Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
53. Second attempt (1) [1]
Silver Light (Eunhwi) Building, chairman office, morning.
Hwang-ho, in the appearance of Hwang Myeong-ho, was listening to Jeok-ho’s report.
The content was related to the 1st year class 0’s Lee Lena, no, Kwon Lena.
“I thought that Kwon Jane just terribly cherishes her disciple, but she wasn’t simply a disciple, but a relative connected by blood, eh?”
During the midterm exams period, Hwang-ho ordered Jeok-ho to investigate Kwon Lena, who was already investigated at the beginning of the semester, when investigating the 1st year class 0.
But at that time, the Ho tribe wasn’t able to figure out anything besides that she was the Fantasy Auction participant, and was possibly mistreated.
Recently, in the atmosphere where Jeok-ho kept insisting that he would go to investigate the Woo tribe and Sa tribe[2], to give him more work and to dig into the classmate, who seemed to be mentally cornered, he ordered Jeok-ho to investigate.
And as the result of the second attempt, he ended up obtaining unexpected information.
‘I investigated presuming a possibility of another reason, besides feeling of guilt for the victim of the Fantasy Auction’s Sawol Seeum, but I didn’t expect such results…. Wait, Jo Uisin seems to know about it.’
There was a day when Jo Uisin returned covered in Seodol’s traces.
As benefactor might be tied with the seriously annoying Jin, Hwang-ho ordered an investigation.
According to the investigation’s result, Jo Uisin was confirmed to visit Kwon Jane like he said.
Up to that, there was no gap in any part, but he found the part that bothered him in the report.
‘It was strange that the Eternal Lake’s sub master Jared Lee came all the way to Eungwang School to pick up Jo Uisin.’
It was strange that the second best of the world top ten Pro Player’s team picked up a mere student.
It was an attitude that seemed to say that he was escorting an important guest for an important conversation.
There was one more moment, which Hwang-ho thought was strange before.
Coincidentally, the two things happened on the same day.
‘It was the time when the chess competition was held. While preparing for the interview with Kwon Jane, Jo Uisin showed a very strange attitude.’
Jo Uisin, who read the thousand pages worth of materials on Kwon Jane in an instant made a strange expression.
Jo Uisin’s expression was so bad, that he unknowingly spoke when observing him.
— It’s strange, eh?
— What?
— It’s a face that you figured out something, but you aren’t smiling suspiciously.
Considering the secret of Kwon Lena’s birth, which he learned now, he understood the reason he made such a face.
‘He probably realized at that time, eh? He found a clue in the huge amount of materials and realized Kwon Lena’s secret, and after finishing the chess match that day, he personally met Kwon Jane to confirm it, right?’
The eyes of Hwang-ho, who finished thinking, sparkled, as he laughed.
“Hahaha, we couldn’t learn such important information during the first investigation?”
“The Seo tribe[3] and the Eternal Lake team covered up that information, so it was difficult to learn.”
“It would be difficult to learn if it wasn’t someone of your ability, eh?”
At those words, Jeok-ho spoke as if waiting for this.
“Yes, so I’ll take charge of the investigation into Woo and Sa tribe.”
Hwang-ho clicked his tongue, while cutting him off.
“Don’t think about useless things. The investigation into ‘Seong-hyeon’ still isn’t completed. Moreover, do you know that your son came to me to beg to try to test that ability of Jo Uisin?”
“Yes? That child asked You for such a thing?”
“Yeah. I postponed it under the excuse of the midterm exams, but we will have to soon try to test it again, right?”
Jeok-ho shut his mouth, petrified.
“If you leave to go to the Woo tribe or Sa tribe’s bases, your son will dream a nightmare without you there.”
“…”
At Hwang-ho’s words, Jeok-ho completely lowered his tail[4].
Hwang-ho, who was satisfied with that appearance, changed the topic.
“Leave this matter to other people. First report came. Let’s check it together.”
“… Understood.”
The faces of Hwang-ho and Jeok-ho’s faces, who checked the report on the hologram, hardened a little.
“Both of the two heads act no different from usual, eh?” [5]
“It’s too early to judge, but we may have to consider a possible of it being ‘both of the two’.”
After seeing the report, Jeok-ho wanted to step out to personally investigate straight away, but he endured thinking about his son.
Hwang-ho, who saw through the flow of those thoughts, threw Jeok-ho a piece of work.
Opportunely, there was something to take care of.
“We will try to investigate this matter a little bit more. Ah, the student, who danced Byeoksa dance at the opening ceremony of the exchange with the Military School… someone from Ju-Oh Group is digging into Baek-ho. This matter Jeok-ho, you take care of it.”
