I Possessed a Broken Academy Instructor

Chapter 9

A mixture of contempt, doubt, and gazes that were anything but welcoming emanated from the cadets.

It was understandable.

He, too, was annoyed with himself for spouting such words.

‘Although it was a method used in the original work, I can't help but feel disgusted by it.’

He was no warmonger mad for battle.

But unfortunately, the world the author had created was this kind of place.

A swamp-like hell where one could not achieve victory without sacrifice.

A place where grand causes and ethics became infinitely insignificant before the immediate reality of survival.

However, he had no intention of deliberately showing the cadets the full extent of their cruel future just yet, so after making Hino Kanae sit down, he added.

“Of course, I have no intention of insulting the fallen soldiers of the Defense Force for their decision not to scuttle.”

This was sincere.

Whether they were driven to it by their superiors or willingly threw their lives away for a greater cause, they had died honorably as soldiers on the battlefield.

“They fought to the end, and the time they bought allowed at least some of the Synthetic Nation's citizens to survive.”

But the vermin he was about to speak of were different.

“However, the Special Mission Officers of the Planetary Defense Force are a different story. Personally, I wish those bastards had died instead.”

This time, it was a rather scathing critique.

Jin Crow's original personality had inadvertently surfaced, causing him to add some harsh words, but they were mixed with a good deal of sincerity.

“As you all know, the number of Special Mission Officers in a Planetary Defense Force is small. The number of Special Mission Officers and NCOs reported by the Planet Aurum government was approximately 3,000. However, the number of officers with combat records after the invasion does not even reach 2,000.”

Even then, the majority were low-ranking officers who were Dual Gears.

The kind of individuals who would have been commissioned as Special Mission NCOs, not officers, in the Federal Army.

By their very nature, the Special Mission Officers of a Planetary Defense Force were traditionally from the planet's ruling class, or those sponsored by them.

If that was the case, wasn't it obvious where the remaining 1,000 had been deployed?

“Even in the dire crisis of abandoning the planet, the casualties among the planetary government's council members and the Defense Force high command were infinitesimally small. A truly amazing miracle, isn't it.”

No one laughed at the seemingly self-deprecating joke.

It was impossible for them not to understand the true meaning behind his words.

“No matter how qualitatively lacking the Defense Force's equipment was, if the infantry equipped with Powered Exoskeletons had blocked this route…”

But Jin Crow paid it no mind and silently continued the explanation Idealle had requested.

About half of it consisted of tactics or mistakes that the cadets could have inferred on their own, but the other half was a list of methods so extreme that even the instructors looked disgusted.

The problem was that it was all quite persuasive, based on a logic that prioritized extreme efficiency.

“To summarize, the reasons they were pushed to the ‘Black’ phase, the planet abandonment stage, are as follows: the tactical incompetence of the Defense Force high command, the malfeasance of the politicians, and complacency.”

With those words, he fell silent.

The reactions were truly varied.

Some were terrified, some were deep in thought, and others… had extremely insolent eyes, like Hino Kanae.

Was it because he saw her gaze?

Or was it that his eyes simply landed on her, and he called her name without any emotion?

“Hino Kanae.”

“……”

“Do you know what happened to the planet?”

Jin Crow asked her, and before she could even open her mouth, he answered impassively.

“The population residing on Planet Aurum was approximately 2.5 billion. The size of the Planetary Defense Force was about 1 million. They operated five fleets of their own; they were by no means a weak force.”

Being adjacent to the Defense Line, their Defense Force was bloated if anything, certainly not lacking.

“The invasion lasted for about 7 hours. But meaningful engagement did not even last for 3 hours.”

Yet, the result was catastrophic.

“The population that successfully evacuated was about 1 billion out of 2.5 billion. And even then, the majority of those were lives saved by the belatedly arrived Federal Army, who let the citizens trembling in cities outside the front lines board their ships, even exceeding the loading limits.”

At this point, the atmosphere in the classroom was no longer something that could be simply described as icy.

A sacrifice of 1.5 billion people.

Everyone had realized it.

That these things called Creatures were not simply natural disasters—not just primitive space monsters.

But did the cadets know?

That, compared to the disasters that would unfold in the future, the escape from Planet Aurum was so successful it could be called a miracle.

“…Hmph.”

Only then was Hino Kanae forced to temper her rebellious gaze, if only slightly.

Watching their reactions, Jin Crow mulled over a question he had been feeling for a while, but could only now be certain of.

‘How can they be this complacent?’

The space monsters, Creatures, were not first discovered on Planet Aurum.

No matter how primitive, the number of planets they had attacked was not small, and even if most had been repelled, their danger when swarming was not something to be overlooked.

‘But everyone overlooks it. The danger of the Creatures. As if, without the precedent of Aurum, nothing would have ever happened.’

It was a somewhat unsettling speculation.

But nothing was certain yet.

Tap-.

He lightly tapped the lectern and said.

“That’s all for this lecture.”

There was nothing more to elaborate on, and the lecture time had already been exceeded by about 10 minutes.

At his declaration, the cadets hesitated before getting up from their seats and heading outside.

“That was an impressive lecture, Instructor.”

Baek Hwi-young, with his uncharacteristically gleaming gray eyes, bowed his head to him and left the classroom.

With Miel following behind him, all the cadets were gone, and soon, the only ones left in the room were Jin Crow standing at the lectern and Idealle sitting in the very back.

“Would you give us some space?”

