Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
36. Beginning of growing thread (5)
“That… Because Daeseok came to school today with a really amazing hair…”
“I might have just passed it as ‘That’s some extreme hairstyle’, but because he said he is going to take an identity picture with that hair, I wanted to somehow help!”
Min Geurin and Kwon Lena pointed at the top of Song Daeseok’s head as they spoke.
The straight line of hair, as if he roughly cut them with office scissors by himself, were eye grabbing.
To compare, Song Daeseok had a hairstyle which a performer of a variety show would wear as a punishment.
There was something more eye-drawing than the shocking state of his hair.
‘The eyes were revealed…!’
The eyes of Song Daeseok, who was sitting with a grim face, were fully visible.
“It’s much better with cut bangs… But you should go to the beauty salon.”
“Why go when it’s annoying, as I’m only cutting bangs?”
“You can also cut the bangs in the beauty salon!”
“Right. The price is usually lower than for a normal cut.”
They can help with something like that in a beauty saloon?
Male highschoolers were dubious, but the female highschoolers at the side all nodded their heads, as if they all knew about it.
“But where the hell did those thinning scissors come from?”
“It’s for emergency purposes! The front hair grows faster than one may think, so if you don’t pay attention, they will prick your eyes. I have them in my locker for cases when I don’t have time to go to the beauty salon early in the morning and have to do trimming.”
Kwon Lena showed the aluminum comb and thinning scissors, while she said that.
Before, she also helped to organize my and Maeng Hydodon’s hair, so I guess Kwon Lena’s hand skills were quite outstanding, and she also liked to help with trimming male hair.
“It’s fine if you do it quickly. The start-of-day meeting is starting.”
“Ok!”
After Song Daeseok said that, while grumbling, Kwon Lena took out a blanket with a grin on her face and put it under Song Daeseok’s neck.
Song Daeseok’s uncovered eyes were amazing, but such meek tone towards children other than Min Geurin was even more amazing.
‘They said it was to take an identity photo, right? It should be a photo for the Association intern application.’
Song Daeseok was somehow keeping good grades even at the Eungwang School, and in addition, his identity was clear and there was nothing to his outside activities record, so from the security standpoint, he was perfect.
He should be able to be safely accepted as an intern this time without fuss.
‘In addition, Song Daeseok has an extensive knowledge of the Association’s Satellite. He also knew a lot about the Association itself. Even if questions related to the Association come out, he will be sure to respond well. But I didn’t know at what level he was, as I knew only as much as was mentioned sometimes in his conversations with Min Geurin in the game.’
He may not take on a serious work as an intern, but it would be still good personal experience for a satellite maniac.
“Raise your head a little bit, please. Stop! Don’t move now.”
“Just cut it roughly…”
“Can’t!”
“Wow, Lena’s hand skills are truly amazing! The major part, which was freshly trimmed, is extremely neat.” [1]
When I observed the warm scene, completely ignoring Song Daeseok’s rebelling.
I recalled the feeling of incongruity and question I had in the first place.
“But why are you sitting here?”
I asked Hwang Jiho, who was sitting as if he was waiting for his turn.
“I said a word, and got swept up into it.”
“What did you say?”
“A stealthy hair strand is repeatedly pricking my eyes. I also wanted to cut it, so she said she would help.”
Why this bastard says useless words and makes things cumbersome for our class children?
I was thinking like this, but in any case, looking at the happy class children, I decided to think positively.
“Can’t you control the length of your hair?”
“The principles behind fundamental functions of our divine bodies are the same as human bodies. Our hair grows as it likes if left alone, just like humans’. Well, it’s probably possible for us to make it longer, eh? There should be a way to accelerate cell division with a superpower wave, but it would be pretty cumbersome.”
While listening to Hwang Jiho’s explanation, trimming of Song Daeseok’s bangs was completed.
Looking at Song Daeseok with much neater hair, the children were amazed.
“Much better.”
