Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
48. Under stage (2)
Under Mun Saeron’s inducement, who mentioned ‘that word’ first, everyone started talking using ‘that word’.
“Ah… The Fantasy Auction’s Red Wall Thief! Now that I think about it, there are many similarities.”
“And there’s also what was under the Thames River, it seems there are many strange auctions.”
“Things like rare items and ability users that appear after the Clash of Different Worlds are very enchanting, but the related laws and institutions were formed quite late. So it seems such auctions and thieves go unchecked[1].”
“Isn’t that self-proclaimed Phantom Thief copying Red Wall Thief~?”
Each time I heard ‘that word’, I felt as if I was hit.
‘That word’ by itself was like this, but the Newspaper Club’s children were also making a big fuss about it.
That Playable Character was a bastard, who acted like a thief as he liked, whether there was ‘that word’ thief or not.
If he hears comments about his motifs, he might come to Korean Peninsula curious about ‘that word’ or burning with the fighting spirit.
‘There is no way he will be interested in ‘that word’ and come back home earlier than expected, right?!’
I had a terrifying feeling.
When I was about to try to open my mouth to change the subject, because I was worried about the possible articles, Mun Saeron made a very reasonable comment.
“That’s too far. Even thought the Fantasy Auction incident was big, it was only so within Korea.”
As expected, worthy of my Playable Character Mun Saeron, her statement was realistic.
But the remark that followed was somewhat disappointing.
“But I wish for Red Wall Thief to receive a global recognition!”
Not good at all.
I hoped that because half a year passed, it would be quickly forgotten, but a global recognition you say?
I believed there was no chance, but at the thought that Red Wall Phantom Thief would be mentioned even aboard, my vision turned dark.
“Jo Uisin?”
At Hwang Jiho’s voice, I snapped back to my senses.
I didn’t know about any other bastard, but I couldn’t let this ruined geezer pick up on ‘that word’ being a weak point.
That geezer shouting ‘that word’, while laughing so loudly that Eungwang School trembled, was vivid before my eyes.
I put my strength into my shrinking hands and dying face.
“What.”
“… I have a sense of déjà vu about your attitude right now. Hm.”
“Ihavenoideawhatyoumeanbydéjàvu.”
Hwang Jiho’s eyes narrowed.
And as if he made a conclusion of his own, he lowered his voice and said:
“If it’s related to your identity, don’t worry. There is no reason to go around talking about the benefactor’s identity.”
Whether the identity was found or not was naturally an important problem.
But it wasn’t an imminent problem.
‘I probably wouldn’t know if it was my Playable Character? But I can’t let this geezer find out first!’
Unlike the crisis that struck me before, I didn’t have Snare in my arms.
With a hardened face, the best I could do was to look away from Hwang Jiho, who looked dubious.
“Um, then isn’t the front page article fixed?”
Mun Saeron’s voice ended the crisis.
Luckily, the topic changed with those words.
I felt my Playable Character’s greatness once again.
“Right. The start of the 2nd semester will be busy.”
“The otherworld conquest attack team training will start, and the applied classes will have to be corrected…”
“Yeah, the quality and amount of the gathered materials and drafts today looks fine. It seems it won’t be necessary to look for more news items.”
The tradition was that the 1st page of the first release of the newspaper published in the 2nd semester was decided by the Newspaper Club’s 1st years.
The seniors, in particular the 3rd years, were busy preparing to graduate, so they didn’t have time to look over the articles written by the 1st years.
It was a consideration towards the seniors who would write the front page articles when they could support it.
“Hey, then let’s decide the front page article! I’m thinking of one front page main article and about two supplementary articles…”
After the meeting ended, I had the feeling of the world crumbling.
Looking at the two pictures opened on the hologram, my head felt dizzy.
“The monumental main article that will adorn the Eungwang School’s 2nd semester’s first newspaper’s front page was decided!”
Eungwang School’s 2nd semester, the main article decided to be the front page which the 1st years were in charge of.
The title of that article was ‘Red Wall Thief VS Phantom Thief’.
* * *
My memory of how I returned to the dormitory after parting with the Newspaper Club’s children was vague.
Hwang Jiho seemed to make a sound about having a good quality black beans[2] at the mansion and eating kongguksu[3] or something, but I just ignored him and returned to the dormitory.
‘It was time for everyone to forget it, but ‘that word’ will appear on the front page of the newspaper!’
When thinking about how the hell many people would read the school newspaper if I excluded the Eungwang School’s graduates, and it would be just 10% of the students and staff, it would be 200 people.
At the thought that at the start of the semester, 200 people, maybe more, will see ‘that word’, I became depressed.
When I stared blankly, the device messages continued to pour down.
Ding, ding, ding.
Looking at the notification window, it seemed that the messages were continuously sent by one person.
While thinking that if it was Hwang Jiho doing message terrorism, I’d turn off the device alarm, I checked the messages.
[Woo Gihwan] Bread
[Woo Gihwan] Bread
[Woo Gihwan] Bre ad
The culprit was the 3rd year class 0’s chief of primitive people, Woo Gihwan.
