*Cough cough!*
With a cough, Sihyun expelled a small amount of blood before lying down after recovering from severe injuries except for internal injuries. Still, it seemed like Ruth had cut him some slack. When he first saw the lightning, it seemed like Ruth was determined to kill him, but maybe he had adjusted the power, so it hurt less than expected.
He wasn't some kind of monster. How he managed to adjust each one was mind-boggling, and all Sihyun could do was laugh.
Since only a part of his wounds had healed, he felt pain every time he laughed. Feeling far from cheerful, he wiped his cracked lips when he heard the sound of footsteps. Eventually, Ruth revealed himself from the smoke.
Even after seeing him this much, he still couldn't figure out what kind of person he was.
Sometimes he seemed concerned about him, but during their sparring sessions, he was ruthless. Sometimes he seemed serious when he appeared to be crazy and vice versa.
He didn't let him judge easily.
"Surrender?"
As Ruth approached, he asked with a smirk. Sihyun reached out towards the man. His tattered hand looked pitiful even to himself.
"Could you please help me up for now? I don't even have the strength to get up."
"I've done this much, and you're still lying down. Will you become my disciple like this?"
"If you want me to become your disciple, then why attack so recklessly?"
"It's tough love."
"Where did you learn that? You shouldn't hit someone you love."
An unusual conversation ensued. Wanting to stop, he shook his hand as a signal to help him up, which Ruth grabbed. His large hand enveloped the small one. It was when Sihyun used his strength to stand up with his help.
*Cough!*
Suddenly, Ruth coughed up red blood. Perhaps he hadn't anticipated such a thing happening, as a hint of confusion flickered in his eyes. The children who had been watching breathlessly were also equally stunned.
As Ruth inexplicably coughed up blood, Sihyun, with a composed expression, spoke up.
"Are you okay?"
Despite clearly not being okay, Sihyun asked Ruth. Just a moment ago, Ruth seemed fine, and Sihyun was on the brink of death, but the situation had reversed. Ruth wiped the blood dripping from his lips and let out a bitter laugh.
"What did you do, kid?"
"I used a skill."
"A skill?"
"The skill I mentioned before. Since it didn't seem to work out, I tried a different method, and it worked out."
Thanks to that, I had a hard time until yesterday.
It wasn't until early this morning that I was able to use the skill stably. Thinking about that, it wasn't so bad that the sparring was postponed. Speaking as calmly as reading a paper, Ruth lost his words and stared wide-eyed. He didn't seem to have thought that I would succeed in creating a skill.
"Is it that surprising?"
"…Explain it in detail."
With a blank face, Ruth demanded. Although he hadn't fulfilled his wish to punch him, Ruth looked like he had been punched, so it seemed like a success.
"For three hours, I can switch the body condition of the designated target and myself, but I become untreatable. The untreatable condition applies to me. Only living people can be designated as targets. How about naming the skill... Change?"
At first, the skill turned out to be slightly different from what I had initially envisioned, but still, after investing several days and staying up late nights for this skill, it wasn't a bad result. After finishing explaining with a lowered voice, Ruth, wiping away his dumbfounded expression, muttered something like, "Yeah, the gods are unfair." Then suddenly, as if he had noticed sharp pain, he glanced at his own palm. Following his gaze, Sihyun looked at his own hand, pretending to look elsewhere for no reason.
"Kid."
"Yes?"
"What's this now?"
Showing his palm, which was flowing with red blood, Ruth asked. Clear blood ran down his forearm. Sihyun, checking the blood droplets falling from Ruth's elbow to the ground, was taken aback. He had no idea the wound was so severe.
"...I didn't know the wound was that bad."
"So, what is it?"
"...Since I was already using the skill, I decided to add some extra wounds."
Just before getting struck by lightning, feeling unfairly treated, I drew my hand with the intention of using Change. I swear I only wanted to give him a slight sting with my fingers, not to draw blood like that. As he examined the wound and looked at Ruth, who didn't even flinch despite the quite deep-looking wound, he seemed unperturbed.
"What did you use to cause the wound? You didn't even bring a weapon."
"I sharpened my protective barrier a bit. It's not sturdy enough to use as a weapon, but I can at least scratch with my palm. It's quite difficult to make it precise."
Thinking I might be able to use it as an attack skill if I did it well, but it was not great since the durability would break if it hit a wall. As I mentioned that fact, Ruth suddenly burst into laughter. His laughter, which I had already heard several times, echoed through the stadium. Despite his hand being torn by his disciple, he laughed quite carefreely.
"Let me ask one more thing."
"What?"
"...Who did you target?"
"...?"
"It was a joke. What is it?"