“It didn’t show before because of the hair, but Daeseok is very…”
“You feel like a movie actor from the era of black&white movies!” [2]
“Please show how the identity pictures came out after you take it!”
Song Daeseok was like an exact copy of Song Manseok, whose face represented Players at a certain time.
He had a face with thick features of a classic good-looking man.
“It looks good…! Thanks!”
“… Thanks.”
Min Geurin was much happier thanks to Song Daeseok’s appearance, which became tall and attractive after a long time.
Song Daeseok, smiled slightly when looking at Min Geurin and thanked Kwon Lena.
While the two childhood friends went to shake off the blanket, which was full of hair, Kwon Lena approached this side.
“Next in order is Jiho!”
“Hahaha! I’ll leave it to you.”
Hwang Jiho, who quietly observed Kwon Lena’s hand skills, turned his body towards the mirror while laughing.
As he had 6:4 hair parting, Hwang Jiho’s bangs descended naturally.
A bit longer strand of hair was pricking Hwang Jiho’s eyes.
“Um…”
Kwon Lena spoke, while calmly brushing Hwang Jiho’s bangs.
“Jiho has a straight forehead and very sharp eyebrows, so I think you would look much better with swept back hair.”
When she swept back all of Hwang Jiho’s hair with her comb.
Kwon Lena stared at Hwang Jiho with a dubious expression.
“Jiho, perhaps… Didn’t one of your relatives come during senior Kwon Jane-nim’s concert at Hoyeon Building? I think I saw someone extremely similar to you.”
Was she talking about the 30’s old version of Hwang-ho?
As that Hwang-ho’s version had all his hair swept back that day, it seemed that Kwon Lena, who had good eyesight, noticed something.
Hwang Jiho, with complete zero of agitation, spoke with a mischievous face as before.
“None of my relatives were at school that day.”
“… Okay?”
Hwang Jiho didn’t lie.
Because an alter-ego was also him in the end, not a relative.
“I’ll pull back half of my hair, when I feel like it. And I don’t like pulling it all back.”
“Ok! Then I’ll quickly trim only the longer side.”
“Please.”
Did each alter-ego have a different hairstyle to give a different impression?
It would be a bit troublesome if there were people, who noticed, like Kwon Lena.
When organizing of Hwang Jiho’s hair was about to be finished, Song Daeseok and Min Guerin, who went outside before, returned and the topic changed.
“It’s summer break soon, correct? Do all of You have plans how to spend them?” [3]
“I want to go play somewhere with everyone!”
“It’s summer, so how about the sea?”
I saw Kim Yuri flinch at those words.
“You didn’t see the announcement? Soon, all of us can go to the sea together, you know?”
“Yes?”
“That’s the announcement that was published this morning.”
Song Daeseok opened a hologram.
‘1st years’ youth training camp notice’.
Children, who read the announcement, broke into cheers.
“Awesome! I’m going!”
“I want to go.”
“I shall go!” [4]
However, there were also children who read the entire announcement and lost energy.
“I won’t be able to go, because it’s too many people…”
“Volunteers, who were helping at the children’s home, plan to quit next week, so there is a shortage of helping hands. I promised I’ll be helping during the summer break. So I also can’t go.”
Min Geurin and Han Yi spoke with regretful faces.
At Min Geurin’s words that she couldn’t go, Song Daeseok was about to impulsively say that he also won’t go, but he was stopped before that thanks to Min Geurin.
“I can’t go, so Deaseok, you please go and tell me about your impressions later. And you have to take a lot of pictures. Got it?”
“……………. uh.”
At Min Guerin’s request, Song Daeseok, who had more or less a meek attitude towards the class children, haphazardly nodded his head and spoke.
“It’s a pity that the two of you can’t go. Yuri will go, right?”
The arrow turned towards Kim Yuri, who after the topic changed, kept her mouth shut.
“That, I…”
“Let’s go.”
I spoke like this towards the hesitating Kim Yuri.
