97) Chapter 15. ……It Was Warm (10)

Bang!

Another loud sound came from beneath the ground.

“Rua.”

“H‑huh?”

“Are you really worried?”

“Uh…”

Of course I was.

I knew things were different from the original story.

In the original, there weren’t enough teachers or instructors, and some students really did get seriously hurt.

A villain who swam through the earth.

If all he did was grab ankles from underground, it wouldn’t be a huge problem. But the real danger was something else.

The mountain wasn’t extremely steep, but it wasn’t a small hill either. You could reach the top in a day, but there were plenty of steep slopes. There were places where falling would be dangerous.

In the original, the villain managed to drag several students underground. No one died, but some were injured badly enough to end up in the ICU.

They were sucked into the earth full of rocks and dirt and barely made it out alive.

At first, he only grabbed legs, but the more he moved underground, the more tunnels formed beneath the surface.

Instructor Justina had said he was more like a worm than a mole — that must have been what she meant.

If he only softened soil, his movement would be limited.

But this villain broke rocks and severed tree roots as he moved.

“……N‑no.”

I finally answered when I realized Chae‑yi was staring at me.

The truth was, I was worried.

I felt like I’d missed something.

In the original, he was just described as moving underground, and aside from injuring a student before being subdued, he didn’t have a huge role.

That was why I felt relieved when the principal listened to me.

But something was different.

I understood he could move soil, not just dig through it. That was in the original too.

But in the original—

“The sound.”

“Huh?”

“There’s no sound.”

Right.

If he was digging through the earth—

If he was carving tunnels big enough for an adult man at high speed—

If he was breaking rocks and cutting thick roots—

There should be vibrations. Maybe even thumping noises from below.

No — there had to be. Because in the original, that’s how it was.

Jinwoo had fallen and accidentally heard the sound, followed it, and helped subdue the villain.

But now, there was nothing.

Instructor Justina should have noticed something like that. Yet she froze the ground to trap him instead.

Hyeonji’s ice was strong. Strong enough to rival metal. If softened earth froze solid, the villain would panic. Breaking through it would make noise—

“Ah…!”

“Rua?”

“It’s dangerous!”

Instructor Justina looked up at me.

“The mountain— it might collapse…!”

Yes. A worm.

A worm itself is harmless. It only eats soil and decaying leaves. It doesn’t have the strength to chew through roots. It just loosens the soil so plants can grow deeper.

But a person is different. If someone dug tunnels big enough for a human all throughout the mountain—

If the roots that held the earth together were severed—

If the rocks that stabilized the slope were broken—

If the villain had been here long before we arrived, preparing, digging, waiting for students to gather at the facility above—

Would the mountain’s foundation still be stable?

Even if the whole mountain didn’t collapse—

…what if the surface layer slid?

What if the ground gave way like a building with a broken foundation?

It was entirely possible.

Bang!

But before Instructor Justina could answer, a hand burst out of the ground beneath her.

It didn’t look human.

The index to pinky fingers were fused together — no, not fused, but shaped like a shovel blade.

The wrist and forearm were the same.

The strange part was the blood. Scratches everywhere, bleeding heavily. In the original, the villain wasn’t described as bloodied.

Had Hyeonji’s ice reached deeper than expected? Did he injure himself breaking through it?

Or…

Had he been here long enough to injure himself preparing something?

“Kh!?”

Instructor Justina quickly swung her baton downward, but her ankle was already being pulled underground.

Rumble—

The ground vibrated. The soil beneath the broken ice shifted like sand.

The power to move earth.

The hand gripping her leg sank deeper, and the baton tip was dragged into the ground.

“Ah!?”

It was my fault.

I called out to her.

I distracted her with my panicked guess about the mountain collapsing—

“Rua!?”

“Ah.”

When I came to my senses, I was already on the ground.

Because I only had two hands. Two visible hands, two invisible ones.

My invisible hand was already grabbing Instructor Justina’s arm.

