Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
65. Things that have to be hidden (10)
Baek-ho accepted Eun-ho’s match request.
As the result of a coin toss, Baek-ho took white and Eun-ho took black.
Baek-ho was the first mover and Eun-ho was the second mover.
“Let’s start.”
Eun-ho pressed the chess clock the moment he said that.
As the chess clock’s second hand moved, Baek-ho’s white chess piece moved on the chessboard with fierce momentum.
An intense battle of moves ensued, but the side building remained extremely quiet.
The only audible sound was the sound of moving objects.
From an outside perspective, it seemed that the match was unfolding in silence, but each and every move was as bloody as a stabbing sword.
At the end of the long close battle, the number of pieces on the chess board and the time on the match clock was close to zero.
“Check.”
Breaking the long silence was the declaration of Baek-ho’s checkmate.
Eun-ho, who looked at the chess board for a while, knocked down the black king, bringing the game to an end.
Exchanging a handshake with Baek-ho, Eun-ho said:
“… Hwangho-nim said You had a skill one could easily admit defeat to.”
“You heard that from Hwang-ho?”
“Yes, I heard from Hwangho-nim, that the two of You[1] played a match. Baek-ho hyung-nim quickly learns anything He holds interest in. But Your interests are usually limited to martial arts. When did You start playing chess?”
“…”
Baek-ho didn’t answer.
Eun-ho continued to speak as if he didn’t expect an answer from Baek-ho from the beginning.
“Uisin hyung was an idol of all people, who aspired to be a chess knight. I was among them. I read, reviewed and researched Uisin hyung’s game records. No matter how many simulations I made, the conclusion was always that I would lose to Uisin hyung. But…”
Eun-ho’s hand turned to the chess pieces that were outside the chessboard.
After moving them and recreating the game situation just before the checkmate, Eun-ho’s hand stopped.
“I at least repeatedly put effort into becoming a player, who could put Uisin hyung in a stalemate. I was capable enough that I was able to put players a level higher than me into a stalemate a few times. But Baekho hyung-nim completely broke every stalemate I attempted.”
Eun-ho quietly looked at the white knight, which stood in Baek-ho’s camp.
With the next move of that knight, Eun-ho’s attempted stalemate was sealed and Eun-ho was backed into a corner.
The way he thoroughly broke the match with an attempted stalemate reminded him of Stalemateless.
“Baek-ho hyung-nim, do You also hate stalemate?”
Eun-ho thought that Baek-ho’s answer would be ‘yes’.
If he played a move so reminiscent of Stalemateless, he thought he naturally would have the same thinking.
But Eun-ho’s expectations were off mark.
“… No, I don’t hate it.” [2]
Baek-ho spoke, while moving the white knight.
“But. If I can block it, I’ll block it.”
* * *
The message was sent by the patissier of the famous bakery in front of Eungwang School’s West gate MITRON — Ryu Jang[3].
His true identity was the proxy of the Demon King of Silence and Bystanders, Sillentium.
‘I thought that if I go around wearing a crow mask, I would be one day approached by proxy. But I didn’t expect it would be MITRON’s patissier.’
I learned Ryu Jang’s identity in Britain.
Ryu Jang, who suddenly appeared at the London Tower, told me to wear a crow mask at the party hosted by Fomori Demons.
Thinking about how because of that mask I got unintentionally involved with the Phantom Thief Neon, my head hurt.
But as result, the Britain matter ended well.
‘He wasn’t simply participating in the party as a substitute for the Crow Demon King. Midir also spoke about Ryu Jang.’
At the time of the Halloween party, I had an opportunity to talk with Midir, because of the Power of Fate that activated in front of ‘Spear of Lugh’.
Midir said this:
— In this case, they were wary of Jin people and us, but they didn’t pay attention to humans. The phantom thief and the Dream Demon’s disciple, the Crow Demon King’s child, the party of the human with the qualities for a king and you. Everyone was personally guided by us or were provided information.
The child of Crow Demon King must’ve been referring to Ryu Jang.
What did Ryu Jang do that day?
[Ryu Jang] Hello, student Jo Uisin.
[Ryu Jang] Are You busy tomorrow? I wish to see You for a moment.
Ryu Jang didn’t speak outright, but it was clear with what intentions he was contacting me.
At that time, because he couldn’t receive the object to be handed over to Sillentium, Ryu Jang planned to contact me in a little bit.
