Translator: Wan ED/PR: Solarin
44. After bad weather (2)
During the night, the typhoon passed through the land and gradually became smaller, naturally vanishing earlier than expected, but the damages left by the typhoon haven’t been fully calculated yet.
Perhaps because the damage was the biggest in Hongcheon, the state of the hills far from the residential areas wasn’t confirmed.
Even the picture in the article sent by Ju Su-hyeok wasn’t taken personally by journalist but by satellite.
[Ju Su-hyeok] I can’t contact grandpa Tak, Hyodon or Yunseop.
[Ju Su-hyeok] As they’re with grandpa Tak, there wouldn’t be any big incident, but it seems that they’re still training in those mountains.
Are you saying they’re training in the mountains that became a dog-shit mess?!
I guess Tak Geosan was very excited about the first two disciples he accepted ever since he was born.
‘Leaving aside ascetic Tak or Maeng Hyodon, would Bang Yunseop be able to survive in such a place?’
Big trees pulled and hammered upside down into the ground by the rainstorm drew my eyes.
With the broken trees scattered everywhere, and the mountain road turned into mire, it wasn’t a road that a person could take.
[Me] Let’s go pick them up today.
[Ju Su-hyeok] Okay!
[Ju Su-hyeok] When we will meet? Because I have work to do in the Guideline Club’s room, if possible I wanted to meet around the school around lunch.
I confirmed the time and place where we promised to meet and stood up.
While I typed a message in the device, Snare woke up and showed its charms.
Perhaps thanks to staying close to Snare since yesterday, or perhaps thanks to the elixir, my body was in great shape[1].
‘It may also be because I slept early, but…’
After dinner yesterday, I was playing with Eun-ho’s descendants when Hwang Jiho invaded and recommended going to sleep.
The descendants begged to play more, but Hwang Jiho firmly cut them off.
As a guest, I decided to follow whatever the home education rules were and promptly went to sleep in the guest room, but perhaps because the fatigue pilled up, I fell asleep the moment I closed my eyes.
‘I was more tired than I expected?’
As I finished washing up and entered the living room, I saw Hwang Jiho drinking tea.
Hwang Jiho seemed to be the type who would drink early morning tea in bed, but since morning he was faithfully wearing a school uniform and enjoying tea.
“Sit down. I prepared your share.”
Today’s morning tea was a Scottish Breakfast tea with Assam tea base.
He made it with milk, perhaps in consideration my stomach was empty, but even though it wasn’t straight tea, the flavor of Ceylon and Yunnan tea were well pronounced.
“Do you drink tea like this every day?”
“Yeah. I almost don’t filter it.”
Hwang Jiho tilted the ceramic cup with a blue glaze rim without sound and drank the tea.
‘I heard that tea entered the Korean Peninsula during the Three Kingdoms period… Hell, you have drank it since then?’
No, it may not be related to the period when tea entered Korean Peninsula.
Because this tiger seemed to have connections with beings outside the Korean Peninsula.
Considering it, I had a guess.
One of eight progenitors in the Chinese myths, Flame Emperor Shennong.
There was a rumor that Shennong was the first to invent the concept of tea in China.
If so, there was a possibility that Hwang Jiho enjoyed tea from a very young age.
“Since when did you start to drink tea?”
“I don’t remember clearly since when. I just recall that I started because the being I admired the most enjoyed tea, eh?”
The being, which Hwang Jiho admired the most?
Was it the one called Sinin, who ruled Korean Peninsula?
Eun-ho, the previous leader?
If not them, some other being?
Hwang Jiho stared into the distance while drinking tea, and then, as if sensing my gaze, he turned towards me and spoke:
“Are you curious who is the being I admired? If you’re truly curious I can tell you.”
“No, thanks.”
As Hwang Jiho laughed while speaking, my curiosity died in an instant.
“Your complexion wasn’t good yesterday, but it’s fine now, eh?”
It showed on my face?
My hands were a bit cold, but I thought I was managing my expression well.
“Jo Uisin, when you’re playing chess or when you’re facing an opponent, you hide your expression and face complexion well. Until you think you have ‘won’, your expression doesn’t change.”
I was glad, it seemed that I maintained my poker face when fighting.
But didn’t those words mean that my expression changed when I thought I have ‘won’?
