novelraw Chapter 138
Chapter 138
Chapter 138
Ariana Everheart.
Her nickname was Irie.
Originally, she would have lived happily, enjoying an unimaginably luxurious life and privileges in the upper-class society of Sector A. But because of a twisted fate, she grew up as a stray dog girl of Polen.
And Peter Jones, also known as PJ.
What on earth had he been thinking?
What kind of scheme was it, that he had taken with him nothing more than a baby who could only roll around and babble incomprehensibly?
Lexus closed his eyes and imagined.
A boy of about six or seven years old.
The reason he joined a gang was to survive. Children of Polen were easy targets for low-grade human hunters. Especially since PJ’s neighborhood was notorious even within Polen for its poor security, it was only natural that they would band together just to survive.
At Peter’s age back then, he must have wanted nothing more than to follow his older brothers and sisters everywhere. Immature, ignorant of the world. Overflowing with curiosity and courage, desperate to be acknowledged as an adult.
That day, he must have whined endlessly again.
—I’ll follow! I’ll follow too!
Why on earth did the other members let such a child tag along on such a dangerous crime? Maybe they couldn’t stand his whining. Or maybe they intended to use the fact that PJ was just a kid for something.
So PJ’s gang went to the Everheart couple’s apartment, murdered them, and fled. In the panic of committing their first murder, they failed to realize that the youngest had not yet gotten into the car. They simply loaded the stolen goods and pressed the accelerator.
While the other boys faced off against the Everheart couple, PJ discovered the baby’s room.
The name “Irie” written on the cradle.
In a clean, soft, and cozy world, untainted innocence melted the boy’s heart.
Then suddenly.
A gunshot rang out.
Startled, the baby burst into tears. Flustered, the boy dashed to the couple’s bedroom, where the shot had come from. But his companions had already abandoned him and fled.
Betrayal. Anxiety. Bewilderment.
The couple’s corpses lying on the floor.
Blood soaking the ground.
The thick scent of iron.
The frail, sorrowful cries of the baby.
And the flood that surged in…
‘…Guilt.’
Crushing guilt gripped the boy’s heart. He realized that they had destroyed the safe world that had surrounded the baby.
As if possessed, the boy picked up the baby. Dropping the sack of stolen goods, he ran away, holding in his arms a baby he had never seen before.
The police had already arrived, but their eyes were fixed on the getaway vehicle the others had taken. Naturally, their perimeter was loose, and during that lapse the boy slipped away with the baby.
‘The mind of a six-year-old boy.’
He didn’t even know which direction home was.
Wandering the city with the baby in his arms, he heard news everywhere—the shocking murder of the couple, the capture of the culprits, and the missing baby.
When he finally came to his senses, he wondered if he should return the baby.
But he was terrified of being caught. And he feared most of all the baby’s clear, innocent eyes turning into eyes full of blame toward him. In the end, he gave up on surrendering.
At last, the boy succeeded in reaching the Fallen Sector beyond Sector E. There, he resolved to raise the baby with his own hands.
Not as Ariana Everheart.
But as Irie Elisbell.
Using the nickname her parents had given her, and combining it with the name of the heroine once played by Sylvia Everheart.
And to ease his guilt.
Wishing to restore even a fragment of the life they had destroyed, he raised her with the utmost care.
He taught her letters, kept her away from bad company. Worked twice as hard as others so that Irie could maintain her innocence as she grew.
That was the truth of the incident.
After finishing the simulation in his head, Lexus naturally pulled out a cigarette and put it between his lips. With a snap of his fingers, fire sparked at the tip.
He inhaled deeply, exhaled heavily, and muttered in a detached tone, as if recalling a distant memory.
“A tragedy.”
That day, Irie’s world had collapsed.
Her fate had been wrenched apart.
Instead of a soft bed, she closed her eyes on wooden planks padded with rags.
Instead of savoring delicious meals, she filled her hungry stomach with plastic artificial meat.
