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Chapter 17
Chapter 17
“Like I thought, there really was something to it.”
“Of course. Do you think he’d be an instructor without any skill?”
“Well, sure, but still. I don’t like him anyway. What’s the point of being skilled if he’s got no manners?”
Baek Hwi-young suppressed a dry laugh at the cadets’ voices spilling out from a room in the male dormitory and headed toward his own room.
En̊ ǔmа̇ .i d̀
“Oh, Hwi-young. You’re back?”
“Yeah.”
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
He climbed the stairs, casually returning greetings from cadets whose names he sometimes couldn’t even remember.
Honestly, it was more accurate to say he had no room to think about anything else.
Right now, his head was so complicated that the word ‘confusing’ didn’t even begin to cover it.
Creeeak-.
E n̊u ḿ а
He opened the door and entered the dorm room.
Then, the empty bed on the opposite side caught his eye.
‘Was it withdrawal?’
At first—no, until not long ago—he had remembered the name and face of the cadet who used to be his roommate.
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His ability had been slightly lacking for the Central Special Service Academy, but his personality hadn’t been bad.
But now, he couldn’t remember.
Е̂ ṅŭṁ а̂
Not the name, not the face, not even the reason he had left.
‘Whenever I opened my eyes, the bed was always empty.’
Even remembering the connections he had made and cut during regressions was overwhelming.
What would happen if, someday, those memories flipped over, mixed together, and he gradually lost his sanity?
By the time that thought reached him, Baek Hwi-young had unconsciously twisted his own neck, closed his eyes, and applied force.
Crack…….
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Pain jolted the mind that had been sinking into itself.
When he finally opened his eyes again, ash-gray irises reflected in the window blinked once.
“Whew.”
Red marks remained on his neck, but there was no need to pay them any mind.
To a superhuman, marks like these disappeared quickly—hardly even worthy of being called injuries.
“Shall I begin.”
Е̄ń üm̂ a
He sat down on the chair, took out a notebook he had kept tucked deep inside the drawer, and opened it.
Inside, written in a mess of disordered handwriting, were terms that only Baek Hwi-young—who had experienced the future—could understand.
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Gripping his pen as if by habit, he began to write down, one by one, the things he knew and had gone through.
-Alliance with the Empire. Impossible at present.
-Free Planet Alliance. The council chairman is a puppet; the real political body is the owners’ council of the five major corporations.
-Separatist guerrilla organization ‘Red Hand’. Seems larger in scale than expected. Relationship with the Free Planet Alliance owners?
Е̂ n ũ m а̀
-Factions within the military. Led by Rosen and the Kukenhauzen family. An alliance of mid-sized factions…….
The reason he deliberately didn’t transfer this to a more convenient device was simple.
It absolutely could not leak outside.
‘These are pieces of information far beyond what a mere cadet should know. If information brokers on the dark net even catch a whiff, it’ll become troublesome.’
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The likelihood of it being dismissed as a cadet’s delusion was low.
Setting aside the fact that he was a cadet of the Central Special Service Academy, the notes contained no small number of secrets about events that would occur before long and about each faction—assuming there were no major variables.
Ê n̄ u m ă
If he uploaded them to a device, even the time of writing would remain as data, so unless someone was an idiot, they would inevitably realize that there was something unusual about him.
Of course, the things he wrote down would not necessarily all be true.
The future could change at any time.
Even so, the reason he organized them like this was that it served as a kind of wrong-answer notebook, meant to help him avoid, even slightly, the thorny paths he would encounter along the way.
How long had he been writing like that?
-Instructor Jin Crow.
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When he reached the name he had half-consciously pushed to the back of his mind, Baek Hwi-young stopped his pen for the first time and stared intently at it.
Then, as if trying to organize his thoughts, he closed his eyes and let out a low, sigh-laced murmur.
“……What is it. What changed? What on earth is it.”
At first, he had thought it was coincidence, or perhaps another variable.
Even if the past had always been the same until now, suspecting something just because of a single incident—returning a liquor bottle—would be nothing more than paranoia.
But that thought soon collapsed.
Еn̆ ŭ m̃ а .і̊ d
‘Originally, he wasn’t very interested in Creatures. No, it almost looked like he was deliberately avoiding them.’
