The second evening at HAUT.

After finishing their independent training or extra lessons, the candidates gathered back at the dormitory.

Seo Yui was quietly watching the timing.

In Room 3, aside from Meiling and herself, four others were present: Iris, Ao, Magica’s Nia Estelle, and Dai’s Takanashi Mayu.

All six were in the room together.

Yui opened her locker, pulled out a plastic bag, and emptied its contents onto her bed.

The sound drew every eye in the room.

“Huh?”

Ao’s eyes widened.

“Seo Yui, where did you get that…?”

Even Iris looked surprised.

What Yui had poured out were snacks she’d bought at the campus store—chips, jelly, drinks, and sweets.

“They said teams who earned enough points could shop at the store. I didn’t want us to eat alone, so I bought these for everyone. Let’s share.”

Yui smiled warmly. Beside her, Meiling wordlessly ripped open a bag and spread the treats.

The sweet, savory aroma filled the air.

Iris and Ao were the first to move, heading toward the bed.

“…Ahem. I can’t refuse such generosity.”

“Thanks. I’ll eat well.”

They each grabbed a snack—choco-chip cookies and butter biscuits.

The moment they tasted them, their lips lifted in delight.

Until now, the only “snack” Iris had had in HAUT was three sugar crystals hidden in a packet of hardtack. After days of bland meals, the sweetness and softness felt like pure bliss.

“…”

Across the room, a tall girl with purple hair hesitated. It was Nia Estelle from Magica.

Her eyes flicked timidly toward Meiling.

“What are you waiting for? Come eat.”

Meiling’s voice was a little brusque, but Nia finally stepped forward and picked up a biscuit stick. One bite later, her expression matched Iris and Ao’s.

Grrrowl.

“Ugh.”

A girl with light pink bob-cut hair pressed her hand against her stomach and turned her head away, her cheeks faintly red.

It was Takanashi Mayu from Dai Academy.

She was starving.

Her team had come in last place at both the lunch and dinner races.

Breakfast had been filling, but that couldn’t last. A small pack of hardtack and milk wasn’t nearly enough.

Earlier, she had been so hungry she would’ve done anything for food. But now her resolve hardened.

No way. Who would take charity from Gwangcheon?

If she joined them now, she’d never face her teammates again.

But her eyes kept straying back to the snacks.

The crunching sounds, the sweet-and-salty fragrance—it was an assault on her senses.

I should just leave the room.

Grinding her teeth, Mayu stood. Tears of frustration threatened, but she thought showing weakness to Gwangcheon would be worse than dying on the spot.

“Mayu.”

Someone called her name.

The sound of slippers followed. She turned—and froze.

Seo Yui was standing before her, holding out a snack.

“Here. Let’s eat together.”

“…”

Her eyes dropped to Yui’s hand. White-chocolate biscuits—her favorite.

Growl!

“Ugh…”

Her face turned crimson. The rumble had been loud enough for Yui to hear.

Then Yui took her hand and placed the biscuits in it.

“Go on.”

Yui’s smile held no pity, no condescension—only kindness.

And just like that, the wall Mayu had built inside began to crack.

She met Yui’s gaze, then bit into the snack.

The crunch, the sweetness of white chocolate, the delicate fragrance—all flooded her senses.

The dam burst.

Before she knew it, Mayu was seated before the snacks, shoveling them in.

Yui watched her with quiet satisfaction.

“Good. I hate seeing anyone hungry. It makes me feel awful too.”

“I honestly don’t understand why they’re forcing this kind of competition.”

Ao spoke up, holding a grape jelly.

“It’s not like we committed crimes. This feels like they just want to torment us. One team eats, another starves—how is that fair?”

“Exactly. Proper training requires proper nutrition.”

Nia frowned.

“They told us the program is too short to learn everything anyway. Then why make it harder by starving us?”

It’s just because I was too hungry. I didn’t let my guard down around Gwangcheon, Mayu told herself, chewing.

