Why Did I Have to Enroll - Chapter 17

Lesson 4. Rebellion - 5

It may seem obvious, but the ultimate goal of Union Academy is to create gods from among the students by sending them into the Tower.

To put it somewhat hastily, one could say it's an academy that cultivates... no, nurtures gods.

Therefore, students must receive education in liberal arts, politics, and diplomacy-related lectures—in other words, "Imperial studies"—to acquire the minimum dignity befitting a god, while simultaneously taking highly practical classes necessary for conquering the Tower.

Not just 'Comprehensive Practical Combat,' but also classes like 'Weapon Skills,' 'Magic,' 'Exploration,' and 'Special Environment Response.'

The characteristic of these lectures, which are mainly held in gymnasiums or training grounds, is that it's easy for conflicts to arise since everyone is actively moving around.

"Hey, you pretty boy over there. Come here."

Following the eventful first day of the semester, on the second day, Wednesday, during the second period of 'Basic Weapon Skills':

In this lecture, open only to freshmen, students could spend a somewhat free time handling various weapons to find ones that suit their aptitude, and even sparring under the professor's supervision.

"Can't you hear me?"

"Hm?"

Light frowned and raised his head at the voice filled with magical power.

A male student from Class 5, with whom they were having a joint class, was pointing his sword at Light.

Moreover, it was a real sword.

"What are you trying to do?"

"Come over here and explain in detail what happened yesterday, you worm."

Not only the rudeness of pointing a sharp, real sword at someone, but also the crudeness of spewing harsh words without warning.

However, this wasn't necessarily because they were truly lacking in intelligence, but purely because they thought of Light as an 'inferior being' to themselves.

It's easy to forget when facing sensible individuals like Professor Yumina, but originally, beings from higher dimensions fundamentally look down on those from lower dimensions.

Just as no one is careful with their words when dealing with pigs or chickens, they were exactly the same.

'Did hearing about what happened yesterday only increase their animosity towards us instead of changing their attitude? Even so, picking a fight like this? They're not even hormonal teenagers.'

As Ban Yu-won sighed and contemplated more fundamental countermeasures, Light, who had realized he was being provoked, snorted and retorted to his opponent.

"Why should I do that?"

"Ha, you little shit. Are you scared?"

"I mean that if you have something you want to hear from me, come and ask politely yourself, you barbarian."

"What?"

It's easy to be mistaken by his pretty face, but Light's temper wasn't to be taken lightly either.

"You, a lowly dimensional scum, dare to call me a barbarian—"

The moment the male student grimaced at those words and took a step forward.

Something unforgettable happened to Ban Yu-won.

A sword of light appeared in Light's empty hand.

When it pointed at the male student.

"Ugh?!"

Light.

Hero.

Warrior.

World.

Protection.

Eternity.

Desire.

Concepts too weighty and brilliant for Light, who had just become an adult, began to burst forth, interwoven in dozens of layers!

'—What's this, he's completely different. Concepts I couldn't feel at all before...!'

Right, come to think of it, I felt this from Light the first day I met him.

He was holding that sword of light then too!

'I thought it was strange how his way of speaking was so archaic, but it wasn't like that during the entrance ceremony. Is it because of that sword after all?'

Ban Yu-won felt a terrible sense of discomfort along with a suffocating pressure and stepped away from his side.

So how must the male student, who had to face this aura head-on, have felt?

Unable to dare approach or retreat, he could only groan.

He seemed to lift one foot with difficulty, but the next moment he hesitated and pulled it back.

"Are you learning to walk? Why so slow?"

"You, this—"

Light, wrapped in an intimidating aura, mocked his opponent.

Provoked, the male student gritted his teeth and took one step, then another, finally reaching right in front of Light.

By then, his posture had become so hunched from enduring the pressure that he looked as if he was bowing to Light.

"Did you come to pay your respects? I've received them well, so you can go now."

"You, lowly insect... How dare you!"

That was the moment.

The male student, overcoming the pressure pouring down on him, raised his head and thrust the sword in his hand straight at Light!

"Hmph."

"Ugh?!"

Ban Yu-won was left speechless at the power Light displayed at that moment.

As he extended his sword enveloped in golden light forward, the trajectory of the male student's thrusting sword suddenly bent and stuck to the sword of light.

The male student collapsed to the ground, groaning as if his arm had been twisted by the sword moving on its own, while Light looked down at him like trash and raised his head with a snort.

"Professor."

People had been paying attention to them for a while anyway.

Light, whether intending to humiliate them or not, turned his gaze to the professor who had been silently letting the situation unfold, and asked in a calm voice.

"How does the academy evaluate the act of suddenly pointing a real sword at someone and charging?"

"Well, our academy encourages practical sparring, and—"

"I have never once accepted a sparring match, though."

His tone was as sharp and keen as the sword he was holding.

