EX rank supporting role’s replay in a prestigious school-Chapter 784: Legal Dispute (1)

After the transfer, we arrived at the Red Lion team building.

This time, it seemed that Hwang Jiho had put up a barrier, so the motion sickness wasn’t as bad.

I expected him to boast about the strength of his barrier as soon as we arrived, but unexpectedly, the words that came out of his mouth were:

“I think it’s time to leave.”

Isn’t it better to stay a bit and check in for the New Year’s greetings and everything that had happened in the meantime?

I thought so, but the tigers’ attitude was resolute.

“If we stay here any longer, those shameless dragons will throw some ridiculous responsibility on us. Let’s get out of here before something annoying happens.”

“Really, with their temper. Are they that upset just because we gave them a gift? At least let us have a meal before leaving.”

“Cheongryong, you’ve been too influenced by the bad temper of the red tigers.”

The tigers clearly didn’t like that I had been given the Dragon Palace.

But, after passing off the Dragon Palace like that, calling it “just a gift” seems a bit wrong, doesn’t it?

After a little bickering, we got into the air limousine that Hwang Jiho had prepared and headed towards the Tiger Mansion.

Kim Shinrok had been silent the whole time, but after getting in, he glanced at the red tiger and spoke with a complicated expression.

“I think I heard hallucinations during the transfer. It sounded like Lord Jeokho’s voice.”

“Son, you’ve been quite tired. Those dragon folk sure have a knack for wearing others out. Go home and get some rest.”

That probably wasn’t a hallucination.

But even now, he still calls him “Lord Jeokho”?

Jeokho always calls me his son, but Kim Shinrok hasn’t done that yet.

Even after dealing with Nohyo and being able to use the ability link, it seems like he still isn’t confident enough to call Jeokho “father.”

“You all worked hard. Happy New Year.”

When we arrived at the modern annex, Eunho and Baekho-gun were there to greet us.

As we made our way to the living room, I noticed various types of traditional sweets and holograms on display.

On the table was a pile of documents, and in the middle of them was the younger version of Hwang Jiho, Hwang Yuhyo.

Hwang Yuhyo was holding a hard, candied apple in one hand while flipping through the pages with the other.

‘Why is Hwang Yuhyo working on such documents during a holiday?’

Isn’t this child abuse?

No, Hwang Yuhyo is over 5,000 years old, but still, this doesn’t seem right.

What kind of documents was he looking at?

“I’m looking at the list of properties I own.”

Without even being asked, Hwang Jiho, who was standing beside me, spoke casually.

Why is he making Hwang Yuhyo check the property?

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

“Why properties?”

“Good question. It’s to choose a gift for you.”

In that moment, absurdity and guilt washed over me.

Was Hwang Yuhyo suffering because of this nonsensical idea?

“The Dragon Palace is hardly a good place. Even if the by-products of the Dragon Palace are decent, the process of retrieving and converting them into cash is quite troublesome. I will give you a gift that is suitable for a benefactor of the tiger clan and valuable enough. Of course, I’ll cover all the taxes associated with the transfer of ownership.”

“Forget it.”

I don’t understand why, after forming an alliance with the dragon clan, they keep trying to compete with me using strange things.

If they’re going to do something, I wish they would just do it without me being involved.

I tried to ignore Hwang Jiho’s words, but I couldn’t ignore the voice that came from beside me.

“Lord Josin, perhaps it would be better to just look first.”

It was still the same tone, but coming from Hwang Yuhyo’s young voice, I couldn’t bring myself to reject it harshly.

How could I refuse something Hwang Yuhyo chose so nicely?

After much deliberation, I said, “...I’ll just look.”

“Right, let’s start by looking.”

I expected Eunho to stop me, but instead of stopping me, he confirmed the list of properties displayed as a hologram and spoke.

Eunho sent the list to Hwang Jiho and offered us some tea.

It was ginseng tea that helped with fatigue and alleviated motion sickness.

“I heard from Hwangho. It seems that the dragon clan is going to end up owing debt to Lord Yishin.”

“The dragon clan didn’t do that just for him.”

