Chapter 52 – A Brief Respite (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The exam started, and for the brief moment after I confidently received the test paper, my mind turned completely white in an instant.

“……”

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Question 1. “God is dead!” What was the essential meaning of this statement by Friedrich Nache, a philosopher born in the Kingdom of Proichen in 1844?

Question 2. State your opinion on whether human beings were truly creatures worthy of receiving blessings.

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(Essay Type)

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A focus that had lost its direction.

I turned my eyes and looked over the cadets around me. Everyone was busily scribbling with their pencils as if they were used to this.

‘No, fuck. Nobody told me this exam was essay format!’

But then I thought about it, and ever since entering Hoakin Academy, I had never actually taken a written test here.

Even the entrance exam had been taken by the Kang Geom-ma from before “me.” In that case, maybe essay exams were simply the norm in this world.

Even so, could they not at least had given us one warning?

“I’m screwed.”

I let out a breath. Even so, I should do my best.

Soon, I moved my pencil and wrote the numbers one through five in order near the end of each page.

* * *

At the same time, at the Beimhark family’s villa located in Seogwipo, Jeju Island.

A group with metal hanging all over their waists was crossing the corridor behind a Beimhark servant.

“Captain, we’ve really made it now. An elder of Hoakin Academy personally called for us. Since we’re at it, how about you move out into the light too?”

A woman whose appearance stood out among the shabby men. Her clothing was not flashy, but thanks to her neat looked, her bearing carried an elegant air.

“Parik, shut up if you don’t want your remaining tongue pulled out too.”

“A-ah, got it! I got it. Why are you glaring at me like you want to kill me? It was just a joke.”

Murderous intent was thickly soaked into her voice. Parik flapped both hands in alarm as he spoke. His pronunciation leaked with a hiss. At his reaction, the woman turned her head forward again.

“The captain really is too stiff, isn’t she? Right?”

Saying that, Parik nudged his companion Jang Taepung, who was walking beside him, asking for agreement.

“Parik, you don’t know because you’re new, but the captain has always hated people above her.”

“What? Then why did she accept this job?”

Wearing a sharp smile, Jang Taepung curled his index finger and thumb into a circle as he answered.

“Obviously, because of this. The price is too big to refuse this time. We all do what we do to make a living, so the captain took that into account.”

“Well, the upfront payment is one hundred million per head, and the completion fee is twice that.”

Parik stroked his chin with his thick fingers and nodded. Jang Taepung also shrugged as if in agreement.

Soon they arrived in front of Kladi’s office, and the servant knocked on the door with a refined motion.

“Lord Kladi von Beinhark, I have brought them.”

“Send them in!”

Parik and the rest of the members looked around the office in a restless way. Kladi briefly furrowed his brow, then sat arrogantly in the office chair and tilted his whiskey glass as he spoke.

“You have worked hard coming all this way.”

Parik’s lips twisted at Kladi’s condescending tone. But at a single gesture from the captain, he swallowed his feelings.

“There is a task I would entrust to you, and that is why I summoned you.”

“Who do you want dead?”

When the captain asked expressionlessly, a slimy smile spread across Kladi’s lips.

“Give them that.”

At Kladi’s gesture with his chin, the servant handed the captain a set of documents lying on the desk. Peering over the captain’s shoulder, Parik checked the cadet’s photo attached to the papers.

“What the hell, he’s just some brat who hasn’t even grown hair down there yet. Looks like a damn pretty boy too.”

“There is deserted island survival training next week. You only need to dispose of that fellow there. As you heard, the upfront payment is one hundred million per head. The completion fee will be given separately.”

“…How should we handle things afterward?”

Kladi looked at the captain as she asked that.

Her dark blue hair covered half her face, but could not hide all of her beautiful features.

Predator, Rei Shion.

Her cold attitude that focused only on the business was somewhat offensive, but her ability alone was likely outstanding.

Kladi slowly tilted the glass and moistened his dry lips.

“Isn’t the sea all around the island? Throw him into it. Then he can become fish food or shark food.”

For reference, the dinner menu that evening was fresh sea bream sashimi caught off the coast of Jeju.

* * *

The written exam ended, and it was lunchtime. I was eating lunch on a picnic mat spread over the academy lawn with the club members.

The club had not been officially founded yet, but since we only needed one more member, everyone except Chloe was already calling me the president.

“Hey, Saki! How is that your answer to the first question?!”

“What about you? What kind of idiot interprets ‘God is dead’ literally?”

“Questions like this are exactly the kind that require a more intuitive interpretation!”

“All mouth, as always… Fine, whatever. Ugh, forget it.”

Weapon raised his voice in outrage while Saki waved her hand as though annoyed. The two of them were comparing answers and arguing back and forth.

Of course, it was only called back-and-forth in name. In reality, it was Weapon lecturing one-sidedly, while Saki, with sleep in her face, smacked her lips and humored him only enough to get by.

Only Chloe, who was eating fried rice, diligently puffed her cheeks like a hamster beside them. Ever since I had made it for her once before, she had packed fried rice for most of her lunches.

“Geom-ma, did you do well on the exam?”

Chloe asked, only lifting her eyes slightly. Scratching my jaw awkwardly, I answered.

“I guessed everything.”

“Huh? But it was essay format. How do you even guess on that? Geom-ma, you’re really mean.”

Chloe tilted her head once, then soon giggled. For some reason, I had thought that if it were her, she would casually believe me and move on.