But Yui still sat beside her, smiling gently.

“Whoooa!”

“Snacks!”

The moment I dumped a bag onto the bed in Room 1, Rio and Zen practically flew across the room.

So this was what “enhanced physique” really meant.

“Where’d you get all this? Is there a store? Don’t tell me you went outside?”

Rio bombarded me with questions, while—

“Wow, look at all this!”

—Zen’s eyes never left the pile.

Silently, I spread the snacks out and spoke.

“Once you earn enough points, you can shop at the store. I bought plenty so we could share.”

At that, Rio and Zen shouted with joy.

“If it’s alright, everyone should join in. The cafeteria meals aren’t enough anyway.”

Hearing me, Jin Cheongryong and Toby, who had been watching quietly, nodded and came over.

By now, the other three were probably doing the same in their rooms.

Most wouldn’t refuse.

Here, sweets were precious.

Especially for growing students—it was natural to flock to snacks.

And yet, there was one who didn’t.

“Hey, Taeil! Where are you going? Aren’t you eating?”

Rio called after Jang Taeil, who was slipping toward the door.

Taeil glanced back and gave a rueful smile.

“I’m fine.”

Then he left.

I pulled out two more bags of snacks from my locker.

“Eh? Yein, where are you going?”

“You’re not eating?”

Rio and Zen asked, while Toby and Jin Cheongryong looked on with snacks in hand.

“I already ate some at the store. You can have the rest.”

“Oh! Then we won’t hold back!”

Rio grinned wide.

I returned the smile briefly, then stepped into the hall.

Ahead, I saw Jang Taeil slip into the next room.

And so I followed him inside.

“Huh?”

“Nam Yein?”

The boys in Room 2 looked up in surprise as I entered.

All eyes were fixed on the bag in my hand.

“Teams that’ve earned enough points can use the campus store,” I said. “I bought these to share.”

When I spread the snacks out, the boys thanked me.

But three faces stayed rigid: Jang Taeil, and the two from Dai Academy who lived in Room 2. The three slipped out without a word.

I grabbed the last remaining bag and followed.

They stopped at the bench behind the building. I halted a few steps behind them.

“What exactly do you want?” Taeil glared.

I held up the bag bulging with snacks.

“We don’t need that. Share it with someone else,” he said.

“You must be hungry,” I replied.

All three of their brows tightened.

Dai had come in last in both the lunch and dinner races today. Aside from breakfast, their meals had been a small packet of hardtack and a carton of milk.

“Who’d eat charity from Gwangcheon?” the red long-haired one sneered. George, if I remembered right.

“Get lost,” said the blue-haired one with the headband—Poff Yan. The hostility coming off the two could’ve sparked a fight then and there.

Taeil stepped in front of them. “We don’t want your pity. Mind your own business and go back.”

It seemed the snack plan wouldn’t work on these three.

That was fine. I hadn’t expected to win over Dai with snacks anyway; I had a different approach in mind here.

“I understand why you don’t like Gwangcheon,” I said.

“What?” Taeil’s eyebrows shot up.

“Last year at HAUT, a Dai candidate was in a serious accident.”

At that, the muscles in their faces twitched.

“In a dungeon mishap, she lost an arm. No matter how well Awakened heal, a missing limb doesn’t grow back. I heard she ended up with a prosthetic.”

“Shut up!” Taeil shouted.

“This is on you! You’ll try to pass it off as some unfortunate accident, but we won’t let it go!”

Fire burned in their eyes.

“Because of you, Senior Mei had to give up her dream of becoming a professional Hunter!”

“Yes. That wasn’t an accident—it was a vile act committed by a Gwangcheon candidate.”

Their eyes went wide at my words.

“You—what did you just say…?”

“Last year, during a joint assignment, Dai and Gwangcheon fell into a trap inside a dungeon. The ones stuck were Dai’s Mei Yeon and Gwangcheon’s Hwang Hae-seon.”

