Chapter 91 |
Going to Meet My Father-in-Law
A few days later.
The students received a shocking piece of news.
It was officially announced through an academy notice.
"Did you hear?"
"Hear what?"
"A huge scoop just dropped. A first-year cadet got appointed as a direct aide!"
"What? Not a third-year, but a first-year who just enrolled?"
"I'm telling you. Scrap the whole front page right now. We have to rewrite it from scratch around this."
"You'll freak out when you hear whose line he joined. Chief Investigator Javert-nim...!"
"What...?!"
A direct aide, selected out of nowhere in the middle of the semester.
Of course it drew everyone's attention.
Sudden or not, there had barely ever been a case of a first-year cadet being appointed as a direct aide.
Then the name of the staff member in charge came out too, and the academy turned upside down.
"No way... Javert? The investigator I'm thinking of?"
"Yeah. The whole academy is in chaos right now."
"That makes no sense. Chief Investigator-nim...?"
Javert Droit.
Who was she?
The headmaster's adopted daughter, and the one called Grandia Academy's true number two.
On top of that, she was overwhelmingly strong, a woman admired by countless students.
And someone that big had taken in a first-year cadet as her direct aide.
"Wasn't Investigator-nim the type who never kept aides?"
"Up till now, yeah. Ever since she started teaching, she never took even a regular aide, let alone a direct one."
"And someone like her took a direct aide...?"
Javert had stubbornly stuck to working alone all this time.
Countless students had hoped to become her aide, but she let no one into her lab.
It was such an open secret that there was probably no cadet in Grandia who didn't know.
Javert herself had openly said she had no intention of taking aides.
"Seriously, I think this is the first time I've ever seen anything like this."
"A first-year as a direct aide? Under Chief Investigator-nim, no less...?"
The newspaper club wasn't the only one in an uproar.
The news spread by word of mouth and quickly raced through the entire student body.
"Wow... this guy is on another level."
"I thought he'd go far after beating Class B's top seat in the ranking match, but he punched straight through the sky."
"Still, doesn't it make sense? He overwhelmingly beat Lady Glacia."
"And they said he's from a commoner background with no backing, right? Where the hell did this guy even come from?"
"I saw it during practicals. He straight up crushed Lady Glacia at full power."
"What kind of talent is that supposed to be...?"
The air was noisy.
In just a few days, the academy filled up with talk about Viktor.
Then there was one more rumor that made the cadets even more frantic...
"Come to think of it, wasn't there a rumor those two were dating?"
"They said he made a public confession in front of the whole classroom."
"And Investigator-nim said she liked him too..."
"Didn't they say that was a misunderstanding? I think they explained later that it wasn't true..."
The chaos Viktor had caused in the past was dragged back into the spotlight.
The reignited spark spread with even more force.
This time, there was an even heavier detail added to it.
It was a witness account from students who had passed by the research building a few days before the announcement.
"Dating or whatever, they already have a daughter together."
"I know it sounds insane, but what are we supposed to do if it's true?"
"We saw it ourselves."
"Last time, I saw them walking side by side, holding hands with some little girl..."
"They said that kid called Investigator-nim 'Mom' and called the Class E top seat 'Dad'!"
Pretty shocking stuff.
It sounded like a trashy plot you'd only see in some street play.
"No, listen... Professor Javert acknowledged it. She said herself that it was her daughter."
"Wait, hold on. That's such sudden bullshit my brain needs time to process it."
"You're serious? She had a daughter? A daughter around ten years old?"
"They did look alike. The kid had black hair just like the Class E top seat..."
Still, nothing draws attention like a trainwreck.
The cadets were completely absorbed by the provocative rumor.
The relationship between the two drew attention too.
One was a flower on a cliff, the other was the hottest rising name in the academy.
"So Investigator-nim likes younger guys..."
"Still, it's only a five-year gap, so maybe it's not that weird?"
"But if the daughter is around ten, when did she even have the kid...?"
"That means it was before Investigator-nim came to the academy."
"Then it makes sense that we didn't know..."
Rumors passed from mouth to mouth and grew bigger in an instant.
Students agonized among themselves and forced the story to fit.
Kids nodded along to things that never even happened, saying it all made sense.
Before they knew it, everything between the two had been packaged as some grand romance.
"Could it be she never took aides all this time because of that?"
"That must be it. She saved that spot for her husband only...!"
"Kyaaak... she doesn't look like it, but Investigator-nim is super romantic!"
"Then that public confession from the Class E top seat, was it not just a confession but a declaration?"
The waves kept surging.
The rumor had entered a current no one could stop.
Some even screamed and denied reality.
