Ch 143
Became a swordsmanship instructor at the academy
Chapter 143
As usual, there's a slight dizzy symptom, but soon the familiar scenery comes into view...
Huh?
It's Master wearing white robes.
Standing in that same spot where he always waited for me whenever I came to the portal, looking at me.
Haha...
I must have missed Master so much that I'm even seeing illusions like this.
It's probably a mirage, but I was about to ask how he's been... Huh?
The illusion is moving?
"You unfilial wretch of a disciple!"
He suddenly approaches and gives me a knock on the head, and I got hit without even having time to dodge.
What?
If the Master I see before my eyes is an illusion, I shouldn't be able to feel this kind of pain...
"You need to get hit once more to come to your senses. What's with that hairstyle? Is that some foreign style?"
"Are you really Master?"
"Then is there a fake Master too?"
"How... Master should have ascended to the immortal realm through Ascension..."
"Why would I ascend? There's no ramen, chicken, or alcohol in the immortal realm."
Judging by his voice and the way he's going on about ramen, it really is Master.
"Master!"
I tried to run and hug him, but Master twists his body to avoid me.
"What are you doing? Why is a grown man disgustingly rushing at me like that? Did you get hit wrong earlier?"
"How on earth... Weren't you supposed to become an immortal?"
"How many times... SIGH, you foolish disciple. Would I go to the immortal realm without even telling you... Huh? Why are you suddenly like this?"
Taking advantage of him speaking, I grabbed his arm.
He quickly shook it off, but there was definitely a tactile sensation in my hand.
"What are you... Are you crying?"
At the thought that Master had really returned, tears burst out without me knowing.
I thought I'd never see him again...
"If you disappear without a word, I can't help but think you ascended..."
"Well, I didn't know things would get this complicated either. Stop crying. Are you a child?"
Even though he speaks gruffly, Master pats my back.
"Master..."
"I told you to stop crying. I'm the one who really wants to cry."
"What?"
"You brat, I've been waiting here for over a month and you didn't come even once?"
"Ah... That's not true? I came last time to hold a memorial service, but Master wasn't there."
"When you set up a memorial table in front of the tombstone while I'm perfectly alive?"
"Huh? You knew about that. At that time, I searched everywhere just in case - not just the cave but even the bottom of the lake..."
"At that time, you weren't coming so I was about to leave, but Yeo Dong-bin stopped me from going out and went to the immortal realm... No, let me tell the story from the beginning."
After talking with Master, it turns out that on the day he first disappeared, Yeo Dong-bin came looking for him asking him to ascend.
He refused because he didn't want to ascend, but Yeo Dong-bin said he couldn't refuse, so they had a big fight.
Master won so he didn't ascend, but when he returned, the camping car was gone and only the tombstone I had erected was there...
The reason I couldn't see him when I came with Se-jin last time was that at first he waited, but since I didn't come for so long, he tried to cut through space to go outside, but Yeo Dong-bin and Zhang Sambong, who was an old friend, came looking for him again.
They said that since Master isn't a person of this world, he can't go out, so they tried to go to the immortal realm to get permission, but I happened to visit during that time.
The immortal realm said no.
"The timing was a bit off."
"Don't think you can casually brush it off like that. Does it make sense to only drop by once? You heartless brat."
I got hit with another knock on the head.
It's not like I don't understand Master's position.
If I hadn't come here today, I probably would have only seen him a year later.
But naturally, since the original work says Master ascended, I naturally thought he would have ascended, so I feel wronged.
"Is that my fault? Even the first time you disappeared, I used up my vacation days and searched the entire portal all day. Honestly, if Master had just waited nicely instead of trying to leave and causing trouble, we would have met somehow."
"AHEM, so you're blaming me now?"
"Anyway, we've met like this, so isn't that good enough?"
Master raises his hand again as if to give me another knock, but light bursts and Luciel appears.
Ah, right. Luciel was there.
I had completely forgotten while talking with Master.
"Um, Master, this is..."
"Don't hit our Shin-hyeok! You ugly old man!"
"Old... Old man?"
"That's right, you wrinkled old man. What gives you the right to hit our Shin-hyeok!"
Ah... I think I'm screwed.
***
Master and Luciel were about to get into a fight, but I hurriedly took out the camping car and ramen to barely appease Master.
"Ahh, this is the taste."
"There's plenty, so eat slowly. If you eat too fast, you'll get indigestion."
It's already the fourth bowl of sesame ramen along with 2 chickens from subspace.
"Indigestion? That won't happen, so don't worry. Are the dumplings ready yet?"
"The dumplings will be ready soon too."
—Eating like a pig.
I glare slightly at Luciel to tell her not to say such things, and she quickly turns her head away.
I introduced her properly earlier, but Master seems displeased with her.
Still, it's fortunate that Master can't hear since it's telepathy and not words.
"Why does your lover keep staring at me? I'm eating here."
"Haha... Maybe it's because Master eats so well. And she's not my lover."
"Not a lover? I heard everything when she said 'our Shin-hyeok' earlier."
"AHEM... There are some circumstances with that."
"What circumstances? Now I see you were distracted by a woman and put me on the back burner. That's why you came so late, right?"
"That's not it. I'll explain slowly, so please eat first. The dumplings should be ready too, I'll go get them."
I went into the camping car and brought out the dumplings.
"Yes, this is it!"
I explained about Luciel to Master as he stuffed the steaming dumplings into his mouth.
"I knew that child wasn't human."
"You knew? How?"
Luciel didn't even bring out her wings...
"She has the same energy as the guys who attacked me when I first came to this place."
"Ah..."
Come to think of it, Master said he caught demons when he first came to this portal.
