06. Evolution?
06. Evolution?
+++
"Haa. How did my life end up like this?"
Eleonore let out a sigh as she exited the store after buying daily necessities in the city marketplace.
It wasn't because the basket full in her hand was heavy.
Just some reflection on life.
She had trained for decades with puffed-up dreams and barely managed to get into the Academy.
The most famous prestigious Ha Family Academy in the Tower.
Assigned to the top-tier A-Class, her future days seemed bright.
However.
The Academy was more horrific than she'd imagined.
From the start, they attacked examinees, killing hundreds, and even after enrollment, you had to thoroughly submit to the law of the jungle.
As a result, despite being in A-Class, she ended up living like a slave, and the purity she'd kept for over 200 years was taken. By a mere human, no less.
Of course, she'd been prepared for it.
From the moment she resolved to climb the Tower, she'd inwardly acknowledged something like this could happen.
But for it to happen right from the beginning—no, before she even properly started climbing the Tower—wasn't that too much?
If it's got the signboard of 'Academy,' shouldn't they at least offer a little protection!
"Ehew."
Such thoughts flitted by, but they were meaningless.
She'd briefly considered dropping out, but having already lost her purity, quitting would leave her with nothing gained and only losses, so she couldn't bring herself to do it.
At the very least, she had to graduate normally and earn the title of Stazhie.
Bbang! Bbang!
"Ugh! What?!"
"Kyaa!!"
Some noisy commotion.
It snapped her out of her reverie.
"?"
The crowd filling the area split to the left and right.
Like a noble's procession.
Something burst through the gap in the crowd...
"Ellie!"
"..."
There was a carriage that looked like a Magic Carriage.
Ryu Si-hwan was waving at her from it, Bari beside him with her usual expressionless face, and behind them, Yu Ina with her face covered and head bowed deeply, along with Ha Yeon-seo crossing her arms in bewilderment.
"...M...Master?"
What in the world was this?
It looked like a type of Magic Carriage at a glance, but had he somehow bought one of those insanely expensive things in the meantime?
'Or maybe from the Instructor-nim or Chief Instructor-nim...?'
Even ordinary people couldn't afford a Magic Carriage after saving for hundreds of years.
It was a carriage, but since it didn't move by horse power, it had 'Mu' attached, meaning mana-powered.
Powered by mana, but its complex operation couldn't be handled by magic formulas alone, inevitably requiring a 7th-circle or higher mage or a Coding Type Noblesse, which drove the price to absurd levels.
"The Instructors too... What is..."
"Get in for now. We're heading out."
"Huh?"
"I've never been outside the city yet. Might as well sightsee other cities while we're at it."
"Yeees..."
She got that part.
Her gaze shifted to Sihwan's back.
Yu Ina still with her head bowed, and Ha Yeon-seo showing an emotion of 'resignation.'
Yu Ina made sense since she was the wife, but why was Yeonseo here?
They'd planned to meet today—was this the errand?
"Hurry up and get in."
"There's no space?"
She could squeeze into the back, but there were two Noblesse back there.
Better not to wedge between them.
She didn't really want to ride in the first place.
But who was Sihwan?
The synonym for reckless stubbornness.
He had no intention of leaving Eleonore behind.
"Sit here."
"..."
Sihwan pointed to his lap, where he sat in the passenger seat.
Eleonore's face twisted.
At that moment, a gaze endlessly cold and dry toward everyone but Sihwan landed on Eleonore.
"Sit."
"..."
Bari's command.
To sit on Sihwan in front of everyone.
She didn't like it, but the moment she heard those words, she had no choice.
She followed Ryu Si-hwan like a master, but what she truly feared was Bari.
With a sigh, she climbed into the passenger seat where Sihwan sat.
Fortunately, they'd folded the roof down to open-car style, so her head didn't hit the ceiling.
Just that the stiff thing felt through her butt was a bit uncomfortable.
"You're not planning to do that kind of thing right in front of me, are you?"
Yeonseo said in a displeased tone.
There was a slight edge to it.
"As if. Even I wouldn't go that far. There's no space."
"Just squeeze in a bit."
"Think about Ellie too. Would she want to squeeze between you two?"
"Ha."
Absurdity.
Truth be told, even she had been pretty shocked when she first saw it.
As the daughter of a prestigious family, she'd ridden in Magic Carriages before and knew how hard they were to make.
Yet he whipped one up in just 5 minutes.
Even she couldn't help but be amazed.
