Seongik Han

**Seongik Han** **(한성익** *Han Seong-Ig***)** is a supporting character in the manhwa, *Eleceed*. He was formerly the leader of Baekho and is currently the principal of the Awakened Academy. He was once called the strongest awakened one in the country.

## Background

Seongik Han used to be the first ranking awakener of South Korea. He was ranked to be approximately 50th in the global chart. Seongik once rivaled Kayden Break, but only to be defeated by him. Astonished by Kayden being so powerful without any training or affiliation, he has chosen to retire, giving up everything including his title as the strongest one in the country, only to become strong. Although retired, he states that the CEO of Baekho is currently his pupil. It's said that Seongik Han for some reason hides his true power from everyone else.

## Appearance

Seongik is an old man. He has a wrinkled face and white mustache and beard. He has grey hair with white streaks and grey eyes. He wears a grey suit with white button up shirt and grey tie.

## Personality

Throughout the series, he is referred to as sly as a fox.

While he recognizes that not all Awakened that are strong belong to an affiliation/group, he believes that the goal of the academy was to train only the affiliated because he felt that was the only way to strengthen Korea's standing in world in terms of ranking. He even attempted to convince Inhyuk Goo and Seonga Park who willingly volunteered to train the unaffiliated Awakened (as they both felt the unaffiliated needed the training while the affiliated didn't) to teach the affiliated students. When he sees the clearly less trained and unskilled unaffiliated Awakened being brutally beaten by the more skilled Awakened, he shows no sympathy in the slightest, simply and smugly stated to Jiyoung Yoo that their efforts were a waste of time. When he sees that among the unaffiliated Wooin and Jiwoo show potential, he still feels it to be a waste to give equal opportunity to all of the unaffiliated awakened but shows interest in this. While this shows he is callous and only values the strong, he still demonstrates that he is not necessarily prejudiced against the unaffiliated, just cutthroat in his methods and not wanting to waste time on a few Awakened whose potential he can't verify will rise and contribute to Korea's strength.

Despite his harsh methods, he does have a kinder and more honorable side. While he did not want to treat the unaffiliated with equal opportunities as the affiliated Awakened ones, he did make a deal (which was rather unfair) that the unaffiliated Awakened spar with the affiliated and prove their worth. When the group won, even if his views didn't change and he only wanted to train Wooin and Jiwoo, he honored his word. When Jiwoo rejects his invitation to be his apprentice twice, he takes it in stride even before knowing his mentor is the all powerful Kayden. Additionally, though he is hesitant to get into fights with other groups due to the politics that restrict affiliated Awakened ones, when Baekdu's elder Dusik Kang was about to murder Jiwoo (after some deliberation) he was willing to step in and save Jiwoo even if it meant war with Baekdu which would greatly weaken Korea's power balance and world standing (since it would pit powerful Korean Awakened ones against each other, He later teaches Jiwoo a part of his force control to prepare him for his match against Duke Grant, stating it was nothing important. Kayden later explains to Jiwoo just how important force control is and how important the move/technique Seongik taught Jiwoo was, and he did so expecting nothing in return.

The harshness he displays in his first appearance is only because of his genuine desire to strengthen Korea. He is aware of the duplicity and brutal nature of the World Awakened Association and their academy, especially as they look down on Korea and try to take control of the more powerful awakened from Korea and does his best to protect the students at his academy. In fact, the very reason he retired was not because he was getting weaker but because of the war going on in the world as each country strives to have more powerful and a larger quantity of Awakened ones to get greater benefits. Seongik retired to train the next generation to get stronger all while hiding his true abilities.

## Abilities and Fighting Prowess

Seongik's former title, "the Strongest Awakened One in the Country", demonstrates just how strong Seongik is. For him to have earned that title, he must be very powerful. He states that like Jiwoo, he engages in close range combat with his enhanced physical state. While his official rank was 50, Kayden states that his actual battle prowess was much higher than that, which implies that Seongik's actual abilities would likely place him somewhere in the Top 30.

## Relationships

### Kayden

Seongik Han highly respects Kayden's power as he once fought Kayden with the battle ending with both of them sustaining serious injuries.

### Jiwoo Seo

At first Seongik Han was very impressed with Jiwoo Seo's natural talent for fighting and wished to make Jiwoo his disciple, inviting him twice not knowing that Kayden was already teaching him. Even before learning Kayden was Jiwoo's mentor, he had chosen to respect Jiwoo's rejection and remains friendly towards Jiwoo. After knowing Jiwoo's teacher, he respected and understood Jiwoo's decision to decline his offer and they are on good terms. He later teaches Jiwoo a move that he claims is nothing too special to help prepare Jiwoo in his spar against Duke Grant. This move ultimately lets Jiwoo win his spar against Duke Grant, giving Seongik great pride. Kayden later reveals the technique he taught Jiwoo is in fact extremely important to Seongik, as it was part of his force control (an ability many Awakened ones keep closely guarded and secret and vastly improves the strength of an Awakened one) and he gave it to Jiwoo with no strings attached, expecting nothing in return.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Episode 92
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Episode 91

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