Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
17. The beginning of May (3)
Seoul Jongro-1 district, the Red Lion team’s private skyscraper.
Its basement has now become Yeom Junyeol’s exclusive pitching practice field.
Bang–!
Heavy and clear sound of a mitt meeting a ball rang out.
Yeom Junyeol threw a ball perfectly, and Yeom Bangyeol accurately caught it in a mitt he was wearing.
The Yong tribe’s head, Cheongryong[1], who was in charge of judgment, shouted loudly:
“20th throw, strikes again! Perfect, Junyeol!”
“Kuu, as expected from my son!”
The Yong tribe’s leader, Cheongryong, and the Red Lion team master, Yeom Bangyeol, went into an uproar.
Even the Yong tribe members and Red Lion team members, who were taking pictures of Yeom Junyeol’s pitching posture from various viewpoints, cheered.
“The baseball’s speed, rotation direction, rotation speed, the trajectory of the ball… What, there is not even one faulty!”
“Perfect, that’s our Junyeol!”
Yeom Junyeol was using a ball of the same size, weight and material as the professional baseball ball, but inside of it was a sensor.
The results of Yeom Junyeol’s throw, analyzed with the device paired with a ball, unfolded on the hologram at the training field’s wall.
After seeing the numbers which came out on the hologram, Yeom Junyeol shook his head.
“The time between my windup position and release position is irregular. I’ll throw 10 more times.”
“… Junyeol, in any case, you’re going to throw only one first pitch, why do you have to be so worried? What are you trying to do when it’s already beyond perfect? Even now, you have so many fans!”
“Right! Well said, Yeom Bangyeol!”
“Okay. And if you hurt your shoulder, the baseball stadium or whatever is nothing!”
“Let’s burn it down!”
Even when looking at the spitting fire Cheongryong and Yeom Bangyeol, Yeom Junyeol replied them politely.
“I won’t get hurt. Don’t do that, please.”
“Got it, we won’t do that.”
The majestic voice of the leader, Cheongryong, rang out, filled with a supernatural wave.
In this situation, this statement didn’t feel even a bit dignified, but as the head, Cheongryong, said it first, the other Yong tribe members shut their mouths.
“I was surprised when he suddenly said he wanted to throw the first pitch…”
“These days he isn’t even searching for Red Wall Thief and doesn’t do Student Council work. He comes back early only to train pitching. Isn’t that good?”
“I guess while we’re at it, there is a guy at school who got into an argument with Junyeol. But it’s a guy who moves the scraps of grasses, so there is nothing to worry about, right?!”
“… Should we dispose of him?”
“I saw the video Yong Jegeon sent, Junyeol straight up crushed him with a few strikes. If he is only that much, I think Junyeol may use him as a stress relief bag.”
“Right. Let’s just enjoy current baseball and school activities.”
The Red Lion team members and Yong tribe members, who didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes, were all smiles.
Contrary to their thoughts, Yeom Junyeol was only trying to show off a perfect pitch so he would look good to his pre-Master Red Wall Thief.
‘Red Wall Thief demanded three things. First, throw the first pitch at the Jamsil baseball stadium on May 5th. Second, watch the game until the end. Third, keep the fact I’m throwing the first pitch a secret.’
Yeom Junyeol’s ball cleanly landed in the mitt again, and the cheers exploded again.
Yeom Junyeol continued his thoughts again while smiling widely.
‘I’ll pull off all of the three perfectly. And after the game ends safely, Red Wall Thief will become my master!’
On the side, there was one Yong tribe member who wasn’t losing his mind while looking at Yeom Junyeol.
An active dragon teacher at Eungwang School, Yong Jegeon.
Though he didn’t say a word to the other Yong tribe members, he was questioning the current situation.
‘There is no way Junyeol simply gave up on Red Wall Thief. There is something going on here, surely.’
Yong Jegeon traced back his memory while reasoning.
Yeom Junyeol’s activity pattern.
The unsaid content.
Yong Jegeon replayed the clues one after one like moving chess pieces in his head.
‘There was a day, the day when the mid-term exams ended, when Junyeol looked to be in an excellent mood. Something happened that day. And after that, he also wanted to throw the first pitch.’
Of course, he didn’t share those thoughts.
Because Yeom Junyeol would be on guard, and it would almost certainly spoil Cheongryong and Yeom Bangyeol’s mood.
