Episode 52: Short Leisure (3)
The test started and I eagerly received the test paper, but in an instant, my mind went blank.
“… … ,”
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〈2034 Written Midterm Exam〉
1. “God is dead!” What is the essential meaning of this phrase uttered by Friedrich Nachtze, a philosopher born in the Prussian kingdom in 1844?
2. Write your opinion on whether humans are creatures worthy of being granted protection.
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(Descriptive)
== ==
Lost focus.
I turned my eyes and looked at the students around me. They were all busy drawing with their pencils as if they were used to it.
‘No, shit. I never said the test was descriptive!’
Now that I think about it, I’ve never taken a written exam since I entered Joaquin Academy.
The entrance exam was also taken by the guy named Kanggeomma before ‘me’. Maybe it’s natural for exams in this world to be descriptive like this.
But can’t you at least give me a hint once?
“You’re done.”
I gasped and exhaled. Still, I had to do my best.
Then, I moved the pencil that had numbers 1 to 5 written on it at the end of each side.
* * *
At the same time, the villa of the Baymhark family located in Seogwipo, Jeju Island.
A group of men with iron clubs dangling from their waists were following Beimhark’s servants through the hallway.
“Captain, we’ve also become successful now. The elders of Joaquin Academy have called us. How about you also take this opportunity to advance to the sunny side?”
A striking woman standing out among the shabby men. Her attire was not flashy, but her elegant appearance gave her a charming charm.
“Parik, shut up if you don’t want your remaining tongue ripped out.”
“Oh, I got it! I got it. Why are you glaring at me like you’re going to kill me? I was just joking.”
The murderous intent was thick in his tone. Parik waved his hand and spoke. Hiss, hiss, his pronunciation was slurred. At his response, the woman turned her head forward again.
“The captain is really old-fashioned. Isn’t that right?”
While saying that and seeking sympathy, Parik accidentally tapped his colleague Jang Tae-poong, who was walking next to him.
“Parik, you’re new so you might not know, but the captain originally disliked his superiors.”
“What? But why did you accept this one?”
Jang Tae-poong said with a bitter smile, curling his index finger and thumb into a circle.
“Of course, this is too much money to refuse. They are all doing it to make a living, and the manager took that into consideration.”
“Well, the down payment is 100 million won per person and the performance bonus is twice that.”
Parik nodded, rubbing his chin with his thick fingers. Jang Tae-poong also shrugged his shoulders in agreement.
Eventually they arrived in front of Claude’s office, and the employee knocked on the door with a dignified gesture.
“Claude von Beinhark, I brought them.”
“Come in!”
Parik and the rest of the group looked around the office, their heads spinning. Claude furrowed his brows for a moment, then sat haughtily in his office chair and poured himself a glass of whiskey.
“You must have had a hard time coming this far.”
Parik’s mouth twisted at Cladi’s contemptuous tone. However, he suppressed his emotions with a single gesture from the captain.
“I have called you here because I have something to entrust to you.”
“Who should I kill?”
When the captain asked with a blank expression, a sly smile appeared on Claudia’s lips.
“Give it to the authors.”
As Claude nodded, the employee handed the captain a document on the table. Parik looked over the captain’s shoulder to check the cadet’s photo embedded in the document.
“What is this? It looks like a kid who doesn’t even have any hair down there? He looks just like a parasite brother.”
“There’s a ‘desert island survival training’ next week. You can deal with that guy there. As I heard, the starting fee is 100 million won per person. I’ll give you a separate performance bonus.”
“…What should I do about the aftermath?”
Claudia looked at the captain who was asking the question.
Her brown hair covers half of her face, but it doesn’t completely hide her beautiful features.
Predator, Raytheon.
Although it may be a bit annoying that he only asks questions with a cold attitude, his skills are truly outstanding.
Claudia tilted her glass slowly and moistened her dry lips.
“Isn’t that the sea all around the island? Throw it away. Then it will become food for fish or sharks.”
By the way, the menu for dinner that night was fresh sea bream sashimi caught off the coast of Jeju.
* * *
After the written exam, it’s lunch time. I’m having lunch with my club members on a mat spread out on the lawn.
Although the club hadn’t been founded yet, we only needed to recruit one member, so everyone except Chloe was already calling me the club president.
“Hey, Saki! How is that the answer to the first question?!”
“You of all people. Where is the fool who would take the statement that God is dead literally?”
“The more this type of problem is, the more intuitive the interpretation is required!”
“Just keep talking… Okay, okay. Ugh, let’s stop talking.”
Weapon raised his voice and Saki waved her hand as if annoyed. The two were arguing while comparing test answers.
Of course, it was just a one-sided argument by Weapon, and Saki was just trying to listen to him with a sleepy face and a smack in her mouth.
Only Chloe, eating fried rice, was munching on it like a hamster next to them. She had been packing fried rice for most of her lunches since I made it for her the last time.
“Did you do well on your exam, Mr. Geomma?”
Chloe asked, her eyes slightly raised. I answered, scratching my chin sheepishly.
“I took all the pictures.”
“Eh, it’s a descriptive text, how can I take a picture of it-! The Sword Demon Army is really mean.”
