Translator: Wan ED/PR: Solarin
49. Sport Exchange (3)
Because the days became shorter, the sunset time came when eating dinner.
When the time I decided to meet with Jang Namuk grew closer, the surroundings became completely dark.
But thanks to automatic lighting reacting when the luminosity dropped below a certain point and turning on, it wasn’t difficult to see.
‘Come to think of it, the tiger lilies[1] haven’t withered yet.’
The tiger lilies in front of the entrance of the maze garden were blooming like before.
The blooming and fruit-bearing season of the tiger lilies on the Korean Peninsula, according to its climate, was between July and August, so I couldn’t understand why they were still in bloom.
‘Are they like this on purpose?’
Unlike before, Hwang Jiho was full of enthusiasm, and he was posing as a five thousand years old tiger, and maybe also kept the tiger lilies blooming.
This spring, Snare also made cherry blossoms on the Eungwang School’s campus with the Heavenly Wings Mountain as a center and Hwang Myeong-ho’s great mansion, bloom for a long time.
Recalling that memory, I thought about Snare who didn’t face me even once after leaving the hanok side building and sadness sprout up.
“He came, eh? Erase that stupid face.”
As I raised my head at Hwang Jiho’s words, I saw lights lit up one after one in the distance.
The closest lights each matched the side buildings’ individual style with its design and brightness.
I saw Jang Namuk walking towards us, under the guidance of a Ho tribe member, and every time the lit up light changed, it seemed like they were crossing a different space.
“Hi, Uisin-ah, Jiho-ah. I’m sorry for visiting at a late hour again today.”
“It’s no problem… All the items in the carriers are targets of Byeoksa?”
Before Jang Namuk brought one carrier.
However, this time he brought three carriers, and their size was bigger and the materials seemed sturdier than the previous time.
‘It looks like an alloy case made from mixing materials from otherworld metals and duralumin. Did he have to be this careful?’
Jang Namuk sincerely apologized to the Ho tribe member, who brought the carriers instead of him and to Hwang Jiho.
“Uh, ah, thank You! I’m sorry. I should have brought it…”
After Hwang Jiho motioned with his chin, the Ho left without a word, but it didn’t seem like their pride was hurt because they were ordered to act as a human’s porter.
They seemed to just faithfully fulfill orders and act according to etiquette.
“It’s only a courtesy towards guests of this mansion. I don’t know about one, you can’t let a guest with so much baggage bring everything, right?”
“Okay…?”
Jang Namuk, who was from an ordinary house, seemed to have difficulty understanding the geezer’s thinking, but soon seemed to be convinced by ‘Uisin’s class 0 friend is special, huh!’ and nodded.
The biggest reason why Jang Namuk agreed so easily was that his roommate was Tao Sihu, TC Group’s son and also a considerable oddball.
“Then let’s get started.”
“You also don’t need me to make a barrier this time?”
“Yeah, you can not help.”
I opened all carriers lying on the ground and activated Gwangrim.
⟨Using Gwangrim ‘Player’s Trajectory’.⟩
Among the Playable Characters, several cards representing the godly maiden candidate’s growth stages unfolded.
Perhaps because I overused the Player’s Trajectory today, the ‘available time’ number written at the card bottom, was much shorter than usual.
After I chose the card with over 10 minutes time usage, all shining cards disappeared.
⟨Using target character’s Gwangrim ‘Ritual Tools’ Summoning’.⟩
Paaa…!
Responding to the Gwangrim’s activation, tools were summoned.
Five color cloth, hay cutter, divine blade[2], horizontal flute, shamanistic instruments, fortune-telling table and fortune box, cluster into lights and floated up one after one.
The thing I grabbed into my hand was the shamanistic fan I used before, Sun and Moon Cheongryong Fan.
Paang!
With one swoop I fully unfolded the enormous fan and activated the skill.
The superpower wave spread by the fan’s blades, covered a side of my face and coiled around the Cheongryong between the sun and moon.
⟨Using target character’s skill ‘Byeoksa’.⟩
Pang! Pang! Pang!
After I swung the Sun and Moon Cheongryong Fan towards each of the open carriers once, three dragons appeared.
Cheongryong passed through the carriers and disappeared, but unlike before this time nothing appeared.
The ‘evil thing’ wasn’t discovered.
‘Does it mean there is nothing?’
The byeoksa of the Playable Character, who if she safely became an adult, would become the most powerful Dragon King God’s maiden in history, was no use?
Something was strange.
‘Byeoksa skill activated safely. What’s wrong?’
There was nothing like evil energy in Tao Sihu’s belongings.
“No way! Then why the hell, why Sihu…!?”
Tao Sihu’s strange actions were discovered a few times.
Jang Namuk witnessed unidentified threads and skeins binding Tao Sihu through the ‘Eyes of the Star Maiden’.
“I’ll try one more time.”
⟨Using target character’s Gwangrim ‘Ritual Tools’ Summoning’.⟩
Among the shamanistic tools that rose up again, I took out another fan.
