Chapter 36: I’ll Give You an Exclusive Scoop on My Identity.
Chapter 36 – I’ll Give You an Exclusive Scoop on My Identity.
Thump, thump, thump!
Someone knocked on the door urgently. I opened it with my psychic power.
As expected, it was Sephia who knocked. She must have run here in a hurry, as her orange bangs were messy.
“Ah, Flan! We see each other more often than I thought!”
As soon as the door opened, Sephia barged into the room.
She was sweaty all over, but her green eyes were still shining brightly.
I used my psychic power to make a chair for Sephia to sit on. She looked around the room as she sat down.
“Wow… Are the students’ rooms always this nice? The dorm rooms I know are not like this.”
“That’s not the problem. Don’t you think you’re too easy to get in? You’re not even a dorm student.”
“Don’t ignore my professional spirit. Where was it… I once interviewed someone in front of a toilet stall, you know?”
“That’s not professional spirit, that’s nuisance.”
“It’s a legal report, so you don’t have to call it a nuisance. Anyway, Flan. That’s not what’s important right now…”
Sephia slammed the desk with her palm, making a loud noise. Then she leaned her face toward me.
“Scoop! That scoop I almost missed! I think I didn’t miss it at this speed, right?”
There was a familiar scent mixed with the sweat smell. It was strangely similar to Violet’s perfume.
Anyway, I nodded. It was a very wise choice for Sephia to run here in two minutes.
“You caught it well.”
“Phew… I’m glad. Do you know how fast I came here?
Sephia sighed in relief. At the same time, her eyes sparkled like emeralds.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to get to the point right away. As a reporter, I can’t stand the itch in my body!”
I didn’t want to talk too long about the introduction either.
But before that, there was something I had to ask and confirm.
“Let me ask you a few things before we start. How are the representatives of the magic department selected for the combat events?”
“Hmm… Answering your question is not a difficult thing at all.”
Sephia gave me a meaningful smile and looked at me.
“After I answer, I’ll definitely hear the scoop, right? Even I get really hurt by false reports, you know.”
“I promise. You’ll surely write a masterpiece.”
“Okay. Information is usually paid in advance, but I’ll make an exception for you, Flan!”
She smiled brightly and continued.
“The selection process for each event is simple. There is a selection committee of magic professors, and they vote to decide. How democratic, right?”
“What are the criteria for the vote?”
“Is there such a thing? They usually pick whoever has good grades or family background.”
I couldn’t help but frown.
If what Sephia said was true, it was no different from saying that the professors chose the representatives as they pleased.
“Why do they look at the family background?”
The magic department’s win rate was very low.
It would be a huge humiliation to lose in front of everyone.
What benefit could they get from the magic family’s situation?
“It’s a mutual benefit.”
“What kind of mutual benefit?”
“The family gets the honor of having their member selected as a representative, and the professors get to make connections with that family in advance.”
“The honor of selection, not the honor of victory?”
I asked, not understanding the words. But Sephia calmly nodded.
“Yes. The honor of selection. After all, there are hardly any people who expect the magic department to win against the knight department, right? My sister might be the only one.”
As soon as I heard that, my temples started to throb.
I had forgotten. These guys had such a pathetic way of thinking.
They didn’t even hope to win, they just rejoiced at being selected. This was the current address of the Merhen Academy magicians.
It was beyond pathetic, it was just lamentable.
“Can the representatives be changed?”
“It’s enough if the professors change their minds. A re-vote is possible anytime!”
There was still a chance to change the representatives. That was the only good news among the stories I heard so far.
“Sephia.”
“I’m listening, Flan. Come to think of it, it’s funny. Why are we talking politely here?”
“The condition for getting the scoop is simple. I’ll put up a headline, and you make the Merhen Daily run it as a banner.”
“What kind of headline is it? I’m curious. Is it the headline I’m imagining?”
“I’ll denounce the professors. They have to make a proper evaluation process first. How well can the representatives who were selected by just looking at the family and grades do?”
“Hmm~”
Sephia tilted her head and got closer to me.
“Hey, Flan.”
“What?”
“Now that I see it. The story you told me last time. Was that really what you meant?”
I had nothing to say to that. I never lied, not even once.
Sephia opened her mouth again.
“Oh, don’t you remember? You said you would change everything. The way of thinking and the power structure of the magicians.”
“That’s right. I meant it.”
“Wow… You were serious? I thought you were just a young magic genius with a childish ambition!”
Sephia tilted her head.
