Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
62. Way back home (4)
I couldn’t react properly, even though confetti landed on my head.
This current situation felt more unreal than the Demons’ Halloween party I participated in and obtaining the divine treasure of Tuatha dé Danann that was to be put on the auction.
Hwang Jiho dragged his private plane all the way to Britain, and the class children were inside of it, and the reason the children came here was to celebrate my birthday and…
I couldn’t organize my thoughts.
I came back to my senses, when I heard the alarm about a new device message from the earring I was wearing.
‘Ding’ notification endlessly whirled around my ears.
It seemed that several people sent a message at the same time.
“Vice president’s device is ringing.”
“Uisin-ah, accept it!”
I guess, Maeng Hyodon, who stood close, heard the alarm sound.
As if knowing what kind of message I received, Kim Yuri urged me.
When I was kind of pushed into unfolding a hologram, I saw piling up messages.
All of them were messages congratulating on my birthday.
[Yu Sang-hun] HB
Yu Sang-hun’s short congratulatory message.
[Jang Namuk] Uisin-ah, happy birthday. I would be sleeping right now, so this is a scheduled message. As I’m planning to participate in morning training, I have to sleep early, so I’ll keep it brief. Once I finish training I plan to congratulate you again.
Ah, Sihu asked to pass his congratulations. I told him to congratulate you personally, but according to Sihu, Uisin-i isn’t checking his messages very much? I understand you, Uisin-ah, but can you check them sometimes, because Sihu is pitiful? He probably sent a message just now.
Jang Namuk’s long congratulatory message.
After that, there was a congratulatory message that seemed to be sent by Tao Sihu, but I skipped it for the time being.
[Bak Seung-hyeon] Happy birthday.
[Seong Siwan] Uisin-ah, happy birthday. Did the things you went overseas with Gukeon hyung for ended well? I’ll see you at the dormitory.
[Geun Chansol] Suspicious vice president-nim, nim has really good relationship with nim’s class kids, don’t you? Happy bd
[Wang Chansol] Happish birthdday congrats congrats
Besides that the club members from the Newspaper Club, including Mun Saeron, grade peers and seniors sent congratulatory messages all alike.
Most of the congratulatory messages were from people in Eungwang School, but there were also people I met outside of Eungwang School like Hong Gyubin.
There were also messages from Seong Gukeon and Jeon Mu-yeong, who I parted with just a moment ago.
Moreover, the congratulatory messages didn’t come just from humans.
Eun Seoho and Eun Yiho, who were busy preparing for exams, and the youngest Eun Jaeho all sent congratulatory messages.
[Eun Seoho] Uisin hyung, happy birthday!
[Eun Yiho] I wanted to wish You happy birthday! We wanted to have a birthday party with You, but we heard You’re busy ㅠㅠ Can You come to play next week?
[Eun Seoho] We will diligently study in advance, to make free time ㅠㅠ
[Eun Jaeho] Uisin hyung, happy birthday. I’ll wait.
[Eun Jaeho] (picture)
The moment I saw the picture Eun Jaeho sent I snapped back to my senses!
Was it the genius wearing a colorful party hat in the picture? No, it was a picture of an angel.
Seeing our clever and kind Snare wish me happy birthday in the picture, I really felt like it was my birthday.
According to the date and time in the picture information it was midnight of November 1st.
‘This private plane didn’t cross a date border yet, but it would be midnight of November 1st in Korea right now.’
It seemed that everyone sent a message the moment the day of November 1st, the day of my birthday, came.
While I was checking the device messages, our class children were looking at me with excited faces.
Because of this unthinkable event, I didn’t know how I should react.
Our class children were kind kids, but in no way did I expect all of them to do this.
“… Thank you for your congratulations.”
When I thanked them, the class children made awkward faces and congratulated me again.
After under the class children’s guidance I sat down in the center of the birthday table, and clearly saw the birthday cake prepared by the children.
It was a cake with a chess board drawn on it with chocolate syrup, and as if excluding chocolate parts, all other parts on an orange base, it had a strong scent of oranges.
After I sat down, Hwang Jiho started to light up candles shaped like chess pieces with a candle lighter.
There were eight candles, one big and even small ones.
It was a number celebrating 17th birthday.
‘I never expected that the day to celebrate my 17th birthday would come.’
