What of It? (2)
What of It? (2)
......A lecture hall where only the faintest breathing could be heard.
My voice, laced with mana, should have reached every corner of the room, yet not a single one of them tried to move. It was so predictable I couldn't even muster a dry laugh.
"Everyone here responded to my roll call. That means you all heard what I just said clearly enough..."
Starting from the front row, I slowly took in the students frozen stiff.
"So I'm not sure why nobody's moving."
Toward the students still exercising their right to remain silent, sitting there like stone statues, I raised my right hand.
"Stop wasting everyone else's time. Pack up and get out."
Snap—!
I flicked my fingers lightly.
The gesture itself was a meaningless bit of theater, nothing more than a display.
The mana that had been evenly dispersed throughout the lecture hall reacted to my will and began to move.
In an instant, it closed sixty-six notebooks, snatched the pens from their hands, and stuffed them into their bags.
Several students flinched, startled expressions crossing their faces.
"I can move your belongings all the way out the door if you'd like."
Just as I prepared to snap my fingers once more, the female student who had asked me a question in the rift shot her hand up. Back then, she'd been sporting blue bruises under both eyes, but it seemed Lee Ye-sol had taken good care of her.
I lowered my raised hand and nodded toward Jang Na-ra.
A signal granting permission to speak her mind.
Jang Na-ra lowered her hand, drew a short breath, and opened the mouth she'd kept shut all this time.
"First, for the disappointing performance I showed during last week's lecture... I sincerely apologize."
She placed both hands neatly over her abdomen and bowed toward me with perfect form. The angle was precisely ninety degrees.
"Also, as you mentioned, Professor, I enrolled in this course because of the adjunct professor teaching it. However..."
Jang Na-ra slowly straightened her back.
She met my eyes—something she hadn't been able to do clearly before—and spoke.
"That's no longer the case. Although I slept through the first class and didn't hear your lecture, after reading the joint practice exercise conducted on Thursday and the handout you gave us as homework, I came to believe that I must listen to your lectures and learn from them."
Some of the students who had been silently hanging their heads nodded.
"The behavior I displayed—I know it was inexcusable, a breach of decorum. That only makes me more sorry, and even now, as I speak, I want to hide in shame. But I dare to ask. Please, give me one more chance."
Jang Na-ra bowed once more, and several students who had been motionless rose from their seats to follow suit, bowing in my direction as they spoke.
- We're sorry!!
- Please give us one more chance.
- We'll do better. We really will.
Ultimately, everyone except fourteen students rose from their seats to acknowledge their mistakes and apologize to me.
I let my gaze drift over the scene for a moment, then spoke.
"Owning up to your mistakes is a commendable attitude. That's the kind of mindset you need to move forward. Jang Na-ra."
"......Yes."
Hearing her name called, the girl lifted her head.
I spoke to the one who had voiced her thoughts without a trace of pretense or falsehood.
"I've heard you."
"Then..."
"I need to proceed with the lecture, so please leave."
"......Pardon?"
Confusion surfaced in Jang Na-ra's eyes, which had been a blend of tension and anticipation.
"I said, if you're done talking, get out."
"P-Professor...!! I fully understand that our actions—my actions—deeply offended you. No, I know that unless you're the one on the receiving end, it's impossible to grasp just how insulting and humiliating it was... But I still think this is wrong!!"
The voice that had been calm up until now began to rise.
"What, exactly, is wrong?"
"This situation right here—you're trying to kick us out because you're upset. To expel students simply because they didn't do a single homework assignment. I'm telling you, you could search every academy and never find a precedent like this."
"Then I'll be the first."
"It'll have terrible repercussions for you, Professor!! People might even turn you into a laughingstock!! Rumors will spread that you're petty—"
Jang Na-ra, who had been rambling fervently, suddenly froze with her mouth still open.
Aided by my glasses, I glanced over at Baek Ha-na.
A faint glow was kindling in those clear, sky-blue eyes.
'Was it five years ago?'
There was a time she threw a fit about wanting to attend a normal school, so I let her go. An incident broke out on the third day. Surrounded by thugs' parents in the middle of the faculty office, silently enduring a barrage of insults... she'd worn a similar look in her eyes the moment they started badmouthing me.
Slowly, I raised one hand and covered my mouth.
The simple knowledge that Baek Ha-na was thinking of me was enough to send this damned body into an uncontrollable fit of joy, constantly trying to yank the corners of my lips upward.
Suppressing the body's yearning to savor the feeling a little longer, I used a small wisp of mana to tap Baek Ha-na lightly on the forehead.
"Nn...?"
The child, who'd been emitting a killing intent ill-suited to her age, went wide-eyed and rubbed her forehead.
"...Hahh!"
At the same moment, Jang Na-ra, who had been frozen solid, expelled the breath caught in her lungs. I addressed her as she leaned on the desk, catching her breath.
