Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
50. Set piece (3)
Late hour, Hwang Myeong-ho’s great mansion.
Eun-ho’s descendants and Hwang-ho’s younger alter-ego were all asleep, but Hwang-ho’s main ego, wearing the Eungwang School’s uniform, was awake like before.
Hwang-ho’s alter-egos and main-ego were physically constrained, but there was a clear performance difference.
Unlike the alter-egos, which accumulated fatigue like ordinary Jin people, the main-ego was sturdy[1] enough that it could keep fighting without sleeping, worthy of the Myth category Ho.
Right now Hwang-ho’s eyes were on the report related to the teacher of the elementary school’s class that his young alter-ego was infiltrating.
‘He is crumbling smoothly, eh?’
From the small things like acquaintances making new group chats, but excluding that teacher, or leaving his name out of the teacher meetings, to the big ones like the one-sided cancellation of that teacher’s planned wedding.
The reason for canceled engagement was the teacher’s SNS records with all kinds of revelations and the letter containing his past records secretly sent by the Ho tribe.
The fiancée, who saw the content, canceled the wedding with lame, but realistic excuses like marital compatibility[2] not matching, insufficient marriage funds, difficulty of matching the wedding gift value the teacher expected, etc, in order to not to be entangled with the teacher’s nasty past.
When considering the fiancée’s assets, it was nonsense, but after doing preliminary work such as the nominal transfer of owned property, after receiving a lawyer’s advice about how to deal with the strategy in marriage cancellation compensation lawsuit and etc, the teacher couldn’t find a fault and proceeded with the break of engagement.
The fiancée informed about the canceling of the marriage through SNS and didn’t give any particular comments, but from the comment mentioning ‘Ancestor gods helped’ from the fiancée’s close acquaintances, it seemed that the fiancée got advice from a lot of people, including him, and everyone guessed the real reason behind breaking the engagement.
‘It’ll end next week as planned when this alter-ego transfers, eh? After it, fake the disappearance and hand him over to Hyangrok…’
As he thought up to here, something bothered him.
‘Jeon Mu-yeong was digging around the teacher.’
He recalled the face of currently an assemblyman Seong Gukeon, and the Eungwang School’s Student Council’s president 15 years ago, who, even though he knew Hwang-ho was a Jin, argued that if he was going to operate the school like this, he should resign or close down the school.
As Seong Gukeon was an intelligent human, he might have figured out that the Ho tribe was involved someday.
‘Then shall I meet him in person like at that time?’
Seong Gukeon was a human, who had a value to be observed up-close, but he remembered taking his hands off after seeing his appearance when he came to offer condolences at Kim Sinrok’s previous identity’s funeral.
Seong Gukeon loathed Jin people and descendants, but he followed Kim Sinrok well.
In case Hwang-ho observed Seong Gukeon and Kim Sinrok’s relationship with the Ho tribe was revealed, Kim Sinrok would lose a disciple, who followed him.
Perhaps Seong Gukeon would embrace Kim Sinrok with an even greater respect than loathing, but if the opposite case happens, the negative after-effects of it were too big.
He had no plans of putting up with the danger of drawing a nail through a chest of a descendant, who could never spit out a word to his biological father to observe one human.
‘As Kim Sinrok right now is more at ease, we could meet someday and have a conversation, when he won’t be busy, eh? I have no plans of observing Seong Gukeon now, but…’
Hwang-ho naturally recalled the sole human he was currently observing, and as if aiming for that timing, the device alarm rang out.
It was a message from Jo Uisin.
Hwang-ho, who opened his eyes a bit wide and checked the screen, pressed his temples and wrote a massage.
It was marked as ‘read’, but no reply came back.
“Jeok-ho, are you here?”
Hwang-ho, who gave up on receiving a reply, put superpower wave into his voice and called Jeok-ho.
As if opportunely he was close by, Jeok-ho appeared in the living room straight away.
“You called, Hwang-ho?”
“There is a plan to send Kim Sinrok to the Association. Go with that child to the Association.”
Hwang-ho briefly conveyed Jo Uisin’s suggestion.
At the words ‘Jo Uisin suggested it’, the reply was ‘Jo Uisin is still awake?’, and Hwang-ho pressed his temples and nodded.
As Jo Uisin’s story came out, the topic of the conversation naturally changed to the performance he showed at the opening ceremony.
Hwang-ho asked Baek-ho, who was quietly sitting on the sofa holding a sleeping Divine Beast.
“Baek-ho, how was Tao Sihu released from the mind domination?”
Baek-ho halted his hand, which was stroking the Divine Beast, and replied.
“It wasn’t me who did it.”
“Then let’s change the question. How did Jo Uisin release Tao Sihu from the mind domination?”