Before I came to this world, the 17-year-old me had no energy to think about a birthday.
Once November came, the press’ interest somewhat cooled down, but I wasn’t able to get along with my classmate, who had a rough time at the beginning of the semester because of me.
The relatives, who took me in aiming for prizes from chess competitions and broadcast participation pay, in no way cared about my birthday, because I stopped playing chess.
Because of such experiences, I wasn’t able to even think of the day to celebrate my 17th birthday coming.
“How did you know about my birthday. Wasn’t it difficult to come all the way here?”
“Uisin-i remembered all of our birthdays until now. Naturally we had to this.”
“Yes, even if Uisin-i was in an even more distant place, I would’ve come!”
After Kim Yuri and Sawol Seeum’s words, Kwon Lena added.
“Haha, we probably would have only known Uisin’s birthday date if we looked at your nickname. But I had no idea about it until Yuri told me.”
“What is jo2god111? Isn’t it an ID you made in elementary? It’s so utterly child…”
“Daeseok-i’s ID is seven more childish.”
Before Song Daeseok could finish his sharp words, Min Geurin took my side.
…. As Song Daeseok said, I also thought that ID was childish, but it was slightly difficult to change, because I was accustomed to it.
It was the ID I used since elementary school days in the previous world, so it was somewhat difficult to change.
“I’m also grateful that I can participate in the class vice president’s birthday! You’ve worked hard during the busking last time, so if there was such an opportunity, I wanted to make sure to congratulate you.”
“But strictly speaking, isn’t it October 31st here, right now? We didn’t cross the time zone yet.” [1]
“Based on the flag state principle, it wouldn’t be so. The airplanes and ships exist within their state. This plane hoist taegeukgi[2]. As such you can see this place as part of Korea.”
Isn’t that a law used when considering whether domestic law applies?
Anyway, it seemed that Hwang Jiho wanted to claim that this time spent in midair right now as my birthday, November 1st.
“Moreover, Jo Uisin’s nationality is Korean, so there was no problem with congratulating him based on Korean’s date and time standard. Hey, let’s prepare to sing the birthday song. Jo Uisin, when we finish, don’t forget to blow the candles.”
Hwang Jiho spoke like he was giving advice to a child, who was having his first birthday party.
After that, everyone sung a birthday song together.
That birthday song had a whooping live accompaniment.
Kwon Lena gave accompaniment on the supernatural violin together with Mok Uram who took out a melodian, which could be brought as elementary school supplies, and though it was short, they improvised and transcended a cool performance.
After the song ended, I blew the candles, and sound of applause rang out.
I kept feeling embarrassed somehow, but I was thankful and happy for our class children’s thoughts.
“Then I’ll cut the cake.”
“Okay! Ah, that white chocolate plate has Uisin’s name written on it. Uisin-i should eat that part.”
I cut the cake according to the class children’s requests, put a piece on each plate and handed them to the children.
I handed the piece that seemed to have the most chocolate to Han Yi, who was the only one quiet, and the distribution of the cake was at last finished.
While watching and chatting, while eating the second piece of the orange cake personally chosen by the children, I abruptly recalled the existence of a certain UR rank item card in my item window.
‘… Our class children were also worried, so I should say it.’
I hesitated for a moment if it was okay to announce the thing obtained through such a complicated route here, but in the end, I steeled my mind to speak about it here.
In addition, wasn’t it Hwang Myeong Group’s private plane?
The security was perfect and I trusted our class children.
‘They are not children to randomly spout things.’
I waited for the moment when the children’s voices died down, and opened my mouth:
“I’ll tell you the reason I came to Britain.”
When I struck up a conversation, the surroundings instantly became quiet.
I guess that though the class children didn’t dig for a reason, they were curious.
I thought that Hwang Jiho may stop me, but he was just wordlessly eating the cake, as if saying to do as I like.
‘Rather than summarizing with words, it would be faster to directly show it.’
I opened the item window and took out the UR Rank item card ‘Imoogi’s Rise To Heaven’.
As I had a method to get ‘Imoogi’s Rise To Heaven’ through customs without being detected, I asked for it to be left to me beforehand.
The moment Min Geurin, who was just looking towards the card I was taking out with eyes full of curiosity, saw the surface of the card, she jumped from her seat.
Min Geurin recognized her artwork.