He had never brought up Creatures during theory lectures.
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Moreover, the newly established lecture this time had neither occurred at this point originally nor been taught by Jin Crow.
In the end, Baek Hwi-young’s deep contemplation could not help but reach the final possibility—the one he had raised and denied countless times in his heart.
‘A regressor?’
If another cadet or an instructor had heard it, they would have recommended Baek Hwi-young to a psychiatric hospital—it was a conjecture bordering on delusion.
Ẁ еb n̂о̌ v̌е̇_l Ë_n um̄ а̇.
Paradoxically, however, it was the most realistic inference to him.
“That can’t be.”
Still, he shook his head.
It was far more likely that, in this iteration of the past, there was simply another special branching point.
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After a brief moment of deliberation, Baek Hwi-young began to write something beneath Jin Crow’s name.
-Observe carefully.
Ŵ е b̌nо̊v е l̆ Еn̄u ḿа̀
Thus, in Baek Hwi-young’s dorm room, only the sound of a pen moving could be heard until late into the night.
“At present, it is true that we lack research resources regarding Creatures. Until just recently, most people called them nothing more than space monsters rather than by their academic name, Creatures, so it’s not all that strange.”
Jin Crow’s flat voice echoed throughout the lecture hall.
As expected, the majority of the cadets were rubbing their sleepy eyes.
“However, quite fortunately, there are the papers of Professor Risu-jong, who has been researching Creatures for nearly ten years, and they have been of great help to the military as well. The Creatures you saw earlier in the simulation room were all data implemented based on Dr. Risu-jong’s research.”
Of course, among the ability-type cadets, there were also quite a few who showed genuine interest in Creatures and listened attentively.
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“Still, it is difficult to fully apply the cases of colonial planets outside the defense line. Their situation and ours are different.”
Regardless of how the cadets reacted, Jin Crow continued the lecture steadily, without paying it any heed.
‘……Something feels different.’
Hino Kanae looked over Jin Crow, who spoke in his characteristically monotone voice, blinking her black eyes beneath her long black hair.
The eyes partially hidden by his black hair held a hollow light, and his pale face and slightly sunken cheeks made him look, at a glance, like a sickly and frail man.
But when combined with his well-trained physique, he was quite presentable in appearance.
W̆е́ḃ n̄.о v̊е ľ Е̊n ü m̀ á
‘I get that he’s skilled. But I still don’t like him.’
The sight he had shown the cadets in the simulation room not long ago had been brief, but it had left an impression on her.
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Even so, that didn’t mean she would approve of extreme and radical ideologies.
What she revered was the bushido spirit of her homeland from the distant past—not the mad suicide assaults that handed out bundles of explosives and shoved people toward certain death.
“Cadet. ……You.”
That was when it happened.
Ѐ n u̇_m̀а
“Hino Kanae.”
“……Miss.”
“Hmm?”
She was deep in thought when a whisper from the person beside her—Fuma Kentaro, a retainer of the Hino family—snapped her back to her senses.
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She soon realized that the one Jin Crow had called was none other than herself, and she rose from her seat.
“Yes, Instructor.”
Е̇n ũ ḿа..і̌ d
“I didn’t tell you to stand. Sit.”
“……Ah, yes.”
She deliberately ignored the warmth rising to her cheeks and looked straight at Jin Crow without losing her composure.
She could feel the snickering or amused gazes of the other cadets, but that was all the more reason she could not allow herself to falter.
“How dare…….”
Including Fuma Kentaro seated beside her, members of the Hino family narrowed their brows, but they too were merely fulfilling their roles.
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“Quiet.”
However, that was only for a moment—the disturbance that had lingered briefly in the lecture hall settled down as if it had never happened at Jin Crow’s single word.
He frowned as if something displeased him, but soon shook his head as if letting it go and opened his mouth.
“Just earlier, I mentioned the differences between colonial planets outside the defense line and planets within the defense line. Explain.”
“……Colonial planets outside the defense line belong to the federation of the Human Composite State, but they are planets to which non-humans or criminals, deemed incapable of adopting an advanced political system such as democracy, are relocated. Therefore, the governing authority of each colonial planet is transferred to a governor’s office dispatched through lawful procedures.”
