Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Veronica Lionheart
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Veronica Lionheart stood in front of the nurse's office, her cat-like eyes widening in surprise.
The moment I suddenly popped out, a sharp gasp escaped her lips, like air leaking from a tire. But she quickly furrowed her brow and muttered irritably.
"Ugh, damn it. Thought a ghost jumped out. With those bloodshot eyes of yours... "
Bloodshot eyes? That's something I should be saying to her.
Back when she was wanted by Interpol under the Murim Alliance as a Level 1 Martial Public Enemy, her red eyes had even been noted as a distinguishing feature in her wanted poster description.
But telling her about a future that hasn't happened yet wouldn't do much good.
I smacked my lips and asked.
"Isn't it still class time?"
"What? Do I have to attend every class just because? If I feel like skipping, I skip."
Veronica clicked her tongue in annoyance.
I'd thought students were supposed to attend all classes, but given that she'd gain infamy across the school as a delinquent in just a few weeks, it made sense.
"So, what brings you here? Son Ha-rin seems like she'll be out for another two or three hours."
"...What? S-Son... Ha, what? Why would I come to see her?"
Veronica stammered, snapping back sharply.
Now I was the confused one.
"...? You're not here to see me, are you."
After all, she hadn't even been grazed by Lee Soo-young's punch today, so she couldn't have come to the nurse's office for an injury.
But for some reason, my words rubbed her the wrong way. Veronica twisted her delicately featured face into a menacing scowl and thrust it toward me.
"You know it, damn it. Now get lost. I have places to be."
I grabbed the sleeve of Veronica, who was turning sharply to leave the nurse's office she'd just arrived at, and said.
"If you're not here for the nurse's office, talk with me for a bit."
"I have nothing to say to you, you little...!?"
Veronica's eyes widened for a moment before she growled, narrowing her brows fiercely.
Compared to yesterday when she'd picked a fight in front of me, she seemed even wilder now, somehow unstable. Was this related to Son Ha-rin too?
"Why? Isn't it normal for group members to talk? You've done group projects before."
"This crap... If we're doing a group project, we do it. Why do I have to talk to you specifically?"
What nonsense. This was a new one.
Even in this short exchange, it felt like I'd been headbutted several times, but I calmly explained why we needed to talk.
"Because it's a group project, and teamwork is part of the evaluation."
"So—why do I need to get a good evaluation?"
Veronica was now snorting through her nose, her sharp axe-like glare turning icy.
I'd seen that expression on her before in my past life, from this close up.
Back then, she wasn't the Lion Princess Veronica, but the Blood Lion Demon Queen Veronica Lionheart... but the eyes blazing with rage were the same.
Honestly, this wasn't even a situation worth getting so angry about. It had to be a side effect of the martial art she'd cultivated.
The Lionheart Family, England's renowned martial house standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Rothschilds.
Legends traced the origins of that storied and infamous great clan back to the era of Richard I, the Lionheart King who shared their moniker.
Exact records of who the first family head to bear the name 'Lionheart' were lost to history. Theories abounded that he was Richard I's illegitimate son or his disciple.
But one thing was certain: the bloodline of the Lionheart Family, deeply connected in some way to Richard I—one of the greatest martial artists in Western murim history—had inherited not only his exalted Lion Heart Method but also his savage temperament intact.
The Lion Heart Method was a technique that handled extreme yang energy. And it was a scientifically established fact in the field of modern Martial-Behaviorism—not pseudoscience like blood type personality theory—that those who trained in intensely positive yang-strong arts became more hot-tempered, violent, and impulsive than those who trained in yin-cold arts.
Members of the Lionheart Family devoted their lives to cultivating the Lion Heart Method's energy to ignite sword flames, raise their temperature, and increase their size. The method refined natural energies with the heat from the dantian to rapidly produce pure inner energy, but its quick progress came at the cost of extreme vulnerability to qi deviation.
Just hearing about it made it sound less like a righteous faction art and more like some demonic technique. And in principle, there wasn't much difference.
Whether it was a curse from their ancestral arts or some self-fulfilling prophecy... In the end, the Lionhearts were accused of colluding with the demonic path and wiped out a decade ago, vanishing into history. But that story could wait.
What mattered now was that a girl with exceptional talent for this extreme yang art—one so prone to qi deviation that it warped the practitioner's temperament into hot-blooded volatility—stood before me.
And unfortunately, she was suffering greatly from its side effects: chronic anger management issues and hwa-byung.
