A Reputation Growing Unchecked
After finishing my private audience with the Commander, I returned to the military academy only to be hit with a strange, unplaceable sense of wrongness.
…What the hell?
Why were the cadets staring at me with those sticky, lingering looks?
The answer came from Platon, who was waiting right outside my private quarters.
"Those aren't sticky looks, Lord Haydam. They are looks of respect."
I frowned at his words.
"Respect, all of a sudden?"
"As a result of this training simulation, the number of cadets who respect you has greatly increased."
Ah. Because I had once again won the training simulation by eliminating the entire opposing team?
Last time I won they just sneered at me. Win twice in a row and they finally realize it wasn't a fluke, huh.
Even so, respect seemed like a stretch.
"I'm glad the results of this training were at least acknowledged. But it wasn't some grand strategy worth calling 'respect,' was it?"
I had won in the end, yes—but just as the Commander had pointed out, a strategy that used a child as bait was hardly something the academy cadets would look upon favorably.
It would have been perfectly normal for them to call it underhanded or unethical.
Yet the cadets I had run into just moments ago had been surprisingly mild about it.
Platon's next words, however, were even stranger.
"I have been waiting here to apologize to you regarding that very matter."
"…What?"
Apologizing for being respected instead of criticized?
"All right. Tell me what you're apologizing for."
"I failed to keep my promise to you, Lord Haydam."
"Promise?"
The only promise I had made with Platon was… that he would become my adjutant after graduation?
"Are you saying you can no longer become my adjutant?"
"No. That is something I absolutely still wish to do."
Then what?
"So which promise did you break?"
"You asked me not to speak of your injury."
I had completely forgotten about something so trivial.
"I did."
The moment I answered calmly, Platon immediately bent at the waist in a perfect ninety-degree bow.
"I am deeply sorry. I told the other cadets. I told them that your injury has not yet healed. Those who heard it came to respect you—regardless of age—for still stepping into the training for the sake of another cadet's honor, even with a body like that. It is entirely my fault."
Hmm.
The content of the apology was odd, but…
In other words, Platon had gone around doing image-making for me among the cadets without me even asking.
Lucky for me that Platon is the kind of hard-headed bastard who values his own convictions more than a promise.
Everyone at the academy knew better than anyone that Platon was far too rigid to ever falsely praise someone. Coming from him, the story would have carried genuine weight.
Thanks to Platon I got free image-making, and at the same time he now carried a debt of conscience for breaking his word. A clean win all around.
Still, better to play the magnanimous superior here.
"If that's all, don't worry about it. Even if you hadn't said anything, everyone would have noticed eventually."
"Lord Haydam…"
"If it still bothers you that much, there is one favor I would like to ask."
Playing the big man was one thing. Collecting what was owed was another.
Platon's face actually brightened as he asked,
"What favor would that be?"
A moment later his expression darkened again.
"If you are about to ask me to go around talking behind people's backs again…"
He already looked terrified that I would order him to spread more gossip.
Apparently bad-mouthing people went completely against his nature.
Of course I had no intention of making him do that again. This incident had thoroughly proven that Platon had zero talent for backbiting.
"Nothing like that. Graduation is coming up soon, isn't it?"
"Ah, yes. That is correct."
Platon spoke with pride.
"I will soon graduate from the military academy. After our first subjugation campaign we may choose our own assignments, so when that time comes I will definitely apply to become your adjutant, Lord Haydam."
I still held no rank whatsoever, yet he was already talking about applying to be my adjutant.
Well, I was scheduled to receive a rank starting with this next campaign. Whatever rank my dictator of a father decided to pin on me, as an operations officer I would at least be at the battalion level—captain or major, maybe.
But the favor I wanted had nothing to do with after graduation.
Him becoming my adjutant was already a fact I had decided.
"What I want to ask isn't about after graduation."
"Then…?"
"I heard you'll be giving the graduation speech this year. Is that right?"
Platon looked as if he had just heard something completely unexpected.