"No way! My professor would never...!"
"I can do better! I can do way better than him!"
"How are you doing better, dumbass? You're dead last in second year."
Most of them were students who had admired and adored Javert.
That fan club was wiped out in an instant.
The academy was spinning in every direction.
That's what students right after midterms were like.
"Mm."
With the school trip just around the corner,
that topic was burning hot all over the academy.
***
"Fuck."
The curse slipped out without warning.
I walked while pressing my mask down hard.
A short sigh escaped, mixed with endless lament.
'How did it end up like this?'
The rumor had spread through the entire academy.
All because of the bomb Javert dropped a few days ago.
-Yes, she's my daughter.
-Right, Student Viktor?
Those green eyes stared at me without emotion.
She looked like she thought for a second, then suddenly swerved straight into full trainwreck mode.
Why? I kept thinking about it, but I couldn't read Javert at all, not even a little.
In the end, all I got was the label of married man.
'Fuck.'
Maybe this was responsibility without pleasure.
Overnight, I got a daughter to support (not), and a wife (not).
Then that fact (not) got announced in front of the whole school.
'I did explain myself as hard as I could, but...'
Rumors are always thousands of steps ahead of explanations.
Rumors are simple and fun, while explanations are boring and pedantic.
The academy had already been conquered by simple, entertaining gossip.
-Is that him? The one who has a daughter with the Chief Investigator...
-Yeah, that's him. Class E top seat!
Because of that, every time I crossed a hallway, I could feel stares burning into the back of my head.
Most were curious or excited.
A few were openly hostile.
Well, probably the ones who admired Javert.
"Hoo..."
I sighed and kept walking.
The moment I entered Class E's lecture room, everyone's eyes snapped toward me.
""Hyung-nim! You've arrived!""
The Shuttles hit me with their usual yakuza greeting.
I gave a short wave back.
"Good to see you."
""Yes, Hyung-nim!""
At least the Class E guys knew the whole story.
They were the first ones I explained things to that day.
There wasn't much to prove anyway.
Showing them Lua in scythe form was enough to make them believe me.
"Come to think of it, today was grade release day, right?"
Midterms.
The moment when the effort of the last three months was proven.
Their eyes sparkled, like they'd been holding in their bragging and waiting for the chance.
As soon as I brought it up, they rushed around me all at once.
"Hyung-nim! Every single one of us in Class E raised our scores by a lot!"
"It's thanks to the secret manuals you wrote by hand!"
"Because of the thick, detailed feedback you wrote for each and every one of us...!"
"Thanks to you, we patched all our weak points! Even our written scores are way higher than when we first enrolled!"
Looks like everyone raised their grades successfully.
I checked the chart, and every single rank had jumped, no exceptions.
The kids looked deeply moved by the results, tearing up as they clung to me.
"Every time I read those manuals, I keep wondering how you prepared all this alone..."
"You paid that much attention to us..."
"Ever since that day, I tear up whenever I see ink marks...!"
"And even then, top in practical and top in written too! That's our Hyung-nim!"
Mm.
Honestly, with how much they loved it, I got a little embarrassed for no reason.
Those so-called secret manuals were just doodles I wrote when I was bored.
It was a book organizing game settings; how could that not be fun?
'Yeah... good is good.'
The Shuttles were smiling brightly.
I decided to smile with them.
Ding-!
[Sub Quest]
-Objective: Develop all Class E students to B-rank or above.
-Deadline: Before graduation
-Penalty if failed: None
-Reward: Character exclusive item 'Scales of the Black Arbiter (S-)'
Quest progress was very solid.
If this pace held, everyone would probably clear the standard by graduation without much trouble.
If one of them lagged behind, I'd just focus on that one then.
Either way, seeing all of them work this hard made me quietly proud.
"Ahem."
I sat casually on top of a desk.
We exchanged a few lines of small talk.
Beep beep beep-!
A notification rang from the crystal orb in my pocket.
I checked it, and a voice message started playing right away.
[Notice from Grandia Academy Administrative Office.]
[Student Viktor of Class E.]
[The Headmaster is currently looking for Student Viktor.]
[After checking this message, please come straight to the Headmaster's office in the main building.]
A notification from the administrative office.
After hearing it, I could only freeze in a daze.
'If it's the Headmaster...'
Valter Droit.
The man once called the Slaughterer of Cultists.
The leader of Grandia Academy's faculty.
'And...'
Javert's adoptive father.
He was calling me to the Headmaster's office.
My father-in-law (not) was desperately looking for me.
I blanked out for a second, then muttered one short line.
'Fuck.'
I'm screwed.
