Chapter 152: Darkness: Eyes Gazing Down (1)
It was time for another Campus Community Service but today, it was just a 2 hour service.
“There’s the finals for the 5th grade campus tournament today. We’ve seen it happen last year as well but, the kids are very hot-tempered, and they fight outside the stage as well. I wish they would listen a bit more…”
The sentry staff member whispered as he asked him to be a safety guard.
“But we’ll place you near the outskirts. Please rest there comfortably for just 2 hours.”
Because of that, he had to stand at the tournament room on the fifth floor of Colosseo in security uniforms for 2 hours.
What the staff member said was right.
A tournament had many things on the line. Points, money, honour, experience, pride, etc. To be acknowledged by their households and later become world-famous superhumans or to be above cadets their age, the kids were a lot more serious and sharper than usual today.
“What?”
“A big mouth for someone that got shit on.”
“You better shut that mouth before I dig your eyes out.”
“Try it then.”
Ones that were in a bad relationship either brought each other down on the corridor, or refused to acknowledge the results even after the fight. In-campus competition for ranks was like that.
“Come here, you son of a bitc*!”
Yu Jitae, who was watching with crossed arms, saw someone itching to fight so he grabbed him by the nape and threw him onto the floor.
“Kuhk!”
And other superhumans from the sentries took him outside. There was in fact quite a lot of things to do, so the 2 hours at Colosseo flew by.
[Campus Community Service 5/10]
But there were still 5 hours remaining.
***
A superhuman party had to consist of more than 3 people, and most of them had 3 to 4 in a group. That was why Yeorum had to group up with Soujiro, Kim Ji-in and Sophia in preparation for an assignment.
“Do I have to group up with these junks?”
“You have to be grateful. Who else would be in a team with a b*tch like you?”
“What the f*ck did you say.”
There were some offers from Noblesse School and the Yong household to form a group together but Yeorum turned all of them down. It seemed that she had become attached to the group despite her words.
As they started working outside school, the name ‘Yeorum and the Losties’ couldn’t be used any more as Mihailov requested for a name change.
“Let’s just call it Losties then.”
But because ‘Losties’ wasn’t a suitable name for a group undertaking external activities, they each gave out ideas until they settled with the name, ‘Mochi’, proposed by Soujiro.
It was the name of a soft rice cake but the reason Yeorum agreed to the name was because ‘Kimochii’ sounded like a cute name to her.
“See ya.”
“Going by yourself again?”
“Yeah. Don’t follow me. I can do everything myself.”
After entering the third quarter, Yu Jitae didn’t accompany Yeorum as often, because she herself did not want it.
He didn’t do anything about it because she was indeed doing fine alone. Whatever the case, Yeorum was different from before and started taking care of herself and Team Mochi was also doing decently.
Not everything went the way she wanted to, so on some days, she would shut the door with a bang after a lesson or a sparring session.
When asked, ‘Did something happen’, she would simply say, “Just a little bit annoyed,” in return and Yeorum being annoyed was nothing new.
“Unni must be having her period…!”
Kaeul joked around needlessly and got kicked.
So these days, Yu Jitae either went with Bom, or played with Gyeoul when he was free.
That day was the same.
Holding Gyeoul by her hand, he was walking down the streets of the residential area. It seemed that the fountain on the central plaza was working again after the weather eased up a bit. Gyeoul had been pestering him to go there for a few days already so it would be good to visit that place today.
That had been his original plan before receiving a sudden call.
– Is this the guardian, Mister Yu Jitae?
“Yes.”
It was a call from the sentries.
An extremely polite voice carefully posed a question.
– Is it possible for you to urgently come here, by any chance?
“Did something happen?”
– Cadet Yeorum was involved in a fight.
Yu Jitae stopped his feet. It seemed that the fountain trip had to be postponed.
“…Why stopping?”
“There’s a place I have to go to.”
Gyeoul, who had been waiting for a few days, meekly nodded her head despite being visibly disappointed.
“Sorry.”
“…Nn.”
After taking the child home, he went to where the incident occured. At the underground sparring room of Colosseo Lair, there was a broken room. Several people were throwing glances from the surroundings while Yeorum was crouching in the middle of the sentries.