"I understand what you're trying to say. But there are a few points I need to correct."
"C-correct...?"
I nodded and spoke not just to Jang Na-ra, but to every student seated in the room.
"First. I have never been disappointed in any of you. How could I be disappointed when I had no expectations to begin with?"
Though I was a little surprised.
The number of students who submitted the homework was higher than I'd anticipated.
"Second. I felt no ill will whatsoever about the attitude you displayed during the last lecture. As long as you don't disrupt the class, I don't care what you do during the lecture. The same will hold true going forward."
"Th-then why are you trying to throw us out!!"
I turned my head toward the shouting Jang Na-ra.
"You keep asking the same question even though the answer's been clear from the start. I'm removing you not out of any ill feeling, but simply because you didn't submit the homework."
"...Isn't that ultimately the same as saying you're kicking us out because you didn't like our actions?"
"No."
"What—"
I raised a hand to cut off whatever Jang Na-ra was about to say next.
"If anyone remembers what I said from the podium on the day of the entrance ceremony, raise your hand."
Baek Ha-na and Nam Seo-hee raised their hands at the same time.
"Nam Seo-hee."
"Yes. The professor stated the following."
[The Basic Rift Studies lecture is an elective liberal arts course, and most of it will be conducted as theory. There will also be weekly assignments, and anyone who fails to complete them properly will be expelled from the course. So, if possible, do not waste your time and make sure you can attend the lectures for the courses you need.]
"...is what you said."
"Accurate."
I spoke to Jang Na-ra, who stood there with her mouth slightly agape.
"You should understand now. Expelling you is not a matter of ill feeling."
It is simply enforcing a rule that was established from the very beginning.
There wasn't a single shred of emotion involved.
"Just one..."
"If you're about to ask for one more chance, drop it."
At an ordinary university, maybe.
But for Awakened who enter Rifts, that was unacceptable.
"This isn't some sudden whim—it was announced in a public venue during the entrance ceremony. Besides, you're already in this seat because you took an opportunity away from someone else, so I'm having trouble understanding what more you're asking for."
"......."
Jang Na-ra hung her head.
As if that were the signal, the students who'd been rooted like stone statues began to rise one by one and quietly leave the lecture hall.
Having been expelled from my course, they'd have to make up the missing credits in other lectures, but that was their problem to solve on their own.
"Jang Na-ra."
"......."
Sixty-five of the sixty-six had left.
The only one remaining was Jang Na-ra, whose name I had just called.
She had been staring down at the empty desk with her head bowed, but now she looked up. Her face had flushed red—a result of anger and shame churning together in equal measure.
"...There are some."
"Some what."
Her face still crimson, Jang Na-ra pointed at the few remaining students and shouted.
"There are people who handed in completely blank papers!!"
The three students singled out by Jang Na-ra grimaced.
Perhaps seeing their reaction, she opened her bag and pulled out the handout I'd distributed, speaking as she did.
"In contrast, even though mine is quite lacking, it's not entirely blank. I simply didn't submit it because I couldn't complete it."
Desperate.
I could see she wanted to stay here no matter what.
But.
"So."
"......Yes?"
A prick of irritation was beginning to rise.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"W-well, what I mean is..."
"Jang Na-ra."
"Ah—..."
The handout in Jang Na-ra's hand flew into mine.
"Do you remember what I said when I handed these out?"
"Uh, that's..."
"Of course you don't. You were sleeping."
"......."
Jang Na-ra's face turned an even deeper shade of red.
But that was not my concern.
"When I handed these out, these were my exact words."
[This is this week's assignment. Submit it by the next class.]
Whoosh—!!
Jang Na-ra's assignment burst into flames in my hand and vanished.
I dusted the remaining ash from my fingers and spoke.
"I demanded exactly one thing. To have the assignment submitted by today. I didn't add a single word beyond that."
The more I spoke, the more the unpleasant feeling swelled inside me.
"Whether you filled in the blanks or left them empty—that is for me to evaluate after submission, not for you, who didn't even submit it, to latch onto. Jang Na-ra."
All the necessary information had been given. Yet instead of blaming her own stupidity for failing to utilize it, she was trying to secure a chance by sacrificing someone who performed even worse than she did.
'Explaining any further is a waste of effort.'
I directed my mana toward Jang Na-ra, who had been standing there in a daze ever since her assignment burned.
Her body, along with the bag on her desk, lifted into the air and disappeared out of the lecture hall.
Click.
I closed the door, which had been open for nearly twenty minutes, and unlocked the briefcase I'd brought with me. I sent the stack of papers inside flying toward the students who remained in the room.
"Your homework."
I lowered the blackboard that had been pulled up and levitated a piece of chalk with my mana.
"Fill in up to paragraph D2 and submit it by next class."
I'd thought it over several times, but a double-digit number was indeed too many.