Chapter 225: Teacher (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 225: Teacher (1)
Light green hair braided neatly like a model student's, and skin so pale her veins showed through. Her unaltered skirt fell all the way down to her knees.
These were traits I knew all too well. But today, something was different. Very different.
'Senior...? Senior Hana?'
Senior Hana offered a soft smile and quietly closed the door. She glided toward me with her hands behind her back and asked, "Are you busy?"
I stared at her, utterly flabbergasted.
"Senior Hana, where are your glasses?"
That was it. Right now, Senior Hana wasn't wearing her glasses. That was the only change. But how could a person look so completely different just from that?
Senior Hana was a girl with plain features. It felt a bit wrong to judge someone by her looks, but it was simply the truth. In an academy practically overflowing with gorgeous girls, her average appearance had actually stood out... or so it should have been.
"Ah, these?"
Senior Hana smiled faintly and pulled the glasses from her skirt pocket. She wagged them back and forth between her pale fingers.
"They don't even have a prescription. Why? Do I look better with them on?"
"...That's not what I meant."
"Should I put them back on if you don't like it?"
"No."
I shook my head side to side. Smiling with her eyes, she slipped the glasses back into her pocket.
"Geomma, haven't you already noticed? These aren't just regular glasses. They were crafted by the Association using an artifact called 'Veil's Mirror.' It works wonders for laundering one's identity."
Uncharacteristically, I was completely flustered. The reason my eyes were wide with shock was entirely due to the change in Senior Hana's appearance.
She possessed the name San Hana, but the face approaching me belonged to a total stranger.
"Why do you have something made by the Association...? More importantly, why reveal your bare face all of a sudden?"
"Hmm, because there's no reason to hide my face anymore? To put it in terms that are easy to understand, people take off their glasses when they go for a job interview, right? It's kind of like that!"
A job interview? What on earth was she talking about? But more than that...
Thanks to my 'Mental Rank,' I was someone who maintained composure through almost anything. Yet at this moment, unlike the perfectly articulate Senior Hana, I was stammering.
'I don't think I was even this shaken when I met Kuarne.'
She simply wasn't wearing glasses. That single difference had transformed a person entirely. Plain-looking? I take that back. That was anything but plain. Even in a place crawling with stunning girls, her beauty was unrivaled.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she stood shoulder to shoulder with Abel, the top beauty of this world. In fact, depending on personal taste, some might even rate her higher.
Crescent-shaped eyes framed by dazzlingly long eyelashes. Calling her pretty fell short. Those captivating features deserved to be called beautiful.
'Why hide a face like that behind glasses?'
Most actresses wouldn't dare stand beside her. She'd steal all the spotlight, ruining their careers.
And now, I was alone with this overwhelmingly gorgeous girl late at night—inside my own archives, no less. Perhaps because of the alluring curve of her lips, the atmosphere turned strangely seductive.
Tap.
Senior Hana stepped right up in front of me. Only the width of the desk separated us now. She spoke first.
"Look at my head. This is the first time we've met since you became a Seven Stars Hero, and I almost forgot my manners. Sorry, sorry~ I guess age is catching up to me."
Senior Hana lightly tapped her own head with a fist. Then, taking hold of the hem of her skirt, she bowed respectfully.
"Meain Poison, former Academy Principal of Joaquin Academy, greets the Great Heaven, the Heavenly Sword."
She slowly raised her head. Her gracefully braided hair draped over her left cheek. Tilting her pale neck, she looked up at me.
"Or would you prefer I address you as the Demon King?"
A block of ice settled in my chest.
* * *
Starbox on the first floor of Joaquin Academy's main building.
True to a cafe during exam season, it was packed with cadets despite being evening. At a corner table sat Saki and Weapon. The two had come both to study for exams and to discuss matters regarding the 'Heaven Class.'
"Hmph."
Weapon rested his chin on his hand, zoning out with a pencil balanced above his upper lip. Saki furrowed her brow at the sight.
"Weapon, I skipped my nap because you whined so much, so why are you sleeping with your eyes open?"
"Ah, sorry."
The pencil slipped off the bridge of his nose and rolled across the table. Weapon scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"I was just thinking about what happened right before I saw the Academy Principal."
"If you're going to brag about having a private audience with the Academy Principal, save it. I'm not that envious."
"I mean, I do want to brag about that, too... No, that's not it!"
Saki glared coyly at Weapon. Bringing her mouth to her straw, she said, "What happened, then? Tell me."
It wasn't that she was particularly curious. She simply thought it might offer a little entertainment during this boring stretch of time. That was all.
"Well..."
Weapon hesitated, looking around the room once before leaning close to Saki.
"Right before I opened the door to the Academy Principal's office, I happened to overhear her on the phone. But the person on the other end..."
"Are you wiretapping her? Don't you know that's a crime?"
Saki pulled her shoulders back in disgust. Flustered by her reaction, Weapon yelled out loudly, "N-No! It's not like that!"
In an instant, all eyes in the cafe snapped to Weapon.
"..."
The cadets glared at Weapon with razor-sharp eyes. The pencils held in their hands were sharpened to deadly points. Cadets during exam season were notoriously edgy.
"Ugh."
Weapon hunched over, staying low. After about thirty seconds of tense silence, the piercing gazes finally dispersed.
Catching his breath, Weapon shot a glare at the seat beside him. Saki was calmly sipping her iced Americano, looking completely unbothered.
'Damn it, seriously.'
In a barely audible yet furious whisper, Weapon tried to defend himself.
"I didn't try to eavesdrop! She had it on speakerphone...!"
