Morning at Silver Hall, Chairman’s Office.
The Yellow Tiger was listening to Red Tiger’s report.
The contents of the report were about Lee Lena – no, Kwon Lena of Year One Class Zero.
“I thought she was just a student of Kwon Jein. I see she’s her blood relative.”
Yellow Tiger had ordered a background check on the students of Class Zero before the start of the semester.
This time, he ordered another one on Kwon Lena before the midterm exams.
At that time, the Tiger Clan had no idea that she was at the Hwanmong Auction, nor did they understand her background except for the fact that she was abused.
Recently, Red Tiger had intended to investigate the Cow Clan and Snake Clan by himself, but he was instead ordered to investigate the Yellow Tiger’s classmates who didn’t seem mentally stable these days.
And, as a result of this second attempt at investigating, they uncovered unexpected information.
‘I ordered another investigation since I am wary of the possibility that something else aside from her guilt about Saeum of April at the auction was bothering her, but I didn’t expect this result. Wait… I think Jo Euishin already knows.’
There was a day when Jo Euishin became involved with Seodol.
Yellow Tiger ordered an investigation on him because their benefactor might have been involved with a very intrusive royal lineage clan.
As a result of the investigation, it was confirmed that Jo Euishin had met with Kwon Jein.
There wasn’t anything noteworthy of it, but Yellow Tiger found something in hindsight.
‘It is strange that Jared Lee, sub-master of the Lake of Eternity Team, came all the way to Eungwang High to pick up Jo Euishin.’
It’s strange that the second-in-command of one of the world’s top ten professional teams accompanied a mere student.
It was as if the student was an important guest holding important information.
There was another thing that Yellow Tiger found strange.
Coincidentally, it happened on the very same day.
‘It’s when the chess game was held. Jo Euishin acted very strangely while preparing for an interview article with Kwon Jein.’
Jo Euishin looked strange as he quickly read through a thousand pages of Kwon Jein’s data.
Jo Euishin’s expression was sour enough that Yellow Tiger unconsciously made a comment on it.
— How strange.
— What?
— It’s a knowing face, but you’re not smiling suspiciously as usual.
Considering the secret of Kwon Lena’s birth, which the Yellow Tiger had just found out now, he realized why Jo Euishin made such a face.
‘That’s when he figured it out. He found a clue about Kwon Lena among the vast amount of data, and he met with Kwon Jein after the chess match to confirm.’
Yellow Tiger’s eyes were sparkling.
“Hahaha, I can’t believe we didn’t uncover this important piece of information during the first investigation.”
“The Lake of Eternity team was in the west at that time, and the information was well-covered, making it difficult to find.”
“It must be extremely well-hidden if you weren’t able to find it.”
Red Tiger responded as if he had been waiting for the opportunity.
“Yes. However, you can trust me with the investigation of the Cow Clan and the Snake Clan.”
Yellow Tiger clicked his tongue and cut off his words.
“Don’t think about useless things. The investigation on that “Sungheon” isn’t even completed yet. And did you know that your son came to me and tried to have Jo Euishin’s skill used on him again?”
“What? That child asked you to do that?”
“That’s right. I put him off using the midterm exams as an excuse, but I’m sure he’ll try to ask me again soon.”
Stunned, Red Tiger shut his mouth.
“If you leave your post and go to the Cow Clan or the Snake Clan, your son will have those nightmares in your absence.”
Red Tiger completely backed down at Yellow Tiger’s words.
Satisfied with the other’s appearance, Yellow Tiger changed the subject.
“Leave this one up to the others. The first report is up. Let’s check it together.”
“…Understood.”
Checking the hologram that contained the reports, the two tigers’ faces hardened a little.
“Both clan heads are doing things they don’t usually do.”
“It’s too early to jump to conclusions, but we can consider the possibility that it’s the both of them.”
After looking at the report, Red Tiger wanted to investigate things himself right away but held back at the thought of his son.
Yellow Tiger looked at the flow of incidents and assigned something to Red Tiger.
“We should look into this further. Oh, I heard someone from the Joo-Oh Group is looking into the student who performed the sword dance at the recent sports exchange opening ceremony. Someone is digging into White Tiger… Red Tiger, you take charge of that.”
* * *
Everyone froze at the news that Kwon Lena failed the exams.
No one knew how to properly react.
The tactless Song Daesok said, “If you studied the textbooks carefully, it would’ve been easy to get forty—“, but he couldn’t finish his words as Min Geurin hit his shin and he fell to the floor.
In addition, the other tactless guy Mok Wooram said, “I will ask the professor to also put me as failed and—“, and he couldn’t finish his words as Maeng Hyodon punched him on the side.
“Hmm…”
I was worried that this old man would laugh, but Hwang Jiho only looked at me with a meaningful smile.
Seeing that face made me uncomfortable, but I ignored it since there was a bigger problem at hand.
Fortunately, Kim Yuri, who has the best communication skills in our class, comforted Lena with a friendly but light attitude which helped things settle down.
However, throughout the classes, Kwon Lena seemed to be out of it, and our class couldn’t celebrate comfortably now that the midterm exams were over.
‘I didn’t come to this world to watch my playable character flunk.’
Inside the game, there had never been a description that Kwon Lena failed in her studies.
Whatever the process, what I have done so far in this world has led to Kwon Lena’s crisis.
I felt suffocated at the thought that she was suffering because of me.
The thought stayed with me until after I finished my work with the newspaper department.
