A New Authority for the Class Placement Exam? (2)

An Yumin looked calmer than she had at the entrance ceremony a few days prior.

Her trademark black hunter suit was the same as always. Theia even provided Aegis with a private makeup studio, so her appearance had only improved since their high school academy days.

Two hundred thousand won a session, was it?

Of course, Theia covered the entire cost. To Song Sia it was pocket change — but for ordinary university students, it was hardly a small sum. They were getting full celebrity-grade makeup every single morning just to go to class. Without that studio, that pig — no, Ha Yeeun — would probably have refused to show up at all.

Then An Yumin spoke.

"A new operator? Obviously not a guy, right?"

Ha Yeeun jolted at the words.

"Absolutely no men!! I'm already suffering enough from all those thirsty creeps... no, those creeps with ulterior motives! If another operator who has designs on me like Lee Junwoo comes back, I'll be in serious trouble!!"

Song Sia nearly scowled without meaning to. She genuinely could not understand where Ha Yeeun got the confidence for delusions that severe. Sure, she had the kind of face that could farm fanboys — but right now she was just a fat pig. And Lee Junwoo had been thoroughly, single-mindedly devoted to An ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Yumin. He had worn it so openly that no one could have missed it.

Is Ha Yeeun even a real woman? Even I know that much... and that stupid bitch still...

The thought left her feeling strange. Something tightened in her chest. She stole a glance at An Yumin.

If An Yumin just got together with some other guy...

Maybe then Lee Junwoo would naturally give up on her. Of course, completely erasing that lingering attachment would be hard — but even in romance novels, relationships only truly end once a new partner enters the picture, for better or worse. Someone like An Yumin would have no trouble finding a boyfriend.

But the moment she imagined the reverse, her mood twisted again. The thought of Lee Junwoo with a new woman. Just picturing it made her head spin, and her thirst for blood surged once more.

"Huh? Why'd you go quiet? Sia. Don't tell me the new operator is a guy?"

The question yanked her back to the heart of the conversation. Song Sia nodded.

"Yeah. He's a man. A scholarship student from our guild — and a Theia freshman."

"That's a problem! I don't want a man."

"I don't want a guy either! If something ugly happens again like when Lee Junwoo was around..."

But Song Sia had already anticipated both of their reactions. She shook her head.

"You don't need to worry. The new operator is a Yoho tribesman."

"A Yoho? Hmm. Then I guess there's nothing to worry about."

Even before the gates appeared, the World Tree had existed in Northern Europe — the so-called homeland of the demihuman races. Demihumans had long hidden themselves within human society, but in the modern age, with so many Awakened walking among them, they had long since blended in.

Like my mother's side of the family.

Song Sia's maternal line was a vampire clan, after all. And the Yoho were one of those demihuman races — a fox beastkin people who inherited special powers and shamanic arts. Being non-human, their ecology was a little unique. The Yoho were a thoroughly matriarchal society. Yoho women were infamous for their high libido. Yoho men, on the other hand, were the complete opposite. In a society with gender roles so thoroughly reversed, Yoho men who entered the wider world almost never caused trouble over women.

"I selected him based on grades, personality, and reputation all around, so there ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠won't be any issues. And Ha Yeeun — I've already hired you a personal trainer and several broadcast managers. Take care of your body. At this rate, hero work is out of the question."

"That's not true! Th-this Saintess-tang is cute no matter what she looks like~..."

"You're not streaming Saintess TV right now. Don't pull that act in front of us. Anyway, my family will cover all the costs, so I'd appreciate it if you cooperated."

Everyone she had hired was properly contracted. Combined labor costs already well exceeded ten million won a month. Both of them fell silent.

"Tomorrow is the class placement exam, so focus. You both know how humiliating it'd be if the three of us don't make High Class, right?"

"Nothing to worry about."

An Yumin answered immediately. In truth, she hadn't joined so much as a single small club since enrollment — she lived at the training grounds. There was nothing to worry about there.

"This Saintess — no, I mean, I'll ace the class placement exam too!"

That one was a little more concerning. Still, for all the fat clinging to her body, her holy power overflowed just as much as those massive breasts of hers — the opposite of Song Sia's own lean frame. The examiners would almost certainly put her in High Class.

Aegis has been getting preferential treatment since the placement groups were assigned anyway.

Her own evaluation opponent was already Lee Junwoo. Naturally, the gap between Song Sia's and Lee Junwoo's records was night and day. Looking at the other two's assigned groups, their opponents were nothing special either. High Class was a given.

"We'll meet the new operator as soon as the class placement exam is over. See you then."

That covered everything she needed to say.

"I need to stop by the infirmary, so I'll head out first."

An Yumin left the office ahead of them.

The infirmary?

Come to think of it, just recently, a school nurse from Theia's high school academy had transferred over. After joining Aegis, Song Sia had provided the party members with VIP memberships to an Awakened-exclusive hospital — but An Yumin and Lee Junwoo had insisted on seeing that nurse they'd known from before. And Lee Junwoo, being powerless, had gotten injured constantly, so he'd practically lived in that infirmary.

Come to think of it, not long ago...

She had run into that nurse by chance. After Junwoo's exile, the woman had even asked her if anything had happened to him. But dealing with that nurse had been awkward. If she learned the full story of Aegis, Song Sia didn't want her meddling to somehow reunite An Yumin and Lee Junwoo. So she had brushed it off vaguely.

Ha Yeeun spoke up.

"Then I'll be heading out too! There'll be new dispatch work after class placement, so that's when I'll launch the new Aegis Season 2 broadcast!"

"Fine for now. And your trainer is waiting outside, so do not skip your PT."