As a result, I held Sun and Moon Cheongryong Fan in one hand, and Waves and Ripples Hwangryong Fan in another.
As I grabbed the two shamanistic fans in both hands, I saw Player’s Trajectory limited time drastically drop.
‘I’ll be able to use it at least one time…!’
I swung the two fans widely, as I activated the skill.
⟨Using target character’s skill ‘Byeoksa’.⟩
Paang!
Not even a bit of wind rose up from the shamanistic fans, which blew only evil things.
Instead, on my left hand, Cheongryong, which floated between Sun and Moon, and on the right hand, Hwangryong, which traversed between big and small waves, appeared.
“Jo Uisin…!”
“Amazing! Two dragons appeared at the same time, so the power grew even more!”
Like during the previous time when I held a byeoksa ceremony, Hwang Jiho filled his eyes with magical power and activated Brilliant Gaze, and Jang Namuk activated the Eyes of the Star Maiden, to watch this scene.
The two’s eyes stared at the tips of the fans, where superpower wave formed.
Following the fans’ movement, the two dragons pierced through the three carriers together and dived in.
Paaa….
But this time too, there was no trace of evil things.
Like before, the Seed of Curse didn’t appear.
“Even with Uisin’s power, the byeoksa didn’t work?… Does Sihu really suffered from sleepwalking simply from stress like he was diagnosed? No, it doesn’t seem right…”
After Jang Namuk became confused, the ‘Eyes of the Star Maiden’, which looked like filled with night sky and stars, dimmed.
His eyes received from Astraea, illuminated truth.
But Jang Namuk didn’t activate this ability for that long yet.
Moreover, though Jang Namuk was quite mature compared to his peers, he was still a 17 years old highschooler.
Even though he saw only the truth with those eyes, it was impossible for him to completely pierce through the mask covering malice and conspiracies.
‘… That state might be more serious.’
After I released the Player’s Trajectory, the fans engraved with the dragons disappeared.
“It’s certain there are no evil things remaining in Tao Sihu’s personal belongings.”
“Then Sihu is fine?”
“No.”
I firmly shook my head.
“That Seed of Curse was planted somewhere else rather than Tao Sihu’s personal belongings.”
“After Sihu showed strange symptoms, I checked Sihu with those eyes! The threads, which were controlling Sihu, quickly became invisible and there were no other traces, but… The seed is surely somewhere!”
I nodded at those words.
“Right. It wasn’t planted in his personal belongings, but directly into his body. Deep enough that you wouldn’t be able to discover it and there would be no traces of it on his belongings or outside.”
Jang Namuk stood blankly as if he had forgotten how to breathe.
Jang Namuk blinked a few times, with blurry eyes, as if looking back at the strange symptoms Tao Sihu showed and then at last opened his mouth.
“Why, why I couldn’t think of that possibility? If I thought about it, though the level of these eyes is still low… Why, because I was overconfident in them, Sihu…”
Each word Jang Namuk said, dripped with guilt.
Jang Namuk worried so much, but when I thought that Tao Sihu was still rambling about the navy without any thoughts, my insides exploded.
Because of the vision of Military School cadets, who stood in line to beat up Tao Sihu, I also thought of giving him a punch.
“What kind of Gwangrim Tao Sihu uses?”
“… That.”
Jang Namuk hesitated.
It wasn’t polite to reveal someone’s Gwangrim to a third party without consent and was an act violating Player’s personal information protection law.
“If a problem occurs, I’ll take responsibility. Please tell me.”
“No! It was me who requested help with Sihu’s case. Naturally it’s me who have to take responsibility.”
The sincere Jang Namuk stepped out saying he would take responsibility again.
“Sihu’s Gwangrim is subtle to call an Attack type and is closer to Restrain type…”
After hearing his explanation about Tao Sihu’s Gwangrim, the face of Hwang Jiho, who was only observing, suddenly hardened.
Soon the sports exchange between Eungwang School and Player Military Academy was going to be held, and Tao Sihu also planned to participate in this event.
It seemed that he guessed what would happen if Tao Sihu’s Gwangrim were abused in that place.
“Jo Uisin, are you thinking that they’re going to use that son of Ship King at the exchange?”
“There is a high chance of it. If I was the villain, I would use Tao Sihu right now.”
The time when the in-game Tao Sihu died was when the Four Group’s Secret Fight scenario unfolded.
Tao Sihu acted behind the scenes while passing information to Ju Su-hyeok was discovered and died.
Right now, the relationships between the Four Groups couldn’t be called good, but it wasn’t time for a secret fight to occur.
But currently, the Player Military Academy, to which Tao Sihu belong, and Eungwang School were trying to get tied through an event that wasn’t in the game.
So the moves played changed a lot.
“There is a relative in the TC Group, who wants Tao Sihu dead, remember? By killing Tao Sihu, they can make an important person in the 4 Groups indebted to them, deal with a key person of Eungwang School and Player Academy School, make the two school’s reviews the worst, and lastly, they can cut the relationship between the two schools, who are starting exchanges now.”