As Ban Yu-won inwardly sighed, the professor frowned and admonished Light.

"But you can't deny that you were the first to emit your aura."

"Indeed. Then how are the insults and verbal abuse that this person hurled at me before that treated?"

"Hm? Haha, I'm sorry, but I didn't see that..."

At the professor's statement, which was clearly a lie to anyone watching, Light's expression grew even more fierce.

The sword of light in his hand emitted an even more brilliant radiance—

Just as deeper, more intimidating, more violent concepts were about to burst forth from within it.

"How foolish."

"Ugh?!"

Dokgo Yeon, who had suddenly appeared in front of Light, flicked his forehead with her finger.

"Dokgo Yeon, you...!"

"How dare you act so cocky when you're being controlled by the sword?"

"...Ah!"

At her rebuke, Light seemed to come to his senses and dropped the sword in his hand.

The sword of light dissolved into thin air and disappeared, and the male student's sword that had been stuck to it clattered as it rolled on the floor.

"What just...?"

"What just happened? That enormous aura..."

Everyone present, including the professor, had their attention focused on them.

Ban Yu-won heaved a deep sigh, wondering how to best navigate this situation.

'As expected, Light turned out to be the biggest bomb after all...'

*

"You know what, at this rate, I don't think we'll be able to stay in the academy's good graces."

"You're the one saying that?!"

Light exclaimed in shock at Ban Yu-won's words as they were eating the meat fried rice served for lunch.

But Ban Yu-won snorted and retorted,

"The problem you caused earlier was even bigger, you know? I know you were about to confront the professor if Dokgo Yeon hadn't stopped you. There were plenty of ways to resolve it amicably."

"That's... But, amicably? How on earth could that have been resolved amicably?"

"Hah."

Ban Yu-won sighed, looking at Light who seemed genuinely unable to understand.

"Instead of suppressing and humiliating him by not even letting him get close, you could have just had an official duel."

"It's not even worth swinging a sword at someone like that."

"Just duel, I said, duel. When that guy picked a fight earlier, you could have just ignored him and requested a duel through the professor."

"How would that have been any different?"

"You could have crushed him definitively without resorting to troublesome methods."

Light flinched at the cold glint that momentarily flashed in Ban Yu-won's eyes.

He knew that no matter how quickly he was growing, he was still far below Ban Yu-won's level, but he couldn't understand why he felt intimidated by Ban Yu-won's aura for a moment.

"I don't understand why you chose that method when you have the power. Why argue with the professor there? You could have just turned it into an official duel. The professor even said it himself that they encourage practical sparring."

"Well, remembering what you showed yesterday, I was trying to resolve the situation without using violence if possible..."

"And as a result, you almost caused an even more violent situation. It's really troublesome when you get involved with a professor, even if not with a student."

"Ugh..."

He decided not to delve too deeply into the strange changes caused by grasping the sword of light.

It didn't seem like he would easily explain even if asked.

However, it would be problematic if things continued like this in the future.

Ban Yu-won looked at him with a serious expression and asked,

"Light, I'd like you to be honest. Can you really control that power?"

"O-Of course. If I couldn't, I wouldn't have passed the entrance exam. Earlier, I just got angry at the professor's words and unconsciously... I hate lies, you know."

Light tilted his head slightly, avoiding his gaze as he replied.

The neckline revealed between the gently curling golden hair.

That simple motion was truly beautiful.

Excessively beautiful.

"You hate lies, you say."

"...Yeah."

He held back the snort that was about to escape.

Ban Yu-won and Light weren't close enough yet to share their inner thoughts, so pressing him further would be rude.

He'd have to be satisfied with this much for today...

“Do you believe that you can control it?”

"Trust me. I won't cause trouble like today again."

"It's a relief you admit it was trouble. It was quite a sight to see you being controlled by an external object."

Dokgo Yeon, who was happily eating the yogurt served as dessert with a spoonful of elixir jam that Ban Yu-won had scooped for her, sarcastically remarked instead of Ban Yu-won upon hearing those words.

"By the way, Ban Yu-won."

The cross in Dokgo Yeon's eyes fixed on Ban Yu-won.

"You're thinking of something 'for all of us', aren't you?"

"How did you know?"

"I'm trying to understand you."

That's why it's scary!

But now was the time to overcome Dokgo Yeon's cross-shaped pupils staring at him and say what he had prepared.

"How about we create our own channel?"

"Channel?"

"I mean a video channel on the intranet. We used it pretty effectively yesterday, didn't we?"

"Didn't you say it's a method to use only when we lack power?"

"Yeah, but we've already caught the momentum."

After finishing all of his fried rice, Ban Yu-won tried the colorless, transparent carbonated drink that could be endlessly drawn from the water purifier, then pushed it away with a "Blech," and decided to eat yogurt like Dokgo Yeon.

Luciel, while already burying her face in the yogurt with jam, was still perking up her ears to listen to Ban Yu-won's words.

