Ch.8787 – April’s Investigation 2

<87 – April’s Investigation 2>

While Oknodie was diligently attending lectures and being active all over the place, April, the Foundation’s spy who had infiltrated the Academy, received a new directive.

“Follow Oknodie and complete all blanks in the following 50-question questionnaire.”

This mission was sent from a different line than the previous one.

April immediately noticed.

The previous directive was to confirm the true nature of Room 111.1 in the women’s wing of the freshman dormitory and report any dangers.

That was a mission to investigate the dangers surrounding Oknodie.

Follow Oknodie.

This was a mission to treat Oknodie herself as a potential threat and investigate her.

‘Oknodie. Are there invisible battles happening even among the upper echelons of the Foundation over this child?’

She could only pity the child who had become entangled in the adults’ dirty fights.

“Woof! April is still so quick with her hands!”

“It’s nothing special.”

“Woof! Happy hasn’t even finished half yet!”

“It’s nothing special.”

“Grrrr. April, you’re so annoying.”

April had finished all her work before Happy, another cleaning maid, had completed even half of her assigned area.

She didn’t spare a glance at Happy’s pitiful fate—having to endlessly sweep because she couldn’t even manage the fur shedding from her own body when given a broom.

During her ignorant rookie days, April had helped Happy with sweeping, but the result was an endless war against dog hair that never seemed to end no matter how much cleaning was done.

‘When work assignments are this poorly matched, it’s almost impressive. Isn’t this basically harassment from the Head Maid?’

Her thoughts about her pitiful colleague ended there.

Entering an empty room where no one could see her, she quickly scanned through the questionnaire.

A 50-question form about Oknodie.

Filling in some of the blanks was simple.

Q13: What foods does Oknodie like?

A: 1st: Poison candy. 2nd: Foods she’s trying for the first time. 3rd: Stones smaller than her fist.

Q14: What foods does Oknodie dislike?

A: Healthy foods she’s already tried and found distasteful.

What were they planning to do with this information?

Were they going to poison her favorite foods and give them as gifts?

It made April feel even more sorry for the girl.

Others might think she was a lucky child chosen by the Foundation to enter the world’s best educational institution.

In reality, she was a poor child caught up in adults’ factional fights, who had to worry about whether her favorite foods might be poisoned.

Unless she had poison resistance training, she would surely one day die coughing up blood.

‘I shouldn’t get too emotionally involved. That child is just one of the Foundation’s scholarship students after all.’

The Foundation’s management purpose wasn’t as innocent as their public claim of “finding and nurturing talented children who couldn’t otherwise enter the Academy.”

They had the extremely impure purpose of using talented children as weapons to threaten Academy professors and exploit their power, wisdom, and authority.

Even if you sympathize with the child’s situation, reckless intervention would result in the Foundation sending someone after you.

And after that?

Slash.

You’d disappear without a trace, and there would just be one more prospective scholarship student ready to be deployed to the Academy next semester.

Even Jona Wiheomhae, a scholarship graduate of Gift Academy famous within the Foundation for his excellent skills, had acted on misplaced sympathy and ended up with the job of “called a butler, read as field agent” raising prospective scholarship students.

A mere spy like herself wouldn’t even get such a generous “second chance”—at worst, summary execution; at best, reassignment.

The reassignment would probably be to some remote investigation camp.

A place with 0% survival rate where you could only leave as a corpse.

Though slightly better than being a Foundation spy, scholarship students were in a similar situation.

‘That’s why most scholarship students enter the lower classes and focus quietly on their studies while hiding their affiliation.’

If their identity is revealed, the Academy would try to weed them out or pressure them to exclude the Foundation’s influence.

Compared to that, Oknodie, who revealed her identity from the entrance ceremony, was truly different from ordinary scholarship students.

Her emotional expressions were distinct.

Her personality didn’t seem like an act.

She did whatever she wanted.

She did everything that came to mind.

What the Foundation demands from scholarship students is academic performance.

Outstanding results.

Becoming a student with talent and achievements so exceptional that they can’t be discarded even if their identity is revealed.

In that respect, Oknodie was the perfect talent the Foundation desired.

‘The fact that Jona is in charge of her is unfortunately working against Oknodie.’

Some scholarship students sell out other scholarship students to survive their own crises.

Or they agree to cooperate with others who know their identity, only to backstab them later for points or grades.

That’s why it’s always better for scholarship students to hide their identity.

Cooperation.

Collaboration.

Those are things only the weak seek, and the outcome for the weak is betrayal—either betraying or being betrayed—in ninety-nine out of a hundred cases.

From the perspective of those weaklings, those in charge of them, and their superiors, Jona was an annoying thorn in their side.

