Chapter 77

Ugh.

Shin Su-yeon woke up with a frown, feeling a strange tightness. Soon, the last scene she remembered flashed in her mind.

Violence had been mercilessly inflicted upon her, and she had been helpless against it due to her lack of experience in fighting humans. And then, the magic absorption artifact had been destroyed…

And.

Se-hee’s eyes.

-Tremble

Her body trembled.

‘No, no, no, no, no, it can’t be. Se-hee found out… What do I do now…?! I need to contact the family!!’

Shin Su-yeon’s eyes snapped open, and she looked around with a dazed expression.

‘Where am I…?’

The unpleasant, musty smell, the dimly lit room with little natural light. Various brutal educational tools hanging on the walls.

Seeing this, Shin Su-yeon felt a sense of relief instead.

‘…I’m back in the family.’

This was Se-hee’s room, the place where the family educated her.

‘It seems the family rescued me just in time. I went out alone to keep an eye on Se-hee…’

But strangely, the tightness in her body didn’t go away. She looked down at herself with a questioning gaze.

‘Huh? Why… why am I…?’

She was currently restrained to a chair, and a gag was tightly bound over her mouth, preventing her from making any sound.

She was sitting in Se-hee’s usual spot. A foreboding premonition rose heavily in her chest.

Just then—

“Yeah, Mom. I met her.”

-“…..”

Shin Su-yeon turned her head towards the direction of the voice.

“But I’ll be staying at Se-hee’s place for a while.”

-“…..”

Someone seemed to be on the phone outside the closed door. The voice sounded vaguely familiar to Shin Su-yeon.

“No, she’s gotten too big for her boots after being away for so long. And even if we take her back to the family, we can’t keep her restrained for long anyway. Someone from the Academy will eventually come looking for her.”

-“…..”

‘Wait a minute… that’s my voice…!’

Shin Su-yeon widened her eyes.

Someone was imitating her voice while on the phone.

“So it’s better if I just live at Se-hee’s place and manage her directly.”

-“Hey, didn’t they stop you at the Academy?”

“Well, it’s allowed if there’s consent between family members, and since Se-hee doesn’t live in the dorms, it was easier.”

-“…..”

Shin Su-yeon, unable to comprehend the situation, held her breath and listened intently to the conversation.

“And what, Se-hee can’t possibly rebel against me, can she? She was trembling like crazy while guiding me around the place.”

Shin Su-yeon’s expression gradually hardened.

‘This isn’t the family…?’

She looked around the room again, noticing subtle differences.

She twisted her body, trying to shout.

“Ugh!!! Ngh!!!”

But no sound came out of her gagged mouth, and the restraints were too tight to break free from.

“What are you talking about? Oh, Se-hee’s awake. Hmm. I need to give her the education I’ve been putting off. Yeah, I won’t be in touch for a while.”

-“…..”

“Don’t worry, I’ll resume family activities after I’ve absorbed enough mana. Okay, got it. Bye.”

With that, the voice fell silent.

Tap. Tap.

Squeak—

The tightly closed door opened.

In walked Se-hee.

Her sister.

“Huhuhu, a magic item that can imitate someone’s voice… I didn’t expect to use Jin Yuha’s gift so soon.”

Shin Se-hee looked at the beautifully decorated butterfly-shaped red brooch.

“Jin Yuha really knows me. How did he know I’d like this gift because of my nickname, Cheohwa, which also means butterfly?”

Her eyes, gazing at the brooch, became hazy.

“Jin Yuha’s embrace was so warm and nice… I wish I could stay in his arms longer. I hope there will be another opportunity later…”

Shin Se-hee held the brooch with both hands and brought it to her face.

She took a deep breath as if to inhale his lingering scent.

Haa—

After a while of burying her face in the brooch, Shin Se-hee lifted her head.

“Well, I guess I should get to work.”

She turned her head and met Shin Su-yeon’s gaze.

“Good morning, sis.”

“Ughh!”

Shin Su-yeon twisted her body.

“Huhu, you know better than anyone that it won’t come off. Sis, you’re familiar with this place, aren’t you?”

Shin Se-hee looked around the room.

“Yes, this is the place where you always locked me up and taught me various things with affection, not knowing anything.”

