No Dark Secrets In This Book

Episode 5

As I mentioned before, a special energy that randomly doubles the efficiency of internal energy circulation or mana circulation is circulating in the Korean Peninsula. 

In a word, not only can you absorb pure energy, but depending on how much effort each individual makes or if they are a talent monster, they have a higher probability of experiencing a sudden epiphany of the untrained or a leveling up awakening event of the next stage.

You may ask, shouldn’t the world’s population flock here and cause overcrowding? But according to research, youth around the age of adulthood is best for absorbing energy.

The logic is that when the body has finished growing to some extent and the vessel is formed, that’s when you can receive a lot by pouring water right on time.  

This is why elite prospects from all over the world flock to Korea’s academies.

‘I know all these faces.’

Looking around lightly while standing in the auditorium, familiar faces were gathered in groups of three or five, chatting. To be precise, they were not familiar faces, but faces I found out about.

Cassice Demillang must not know the faces of the powerful sons of noble families, as it would lead to complete character collapse, so I memorized them in between struggling with the uncooperative mana in my dantian. In order to not be looked down upon.

My survival strategy was to follow the basic setup of the character Cassice Demillang, but not do the stupid things that lead to the world’s destruction.

But at that moment, when I was smiling and responding to the nods of greeting from the professors, some cadets suddenly approached me and attempted small talk.

“Greetings! Sir Demillang! You must be very tired. Thank you for your hard work on this cold day.”

“To have the noble young master of Demillang sit in the auditorium like this, we can see the standards of the Academy!”

I would have properly greeted them back if they were average, but trash, trash, this is what, someone I don’t know (someone I judged to be worthless if I don’t know them), and trash formed a chiasmus.  

I mean, what should I say? I’m not immersed in the class system, but still, they should know their place. In a society where the class system has not completely disappeared, how dare trash speak to a Demillang?

It goes without saying that every word they spew out is nonsense.

‘Have the cadet sit in the auditorium, so are you going to seat them in a hotel and have the entrance ceremony?’

The enrollment capacity of the Academy is nine hundred. I don’t know about these days, but in my time, you had to count all the first, second, and third years of an ordinary school to reach a thousand. In other words, by normal standards.

In a word, the fact that the extremely rare awakeners gathered in one grade amounted to a whopping nine hundred was a clear indication of how magnificent the Academy’s prestige was.

Of course, even after that, the cleaning out continues steadily… but let’s think about that later.

First, let’s try to drive away these trashy pieces of shit.

These guys who keep mumbling some nonsense and dirtying my ears.

“I can only say it’s a preposterous policy. To enroll, you must register in the awakener directory and be surveyed by CCTV all day. And K-o-r-e-a-n is the common language on campus? I still don’t understand why I have to speak this l-a-n-g-u-a-g-e over my native tongue.”

Looking closely, it seems they are dissatisfied with the Academy’s policies, but if you push kids who can exert power greater than bullets like you guys to wander around unregistered, what would happen? I don’t want to see our country become like your country. Young masters from families that illegally sell drugs to civilians for money and buy noble family status to successfully enroll.

To such trash, my answer is only this.

Consciously moving the facial muscles, the violet eyes that were only observing narrowed.

“…How strange.”

“What is it?”

Next, the head tilted.

“You must have come to the Academy of your own will. For that, you seem to have quite a lot of complaints.”

“No, that’s…!”

The fingertip taps the chin.

“If you don’t want to follow the Academy’s rules, why did you come? The ancients said even monks leave if they dislike the temple. Moreover, your words are quite frivolous for someone who got accepted to a place everyone yearns for… it’s below expectations.”

The blooming smile was as sweet as a peony.

“It stinks. So much that it’s hard to keep you by my side.”

Unlike the sharp words spilling from the lips.

By the way, the mention of the stench is sincere. I don’t know what smell it is, but the halitosis was severe. It seems they didn’t brush their teeth after breakfast, so please, when coming to a public place, bring cleanliness.

Anyway, when I ran my mouth like the real Cassice Demillang, agro was pulled and the surroundings became noisy. To be precise, everyone was looking this way and ridiculing the other side in hushed voices.

Why did they talk to a Demillang? Not knowing their place. The level is different…

The whispers are intense. Now the trash friends have no choice but to apologize to me and retreat with flushed faces.

That’s what I thought, but…

“How can you give me such humiliation, Sir Cassice…?”

The one with the worst halitosis spoke to me with a flushed face.

What should I say?

I don’t know whether to admire the spirit of continuing to talk even after being openly snubbed or criticize the shamelessness. Moreover, this guy was the one I said I couldn’t recognize his face. In a word, a guy whose face I don’t even know kept pestering and rubbing against ‘Cassice Demillang’.

What gives him the right to do this?

“Do I have any reason to treat you specially?”

“How can you say that? Our relationship…!”

“Excuse me, but who are you?”

I was sincere, but because my way of speaking was so noble, it seemed to come across as sarcasm instead. When the surroundings burst into laughter, his face turned beet red and he trembled before shouting.

“It’s Bongtang! We exchanged letters not long ago! George Bongtang!”

Hmm, George Bongtang is…

‘Huh?’

He’s a member of ‘Cassice Demillang’s gang? Of course, I designated him as one of the main characters and thoroughly read and memorized his profile, but…

‘…This bastard cheated with Photoshop!’

I couldn’t recognize him because the profile picture and the original were so different! This damn George Bongtang! How much did you edit it?

