Possessor #2 Just Wants to Fangirl Chapter 27

Thirty minutes later, in front of the main building.

The suspects I met after a week greeted Yeom Juwan and me warmly.

“Whoa, Yeom Juwan! Did you get taller since then?”

“Didn’t you miss this hyung?”

Lee Hyojun and No Jitae were wrestling and patting down Yeom Juwan the moment they saw him.

At first glance, it looks like ordinary horseplay between boys their age, but—

‘Why are you acting so friendly? You only met for a day!’

I can’t help being on edge.

Soon worried gazes poured toward me as well.

“Sora, have you been well?”

“Yeah, how’s your body?”

“My body? Oh, the injuries from the goblins? The examiner already treated those with potions back then.”

“No, not that…”

The suspects exchanged glances with each other, hesitating before speaking with difficulty.

“Lee Hyojun was saying earlier that using abilities excessively right after awakening can strain the body.”

“There’s something called mana exhaustion! Freshmen get overwhelmed using skills multiple times… but you used yours dozens of times that day, right?”

“Did you have any strange symptoms? We got worried hearing about it.”

Come to think of it, there was that setting, wasn’t there?

Even borrowing a potion’s power, firing off skills 31 consecutive times on my first day of awakening should have caused mana exhaustion.

But I’m perfectly fine.

Hmm… why am I fine?

Is this also a possessor perk?

These possessor perks really are comprehensive!

“I’m totally fine.”

“Still, shouldn’t you visit the infirmary once?”

“I’m okay, I know my own body best.”

“Just in case, you should at least get examined…”

Why are they ganging up to turn a perfectly healthy person into a patient when I said I’m fine?

Where do I have time to go to the infirmary? I’m dying to tour the academy today, but I barely carved out precious time because of this culprit-hunting mission!

Just then,

I suddenly felt a chilling presence on my left.

When I turned my head, Yeom Juwan was looking at me with quite an intimidating gaze.

“Go.”

“…Yes.”

“Tomorrow, first thing.”

“…Yes.”

My baby, why are you suddenly so forceful?

I found myself submitting without realizing it.

Since it’s a promise with my baby, I can’t break it, so I’ll have to squeeze out some time tomorrow to visit the infirmary.

* * *

On the way to the main building cafeteria.

Lee Hyojun spilled various TMI in an excited voice.

“My family told me I absolutely have to try the main building’s minotaur pork cutlet.”

“Minotaur pork cutlet is served in the cafeteria?”

“Only at the main building cafeteria. Limited to 100 a day.”

“Ooh~ As expected of Lee Hyojun from an all-hunter family! Keep those insider tips coming!”

“Who’s freeloading here?”

“I’m uncannily good at spotting who to leech off, aren’t I?”

Lee Hyojun had visited the academy for his older siblings’ graduation ceremonies.

Having picked up various tidbits at home, he possessed a wealth of information and had no qualms about sharing it.

Thanks to that, a cheerful atmosphere prevailed throughout the journey.

And while everyone was absorbed in conversation, I focused on observation.

I didn’t call these guys here without thinking.

I’d devised my own strategy to catch the subordinate.

A three-phase operation, no less.

Strategy ①: Filter by appearance.

Let’s not forget the venerable cliché of genre fiction.

Villains look villainous.

Someone controlling grasshoppers that kill people would have murderous intent in their eyes or at least one sinister aspect.

So I scrutinized each face carefully, but—

‘Can’t tell.’

Just from appearance, they all look easygoing and kind.

Lee Hyojun and No Jitae look like ordinary mischievous high schoolers, and Park Rahee has a church volunteer image.

Well, appearance clichés are a bit old-fashioned these days.

If I can’t rely on appearance, let’s move to the next strategy.

Strategy ②: Find who sympathizes with the mastermind’s goal.

The mastermind’s ultimate goal is eliminating the ‘Master of Fate.’

According to the prescient, the ‘Master of Fate’ who will fulfill the Tower’s wish enrolled in the academy this year.

The mastermind doesn’t know it’s Ki Hyeonmin, so they attempt to massacre freshmen piecemeal, then later shift toward shutting down the academy entirely.

If someone’s the mastermind’s subordinate, they’ll participate in academy shutdown activities.

Let’s filter out people who have no attachment to their studies, who wouldn’t care if the school closed tomorrow.