“When you’re not fighting something, things show on your face. But it isn’t very noticeable.”
Shouldn’t I correct it?
When I was worrying about it, Hwang Jiho laughed again.
“Hahahaha! Rest assured, those words didn’t exactly mean that you should correct it.”
As I hated him reading my mind any longer, I decided to drink tea.
When the snacks that Snare in my arms could eat were brought out, it diligently wagged its tail in happiness, so I was also happy.
As I forgot about Hwang Jiho who was sitting on the opposite side, and enjoyed the tea, the children who resided in this great mansion appeared one after one.
“Uh, You woke up already.”
“Hello!”
“Hello…”
Eun-ho’s descendants appeared close to each other and greeted me and Hwang Jiho.
Following after them, Baek Ho-gun and Jeok-ho appeared, but the voices of the children were only lackluster when greeting Baek Ho-gun.
“…”
“What happened?”
After Jeok-ho asked, Baek Ho-gun replied:
“I caught them trying to infiltrate Jo Uisin’s room.”
Something like that happened while I was sleeping?
I said I slept soundly, but being a Player in-name, I wasn’t able to notice it?
It seemed that the descendants’ trace hiding skills were gradually getting better.
After Baek Ho-gun’s words finished, the children raised their voices in protest.
“We wanted to surprise Uisin oppa!”
“We wanted to play with hyung… Because it’s a shame You only play together with the Divine Beast.”
“… I wanted to take a picture.”
Eun-ho’s descendants complained, but Baek Ho-gun wordlessly shook his head.
I was once again touched by my main Playable Character’s mindset of wanting to protect my sleep.
“As it seems like Jo Uisin didn’t notice, it appears that you hid your traces very well. Good job.”
“Thank You, Hwangho-nim!”
“We’ll work hard!”
After Hwang Jiho threw a word of praise, he cut to the point.
“… So, who came up with the idea to hide in Jo Uisin’s room?”
“Mountain Spirit!”
“To be class 0, one has to hide their traces very well and surprise several people!”
Was the culprit the Mountain Spirit again?
The first Eun Seoho and the second Eun Niho added vigorously.
“We’re going to take the Eungwang School entrance exam this year, You know? We have to prepare.”
“We will make sure to enter Eungwang School’s class 0 with our power!”
I guess Eun-ho’s descendants played pranks with the Mountain Spirit while cultivating the dream of entering class 0.
As if planning to catch the Mountain Spirit Baek Ho-gun looked around but the Mountain Spirit who was fast to notice already fled and was nowhere to be seen.
“… You don’t have to do such things. I’ll place you in the class you want.”
Hwang Jiho who put down his teacup and was pressing his temples spoke like this.
It seemed he thought it would be better to just put pressure to allocate them to class 0, rather than let them learn crazy things from Mountain Spirit to enter class 0.
At the chairman’s suggestion, Eun Saeho and Eun Niho’s faces turned bright.
“Ah, really? Can we perhaps select the grade?”
“Then I want to be in the same class as Uisin oppa and Hwangho-nim!”
“Me too! I also want to be in the same class. Hwangho-nim!”
Even Eun Jaeho who was ten, raised his hand and revealed his intention to transfer to high school.
In an instant, the children flocked to Hwang Jiho’s side and Hwang Jiho who received expectant gazes spoke seriously:
“… Can’t I make more family registers?”
From those words, it seemed he was really going to carry it out.
“I hoped that you would experience everything in order from the opening ceremony.”
“Opening ceremony…”
“Yeah. The opening ceremony is held in the Third Sacred Terrestrial Branch Hall, but if you transfer now, you wouldn’t be able to attend the opening ceremony as a freshman, you know?”
“What was Uisin hyung’s opening ceremony like?”
Luckily after I told them about the opening ceremony held in the main auditorium of the Third Sacred Terrestrial Branch Hall and showed them pictures, the children seemed to change their minds.
“We will prepare diligently for the entrance exam!”
“That’s right. The first place is the freshman representative, correct? I also want to stand in that place!”
I guess the scene of Ju Su-hyeok and An Dain taking oath side by side left a deep impression in the children’s eyes.
The children who watched the video recording of this year’s Eungwang School entrance ceremony burned with enthusiasm.
