EX rank supporting role’s replay in a prestigious school-Chapter 947: The Last School Refusal (5)

The heavy rain continued to fall today, but Baekho-gun remained completely dry.

It seemed he had no interest in getting drenched in such a pitiful manner.

If that's the case, I didn't think he had wandered around just to get caught in the rain. I had no idea why he had come all the way here.

"Didn't I tell you to come and see if you were going to look?"

Again, Baekho-gun read my thoughts and responded as if it were nothing.

It had been some time since the sparring match ended, and now he was saying things like that?

"I told you to come and watch the sparring match."

"But that doesn't change the fact that I came to see you."

I was happy to know that my final playable character had come to see me, but it wasn't just joy.

He was so good at talking, and yet, I could tell he must have been frustrated with keeping quiet all this time.

Knowing that he could instantly sense these thoughts of mine, I decided to vent my frustration in silence.

Baekho-gun smiled.

‘He’s laughing?’

I couldn't remember when Baekho-gun's smiles had become so frequent.

If Hwang Ji-ho saw this, he'd likely grin in disbelief.

Baekho-gun's deep voice mixed with laughter.

"Such consideration, overflowing respect, admirable, serious, dependable. After hearing these compliments for over a year, it's refreshing to see you like this now."

Had he really remembered all of that?

But I couldn't understand why that was something to laugh about.

I was indeed angry, but the feelings I had then hadn't changed, so there was nothing particularly funny about it.

As I thought this, Baekho-gun’s eyes curved into a more mischievous arc.

He must have found it amusing to watch me seethe with frustration.

"Just tell me why you're here."

"I came because you were awake. Go back to sleep."

"No."

His sudden intrusion and demand to sleep immediately prompted me to flatly reject him.

Although it was past midnight, it wasn’t unusual for someone to be awake at this hour.

Many others who were in training camp might still be up.

"Perhaps it's not that late, as you think, but you haven't slept a wink since yesterday."

"I can go a few days without sleep. You should know by now if you've been watching."

"I've seen it a few times. I know very well that it's been too much every time."

"Yeah, I know."

Baekho-gun still had a smile on his face as he silently looked down at me.

I met his gaze straight on.

"If you have complaints, say them."

Even if I complained silently, Baekho-gun would still be able to sense it. But if he kept any complaints to himself, I wouldn't know about it.

I had a lot of complaints about the divine protection granted by my True Name, especially about how it’s a one-way street while I’m awake. It was deeply frustrating.

Even if I told him to take it, he wouldn't take the True Name, which made it all the more vexing.

"I’m complaining about you overexerting yourself."

"It’s not overexertion."

"You think so, don't you?"

This could go on forever.

Perhaps Baekho-gun felt the same way, because instead of voicing more complaints, he changed the subject.

"If you can't sleep, it might be good to listen to a lullaby."

"I’m not unable to sleep because there’s no lullaby."

"Since the juniors prepared something special, why not check it out?"

The juniors had prepared something?

Now that I thought about it, I hadn't checked my device for hours.

I had seen the message from the juniors after their youth training camp, greeting me and saying they’d send a talent show video.

“They said the talent show video was too long and they'd edit it before sending it.”

Eun Seo-ho and Eun Yi-ho, from class 1-0, were supposed to send a video of their talent show performance from their youth training camp.

I had been looking forward to seeing what they'd prepared, as they'd been working on it in secret, but I had forgotten about it.

Though Baekho-gun was standing in front of me, it seemed like he wanted me to check the message, so I decided to let him be and turned on my device.

[Eun Jae-ho] The edit is finished.

[Eun Jae-ho] (Link)

Was Eun Jae-ho the one who handled the editing?

He seems to not only take good pictures but also be skilled in video editing.

The link led to the talent show video of class 1-0.

At the start of the video, the juniors went up on stage empty-handed.

‘Are they planning to do something they can perform with just their hands? Or could they materialize item cards...? No, let’s see.’

When I looked at their hands, I noticed there was something held in them.

The mysterious object was a collection of grass, leaves, and bark.

Eun Seo-ho was the only one who didn't have anything in his hands, and as he stood at the center of his classmates, he turned his back to the audience.

Seeing that, I could already guess what the juniors were about to do.

[Beeeep.....]

At a gesture from Eun Seo-ho, Eun Yi-ho folded a leaf in half and blew air into it.

A pure tone then echoed from the leaf.

Starting with Eun Yi-ho, a performance of a grass flute ensemble began.

It might seem like a strange performance just producing sound from grass, but in fact, it was a very difficult and valuable ensemble.

The grass flute, also known as 초적 (Chocheok), is a traditional instrument with a long history, and playing it is so tricky that it’s considered an intangible cultural heritage.

‘I’ve heard it's difficult to produce sound with it, but they’re playing in an ensemble, each taking different ranges. That’s impressive.’

If they had prepared something like this, it would have been perfect for a surprise reveal.

Although it wasn’t too long or complicated, the song they performed was “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” with some variation, and it lasted just over three minutes.

Despite the short duration, the applause was much longer.

If I had been there watching, I wouldn't have held back my applause either.

But the video didn’t end there.

[Professor Gong Cheong-hwon! Isn’t this the kind of accompaniment you could sing to?]

[We want to hear you sing live!]

Eun Seo-ho and Eun Yi-ho, clapping, approached Gong Cheong-hwon, who had been clapping as well.

