ReLife Player

[When the Fox Rain Stops (4)].

There was a limit to his patience.

Eunha, who revealed the suppressed power, looked around at each of the students.

All of them were afraid of him.

None of them looked like the culprit.

But it didn’t matter.

«Did you do it?»

«…Oh, no…I didn’t…I didn’t…!»

He stared into the eyes of each child he questioned, and that was enough.

One child, who received the released power, flew across the room, crashing into a desk.

«Then who did it? Someone among you must have seen.»

«I, I didn’t see…uhhhh…hhhh…!»

The child who made eye contact waved his hands in panic.

Soon enough, the child’s breathing became labored and he fell to his knees.

Unperturbed, Eunha attacked the other child.

«You think that makes sense?»

He had no intention of treating them as children.

He wouldn’t kill them.

He would only instill fear.

He planned to continue this way until he found out who orchestrated this.

Eventually, someone would speak up.

«Still not going to talk? Is there really no one here?»

He had already sent five kids flying.

Eunha snorted as he looked at the terrified children one by one.

His eyes locked with Yeom Jae-jin, the fifth grade class president.

«U-uh…uh…uh…?»

«Hey, you really don’t know?»

He had heard from Minji yesterday.

There were a few kids who had tried to frame Seona as a thief.

Yeom Jae-jin had pointed her out.

Eunha looked down at him as he collapsed, clutching his chest with both hands.

«Uh…uh…!»

«Cho Yeona, and you?»

«Ugh, Eunha… I… I…!»

Cho Yeona screamed and rolled on the floor, unable to resist the onslaught of energy.

She slammed into the desk and fell to the ground, grunting and clutching her throat.

«Come out.»

Once the two could talk, Eunha intended to ask them again.

He turned his head to Ham Chan-wook.

Their eyes met, and he shuddered.

He reached for him.

He tried to reach out.

«…Eunha, don’t. I’m fine.»

Seona held onto his hand, trying to stop him from attacking.

She was pulling his hand with all her strength, adding her weight.

«I’m fine, really, don’t do this. You’re scaring the kids. What’s wrong with you?»

Jin-seona shook her head, begging him not to.

Eunha frowned.

Her face said she was fine.

Watching her hold back tears made him feel unnecessarily angry.

She was the one who had the hardest time keeping her emotions in check.

Nevertheless, Seona was desperately saying that she was fine.

«Eunha, you’re a good boy, right? You can’t do this. Don’t you see how they’re looking at you right now?»

He knows.

How the kids are looking at him.

How they’re scared of him and whimpering.

And it didn’t matter.

It didn’t matter what they thought of him.

I just want to rip this shit apart.

«You can’t do this to yourself. The kids will hate you for it.»

«And you’re okay?»

For a moment, Seona’s eyes widened.

She hesitated, then forced a smile.

«…I’m fine, I’ve been…, I’ve been preparing for this for a long time.»

«Don’t be ridiculous.»

Eunha crushed the words she’d struggled out.

Manifesting mana within his body, he shook her off and turned back to the children.

He was about to lash out at the recovered Yeom Jae-jin again when-.

«─No-Eunha, what are you doing?»

It was impossible for Im Dohon not to have sensed the sudden burst of mana.

With his hair disheveled, he burst into the classroom, shaking off the fear that had colored the room.

«I’m waiting for you in the counseling room.»

Im Dohon growled in a low, gravelly voice.

Eunha glared at him.

He didn’t avert his gaze.

«…Yes.»

After a long moment of eye contact, he steadied his mana.

He left the classroom without looking back at the children’s horrified stares.

«…….»

He sensed a flurry of activity near him.

He opened his hand.

A note fell out of thin air.

He grabbed the note, shoved it into his pocket, and headed for the counseling office.

☆

«I thought I was going to die because I was so scared! Who did it? Who played such a prank on Jin Seona’s locker?»

«Sorry… But I really didn’t know Eunha would get angry over that.»

Lunchtime.

Children including Cho Yeona and Ham Chan-wook gathered behind the library, discussing the situation.

Even just thinking about it now sent shivers down Cho Yeona’s spine.

In the situation where she couldn’t even breathe properly and her vision was shaking all around, she even felt the fear of death.

She decided to avoid doing anything that would provoke Eunha further.

Other kids agreed with this sentiment.

Ham Chan-wook, who had been beaten by him before, was on the verge of losing control just hearing Eunha’s name.

«Don’t worry. Our work is almost done.»

Yeom Jae-jin, who had kept his mouth shut, calmed the anxious children.

The work was almost done.

Rumors about Ain had spread around the school.

It didn’t take much to spread the rumor.

