Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
11. Qingming – the sky gradually clears (3)
“Vice president, did you come to eat? We’re doing a part-time scholarship job.”
“Hi… Uisin.”
Unlike Maeng Hyodon, Lee Lena replied after a bit of hesitation.
She still seemed awkward around me.
Because of the suicide attempt incident and that she cried out before me until she passed out, it seemed she was unsure about how to treat me.
‘The Eungwang School has a system of part time scholarship jobs for students. I guess the two of them joined.’
It was a student work system which for helping in the school chores offered a payment of four times minimum wage a day.
‘The Eungwang School’s security procedure is complex, so pulling in faculty members or contracting outside help is very much a hell.’
Most of Eungwang School’s students never run out of money, because they receive rewards for subjugations of wanted Enemies and items received from otherworlds’ conquests.
However, according to school rules, the conquest of otherworlds was possible only from 1st year 2nd semester.
So the 1st years or 2nd and 3rd years in need of quick money work in part-time scholarships.
‘Those two don’t receive support from home at all, so I guess teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim introduced them.’
There was no need to pay tuition or sundry expenses when you lived at the Eungwang School’s dormitory.
Even so, it would be difficult for teenage highschoolers to live everyday without even a penny of pocket money.
‘If they work part-time a couple of hours a day until the 2nd semester, it will be worth doing in no time.’
While having such thoughts, I held a plate and was about to move to request cooked pasta…
“Vice president, this is delicious today.”
Before I could move, Maeng Hyodon dropped a meat bomb into my bowl.
The Gwangyang-style beef bulgogi[1] piled like a mountain.
It was truly a sharp movement and speed without any delays.
As one expected from a guy who was titled Ju Su-hyeok’s rival, I admired it. But even so, I was dazed by the absurdly big lump of meat.
I’m sure he scoped it thinking about me, but… this is a bit too much.
“Hey, Maeng Hyodon. If you’re gonna give it to me, at least give me vegetables with rice, not only meat.”
“This side dish is the most delicious, so fill your stomach with this today.”
“What?”
Can’t switch.
Maeng Hyodon’s stance was firm.
I ended up with a bowl of nothing but meat.
It was a diet that completely ignored nutrient balance.
“Haha… It does seem like a bit too much, but today’s bulgogi is very delicious.”
Even Lee Lena smiled awkwardly as she spoke.
Not only the hidden foodie Maeng Hyodon, but even Lee Lena said it, so I couldn’t help but eat it myself.
‘I give up… take it easy…’
Today I’m going to fill my stomach with meat, I guess.
Goodbye pasta.
I cleared my mind, grabbed a seat and took one bite of the meat. Then, I blinked, surprised.
‘What?! It’s delicious…!’
Beautiful taste.
Delicious—!
‘Wow, this is far better than the passable bulgogi in the Korean Table d’hote restaurant[2]!’
The well cooked meat flowed with beef juices and exquisitely mixed with seasonings melted on my tongue and disappeared in my stomach.
Is it really something which came out as a highschool menu?
Maeng Hyodon, you’re truly a gourmet, huh?
I emptied the entire food tray with no bite remaining.
Maeng Hyodon radiated with pride when he saw me devour the food.
“I ate well, thank you.”
“I know.”
I knew that Maeng Hyodon did it with good intentions, but I hoped he understood that this could be misinterpreted as an act of harassment.
Because when I first saw this meat mountain, it felt as if he wanted to slap me with the bulgogi.
Bulgogi slap.
It was a good word to represent the meat terror I suffered.
“That… up till now… what is it? Ugh, it seems I didn’t say… words ‘thank you’ so…”
Maeng Hyodon, who passed the plates through the dish window, mumbled a sentence.
I listened to his voice, which seemed to crawl like an ant.
“… Thank you.”
I guess the enormous Gwangyang-style beef bulgogi throw was originally an action meant as a thank you.
I felt a bit playful.
Let’s pretend I didn’t hear.
“What? I didn’t hear you?”
“Ah, I said thank you, vice president you bastard!”
Bastard, bastard—!
Meang Hyodon’s roar left an echo effect and spread out throughout the sealed space of the dormitory cafeteria.
The students who were still in the cafeteria all looked in this direction.
I refuse drawing attention.
I had to flee.
“Okay, got it. Is that all? Don’t bother with it. Then I will go. And work hard.”
“Hey, wait a min… Vice president, heey!”
I very naturally left the cafeteria like a man who had no relation to Maeng Hyodon.
Maeng Hyodon, who was during his part time work, was left in that place while receiving gazes from the dormitory students.
The last time I saw him, the tips of his ears were bright red as if burning.
It’s not a revenge for that bulgogi slap or anything.
***
The 1st year dormitory building, lobby lounge.
I sat on a sofa in the innermost corner of the unisex lounge.
