Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
63. Surveillance (8)
I saw the symbols of Demon God of Greed Avaritia after Jegal Jaegeol bore the curse instead of the students in PMH.
His whole body was crushed and squashed, losing his original form, so much that it wouldn’t be strange if he died at any moment, but through the higher being Thoth’s consideration, he got time to prepare for his death.
Jegal Jaegeol tried not to meet anyone in the process of organizing his life.
But his rascal disciples had no plans on giving up like this.
To persuade to abandon him, Jegal Jaegeol finally revealed his appearance to the 2nd year class 0’s children, who persistently came to find him.
[I hate it, it can’t be…]
[Teacher-nim is a liar… You said You would be our homeroom teacher until we graduate…]
Through the LCD screen, only Jegal Jaegeol’s silhouette, that didn’t seem human, and text containing the 2nd year class 0’s student’s despair was seen.
At that time, it wasn’t only the 2nd year class 0’s students, who saw Jegal Jaegeol.
[Aquamarine Poet’s appearance confirmed.]
After Jegal Jaegeol exchanged goodbyes with his disciples, the screen showed another place.
In the darkness, people wearing robes were gathered.
The people wearing the robes seemed to watch Jegal Jaegeol all along.
[How is Aquamarine Poet?] [1]
[Is there any possibility of using kotodama?]
[Just simply not being able to move isn’t enough. Aquamarine Poet’s true power is displayed through words he writes.]
[Any possibility of recovery? Doesn’t he have many outstanding disciples?]
The identity of the people, who were wary of Jegal Jaegeol were Demons.
As beings weak to kotodama, they were people regarding Jegal Jaegeol as an eyesore.
The one among the Demons, who was watching Jegal Jaegeol, spoke very happily.
[Thoth is forcibly holding his breath, but it’s just that. There is no need to use our hands anymore. It will be solved without problems if we just wait.]
[Really?]
[That’s right. I’ll make sure to watch him until he loses his breath. Don’t worry.]
As the Demon said, they persistently watched until the end of Jegal Jaegeol’s life.
When with the flow of time, Jegal Jaegeol’s death was confirmed, they happily raised a toast.
[Cheers for Aquamarine Poet’s death and our victory.] [2]
[Cheers!]
[We sent out that damn kotodama user, eh!] [3]
[Yeah, the most difficult to handle kotodama user on the Korean Peninsula is dead.]
The Demons’ weakness was kotodama.
The Demons were bound by sounds and writing systems used for communication.
It may be a different case for the language of Demons, but it seemed they were much weaker against the human languages.
They especially regarded the language of Korean Peninsula, which was directly created by humans, as humiliation for being ruled by it.
Rather than taking up the Korean Peninsula’s Power of Earth, they decided to prioritize ruling out the kotodama users of the Korean Peninsula.
The result of it was Jegal Jaegeol’s death.
And they had no plans on being satisfied with Jegal Jaegeol’s death.
Because besides Jegal Jaegeol, there was one more outstanding kotodama users at the Eungwang School.
[Eungwang School again!? There is still a kotodama user there!]
[Now the one remaining kotodama user at Eungwang School is Jeongeum (Righteous Sound) Gong Cheonghwon.] [4]
[He is still young and his position at Eungwang School isn’t very good. He will be easier to deal with than Aquamarine Poet.]
Even though displeased, the Demons were much happier about Jegal Jaegeol’s death.
There were many people, who joined hands with demons at Eungwang School already, so they believed it wouldn’t be difficult to deal with Gong Cheonghwon.
The demons celebrated their victory, and then raised their glasses towards the Demon sitting in the corner.
[To borrow Player’s Association’s way of putting this, the biggest contributor would be priest of Avaritia, eh?]
[Yeah, that curse seed was probably taken.]
[The plan of using hostages was also amazing.]
[That moment when the kotodama user bore the curse — how refreshing it was!]
Then creeping purple color poison spewed around the priest of Avaritia, who was pointed out.
Seeing this, the Demons took a step back, or hastily released superpower wave to block the poison.
