novelraw Chapter 47
Chapter 47
Chapter 47
“Who was that?”
It was Baek Hwi-young who was flustered by Jin Crow’s answer, which differed from what he had expected.
He briefly smacked his lips as if searching for what to say, then replied while staring at Jin Crow, who calmly took a sip of black coffee.
“Miel Amber’s father. He passed away a few years ago.”
“Mm.”
It was not a sigh let out because he had nothing to say.
Rather, as he chewed over the name that had been spoken, a person immediately came to mind, and he merely swallowed down his bewilderment.
‘Amber. Damn it.’
With all the frequent overtime, his head must really have gone strange for a moment.
No matter how tired he was, to fail to recognize that surname right away.
‘And it’s not just anyone, but Miel Amber’s father.’
Of course, whether in the original work Jin Crow had read or now, the man was dead all the same.
It did not mean that Jin Crow himself had been particularly indifferent.
Moreover, he had not even known that his name was ‘Rodrin.’
No matter how avid a reader one might be, could anyone remember the names of every single passing character?
“So you really were pretending not to know.”
However, Baek Hwi-young’s thoughts in asking that question seemed to be a little different.
As if he had realized Jin Crow’s true intent through the ensuing silence, those words were accompanied by a dry laugh, but this time Jin Crow had nothing else to say.
In the end, with another cigarette between his lips, he threw a question back at Baek Hwi-young.
“What are you trying to say?”
At the same time, it was the biggest question of all.
Just what was it that made him come straight here and suddenly present the name Rodrin Amber?
Chik-.
The old-fashioned Zippo lighter he always carried spun, transferring a red spark to the tip of the cigarette.
A momentary silence brushed past the two men.
Jin Crow was reflected in Baek Hwi-young’s ashen pupils, and Jin Crow stared at Baek Hwi-young’s face beyond the faintly dissipating smoke.
How long did the silence continue like that?
“Safe the Human.”
The one who finally opened his mouth was none other than Baek Hwi-young.
“It is a charitable organization founded by Miel’s father, President Rodrin, who took me in.”
“I know it’s an organization that was established after the Third Galactic War began about twenty years ago. So what about it?”
“I was an orphan entrusted to that place. However, unlike the other children, President Rodrin personally took me in.”
This time, Jin Crow could not respond right away in surprise.
Baek Hwi-young’s past was nothing special, a stereotypical orphan repertoire, but even in the original work, there had been only one case where he revealed it with his own mouth.
-When he sought to gain sympathy from the heroine.
Naturally, Jin Crow absentmindedly rubbed the back of his neck, which had turned eerily cold, neatly folded away the fleeting thought of “no way” and tossed it aside, then gestured with his chin as if telling him to continue.
Fortunately, unlike in the original work, it did not seem to be some ploy to gain sympathy and stimulate Jin Crow’s maternal…… no, paternal instincts, as Baek Hwi-young continued speaking with the same impassive expression.
“Let me ask first. Do you truly have no personal connection with President Rodrin?”
At this point, even Jin Crow, unless he was an idiot, could not help but realize that those words were a kind of ‘verification’ or ‘questioning’ being thrown by Baek Hwi-young.
Safe the Human.
A charitable organization created with ‘genuine goodwill,’ something rare in the Human Composite State, which would later be inherited after the Fourth Galactic War by Miel Amber, who grew into a general.
Its purpose was also simple, just like its name.
The word ‘human’ they held up did not mean human in the narrow sense, but people in a broader sense.
What was a person?
One who thought and used language.
One who made tools and formed societies.
In other words, the goodwill they possessed was not limited to humans alone, but was imbued with the grand cause of helping all ‘people’ who lived and breathed.
That made it all the more puzzling.
‘Me, related to that?’
No matter how he rummaged through fragmentary memories, there was no way there could be any point of contact between a philanthropist who had devoted his entire life to charity and a former child soldier-turned-killer who had rolled around on battlefields for twenty years.
Yet he could not explain away Baek Hwi-young’s half-crazed eyes if he dismissed it so easily.
“……”
It was phrased as a question, but was it not plainly obvious that he was asking with certainty?