"Oh, is that all? You should've led with that. You know what you said sounded immensely suspicious out of context. Besides, how can someone who wants to become 'the Heavenly Sword's right-hand man' get startled and yell so easily? Look at you just now, panicking and shouting. The higher your position, the more careful you must be with your words."
Weapon gritted his teeth to swallow his rising anger. Annoyingly enough, everything Saki said was completely right. Just as she warned, from now on, his tongue and conduct needed to be as heavy as a boulder.
"Sigh..."
Weapon slumped in resignation. Saki watched him nonchalantly.
"So, what about the person on the phone?"
"...It's just that... no matter how much I thought about it, the caller's voice sounded intimately familiar. So I retraced my memory carefully. And then it hit me. I realized whose voice was speaking so casually to the Academy Principal."
Saki tilted her head. Weapon's expression was dead serious.
Who could it be for him to act like this? Weapon continued.
"Senior Hana... Yeah, it was definitely Senior Hana's voice. And get this—she called the Academy Principal 'our second youngest~' in such a casual tone!"
Saki's sky-blue pupils dilated to twice their size.
* * *
"..."
Absurdity and bewilderment tangled inside my mind. It had felt the same way when Senior Hana added that postscript in her text message.
At the time, though, I thought it was just a joke playing on my name, 'Kang Geomma.'
'And yet...'
San Hana—no, Meain Poison's lips curved into a thin arc.
Seeing that smile confirmed it. She really was Medea's twin sister. Senior Hana right now was essentially a slightly younger version of the Academy Principal.
With the crisp, articulate diction of a news anchor, Senior Hana repeated herself.
"Hello, Demon King?"
...Hearing it a second time sent another wave of ice through my chest. It was hard to maintain my composure.
"Up we go."
She hopped up to perch her hips on the desk, twisting her upper body to look at me. Then she burst out laughing.
"Pfft! Isn't that face a little too obvious for 'How did she know that?' Well, I suppose it's only natural to react that way. After all, the entity dwelling inside you is the Demon King."
A chill ran down my spine. Her words hit the bullseye, piercing straight to the core of the matter. Something I myself had only discovered recently was being tossed out by her as if she'd known it all along.
"I don't have the slightest intention of telling anyone. So please don't look at me with such a scary face."
"...Where. No, how did you find out?"
"Ugh! Switching to formal speech all of a sudden feels so distant. Can't you just talk to me casually like you always do?"
"I can't just..."
A sense of deja vu washed over me. I had said those exact words to Weapon before.
"Fine."
Senior Hana smiled, looking satisfied.
"Enough small talk. Where did you hear that story?"
I raised my voice, filling my gaze with vigilance regardless of whether she was the former Academy Principal or not. I was prepared to draw my Sashimi at a moment's notice.
Right then, she leaned her face right into mine.
"As they say, power reshapes a person! Questioning someone no matter how long you've known them is a great habit! I praise you, Cadet Kang Geomma!"
She patted my head—just like a teacher praising her student.
"You might know from Duri... Ah! By Duri, I mean Medea. Dad and I call her Duri."
Firstborn was Hana (One), second was Duri (Two). Her surname San was the native Korean word for Me (mountain)—hence Meain, becoming San Hana.
'I knew her surname was unusual from the moment I first heard it.'
The pieces fell into place. Senior Hana pulled back her hand, which I hadn't been able to resist.
"Anyway, after handing over the principal position to Duri about forty years ago, I took a little stroll through the Demon Realm. I learned quite a lot of things there, one of which was that the power dwelling inside you, Geomma, belongs to the Demon King. If you ask for the exact source of that information, unfortunately, I can't answer. It was way too long ago, so I forgot!"
She undid her braided hair and shook her head, letting her mint-colored locks flutter through the air.
With a refreshed expression on her face, Senior Hana spoke again.
"Honestly, I didn't really believe it at first. The Demon King? Sounds absurd, right? So just to double-check, I secretly returned to the Human Realm and enrolled in the academy. It was a bit of a hassle, but I can't stand unsatisfied curiosity. I used to be the Academy Principal, after all!"
She cutely poked out her pink tongue. Ignoring the gesture, I pressed further.
"Why enroll as a cadet of all things? Even going so far as to wear those strange glasses?"
"If I came back as I was, Duri would've caught me instantly, and then she'd try to dump the principal title back on me."
"You could've been an instructor or a professor."
"I would've been caught right away. Being a cadet was the safest bet. Duri is absurdly stubborn about privacy, so she never looks through student files. Even though we were both principals, I have to tip my hat to her love for the students."
Senior Hana eased the atmosphere with her innocent tone.
"And so, one way or another, I ended up joining the Travel Club~ and kept an eye on you while I was at it, wondering if it was really true. But oh my goodness, looking at how things played out so far, doesn't it match 'that prophecy' perfectly?"
"Prophecy?"
"Ah, slip of the tongue."
How slick.
Was this speech pattern forged by decades of experience? If she was Medea's twin sister, she was technically an elderly person, too.
"If you don't intend to kindly explain everything, I won't bother prying either."
I crossed my arms with an indifferent look.
"More importantly, why reveal your face and show up now?"
She flashed a peace sign with her fingers.
"Two reasons. First, humanity looks like it's going to end within two years, and I can't just stand by and watch. And second, what I mentioned earlier!"
"...?"
"I want to get a job as the professor in charge of the special class you're creating, Geomma."
She beamed, showing off a neat row of white teeth.
"We're in the same club, aren't we? Leaving me out would be way too cold, don't you think?"