* * *
The matter of Kwon Lena’s failing made the class atmosphere freeze.
Majority of the children were silent because they didn’t know how they should respond.
Song Daeseok tactlessly said ‘If you just carefully read the textbook, you can easily get 40 points…’, but was kicked in the shin by Min Geurin, and collapsed on the floor.
In addition, Mok Uram said ‘I’ll ask teacher-nim to fail together…’, but was punched in the ribs by Maeng Hyodon and shut his mouth.
“Hmm….”
I worried if the geezer won’t laugh at such a moment, but Hwang Jiho was just looking at me with a meaningful smile.
Looking at that face, I was unsettled, but because of the problem we were facing right now, I decided to ignore him.
Luckily, as Kim Yuri with the most outstanding communication skills in our class consoled Kwon Lena in a friendly and lighthearted manner, the situation was handled.
But Kwon Lena looked like she left her soul somewhere throughout the classes, and the class children weren’t able to finish the midterm exams comfortably and happily.
‘I didn’t come to this world to make my Playable Character fail a class.’
In the game, Kwon Lena was never described to get a failing score.
As a result of some kind of processes, my actions up till now led to Kwon Lena failing a class.
At the thought that it was because of me, I felt as if my windpipe was blocked.
This thought continued even until the Newspaper Club’s work ended and I went out.
Today was a day when we were choosing the Newspaper Club’s president for the next term, during my 2nd year, but I couldn’t concentrate at all.
The next Newspaper Club president had to be a Player with a healthy mind and stomach, and outstanding superpowers, to protect Jegal Jaegeol and Newspaper Club from the 2nd class 0’s evil tricks.
As such, an election process was long and complicated, but when I left the Newspaper Club’s room I had almost no memories of it.
“Jo Uisin, the class failing still isn’t confirmed.”
Before I went to the dormitory, Hwang Jiho called me to the classroom.
I thought he would talk about the Long Tail, because they suddenly hit a barrier, but what came out was a story about Kwon Lena.
“Looking at the test paper, she scored 38 points. She got this score because she ran out of time when marking the last ten questions. It was a mistake simply made out of nervousness.”
Could she repeat that mistake on the re-test?
Hwang Jiho added as if he read my thoughts.
“If you’re worried about the mistake, there is an option of offering an open statement or oral exam.”
“… Isn’t that an abuse of authority?”
“Considering the point of the scope and retest the school rules allow, it’s within the possibilities. Isn’t the retest a means to reconfirming the individual students’ capabilities and studying results?”
Hearing Hwang Jiho’s words, I relaxed more or less.
When I sighed, thought I can relax, Hwang Jiho made a bomb-like comment.
“If there is a problem because of ‘Kwon Lena’s’ family, consult me. I’ll help.”
As he called her ‘Kwon Lena’ instead of ‘Lee Lena’, I guess the geezer at last noticed Kwon Lena’s secret.
Moreover, looking at his attitude, it seemed that he knew that I knew that secret.
When I made a face of open dislike, Hwang Jiho was satisfied and laughed.
‘… Okay, if that bastard knows, it will be of help when something happens someday.’
While thinking positively like this, I headed to the Earthly Wings Hall’s study room.
Because the dormitory food service time ended, while I ate dinner with the Newspaper Club’s members in the clubroom, I didn’t’ see any people around in the Earthly Wings Hall.
Even the simulator rooms, which were always half full during the exam period, were completely empty.
‘Should I only make plans today and rest?’
The retest remained, but I thought of soothing Kwon Lena today and making a light study plan.
But when I arrived at the study room, there was no one but Sawol Seeum and Mok Uram there.
‘Maeng Hyodon said he would start the postponed training with Tak ascetic today, and Han Yi said she had an apportionment with the children’s home’s people.’
I thought that Kwon Lena left for a moment, but Sawol Seeum asked with a bit of a complicated expression.
“Didn’t You see Lena when coming here?”
As the Earthly Wings Hall was almost deserted, I would notice if Kwon Lena was around.
I shook my head.
“No, why?”
“She said that she would get a breath of fresh air, and be back, but… She is late.”
“I contacted Her through a device, but She didn’t pick up. The message is also marked as unread.”
“She might have gone to the String Club, because she took the violin case, she brought with her.”
On the table laid pumpkin[6] cupcakes with three blueberries and paper cups for the four.
It seemed to be prepared matching the number of people, but three paper cups were already cold, and the cold content entered my eyes.
