I Possessed a Broken Academy Instructor

Chapter 44

“Team Two, move up.”

Under Jin Crow’s gaze, the members of Team Two exchanged glances before speaking.

“Well, what can we do? If he says so, we must.”

“Why the sigh? It seems like it’ll be fun.”

The banter between Famiyu and Dokoran brushed against their ears.

“Still, it’s just a beast, isn’t it?”

“…I don’t think it’s an opponent to take lightly.”

Following that, as if they had been waiting for the right moment, Hino Kanae and Beatus each drew their special weapons—a katana and a pistol.

No cadet felt out of place in this situation.

Creating a training dummy from a creature was a mad thought in itself, but if it could be realized, everyone agreed there would be no better teaching aid.

“…”

Yet at least Baek Hwi-young could not easily come to terms with it.

Of course.

His gaze, without a second thought, landed on Jin Crow, the architect of this very situation.

Yet even that connection was fleeting.

“What are you doing, Baek Hwi-an!”

“It’s Baek Hwi-young.”

As always, Pamiyu regarded Dokgo-ran with a look of utter disdain.

Still, perhaps sharing the same sentiment, she turned her question back toward Baek Hwi-young, who stood outside the training hall.

“What are you doing not coming over?”

“…Just thinking for a moment.”

Only then did he blink, his dazed eyes coming to life as he forced his stiff body to move toward the training ground.

He averted his gaze from Jin Crow.

Instead, he focused on the creature reshaped into a training dummy.

—KRaaaH!

The roar of the beast was strikingly real.

Its eyes, a mix of purple and red, glinted as if they were ready to slay every living human in sight, and though its insides might have been reassembled with various biotechnologies, the exterior was infinitely menacing.

To the other living beings, the creature before them was a near-perfect replica of a monster.

Yet, for Baek Hwi-young, it was different.

Standing in the training hall behind his comrades, he silently stared at the creature before him and thought,

‘…It’s far cruder than what I remember. Is that to be expected?’

In the countless lives he had lived, he couldn’t even begin to estimate how many of those monsters he had slain—thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of millions.

Because of that, he understood.

Though it seemed to mimic well on the surface, it was merely a prototype, a mere mockery of the real thing.

Of course, this was a sentiment that applied only to Baek Hwi-young.

“Indeed, standing in front of it feels quite different from the simulation.”

“Right?”

Hino Kanae nodded at Dokgo-ran’s words, who had climbed onto the training ground with a sense of confidence.

And it was no different for Pamiyu, who silently observed with clenched fists, or Beatus, who gripped his dual pistols tightly.

A hulking figure, nearly three meters tall.

With eyes that radiated a clear intent to tear them in half at any moment.

A creature that was almost too monstrous to be called a beast.

Could it be because of that?

Standing in the training ground, they gripped their weapons tightly, beginning to strategize swiftly, without a clear leader among them.

“First, the loser.”

“If we act hastily, we’ll be caught off guard. Let’s create some distance and assess their attacks first…”

“We need to respond as defensively as possible.”

“Let’s try to break their joints first…”

Yet, their words tangled in the air, failing to reach one another.

Perhaps it was only natural.

In the days to come, each would earn their own moniker.

In other words, it meant that five leaderships were gathered within a single squad.

“I don’t know!”

The first to end the argument was none other than Dokgo-ran.

Before the other cadets could even prepare, she kicked off the ground of the training arena and leaped, while simultaneously, the artificial muscles of Phon twitched as if ready to tear the enemy apart, his eyes bursting with intensity as he drove his fist into the earth.

KWA-aaaNG!

Thick dust swirled in the air.

Perhaps it was a stroke of luck.

Even if the enemy’s attack was unexpected, it was slow and heavy enough to barely evade.

“What, what the…!”

Still, for those who were struck mid-sentence, irritation was inevitable.

“Kya-ha-ha!”

Dokgo-ran’s absurd shriek echoed, and Hino Kanae and Beatus quickly scattered, their faces a mix of embarrassment and confusion.

“Phew.”

However, Famiu let out a deep sigh, as if she had anticipated Dokgo-ran’s outburst, quietly slipping on her special equipment shaped like open-finger gloves.

Of course, she wasn’t about to charge at the creature recklessly like Dokgo-ran.

Who would be that foolish?

Famiu took a short, deep breath and whispered to the AI assistant device embedded in her black gloves.

“Activate.”

Wuuum—.

In that moment, a series of blue lights flickered from her equipment, and soon her psionic energy began to ripple at her fingertips.

“Phew.”

Though it was not the premium equipment of the Mer Corporation that I had once used, but rather the mass-produced gear received upon entering the Central Special Officer Academy, its reliability surpassed that of my former tools, save for a slight delay in response time.

“Whoa!”

Just after the activation completed, I couldn’t help but steal a glance at Dokgo-ran, who was rolling around with a creature, unable to contain herself for even a moment.

‘Should I be grateful for the time it buys me?’

It wasn’t just her.

Beatus, from the same martial arts faction, was disrupting Turo with a flurry of shots, while Hino Kanae was valiantly slashing at the creature’s hide with her sword.

Yet, there was a strangely disjointed feeling to it all.

What could I say?

Their attacks, though not mingling, tangled chaotically, hindering one another instead.

In that moment, as I felt a peculiar sense of disharmony among them, a swift motion caught my eye.

Swish—

Baek Hwi-young, who had been silently standing a step behind, blinked as if awakening from a stupor beneath his ashen hair.

Then, with a swift motion, he drew the spear from his back and stepped forward.