She stared at me in shock, half her body buried in the earth.

Cold seeped up from the ground. And finally, I felt the vibration.

The entire frozen surface was shaking violently.

As if the villain intended to liquefy all the soil around us.

Rumble—

A terrible vibration echoed from above.

Voices came from all over the mountain.

People sensing something was wrong.

My heart pounded.

What if the mountain collapses?

I…

I could save them. Soi could fly, so she’d survive. Chae‑yi might be okay if I lifted her. Hyeonji could be lifted by Jinwoo, and if I shared my strength with Jinwoo again—

—Then what about Instructor Justina?

She was already buried up to her waist. How would we pull her out? Who would go? Me? If I went, what about the others? How would they stay in the air? Could I lift someone with one hand and still keep us afloat? Probably not.

If I wanted to save all my friends, there was only one option.

“Go!”

Instructor Justina shouted. Even as I held her arm, the ice around her cracked. Hyeonji thickened the ice, narrowing the hole around her, but that was all.

Hyeonji’s ice wasn’t something you could touch with bare skin. Even through clothing, it could be dangerous. If Instructor Justina touched it directly, she’d get frostbite.

If we froze the hole completely, she might really be in danger.

“All of you, go down the mountain! Everyone else is heading down too! You need to get away from the landslide!”

“But then what about you—!”

“I’ll—”

“…Honestly, watching from above was getting annoying.”

Thud.

Soi dropped from the sky.

“You told me to stay up there, so why didn’t you call me? Did you forget I exist?”

“No, you—”

Soi bent down and grabbed Instructor Justina’s baton, folding it.

“Here. Hold the end. As long as you don’t touch the flames directly, you’ll be fine.”

She sounded genuinely sulky.

“……”

Instructor Justina stared at her, speechless, then grabbed the end of the baton with both hands.

“It’ll be hot, but deal with it.”

“But if you’re holding it from below—”

“Then I’ll just lift both of you.”

Soi looked at me.

“And that guy can’t come up. We have Chae‑yi, remember? If he’s attacking like this, he must know there’s someone who can cancel abilities.”

Rumble.

Another ominous sound came from above.

“He won’t stay down there long. If he gets caught in the landslide, he won’t survive either.”

…Maybe.

In the original, he never caused something this big.

If he truly wanted revenge, he might have caused a massive disaster. But maybe he wasn’t willing to die for it.

Then did he have another reason for doing this now?

“Let’s get out of here first.”

“No, I just need to get out of the hole—”

“Your leg. Is it okay?”

Soi cut her off.

Instructor Justina fell silent.

And so did I.

*

Soi was right.

The villain didn’t try to come out again.

Honestly, the fact that he reached out earlier was probably incredibly reckless.

If even a bit of his hand had been exposed when Chae‑yi used her ability, he would’ve lost his power underground.

He would’ve been trapped.

But that didn’t mean we could relax.

Instructor Justina’s leg was twisted sideways, just like the other students who had been grabbed.

“S‑sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for?”

Instructor Justina said, leaning against a tree.

“I let my guard down. It’s not your fault at all. Tch, I should’ve pulled back the moment we saw him. Sorry.”

“N‑no…”

I’d spoken up and ended up being apologized to instead, leaving me speechless.

Rumble—

The mountain shook again.

“Teacher!”

Another instructor ran toward us.

He was covered in injuries.

As if he’d been fighting.

“What do we do? There are still students scattered everywhere…!”

Students were still all over the mountain.

We were in danger too. Landslides weren’t something to underestimate.

If the ground was unstable, anything could happen. Even a single falling rock could be fatal.

“I—I can.”

Everyone turned to me.

“I can… do something.”

“……”

Silence.

Honestly, I didn’t know.

I didn’t know what exactly to do.

But my ability didn’t seem to have limits besides pain.

So if I could go and save them myself—

It would be better than doing nothing.

That was what I thought.

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Pub: 01 May 2026 09:55 UTC

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