Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Crushing Noble
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“…House Kang's procession?”
“Ha! Krhahahahaha!!”
The Noble club members, who had been momentarily stunned by Jae-hyeok's words, burst into roaring laughter.
“Putting 'great' in front of House Kang goes beyond shameless—it's just brainless. Procession? Just say you crawled in here like dogs.”
“A traitorous family like that even dares to speak of their house? I'm seriously worried about that punk's mental state.”
One of only three ducal houses in the Republic of Korea.
House Kang had dominated the nobility just eight years ago.
But now, its fangs and claws had been completely pulled, and it was buried under a pile of infamy.
Moreover, most Noble club members were teenagers.
They had never experienced House Kang at its peak.
They only despised Jae-hyeok, incapable of even considering respect.
“Quit screwing around and get lost.”
One boy strode toward Jae-hyeok.
The blond boy who had gagged No Jun-yeop.
As if touching something filthy and feeling disgusted, he pinched Jae-hyeok's collar between his thumb and forefinger.
The grip strength was immense.
The protective magic embedded in Jae-hyeok's uniform hummed as if it would shatter any moment.
As befitting nobility, and as a second-year.
The blond boy's level was extraordinarily high.
His finger strength alone could crush diamond.
“I said scram, didn't I? Isn't your filthy blood polluting Noble's air?”
A sinister smile curled on the urging blond boy's lips.
He anticipated Jae-hyeok's terrified reaction to his power.
But unexpectedly.
“Well, since when have you cared about face anyway.”
Jae-hyeok remained utterly calm, his expression unchanged.
“Most titles below duke were just carrots the government dangled to placate and control wild punks who couldn't rein in their overflowing power. It makes sense you have no roots.”
“P-Punks? You...! You're spouting off like you'll lose even noble status soon! How dare you insult nobility?”
“Do you have any idea how many ancestors devoted themselves to the nation and people for nobility to earn its current treatment?”
Jae-hyeok slowly extended his hand.
Though the excited blond boy gripped his shoulder as if to snap it, Jae-hyeok showed no effect.
“You idiots have no clue how far you've trashed the honor they painstakingly built.”
Crack!
A pitch-black object smashed into the blond boy's head and shattered.
It was the inkstone on Cha Jo-ah's desk.
“Argh! B-Blood?”
With ink stabbing his eye, the boy couldn't see properly. Mistaking the sticky ink dripping from his head for blood, he screamed.
The pain was so excruciating it was natural to suspect massive bleeding.
“Whining over that much?”
Boom!!
The blond boy's body flew straight up and embedded into the ceiling.
His dangling form next to the chandelier swept by the impact was grotesque.
“I haven't even started yet.”
Jae-hyeok's lips twitched as he twirled the elbow that had struck the boy's jaw.
He looked thrilled beyond measure.
The reason he had struggled to grow stronger over the past eight years?
“First, pay for insulting House Kang.”
It was all for moments like this.
Dreaming of sweeping away the enemies who contributed to House Kang's fall and punishing trash who mocked it, he had endured eight years of hellish trials.
Gulp!
The Noble members swallowed dryly.
‘Did he eat elixirs like candy?’
‘Guess it's true a ducal house was once mighty.’
They grew wary of the power Jae-hyeok displayed.
Though a cheap sneak attack, sending a comrade flying in one blow was monstrous strength.
Unless he had awakened a rare passive skill, it meant at least level 60 physical power.
Just then, the blond boy dropped from the ceiling, brushing dirt from his hair, grinding his teeth.
“Sneak attack while I was off-guard? You called us punks, but you're the real thug! Talk about 'seeing what you are in others'!”
He drew a staff fixed to his belt.
A multi-segmented folding staff. With a button press and swing, it extended to at least two meters.
“Die!”
The tip of the elongated staff was already stabbing Jae-hyeok's chest.
It happened in an instant.
A blitz maximizing the weapon's rapid extension advantage—even first-timers struggled to cope.
Not just Noble members, even No Jun-yeop imagined Jae-hyeok spewing blood and flying back.
But before their imaginations could finish.
Slash!
A chilling slicing sound rang out, and the blond boy's staff shortened.
Jae-hyeok's sword, drawn faster than the staff extended, had sliced it into pieces.
“Huh…?”
The boy alternated stares between the hilt-only staff and Jae-hyeok, dumbfounded.
“Why use such a lame weapon?”
Jae-hyeok stepped right up to the boy's nose, slicing the staff like a cucumber, tilting his head.
Folding weapon.
The folding mechanism inevitably weakened frame rigidity.