Instead of wearing neat, pretty new clothes, she scavenged rags discarded by others just to keep warm.
Growing up in such harsh conditions, she now attended not a normal university to enjoy campus life, but a school where she learned how to risk her life fighting monsters.
‘Such a cruel fate.’
Of course, Irie’s talent was real.
If she had grown up like a greenhouse flower, like the residents of Sector A, that talent would never have blossomed.
But was that truly what she had wanted? Thinking of her life, forced to struggle desperately just to survive in a cold and heartless world, no one had the right to say, ‘At least her talent didn’t go to waste.’
And her brother, Peter Jones.
What if she discovered that the family she missed so painfully, so desperately, had in fact been the very cause that cast her comfortable life into ruin?
What would Irie do then?
‘This… I can’t tell her.’
Sometimes, truth was poison.
It wormed into the mind of the one who consumed it, breaking arms of life, trampling, shattering, and weakening.
To speak of this now, when she was just starting to gather her resolve and blossom her talent, could make everything she had built up until now vanish into nothing.
‘Good grief. And who would handle the aftermath?’
This incident had to be covered up.
At least until his new student had grown enough to laugh such a story off.
Still.
‘Did the Crown Prince know all this?’
From what he had heard, the man had always hidden the truth about Peter Jones from Irie. He must have known what Lexus had realized today long ago.
But what Lexus truly wondered was.
‘Then what became of Peter Jones?’
He understood why they didn’t tell Irie about PJ. But surely they could at least say how he had ended up dead, without digging into his past.
The death of Peter Jones and the story behind it.
If there was a reason they kept silent about that too, it must be because it was connected to Irie’s past.
‘What a nuisance…’
Lexus scratched his shaggy head.
There had to be something more.
For a fixer of the back alleys, sticking his nose into business that didn’t even pay was a deadly taboo.
‘But there’s no helping it.’
What else could he do, when he had come to like his new student? Even if it meant angering his employer, the curiosity from his detective days was now boiling uncontrollably.
And perhaps.
This might also be the chance to learn the true face of the man called Aaron Stingray.
“……That’s everything I have to say.”
What Irie had consulted me about was none other than a proposal to ease the conflict structure between corporations. Because of the tendency of students to clash excessively along their affiliations, their learning efficiency was suffering.
After quietly listening, I answered Irie in a low voice.
“……I hope you know who I am, and still chose to make this request.”
“It’s precisely because you are Chairman Aaron that I can ask you. You’re the head of the Stingray Foundation.”
Irie replied in a confident voice.
“I know the Stingray Group and Militech are rival companies with such bad blood that they even went to war in the past. But I don’t think there’s any need to drag that cold war into the Academy.”
Then Irie pointed out that the biggest reason student casualties had been so severe during the last terror attack was the fragmentation of student groups along corporate lines.
“Until we’re truly cornered, Stingray and Militech students won’t even look at each other’s faces. And students from other corporations too, they’re always fighting depending on which side they belong to.”
“And so?”
Tell me your concrete method.
At my look—
“We need an event.”
As if she had prepared it already, Irie continued smoothly.
“I thought it would be good if there were an opportunity to unite the students, like the terror incident did. Even if not unity, at least something that could sublimate our hatred into healthy rivalry.”
“For example?”
“A sports day. Or a festival.”
“So, you just want to play.”
“T-that’s not it!”
Perhaps Irie’s words were true.
But maybe she wasn’t entirely free of such desires, because she quickly averted her eyes. In her stead, Raina, who sat beside her, offered further explanation.
“Instead of Stingray versus Militech, if we split into two teams like Red Team and Blue Team, competing fairly, wouldn’t it help ease the current tense atmosphere?”
“Hmm.”
Not a bad idea.
In fact, even in my old world, some rural villages used to fight every generation over irrigation rights. To ease it, they would regularly hold sports festivals or fairs, sending messages of reconciliation.
But.
