Suicide Before Defeating the Final Boss

Suicide Before Defeating the Final Boss – 8

EP.8 Surely Not?

Jeong-hyeon chuckled in disbelief as he watched the muscle-bound student, Jer, collapse after deflecting a single blow from the wooden sword. If you’re ranked seventh, shouldn’t you be holding out? But why did he just lie down and raise a white flag?

‘Unbelievable.’

He swung his sword alone, then decided it wouldn’t work and immediately surrendered? Didn’t he have any sense of honour? Shouldn’t he at least take a few hits if he started the fight?

Unable to bear it any longer, Jeong-hyeon clenched his teeth and spoke.

“Really? You’re not getting up? Then I’ll come to you. Stay right there, you pig bastard.”

He then approached the guy, swinging his wooden sword and shouting.

“Today, I’ll see if I can raise my stats by beating a pork chop with a wooden sword!”

Determined to properly increase his stats for once, he continued hitting Jer with the wooden sword. But someone from the audience broke the rule of not interfering in duels and ran into the arena.

“Stop!”

Jeong-hyeon turned to see who it was and recognized Erie, the girl he had seen the day before. Honestly, he bore no ill will toward her, so he focused more on his stat-boosting—no, his pork chop-beating. But then Erie manifested mana and spoke.

“If you don’t stop right now, I’ll attack you!”

What was she saying?

Jeong-hyeon gritted his teeth, frustrated that Erie was interrupting his training. It seemed like the world was always against him whenever he tried to gain an advantage.

“Why. Why now?”

“What?”

“Why are you intervening now? Damn it, if you were going to intervene, you should have done it from the start!”

His suppressed emotions exploded. No, perhaps it was more accurate to say he no longer hid them. Jeong-hyeon, engulfed in anger, turned his gaze to Erie.

“What, what are you doing?”

Erie seemed horrified that the target of his attack might shift to her. As she looked at him in fear, Jeong-hyeon made a quick decision.

‘From now on, anyone who stands in my way will be destroyed, no matter who they are.’

Even if it were someone stronger than him.

Having made up his mind, he rushed toward Erie. Erie, seeing Jeong-hyeon approaching quickly, hurriedly cast a fire spell.

“Exact Flame!”

A massive fireball, conjured from her refined mana, was directed at him. Erie manipulated it with a wave of her hand, sending it flying toward Jeong-hyeon. He easily deflected the fireball by throwing his wooden sword at it.

– Boom!

Having been dragged around on countless adventures, he’d encountered numerous mages and learned their tactics. He’s never had a chance to test his knowledge due to the shackles and restraints he had been under…

‘Now, there’s nothing holding me back.’

Now he could experiment all he wanted.

He quickly closed the distance to Erie, who was hurriedly preparing her next spell. Mages had a vulnerability after casting a spell, a brief moment when they couldn’t do anything until the next spell was ready. This was the perfect time to strike.

With determination, Jeong-hyeon clenched his fist and prepared to attack.

‘It’s a shame I don’t have a sword.’

But as the saying goes, a chicken instead of a pheasant. Jeong-hyeon swung his fist at Erie’s temple, but his hand was stopped mid-air by a mana shield.

Erie, seeing his hand blocked, smirked arrogantly and shouted.

“Last time, I was caught off guard, but this time, you’ll never break my shield…!”

Her confident voice grated on Jeong-hyeon. He swung his fist again with full force, and before she could finish her sentence, the mana shield shattered like glass, devoured by the divine power surrounding his fist.

“No, this can’t be…!”

Erie, witnessing this up close, was in denial of reality. But no matter how much she denied reality, his fist was still there, and it soon connected with her temple.

Bang!

An inhuman sound echoed as her body momentarily lifted off the ground before crashing miserably to the floor.

‘Oh, right.’

Jeong-hyeon felt a pang of regret. If he had aimed for her torso instead of her head, he could have landed a few more hits. As he regretted acting too hastily, a message appeared before him.

[Congratulations! You have defeated opponents significantly stronger than you in succession and earned achievement points!]

* Level up soon!

[Your stats have increased.]

Jeong-hyeon couldn’t help but look disappointed at the notification of increased stats. If he had aimed for her torso, his stats might have increased by one more point. Filled with an indescribable sense of despair, he turned around.

‘I wonder if hitting unconscious people will increase my stats?’

Since punching wood and stone had increased his stats, maybe this would work too. Thinking it might be worth a try, he picked up the fallen wooden sword and prepared to continue.

“Well done.”

The voice of the swordsmanship instructor signaled the end of the sparring match. Jeong-hyeon questioned the instructor’s absence from the match until that moment.

‘Well, at least I got some benefits.’