The person I was waiting for was Lee Lena.
When I abandoned Maeng Hyodon and was leaving, I asked her to meet with me here for a moment.
‘I should give it to her today.’
I took out a white envelope from the inventory window.
Inside of the envelope was the golden ribbon she left in my living room during the suicide attempt.
I failed to catch the timing to hand it to her.
Lee Lena was always in the classroom or with Kim Yuri and Han Yi, so I didn’t want to cut in.
And if someone was to ask why I had it, we would be in a difficult position.
“Uisin.”
Lee Lena’s wide open eyes were looking down at me.
The 1st floor’s lounge was quite big, so I thought it would take a while, but she found me straight away.
“Ah, sorry for calling you here. I have something to give you so…”
I thought about immediately giving her the ribbon and leaving, but she cut in my words.
“Uisin, can we… go somewhere for a bit?”
I guess she had something to say herself.
‘… It’s a bit cold.’
The trail around the 1st year building, in the residential zone.
It was spring, but the April’s night wind was as cold as before.
The residential zone was under Heavenly Wings Mountain, so the wind was a bit less cold though.
‘It’s cold, so no one is taking a walk.’
During the walk, Lee Lena’s hair tied in a half-ponytail fluttered a little in the night wind.
She still didn’t say a word, only hesitating.
“Do you want to sit down here?”
Lee Lena pointed at one of the benches under the artificial light around the trail.
“Okay.”
I walked up first and sat down blocking the direction which the wind was blowing from.
If Lee Lena catches a cold and the attendance rate drops, Ham Geun-hyeong and Kim Yuri will be sad.
Lee Lena sat a distance from me, so two more people could sit between us.
“Uisin, I also… couldn’t say thank you in the meantime, so… I don’t know what happened between you and Hyodon, but… anyway, I saw Hyodon do that today and thought I should follow and…”
So it’s because of Maeng Hyodon?
“I think I’m fortunate that I didn’t die…that day. It still hurts a lot and is very difficult when I recall what my parents said before, but… I can come to school, because there are classmates and teachers waiting for me.”
She stopped talking a few times, but I continued to wait.
“These days I even want to do it. Do you remember that day when the first spring rain came? Do you know that classbells are also in the dormitory?”
I read Wings Council’s records not a long time ago, so I did.
To make people not hide in the dormitory rooms and come out a bit and to put some silent pressure on them to listen to lectures, the class bells would also ring in the dormitory rooms.
The previous 1st year class 0, who loafed in the dormitory rooms, thought it was too much, and for that reason they decided to ride the Broadcasting Club at April Fool’s Day.
In the end, most of the previous 1st year class 0 were caught by the Wings Council, carefully reconstructing the speakers installed in their rooms with their own money and time.
“Among the song selections that day, one of the songs was ‘for LENA’.”
It was a day when I hit Choe Pyeondeuk, the wind brought the first rain and the song list was all about rain and water, so I remembered.
Ravel ‘Jeux d’eau’, Chopin ‘Prelude: Raindrop’, Johann Strauss II ‘On the Beautiful Blue Danube’, Debussy ‘Gardens in the rain’, etc..
And ‘for LENA’.
‘’for Lena’ was one of the most popular PMH’s OST.’
‘for LENA’.
It was a masterpiece personally composed by the team master of the ‘Eternal Lake’, one of the 4 best otherworlds subjugations teams in England.
The team master of Eternal Lake was a Korean with English roots and our senior who graduated from the Eungwang School.
That team master had amazing abilities, but became more widely known as a famous violinist who received a medal of honor from the queen of England.
‘She receives offers of English citizenship every day, but amazingly she is still a Korean citizen. But it’s unknown why she continues to be active in England, if not for citizenship.’
The most talked about and famous otherworldly conquest case was the England Manchester Great Conquest, passed out like a legend in the Players world.
The Eternal Lake’s team master cleared the worst and the biggest otherworldly crack outbreak in England’s history. Within a week she cleared five dungeons, one tower and two mazes.
After the clear, a side effect of the team master’s enormous supernatural power consumption formed a lake in the place where the otherworldly crack occurred.
‘The queen handed Eternal Lake’s team master a medal of honor and granted a right to name the lake, which appeared on the national land.’
The team master named that lake after her mother’s name, who passed away during that great conquest, ‘LENA’.
After the lake was named, a simple memorial ceremony for the Eternal Lake’s members who passed away took place at the lake LENA.
At that place, the team master spontaneously composed and performed a memorial song ‘for LENA’.
“I remembered something, when I heard that song as I was all alone in my dormitory room. Before my Player abilities manifested, I wanted to learn violin. In my childhood, I begged my parents about this, but they didn’t agree, saying that the private lessons are expensive and I forgot about this affair.”
