NOVEL NEXT Chapter 78
Chapter 78. Hero Academy (3)
Was it because of the conversation I had with Min Ju-yong?
The Yoo Ji-han Party, about to have their interview, was receiving a lot of attention in the waiting room.
Among them, the one sending the hottest gazes was, of course, Min Ju-yong.
‘Damn persistent.’
Yoo Ji-han noticed that he still hadn’t given up on Min Yu-ri.
But he easily ignored the jealous looks.
“Yoo Ji-han Party, please enter.”
After a brief wait, it was finally their turn.
With excited hearts, they followed the staff’s guidance into the interview room.
However, once they entered the interview room…
Yoo Ji-han and Kim Si-hu couldn’t help but doubt their own eyes.
“Ah.”
“I can’t believe it… it’s you guys again.”
There were three interviewers seated at the table.
Among them, the man sitting on the left was someone the Yoo Ji-han Party had encountered during the rank-up assessment.
He was the interviewer who had spoken to Yoo Ji-han in a very sharp tone.
The Hero of the Warriors, Lee Dong-ho.
‘Is this a disaster?’
It seemed they had fallen into a serious blunder.
What in the world was his connection with Sweet Fun…
Were they really meeting again in a nearly identical situation?
“Do you know this person, Dong-ho?”
“…A little.”
“What? Now I’m even more curious.”
The interviewers gathered here were Rank 2 Heroes selected from various guilds.
And they had some acquaintanceship with Lee Dong-ho.
But to have heroes, known for having virtually no interactions with their juniors in the Warriors, recognize him in an instant…
The interviewers cast a strong interest at the Yoo Ji-han Party.
“Please take a seat.”
The Yoo Ji-han party members sat in their prepared chairs.
There was a large chair for Chilla, but since it didn’t fit well, he stood behind Min Yu-ri.
“Now we will begin the interview.”
“Please start with a brief self-introduction.”
After the simple self-introductions, stating their affiliation and names, one of the interviewers looked back at Min Yu-ri.
“That partner behind you, is that Yu-ri’s partner?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know Jin Yong-hak? He’s in the same party as me.”
“He’s a tamer from Red Hole, right? I remember almost all the names of famous tamers.”
“Well, Yong-hak would definitely think you have a good junior.”
The interview started with light conversation.
The interviewers exchanged small jokes to ease the tension of the Yoo Ji-han Party.
“…”
But unlike the other interviewers, Lee Dong-ho silently turned his gaze between Kim Si-hu and Yoo Ji-han.
Yoo Ji-han felt the same way.
While he answered the questions moderately, all of his attention was directed at Lee Dong-ho.
What if another rude remark slipped from his mouth?
And if that happened, what stance should they take this time?
‘I really don’t want to miss this opportunity.’
Hero Academy is a support program where one can receive various training and support for a year, including office settings.
If they could just pass, half of Yoo Ji-han’s worries would vanish.
“I have a question for Yoo Ji-han.”
“Yes.”
The hero from Red Hole looked at Yoo Ji-han.
“The party of Sweet Fun was formed quite some time ago, but Ji-han just recently joined the guild, right?”
“That’s correct.”
“Considering you started activities as a duo in the MA, Yoo Ji-han’s party has achieved Rank 4 in a very short time compared to other parties.”
The party received a rank-up proposal from the Hero Department just two weeks after they began their activities.
And eventually succeeded in rank-up in less than a month.
That was all referring to the Yoo Ji-han Party.
“Just lucky.”
“Beyond just luck, can you explain how this was possible?”
“We received very high scores in the sparring assessment conducted at that time. I think that momentum carried over to the Hero Department interview as well.”
“Hmm.”
“And…”
Yoo Ji-han looked at Lee Dong-ho as he spoke.
“If I may, the interviewer from that rank-up assessment, Lee Dong-ho, would surely know more accurate information.”
“Oh! I see.”
“No wonder you seemed familiar.”
“Dong-ho, if you don’t mind, could you briefly explain the evaluation of the Yoo Ji-han party back then?”
“…”
How dare they try to use me.
Suddenly called out, Lee Dong-ho looked at Yoo Ji-han with a slightly displeased expression.
Yet he soon opened his mouth.
“As Yoo Ji-han mentioned, I participated as an interviewer for the rank-up assessment not long ago.”
“…”
“I’ll just summarize it simply as ‘they deserved the rank-up.’”
The interviewers nodded at Lee Dong-ho’s straightforward response.
Although his tone was somewhat blunt.
Lee Dong-ho appeared to acknowledge the Yoo Ji-han Party to some degree.
It was vastly different from the cold treatment he had shown to the parties interviewed before.
“Min Yu-ri, you haven’t officially joined the guild and party yet, right?”
“No, the merger process is about to be finalized soon.”
“Why is Snowflake being acquired by Sweet Fun? Even if merging is fine, shouldn’t they be acquiring Sweet Fun from Snowflake, which has been active longer?”
“I don’t have great aspirations for directly running the guild.”
“I heard from someone in the Hero Department that Yu-ri was directly offered rank-up by them, and that you refused it several times.”
“… Is that so?”
Min Yu-ri seemed slightly surprised to find out they knew such undisclosed information.
However, Hero Academy had already gathered information on the applicants through various channels.
“As a Tamer, I assume you received many recruitment offers from various places, yet you chose to join a party with considerably less experience than you.”