Chloe tilted her head once, then giggled. I thought she would just trust me and let it go.
‘Did I look at you like an idiot?’
I decided to humbly accept the test results, no matter what. It was an unexpected descriptive form.
I wrote down the answers as best I could. Although my detailed knowledge is shallow, I wrote down the last bits of information I had encountered in the game.
I did my best. The results are in the professor’s hands.
I didn’t have high expectations anyway, it was just for show, so what if the ranking is a bit low? But it’ll still be higher than Chloe.
As I watched Chloe diligently moving the spoon, a question suddenly occurred to me and I asked.
“Chloe, have you heard anything from Knox? It’s been a while and he doesn’t seem to be responding.”
“… Ah, that’s it.”
A few weeks ago, Knox came to me in person and told me this story.
￣The Academy’s senior members asked the Auditore family to dispose of the four strong swordsmen.
Although he said the verification process would take two months, Auditore’s work as an assistant in the game was quick and reliable.
Given their intelligence gathering capabilities, they should have reached a rough conclusion by now.
However, even though I was maintaining my five senses, which had become even colder, there were no particular signs of abnormality. This actually made me feel uneasy.
‘The calm before the storm.’
It’s strangely calm and still, like right before a typhoon.
In addition, the gaze I felt during the Buffalo Dungeon meeting was not detected after that day. Even though I constantly looked around with my senses sharp, there were no unusual signs.
At my question, Chloe put down the spoon she had been busily moving and licked her lips. Her eyebrows, drawn in the shape of a fist, reminded me of a dead puppy.
“… That, that, actually, I got a call from Knox yesterday, but I went to bed early so I couldn’t pick up.”
Chloe must have been nocturnal, so how late did she call?
If you get a call at any time, it may be urgent news.
Moreover, the phone numbers of Auditore members are protected as top secrets, and it is illegal to release them to outsiders. In Earth terms, it is similar to the personal information of National Intelligence Service agents being kept secret.
So unless Knox came to me in person, most of my news had to come through Chloe. Every word I heard from her was vital to me.
“What time did you call?”
I asked, leaning in closer. A blush appeared on Chloe’s cheeks. So I put some distance between us.
“Me, it’s 7 PM. I’ve been up a lot lately studying for exams… Hehe.”
“… … .”
100% of you didn’t receive it on purpose.
Although Knox’s sources are important to me, she still seems uncomfortable with him.
I’m sure I had my own reasons, but I didn’t want to get involved in other people’s family matters.
‘Still, they’re siblings, so I hope they get along well.’
He scratched the back of his head and shook off his regret.
‘If it’s urgent, I’ll call you back.’
Chloe awkwardly glanced at me and closed the lid of her lunchbox. She looked quite sullen, as if her appetite had been ruined by the name Knox.
There was a grain of rice stuck to the corner of her mouth. I was about to pick off a few grains of rice and give them to her, but I stopped myself.
‘Let’s not do anything that could lead to unnecessary misunderstandings.’
Chloe felt something foreign belatedly, turned her head away, and roughly wiped her mouth with her sleeve. Even though only the back of her head was visible, she was dripping with embarrassment.
‘… I wish you had at least said something.’
After a while, Weapon and Ryozo had been arguing heatedly for a long time. Eventually, Weapon’s face, which had been defeated by his own strength, turned gloomy. It seemed that a conclusion had been reached.
Chloe just tilted her head, not really interested.
“Eww! Why, why! I stayed up all night studying for days on end!”
“Why don’t you just admit it now? It’s just a difference in intelligence?”
A weapon that bursts with sorrow and a giggling Ryozo.
It seems that the winner of the heated debate is Ryozo, and the loser is Weapon.
However, Weapon still seemed unable to accept the result, and gave Ryozo a venomous look that said, ‘Let’s wait and see.’
Either way, Ryozo yawned softly, sat up, and sat next to me.
“What are you talking about? Aren’t you two really dating?”
At those words, the corners of Chloe’s mouth twitched. The blush on her cheeks grew deeper, and she soon wrapped her hand around his shoulder.
“I always say it’s not what you think.”
I resolutely cut that off.
Then, the corners of Chloe’s mouth returned to their original place.
Chloe muttered something softly, her voice slightly dry. On the other hand, Ryozoh let out a strange laugh as he removed the outer wrapping of the yokan.
‘… This is what I was aiming for.’
If you look at Ryojo, he has a personality that makes you wonder if he really is a child, but he also occasionally plays innocent pranks.
It wasn’t like he was hitting on her aggressively like Rachel, but more like he was secretly feeling it. Still, their relationship seemed gentle on the outside.
Although they didn’t talk often, Chloe, who would show her claws whenever she saw the women around her, was the only one who would wag her tail. Thanks to her talent for talking, Chloe, who didn’t give in to Rachel’s physical strength, was treated well like a stray cat.
“That’s right. Manager, why do you always ignore my calls?”
“What, every day? Just because I chewed on it once.”
“What are you talking about after chewing on it this morning?”
Ryozo pouted with a sullen expression. Chloe blinked for a moment and then tilted her neck to the side.
“… Contact… … ?”
