EX rank supporting role's replay in a prestigious school

Chapter 947

The heavy rain continued to fall today, but Baekho-gun remained completely dry.

It seemed he had no interest in getting drenched in such a pitiful manner.

If that's the case, I didn't think he had wandered around just to get caught in the rain. I had no idea why he had come all the way here.

"Didn't I tell you to come and see if you were going to look?"

Again, Baekho-gun read my thoughts and responded as if it were nothing.

It had been some time since the sparring match ended, and now he was saying things like that?

"I told you to come and watch the sparring match."

"But that doesn't change the fact that I came to see you."

I was happy to know that my final playable character had come to see me, but it wasn't just joy.

He was so good at talking, and yet, I could tell he must have been frustrated with keeping quiet all this time.

Knowing that he could instantly sense these thoughts of mine, I decided to vent my frustration in silence.

Baekho-gun smiled.

‘He’s laughing?’

I couldn't remember when Baekho-gun's smiles had become so frequent.

If Hwang Ji-ho saw this, he'd likely grin in disbelief.

Baekho-gun's deep voice mixed with laughter.

"Such consideration, overflowing respect, admirable, serious, dependable. After hearing these compliments for over a year, it's refreshing to see you like this now."

Had he really remembered all of that?

But I couldn't understand why that was something to laugh about.

I was indeed angry, but the feelings I had then hadn't changed, so there was nothing particularly funny about it.

As I thought this, Baekho-gun’s eyes curved into a more mischievous arc.

He must have found it amusing to watch me seethe with frustration.

"Just tell me why you're here."

"I came because you were awake. Go back to sleep."

"No."

His sudden intrusion and demand to sleep immediately prompted me to flatly reject him.

Although it was past midnight, it wasn’t unusual for someone to be awake at this hour.

Many others who were in training camp might still be up.

"Perhaps it's not that late, as you think, but you haven't slept a wink since yesterday."

"I can go a few days without sleep. You should know by now if you've been watching."

"I've seen it a few times. I know very well that it's been too much every time."

"Yeah, I know."

Baekho-gun still had a smile on his face as he silently looked down at me.

I met his gaze straight on.

"If you have complaints, say them."

Even if I complained silently, Baekho-gun would still be able to sense it. But if he kept any complaints to himself, I wouldn't know about it.

I had a lot of complaints about the divine protection granted by my True Name, especially about how it’s a one-way street while I’m awake. It was deeply frustrating.

Even if I told him to take it, he wouldn't take the True Name, which made it all the more vexing.

"I’m complaining about you overexerting yourself."

"It’s not overexertion."

"You think so, don't you?"

This could go on forever.

Perhaps Baekho-gun felt the same way, because instead of voicing more complaints, he changed the subject.

"If you can't sleep, it might be good to listen to a lullaby."

"I’m not unable to sleep because there’s no lullaby."

"Since the juniors prepared something special, why not check it out?"

The juniors had prepared something?

Now that I thought about it, I hadn't checked my device for hours.

I had seen the message from the juniors after their youth training camp, greeting me and saying they’d send a talent show video.

--- "I doubt I can extract useful clues from them."

--- "They are the ones who failed to notice the absence of X for thousands of years. They lack objectivity. Their shared experiences, relationships, affections, and certainties will interfere with objective thinking."

Perhaps the tigers couldn't think of me objectively anymore.

If that was the case, shouldn't I distance myself from them?

Just as I was lost in thought, Baekho-gun’s voice interrupted.

"Joid-shin, you will never harm my friends or siblings. It’s right that they trust you."

"The nightmare is real. I never know when it might go berserk."

"If that's the case, it's the same for us. If our emotions are too high or we lose our composure, we could go out of control. We are far more dangerous than humans when we do. It would cause far greater harm."

True, the divine beings were dangerous compared to humans.

Especially those from the mythological world, who had lived for long ages.

But that didn’t mean I was thinking of distancing myself from them.

Baekho-gun knew I would think this way and immediately spoke.

"We are no different."

I wanted to argue that it wasn’t the same, but since danger existed in both cases, I couldn’t respond properly.

It wasn’t that I didn’t have any counterpoints, but I was too dumbfounded to say anything.

Meanwhile, in the video playing, Gong Cheong-hwon’s voice filled the background, singing along with the grass flute ensemble.

At first, he sang with Korean lyrics, but upon receiving an encore request, he sang the song again in English.

[Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.]

When Gong Cheong-hwon’s clear and fresh voice distracted me for a moment, I blanked out.

I couldn’t tell if it was because I had too many thoughts or because I hadn’t slept last night.

The sound of the song left me dazed.

No, the real problem was that I had completely let my guard down and stopped suspecting that Baekho-gun might do something to me.

"Sleep well, Joid-shin."

Baekho-gun was holding a golden incense burner carved with a tiger.

It was the sleep incense burner that had been used to put people to sleep during replays.

Wasn’t that something only Hwang Ji-ho could use?

Before I could even resist, my eyes grew heavier.

I glared at Baekho-gun with the last of my strength, but to my annoyance, he was smiling faintly.

Right after Joid-shin fell asleep, outside the landscaping area.

Inseon-oh was quietly gazing beyond the fog.

A gray spider crawled over the back of his hand, moving actively before freezing in place with a slight tremor.

The gray spider was staring at the same spot as Inseon-oh.

"...Seems like he's asleep now."

Inseon-oh murmured to himself before checking a message on his device.

It was a message exchanged with the class.

The message contained trivial chatter, as well as updates about the second-year class 0 students currently in training camp.

Among the contents was a report about Joid-shin’s big victory in a sparring match with seniors, and Maeng Hyo-don studying math with Ju Su-hyuk.

Inseon-oh reread the message and began walking.

Step by step.

As Inseon-oh walked around the lake, the gray spider hid inside his sleeve.

Though Inseon-oh appeared to be strolling leisurely, he was walking carefully, remaining vigilant to any signs.

There was always a possibility that someone might come out for a late-night stroll if the dream was restless.

Fortunately, Inseon-oh didn’t run into anyone until dawn.

By the time he was far from the landscaping area, the rain had lightened.

When the rain had completely stopped, and Inseon-oh had disappeared from view, he muttered to himself.

"Hmm, seems like the young one’s night walk is taking a while. Should I say something?"

"Since it’s break time, it’s fine if they walk whenever they want," Eun Ho replied softly.

After returning from the youth training camp, Eun Ho had spent the night at the Eun Hwi-gwan, catching up on what had happened during his absence and gathering information about the China-Japan-Korea exchange competition.

"The important thing isn't the time, but what they do during the walk."