10. First Experience
10. First Experience
Since it was the first day after enrollment, there wasn't anything particularly special.
There were no classes, just an introduction to the homeroom instructor, the schedule for the next three months, and brief self-introductions from each trainee.
The one who drew the most attention was, of course, Sihwan's introduction.
As the trainee representative, he'd dropped a massive bombshell during his remarks on the training field, so everyone had watched him with tense eyes.
But fortunately, nothing too out of the ordinary happened, and he just honestly introduced his race, name, age, and so on.
For reference, Sihwan was naturally the youngest in the classroom.
And right after him was the homeroom instructor, Yu Ina.
"Gungdi, that's me."
Once the recreational activities wrapped up and it was break time in the middle.
The massive, hulking woman Gungdi approached.
She stuck out her hand like she wanted a handshake, but that hand was bigger than Sihwan's head.
"I know. You introduced yourself already."
Even so, Sihwan showed no fear and wrapped his right hand around her index finger.
Each finger was as thick as an erect dick, giving it a strangely good grip.
"Still, introductions are polite when done one-on-one, face-to-face."
"Is that ogre culture or something?"
"Don't humans do that?"
"Not me, at least."
"I see."
She pulled her hand back and stood there blankly, looking down at him.
From the outside, he just looked like an ordinary human.
He seemed a bit trained, but he didn't even break out of the human mold—not to mention, he looked weaker compared to strong humans.
Still, she didn't underestimate him.
Strength doesn't always show on the surface.
"Becoming trainee representative with a human body. Impressive."
"Yeah? You don't think I pulled some strings behind the scenes? That's what everyone else seems to think."
"If you'd gotten the position that way, you wouldn't be able to hold your head high."
"Who knows. There are so many shameless people in the world."
"At the very least, your guts were packed full."
"No idea what that means, but thanks anyway."
Sihwan patted her encouragingly.
The problem was their height difference was so huge that the spot he hit was her thigh.
His head barely reached her crotch, so if he went for a shoulder pat like normal, it turned into a thigh smack.
"...?"
"You're tall, you know."
"I see. Got it."
She nodded simply in understanding and returned to her seat.
Looked like she really just came to say hi.
After that, more women came over to greet him than expected.
After only seeing stuck-up otherworlders who lived off their own hype, meeting people who actually gave credit where it was due felt refreshingly new.
"Oh, right."
Like that, some time passed, nearing the end of break time.
Sihwan hopped up to the podium like he'd remembered something.
Ppak ppak.
"Everyone, look here."
"?"
The trainees, who had been introducing and greeting each other, focused their attention.
"We met like this, so as class rep, shouldn't I treat you guys? But going to a restaurant wouldn't work with everyone having different tastes and too many people, so here's a gift instead."
Bari, catching on perfectly, produced packs of cigarettes and set them on the desk.
The sight of things suddenly appearing out of her empty hands made everyone doubt their eyes.
"What's that? Is there magic like that?"
"No way, even magic can't mass-produce stuff like that without casting."
"Maybe creation-type Nobling..."
"That's something only 『Noblesse』 can use."
"But who the hell is she? She didn't even introduce herself."
"Probably one of the servants."
"No life force coming from her, though?"
Murmurs erupted here and there.
With 59 people, it was pretty noisy.
Chak.
Sihwan lightly tapped the cigarette pack on the desk.
"This is called 『cigarettes』—well, technically developed by Bari."
"Ciga... what?"
"Cigarettes. The ultimate smokes. On a whole other level from cigars or pipes. Even Yeonseo and the Academy instructors have already gotten hooked and smoke them all the time."
Seeing is believing.
He tore open a pack and tossed one to each trainee sitting there blankly.
"Go on, open 'em."
"..."
The trainees eyed the boxes suspiciously.
Somehow, it looked kinda cute.
Except for the guys, of course.
"It's just cigarettes. Why're you looking at 'em so shady? Bari, show 'em how you smoke one."
"Yes."
With skilled hand movements, she shook the pack once.
Out of the tightly packed 20, one popped right up, and she nabbed it with her mouth like picking crab meat before setting the pack down on the desk.
Some sharp-eyed folks were already copying her hand trick, pulling out a cigarette and grinning happily.
Cigarette in mouth—now for the light.
You could just light it normally (and that's usual), but Bari didn't.
This was a demo to sell cigarettes. Had to make it look as cool as possible.