‘Let’s leave it be. It seems more fun if I keep my mouth shut. But I’ll protect Junyeol so he doesn’t get hurt.’
Ding.
At that moment, a message arrived on Yong Jegeon’s device, sent by the president of the Chess Small Group.
‘List of participants for the chess competition.’
While looking sideways on Yeom Junyeol’s pitching, Yong Jegeon checked the hologram.
Seeing the name list, the corners of Yong Jegeon’s mouth rose very high.
‘Unknown Supernova!’
In it, there was a name of one student Yong Jegeon paid attention to, ‘Jo Uisin’.
***
Next day, after classes.
The Newspaper Club, the freshman exclusive club room.
“Hahaha! Thanks to talking with prince[2] Yeom Junyeol, my article materials aren’t drying up!”
Mun Saeron was happily writing an article in the opened hologram.
Yeom Junyeol’s article?
Surely, the information about Yeom Junyeol throwing a first pitch soon didn’t spread out, right?
“It seems that Ma Jinseung-ssi is also training hard. As he has not so good compatibility with prince Yeom Junyeol, as expected, he continues to get annihilated, I feel a bit sorry!”
Ah, it’s a story about Yeom Junyeol and Ma Jinseung sparring?
“Hey, are you worried? Something’s on your mind? This Mun Saeron-nim always knows about the situation well ahead of time!”
Mun Saeron gave a detailed explanation of the situation straight away.
Recently Yeom Junyeol was doing an individual secret training each morning and evening.
Thanks to that, he narrowly avoided everyone’s eyes, and he even suspended his Student Council activities.
Ma Jinseung, as if he wasn’t satisfied or got cold feet, requested a spar, but Yeom Junyeol was busy, so he didn’t even face him.
At that, Ma Jinseung was pissed off, so he used the word of Yeom Junyeol’s royal wrath: ‘Little Red Dragon’ and picked a fight.
‘Ma Jinseung… you’re really brave, huh?’
Worthy of my Playable Character’s guts, he picked up the fight in a manner of a thug.
In the end, the Yong tribe’s descendant and one human had a furious fight or a spar.
In the spar or what not, Ma Jinseung ended up one-sidedly suffering from the Fire Art.
“Hey, the role of a reporter is also to support and take an interest in the non-mainstream people! Let’s cover Ma Jinseung-ssi next!”
Mun Saeron shouted brightly.
‘If even Mun Saeron doesn’t know that Yeom Junyeol is throwing a first pitch, then I guess he kept the secret perfectly.’
As expected from my Playable Character, Yeom Junyeol.
That’s a relief, it seems that the plan is proceeding accordingly.
***
After I finished my club activities, I visited Hwang Myeong-ho’s mansion.
“Uisin oppa. Hello!”
“Hello!”
“Ah, hello…”
Eun-ho’s three siblings were the first to meet me.
Even today Jeok-ho was absent.
They told me that Baek Ho-gun’s hands were busy giving Snare a bath.
‘… What did you say!’
Was there something that my Playable Character, Baek Ho-gun, couldn’t do?
But Baek Ho-gun peacefully washing Snare was a scene I couldn’t simply imagine.
“Here. I took a picture…”
As if my expression exposed my thoughts, the youngest, Eun Jaeho, activated his device and unfolded a hologram.
It was a picture of Baek Ho-gun bathing Snare with a part of his serious face covered in foam.
The feeling of incongruity was enormous.
I couldn’t even believe it wasn’t photoshopped.
As if it didn’t like the feeling of touching the water, Snare had an uneasy face, but it suffered patiently.
‘Snare is also in the picture, so let’s save it!’
When I obtained the rare picture of my Playable Character and our Snare.
“Let’s go, Jo Uisin.”
Hwang Jiho, who almost didn’t say anything today, waved at me.
Roughly looking into his eyes, it seemed we won’t wait for Baek Ho-gun and will talk straight away.
‘I got accustomed to this living room by now…’
As if the interior was tweaked little by little, there were times when small furniture pieces changed, but the living room we arrived in was familiar to my eyes.
Today’s tea was plum tea made from perfectly ripe mirabelle plums and refreshments were maejap-gwa[3] shaped like magpies sitting on plum blossoms.
It was a fine choice of Hwang Jiho who accumulated fatigue.
