Infiltrating the Superhuman Training Girls’ School of the Republic of China!

Briar Churchill. According to the CIA’s assessment, her talent alone is the best among this year’s 10 Huangpu foreign students. She’s an arrogant elitist, but is said to have a rebellious streak against the British-specific family-centered elitism. In other words, she seems to be a thorough meritocrat. This is common among superhumans who have to grasp everything with their own power.

Her curly brown hair has a slightly reddish tint, and while her features aren’t as sharp as a knife, the balance is so perfect that anyone would recognize her as beautiful. Her eyes are sometimes hazy but occasionally sharpen, and especially when she starts handling an instrument, she exudes an aura that seems like even a tiger wouldn’t dare approach.

In reality, even a tiger would be no match for her.

As Churchill declared, the inside of the dormitory room was luxurious. The carpet that looked high-quality at a glance, the bathroom so sparkling that it would feel like a sin to accidentally make a stain. Despite being a dormitory room, it had properly separated living room, bedroom, and kitchen. With this level of interior, it seemed like they could have made two separate bedrooms, but the person who designed this room chose to make one large bedroom.

Following my roommate’s guidance into the bedroom, there were two large twin beds. The lavish beds felt very unsuited to me.

“I’ll take the one by the window. You use the one on the inside.”

“A twin bed per person?”

“I requested it. So, you should know you’re lucky, right?”

This lady seemed sharp but strangely not unkind. And honestly speaking, I felt like I should really be grateful to her for this.

“Now, sit down.”

“Pardon?”

“On the bed. On the inside. Yes, there.”

Briar grabbed my shoulder and made me sit on the bed, then sat down on her bed opposite me. The distance between the two beds wasn’t very far, so it felt like our toes could almost touch.

“We should talk. We’re roommates now, and, well, we’re in a position to become friends, right? If you’re willing to be my friend, that is.”

Isn’t it usually more like ‘if someone like you is qualified to be my friend’ in this kind of situation?

“Um, if you’re asking if I’m willing to do that…”

“First, do you snore?”

“No, I don’t.”

I had checked this in advance, knowing that the school enforced dormitory living. The NIS agents who followed me when I slept in Cheorwon, Seoul, and Pyongyang said there was no sign of me snoring. Since my body before the change didn’t snore, it’s natural that this body, which has lost even more weight, wouldn’t snore either.

“That’s good.”

“What would have happened if I did?”

“I was planning to snore even louder. Even if it’s a terrible sound, if you add the right harmony to match it, you can create a sound that you can somehow sleep to.”

An unexpected answer came back. Seeing my puzzled expression, Briar Churchill clapped her hands and laughed loudly.

“Ahaha, but don’t worry, okay? It’s not like I normally snore when I sleep. I’m just saying I could do it on purpose if I wanted to!”

“The fact that you can do it on purpose is even more impressive… Conversely, may I ask if you have any strange sleeping habits or anything like that?”

“I’m told I sometimes sing.”

“Ah, yes, that’s understandable, like a bit of an occupational hazard.”

“What if it’s a habit I couldn’t break even after being scolded at home many times because the lyrics are songs that summon ghosts?”

“Is that something you do on purpose too?”

“No, no. It’s real sleep talking. But I don’t know if I’m dreaming or what, but how can I help it if such songs come out of my mouth? What do you think, can you sleep next to a woman who sings ghost songs?”

“Ah, yes… well…”

I don’t know for sure, but it probably won’t be a big problem. Seeing me nod ambiguously, Briar Churchill suddenly stood up and came closer to me.

She brought her face close to mine, almost to the point where our noses could touch, then rolled her eyes and slowly examined my face.

“You haven’t been learning makeup for long, have you?”

“Pardon?”

“No need to hide it. Answer honestly. Let’s see… Hmm, it seems like you haven’t been trying feminine things for very long? You said you were a college student before coming here? College life must have been quite tough for you?”

Her face was so close that her voice sounded almost like a whisper. I didn’t particularly deny her words because I had actually lived a tough life before coming here.

“Ah… I worked… hard. In many ways.”