But fortunately, George Bongtang was a character with flaws in many aspects, someone I had decided to exclude when reassembling Cassice Demillang’s gang.

So I just decided to let loose and be a complete asshole without fear of consequences.

“Ah, I apologize. I have a hard time remembering worthless people.”

“What the…”

When I smiled brightly and waved my hand, George’ face turned beet red. But well, the Bongtang family is like a time bomb that will explode soon, so it’s best to cut ties now. Because they are bastards who roll over and wag their tails like Demillang’s faithful dogs in front of him, but embezzle Demillang’s share behind his back.

There’s one more big problem besides that, but let’s talk about it later.

“If you don’t understand, should I put it bluntly? You are too low-class to stay by my side. So please disappear without giving off a foul odor.”

When I arrogantly declared with crossed legs, George trembled in place and turned around, throwing a not-at-all scary extra line, “…You will regret this!” I didn’t even snort, and instead clapped my hands twice.

Then, like a wave, the whispers began to die down, drawing a circle from near me, and after waiting a very short time, I was able to grasp the silence I wanted. A situation was created where only Cassice’ voice echoed in the auditorium that was busy for the entrance ceremony.

“Logan Esteban.”

“Yes, Sir Cassice. Did you call for me?”

At my call, the man with long green hair, the successor candidate of the noble Esteban family, appeared through the crowd and politely greeted with his hand on his chest.

“Diedrich Vinckel.”

“Yes, our Demillang.”

At my call, the only son of the noble Vinckel family, a man with red hair and a languid appearance, responded by raising one hand while roughly sitting on a chair.

“Capone Jones.”

“Give me your orders.”

At my call, the woman with short blue hair, who was in a power struggle for the successor position within the noble Jones family, appeared like a shadow behind me at some point and answered in a chilling tone.

I newly realized that all of this was a story in a novel. It was because the characters’ appearances, behavior, manner of speaking, and even intonation were exactly as described in the novel. Of course, I won’t proceed with all the developments according to the novel.

The original Cassice led a group of more than a dozen people and went crazy, but to be honest, I had no desire to do that. So the top members I picked are these people.

Those who would have dominated a force if it weren’t for the young master of ‘Demillang’, who are not lacking to be with ‘Cassice Demillang’. 

But the descendants of noble families who cannot help but follow ‘Demillang’.

“Come here.”

Wearing the outer shell of Cassice, I smiled brightly.

“I’ll treat you preciously.”

At those words, Logan, Diedrich, and Capone gathered by my side without a moment’s delay. Like trained soldiers lining up in unison.

The name of Demillang was such that it could command those noble ones with just a gesture.

When I leisurely leaned back and rested my chin without giving the next order, they began to quarrel among themselves over who would sit next to me. Because I sat at the far left end, only one person could sit next to me. There was only one seat, but there were three insisting on sitting to my right.

In a word, it was time to establish the hierarchy.

“You should all be aware. No one is as qualified as I am to attend to Sir Cassice.”

“Hey, you guys are successor candidates. I am the only child. The only son. Among you, who has the highest status? Who is it?”

“I cannot entrust the seat next to Sir Cassice to a man who is as sloppy as you. And Logan, you are the same. Sir Cassice does not need someone to attend to him. The most suitable for his readily used words is me.”

“Are you trying to take the seat next to Sir Cassice with a brain that cannot recognize that attending and being used have the same meaning?”

“Enough, you guys aren’t qualified.”

While the ordinary awakeners around them turned pale without being able to fit into the world they lived in, I was having fun watching them for a while, and I felt something, a blue cold flame rising in my keenly heated senses.

I turned around. And saw.

A large hand with bulging veins and thick joints grabbed the back of the chair and pulled it back.

The seat next to me. In that place where the descendants of three noble families quarreled and tried to take, a man sat down without hesitation, crossed his arms, and glared forward.

The neat Logan frowned deeply and blurted out at the bizarre situation unfolding before our eyes.

“…What are you doing? Ryuseong of Hanra Faction?”

Ryuseong was occupying the seat next to me without a word.

***

Now, let’s make one thing clear.

The Academy is located in Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

It’s quite interesting in terms of feng shui that an institution trying to absorb energy is located in the middle of the city, not in a mountain range, but it’s said to have excellent energy absorption because it’s situated in a propitious site between the Han River and Namsan Mountain.

The ‘Mirinae Academy’, which is in a confrontational structure with the Academy but is evaluated to be one step behind, stepped out of the competition between Baekdu Mountain and Yanggang and was evaluated to be about ten steps behind. On the other hand, the ‘Guiding Star Academy’, the only one focused on the ideology of education, takes Halla Mountain as the source of energy. And the Guiding Star Academy is none other than the origin of the Hanra Faction, the faction of the original protagonist Ryuseong, because it is a tradition for the head of the Hanra Faction to concurrently serve as the principal of Guiding Star.

However, the head of the sect sent Ryuseong, who naturally thought he would enter Guiding Star, to the Academy, telling him to go see the bigger world.

It was an appropriate action for the progression of the story, but it was the wrong response for the future Hanra Faction.

‘Later on, while Ryuseong is sweating to prevent the Seoul catastrophe, the Hanra Faction gets annihilated in Jeju Island and all hell breaks loose.’

I shouldn’t say this, but the development aimed at completely shattering the protagonist’s mentality made my heart flutter.

In a word, the main charm point of this novel was the protagonist’s mentality bombing operation.

‘But it seems the protagonist is now shattering my mentality…?!’

The state of the original protagonist is strange.