“Oi you fuc*ing bit*h!”
“Ahk! Have you gone insane…!”
Bam! Bam! Slam!
People were fighting in the middle of the road. One cadet attacked another as they began hurling fists at one another. One of them had their nose broken while the other had his lips torn apart. Perhaps it was a quarrel regarding their love interest. “Why are you guys doing this! Why! Stop!” shouted a female cadet in between, not knowing what to do.
“You b*itch! Do you think I can’t kill you?”
The one with a smaller build used his supernatural powers. It was a clear violation of school regulations but he wasn’t in the mood to worry about that. A sharp thorn was formed from his elbow which slashed past the cheek of the bigger cadet who was pushing him down.
Blood splattered onto the road.
The conflict became more and more serious which gathered onlookers. But most of the people watching were cadets and staff members, so the common consensus was to wait for the sentries to arrive, without hastily jumping in between them.
“…”
As the fight turned more serious, Yu Jitae happened to walk past the area.
…And he continued walking by.
His feet were natural as if he hadn’t seen anything.
Today’s breakfast menu was toast and skewered fish cakes. Kaeul loved them, but since Gyeoul also loved eating food these days, he was carrying a large amount of food which would usually be enough to feed 20 people.
These had to be eaten warm.
Cadets fighting each other was in fact quite common at Lair. Considering that they were young yet able and proud young soldiers, various sorts of incidents and conflicts were commonplace.
Within those types of happenings, fights and injuries were nothing significant.
In the morning after feeding them breakfast, he listened to a report on Ma Namjoon and the surviving demons from his clone.
‘In that case, I will continue observing them. My loyalty to my lord.’
OK.
He didn’t go to Lair with any of them today because of something that had to be done in the morning.
“I’ll be on my way! Have a safe trip too, ahjussi!”
Bom, Yeorum and Kaeul went to the academy district in cadet uniforms while Yu Jitae went separate ways and headed to the sentries. Since he had committed a sin, it was now time to atone for it.
He entered the Campus Community Service reception desk on the second floor of the sentries building. No-one was there at the desk so he waited on a chair nearby when several staff members finally came in.
“Ah, ah! Guardian Yu Jitae?”
The name of the officer was Ichimon who described himself as a section head, forever stuck with the sentries. He looked flustered, which in fact was the same reaction he saw whoever Yu Jitae met these days, both guardians and staff members likewise.
“Haha. We went to the front entrance to receive you but for some reason we weren’t able to see you. Sorry for being late.”
“It’s alright. I came through the back entrance.”
“Aigo. I see. It’s my mistake. We should’ve sent someone else to the back! Sorry.”
Ichimon rubbed his hands like a fly and welcomed Yu Jitae as if he was his direct superior.
“Sorry, haha. We will make sure you can start with community service straight away.”
He gave a servile smile.
Yu Jitae was being treated like this by the sentries despite him coming here for community service. The falsely created Yu household had become an extremely convenient measure.
“This way please!”
In the waiting room, Ichimon personally brewed some lemon tea and served him, before touching his thin moustache.
“Hmm. So, what kind of community service are you looking for today, Sir Guardian?”
His words sounded quite strange. Yu Jitae was here for community service and yet the person in charge was asking him the type of task he was after, while carrying a list of task descriptions in hand.
“Is that something the volunteers usually choose?”
“Sorry? No… umm… you know? The sentries are in fact quite flexible at times. Haha.”
In other words, it was a privilege given because he was from the Yu household. He didn’t think much of it however, and all he wanted was to go home early. Looking at the list, he couldn’t really find anything he liked.
– Organising the flower bed in front of the 3rd Main Entrance (1 hour)
– Education department flower arrangement (1 hour)
– Helping cook food for the cadets learning Fundamental Basics (Cooking, 1 hour)
– Looking after young kids of education staff members (1 hour)
He didn’t like any of them because they only accounted for 1 hour each. At this rate, he had to visit this place 10 times.
But looking further, there was one community service that was 3 hours long.
“I’ll go with this one.”
“Sorry? Ahh, you mean this?”
– Helping delinquent cadets leave detention centre (3 hours)
“Umm, you see… this one. To be honest, it’s not a very good service.”
“Yes?”
“It’s a little bit difficult… You would have to deal with trashes that were related to violence, drugs and sexual assault, that barely managed to avoid getting expelled. They don’t listen at all and are all hopeless. Especially this one kid called Jake from Noblesse School is a lot worse. He would’ve been expelled already if he wasn’t from Noblesse School… Ah, kuhum.”
