NOVEL NEXT Episode 124
Episode 124
Capone and Diedrich were surprised at first, then loudly protested.
They said not to talk nonsense and that it’s all sophistry.
“Do you know how hard it was for me too?!”
At the honest and stark remark, Hae Yuna and Shin Myohan, who had been holding back, joined in.
“What? Are you trying to have a misery battle now? What are you trying to do?”
“Hmm. The general god I serve, Cheokjungyeong, said you are very bad children. Why are you even alive?”
From then on, the level of the remarks became so intense that it was a mess.
Ryuseong tried to take care of me, but I didn’t need him now. At this moment, I shouldn’t stay silent. Even for the sake of Cassice Demillang, who no longer exists.
I had to say it.
“You can think that logic is the survival of the fittest.”
“…What did you say?”
“Think whatever you want. That’s your freedom, of course. You can misunderstand for the rest of your life, so curse me, betray me, and try to kill me as much as you want.”
My mouth was parched. My fingertips were trembling, but Ryuseong held my hand tightly. Thanks to that, I had the courage to say these words.
I said,
“Still, I will survive.”
Even out of resentment for my life where I struggled and survived with all my might, I will live.
As I spit out those words, suddenly a streak of tears split my cheek and fell with a plop. I laughed in absurdity.
‘Why are you crying… Jeong Ian.’
I know too. These are not the tears of Cassice Demillang. It’s Jeong Ian’s cry.
I thought it was impossible for me to love the world as a broken, defective product, so a happy ending was unattainable. The only thing lovely to me is you, so how can such a monopolistic and exclusive relationship be socially healthy?
So I thought that someday, leaving you would be true love. I thought the same about Jeong Ian’s life given to me. I felt that life was something good to have and something unavoidable if lost.
But it was different.
“If I struggle till the end, I will be free someday. Maybe I can even be liberated. If complete security comes to me, then…”
It was so dazzling that I couldn’t see anything.
I closed my eyes and slowly changed the subject.
“…You’re right. To become a survivor, it’s fine to roll on the ground pathetically. It’s fine to eat dog food that I scraped together desperately with my mouth. As long as I can live, I will do anything.”
I smiled.
“That’s who I am. No matter what ordeal comes, how can I lose?”
So I was acknowledged that it’s okay to have a desperate desire to live.
It was okay to work desperately. That was never something shameful.
When I was acknowledged and declared that fact, even with Cassice Demillang’s body, I was so happy that I was overwhelmed.
The tears kept coming out.
***
Capone Jones and Diedrich Vinckel, who were fiercely fighting, seemed to not understand me, but I didn’t need to make them understand, so I just told them to get lost.
If it had been Jeong Ian’s body, I would have flipped them off and told them to scram, but to keep the set value that Cassice Demillang doesn’t do such vulgar things, I just waved my hand to shoo them away. Then they bickered among themselves and left. Seeing how they treat me like trash, they probably think I will lose in the power struggle with the family head, which is truly a pity.
‘But since they couldn’t even give proper information because they couldn’t build friendship with me, I’m willing to overlook it so far.’
There are many things they don’t know about me. I didn’t openly tell my hand even to my great-grandfather. It was natural. Who would believe that? Before, I thought if I confided in Ryuseong, I could borrow a commander from the Hanra faction.
‘Not anymore. Because I went to Russia.’
Kirill, whom I negotiated well with Ivan Karpin in Russia and brought to my side, is an excellent former soldier who listens well like a hunting dog.
Although now I put him among the smuggler gang in the demon realm because I don’t have a completely owned, unsupervised house. Fortunately, he’s getting along well with the queen grandmother. They said they have a cat-and-mouse rivalry relationship. Hehehe. Let them suffer a bit.
Anyway, I had one excellent Kirill, whether he’s a dog or a mouse.
And usually, dogs have a good sense of smell and mice are good at stealing cheese.
I taught Kirill the smell of one item, and the operation date is today. If it fails, Kirill may die. Even I think it’s a gamble-like operation.
But sometimes you have to take a gamble to survive. And I knew how to manipulate the odds of success. When I first went to the demon realm and dropped my hair, and when I deliberately revealed my visit to the demon realm while returning to the academy with Ryuseong… What if you could believe that it was all my scheme?
‘I thought I was going to die trying to figure it out.’
I’ll review the detailed plan later. But for that very operation, I showed a helpless appearance to the point of even opening up to the villains. The conversation went a little deeper than planned, and I unexpectedly showed tears, but hmm. Someone who doesn’t know that even that is an act will fall into the trap.