Hwang Jiho got to the subject straight away.
“Just like I said in the message I sent yesterday night, I finished the interpretation of the ancient book. Do you want to check and see the content?”
“Yeah. If you have it organized as a document, give it to me. Or you can give me a verbal explanation.”
At my words, Hwang Jiho opened his eyes wide and had a surprised expression for a second.
“What?”
“Jo Uisin, I suddenly felt that you’re human.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I never said I was doing ‘translation’. I said ‘interpretation’ or ‘analysis’. Language is a high-level thought communication system, but it has its limits. I can’t simply translate the ancient language in this ancient book to a human language. What I did was to understand the signs and traces of higher beings and ‘Something’ left inside of it.”
Is that so?
Hwang Jiho didn’t use the word ‘translation’ even once.
Translation is turning writing from one language to another language.
Interpreting or analysis of a sentence or an object expresses understanding of content.
Technically, there is a difference between the two.
“Seeing is believing. I’ll give you my interpretation, Jo Uisin.”
Paaat!
Hwang Jiho and the ancient book were covered in a golden light and then the pages covered in the ancient script spread out before me.
When the power poured towards me, I was forced to blink my eyes because of the light.
⟨Skill ‘Power of Fate’ activated.⟩
As if aiming for it, the Power of Fate activated.
Last time Power of Fate handed me an ancient book.
What interference this randomly activated skill is going to produce this time?
‘I’m not facing an opponent right now, Hwang Jiho is also here. It’ll be okay.’
When the light subsided.
The place where I was standing wasn’t the living room.
No one was around.
“… Hwang Jiho?”
No answer.
I was alone in a space with nothing.
Paaa—.
At that moment, a snow-white shadow glimmered before me.
To be precise, it was something close to a person in its form.
“The guidance and interference of Fate was safely completed.”
It felt as if dozens or hundreds of different kinds of voices rang out at the same time.
It seemed that there were even familiar voices mixed in, but when it rang out like it did, I couldn’t differentiate them.
“Thoth, I thank thee for making the ‘road’.”
If it was Thoth, it was a higher being which bestowed Jegal Jaegeol a blessing.
As a guardian deity of libraries, I guess he played a role in the Power of Fate activation.
“Take it, Jo Uisin.”
The White Shadow held out a transparent item card towards me.
Usually, the rarity of the item card could be estimated according to the color of the edge of the card.
‘It’s the first time I see a transparent one…’
After I took the card, the White Shadow gradually dimmed.
There were many things I wanted to ask, but you’re disappearing so quickly?
“The Power of Fate is a power possessed when the ‘one which saved a world’ comes into contact with ‘Distant[4] Unknown’. Remember that.”
“Wait! Explain a bit more clearly…”
The one who saved the world?
What nonsense is that?
Even when trying to think over my life, I have no memory of that.
At least, even the one world inside the game I was playing was completely ruined.
Are you thinking about the national hypewreck PMH’s ending without dreams, hope or mercy as saving the world?
Don’t say nonsense.
Even so, the shadow gradually disappeared. I tried to stretch out my hand, but…
“How about it, Jo Uisin? My interpretation.”
Next moment I was back in the living room.
The White Shadow disappeared, and I was again facing Hwang Jiho’s shining eyes and smile.
‘I’m not in the mood to talk about interpretation.’
In my hand, the transparent item card remained.
“As you can see, the author of this ancient book is left blank. It’s the result of abstractly gathering the higher beings or something equivalent to them and ‘Something’ which transcends them. Thanks to it, I was able to see the faces of higher beings to my heart’s content.”
It seemed that I and Hwang Jiho saw something completely different.
Like before, I couldn’t understand the principle, but his interpretation and Power of Fate’s activation connected the ancient book with something and then passed over an item.
“According to the mumbling of talkative higher beings, the ‘Power of Fate’ is obtained by the being which saved a world. That power is known as something which cannot be touched by the hands of Jin people or higher beings.”
The only thing I saw was White Shadow.
“In the first place, something like the world’s crisis doesn’t come easily, and even if it does come, do you think there is a person who can resolve that alone?”
Hwang Jiho had a frustrated expression.
“I usually can’t understand what gods are thinking, but… I can’t understand it even more. What were they possibly thinking when they made something like that and then left it in the world? My pathetic self could only comprehend this extremely little.”