“…”

Taeil ground his teeth, glaring at me.

“Later, Hwang Hae-seon got out and called for rescue. Mei Yeon was found with her arm gone. If that were all, you could call it tragic. But Hwang’s Ability was Dream Wave, a mental status effect that inflicts sleep. The HAUT committee investigated both of them, but the only firm detail they found was that the two separated at some point.”

“Lies! Senior Mei was done in by that bastard Hwang!” George yelled.

“He used his Ability, made her bait, and ran. Otherwise there’s no way someone so much weaker would be the only one to make it back!”

This was why Dai hated Gwangcheon.

Mei Yeon was their senior—and a former squadmate of these four from Dai.

In the game, this event didn’t happen at HAUT; it triggered at Dai Academy after you recruited two or more related party members. You then cornered Gwangcheon’s graduate Hwang Hae-seon, got his testimony, apologized to Mei from the heart, and made him turn himself in—there was a whole redemption and revenge arc.

But that reckoning wasn’t my concern right now.

What mattered was changing Dai’s perception of us.

HAUT includes cooperative assignments, and you inevitably team up at least once with every other academy.

If we wanted top scores, we’d need to work with these four.

And thinking ahead to post-HAUT events, we couldn’t afford to stay on bad terms with the other academies.

“I think the same as you,” I said. “Hwang Hae-seon likely used Mei as bait.”

“You say that like it’s none of your business—for someone from the same rotten academy,” Poff snapped, the room light glinting off his headband. A vein stood out on his forehead.

“There’s one thing I want to make clear.”

I stepped closer. The sudden movement made all three flinch.

I almost laughed.

Relax. I couldn’t beat even one of you by myself, so drop the fists. I’m not here to fight.

“I despise scum like Hwang Hae-seon.”

I let anger into my voice. The three blinked, taken aback.

“And I’m not the only one. Lumina Cueva, Chen Meiling, and Seo Yui—if they heard this story, they’d be sad, incredulous, or furious.”

That wasn’t a line. Knowing those three, that’s exactly how they’d react.

“Don’t talk nonsense. You think that’ll make us trust you?” George said.

“Believe it or don’t. It makes no difference to me.”

“What?”

“I’m not a sinner begging for your forgiveness. I’ve never even met Mei Yeon. Last year, I wasn’t a Hunter trainee—I was just an Awakened, nothing more.”

That was the point.

“I get why you hate Hwang Hae-seon. I even understand disliking Gwangcheon because he was one of ours. But I don’t understand why you’ve turned your blades of anger and hatred on us. We despise cowards and compete fairly with the other candidates. We are not Hwang Hae-seon, and we are not his team.”

“That kind of—”

I cut George off.

“Isn’t it simply easier to vent the grievance time hasn’t healed—your hatred that should be aimed at Hwang—on a more convenient target? Isn’t that why you’ve chosen Gwangcheon as the object of revenge and are taking it out on us, who had nothing to do with it?”

I put weight on the words more convenient. Their faces flushed red with anger.

“If you keep treating us as targets for your hate, the only thing our team can do is compete you fair and square. But I hope you’ll think again—about exactly what you’re doing right now.”

I raised the bag and set it on the ground.

“This one was prepared for you. I don’t want to watch a world where one team eats and another goes hungry.”

“So you can pity us—”

George started to snap again, but I cut in once more.

“If you hate pity, then stop slumping on your beds like you’ve given up.”

His face went rigid.

“That’s all. Throw it away if you want, but I recommend you eat.”

I gave them one last look, then turned back toward the dormitory.

After I disappeared from view, the three from Dai stared down at the big bag on the ground.

“Taeil… what do we do with this?” George asked.

Taeil picked up the bag.

Inside were not only snacks and jelly, but plenty of bread—enough to serve as a real meal.

Grrrrr.

His stomach growled loudly.

“…Damn it,” Jang Taeil muttered, staring at the bag.

(End of Chapter)

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