At Doan Elementary School, it hadn’t always been an open topic of conversation, but there were stories about Ain that cast Seona in a negative light.

And since last year’s retreat, there’s been a growing sense that Ain’s existence are a danger.

The children simply lit the prepared oil and added firewood.

Of course, Hong Jinwoo had prepared the spark. It wasn’t difficult for him, as he was a direct descendant of the Dangun group, to find out about the incidents caused by Ain players.

Now all they needed to do was fan the flames or watch from the other side of the river.

There would be no direct harassment of Seona in the future.

«All you have to do is go around badmouthing the Ains to the kids you know.»

«Really? Nothing scary is going to happen now, right?»

«No, don’t worry.»

Yeom Jae-jin said as he looked around at the children who belonged to the Dangun Group.

The fifth graders of class 3 seemed to be scared of Eunha, but the others didn’t seem to realize how scary he was.

Still, it didn’t matter.

No one would ever offend him like they did today.

He shouldn’t have been able to use his powers so freely in the first place.

Today, he hadn’t returned to class after being called by the teacher.

Not only that, but the more he wielded fear, the worse his and Seona’s standing would be.

«Jin-woo said that from now on, he’ll handle things with his dad’s company.»

The purpose of stepping on Jin Seona wasn’t to torment her.

What they had done so far was just a rush.

From the inside, the children discredit her, and from the outside, Hong Jin-woo worsens public opinion of her.

Until the day she is expelled from Doan Elementary School.

«So don’t worry about it…!»

His line of sight plummeted to the ground.

An irresistible force pressed down on the back of his neck.

He squeezed his eyes shut as the ground flashed in front of him, and the pain shook his head.

«……!!!»

He tried to touch his face scratched by small rocks and brushed off the dirt from his eyes, but he couldn’t move his body.

Something on top of him pressed his hands behind his back.

He exerted force on his head to break free, but a hand that had grabbed his hair smacked his head down onto the ground.

No sound came out.

His body, covered in dirt, repeatedly heaved as if trying to throw up the contents of his stomach.

W-What is this…!

The world turned pitch black.

He couldn’t see anything, and in pain, unable to scream, he felt like he was left alone in the darkness.

He wanted to open his eyes.

But the force that constrained him didn’t allow him to open his eyes.

«─Did you enjoy it so far?»

☆

The note that Yoo ha handed me was the result of the investigation by Ham Chan-wook’s group that I had asked for earlier.

As soon as it was time for lunch, Eunha left the counseling room and ran down the hallway.

The group were from Dangun Construction.

The president of the fifth grade-class 3, Yeom Jae-jin, had a father who was the president of Dangun Construction, and Cho Yeona and Ham Chan-wook’s parents worked for the company.

Many of the other kids who hung out with them had parents with some sort of connection to Dangun E&C or belonged to affiliated companies of the Dangun Group.

«…Crazy bastards…!»

Curse words came out of his mouth.

If the situation hadn’t turned out like this, he might have accepted the information Yoo Ha had given him.

The kids related to the Dangun Group were forming a group within the school.

But as he recalled the flow of events that Yoo Ha had brought as additional information, the presence of the Dangun Group couldn’t be overlooked.

The word ‘Dangun’ appeared too many times to dismiss it as a coincidence.

Above all, there was one thing he couldn’t understand.

Why Seona…!

The Dangun Group was attacking Seona with malice.

I knew Hong Jin-woo was an asshole, but…!

It was last summer.

Hong Jin-woo, the heir to the Dangun Group, had been humiliated at Hayang’s birthday party.

There’s no way he didn’t have a bruised ego after his disgraceful behavior.

He must have been waiting for an opportunity.

Still, there was one thing he couldn’t understand.

Why her?

He could count on one hand the people who had humiliated him.

One was himself, the other was Hayang.

The last one was Han Seo-hyun, a direct member of Sirius Group.

But Hong Jin-woo wasn’t attacking one of them, he was attacking Seona.

The question could be heard as he beat the children of the Dangun Group who were talking in the backyard of the library.

«Ji, Jin-woo…, said…to…mess…her…….»

Yeom Jae-jin muttered with his face covered in blood and dirt, his lips trembling like a crucian carp.

His face was swollen as if stung by bees.

Eunha glared at the kids who were lying on the ground, pressing against their backs without permission.

The kids, who were moving without permission, were no longer moving.

They knew how the kid who had tried to escape a moment ago had been dealt with and were sticking to the ground, just breathing.

«Why?»

«T-That’s… we… shouldn’t… attack… you… because… it’s… dangerous.»

Eunha shut his mouth.

It’s not always possible to harass someone by targeting them directly.

