06. Evolution?
06. Evolution?
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Class was in progress, but the Steward immediately called Yu Ina and Ryu Si-hwan.
Thanks to that, today's class was chaotic once again.
"What's up? What's the matter? Was the business talk that urgent?"
Sihwan said as he entered the room.
"Come in and sit down."
Chilly treatment.
She wasn't the warm and fuzzy type to begin with, but today she seemed especially cold.
Sihwan glanced at Bari and Yu Ina before sitting on the prepared sofa.
Ha Yeon-seo was already seated across from him.
"Today's the day, huh?"
"..."
When he tossed out that line amid her far colder-than-usual demeanor, an even sharper glare came his way.
It was roughly a 'Has this guy lost his mind?' kind of look.
She stared at him for a long while before remembering it was pointless and letting out a sigh.
"It's not that..."
Sihwan had pulled all the aggro the moment he walked in, but actually, her main target was Yu Ina.
She was the one who'd blown off Jin Seong-hyeon's arms, after all.
"A letter arrived from the Jin Family today."
"The Jin Family... you mean?"
Yu Ina, feeling a pang of guilt, shrank back a little.
She had a rough idea already.
But it wasn't quite what she expected.
"Yeah. That low-class place you mentioned."
She hadn't exactly put it that way, but it seemed like that was how she'd already decided in her head.
Yu Ina nodded with a meek "Yes..."
"They even sent gifts, asking us to take good care of their son. Hilarious, right?"
"Huh?"
The news was pretty unexpected.
It had been over a week since they'd blown off that guy's arms and exiled him, and now a letter arrives saying 'please take care of him.'
They must've thought he'd enrolled or something.
"The postmark's from three days ago. Meaning he hadn't gone home by then at least. Not even lost—he couldn't even find his way home."
Yu Ina looked troubled at Yeon-seo's mutter of 'stupid idiot.'
She'd been worried he might've actually died somewhere.
"Probably croaked somewhere. Do we really need to care about that?"
Sihwan, who'd been listening, chimed in.
He was actually one of the few who knew Jin Seong-hyeon's whereabouts along with Bari, but even he knew better than to blurt it out here.
"Of course we do. He's Noblesse. He got his arms blown off at the Academy, got exiled, and then vanished. How much of a headache is this gonna be... haa."
"If that was the case, you should've cared before. There was no fuss back then."
Jin Seong-hyeon had stalked Yu Ina and Ryu Si-hwan like a creep, even challenging Sihwan to a duel.
Later, unable to hold back his rage, he'd unleashed Nobling on Sihwan, resulting in Yu Ina taking both his arms.
The Academy instructors had known all this and just exiled him without further action.
Yeon-seo must've known too, naturally.
"I thought he'd go home. Did I know he'd be too stupid to even find his house?"
"Well, maybe it wasn't stupidity. Maybe his condition got so critical on the way that he keeled over."
"That could be."
As she said that, she glanced at Yu Ina.
It wasn't exactly a scolding look, but Yu Ina still bowed her head apologetically.
"Why are you killing our Yuna's spirit like that?"
Sihwan overreacted and patted Yu Ina's back.
Of course, it was half-teasing, so he spouted the ridiculous line "Don't cry, toughen up," and got punished immediately.
"Anyway, it's done and over with, so let's just gloss over it."
"That's the problem—it doesn't work that way. At minimum, we need to find out where that guy is. Even if it's just the body."
"Hmm."
That could be a problem.
Sihwan looked at Bari.
[I can make a corpse if needed. I've already started culturing based on his DNA. If I rough up the body and mess up the face here and there, they'll buy it as a corpse.]
Bari's voice echoed in his head.
It was pretty gruesome, but Sihwan nodded slightly.
"Well, it'll work itself out somehow. And the postmark was three days ago, right? It could've arrived yesterday. Maybe someone picked him up and patched him up."
"..."
"If it's really bugging you, just preemptively strike. Say the guy caused a ruckus at the Academy, so you had no choice but to subdue and exile him."
"Ha. You call that an explanation?"
"It's half-true, so what's the issue? Plus, my wife got stalked... yeah. Let's say he got nailed for sexual harassment and assault."
"..."
Her gaze filled with utter disbelief.
"And when we called him out on it, the ungrateful punk challenged the instructor's husband to a duel and spewed all sorts of insults... Come to think of it, didn't he ogle you hard when he first came here? We can add Academy Chief Instructor sexual harassment too."
"You ogle my body just as much."
Sihwan flinched a bit but played it cool.
"I'm the exception."
"Why?"
"'Cause it's me."
"..."
What the hell was this?