Even though today was the day to select the next chief editor of the department among the sophomores, I couldn’t concentrate at all.
The next head of the department would have to protect Jegal and the department from the evil spirits that are the Year Two Class Zero students, so they had to be a player with a strong will and excellent abilities.
Even though the election process became complicated and long, I had little memory of what had happened when I left the office.
“Jo Euishin, it’s not decided yet if she’s flunking.”
Before I returned to the dorms, Hwang Jiho called me to an empty classroom.
He suddenly put a boundary around us which made me think that he wanted to talk about the “long tail”, but he suddenly mentioned Kwon Lena.
“When I looked at the test paper, it was 38 points. It was a score that she got even though she didn’t answer the last ten questions. It’s simply a mistake made out of nervousness.”
Can’t that mistake occur again even in the retake of the test?
As if he read my mind, Hwang Jiho spoke again.
“If she’s worried about making the same mistakes, I can recommend having her retake the exam be an oral recitation.”
“…Isn’t that abuse of authority?”
“Considering the scope of what the school regulations allow and what the essential purpose of a retake examination is, it is fully possible. Re-examinations are there to reaffirm a student’s competence and the fruit of their studies.”
My heart felt somewhat at ease with what Hwang Jiho said.
When Hwang Jiho noticed that my breathing became normal, he decided to drop a bomb on me.
“If you encounter any problem with “Kwon Lena’s” family affairs, tell me. I’ll help you.”
He mentioned the name “Kwon Lena” instead of “Lee Lena”, so I guess this old man finally figured out Kwon Lena’s secret.
Judging from his attitude, he also seemed to know that I was already aware of this secret.
I didn’t stop myself from letting disgust manifest from my expression, yet Hwang Jiho just gave a satisfied smile.
‘…Fine. If that guy already knows it, I can ask him for help in the future if anything happens.’
I decided to be optimistic about it as I headed to the study room.
The dormitory meal time was already over when I was having dinner with the other newspaper department members, so the Jiik Hall was already empty.
The simulation room, which was always more than half full during the exam period, was also empty.
‘Should I just make a plan and then rest today?’
Although there’s still the re-examination left, I planned to go soothe Kwon Lena and help her make a study plan.
But when I arrived at the study room, only Mok Wooram and Saeum of April were there.
‘Maeng Hyodon said his training with Grandpa Tak will resume today. Hani had an appointment with the people at the nursery.’
I wanted to ask where Kwon Lena was, but Saeum asked me something first with a troubled face.
“Did you run into Lena on the way here?”
The Jiik Hall was almost deserted so I would’ve definitely noticed Kwon Lena if she were around.
I shook my head.
“No, why?”
“She said she’d get some air but… it’s been a while already.”
“I tried contacting her through her device but it didn’t work. She’s not reading her messages either.”
“She was carrying around her violin case, so I guess it’s possible she went to the string club.”
On the table were four sweet pumpkin cupcakes with blueberries, and some paper cups.
It seemed to be prepared according to the number of people, but I noticed that the three paper cups were filled with a beverage that’s gone cold.
‘It must be a long while since she’s left.’
Saeum explained everything.
The three had dinner and decided to meet here, and Saeum prepared cupcakes and tea to cheer up Kwon Lena.
“Lena likes blueberry, so I bought some cupcakes with blueberries and a blueberry leaf tea… But when she saw this, she suddenly said she’d be going out for a while.”
Hearing Saeum of April’s words gave me a bad feeling.
Saeum of April, the source of Kwon Lena’s guilt.
To think that he immediately prepared gifts to cheer her up after learning that she failed the recent exam.
I can guess how Kwon Lena felt when she saw it.
“I’ll go look for her.”
“Ah, then I’ll go with…!”
“Wait here. She might come back here while I’m out.”
I left immediately right after I said those words.
I was brisk walking when I left the study room, and I transitioned to full-on sprinting when I reached the entrance.
‘I hope she’s not where I think she is…!’
I thought about possible places where she could be and the people she might contact.
Given Kwon Lena’s situation right now, I could think of a highly plausible scenario, but I don’t want to admit it to myself.
I decided to use a light skill to confirm it.
<Light skill, Player Identity activated.>
<Using character’s light skill, Eye Embracing Heaven and Earth.>
As soon as I activated Cheon Dongha’s light skill, a myriad of information was pushed into my brain.
The result was disastrous.
In the place where I predicted she would be, I saw Kwon Lena standing.
‘Kwon Lena is going to make a second attempt…!’
I immediately changed the character from Cheon Dongha to Saeum of April.
<Using character’s skill, flight.>
I soared into the sky, thinking it was a relief that there wasn’t anyone around.
Someone might know that I have the ability to use flight skills, but that doesn’t matter now.
The thought of the word “know” reminded me of something that I could do.
I hurriedly wrote a message as I flew across the night sky.
[Me] Professor Kim Shinrok, please turn off all the CCTV cameras outside the freshmen building.
[Kim Shinrok] Got it. What’s going on?
[Me] Thank you. I’ll explain later.
As the adviser of the Jiikhoe, Kim Shinrok was able to immediately handle the request.
He had a lot of questions, but I couldn’t afford to answer them right now.
‘Right there…!’
I landed just a few steps away from Kwon Lena.
Kwon Lena, who was staring blankly at the night sky, turned her head and looked at me.
The lady who threw herself from the roof of the freshmen building on the first day of admission, Kwon Lena stood as she tried to make her second attempt.