There was no excess in Hino Kanae’s answer.
Ěň_uma
However, at the question Jin Crow followed up with, even she could not help but feel somewhat flustered.
“Then, do you know why the differences become so pronounced when colonial planets and federation member planets respond to Creatures?”
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“……Pardon?”
What was this—such an abrupt leap in logic?
Hino Kanae blinked her red eyes wide for a moment, then answered.
“It is the difference in military power, organization, and administration. The defense line is, as the name implies, systematically managed in divided sectors by the Galactic Federation Army under the Ministry of Defense, but colonial planets differ in planetary defense capability depending on the discretion of each governor’s office.”
Е n ů m̌а́
In truth, it was a textbook answer.
It was the kind of argument most often raised when the opponent was substituted not with Creatures, but with the Empire.
Perhaps because of that—
“Hm, a half-baked answer. Sit down.”
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“……Yes.”
Jin Crow spoke with a less-than-satisfied expression, and Hino Kanae had no choice but to nod as calmly as she could and sit back down.
Е̊n̊ u̇m̂а́.ïd̆
“Pfft!”
“Don’t laugh so openly. That’s rude.”
From behind her, the irritating exchange between Dokgo Ran and Famille Demezear reached her ears, but she paid it no mind.
“Any other opinions?”
“Me!”
“Cadet Dokgo Ran. Speak.”
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“Yes, sir! It’s because colonial planets are weak!”
“A thoughtless answer with no sincerity. Three penalty points.”
“Eh, eeh?! Ugh!”
“Haa, how embarrassing. You really don’t think, do you—ah, right. You don’t.”
As Famille’s low mutter suggested, Dokgo Ran’s habit of running wild without thinking was nothing new.
If anything, she was grateful.
Е̃ň um̌ a .іd
Because Dokgo Ran’s answer just now had been so abysmal, her own answer would probably look at least a little better by comparison.
“Any other cadets who wish to give an answer. Is there none?”
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Ginatio, unable to stand it any longer, swept his gaze over the cadets and asked.
However, none of the other cadets were confident they could give a better answer than Hino Kanae, so the atmosphere fell into silence.
‘Hmph, figures.’
Thanks to that, the corners of Hino Kanae’s lips curled up slightly, and Jin Crow’s eyes sank even further, yet the cadets continued to do nothing more than read the room.
Ĕ n u mа̀ .і̃ d
“Um……. Excuse me.”
But then, a female cadet who had been sitting beside the ash-haired male cadet at the very back of the lecture hall cautiously raised her hand.
“Cadet, Miel Amber.”
“Y-yes, yes!”
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All eyes turned toward her—a girl with light brown hair and eyes, resembling a squirrel.
“H-hic!”
Е ń ů m̀ â
Was she startled by the gazes of over a hundred people?
Or was she simply flustered because Jin Crow had called her name?
Either way, Miel Amber, whose surprise was unmistakable, hunched her shoulders, but when Jin Crow quietly waited, she seemed to gather her courage and, after fidgeting with her lips, let out a single sentence.
“W-which side suffers greater damage?”
“Hm?”
Naturally, the cadets who heard that could only stare at Miel Amber as if dumbfounded.
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‘……Is she an idiot?’
Hino Kanae thought the same.
Between colonial planets that barely even had proper special service officers and maintained only fleet-level forces, and federation planets that maintained at least several hundred thousand, sometimes several million troops—she was asking which side suffered greater damage?
Wasn’t it a question with an answer so obvious that even saying ‘of course’ felt like a waste?
“Ah, um. I mean…….”
Only then did she seem to realize what kind of question she had asked.
Еn u̇m̄а̀
Miel Amber’s face turned bright red as she tried to make some sort of excuse.
“She pointed out the blind spot.”
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At that moment, however, the calm voice from the lectern made the cadets doubt their ears.
“The damage to the colonial planets is far less severe.”
Jin Crow, looking intrigued, tapped the lectern lightly with a finger clad in a leather glove and added,
“Now, explain the reason.”
Ẁ ӗb́.n оv̄ ẽl̊ Е n u ḿ а̌
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