Chapter 71
Chapter: 71
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 71
>Chapter Title: Wound Verdict (2)
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>To sum it up, it seemed the knight named Carmen, who had relayed the story to Haven, wasn't at fault.
As they dragged Haven back to bed, Physician Ninnias was fuming.
"Did His Highness ever say he'd take responsibility for your life? He said he was vouching that it wasn't a transferable plague! I heard that knight's report right beside him!"
"No, but..."
"Stop distracting him! As I've been saying, you're too impulsive about everything. If he needs rest, let him rest!"
From what he heard, the moment Haven regained his senses, he grabbed Physician Ninnias's hand, proclaiming him his lifesaver and jumping around like a madman until the exasperated doctor socked him one.
Well, Haven had always struck him as a bit of a lightweight from the start, but impressions stick, don't they?
Sir Kurt cautiously spoke up toward Masain, who was still radiating a murderous aura.
"That guy's always been one to leap to conclusions without listening properly. He's the type who stakes his life on everything, so please understand."
Yeah, Sir Masain. Calm down.
It was just classic Haven behavior. At this rate, someone was going to get killed.
"Just the other day, when Her Highness Amelia visited the training grounds, I clearly heard him blabbing about devoting his life to her."
...Should I just kill the bastard?
After a bit of commotion, Seongjin finally managed to get the full story from Haven.
"In my chest? There was a parasite?"
He flinched in shock, pawing at his chest.
The incision and sutured wound had already mostly healed with the priest's help. The discolored gray area had shrunk dramatically, now just about the size of two finger widths.
"Yes, judging by the wound's shape, it looks like someone directly injected eggs into you."
At the physician's words, Haven tilted his head in confusion.
"I just drank in the city like usual and went back to my lodging to sleep. If someone stabbed me, you think I'd just sit there?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary?"
"Out of the ordinary... Ah!"
Haven flashed a big grin at the people around him, all perking up their ears.
"Now that you mention it, I met an absolute knockout on the way back! That's what stuck with me."
"......"
Seongjin raised a hand to forestall Sir Masain, who looked ready to throw a punch, and asked,
"What kind of person was she?"
"Hmm? Well, I was pretty wasted. Thinking back, I can't recall her face clearly. Just that she had long, beautiful hair."
Haven's eyes grew dreamy.
"Above all, her voice was stunning. I don't remember well, but it felt like what they'd call a heavenly voice. I'd love to see her again..."
Sir Kurt asked in disbelief,
"You idiot, do you even realize you just survived a brush with death? What if that woman was the culprit?"
"Heh heh. But for a beauty like that, it's worth staking my life."
"......"
He really does stake his life on everything.
"Ehehehe."
"This guy really never learns, huh?"
Thwack!
In the end, Haven took a solid whack to the head from the fed-up Sir Kurt.
"Hmm..."
Seongjin crossed his arms, deep in thought.
For all his antics, Haven had the basic competence of an imperial knight. If someone had forcibly implanted eggs, it must have happened when he was blackout drunk.
Still, he hadn't expected Haven to remember absolutely nothing.
'Should I wait for Jonathan or Ashley to wake up now?'
But there was no guarantee they'd recover as smoothly as Haven.
He might need to interrogate Kenneth Digory and the other academy students whenever he got the chance.
As he lifted his head with that in mind, Masain was staring at him intently with a face full of anxiety. He clearly had a lot to say but couldn't bring himself to speak.
Seongjin sighed inwardly.
First things first, I need to do something about this overprotective guy.
* * *
That evening, when Dasha visited, Seongjin got straight to the point.
"Teach me stealth techniques."
"Pardon?"
"I need a way to slip in and out of the palace without anyone noticing, like you do."
"...Pardon?"
A crack appeared in Dasha's usual composed smile.
Truth be told, besides finding sword training enjoyable, another major reason Seongjin had gone into voluntary confinement was his exalted status as a prince of the Holy Imperial Family.
There were always escort knights outside his door, dedicated maids checking on him constantly. Even a quick trip into the city meant a flashy carriage and a train of guards, drawing way too much attention.
And escaping the palace required passing through multiple layers of imperial guards. No wonder it was such a hassle to even step outside.
He'd brushed it off while just doing sword practice, but now that he wanted to move more actively, the obstacles were piling up.
At Seongjin's words, Dasha looked troubled.
"Your Highness, didn't I tell you I'm one of the top informants of the Monkey Watchtower?"
"Yeah, I heard. Your skills are always impressive."
"Do you know how many years of training it took me—someone like this—to reach the level of sneaking in and out of the Pearl Palace undetected?"
"It's fine. I don't expect that much. Just enough to shake off the palace guards. I'm a quick learner, you know."
"That's exactly what's hard... No, even if it were possible, that'd be a problem."
What problem?
"With Your Highness's safety as our top priority, I'd be the prime suspect if you slipped out of the palace? Oh lord, have mercy!"
Dasha clutched her head and groaned.
"The knight commander who babies Your Highness like a mother would never let me live!"
Don't worry—if Sir Masain throws a fit, I'll smooth things over with Father.
When he said that, Dasha asked with an uncharacteristically chilling expression,
"Your Highness, are you trying to get me killed?"
"Huh? No, I mean..."
"Heh heh heh. Yes, I'll teach you. I'll empty out every trick I have, so please, just... keep His Majesty out of it..."
He'd meant it'd be protection from above, but it came out sounding like a threat.
"[Stealth Technique] is essentially [Assassination Technique]. Everything informants learn comes from assassins."
And so Dasha launched into a foundational lecture, grabbing Seongjin.