Woo Gihwan kept shouting bread.
The word in the last message was a bit broken, perhaps because he was typing urgently.
‘Did his language skills deteriorated, because of the prolonged life as a primitive person?’
A barbarian could send messages using the device, which was the fruit of the latest technology? Amazing.
But it was difficult to understand with that messages only what kind of sound he was making.
[Me] Hello, senior-nim. What are You talking about?
[Woo Gihwan] whe bread
Analyzing the message left by Woo Gihwan was like analyzing pictograms left by ancient primitive people.
Considering the primitive man, Woo Gihwan, who moved based on instinct and basic needs, and bread, I drew a conclusion.
‘Is he perhaps curious where the bread he ate before was sold?’
I recalled the scene of Woo Gihwan attacking the Bread Shuttle to steal corn bread on the Ju-Oh Island.
It was openly known fact in Eungwang that Bang Yunseop was my Bread Shuttle.
It was also widely known that Bang Yunseop flew to buy bread in the place I chose.
‘As the 3rd year class 0 and Bang Yunseop had no points of contact besides running into each other in the Heavenly Wings Mountain, he wouldn’t know his device code.’
Before Woo Gihwan went to personally find me or Bang Yeonseop and did something wicked to get the information about the bakery location, I sent him a message.
[Me] (link)
[Me] This is where the corn bread was bought.
As I kindly gave him a location with the mail delivery, a reply came:
[Woo Gihwan] thx
After that no message came.
While hoping that the primitive man’s language skills would return if just for the teachers’ sake when the school starts, I slept without dreams.
* * *
After Hwang-ho returned to the mansion, he was welcomed with sad faces of Eun-ho’s descendants and Divine Beast.
“Hwangho-nim… Uisin oppa?”
“We expected You to come together, because Hwangho-nim had club activities with Uisin hyung today!”
Keung…
Hwang-ho recalled Jo Uisin, who looked like he lost his soul during the club activities, and shook his head.
The more Newspaper Club’s members opened their mouths, the more tired Jo Uisin looked.
He felt a sense of incongruity besides that, but he still couldn’t draw a conclusion.
‘It may not be the simple conversation that was the problem but another reason, but… The clues are insufficient, eh?’
Eun-ho’s descendants hoped to talk with Jo Uisin.
But because he thought that he may become more tired if he stayed at the descendants’ side, he gave up on forcibly bringing him to dinner.
“He seemed tired, so I let him rest.”
“Is Uisin hyung sick? Then how can You leave him alone?”
“There are no abnormalities to Jo Uisin’s body.”
“Hwangho-nim… Uisin oppa drunk all the elixir, correct? Then why is He tired?”
“I confirmed he drank it all.”
Woof woof! Grrrr….!
After Hwang-ho suffered Eun-ho’s descendants and Divine Beast’s questioning for a while, he barely could have tea time.
While Hwang-ho drunk peach tea with the dried peach flowers and nectarines[4], Baek-ho sat down opposite of Hwang-ho.
As these days Baek-ho didn’t stay in the mansion and often walked around the divine realm, it was difficult to see his face.
‘And thinking about it, I recently didn’t see the Mountain Spirit.’
They especially hid their tail and didn’t show any signs of presence when Baek-ho was around.
‘After being shown a bitter taste by that ruined Moon Rabbit, even the descendants don’t play serious pranks. The Mountain Spirit would calm down.’
At the thought that Baek-ho disciplined the Mountain Spirit by himself, he was satisfied.
When he was about to continue a pleasant tea time, while handing Baek-ho a cup of tea, a message arrived at his device.
[Annoying rat] Hwang-ho, are You busy?
It was a message from Cunning, who these days increased the frequency of the polite tone and disturbing Hwang-ho’s mood.
* * *
A few days later, I heard ‘that word’ in person again.
“Uisin, You said that You’re in contact with senior Yeom Junyeol-nim, correct? Then did You inform senior-nim that You’re Red Wall Thief-nim?”
I suffered mental damage because of Sawol Seeum’s word choice.
Even so, it seemed that if we didn’t match our words beforehand, he might make a big trouble, so with difficulty I picked together my brain and replied:
“… No, he doesn’t know.”
“Ah, is that so, eh? Then I’ll not say anything until Uisin personally reveals it to the senior Yeom Junyeol-nim!”
Hearing kind Sawol Seeum’s reply, I felt reassured.
Today was the day I promised to meet with Yeom Junyeol.
Yeom Junyeol personally contacted me and Sawol Seeum, but finally we decided to meet all together.
But currently only the two of us arrived in the promised location.
“Hi, you came early.”
Soon Yeom Juneyol arrived.
Yeom Junyeol seemed to be in a pretty good mood.
“Hello, senior Yeom Junyeol-nim.”
“Yeah, hi.”
Was it because as weather kept being good, Hongryong’s condition was good? Or was it because according to Yeom Junyeol’s morning report, he continuously succeeded in ‘Hiding presence’ twice?