Gong Cheong-hwon looked startled, eyes wide, and the juniors, sensing an opportunity, began chanting "Sing!"

It seemed it wasn’t just class 1-0 who wanted to hear Gong Cheong-hwon sing, as kids from classes 1-1 and 1-2 joined in the chant.

The gymnasium was filled with the sound of chanting, and Gong Cheong-hwon responded.

[Alright, that was a great performance. I’ll sing.]

Woooaaah!

The cheers grew louder.

Gong Cheong-hwon lightly jumped onto the stage and grabbed the microphone handed to him by the host.

Holding the microphone and walking toward the stage felt incredibly familiar to him.

It seemed his sense of being the band’s vocalist hadn’t died down.

‘...It’s not surprising that Gong Cheong-hwon still has that feeling inside him.’

Gong Cheong-hwon was good at finding me.

I used to think he was just good at finding students who frequently skipped class, but considering what I had recently learned, that might not be the full picture.

--- “You’ve always been the first to find and deal with the most dangerous things.”

If being good at finding danger is a trait of a new soul, I could understand why Gong Cheong-hwon would find me so easily.

If the nightmare I carry causes problems, then the True Name of the tiger clan, which Gong Cheong-hwon cherishes, might be swallowed up by it.

Since Baekho-gun's True Name had already passed to me, it made sense that Gong Cheong-hwon instinctively saw me as dangerous.

‘At this point, it would be strange if Hwang Ji-ho or Eun Ho didn’t suspect me. Hwang Ji-ho did suspect me at first, but over time, he started trusting me way too much.’

Even though Gong Cheong-hwon, the reincarnation of the new soul, knew me well, the tigers didn’t suspect me.

They treated me as someone who needed to be watched with caution, but they also actively invited me to the tiger mansion, keeping me close.

Suddenly, a thought from Sidralentium came to mind.

--- "I doubt I can extract useful clues from them."

--- "They are the ones who failed to notice the absence of X for thousands of years. They lack objectivity. Their shared experiences, relationships, affections, and certainties will interfere with objective thinking."

Perhaps the tigers couldn't think of me objectively anymore.

If that was the case, shouldn't I distance myself from them?

Just as I was lost in thought, Baekho-gun’s voice interrupted.

"Joid-shin, you will never harm my friends or siblings. It’s right that they trust you."

"The nightmare is real. I never know when it might go berserk."

"If that's the case, it's the same for us. If our emotions are too high or we lose our composure, we could go out of control. We are far more dangerous than humans when we do. It would cause far greater harm."

True, the divine beings were dangerous compared to humans.

Especially those from the mythological world, who had lived for long ages.

But that didn’t mean I was thinking of distancing myself from them.

Baekho-gun knew I would think this way and immediately spoke.

"We are no different."

I wanted to argue that it wasn’t the same, but since danger existed in both cases, I couldn’t respond properly.

It wasn’t that I didn’t have any counterpoints, but I was too dumbfounded to say anything.

Meanwhile, in the video playing, Gong Cheong-hwon’s voice filled the background, singing along with the grass flute ensemble.

At first, he sang with Korean lyrics, but upon receiving an encore request, he sang the song again in English.

[Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.]

When Gong Cheong-hwon’s clear and fresh voice distracted me for a moment, I blanked out.

I couldn’t tell if it was because I had too many thoughts or because I hadn’t slept last night.

The sound of the song left me dazed.

No, the real problem was that I had completely let my guard down and stopped suspecting that Baekho-gun might do something to me.

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"Sleep well, Joid-shin."

Baekho-gun was holding a golden incense burner carved with a tiger.

It was the sleep incense burner that had been used to put people to sleep during replays.

Wasn’t that something only Hwang Ji-ho could use?

Before I could even resist, my eyes grew heavier.

I glared at Baekho-gun with the last of my strength, but to my annoyance, he was smiling faintly.

Right after Joid-shin fell asleep, outside the landscaping area.

Inseon-oh was quietly gazing beyond the fog.

A gray spider crawled over the back of his hand, moving actively before freezing in place with a slight tremor.

The gray spider was staring at the same spot as Inseon-oh.

"...Seems like he's asleep now."

Inseon-oh murmured to himself before checking a message on his device.

It was a message exchanged with the class.

The message contained trivial chatter, as well as updates about the second-year class 0 students currently in training camp.

Among the contents was a report about Joid-shin’s big victory in a sparring match with seniors, and Maeng Hyo-don studying math with Ju Su-hyuk.

Inseon-oh reread the message and began walking.

Step by step.

As Inseon-oh walked around the lake, the gray spider hid inside his sleeve.

Though Inseon-oh appeared to be strolling leisurely, he was walking carefully, remaining vigilant to any signs.

There was always a possibility that someone might come out for a late-night stroll if the dream was restless.

Fortunately, Inseon-oh didn’t run into anyone until dawn.

By the time he was far from the landscaping area, the rain had lightened.

When the rain had completely stopped, and Inseon-oh had disappeared from view, he muttered to himself.

"Hmm, seems like the young one’s night walk is taking a while. Should I say something?"

"Since it’s break time, it’s fine if they walk whenever they want," Eun Ho replied softly.

After returning from the youth training camp, Eun Ho had spent the night at the Eun Hwi-gwan, catching up on what had happened during his absence and gathering information about the China-Japan-Korea exchange competition.

"The important thing isn't the time, but what they do during the walk."