She might be planning to drag this out with vague lessons to buy time, figuring it'd take ages to master.
"Stealth technique starts with concealing every possible presence a human can emit."
At any rate, she responded to his request by explaining the essentials in detail.
Most people think stealth means hiding your body from sight and moving quietly. But surprisingly, visual concealment is one of the last things to worry about, Dasha explained.
"It's practically impossible to make your body completely invisible. But if you fully erase your presence, people won't even register a glimpse of something right in front of them most of the time."
The key isn't hiding your body somewhere—it's erasing your presence. Master that, and you can conceal yourself even in wide-open spaces.
"You can be seen but not noticed? For real?"
"Yes. If you're spotted, it just means you didn't erase your presence enough. Have faith. No presence means they won't see you even right under their nose. Believe that you're fully suppressing it."
"...Believe it?"
He asked incredulously, but Dasha was confident.
"Yes, faith. Even a hint of self-conscious anxiety quickens your pulse, raises your temperature, and leaks out as presence. Unshakable calm in any situation! And the firm belief backing it! That's the foundation of stealth."
"......"
It sounded plausible enough. Sure, but...
Why does this feel like a sales pitch?
As Seongjin tilted his head, Dasha continued.
"Erasing presence means suppressing every phenomenon that occurs while alive."
Silence your sounds, your breathing.
Even use firm belief to suppress shifts in consciousness.
And finally, suppress your aura activation.
"In a way, suppressing aura activation is the biggest hurdle in stealth. You can't move silently and fluidly without using aura."
Aura activation ramps up the more layers you build. So the better you get at using aura training to silence sounds and breath, the more wildly your aura activates—a real dilemma.
"How do you fix that?"
"You learn to completely block external aura flow. We call this [Aura Concealment]."
Minimize incoming aura by suppressing breathing to the max, and bind your body's aura so it can't escape.
Huh? That sounds like...
"Isn't that similar to [Aura Binding]?"
"Well, the basics might overlap. Aura Binding does reduce activation temporarily. But locking aura in your dantian and not using it at all is totally different from just concealing activation."
To compensate for shallow breaths and move muscles lightly without sound, aura must flow freely inside the body. So it's blocked only at skin level, while your body endlessly consumes dantian aura without replenishing.
In short, [Aura Concealment] is like a deep-sea diver with big lungs holding their breath as long as possible.
Cut off from the outside, survive on stored aura until it runs dry. Plus the challenge of uniformly sealing every inch of your body's surface.
"...Sounds tricky."
"Yes, it's not even comparable to Aura Binding in difficulty. It takes extensive training."
And to maintain it long-term, you need lots of aura layers first.
Which makes activation stronger, so concealment gets harder. Natural progression.
"Well, once you reach [Aura Equilibrium], it all becomes irrelevant, they say."
At Decaron Knight level, you can freely control aura activation. It's the stage where a warrior perfectly balances their aura.
"So the ultimate assassin is a Decaron Knight?"
"Yes, that's right. Except..."
Dasha added with a wry face,
"No Decaron Knight would bother being an assassin."
Fair point. Even in the mighty Delcros Empire, Decaron Knights are rare enough to count on one hand.
Any nation would shower one with titles, lands, and riches if they settled down. Who'd throw that away to be an assassin?
"I mentioned [Aura Equilibrium] because while it's the pinnacle for assassins, it's also their worst nightmare."
"Nightmare?"
"Yes. [Aura Concealment] is useless against a Decaron Knight."
In perfect balance between body and external aura.
They don't just control activation—they easily distinguish natural aura flow from forced concealment.
Better at erasing presence than assassins, piercing all their hides.
A natural predator.
"Anyway, enough boring talk. Time to teach you Aura Concealment."
Dasha demonstrated personally, explaining aura manipulation in detail.
Amazingly, when she activated it, Seongjin felt Dasha blur faintly before his eyes.
Good thing he was staring; otherwise, he'd have walked right past her.
Wild.
"But I can still see you?"
"Damn it! Stop shaking my faith! Please!"
Seongjin's keenly sensitive aura sense meant he never fully missed her presence, no matter how skillfully she concealed.
But that's why he could sense exactly how she manipulated her aura.
Maybe thanks to the detailed explanation, he was starting to form a mental image of how to do it.
"I agreed to support Your Highness in every way, but I never thought you'd steal my secrets in one go."
Even while demonstrating, Dasha grumbled nonstop.
"Do you know, Your Highness? This goes against all protocol. I took beatings from my instructor for years to learn this."
"Yeah. Thanks so much, Dasha. I'll ask Father to make sure you get proper compensation..."
"...Nah, whatever. Just know it. Yeah."
Seongjin then practiced Aura Concealment based on her explanation.
But contrary to expectations, simultaneously controlling aura at different intervals across body parts was insanely tough.
Dasha chuckled as she watched him bind and release aura haphazardly.
"Don't rush. It's normal for it not to work at first. Even I—my instructor's best prodigy in ages—took over two years to fake it decently."
"Yeah. Definitely hard."
"But Your Highness might pick it up easier than me. Your activation isn't that high yet. Heh heh."
"Urgh..."
Seongjin sweated bullets, focusing every ounce on aura control.
And after some time passed.
"......"
Dasha's relaxed smile slowly faded, turning to outright shock.
"...Huh?"
A moment later.
"How's this?"
Wiping sweat from his brow, Seongjin asked triumphantly. Dasha stared with saucer eyes, voice trembling.
"...G-genius?"
Seongjin grinned, quirking his lips.
Heh. See that? This is Hunter Sung Jin's class.