I waited for the right moment, then initiated action when the conversation died down.

First, a soul-crushing sigh.

“Haah…”

“Sora, what’s wrong?”

“Just… thinking about having to keep attending the academy from now on makes me feel… weird.”

“You don’t like that you enrolled?”

“Yeah, when so many people are desperate to get in…”

In the <On the Brink of Destruction> worldview, hunter is the most coveted profession.

Complaining after enrollment is like a medical school admit saying they don’t want to attend.

In other words, it’s shameless.

First, I need to change this frame to make it easier for the suspects to reveal their honest feelings.

“Being a hunter does come with money and fame, but it’s an occupation where you face monsters, right? A dangerous profession where you never know when or where you might lose your life… It seems unfair to force us into lives of slaughtering monsters just because we awakened. Plus, we’re only seventeen. To force minors who should be protected to learn killing techniques without asking our opinion or giving us choices—it’s too much.”

When I parroted the arguments of parents who’d campaigned to abolish the awakening test, kids gradually began agreeing.

“Hmm, that’s true. They never asked us if we wanted to be hunters.”

“Actually, I… was a bit traumatized during the awakening test.”

“That’s true. Even though they’re monsters, ki… killing for the first time felt weird. If they were beast-types maybe, but goblins—even as monsters, their body shape is similar to humans…”

Right, the atmosphere isn’t bad at this level.

Shall I probe them one by one now?

First, the loudest candidate.

“Lee Hyojun, what do you think you’d be doing if you hadn’t awakened?”

Suspect 1, Lee Hyojun, is the youngest of a quite rare ‘all-hunter family’ in this world.

Lee Hyojun clenched his fist at my question and answered.

“If I hadn’t awakened? I would’ve retaken the test. Twice, three times—until I succeeded.”

“You want to be a hunter that badly?”

“Want to, I guess? I… have no other path. I need to become a hunter to secure basic human rights.”

“Human rights?”

“In my house, if you’re not a hunter, you’re treated as subhuman. No, more like a dog. At home, I’m a dog.”

“Ah…”

While everyone made awkward expressions and averted their gazes, I straightened my posture.

The only civilian youngest child in a hunter family.

If he was even abused, he might impulsively join the mastermind to smash the school.

“…They don’t call me by my name, they call me ‘Poppy.’ They put a leash on me saying we’re going for a walk, won’t let me sleep alone so they take turns crawling into my bed every night, make me wear weird pink hoodies… Haah, I’m so petty I’ll become a hunter no matter what!”

Is that what you normally call treating someone like a dog?

The family’s way of expressing affection is a bit unique, but Lee Hyojun seems to be a beloved youngest child.

Well, the kid does have no rough edges.

You can tell just from how he shares hunter knowledge freely without asking for anything in return.

I decided to put this one on hold for now.

“No Jitae, what about you? Didn’t you have anything else you wanted to do?”

“No, actually entering the academy was my dream too. If I didn’t become a hunter, my family would go bankrupt.”

“Why?”

“Because my father runs a swordsmanship dojo.”

The story that followed:

No Jitae’s father runs a swordsmanship dojo that’s always in the red.

Naturally.

In <On the Brink of Destruction>, only awakened ones learn swordsmanship.

But awakened ones can learn swordsmanship for free at the academy.

In other words, swordsmanship dojos have zero business viability.

“Still, if he has a hunter graduate son, won’t civilians come too? Then we could revive the dojo and pay off father’s debts a bit… It’s a dojo that’s been around for three generations, I can’t let it close.”

“You don’t have to force yourself to learn swordsmanship if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s not that I don’t want to… I, actually my dream is to create my own school.”

Seeing his bright red face, he really does seem to enjoy it.

No Jitae even said in a shy voice that he wants to make a name for himself with swordsmanship.

For that, he’d need academy credentials.

I decided to end the interview here and was about to ask Park Rahee, the final suspect, a leading question when she spoke up first.

“You’re all combat types. Am I the only different one?”

“Really? What type are you… oh, am I not supposed to ask that?”

“It’s fine, you’ll find out my type when we take classes anyway.”

Park Rahee smiled understandingly and spoke.

“I’m a healing type.”

“Ooooh! Jackpot! That’s super rare!”