“Class president can’t be absent on a key event, you know?”
“That’s correct! Yuri, You have to go!” [5]
“Ah, let’s go buy clothes for the training camp. I can’t go, but I want to go shopping together.”
When even class children spoke like this, Kim Yuri couldn’t interrupt them.
When Kim Yuri smiled with an ambiguous face behind the children’s backs, I added a word.
“It’ll be fine. Let’s go.”
Kim Yuri looked at me, who was full of conviction, hesitated and asked:
“Will it really be fine…?”
“Yep.”
Kim Yuri glanced at the gathered children, and then at me, and then nodded.
***
After classes.
The device’s message sent by an unexpected person caught my eye.
[Kim Sinrok] Hello, Jo Uisin-gun. [6]
What happened for that troublemaker descendant to contact me?
There was a considerable feeling of dissonance, between his past record as a troublemaker and the polite greeting he started conversations with every time.
[Kim Sinrok] Today the game category dragon suddenly ran off with an ominous smile.
[Kim Sinrok] Before he disappeared, he said ‘I’m going to talk with your benefactor.’.
[Kim Sinrok] That dragon harmed Jo Uisin-gun?”
I guess Yong Jegeon was with Kim Sinrok before coming to me.
Did he call me Kim Sinrok’s benefactor behind the scenes?
[Kim Sinrok] Please contact me if it seems like that dragon will cause incident.
Even if Yong Jegeon was about to cause an incident, would Kim Sinrok be able to block it?
As I didn’t know for how long the two of them knew each other, I couldn’t come to a conclusion.
The next message also wasn’t sent by a human.
[Baek Ho-gun] There will be an audience today/
[Baek Ho-gun] Is that okay?
It was no problem, as I also brought Hwang Jiho with me before.
There was no way that Baek Ho-gun would bring some strange bastard.
Considering his friendly relationships and situation, there was a high chance it was Hwang Jiho or Jeok-ho.
[Me] It’s fine.
[Baek Ho-gun] Got it.
I sent such a reply and tried to reason out who it was, but I couldn’t come up with anything certain.
But in any case, it wouldn’t be a problem as we would meet face to face when I come to the Silver Training (Eunryeon[7]) Building today for training.
Like this, the Silver Training (Eunryeon) Building I arrived at after passing through the Clear Blue Lake (Cheongrang-ho)’s fog and byeoksa’s barrier.
“Who is the audience?”
Baek Ho-gun, who came out to meet me in front of the barrier, was alone.
As I moved following him, there didn’t seem to be anyone at the training ground.
They aren’t coming today?
When I thought like this.
Woof!
Snare!
I heard Snare’s cute barking sound from the other side of the training room.
“Snare…! You came to watch?”
I lowered my body to stretch out my hand towards Snare.
After Snare ran, moving its small feet, it stretched them out and jumped into my arms.
During that process, it looked amazingly cute and adorable, and then again, when I embraced it in my arms at the end, I was amazed again at the feeling of soft fur and warmth.
Even today, Snare’s cuteness was the same as before.
Was it the same as before?
Come to think about it, there was something strange about it.
‘It didn’t seem to be growing from a certain point.’
When we first meet, Snare was a cotton ball of a size of two adults’ fists.
By the time it ended its repeated training, it grew to the size it was adequate to put on a knee.
And then a few months passed, but Snare’s growth stopped.
‘I think I heard them say that its divine energy is gradually returning… why?’
I stroked Snare’s head, who was quickly wagging its tail, while showing off its charms, and asked Baek Ho-gun.
“Are you feeding Snare well? Why isn’t it getting bigger?”
“…?”
Keeuk….
Baek Ho-gun and Snare tilted their heads at the same time.
As I thought about it more, Snare was always perfect and there was no way that Baek Ho-gun would neglect Snare.
With the thought ‘I made a mistake’ I was terrified.
“No, I was thinking wrongly. Sorry! Snare is always perfect and cute!”
Woof!