[The best contributor? You’re referring to me in a human way? How unpleasant.] [5]
The robe that Demon was wearing was engraved with the symbol of Demon god.
I, who was watching the situation through the LCD screen at the time, engraved that scene in my head.
The PMH’s 2nd year class 0’s students prioritized their master’s will rather than revenge, but I, the Player outside the scream, had no thoughts of giving up on Jegal Jaegeol’s revenge.
And since coming to this world, I discovered Avaritia’s symbol several times.
‘The priest of Avaritia didn’t only put his hands on Jegal Jaegeol… The Demons were also involved with Yu Sang-hui and Yu Sang-hun for a long time!’
Though, no, as eternally young kind, ten years wouldn’t be long for Jin people.
I learned that Demons have a relationship with TC Group, while digging into Tao Sihu’s case, but I had no idea they were also connected to Yu Sang-hui and Yu Sang-hun’s past.
I recalled the moments when I discovered the symbol of Avaritia in this world.
‘Is this the third time?’
The first time when holding Byeoksa ceremony over Tao Sihu’s personal belongings.
The second time, when capturing priest of Avaritia during the exchange with Military School.
And now was the third time.
Was it because Yu Sang-hun’s memory was unclear?
The drawing Yu Sang-hun made didn’t completely match the symbol of Avaritia I knew, but they were extremely similar.
In addition, I had a strong conviction.
‘The person in TC Group, who was targeting Tao Sihu and the TC Research Institute’s logo Yu Sang-hun saw.’
The TC Group was currently divided into three big factions.
First the TC Group’s pro department split faction.
The TC Group’s next head and the Ship King belong there.
‘Tao Wonu and Tao Sihu’s fathers belong there. That side has no problems. The problem are the two remaining factions.’
Second, the TC Group’s anti department split faction.
That faction was currently being burned to the ground thanks to Player Association’s enforcement department.
At the time of the exchange with Military School, Kim Sinrok personally interrogated the nurse officer and through his confession and evidence, we got a clue to tear them down.
They hatched a plan to destroy Tao Sihu’s mind and manipulate Tao Sihu into assassinating Tao Wonu at the first day of the school exchange ceremony.
It was a vile scheme to get rid of two powerful Player heirs and alienate the next head and Ship King.
Thanks to the law, and thanks to the work of the fathers, who almost lost their sons, they were being dealt with one after another.
‘The Association stepped forward and the next head and Ship King are aware of this incident, so this side should be fine. They would have no power to pressure Yu Sang-hui through the TC Research Institute right now.’
There was nothing more to worry about in this second faction.
Whether they joined hands with Demons, all of them would go to prison or be fired, so what power could they use?
But there was still a faction that I regarded with suspicion remaining.
‘The problem… is the third faction. There is a chance they also joined hands with demons.’
The TC Group’s third faction, Cheon family faction.
One of Four Groups, the TC Group, which was pointed out as the most powerful group of Korea at the time, almost collapsed with the trigger called ‘T and C Divorce Incident’
They were the people, who split from Tao family faction because of that incident.
‘Hong Gyubin said that during his days as Namkung Gyubin he saw the people from Cheon family faction having some exchanges with executives involved in Tao Sihu’s incident.’
Hong Gyubin regarded that Cheon family faction with suspicion, but it seemed that in the end he couldn’t find a point of connection with this incident and involve them.
However, it wasn’t that there was no way to get clues.
‘Hwang Jiho said that at the time of the divorce incident, he gave power to the Cheon family faction. He said that it’s easy to obtain the inside information because of the connection obtained at that time remains, so if we use that…’
When I ended my thoughts here, I met eyes with Yu Sang-hun, who was wordlessly watching me.
It seems I was too deeply absorbed in the clue of the priest of Avaritia.
I thought ‘damn’, but it seemed to be already too late.
“I guess you figured it out.”
Yu Sang-hun smirked and erased the twisted hologram that he floated in front of my eyes.
I felt a firm will to hear what’s going on right now from Yu Sang-hun.
“Is this drawing I remember connected with something?”
It was easy to answer Yu Sang-hun’s question.
Because whether it was an ordinary person or a Player, anyone knew about the existence of Demons.
