novelraw Chapter 40
Chapter 40
Chapter 40
“……So.”
After calming her excitement even a little, Ideale looked at Jin Crow with an uncomfortable gaze and asked back.
“You’re saying you’ll conduct the midterm exam after making training dummies out of Creatures. For that, you need my approval.”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
……Where should she even start pointing things out.
After hesitating for a moment, unable to find a point of compromise, she instead questioned him in return.
“Why are you going that far?”
It was quite a fundamental question.
It wasn’t just because of the midterm exam.
Setting aside the bizarre act of making training dummies out of Creatures, his recently changed stance was, no matter how she thought about it, full of questions.
She had once thought it was an order from his faction, but even instructors belonging to the same Rozen were, in subtle ways, bewildered by how different he had become.
“At this point, there isn’t a faction trying to drag an instructor down. So you shouldn’t need to feel pressured.”
Moreover, after he had gone as an admissions auditor, the reputation of Jin Crow—once filled with nothing but harsh criticism—had also become strangely ambiguous.
Of course, there were no cadets he brought back as an admissions auditor.
However, that wasn’t much different even for instructors from other top-tier Special Service Academies.
‘Because the majority were kidnapped by the Red Hand.’
Because of that issue, there were even rumors going around that the Ministry of Defense was mobilizing not only nearby fleets but also special forces composed of superhumans.
In the end, hadn’t the mission failed?
……One could think that.
However, according to the testimonies of the Military Police from the Central Special Service Academy who had accompanied Second Lieutenant Lee Hana of the 17th Fleet at the time, it had been cross-verified that he did his utmost in a situation that grew more perilous by the moment.
In addition, there was even testimony that he had slain the Class-2 wanted criminal Liberto and risked his life to confront Class-1 wanted Brigadier General Kim Cheol in order to protect the cadets.
“Even if you’re concerned about the evaluation of the midterm exam, if the worry is that the problems might be inadequate, that can be attributed to the chronic issues of a newly established course. But…….”
Setting aside prejudice, the idea of making training dummies out of Creatures might have some meaning, but the danger involved was impossible to gauge.
It could end up creating a weakness for himself.
Because of that, she didn’t beat around the bush and added bluntly.
“Instructor Jin Crow. Be aware that you have many enemies.”
Even if it seemed like she had crossed a line at first glance, it was a remark grounded in her own sincere concern.
Perhaps that concern had been conveyed.
Instead of answering right away, Jin Crow closed his mouth as if he were chewing over her words.
How long did the silence last like that?
In the meantime, Jin Crow brushed aside the hair that lightly covered the corner of his eyes and responded.
“I don’t care how others think of me.”
“What?”
“I’ll just do what needs to be done.”
For a moment, Ideale forgot what she was going to say.
It felt as though her head had been struck hard by something.
“…….”
Jin Crow merely remained silent, as if waiting for her reply.
How long did the stillness continue like that?
After a while, she let out a quiet sigh and spoke to Jin Crow, who was looking at her.
“If an accident happens, the responsibility will fall entirely on you, Instructor.”
“That’s only natural.”
An affirmation without even a trace of hesitation.
Perhaps because of that.
Ideale tried to add something more, but soon closed her mouth, and he, after looking at her, bowed silently as he always did and left the office.
After he departed like that, Ideale sank into her chair with a face full of complications and muttered as if savoring the words.
“I’ll just do what needs to be done.”
Those words had quite a nice resonance.
……There was a time when she thought so.
“Ha, Headmistress.”
“……Haa.”
Feeling the gaze of Ginatio, the assistant instructor, who was looking at her with eyes pleading for her to please stop this, Ideale stared at the man and woman standing in the sparring arena.
……She realized one more thing.
That was the fact that even superhumans could get stress-induced ulcers.
-Krrk, krrrururuk.
A heavy, spine-chilling sound that should never be heard at a Special Service Academy echoed through the air.
“Actually, sound wasn’t necessary, but I added it especially for realism.”
“That’s the correct attitude, Professor Lillian.”
“Oh, please, it’s all thanks to the instructor.”
