09. 3,827th Class Enrollment
09. 3,827th Class Enrollment
"Anyway, tomorrow when 466 people enroll, they'll be split into 8 classes, and we're doing that work today."
"Wait a sec. 'Work'? You mean we're picking our own class members?"
"I told you already, right? You're each going to lead your classes in the Competition. Naturally, you'll select the members yourselves and appoint each class's vice-class rep too."
"No...."
Just how much are they gonna dump on us?
Sihwan suddenly felt a surge of dissatisfaction bubbling up to the roof of his mouth, but after thinking about it for a moment, it didn't seem all that bad.
"I'll hand out the Spec Sheets, so spend about an hour reading through them carefully. For reference, we'll pick starting from Ranking 1, Ryu Si-hwan, one by one in order."
"Ehh... Instructor-nim?"
Pink-haired Sasha placed her index finger to her lips and raised her other hand.
"What."
"There are 466 people total, and splitting them into 8 classes won't divide evenly, right? Sihwan and Hana-unnie would take 59 each, and the rest 58 each??"
"So what. If you're pissed, you should've gotten 1st and 2nd."
"...."
Sasha, who'd just heard that jaw-dropping response, quietly lowered her hand.
She still had that dumb grin on her face, but a slightly bitter expression flickered across it.
Tuk.
After her indifferent reply, Yuina casually tossed thick stacks of documents onto the 8 desks.
They looked just like resumes, with a photo in one corner, surrounded by detailed stats like name, birthdate, abilities, and past records.
A whopping 466 of them.
"Ellie, Rihana, come here."
"Huh? Why?"
Sihwan decided to hold an emergency meeting with the two women.
It would've been perfect if Bari were here too, but since he hadn't brought her, no choice.
For now, they'd have to strategize with who they had.
Eleonore, already bound to Sihwan, was sitting with her desk right next to his, so no issue there, but Rihana was the problem.
She was the one who'd just fought(?) with Sihwan. By normal standards, no way she'd come when called.
But....
"...What."
Whether out of lingering awkwardness or wanting something, she approached Sihwan's side with a dissatisfied look anyway.
Even dragging her desk over as a bonus.
"Ellie, you saw those Elf guys' faces earlier, right? Pantre and Louis or whatever."
"...What're you talking about?"
"When the Ranking was first set."
"Ah."
"They were grinning like idiots thinking you'd end up under him. Probably scheming something."
"So what about it?"
"We gotta block that."
"?"
"No telling if he'll try to get handsy with other girls too. So we're securing as many girls as possible on our side first."
"...."
"...."
The two women shot him looks of utter disbelief.
"...And you're the one saying that."
"Crazy bastard."
"What?"
"You've changed since getting a taste of women."
"Changed how?"
"Back when we first met, you were an annoying prick, but not this kind of guy."
The two women shook their heads and let out heavy sighs.
Sihwan was the only one fuming in confusion.
But that atmosphere shattered soon enough thanks to an unexpected intruder.
"What's this? Why's everyone gathering without me?"
Pink-haired Demon Race girl, Sasha.
She was a beauty with short pink bobbed hair, and when they'd first met, she had big, imposing horns sprouting from her forehead. They weren't visible now, so she must be able to hide them at will.
True to her friendly nature, Sasha had already dragged over a desk and chair to join Sihwan's impromptu(?) meeting.
"So what's the plan? Match-fixing? Ehey. Didn't peg you for the sneaky type, Sihwan-gun?"
"What're you on about."
"Acting all noble, saying you'll protect the new girls."
"Hoh?"
When Rihana explained the situation in Sihwan's place, Sasha's lips formed an O in surprise, then she shot up and patted Sihwan's head.
"Good boyyy, our Sihwan."
"Ah, shit, what the hell."
Of course, our Sihwan wasn't about to let that slide.
He immediately swatted her arm away and glared at her with his signature arrogant expression.
"Humans glaring like that don't scare me~."
"You, go stand over there."
"Whyyy? You're trying to grab as many girls as possible to protect them, right? Then I'd be useful~."
"Can't trust horned ones."
Especially you.
Sihwan added that inwardly as he shot a dead-eyed glance at Tweed, sprawled out nearby.
Ever since the Ranking was set and he became Sasha's exclusive, Tweed had been living like a slave.
No one knew exactly what she was doing to him, but judging by how all his initial vigor and vitality had been sucked dry, leaving him a limp, dried-fish-like mess, it sure wasn't anything good.