“Yes, I know. Lord Yishin must have thought of the playable character with the Oh surname. Still, thanks to Lord Yishin, the dragon clan will end up benefiting once more.”

As Eunho said, this was also a strategy I had made with my playable character, Oh Hyeji, in mind.

Hyeji was about to graduate soon.

Once she graduated and stepped out of the high school environment, she would become freer, but she might end up the opposite.

Considering the insane family situation where I had locked her up to prevent her from taking the college entrance exam, that might be the case.

Because she was from Eungwang High, there were cases where they couldn’t act against her, but once she graduates, things will change.

Unless she runs away like Oh Hyejeong and leaves everything behind, I don’t know what might happen to Oh Hyeji.

That’s why I was planning to use the contract between the Dragon King of the Four Seas and the Oh family to try to free her.

“You may have little room for me to interfere, but if you need anything, feel free to ask.”

“If you give me a useless gift, feel free to say so.”

Besides that issue, we discussed matters that had happened in the Dragon Palace.

Most of it had already been communicated by Hwang Jiho through his clone, so there wasn’t much to talk about except for some confirmations.

“I’m relieved to hear that there were no major injuries. You’ve been held for quite a while. Now, let’s head to the main house. Shinsu, Sanryeong, and Hooe will be waiting.”

“Eunho, you should go too.”

“I can’t cause confusion on such a good day.”

“The children won’t think of your arrival as a disturbance.”

“If you force me to go with you, Lord Jeokho will have to fight with Baekho, and that will cause confusion.”

It seemed that Eunho definitely wasn’t planning to go.

Baekho-gun looked at Jeokho with cold eyes as if he respected Eunho’s will.

“Baekho, if you respect Eunho’s will, let’s take him to the main house together.”

“I will respect my younger sibling’s will.”

When Kim Shinrok anxiously looked back at Jeokho and Baekho-gun, Jeokho relented first.

It seems like it will be hard for the grandfather and grandson to meet again this New Year.

After spending some time at the main house of the Tiger Mansion, I headed to the guest room to check the piled-up device messages.

I had scheduled the messages to be sent for the New Year, and most of the replies had come in.

[Hong Gyu-bin] Looks like you were preparing your greetings even while you were away. Yishin, Happy New Year to you too.

[Hong Gyu-bin] This year’s holiday was peaceful. I’ll only be working two days during the holiday!

[Hong Gyu-bin] I wish it could always be like Seollal^^!

Isn’t the holiday a time when you don’t go to work?

Hong Gyu-bin seems happy, so maybe it’s fine.

Given that this year’s scenario or the dark forces’ previous actions have added some complexity, it’s probably best that the association is busier now. It's good that she’s taking a break.

I checked the next message.

‘Yoo Sang-hoon still seems pissed off.’

It seems like Yoo Sang-hoon has been getting more irritated as graduation day approaches.

I could feel his annoyance even in the few words of his message.

No matter how Yoo Sang-hoon felt, graduation was fast approaching.

The next day, February 14th, after returning to the surface.

We gathered for Dokgo Miro’s birthday, as the class gathered together.

It was the last day of the Seollal holiday and also Valentine’s Day, so I thought it would be hard to meet, but surprisingly, many people showed up.

“Happy Birthday, Miro! I got a cake without chocolate!”

“Thanks!”

Dokgo Miro was delighted when she saw the cake decorated with cherry cream.

Those born on Valentine’s Day or White Day are cursed to receive chocolate or candy as birthday presents.

Dokgo Miro was said to always receive loads of chocolate for her birthday because of this curse.

So, when Kim Yoori consulted with Dokgo Miro about the birthday party, she strongly requested a ‘chocolate-free birthday.’

This information also spread to Dokgo Miro’s fans.

Thanks to this, King Chanwangchan and Homma Jeong Haeon, who had added premium chocolate to the birthday support list, made a huge fuss and prepared new presents.

‘But that class 3-0 vice-president still awkwardly brought chocolate.’

Dokgo Miro happily accepted the gift from the fan, but the 2nd-year 0 class group condemned the 3rd-year vice-president, and the senior looked visibly sad.

