I Became a Troublemaker at the Academy

Clatter.

“Huh? What’s this? Hojin, it’s rare to see you here so early.”

Song Changbin, who had just entered the Fixer Clan’s headquarters located in Building Z, spotted Paeng Hojin sitting with his arms crossed and eyes closed.

Song Changbin was surprised by Paeng Hojin’s early arrival and commented as much.

Mere moments later, Paeng Hojin opened his eyes at the sound of Song Changbin’s voice and responded proudly in his usual booming tone.

“Indeed! Since it’s a self-study day, I escaped early!”

“Uh… right, got it.”

By now, Song Changbin was used to Paeng Hojin’s odd personality. Though he had plenty to say, he knew better than to try reasoning with Paeng Hojin, as he would likely just receive another nonsensical reply.

He immediately gave up on pressing any further.

“Oh, by the way, Hojin. Do you know which class the leader is in? I borrowed some materials from her last time and wanted to return them, but I just realized I don’t know what class she’s in.”’

“Hm! I don’t know either!”

Paeng Hojin’s confident response left Song Changbin baffled.

Despite his earlier decision not to question him, Song Changbin couldn’t help but ask again, utterly confused.

“Uh… Sorry, what? You and the leader are both third-years. Haven’t you run into her at least once?”

“A real man doesn’t bother with such trivial matters!”

“… Right, of course. You’re the manliest of men, Hojin.”

“Hm! Thanks for the compliment!”

Realizing once again how utterly impossible it was to have a proper conversation with Paeng Hojin, Song Changbin shook his head in disbelief as he walked past him.

Still feeling frustrated, he headed toward the refrigerator located in the corner of the first floor, hoping to wash away his irritation with a cold drink. He pulled out a bottle of cola for himself.

Clatter.

“Oh, hello there.”

They bowed their heads.

As Kim Baram and Ko Jooyeon opened the door to Building Z and entered, they saw that Paeng Hojin and Song Changbin were already inside.

“Greetings, Monkey! Rabbit!”

“Oh, welcome! It’s been a while, Baram, Jooyeon. Do you want anything to drink?”

As usual, Paeng Hojin greeted them with his loud voice, while Song Changbin welcomed them more warmly.

“I’ll have some cold water, please!”

“I wasn’t asking you, Hojin.”

Whizz.

Though Song Changbin grumbled, he still took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and tossed it to Paeng Hojin.

Despite his tough appearance, Song Changbin was a classic tsundere—rough on the outside but kind-hearted.

“Ah, thank you. I’ll just have some coffee, please.”

Pop, pop.

“Chocolate milk.”

When Kim Baram asked for coffee, Ko Jooyeon, who was next to him, gently tugged on his sleeve and quietly hinted that she wanted some chocolate milk.

“… Sorry to ask, but do you have any chocolate milk?”

“Yeah, of course. We’re out of snacks, but we’ve got plenty of drinks. Just grab a seat. The leader should be here any minute.”

Unlike how he treated Paeng Hojin, Song Changbin fetched a can of coffee and a chocolate milk from the fridge, then kindly handed them over rather than tossing them.

‘As expected, he’s always so considerate… that Song Changbin.’

Kim Baram briefly looked at Song Changbin with admiration for his kindness, then found an empty seat and sat down with Ko Jooyeon.

Ko Jooyeon, who had taken the seat right next to Kim Baram, seemed pleased with her chocolate milk. She smiled faintly as she quietly poked a straw into it and savored the taste.

Kim Baram, too, opened his can of coffee and brought it to his lips, trying to shake off the drowsiness creeping in after lunch.

Clatter.

‘Pfft!’

Kim Baram almost spat out his coffee in surprise.

When the door to Building Z opened, he instinctively turned to look, barely stopping himself from spewing the coffee in his mouth.

Walking gracefully into the room was Yeo Jihye. She wore the academy uniform and a cat mask. And her pink hair cascaded behind her as she flaunted her slender figure.

“Hm! Welcome, Cat! It’s the first time seeing you inside the academy!”

“That’s right… It’s my first time seeing you in uniform too, Miss Cat. I’ve only ever seen you outside the academy.”

Exactly. As they said, Yeo Jihye usually attended the academy in disguise, using an artifact that altered her appearance and body shape. So, he couldn’t figure out why she was here now, not in disguise.

Even though she wore a mask and had changed her hair color, Yeo Jihye had never appeared in the academy wearing her uniform, showing off her figure like this.

‘Why is she…?’

As Kim Baram stared at her, his gaze wavering, Yeo Jihye suddenly turned her head and locked eyes with him.

Seeing the meaningful look in her eyes through the cat mask, Kim Baram realized the reason for her visit.

