Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: The Thrill of Leveling
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‘I can definitely feel it.’
Having captured the Queen and reached level 30, Jae-hyeok truly sensed how much stronger he had become.
It was because his stats had undergone a significant change.
Strength: 129 | Vitality: 129 | Agility: 100 | Mana: 129 | Insight: 100
Even his sub-stats, Agility and Insight, had entered the three-digit realm.
In reality, the actual increase was just 1 point, but the change was enormous.
His dynamic vision and senses felt nearly doubled, taking a full day to adjust.
Skang!
While deploying Quick Draw, Jae-hyeok activated a skill midway.
[Two Sickles that Halt the Cart]
His outstretched arm abruptly altered its trajectory, forcibly executing the skill motion.
Commonly known as a cancel.
It was a technique that ignored the laws of physics by triggering a skill motion during a normal attack to create an irregular strike.
Because it disregarded physical laws, it placed an immense burden on the body.
The first time Jae-hyeok attempted a cancel, his arm broke immediately, forcing him to wear a cast.
But now…
‘Good.’
It was fine.
Thanks to his level up, his bones and muscles had grown accordingly.
His body had become tough and flexible enough to withstand three consecutive cancels.
‘This is why we level up.’
Before awakening, it had been hard to feel physical growth.
Through consistent training, he would vaguely sense his muscles strengthening only when the seasons changed.
But now, as an awakened Player…
Jae-hyeok felt reborn every day.
The sense of accomplishment that once required months or years of effort, he now tasted every few days.
‘How deep a despair must retired Players have fallen into.’
The vast majority of Players hit their limits due to accidents, or the nature of their first skill or talent.
Some never even reached level 20, while a few realized upon hitting level 150, ‘Ah, this is as far as I go.’
The frustration they felt upon realizing they could no longer taste that pleasure with each level up must have been immense.
‘Our homeroom teacher and Class A’s homeroom teacher are impressive in a new light.’
Most of Lion’s Castle’s faculty were retired Players.
Few retained their passion.
Kim Jin-myeong and Park Ju-bong, who strove to teach their students even a little better, were unusual cases.
‘People like that keep the world turning.’
Jae-hyeok thought of the old man at the sashimi restaurant.
Those who gave their all to what they should or could do.
Thus, they who formed society were the true citizens.
The nation should honor them, and the nobility protect them.
As Jae-hyeok reaffirmed this while transferring the freshly caught black rock tunas into an icebox.
“I didn’t know you had a hobby for fishing.”
A noble voice rang out.
It was Silla Kyung.
He hadn’t sensed even a presence, suggesting the level gap was still vast.
“Does this look like fishing to you?”
Jae-hyeok pointed to the deep knife mark embedded in the black rock tuna’s forehead.
He made no effort to hide his discomfort.
Silla Kyung, who had been staring fixedly at such a Jae-hyeok, asked directly.
“Do you hate House Silla?”
House Silla was Korea’s greatest house.
Its influence surpassed that of the other two ducal houses combined.
If House Silla had extended a helping hand to Yaksha.
No, if they had even uttered a single word in Yaksha’s defense, House Kang wouldn’t have fallen so swiftly.
Yet House Silla had thoroughly ignored both Yaksha and House Kang.
It was understandable for Jae-hyeok to hate them.
“My house and…”
As Silla Kyung began to explain something.
“It’s true I resent them, but it’s not to the point of hatred.”
Jae-hyeok answered.
“House Silla is practically a corporation. For a conglomerate employing hundreds of thousands, recklessly intervening in political matters must have been a huge burden. There might even be circumstances among the adults that I don’t know about. Fine, even giving them the benefit of the doubt a hundred times, I can understand House Silla’s position.”
Politics wasn’t something a mere student like Jae-hyeok could judge.
Thus, he refrained from condemning House Silla lightly.
However.
“What I hate is you, Silla Kyung.”
Jae-hyeok felt he had Silla Kyung figured out sufficiently.
“…Is it because I claimed the students should have died to the Leech King?”
Silla Kyung’s expressionless face remained unchanged.
“A handful without skill stirred up trouble, plunging an entire class into crisis. If we don’t cull those incompetent, ignorant fools brimming with greed despite knowing better, they’ll harm the nation’s future… Was I truly wrong?”
Shwaaaaa.
Clouds drifted past on the wind.
Moonlight emerged, illuminating Silla Kyung’s silver hair and golden eyes radiantly.
Light that repelled darkness.
Even Jae-hyeok, standing in the shadow of the cliff face, was brightly lit by Silla Kyung’s saintly figure.
It was flawless for being called a saint.
Thus, Jae-hyeok felt fear.
An appearance and status that naturally concealed twisted, rotten insides.