Durability far inferior to one-piece weapons.
That was only if you targeted the folding joints, but…
Few here, including Jae-hyeok, believed that was 'obviously' possible.
Thud!
Jae-hyeok's reverse-gripped hilt stabbed between the boy's ribs.
Punishment for insulting House Kang.
His blood pressure dropped from the liver hit, legs giving out.
Not a matter of mental fortitude—it was pure physiology.
Writhing in agony and collapsing, he looked like he knelt before Jae-hyeok.
“…….”
Parties, elixirs, items, skillbooks, etc.
Noble houses supported their children materially and spiritually.
Thus, noble growth rates defied common sense.
In fact, Noble members' grades were invariably top of their years.
No one would have dreamed, even in sleep, of a first-year making a Noble member kneel.
Yet it happened right before their eyes.
“Are you insane?”
As everyone in the room recoiled in shock, Cha Jo-ah, who had silently watched, finally set down her brush.
Leaning back in her large chair with legs crossed, she met Jae-hyeok's eyes.
“Jae-hyeok, how do you plan to pay for assaulting a Noble member and ruining my favorite item? The student you hit is a baron's eldest son, and the inkstone you smashed is a craftsman's work worth ten billion. Can you even afford it at your level?”
Her third eye glowed gold.
A countess house bloodline skill.
Her aura was terrifying.
Even No Jun-yeop, standing far away, shivered.
“Use proper titles. Seeing you still don't grasp the situation, are you as dumb as you look despite the pretty face?”
“…!”
“The ones who need to worry aren't me—it's you.”
Boom!!
Explosions rang from all directions, shattering the full-length glass windows on Noble Hall's second floor.
Screams erupted.
Backup Noble members hiding in spots across the second floor wailed, swept by the glass storm.
Cha Jo-ah's tactical deployment of retainers in key positions—befitting the top tactical studies student—proved useless.
“I, Kang Jae-hyeok, seventh-generation descendant of Supreme Swordsman Kang Dae-han and sole heir of Great House Kang, command you.”
Thud thud thud!!
Busy footsteps multiplied on the second floor.
The Archery Club entering after sniping the windows.
Through the ornate first-floor main entrance, Jang Yeon-ju, Baek Do-jin, Chae Da-hee, and Park Hae-rin entered.
Jang Yeon-ju, with a lollipop stick like a cigarette in her mouth, had a murderous glint.
“For long defiling nobility's image, Noble disbands as of now.”
“You crazy bastard, what the fu—urk!”
A shocked Noble member lost composure and cursed, only to roll eyes back and collapse.
Unable to withstand the Archery Club's volley from their occupied vantage.
If they had used magic-engineered bullets instead of blanks, he'd be a beehive corpse.
Noble members stiffened.
Finally grasping what being targeted by high-ground Archery Club meant.
“Don't think—just do it now.”
Jae-hyeok, perched on the desk, urged Cha Jo-ah.
“Or get reformed under me.”
While spouting absurd threats.
Cha Jo-ah's ever-calm face twisted for the first time.
“Talking like you're the emperor himself?”
“Am I not? In this place where a countess's lady has reigned like a queen, my status makes me emperor by default.”
“You lunatic!”
Cha Jo-ah attacked.
Pitch-black ink poured from her swung brush, laced with mana, ripping space.
Jae-hyeok, still in his unstable seated pose on the desk, drew his sword hilt.
The Kang Family Iaido, once mere rumor to these kids, dispersed the mana-infused ink entirely and struck Cha Jo-ah's shoulder.
Thud!
Unable to withstand the reverse blade's impact, her body flew into a pillar.
“This from a first-year?”
Black ink spread over Cha Jo-ah's shocked shoulder.
Mana armored her like plate at the moment of impact.
‘Good eyes.’
Jae-hyeok rose from the desk.
Legs spread, torso leaned, assuming proper stance.
At his solemn form, Cha Jo-ah sneered.
“Foolish to face House Cha's body-hardening aura, which blocks shells, with mere swordsmanship. Everything you do is brutish. Rumors say you were locked home your whole life—guess you know nothing of the world?”
“You know nothing of history.”
Swoosh-!
Jae-hyeok refused further talk.
He had warned plenty.
“Huh…?”
Cha Jo-ah crumpled.
Struck in the abdomen by a lightspeed sword, she writhed without realizing it.
“Kids here only start proper talk after a beating? Why are you all like this? Masochists or what?”
Jae-hyeok's grumbling made Baek Do-jin and No Jun-yeop flinch.