‘No matter how I look, he is talking about handing over the ‘Weight of Life and Fortune’.’
It seemed he planned to complete the deal before the season changes, like the Crow Demon King said before.
[Me] I’m fine with it. I’ll bring the item I promised to give.
[Ryu Jang] I’m glad it’s easy to communicate with student Jo Uisin.
As if pleased and planning to give me a gift, Ryu Jang asked to tell him menu items I wanted to eat.
I refused once, but because it seemed that the other party had no plans of backing away, I decided to accept the goodwill.
After choosing a few menu items that the dormitory kids would like to eat, I was able to end the conversation.
The next thing I checked was the group chat of the Newspaper Club, where the most lively messages were being sent.
‘Looks like Mun Saeron is diligently gathering information overseas.’
Most of the messages in the group chat were things written by Mun Saeron, while on the overseas information gathering trip.
Mun Saeron uploaded the covered content and picture she had taken in the Newspaper Club group chat.
[Mun Saeron] This overseas coverage trip was seriously worthwhile~!
[Mun Saeron] I met a Person I couldn’t think of, and obtained a one-on-one interview~. Stay excited!
Mun Saeron didn’t pry her mouth open about the identity of that ‘Person she couldn’t think of’.
It was the first time I saw Mun Saeron hiding covered content in the group chat.
Who on earth did she meet overseas for her to say that?
I decided to wait with a fluttering heart.
The next message I checked was very long.
[Jang Namuk] I completed the crow masks today. I referenced the picture Sanghun-i sent a lot. I gave it my own touch, but worked hard to preserve the sense of unity as a basis. Looking back, manufacture process was a bit difficult. Because I used materials from otherworlds, it’s possible to cardify. But because my and Sihu’s craft skills aren’t particularly good, the rarity is low and it has almost no defense power.
[Jang Namuk] (picture)
Did Jang Namuk just say that it was possible to cardify these crow masks?
Though he said that his hand skills weren’t good, the results were amazing.
It was something worth praising for, but my hand didn’t move because what they made were crow masks.
I thought I could end this too with just a short response.
With a bitter heart I checked the picture, and momentarily went blank seeing what was in the picture.
‘… Why are there so many of them?’
In the picture there appeared to be over a dozen of crow masks.
I thought it would be at best two, for Jang Namuk and Tao Sihu, so what happened?
Each one of them had unique characteristics like dots, glasses drawn around the eyes, etc. but they were all crow masks anyway.
[Yu Sang-hun] ㅋㅋㅋ
Seeing how Yu Sang-hun sent three ‘ㅋ’, he seemed to be roaring with laughter.
Jang Namuk explained why he made so many crow masks.
[Jang Namuk] I heard that you moved as a group when wearing crow masks. So wouldn’t just two masks be insufficient? I thought it would be a good idea to make several of them in case something happened.
It seemed that Qi Ten made that sound after seeing the Student Council’s members come wearing crow masks.
I had no idea why he was talking about unnecessary stuff.
I had also no idea what kind of ‘case’ was Jang Namuk thinking about, but I wanted to raid the Military Academy right now and dispose of all the masks.
As I checked the postponed messages like this and answered them, my eyes started to close.
‘I have to think about Mok Uram’s assassination plan…’
I turned off the device, and made quiet preparations, while engraving the content of the envelope handed to me by Seodol in my memory.
For a very short moment I recalled Seodol comment about being a Neuru’s ambassador, but immediately forgot about it and closed my eyes.
And in the morning.
Inside MITRON with a ‘closed’ notice sign.
I met with a certain model of a crow mask that was being proliferated everywhere.
As I greeted him, Sillentium happily greeted me back.
— Hi, Jo Uisin. As polite as before, huh?
I saw his mouth move in the gap under the crow mask, but heard no sound.
Because of that, I had to figure out what he said based on the movement of the lips.
It looked like Sillentium didn’t plan to make a sound as per his modifier of ‘silence’.
At first, I greeted him politely, but Sillentium reminded me of the permission to speak comfortably with him.
— I liked the things you showed me through the crow mask. So I don’t plan on taking back that permission.
In brief, I liked the things you showed me through the crow mask, so let’s speak casually and become close?
Sillentium acted pretty friendly towards humans compared to other Demons, but he had many corners to him which were difficult to understand.
Even so, I decided to match his tune.
“Got it.”
As if satisfied with my short answer, the corners of Sillentium and Ryu Jang’s mouths rose high.
