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 name was Kang Harang.

She was a lovable child who seemed perfectly crafted.

Yoon Hyunseo, remembering her own past when she couldn’t even enter the Academy, invited the girl Harang into her party.

Han Taehwi was a long-time friend who got along well with her, so there was no need to ask his opinion.

They both had younger sisters around the same 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 seemed unbelievable that they hadn’t gotten first place until now.

‘This time, 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 dreamed of.

For wizards, the tomato badge meant 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 named Gyeoul had handed out many badges.

But then too many applicants flooded in, so they changed the distribution method.

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… some 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 moment 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 someone high up in the Black Dragon Society?

That would make some 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 seemed to have similar thoughts, looking tense.

It seemed 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 some slimes now.”

“O-okay. Shall we…?”

“…? Why are you suddenly using formal speech…?”

“Ah, no, yeah.”

Yoon Hyunseo stuttered and moved closer to me, gripping her staff.

Han Taehwi also drew his sword, his weapon.

“Now we need to find slimes. Do you know how to find them, Harang?”

“Yes, I do.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

The slimes 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 me 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 some, Harang?”

“Okay.”

I led the two of them around, searching for slimes.

Through bushes, trees, and even rocks.

I listened for the squishy sounds unique to slimes and searched here and there.

Yoon Hyunseo and Han Taehwi did the actual slime 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 times more than expected.”

The two of them looked surprised, but they didn’t doubt me.

They just exclaimed in admiration, saying I had an amazing ability.

That’s how we managed to catch an incredible number of slimes in two hours.

The slime 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 time to gather.”

“Okay.”

Yoon Hyunseo hummed a tune, seemingly in a good mood from the heavy bag of slimes.

Han Taehwi also looked quite pleased.

When we arrived at the gathering point, we handed over the bag full of slime cores to the instructor.

A look of bewilderment flashed across the instructor’s face as he checked the slime cores in the bag.

“Um…”

“What’s wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

Students who had returned handed in their slime cores like this.

With nothing else to do, I counted the slime cores other people had brought from afar.

Clatter-!

They poured the cores into the machine all at once.

It seemed they were trying to count the slime 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 slimes the students had caught, I realized something.

We had caught more slimes 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 slimes 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 seemed only I, who could see the world in slow motion, had noticed this fact.

“Huh?!”

People’s gazes turned to me at my surprised voice, then quickly looked away.

Only Han Taehwi and Yoon Hyunseo’s gazes remained on me.

“What’s wrong?”

“Twenty-four cores just fell, but the machine says thirty…”

“You counted them all in that moment they fell?”

“Yes… I have good eyes for this kind of thing…”

Will they believe me 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 me.

I was truly grateful.

Was this the kind of corruption the guild had mentioned?

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 somewhat sinister smile.

——

“Excuse me.”

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 moment?”

“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 something strange about the slime count earlier?”

“…What do you mean?”

“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 something?’

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 name 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 glimmer 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 moment 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 meant Baek Ihyeon was even more impressive than the formidable Black Dragon Society.

“Ah…”

Yoon Hyunseo lowered her head.

She remembered her past when she had missed first place by a hair, or in ridiculous ways.

Could it be that all this time, she hadn’t gotten first place because…?

Yoon Hyunseo couldn’t move for a while.

—

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