novelraw Chapter 70
Chapter 70
Chapter 70
His aching body instead roused his foggy mind.
When he forced open his eyelids, which felt as though stones had been placed atop them, a soft light soon filled his vision.
“Guh…”
Jin Crow awoke from sleep when it was already well into the dark of night.
Twisting his throbbing head and uncooperative body by force, he pushed himself up from the bed, and soon two glasses someone was offering came into view.
“Whiskey? Or water?”
It was a familiar hand.
Without hesitation, he took the whiskey and held a mouthful in his mouth, then came to his senses and looked around the room.
How should he put it.
It was a room with an interior that felt exactly like a classic mansion.
A fireplace burned on one side, and the deep-brown wooden furniture gave it the feel of a villa.
Chiik, hss-.
He took a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth.
Whether Tita Genorua had guessed his personality or was simply being considerate, there were no signs that his clothes had been removed.
In other words, he had been lying on the bed in a state thoroughly soaked with blood.
However, he had no time to worry about that.
Because of that, he asked Tita Genorua while grinding the cigarette between his teeth.
“Where is this?”
“A safe house.”
Her explanation that followed was quite concise and struck precisely at the core.
The rescued superhumans had been moved to a different safe house, and only those willing to take part were being selected and put under contract.
In addition, since it was impossible to tell whether those bastards had caught their scent, they were tightening their organization as much as possible for now, while Geum Young’s side was keeping an eye on the situation.
And lastly…….
“Your cadets, all of them, were brought here.”
Wearing an inexplicable smile, Tita Genorua leaned back into a comfortable chair commonly called a rocking chair and lit a cigarette.
At her words, Jin Crow recalled the troublesome bunch he had forgotten and pressed his throbbing brow with his fingers.
‘Things had gotten way too big.’
He had originally started the schedule intending to just look for Nectar, and if that failed, to grab some Awakening drugs, but in just a week, matters had snowballed out of control.
Had she read his complicated mood?
Tita Genorua exhaled smoke with a ‘whoo’ and spoke.
“I wondered what you were if you weren’t a mercenary, but I never imagined this. An instructor at the Central Special Service Academy, Jin Crow.”
“I didn’t lie.”
“Right, of course you didn’t.”
She did not look particularly betrayed, nor did she give off an air of rejecting him.
Perhaps because of that.
Feeling much more at ease, Jin Crow finished burning the remaining cigarette, stood up from his seat, and spoke to her.
“Do you have spare clothes?”
He did have luggage with him, but he had left it behind at the factory where she had previously executed the traitor within.
Just in case, the only things he had packed into a small bag were Awakening drugs.
In truth, those were the most important.
Meanwhile, as if she had anticipated his question, Tita Genorua nodded and replied.
“I had a suit prepared. The size was eyeballed, but it should fit. After all, it was made by a tailor with a state-of-the-art prosthetic eye.”
It was a truly reassuring statement.
He nodded at her words, removed the coat he was wearing, and hung it on the rack.
Then, as he began unbuttoning the shirt whose topmost button had fallen off, blackened by blood mixed from humans and Creatures alike, he turned his gaze toward Tita Genorua, who was still sitting in the rocking chair smoking, and asked back.
“You’re not leaving?”
“So what. If you’re embarrassed, why don’t you undress in the bathroom? Or should I join you?”
She calmly undid the top button of her own shirt. Then she smiled slyly instead, a sight that did not sit well with him.
It was truly a paltry temptation.
If that wasn’t a provocation, then what was?
With such thoughts, he furrowed his brow, turned his head, and opened his mouth.
No, he was about to.
Creeeak-.
“Uh, Instruc-tooor…….”
At that moment, the door opened, and if he had not met eyes with Miel Amber, who peeked her head in, that would have been that.
Miel looked at him with the utmost polite expression, as if she had something to convey, but soon alternated her gaze between the two of them and began stammering with a blank look.
“…Hic! S-sorry!”
Sending off Miel, who slammed the door shut with a bang while her cheeks burned red, Jin Crow silently downed the whiskey on the table in one gulp and headed into the bathroom.
“Hah, hahahaha!”
After laughing until tears came to her eyes for quite some time at the sight, Tita Genorua personally denied the dating rumor that had spread among the cadets like an established truth before he finished washing up.
However, the cadets’ reaction was unexpected.
Up until the moment she began telling the story, it was, how should one put it.
It was as if they nodded with expressions that said, ‘We already know Santa doesn’t exist, but since adults still give presents using Santa as an excuse, we should just put up with it.’
“Really?”
“Yeah, I didn’t even know that person was an instructor. I was just trying to repay a small favor I received, and he got dragged into our side.”
“Well, …it’s not completely unbelievable.”
In the end, they somehow managed to clear up the misunderstanding.
At the same time, she emphasized that he was purely a victim who had been dragged into their world.
Bluntly speaking, it wasn’t exactly wrong.
That said, it didn’t quite add up to say only good things about Jin Crow.
After all, she was strictly a businesswoman.
If something goes out, something has to come back, doesn’t it?
“Well, that doesn’t mean there’s no room for the relationship with the instructor to develop in the future.”