Their failures stood out in comparison, and the fact that he was a Gift Academy graduate was also unsettling.

Scribble, scribble.

Black letters filled various parts of the questionnaire.

This was all the information she could fill in directly.

The rest would require directly monitoring or following Oknodie to gather information.

* * *

“Squawk squawk? Clean the windows! Clean the windows!”

“I already did.”

“Tweet tweet? Mop the floor! Mop the floor!”

“I already did.”

“Squawk squawk? Clean the windows! Clean the windows!”

“I said I did it already, you bastard.”

After finishing her argument with Dummer, the bird-brained afternoon cleaning maid, April followed Oknodie as her lecture schedule ended.

After official lectures ended, students had free time.

It was a good opportunity to find out what Oknodie usually thought about and what she did.

‘This path leads to the Student Union building. Freshmen haven’t even received a tour yet, so how did she already get this information?’

While most upper-class freshmen were zombie-like, groaning “uuugh” with exhausted appearances as they searched for the infirmary or lounge, and some hardcore students looked for the next lecture hall or training ground, Oknodie’s afternoon schedule involved looking for clubs.

“Wow. I didn’t know our school had such a small kid.”

“I’ve never seen her before. Is she a freshman?”

Students who were already overwhelmed with their own grade’s affairs couldn’t even recognize the top student from one grade below.

“At this time, wouldn’t the 2nd year Production Department’s ‘Metal Crafting for Dumb Underachievers’ lecture be ending?”

“She might be a senior from the 3rd year Administrative Department who just attended the ‘Study of Judgement’ lecture.”

“How could someone that short be a 3rd year?”

“True. Maybe 1st year at most.”

“1st years don’t even know where the Student Union is, how could she get in here?”

“That’s right. So she must be a 2nd year.”

The students wandering around the Student Union building reached a conclusion.

She must be a pitiful child taking lectures meant for dumb underachievers!

“Hey, little one. Would you like to join the ‘West Union’ club with big sister? It’s full of nice, good people from the western region. I’m recommending it because your hair texture looks just like someone from the west, right?”

“Don’t listen to that, come join the ‘Board Game’ club with big brother. If you come here, all the big brothers will play with you lots. We have many fun games, hehehe.”

Irritation showed in Oknodie’s eyes.

She seemed to instantly recognize the intentions behind their approach.

What if she gets angry and commits murder?

Foundation children have different boiling points than ordinary people.

They typically have at least one psychotic trait that could make them suddenly snap anywhere, anytime.

Just as April was considering whether to increase the distance between them, Oknodie showed an unexpected reaction.

“No! Stop it! Don’t do that!”

The doors of the club rooms filling the Student Union building flung open as students poked their heads out.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s a child. Did they do something to her?”

“Are there such ill-mannered people who would kidnap someone to fill their club roster in broad daylight?”

“What trash.”

“Isn’t that a crime?”

“They look like perverts too.”

“I heard it earlier. That guy laughing ‘hehehe.'”

“So disgusting.”

“Revolting.”

“Go die, you idiots.”

“Which department are those guys from?”

The students who suddenly received a barrage of criticism and insults had tears welling in their eyes.

“It’s a misunderstanding! We were just kindly inviting her to join our club. We never said she couldn’t leave until she stamped her seal in the club room!”

“M-me too! I was planning to sweet-talk her into signing because she looked naive, but I hadn’t done anything yet! Hey, you, say something too…”

“Huh? Where did she go?”

“Did she run away and leave us behind?!”

While the gazes toward the two abandoned students grew colder, Oknodie took advantage of the confusion to move through the Student Union building without hesitation.

After skillfully causing a commotion, her footsteps were as natural as if she knew exactly where everything was, like someone who knew how to avoid people’s gazes.

‘Did Jona circumvent the confidentiality restriction that forbids revealing information about the Academy?’

Entering the inner garden of the Student Union building, Oknodie discovered something and her eyes lit up.

“Heheh. Found it.”

‘How cute.’

The girl who captivated April’s heart took out a cup filled with culture medium from the cultivation room near the garden.

Culture medium?

April couldn’t hide her confusion.

‘Is she going to drink culture medium to grow taller and reach the 230cm she always talks about?’

Unless she was a vegetative patient, drinking plant cultivation medium wouldn’t make her grow taller.

But it was enough information to help with the report.

Q33: What is Oknodie’s recent goal and what efforts is she making to achieve it?

A: She seems to be trying to reach a height of 230cm and believes drinking plant cultivation medium will make her taller.

She would need to obtain the ingredient analysis of the culture medium to determine if it contained any harmful components for the human body.

‘This young lady really requires a lot of attention.’

Now she understood why Jona cherished and cared for her so much.