Healers are precious in this world.

The awakening test structure makes it inevitable.

When you stand someone in front of monsters and hand them a weapon, manifesting the strong will to ‘heal’ in that situation isn’t easy.

Healers make up 0.1% of the total awakened population.

As hard to find as they are, according to supply and demand, their salaries are mind-bogglingly high.

“As a healer, you’ll never starve, right? The pay is incredible too!”

“That’s true, but… I’d prefer to go civilian if possible.”

“Why? If you enter the Tower…”

“Because my younger sibling is very sick.”

Park Rahee also had a pitiful story.

She has a sick sibling, and wants to quickly master healing arts to heal her sibling and the people in the hospital ward.

So this child also needs the academy. Because she needs to receive proper education as a healer.

‘No one particularly stands out.’

No Jitae and Park Rahee need diplomas, and Lee Hyojun doesn’t seem desperate enough to reach out to the mastermind.

I didn’t think I’d find them in one day, but I thought I could at least narrow the investigation…

I have no clue at all.

There’s even the possibility one of them is lying.

To expose lies, I’d need to stick close, set subtle traps, catch leads and pursue them, conduct additional investigations and set new traps… honestly, it’s a waste of time.

I have so much I want to do!

I’m dying from being too busy admiring my biases—why would I spend that precious time monitoring suspects?

‘Should I just go with the third strategy?’

Strategy ③ is catching them in the act.

Catching them the moment the culprit commits the crime.

And I can predict the subordinate’s next crime.

‘No matter how I look at it, this guy seems to be the main culprit behind the monster escape incidents.’

The ‘monster escape incident’ is a phenomenon that occurs periodically in <On the Brink of Destruction>.

Monsters kept for training/research purposes break through barriers and escape whenever they feel like it, and the timing is severely contrived.

Basically, it goes like this:

When the protagonist tracks the culprit?

→ Escaped monsters pop out to block the way.

When the protagonist tails a suspicious person?

→ That person inevitably becomes food for escaped monsters.

But when they investigate after the incident, there are no problems with the barriers. It got quite a lot of criticism like ‘forced frustration,’ ‘old-fashioned direction,’ ‘the author’s intelligence is questionable,’ yet it consistently kept appearing.

What if this wasn’t a directing mistake but because of the subordinate?

The grasshopper the subordinate summons uses restraint release magic.

It means they have the ability to release barriers and free monsters anytime.

What if the subordinate was secretly watching from somewhere on campus and released monsters to interfere whenever needed?

If I tail the suspects on the day of a monster escape incident, I can catch more definitive evidence than anything else.

‘Right, I’m not procrastinating!’

I’m not putting it off because I don’t want to do it, and I’m not being lazy.

Rather than exposing lies, it’s more rational to move based on concrete evidence with substance.

Right, it’s absolutely worth waiting for without even deliberating—no, postponing!

…Just then, a translucent window appeared before my eyes.

[Freshman class assignments have been completed. Please check your personal information window.]

Classes are being assigned now?

The academy has a total of 6 classes per grade.

Classes A through F, and S-class at the very top.

Every few weeks they conduct ability evaluations, and assign students to A-class if they’ll become A-rank hunters, B-class if they’ll become B-rank hunters… and so on, based on the students’ potential.

“Ooooh! I’m A-class! I said they’d disown me if I didn’t get into A!”

“Thank goodness, Poppy. You kept your surname. Now just reclaim your name.”

“What about you?”

“This hyung is obviously A.”

“Me too!”

All three suspects are A-class.

They seem more skilled than expected.

“Yeom Juwan, what about you?”

“S.”

“As expected!!! What about you, Sora?”

Both Yeom Juwan and I are S-class.

It’s not particularly surprising, so I was nodding thinking ‘of course it turned out this way’ when a new announcement arrived.

[Enrollment ceremony information.

The enrollment ceremony will be held tomorrow at 7 AM in the main building auditorium.

All freshmen, please complete entry 15 minutes prior.

Freshman representatives, please arrive 30 minutes prior.

Freshman representatives: Ki Hyeonmin, Yeon Sora]

Blink blink.

Even after closing and opening my eyelids ten times, the text didn’t change.

[Freshman representatives: Ki Hyeonmin, Yeon Sora]

What? Why is Yeon Sora appearing here?