Her words were not directed at Jin Crow, but at the instructors accompanying her.

“Yes, Commandant.”

As expected of those who followed her purely out of admiration for her character rather than for factional ties, no one objected, though their eyes held concern.

‘No, in this case, is it confidence that I wouldn't be able to do anything to her?’

Idealle hadn't become a war hero simply for skillfully commanding an evacuation operation.

She herself, as a Special Mission Officer, was a powerful individual.

“……”

“……”

A moment of silence lingered between them.

Finally, the one to speak first was Idealle.

“You've returned the alcohol. However, a few more bottles were empty than I remembered.”

“It was a matter the Commandant herself warned me about. How could that be?”

It began with simple small talk.

But that was brief. Idealle tapped the table as if organizing her thoughts, then opened her mouth.

“The incident on Planet Aurum is certainly unprecedented. As such, academia, the media, and the government are all on high alert. But this is too blatant.”

Her words might have sounded vague at first glance, but the Aurum incident was shocking enough to rock not just the military, but the entire United Human Star Nation.

It wasn't the first time humanity had encountered an alien species.

But it was the first time since the war with the Empire that they had suffered such great losses in a confrontation with another race.

“What are you trying to say?”

“…There’s a rumor circulating within the military recently. That perhaps, we should start seeing the Creatures not as a simple disaster or a disturbance, but as an enemy of humanity, on par with the Empire.”

“Which means?”

“Yes, a lecture on anti-monster combat is scheduled to be newly established on a trial basis. I don't know if it's just a rumor, but I heard the budget has already been allocated.”

Jin Crow stared at her for a moment, and unconsciously, his hand almost reached for the hip flask in his pocket.

‘Already?’

The flow of the original story had changed.

It had been moved up by at least a few months.

But why?

To attribute it to his lecture, the Ministry of National Defense's decision was abnormally fast.

…It didn't make sense.

At times like this, it was a relief that Jin Crow's personality had its influence.

It allowed him to maintain his expressionless face, albeit with difficulty.

Meanwhile, whether she knew his inner turmoil or not, Idealle added with a serious expression, even biting her lip.

“And, the ones who spread that rumor were most likely the Rosen faction. I’ll ask you, Jin Crow.”

At that very moment, a heavy pressure began to slowly eat away at the classroom.

The force was so intense that frost began to form on the windows, making it immediately clear that she was serious.

Her deeply sunken white pupils captured Jin Crow’s face, and she spoke as if she would wring his neck at any moment.

“Is this, too, another one of your dirty tricks to drag factional politics into the military academy?”

It was a clear question, but what lay beneath it was an ice-cold certainty.

And for good reason—the timing was far too coincidental.

‘…This is bad.’

So much so that Jin Crow unconsciously thought so.

Swoosh-.

Instead of answering Idealle’s question, he took out the hip flask he had tucked in his pocket and brought it to his lips.

“What the—.”

He swallowed the alcohol with a shameless composure.

At his action, Idealle tried to say something, but Jin Crow, exuding a subtly changed aura, offered her a proposal instead of an answer.

“Give me the instructor position for the newly established lecture. In return.”

It was an absurd suggestion.

“That’s…”

Thinking so, Idealle was about to immediately refute his words, but she couldn’t help but shut her mouth at what followed.

“The weakness of the Kukenhausen family. I will tell you that, Idealle Kukenhausen.”

In that instant, Jin Crow saw it.

It was only for a split second, but he saw the waver in her eyes.

***

“…We’ll talk next time.”

After Idealle left, Jin Crow headed straight for his quarters.

However, his expression was anything but bright.

It was only natural.

He had a lot on his mind.

‘The original story changed before I even had a chance to intervene.’

It wasn't for no reason that he, who knew the future called the ‘original story’, had used the Planet Aurum case to lecture the cadets.

He had been laying the groundwork for the instructor position of a lecture that would be established a few months later.

Fwoosh, puff-.

Upon entering his quarters, he immediately took out a cigarette, lit it, and sank into the sofa.

At the same time, he loosened the black necktie that was already choking his frustrated throat and took a deep breath.

“Haaah.”

With a sigh laden with anguish and fatigue, hazy cigarette smoke scattered like a shimmer of heat.

Watching it, Jin Crow narrowed his brow slightly and continued to think about the ‘deal’ from a moment ago.

‘The budget for the lecture has already been allocated. In that case, I have to assume the lecture is being established. Whatever the reason, I have to get it.’

There is a saying, ‘gihojise’—the situation of riding a tiger.

It means that if you get off the tiger's back midway, you become its next meal.

His current predicament was exactly that.

He had thought of and reviewed countless other methods, but to prepare for the coming doom while maintaining his status as a military academy instructor, the instructor position for the new lecture was absolutely necessary.

‘My authority will only grow stronger from now on.’

It was an extremely logical conclusion.

Every time the Creatures brutally trampled a planet, the military would have no choice but to raise its vigilance against them.

In that sense, mentioning the ‘weakness of the Kukenhausen family’ to Idealle was a necessary gamble.

It was a waste to use it so early, but what could he do?

For him, who had no foundation whatsoever, the information from the original story was his only source of power.

“Now, is all that’s left to wait?”

The decision was not yet his to make.

But the expression on Jin Crow’s face, as he brought another cigarette to his lips, was quite calm.

It was likely because he had an inkling.

‘Idealle has no choice but to accept this deal.’

…Or so he thought.