The drowsy voice of a woman overlapped with the conversation of a man who was cold beyond measure.
Throb-.
Listening to a conversation she didn’t even want to understand, Ideale felt a headache surge and thought,
‘Why is there not a single normal person?’
For a brief moment, she even found herself longing for the battlefield instead.
After receiving Ideale’s permission, the place Jin Crow headed to was, of course, the Support Department.
If he had wanted ordinary facility maintenance or manpower support, he wouldn’t have needed to go that far, but since what he wanted was the Research Department, he had quite a distance to walk.
After about ten minutes of walking like that.
At the end of the path he reached, a building that looked as though an enormous university had been transplanted there filled his vision.
“Loyalty. What brings you here?”
As he reached the entrance, one of the sentries on guard approached him first and snapped a salute.
Seeing how sharply disciplined he looked, Jin Crow checked his rank out of habit, only to find he was surprisingly a sergeant.
“Instructor Jin Crow. I’ve come to see a professor from the Research Department.”
“Ah, may I ask the name of the professor you’re here to see?”
“Professor Lillian.”
“Confirmed. Loyalty.”
Knowing that it was a necessary procedure, since there were many who would set their sights on talents skilled enough to be dispatched to the Research Department under the Central Special Service Academy, he passed the sentry without saying anything more.
After passing along a path too bleak to be called a garden and entering the building, a male-type android sitting in the lobby spoke with a friendly smile.
“Instructor Jin Crow. You’ve come to see Professor Lillian, correct? I’ve contacted the relevant laboratory, so could you please wait just a moment?”
“Understood.”
He always felt this, but without the faint seams and lights that indicated it was an android, it would be impossible to distinguish it from a human.
How long had he been standing there, just as it said?
Soon, beyond the corridor connected to the lobby, a woman in a white lab coat walked over, stopped in front of him, and offered a brief silent bow.
‘An android?’
However, upon seeing her up close, she too was not a human but an android.
For a moment, casual speech almost slipped out, but since the Research Department personnel were clearly individuals dispatched from outside the military, he put honorifics to his tongue.
“Are you Instructor Jin Crow?”
“That I am.”
“I’m Naomi, the responsible researcher under Professor Lillian. The professor worked on research until dawn and just fell asleep a little while ago, so I came out in her place. If you have business, I’ll pass it along.”
At Naomi’s words, instead of answering right away, Jin Crow had no choice but to gaze at her steadily and gauge her true intent.
‘A lie? Or the truth…….’
Thinking about Professor Lillian’s personality, both were quite possible.
That she had stayed up all night researching was true.
But even if she had been awake, if the visitor was a man, she likely wouldn’t have come out herself.
After pondering briefly, he soon replied to Naomi.
“Then I’ll wait.”
“Yes? But…….”
“It’s something I need to convey in person.”
At his firm murmur, Naomi tried to add something more, then nodded and turned back along the way she had come.
Watching her retreating figure, he absentmindedly put a cigarette to his lips, only to meet the eyes of the male android sitting in the lobby.
“Smoking is prohibited inside the Research Department, Instructor.”
“……A habit.”
At the android’s words, Jin Crow turned his gaze outside with an awkward look.
Fortunately, perhaps because the Research Department people smoked quite a bit themselves, there was a fairly large smoking room set up right next to the entrance.
“……I feel like I’m going to die.”
“How many hours did you sleep?”
“One hour…….”
“So it was a brag…….”
As he went inside, the chilling conversation of researchers holding a brown liquid tinged with a familiar orange hue brushed past his ears.
Normally, whenever Jin Crow was encountered within the academy, whether instructors or cadets, they would first avoid him, but the researchers wearing thick horn-rimmed glasses, with bent backs and necks, didn’t care at all whether he came in or smoked a cigarette.
‘This is new as well.’
Thanks to that, Jin Crow was able, for the first time in a long while, to smoke without worrying about others’ gazes, feeling true indifference.
And to organize his thoughts while he was at it.
‘Professor Lillian.’
She was an authority on making training dolls commonly called Training Dummies—T.Ds—and a figure who had proactively led the Creature T.D project in the original work as well.