Now what was this about.
One of them greeted when Yu Jitae walked up, and Yeorum reacted to that sound by lifting her head. She had a sullen look on her face. After their eyes met, she lowered her head.
He broke through the crowd and approached the centre.
“I’m the guardian, Yu Jitae.”
“Ahh. Yes sir. Uhh, sorry for interrupting your rest. I’m the manager of the 3rd investigation team of sentries, Jose.”
The sentry started off with an apology despite having done nothing wrong. That was the result of the Yu household’s name value.
“It’s nothing crazy, but Cadet Yeorum punched her opponent after the spar ended.”
“Who’s the cadet that got hit.”
“It’s Zhou Luxun.”
Zhou Luxun was the highest achieving cadet from Erfan Guild, which was one of the 3 powerhouses right now. He was in Professor Ha Yoon’s Moonlight study group, and was one of the top members of a Level 5 society.
At the same time, he was on very bad terms with Yeorum.
“Is the child seriously injured?”
“No. Umm, he’s not that hurt and the cadet is being healed at a hospital. But as you can see, the building was a little… damaged as a result.”
Yu Jitae went to Yeorum after nodding his head. She was crouching down, looking at the floor and he could see her red eyes through the gaps between her red hair.
He didn’t speak to her yet, because she probably wouldn’t reply back.
“So umm, we would appreciate your assistance with the investigation.”
“Right.”
After the incident, Yu Jitae took her and returned to the dormitory. She didn’t say a word until then and didn’t leave the room after coming back.
That night, a person came looking for Yu Jitae from the sentries and talked about things related to Yeorum’s punishment. Fights between cadets were commonplace but this time, there were unfortunately lots of witnesses and the damage done to property was also considerable.
“If we completely ignore the punishment, we can’t expect China to sit silent either, so…”
Funnily enough, the sentries were on the side of Yu household, and they were still trying to please Yu Jitae.
However, he shook his head.
“It’s fine. Please punish her as you see fit.”
Even a dragon must get punished after doing something wrong. The reason he had such a thought wasn’t because he was a righteous person. It simply stemmed from the thought that daily lives shouldn’t always be full of enjoyable and likeable things.
If a child did something wrong, they had to know that it was a bad thing.
That was different from making her change habits. Yeorum might still punch someone after this and he still wouldn’t care. It was just that daily lives could only revolve after realising that hitting someone was a bad thing to do.
So as long as the lives and the Amusements of the kids weren’t in danger, it was correct for them to get punished for wrongdoings.
“Sorry? Ah, I understand…”
Despite his doubt, the sentry staff appeared relieved. The next day, Yu Jitae was summoned by the education department and they went through several talks about the punishment during the conference.
Lyun, the guardian from Erfan Guild, acted pretentiously with a big frown, but didn’t say much. He was a short man, around 170 centimetres tall, but gave off an extremely ferocious aura that was usually felt from the storm troops.
Something similar had happened before when Yeorum insulted Zhang Xueyan by kissing her but unlike now, he was on a mad rampage back then.
“What a rude child.”
That was the only complaint he gave because he was also reading Yu Jitae’s mood, consciously or not.
The conference was done quietly and swiftly.
Due to wrongdoings, she was restricted from individual spars for 3 days and received a deduction of 20 points.
After returning to the dormitory, Yu Jitae turned the competition application on and checked her rank.
+++RANK+++
1. Yong Taeha: 2513 (+51)
2. Yu Yeorum: 2512 (-28)
3. Zhou Luxun: 2501 (+54)
4. Bera Blueday: 2489 (+49)
++++++++++
The first number were their total accumulation of points from the first 3 quarters and the numbers inside the brackets were the fluctuations of their points over the last 3 days.
From the 2nd to 10th places, they only had 5 to 10 points of difference separating them but Yeorum had been maintaining a 70 point lead above Yong Taeha.
She had been in a massive lead but…
2. Yu Yeorum: 2512 (-28)
Her points had decreased by a lot, which was obvious considering that others gained points while she lost hers. She even gave the first place over to Yong Taeha.
That wasn’t the end. Three days of restriction on spars meant that she couldn’t participate in the individual spars that gave 10 points a day. That meant she would be missing out on another 30 points.
