<419 - The Hat Guardian>
The 2nd Hat, or rather Alice, was eagerly waiting for Oknodie to arrive.
“Don’t you want revenge?”
“Would you still seek revenge even if that person is your Papa?”
“…!”
“This is a conversation for now. Who knows who gave the orders? The one who issued the commands likely doesn’t remember such trivial matters. I was just a low-ranking scholarship student used for Charlotte’s growth.”
Though she pretended to be indifferent to revenge, claiming she didn’t know who had given her the last order, it’s hardly easy to dismiss feelings of vengeance.
It’s not that she disregards revenge because she’s a good person; she knows well that she has no way to find her target, and even if she did, she lacks the strength to succeed.
“So, let’s just find a Foundation person who can look out for Charlotte! The person who harassed the 2nd Hat is someone favorable to Charlotte.”
The academy’s exempt zone, the Student Dormitory Zone, is a den where those who seek points by any means congregate.
If Professor Mahabharata, the faithful guardian of the principal, were to gather students on campus due to them being disasters waiting to happen, the Dragon Principal would likely do it just for fun!
‘Will he be okay?’
Though Oknodie looks like this, he has a kind heart. He wouldn’t eat Oyakodon (parent-child rice bowl) more than once because he thinks it’s too cruel to cook both mother and child at the same time. He wouldn’t eat Hara-Kome (rice made with salmon and roe) more than once either, feeling sorry for the salmon.
‘He’s a kid with deep compassion.’
If he didn’t know what the ingredients were, he might enjoy Bosintang (dog meat soup), but after knowing, he’d likely only eat it once, remembering the sad stories of the lives that became ingredients and swearing not to eat it again.
‘Yet, it seems like he savored it while drooling at times…’
Nah, that can’t be right. He must have misunderstood something.
Believing in Oknodie’s strength, Alice focused on what she could do. Free from walls but trapped in the Dark Aptitude Evaluation Hat, what she could do…
“If you push the roots continuously, it’s a Continuous Stab. If you gather them into one, it’s a Single Stab.”
“Goo!”
Was playing with Howling Mandragora.
Perhaps because Hestia often drops by to teach various fighting skills, her skills are impressive. If it weren’t for automatic recovery magic, the wall, already battered from the Goo Punch, would have surely collapsed long ago.
“I hope that kid comes back soon. Don’t you?”
“Goo.”
Though she might not know what she wants to hit with her diligently trained Goo Punch, she trains really hard. Maybe plants with thick roots do that when others aren’t watching.
It’s both commendable and pitiable. After all, being a lifeless thing renders effort meaningless. They just need to stay alive.
‘What foolishness. That’s not truly living.’
Before being saved by Oknodie, her life was far from enjoyable. A life where yesterday, today, and tomorrow are all the same. A life watched through the lens of someone else’s existence.
How could that be called a life?
There were moments when the girl’s sensitivity would pop out, surprising passersby or igniting a desire to play pranks, but she never acted on those urges.
“You threw a tantrum, my lady.”
“What if I accepted? I merely chose my place to die.”
“My lady will be punished. Think about what dangers your tantrums might put your butler in. That is your punishment.”
One tantrum had turned into a lifetime of existence as a passive observer, worse than death.
The only thing she could do was converse with a person who had settled next to an empty room, riding the rumors circulating within the academy. Perhaps she secretly hoped to be noticed.
If it were Jonnas, he would know what kind of end she faced.
“Please accept this. Avoiding the eyes of the scholarship students, it’s a scroll that lets consciousness dwell in materials even if the physical form is discarded.”
Your lady is here.
To seize the greatest talent’s vessel and return as your lady away from the Foundation’s gaze, even plotted with malicious intent to steal an innocent student’s body for herself.
Yet, she could not even accomplish that in the end.
Hestia was lonely yet strong. Oknodie was a strong child who knew nothing of loneliness. The two who had grown too strong and too beautiful to be ruined by her touch.
They were gems so beautiful that even touching them would feel disturbing.
Perhaps if it were just Hestia, there might have been a chance.
‘Hestia was weak-hearted. Even at an academy filled with the world’s greatest talents, she likely believed she would live forever alone, unable to confide in anyone.’
If she could seize that gap in her heart, taking her body would be nothing.
But Oknodie was beside her.
Even after exchanging hundreds of words within walls, Hestia melted under a single statement from the unbiased Oknodie. The tales shared upon returning to the dormitory made her realize how pointless and absurd her actions were.
Wasn’t pushing someone desperate for conversation into loneliness akin to what the Foundation did?
The day she realized that, Alice gave up on stealing Hestia’s body.
Half curious and half resentful, she hovered near Oknodie.
‘Chief Scholarship Student of the Foundation…?’
At first, she thought the Foundation had finally gone mad. They were set to kill some unfortunate child.
How could the Foundation, with enemies across the world, officially recognize the Foundation’s lady and let her survive?
But it turned out to be possible.
As the Eastern proverb goes, a talent hidden in the shadows will eventually be revealed. Rather than cut off the sprout, they feared becoming the enemy of such talent.
At the academy, they assigned Myung So to guard her and even dealt with enemies in secret.
She was envious of that.
While she had to risk her life just to gain recognition from Jonnas, Oknodie received everyone’s acknowledgment from the start. She felt anger exponentially greater than the jealousy she felt toward Charlotte.
‘But why does he seem so pitiful?’
It didn’t take long to realize something was wrong with the child.
One day, he practiced changing weapons alone in the empty dormitory for three hours, causing Goo Mandragora to tremble in horror.
Another day, having heard that different magical phenomena pooled in puddles, he went to find an electric puddle, stuck his finger deep in it, and came back after an electric torture resistance training session.
‘An abnormal obsession with training. This child doesn’t truly understand what play is.’
His perception was warped. Common sense became muddled. The child utterly ruined by the Foundation.
How could one not feel sympathy?
As her initially harsh gaze gradually mixed with concern, she discovered that she had half become a protector.
‘Yes, I no longer have feelings of resentment or jealousy toward Oknodie.’
Only compassion and the desire to be supportive remained.
So when the upperclassmen sneaked into the dormitory and approached Oknodie’s room, Alice did not choose to flee but instead prepared to repel them.
“There they are.”
“Are you insane? Growing Mandragora in a water bottle? Is this fool trying to get himself killed?!”
“Manager Orcatch, why are you so surprised?”
“This idiot. Mandragora grows rapidly the more nutrients it consumes. If its growth surpasses its owner’s strength, it could unleash a Death’s Wail and die in its sleep!”
“Uh-oh!!”
“You mean Oknodie is nourishing such a dangerous plant monster 24/7?!”
“This isn’t just ordinary water. It’s a nutrient solution!”
The Mandragora, which Oknodie saw merely as a cute Goo, was viewed as a harbinger of death and a monster by others.
Alice sent Telepathy to the bumbling intruders.
[A non-intruder without defensive spells detected. Countdown 30. 29. 38.]
The Plant Club’s manager, Orcatch, and his club members turned pale.
“Is it a bomb?!”
“Manager, what should we do?!”
“There’s no security spell triggered on Search Eye! I have no idea where or what to input!!”
Manager Orcatch fell for Alice’s trickery.
“Stop stalling and just take Mandragora!”
Calling forth vines from the ground, Orcatch attempted to wrap the water bottle.
Slap!
Confusion arose in Orcatch’s eyes.
The vine he extended broke off against the roots of the Mandragora.