‘It seems she left a while ago.’
Sawol Seeum explained the whole story.
The three decided to eat dinner and met here, but it seemed that Sawol Seeum came first to prepare cupcakes to cheer up Kwon Lena.
“Lena likes blueberries. So I bought cupcakes containing blueberries and blueberry tea leaves with a meaning ‘stay strong’…. But when she saw it, Lena suddenly said she would go out for a while.”
Listening to Sawol Seeum’s words, I didn’t have a good precognition.
The origin of the extreme sense of guilt of Kwon Lena was Sawol Seeum.
He heard the news of Kwon Lena’s failing, and prepared a gift to cheer her up straight away.
It was obvious how Kwon Lena would feel seeing that.
“I’ll go find her.”
“Ah, then I’ll go with…!”
“You wait. She may come back here, perhaps.”
I said that and left straight away.
When I left the study room, I was walking fast, but around the point I got closer to the entrance I was running at full speed.
‘I hope she isn’t there…!’
In my head I came up with the candidates for locations Kwon Lena could be at, and the people she could contact.
When considering Kwon Lena’s current situation, I came up with a sole candidate straight away, but I hated to acknowledge it.
I decided to use Gwangrim to confirm the result of my reasoning.
⟨Using Gwangrim ‘Player’s Trajectory’.⟩
⟨Using target character’s Gwangrim ‘Eyes embracing Heaven and Earth’.⟩
After I activated Cheon Dong-ha’s Gwangrim, enormous amount of information was pushed into my brain.
The result was terrible.
Kwon Lena was standing in the place I expected.
‘Kwon Lena is thinking of a second attempt…!’
I changed the Player’s Trajectory’s selected a character from Cheon Dongha to Sawol Seeum.
⟨Using target character’s skill ‘Flight’.⟩
I thought it was good that there were no people around and flew into the sky.
It could become known that I can use a Flight skill, but currently it wasn’t important.
At the end of the thought that it ‘could become known’, I recalled what I should do.
While I flew, cutting through the night sky, I urgently wrote a message.
[Me] Teacher Kim Sinrok-nim, please turn off the 1st year dormitory building’s outer CCTV.
[Kim Sinrok] Understood. What is going on?
[Me] Thank You. I’ll explain later.
Kim Sinrok dealt with it straight away, worthy of the Earthly Wings Council’s advisor.
More questions came, but I didn’t have time to answer.
‘Over there…!’
I landed a few steps away from Kwon Lena straight away.
Kwon Lena, who was looking blankly at the night sky, turned her head and looked at me.
She stood at the rooftop of the 1st year building, where she jumped on the first day of school to make the second attempt.
*~*~*
[1] Second attempt — ‘attempt 시도 (si-do)’ could also mean ‘seeing for the first time/first impression’, ‘method of writing poetry’, ‘appearing(showing up) to guide’, ‘in the past, a person who took care of cattle and horses’, ‘city road’, ‘degree of atmosphere transparency’, ‘number indicated by a measuring instrument’.
[2] Woo tribe and Sa tribe — ‘Woo’ for cow, ‘Sa’ for snake.
[3] Seo tribe — ‘Seo’ for rat/mouse.
[4] lowered his tail — an idiom meaning a submissive attitude. I don’t think Jeok-ho is in his furry form here x.x
[5] “Both of two heads act no different from usual, eh?” — Jeok-ho’s sentence.
[6] pumpkin — 단호박 (danhobak) Cucuribita maxima, kabocha, 단호 (danho) could mean ‘to be determined, decisive, resolute, drastic’, while 호박 (hobak) could mean an island in the middle of the lake.
Translator’s note: No, Lena, our dear child… Try to reconsider it a second time, and the third time, and…
Patron thank you note:
Thank you patron, Nobody, please accept this Corchoropsis crenata’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Al, please accept this Corynabutilon vitifolium’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Dust, please accept this Cristaria aspera’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Maru, please accept this Decaschistia crotonifolia’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, kamisonk, please accept this Dombeya wallichii’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Kasimir Ilmonen, please accept this Entelea arborescens’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Tara Hess, please accept this Eremalche rotundifolia’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Ice, please accept this Anoda cristata’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, anonymous Kofi-supporter, please accept this Eriotheca pubescens’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Hematite, please accept this Gossypium herbaceum’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Links to support this translation and access to 8 advanced chapter (Patreon & Kofi)
> Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LibraryKeyTranslations
> Kofi-Euro: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslator
> Kofi-USD: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslatorusd
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
Leave a Reply