“Ughh!!!”

“I was a bit lacking in recreating unpleasant memories at first, but since someone else has been through here, I’ve improved on various shortcomings. You should be satisfied.”

Shin Se-hee said with a bright smile.

Now she could understand the whole situation.

She had imitated her sister’s voice to contact the family.

The family believed that she was educating Se-hee at her house. But in reality, it was Su-yeon who was being educated.

In this space, where no one would come to her rescue, the endless hours of education would continue.

‘So I’ve been doing this to Se-hee all this time…?’

The things she had done to her sister over the years flashed through her mind.

Her jealousy towards her younger sister, who possessed greater talent, and the harsh treatment she had inflicted on her from an early age due to the family’s judgment that it was easier to handle someone with weaknesses than someone with talent.

The family had initially put forward Shin Su-yeon, thinking that they could always replace her with her younger sister if necessary.

Emotions she hadn’t felt at the time now overwhelmed her, and a distant fear crept into her head.

‘I, I need to apologize…’

“Hmmmm… hmmmph.”

But only tight, blocked sounds escaped her mouth, not allowing even a shred of excuse.

“Sis, did you enjoy yourself all this time…?”

Se-hee asked, her face expressionless.

“Was it all an act? How could you be so afraid of me and yet act so brazenly?”

“Ughhh!!!”

“Huhuhu, I’ll ‘educate’ you on everything I’ve been through. Sis.”

Shin Se-hee gently stroked Shin Su-yeon’s cheek.

Su-yeon’s eyes were filled with regret and despair.

.

.

.

The next day.

I attended Baek Seol-hee’s swordsmanship class.

“Hmm? You want an extra class after finishing today’s quota?”

Baek Seol-hee frowned at my request for an extra class to learn grappling for Kang Do-hee.

“Yes, I want to learn grappling in case I lose my sword.”

“Today’s class will be quite challenging.”

“It’s fine.”

Baek Seol-hee, uncharacteristically, tried to dissuade me, but I stood firm.

There was a reason I could boldly request an extra class from her.

‘Because I used an item from Alice’s Box.’

The items I usually use from Alice’s Box.

「Moonlight」 and 「Moonlight Earrings」

These two items are not fundamentally bound items.

They are items that I can use and then pass on to someone else at any time.

Of course, I couldn’t help but use the sword book or the trait recommendation letter, but the items I used were always intended to be passed on to Alice eventually.

It wasn’t so much that I loved Alice, but because I thought Alice would be much more helpful in actually clearing the game than me, so I hesitated until the end.

But now, there was no more hesitation.

‘I’ll make sure I can handle the ability-boosting classes, so ability points learned here are far more important than reserving the items for Alice.’

The two items I was currently wearing were:

「Experience Bracelet」

And

「Ability Ring」

These two items cannot be removed once equipped, making them bound items. But their performance is guaranteed.

First, the 「Experience Bracelet」 is a starter pack item for freshly rolled characters to reduce the gap with already specced-out characters.

It provides a 30% boost to experience gained from training, raids, and story rewards.@@novelbin@@

Second, the 「Ability Ring」 increases one chosen ability by 10%. It’s a broken item as it’s always applied, so the more the base ability score increases, the more dramatic the effect.

If the base ability score is 10, it receives an additional 1-point boost, and if it’s 100, it gets an additional 10-point boost.

I chose Mental Strength from among the abilities.

After taking her class, I concluded that mental fortitude was essential for this class, as it was not something a soft-minded modern person could endure.

“Still, two classes a week is absolutely not enough time to properly teach swordsmanship.”

“Yes.”

“So, I’ve chosen to increase the density of the classes to teach more intensively. And now you’re asking me to teach you another field on top of that.”

“…”

Baek Seol-hee looked at me for a moment and then sighed.

Haa.

“You really won’t regret it, will you?”

“Yes.”

There was a slight hesitation at the end of my statement, as if she was openly intimidating me, but I nodded, looking into her eyes.

Baek Seol-hee looked at me for a moment and then snorted.

“Well, you’re really a greedy one. As your instructor, I’m glad, but if you ever feel like you can’t take it, just say so.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Then let’s begin the class.”