The Academy’s Deceased Ate It All

Whether the Six Stars and the Association had thrown their full weight behind it or not, word about Yoon Seul-hye's concert had spread through every corner of the Academy in just a few days.

It was no exaggeration—every snippet of conversation drifting past as you walked was either about which singers would be performing at the concert or about how someone was going to enter it themselves. Flyers and notices about the event were plastered thick across every wall.

"Oh, right. Some of the girls asked if I wanted to enter it with them."

Han Su-yeong said this with the pink plastic spoon still in her mouth, after scooping up a bite of ice cream.

"Which girls?"

"Just some friends of mine. They wanted me to go up there and sing and dance with them. They asked Ye-seul too, I think."

"Seriously?"

At Choi Hyun-woo's question, Jin Ye-seul nodded.

She stirred the spoon she was holding through her ice cream with her usual bored air.

"Why? You guys are good singers."

In response to Choi Hyun-woo, Han Su-yeong held her phone out to him.

Sitting beside him, I ended up watching too. The video on the screen showed a girl group doing some seriously intense choreography.

"Whoa."

Choi Hyun-woo let out a small noise of admiration and nodded blankly.

Han Su-yeong wrinkled her nose.

"There's no way I can dance like that. My body just doesn't move that way."

"I just don't want to."

"……."

"……."

While the two of them were saying that, Hyun-woo and I just kept watching the video without a word.

Then, at some point, a pale hand slapped down over the screen, and I jolted.

"…Guys?"

"Wh—oh… nothing. I was just thinking it would really suit you two if you did it."

"Yeah, really. Kind of a shame, honestly."

I quickly chimed in with Hyun-woo and nodded.

Han Su-yeong was just shooting us a pointed, accusing glare, but Jin Ye-seul, on the other hand, was staring at us silently with that unfocused look in her eyes.

"Ye-seul. This is good. Here."

In the middle of all that, Yu-na scooped up a spoonful of her own ice cream and held it out to Jin Ye-seul.

For a second, Jin Ye-seul looked at the small smile on Yu-na's face with an expression that asked what's this?

"Oh… I—I'm sorry. Did that bother you?"

When Jin Ye-seul just kept staring at her, Yu-na shrank her shoulders awkwardly and mumbled in a downcast voice.

Then Jin Ye-seul's expression turned complicated, and she reached out to take Yu-na by the wrist.

She opened her mouth, ate the scoop of ice cream Yu-na had held out in one bite, and said.

"Not really."

When Jin Ye-seul stuck out her tongue slightly to lick the ice cream off her lip, Yu-na broke into a grin. Jin Ye-seul stared at her for a beat, then jerked her head away.

"…I think this every time, but Ye-seul really is soft on Yu-na, isn't she?"

I nodded in agreement at Han Su-yeong's whispered comment.

It was true—setting me aside, Jin Ye-seul was relatively friendly with Han Su-yeong, Choi Hyun-woo, and Ivan Hunt, but even with them, there were times you could feel the chill in how she acted.

If that was how she treated people she actually knew and got along with, there was no need to spell out how she dealt with the other students she had no connection to.

It was a bit beside the point, but this was also exactly the reason not a single boy had ever confessed to Jin Ye-seul.

She gave off enough killing intent to scare people away from approaching her, and unless someone had nerves of steel, they wouldn't even be able to bring themselves to talk to her.

For a while there it had seemed like she was getting along pretty well with her classmates… but before long she'd gone right back to her old self, ending up as a not-quite-outcast outcast all over again.

It was quite a contrast to Han Su-yeong, who got along well with her classmates and got confessed to often enough.

But even Jin Ye-seul, the way she was, had three people she found particularly hard to deal with: me, her older sister Jin Ye-jeong, and Yu-na.

And if things had played out the way the original work went, the only one who'd have ended up special to her would have been Yu-na.

"……."

But really, watching them like this, it was like seeing a chick and a beast of prey playing together.

If either of them ever heard me thinking that, they wouldn't let it slide—

"Oh, there you are!"

A booming voice cut in, and I turned reflexively toward the source.