The true nature of that monster might never be revealed…
“A gaze of disgust feels unfamiliar. Especially from you of all people, who fails to understand me—it’s particularly shocking. Your family suffered the greatest harm from the ignorant masses, so why can’t you understand me?”
Step.
Silla Kyung stepped closer to Jae-hyeok.
His golden eyes forcibly pierced Jae-hyeok’s pitch-black ones.
“Nobility has the right to select which citizens to protect. No, it’s a duty beyond mere right. A lesson left by your father, no less.”
Nobility shouldn’t protect every citizen.
Protecting the ignorant would only lead to being stabbed in the back by their blades someday.
“…I’m glad we met now.”
Jae-hyeok intuited.
“If you were the first person I met upon entering this place, I would have deeply empathized with you.”
Chae Da-hee’s dream was inherited from Duke Kang Dae-guk.
Originally an ordinary girl, she changed after meeting her father.
Baek Do-jin, Kim Jin-myeong, Park Ju-bong, Lee Jin-seong, Cheon Hye-ji, Du Bae-su, No Jun-yeop and the Archery Club members…
There were people changing after meeting me.
I too was changing because of them.
Yes, people change.
The citizens who enjoyed safety and benefits thanks to his father’s merits.
The reason they ultimately fell for a few lies from the government and media, ending up condemning his father?
Was it simply because they were ignorant and wicked?
They too had merely changed due to circumstances and environment.
Due to the flawed environment created by the unqualified.
“But I can’t empathize with you now. I’ve decided to become a proper knight. We’re nobility, aren’t we? Shouldn’t we set the example first?”
“…Why.”
Silla Kyung’s expressionless facade cracked for the first time.
His upward gaze toward the sky seemed like a cry of anguish.
He soon tightly shut his eyes and turned his back to Jae-hyeok.
“Jaha of House Silla committed an offense against House Kang. I had planned to apologize and compensate personally, but I’ve changed my mind. If you seek reparations, contact our house directly.”
Silla Kyung’s voice was cold.
Yet when addressing Jae-hyeok, it seemed he had tried to infuse warmth.
From “you” to “thou.”
As Silla Kyung’s manner of speech shifted, Jae-hyeok felt a chill run down his spine.
“You’ll realize someday just how foolish you are.”
As if he no longer wished to associate.
With those final words, Silla Kyung departed.
“…….”
Jae-hyeok fell silent.
He couldn’t muster a single retort toward the boy’s receding back.
His father, lying in bed, came to mind.
In Silla Kyung’s radical terms, a ‘failed’ life.
His father, the epitome of nobility, had truly lost everything.
Even if he, aspiring to emulate that man, shouted at Silla Kyung—who had established a new ideology from that failure—it wouldn’t reach him.
‘Nothing for it but to prove it directly.’
His father hadn’t failed.
He had succeeded in planting the seed that was me.
The moonlight remnant left by Silla Kyung still made Jae-hyeok’s pitch-black eyes gleam.
***
Repetitive classes and training like a hamster wheel, plus duel evaluations.
Lion’s Castle students felt abused every day.
“Kang Jae-hyeooooook! Today, I’ll kill you for sure!!”
“Looking at you, you’ll be saying the exact same thing a hundred years from now.”
“Guhk.”
Especially the Class B first-years suffered greatly.
Of course, the busiest was Kang Jae-hyeok.
“This week’s request list.”
“I’ll take this one.”
He faithfully handled not just classes but club requests as well.
-How’s the formation training coming?
“Don’t worry.”
-Mind this well. I wish to see a thousand knights move as one.
“Yeah, don’t worry…”
While devoting himself to sword training utilizing Iyarugut, he also worked to gain the Lion Statue’s favor for information.
-I, I really procured a rare treasure this time! This one’s worth your interest, seriously? Just meet once, please!
He used points earned from achievements to purchase essentials on the community boards, while slowly reeling in conscientious merchants.
Yet Jae-hyeok felt not even a speck of fatigue.
Six hours of sleep a day.
The quality sleep he’d never experienced before always left him in peak condition.
‘So this is what it means to live.’
Waking in the morning with clear vision and no headaches— who knew it could bring such happiness…
As Jae-hyeok finally enjoyed a human life after eight long years.
“What? What kind of bullshit is that?”
A huge commotion erupted at Daeyang Shipping, a subsidiary of Daeyang Guild.
Their prized franchise sashimi restaurant venture was stumbling at the midpoint.
Several directly operated stores, spaced every six kilometers to dominate Incheon’s Seo-gu commercial district, had been seeing tumbleweeds for days.
“Executive Director Park, you bastard. Do you know how much we invested there? How can business be this bad?”