“Good! I think and support your intention very much! But still, it would be hard for me to accept your request, you know?”
She calmed down her shining green eyes and continued.
“First of all, the headline itself is a huge challenge. It will cause a huge impact on the public opinion in the academy.”
Sephia explained as she spread her fingers one by one.
“Second, even if I run the headline as a banner, the next problem is. How many people would agree with what you wrote?”
“I don’t have to worry about that.”
“How can you not worry! If there is a lot of backlash, I will have to take all the criticism. The label of Merhen Daily’s magic department is firmly attached to me.”
Finally, she spread her third finger.
“Lastly, the third, this is the most important thing!”
Sephia’s face became serious.
“How amazing is the scoop you gave me? Unless the information you provide is really at the level of ‘masterpiece’… I can’t easily get involved in this.”
“In other words, you want the information first.”
“That’s what it means! I’ll judge whether the information you have is worthy of a masterpiece or not after I hear it myself.”
She smiled slightly and added a little more.
“Oh, don’t worry too much? If I refuse your offer, I won’t write an article with the information you provided. I promise!”
I chuckled and laughed.
“I’ll solve all three of your worries… at once.”
I spread a large white paper in the air and started to move three pens at the same time with my psychic power.
Sephia watched the scene with interest.
Scratch, scratch-
The writing continued without stopping, and the sound of the pen tips scratching the paper naturally filled the room.
In no time, half of the paper was filled.
Half of the paper was full of geometric shapes.
“…Agora board.”
Sephia muttered quietly.
That’s right. These were the problems and solutions I posted on the Agora board.
She began to feel confused.
She didn’t seem to know, but her mouth was slowly opening.
“Sephia.”
I softly put her name in my mouth and filled the other half of the paper.
“You just have to follow what I say.”
But Sephia didn’t focus on what I said. No, to be exact, she seemed unable to focus.
“If you follow what I say.”
Her eyes were only directed at the paper. Her face was already immersed in ecstasy.
“…Someday.”
When Sephia’s face turned completely pale, the other half of the paper was also filled.
Almost thousands of letters and shapes formed something close to art on the paper.
“I’ll give you an exclusive scoop on my identity.”
There was no answer.
Sephia just stared blankly at the paper.
?
Sephia returned to the editing department with a blank expression.
A silence close to emptiness and futility. She seemed to be standing in such a space.
“Hey, chief. What’s wrong?”
A reporter who came back with coffee saw Sephia and tilted his head.
It was natural. It was not a common thing for the chief of Merhen Daily to be blank.
“Fine.”
“Fine? You look like you lost your soul. Did you make a deal with a villain?”
“Let’s be reasonable. Reasonable.”
“It’s possible. You seem like the type who would go after a villain for a story.”
He pushed away the reporter who kept talking and approached the white board that occupied one wall of the editing department.
As he approached the board, he recalled Flan’s words.
-The way of thinking and the power structure of the magicians. Everything.
He said he would change everything. Flan clearly stated his ambition.
He didn’t know why, but he was very dissatisfied with the current structure.
He was not just cynical and sarcastic. He had his own cause.
And his will to realize that cause seemed stronger than he imagined. He even thought of using the chief of Merhen Daily, what kind of secret was he hiding?
“Hey?”
As he thought, another person naturally came to his mind.
Violet, Sephia’s sister.
The joint meeting of the knight and magic departments that took place a while ago made Violet furious.
He still remembered his sister’s face, trembling with anger at Scarlet’s attitude toward the magicians.
“Come to think of it, my sister also likes to say that she will change things.”
He hated the structure where the knights dominated with their power. He would someday see the imbalance of power overturned and changed…
Sephia heard his sister muttering that countless times.
“They’re alike.”
Flan and Violet were strangers, but somehow they seemed similar.
He tilted his head and stood in front of the white board.
This white board was called ‘time bomb’ in the Merhen Daily editing department.
And this board was faithful to its name.
The time bomb was a board where he collected materials that could be scoops or exclusives, and currently it was divided into four spaces.
Sephia touched them with his hand and examined them.
The son of the Udit family who was studying in the magic department, the mystery in the magic labyrinth, the mysterious Agora board genius who overwhelmed Trixie…
“All these articles have one person as the protagonist…”
Sephia looked at the white board with awe.
He couldn’t even guess how big the impact would be when this time bomb exploded.
He just knew that the scale was unprecedented.
“…He’s really a gem, this person.”
Flan Udit.
Sephia began to feel him like a gem.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