At Hwang-ho’s question, Baek-ho shut his mouth.
From the looks of it, he knew something, but had no plans of replying.
‘It would be simple if he used a messenger’s ability passed down in the Sawol’s clan, ‘The King Said’, but… if that’s right, it means that Jo Uisin conveyed Baek-ho’s voice.’
Hwang-ho made a hypothesis, but it was difficult to find clues, because there wasn’t much time to think that day.
‘Baek-ho and Jo Uisin have almost no points of contact. They sparred a few times, but it’s insufficient to build up a will to convey the voice of a ‘respected person’.
While he couldn’t properly reach the final guess, the topic changed.
The new topic was Kim Sinrok, who monitored Yong Jegeon throughout the opening ceremony and Jeok-ho was the leading speaker.
The words of Jeok-ho, who worried about his son’s mental fatigue, ended on bragging about his son, and then they came to the heavier topic.
The story of the Ung, who killed the Ho tribe’s descendant.
“I conversed with them through the chief shaman. They said that the trash locked in the garden is not in the state to open his mouth right now. For now, I ended the conversation on the line recommending that they restrain themselves from torture damaging the body.”
“… Alright.”
“It doesn’t seem like they’ll hand over that trash without this one personally stepping out, eh?”
With the end of those words, the three tigers shut their mouths.
Without even a ‘sleep well’ goodbye, they wordlessly left.
The last one left in the living room was Baek-ho.
* * *
Next day.
The after-effects of the first victory and the opening ceremony held yesterday didn’t go away from Eungwang School yet.
I saw students wearing cheering t-shirts and mufflers with the cheering logo designed by Min Geurin, instead of school uniforms here and there.
It seemed like everyone thought of skipping afternoon classes, or running to the sports grounds straight away the moment the afternoon classes end.
Of course, I was also thinking about going to see the games in the afternoon.
‘I can’t miss matches of my Playable Characters!’
I selected the matches with the focus on the ones where my Playable Characters were the representative athletes.
Because though they weren’t the eye-catching student representatives or teachers, there were my Playable Characters all over this school.
‘The first basketball match is tomorrow.’
There was no Playable Character in their athlete team or among their coaches, but I decided to see the basketball match.
It was because I promised it to Yu Sang-hun that I would go see all the matches at the Ju-Oh Island.
As Tao Sihu, who was out of his mind at the time, would return to his usual less out of his mind self, I would be able to see a confrontation of Yu Sang-hun and Tao Sihu.
I made a promise beforehand, so I chose the basketball match without much thinking, but because the first basketball match overlapped with soccer, there were spectators who indulged in happy worries.
Our class was no exception.
As there were many disciplines, some matches were held at the same time, and each person had to decide which game they would see based on their preferences after some contemplation, and so, unlike on the first day, the class children’s destinations were slightly different from each other.
“Then three people are going to see soccer tomorrow. I and Seeum will prepare snacks, and Han Yi, I’ll ask you for drinks…”
“What to do, I put a different game on my schedule instead of soccer … but after watching yesterday’s match, I want to see the next soccer match too.”
“Ah… It’s difficult to obtain the tickets for the soccer match right now. Because of the first score, all tickets allocated to Eungwang School ran out.”
At Kim Yuri’s words, Kwon Lena made a sad face.
Sawol Seeum, who just came to school, heard that conversation and spoke up brightly.
“Do You want to exchange tickets? I like soccer, but I also like basketball. And opportunely Uisin said he was going to see basketball.”
At Sawol Seeum’s suggestion to exchange tickets, Kwon Lena noticeably stiffened.
“No, I… I’m fine.”
“I’m really okay with exchanging…”
When Kwon Lena tried to very conspicuously leave, Sawol Seeum made a regretful face.
‘It seems the things between the two are becoming even more awkward.’
But if I pointed out the current awkwardness, it would become very awkward for the two of them, so I decided to observe for now.
On the other side, Han Yi was checking information about the class bells.
The class bells list was completely filled with cheering songs.
There were numerous types, from the classical music with songs added, or the earworm songs of the past season with changed lyrics, or even personally composed cheering songs.
Han Yi seemed to naturally check the information for all the class bells and all the cheering songs used in the exchange, and memorize all the lyrics.
Hwang Jiho, who on our way to school from early in the morning was nagging me about not sleeping, shut his mouth when he saw Han Yi like this.
It was a bit bitter sight, but as the geezer became quiet for now, my ears relaxed.
“Miro appeared in the article!”
Min Geurin, who searched for drawing material, while looking through the newspaper, spoke brightly.
There was an article about Eungwang School and Military Highschool Department’s exchange’s opening ceremony and Playlist shooting.