‘Was I taking her for too much of an idiot?’

No matter what the test results turned out to be, I decided to accept them humbly. The essay format had been unexpected.

I had written as much as I could. My detailed knowledge was shallow, but I wrung out the fragmentary bits of information I had picked up from the game and forced them onto the page.

I had done my best. The result was in the professor’s hands now.

It was not as if I had expected much in the first place, and it was mostly for show anyway, so what if my ranking was a bit low? Even then, I would probably still rank above Chloe.

Watching Chloe move her spoon diligently, a question suddenly came to mind, and I asked.

“Chloe, have you heard anything from Nox? It’s been quite a while, but there doesn’t seem to be any reaction.”

“…Ah, about that.”

The story Nox had come to tell me in person a few weeks ago.

The academy’s council of elders had requested the House Auditore to dispose of you, Kang Geom-ma.

He had said verification would take two months, but in the game, Auditore’s work as an assisting power had always been fast and decisive.

Judging from their information-gathering ability, now would be about the time they had reached a conclusion.

And yet, even though I was constantly maintaining my senses, honed even colder than before, I had noticed no particular abnormal signs. That very fact was what made an uneasy wind stir inside me.

‘The calm before the storm.’

Like the eerie stillness and silence just before a typhoon strikes.

And after the day of the Buffalo Dungeon meeting, I no longer sensed the gaze I had felt back then. Even when I sharpened my sensitivity at all times and cast it wide over the surroundings, there was nothing obviously wrong.

At my question, Chloe set down the spoon that had been moving busily and worked her lips. Her drooping brows made her resemble a dispirited puppy.

“…Th-the truth is, I did get a call from Nox yesterday, but I went to sleep early and couldn’t answer.”

I was fairly sure Chloe had been nocturnal, so how late had he called?

If it was a call no matter the hour, it could have been urgent news.

Especially because the phone numbers of Auditore members were treated as top secret, and leaking them to outsiders was illegal. In Earth terms, it was similar to the identities of National Intelligence Service agents being kept confidential.

Therefore, unless Nox came to find me directly, I had to hear most news through Chloe. Every word from her mouth was crucial to me.

“What time did he call?”

I leaned my face in as I asked. At that, a rosy blush bloomed over Chloe’s cheeks. I widened the distance between us.

“A-around seven in the evening. I’ve been staying up a lot lately to study for exams… hehe.”

“……”

She had one hundred percent ignored it on purpose.

Of course, no matter how necessary Nox’s news might be to me, she still seemed uncomfortable with him.

She probably had her reasons, but I did not want to interfere in someone else’s family affairs.

‘Even so, they’re brother and sister. It’d be nice if they got along.’

I scratched the back of my head and shook off my regret.

‘If it was urgent, he’ll call again.’

Chloe glanced at me awkwardly, then closed the lid of her lunchbox. The mention of Nox seemed to have killed her appetite, and she looked visibly downcast.

A grain of rice clung pathetically to the corner of her mouth. I thought about removing those few grains for her, but stopped myself.

‘Let’s not did something that could cause a misunderstanding for no reason.’

Belatedly sensing the foreign feeling, Chloe snapped her head away and roughly wiped the corner of her mouth with her sleeve. Even though I could only see the back of her head, embarrassment was dripping off her.

‘…Maybe I should’ve said something, at least.’

After a while like that, Weapon and Ryozo, who had been arguing heatedly for some time, finally came to an end. Gloom spread across Weapon’s face after he ran out of steam. It seemed the conclusion had been reached.

Chloe, seemingly uninterested, only tilted her head once and let it be.

“Uwaaaaaagh! Why, why?! I studied all night for days on end!”

“Why don’t you just admit it already? That it’s simply a difference in in.tel.li.gence?”

Weapon cried out in despair, while Ryozo giggled.

It seemed the winner of the heated debate was Ryozo and the loser was Weapon.

Even then, Weapon still looked unable to accept the result, and shot Ryozo a venomous look that said, We’ll see about this.

Whether he did or not, Ryozo yawned lightly, got to her feet, and pressed herself right beside me.

What were you two talking about so much? You were not seriously dating, were you?

At those words, the corners of Chloe’s mouth twitched upward. The flush on her cheeks deepened further, and she eventually hugged her own shoulders.

“I’ve told you every time, it’s not like that.”

I firmly cut off that possibility.

At once, the corners of Chloe’s lips returned to their place.

Chloe muttered something quietly, and there was a faint dryness in her voice. Meanwhile, Ryozo peeled the wrapping off a bar of yokan and let out a strange smile.

‘…She did that on purpose.’

Looking at her, Ryozo could seem cold enough that it made you wonder whether she was really a kid, yet every now and then she also pulled innocent little pranks.

Not the kind of frontal assault Rachel made, but something she let slip subtly. Even so, on the surface, the two girls got along smoothly enough.

They did not talk all that often, but among the women around me, Ryozo was the only one who made Chloe retract her claws, even though Chloe usually bared them at every single one of them. Maybe it was because of her gift with words, but she teased Chloe as skillfully as if she were handling a stray cat that would not back down even before Rachel’s brute force.

“Right. President, why do you always ignore my messages?”

“What do you mean always? I only ignored you once.”

“And what about this morning?”

Ryozo pouted and stuck out her lips in annoyance. At that, Chloe blinked once or twice, then slowly bent her neck sharply to the side.

“…Mes… sages……?”