Was Ryu Jang not bothered that a greenhorn highschooler was speaking casually towards the Demon King he was serving?
But the Ho tribe members also didn’t say anything about me using a casual tone towards Baek Ho-gun and Hwang Jiho.
I thought that I would take out the item card right away and end today’s meeting, but Sillentium spoke again.
— Didn’t you meet the head of the Seo tribe yesterday?
I met with Seodol, but how did Sillentium know?
The corners of Sillentium’s mouth drew a bit of a smile.
— Before he went to meet you, Seodol came to meet my contractor. It appears he set his eyes on my contractor in Britain.
“Britain?”
— They ran into each other when on Morrígan’s request he was searching for ‘Lia Fáil’.
I guess Ryu Jang participated in the party that day to find the coronation stone of the Danu Gods tribe.
According to what Midir said, it seemed that the Crow Demon King’s agent did something.
‘The coronation stone of all things?’
Seong Gukeon was involved with the coronation stone.
The moment Seong Gukeon stepped on ‘Lia Fáil’, the coronation stone, which recognized kingly qualities in him screamed.
“Did he find the stone?”
— Yeah. My contractor is outstanding, so he completed the mission safely.
You mean Ryu Jang found the coronation stone of the Danu Gods tribe that day?
But according to what Seong Gukeon said, the Demon in a blue mask was still asking to destroy Lia Fáil.
It seemed that Ryu Jang did something else to the coronation stone, instead of retrieving it.
‘I should hear the details and convey them to Seong Gukeon.’
Starting with the explanation about what they did to the coronation stone, I talked a lot with the Crow Demon King.
The main conversation topic were things related to matters when I was wearing a crow mask, but there were also other topics.
It included Mok Uram’s story, who avoided an assassination crisis thanks to Sillentium’s involvement.
“Did you know about the assassination?”
— I’ll leave it to your imagination.
As if planning to remain a bystander in the third-party matters, Sillentium didn’t say anything more.
On the other side, as if Ryu Jang didn’t want to interrupt my and Sillentium’s conversation, he didn’t open his mouth.
Because Sillentium and Ryu Jang didn’t make a sound, the only thing heard in this space was my voice.
About the time the conversation topics slowly ran out, I took out the ‘Weight of Life and Fortune’.
— With this I won’t be bored for a while, eh! As promised, I’ll prepare a guide for Demon World.
Sillentium, who checked the item, was very happy.
This item had an effect of erasing human potential and possibilities for a price of life and fortune.
It was a very aggressive effect, so it didn’t suit Sillentium, who adopted the modifier of ‘bystander’.
Perhaps my doubts showed on my face, Sillentium added an explanation.
— Isn’t this item a failed product of Eight True Bear Immortals’ attempt to annihilate the Heavenly God and Sinin? So it’s worth researching, because it’s possible to obtain a hint.
Did Sillentium have an interest in the Eight True Bear Immortals, Heavenly God and Sinin?
He didn’t show anything like this according to PMH’s development.
And one of Sillentium’s words bothered me.
It didn’t seem like by that hint he simply meant the item’s operation principals.
— The goal of the Eight True Bear Immortals was ‘complete annihilation’ of the Heavenly God and Sinin. It’s widely known that they failed, and they also perceive it as such.
The moment I understood the meaning of those words, I felt like I knew what kind of hint Sillentium was searching for.
A horrible idea came to mind.
— However, they might have succeeded. If something disappeared completely and perfectly, wouldn’t it be impossible to even recognize it?
*~*~*
[1] two of You — (I’m unsure if it’s important or not, but) Eun-ho literally says that ‘I heard from Hwangho-nim that two People played a match’.
[2] “… No, I don’t hate it.” — I don’t usually note such things down, but I’ll note it here. Baek-ho is putting a very strong emphasis on ‘I DON’T HATE it’.
[3] Ryu Jang — I looked up the dictionary if his name could mean anything that could relate to ‘have to be hidden’ and there are some interesting meanings for ‘yu-jang’ (I won’t get into why ‘yu-jang’ instead of ‘ryu-jang’, but just treat it as the same word). Two entries that I found fascinating are ‘In the past, act of tricking someone into burying them in someone else’s grave or a mountain forest’, and ‘Surviving general of a destroyed country’.
Translator’s note: Hm, Eun-ho is black, Baek-ho is white… while it does match, it matches them a bit too well.
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