Blood Demon of the Past Life – Chapter 67

Chapter 67: F-rank Instructor-nim （2）

Lee Su-chan couldn’t bring himself to speak first, even though he recognized Kang San.

From Kang San’s perspective, it would have been just a passing encounter, and Lee Su-chan at that time might not have been a very pleasant memory for Kang San. There were no particular troubles, but they didn’t form a positive relationship either.

While he hesitated,

Kang San proceeded with the class.

“Honestly, I’m not sure if I’m qualified to teach you. Team Leader Jeong Hye-mi requested my help, saying that my limited abilities were needed, and I accepted because I judged that there was at least a role I could handle. The training we’ll be conducting from now on is not a one-sided teaching but rather a form of discussion. What went wrong, whether it aligns with your own thoughts or not. Instead of blindly accepting it as a class, you can express your own thoughts and determine who’s even slightly on the right track.”

He gave a signal.

As Jeong Hye-mi nodded, the staff assisting with the training played a video on a pre-prepared screen.

Click

“This is the party video of Project B team. Let’s watch it from beginning to end first.”

A whopping 55 minutes.

It was a painful time for Min Yeong-gi and his team members.

Falling into traps, struggling, watching themselves floundering in the video, they couldn’t hide their devastated feelings. It was a shameful past. A past they wanted to deny, but one that was preserved in the video.

Still, they didn’t turn away from reality.

Just as Jeong Hye-mi said.

What mattered now was development, and they couldn’t waste these boiling emotions in vain.

They watched for a long time.

Their eyes were filled with a genuine desire to find out what they had done wrong.

Click

The video stopped.

Kang San looked around at the people and said,

“This test. What do you think was the first mistake?”

“I believe the failure to respond to the fall was fatal. Despite being an accident that could easily happen in a cave-like terrain, we dealt with it carelessly, resulting in injuries to the Mages and significant time loss. If we had only overcome that accident safely, we would have finished the record within 50 minutes.”

“I have a different opinion.”

“Yes?”

Min Yeong-gi looked flustered.

He was convinced that they hadn’t made any particular mistakes until the fall.

Kang San rewound the video.

And then

Click

Video start.

He pointed to the very beginning.

“Immediately after the test began. You made the wrong decision to use ‘magic’ from the start.”

✦✦✦✦✦✦

It didn’t make sense.

Inside the cave.

It was covered in pitch-black darkness.

It was a very common-sense and natural decision to cast magic to illuminate the darkness.

Min Yeong-gi said.

“Why are you saying that was wrong? If we didn’t use Light magic, we would have had to deal with the spiders in the dark.”

“That’s correct. I can’t say that decision was unconditionally wrong, but if we add the premise that this is a test with a time limit, the story changes. You, and I as well, knew that we had to pass this test within an hour. If that’s the case, if you don’t move safely but maximize speed, you could face the worst-case scenario of exceeding the time limit. Let’s rewind the situation then. From the moment the Mage cast Light to solve the constraint of darkness, the magic has to be maintained until the end of this test. Because, just like you said, we can’t face the spiders in the dark.”

Unlike the humble beginning.

Kang San’s tone was firm.

Now that they both believed their arguments were right, Kang San presented clear evidence to push his point.

“Magic is a very difficult field. Casting is a study of the mind, and the moment there’s an element that eats away at the mind, the Mage’s ability drops significantly. Then I’ll ask. The Mage has to bear the risk of casting ‘Light’ for a whole hour, but do you think they can demonstrate 100% of their ability even if that risk is minor?”

“That’s not a problem. From the beginning, we’re a party with strong firepower, possessing three Mages. Just like there’s a supporting role in other parties, one of them simply took on that role.”

“Yes. If the roles were distributed like that, it might not be a problem. But as I said before, this situation has a time limit, meaning it’s a situation where we have no choice but to hurry. Mages generally have poor physical abilities. The Mage maintaining Light, the Mage who has to use other magic to deal with monsters. If the ground collapses, what kind of problem would occur?”

“That’s…”

For a moment.

He was speechless.

Thinking about it, the Mage who suffered the greatest injury from the fall was the Mage who used Light.

“As a Mage, it’s only natural that their ability to respond to variables would be lower. Of course, you could say that’s an unavoidable problem, but there’s a reason why parties have various roles. Positions with agile physical abilities would show the reaction speed to respond to variables even while maintaining a skill like ‘Light,’ but Mages are completely different. Imbalance of roles. A problem that might not be prominent in a situation without a time limit applies as a problem in this test. It means that one minor detail directly led to the result of the Mage’s injury.”

His head was tangled in complex thoughts.

He understood what he was saying.

But he couldn’t accept it.

“So, are you saying the party itself was wrong from the beginning?”

“I never said that. There are many ways to solve a situation like a test. The Warrior or Sub-Tanker could prepare something to illuminate the darkness, or the Mage could cast Light magic but prepare to respond to variables. The result occurred because neither of these happened, and therefore, we can say that the leader’s judgment was the problem in the end.”

“…Are you saying it was my mistake?”

“Yes.”

A firm answer.

He felt like something snapped in his head.

Min Yeong-gi’s expression crumpled.