Soon, the sound of someone disappearing from the alley was heard.
‘So something will definitely happen today.’
So I smiled brightly.
‘I really didn’t lay a hand on that bastard Logan. It’s true. I don’t know why he disappeared either.’
On the evening of the third day of the field trip, it was the time for the horror experience to begin.
***
“Okay, okay. Line up straight!”
Professor Dohyun of the sorcery department scolded the students in a dull face and lined them up in a row.
While Professor Dohyun, who lost rock-paper-scissors again today, was doing his best, Professor Pungseonja took out a huge, hazy glowing whiteboard like a beam projector with sorcery, poof!
On the outskirts of the scene where the two professors were working, Professor Apple, famous for not giving out apples, was sitting on the back of Professor Ganta, who was doing push-ups, and smiling brightly as if flaunting his rock-paper-scissors supremacy while sucking on orange juice.
“Kya! It’s refreshing! Orange is the best for juice! Apple for the box!”
‘…What nonsense is that?’
As I brushed my hair back, I suddenly realized that the orange juice Professor Apple was sucking with a straw was a specific brand product contained in a pack. A chill suddenly ran down my spine, and I turned around.
“Ms. Hae Yuna.”
“Huh? Yes? Why, why are you calling… me?”
She seemed to have tried to use honorifics unconsciously but messed up. But it didn’t matter if Ryuseong’s friends used honorifics or whatever. They were also the original characters I loved (although not as much as Ryuseong) and the characters Cassice Demillang eventually killed.
‘Above all, I’m already on casual terms with Shin Myohan.’
Coming to that conclusion, I decided to ask Hae Yuna right away.
“Take out your orange juice.”
“Huh? You? Want? To drink?”
Hae Yuna said that in a completely broken state. Lee Hyang tapped her shoulder and scolded her to come to her senses.
It was about how much alcohol she had guzzled down for her language ability to become like this.
“I, I didn’t drink that much!”
“Stop talking nonsense. There’s still this much left in your bag, so where are you lying… No, wait. If you drank a lot, it should be less? No, no. That’s not it. How many did you even make?”
Hmm. Can making orange juice without orange juice be considered manufacturing? I feel like reporting it to the strict Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
Then Hae Yuna said,
“Huh? Something’s strange?”
“What is it? Do you have a hangover?”
“No! Not that…”
Hae Yuna gently grasped the orange juice pack from inside her bag, shook it, and listened. What is she doing?
“I feel something off. I need to check!”
“Hey! You crazy girl! Are you trying to drink again?! Oh my, that’s a good excuse!”
“Ah! This is really because of the strange feeling!”
“Then I’ll taste it! Is that okay? To check the strange feeling?”
Hae Yuna tried to push the bag with the orange juice back, saying it was absolutely not okay. I swiftly applied the technique of Geumnasu and stole a pack of orange juice.
“Gasp! It’s been snatched!”
“You students over there! Stop chattering and line up in a row! No, don’t chatter even if you’re just lining up in a row! The more you do this, the more I become a hell instructor, okay? Hey, aren’t kids these days scared of this? You have to do well for me to be an angel!”
I completely ignored Dohyun’s words and stuck the straw into the orange juice pack.
And sluuuurp.
With that sound, the round eyes of Ryuseong’s friends all stuck to my body.
‘They’re like really cute baby rabbits. These guys.’
As I thought that and finished one pack with the straw in one shot, Hae Yuna asked,
“…How is it?”
“How is what? It must be delicious. Isn’t it? Demillang?”
“Yes, Ms. Lee Hyang. It’s delicious.”
I, who was quietly smiling with my eyes, decided to tell the truth so that Ryuseong wouldn’t make a troubled expression anymore.
“It’s truly excellent orange juice.”
“Hmm, I knew it… No, wait! No, what do you mean?”
Hae Yuna almost jumped in place, then lowered her voice and asked in a flurry.
But I only had one thing to say.
“It was orange juice.”
“There’s no way that’s possible when I carefully injected soju into each one with a syringe…”
At that moment, Professor Dohyun walked past Hae Yuna while slurping orange juice.
“Good work.”
“…?”
Hae Yuna looked around at the professors with blank eyes. Pungseonja’s face was flushed red for some reason, and his smile felt sloppy today. And in his hand was orange juice. Even in the principal’s hand.
Several empty orange juice packs were scattered next to Professor Ganta, who was doing push-ups saying he shouldn’t lose muscle, and Professor Apple’s face was literally plastered…
“…!”
Oh no. Hae Yuna, who learned the