Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
45. If it doesn’t rain during Chushu (7)
On the second day, when Woo Gihwan’s gang seized the campfire and started the Informal Talk Time, no one saw Yong Jegeon after the sunset.
During the trip Yong Jegeon would usually hang around 1st year class 0 or Kim Sinrok, but he was nowhere to be seen.
If Yong Jegeon was an ordinary teacher, people would worry, but as that Game category Yong was often whimsical, no one was bothered.
But hearing what sound Yong Jegeon made, it seemed that he met a being I couldn’t expect at that time.
“Uisin-ah, Ungnyeo of Grief-ssi asked to pass her regards.”
One of the few spaces that Hwang Jiho was said to be unable to interfere with inside the Eungwang School, Stalemate’s clubroom.
Yong Jegeon’s long hair changed to the cyan color as he opened his power to create a barrier with the Space Art.
‘I barely saw Yong Jegeon open his power to this degree at school.’
But it was necessary to make a thorough defense if he was to bring up the story of Ungnyeo of Grief in the Ho tribe’s divine realm.
I didn’t know about Jeok-ho or Baek Ho-gun, but if he was caught by Hwang Jiho, even though he wouldn’t be killed, his body parts would be so destroyed, the reconstruction surgery would be necessary.
“I guess You met with Ungnyeo of Grief at the day of the campfire.”
“Yep. I wanted to talk with you straight away, but Sinrok and Hwangho-ssi in the appearance of the student keep being around you, you know? If I suddenly called you, they would think it was strange.”
Between Yong Jegeon’s squinted curved eyes, jade light was sparkling.
“You said that You made some kind of deal with Ungnyeo of Grief in the past, correct? Is it related to that transaction?”
“You remember those words, huh?”
Before, when Yong Jegeon reasoned out my actions related to ‘that word’, he spoke like this:
— Last clue turned out to be this. Jin, with whom I made a deal in the past, gave it to me in return, you know? She said that on the day of the boat party, something fun would happen, so I should use it to observe the deck. And I used it, and this is the remaining card.
— I think you already know her. It’s a Jin who worries about Jeok-ho.
Combining what he said at that time and the current situation, Yong Jegeon and Ungnyeo of Grief had some kind of deal.
Yong Jeogon spoke while looking into the distance.
“There was a Jin, who lured out Sinrok, who was young and reckless at that time.”
“Teacher Kim Sinrok-nim?”
How the hell did Kim Sinrok live when he was younger?
The people, who knew Kim Sinrok from his younger days, spoke as one and treated him as a troublemaker.
The following story was a bit heavy.
“That Jin took a long time to obtain Sinrok’s trust and led Sinrok outside the Ho tribe’s divine realm. It was under the pretext of letting him meet Ungnyeo of Grief-ssi.”
They put such great effort to coax Kim Sinrok?
Looking how Yong Jegeon expressed it, it didn’t seem like they guided Kim Sinrok outside the divine realm for a good thing.
“They truly did meet, but Ungnyeo of Grief-ssi wasn’t in a position where she could protect Sinrok. At that time Sinrok was captured by the Ung tribe and almost suffered terrible things, but I saved him.”
There was such a secret story?!
Worthy of the PMH game wreck, Kim Sinrok ended up killed in the tutorial and his name didn’t come out even once.
In addition, there was not even a mention that there was such a story between Yong Jegeon, who was the key person and Ungnyeo.
“As I became close with Sinrok through the opportunity of giving him a hand at that time, Ungnyeo of Grief-ssi came to find me. I guess she was worried about her son hanging out with a bad friend.”
Yong Jegeon seemed to know very well that he would be treated as a bad friend.
Yong Jegeon was my virtuous Playable Character[1], but it was natural to worry if Yong Jegeon was the son’s friend.
Because if we were to categorize Yong Jegeon between good and evil, he would be leaning towards the good, but if one was close with the ‘Game category’ Yong, there was a high possibility one would be swept into dangerous pranks.
“Are You close with teacher Kim Sinrok-nim even now, because You made a deal with Ungnyeo of Grief?”
“No matter what deal, if I didn’t like him, would there be a way for us to be friends? Ungnyeo-ssi is a talent the Ung tribe boasted about, you know? She set a line in the name of a deal.”
Considering Yong Jegeon’s personality, it was true.