The money they spent playing in Choe Pyeondeuk’s degenerated VIP club in one day could buy Lee Lena a practice violin and three months of private lessons.
I guess even that money was too precious to use for Lee Lena.
I should have hit them with money bundles before their bungee jump without a rope from the Hwang Myeong Tower.
“Teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim talked about it with the String Club’s advisor-nim, and they offered to give me consultations. And if I join the String Club, I will even receive a practice violin and individual practice lessons to support me. And seniors also said they will help.”
That masterpiece helped Lee Lena came out of her room, huh?
She smiled brightly under the moonlight.
In this world, I only saw her wide eyes and face hesitant, embarrassed or frightened before.
“Thank you, Uisin. I really think… that I’m lucky to be alive.”
In conclusion to her words, I, who had been only listening, opened my mouth for the first time.
“Call me when the String Club will do a performance. I’ll bring the kids from our class.”
“Yeah…! I’ll practice hard!”
Lee Lena smiled with tearful eyes.
“Okay, I’ll be waiting. And this is something you left that day.”
I handed her the white envelope.
“This ribbon! I lost it then!… Thank you!”
Lee Lena, who looked inside the envelope, thanked me again.
I think I heard unusually a lot of thanks today.
However, I was unsure if I should accept thanks for this ribbon.
‘Lee Lena will appear as a villain next year. The cause is still unknown.’
As for now, the biggest reason seemed to be the discord with her parents, but I wanted to prepare in case this assumption was wrong.
If she turns into a villain, some kids will be injured, and there is a large chance those kids will be the members of 1st year class 0.
This ribbon was preparation for such a possibility.
‘I left a one-time blessing[3] in this ribbon, it will protect Lee Lena and other kids.’
The Naejangsan National Park’s temple incident.
I blessed Lee Lena’s ribbon by using the ‘Hand of Sanctuary’ Gwangrim of the Playable Character ‘Naejangsan’s Saint’, who dealt with this incident.
The power-efficiency on this level blessing was very bad and I wouldn’t be able to use Player’s Trajectory for a while if I do that, but I put up with the risk and used it.
Because after April Fool’s Day, these few days were peaceful.
“No. I’m sorry, I’m late to return it.”
I hid my complex emotions and replied.
But even if this incident happens, there is no guarantee that Lee Lena will have this ribbon at that time.
I could only bless this ribbon hoping that day never comes.
***
Next day.
My way to school was peaceful, if we took out Maeng Hyodon, who was waiting for me at the dormitory elevator, grumbling about abandoning him in the cafeteria.
No, it was nothing but peaceful.
“During the morning classes, the students discovered they lost their supernatural powers. They seem to be those two who were found in the old school some time ago…”
It seems that Sawol Seeum heard the news somewhere.
Kim Yuri and Lee Lena also added a word as if they heard that story.
“I heard there were a few cases overseas where supernatural powers disappeared after 17 years old. This is the first case in our country!”
“They say that once the abilities disappear, they never return… if abilities disappear, won’t you be expelled from school?”
“Yeah. It’s expulsion according to school rules. But there was never a similar case.”
Han Yi, who had been listening quietly, replied straight away.
Han Yi was deaf, so she had many penalties in various ways.
She didn’t want to leave the Eungwang School, so she would thoroughly investigate the school rules.
“What? There is?”
Maeng Hyodon, who doesn’t usually show fear, had a worried expression.
Relax, Maeng Hyodon.
You won’t lose your abilities until you die and will be powerful enough that you will be called an OP balance-breaker.
‘Finally, the two illegally admitted bastards’, who harassed Bak Seung-hyeon, loss of supernatural powers was discovered.’
I kept my expression, pretending to not know anything and having no relation to it.
Hwang Jiho was observing me intently.
“What?”
Hwang Jiho giggled, while he spoke as if he had any compassion.
“Okay, I’ll pretend I don’t know.”
Okay, continue pretending you don’t know.
***
A few days later.
After undergoing around ten thorough investigations, the verdict that the two students lost their supernatural powers didn’t change.
As a result of investigating the two, it came to light that they were pushed as illegal admissions by the wanted Choe Pyeondeuk and the school turned completely upside down.
“I guess those people live too well! I had no idea they were illegally admitted. It’s fortunate those guys don’t have superpowers!”
At Kim Yuri a bit angry words, Sawol Seeum and Han Yi tilted their heads.
“There is no reason to do that if you study diligently…”
“Right.”
I guess those two, who learned almost everything by self-studying and entered this school with their talents alone, couldn’t understand this.
On the other side, Lee Lena, who ended up putting up a bloody effort to be recognized by her parents and was successfully admitted to the Eungwang School by the skin of her teeth, looked away from the two people, trying to remain quiet.
“I somehow didn’t see those guys during competitions. I remember seeing Bang Yunseop even a few times, but I didn’t see those bastards even in the preliminaries.”
