Chapter 561
Chapter 561
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 561
Chapter Title: Trouble
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1.
Two red spear tips flashed sharply.
Straight shafts that should never bend twisted like snakes—a pair of graceful curves.
Between them, distortion fields and red barriers poured out continuously, melting like molten iron.
-Boom!
In the midst of the erupting explosion, the Black Knight pulled back first, just as always.
Siwoo chased right after to close the gap, just as always.
-Crackle!
Pushing aside the ribbon's interference, the fully extended spear finally carved a slanted line across one side of the Black Knight's helmet.
It was a massive improvement compared to before, but hardly a satisfying result.
Just a little short, unfortunately.
If he'd regripped the shaft when he stepped forward, he could've landed a solid hit on the head instead of the helmet.
A split-second of unconscious instinct flashed by, and he sensed the turn had shifted.
-Kiiing!
A clear ring accompanied spreading blue mana.
With a Coordinate Shift that had far less delay than Siwoo's, the Black Knight—who he'd barely managed to close in on—vanished into the distance.
An opponent he'd clashed with nearly a hundred times by now.
He knew exactly why it was widening the distance.
But knowing something in your head didn't mean you could always respond perfectly.
Siwoo sprinted at full speed.
His target: the Black Knight, now several hundred meters away.
Around the Black Knight stretched black ribbons like twisting vines, acceleration spells etched into them pulling back the red branches like crossbow strings.
The spear throw Siwoo had once used against Bianca—the Black Knight wielded it in a far more refined and precise manner.
"Bloom."
Defense was impossible, first off.
The ring tunnel extending like the barrel of a sniper rifle converged energy that should have dispersed into a single point.
That compressive power was beyond anything Siwoo could counter.
Even trying to block it with magic caused it to fizzle out like an electronic device fried by an EMP, and batting it away with raw physical force was obviously out of the question.
In other words, a killing blow that couldn't be countered with mana or physical strength.
He'd tried slipping away with a Space Leap before, but if he couldn't time it perfectly with the launch, he'd still get skewered all the same.
From here on, it was a pure fifty-fifty gamble.
Dodge left or dodge right—pick one and evade with everything he had.
He hadn't found any better countermeasure yet.
-Thud!
Today, it was left.
Siwoo's foot slammed against the ground, launching him like an arrow.
A red flash streaked by, followed by a prickling heat grazing past his ear.
Then came the sound—several times slower—and the churning wind tousling his hair.
He'd dodged it.
Seizing the opening, he closed the distance in one burst.
To make himself even lighter, he released his armor.
Transforming the shed armor into shadow wings, he skimmed the ground and soared toward the Black Knight hovering high above—
"Bloom."
A calm pronouncement and the red branch's spear tip.
Siwoo's body, pierced by the bolt-like arrow, plummeted wretchedly to the earth.
2.
"What the...?"
Siwoo tilted his head as he toweled off his thoroughly soaked hair.
He'd clearly dodged it.
He'd evaded the Black Knight's ultimate move—the red branch spear throw—by a hair's breadth, only for a second strike to come with zero interval.
Even more bizarrely, the red branch that had clearly whiffed off into the dark void beyond reappeared in the Black Knight's hand as if it had never been fired.
This wasn't some Coordinate Shift trick or anything.
Intentionally rampaging the already finicky red branch, firing it off, then recovering it with a Coordinate Shift right after?
No way that was possible.
If it were that easy to control, his master wouldn't have struggled so much against the enemy knight.
"What is this...? A glitch?"
Impossible in reality, but inside the trial space? Maybe.
It was just an artifact recreating a virtual reality, after all. If it misread his subconscious performance, glitches like this could happen.
He sat on the floor and pondered for a long while, but no clear answer emerged.
This wasn't the kind of puzzle he could solve from his seat.
A spark of scholarly zeal ignited, filling his heart with an effortless lightness.
Still, the nagging unease he always felt after finishing trials a week ago was gone.
A week back, Lerue had delivered his message at his request.
Thanks to Lerue's help, the people worrying about him would have gotten word by now. No back-and-forth conversation possible, but hey—wasn't that better than nothing?
At least his lovers wouldn't be agonizing over his life or death anymore. Relief enough as it was.
"Didn't expect her to help that much."
Lerue had initially pouted with a hint of jealousy, but upon seeing Siwoo diligently writing his letters, she'd been moved—pounding her chest and vowing to make it happen.
She'd deliver them to his lovers as soon as possible, staking her witch's name on it, treating it like her own affair.
How could he not be grateful?