Even so, I didn’t know what Kim Sinrok would think if he knew about this fact.
Following that, if he learned that connection between Yong Jegeon and Ungnyeo of Grief was related to him, wouldn’t he feel a sense of betrayal and doubt their friendship?
“Did you say that Jeokho-ssi will die within a year? Is Jeokho-ssi the only one to die?”
When I engraved the secret story Yong Jegeon told me in my head, he suddenly brought something even heavier than what was a moment ago.
‘Did Ungnyeo of Grief tell him even that?’
It seemed that my expression crumpled because of my fluster.
Yong Jegeon stared at me with an ecstatic face.
“I guess there is more. Then I guess the person who will die is very close to you.”
He was making that strange face when he figured out this much?
Yong Jegeon was reading my mind.
My hands turned cold like when playing chess, and Yong Jegeon seemed to have noticed the change in my body temperature.
I decided to make a sensible excuse first.
“I don’t have a foresight skill.”
“You know ‘something’ through something else than foresight skill. Isn’t your Gwangrim also pretty special? In addition… We should consider your actions as the Red Wall Thief. I feel there is no way an ordinary highschool student would be able to catch that information and move.”
Why did ‘that word’ come out during such an important scene?!
The hands which turned cold, shrunk and clenched into fists.
“Will I also die?”
Yong Jegeon died.
During the 1st year, even though he had an ability to escape alone the sealed Eungwang School, he disregarded it and remained to protect the students.
But as there was a limit to how much he could endure with a body that was constrained, because of the ‘teacher contract’ he made to work as a teacher at Eungwang School, he finally died.
Yong Jegeon’s fans and the stagnant waters like me overturned Eugnwang School map itself to find the escape routes to make Yong Jegeon survive, and attempted to rescue Yong Jegeon with Flight skill and Space Art.
But if there were no students in Yong Jegeon’s vision, he would return to the starting point by himself.
Yong Jegeon used the Flight skill to return to the starting point, but whether he died from attacks or arrived safely, because he used the skill, he pretty much used up all his energy, and his survival chances dropped sharply.
Because of this, majority of users gave up on rescuing Yong Jegeon, while shouting ‘Damn game wreck, why is the Playable Character like this?!’.
I, at the end of dozens of retries, succeeded in finding scattered students and even guided Yong Jegeon to the outskirts of Eungwang School.
But when attempting to escape using the Flight skill after arriving at the Eungwang School’s outskirts, Yong Jegeon mumbled:
[I don’t want to go out right now.]
Even when Yong Jegeon’s physical strength and energy hit the bottom, he was so stubborn and didn’t go out of the Eungwang School.
Because if he once went out of Eungwang School, it would be difficult to return thanks to the barrier distorted by the 12 Zodiac’s traitor.
Yong Jegeon met his end because he exhausted his power in front of disciples.
‘If not under the teacher contract, Yong Jegeon wouldn’t go so futilely.’
However, the only one who could release the teacher contract was the chairman Hwang Myeong-ho, in other words, Hwang Jiho.
I didn’t know what Hwang Jiho was doing, but he didn’t appear during PMH Concrete Floor Collapse incident.
His first appearance was after everything ended and he cooperated with Ju Su-hyeok after the PMH Concrete Floor Collapse incident.
“I’m right, huh?”
I didn’t say a word, but Yong Jegeon figured it out alone and nodded his head.
Yong Jegeon had a face of falling into thoughts.
It seemed he imagined when and how he would die.
“You called me because You wanted to ask about that?”
At my words, Yong Jegeon raised his head.
The jade eyes, shining with a piercing light, were hidden behind squinted eyelids.
“There is also something else. Ungnyeo-ssi asked me to inform you about something regarding the crow mask.”
I knew that Ungnyeo of Grief had a connection to the Crow Demon King Sillentium.
Because as the highest grade item artisan she made a reproduction of ‘Silver coin of Oath of Silence’ used by the Demon King.
The face of that coin was engraved with the seal of the Crow Demon King, the Demon King of Silence and Bystanders Sillentium.
‘But when did she notice I’m using a crow mask?’
I guess Ungnyeo knew that I wore a crow mask and moved.
Even so, I couldn’t figure out since when she knew that.
During the Cheo Pyeondeuk’s illegal building collapse incident? Or the boat party which was certainly interfered with?
