Chapter 36
All right, I understand. I'll hang up.
-Yeah, remember, Gale still doesn't know!
Don't worry.
......Click.
'They stripped him of his noble status altogether?'
After finishing my call with Vincent, I fell into thought for a moment.
This wasn't a situation that would come about easily.
The status system had been forcibly introduced less than a month after the existence of Gates was made public.
Simultaneous protests had erupted around the world, and the adoption system had been created to placate them.
'The magic ranks from E to S are one thing, but...'
The nobility system was more than enough to provoke people's resentment. It divided society into the upper and lower classes.
In particular, high-ranking Awakened had protested even more fiercely.
No matter how much power they possessed, they had suddenly been forced to bow their heads to even E-rank nobles. There was no way they would accept it meekly.
But put another way, it meant that all they had to do was persuade the higher-ranking Awakened.
The World Nobles' Council promptly introduced a merit-based nobility system.
They would grant noble status to anyone who donated a vast fortune to the World Nobles' Council.
Of course, they demanded an absurd amount of money, and anticipating another backlash, the Council opened a back door through 'adoption.'
"...But is this really okay? This is an act of breaking people's trust."
I went to find Iroha and asked her.
When she heard my question, she blinked with an astonished expression.
"You understand it quite thoroughly for someone so young. Honestly, I thought you'd simply be happy that someone you disliked had been eliminated."
'...No, that was true too. I couldn't say how satisfying it had been.'
I silently gave her a sheepish grin.
Iroha seemed to understand what I meant and chuckled, saying, "Figures."
"......But regardless of my feelings, the world isn't that simple. What if this has a negative effect on you or the Nobles' Council...?"
"Wait."
Iroha raised a finger to cut me off and lifted the corners of her lips with a contemptuous look.
"Lady Raebi, you still don't truly understand."
"Yes? What don't I understand?"
"Listen carefully. First, the Nobles' Council isn't something to take lightly. It has the world firmly in its grip, strong enough to destroy even a superpower overnight.
One careless word and you could die."
"Hmm."
...Vincent's earlier behavior came to mind.
The way he had tried to eliminate trackers who were, in their own way, government employees without hesitation. If nobles feared the commoners' backlash, they never would have acted so boldly.
"And second, commoners aren't all that kind. They may hope to take the vacant position, but no one will mourn the downfall of an arrogant adopted noble."
"......That's certainly true too."
I knew that well because I had come from a commoner background.
When society looked at an adopted noble, it inevitably viewed them through tinted glasses.
‘Someone who was in a similar situation to me but happened to Awaken.
'People who had always been high-born' were viewed differently.
"Besides, I looked into him. Apparently, he's very famous among commoners."
"I heard that too. It's amazing that you know about the situation in Korea, Lady Iroha."
"Heh... Of course I do. Anyway, Lady Raebi! From now on, don't worry about a thing—just watch how that garbage named Gale gets crushed."
......He probably won't get out of this unscathed. Shall I go take a look?
I headed back to Noble Island.
***
-Open the door!!!
The effect was immediate.
When I opened the door he'd been pounding on, Gale stormed inside. As Anna Ri and Ahn Gihwan drew their weapons, he began shouting at me.
"You... you crazy bitch...! What the hell did you do!!!"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"You don't know? I was expelled from the Nobles' Council! What the hell did you do!!!"
'......Pfft.'
I held back the laughter that was about to burst out.
"I'm not sure what you're talking about... Why don't you explain it in detail?"
His story was utterly ridiculous.
He said that the previous night, he had gone to sleep while fuming and wondering when the Nobles' Council would contact him.
But when he woke up that morning, all his attendants had vanished, and he couldn't operate anything in his room as he pleased.
Since he was no longer a Douglas Kim, every electronic device had been locked down.
Flustered, he picked up his phone and checked the notification message from the Nobles' Council.
I leaned over and peeked at his phone screen.
"Whoa... So that's how they notify you."
"Whoa? Whoa? You fucking bitch, are you admiring it right now...!"
"That's enough."
Anna Ri held a blade to Gale's throat. Ahn Gihwan also uncoiled his whip and moved behind him.
Gale's eyes filled with rage, and even his teeth trembled as he spoke.
"You... you little bastards. Do you even know who I am?"
"An outsider. A commoner, no less. Kneel at once and apologize to Lady Raebi."
"You son of a—!!!!"
Ding-
[Activating skill 'Blade Claw.']
I kicked Gale in the waist as he turned to attack Ahn Gihwan.
With a crunch, his body flew outside through the doorway, smashing through it.
Crash!
"K-kugh... H-huff...!"
"Th-this is another ambush...!"
Gale staggered to his feet.
This time, Ahn Gihwan charged while swinging his whip.
Bang! Bang! Gale's arms began to bruise all over as he blocked the attacks.
There was a one-rank difference between them.
However, Gale had badly injured his lower back, while Ahn Gihwan was an assassin-class fighter reputed to be the strongest in one-on-one combat.