Of course, like most capable researchers, she wasn’t without her eccentricities, but it wasn’t particularly worrisome.
‘At least she’ll be much easier to talk to than the people I’ve met so far.’
Her behavioral principle was extremely simple.
Throw out bait that piqued her interest, and suitably scratch at her pride.
Tap, tap-.
Jin Crow flicked the end of a cigarette that had nearly reached the filter, tossed it into the ashtray, and headed back toward the lobby.
And just as he was about to sit on a nearby chair to wait for Professor Lillian.
“Hey, haaam.”
A languid voice brushed past his ear from behind.
When he turned his head, the crown of a head covered in messy pink hair, hanging down to about chest level, came into view.
“I heard you were looking for me. Haaam.”
He lowered his gaze slightly.
Despite clearly being of near-average height, perhaps because of her hunched back and neck, she looked a bit smaller, and she wore a lab coat that was obviously the wrong size.
That wasn’t all.
The messy pink hair reached down to her waist, and along with the horn-rimmed glasses, the bangs covering her forehead were exactly the Professor Lillian he remembered.
“Ha……. I’m sleepy to death. What’s up?”
Behind her stood the female android he had seen earlier, Naomi.
Just as she had said, it looked like she had been sleeping until just a moment ago, as she struggled to suppress a yawn from how tired she seemed at a glance.
Jin Crow stared at her briefly, then opened his mouth.
“I’m Instructor Jin Crow. I’d like to talk somewhere quiet first, if possible.”
“Hmm…….”
At the words of a man she had never met, Lillian rubbed her half-lidded eyes in thought, then twirled the ends of her messy hair around her finger and said,
“If this is some kind of confession, then no.”
“Bullshit.”
It was a curse that slipped out unintentionally.
Naturally, Jin Crow looked down at her with an ‘ah’ expression, but perhaps that reaction gave her a sense of relief instead. Lillian yawned widely again and spoke.
“Then never mind. Haaam. Let’s go to my lab.”
She then trudged ahead on her own, and Naomi, who had been standing behind, lowered her voice just enough for him to hear and spoke with an awkward expression.
“……I’m sorry.”
Leaving the small happening behind, Jin Crow followed Naomi, the responsible researcher, into the building where the laboratory was located, in place of Professor Lillian, who had already disappeared somewhere on her own.
“Drinks, we need more drinks.”
“Alright! I’m in a good mood! Today, everyone gets at least two hours of sleep!”
“Oooh!”
And the impression Jin Crow gained as he passed through the corridor was remarkably concise.
‘I should avoid coming here whenever possible.’
People wandering around in conditions even more haggard than his were commonplace, and even the androids receiving strange fluorescent-colored drinks through IV drips was something he couldn’t excuse, no matter how generously he tried to look at it.
And Naomi’s added comment as she looked at that scene was particularly chilling.
“……I’m jealous.”
How long had they walked like that.
After telling Jin Crow the location of Lillian’s professor’s office, Naomi immediately left.
However, was it just his imagination, or did her retreating figure look like a pig being led to a slaughterhouse?
Creeeak-.
Leaving her behind, Jin Crow opened the door to the professor’s office.
“Oh, you’re here?”
As if she had washed her face just now, she wiped her dripping-wet face with a towel, then reclined her body into a chair whose backrest was fully leaned back and crooked her finger at him.
Whish, thud!
A heavy electronic cigarette that had been lying in a corner flew into her hand, and Lillian casually put it to her lips and asked him back.
“My back hurts. So, what’s your business?”
At a glance, her posture and attitude might have seemed indifferent, but considering her personality, she was actually treating him quite well.
How long that interest would last depended entirely on her, so there was nothing to gain by dragging things out.
“I heard you’re an authority on training dummies.”
Still, being annoyed by her impudent attitude couldn’t be helped, so Jin Crow put a cigarette to his own lips, just like her, and said,
“Have you ever thought about making a training dummy out of a Creature?”
“Hmm.”
And the answer that came back was—
“You’re a lunatic, aren’t you?”
Truly, it was a scathing yet delightful remark.
“I like it.”