Since Luciel is also a fallen angel, she has demonic energy.
"Soul separation and having both divine energy and demonic energy - quite interesting. Right now there's some balance, but it seems like problems will arise over time."
He immediately recognized even Luciel's chronic problem. As expected of Master.
"Um... Master, can you purify Luciel's demonic energy?"
I explained Luciel's condition in detail and asked for advice.
I had Luciel, who wasn't very enthusiastic about it, come over and had her wrist examined.
For me, treating the wounds from the Demon King was the most I could do, but if it's Master, purification might be possible.
"So you're saying this child is continuously invaded by demonic energy because she's connected to a tree called the Demon Realm Tree?"
"That's right."
"Then wouldn't it be fine to just cut the connection with that tree?"
"...That's impossible."
Luciel became the guardian of the Demon Realm Tree and hid it in a dimensional rift.
If the contract is broken, the Demon Realm Tree will return to the demon realm, and the Demon King won't just stand by and watch.
The heavenly realm, which is Luciel's hometown, would also be in danger, and considering the Demon King's descent to Earth later, it absolutely must not be done.
In the first place, the only way to terminate the contract between the Demon Realm Tree and its guardian is the death of the guardian.
"Why?"
"The connection can't be severed. So... How long can she hold out from now on?"
"You said earlier that the invasion speeds up the more that child uses her power?"
"That's right."
"If she doesn't do anything from now on, about twenty years?"
"Twenty years... What do you mean?"
In the original work, Luciel appears during the main characters' second-year school trip.
That's about 2 years from now, but since time moves 30 times slower where Luciel was, that's 60 years.
Moreover, Luciel never falls throughout the original work.
The original work ends about 10 years from now, so she should be fine for at least 300 years, but twenty years...
"Well, she might last 1-2 years more, but I don't think the difference will be more than that."
"That can't be right. Please check again. Luciel, come here."
"No."
"What do you mean no? Hurry up and come."
"I said no."
"No? Are you joking right now?"
I approached Luciel, but she ran away.
"Master, please continue eating. I'll go talk to her for a moment."
I chased after Luciel who was running away and caught her.
She even brought out her wings to flee, but I quickly caught up using Blink.
In the first place, as long as I'm wearing the necklace, she can't get more than 1km away.
"You really, I'm saying let's check again, so what are you doing?"
"I said no!"
"Why are you being like this?"
"Because what your Master said is right."
"..."
"Do you think I wouldn't know my own condition? I had roughly guessed it would be around that time too."
"That... That can't be. Originally there was much more time left."
"What do you know?"
This doesn't make sense...
I treated her wounds faster than in the original, but there's no reason for it to worsen compared to the original... Wait, could it be that?
In the original work, Luciel doesn't fight the protagonists.
At first, she tells the protagonists to be prepared because they killed Kainakan, but after seeing Kim Do-hyun's face, she falls for him at first sight and talks instead of fighting.
But she fought with me.
And she fought at full power, bringing out all eight wings.
"Could it be because we fought when we first met?"
"Would fighting just once cause that? Originally, that's all the time I had left."
Luciel's eyes waver as she speaks.
It's a lie.
But certainly, as she says, it doesn't make sense for her condition to worsen that much from one battle...
Ah, I realized.
What changed from the original isn't just the battle.
Unlike the original, Luciel researched soul separation magic to be with me.
The period she researched was less than two months in this place's time, but in her time it was several years, and she attempted it hundreds of times.
Each attempt used up almost all of my magic just in an auxiliary role, so naturally she would have used much more magic...
It's because of me.
"It's because of the soul separation magic research."
"..."
Since there's no answer, I think my guess is right.
"You really..."
"If I hadn't created the magic, you would have been dating that thieving cat."
Even so, to shorten her own lifespan...
"No..."
"It's not like it'll happen tomorrow, and twenty years is plenty long for humans, right?"
"Not for you."
Certainly, by human standards, twenty years isn't short at all, but Luciel is an angel who has lived for thousands of years.
If she hadn't done the research, she could have lived at least 300 more years.
"It was my choice, so it's okay."
"What do you mean it's okay..."
"Twenty years of being together like this is better than waiting all month for you to come. It's not like I can turn back time now, right?"
She says this with a smile, but this girl is really an incorrigible fool.
Just how much does she like me...
"You're really..."
"I wasn't going to tell you because I was worried you'd feel unnecessarily burdened. Now that you know, treat me well from now on. Buy me lots of chocolate bars too... Right, stay away from that thieving cat and focus on me..."
I hugged her as she tried to act like everything was fine.
"Wh-what's this suddenly? Let go."
She didn't expect me to hug her, so her cheeks turn red.
If she really hated it, she would have pushed me away, but instead she burrows deeper into me.
'Really such a dishonest girl,' I thought as I moved toward her face, but soon stopped and had to break the embrace.
"Master, I know you're watching, so come out."
Because I felt Master's presence.
"AHEM, you said she wasn't your lover, but that was obviously a lie. It looked good, so finish what you were doing."
"How could I when Master is secretly peeping... SIGH. Master, even if we're master and disciple, privacy should be... ACK!"
I got hit with a knock on the head.
"Who's secretly peeping? I came to help and this is what I get?"
"What help?"
After ruining the mood completely, what help is he talking about...
"What help? Didn't I tell you earlier? Twenty years if she doesn't do anything."
"No... Master, I told you earlier that the connection with the Demon Realm Tree can't be severed... ACK!"
I got hit with another knock on the head.
"Hey, you brat! Did you think I'd forget what I just heard?"
"What? Then..."
"There's a way even without severing the connection."