He had fought higher-ranked criminals before, so he ruthlessly exploited Gale's injury.
Before long, Gale was subdued.
Ahn Gihwan tied him up with his whip and said,
"How does it feel, you fucking bastard? It's a little different from fighting magical beasts, isn't it?"
'......How is he going to show his face after this?'
"Now, Mr. Gihwan, calm down. We need to hand him over to the people outside."
I talked Ahn Gihwan down and handed Gale over to the family guards.
Vincent arrived after finally learning what had happened, but the situation was already over.
When Vincent heard that Ahn Gihwan had subdued Gale, he badgered Han Jihye to show him the footage immediately.
"There has to be recorded CCTV footage!!"
Afterward, calls asking after us came one after another from the nobles.
April and Ribi, then Iroha, who had heard from Ribi, and even Douglas, the family head.
They asked whether I was hurt anywhere and whether they could watch the recording of Gale being beaten by a C-rank.
'......?'
Why was everyone so desperate to see the assault?
"If you want to watch it, just watch it. Why are you asking me, Sis April?"
"It's a different annex. Besides, only someone directly under the family head, like Ms. Jihye, can access the CCTV."
"Ah...! Then shall I copy it and give it to you?"
"If you can handle the family head exploding, go ahead."
......I'd said I would show it to Iroha.
"......So Lady Iroha will have to come in person. The family head has prohibited taking CCTV footage outside."
"Tsk, what a shame. Given my position, I can't just enter freely. I'll look forward to it another time."
Thus, the eventful Gale incident came to an end.
A few letters arrived from the expelled Gale, but I tore them all up and threw them away.
The two weeks of postponed classes passed quickly. Before I knew it, it was the night before classes began.
Remembering the Asadal family head's order to raise my ranking, I began a final review with Ribi.
Ribi said to me in an envious tone,
"It's nice not to have to worry about the traditional subjects, Lady Raebi. They're only elementary-level, after all."
"Hehe, I'm confident in Item Crafting and Monster Behavior Studies too."
"I understand Item Crafting, but why Monster Behavior Studies?"
'......'
Indeed, why?
My brain stalled for a moment, so I mumbled vaguely.
"That's just how it is! Anyway, don't worry about my grades!"
"Hmph... Fine. But if you do badly, I'll tease you mercilessly, so keep that in mind."
Afterward, we checked the other girls' preparation as well.
Perhaps because of the pressure from Asadal and Douglas Kim, most of them had memorized the key material by heart.
Ribi dismissed them with a satisfied expression, and I went to bed early.
Starting the next day, I began attending 'Pyramid.'
Unexpectedly, there were around fifty children my age.
Unfortunately, it didn't look like we'd have much time to become friends.
The first-semester system
determined scores by
how quickly one earned high marks.
I mastered the traditional subjects at a speed that left the other children far behind.
"You want to take the test today? On your first day?"
"Yes."
"......Well, there's always a retest if you don't meet the standard."
The teachers for each subject gave me lukewarm looks. They seemed to think it was merely an arrogant noble child's fit of bravado.
But they had no excuse to refuse a student's request to take the test, so they took me to the examination room with expressions that said, 'Go ahead and try.'
An absolute isolation space where no electronic devices or skills could be used.
I breezed through the presented questions, as if to show them.
"......?"
The teachers who received the test papers all froze in place with their eyes wide open.
One math teacher in particular blatantly favored a certain family and had even played an absurd trick on the test.
Even after grading it himself, he seemed unable to speak, as though he couldn't believe the result.
"......It's a perfect score, Raebi."
"Thank you. But, Teacher..."
"Huh?"
"......These two problems are from the high-school curriculum. How could you possibly confuse something like that?"
"Ah! I see! I'm sorry about that."
Kazan, the math teacher, put on an awkward act.
Apparently, he thought I wouldn't notice if he merely colored the shapes in bright colors.
He made a fuss about having me take the test again, but I rejected him outright.
Just in case, with Ribi's help, I went separately to the high-school math teacher to have the test verified.
He flicked the test paper with a snap and said,
"If you have no complaints, there's no particular problem. By the way, you're pretty smart. You got a question right that I solved when I was eight."
"......You're joking, right?"
He didn't answer. He merely smiled, then waved his hand and told me to leave.
Just as the door was closing, I caught a glimpse of him muttering, 'Kazan... You really got yourself into a mess.'
Thus, with math as the final subject, I passed every test in three days.
When I went to school the next day to fulfill the minimum attendance requirement, the grades were announced.
A score of 100 in every subject, with an S+ learning speed.
A noble child from Saudi Arabia teared up, and Kazan awkwardly tried to comfort the child.
I felt sorry for the 'real children,' but competition was ruthless.
If you're upset about it, you guys should die and rejuvenate too.
Still, I thought I should at least comfort the child and walked over.
"Ahmad, life in second place isn't so bad."