Sometimes, targeting the acquaintances of the person you wanted to torment could be more effective.

Especially if that person was someone close.

He was under the protection of the Sirius Group.

Hayang was a direct descendant of the Alice Group, and if it were Seohyun, she would have retaliated before being targeted.

That’s why they chose Seona.

She was the one weakness that the two of them couldn’t hide because she had a backstory that made her the perfect target.

There was nothing easier than attacking her for being labeled as an Ain.

«Yeah… what.. Jinwoo… did…!»

Eunha kicked Yeom Jae-jin in the side as he tried to laugh at him.

He couldn’t even protest and screamed.

«Ha….»

Eunha tore his gaze away from the children sprawled on the floor and looked up at the sky.

He didn’t know what to do.

Hurting them wouldn’t make things better.

The situation was out of his hands in the first place.

Giving in to his emotions and hurting them would only make it harder to deal with later.

It was frustrating.

If there was an enemy to defeat, he could swing his sword.

But the world he lived in was not the player’s world.

The opponent was an entity that moved like an organism, surrounded by intangible rumors.

And it was a group.

It wasn’t just Hong Jin-woo as an individual.

For some reason, the Dangun Group was supporting him.

«Yeom Jae jin, tell your father to stop any schemes from the outside.»

«It, it’s useless… I… what… did I say… this is… what Jinwoo… Jinwoo’s grandfather… told me to do…»

«Do it if you want to live. Ham Chan-wook, Cho Yeona, you too.»

The named children couldn’t reply.

They had no power to act against parents who followed the group’s orders.

Yet he threatened them.

«Erase the rumors circulating in the school, and publicly criticize every action you took in front of the kids.»

«…How do we do that? How can we erase the rumors… uugh…»

Ham Chan-wook clenched his chest, gasping for air.

The ground looked yellow.

An unknown secretion, whether tears or mucus, covered his face.

Barely able to breathe after peeing himself, he gave up on protesting.

«Do it.»

Eunha didn’t ask for an answer.

It was an order, not a request.

He was going to roll them so thoroughly they’d wish they were dead.

«Open your eyes. Look up.»

The children struggled to their feet at the command.

All of them tried to meet his eyes, trembling with fear.

Once he was sure that every single one of them was looking at him, he cast his fear spell.

«Ah… ah…!»

«…What… what… what’s happening here!»

«…Where is this!»

«………………!»

The children were captured by different fears.

However, it was just a fear warning.

Right now, he couldn’t shatter their minds.

It was annoying.

He walked away from the backyard.

It was indeed infuriating.

The rumors spreading within the school were not the end.

Something would happen outside the school soon.

He had to resolve the issues happening inside and outside the school.

«—Eunha.»

«Why are you not in class and what are you doing here?»

When he completely left the backyard, he stopped abruptly when he saw Hayang standing in front of the library.

She seemed to have noticed what happened in the backyard.

«…Is it because of me?»

«No.»

Eunha replied nonchalantly.

She was good at taking in information with her mana.

At this distance, she could probably overhear what they would have confessed through her mana.

Still, Eunha acted as if he knew nothing.

«Let’s go back to class. You’ll get scolded too.»

«Seona, this…. It’s because of me.»

«Jung Hayang.»

«…….»

«What do you want me to say?»

Hayang waited for an answer until she grabbed his sleeve.

Changing his face, Eunha looked into her big eyes and spoke straight.

«Do you want me to say it’s because of you?»

«…….»

«What do you want to hear? Do you want me to say that it’s because of you that Seona is like this?»

«…No. It’s not like that. If I’d…, if I’d handled it right, this wouldn’t have happened to her, so I’m taking responsibility for….»

«You’re taking responsibility?»

Hayang kept her mouth shut.

Eunha laughed in disbelief.

«Don’t say that when you don’t have the power to take responsibility.»

Responsibility is something that even powerful people try to avoid.

It was ridiculous that she said she would take responsibility when she had no power.

Above all, it was the wrong person to be responsible.

«Did you do something wrong?»

«No.»

«Why should you be responsible if you didn’t do anything wrong?»

«Don’t blame everything on you. Don’t blame everything on others either.»

They had one goal.

By attacking Seona, they were trying to evoke guilt.

But will she blame herself?

I don’t want her to bend to their will.

She must face it without wavering.

Who should bear the responsibility?

«Obviously, the ones who started the fire.»

Eunha grabbed Hayang’s hand, tears streaming down her face.

«You haven’t done anything wrong.»

It was those bastards who were at fault.

He swallowed the words inside.

Instead, he tightened his grip.

«…Yeah.»

Hayang nodded softly.