pretended to know her.

It's not surprising, but Han Soo-Young is an honor student with an S rank and excellent grades.

She has never been conceited about it and has always shown that she works hard.

Therefore, most of the professors viewed her in a good way, and he was also one of those professors.

When she greeted him and made it clear why she was here, the professor pointed to one side and said.

“If it's Professor Blesbuck's seat, it's probably over there. she was here until a while ago, but I think she left because she had something to do...… She probably won't be back for a while, so just leave it. I'll tell her later."

"Thank you."

With those words, Han Soo-Young headed to Professor Blesbuck's seat.

On a desk full of papers and unknown formulas, Han Soo-Young carefully put down the documents she brought.

The back pages with high-level formulas that even Han Soo-Young, who was far beyond her age, could not understand, were enough to stimulate her curiosity.

She looked at it secretly, wondering what the formulas meant.

"Huh?"

At that moment, a sheet of paper caught her eye.

It was a piece of paper that seemed to have slipped out of the binding of a document.

Normally, she would never have touched it.

However, she could feel an unfamiliar feeling of uneasiness wrapping around her body.

According to Choi Hyun-Woo, it was intuition.

She decided to follow her intuition.

Very carefully, she looked around her and pulled out the papers from the file.

Temporary leave of absence.

As soon as she saw the word, she could feel her heart pounding.

"Huh?"

And her eyes began to tremble violently when she saw a familiar name written on the leave of absence.

Her heart started to beat faster and faster.

It's probably a person with the same name.

She wanted to think so, but the name written in the form was written in Yoo Ji-Hyuk's handwriting she knew.

The signature engraved under it was clearly that of Yoo Ji-Hyuk, which she had seen before.

“……Why?"

She just murmured blankly. 

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