He often treated me strangely when I joked around. Feeling awkward, I let go of his hand, and he hesitated for a moment before raising his opposite hand to pat his black hair.
"Well done. You won this sparring, kid."
I knew it was an honor.
Saying that, Ruth raised both hands over his shoulders. It was a sign of surrender.
Sihyun was surprised, the children were surprised, and the teachers who were watching were surprised by the unexpected surrender. Sihyun frowned at Ruth, who declared surrender even though I was in an untreatable condition.
"I lost."
"Why?"
"Anyone could see that I lost the match. I'm in an untreatable condition, and you're injured enough to be able to move again. If you attack me again, there's no way for me to recover."
"So, you surrendered."
"Yes?"
It was an unfamiliar phrase. While Sihyun hesitated, the teacher who handled the surrender announcement blew the whistle, signaling the end of the match. Sihyun, who had become the only person to defeat Ruth in this evaluation, looked at him with bewildered eyes. His wounds were so visible in his hands. He couldn't shake off the feeling of becoming a mere trash.
Although he surrendered because I was untreatable, I felt childish for holding up the barrier to give him one more wound. Sihyun, feeling his cheeks heat up for no reason, grabbed Ruth's hand.
I infused mana to heal the wounds I caused. As I healed not only the torn wounds but also the ones that had become tattered, the healer teacher who came running lost his job and stood still in his place.
"You're good at giving both wounds and medicine."
"...Where did you learn to say that?"
By now, Kang Sihyun couldn't help but wonder who had taught Ruth Korean. When he asked who it was, Ruth, having someone like that, inspected his clean hands and nodded to Sihyun.
"I'll be waiting in the training room tonight. I'll stop by before returning to the US."
His confident announcement of an unauthorized intrusion made Sihyun nod. At this point, blaming anyone for it seemed futile; they were both too accustomed to it.
After straightening his clothes, Ruth left the training ground first. A healer teacher, belatedly regaining his senses, came over and checked Sihyun's condition. There was a faint bruise on his forearm. Although he thought all the Aurors I had sent had missed, it seemed I had still caused some damage.
Since Sihyun had no intention of explaining the Change skill in detail to anyone else, he said it was okay not to treat this level of wound. The healer teacher also seemed to agree and nodded, escorting Sihyun out of the training ground. Since the children were sitting in pairs, the direction Sihyun headed was also the A-class line.
"What happened? How did it go?"
"It was too far, and the conversation was too quiet to hear properly. What did you talk about?"
"So, did you beat Ruth?"
"Did you land a single hit?"
With questions pouring in, Sihyun realized that the attention of the other kids was focused here. Scanning through them, he calmed down the A-class kids, saying he would explain to them after going back to his class. He didn't want to talk in detail about his skill to people who weren't part of his group.
The kids with displeased expressions nodded. Meanwhile, the principal, who had evaluated their end-of-month scores, picked up the microphone. As always, the scores were sent via Pairing, which Sihyun checked with a tingling sensation.
[End-of-month Evaluation: Sparring Score]
1st Year A-class, Kang Sihyun
Remark: Victory
Overall Assessment: S
S.
In the simple and clear evaluation sheet, a grade other than the ones previously discussed appeared. Haemin, who had tilted his head in curiosity about Sihyun's scores, sighed briefly after checking them.
"Do you usually get an S with that level?"
"What about yours?"
"A+. Probably everyone in our class got an A or higher except for Kang Haewoon."
Upon hearing this, Sihyun checked the grades of other kids, including Jihye. Except for Haewoon, who received a C grade, everyone else scored A or higher. Among them, Haewoon, who received the lowest score alone, pretended to cry and wiped artificial tears.
Sihyun recalled the sparring matches of Haemin, Haru, Seowoo, and Geonu, all of whom had faced Ruth before, or whom he had injured. The gap between those who simply received an A and those who received an S was significant. Understanding the reason for the higher grade than expected, Sihyun looked at the principal. Once again, all A-class students except for Haewoon were called out in the ranking announcement.
"The A-class students who made it to the ranking all received A grades or higher, and Kang Sihyun received an S grade."
The principal, who reluctantly mentioned this fact, hoped for more effort from them and ended the announcement. Sihyun checked the change in the children's expressions when the principal mentioned this. Among the murmuring voices, one word stood out louder than the others.
'Outlier group.'
Upon hearing that, Sihyun felt uncomfortable and pondered over the principal's words urging him to speak out his wish while handing him the 1st place token.
He had hoped for the abolishment of the ranking system, but that wouldn't be allowed. So, he had to voice what would be most beneficial, his mind racing. Suddenly, his gaze landed on a male student in Class C.
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