EX rank supporting role’s replay in a prestigious school-Chapter 978: Regret (12)

After checking the quote written by Hirano Seiji, I nodded and casually spoke.

"I prefer casual speech over formal, too. This works out well."

"I'm glad to hear that."

Hirano Seiji nodded after seeing my gesture and folded his napkin.

He was hastily folding the napkin, which looked a bit awkward, and his fingers were stiff, as if he were quite nervous.

If this was an act, he might seriously want to consider a career as an actor or spy.

I pointed to the holographic menu and asked,

"Is this your first time at this café? People from our school don't usually order the mint café mocha."

I pretended to browse the menu, moving my fingers to write something so that it would be visible to Hirano Seiji.

[The camera?]

Seeing Hirano Seiji's eyes follow my finger, it seemed he understood my intent.

It could be answered with a simple yes or no, so there was no need to write an answer.

Hirano Seiji shook his head and said,

"No, it's not my first time at this café. I've been looking around the area near Eungwang High during my break."

Hirano Seiji answered in a way that would raise no suspicion if he were being eavesdropped.

Before I could probe further, I heard Huang Jiho's voice through the hidden receiver, which might not have been visible due to the hair covering it.

[It's true, Jo Yi-shin. It seems they couldn't bypass the security of Hwangmyung Tower, so they couldn't plant anything in the café, but since there's no thorough inspection, they must have planted eavesdropping equipment in someone.]

This café is currently under the influence of the Hojo family.

Though there are some regular customers, they are a minority.

Those sitting near me where sound can reach are all sent by Huang Jiho.

Huang Jiho is currently monitoring the area using devices and abilities, and to communicate discreetly, they have used a miniature voice receiver developed by the Hwangmyung Group.

It felt a bit extreme to go through all this just for a casual meeting between high school students, but considering everything that had happened so far, caution was necessary.

'At least it's lucky there are no cameras.'

Eavesdropping equipment is easy to hide since there's no need to carry it openly, but hiding a camera is not as easy.

After all, even the smallest camera needs to have a lens exposed, making it difficult to deceive the eyes of players who are on high alert.

To hide it effectively, I'd have to use the invisibility ability, just like when I filmed the busking video for Dukgo Mi-ro. However, using invisibility is inefficient because the effort required to hide it diminishes the effectiveness of the ability.

'There is a chance that they might figure out I'm aware of the eavesdropping. But if they've sent it, it means they trust me.'

Alternatively, they could have deliberately hinted at the existence of the eavesdropping device to make me think they were trying to establish trust.

Either way, it was clear that the Japanese representative team trusted Hirano Seiji.

Huang Jiho's voice continued.

[Jeokho has roughly analyzed the eavesdropping device Hirano Seiji is wearing.]

Jeokho is also here, probably in a spot not far from me.

He was furious about the incident with Andain and wanted to track down the culprit and wipe them out with explosives.

To calm him down, I asked for his help and brought him along.

'Is it really okay to use the Hojo family's top information expert for something like this...'

Though I couldn't see him because he was using invisibility, Jeokho was discretely conducting a body search on Hirano Seiji.

Since he was so close, I could faintly feel Jeokho's presence.

It seemed that Hirano Seiji hadn't noticed Jeokho's presence.

But perhaps because Hirano Seiji had been searched for eavesdropping equipment, a highly skilled player like him seemed to sense something.

"...Eungwang High is a place related to the founding myth of the Korean Peninsula, right? No wonder it feels like there's a strange energy today."

Hirano Seiji's eyes narrowed slightly.

If he sensed such an energy during a battle, he would likely send out a wide-range attack to detect hidden enemies or abilities.

It seemed Hirano Seiji was struggling to suppress that instinct.

He probably didn't imagine that the legendary Hojo family was lurking around; he likely thought I was just checking whether there was an eavesdropping device and was using my abilities to search him.

I acted unaware and said,

"Really? Then it can't be bad energy. The energy here won't harm the students of Eungwang High."

I meant that as long as the energy isn't hostile to the students of Eungwang High, it wouldn't harm him.

Hirano Seiji seemed to understand and slightly relaxed his expression.

"I see. In Japan, there are a lot of high-level entities with great influence, so we're always on alert. That's why I'm sensitive to any discomfort. There are also harmful high-level entities."

"Is it okay for you to say that?"

"High-level entities that harm humans without purpose can't cross the sea. Ah, but just in case, keep it secret."

His smile made him look like an ordinary student, friendly and playful.

Hirano Seiji and I continued our conversation about high-level entities.

We talked about how there are still many high-level entities in Japan that haven't been identified, and exaggeratedly, there might even be more high-level entities than true clans in Japan. It was just normal conversation one might have when meeting foreign players.

The longer the conversation went on, the more Hirano Seiji's eyes trembled.

It seemed like he wanted to say something, but was struggling to find the right moment.

In the meantime, Huang Jiho kept speaking in my ear.

[Hirano Seiji's eavesdropping device has been roughly analyzed. It's similar in structure to the reconnaissance item used to monitor Andain. It's likely made by the same player.]