“……Ten minutes.”

“Hmm?”

At his barely audible mutter, I questioned him, but by then, he had already moved to the front lines.

Watching his back, I couldn’t help but tilt my head in confusion.

‘What was that?’

It seemed he had spoken absentmindedly, and though I hadn’t caught it clearly, an odd sense of unease settled in my chest.

“Kyahhh!”

“Hey! Calm down a bit!”

However, my thoughts were abruptly cut off by Beatus’s exasperated shout directed at Dokgo-ran.

“……Sigh.”

In the end, all that escaped me was a weary breath.

*

KWA-BOOM!

With a thunderous roar, the creature’s massive fist slammed into the ground, distorting the training hall’s mat and sending up a cloud of fine dust.

“…….”

Unlike the first squad, which had quickly fallen, the second squad was holding up quite well.

Perhaps that was why.

Ideale watched the battle between the training dummies clad in creature skins and Team Two with a gaze that betrayed a hint of unease, yet sparkled with intrigue.

KWA-aaaNG!

Each time a creature’s fist struck the ground, the very earth trembled.

‘Team One has three minutes. Team Two has just crossed the three-minute mark…’

At first glance, one might find it disappointing.

In truth, the records from the simulation room showed that the cadets of Team One were not performing poorly either.

Yet, it was precisely for this reason that Ideale could not help but soon grasp the underlying rationale behind Jin Crow’s choice of such a brutal method.

‘Reality and theory are worlds apart.’

No matter how much they were hailed as superhumans capable of turning the tide of battle single-handedly, or even classified as elite cadets, raw gems remain just that—raw.

Until they are polished, they are rough and of little use.

The scene before him was proof of that.

The cadets discovered as raw gems were floundering, unable to harness their own talents.

Of course, disappointment was not an option.

For any educator or senior who has walked the path ahead, the proper response to a rough gem is not to lament its state but to determine how to shape and refine it.

With this mindset swirling in his thoughts, Ideale scrutinized Team Two’s cadets with his characteristic white eyes.

‘Each possesses a strong individuality. Yet, that becomes a hindrance among them.’

Objectively speaking, all the cadets of Team Two exhibited a level of psionic energy manipulation that surpassed the typical first-year student.

Among them were familiar names, but there were also unexpected faces.

‘Beatus. And Baek Hwi-young…’

In particular, he found the two most appealing.

In the case of Dokgo-ran, while he seemed less like the reckless brigand he had been when he previously challenged Jin Crow to a duel, he was still rampaging with fervor.

Pamiyu Dimejea appeared rational at first glance, yet he displayed a chilling resolve to attack the creature without hesitation, fully aware that a fellow cadet could be injured if they failed to respond properly or made a mistake.

And then there was Hino Kana… well, how should he put it?

Compared to the others, she did not engage in overtly flashy actions, but she had a tendency to hesitate, overly fixated on seizing opportunities.

‘But Beatus and Baek Hwi-young are different.’

Beatus filled the gaps with calm shooting and martial arts, while Baek Hwi-young, who had not particularly stood out until now, expertly targeted the creature’s weaknesses, knowing precisely when to strike and retreat.

Though he was relegated to a half-forced position, watching the talents of those who would soon be called juniors was quite a delightful affair.

‘By the way…’

Initially preoccupied with assessing each cadet’s level, Ideale’s gaze soon shifted from the students to the training dummies that stood in opposition to them.

—KRRRRRRRRR!

The voice, resonant and booming, echoed as if it were affixed with the vivid realism of Professor Lilian’s words.

…Still, whether it was truly necessary remained a question.

After all, it was merely a training dummy crafted in just three weeks, and one could hardly claim its movements were exceptional. Yet, beyond that, she glimpsed a kind of potential.

‘What if we could modify it for deployment on the battlefield?’

At first glance, it seemed plausible.

It was not without precedent.

In fact, during the Third Galactic War, the armored equipment that had been created as past training dummies had proven quite useful against the Empire’s tactical golems.

How many soldiers of the United Human Synthesis had been saved because of that?

‘Of course, the exterior makes it burdensome for direct use… No, perhaps it could be employed for deception operations or to lower morale instead.’

The Empire, a thoroughly pyramid-structured society.

While the nobles with their knights might be unfazed, it could deliver quite a shock to the common soldiers, who were predominantly of peasant origin.

Though, this assumption came with the caveat that ‘if the Empire was also troubled by creatures.’

“…If possible.”

It was then that Ideale murmured absentmindedly.

“Um, Headmaster?”

Lilian, who had been reclining in what appeared to be an ordinary mass-produced chair, had somehow approached her from behind, exhaling a languid yawn mixed with the hazy smoke of her electronic cigarette.

“Yawn, that won’t do.”

“Pardon?”

It was a calm and assured voice, as if she had read Ideale’s thoughts.

“Producing that for tactical weaponry is out of the question. Yawn.”

“Why not?”

Structurally, Ideale was superior to Professor Lilian, but their relationship required mutual respect.

Thus, she responded with deference.

What truly puzzled her was why Lilian spoke with such conviction.

“It’s more difficult to procure materials than for a standard training dummy. And…”

However, it was not Lilian who answered her question, but Jin Crow, who approached without tearing his gaze from the second squad cadets.

“They say it costs about five times more than creating a conventional training dummy.”

“…Then?”

“Do not worry. We’ve precisely halved the number of training dummies to be used in lectures for our faction and the opposing faction. Wouldn’t around 25 units suffice, even as old models?”

That was a truly astonishing response.