“Alright, let's go, Instructor!”
In the end, Jin Crow never ended up with handcuffs on his wrists.
Naturally.
What he had done was by no means something that could simply be overlooked, but putting handcuffs on an instructor who was willingly cooperating wouldn't have looked very good either.
Of course, Ovia Timist alone clicked her tongue in disappointment, as if she had secretly wanted to cuff him at least once.
“Instructor. Instructor Jin.”
“Ovia, be quiet.”
“Isn't it about time you started calling me by a nickname? Hmm?”
Jin Crow answered in his usual cynical, indifferent manner, but his words seemed to have no effect on Ovia Timist, who simply beamed as she pressed her characteristically voluptuous body against him.
To an outsider, it looked exactly as though Ovia was openly flirting with Jin Crow.
However, not only the military police following behind them but also Instructor Ginnatio already knew what the two were really like, so all they could do was quietly avert their eyes.
-Kyahahahahaha!
Even now, it felt as though Ovia Timist's maniacal laughter still echoed in their ears.
‘......A different kind of madness.’
Instructor Jin Crow was...
Well.
You could tell just by looking at him that he was dangerous.
In that regard, Ovia Timist was even scarier.
On the surface, she was merely a classic puppy-faced beauty with red hair and crimson eyes.
Her behavior was equally airheaded, so there were quite a few instructors and cadets who had secretly harbored romantic feelings for her.
However, after news of Mercato spread and the military police witnessed her true nature, those feelings disappeared completely.
Naturally.
The news that she had laughed like a madwoman while burning Creatures alive with crazed eyes had been shocking enough.
Moreover, after witnessing the scene unfolding now, they nodded to themselves, convinced once again that abandoning those feelings had been the wisest decision.
“If your wrists are feeling lonely, want to wear these?”
“......Hoo.”
She smiled innocently while holding out a pair of handcuffs to none other than Instructor Jin Crow.
She even leaned in from time to time to whisper things to him, subtly provoking him.
All in all...
the military police could only silently follow behind them, feeling as though they had taken the red pill and awakened to reality.
“......Please stop talking.”
“Oh, come on. What's the harm?”
To begin with, the atmosphere didn't resemble an escort under arrest at all.
Part of that was because of Ovia's casual attitude.
But in truth, even the military police secretly understood why Jin Crow had acted the way he had.
‘......It's understandable that they couldn't believe it, but saying something like that right in front of the instructor......’
‘Idiots.’
When the cadets first reported the incident, they had thought another Dokgo Ran Incident had finally occurred and immediately investigated.
Who was Instructor Jin Crow?
He was never someone the military police could casually deal with.
The problem arose during the investigation.
After hearing all the testimonies from cadets who weren't on good terms with the supposed victims' clique, the military police couldn't help understanding why he had become angry.
-“Creatures? What a waste of time.”
-“Exactly. My parents told me to take the class... but they're just beasts. Can't we just cut them down?”
-“Honestly, aren't the ones getting killed just idiots? It's not like we've only been seeing space monsters for a day or two.”
-“Exactly. People always make such a huge fuss......”
Even the military police who had fought on the battlefield had momentarily wanted to shut those whining cadets up.
If even they had felt that way, how much worse must it have been for Instructor Jin Crow?
Assistant Instructor Ginnatio had missed it.
However, several of the military police officers who had personally escorted Jin Crow still remembered it vividly.
Instructor Jin Crow.
They remembered exactly where he had gone immediately after getting out of his hospital bed with his deathly pale face, neatly dressed in full uniform.
‘The National Military Temporary Mortuary.’
The respect and reverence he had shown there had never been forced.
To begin with, would someone like Jin Crow ever do something merely because another person ordered him to?
Anyone who had witnessed his back as he silently saluted beneath rain pouring down as though the heavens themselves had burst open could never believe such a thing.
Perhaps because of that,
regardless of what the other instructors thought of him,
the military police who had witnessed that scene firsthand had already become rather favorably disposed toward Jin Crow.
“Instructor... but were you really trying to kill them?”
Jin Crow did not answer Ovia's question.
‘Still... surely he wasn't really trying to kill them?’
The military police quietly turned their heads away and waited for Jin Crow's answer.
No matter who he was, surely he hadn't been serious.
The cadets had simply said something immature.
His discipline had merely gone a little too far.
“Instructor?”
However, contrary to their expectations, no answer came.
Jin Crow simply continued walking silently into the military police headquarters.
“......”
“......”
Well.
Even if he had been serious, so what?
In the end, no one had died.
Comforting themselves with that thought, they could only follow him inside.
Several hours later, after the investigation concluded—
「Instructor Jin Crow: Six-month salary reduction and mandatory attendance at ten character education sessions.」
After receiving his disciplinary action, Jin Crow went to the Headmaster's office and requested that they simply increase the salary reduction instead.
However, Ideale's response was astonishingly concise.
“Get out!”
Faced with her flushed face and bulging veins, Jin Crow silently saluted before leaving the office.
Well.
What else could he do?
‘If I'm ordered to do it, I do it.’
Wasn't that simply what being a soldier meant?
Thinking that, Jin Crow put a cigarette between his lips and quietly returned to his quarters.
...It definitely wasn't because he got intimidated.
Mm.
Definitely.
Professor Lee Su-jong's visit had been conducted in complete secrecy, but there was no way to prevent rumors from spreading after he left.
“Professor Lee Su-jong?”
“Wow. So there really was a reason the Creature course expanded.”
No matter how varied people's perceptions of Creatures were, the name Lee Su-jong was quite famous.
Whether they regarded him as an eccentric or a pioneer.
Then, when news spread that every Special-duty Officer Academy other than the Central Special-duty Officer Academy had also established Creature courses, even the cadets couldn't help thinking,
‘Is something really happening?’