Hearing Andain's name made me feel uncomfortable, but Hirano Seiji in front of me seemed likely to be innocent, so I barely managed to keep my expression under control.

I had heard before that someone had been targeting Andain for a while.

Ever since the Hojo family became involved, there had been persistent efforts to target Andain, and given the timing and circumstances, I vaguely suspected this might be part of a movement to expose Andain's scandals tied to the Hwangmyung Group.

In that process, there had been a few incidents where Andain or the Hojo family discovered reconnaissance devices and destroyed them.

'It wasn't targeting the Hwangmyung Group, but perhaps they had been targeting Andain from the beginning. Did they think they could get something valuable after Andain suddenly got adoptive parents? And it seems this party has ties to Japan.'

Huang Jiho's voice was calm, but there was a hidden agitation in it.

I carefully listened, picking up only the necessary information, while sipping on my orange smoothie and playing along with Hirano Seiji's banter.

As nearly an hour passed, Hirano Seiji's restlessness grew.

He seemed to be thinking about how he might miss the right timing to say what he wanted before the conversation ended.

I waited until his composure wavered, then opened my mouth.

"I heard the Japanese representative team has been in Korea for a while for their adaptation training. I wanted to greet you earlier, but it's unexpected. Our school has a lot of outstanding players, far better than me."

Hirano Seiji's eyes widened slightly.

He had been acting mature, even when signaling for the eavesdropping, but his face now looked more like a teenager's, as I had expected.

It seemed he had been waiting for me to mention 'our school's other players.'

[Hirano Seiji is currently wearing a voice receiver. Though it’s of lower quality than the one I arranged, it’s still responding. It seems he is giving instructions.]

Hirano Seiji awkwardly smiled, his lips trembling slightly as he nervously called my name.

"Haha, you're too humble. Yi-shin is a good player."

"It's not about humility. In our third year, we have senior Eljun-yeol, the King of Red Flames, and also senior Cheon Dong-ha, who gets better results than Hongryong. In our grade, we have the unbeatable top scorer Jo Su-hyeok and Andain."

This was something necessary to say, but I didn’t need to pretend.

There were many playable characters at our school who excelled in academics, character, and abilities, and I genuinely respected them.

But this time, since it was related to those targeting Andain, I deliberately emphasized their names.

"The nameless rising star isn't weaker than the likes of the master archers Narae or Shintan’s master. Our team’s performance analyst always wonders about that. And you..."

Hirano Seiji trailed off.

He seemed to want me to ask, but it looked like he genuinely didn’t know how to proceed.

Hirano Seiji’s fingers wrote on the napkin.

[Trap!]

The exclamation mark showed it was a very significant warning.

This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

If I picked up on his trailing words, it seemed like someone behind the scenes had set a trap for me.

Since this had likely been planned from the beginning, I couldn’t just let it go.

"Me? Do you have something you want to say?"

Hirano Seiji’s face darkened.

It seemed like he wanted to ask why I didn’t let it pass, but there was something in his demeanor that made him hold back.

Hirano Seiji hesitated, so I urged him.

[Understood.]

Seeing the words on the napkin, I quickly lifted my head.

When I turned my gaze back to the napkin, Hirano Seiji's eyes followed.

[It’s okay.]

Hirano Seiji stared at the three words "It's okay" for a long time.

After some hesitation, Hirano Seiji spoke.

"...You could definitely be the top scorer, but I thought you might be deliberately avoiding it. They say you're just one subject away from a perfect score."

I didn't even know how my grades had spread.

Although Jo Su-hyeok and Andain were famous for their perfect scores, I didn't expect anyone to be interested in me.

But those trying to use me would certainly be watching.

"How did you know?"

"I saw a post online. They say the nameless rising star missed out on the top spot because of one subject. Sorry if it upset you."

It seemed someone from Eungwang High wrote the post.

But I hadn’t seen such a post on the Eungwang High bulletin board, so it must have been posted somewhere else. I wondered where such posts could have been made.

Could it have been on the 'Player Network,' a shared platform for players?

Since even Eungwang High has its fans, it was possible.

"I also know about the subject you couldn't get a perfect score in."

"Really?"

"Yeah, in your first year, you had Professor Choi Pyeon-deuk, but it switched to Professor Gong Cheong-hwon midway. That’s the subject where you missed a perfect score after that."

Hirano Seiji said very slowly.

Both Choi Pyeon-deuk and Gong Cheong-hwon were names difficult for even Koreans to pronounce, so I couldn’t blame him.

Though Hirano Seiji didn’t directly mention it, I understood why these names came up.

Gong Cheong-hwon became a regular professor after Choi Pyeon-deuk fell from grace, and around that time, the Hwangmyung Group had more frequent exchanges.

I had been taking Gong Cheong-hwon’s classes every semester, and each time, I couldn’t get a perfect score in that subject, preventing me from being the top scorer.

Those who knew this, especially those trying to fuel the suspicions about Andain's favoritism, would find this suspicious.

Hirano Seiji asked with a shadow over his face.

"Is there a reason you have to choose the subject where you can't get a perfect score?"