Rank 0 of the Awakener Special School - Chapter 54

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Ranking 0 at the Awakener Special School
Chapter 54
I was about four years old when I first met Grandfather.
“Today we’re going to see Grandfather.”
Mother dressed me in a pretty outfit, smiling.
Back then, whenever my parents visited the Family Home, they always took only Seol Ji-hyo with them.
“Now Ji-u, you’ll bow politely when we meet him, won’t you?”
“Yes!”
I was thrilled.
They said Grandfather was an important person—someone who led an enormous company, my father’s father. Important enough to appear in newspapers.
That day was also my first visit to the Family Home.
The house where I lived with my parents was very spacious, but the Family Home transcended imagination.
Carefully pruned pine trees.
In the clear pond, carp with gleaming scales swam lazily.
Crossing the arched stone bridge above the pond, a vast mansion—temple-like in appearance—came into view.
While my parents went to meet Grandfather, I waited alone in the garden, watching the carp.
But no matter how long I waited, they did not return.
Eventually, tired from waiting, I stepped into the mansion.
As I walked across the polished wooden floor, I heard someone’s voice.
“Is it true you manufactured illegal drugs just to save a single child?”
My small feet froze.
“Just kill him.”
“Father, how could you say such a thing…!”
My parents’ voices followed.
After that, the adults’ argument dragged on for a long time. Now and then, the sound of objects breaking echoed through.
Though I was only four, I instinctively held my breath.
Then—bang!—the door flew open.
A dark shadow fell across my small body.
I, crouched by the door, slowly lifted my head.
“Ah…”
I recognized him instantly.
Grandfather.
Grandfather, too, must have recognized me at once. I looked exactly like Seol Ji-hyo.
Following my mother’s instruction, I placed my hands at my abdomen and lowered my head respectfully.
“Ah, hello…! I’m Seol Ji-u, and um, with Mom and Dad…!”
“……”
Grandfather did not so much as glance at me. He simply walked past.
──That was my first meeting with him.
The second meeting came about a year later, at my parents’ funeral.
More precisely, after the procession itself had concluded.
That was when Grandfather, meeting me for the second time, finally spoke to me of his own accord.
“Keep quiet as a dead mouse. Never appear before my eyes again.”
After that, I never saw him.
Messages reached me only through Seol Ji-hyo, So-young, or other family members.
Which meant…
In a sense, today was my third meeting with him.
Click—
As the door opened, the first thing that came into view was the back of a man in formal attire.
Naturally, my steps halted.
Sensing that my footsteps had stopped, he turned his head.
“It has been a long time, Miss.”
Jet-black sunglasses. Jet-black suit. Short hair neatly swept back.
……It was not Grandfather.
The chief secretary.
He was someone who had visited several times to relay Grandfather’s words to me.
“…Where is Grandfather?”
“His schedule is rather tight, so I came first. The Chairman will arrive shortly after the test begins.”
“……”
I had no way of knowing if that was true.
He might have deliberately timed his arrival late—so he wouldn’t have to meet me alone, so he felt no need to.
But still.
I was somewhat surprised.
‘So he is coming after all.’
If he truly didn’t want to see me, he could have left everything to the chief secretary from beginning to end.
Then why was he coming?
Probably not out of curiosity about his granddaughter’s school life. Not out of concern.
Was it surveillance?
“I heard you were called before the Disciplinary Committee.”
At the chief secretary’s words, my thoughts stopped.
…If he knew, then Grandfather would know as well. Though whether he knew every detail was another question.
‘Could that be why he’s coming to observe the test?’
That made the most sense.
“Should there be any further incidents, I may have no choice but to suspend your proxy attendance at school. Please exercise caution going forward.”
It was utterly arbitrary.
When had he ordered me to attend school in Seol Ji-hyo’s place, and now he was threatening suspension as leverage.
“And one more thing.”
