CLOUDLESS | KHRXAC

CHAPTER 9: the science of wealth; or arthashastra

Ha, what a joke.

The two males stared at one another in a tense silence before the door slid open, revealing Irina's inviting figure and her dubious expression. She gave them both a quizzical glance, raised eyebrow hovering her limpid, blue eyes before she shrugged them off and went to make herself a cup of tea.

Koro took this as his cue to stand up. He brought his documents back in his briefcase, eyes flicking to his wristwatch before flashing both teachers a grin. "Well, it was a pleasure talking with you, Agent Karasuma," he said, voice sounding bitter and hurt, as if the raven unjustly accused him seconds before. Karasuma's eyebrow twitched, he hummed. Koro's green eyes flickered to look at Irina before looking away not even a second later, a deep crimson blush dusting his cheeks as he coughed in his fist. "Miss Jelavich," he acknowledged, his voice squeaky and shy as he nodded her way— eyes still on the floor. Irina smiled, finding amusement in his reaction as she waved from her tea mug.

Koro's blush seemed to intensify. He did not dare to look at her for even a second longer before he scurried away, briefcase in hand, as he hurried to the classroom.

Getting closer to the class, Koro felt the bile in his throat finally settle as he swallowed it back. He refrained a disgusted look from overtaking his features, the taste being all too unpalatable, as he opened the door to the empty room. Cold sweat drenched his body from merely looking at the blond teacher, goosebumps littering his covered skin at the mere thought of her figure.

Yes, Koro's body was insanely revulsed by well-endowed women. The mere view of them made him sick in his stomach, disgust seemingly overwhelming his being as his body shivered in restrained fear. It was abnormal and significantly compromising for someone in his line of work. To this day, the only people aware of his situation were his brother and perhaps a few Varia members within the top echelons.

He inhaled and exhaled in silence, regulating the fast pace of his heart rate and calming the artificial blush that painted his cheeks. In less than a second, he was back to normal. He'd play his inability to look at the blond as Irina being his type. Not that she wasn't, only his body did not comply.

The bell rang, a shrilling cry going around the prefabricated and the outside grounds to announce that there were five minutes left before the beginning of the class. Koro saw some students slowly flooding into the class. He flashed them a welcoming and excited grin, the same one he previously gave them on Wednesday and began to unpack the study material for today's lesson.

::

"Assassination," Koro began as he wrote the term down on the blackboard, white chalk in hand. His writing, a beautiful cursive, did not lose its allure from the gorry words that slowly filled up the board. In fact, it seemed to suck the students in. That was another way for assassins to proceed, beauty was a deadly trap, as Irina previously demonstrated, and caligraphy was just another form of beauty.

Koro twirled to look at the class, a bright grin painting his visage as he continued. "Today's lesson will focus on the history of assassination!" he told them in a sing-song voice, his green eyes sparkling with glee and excitement at the prospect of such a lesson.

The class seemed perplexed and put off by the subject, primarily by how delighted their teacher appeared to be at the thought of introducing it. They did not comment on it, though, both intrigued by the subject and unsurprised by the development. Their teacher was a hitman.

"Assassination is, following the dictionary: murder by a sudden or secret attack, often for political reasons," Koro recited, his white chalk gliding over the board as he underlined the said definition. "It can also be defined as the 'treacherous destruction of a person's reputation,'" he finished before crossing the second sentence out and circling the first one. "In today's lesson, we will focus on its first meaning."