Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
39. Tossed coin (3)
The people chanting ‘that word’ didn’t end with Hwang Jiho.
“Jo Uisin is Red Wall Thief?… It really wasn’t the Yong tribe’s descendant, eh?”
“Red Wall Thief had no connection to us.”
“You knew that Jo Uisin-gun was Red Wall Thief?”
“Yep, I knew. Because Junyeol was chasing after Red Wall Thief, and there were a lot of clues at school.”
“Yong Jegeon, since when did you know about Red Wall Thief?”
Can’t the Jin people and descendants here speak without ‘that word’?
I wanted to say something to those Jin people and whatnot, but all my energy was consumed by straightening my shriveled fingers and contorted face.
This was the moment when I had to manage my expression, for the sake of my second highschool life.
I was already expressionless, but I strained to be even more expressionless.
‘The moment I let that ruined geezer know how I feel about ‘that word’, he will make fun of me!’
During my days as a chess player, I heard that I faced against other chess players and played with them with a poker face until the checkmate.
Considering that these days rough sounds like ‘Suspicious’ and ‘Looks like having a low intelligence’ were coming out, I put my heart and soul into controlling my expression.
Woof?
“….”
My only comfort was Snare, who licked my trembling hands, Baek Ho-gun who didn’t say a word like usual.
“Jo Uisin? Why is there no reaction? Is there anything incorrect in my words?”
Hwang Jiho shot the arrow in my direction again.
I didn’t want that bastard to find out about the king’s wrath, which was ‘that word’, so I mustered all my strength.
“No- why?”
“That’s strange, eh? The Red Wall Thief thing is a pretty big secret, but then why do you look so calm? No, you look calm, but it seems like you’re enduring something and pretending not to know, eh?”
“Idon’tknowwhatareyoutalkingabout.”
“… The reaction is subtle.”
I controlled my facial muscles, while feigning composure.
In my head, I keep thinking about other things.
Like Snare in my arms.
As I stroked Snare’s head and scratched its neck, I found my calm.
“Hm, did your intelligence lower in the meantime?”
“Hwang-ho, get to the point.”
Baek Ho-gun, who kept his mouth closed this entire time, said a word.
‘Did you perhaps notice my distress and changed the topic for me?’
As expected, my last Playable Character’s thoughtfulness was extraordinary.
As he spoke together with that ruined geezer in the same space, the difference was clear.
“Well, shall I get to the reason why I trouble myself revealing it in this place? Jo Uisin, you made an amazing achievement as Red Wall Thief, but it was a dangerous act. It’s not something to do alone.”
When ‘that word’ came out, I put strength in into the hand stroking Snare’s head for a second, but I succeeded in controlling my expression.
Hwang Jiho’s words continued.
“I figured out your identity and everyone here also know it. So, when you move as Red Wall Thief in the future, don’t hide it and borrow the strength of the Ho tribe.”
It seemed that Hwang Jiho thought of actively helping me.
I understood well that this ruined bastard spoke like this with good intentions.
But I hoped that he would stop mixing ‘that word’ into his words.
I changed the topic as I asked about something I was curious about.
“… Since when were you watching that day?”
“Since the moment the Heavenly God’s light descended.”
So, immediately after I finished my conversation with Nine Iron Teeth Rake?
“When I got there, I saw you holding Sawol Seeum on your back, injured and facing against the impostor. I was about to interfere straight away, but you asked Heavenly God for permission.”
… I guess he also saw that scene?
My face got hot at the thought that the scene when I said Baek Ho-gun’s line was discovered, but, I wasn’t as ashamed as about ‘that word’.
“The timing usage of the Brilliant Gaze skill was not inferior to a Ho tribe member, eh? Was sparring with Baek-ho helpful?”
“Yeah.”
Sparring with Baek Ho-gun was also helpful, but in fact, I mastered the skill usage timing before coming to this world.
There is no way that the abilities of the rotten water, who cleared the PMH’s scenario with no auto-movement and hellish operation difficulty, disappeared in a day or two.
If it was the skill usage timing of Baek Ho-gun, whom I operated for over 10 years, I could do it even with my eyes closed.
“Then let’s move to the next topic. It’s related to settling this situation.”
Hwang Jiho prepared things to be hidden about this event by cooperating with the Association.
The otherworld outbreak and Enemies’ invasion couldn’t be hidden, but they planned to cover up the existence of Jin people.
