Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
41. Outside the borders (1) [1]
At Hwang-ho’s words, Jeok-ho and Kim Sinrok, the father and son duo, couldn’t hide their shock.
“Hwangho-nim, are You thinking of going abroad?”
“Hwang-ho… What You said wasn’t a joke?”
“No? It has been a long time since I went to get some foreign air.”
“These days, You were moving more busily… It was in preparation for the trip abroad, eh?”
“Hahaha! Right.”
Hwang Jiho explained as a bonus, while looking towards me.
“Jo Uisin, you’re probably aware, but through the blessing bestowed by Heavenly God, the ability I obtained was that ‘I can exist everywhere’, or in other words, a power to use alter-egos.”
“Right.”
“The ground Heavenly God’s blessing reaches is entire Korean Peninsula. In other words, the alter egos can only exist on the Korean Peninsula.”
I recalled Hwang Jiho’s status window.
[Description]
Hwang-ho appearing in Gaecheon Myth.
He received an ability to ‘exist everywhere’ from Heavenly God.
If it’s a ground touched by Heavenly God’s blessing, he can exist anywhere he wishes.
He volunteered to be a guardian of the Divine Realm where Baek-ho was imprisoned, and Heavenly God agreed to it.
(Some loading failed.)
He couldn’t currently use it due to Heavenly God’s Wrath, but from the explanation I heard, Baek Ho-gun’s ability to ‘go anywhere’ worked even outside of the Korean Peninsula.
I guess that as Hwang Jiho’s alter-ego skill was such a fraud, it had such restrictions.
“You’re planning to use your main self to go abroad?”
“Yeah. It’s been a very long time since I left the Korean Peninsula, eh?”
Hwang Jiho looked excited.
I guess that geezer, who lived for over five thousand years, was jumping at the thought of going for the news coverage abroad mixed among the highschool students.
‘He was working hard in the meantime, so he probably needs to take a break, right?’
As I thought about Hwang Jiho, when he looked blank because of the load when operating an alter-ego, I couldn’t say anything to his face.
Instead of that, I decided to ask Snare.
“Snare, what gift would you like?”
Keung?…. Woof!
After that, I thought what gift I should give to Snare, Eun-ho’s descendants, our class children and acquaintances, while preparing for the abroad trip.
***
A few days passed, and the Newspaper Club’s overseas news coverage schedule started.
Using the lodging tickets obtained in the superpower tag match over the 1st print of Jegal Jaegeol’s magazine with the 2nd year class 0 during the first semester, the Newspaper Club decided to experience staying together beforehand in preparation for the abroad news-gathering.
The place we used the lodging ticket for was a hotel of country leading brand of air hotels, Icarus Seoul of the Icarus Group.
Worthy of the hotel named after the son of Daidalos, who used the wings made out of beeswax[2], the VIP floors starting from the 50th floor, were shaped like wings on the outside.
The wings stretching out in all four directions were each called an East Wing, West Wing, South Wing and North Wing, and the suite rooms were all gathered in those four wings.
The place we were staying at was one of those four wings.
“I, representative of the 1st year club freshman, who was admitted to Eungwang School this year, Mun Saeron, wish to say a word!”
East Wing, on the highest floor of all, the central premium lodge on that floor.
Although it was a summer peak season, when the school break and vacation period overlapped, the Newspaper Club members, who rented the highest floor thanks to winning the tag match, laid or sat in comfortable positions, without bothering how they looked for others, while Mun Saeron raised a toast.
All Newspaper Club members, who held old-fashioned glasses with ice cubes and carbonate water, had excited faces.
“It’s a toast for our advisor, teach Jegal-nim, who, though He isn’t here today, will join us tomorrow, and for the greatest contributor, no, the sole main character responsible for this early getting-out together, this noble one, Hwang Jiho[3]!”
“Cheers!”
Everywhere the clear sound of the old-fashioned crystal glasses clinking against each other rang out.
“Hahaha! Jo Uisin, raise your glass!”