“What’s the reason for that?”
“I coincidentally met Yoo Ji-han’s Party in the MA. Even though it was a very brief encounter, our synergy matched extremely well. I thought it would be hard to meet such a party again in the future. It might even be a fateful encounter like in a movie or novel.”
“A fateful encounter, huh…”
Min Yu-ri considered her meeting with Yoo Ji-han’s party at the apartment to be fate.
“And I have a sick younger sibling, and Sweet Fun promised a lot of support for my sibling’s treatment at the guild level.”
“To be frank, wouldn’t you receive more support from a larger guild than Sweet Fun?”
That was a sharp question.
After a brief hesitation, Min Yu-ri continued her answer.
“Even large guilds can’t promise a certain treatment. But Sweet Fun has instilled in me a vision for the future and new possibilities. Even if my sibling cannot receive treatment… I won’t regret my decision to be with these people.”
“Oh… you have truly excellent companions.”
At Min Yu-ri’s words, the interviewers looked at Yoo Ji-han and Kim Si-hu with expressions of astonishment.
In response, the two, feeling awkward, could only give a shy smile.
“Next, I’d like to ask a question about practical experience.”
“You recently entered the emergency MA of Seoum Middle School, right?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a sensitive subject to mention, but since there aren’t many activities you three undertook together, let’s talk about that.”
Yoo Ji-han listened closely to the interviewers’ words.
These questions could be considered the most important part of the interview, assessing whether those being interviewed meet the standards required by Hero Academy.
“Rank 4 parties are advised to evacuate in emergency MAs, so why did you stay to fight?”
“I knew there were other students inside the school, and at the same time, there were hardly any Rank 3 heroes nearby. It didn’t sit well with me to leave lives that we could save behind.”
“Hmm.”
The Hero from Red Hole nodded in satisfaction at Yoo Ji-han’s response.
Although they didn’t follow the Hero Department’s recommendations, his attitude was quite commendable as a hero.
“What monsters did you face there?”
“We primarily hunted Goene.”
“Goene is a very rare monster around here.”
“That’s right.”
“How did you deal with them?”
Yoo Ji-han glanced at his party members for a moment.
Kim Si-hu and Min Yu-ri seemed eagerly awaiting his answer.
So he spoke as if representing the party.
“We focused our attacks on the heads of the Goene. And in the case of the Tangerine Monster…”
“…What did you just say? Tangerine Monster?”
The mention of the Tangerine Monster caused the interviewers’ expressions to shift.
Lee Dong-ho, who had mostly been listening, reacted the same way.
“Yes. The Tangerine Monster.”
“I had heard that Goene appeared there, but it’s the first time I’m hearing that there was a Rank 3 Tangerine Monster.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s the absolute truth with not a shred of falsehood. The bodies are with the disposal company, so it can be verified.”
“How many of them came out?”
“Just counting what we hunted as a party, it would be over 10.”
“…”
A Rank 4 party hunted over 10 Rank 3 monsters.
Moreover, there were no visible injuries on their bodies.
It seemed they had hunted them without any trouble.
“Furthermore, I can say that we targeted the unique weakness between the 5th and 6th segments of the Goene to instantly kill them.”
“Ji-han, that’s not an easy task!”
“Considering the hard exoskeleton of the Tangerine Monster, unless you precisely target its weakness…”
“Targeting that weakness isn’t as hard as you might think.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
It was surprising enough that he knew the weakness of the Tangerine Monster.
But to say that attacking such a narrow weakness isn’t difficult?
Could it be that he was just boasting?
‘It seemed to work just fine.’
But for Yoo Ji-han, who was speaking nothing but the truth, he couldn’t provide a different answer.
“What about you, Si-hu?”
“I stabbed the joints of the Goene with Arrow Magic.”
“Did your attacks hit well?”
“Out of 20 shots, roughly 1 went off target…”
Considering the size of the Goene and its speed, missing only 1 out of 20 shots was an outstanding result.
‘Is this a Rank 4 party that just started activities?’
‘Listening to them, they sound like a party that’s been active for at least over 4 years.’
It felt too unusual for the Yoo Ji-han Party to merely be simple braggarts.
The interviewers, who had to score the interviews, became a bit confused.
“Then for the next question…”
Just as they were about to ask another question through the swirl of confusion.
Bang!
The closed door swung open, and someone walked in.
Everyone in the room could only be shocked to see who had unexpectedly barged into the interview room.
And it was no wonder…
“Oops. Did I interrupt?”
“…Guild Master Baek Kang-cheon?!”
The person who just walked in was none other than the Guild Master of Red Hole, Baek Kang-cheon.
The interviewers, stunned by his presence, gaped in surprise.
Among them, the most shocked was Lee Dong-ho, who jumped up from his seat.
“W-what do you mean interrupt! Not at all! Please, have a seat!”
Baek Kang-cheon naturally took the seat intended for a guild member.
With a beaming smile, his gaze swept over the faces of the Yoo Ji-han Party, who were sitting in the interview.
‘It’s Baek Kang-cheon.’
‘He’s actually here in person.’
‘Wow…’
The three, faced with the most famous hero in Korea, felt a tightening in their chests.
Unbeknownst to all this, Chilla in the back yawned leisurely.
And Baek Kang-cheon’s following words made the members of the Yoo Ji-han Party even tenser.
“Can I ask them some questions too?”