In any case, there wasn’t much written in the ancient book.
I thought he did excellent with pulling off such an interpretation with only that.
Hwang Jiho, good work.
“I can’t understand why the Power of Fate rises or drops according to the savior’s will and accomplishments. It seems great even if it existed only on level 1.”
This part matched the skill description of the Power of Fate.
Truly, it seemed certain that the power Hwang Jiho interpreted was the Power of Fate.
“I want to meet the person who possesses that power if they exist. But I feel like I know about something useless. Because there is no way someone like this exists.”
Right now, before your eyes.
Power of Fate level 3.
… I swallowed those words.
All refreshments and tea, which appeared today, should have been sweet, but I didn’t feel their taste at all.
After I left the living room, as if it was dry washed, a perfectly dry and fluffy Snare was waiting for me.
Woof—!
Snare was looking up at me from next to Baek Ho-gun’s feet.
Its eyes were looking in my direction, filled with expectations.
‘Why isn’t it coming straight towards me? It looks to be in a good mood.’
Appearance of Snare I usually see.
Snare who finished a bath.
After thinking a little, I got to the answer straight away.
‘That’s right! It took a nice bath, so it means I should give it a compliment, huh!’
The moment I comprehended Snare’s deep meaning, I narrowed the distance without a hesitation and picked up Snare.
Snare usually was like a cotton ball, but today it seemed to be several times warmer and softer.
“I’m so proud. That’s our Snare!”
Woof woof–!
As if my actions were the correct answer, Snare wagged its tail like a motor.
‘It hasn’t been a long time since it was washed, so I should restrain myself from petting it.’
However, the Snare in my arms was dissatisfied as to why I’m not petting it.
It kept wriggling towards my hand.
“Who the hell do you resemble that you’re so kind and good at following people…!?”
I ended up stroking it with all my might.
Hwang Jiho, who had accumulated stress while interpreting the ancient book, looked at me with eyes as if he was looking at an idiot, but I didn’t mind.
I couldn’t take my hands off of Snare, so I held it in my arms as I headed towards the dormitory, even though it was wearing a leash.
Like always, the role of Snare’s escort home was taken by Baek Ho-gun.
It seemed that they completely reconciled, I was glad.
***
My dormitory room.
For the first time I checked ‘Transparent Card’.
⟨Reading item data.⟩
[Item name] Unknown Fate
[Type] Weapon
[Rarity] N~EX
[Proficiency] 0%
[Effect] Undecided
[Description]
The weapon whose name, rarity and effects change depending on the user’s experiences, expectations, ideas, goals, convictions, etc…
Can only be used by possessors of the Power of Fate.
‘The item which didn’t exist in the game.’
I received a weapon as abstract as Power of Fate.
The mysteries increased.
‘You said the person who had saved the world and came into contact with Distant Unknown?’
I still couldn’t comprehend the saved a world nonsense, but I could guess ‘Distant Unknown’.
Transcendent Universe.
There were still not enough clues, but there is a possibility of reasoning it out.
‘Fate without name[5]…’
Besides the writing ‘Unknown Fate’, there was nothing engraved on the transparent card.
After putting it in the inventory, I forced myself to go to sleep.
There was a lot to do tomorrow, so I had to save my strength.
And then, like usual, I slept without dreams.
And 5th May, Children’s Day, came.
*~*~*
[1] Cheongryong – it just means Blue Dragon. It’s the same structure as Yeom Bangyeol’s alias ‘Red Dragon’, but I’ll leave it untranslated as it will make my work and your reading experience much easier in the future.
[2] prince – the raws used a buzzword, so it’s really hard to explain. It’s not really a prince, it’s more like a funny honorific of high respect. So you could use something like ‘lord’ or ‘Sir’ here.
[3] maejap-gwa – a type of cookie (hangwa) of a twisted shape, usually resembling a ribbon.
[4] Distant Unknown – Distant in the meaning of something so far away it’s hazy.
[5] Fate without name – It may be a reminder or not. ‘Unknown’ in the ‘Unknown Supernova’ and ‘Unknown Fate’ means something which doesn’t have a name or something that cannot be known, because there is no information.
Translator’s note:
Hwang Jiho: You’re so human right now.
Jo Uisin: *spends a minute of internal reasoning about why people cannot simply transform one language to another* Technically you’re right..
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
Leave a Reply