STM 053

The children sitting in my diagonal direction widened their eyes as if surprised to see Cloud.

Even though they had been seeing him all along, it seemed to feel different to be spoken to separately in private like this.

I forcibly removed Cloud’s arm.

Cloud, making a crooked expression and chuckling, stood leaning against the back of my chair instead of my shoulder.

“Eat well without leaving anything. You have to grow up big and strong.”

I would do that without being told.

I completely ignored him, but as Cloud seemed like he was going to stay longer, the children who were watching him started talking to him, afraid that he might leave.

“Cloud Hunter! Can I ask you a question?”

“I have something I’m curious about too!”

“Yes. One at a time. What are you curious about, student?”

Derek, who received the right to ask the first question, sparkled his eyes. A pure blush was on his freckled face.

“Isn’t the Black Class exam difficult? What’s it like?”

“Ah, right! I heard it’s super difficult.”

“Cloud Hunter also got his 1st grade a few years ago, right?”

The children, who had been concentrating on the conversation instead of eating, agreed with Derek’s question and waited for Cloud’s answer.

In the end, as if he was planning to stay as long as possible, he leaned against my chair and started answering the children’s questions.

However, I didn’t know why he kept subtly bothering me here when there were so many other seats.

“It’s difficult. Unlike other grade exams, the Black Class exam is judged directly by the holders of each grade. It’s always an interview, and it usually proceeds by dividing the sum with the senior grade holder and then receiving recognition.”

I could feel the children concentrating on Cloud’s words. Most of them, except for Zeon and me, were looking at him.

I continued eating, listening to their conversation with one ear and letting it out with the other. Then, I rolled my eyes when I heard a name I had heard a few times.

“And the person who judged me when I got my 1st grade was Raculus… You’ve all heard the name. She’s also the principal of this school. Well, you’ve probably never seen her face.”

The principal of Merzel Academy, the founder, and the sole survivor of the Long-lived Race who suffered the calamity of extinction.

‘…Raculus. So, she was also in the Black Class.’

While I was lost in thought, the voices around me grew louder.

“I know! She’s famous for being a faceless principal.”

“But the principal is a woman?!”

“Wow. I knew she was in the Black Class, but…”

Cloud nodded in affirmation at the children’s surprised reactions. Then, the children, who were somehow excited, continued to ask questions one after another.

“There was one more Black Class 1st grade holder, right?!”

“That person exists in the records, but no one has actually seen them. Has Cloud Hunter ever seen them?”

“There’s a rumor that they’re already dead.”

“But if they died, they should be erased from the list!”

“There’s also a rumor that the registered information is fake.”

Eventually, the children began to have a heated debate with each other. Cloud, who had been quietly watching the scene, smiled meaningfully and neither affirmed nor denied it.

Unable to get a proper answer, the children changed the subject again.

I wondered when they were planning to finish eating like that. I sighed softly, thinking that I should finish eating quickly and return to my room first, and moved my fork.

The children, who were in the middle of a good atmosphere, were talking as if they had forgotten that they were eating. And it was when I had emptied my plate and wiped my mouth.

“I heard that if you become a Black Class, you have to join the ‘Niflheim Special Dispatch Unit’…. Is that, is that true? If you have to take on dangerous tasks, isn’t the Red Class better?”

Clona’s timid question suddenly caught my attention.

Niflheim Special Dispatch Unit.

It was a strange word I was hearing for the first time.

“Ah. That’s… not mandatory.”

Cloud shook his head and continued his explanation.

“It just means you have the qualification to enter Niflheim. If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to go. There are hardly any cases where the Emperor directly appoints and dispatches you.”

“Are there people who want to go?”

“Of course. There are plenty of people eager to investigate Niflheim’s ecosystem and explore its uncharted territories. A ‘regular exploration’ is scheduled every few years, and just participating in it brings immense wealth and fame… so there are many people aiming for that.”

So, it seemed that the Niflheim Special Dispatch Unit was the one qualified to enter Niflheim, a remote island called the main habitat of Fiends, and explore the uncharted territories.

‘So there was something like that.’

I was newly amazed by the aggressiveness of modern humans and their desire to satisfy their intellectual curiosity.

They are different from the gloomy ancient humans who were afraid of Fiends, hid behind thick walls, and rejected everything different from themselves.

Modern humans, on the whole, had an atmosphere full of courage, were still weak but comparatively less evil, and felt free from fear and rejection of others.

Has 500 years been that long?

I sometimes think about it.

Whether I can equate the humans who once persecuted me with the humans of today.