Hwang Jiho, who was mentioned in the last toast’s clause, sat just at my side and laughed leisurely as he raised his glass.
I asked, while making a toast with Hwang Jiho.
“Hey.”
“Speak.”
“Are you really okay with going?”
It seemed to be already confirmed, but I asked on purpose.
The Ho tribe’s head leaving Korean Peninsula.
Although, it was said that his alter-egos would remain, wasn’t it a bit bad as the main self would be abroad?
“Ah, you shouldn’t worry about Kim Yuri. Because I left her under the head shaman.”
“Head shaman?”
“He will maintain the barrier until Kim Yuri can withstand the superpower pressure.”
I was also worried about Kim Yuri, but it wasn’t the only thing I was worried about.
But leave Kim Yuri under the head shaman?
I guess, true to what he said before, he decided to not hide it and just roll with it from now on.
But my Playable Character, Kim Yuri, wouldn’t go around spreading it or cause trouble for the Ho tribe.
“And Kim Yuri said she wanted to use her Gwangrim, eh? That punk is more of a specialist when it comes to borrowing the power of higher beings than me.”
As expected, our class’ talented class president and my Playable Character’s mindset was extraordinary.
Even though she was suffering from the mental turmoil and her body and soul was tired after the Gwangrim’s first activation, wasn’t she looking out to improve?
I made up my mind to support Kim Yuri as a vice president even in the future.
When I was drinking carbonated water while overwhelmed with pride.
“Hey, attention please! It’s sudden, but there will be a change of the schedule.”
“Yes, right now?
After the Newspaper Club’s vice president spoke like this, the anxious club members stirred.
While the vice club president opened a hologram, the club president cleared his throat a few times, and then spoke with a grim voice.
“Everyone is well aware of this, but the Newspaper Club’s news-gathering trip is targeted by the most dangerous group in Eungwang School.”
The most dangerous group in Eungwang School.
After hearing those words, the faces of the Newspaper Club’s members filled up with vigilance.
‘You’re talking about GeunChan&WangChan’s 2nd year class 0, huh!’
The 3rd year class 0 were also dangerous bastards, but those bastards, who would be rolling in Im Yeonhwa’s bootcamp during the summer break, couldn’t make big moves and had no reason to target the Newspaper Club.
So even if I didn’t hear it, the dangerous group would the 2nd year class 0, the fanatic fans of Jegal Jaegeol, our Newspaper Club’s advisor.
“The dates or period we stay abroad won’t change. However, we plan to take a completely different course from the one we notified you about before.”
“Yep! Sorry for hiding it. But if not in the time like this, who knows when we will be able to monopolize teacher Jegal Jaegeol-nim!”
I guess the club president and vice president planned the entire thing.
The Newspaper Club’s members were confused, but then started to praise the club president’s planning.
“As expected, the club president and vice president are different!”
“I wanted to buy souvenirs as a group with teach Jegal-nim… The previous year we couldn’t do it in the end, because Geun Chansol interrupted us, remember?”
In the cheers of the club members, the explanation of the club president’s trip plan began.
The club president, who was showing a map, while explaining, pointed at the Japan archipelago, and said:
“Ah, for your information, we won’t be able to go to Japan this time. The borders there are closed again.”
“What, again?”
“Yeah. You know that Saeron’s dad is a journalist, right? He knew about our news-gathering trip plan and called us. He is in the middle of gathering news in the Japan, but I guess the situation there isn’t great.”
The flow of history of this world was similar to the world I was in, but there were parts that were quite different.
The history after the Clash of Different World was particular like this.
The time when the key historical events happened, and how those events unfolded, was changing little by little.
“Looking at all news sites on the Japan side, there is nothing eye-catching.”
“Seems like they’re controlling the press, just as before.”
“Didn’t they learn their lesson after what they suffered when the Clash of Different Worlds exploded?”
The Clash of Different Worlds occurred on the Korean Peninsula not a long time after the Great Korean Republic regained sovereignty.