Yong Jegeon’s words continued.
“Yeah. She said that if you wander around wearing the crow mask, you have to respect the favorite taste of the Crow Demon King and the human he cherishes.”
“Favorite taste?”
“Yeah. She said you won’t able to obtain his favor by just simply wandering while wearing a crow mask.”
Crow Demon King’s favorite taste.
There was nothing I clearly recalled about it from the information in the game.
Though there were abstract descriptions like ‘Shining thing’ and ‘Thing that is greatly polarizing’.
“I can tell you. And the human that Demon King-ssi cherishes just happened to be in Eungwang District.”
“I’m fine.”
It seemed that Yong Jegeon knew something regarding the Crow Demon King, but I decided to reject him for now.
Yong Jegeon would be busy with the Yong tribe’s things, so I didn’t plan to involve him into the Crow Demon King’s case.
Yong Jegeon went back on that a few times, saying that he could introduce me to the Crow Demon King, but I refused.
But the last suggestion I couldn’t refuse.
“Uisin-ah, do you want to go the Dragon Palace someday?”
The Dragon Palace, which I couldn’t go to even by borrowing the Ho tribe’s power.
That location was the main stage of the ‘Dragon King God’s maiden’ scenario.
* * *
Yeom Junyeol, who naturally showed off the perfectly set hair and the brightly colored summer suit, in which he was dressed up personally by the Yong tribe.
If it was as usual every day, if he walked into a place with people, someone would give him attention and say a word.
But right now no one spoke to Yeom Junyeol.
It seemed that the people busily walking the corridors of the broadcasting station didn’t notice him.
Yeom Junyeol, who was treated like an invisible man, was a bit excited.
For the first time he evaded the Yong tribe members, who acted as his managers and bodyguards, and right now as a bonus, he even freed himself from the attention of people by hiding his presence.
‘I succeeded the task of ‘Hiding the presence’ given me by master-nim for the first time!’
At the thought that he could bring a topic other than a weather forecast to his master-nim after a long time, Yeom Juneyol made a happy face.
As the broadcast didn’t start yet, he couldn’t spoil the audition program that was already filmed and even more so, he couldn’t talk about the task he made no progress on.
Tomorrow would be different.
“… Uh, senior-nim? Hello!”
But Yeom Junyeol’s happy mood didn’t continue for long.
Because the pink-haired participant of the final audition of ‘Playlist’ and the school junior Dokgo Miro noticed Yeom Junyeol straight away.
Dokgo Miro seemed to own sharp senses worthy of the Eungwang School junior.
“Because I noticed senior-nim late, I couldn’t greet You straight away. My apologies!”
Looking at Dokgo Miro, who smiled friendlily and greeted him, Yeom Junyeol made a complicated face.
Even though he knew that Dokgo Miro didn’t have bad intentions, his heart was regretful.
Yeom Junyeol and Dokgo Miro exchanged greetings and had a conversation worthy of the school and entertainment industry seniors and juniors.
“We will be filming together at Eungwang School soon. Are you prepared?”
Yeom Junyeol was in charge of shooting Dokgo Miro’s school life alone.
There was also the issue of Eungwang School’s entrance permits, but the production director saw it as an opportunity to film Dokgo Miro together with Yeom Junyeol’s appearance in school uniform.
“About that, I didn’t go to school for a long time. I decreased hours of going to school to only visit the practice room.”
Dokgo Miro fiddled with her hair, while making a troubled face.
Majority of the class 0’s students were attending school and as one of the truants, if Dokgo Miro was to suddenly film her school life, it would be awkward.
It would be difficult for Dokgo Miro, who was just a trainee, to nitpick on the production crew plans.
‘I can’t show favoritism to a particular participant in my position as MC…’
At the end of his worries, Yeom Junyeol decided to give a very small favor.
“I know juniors from class 0. Do you want to talk to them before filming?”
Yeom Junyeol recalled the names of two people, Sawol Seeum and Jo Uisin, as he spoke.
*~*~*
[1] my virtuous Playable Character — it’s fun in Korean, because ‘virtuous’ is before ‘my’ so you could interpret it as ‘the virtuous me’.
Translator’s note: … This chapter is dealing me mental damage. But that’s okay. I’ll just repeat ‘it didn’t rain during Chushu’ over and over, hahaha!
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