“This idea isn’t yours.”
“Gasp.”
“……How did you know?”
The two wore faces as if I had struck right at the heart.
Of course I knew. The ones I knew weren’t capable of such a thought. It must have been influenced by someone else.
“This wasn’t a student proposal either… Was it Lexus Bane who advised you?”
“Y-you’re exactly right……”
The two of them looked slightly dejected.
They must have been hoping for my praise. Suppressing a smile, I glanced over the documents Irie had brought again and asked.
“What about the Academy’s approval?”
“If we convince you, Chairman, that part solves itself……”
“That’s true.”
If I strongly pushed for it, the Academy administrators would have no choice but to accept. But setting that aside, a few issues immediately came to mind.
“This plan seems too rushed to start this year. But if it’s pushed to next year, it’ll likely fizzle out unless I’m re-elected.”
“We can fit it into this year somehow. We can use weekends when there’s no class schedule.”
“That would lower participation.”
“This is the Academy’s first festival. I don’t think participation will be a problem. Besides, the Academy can restrict weekend outings and home returns just for that day.”
Indeed. If it’s compulsory, nothing can be done.
And with this military-like school atmosphere, the first truly college-like event would surely grab plenty of student interest.
“Then what about the budget?”
“We’ll use the Student Council budget as the base, and request the Academy to cover the shortage.”
“Finally, even if I agree, how will you persuade the other corporations?”
“Couldn’t you… help us with that…?”
Ah, so that’s why they came to me.
They wanted me to take the lead in persuading the other sponsors. Even if we held an event for all students, if the corporations forbade their scholarship students to join, it would all come to nothing.
“A school festival, huh……”
Interesting.
In other academy novels, it was a pretty common trope, but in Cyber-Module’s Necromancer, it had never once appeared.
I welcomed such a deviation from the original.
“……Very well. I’ll help.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you so much!”
The two bowed their heads respectfully to me.
With students working this hard, how could I sit idly by?
Perhaps now, before Part 2 even began, was the best time to enjoy a festival event that hadn’t existed in the original story.
Honestly, more than worrying about the Transmigrator Alliance and all that, this kind of thing was closer to the purpose of my being in this world.
‘The corporations friendly to Stingray will fall in line if I call them. The problem is Militech….’
It might be best to talk to Vladimir.
But would that bastard even listen to me?
Though it felt daunting……
Well, there was no use worrying in advance.
“I’ll arrange a meeting soon and do the persuading. Until then, have the Student Council flesh out the plans further.”
“Understood.”
“Yes, understood.”
Outside Aaron’s office, Serena waited, unable to control her anxious heart.
‘Irie…….’
Memories of her floated vividly.
Though the knowledge lingering in her mind as a transmigrator cried, ‘Those aren’t my memories,’ it was useless. Those memories were already Serena’s own, and so were the emotions.
‘How am I supposed to face her?’
Earlier, instinctively or perhaps impulsively, she had provoked Irie, but that wasn’t all there was to her feelings.
Tenderness and wistfulness.
Jealousy and friendship.
Past and present.
The relationship she had cut off awkwardly without closure was now entangled with her feelings toward Aaron, leading everything into such a mess—who could have foreseen it?
‘Before she shows herself again, I need to decide properly. Is she a friend, or a rival?’
Surely, the Irie she once knew and the Irie of now were quite different.
To clarify their relationship, she first needed to calmly talk with Irie, to confirm what exact feelings Irie held toward Aaron……
As she was thinking this—
Ding.
An alarm rang.
A mail had arrived.
Serena opened it and frowned.
‘Why now, of all times.’
The sender was the Transmigrator Alliance.
She had only just reported Aaron’s return, and within less than an hour a reply had come.
Usually, those people dragged things out endlessly, clashing over every detail. But this time, it seemed they had reached a unanimous decision immediately.
And so.
The meeting date between the Transmigrator Alliance and Aaron Stingray was set.