The only one who possessed qualifications to pass the special examination, Maeng Hyodon, said.
Hearing more stories, there seemed to be a lot of talk about the actions to be taken against the illegally admitted student who had even worse grades than those two which was used as their smoke screen.
‘Even so, because she received an opportunity, if she puts in the effort, she can remain in the Eungwang School.’
The innocent victim seemed to be suffering a lot because of this out of the blue lightning strike.
There were many opinions that if she lands in the bottom 10% of the overall school ranking during the midterms, there is a high chance she will be handed a transfer recommendation, but I wished her best of luck.
“But why were those two found in the old school? When I looked at the general bulletin board, there was an uproar that the ghost teacher dragged them away, stole their abilities and punished them.”
“There had to be a guardian angel at the Eungwang School.”
At Kim Yuri’s question, Sawol Seeum replied with nonsense.
What guardian angel.
The title of the Red Wall Phantom Thief is more than enough.
When I tried to prevent my expression from twisting, Hwang Jiho on my side bursted into laughter.
“Hahahahaha!”
Damn guy.
If you’re going to pretend to know nothing, keep quiet.
The other kids looked suspiciously at Hwang Jiho, who suddenly started laughing, but they seemed to think he was doing that, because Hwang Jiho already had a bit of a strange corner before.
***
The day when the expulsion of the two illegally admitted students was confirmed…
Several messages appeared on my device.
[Bak Seung-hyeon] Thank you.
Now Bak Seung-hyeon could lead a happy Eungwang School life again.
Those two bastards will no longer murder Cotton Ball, harass An Dain and sacrifice other kids when a big incident breaks out.
I saved Bak Seung-hyeon’s message.
[Yu Sang-hun] heh
Yu Sang-hun didn’t write in the group chat with Jang Namuk and sent a message in 1 to 1 chat, not like usual.
He seemed to sense something.
He had no choice but to know as the guys who got possessed by the ghost on April Fool’s Day were the ones I abruptly asked about a day prior, so….
This message was immediately deleted.
[Hong Gyubin] Uisin, there are many incidents in Eungwang School huh ㅠㅠ
Looks like Hong Gyubin was working overtime again.
He was whining that his head hurts, because he had to set up guidelines as this is the first case of the Player over 17 losing their supernatural powers, and it’s even connected to Choe Pyeondeuk.
I just ignored this message.
****
The next day after the two bastards were expelled.
The cherry blossoms at Eungwang School started to bloom.
I ended up going to school today with Maeng Hyodon and Sawol Seeum who I had met in the dormitory lobby.
While evaluating the taste of the raspberry scone that appeared as a morning snack in the dormitory cafeteria, we headed towards the 1st year building.
Kyaaaaaa!
Kyyaaaai!
The screams were coming from around the 1st year building’s entrance.
Rather than the scream coming from a human, it was more like the sound of a pterodactyl.
Looking at the nametag colors, it wasn’t just 1st years that gathered but also the 2nd and 3rd years.
What is happening?
“There are a lot of people. Hey, let’s go somewhere to kill the time.”
“Okay.”
“Yes. Today’s weather is nice, so let’s go on a walk! The flowers blooming around the trail in the 1st year zone are really pretty. I saw it while flying in the morning, the cherry blossoms continued from the central zone and towards a bit of a remote trail leading to the Heavenly Wings Mountain…”
When the three of us turned towards the trail around the 1st year zone…
“Wait a moment.”
A sweet voice which seemed to tickle the ears.
The three of us turned our heads at the same time.
A certain young prince wearing Eungwang School’s uniform was standing before us.
‘Yeom Junyeol…!’
The face I used at the Fantasy Auction.
The son of the Red Lion’s team master, Ruler of Red Flames, Yeom Bangyeol.
The descendant of the Yong[4] tribe, Yeom Junyeol.
He came to the 1st year class 0 classroom.
*~*~*
[1] Gwangyang-style beef bulgogi — Gwangyang style bulgogi are grilled rather than boiled in with a broth in a hotpot (Seoul-style). They have a strong taste of charcoal and iron.
[2] Korean Table d’hote restaurant — The restaurant Jo Uisin visited when he met with Yu Sang-hun’s family for the first time in chapter… 6? 7?
[3] blessing — It’s a bit different ‘blessing’ from the one mentioned in the status window. The ‘blessing’ in the status window means: ‘protection or grace of god’, you can say it’s a very powerful type of a blessing, while the ‘blessing’ here would mean ‘wish/blessing of happiness’, so you can say it’s a weaker type of a blessing you can receive in temples.
[4] Yong — ‘yong’ for dragon.
Translator’s note: The Guardian Angel met his child of destiny… It’s time to start collecting plushies and merchandise.
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