The more he talked, the more absurd it got.
"Anyway, say we tried to punish him harshly for all that crap, but considering he's Noblesse, we just blew off his arms and exiled him, calling it done."
"What if they ask why we didn't tell them sooner?"
"Say we stuck an official notice in his pocket."
"What if they find the body?"
"Must've lost it along the way."
"..."
She was speechless.
Not because his logic was airtight, but because it was too ridiculous.
"The victim's tears are proof enough, duh?"
"You think that bullshit will fly?"
Her words cut sharp with anger.
"If the Committee steps in for an investigation, it'll be even more of a pain."
"I see."
"..."
She was on the verge of a deep sigh.
Forget the fresh take sparking her interest—this guy was a massive stress bomb.
"Fine, let's wait and see. They'll probably react with something more eventually. They don't know shit anyway, right? That's why they sent that 'please take care' letter."
She didn't like it, but for now, it seemed like the best option.
"You're gonna get a ton of complaint letters anyway, right? Just say it got mixed in and you didn't notice."
Yeon-seo was planning to do exactly that, naturally.
Tossing complaint letters wasn't looked upon kindly, but it was worlds better than a Noblesse disappearance/murder case.
"I'm sorry, Chief Instructor-nim... It seems I've caused you trouble."
"No, it's fine. It was annoying, but that guy was even more annoying."
A bit later, as she quietly smoked her cigarette, she seemed quite improved in mood.
Her speech had returned to its usual refined tone.
"How'd you handle class?"
"...We had them do tournament-style spars against each other. Told 'em the first-place guy gets a Stat Orb. I asked Instructor Etna to oversee it."
"Good job. Well, since you're here, shall we talk business too?"
The slightly heavy atmosphere lightened up.
"I've been promoting it my way as best I can, but I wonder if you're doing your part."
"Of course I am. But this one's blocking me."
Sihwan thumbed at Yu Ina sitting next to him.
She shot him a 'are you insane?' look, while Yeon-seo tilted her head questioningly.
"I tried selling some to the class kids, and she keeps interfering, telling me not to."
"No, that's because you did it during class—right in front of the blackboard!"
Scolding him in front of the Chief Instructor.
In her fluster, she'd forgotten her usual speech.
"It was a half-assed curriculum anyway. What's wrong with a little promo in the middle? We're skipping out like this right now."
"No..."
She got the picture.
He must've done some hawking to the class from the teacher's desk during lesson time, and homeroom instructor Yu Ina shut him down.
Anyone could see Ryu Si-hwan was the problem.
Another sigh escaped her.
"It's not a half-assed curriculum."
"It is. It's all patched together from everywhere. What do they even do for a whole month? Just random crap when there's nothing else."
"That's a very unpleasant way to put it. Do you know how hard the instructors worked on it?"
"If they did, they wouldn't call people out like this for nothing."
"..."
Yeon-seo had nothing to say.
Which just pissed her off more.
"Might as well give 'em a break."
"You're a real loudmouth. So, you didn't manage any promotion after all?"
"I sprinkled some seeds here and there. Once the city shop's done, we'll go big with the city folks. Gonna make posters from those pics we took before and hand 'em out."
"Wait."
A sudden headache hit.
That time, she'd had a weird feeling but wore the shameless outfit Sihwan gave her and even posed for photos—now she realized it was a mistake.
It would've been better in every way to wear that just for him alone.
"You're... handing those out?"
"That's what I said from the start."
"..."
Her mouth itched to speak.
She had to stop it... As a proud Noblesse, she couldn't allow it... but no good excuse came to mind.
So she just furiously stubbed out an innocent cigarette.
"Once we get buses running proper inter-city routes, we'll slap 'em on the sides too. And set up a real company to advertise across the whole Tower."
"No..."
She pressed her temple.
"...That's not allowed."
"Why?"
She couldn't say it was because those shameless photos couldn't be spread.
That would contradict what she'd said and done.
For whatever reason, she'd agreed, worn the outfit, posed for photos, and known they'd be for ads.
So she needed another excuse.
"Those... didn't come out well."
"You haven't even seen 'em."
"...I don't need to. My condition wasn't great then."
"..."
Sihwan gave her a sullen look.
"How about reshooting later? When are you free? Even just the two of us is fine."
"Reshoot..."
Sihwan stroked his chin thoughtfully.
'Is this girl...?'
Bari's words from last night came back.
She'd said the Chief Instructor seemed to have desires for him.
'Even just the two of us is fine? Is that really it?'
From her side, it was just an offer to shoot quickly, but Sihwan, fresh off that talk, totally misunderstood.
"You got a thing for me?"