Chương 35: Schemes that seamlessly blend greed and enticement
Behind the doors to an office room, Parkinson sat behind a desk staring at over a dozen holographic screens as his fingers typed away on a holographic keyboard.
Sigh…
"Having to do the job of two people is never easy."
Though there were times when Rolan felt a sense of maturity, these were rare times. Often, Parkinson would be left with these miscellaneous things.
Most of it involved the maintenance of military zone #91, and with the camp of ten thousand, there was also that.
But Mr. Park didn't mind it.
'Rolan still believes.' He thought.
After being released from the military academy, they were drowned with the cold and hard truths that is reality.
They weren't the so-called geniuses that they once saw themselves as back at that time, when they had graduated from their own camp of ten thousand as one of the few stellar geniuses.
'At that time, we really overestimated ourselves.'
After being released, Parkinson gave up.
To rise in the ranks of humanity, he'd do it the systematic way, and slowly earn merit. Such merit that wasn't exactly slaying beasts and holding up the skies.
He realized, just maybe, protecting humanity wasn't his job.
That maybe, he'd nurture one who would, earning himself merit to see a rise in his societal standing.
On the other hand, Rolan didn't see it so.
'There are still embers of hope burning in his heart. Well, that's to be expected.'
'Back then, he was the number one.' Mr. Park shook his head, 'And then we entered the military academy and saw true geniuses, those bastards from greater families.'
When he thought of Seth, the boy's image overlapped with a group of individuals. He couldn't help but think of the young masters and mistresses of the greater families.
'Even that ruthlessness is the same,' He thought, 'Or maybe, even worse.'
Click~
The door to the office opened as Rolan entered. Without saying a word, he took a seat on the other side of Mr. Park's desk.
Rolan simply stared at him until Parkinson met his gaze.
"Why are you staring daggers at me?" Parkinson still had his head buried in the holographic screens, but he could sense such an obvious stare from a few hundred meters away, much less one that was coming from less than a meter away.
"When we collected these 'geniuses', I doubted that it made sense picking up six."
Rolan's eyes contained burning excitement as he said as calmly as possible, "But now, we're going to be giving six stellar geniuses to the military academy, and the official camp hasn't even started."
Parkinson chuckled, "Indeed. I wonder what reaction the other-!"
Finally, he caught himself, rising to his feet in an abrupt manner and exaggeratedly slamming his hands onto the table.
"S-S-Six!" Parkinson exclaimed, "Melissa awakened too?!"
Rolan merely nodded his head in agreement, causing Mr. Park's body to tremble.
What did this mean?
You see, it wasn't as simple as just another stellar genius.
This meant that the entire group had awakened, but there was more to it than that.
'Back then, it was the six heroes,' Parkinson mused, excitement rising within him.
'Since then, every few years, groups of individuals would emerge that greatly outshine not only their peers but also those from previous years.'
These groups, just like the five human martials and supreme commander, would have a total of six individuals.
"I-Is…" Parkinson's gaze rose to meet with Rolan's, "Do you think that this group is one of those…?"
Rolan grinned.
"Whether they are or not can't be determined anyways."
His grin widened, "The matter at hand is, we've got ourselves six stellar geniuses before the camp begins. We can even outperform those top-performing districts like Red wind, Yellow dust, and Blackburne."
Falling back on his chair, Parkinson stared at the ceiling in a daze.
Pleased?
Simple pleasure couldn't compare to this.
He had seen it already, but it was much clearer now.
He could even see the mechanical bird carrying a letter with contents that informed him of his high merit.
Then, Seth's image appeared.
'It began with him.'
Then it was Anon.
'The orphan to surpass the children of luck.'
Children of luck, Mr. Park referred to those young masters and mistresses as such. After all, they were only lucky to be born into their family, but in the end, luck was a talent too.
The fight between Anon and Seth is what truly awakened the egos of these children of luck, along with Andrew, and seemingly Melissa too.
'These two…'
Mr. Park and Rolan had their own thoughts, but they coincidentally thought of Seth and Anon simultaneously.
Without them, who could've spurred on this group like this?