Anyhow, as my Playable Character was happy, I also felt good.
“As You asked, I called those among the class children, who could come. But as everyone is busy, no one but Yuri, Jiho and Han Yi can come… They will be here soon.”
“Okay, Yuri is also coming, huh?”
“Yes. She said to make sure to call her.”
Thinking about it, Yeom Junyeol and Kim Yuri were both in the Student Council.
The number of people in the Student Council wasn’t small, but there was no way they didn’t meet each other, so why didn’t he directly contact Kim Yuri?
“Are You acquainted with Yuri? Ah, the two of You are in the Student Council, correct?!”
“Yep. I heard stories about class 0 from Yuri sometimes.”
“If so, wouldn’t it be easier for You to contact Yuri beforehand…?”
After Sawol Seeum, who seemed to have the same doubts as me, asked like this, Yeom Junyeol made an embarrassed face.
“Mother got married just after she graduated from highschool.”
The romance of the same-age couple, Yeom Bangyeol and Yong tribe’s descendant, Yeom Junyeol’s mother was pretty famous.
I heard they married early, but they married just after graduating from highschool?
The mother was the Yong tribe’s cherished descendant, but she succeeded in marrying so fast? Yeom Bangyeol was truly an extraordinary person.
Yeom Junyeol added with a bit smaller voice.
“… Because I may also follow in her footsteps, I avoid contacting opposite sex as much as possible.”
It seemed that the Yong tribe had trauma because of Yeom Junyeol’s mother.
So he couldn’t directly contact Kim Yuri, huh?
As expected, my Playable Character was considerate.
It seemed that Yeom Junyeol was worried that if he behaved wrongly for no reason, Kim Yuri would be harmed.
‘If the Yong tribe was so on guard, should I refrain from contacting him as a master?’
If Yong Jegeon noticed straight away that me and Yeom Junyeol were communicating as master and disciple, it seemed to be a fact that they were wary of in various ways.
Midst my worries, the class children arrived in order.
Kim Yuri arrived a bit earlier, and Hwang Jiho arrived exactly on the set time, Han Yi was nowhere to be seen.
“Miro said she would be a bit late, correct? But why is Han Yi not coming…?”
“Han Yi isn’t someone to be late, did something happen?”
The children’s worries deepened, but looking at Hwang Jiho’s overflowing with leisure appearance, it seemed nothing in particular happened.
After a while.
Han Yi safely appeared.
Together with closely sticking to her Dokgo Miro.
“Hi, guys-ah! Thank you for coming. I’m Dokgo Miro.”
Dokgo Miro didn’t show even a bit of the king’s aura and she looked like an ordinary student.
Even though she just smiled, her face was overflowing with vitality, her voice was bright, and the high tone felt ticklish on the ears.
It was completely different from the fatigue spilling from the screen, when I saw her lethargic in the game.
‘She is the king who destroyed the service company and police station with a baseball bat?’
On the other side, Kim Yuri didn’t hide her happiness as she conversed with Dokgo Miro.
Kim Yuri was displaying her social prowess against the stranger Dokgo Miro in full.
When under Kim Yuri’s guidance, we exchanged device codes and introductions of everyone.
“I heard that Miro already knew Han Yi.”
“Yeah, me and Han Yi are best friends!”
“… Is that so?”
Han Yi expressed doubt with a subtle expression, but Dokgo Miro’s pace wasn’t shaken at all.
“Are you pouting because I didn’t contact you for a long time? Han Yi, don’t do that. I’ll be hurt!”
Dokgo Miro’s voice, as she spoke with a smile, was full of warmth and charm.
When Dokgo Miro spoke like this while sticking to Han Yi’s side, they looked like best friends exchanging jokes as Dokgo Miro said.
Though Han Yi was unresponsive.
At that moment, Hwang Jiho cut in.
“It seems that Han Yi’s doubts are reasonable, eh?”
“Uh?”
The geezer caused an incident.
“The one who can say to be Han Yi’s childhood old friend is this one.”
Did the tiger have a heatstroke? Hwang Jiho was spouting nonsense.
Both me and Han Yi turned openly grim.
*~*~*
[1] go unchecked — I’m not quite sure how to literally translate it, but the phrase is ‘판을 치다’ and ‘판 (pan)’ is a word that can also refer to a place of some event, aka a stage.
[2] black beans — 서리태 — called ‘frost beans’ in Korean because they grow and are harvested in October when they’re exposed to frost and cold.
[3] kongguksu — noodles in cold bean soup. It’s one of the traditional dishes eaten in summer.
[4] nectarines — nectarines are called ‘heavenly peach’ in Korean. Besides being fruit of longevity, peaches are also considered a tool of exorcism as they chase away ghosts.
Translator’s note: Don’t worry, Dokgo Miro, the girlfriend seat is free!
And Jo Uisin, I don’t think that the Yong tribe is Yeom Junyeol’s reason… but I’m also not sure if Yeom Junyeol understands the crux of the problem.
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