novelraw Chapter 49
Chapter 49
Chapter 49
The early days when the disciplinary committee was convened.
There was a lot of talk—concern from some instructors and a few cadets…… or rather, doubts—about whether it was really necessary to go as far as expelling Chance Marbre.
If he were an ordinary officer, it would have been a dishonorable discharge.
That was only natural.
But wasn’t he a special service officer.
This was the Human Composite State, which clung desperately to even special service officers who were about to be thrown straight into penal units.
Of course, those doubts never managed to rise to the surface.
First of all, Chance Marbre’s reputation was worse than he himself realized.
Second, Jin Crow—the one leading the matter—was standing there with an expression that said, ‘Is there anyone who opposes this? If so, come out. Let me see your face.’
Lastly, when the Rosen faction implicitly supported it and the Kukenhauzen faction remained silent, even the instructors of the mid-sized factions who had been the only ones defending Chance Marbre shut their mouths.
‘Of all things, to get caught…….’
Beyond that, the fact that various complex political interests were entangled—such as those of influential families like the Dokgo family and the Hino family—was a major factor.
It was a large-scale military downsizing season.
At a time when even the major factions were lying low and making concessions just to avoid being nitpicked, would a mid-sized faction really volunteer to become a punching bag just to save a single Triple Gear punk from a former empire with a filthy past.
In any case, Chance Marbre was cleanly kicked out of the Central Special Service Academy.
-At present, we are willing to send a legal team to clear up misunderstandings and false accusations…….
Of course, a few days later, after grasping the situation, a minor opinion was conveyed in the name of the Marbre family, but Jin Crow personally threw the expulsion documents in front of him, and while returning them, sent off Chance Marbre as well, who had turned deathly pale.
“……I’ll make you regret this.”
It was probably something he muttered thinking it would be heard, but Jin Crow wasn’t even there.
In fact, even if he had been there, rather than feeling fear or any emotion, he would have just paired a cigarette with whiskey and sent him a look of contempt.
‘I just hope he doesn’t come crying later, clinging and thanking me.’
If Chance Marbre had crossed the line any further, Baek Hwi-young—whose screws were a bit more loose than Chance Marbre realized—might not have stopped at a single orbital bombardment.
No, this was a certainty.
If Chance Marbre had been left in the academy, he probably would have been listed as missing a few months later, then found neatly chopped up—whether in a pond or a wasteland.
Naturally, pretty flashes of light would have poured down over the Marbre family mansion as well, kindly reducing the entire household into components.
Jin Crow hastened his steps, forcefully ignoring the chill that crept up the back of his neck.
Kiiik-.
Since he had notified them in advance of his arrival, the door opened automatically, and as he entered, what greeted him was the back of Ideale, who happened to be brewing black coffee.
“Ah, Instructor Jin Crow. You’re here.”
Perhaps she had been working until just a moment ago; faint marks from her glasses were visible at the corners of Ideale’s eyes.
Tap, after saying that, she set a coffee cup down on the table, and since he wasn’t stupid enough not to understand what that meant, he took a seat.
After Ideale sat down as well, Jin Crow looked down at the strong black coffee she had made for him for a moment, took a sip, and then opened his mouth.
“It was something that needed to be done.”
Still, unusually, his voice carried the tone of asking for her understanding.
Had she noticed that.
Ideale unconsciously paused for a moment with the hand holding her coffee cup, then nodded and replied to his words.
“It was something that needed to be done.”
She too had been through the battlefield, and she always remained wary of and despised the particular arrogance of ‘imperial nobles’ etched into the minds of all soldiers.
In truth, she had opposed taking it as far as expulsion as well.
However, as the situation gradually turned against her, and every time his previously unseemly conduct was revealed, the sight of him talking not about reflection but instead ranting about being a noble and about conspiracies was more than enough to drive her to a ‘decision.’
‘Well, in the end, everyone’s happy.’
Thinking that sincerely, Jin Crow offered a final farewell in his heart to Chance Marbre, who at least got to keep his life.
It would never be conveyed, though.
Meanwhile, Ideale—who had no way of knowing what stray thoughts were passing through Jin Crow’s mind—stood up, brought over a document she had already prepared, and held it out to him as if to show it off.
It wasn’t a document he was seeing for the first time.
In the first place, the reason he had gone out of his way to meet Headmistress Ideale was precisely to receive this document.
Ideale and Jin Crow, without either insisting on going first, each took a sip of the bitter coffee, and this time, it was Jin Crow who spoke first.
“Is there a problem?”
“Well.”
Her answer was quite ambiguous.
But the document Jin Crow was trying to receive from her was complicated enough that she couldn’t just hand it over with a hearty laugh.
Tap, tap-.
She drummed her fingers on the tabletop.
“Capital Star Mercato…….”
Her low murmur carried the anguish of ‘Is it really right to approve this?’
If it were within the country, since it was vacation period, there would be no need to issue a permit no matter where he went.
Bluntly speaking, wasn’t it a vacation.
Unless it was wartime, when it was time to let go, it was right to let go.
However, what Jin Crow declared he would head to was the only place that could be called a foreign country, excluding the Empire and its colonial planets.
「Free Planet Alliance」
If one were to ask what kind of place it was, opinions about it were divided rather sharply.