Meanwhile, that gracious queen was sprawled on the sofa she'd dragged into the trial room, blissfully napping away.
A wry smile crossed his face at the unchanging sight.
Lerue, belly fully exposed and scratching away, still in her sleepwear—or lack thereof. Her sleeping pose was like some booze-soaked uncle passed out on the couch.
"Your Majesty."
"Mm...?"
Lerue scratched at her belly a bit longer before cracking her eyes open.
"Yaaaawn... Done with the trial?"
She stretched out luxuriously with a massive yawn, full of vim and vigor.
"Yes. Your Majesty not doing it today?"
"Too bothersome... Too tiring..."
"We promised to go at it hard every day. 'Three days and done' isn't meant to be taken literally."
"Argh! I said it's bothersome! You ruined my sweet-as-honey nap—now it leaves a bitter taste!"
Lerue snapped back instead.
She straightened her tousled hair, then reclined on the sofa in a Cleopatra pose and let out another massive yawn.
As Siwoo had pointed out, Lerue's all-out trial efforts had lasted exactly three days.
Six times on the first, five on the second, six on the third.
She'd barely slept, throwing herself into the trials nonstop.
In other words, five or six mana recharges a day.
Every time she finished a trial, Lerue would totter over and tug at Siwoo's clothes.
That was how the trial room ended up with not just a sofa and table, but a bed too—and three or four sheets piling up for laundry daily.
She'd burned herself out so hard that on the third day's final trial, she'd woken up gushing nosebleeds.
At that pace, it seemed like she'd clear it faster than Siwoo...
But Lerue quit like it was nothing.
It had already been four days since she'd just lounged around the trial room, playing.
And Siwoo had a gut feeling that her sudden behavioral shift was tied to him.
"Shall I tidy up and head out? I'm all done here."
"Do whatever you want."
Because right after she quit the trials, subtle irritation and petulance started creeping into Lerue's speech.
More precisely, it felt like needless coquettishness.
That was it.
For some unknown reason, trouble had brewed in his relationship with Lerue.
Probably why she wasn't challenging the trials anymore, why she hung around without ever asking to share his bed even once, why they'd suddenly started sleeping separately.
All stemming from the same cause.
The biggest hurdle? Siwoo had zero clue what that cause was.
She'd magnanimously forgiven the rough treatment from his heat-induced frenzy—what could possibly linger this long?
"Your Majesty."
"What is it?"
Lerue whipped her head around like she'd been waiting.
Should he try apologizing, at least?
"I'm sorry."
"Oh? Finally dawned on you, has it?"
That confirmed the hypothesis: he'd done something to offend her.
Lerue hopped off the sofa with unusual pep, beaming as she approached Siwoo.
"I've been waiting for that apology. Well, my heart is as vast as the sea and as merciful as the heavens—I can overlook little slip-ups like that anytime."
"Ah, haha..."
"You're the one who dragged out something so trivial. It's all your fault."
"Y-Yeah..."
Lerue even hooked her arm through his affectionately.
Considering her recent frosty demeanor, it was a quintessentially Lerue turnaround.
She never held grudges anyway—apologize, and it was fixed in a flash.
"Let's eat. I'll have some top-quality fruit brought out—it's been ages. Oh! How about a sauna together after, for old times' sake?"
"Sure."
Yet amid the seemingly smooth resolution, Siwoo felt a growing discomfort, like indigestion.
Man-woman relationships were a labyrinth.
Constant wandering and mishaps were par for the course.
So when things flowed too smoothly, you always had to remember:
Straight roads invariably ended in cliffs.
Lerue, who'd been grinning and strolling along, halted abruptly.
"Ah, come to think of it..."
Her thick raven hair swayed prettily, then her head creaked around.
Staring Siwoo dead in the eye.
No trace of a smile on her face.
"You do know exactly what you're sorry for, right?"
That was the source of his unease.
He'd only asked to confirm a hunch—he had no idea what had ticked her off.
If she hit back with 'What'd you even do wrong, oppa?', he'd be utterly stumped.
Cold sweat trickled down his spine.
This was dangerous.
Better if he hadn't apologized at all.
"W-Well, you see..."
If Lerue's question was pure cliché, then flubbing the answer would lead to an equally clichéd fallout, wouldn't it?
Sure enough, her pupils narrowed to pinpricks.
"Don't tell me... This isn't some half-assed apology just to paper over my wrath?"
Siwoo couldn't muster a reply, and Lerue quietly slipped her arm free.
"Fine. You're always pulling crap like this."
Around the time the message he'd sent a week ago reached the mainland...
Another storm was brewing in Akula.