Besides the opening ceremony, the article described in detail this time’s mission duo, Saint of Naejang Mountain and Dokgo Miro’s activities.
The children, who read the article, spoke:
“There is no death match in the Playlist this week.”
“Ah, isn’t there a death match every week?”
“Yes, but instead two People will be eliminated next week.” [3]
The team, which will take the 1st place through the duet song mission was said to obtain ‘Death match exemption’.
Dokgo Miro was slowly adjusting to the camera and revealing her abilities little by little, and Saint of Naejang Mountain was doing well from the start, and even now he was doing well, so it seemed that the two would take the 1st place without a hitch.
Because the children were relieved, they happily talked about Dokgo Miro’s story.
But there were two people, who couldn’t get along with the atmosphere.
One was Kwon Lena, who after talking with Sawol Seeum, was acting awkward, and the other was Mok Uram, who was anxious to see Kwon Lena like this.
‘I don’t know if Mok Uram is dull or sensitive.’
As Kim Yuri played a role of mediator very well from the middle, and she was leading the atmosphere, it didn’t show much, but Kim Yuri and Hwang Jiho seemed to notice that awkwardness.
Though peaceful, the conversation continued in a subtle atmosphere, but then the class bell rang and teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim appeared to start the start-of-day meeting, so the conversation was cut off.
After there was no need to talk with the children, Kwon Lena made a relieved face.
* * *
Lunch break.
If it was as usual, I would eat with the class children, who matched my route, or eat with acquaintances from other classes I met along the way, but today I was forced to eat with a tiger.
“I prepared yakbap[4]. Eat.”
When he opened the nest of boxes, the fragrance of cinnamon wafted over.
It was ordinary yakbap with pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and chestnuts, but its looks and color were much better than the sold products, and it smelled very slightly of medical herbs.
“… Did you put anything else in it?”
“I put a bit mongolian milkvetch, angelica and cornel[5]. Because you troubled yourself thinking yesterday, this time I had mercy on the flavor, so relax and eat.”
At those words, I relaxed and picked up the chopsticks.
Until a moment ago I could easily put it into my mouth because I thought there was a possibility it was an elixir in a solidified form.
As I took a bite, the flavor of cinnamon and appropriate sweetness spread out in my mouth and thanks to that, I felt a filling warmth.
It was indeed a merciful taste.
I didn’t hesitate and ate the healthy food, but then suddenly Hwang Jiho’s face hardened.
“A Jin without a permission approached the Eungwang School’s barrier.”
A Jin without a permission?
I put down my chopsticks and looked in the direction Hwang Jiho was staring.
The location was Eungwang School’s east gate.
“A Ma visited.”
“Which kind of Ma[6]?”
As if Hwang Jiho was moving his alter-ego, it took a moment for the answer to come out.
Finally, Hwang Jiho’s mouth opened.
“The part of the 12 Zodiac Alliance, the Ma tribe led by Heukma (Black horse).”
*~*~*
[1] sturdy — healthy
[2] marital compatibility — 궁합 — a divination made before a marriage to check if the couple’s compatible.
[3] “Yes, but instead two People will be eliminated next week.” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence, probably.
[4] yakbap — 약법, a sweet rice. Its name sounds like medical/herbal rice though.
[5] mongolian milkvetch, angelica and cornel — Astragalus mongholicus, Angelica gigas, Cornus officinalis
[6] Which kind of Ma — ‘Ma’ could refer to both Horse tribe and Demons.
[?] food stuff mentioned — cinnamon (계피 gye-pi), traditionally it refers to cassia, much stronger cinnamon than the one used in the ‘West’, and is often used for healthy food, so it’s possible it’s cassia. Also, 계 (gye) could mean chicken or a world?; pine nuts (잣 jat) in the old times it could mean 성 which from what I gather referred to a castle there, but it could also mean a star, pumpkin seeds (호박씨 hobakssi), yes, ‘호 ho’ also means tiger; chestnuts (밤 bam), 밤 also means night. Mongolian milkvetch (황기 hwanggi), yes, the same ‘hwang’ as in Hwang-ho’s name, angelica (당귀 dangkwi) means ‘return safely’ and in the old days it was said that women would carry it with them to pray for their husbands’, who went into the sea, safe return, ‘귀 kwi’ could also mean ghost/spirit, cornel (산수유 sansuyu), 산 can mean mountain and 수유 can mean nursing.
Translator’s note: Hwang-ho, I’ll turn a blind-eye to all cryptic things and wording you’re using this chapter, because I’m now realizing that our star-struck delusional and maniacal, unreliable narrator somehow managed not to gush about his Playable Character passing him by in the corridor if it’s unimportant to the story and that… I didn’t expect such mental fortitude from you, Jo Uisin.
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