Some praised it as the last bastion of liberalism for those who had been oppressed and ravaged by the Empire’s feudal system and the Composite State’s militarism.
However, among those not beguiled by brain-melting ideals, the common assessment was remarkably concise.
A paradise for mammonists.
A hell for the poor, and a kingdom for capitalists.
The embodiment of capitalism, where skyscrapers built as if to pierce the atmosphere coexisted with slums dug deep underground as if to plunge into the abyss.
“While I can’t restrict personal movement, you do know that if an incident happens during your vacation, things could get complicated, right?”
Ideale, who had set down the coffee cup she had been holding with a ‘tap,’ looked at Jin Crow and asked again.
“I know.”
“……Lately, hearing that makes me even more uneasy. Please, try to stop causing incidents.”
Ideale somewhat irritably brushed away a strand of white hair clinging to her cheek and took up her pen, and with a short, scratchy sound, her concise signature was added to Jin Crow’s vacation application.
Of course, that was possible because, separate from her anxiety, her mind held a set of perfectly ordinary common sense.
‘A Composite State soldier—especially an instructor of the Central Special Service Academy—would surely draw the attention of their public security bureau.’
Even if Jin Crow were to die abroad, it wouldn’t start a war, but the Free Planet Alliance wasn’t large enough to act without regard for the Human Composite State.
Wouldn’t it be more realistic for them to approach Jin Crow under the pretext of military procurement corruption instead.
The Red Hand also wasn’t something to worry about for the time being.
Rather, now—when they were being actively hunted down for the trouble they caused—might actually be the perfect time to visit the Free Planet Alliance.
“Then.”
As usual, once the main point was over, Jin Crow set down the half-finished coffee and rose from his seat.
After giving a brief bow and leaving the room, Ideale, who stared at the spot he had departed from for a moment, pressed down briefly on her stiff neck and aching eyelids from the grueling workload, then let out a deep sigh.
“Whew.”
No matter how much one tried to adapt, swimming amid piles of paperwork was not something easily grown accustomed to.
It had been two years since she took on the role of headmistress.
Yet somehow, the slightly more than half a year since Jin Crow arrived felt even more exhausting.
Gulp-.
After swallowing the last of the black coffee that now showed the bottom of the cup, she forcibly lifted her body—which was voicing the opinion that it wanted to lie down and sleep—and headed back to her desk.
What else could she do.
This was just her nature.
Sitting back down, she flipped over the document she had been reviewing, and soon, upon seeing the words written on the paper, she couldn’t help but let out a hollow chuckle.
■External Frontline Inspection Plan
□Responsible Instructor : Chief Instructor Ludvig Ri
□Lecture Audience : 75 second-year cadets
□Lecture Objective : Accumulation of practical combat experience for cadets, on-site supply, operational planning, etc…….
“……Instructor Jin would have liked this.”
Of course, she was also the one who, not long ago, neatly folded Jin Crow’s own frontline inspection plan and tossed it into the trash.
‘From the second years onward, it should be fine.’
……No matter what, first years were a bit too much.
In contrast to Chance Marbre being cleanly cut off, Dokgo Ran—who had extracted seven teeth in a single blow—earned the honorable nickname ‘Ran Dental Clinic’ on the academy blind and received the light punishment of one week of confinement in the dormitory.
“Yaaawn.”
Frankly speaking, was there any more hollow formality than a punishment like confinement.
Of course, for Dokgo Ran’s temperament, being unable to leave the dormitory for a week was still quite a significant punishment…….
“Um, Ran, do you want to eat this, maybe?”
“Ooh! As expected!”
Thinking that her own shouting had caused even the innocent Dokgo Ran to be punished, Miel brought snacks every day to train—no, to soothe—her, so incidents like a bored Dokgo Ran breaking a window and escaping never occurred.
“The tea tastes good.”
“It really does.”
With even Hino Kanae—who subtly got along well with Famille—joining in, Dokgo Ran’s confinement effectively turned into a period of lounging around the dormitory, eating and playing.
“So? When did you meet that kid called Park Huiyeon?”
“I told you it’s Baek Hwi-young. Ran, you’ve got some on your mouth.”
Miel Amber repeatedly wiped the cookie crumbs from Dokgo Ran’s mouth herself, while Hino Kanae and Famille Demezear sat by the window, sipping from high-end teacups and playing chess via tablet holograms.
If Baek Hwi-young, who was tangled up with Beatus amid clouds of dust on the training field, had seen this, it would probably have been a sight that made him doubt his own eyes.
How many days had passed like that.
“Yawn.”
Just as there were hardly any stories left to chatter about, Dokgo Ran—who, as usual, was sprawled out rolling around on the bed—spotted something on the hologram screen displayed by her watch, and her eyes lit up.
“What did you guys say you were doing during vacation?”
“Huh?”
“……How many times are you going to ask that. I have to go back to my hometown, what else would I do.”
“I don’t really have anything planned.”
Miel asked back while drinking the chocolate milk Hino Kanae had prepared for her, and Famille and Kanae looked at her with eyes tinged with a strange sense of unease.
「Hunt space monsters in the Free Planet Alliance!
Carpe Diem Entertainment
(Carpe diem Entertainment)」
“Then let’s go do this!”
What she showed them was quite an intriguing advertisement.