30 Years Have Passed Since the Prologue Chapter 19

Chapter 19: On the First Day of Enrollment, a Status Window Opened (3)

“Senior, come on, it’s a bit awkward for us to meet in a place like this, you know? The orphanage is fine. The orphanage. That’s where we should meet. Why do you think I registered as a regular donor to your orphanage for nothing?”

“It’s urgent.”

“Tch…… with your temperament, senior, of course you’d come like this only if it were urgent. And why’d you hit my men, honestly. Just pass along a message.”

Dmitri grumbled as he led Ivan to a nearby café.

The 2nd floor of the café near the university was bustling with countless citizens waiting for the entrance ceremony to end.

Of course, that’s only how it looked.

The instant Dmitri led Ivan through the 2nd-floor stairwell, the noisy café fell silent in a single moment.

“Ah, everyone carry on with what you were doing. Normally.”

When Dmitri waved a hand, the agents filling the café reverted to citizens. In the very center, one table alone sat empty, cleverly outside the sight lines of both the window and the stairs.

“Sit. Ha, this was a prime spot and now we can’t use it. Do you know how difficult it is to establish a safe house in the middle of Prichenkaya?”

“My apologies.”

“Never mind. So, what have you brought that warrants this?”

When Dmitri smiled and opened his hand, Ivan drew 3 small explosives from inside his coat.

In an instant all expression vanished from Dmitri’s face. The moment Ivan saw his hand glide smoothly toward his sleeve, he said:

“I removed the fuses.”

“Lead with that, would you!! Ugh, nearly lost my nerve!”

“If you’re going to suspect me like that, you shouldn’t have hired me in the first place.”

“What a hurtful thing to say. Mine is a profession where I have to suspect my own parents.”

Dmitri shrugged and examined the explosives. As he rummaged through them for a while, a deepening smile rose on his face.

“Interesting. Inside Yansk University?”

“Yes. Professionals.”

“Obviously so. Three of them. Judging by the magic power volume, it isn’t building demolition or an assassination of a key figure—this looks like a diversion, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. There was probably a separate infiltration team.”

“We haven’t missed anyone on our side. It’s definitely not the Prince’s faction. Do you know how many tags we’ve slapped on them?”

Dmitri smiled brightly and clapped his hands sharply.

Soon an agent disguised as an ordinary middle-aged woman approached.

“Send this to headquarters’ Magic Department.”

“Yes, Lieutenant Colonel.”

“And the item? Ready?”

“Yes.”

She drew a thick bundle of documents from her shopping bag. Dmitri took the documents, skimmed them once, and pushed them toward Ivan.

“What you asked for, senior. Preparing this in a rush had me sweating buckets. If Her Excellency weren’t so earnest about supporting you, honestly.”

“My thanks.”

“Not at all. Ah, Her Excellency said she’d like to see you sometime. Are you free?”

“That will be difficult for the time being.”

Ivan gathered up the documents and rose.

As he tucked them away and turned to go, a voice came from behind him.

“Senior.”

“Hm.”

“Your eyes have gone a bit far. Do you know that?”

“……”

When he turned back, Dmitri was looking up at him with a serious face.

The gaze shaded beneath his hat shone fiercely, fixed precisely on him.

“Calm down. This isn’t a battlefield.”

“……Hm.”

“Well. It’s a bit rich for me to say this, having dragged a retired man out and asked him to work. But ease your shoulders a bit and look around you as you live. Neither Her Highness the Princess nor I are asking you to be perfect.”

Ivan gave a slight bow without answering, turned, and left.

Dmitri snorted and tilted his head.

“This is why a person needs a love life. Holed up somewhere without so much as sunlight—look how dreary he’s gotten. Right?”

“Lieutenant Colonel Petrovich…… truly ‘little’ Ivan. His reputation wasn’t idle. Astonishing.”

“I nearly wet myself the first time I saw him too. How does a man who’s been idle for 4 years manage that? Anyway.”

Dmitri tapped the table and continued.

“Assign someone. Don’t leave that senior of mine alone.”

“Shall we stop him if his conduct crosses a line?”

“What are you talking about. Do you want to die? Just report. And observe from very, very far away.”

Well, how far past a line could he really go.

Whatever’s angered him, presumably it means he’ll go running about himself to find the agent who planted the explosives.

At most he’d frighten a few students, nothing beyond that, so is there any need to needlessly provoke an angry “Ivan”?

While Dmitri was thinking this—

—Ivan was taking his axe and healing potions out in the Director’s Office.

***

It can be told to no one.

The notion that this world is in fact nothing but some kind of game, and might be running on an elaborate system.

Which means. I have to do it myself.

Believing that in earnest, Ivan spread the reports he’d received from Dmitri across the table.

[Staff Directory.] [New Student Roster.] [Personal Particulars of All Undergraduates.]