“… ‘Imoogi’s Rise To Heaven’!”
“Where did you find it?”
“Wait a moment, it’s an item card?”
“And it’s an UR rank item! Wow…!” [3]
“Ah, I once saw a report about stolen artwork on TV. As it’s Player’s artwork, it isn’t strange for it to cardify, is it?” [4]
As if they guessed it was this artwork, seeing Min Geurin’s reaction, the children were all surprised.
“You went to Britain to retrieve it, huh? If you had said something, I would’ve helped you!”
“Me too!” [5]
“Vice president, you fucker, why didn’t you say anything?”
The class children spoke with half happy, half regretful faces.
Min Geurin kept on looking in turn at the ‘Imoogi’s Rise To Heaven’, to me, with a face full of emotions, and thanking me.
Song Daeseok was happy, but seeing Min Geurin extremely happy and expressing her thanks to me, his happiness seemed to somewhat diminish.
‘… But it will be difficult to return it right now.’
I wanted to return ‘Imoogi’s Rise To Heaven’ to Min Geurin right now, but I couldn’t do that.
Because this painting had clues left by the old Korean branch head of Player’s Association, and I wasn’t able to figure them out yet.
“There are still some matters involving this painting, so can I take care of this painting for a moment?”
“Uh…?”
At my words, Min Geurin was embarrassed, then fell into worries.
Min Geurin’s worries didn’t last long.
“Tell me and master-nim what things this painting is involved in. Then I’ll leave it to you.”
“… Will it be okay?”
“Yeah. I feel like it’ll be safe to leave it to you rather than leave it to the art museum.”
As this matter involved the Dark Mastermind and Demons, it wasn’t safe.
Even so, didn’t the artist of Imoogi’s Rise To Heaven, Min Geurin, deserve to know?
When I nodded, Min Geurin’s expression’s brightened.
“Then I’ll tell master-nim.”
With Min Geurin’s permission, I obtained an opportunity to examine the ‘Imoogi’s Rise To Heaven’.
* * *
Once we arrived at the airport, we parted ways early to prepare for Monday.
I put it this way, but considering the time we spent together while flying and holding a birthday party, it was difficult to say we parted ways early.
I wanted to head to the dormitory together with the dormitory students right away, but I stopped in my tracks at Hwang-ho’s words.
“Eun-ho is waiting for you.”
“… Eun-ho?”
Recalling Eun-ho, my heart became complicated.
Because I recalled Eun-ho from his days as Cheon Seong-heon, who remembered about my birthday every time.
“As you know, it’s difficult to precisely use alter-egos when the main ego leaves Korean Peninsula. So Eun-ho was helping with my work.”
At Hwang Jiho’s added explanation, I became worried about Eun-ho.
Not a long time passed since he stood up, but he was helping with work of the Ho tribe’s head?
Like he read my thoughts, Hwang Jiho added:
“You’re worried about Eun-ho? You should worry about yourself.”
Worry about myself? What was that sound?
Hwang Jiho didn’t answer those doubts.
Whether luckily or unluckily, I understood the meaning of Hwang Jiho’s words right away.
“Uisin hyung, happy birthday.”
Eun-ho, with his long hair neatly tied, was waiting for me in Hwang Myeong-ho’s great mansion’s side building.
“Did You enjoy Your phantom thief activities, Uisin hyung? As You heartlessly went, leaving behind people, who were worried about Uisin hyung, Uisin hyung must have enjoyed Himself, right?”
His tone was warm, but the content seemed to make every cell my body curl up.
“No, should I call You by a different title than Uisin hyung? Red Wall Phantom Thief hyung.”
*~*~*
[1] “But strictly speaking, isn’t it October 31st here, right now? We didn’t cross the time zone yet.” — Mok Uram’s sentence
[2] taegeukgi — yin yang symbol from the Korean flag.
[3] “And it’s an UR rank item! Wow…!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence
[4] “Ah, I once saw a report about stolen artwork on TV. As it’s Player’s artwork, it isn’t strange for it to cardify, is it?” — Mok Uram’s sentence
[5] “Me too!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence
[?] Possible title hanja — 귀(kwi) can mean ‘to entrust’
Translator’s note: … If the plane is Korean land, then does that mean Hwang-ho can use his alter-egos properly?? /joke (I think)
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