The Japan’s government and press in unison spit out absurd comments that Korea was punished for not accepting Japanese rule, but in the end, the otherworlds also broke out in Japan.
They, who took the pride in being an otherworld-free zone, ceaselessly hid the existence of otherworlds and the people, who claimed that they fought Enemies, were treated as mentally ill and became targets of group harassment.
So the Player education and government’s actions ended up late, and several locations were already otherworldzied before any action was taken.
The Japan’s ministry of foreign affairs even claimed that the otherworld outbreak was Korea’s conspiracy on the basis that the Clash of Different Worlds occurred first in Korean Peninsula, and asking for compensation, while saying it was Korea’s responsibility, but the Japan government that claimed that collapsed.
“Ah, perhaps there was another otherworld outbreak in Chiyoda?”
“Yep. It seems so.”
“Really? Again? Wouldn’t it be better to give up Chiyoda at this point? It seems to be better to just completely empty it and leave only Players to reside there.”
“There is the Imperial Palace there, so they can’t abandon it, you know? As soon as it completely collapses, they will probably give it up, but because the building still somehow remains, I guess they can’t let go of their attachments.”
Japan, one of the Tokyo’s 23 special wards, Chiyoda.
Chiyoda, with the Japan’s royalty stayed, prime minister’s office, National Assembly building, Supreme Court and Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters, was the symbol of Japan, gathering all administrative, legislative and judicature offices.
As if mocking Japan, which denied the existence of otherworlds, the large scale otherworld occurred in that Chiyoda, called the heart of Japan, and numerous officials, like national ministers, died.
Among dead ministers were a minister of foreign affairs, who requested a compensation from Korea and prime minister, who stood at the top of the government.
From the fifteen ministers at that time, only three survived.
The youngest among the three, the minister of education, became the acting prime minister and after becoming the youngest prime minister in history, he acknowledged the existence of otherworlds and negotiated with the Player Association’s Headquarters to actively stabilize and improve Japan’s situation.
But before 10 years passed, he was eliminated, not by Enemies from the otherworlds, but political opponents.
After that, Japan’s otherworld policy followed political reasoning.
The border blockades were frequent, and press control was an everyday occurrence.
“… I doubt if the Korea-China-Japan Player’s Youth Exchange will be able to proceed properly.”
“There is an eye-grabbing Player in Japan these days, you know? The kid who was admitted to the girl highschool, said to be only opened for the kazoku[4]. Because of that kid, it has to be held unconditionally. The world’s greatest genius who defeated Korea and China! It seems that they’re anxious to put out such a phrase.”
“Ah, I saw her a few times on TV.”
“Looking at her record, it seems she will be pushed out by Dain.”
After that, our Newspaper Club members spent the time checking the drastically changed schedule, and talking about the Players worthy paying attention to during Korea-China-Japan Youth Exchange.
As we enjoyed the dinner in the East Wing exclusive restaurant, the night fell.
‘Uh?’
When I was walking towards the lodge because I accepted the club president’s invitation to hold a tea party, while enjoying the night view after the dinner, I saw a strange silhouette behind the window.
The silhouette seemed to be a hanging upside down person.
“Suspicious vice class president-nim, what’s going on~?”
“Nothing, I thought I saw something outside.”
“But there is nothing there.”
Mun Saeron tilted her head.
Considering the altitude of the air hotel floating in the sky, the building was more than 100 stories high.
It would be strange if there was a person outside.
‘If I tell her about it, Mun Saeron, who is scared of ghosts, will be frightened for no reason, right?’
It was a bit bothersome, but I said ‘I guess I saw a shadow of a bird’ and changed the topic.
I heard Hwang Jiho, who was the first to grab the seat in the central lodge, laughing.
After the excited tea party, while enjoying the night view ended.
“Then see everyone tomorrow! If something happens, contact me or the vice club president.”
“The 2nd years plan to stay up all night~. We will be playing games all night, so if You aren’t going to sleep, come to my room~!”