Nickyle would've seen his arrogance reach the highest heaven, Catharina wouldn't have fallen away only to then be reborn stronger, and Andrew would've had much less determination.
Melissa's awakening was the final nail in the coffin.
Melissa would have certainly failed to open her mind's eye if not for the exceptional quality of the other geniuses, a quality that was elevated largely due to Anon and Seth's presence.
But at this time, when they were both showering Seth and Anon with internal praise, the door to their room opened wide as Nickyle trotted in with a wide smile plastered onto his face.
In his eyes, a dark light shone brilliantly.
"Ho ho ho..."
"Have you heard the good news? About Melissa?" He revealed a side of himself he hadn't shown since the beginning.
Since when did this child of luck care about a commoner?
"You're quite daring," Rolan stood up, turning to him, "To dare barge into this office like it's yours?"
"Oh no, how dare I?" Nickyle showed a smile that wasn't one, continuing, "Anyways, let's cut to the chase."
On his finger, a blue light shone as a holographic screen appeared. More importantly, there was a certain insignia in the corner of the screen showing that this was as legit as it got.
…
How did this go?
Basically, Nickyle's subordinate had completed his inquiries and investigations into Anon and his story about the two thieves.
However, there were no records of any thieves being killed, no break-ins on the street where he lived, and not even any oddities surrounding Anon in his past years.
So, the question was, how did he truly awaken?
"As instructors, you must understand the gravity of the situation, right?"
Nickyle said, "A student claiming one thing that isn't the truth, and this thing involves opening his mind's eye. Now, what if he had some mystical treasure or something that allowed this?"
"After all, an orphan like him wouldn't undergo any awakening rituals that us children of great families undergo."
Enticement.
Using the absolute human nature, greed, that courses through the veins of all humans. Nickyle desired to see the scene of their greed brining ruination upon Anon.
'This is what they call borrowing another's hand to do the dirty work.' Nickyle thought to himself, grinning strangely.
The thing was, Mr. Park and Rolan were just like any other human, having greed and whatnot.
They were incredibly greedy.
But most importantly wasn't their greed, but what said greed was directed at.
They were instructors desiring to rise through the ranks via the path of merit, not investigators.
For them, Anon and Seth were essential to their rise through the ranks of society, particularly regarding the duo's success in the military academy.
The instructors did not want to see these two fail before even entering the academy.
"Rolan," Parkinson said, ignoring Nickyle as he turned to his compatriot. "Do you see anything wrong with this?"
"Huh?" Rolan frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"Ah, shit, so it was just me?" Mr. Park replied, opening a drawer to reveal a glasses case.
He carefully put on a pair of glasses and examined the holographic screen that Nickyle was displaying.
"Oh, damn."
Turning to Nickyle, he asked, "I must have misread. So, what's the problem again?"
…
Bam!
Nickyle, in his dorm room, slammed his fist into the bedside table.
Said fist went straight through, obliterating anything that attempted to intrude on its path of destruction.
"Those damnable instructors, curse them, curse their delusion, curse their greed!"
Obviously, he had a fair idea why the instructors agreed.
'How dare they think so highly of this bunch…'
He didn't undermine himself, just thinking that if such a group did exist, it would be formed within the military academy where obviously, he'd unite with other geniuses probably from the Core district.
His thoughts churned.
"Ah…"
A single terrifying thought entered his mind.
"Will Father intervene if I show it to him?"
Obviously not.
Why would an Otherworldly Knight care about such things? That makeshift treasure could only entice those like Parkinson and Rolan, anyway.
"Hehehe..."
Nickyle's thoughts churned.
'A treasure like that wouldn't matter, but what if Father knew Anon's origins were tied to the Constantin family?'
'The involvement of another Knight would certainly pique his interest, right?'
Why would an Otherworldly Knight send their son to another district just for an orphan?
This was sure to intrigue his father, right?
Thinking like this, Nickyle's dull-blue eyes shone with coldness.
At the same time...
There was another pair of eyes that shone in the darkness of this room.
These eyes were visible even in the dark, and the shining brilliance wasn't said in a metaphorical sense, no, they truly released a vile splendor.
These eyes...
They shone, blood red.
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