"Do you think I'll starve without a diploma? If I flunk because of shitty grades, I'll just drop out. I'm a damn orphan, so unlike you lot, I don't have parents to scold me for failing tests. That stupid group project? Whether I get the lowest score or the highest, it's none of my business—"
Her pale cheeks flushed red, her chest heaving rapidly.
She was talking so fast now, it seemed like she might hyperventilate.
Though laced with sarcasm, it was obvious this was a defense mechanism to vent her inner rage and frustration.
Just the way she spilled her unasked-for family history gave it away. The Lionheart Family's tale was famous enough that few didn't know it.
I wasn't a psychologist, psychiatrist, or saint armed with compassion and philanthropy, so I couldn't diagnose precisely. But as a martial artist, that was the precursor to a heart demon outbreak.
Once it fully erupted into a heart demon, talking would be pointless.
No choice.
I slowly raised my index finger and spoke.
"Lower your voice."
As Veronica's focus locked onto my upright finger, I continued.
"Don't raise your voice like that. There's someone sleeping soundly inside the nurse's office."
Basic etiquette.
I began with the straight facts.
"First off, unlike you, I've never had parents for even a second since I was born. I'm what you'd call a pure-blooded, true orphan."
At those words, Veronica's blazing fury, which had shot straight to the top of her head like heat haze over her hair, finally subsided a bit.
Not missing the opening, I extended my middle finger alongside it and said.
"Second. If you keep acting like that... you'll never beat Son Ha-rin."
—BOOM!!
The next instant, the 180cm greatsword that had been slung behind Veronica's back came crashing down like lightning over my head.
But a B-rank low-tier sword strike swung wildly with her brain half-cooked from the Lion Heart Method's heat was predictable enough. Especially without any sword aura. Blocking it was child's play.
Tsk... Scratch that. It is that level after all...
Correction. That was bravado. My wrist, elbow, and shoulder throbbed from blocking the flame-wrapped greatsword. True to her great clan origins, well-fed and raised, her strength was no joke.
Veronica, swept up in emotion over reason, realized her mistake as reason flickered back into her flame-lit eyes, her face twisting in regret.
But pride kept her from withdrawing the blade. So very like her.
As we stood there in this bizarre standoff, blades locked...
"What in the world, you two! Fighting in front of the nurse's office? Are you insane!?"
Creak— The nurse's office door flew open as Dang So-so bellowed.
Her clenched fist had long, sinister needles gripped between her fingers.
The needle tips glinted with an ominous hue. Push it here, and we'd experience the Tang Clan's deadly poison firsthand today.
"Sorry."
After an unspoken agreement through our eyes, Veronica and I withdrew our blades in unison.
Under Dang So-so's watchful squint, we quietly exited the school building where the nurse's office was located... and headed to that familiar 'smoking spot'.
It was only the second day of the semester, and here I was dragging two girls from my class to the vacant lot behind the school. Was this okay?
"I went too far earlier. Sorry."
"Whatever. Ugh, why did I even follow you here? Annoying... Hey, you. Who the hell are you to talk about me beating or losing to Son Ha-rin? Do you even know me?"
Her anger had cooled a bit, but Veronica still shot back with her prickly tone.
I didn't say, Then do you know me? That's why you picked a fight on the first day of school.
With a shell that was only seventeen, but my past life's age over thirty, getting into a serious argument with a high school girl would be ridiculous...
"Fine. Then let's do this. Just once—hear me out."
"Hear you out, then what?"
Veronica demanded.
Though her methods were a bit extreme, I'd never lied to her.
There was already a significant gap between Son Ha-rin and Veronica, and it would only widen from here.
Unless Veronica tried to change from her current state.
And she wouldn't want to accept that widening gap as it was. I was certain.
I'd been through that vicious cycle myself: the competitive drive to catch someone superior, and the inferiority complex when it didn't go as hoped.
I knew from experience how that cycle could become shackles, trapping a person in a swamp of despair.
Acknowledge the gap and give up, become a worthless vagabond. Or reach for 'other methods' to close it, and end up a martial public enemy.
But as someone who'd chosen a different path from her yet still not found satisfaction in life, compromising with reality and 'knowing one's place' wasn't advice I wanted to give.
Separate from Son Ha-rin's unknown request, it was the camaraderie a vagabond like Kim Hoon felt toward this young talent.
So I wanted to tell her.
The way for the weak to surpass the strong. The great principle of the jianghu murim, where the strong reigned supreme.
—That a third option existed: the path to a better future.
"I'll make sure you beat Son Ha-rin."
With that, I extended my hand to Veronica.