Chapter 223 – Conception (2)

As soon as dawn broke, I mounted Horn’s back.

“Please don’t forget what we discussed yesterday.”

I made one last request to both the Sword Master and Director Sung.

“Don’t worry. No matter what happens, I’ll take care of it.”

“I’ll also produce results that satisfy Heavenly Sword as soon as possible! Travel safe—no, fly safe, please!”

And so, with their goodbyes, Horn flapped her wings and took off.

Flap.

As we flew, Horn suddenly opened her mouth and asked.

“Mr. Kang Geom-Ma, you haven’t forgotten the promise you made, right?”

Promise? What promise?

Had I made some other promise with Horn?

Since I didn’t answer, Horn slightly turned her head and muttered with narrowed eyes.

“Tripple Hanwoo…”

Ah, that. That blatant lie I made up to convince her. I had completely forgotten.

The problem was, “Trippul Hanwoo” didn’t even exist.

In reality, the highest quality grade for Hanwoo was “2++.”

But it would’ve been too shameless to just stay silent. Horn had sincerely helped me in many ways.

While I was still thinking about what to do, I ended up opening my mouth.

“Horn, have you ever heard of Wagyu?”

“Wagyu…? What’s that?”

When she’s in dragon form, she always ends her sentences with “yong yong.” Is that part of her character? It cuts her intimidating presence in half.

“It’s a type of beef very similar to Tripple Hanwoo… but super expensive. One dish costs around 300,000 won.”

“Th-three hundred thousand won!?”

Horn’s back twitched.

‘She was just recently treating money like a tissue to blow her nose…’

But now she seemed to understand the value of money. She had learned economics through beef.

‘Better to look at it positively.’

It was better for Horn to adapt quickly to human values. It would make it easier for her to live at the academy if she at least picked up some basic common sense, even superficially.

…Though I couldn’t help feeling a little sad. Was this what it felt like to watch a baby grow up? It gave me a strange feeling, like one day she’d ask for a smartphone.

I smiled bitterly and continued.

“Anyway, you worked hard, so I’ll buy you all the meat you want.”

Of course, with Choi Seol-Ah’s money.

Even though I received sponsorship funds and had income as a member of the Seven Stars, I couldn’t afford to feed Horn’s monstrous appetite.

She’d probably devour at least twenty servings of Wagyu.

‘And once I buy her Wagyu, I’ll have to keep buying it for her…’

The zeros in my bank account would evaporate in seconds.

Just thinking about it made me dizzy.

Flap!

Horn beat her wings even harder, breaking through the clouds.

Through the gaps, the land was already coming into view.

The return home was near.

***

At that moment, Speedweapon let out a long sigh.

“Huff… I expected it, but preparing to create a new class is way more complicated than I thought.”

After Kang Geom-Ma had left, Speedweapon had been faithfully fulfilling his task.

He was even using short breaks between classes and cutting down on sleep.

These days, Speedweapon was living through the most intense period of his life. His passion was such that even Saki couldn’t help but gape.

“Speedweapon, don’t you think you’re overdoing it a little?”

The reason for this effort? It was a mission Kang Geom-Ma had personally entrusted to him.

Kang Geom-Ma was a Seven Stars hero. A heavyweight with the authority to give orders to anyone.

And yet, Kang Geom-Ma had asked him. A sign of absolute trust.

‘The great Speedweapon has been chosen by Heavenly Sword!’

He couldn’t let him down. He was a man destined to meet expectations.

Besides, the “Create a Special Class!” project had its own strange charm. It was something as unprecedented as Kang Geom-Ma becoming a member of the Seven Stars.

Joaquin Academy was famous for its conservatism. In other words, its foundation was solid, but its attitude toward change was lukewarm.

And that wasn’t unique to Joaquin Academy.

Old institutions often shared that tendency to reject change.

‘That’s why they end up rotting.’

It was said that lately, there had been a rise in nobles trying to buy their way in with bribes.

Speedweapon shook his head.

‘We can’t go on like this.’

This academy, which had become stagnant, urgently needed a breath of fresh air.

‘This special class will be the first step.’

And he himself was leaving his mark on the history of reform.

Speedweapon clenched his fists with determination.

“I can do this.”

He had recently discovered something about himself—he had a natural talent for this kind of administrative work. Way more than Saki.

A meaningful smile spread across his face.

‘After all, being smart doesn’t mean being good at fieldwork.’

Speedweapon carefully flipped through the documents in his hands.

“It’s almost all ready.”

There were three major tasks for creating the special class.

First, recruiting and organizing members, just as Kang Geom-Ma had instructed. It was the first button that needed to be fastened correctly. If that failed, everything would collapse.

Speedweapon had poured all his effort into analyzing the three students from the Star Class.

He created detailed profiles of each, simulated interviews, and even speculated on their MBTI types.

And so, fully prepared, he headed for the Star Class.

With a friendly smile, he approached each of them and asked cautiously. The response was…

“Yeah, sure. I’ll join. Thanks for inviting me.”

The next hero, Leon van Reinhardt ☑

“What? A class created by Kang Geom-Ma? And you want me to join!? Of course I will! If you don’t let me in, I’ll break down the door to sneak in!”

The niece of the Saint of the Spear, Rachel of Mura ☑

“He asked for me directly? It’s not that I don’t want to—it just caught me off guard. I don’t need time to think. I’ll join. B-but… can I ask you a favor?”