‘Damn, it’s because of me…’

Kim Baram had a sinking feeling that he shouldn’t have lied back then.

Yeo Jihye’s presence injected a sense of tension into Kim Baram, reminding him of the danger looming over his life due to his careless actions.

***

Bzzz.

“Hmm? The leader says she’s going to be about 15 minutes late because something came up. It looks like we’ll have to wait for a bit longer.”

“In that case! I’ll grab something to eat! I’m hungry!”

“Oh, I’ll come with you, Hojin. I feel like snacking on something too.”

‘Wait a minute.’

If those two leave…

Kim Baram quickly glanced at Yeo Jihye, who was sitting to his left with her arms crossed and legs elegantly folded.

She had specifically chosen the seat right next to his out of all the available ones.

‘I absolutely can’t let those two leave! If they go, who knows what Yeo Jihye will do, even with Ko Jooyeon still here? There must be some way to stop them…’

Images of Yeo Jihye brutally smashing a dire wolf’s skull with her ice-imbued fists were still vividly imprinted in Kim Baram’s mind.

And maybe it was just his imagination, but when they mentioned leaving, Yeo Jihye’s gaze seemed to shift to him, just like a cat eyeing its prey.

But as the saying went: opportunity came in times of crisis.

Panicking and desperately searching for a solution, an idea suddenly occurred to Kim Baram.

“Ah! Wait, just a moment! Seniors, I’ll give you something to eat!”

Kim Baram hurriedly called out to Song Changbin and Paeng Hojin, stopping them in their tracks. Then, he pulled out the box of macarons he had originally planned to give to Ko Jooyeon from his crossbody bag and placed it on the table.

‘I’m going to give these to Ko Jooyeon, but I have no other choice right now if I want to survive. I will just give her something even better next time. And anyway, she can still have at least one of these macarons.’

When Kim Baram opened the neatly wrapped box, inside were macarons shaped like a witch, rabbit, cat, and monkey, all beautifully arranged.

Thud.

As expected, Ko Jooyeon, who had a setting that made her fond of sweets, shot up from her seat the moment she noticed the macarons Kim Baram had brought.

Her usual dazed expression was replaced with bright, sparkling eyes as she began examining the macarons with great interest.

“I went to a dungeon called the Witch’s City for clan activities yesterday and bought these as a souvenir. Help yourselves. I don’t mind.”

Before Kim Baram had even finished speaking, both Ko Jooyeon, who had been eagerly inspecting the macarons, and Yeo Jihye, who had somehow moved next to him, reached out at the same time.

Their fingers collided above the monkey-shaped macaron, of all things.

Zap.

In that instant, their gazes locked in midair, and Kim Baram could almost feel the invisible sparks flying between them.

Sensing the growing tension, Kim Baram quickly tried to mediate between the two, who seemed to be on the verge of a strange standoff.

“Um… Well, there are other flavors… The rabbit and cat macarons look delicious too…”

But they both shook their heads in perfect sync, clearly unwilling to give up. None of them had any intention of backing down.

‘Are they seriously going to fight over a single macaron? What should I do? I can’t just ask one of them to give in…’

The macarons Kim Baram had offered to diffuse the situation were now the very source of tension.

Unsure of what to do, Kim Baram could only look back and forth between the two with a troubled expression on his face.

However, before Kim Baram could stress any further, the situation was resolved by someone’s completely oblivious action.

Grab.

Crunch, crunch!

“Mmm! Delicious! You’ve got great taste, Monkey!”

“Uh… Thank you…”

It was none other than Paeng Hojin, who, having approached unnoticed, grabbed the monkey macaron with his large hand and stuffed it into his mouth before anyone could stop him.

He chomped down on it, completely oblivious to the conflict he had just ended.

Meanwhile, both Ko Jooyeon and Yeo Jihye stared blankly at the macaron being mercilessly devoured by Paeng Hojin, their eyes reflecting a hollow sense of loss.

‘Well… Maybe those two would actually get along better than I thought…’

***

Clatter.

“I’m here~ Sorry I’m a bit late. I got caught up with something… Did anything happen while I was gone?”

Shin Yul entered, carrying a large box full of something, her head tilting slightly as she seemed to sense the odd atmosphere in the room.

“Welcome, Fox! Nothing happened at all!”

Paeng Hojin, the very source of the strange mood, greeted Shin Yul in her usual booming voice. She acted as if everything was perfectly normal.

“… Really? Well, if you say so… Anyway, let’s move on. First, let me explain the request we received yesterday. Do you all know why the entire academy had self-study today?”

“Yeah. I saw a post on the academy’s community. It said a third-year senior committed suicide…”

Shin Yul nodded, her expression becoming serious.