“So, we will work hard to enter class 0 in the future.”
“Yeah, let’s be diligent!”
I saw Hwang Jiho firmly pressed his temples again.
Jeok-ho looked as if he didn’t know if he should cheer for the children, who said they will work diligently or try to stop them.
Finally Baek Ho-gun went to catch the Mountain spirit who wasn’t here and the children started to plan what kind of prank they should play next.
“Ah, that’s right. Toyeon noona is coming to play soon, so let’s test it on noona.”
“Yeah!”
Listening conversation, it seemed that Eun-ho’s descendants planned to cast the wicked corpse play with Ok Toyeon as their target.
I wanted to say ‘wait a moment’, but it was an amazing trick that deceived Hwang Jiho and Jeok-ho.
They wanted to sanction it a bit, but it seemed that the tigers were going to actively support it in this case.
“Um, it seems like a good idea, eh?”
“I’ll procure fake blood. If You’re going to deceive the Hwa Tree Rabbit, it can’t be a fake blood of ordinary standard, correct? … It wouldn’t be bad to sprinkle real blood.”
“Should we make an illusion of hanging in the maze garden?”
After worrying about Ok Toyeon’s mental health for about three seconds, I enjoyed morning tea time again.
* * *
After breakfast, I drank the disgusting elixir under the entire Hwang Myeong-ho great mansion’s family’s gaze.
I would suffer a lot if I had to drink it alone, but as there were Baek Ho-gun and Snare at my side, I could endure it.
“Then I’ll come again.”
“… Why is Uisin oppa so busy during vacation?”
“Hwangho-nim doesn’t seem to be busy today, why Uisin hyung…”
Keung…
Eun-ho’s descendants and Snare hold on to me, but as I had a prior appointment, it couldn’t be helped.
Luckily the children and Snare were very understanding and sent me off, and after leaving the gold-dusted paper bag full of the elixir pouches I hated to even look at in the dormitory, I headed to my destination.
‘Ju Su-hyeok is a bit late.’
Central zone, in front of the Guideline Hall.
Ju Su-hyeok and I planned to meet at school during lunch time, have a simple meal at the school cafeteria which operated even during vacation and then move.
But even though five minutes passed since the promised time, Ju Su-hyeok was nowhere to be seen.
It wasn’t like Ju Su-hyeok to not say anything beforehand and be late.
‘Was there a lot of delayed work in the meantime?’
Ju Su-hyeok has been very busy after the Youth Training Camp incident.
In addition to being the son of a chaebeol, he was also a Player with an extremely promising future, so it was natural for him to be busy during vacation but as he was solving big incidents while spreading his name like fire, he became even busier.
During the first in-game summer break, Ju Su-hyeok solved a few big and small quests, but even in this world, solving big incidents without issues, his name spread even wider.
Even while he was so busy, he came to school to do the Guideline Club work. As expected, it was an action worthy of the title hero.
When I was ruminating over PMH’s title hero’s actions, the device rang.
[Caller: Ju Su-hyeok]
As he didn’t come straight away and called I guess there really was a problem.
After accepting the call, I heard Ju Su-hyeok’s voice saying he was sorry.
[Uisin-ah, I’m sorry. I made you wait for long, right? I am really sorry, but today’s meeting…]
For a moment his voice stopped.
It seemed that he covered the device speaker and was talking with someone.
I faintly heard a voice, but the instant I heard it, I came to my senses.
[… Suhyeok-ah, I’m fine, so you can go.]
[Hyeji noona…]
What I faintly heard over the device was the voice of one of my Playable Characters, the 3rd year Guideline Club’s president Oh Hyeji.
Her voice was completely choked up.
‘… of all people Oh Hyeji?’
Oh Hyeji was a character with a strong and resolute personality, who logically conveyed her will even in front of the adults and didn’t get discouraged.
In the game, the only time I saw her tears was when she heard the news of Yu Sang-hui’s death.
I didn’t know the target yet, but my anger surged.
Who the hell made my Playable Character cry?
*~*~*
[1] great shape — literally ‘my body was happy’ in raws.
Translator’s note: Jo Uisin, Jo Uisin… You also make me cry when you don’t ask Hwang-ho the questions you should ask. Because of you, I can’t be certain of the answer!
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