The kind and bright Snare immediately forgave me, who was momentarily stupid.
“Jo Uisin, your expression right now…”
Baek Ho-gun, who was observing that situation, said a word.
I thought that he would say something like ‘No matter how I look, you seem to lose intelligence’ or ‘You’re turning stupid’, but…
“You look to be quite happy, huh?”
Unexpected words came out.
I became happy when looking at Snare, so his words were correct.
Baek Ho-gun turned his back and spoke.
“We will start the spar in 10 minutes.”
10 minutes later as Baek Ho-gun declared.
Clang! Claaang!
Grrrr….
While Snare was watching, my fierce clash with Baek Ho-gun’s White Fang of Thunder Clouds Breaker and his summoned family members, Yeong-ho, continued.
My side kept being inferior as I couldn’t take off my gaze from the sharply flying White Fang and Yeong-ho’s teeth.
‘If I couldn’t use Brilliant Gaze skill, I would crumble immediately. As the burden of constantly using it is too big, I have to capture usage timing by reading Yeong-ho’s movements!’
And so, I learned to endure during repeated spars.
But I didn’t only learn to endure.
I could also guess the next moves of Baek Ho-gun and Yeong-ho from their gazes and superpower waves’ flow.
‘If I can read an opponent’s move, I can also prepare a move to counter it.’
Every time I ended a spar with Baek Ho-gun, I simulated it in my head a few times.
And now, the situation I imagined in my head before unfolded before my eyes.
‘Now!’
When Yeong-ho lowered their body and stepped back to not interrupt Baek Ho-gun’s sword swing.
⟨Skill ‘Brilliant Gaze’ activated.⟩
I succeeded in tying both Baek Ho-gun and the great sword that didn’t reach me yet, in addition to Yeong-ho.
I swung the Nine Iron Teeth Rake[8] towards Baek Ho-gun, who froze, and activated the Fork in the same time.
Kwaaa—!
The instant the superpower wave burst out from the end of the Nine Iron Teeth Rake’s teeth.
I saw Baek Ho-gun, who was ignorantly swinging the great sword with one hand, grab the great sword in two hands.
‘I made you use two hands…!’
Even in the momentary happiness, the shock soon spread, starting from the hand holding the Nine Iron Teeth Rake to my whole body.
Claaaang!
The sound of the Nine Iron Teeth Rake and edge of the blade clashing shook the Silver Training (Eunryeon) Building.
I unknowingly frowned when I was also pushed back because of the pressure.
‘You were really going easy on me until now!’
When I put strength into the hand that hurt as if burning.
Ping.
I heard the system notification, which I heard for the first time when I came to this world.
⟨Weapon’s proficiency reached 100%.⟩
*~*~*
[1] “Wow, Lena’s hand skills are truly amazing! The major part, which was freshly trimmed, is extremely neat.” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence
[2] “You feel like a movie actor from the era of black&white movies!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence
[3] “It’s summer break soon, correct? Do all of you have plans how to spend them?” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence
[4] “I shall go!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence
[5] “That’s correct! Yuri, you have to go!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence (wait, is that five Sawol Seeum’s sentences in my suspicious title number 5 chapter? Sus! /j)
[6] Kim Sinrok’s tone towards Jo Uisin — Kim Sinrok continues to use formal (very polite) tone towards Jo Uisin.
[7] Eunryeon — I’ll be putting romanization of the locations names from now on, for no reason whatsoever, don’t worry about it. It’s just for flavor. Yes. I’m sure they don’t matter hahahaha…..
*Considering the sound changes, romanization should be ‘Eullyeon’.
[8] Nine Iron Teeth Rake — As next chapter specified its color to be metallic, I’m changing it. But just in case, please keep in mind that the word used here could refer to many kinds of metals, with gold being the most often referred to.
Translator’s note: … Chapter 5 of that extremely suspicious title arc, and Hwang-ho’s eyes get pointed out? =-= Hm….
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
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