Cute.

"That's how it is. Once we've started advocating for school rules and righteousness, others will try to find fault with us in the same way. In other words, they'll start nitpicking every single one of our actions. With an attitude like, 'You guys follow the rules so well? I'll be watching!'"

"Hmm hmm."

She must have something in mind.

Dokgo Yeon nodded.

"When that time comes, there will be limits to the position we can secure with just force alone. Ah, except for you, Dokgo Yeon. I'm talking about considering all of our positions."

"I understand, so please continue."

"To prepare for that, I felt the need to create our 'image' from now on. Not only to make our individual abilities known so that we won't be looked down upon, but also to secure emotional empathy with the unspecified majority in advance, so that those who hate us can't attack us based on reason and logic."

This could be called a very common life skill in Korea, no, on Earth.

Building a fabricated good image to raise a person's recognition and give credibility to their words and actions.

It's like when a chaebol or a member of the National Assembly deliberately uses the subway, or takes and spreads photos of themselves wearing shoes with worn-out soles.

Even though it seems like a futile attempt to deceive, it's actually very effective in reality.

"I understand."

"What are you talking about?"

"I, I don't really get it."

Unlike Dokgo Yeon who grasped it immediately, Light and Luciel tilted their heads in confusion.

"To put it simply, it's about making the Academy officials feel familiar with us. This kind of thing might even be in the Academy's Imperial education curriculum, don't you think?"

"If that were possible, things like yesterday and today wouldn't have happened!"

"Well, I guess learning something and putting it into practice are quite different."

But Ban Yu-won was confident.

After browsing the internet of this world for the past few days (of course, not just the intranet, but the internet network used by the majority in this dimension), Ban Yu-won had gained one realization: that the media in this world was not as developed compared to Earth.

Thinking about it carefully, it made sense. Union, being the highest dimension, had too many interesting elements in reality like dungeons, towers, actual gods, and so on.

This means there aren't people constantly trying to create 'artificial elements of interest' like in the modern world.

'In other words, Earth could be said to be a world where only methods of attracting human interest have abnormally developed, due to being stagnant for a long time without obtaining magical power.'

And Ban Yu-won was the epitome of such modern civilization.

It's a bit much to say, but his language comprehension wasn't just at the level of understanding and handling language well.

He also had an innate talent for processing language to create elements of interest.

"You just need to give me the right to film you guys. I'll take care of the rest. From now on, we're going to establish our solid image in this Academy, no, in this entire dimension. So that no one can look down on us for being from a lower dimension."

"How can you be so confident? I mean, I'm not trying to underestimate your abilities, but..."

"First is appearance."

In response to Light's still oblivious comment, Ban Yu-won replied as if he had been waiting for it.

"You three, you have looks that wouldn't be out of place anywhere. Of course, I'm not bad-looking either."

"Y-you're handsome, I think. Very..."

"No, that's enough."

Ban Yu-won scratched his cheek at Luciel's sudden show of support and continued.

"Appearance is the most powerful element in attracting people's attention. I thought it might not work because of different cultures or dimensions, but that wasn't the case. With this alone, we've passed the basic conditions."

"The second is ability, right?"

"Bingo. After all, ability is the most important thing here. If everyone can accurately recognize our abilities, there won't be any more incidents of people picking fights with us in the future. I'm still a bit lacking, but I'll catch up quickly, so don't worry."

"Hehe."

Dokgo Yeon laughed meaningfully.

Perhaps she noticed that Ban Yu-won had changed quite a bit today compared to yesterday.

Confident that everyone was listening to his words seriously, Ban Yu-won sighed lightly and said,

"To be honest, I came up with this special measure because I felt that if we continue like this, we won't be able to attend lectures comfortably. We can't afford to be held up by unnecessary conflicts when we're already short on time."

"Ban Yu-won, don't be impatient. You're already fast enough."

"Thanks."

Ban Yu-won smiled and replied, then opened his mouth again.

"Anyway, having a channel won't hurt us. Let's start by deciding on a name. Actually, I've thought of many names that would be good for attracting attention, but I still need your agreement..."

However, that was an unnecessary statement.

At the mention of a name, even Luciel, who had been quiet until now, suddenly raised her head, and Light and Dokgo Yeon joined in, the three of them frantically spitting out candidates.

But overall, the channel name became 'Rebellion'.

Everyone wondered inwardly why such a chuunibyo name was chosen, but since all other names were vehemently opposed by everyone, there was no choice.

This is undeniable evidence of the harmful effects of team projects!

Ban Yu-won despaired that such a name wouldn't attract anyone's attention, but that channel managed to secure 100 subscribers on the intranet that very day.

The channel created on the internet video site similarly gained a whopping 1,000 subscribers!

...Perhaps it was effective because the first video uploaded to the channel was of Dokgo Yeon beating Light like a dog.