“Umm... Assistant Instructor, is there any way I can take the Creature course again......?”
“Are you joking?”
During that process, the two hundred cadets who had dropped the course cautiously approached Assistant Instructor Ginnatio.
But there was no way Ginnatio was going to greet them with a smile.
Naturally.
He wasn't some pushover.
Moreover, Jin Crow had already made it clear that he had no intention of accepting those two hundred cadets back.
Ginnatio had no authority to overturn that decision anyway.
“Instructor, here's the newly selected roster.”
“Understood. And this is......”
Of course, they couldn't simply ignore the directive issued by the Ministry of National Defense.
As a result, what remained was overtime.
Recruiting additional cadets itself wasn't particularly difficult.
Partly because the course carried exceptionally high academic credits.
But the biggest reason was none other than Baek Hui-young.
“Hey, did you hear?”
“......What? He used to be middle-ranked, but after taking Instructor Jin Crow's class... Oh.”
To begin with, Jin Crow's course had already been fairly popular among Martial Arts cadets.
Then, once Baek Hui-young became undeniable proof of significant improvement, the Martial Arts cadets who had previously only shown interest began submitting applications in droves.
“There are nowhere near enough Ability-type cadets.”
“Do your best to balance the selection.”
The disparity became so great that the applicants were split roughly eight to two between Martial Arts and Ability-type cadets.
Jin Crow and Ginnatio spent several sleepless nights selecting new cadets.
Eventually, another five hundred were recruited.
“I am Instructor Jin Crow.”
And now—
“We'll begin today's theoretical lecture.”
Jin Crow slowly swept his characteristically cold gaze across the cadets seated throughout the spacious lecture hall before silently activating the hologram.
It was an excessively bleak beginning for the first theory lecture of the semester.
Yet no one complained.
No one whispered.
‘Nice and quiet.’
From Jin Crow's perspective, it was quite a satisfying outcome.
Brushing aside the hair partially covering his eyes, he loosened his tightly fastened necktie to ease his breathing.
Then, pointing a thin black rod toward the hologram filling one side of the lecture hall, he began speaking.
“Today, I'll lecture on both the current understanding of Creatures and how that understanding will change going forward.”
In an ordinary theory class, several cadets would already have started nodding off.
Not in his class.
It wasn't because Jin Crow was particularly eloquent.
The material itself was interesting.
But more importantly...
‘They say if you piss him off, he doesn't just draw his sword—he fires his gun.’
‘Don't let your guard down. You never know when a bullet might come flying.’
Whatever the reason, he was an instructor who had drawn a sword and fired a gun at cadets.
On top of that, his skills were exceptional and his position firmly established.
As a result, the idea that it was in everyone's best interest not to get on his bad side had spread throughout the cadets.
“As I mentioned before, many people mistakenly believe the first appearance of Creatures occurred during the Aurum Planet Incident. However, they had already been sighted on colony planets beyond the defensive perimeter, commonly referred to as Areas.”
The hologram transformed the Creature swarms into countless tiny dots, slowly tracing their invasion routes across the map.
“However, beginning with the day now known as the Aurum Shock, Creatures began appearing within the defensive perimeter. As a result, Lemaire Planet and its subordinate Atla Colony were designated Black Hazard Level—over ninety percent damage—and the planetary abandonment procedure was initiated.”
After saying that, he removed his black uniform jacket, draped it over the podium, and continued the lecture wearing only his white shirt and military harness.
Tap.
The black rod in his gloved hand pointed toward another part of the hologram.
“The Empire is also believed to have suffered losses. During that process, three baronies and one county were reportedly destroyed. However, the place deserving the greatest attention is Mercato.”
His speech was neither particularly eloquent nor filled with grand rhetoric.
Yet before they realized it, the cadets had become completely absorbed in his calm, objective explanation.
“Ahem.”
“Ran, have some awareness......?”
“H-Huh?”
Of course, when Mercato was mentioned, Dokgo Ran puffed out her chest and deliberately cleared her throat as though everyone should pay attention.
But Miel, sitting beside her, immediately jabbed her in the side, silencing her with ease.
Thanks to that, Jin Crow continued uninterrupted.
“Many people died at Mercato, but its greatest significance lies in the appearance of the King and Queen. They are previously unknown entities, giving rise to many theories. However, Professor Lee Su-jong, the foremost authority on the subject, described them this way.”
For a brief moment, the image of the professor's face surfaced in his mind.
More precisely...
his eyes.
Jin Crow unconsciously swept his gaze across the cadets, lowered the black rod slightly, and quietly murmured,
“The pinnacle of mass-produced units.”
Not only the cadets but even Assistant Instructor Ginnatio contemplated the meaning of those words.
The pinnacle of mass-produced units.
By definition, establishing a pinnacle required the existence of comparable specimens.
If that was true, then his words meant...
Upon reaching that conclusion, Famille unconsciously raised her hand and spoke.
“Cadet Famille.”
“Ask.”
“......Instructor, are you implying that even higher-ranking entities exist?”
Everyone's gaze shifted from Famille back to Jin Crow standing at the podium.
Naturally.
The fact that they remained after the course had effectively been filtered once meant they had all experienced the terror of Creatures, either directly or indirectly.
“A good question, Famille.”
Without the slightest hesitation, Jin Crow answered.
“Then let me ask you this.”
At that moment, Jin Crow couldn't help letting out a faint chuckle before continuing.
“If what we've seen so far is merely their vanguard...”
A single phrase suddenly crossed his mind.
The Winter of Calamity.
Fimbulvetr.
“...Then what kind of monsters do you think await in the main force?”
...Winter was approaching.
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