But that didn’t excuse the instructor’s neglect of duty. Jeong-hyeon considered saying something but decided it wasn’t worth the effort and let it go. The instructor, meanwhile, instructed an assistant to take care of the fallen students and then turned to Jeong-hyeon with a serious expression.

“Who taught you that sword technique?”

Jeong-hyeon gave a brief reply.

“You did, Instructor.”

“… Me?”

“Yes.”

The instructor looked puzzled but nodded.

“… If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to.”

It seemed there was some misunderstanding. Jeong-hyeon thought about clearing it up but decided it was too much trouble and just nodded. The instructor, drawing his own conclusions, spoke kindly.

“You should go to the infirmary and get treated. You might have injuries you’re not aware of.”

His previously indifferent voice had become strangely gentle. While it wasn’t a bad thing, Jeong-hyeon found it a bit unsettling. He nodded awkwardly, and the instructor pointed him to the nearest door leading to the infirmary.

“Off you go.”

“Yes sir.”

Jeong-hyeon could only nod with a slightly puzzled expression in response to such kindness.

***

Swordsmanship instructor Mertan watched Jeong-hyeon head towards the infirmary with a complicated expression.

‘He is probably a secret student of the famous swordsman, Sword Saint Neriah.’

Although his basic skills seemed quite lacking, everything in Jeong-hyeon’s combat style resembled Sword Saint Neriah, making it easy to infer. Having spent years assisting by Neriah’s side, Mertan had no doubt.

However, one thing troubled him. Neriah highly valued basic skills, so it was expected that any disciple of his would have a solid foundation. Yet, Jeong-hyeon seemed like a blank slate, with no foundational training, which raised doubts.

Lost in thought, Mertan suddenly had a realization.

‘Could he be a secret son, perhaps?’

The thought quickly vanished. Neriah, in his early thirties, couldn’t possibly have a fully grown son like Jeong-hyeon. Even a rough calculation made it implausible. However, memories of Neriah running away at fifteen and returning at nineteen, declaring he had no intention of marrying, resurfaced.

‘It’s impossible. It must be… impossible, right?’

Staring into the space, Mertan decided to find out who Jeong-hyeon’s parents were if they ever met again.

***

As misunderstandings continued to pile up, Jeong-hyeon encountered Lucia sleeping in the infirmary.

“… Lucia?”

He couldn’t understand why she was sleeping here instead of being in class. Confused by her actions, he thought she was a kind person but difficult to comprehend. Gently, he tried to wake her up.

“Mmm… No… Don’t get hurt, you crazy guy… I’ll just kill him myself…”

Though he couldn’t see her dream, he had a feeling on what it was about. Sighing, he called her name again.

“Lucia?”

She didn’t wake up no matter how much he called, so he decided to try a playful approach.

“Saintess.”

Until then, no amount of shaking or calling her name had woken her. But at that single word she sat up and looked around.

“Car, Cardinal! I wasn’t dozing off, I was just meeting the Lord in a dream…”

Muttering nonsense, Lucia blinked and then, recognizing him, smiled and spoke.

“Oh, it’s you, Hero… I thought it was the Cardinal…”

She trailed off, realizing something was wrong. Her eyes grew wide as she exclaimed.

“… H-Hero, you’re alive…?”

With a scream, she fell backward off the chair in shock.

Feeling guilty at what he saw, Jeong-hyeon concealed his emotions and offered her his hand.

“Are you okay?”

Lucia seemed to regain her senses after falling backward.

She mumbled, “Oh, it was just Jeong-hyeon,” as she got up.

Jeong-hyeon’s gaze was a blend of pity and irritation as he gestured towards the desk.

“So, why are you sleeping here?”

Lucia awkwardly smiled and began to explain.

“I heard that an annoying person is coming to the academy soon. I was looking for places I could secretly use as a hideout.”

“An annoying person?”

Was she talking about someone like Erie? Jeong-hyeon was about to say not to worry about Erie, since he had already dealt with her, but then he heard an unexpected name.

“Yes. I don’t know if you know, but there’s a bishop… no, an archbishop named Lea. She always seems eager to make my life difficult whenever she sees me.”

Bishop Lea.

The name caught Jeong-hyeon off guard, filling him with a mix of anger and confusion.

‘Why the hell is that woman coming here?’

From what he had just heard, she had been demoted from archbishop to bishop, but she was still a high-ranking priestess member. There was no reason for her to come to the academy, unless…

He looked at Lucia and began to piece together the situation in his mind.

It seemed someone might be playing a larger game than he had initially thought. As this thought settled in, Jeong-hyeon felt a surprising calm wash over his mind. He quickly began to think about how he could use this situation to his advantage.