“Umm, can I also come?” [5]
“Come! Instead, though you can come in as you please, there is no going out. We’re doing From Start to Clear run!”
“If you want to just chat, don’t come to that guy’s room and instead come to us.”
“I planned not to just chat, but I planned to spread Eungwang School’s ghost stories for the entire night in a concept of horror radio station. So I can’t come.”
The club members started to form such big groups to the point that it seemed they would need to borrow an entire floor.
“Jo Uisin, what are you going to do?”
“I heard that Mun Saeron plans to spread fun stories for the entire night to fight back against the ghost stories night. I’m considering if I should go there, or just go to bed.”
My roommate, Hwang Jiho, asked.
When rooms were being allocated, Hwang Jiho appointed me as his roommate.
As the entire floor was rented, there were enough rooms, but it was because the presidential suite allocated to Hwang Jiho had two sets of bedrooms, bathrooms and restrooms, in addition to a drawing room and dinning room, so even after dividing it, it was extremely spacious.
“Hm, then there was no need to trouble ourselves with dividing the room?”
With Hwang Jiho’s suggestion, the struggles ended, and the Newspaper Club gathered in the drawing room of the presidential suite, and stayed for the night.
In the corner of the drawing room, people were playing games like some kind of addicts, others alternated between spreading ghost and funny stories, and the club president and vice club president leaned on the sofa as they fell asleep, perhaps because they were tired after making a plan.
When the hour grew close to breakfast time, the majority of Newspaper Club members, who exhausted their energy before the trip even started, were sleeping.
Ding.
[Yeom Junyeol] Master-nim, hello.
What rang out in the morning was a message from Yeom Juneyol.
It seemed that as usual, he wanted to give me a weather forecast.
Though because I’d be leaving the country today, the Korea weather information wouldn’t be particularly helpful.
As if reading my thoughts, Yeom Juneyol brought up another topic.
[Yeom Junyeol] There was something I kept worrying about since last night.
*~*~*
[1] Outside the borders — Seems pretty straightforward… The only other possible meaning I can come up is that borders can also mean ‘Country’s fortunes/celebrations (referring to some good event worth celebrating)’. So the other title could be understood as ‘Country’s disasters/ misfortune’.
[2] beeswax — interesting thing about the word beeswax in Korean is that it could also mean pewter or white lead (the only difference is their hanja). Also, for those wondering why it’s Daidalos and not Daedalus, author-nim is using Greek pronunciation of the name and not Latin one.
[3] this noble one, Hwang Jiho — ‘좌 (chwa)’ in raws. It was used by Mun Saeron to refer to Hwang-ho before, but hell if I remember what I translated it as… I also think I never explained it properly because It’s heavily based in Chinese and memes. Well, here is an explanation. ‘좌 (chwa)’ or ‘본좌 (bunchwa)’ is a joke-like pronoun to elevate oneself, based on Chinese 本座. The meaning will be similar. While 본좌, like 本座, will sound pretentious if used to refer to oneself, if used for someone else, it’s kind of a praise. What is interesting, that 좌 (chwa) could also mean a seat/throne, left or a constellation when used as a suffix.
[4] kazoku — Japanese nobility in a simple sense. Also, this is very funny, the korean word for them is 화족 (hwa-jok), which this translator for the longest time thought meant Flower tribe x.x (hwa means flower, jok is what I usually translate as tribe).
[5] “The 2nd years plan to stay up all night~. We will be playing games all night, so if You aren’t going to sleep, come to my room~!” “Umm, can I also come?” — The first sentence was said by a 2nd year, using a polite tone, so they were addressing 3rd years. The second sentence used a polite tone to address the 2nd year, so it was a 1st year junior asking.
Translator’s note: Yep, let’s ignore all suspicious things in this chapter. What is on your mind, Yeom Junyeol?
Patron thank you note
Thank you patron, Nobody, please accept this Dryas octopetala as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Links to 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