“Wasn’t that last remark crossing the line?”

✦✦✦✦✦✦

He tried to endure it.

He wanted to accept the teaching if possible.

But this wasn’t it.

Kang San’s remarks were blatantly pointing the finger of blame at Min Yeong-gi.

Min Yeong-gi said,

“Didn’t you say it yourself? That it was my problem in hindsight. If we talk about the failed result, nothing can be said to be not a problem. We’ve solved countless problems in this way. It’s clear that the Mage who used Light happened to be seriously injured in the fall because we responded carelessly. But if that problem occurred because of just one Light magic, a magic that’s not even that draining for a Mage, then it’s just hindsight.”

It wasn’t wrong either.

Light is a magic with extremely low consumption.

It was excessive for such a small variable to be the cause of failure and for it to be shifted to the leader’s responsibility.

Kang San replied with an unwavering gaze.

“No. If it’s a failed result, there’s no meaningless process. No matter how much you dress it up as a test, this is also a life-or-death fight. If the Mage had died in the fall, what should we prepare to prevent repeating the past? We have to eliminate variables. We have to respond to the fall, and the Mage should find a way to take care of themselves more safely rather than taking on a supporting role. Hindsight? That’s right. But because we failed, this logic inevitably gains strength.”

“I can’t accept that premise. No one would hold someone accountable for such a trivial thing.”

“Discussion is a process of exchanging opinions. If you can’t refute my logic by simply dismissing it as trivial, our current conversation is meaningless. You have to persuade me logically. If a minor difference created a result that was even 1% different, then tell me the logic that your judgment wasn’t wrong.”

“No…!”

Frustration welled up.

Kang San’s words.

Because he questioned it in hindsight, there was no room for the person who failed to refute it.

How could this be called a discussion?

It wasn’t an exchange of opinions, but rather Kang San asserting his words as unconditionally correct.

“Let’s take a break. I don’t think we can have a conversation right now.”

Min Yeong-gi stormed out.

Jeong Hye-mi couldn’t even stop Min Yeong-gi in the face of the sudden situation.

✦✦✦✦✦✦

He slumped onto the sofa in the break room.

He needed time to cool down from the heated atmosphere.

“…Damn it, what does he want me to do?”

Min Yeong-gi.

He had a dream.

As a child, he almost lost his life in a sudden Link incident.

He hid under the debris of a building, avoiding the monsters slaughtering people, and trembled in his parents’ arms. It was pitch-black darkness. At that time, when he couldn’t see anything because his parents were holding him tight, a foul smell wafted over. He instinctively knew. That monsters had appeared, and that he and his parents wouldn’t survive.

He hugged his parents tightly.

Only then did he realize that he wasn’t the only one trembling.

That day.

Min Yeong-gi didn’t die.

Suddenly, he heard the monster’s roar, and when he escaped his parents’ embrace, a man had slaughtered all the monsters. When he learned that the man was a famous Korean Hunter, Min Yeong-gi had a dream. Like the Hunter who saved him and his parents, he would also become strong and be a person who exerted a positive influence.

He worked tirelessly.

He achieved results to the extent that he could join Project B team, but the reality wasn’t so hopeful.

Project A team, which was ahead.

B team, which was evaluated as being inferior.

In a situation where he was already mentally impatient, he ended up showing a poor performance in this C-rank test.

There was a lot of talk internally.

That Jeong Hye-mi had failed, and that if things continued like this, support for Project B team would be cut off.

Hearing Kang San’s harsh criticism in such a situation, the emotions he had been suppressing all burst out at once.

If it had been someone with achievements he could acknowledge.

If he had pointed out mistakes he could understand.

He would have accepted it.

He had barely accepted that position through a conversation with Jeong Hye-mi in the first place, but he couldn’t stand the situation where Kang San was spouting nonsense. Not cursing him to his face was the minimum courtesy. He wanted to flip the table and walk out.

He barely managed to calm his emotions.

He knew that he shouldn’t respond emotionally.

That’s when it happened.

“Are you okay?”

It was Lee Su-chan’s voice.

When he opened his eyes, he saw Lee Su-chan who had followed him.

“…I don’t know. Whether this is right or wrong. Su-chan. You know too, right? Even if we failed, it’s excessive to be criticized for just casting Light magic once. If we talk in hindsight, there’s nothing we can’t say. All our actions could be said to be the cause of failure.”

“I understand. How you feel, Team Leader-nim.”

Lee Su-chan also felt frustrated.

He hadn’t expected some great teaching, but he didn’t expect that Kang San would criticize them by nitpicking.

However,

He accepted it.

To be precise, he acknowledged Kang San as a person from the beginning.

“But even so, I don’t think his teaching is meaningless. The result of 40 minutes. It can’t be a coincidence. It’s clear that he achieved an overwhelming difference of 10 minutes by taking care of details we didn’t know, even considering the variable of the fall.”

“…How can you be so sure?”

Only then did Min Yeong-gi feel something strange.

Lee Su-chan said,

“Kang San’s method. I’ve experienced it too.”

It was 3 years ago.

It was a story from when Lee Su-chan was still a rookie, before he joined Project B team.