“The fact that our Ho tribe clashed with the Ung tribe out of our own will, will be hidden from ‘that guy’s’ side. As we minimized the number of people to disguise it as a coincidence. Yong Jegeon, did you feel the existence of ‘eyes’ after the communication was cut off?”
“No. Until the communication was cut off, I felt the ‘eyes’, but after that it was different. It seems there is a risk of not being able to use ‘eyes’ when communication and satellite information is cut off.”
“We obtained a good info, eh? Informing Cunning about it should be helpful to progressing the study of cutting off the ‘eyes’.”
Hwang Jiho’s explanation continued.
“We also plan to hide the activation of Sawol Seeum’s power. It will be a bit complicated to block the mouths of residents, but as Sawol Seeum’s power passes ‘words that won’t remain in records’, their memories are pretty vague, so it seems possible to hide it. The Ho tribe’s information team already started a large-scale information manipulation, and it’s progressing successfully.”
He added an explanation that the majority of recording devices connected with the web shut down, but the Ho tribe’s information team is looking for the records left in the recording devices operating in the offline mode and erasing them.
“From the Ung tribe, the only ones that slipped away were Bear of Anxiety and his two subordinates. As the only thing they saw was Kim Sinrok, Yong Jegeon and Jeok-ho, there shouldn’t be problems, eh? That’s all. Any questions?”
Hwang Jiho finished the entire explanation and looked around.
Kim Sinrok raised his hand with a stiff face.
“Hwangho-nim, they may think it was unnatural.”
They may think it was unnatural?
When Hwang Jiho motioned to him to continue, Kim Sinrok replied.
“I don’t know about that dragon, but they may think it was strange for Jeokho-nim to be around me. They will probably think that we knew about the Ung tribe’s raid beforehand and prepared, right?”
I thought I knew where those words were coming from.
‘There is no way that Jeok-ho would meet with Kim Sinrok in person without Hwang Jiho’s order. So the Ung tribe would think that it’s strange.’
Kim Sinrok had such doubts.
“Do you mean that it’s strange that a father goes to watch over his son, who was almost killed not so long ago, by cooperating with the son’s friend?”
“Yes. It’s most convincing that He followed after me at Hwangho-nim’s orders.”
After Kim Sinrok’s words ended, it seemed that the temperature of the drawing room dropped a few degrees.
“Kim Sinrok…”
Hwang Jiho was about to open his mouth, but Jeok-ho shook his head a little.
After that, no one spoke.
‘Jeok-ho thinks that Kim Sinrok feels uncomfortable with him, and seeing how Kim Sinrok speaks right now, it seems that he also misunderstood Jeok-ho.’
If too much time passes, it would be difficult for the two to talk.
Even if there was a bit of bad feelings, they would be difficult to resolve when 1 year or 10 years pass, and it was so even more for a father and son.
‘The Yong tribe had a tendency to avoid mentioning and interfering with each other’s ‘royal’s wrath[1]’. So it doesn’t seem like Yong Jegeon will interfere with that. Baek Ho-gun isn’t good with words. And Hwang Jiho… I don’t know why that talkative geezer keeps his mouth shut.’
Why did Hwang Jiho stay out of meddling with this father and son relationship?
If even that bastard doesn’t open his mouth, there was no one who could meddle between this father and son.
‘I don’t know what happened in this world in the past, but…’
I lost my parents-nim and dongsaengs in an incident.
I was extremely tense with a big tournament ahead of me, and I didn’t even say goodbye to them before departing.
And I lost my family in a common and ordinary incident that wouldn’t become much of a topic.
We much more don’t know when something will explode in this world where Clash of Different Worlds occurred, and with a force which is aiming for the Ho tribe.
I recalled how the two died in the game.
After I recalled Jeok-ho, who wore black clothes until he died, my mouth opened by itself.
“When Jeok-ho was hurt by Zhu Ganglie’s Forking. Teacher Kim Sinrok-nim tried to secretly sneak into the mansion to check and attend to Him.”
“Jo Uisin-gun!”
“What? Sinrok did that?”
At my meddling, Kim Sinrok jumped up from this seat.
Imitation of an ordinary teacher.
Gloomy and inhuman look showed in front of the Ung tribe.
Among several of those appearances, this deeply red face seemed like Kim Sinrok’s real face.
“The infiltration failed, and You were caught by Hwang Jiho, correct? Even so, I heard that You spent several hours watching over the sleeping Jeok-ho before coming back.”