Lee Ye-eun and Kang Yeon-kyung were standing there, along with a male student I didn't recognize.

Kang Yeon-kyung casually dragged a few chairs over to our table and perched on one of them.

"Sorry to barge in on you guys like this. But it's really urgent, so… forgive us, would you?"

Kang Yeon-kyung apologized and asked for our indulgence with practiced ease, naturally settling Lee Ye-eun into the seat beside her.

The male student who'd come with them silently took the remaining chair and looked around.

"First of all, I really am sorry. You were probably having a nice time together, and we ended up getting in the way."

Lee Ye-eun said this with a smile.

She slowly turned her gaze and looked at the friends sitting with me—and maybe I was imagining it, but her eyes lingered noticeably longer when they landed on Yu-na.

"So… first I need to ask you about this."

Lee Ye-eun said this, looking at me.

"Do you know someone named Lydia?"

I thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

Lee Ye-eun blinked as if to say understood, and handed something to the male student beside her.

A key.

"You can speak now."

The male student took the key, unlocked the necklace around his neck, and only then answered.

"Much appreciated."

"A Silence Necklace? And it's got nullification on it, plus a few curses too."

Han Su-yeong recognized what had been around the man's neck right away and murmured curiously.

As if in answer, Lee Ye-eun spoke up.

"He volunteered for it himself. Said he wanted to prove he wasn't acting in bad faith. I don't make a hobby out of putting collars on people, so don't get the wrong idea. Got that, Ji-hyeok?"

As I was nodding, Jin Ye-seul leaned in and whispered to me.

"That's a lie. Maybe it's not a hobby, but she's got at least an interest in it."

"……."

I wasn't quite sure how to react to that, so I just nodded.

The male student kept rubbing his neck, then tapped at it a few times and opened his mouth.

"Then allow me to begin."

The voice that came out wasn't a boy's. It was the voice of a mature woman.

A voice I knew well.

Esmeralda Lisnerger's voice.

"My boss told me this needed to be conveyed urgently to Lee Ye-eun, head of the World Tree clan, and to her benefactor, Yu Ji-hyeok. …And per Lee Ye-eun's instructions, I'll be speaking here in this setting."

I looked at Lee Ye-eun, and she nodded.

"It's relevant to your friends too. So this is my call, but I thought it'd be better for everyone to hear it together, which is why I brought them here."

I nodded in understanding.

When it came to this sort of thing, Lee Ye-eun's judgment was more reliable than mine.

If she'd decided it was necessary, that meant everyone here needed to hear what Esmeralda Lisnerger was about to say.

"Who's this boss of yours?"

At Yu-na's question—since she didn't know who Esmeralda Lisnerger was—Esmeralda bowed her head and answered.

"A former executive of Red Case."

At that, Yu-na flinched, then turned and shot me a stern look that asked just what the hell I'd been getting up to.

I pretended not to see it and looked back at Esmeralda.

"So what brings you all the way out here?"

"…I came because there are three things I need to share with you."

Esmeralda shot me a half-glaring look as she began.

"First, the Association has decided to shift its position—rather than directly pressuring Yu Ji-hyeok, along with the World Tree clan and the Ten Powerhouses, they're going to exert influence indirectly. On top of that, a steady stream of people are also pulling out, claiming they have nothing to do with this whole affair."

She paused for a moment, then went on.

"They lost the war for public opinion, and the tide's turned hard against them. One scandal after another about Association executives and Association-affiliated heroes and Hunters has been breaking, and morale's taken a real hit. In the case of the Six Stars, for example, everyone except Choi Jun-hyeong and Yoon Seul-hye has gone to ground. The man called Manchas… is currently missing, but he's the elusive sort to begin with, so we can only guess he's off carrying out some kind of secret mission."

[Minerva wants me to pass along that she killed that Manchas fellow herself, so there's no need to worry.]

I twitched in spite of myself at Sbeungali's voice.

[She also seems quite eager for your praise. …Don't worry, our conversation isn't being transmitted.]

"……."

Again I wasn't sure how to react, so I just held my tongue.