That's why she'd tagged along—to check its driving performance in various ways and gauge if it could be sold as a product.
The car's performance was fine, but the owner's...
"Who's the one saying that to whom, I wonder."
"Alright, let's roll."
+++
The Tower, when viewed from outside, has a small(?) diameter of about 40km, but since it was constructed using magic, Nobling, and all sorts of powers, the interior boasts a vastly larger area than it appears.
Each floor's area is about 90,000 km².
That's roughly half the size of the Korean Peninsula on Earth, big enough to fit the entire South Korea into one floor.
Currently, the 1st floor, including the city where Sihwan resides(?), has 14 cities and over 200 villages, housing a population far exceeding the Tower's average.
"This place is nice."
After leaving the city, they drove to a distant mountain.
It took about 20 minutes.
Not that it was particularly close—right after exiting the city, Bari showed off her exceptional driving skills, flooring it at nearly 400 km/h average for 20 minutes.
Considering a 4-wheeled carriage's top speed is about 50 km/h, from this world's perspective, they'd covered quite a distant in record time.
"Ugh... I feel dizzy."
Yu Ina got out of the car with a pale green face.
Motion sickness from a Noblesse, of all things.
She was a woman who dashed around at insane speeds during training, but moving fast herself versus riding something fast were apparently different stories.
Fortunately, Ha Yeon-seo and Eleonore were fine.
"I was a bit surprised by the cigarettes too, but... this car thing is the real deal. Even Magic Carriages aren't this fast."
Ha Yeon-seo finally showed a surprised expression.
Magic Carriages were faster than regular ones, but not to this extreme.
400 km/h was faster than the high-speed trains humanity rode on Earth back when they only lived there.
People in this otherworld, who barely knew science snacks, couldn't possibly achieve such speeds.
"This is science. This is humanity."
"Hmm... No matter how I think about it, I don't get it. If humans made all this like you say, why have they been stuck and suppressed outside all this time?"
Ha Yeon-seo voiced the obvious question.
Cigarettes and cars were surprising, but above all, Bari who made them was the shocker.
A human made her? No, that didn't make sense. Even Noblesse couldn't easily mass-produce such things, so why were they holed up outside the Tower under Noblesse management?
Throughout long history, humans hadn't just sat quietly under management.
Rebellions happened occasionally, and they bared fangs at the Advanced 7 Races.
But there were no records of them showing such capabilities.
"That's why I've been saying from the start. I'm not a human from this world—I came from another dimension, and when I came to, I was in the Academy."
"......Is that... really true?"
That absurd nonsense was starting to feel believable now.
"Yeah. I've never lied to you guys. Won't in the future either. How much weight do you think my words carry?"
Sihwan put on an exaggeratedly arrogant face.
"One word from me, and the sun loses its light. Why would I lie?"
"..."
Peak delusion.
But somehow, it suited him.
Ha Yeon-seo, Yu Ina, and Eleonore.
As the three women quietly admired him, Sihwan handed envelopes from Bari to the three.
"Come on. Let's wrap this up quick and head back."
"? What's this?"
Yeonseo voiced the representative question.
Opening the envelope revealed some clothes.
"Time to work."
"Work?"
"Yeah. You said you'd help with promo earlier. Made flyers to hand out, and we'll shoot a CF later, so put these on."
"...So what is this?"
When she unfolded it,
Oh my god.
What in the world was this outfit.
A short-sleeved white blouse with a tight suit skirt.
At a glance, common attire, but extremely tight-fitting.
The blouse was fairly long, but the skirt was very short, barely covering the thighs.
"Ah, this is called a 'school uniform'..."
"School uniform?"
"The outfit worn by elegant intellectuals. Buried in mountains of books every day, honing themselves, building friendships while competing. The attire of scholars who bought knowledge with sweat, wearing down pencil leads day and night without rest."
Actually, just Korean high school girls' uniforms, but he packaged it roughly.
'It's not a lie.'
As Yeonseo and Ina stared blankly with an inexplicable unease, Eleonore finished changing behind the car and stepped out.
An elf girl with a pretty face and great figure wearing it was pure fantasy.
Especially the lower half was striking.
He'd omitted socks and stockings per his tastes, so the mouthwatering thighs were fully exposed.
"This... is too short...?"
"That's how you wear it. Suits you well."
Sihwan handed her a cigarette.
"Let's shoot you first. Put that in your mouth, light it, and lean against the car."
"...What the hell... is this?"
"Do as you're told."
"..."