New students admitted this year: some 300. Yansk University is a 3-year institution, so the total undergraduate body approaches a thousand.

Add to that the staff, accounting for professors and teaching assistants plus security, clerical administration, the admissions office, and so on.

And include again the unfortunate undergraduates who advanced to graduate school and the students who deferred graduation through leave of absence and similar reasons.

Total: 1,733.

“And one more layer.”

He had to examine the student “families” with authorization to attend the entrance ceremony.

Anyone with sufficient plausibility to have set foot on the university grounds on the day of the ceremony could be included in the suspect pool.

Which is to say, accounting for each nation’s dignitaries and each student’s family: total, 2,429.

“I know you are among these.”

Ivan pressed down heavily on the piles of documents sorted and spread by category. Tap, tap.

“I won’t presume I can find you easily.”

Because arrogance is the sharpest dagger for killing an agent.

“But it won’t take long. I promise you that.”

Possessors in an academy can never pass a quiet school life.

This is “common sense.”

They’ll block an assault, monopolize fortuitous encounters, acquire secret arts from somewhere.

An academy story fundamentally follows the standard plot of “head-patting.” It can’t be otherwise. Who would enjoy a story about attending school normally and graduating?

Accordingly, if this fellow knows the [original]—

—then they would certainly imitate the course taken by the original’s protagonist. Because that is how all possessors live.

Because even Kim Seon-woo’s first thoughts upon possession had been “monopolize fortuitous encounters” and “disseminate modern civilization.”

So all possessors are viciously self-serving, brimming with variables, and liable to take any sudden action without it being strange.

After the last war, in which the NPCs fought so fiercely, ended, they would have wanted to enroll in an “academy” with an easy heart and enjoy a pleasant game-possession story.

Because they would neither want to know nor be able to comprehend the lives of the countless people who pass by as prose in the background settings.

They’d simply be enjoying themselves. It would feel like enjoying a well-built theme park.

That this is merely venting, that it is hatred with nowhere to go, that it might perhaps be base jealousy—all of this he already accepts.

What’s that supposed to be, Santa Claus?

No more than a light remark, yet a remark that made perfectly clear the way that fellow treats other people.

Not even hiding that they’d been possessed, passing the time in a purely recreational spirit. That one remark had thrown Ivan’s chest into disarray.

That one remark, which seemed to regard others as mere “objects.”

Lieutenant Colonel! Did you see? Wow, I was seriously incredible. Wasn’t I? He was a whole Seven Dragon General and I blocked everything. Don’t speak. Ahaha, I feel like I could do it again if you asked. It’s a shame. I keep thinking I should’ve angled the shield a bit further right back there. Cherenovika. Don’t open your mouth. If I had, maybe I could’ve saved Sasha too, that idiot. It’s really a shame, Lieutenant Colonel. It really is. We’re almost there. We’re almost there. Just a little more, hold on just a little more. I’ll take a smack from Sasha when I get there, that’s all. Still, we won’t be lonely. Heaven or hell, we’ve managed our connections well, haven’t we? Please. Quiet. Your blood cools faster. Cherenovika. Please. Live long, Lieutenant Colonel. Come as late as you possibly can. Come early and I’ll mutiny.

Their stories are not background settings.

Ivan was having a nightmare amid the scattered document files.

Memories of long-ago days.

Do not mourn those who departed before us. For I too stand in the same rank as they.

Their stories are not background settings.

I survived in place of the finest men of this age. That is true of all of us.

Their history is no mere scenario.

It must not be.

Within the nightmare, Ivan slowly murmured.

Listening to Kim Seon-woo’s voice patting his back.

Kimchi stew, tteokbokki, nachos dipped in cheese, stir-fried pork, raw fish rice bowl, Sokcho mulhoe, hot ramyeon. Home, house, Korea, Seoul, the rooftop room, my parents. Subway stations, convenience stores, the night streets, home, I have to go back. Steel your heart, don’t waver, look straight ahead. It’s all right. We aren’t alone.

Reciting at random the things that settle the heart.

Until the night ended.

***

After the term began, Esidis fell into quite a difficult situation.

No one wanted to eat with her. At this school where nobility from every corner of the world had gathered, the title of “royalty” naturally could not serve as grounds for exclusion.

But the sight of a “royal’s” bodyguard (middle-aged male, slab of muscle, carrying an axe) always glaring with both eyes wide would be quite a burden for young students barely past 20.

“Ugh, I’m totally ruined because of you, Uncle!!”

“How is that my fault? Isn’t the problem the ones wagging their tails at our niece to begin with?”

“Then why are you blocking the girls too!”

“Your uncle had already heard those girls badmouthing our niece behind her back.”

“Uuuraaagh…… my university life…… my life……. Papa…… I hate you……!”

Made an outcast on her first day of enrollment, the strongest music student in history ran off sobbing.