“……”

Shaking off my thoughts, I picked up my tray and got up from my seat. Zeon, who had been waiting, followed me.

However, Tom seemed to want to join in the conversation with Cloud more. And Herman was helplessly caught by Tom’s desperate eyes, begging him not to leave him alone.

It seemed that the two of them were planning to stay a little longer, so Zeon and I left the cafeteria alone and went up the stairs through the lobby.

No. It was when I was about to do that.

Suddenly, a figure walking out of the mansion’s front door, which was wide open, caught my eye.

I only saw a fleeting glimpse, but it was definitely Ardian, who hadn’t shown his face until now.

‘What is it?’

A question arose for a moment. But… that was it.

What does it matter to me where he goes?

I consciously withdrew my attention from him.

“Raymond, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

I shook my head at Zeon’s question and went up the stairs.

As time passed, dawn arrived.

As always, I had woken up briefly from sleep to prepare for Cloud’s possible attack, but nothing happened that day.

The next day, after the sun rose, I thought there might be an attack in the morning or afternoon, but that was wrong too. Because it was quiet until the sun that had risen above the mountain fell again and it became late evening.

In terms of time, it was like taking a whole day off.

I wasn’t greatly embarrassed.

But it seemed that the other kids weren’t.

I went out to the lobby to get some air because I was bored of waiting, and the kids, who had been fine even at lunchtime, were sitting there with anxious expressions.

The kids who hadn’t slept properly since dawn yesterday had dark circles under their eyes.

Since there had been attacks at dawn on both the first and second days… the problem was that they had become accustomed to it and had already adjusted their lifestyle, assuming that there would be an attack at dawn.

They were thinking carelessly because it wasn’t real.

In fact, it was natural for this to happen.

I looked around at the kids who were keeping an anxious silence and swallowed a small sigh.

I had just praised them for being brave yesterday… but humans are still weak and pathetic creatures.

“If you have time to be spacing out, I think it would be much more efficient to come up with new countermeasures in that time.”

My voice shattered the quiet atmosphere.

The kids turn to look at me one by one.

Melicsa was the first to respond to that.

“Yeah! Uh, that’s what I’m saying! How long are you going to just wait until they react over there, saying you’re anxious?! We haven’t even come up with any countermeasures yet. You weren’t thinking of using that disastrous operation as is, were you?”

She seemed quite frustrated.

But Hawkrun threw cold water on it.

“It’s not going to work on that person no matter what we do anyway, so what.”

Melicsa grabbed Hawkrun’s hair and tore it out. Like a crazy monkey. Hawkrun’s screams were heard, but no one there paid much attention to it.

As it was noisy outside, Hawkrun, Zeon, and Newit, who were in the room, came out to the lobby and joined the kids. Everyone except Ardian had gathered in one place.

“Let’s just subdue Cloud!”

As the sunken atmosphere eased and various opinions were exchanged, Newit threw out one opinion. Frankly, it was nonsense that wasn’t even worth calling an opinion. It seemed that I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“Ha… you have to say something that makes sense.”

Hawkrun, whose hair had been pulled out, muttered softly.

But he shut his mouth at Melicsa’s fierce glare.

A little later, Ibelia took the words.

“We need to think more realistically, Prince Newit. We have too many disadvantages compared to Cloud Hunter. The best way to buy time is not to encounter Cloud Hunter, so I don’t think we can adopt a method that is the opposite of that.”

So, in the end, she’s telling him not to talk nonsense. It was no different from what Hawkrun had said, but when Melicsa didn’t react at all, Hawkrun frowned as if he felt wronged.

“Instead of grouping in threes, how about moving one by one?”

“No. It’s the same as the first day.”

“To counter Space Transition, we shouldn’t group up….”

“Are you going to give up on the cave Magic Circle?”

The kids aren’t narrowing down their opinions.

It was then.

Clona, who was watching, timidly raised her hand.

“Um… then how about doing it like this?”

And after hearing Clona’s story, the kids, who exclaimed in admiration, encouraged her, saying it wasn’t bad. It was a shame that it wasn’t a fundamental countermeasure to reverse the problems of the existing operations, but it was perfect in terms of supplementation.

So, applying the method Clona said, this time we decided to scatter one by one to buy as much time as possible.

As time passed a little more….

The night when the moon was brightly lit.

The alarm that we had been waiting for rang out.

“Let’s do well this time!”

The kids who had been waiting in the lobby encouraged each other and rushed out all at once. Until then… we didn’t know.

The prelude to the incident that would soon erupt.