And the senior expressed his apology through a performance on the haegeum and uploaded it to his SNS account.

The state of the performer and the reason for the performance were questionable, but the performance was so good that it became a hot topic, with people crying while listening to it.

Of course, King Chanwangchan complained again about how sad the song was during Dokgo Miro’s birthday.

There were some trivial incidents, but I spent an enjoyable time seeing the faces of the class members.

‘I wasn’t able to check on the kids who spent the holiday in the dorms, but I’m glad I saw them for Dokgo Miro’s birthday.’

Dokgo Miro repeatedly thanked the kids who celebrated her birthday with her.

She seemed to have been troubled lately with her vocal training not going well, so I hope today’s event helps things turn out better.

With the warm end of the holiday, the busy week began again.

Kim Shinrok’s training was finished, and the Dragon Palace collapse scenario was also over, so it was time to prepare for the next incident, but I was currently occupied with other matters.

“Yishin, Dain, come on in.”

After departing from the Tiger Mansion with Ahn Dain, we arrived at the Merchant’s Hall.

Yeom Junyeol greeted us as soon as he saw us.

The Merchant’s Hall was conducting pre-checks and rehearsals ahead of the graduation ceremony.

I wasn’t part of the student government, but I had no choice but to come here.

Today, we were filming for the next Eungwang High promotional ambassador.

“Sorry that we couldn’t help with the graduation preparations as the student council. We’ll join as soon as the shoot is over.”

“No, the promotional ambassador job is just as important. Since I’ve done it last year, I know how it goes.”

As Ahn Dain said, we were here as the next Eungwang High promotional ambassadors.

Today, a professional photographer was in Eungwang High to take shots for the graduation preparation process, and we were also filming for the promotional materials.

‘It’s cumbersome to do the security check because we have a professional photographer here, and it’s even busier during the semester, and tomorrow is the graduation ceremony, so we’re really busy today.’

As Ahn Dain and Yeom Junyeol checked possible filming locations around the Merchant’s Hall, I became lost in thought.

The first time I saw the existence of Ahn Dain and Ju Suhyeok was here, during the entrance ceremony at the Merchant’s Hall.

Coincidentally, the Merchant’s Hall (上寅館) and Ahn Dain share the same character ‘In (寅)’ in their names.

‘Ahn Dain’s name has a tiger in it. If I’d thought of this sooner, Ahn Dain and the Ho Clan couple might have met earlier.’

Actually, the character ‘In (寅)’ is considered an unlucky character in name studies, so it’s avoided in names.

That character refers to the tiger, and there’s a superstition that ghosts follow names with the 12 Earthly Branches, so people tend not to use it.

Although it’s said that if it's needed in the life chart, it could be beneficial, I don’t think her parents would have thought of that when naming her.

‘But, thanks to that, she ended up with a good name for a tiger clan.’

Ahn Dain liked her name because of this reason, and when she became the adopted daughter of the Ho Clan couple, she didn’t change her name.

She didn’t change it not only because of appearances but also to avoid drawing too much attention.

“Hi, guys. Ah, Yishin, thanks for the birthday wishes yesterday.”

I heard Ju Suhyeok’s faint voice and Dokgo Miro’s bright voice at the same time.

Ju Suhyeok had probably been watching from a distance and, with Dokgo Miro’s appearance, had no choice but to come over.

While I was thinking about Ahn Dain’s name, I looked over there and noticed something was off.

No, if you came, you should’ve just gone straight to Ahn Dain and greeted her. Why were you staring at her like that?

But it was all my fault, no, Hwang Jiho’s fault.

‘What should I do?’

If you meddle in someone’s love life and mess it up, everything will go south, so I had to be careful.

A reporter named Moon Saeron, who came to cover the promotional ambassador shoot, was staring at me with dagger-like eyes, occasionally sending cold glances.

During the shoot, we changed into the official Eungwang High uniforms, gym uniforms, and P.E. uniforms, and I kept thinking about the next move.

Stopping the Dragon Palace collapse scenario felt easier than finding a way to mediate between Ju Suhyeok and Ahn Dain.