However, I couldn’t easily put that word in my mouth.
‘If I talk about Demons, Yu Sang-hun will also get dragged in.’
He may get involved in something even more dangerous than when Jang Namuk involved himself in Tao Sihu’s case.
Jang Namuk was one of the numerous colleague cadets of Tao Sihu in the Military School, but wasn’t Yu Sang-hun Yu Sang-hui’s only little brother?
Either by them taking revenge later or as an aftereffect of my failure, Yu Sang-hun may go mad.
Knowing of the potency of the seed of curse spread by Demons and the range of ‘Eyes’ used by Demons, it was difficult for me to open my mouth.
“… I guess it involves something so dangerous it’s difficult to speak about.”
Yu Sang-hun was a person of few words.
Even though I showed a suspicious behavior, he didn’t question me deeply.
However, it seemed that Yu Sang-hun had no plans of stepping back here.
“…”
“…”
We sat for a while, without speaking.
Usually, Yu Sang-hun would take a step back[6], and change the topic or leave, but there was no hint of it here.
The one to open his mouth first was Yu Sang-hun.
“… I heard that my illness was related to my superpowers. Because those superpowers awakened, I escaped with my life, but I heard that from the beginning, if there was no connection with that superpower, there would be no need for that suffering.”
Yu Sang-hun carefully chose his words, as he looked at me.
‘It seems that Yu Sang-hun had the same thoughts as me.’
The process of Yu Sang-hun’s awakening was somewhat strange.
The actions Yu Sang-hui showed just before the awakening.
The TC Research Institute and Demons that appeared in the process of it.
And the strange illness Yu Sang-hun suffered from.
If there was a key to reveal the secret hidden in that awakening process, it would be Yu Sang-hun’s superpower itself.
“I’ll tell you about my superpower. Skills, Gwangrim, blessing, all. So tell me what you figured out.”
To reveal the details related to one’s superpowers was no different from someone showing their cards in a card game.
So even at Eungwang School they only confirmed one combat skill for the combat education, and displaying Gwangrim or other skills was at students’ discretion.
But Yu Sang-hun was saying that he was going to reveal the information about his superpowers to me right now.
‘What the hell are you thinking to make such a sound…!’
I didn’t know if it was because Yu Sang-hun trusted me so much, or because he was worried about Yu Sang-hui’s wellbeing so much.
It was clear that it would be of big help in the reasoning process if I knew Yu Sang-hun’s superpowers, but my mouth didn’t move.
Ding.
At that moment, the device notified about a new message.
I ignored it because I couldn’t look at the messages with Yu Sang-hun in front of me, but the alarm continued to ring.
Glancing at the pop-up hologram that came up in the corner of my vision, they were messages sent by Hwang Jiho.
‘Hwang Jiho would know I’m currently talking with Yu Sang-hun here…’
Hwang Jiho often sent useless messages, but I had an ominous premonition for some reason.
I decided to ask Yu Sang-hun to excuse me and check the messages.
Yu Sang-hun mumbled ‘…okay’ with a dissatisfied face, as if he thought that I was dragging for time.
[Hwang Jiho] Jo Uisin.
[Hwang Jiho] You would be talking with you friend, sorry.
[Hwang Jiho] I thought I should inform you right away, so I contacted you.
What matter he thought he had to inform me about right now?
I felt a strange urgency from Hwang Jiho’s short messages.
At the very bottom, I saw the issue.
[Hwang Jiho] Under surveillance Tao Wonu moved.
*~*~*
[1] How is Aquamarine Poet? — formal tone used.
[2] Cheers for Aquamarine Poet’s death and our victory. — formal tone used.
[3] We sent out that damn kotodama user, eh! — polite tone used.
[4] Now the one remaining kotodama user at Eungwang School is Jeongeum (Righteous Sound) Gong Cheonghwon. — formal tone used.
[5] The best contributor? You’re referring to me in a human way? How unpleasant. — priest of Avaritia uses a polite/formal tone.
[6] take a step back — literally in raws ‘to give up a move’.
Translator’s note: So many sketchy things in this chapter… Even the tones.
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