“…”
“In any case, today, there’s even a documentary film shoot for the delinquent cadets. Umm… as you probably know already, violence, threatening and swearing – whatever it is, forcing a cadet to do something will leave a negative impact on Lair’s image…”
Ichimon gave an awkward smile along with his chatter. It was a sincere request from him to not get angry at them even if he were to go there.
“If you choose the flower arrangement here instead, I’ll try to do something about it. So that you don’t have to do anything.”
Flower arrangement?
“Time is a bit more important. Can you make it 3 hours long?”
“Ahh, umm… extending the time is a bit… because we allocate all the times following a set program…”
“Then I’ll go with this one.”
Yu Jitae was stubborn so Ichimon, who didn’t want to get on his wrong side, sweated but failed to persuade him until the end.
***
500 metres to the north of Lair Sentries, there was a door going to the underground detention centre hidden next to the tall stalks of grass. There, Yu Jitae met the prison warden.
The warden was an old man perhaps in his sixties. With a gentle appearance, he had less hair in the middle, which was covered up awkwardly by raising the sides of his hair. His personality apparently suited his appearance, and his nature hanging on the [Eyes of Equilibrium (SS)] was a rare ‘extreme good’.
Judging from his aura, he wasn’t a superhuman. He didn’t appear like a former soldier, so he probably became the prison warden with the help of an aged welfare policy.
“Helping and guiding others is a wonderful thing in my opinion.”
This old man who seemed to be a chatterbox started his sentences with that.
“Anyone makes a mistake throughout their life and the more so for these young cadets. I think these young cadets that committed crimes just lacked the opportunities to become good people. At least that’s what I think.”
No-one asked.
“So when treating these cadets, I always try to do so with a…”
Yu Jitae didn’t respond but the warden excitedly continued expanding on his philosophical interpretation of guidance. Until they arrived at the underground facility, Yu Jitae had to listen continuously about something he was totally uninterested in.
If the facility was 50 metres further away, this old man could’ve had his mouth smacked.
After opening several doors that were sealed tight, the prison warden and Yu Jitae walked in. There were 27 cadets due to leave the detention centre today, who had all been a part of an unlawful group activity as a society, at the start of the semester.
“Hello. We are from NNO.”
“Ahh. Yes, welcome.”
Saying that they’ll be filming a documentary of violent cadets, several cameras were turned on. Even this time around, the chatterbox prison warden showed off a wondrous feat by greeting the camera crew for 15 minutes.
After that, the community service of helping delinquent cadets leave the detention centre finally began. The cadets had all gathered at the auditorium, and the moment they opened the door, they were met with all sorts of uproar and ruckus.
“Ah! It’s so boring as heck. When are we going out?!”
“Just stay put. We have to wait here till 10 anyway.”
“Freakin’ annoying, those idiots.”
These cadets were seeing each other for the first time in a while after spending most of their time in their individual wards. Thus, they either chattered about how it was here,
“Look at how oily that bastard is. Nice job jigging the training run yesterday. Those worms must have been quite salty?”
“How’d you know. Your sister was salty as well.”
“What? This f*cking bi*ch…”
Or they tried to fight.
Whatever the case, they were all rowdy without listening to the voice of the warden.
“Now…! Hello everyone!”
Awkwardly, he smiled and waved his hand. The first thing they had to do was to complete a survey about their life at the detention centre. However, the cadets did not even look at the prison warden. They were too rowdy to even listen to him, but most of them glanced at him before ignoring him altogether.
It was because there was a rumour that they’ll be dismissed at 10 o’clock whether they did the survey or not.
“Guys. Umm! A survey! You have to finish a survey okay?”
While sweating, the old man showed a survey paper to the cadets.
“What’s he saying…”
“Freakin’ annoying.”
They turned their backs to him and murmured.
“Those cameras are fuc*in’ getting on my nerves. Are they gonna blur our faces?”
“Of course they are. Did you even listen yesterday?’
“No? I was sleeping of course. Why the heck would I listen to that.”
“Kukuk.”
The prison warden diligently waved the survey at them but the cadets did not listen.
Until then, Yu Jitae didn’t think much of it and in fact, he wasn’t even inside the auditorium. Standing behind the cameras, he was observing the structure of the underground detention centre from the corridor all the way up to the gates.
It was because Yeorum might end up in here sooner or later.
“Guys! Can you listen to me for a bit? You have to finish the surveys quickly to get out faster!”