‘I expected to be asked something like this someday, but it’s sooner than I thought.’
Jin Crow had not failed to anticipate such a situation either.
Was it not only natural?
Too many futures had already changed.
He did not know how many regressions Baek Hwi-young was currently on, but from Jin Crow’s perspective, it would not have been strange at all for him to have come looking long ago, suspiciously asking, ‘You, by any chance…….’
“That was my question first, why you’re asking that.”
Because of that, the best answer Jin Crow could give was neither an awkward denial nor an affirmation, but to ask back once more.
At this point, it was worth chewing over calmly.
To put it bluntly, Baek Hwi-young was, after all, merely the protagonist of the original work.
……One who had failed multiple times at that.
And Jin Crow, if not perfectly, at least remembered to some extent the process by which he had failed.
Perhaps when it became harder to hide later on, things would be different.
For now, it was better to keep things dry at just this level: instructor and cadet.
‘In the end, he’s the one who kills me.’
That was why those ashen eyes that seemed somehow off felt all the more chilling.
……Wasn’t it terribly unfair?
Someone had to possess a body, wipe out Creatures, and even save a disciple who might kill him at any time, while someone else could comfortably probe around and, if it did not work out, just put his neck in a noose once and start over.
“I was told that the reason I was able to be personally taken in by President Rodrin, unlike other orphans, was because of a request from a soldier to whom he owed a debt.”
That thought only grew firmer with Baek Hwi-young’s continued words.
“And the name of that man was clearly ‘Jin,’ he said.”
It was something he did not remember.
Unless he had perfectly inherited all of Jin Crow’s memories and past.
What he actually had was a creaking body so worn down that he worried about when it might die of natural causes, and a mental illness that tested his sanity at every turn.
As if to prove that, Jin Crow was gradually hardening his expression at the attitude of a mere first-year cadet who seemed to be probing him.
‘The problem is whether that’s true.’
Not much had been revealed about Baek Hwi-young’s past.
Only that he was an orphan and that he had relied on Safe the Human.
In other words, this business about some Jin was a story that had not even been mentioned in the original work.
‘Is it a fabricated story meant to test me, or a secret of his birth he uncovered after several regressions?’
Rodrin Amber was dead, so how could that be possible?
It was simple. Miel’s mother was still alive.
She was probably the one currently running Safe the Human as well.
“Why can you not answer, Instructor.”
Jin Crow stared at Baek Hwi-young, who was practically radiating the momentum of someone who had come here fully determined to hear an answer.
……It was an intuition he could not be certain of, but he felt that what Baek Hwi-young was saying was the truth.
That was what made it even more problematic.
No matter how he put it, would it amount to anything more than giving Baek Hwi-young grounds for suspicion?
Let’s say he affirmed it.
Who knew if he would suddenly stab with a spear, saying, ‘To think you’d fall for a lie like this, you really are a lowlife who lies every time you open your mouth. Yahp.’
“…….”
In the end, Jin Crow took another sip of the black coffee that had already gone lukewarm, as if to moisten his dry throat.
Then he ground his teeth against the end of a cigarette that was already half-burnt.
What should he say?
What could he say to escape this unpleasant and uncomfortable situation?
No answer came, no matter how much he agonized over it.
“…….”
“…….”
How long did that heavy silence continue?
“That is…….”
At last, just as Jin Crow was about to break the silence and say something.
“Kyahhhhhk!”
A scream spat out by a familiar voice brushed past his ears from somewhere not far from the instructors’ office, and soon the two men stared at each other and spoke the same name at the same time.
“Miel?”
“Miel Amber.”
It was quite a coincidence.
Jin Crow glanced out the window for a moment, then stood up, threw on the coat he had tossed over one side of the sofa, and asked back while looking at Baek Hwi-young, who stood there flustered and at a loss.
“Are you going to keep standing there?”
Naturally, there was no way that could be the case.
The time Baek Hwi-young suddenly left his seat saying he was going to the instructors’ office was around dusk, when the sky was growing dim.