“Stop, please stop! Mhmh…”
Kim Sinrok reflexively stretched out his hand towards me as if to stop me, but there was a Jin who was quicker than him.
Yong Jegeon blocked Kim Sinrok’s mouth while he winked towards me.
It seemed to mean ‘don’t stop and say more’.
I guess that game category dragon was very delighted at the scene of reveling his friend’s black history.
Jeok-ho was making a shocked face as if he couldn’t believe what he heard.
“Eun-ho’s descendants cooked ramen prepared by teacher Kim Sinrok-nim, but it wasn’t very good. Even so, Jeok-ho didn’t put down his chopsticks and ate all of it, correct?”
“Tha-that is because the descendants cooked it….Mhm!”
Kim Sinrok, who shook off Yong Jegon’s arm for a moment, said something, but his mouth was blocked again.
As if he couldn’t win against him in physical force, Kim Sinrok struggled and looked in turn at Hwang Jiho and Baek Ho-gun.
It seemed that Kim Sinrok was asking for help, but there was no way that the two Ho tribe members would respond.
“When Jeok-ho was hurt by Zhu Ganglie, He said not to tell teacher Kim Sinrok-nim, because He would be worried. But as You said it to Hwang Jiho, I ignored it and informed teacher Kim Sinrok-nim.”
The movements of Kim Sinrok, who struggled to free himself from Yong Jegeon’s grip, weakened as if he lost the strength to resist.
“He suffered more when He caught the information that ‘that guy’ is targeting teacher Kim Sinrok-nim than when His body was pierced by the forks of the Nine Iron Teeth Rake. Hwang Jiho proposed that He would protect teacher-nim, but He decided that He would only protect You outside the school, because You would be uncomfortable.”
Kim Sinrok’s resistance stopped completely.
Even when Yong Jegeon released his hand, he didn’t say anything.
“Jeok-ho is a Person who would only wear black clothes for His entire life if something happened to teacher Kim Sinrok-nim.”
After my words ended, the drawing room fell quiet again.
With a red face, Kim Sinrok looked at Jeok-ho, while opening and closing his mouth, and Jeok-ho just quietly observed his son.
“It seems that the two of you have a lot to talk about, eh?”
Hwang Jiho’s eyes sparkled while he smiled.
He, who stood up, made an eye gesture.
“As I passed everything I was to convey, we will be going. Ah, the two of you, don’t leave the drawing room until your conversation is over.”
***
The mood of the Jin people, who left the drawing room, seemed very happy.
“Hahaha! I should add a good drink to today’s dinner, eh?”
“Well done, Uisin.”
Wasn’t it still too early to toast?
It would be difficult to cleanly solve the bad feelings between the two with just today’s conversation.
Today they were forced to pass the starting line.
Even though there was no way they didn’t know it, seeing the two Jin people, who were happy, I had doubts.
“Why did you leave them alone until now?”
The first to reply was Yong Jegeon.
“I tried to intervene once, but Sinrok almost cut his relationship with me. He forgave me, because I vowed to never mess up with his royal’s wrath again.”
Something like that happen?
It seemed certain Kim Sinrok would mark me for this incident.
It may be a summer break, but in the first place, I was a student of the dormitory Kim Sinrok was the advisor of.
I’ll have to be more careful about dormitory situations in the future.
“You?”
After I asked Hwang Jiho, he hesitated and then replied:
“… I couldn’t interfere between the two, because of the ‘contract’ I made with Jeok-ho.”
Contract?
Thinking about it, previously when Jeok-ho collapsed, he mentioned a ‘contract’ to Hwang Jiho.
There may have been something more between Hwang Jiho and Jeok-ho.
Ding.
At that moment, when I left the drawing room, a new message arrived at the device which had notifications turned on.
The sender was Min Geurin.
Looking at the record, besides a new message, there were many messages that arrived sparsely over time.
As if all children were conveying the incident, the content was related to the Seongmo Island’s incident.
The problem was the last message.
[Min Geurin] Hey.
[Min Geurin] It seems something big happened.
[Min Geurin] I think I have to quickly talk with Daeseok. But I can’t contact him. What happened? Has Daeseok still not ended the examination?
‘I guess she doesn’t know how hurt Song Daeseok was.’
Not only that, it seemed that Min Geurin had to talk with Song Daeseok about something.
*~*~*
[1] royal’s wrath — an angry/shame button
Translator’s note: Yeah! Tell them Jo Uisin! Translate for those two idiots!
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
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