"The graduation speech, sir?"
"Yes."
"I am giving it, but… what kind of favor would require that…?"
Already wearing a face full of anxiety, Platon received my smiling reply.
"During the graduation speech, there's one little thing I'd like you to do for me."
After sending Platon away, I collapsed onto the bed in my private quarters.
Finally, some rest.
I had spent quite a while in the hospital after getting shot by that Unicorn player bastard, but there had been far too many eyes on me there to truly relax.
Come to think of it, even at the Commander's residence I had constantly been forced to act and perform. This private room might actually be the freest space I had.
That reminds me… I still need to come up with a countermeasure for that Unicorn player.
The one he had tried to kill was Shut-In Girl, and he had claimed he had "no intention of harming me yet."
But I couldn't just sit around trusting that he currently felt favorably toward me, could I?
That was when a notification from the public chat room chimed.
A proposal?
Shin, the Love Area player.
Something about him always felt off.
It was like he was forcibly cranking up his energy every time he spoke.
Even Home Protector had said the guy made him uncomfortable, so it wasn't just me.
He's been keeping a low profile until now… and suddenly he has a proposal?
The chat that followed was interesting even to me.
Fast.
He had already gone all the way to a border with another zone that actually had a barrier?
The zone closest to Love Area is… the Tobacco Zone where Home Protector is.
After the First Apocalypse, the amount of land left for humanity was limited. Excluding the floating island of the Unicorn Area and the giant submarine of the Beer Area, everyone was basically packed into a landmass about the size of the Korean Peninsula, divided into zones.
If the Cola Area at the northernmost point was roughly below North Hamgyong Province, then the closest to us would be the Cocaine Area around Gangwon Province.
Above that floated the Unicorn Area, and around Busan was the Knife Zone.
Love Area and Tobacco Zone were roughly around Gyeonggi Province, while Chicken and Candy Zones sat near Jeju Island?
Anyway, the one closest to Shin in Love Area was Home Protector.
Yet even after Shin's message confirming the lack of a barrier, Home Protector still hadn't appeared in the chat.
Normally that guy checks messages the second they arrive…
He wasn't unemployed anymore, so maybe he simply couldn't be the first to reply. But the idea that he just "happened" to be busy the moment Shin sent a message like this felt unlikely.
He hadn't even messaged me lately.
Either something happened, or he's already made contact with Shin… one of the two?
When no one answered, Shin sent another message.
His chat stopped there.
Only then did the other players begin appearing one by one.
So the others had been watching Shin's messages too.
When asked what the proposal was, Shin answered.
Meet… up?
What the hell is he thinking?
I wasn't the only one thrown off—the chat froze for a moment with no further messages.
Druggy was the first to reply.
He wanted to meet other players just for a casual offline hangout?
The Chicken Zone player sent a positive reply, but the rest of the reactions to Shin's casual proposal were far from friendly.
While the chat filled with vicious replies, Ssapasuble seemed to think Shin was making the offer simply because he was an airheaded flower-brain. I disagreed.
There's no way he confirmed the barrier's absence this quickly without any purpose behind it.
Shin had definitely proposed the meeting with some goal in mind.
The fact that he had even verified the barrier situation beforehand made his intent obvious.
Why does he want to meet the other players?
If I had confirmed the barriers were gone, the first thing I would have done was strengthen my own defenses.
I had zero intention of contacting players from other zones before the Second Apocalypse arrived.
Right now we were all just ten-year-old kids short on both power and infrastructure.
I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to show themselves in that state to other players.
Shin… how likely is it that this guy also has an adult body like the Unicorn Zone bastard?
While I was still suspicious of Shin's motives, Druggy spoke up first.
Even after Druggy's accusation, Shin answered with breezy nonchalance.
Ah, so now I was being brought up again?
That was news to me. I had no idea I was famous for that.
This was the first time I'd ever seen Druggy talk this much.
Shin was in the middle of making some excuse when Druggy dropped a bombshell.