“You really dress up bullshit in grand words.”
And at that moment, Jin Crow came out into the living room, looking as though he had just finished showering, dripping water instead of blood.
However, the cadets—and even Tita Genorua—couldn’t help but cast surprised looks at him.
Unlike his usual insistence on black, this time he was wearing only black suit pants and a white shirt, and somehow—
It felt different.
It wasn’t as if he had worn a different-colored shirt before, but perhaps because he was wearing just a shirt, it felt new in some way?
Of course, Jin Crow had no intention whatsoever of indulging their impressions.
“Everyone, stand.”
At the words he muttered while sinking into the sofa and putting a cigarette in his mouth, Dokgo Ran, Famille Demezear, Hino Kanae, Beatus, and Miel all stood up at once, excluding Baek Hui-young, who still hadn’t managed to rise from his seat.
It was closer to instinct.
If they didn’t stand up now, they were screwed—one might say it was a defensive mechanism born from the will to survive.
And their choice was sufficiently wise.
Jin Crow’s mood right now was not good.
“Famille, explain.”
The one he chose was Famille.
Normally, he would have asked Beatus without question, but hadn’t his expectations already been betrayed once?
Whether she knew his thoughts or not, Famille, wearing an expression as if she had expected to be called, began explaining the situation quickly and concisely, as though she had prepared in advance.
“…That’s all.”
“So.”
However, the explanation was even more of a mess than he had expected, leaving Jin Crow no choice but to look at the cadets with an incredulous expression.
He held his throbbing head for a moment while burning his cigarette, then took a short deep breath and spoke.
“So Dokgo Ran heard there was a leisure sport where you could catch Creatures and followed along, ran into guys presumed to be the Red Hand. Two of you got neatly kidnapped, and on top of that, you ran into remnants of those rebels. Is there anything wrong with what I just said?”
“There isn’t.”
“…Cadets these days are really something. There’s no delinquency quite like this, is there?”
So much so that even Tita Genorua, who was listening nearby, swept her gaze over the cadets with a look of disbelief.
However, Jin Crow’s gaze didn’t linger on the cadets for long. Instead, it shifted toward a woman sitting in a corner, lighting one cigarette after another.
“…….”
Purple hair and purple eyes.
She couldn’t be called a stunning beauty, but her fairly decent looks had been badly worn down over a short period of time.
Jin Crow stared at the cadets for a moment, let out a short sigh, then slowly walked toward Satra while gripping the longsword at his side.
Soon, a gaze bearing both the original violet eyes and the subtle gleam unique to a prosthetic eye pierced into his face.
“…It’s been a while, Instructor Jin Crow.”
“It’s been a while, Captain Satra.”
Had she even gained a long scar across the bridge of her nose?
Jin Crow slowly traced her face with his eyes, then slowly drew the sword he had been holding.
“I-Instructor!”
“…….”
“S-Shouldn’t we stop this?”
At the sight, Miel cried out urgently along with Dokgo Ran, but Beatus, Famille, and Hino Kanae merely kept silent, as if they had expected this.
Tita Genorua, to begin with, had little interest in what happened to Satra either way.
Sshk.
In that moment, where worry and indifference mixed together, Jin Crow pressed the sharp blade against her nape and spoke.
“Rank 2 wanted criminal, Satra.”
His voice was utterly calm, and the smoke from the cigarette in his mouth dispersed like a heat haze, but the weight of his words was anything but light.
Naturally so.
How many people had died due to her trolling at Atla Colony, and how much had humanity’s weakened strength been reduced as a result?
Of course, on a galactic scale, it might seem insignificant.
But if such insignificant differences accumulated defeat after defeat, what would remain in the end would be nothing but destruction.
“Even if I’m on leave, as a soldier of the Human Composite State, I can execute you on the spot right now.”
Perhaps she sensed his atmosphere.
“Tell me a reason why I should let you live.”
Satra gestured to those nearby who were about to draw their weapons, ordering them to lower them, and without caring about the blade pressed right under her chin, she put the fully burned-out cigarette back into her mouth and spoke.
“There isn’t one.”
“Crisp.”
As if he liked the answer for once, Jin Crow let out a faint chuckle and swung his sword as is.
The tip of the blade, filled with genuine intent to kill.
The cadets closed their eyes at the faint Psionic energy even they could feel from his hand, Tita Genorua calmly took a sip of whiskey, and the former rebels could only stare blankly at the scene, unable to do anything.
But at that very moment.
Kwaaang!
The door suddenly burst open, and a man flew in as if throwing his body forward, reaching out his hand.
A bizarre act that unfolded in a truly fleeting instant.
Kwaddeuk!
Blood sprayed from Satra’s nape and the man’s palm, dripping down to the floor along Jin Crow’s blade.
“…Haah. Hoo.”
Feeling the recoil from his sword, Jin Crow slowly lowered his gaze.
What came into view was Baek Hui-young, pale-faced, unable even to pull out his IV, gripping the blade and standing there precariously.
“…Instructor, you can’t.”
His eyes were somewhat unfocused, but—
“She must not die yet.”
The words he uttered were unmistakably clear.