The chief secretary adjusted his sunglasses slightly as he added:
“──The Chairman instructs you to achieve the highest score in all categories.”
My fingertips trembled slightly.
…Highest score in all categories?
That meant placing first in all seven events.
Tick-tick—
The sound of the clock’s second hand cut across the silence.
After a long pause, I asked:
“What if I can’t?”
The chief secretary fell silent.
“……”
“……”
That silence was answer enough.
Achieve the highest score in all categories. In the first place, this was neither a request nor a command.
It was simply proof. Proof of the usefulness of ‘Seol Ji-u’.
Having determined that much, I decided to change my question.
“If I do as you say, is there something I get in return?”
I stared directly into the unseen eyes hidden behind those jet-black sunglasses and added:
“Can I see my sister?”
──My sister.
When Seol Ji-hyo suffered a serious injury and was transferred to the Family Home, I was not allowed to see her.
I didn’t know how badly she was hurt.
How much she had recovered by now.
Whether treatment had made any progress.
I knew nothing.
“…I will convey your words to the Chairman.”
That was all I managed to extract.
The chief secretary bowed slightly and left, closing the door behind him.
Left alone, I clenched my fists tightly. When I lowered my head, long dark-blue hair fell across my face.
“Ha……”
With a laugh that was almost a scoff, I left that place a few minutes later.
My face cold and expressionless.
* * *
“Still, it’s such a relief. Rim-sa, you seem to be doing so well.”
Building A, second floor hallway.
A couple in white coats gazed with satisfaction at their only daughter standing between them.
Rim-sa.
They had thought their sole daughter was struggling terribly with school life.
Just recently, hadn’t she gotten caught up in a violent incident on campus? She’d even been hospitalized.
But when they actually met her today, to their surprise, their shy daughter was voluntarily talking at length about her school life.
They were especially amazed when she mentioned that she’d made a friend.
“Make sure you eat properly. You don’t need to be too nervous about the test, you understand? And be careful not to get flustered and make some careless mistake.”
“Dear, she’ll manage on her own.”
“Wait now. Rim-sa, you’re not inviting insects into your room again and startling the dorm advisor, are you? Hmm?”
Even after talking at length inside the room, her mother’s worries had flared up again.
While I awkwardly smiled before my parents, I heard a click—the door closing beside me.
“Huh…?”
Rim-sa’s face brightened in an instant.
“Mom, Dad. That’s her. The friend I told you about……”
“Oh? My goodness.”
“Her?”
My parents’ eyes naturally turned in that direction.
I saw Seol Ji-hyo, who had just exited the Meeting Room, close the door and turn around.
“Ji-hyo—.”
The moment I began to raise my hand, I hesitated.
Seol Ji-hyo’s expression was frozen in a coldness I had never seen before.
…Had something happened in the Meeting Room?
“Excuse me, are you Rim-sa’s friend?”
Rim-sa’s mother called out to Ji-hyo.
But Ji-hyo showed no sign of noticing their presence.
“Young lady? I’m Rim-sa’s mother—.”
“Oh, Mom…!”
Rim-sa hastily grabbed her mother’s collar.
“The test starts soon, so let’s go now.”
“What? No, let me greet your friend first……”
“It’s urgent! We need to go right now.”
“Oh my, oh my? What’s wrong with you?”
Rim-sa practically pushed her parents along and glanced back nervously.
Still, Ji-hyo did not look her way.
But I saw it.
Ji-hyo’s fists, clenched so tightly they seemed ready to burst, trembling faintly.
As if she were angry……
‘Why is Ji-hyo like that?’
Her body had seemed unwell lately; could she still not be fully recovered?
And besides……
Why had Ji-hyo come alone? Not with her family?
There was much I wanted to ask.
「The meeting time will soon conclude. Observers, please proceed to Building B, and students, please head to your test venues.」
An announcement came through the speaker system.
In the end, I left for the test venue without asking Ji-hyo anything.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————