“That’s right. Like Changbin said, a female cadet named Song Yejin was found dead early yesterday morning in the Alchemist Clan’s room. Her fellow clan members discovered her around lunchtime. Our request is to investigate whether there’s any possibility that Song Yejin ’s death wasn’t a suicide.”

“But, leader, I read in the community post that there were no signs of foul play. Doesn’t that make it a straightforward case of suicide?” Song Changbin asked, his voice tinged with uncertainty.

“You’re right. On the surface, this seems like a ‘perfect suicide.’ Even though we’re still investigating, the odds that Song Yejin  was under any form of mind control or manipulation magic are extremely low.”

At her explanation, everyone except for Kim Baram seemed to find the case perplexing. They furrowed their brows, some resting their chins in their hands as they pondered the request.

Since Kim Baram already knew some of the details, he decided to press for more information. There were still some aspects of the case he needed to clarify.

“Do you suspect there’s a reason to believe it wasn’t a suicide, leader?”

Shin Yul smiled, clearly impressed by his question.

“As expected from you, Baram. Yes, there are two suspicious aspects of this suicide. Let me explain the first…”

Shin Yul began outlining the reasons why the suicide didn’t seem as clear-cut as it appeared. Summarizing her points, the first suspicious element was the signs — or lack thereof.

Typically, when someone planned to commit suicide, there were certain signals or indicators leading up to it.

As an example of signs, there were usually things like depression, mental illness, or self-harm marks, but in Song Yejin.’s case, there were none.

Just to be sure, they had asked her parents and her close friends, but none of them had noticed anything unusual about her behavior.

In short, Song Yejin’s suicide happened suddenly, without any prior warning.

And the second strange thing…

“This is Song Yejin’s final expression. As I mentioned earlier, there’s something odd about her face.”

Shin Yul pulled out a photo from the box she had brought and placed it on the table.

“Ugh… It feels eerie.”

“Hm… definitely strange! No matter what kind of death it was, if she was strangled, she would have been in pain.”

In the photo Shin Yul showed us, Song Yejin, who had hung herself, was smiling as if she were incredibly happy.

“Just like Hojin said, when an ordinary person hangs themselves, they lose consciousness within 5 to 7 seconds as the blood flow to the brain is cut off. But for players, it’s different. It varies by rank, but for cadets, it usually takes at least 1 to 5 minutes to lose consciousness.”

“If what the leader says is true, then she would’ve been in pain for at least a minute from being strangled. It doesn’t make sense for her to have such a smiling expression, like in the photo.”

“Exactly. On top of that, usually, there would be signs of a struggle, with the person flailing around in pain before losing consciousness. But with Song Yejin, there were no such signs. She didn’t move at all, just stayed perfectly still after hanging herself. Initially, we suspected some kind of mind-control magic, but so far, nothing has been found.”

It was true.

From Shin Yul’s explanation, there were many oddities about this case that made it difficult to simply label it as a suicide.

But still…

‘It was all just circumstantial evidence. There was no concrete proof to confirm it was a murder. Sure, it was suspicious, but it could also just be a coincidence.’

Clap!

After a long silence, as the clan members sat deep in thought, Shin Yul clapped her hands to refocus our attention.

“Standing here and worrying won’t solve anything, right? Let’s split into three teams. Hojin and Changbin, I want you to trace Song Yejin.’s movements from early yesterday morning and check the nearby CCTV footage.”

“Got it, leader.”

“Leave it to me, Fox!”

Satisfied with Song Changbin’s calm response and Paeng Hojin’s confident one, Shin Yul then turned to the rest of us, opened the large box she had brought, and with a mischievous grin, revealed its contents.

What she pulled out were two neat, black suits that looked somewhat familiar.

“Baram, you and Cat will wear these suits I’ve prepared and head out to investigate the body directly. Of course, you’ll wear masks too. It’d also be great if you could get the opinions of Instructor Lim Eunah or the guild master of the Tower of Truth, Jung Dabin, while you’re at it. Jooyeon and I will stay here to gather more information about Song Yejin”

“Huh…?”

Shocked by Shin Yul’s sudden directive, Kim Baram could only stammer in confusion.

Meanwhile, Song Changbin, who was observing the suits closely, tilted his head and asked Shin Yul a question.

“Leader, these suits look familiar. Are they from an organization?”

With a sly smile, Shin Yul confidently responded, “Hehe, these are the uniforms of the Korean Player Association agents. You’ll pretend to be association agents while conducting the investigation.”

‘Isn’t that impersonating a public official?’

‘Most importantly, why do I have to go alone with Yeo Jihye?’

‘… Will I really be okay…?’

———

Translator’s Note: Holiday Greetings!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone! I hope this season fills your days with joy, laughter, and plenty of relaxation.