Selection (1)
Selection (1)
......Time passed, and it became April.
After five lectures, seven students remained.
Not a bad number.
"Don't you think this color suits him better?"
"Hmm, I find this one more fitting."
If the original story holds, next spring the barrier will be destroyed, and the academy will gradually descend into chaos. But that won't happen this time.
"By the way, Woo-jin, why doesn't your hair seem to grow?"
"...Now that you mention it. And you don't even seem to groom it much."
Instead, the riffraff that should have seeped in here will cause incidents outside, one way or another.
A full-scale collision between the underworld and the surface.
The more chaotic the academy's exterior becomes, the better. It'll draw the gaze of those above elsewhere.
"Ugh, everything looks good on him, so it's actually harder."
"Yes. It's not just that the professor is tall; his overall proportion is perfect."
I turned to the two who were chattering while circling me.
"Time's almost up."
"There's still 30 minutes left?"
"...There aren't any more clothes left either."
"Oh, really?"
Baek Ha-na, holding a grey shirt, blinked at the clothes laid out on the bed. The other side was similar.
"Like master, like servant."
"......?"
Claire, holding several wristwatches, tilted her head.
"Enough. Get out."
"Ah, j-just a little more!!"
"Mm."
Baek Ha-na, held by the mana I'd guided, struggled, while Claire quietly moved her feet toward the door. Soon the two left the bedroom, and I looked at the various clothes on the bed and shook my head.
Red was the baseline, but there were also pink and purple-dyed shirts.
The kind even they wouldn't wear.
'Maybe I should cut their allowance.'
They'd been saving everything except for snacks until now, and they used it all on this stuff. If their motives had been purely for my sake, they wouldn't have cared about the design and I'd have worn them.
Maybe I've been too soft on them.
A speck of desire nestled in those clear, transparent eyes.
It was the same kind of urge Lee Ye-sol showed toward Claire—the desire of Baek Ha-na herself to see me dressed in those things.
And yet, the kid had the nerve to say she'd ordered them for my sake.
She's growing little by little, and getting more brazen by the day.
-Peep~?
As I was about to clear away the unnecessary items, an even smaller troublemaker in a little basket rubbed its eyes and sat up. Claire's discipline seemed to be working, as the creature's daily life was gradually becoming more regulated.
-Peep?
Rubbing its sleepy eyes, it poked its head over the edge of the basket and spotted the colorful clothes laid out on the bed. Blinking, it carefully climbed out of the basket and landed on one side.
Right in front of the white shirt I always wore.
-Peep.
It tapped the shirt with its tiny hand and looked up at me.
I put away the rest and picked up the shirt lying before it.
"Just for today, you're better than those two."
**
[Meeting Room 3]
A long oval table.
Centered around it, Enhancement-type and Ability-type professors sat facing each other. And the Chairman's seat remained empty.
"Haa-ahm~ smack."
"You're yawning?"
At the very back of the meeting room.
The heads of the administrative departments sat at a separate rectangular table.
Finance Department Head Kim Seong-won glanced at Academic Affairs Department Head Choi Min-sik, who had just spoken to him, and replied.
"I'm yawning because I am, you bastard."
"A man old enough to know better, and the mouth on him. Tsk tsk."
"You act like you don't run your mouth when you're pissed off, as if you're so high and mighty."
"...Whatever. You. Why'd you come empty-handed, huh?"
Choi Min-sik and the other department heads had notebooks, stacks of documents, or laptops open on the table, busily cross-referencing something.
In contrast, the only thing on Kim Seong-won's desk was an empty tumbler that had held his powdered grain drink, a breakfast substitute.
"Ah, you little shit. They say curiosity fades with age. I came empty-handed because I felt like it, so why do you keep asking? The hell."
"No, you crazy... Did you hand in your resignation?"
"I've got a good ten years left, what resignation? Are you insane?"
"...You're the insane one."
Choi Min-sik shook his head as he looked at his peer, who grew increasingly incomprehensible with age.
"I don't know anymore...."
"What're you on about."
Kim Seong-won picked up his smartphone and started looking at stock charts, while Choi Min-sik shook his head and turned his gaze back to his laptop.