With the midterms now over, those who had been sitting around the cafeteria chatting idly each headed back to their dormitories once Baek Hwi-young left and the sun fully set not long after.
“Miel, aren’t you going in?”
“Huh? Ah……. Uh, I was just going to walk a bit and then go in.”
Since the four female cadets were naturally headed in the same direction, they walked together, but Miel Amber stopped in front of the main road connected to the instructors’ office.
“Why? Just come with us……. Mmph!”
“Go.”
“Go, Miel.”
Dokgo Ran scratched at her black hair as she asked back as if wondering whether that was really necessary, but Kanae and Famille, who had more or less noticed the subtle atmosphere flowing between Miel and Baek Hwi-young, immediately covered Dokgo Ran’s mouth and sent Miel on her way.
“Ahaha…….”
Somehow, it felt like she had ended up making rather intense friends.
Thinking that, Miel nevertheless felt not too bad for some reason and slowly moved her steps toward the instructors’ office.
‘Hwi-young. I thought he’s seemed to have a lot on his mind lately. Could it be because of Instructor Jin Crow?’
Even Miel, who thought of herself as not very perceptive, could tell that Baek Hwi-young’s condition these days was not very good.
Of course, since the only person he had truly kept close until now was Miel herself, it seemed the Group 2 cadets he had recently become friendly with had not noticed.
“Sigh, if only he’d at least say something, I wouldn’t be so worried.”
They had grown up together since childhood, but Baek Hwi-young had always been a quiet child who hid what was inside.
‘……Which is why it’s good, but still.’
She neither forced herself to affirm her feelings nor deny them, and slowly made her way toward the instructors’ office.
Perhaps because the midterms had ended, even though it was not that late.
While the instructors’ office gleamed brightly in the distance, there were quite few people along the artificial forest path.
But then.
“Oh, what brings you here?”
“Hi, hic!”
From right behind Miel, where there had been no sign of anyone, someone wrapped an arm around her shoulders and spoke to her familiarly, and startled by the sudden situation, Miel swallowed down her hiccup as she turned her head.
“……Wh, who?”
“What, I’ve helped you out quite a bit, you know. Ah, sorry. Did I misunderstand and think we were close on my own?”
That sly smile paired with a fairly handsome face made for a sight worth seeing, but Miel clenched her lips at the unpleasant sensation on her shoulder and spoke.
“……I don’t know who you are, but p, please take your hand off.”
“What, anyone watching would think I made some weird mistake.”
“I, I’ll scream.”
“Feels like I’m really becoming the bad guy here. So instead…….”
Naturally, Chance Marbre was not intimidated by the words of Miel, who had been raised rather delicately.
‘Support type? So what.’
Although they were now called the Marbre family, if one traced it back to his grandfather’s generation, they had unquestionably been nobles of the Empire.
It had been a surrender out of necessity, but he firmly believed that he was different from the other cadets.
‘It’s only natural for nobles.’
The frightened expression of a commoner was a form of amusement he found quite enjoyable.
When those frightened faces became dyed with ecstasy, he even felt like an artist splashing paint onto a blank canvas.
Why had he ended up with such a twisted personality?
Well, on his home world, the Marbre planetary system, he had been a prince destined to inherit the throne.
How much he had suffered, holding back his own tastes.
He put strength into his rough hand.
Triple Gear, the power of the combat type—there was no way a support-type cadet could win.
He forcibly pulled along the stiffened Miel and slowly moved toward the forest.
No, he tried to.
“Even now, you’re supposed to stay still?”
“There’s no way.”
“What are you doing?”
In the sparsely populated area, a series of voices overlapped, and beyond the field of vision of Chance Marbre as he turned his head.
“Go ask, Ran.”
“Grrr!”
If only Dokgo Ran’s fist, launched while openly baring sharp canine teeth, had not slammed into him.
“W-wait—!”
Kwaaaaaaang!
“Strike!”
With a single blow, a person was sent flying, smashing through several trees as they tumbled, and Miel slowly turned her head with a creaking neck, then closed her eyes as she looked at Chance Marbre sprawled limply.
“Kyahhhhhk!”
It was a scream that came out half automatically.