Despite sweating buckets from his naked head, the old man was unable to be harsh and maintained a good language. And his submissive words had no power in them even when he shouted.
“Stop bullshiting. We heard from our seniors that we’ll be leaving at 10 no matter what.”
“Right. Look at that dotard. Is that chicken stock flowing down his head?”
“Uhh. Disgusting.”
Insulted upfront, the old man’s expression turned stiff but perhaps being conscious of the camera, he once again gave an awkward smile. Like that, he repeatedly approached and distanced himself from the cadets.
“The cadets really don’t listen.”
In response to the VJ’s scripted question, the old man gave an awkward smile.
“All kids are like that. It’s my fault for being unable to set things straight.”
“Are you the only warden?”
“Umm, in the past when there were several tough and strong wardens they listened very well, but they’re not here now because we don’t get paid much… Anyway, I’ll try it one more time.”
He tried sharing the survey paper again but the cadets refused. Then, one female cadet finally received it but dropped the pile of papers which all ended up on the floor.
“Ah. Sorry. Sorry.”
The female cadet walked away with her friends with a giggle. Heartlessly, the cameraman filmed the old warden who had no choice but to lower his body and pick the papers up one by one.
His attempt at persuading them failed after 20 minutes of hard work.
“Aigo. My apologies.”
After closing the auditorium doors behind him, the warden apologised to the camera crew before throwing a glance at Yu Jitae.
“Sorry, Mister Guardian. I’ll buy some treats later and try talking to them again.”
All Yu Jitae had to do was protect the warden during the procedure, to make sure nothing bad happened to him. He therefore nodded his head because he just had to stay there for 3 hours, no matter what the warden did.
“Please do whatever suits you the best.”
“Yes yes. Sorry. If this is over quickly, we should be able to send you off early as well but…”
Taking out a checkered handkerchief from his chest pocket, the prison warden wiped the sweat beads forming on his wide forehead.
Yu Jitae felt doubtful for a second.
“…Do you count all the hours even if it ends early?”
“Sorry? Ahhh, yes. We do. We give a lot more time for this one because of how mentally exhausting it could get.”
Ah.
Should’ve said that earlier.
“Uh, huh? What’s wrong, sir?”
When Yu Jitae suddenly began walking up to him, the warden took a few steps back without even realising it, but Yu Jitae’s legs were slightly longer than his. He took the survey papers and a plastic bag off of the old man’s hand. Half of them were crumpled with signs of being smudged by their feet.
He walked further and pushed the auditorium doors wide open as cameras followed behind him.
“Uhh, umm… Sir Guardian…! You can’t shout or punish the cadets…!”
It seemed that even a low-ranked official in a place like this knew who Yu Jitae was.
However, Yu Jitae didn’t respond.
The cadets who were either chatting on the auditorium floor, or running around the room glanced at Yu Jitae, who suddenly walked in. Some of them were surprised at the size of his body but most of them were inside the detention centre when Yu household became a thing so almost none of them realised who he was.
He couldn’t punish them, nor could he swear or shout at them. Reminding him once again, the warden was sweating like crazy.
Yu Jitae walked up to them and stood up straight.
He stared at the cadets.
Without saying a word; without doing anything. He glanced across the cadets to check their numbers, before choosing the one who ran around creating the most uproar and focusing on his movements with his eyes.
He didn’t bother lifting his killing intent, and merely watched on.
Something strange began to happen.
“…!”
Someone looked into Yu Jitae’s eyes before being startled. That one cadet’s gaze was contagious as it soon spread to others.
Nearby cadets also looked at Yu Jitae, curious about the reason that cadet was surprised and that caused a chain reaction.
Before long when several were looking at Yu Jitae, the cadet that was running around also turned to Yu Jitae. His feet gradually became slower before eventually coming to a stop.
Silence spread across like ocean waves. When the slowest cadet who was laughing out loud finally closed his mouth from the sudden silence, all the cadets were already looking at one person.
Why? Who is that person? Why is everyone like this? They all had the same common doubt in mind but none of them dared to open their mouths.
That was when Yu Jitae opened his mouth.
“You at the front.”
A dry voice resonantly echoed across the quiet auditorium. One of the cadets glanced around before replying in fright.
“Ye, yes? M, me?”
“Come out.”
The cadet walked towards Yu Jitae after glancing around the room. His hands and legs were visibly trembling.
Yu Jitae handed the survey papers and the plastic bag of pens to the cadet. Then, he took the pocket watch out from his pocket and said after checking the time.
“I’ll give you 3 minutes.”