“A favor?”

“It’s nothing big, just… could you not tell Heavenly Sword that I accepted right away?”

“Ah, well… sure. But why?”

Her golden eyes reflected a certain sadness.

“Speedweapon, you must’ve noticed too… no, forget I said anything.”

“……?”

The granddaughter of the Sword Master, Abel von Nibelung ☑

All three from the Star Class accepted without hesitation. No questions, no doubts.

Just mentioning the name “Kang Geom-Ma” made them nod immediately, like magic.

All of Speedweapon’s prior effort was completely overshadowed.

“Wow.”

Speedweapon felt a deep sense of emptiness. Why had he spent sleepless nights?

He knew Kang Geom-Ma had a great reputation, but this had been way too easy. This wasn’t a fast pass — it was a super pass.

‘So much suffering for nothing!’

He clicked his tongue in resignation. In any case, the first step had been successfully completed. It was time to move on to the second.

Kang Geom-Ma had given him one more task — to name the new class.

Originally, that should have been Kang Geom-Ma’s job,

but since he left in a hurry, he handed the responsibility over to Speedweapon.

The pressure was immense. He spent nights tearing his hair out.

“No, this one’s no good either.”

The trash bin filled with crumpled papers. And after long hours of reflection accompanied by the dawn…

“T-this is… this is it!”

Speedweapon finally wrote it down.

『Heavenly Class.』

A name that evoked Heavenly Sword. It might’ve sounded arrogant, but that made him like it even more.

Higher than “Star,” like the sun or the moon. No, beyond even that!

The sky that encompasses everything.

‘Of course. The class that will house the Seven Stars hero, the Heavenly Sword, must be on this level.’

Proud of himself, Speedweapon danced joyfully at dawn. It was a strange habit that surfaced when he couldn’t contain his happiness.

His cousin Rachel used to call it “Monkey Magic” whenever she saw it.

Everything had gone smoothly so far. Only one last step remained — getting approval from the academy director.

In fact, the idea to create the new class had come directly from the director’s own mouth. So the approval request was, in theory, just a formality.

However—

In front of the director’s office door, Speedweapon was sweating cold.

He stared blankly at the shiny nameplate, unsure what to do.

He’d raise his hand to knock… and then lower it again.

Speedweapon was nervous.

‘A private audience with the academy director…’

Even among graduates, very few had ever had a direct conversation with her.

The director was always so overwhelmed with work that getting time with her was nearly impossible.

Even teachers had to book appointments six months in advance.

‘Of course, the President goes into the director’s office like it’s a playroom…’

But that was a quirk of Kang Geom-Ma. Speedweapon’s reaction was the normal one.

“Don’t be nervous, Speedweapon. This is the last step and then you’re done. You’ll have lived up to the Director’s expectations.”

He muttered to himself in a resigned tone.

That’s when, suddenly, he heard an agitated voice on the other side of the door.

“What the hell!? Now you suddenly call me!? Where the hell have you been hiding for ten years!?”

Alongside the director’s voice, another voice could be heard.

— How have you been, Duri?

A voice with a faint background noise. It sounded like a speakerphone call.

“I told you not to call me that! What kind of ridiculous nickname is Duri!”

— But you’re the second daughter, so of course you’re Duri.

Speedweapon pressed his ear to the door.

The tone and voice of the caller didn’t seem unfamiliar.

Who could it be?

***

As soon as I arrived in my dorm room, I collapsed onto the bed.

I lay there like a corpse for several minutes. With my face buried in the sheets, I slowly sat up.

“I’ll sleep, but I should at least shower first.”

I hadn’t properly bathed in three days, and I felt disgusting.

I’d seen too much blood in Hawaii. I’d been drenched in the blood of dozens of dark elves. And all I’d done was wipe myself with a wet towel.

There were showers available at the military base, but since I was sharing a tent with Horn, I couldn’t use them.

It might sound like an exaggeration, but sharing a shower with a girl? From the perspective of someone who’d been single their whole life, that was simply unthinkable.

I got off the bed and walked toward the bathroom, taking my smartphone with me to listen to music while I showered.

That’s when—

Bzzzz.

The phone vibrated several times. Missed calls, messages, various notifications began flooding in all at once. In Hawaii, I hadn’t had any signal, so all the messages had piled up.

While undressing, I checked the notifications.

A progress report from Speedweapon.

He had organized everything neatly and sent it to me in a file.

I let out a small laugh.

‘He managed just fine while I was gone.’

But—

‘I don’t have time to go through all of this one by one.’

Personal and work messages were all mixed together.

At this rate, I wouldn’t be able to shower or sleep.

I quickly found a solution.

I spoke to the phone.

“Vixbig, filter only the personal messages and read them out loud while I shower.”

[Just when it seems like you’re about to relax a little…]

A faint sigh bounced off the bathroom tiles. Though grumbling, Vixbig began sorting the messages.

[Huh?]

Vixbig let out an unusual exclamation.

[Mr. Kang Geom-Ma, this sender is a bit strange.]

While adjusting the water temperature, I replied indifferently.

“If it’s spam, block it.”

[It doesn’t seem like spam. But how should I put it? The number starts with 019. It’s a very old phone number format. So I did a reverse lookup and…]

There was a brief silence.

Then, Vixbig spoke again.

[It’s a message from the former academy director.]

Fwoooosh.

The shower blasted out freezing water.

Ah, damn it. I messed up the temperature setting.