She made a sleek square lighter, then flicked her wrist dramatically to pop the lid.
Hwaaak.
Flames way fiercer than any normal lighter.
Hell, to otherworlders who didn't even have lighters, the idea of "fire coming out of a metal box" was mind-blowing on its own.
"Wh-what's that?"
"Fire came out of the box."
"Looks kinda cool."
"No mana movement, though?"
The crowd buzzed.
The tall flame quickly died down to about two finger-widths.
Chiik.
Feeling their stares, Bari lit the tip of her cigarette, flicked her wrist to snap the lighter shut, and set it on the desk.
She clipped the crackling, white-smoke-puffing cigarette between index and middle finger, took a deep drag to cap it off.
She parted her lips slightly, pulled out the cigarette, and white smoke billowed from her red lips.
Entranced, people started smoking their cigarettes.
No lighters from Bari, but as Academy qualifiers, everyone had ways to light up—magic, spirits, whatever.
"Ooh."
Definitely different from cigars or pipes.
You could call it a difference, but heavy smokers knew.
This "cigarette" had an even deeper flavor.
"I never knew smokes like this existed... This is the Tower for you. All those pipes I smoked before were trash."
Actually, it was just Bari's superior tech making the cigarettes, but the clueless ones took it as cigarettes being a vastly superior form of tobacco.
And so, everyone enjoyed Sihwan's gift.
Half the batch—59, 60 with Sihwan—all lighting up, and the classroom quickly filled with thick haze.
Ddalak.
Right then, as break ended, Yu Ina opened the door and came in.
"...What the hell is this."
She was greeted by a scene of choking smoke you couldn't see through.
Familiar cigarette smell.
+++
Lunchtime.
Using his trainee rep powers, Sihwan gathered all the trainees on the training field.
They'd already heard the "obey the Ranking" rule from their homeroom instructors, so even if they inwardly sneered at him as a human, nobody said it outright.
Thus, 407 trainees assembled.
Why 407? He hadn't called his own class, the ones he'd already shared cigarettes with.
"We met like this, so as trainee rep, shouldn't I treat you guys?"
+++
"Like a fish in water, huh."
Right after the lunchtime promo wrapped, Sihwan got summoned to the Chief Instructor's office.
There he met Yeonseo with a dumbfounded look, and across from her, a demure woman sitting quietly.
It was Ha So-young, the current Deputy Chief Instructor and next in line for Chief.
She bowed her head slightly at Sihwan.
A Noblesse bowing her head. Like he'd thought earlier, what a weirdo.
"What?"
"You know damn well what."
Sihwan plopped down on the sofa amid her grumbling.
"Did you have to start shit on day one? And that weird crap earlier."
"Weird crap? I gave you a future vision, and instead of thanks, this?"
"Ha."
She shook her head.
Even for her, Sihwan was a handful.
"Anyway, you saw her earlier, right? This kid."
"Yeah. So-young, was it?"
"Y-yes... Pl-please take care of me."
"Sure."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Why're you staring like that?"
"N-no... It's nothing..."
She wanted to ask why he was using casual speech, but the timid woman couldn't bring herself to.
If Yeonseo could barely keep up with his energy, no way she could.
"Oh, right. First time meeting you, so here."
Sihwan took a full pack of cigarettes from Bari and handed it to So-young.
Unlike the trainees, she was a higher-class lady, so he gave her a whole pack.
"Th-thank you."
"You know what it is?"
"Yes... I tried one already."
"Oho. Yeonseo's good at promo, huh?"
"Shut up with that nonsense."
Even now, Yeonseo had a cigarette dangling from her mouth.
Already showing heavy addiction symptoms, which made Sihwan pleased as punch.
"Um... You two seem really close?"
That's when So-young, sensing something off, spoke up.
Thinking about it, there was no reason for Sihwan—a mere trainee rep—and Yeonseo, Ha family granddaughter and city boss—to be this buddy-buddy.
Trainee rep might get a few months with the Chief Instructor at most, just calling him in for vague hints, not this personal chit-chat.
If anything, maybe since Sihwan was Yu Ina's husband, Yu family granddaughter and Academy instructor, that gave some connection.
But even then, this closeness felt weird.
"Sigh. So-young, you don't need—"
"'Cause she's my girlfriend, obviously."
Pffft!
So-young, who'd quietly sipped her tea after asking, spat it out at Sihwan's words.
"Ah."