Plus, despite that dumb smile on the surface, Sasha showed such wildly changeable moods it made you suspect split personality—chatting and laughing one second, then turning dead serious the instant she said something like, "You friends with Tweed?"
'If I'm trusting her, might as well trust Tweed instead.'
Male or not, at least he was better than some unpredictable mystery like Sasha.
"Can't trust me!? Our Sihwan-gun says the wildest things in front of ladies."
"...Can't you do something about that speech pattern? Why do all the girls here talk so weird? Yuna too."
"What about me."
Yuina, who'd been quietly reading at the podium, whipped her head around at the sound of her nickname—which Sihwan had slapped on her himself.
"Nothing. Just keep reading your book."
"......Don't yap about useless crap. This is class time."
"Got it. Instructor-nim reading a book during class."
"...."
She didn't back down even an inch.
"Fine. Anyway, the plan is to pick girls first as much as possible? No need to huddle up like this to talk about it, right?"
"Nope. Picking girls first is the baseline, but we gotta prioritize within that."
"How?"
"The pretty and strong ones."
"...."
"...."
"...."
He'd just stated the obvious, but the women's faces soured instantly.
Even Eun-hye, who was standing guard nearby with her two escorts, didn't look too pleased.
"Knew it."
"Typical human male."
"Uh... Sihwan-gun, getting too into it isn't good, y'know."
"Shut up, all of you. You in or not?"
Anyone could see Sihwan's motives were pretty shady, so they hesitated, but the idea of "protecting girls from lecherous guys" was pretty agreeable, so they nodded.
"No choice for me anyway, right?"
"Yeah. You're in."
"Got it."
"...Not a huge deal for me either... so yeah, let's do it."
"Great."
"Me too!"
"No, you..."
"Me too!"
"...."
"Me too!"
"Fine, fine. You're in. Now sit down already, you're distracting."
"Hehe."
What to do with this dumb grin.
In the end, Sihwan even added Sasha to their strategy squad(?).
Thinking about it, it was just about picking girls first anyway—did it really matter who he trusted?
Sihwan gathered the Spec Sheets the three women had brought and started sorting through his own stack.
First sort: girls vs. boys.
Girls went into a neat pile on one side; boys got chucked toward where Tweed was flopped.
"...."
Zero interest whatsoever.
Out of 466, there were 211 women.
He roughly split them into 4 stacks, took one for himself, and handed the other three to the women.
"Read the ones I gave you and mark the important ones to pull out."
After that, Sihwan and the women quietly sorted, deciding the order of protection.
It was such a serious, solemn scene—and yet it was all for picking girls. How ridiculous would it look to an outsider.
Meanwhile, the men's eyes on Sihwan's group weren't pretty at all.
Especially Louis and Pantre, who harbored strong jealousy and hostility toward Sihwan over the Eleonore thing—it was even worse for them.
"What scheme's that bastard pulling now?"
"Not content with toying with Eleonore-nim, now he's roping in other girls too!"
Unforgivable.
The two Elves ground their teeth, glaring daggers at Sihwan.
They should be hustling through the Spec Sheets already, but here they were just stewing in jealousy.
Fed up, Gundogan piped up.
"Isn't it better to read these quick and mark the key trainees while you've got time?"
"R-Right!"
"Can't let another Eleonore situation happen!"
The two Elves finally started strategizing too.
.
.
"Time's up. Time to start class assignments."
Exactly one hour later, Yuina closed her book.
That was the signal, and everyone in the classroom set down their Spec Sheets.
"Ah. If only Pantre weren't here, we could've protected from 1st priority to 4th. Gotta hand one over to a loser like him."
After going through all 211 women's Spec Sheets, quite a few caught Sihwan's eye.
Like the B-grade doppelganger 'Fay' or the B-grade ogre 'Gungdi'.
Problem was, after 1st place Ryu Si-hwan, 2nd Rihana, and 3rd Sasha picked, next up was Pantre.
Meaning they'd lose at least one here for sure.
'If Pantre luckily picks a guy... but no way that perv Elf would.'
So they'd lose one girl here, and after that, when lower ranks like Eleonore and Tweed picked—Sihwan had refused Tweed, but Sasha forced it, so he was allowed—then Louis and Gundogan could snatch more.
"But the bottom 4 don't have their Ranking set, right? You just lumped 'em as losers."
"Losers!?"
Louis shot up in outrage, but no one including Sihwan paid him any mind.
"Yeah. We didn't set the bottom 4."
"So how're you handling their order? Gonna fight for it now?"
"Rock-paper-scissors. Simple."
Way too simple, dude.