『Braver Guild 27-30 New Recruit Development Status, Retention & Survival Rate - 3p
Eungwang Guild 27-30 New Recruit Development Status, Retention & Survival Rate - 9p
Darkrion Guild 27-30.......』
The files compiled the recent three-year applicant rates, growth progress, retention and survival rates, and current livelihood status of the new Awakened who hadn't withdrawn—across a total of 37 guilds.
Files compiled from the legwork of the lower-level staff.
Each administrative department head had been assigned to investigate aspects of the 37 guilds relevant to their own department, and were now doing their final reviews for the meeting about to start.
It was as Choi Min-sik was reviewing the materials and opening his inbox to check for any updates.
"Last year's freshmen had a higher ratio of Ability-types."
"......That's correct."
"So we brought in five more guilds that favor Ability-types."
"Ahem."
Jaden—an Ability-type professor, head of the Magic Department, and the one who had spoken to Baek Woo-jin about the Cession Battle at the meeting convened by the Chairman—wore an uncomfortable expression and cleared his throat quietly.
Meanwhile, Lee Hyeok, an Enhancement-type professor and head of the Swordsmanship Department, continued speaking with a genial middle-aged smile.
"Since the numbers are similar to last year, I was thinking we might add more guilds that slightly favor Enhancement-types this year. What are your thoughts?"
"...If there are no particular issues."
"Heh heh, very well."
Choi Min-sik shook his head, watching the professors on both sides begin their posturing as the meeting time drew near.
Each year, during the Grade Evaluations held at the end of May, outside guilds visit the academy as observers to watch the exams. This allows them to propose recruitment if they see a promising talent.
Small and medium guilds benefit by gaining prospects, and students benefit by receiving guild support at a younger age. It was good for both parties.
However, from the second year to the graduating fourth year, the slots were fixed for the Top 10 guilds and the upper-ranked guilds just below them. So the guilds selected in today's meeting could only observe the first-year evaluations.
The students were well aware of this system, so most of them waited for their chance until fourth year. The small and medium guilds that applied each year also knew this, which made them desperate to change the students' minds.
They had to be desperate—the more prospects they secured, the better their chance to rise to the upper ranks in the future.
So why were the professors on both sides posturing like this?
Just as professors had differing inclinations and factions, guilds with similar inclinations formed alliances and factions of their own.
Simply put, it was to expand their social influence and personal connections.
Back when they were active in the field, skill was their fame and social influence, so they wouldn't have spared a glance at these troublesome headaches. But now, retired and aging with gradually declining ability, they were actively meeting people, going out to see external contacts practically every single day.
Of course, some of those meetings were purely conversational, and some were not.
Besides that, other professors from the same department also recommended guilds they had connections with or new guilds they wanted to build ties with.
There were professors who genuinely recommended good guilds, but most received some kind of benefit in the process. Naturally, everyone here knew this. Yet no one considered it a problem.
Accepting something under the table was certainly wrong, but upon actual investigation, the guilds themselves had no real flaws to pick at. In fact, many had solid foundations but simply lacked personnel.
Recommending a guild with some defect would get you buried by both the opposing faction and your own, so they had no choice but to be careful.
Both sides were indeed trying to increase their size, but they hadn't lost their decorum. At least, not until last year.
'As for this year, we'll just have to see.'
The volume of data now under review was by no means small. But once a guild was selected as an observer in today's meeting, professors of the opposing faction would directly visit the guild and begin their own investigation.
Only by surviving that process could a guild ultimately earn the observer qualification.
'Seems the Chairman is absent again this year.'
Though the meeting was convened in the Chairman's name, the number of times the Chairman had actually participated could be counted on one hand.
Whenever there was a spare moment, they'd go into rifts without leaving so much as an email, claiming to be hunting for artifacts or elixirs to give as rewards to students.
So until now, things had mostly proceeded by compromise between the heads of the two factions, and that seemed to be the case this year as well.
Click.
Until the meeting room door opened.
Tap. Tap.
The unmistakable sound of shoe heels echoed through the meeting room.
Everyone's gaze turned toward the owner of the sound.
And under all those gazes, the owner sat in the empty seat of honor—the Chairman's place.
Unbuttoning the jacket he wore instead of his usual coat, Baek Woo-jin spoke.
"Let's begin the observer selection."