"Eek... Y-yes... okay..."

That lazy nun hated exercise too. That was exactly why Song Sia had deliberately hired a female trainer famous on YouTube. A woman obsessed with streaming would spot content potential in that and actually shed some weight.

Then I should get ready too.

Tomorrow was her evaluation against Lee Junwoo. She needed to prepare. As the Dark Snake incident had shown, Junwoo was concealing a certain amount of his real strength. She couldn't afford to let her guard down.

Haa...

The moment she thought of him, her thirst for blood boiled up again. At the same time, the prospect of seeing him filled her with an involuntary flicker of anticipation — even if they could barely manage a simple greeting anymore. And thinking of An Yumin left her feeling strange all over again.

Surely that nurse won't make the two of them run into each other again at the academy infirmary.

A what-if anxiety she couldn't shake. The old her wouldn't have cared in the slightest — but after witnessing the look in An Yumin's eyes when she gazed at Lee Junwoo, their relationship had become ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠something she couldn't stop fretting over.

In the end, she tailed An Yumin.

A short while later, standing before the infirmary door, Song Sia overheard something that left her stunned.

"Lee Junwoo developed a panic disorder?"

An Yumin's cry carried through the infirmary door, and Song Sia's body went rigid on the spot.

The day of the class placement exam arrived.

Before heading to the testing grounds, I was still in the dorm when I briefly checked Saintess TV's announcements.

The second I saw it, my head nearly went blank.

There really was no curing stupid.

I had told her that a juicy broadcast hook like this should be kept under embargo, hype built up, then revealed live on stream — that was Streaming 101. But there was no way that impatient Ha Yeeun could hold herself back. Her public sentiment on the streaming communities had been rough lately, so she had probably scrambled to show them something — anything.

A new member, huh.

Didn't matter to me either way. With Song Sia around, I'd already expected a new member to get picked sooner or later.

I scrolled through the notice on my phone and checked the new member.

Jeong Ungyeong?

The post had a photo and a brief profile. A young Yoho tribesman. A Theia Academy cadet and a 20th-generation freshman like me. Platinum-blond hair, a handsome face that looked like a trendy idol.

Since it was a Saintess TV notice, the fans couldn't say it outright — but the comments were thick with barely veiled wariness, people slyly asking about his relationship with Ha Yeeun.

Yoho men have almost no libido, so there shouldn't be much of a problem...

Still, it had been a reckless move. The obsession of fans with ulterior motives defied imagination. I could already picture the endless wave of stirring-the-pot that was about to hit her.

Still, someone like Jeong Ungyeong should be fine for story progression.

Jeong Ungyeong was a natural four-star character distributed as an event unit in the original game. No matter what party composition you ran, slotting Jeong Ungyeong in was more than enough to carry the main story. Characters from the Yoho tribe came with solid base specs by default. On top of that, he was an ambitious character — becoming a member of the famous Aegis at Theia would make him give it everything he had.

The problem was that same ambition. Raise him far enough and he had a high chance of defecting to the villains.

Being a demihuman Yoho is the real issue.

So controlling that ambition would take both carrot and stick.

Wonder if they'll manage it.

Not something the three of Aegis were capable of, at any rate. And I also recalled Jeong Ungyeong's unique setting from the original.

That ambitious he — no, she — was actually a woman crossdressing as a man. A Yoho woman. Yoho women tended to carry an image of being either too cutesy-annoying or too overbearing — the classic negative fox stereotypes. So the ambitious Jeong Ungyeong had deliberately concealed her gender.

Her real name was Jeong Soso, wasn't it. Right.

Well, as far as I was concerned, Jeong Ungyeong joining as a new member wasn't a bad thing. If anything, it was good.

The defection problem is something to deal with when it happens. Not my business.

If Aegis collapsed too quickly, I wouldn't be able to get my hands on the truth of Theia Academy — the item connected to that Grand Magus that I needed to claim. And the appearance of a demihuman like her meant that one of the original's villains, Oripiel — that elf — would soon be deploying villains into the academy.

Word about the Grand Magus's legacy will already be circulating among the villains.

In other words, multiple quests would trigger. A chance to power up — pure profit.

But the job in front of me right now was getting into Middle Class.

I had carefully stored the explosives suitcase in a corner of my room. An item that had formed an Authority could still be used as the item itself — a kind of double buff was possible.

The gold medal from the retest worked that way.

The Authority — fire blazing from a mana heart. Combining that mage-class Authority with wearing the gold medal had been extremely efficient. But this explosive didn't have any particular buff effect, and I couldn't bring it into the testing grounds either.

Still, being a metal suitcase bomb, the manufacturer's emblem engraved on its surface gleamed brilliantly. My face reflected in that emblem.

I nearly went blind hunting for a bomb that would register as a mirror.

Even so, by never missing a day at the training grounds, I had managed to evolve the skill by a hair's breadth. With the points from the last streaming quest, I had also bought a stat-boosting item from the system shop.

I was about to check those stats when my phone buzzed with a notification.

An absurdly long good-morning message. A text steeped in the peculiar sensibility of a mountain-hiking club. It was from Choi Hana. For someone who ran an underworld organization, the vibe of her DMs was way too old-fashioned for her age. A unique personality, as always.

She's been like this ever since the entrance ceremony.

Every morning she sent me one of these day-opening check-in texts.

I headed for the testing grounds.

And of all places, I ran into Choi Hana again there.

"Lee Junwoo — it's good to see you!"

Choi Hana bowed at the waist in greeting. But just as I was about to return it—

......

My eyes met An Yumin's, standing not far away.