At my explanation, blood completely drained from Jang Namuk’s face and Hwang Jiho smiled with his pretty eyes curved up.
I guess Jang Namuk couldn’t even imagine such an evil plot, and Hwang Jiho had the same thought as me.
“There is something I wish to do using the chairman’s authority.”
“Speak.”
I informed Hwang Jiho about a few matters.
Jang Namuk was confused but nodded his head.
It seemed that Jang Namuk understood my suggestion, but was thinking ‘Why are you telling this to Jiho?’.
I finished the explanation and lastly spoke about the most important matter.
“I wish that Baek Ho… is there on that day. Under the appearance of a student or school facility member.”
“Got it.”
I almost called him ‘Baek Ho-gun’ by mistake, but luckily, it seemed that Hwang Jiho let it slip.
* * *
After the weekend came Monday.
With the start of the new week, today was the day when the first high school sports exchange between Eungwang School and Player Military Academy was held.
The Student Council kept making schedule adjustments since the 1st semester when the story of exchange come out for the first time.
Thanks to that, the entire school only had morning classes today.
It was a personal choice whether to see the sports exchange or not, but the Student Council made a schedule beforehand, so the school classes didn’t catch the ankles of the students who wanted to see the exchange.
Currently, the atmosphere ahead of the ceremony was festive.
“Sharing cheering items! Is there Anyone who didn’t get a t-shirt?!”
“Hey, we completely ran out of the S size!”
“Just write your name down first and we will send it to you in the classroom before lunch break!”
Inside Eungwang School, even though it wasn’t the sports exchange yet, the morning road to school was noisy.
T-shirt, sticks, towels, etc, all kinds of cheering goods were prepared by the Student Council and some clubs, and the cheering songs, phrases and videos of the dance routines were sent through devices.
There were students attending school already wearing cheering t-shirts and there were many people humming the cheering songs.
Our 1st year class 0 was no exception.
“Did Geurin draw this?”
“Wow… So writing ‘Eungwang’ can look so pretty, huh?”
Min Geurin anonymously participated in the competition of the exchange cheering logo, and proudly claimed victory.
The school symbol and word ‘Eungwang’ expressed with bold brush strokes was a masterpiece.
Her name wasn’t revealed yet, but there were already many people on the general bulletin board who guessed that that logo was drawn by Min Geurin.
Min Geurin personally took the class kids’ cheering towels and shared each of them.
The children, who received the towels, unfolded holograms and started to make spectating plans.
“There are matches held at the same time, so I’m worried which one to go to… The first round of handball and volleyball are overlapping!” [3]
“Um, can’t you decide to see them again later?”
“Watching them from the field and watching them on a recording is different! Look, cheering slogans for each discipline are a bit different.”
When the excited class children were consulting where they should go to watch, while looking at the match schedules, Mok Uram, carrying a box of cheering supplies, appeared.
“Even so, the opening ceremony and the first match don’t overlap with other matches! I’m happy that I can be together with Lena-nim and Everyone.”
“Uram-ah, that’s not the problem right now!”
“Where did you get that?!”
At first, everyone suspected that Mok Uram was again caught on being a hogu and got into debt by buying cheering tools from a dog-shit human.
Luckily, it turned out that the Earthly Wings Council’s Bak Seung-hyeon packed cheering tools for Mok Uram before he was caught on being a hogu.
Seeing this peaceful scene, I adjusted my mindset.
‘Let’s respond calmly, even if an unforeseen incident occurs.’
Today’s afternoon.
The opening ceremony and first match was planned to be held.
*~*~*
[1] tiger lilies — Lilium lancifolium. And also the flower that drives me crazy in this novel.
[2] divine blade — 신칼 (sinkal), a shamanistic weapon, symbolizing the dignity and power of a god and their shaman.
[3] “There are matches held at the same time, so I’m worried which one to go to… The first round of handball and volleyball are overlapping!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence.
Translator’s note: I sometimes imagine that if DM wanted to use peddlers to spread some malice, it wouldn’t work out, because Mok Uram would buy it all and our class 0 would find out something is a foot thanks to that.
Patron thank you note
Thank you patron, Nobody, please accept this Pescatoria cerina’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Al, please accept this Bolusiella maudiae’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Luca, please accept this Brachycorythis kalbreyeri’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Amy Peters, please accept this Brachypeza cladostachya’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Dust, please accept this Brachystele bracteosa’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Maru, please accept this Brassavola nodosa’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, kamisonk, please accept this Brassia arcuigera’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Kasimir Ilmonen, please accept this Bromheadia brevifolia’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Tara Hess, please accept this Broughtonia negrilensis’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Ice, please accept this Bryobium hyacinthoides’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, anonymous Kofi-supporter, please accept this Brownleea caerulea’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Links to support this translation and access to 5 advanced chapter (Patreon & Kofi)
> Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LibraryKeyTranslations
> Kofi-Euro: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslator
> Kofi-USD: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslatorusd
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
Leave a Reply