"Maybe because of that, Choi Jun-hyeong seems to have decided to use a different method. To put it another way… you could call it killing with a borrowed knife."

A borrowed knife.

In other words—he was planning to attack us using someone else's hands.

Esmeralda glanced at Lee Ye-eun and pulled a sheet of paper from inside her coat.

"…Choi Jun-hyeong investigated the personal details of Yu Ji-hyeok, Lee Ye-eun as head of the World Tree clan, the Ten Powerhouses, and others, and dug up people who hold grudges against them. The most notable names are listed here. He focused particularly on Yu Ji-hyeok."

She held the paper out to me as she spoke.

The moment I started reading it, Han Su-yeong, Jin Ye-seul, and Yu-na quickly moved closer.

There was Na Il-seong, Na Il-jun's father, and Lee Yun-seong, who'd led the World Tree clan's branch families before being driven out, and Ender Freeman, who'd reportedly been the leader of Red Case's escort team, and Ichinose Kohei, said to be a former executive of the Thorn Cross Congregation, and on and on.

Even where I couldn't put names to faces, I could roughly guess who most of these people were.

"The first page is people with direct murderous intent toward Yu Ji-hyeok. The second page is people considered potential threats."

I flipped to the second page right away and scanned the names.

Unlike the first page, most of them were people I didn't know, and I couldn't figure out why they'd be targeting me at all.

"Who's this Rogers Nael here? An Academy third-year? And Lee Eun-gyeong—master of a Hunter guild called 'Anti-After'?"

"I know that guy."

That's when Han Su-yeong tapped Rogers Nael's name with her finger.

When I looked at her, she casually swept her hair back and showed me her earring.

"You remember when you first gave me these?"

"Oh. That guy?"

"Right."

So that's who that guy was—the one who'd gotten into it with me back then and ended up cursed out by Han Su-yeong.

As I was nodding, Jin Ye-seul tapped another name.

"I know this one."

Jin Ye-seul murmured, staring fixedly at the name Lee Eun-gyeong.

"He was my fiancé. A long, long time ago."

"Fiancé? Ye-seul, you were engaged?"

Choi Hyun-woo said this with a startled expression, but oddly enough, Yu-na looked like she'd already known.

Jin Ye-seul shrugged, as if it wasn't something she'd been hiding.

"It was when I was really little. Plus we broke it off in less than a year. I kicked him in the thigh hard enough to crush it. So I figured that was the end of it… but apparently—Jin Ye-jun, my little brother, told me he'd been around our place a few times lately. Wanting to undo the broken engagement and get engaged to me again."

For the record, the guy's twenty-six.

At that, Choi Hyun-woo let out a low whistle of disbelief.

"What's with the back pages being nothing but love-life drama?"

"…Honestly, that side isn't really the concern. The next part is the real problem."

Esmeralda said this and pulled out another sheet of paper.

The moment she did, I heard Choi Hyun-woo suck in a sharp breath beside me.

The photo attached to the document showed a younger Nam Hyun-hwa, in a dress—probably from a festival.

And the photo had a large X marked across it.

Watching our reactions, Esmeralda spoke quietly.

"…That marking means the target has been dealt with. In other words, the person in this photo is no longer of this world."

I'd had no warning this was coming, and even I was left speechless, just staring blankly at the photo when Lee Ye-eun spoke.

"…This is the reason I decided we had to tell you guys."

Every gaze in the group swung to her.

"From the looks of it, these people… have decided to start taking out the people around Ji-hyeok, me, and the Ten Powerhouses one at a time."

"And to add some context to that—the ones doing this aren't the Association or the Six Stars. The ones behind it are—"

"Milited's children."

I said it flatly, almost tossing the words out.

And before I knew it, I was on my feet, murmuring.

"Ivan—where are Ivan and Ryle right now?"

I had to meet those two.

Ivan's mother, Belluna Hunt.

And Alice Blesbuck, who'd be with Kath Ryle.

The people who'd know the most about Milited's children.

I needed to use those two to track down what those people, who were already on the move, were up to.

Before it was too late.

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