“Korea is a country with high enthusiasm for education. Yes, you must have worked hard in college too. But this shampoo smell, it’s unbalanced. The coordination is decent, but it feels like you’ve mixed and picked up various things. Coming here with such makeup tone on an already pale face and wearing black clothes, it’s somehow enthusiastic, but it shows you’re a novice. Is there someone you want to impress? Or is it a change of heart, excited by the new environment?”

“I didn’t want to… give a bad impression to the foreign students from various countries. More importantly, that’s my hair…”

While I was momentarily distracted, surprised by Briar Churchill’s close approach, she had grasped the ends of my hair with both hands and was sniffing it like a mouse.

“Smell is an important issue.”

“Um… for living together?”

“No, when closely examining a pretty-faced woman.”

…Is this the kind of words and actions that should come from the mouth of a British noble family’s daughter? I hastily stopped her as she was about to put her head under my feet after letting go of my hair.

“Wh-What are you doing?”

Seeing me lift my legs onto the bed and hug my knees with my arms, Churchill laughed with a “kyaruruk.”

“Ah, did I go too far with the feet? Sorry. But you know, this is also music. Voice, Korean exchange student, answer my question. Is music discovered or created?”

“Uh, um… Discovered, you mean…”

“The answer is that it’s discovered. That’s how I see it. Only the score is created. Music is discovered. That combination of sounds, that connection of pitches, the timbre of instruments, the way that timbre spreads in all directions through the air as a medium. Who would call that creation? Beethoven discovered the symphony, and Mozart just discovered pieces. Schubert, Handel, Bach, it’s all the same. It’s discovered. That’s why I wanted to be recognized as a natural ability user. But everyone says my power, Maestro, is an artificial ability. Don’t you think that’s foolish?”

“Honestly, I don’t really know…”

“Ha, you don’t nod there? Right now, I, this Briar Churchill, one of the superhumans born with the most powerful talent of the current generation, am burying my nose in your crown and speaking directly to your skull through bone conduction, and you say ‘I don’t really know’?”

“So why are you talking to me in that position?”

If you’re going to climb onto my bed without permission and talk to me in a strange position from behind my back, why did you separate the beds in the first place?

“I like you.”

“Ah, me?”

“Who else is there besides you?”

“Th-Thank you? But could you please stop that position now? It really feels like my skull is vibrating from your voice.”

I had heard she was a strange person, but I didn’t know she would be like this from the first meeting. If her usual behavior is always like this, it’s not surprising that she’s treated as a heretic within her family. She completely ignored my quiet protest and continued to say whatever she wanted.

“Smell is also discovered. Perfume master craftsmen? They should be called discoverers rather than creators. Calling them creators is nonsense! Everything existed in nature. Even the body odor I’m smelling from you now, it’s all the same.”

“What exactly are you discovering there?”

“That you’re hiding a more terrifying secret than you appear to be.”

At those words, my body almost flinched. But I barely managed to maintain a comfortable posture without showing any reaction. She’s now clinging to my back with her face buried in my head. Even the slightest movement of agitation would obviously be noticed.

“You could say that to anyone, and it would work on anyone. Who doesn’t have a secret or two? Especially among superhumans.”

“That forced calm reaction just now.”

She removed her face from my head and this time suddenly placed her chin on my shoulder.

“You, you weren’t just a college student, were you?”

“Then what do you think I am?”

I smiled slightly as if finding it absurd. Briar Churchill quietly poked my shoulder with her chin, then clapped her hands and stood up.

“Alright, that’s enough. That’s the end of the exploration. I’m not trying to interrogate you. But you know, after checking the sound and smell, there’s one more thing to check.”

“I know it’s not polite to say this, but I’m starting to feel like I don’t want to know.”

“I have to taste it. Maybe I…”

“No.”

“I won’t lick you in this state. Because when I smelled you, the scent of cosmetics was too strong. After you wash up and come out…”

“Absolutely not.”

“Were you planning to sleep without washing?”

“Of course I have to wash. It’s been quite a tough day.”

Well, just sitting still on a train journey is more tiring than it looks, and somehow I even ended up wandering in the bushes because I couldn’t find the barrier location.

“But what comes after that is not happening.”

“You’re stingy, commoner, stingy. Isn’t it too stingy to act like this when this noble body is showing interest in you? It’s the first time I’ve been rejected after asking if I could lick someone.”

“Who did you ask before?”

“A live fish.”

Of course, the fish couldn’t have refused.