All the cadets in the top ranks were desperate and talented. Due to the small gaps in-between, a drop in 30 points was massive and if nothing unusual happened during the next three days, she would drop out of the top 4 seats.
She hadn’t been gaining much points recently so he checked the recent match history, and found a tie with Zhou Luxun.
Well, Zhou Luxun’s blessing was suited for holding his ground and buying time, while Yeorum can’t be winning every single time. He was about to ignore it but,
+++Yu Yeorum Match History+++
VS Zhou Luxun (DRAW) Point Fluctuation: -9p
VS Zhou Luxun (DRAW) Point Fluctuation: -7p
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Meeting the same cadet twice in a row and getting a tie in both fights was a little fishy.
The reason she lost points despite it being a tie was because of the ‘underdog system’ of the Ranking Competition. A cadet with a lower score would receive more points by defeating a cadet that had more points than them.
Before the spars, Yeorum had more points than Zhou Luxun so she lost points despite the draw.
It seemed that he needed to have a chat with Yeorum.
However, she didn’t leave the room even after a whole day. She was silent even after he knocked on the door several times. She was definitely inside the room, and because he heard her use the watch inside, she must have also seen the announcement regarding the punishment.
What came before she opened her door, was in fact Team Mochi.
Knock knock–
He opened the door and found Sophia, Soujiro and Kim Ji-in wearing worried looks on their faces.
“Hi, is Yeorum inside?”
“Yeah. Come in.”
“Is she, like, fine?”
Yu Jitae shook his head. Kim Ji-in and Soujiro asked about her condition and Sophia heaved a sigh after hearing his response.
“Ehew. That’s why I told her to kill her temper a little…”
“Thanks for your concerns. I’ll tell her about it.”
“Okay…”
The kids handed him a paper bag, saying it was a gift.
“It’s a sandwich and a coffee. She doesn’t eat anything when she’s upset, right…”
“Thanks.”
After giving him the gift, the kids turned around. He was about to close the door after bidding them farewell, but Sophia, who was the only one that didn’t turn around, opened her mouth with an irritated voice.
“But to be honest, I think I would’ve been mad as well.”
“What?”
“Zhou Luxun, that little bit*h… that bastard was sniping Yeorum.”
“Right. I heard that sniping became easier after the system changed.”
Sniping. He heard Mihailov mention it in the past.
In fact, he was about to go outside today and ask Mihailov, some professors and other guardians he knew of to ask various things. He decided to ask it now, so that he could learn more about it in advance.
“Can you tell me in more detail?”
“Sorry?”
“What’s sniping.”
When Yu Jitae showed interest, Kim Ji-in who was looking into his eyes, unconsciously flinched a little. Sophia replied in her stead.
“Cadets with similar points get matched up in the sparring rooms right. And because there’s a lot of difference in points now, someone with 2500 points won’t get matched against a 1000.”
“Right.”
“So for example, if I also had 2500 points and had a good compatibility against Yeorum, I can start matchmaking when she does it herself.”
“You’ll be fighting Yeorum every time then.”
“Yes. There aren’t many cadets in the top ranks in the first place. Matchmaking also takes a lot of time so it makes it easier to snipe.”
It was a way around the system of the individual spars.
“I think that’s 100% the case. Does it make sense that Zhou Luxun never fought against Yeorum until the third quarter and fought her twice in a row all of a sudden?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t make sense.”
Since he had only been focused on Yeorum’s ability, emotions and other things, he hadn’t taken much interest in the matchmaking system and the likes.
After thinking for a bit, Yu Jitae thought about the possible contrasting situation to sniping. They were both in the top ranks, so how was Zhou Luxun able to not fight Yeorum until the third quarter?
“…In other words, it’s possible for the top cadets to group up and make sure their time slots don’t overlap.”
Sophia widened her eyes. Seeing from how Kim Ji-in and Soujiro were innocently rolling their eyes around, it seemed that Sophia alone knew some things.
“That’s the case. Isn’t it?”
The white girl carefully nodded her head.
“Yes. Actually, there’s a group chat…”
Her words caused Kim Ji-in and Soujiro to widen their eyes as well.