Chapter 28
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: 27. Sword Princess of White Flame
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Slowly prying open her heavy eyelids, she narrowed her eyes and scanned the surroundings.
I was sprawled out behind her, and Choi Si-woo was unconscious too. Had we collapsed back in that panic?
Judging by the mess, this wasn't a fight we could win.
"Why the hell isn't backup here yet?"
"You idiots. Yoo Jin-seok might've been different, but he's off on an overseas dispatch right now. My subordinates and I set up a new barrier around the academy—it looks perfectly fine from the outside."
Subordinates too, huh?
Well, plenty of association hunters got sidelined thanks to Yoo Jin-seok sticking by Kim Jae-su's side. More than a few probably wanted payback.
No surprise they'd follow if he turned them into monsters.
"What? So we're on our own?"
"Bunch of pests getting in the way. No backup for you morons."
Couldn't stomach any more of this.
Reina and Han Su-ji looked pretty banged up, and with demonic energy saturating the whole academy, it might as well have been a monster playground. No way this dragged on.
First things first: absorb the demonic energy.
With a sweep of my hand through the haze, thick black smoke visibly funneled into my palm.
This alone would make things easier for the surviving hunters against the monsters.
"Huh? The demonic energy..."
"What just happened, Yoo Eun-ha?"
"Kim Jae-su. Thanks to you, the seal's broken. Guess I owe you one."
Hundreds of regressions or not, without that SS-rank core he'd brought, I'd have been stuck at steam-pack Eun-ha levels.
"W-What did you say?"
"Anyway, you're mine now."
Couldn't exactly shove the injured kids out front.
"What the—those golden eyes? Pupils like a snake's."
"Snake's right, but call it a dragon, you dimwit."
Who did this guy think he was?
"What is that? Looks just like Azidahaka."
Yeah, the monster compendium showed Azidahaka with golden slit pupils just like these.
"Eun-ha... you..."
Han Su-ji and Reina stared at me in shock.
My look was probably pretty alien right now. But this wasn't the time for girl talk.
"Reina, get Choi Si-woo to the clubroom. Your senior's got potions—get him treated. Han Su-ji, head north and help smash those attacking monsters and monster packs."
"What about you?"
"I'll handle that loser."
Didn't even look that tough, so I pointed right at him, bold as brass.
"Loser?! You cocky bitch!"
Not even giving Reina and Han Su-ji time to scram. Guess he skipped lady-first class.
Shiiik—thwack!
A kick whistled in from the side; I grabbed the leg and flung him away.
Pretty quick, but weak sauce compared to me.
Then I spotted the black spear in his hand.
"Hoo. Spear forged from demon dragon scales, eh?"
Not bad—looked about as tough as the Flame Spear.
Handed the Flame Spear off to his disciple, so he was making do with raw skill, huh?
"Thought turning monster would make you hot shit? Big mistake!"
Oh? Coming at me again?
"Worked for me, though."
Kwajik!
I lightly caught the stabbing demon dragon spear and shattered it.
Did he really think scales from some inferior knockoff could pierce me?
Dragon-type weapons? I had the matchup advantage in spades.
Feeling cocky, I decided to mess with him a bit.
Per the original story—and my memories—Kim Jae-su's folks got chomped by me on a family trip to China, back when I was pulling the nun act for massacres.
Yeah, straight-up cannibalism.
"Come to think of it, your parents croaked to me, right? Did I eat 'em?"
"What?"
Did munch on people back then.
Ate his parents while they shielded their kid.
Especially tasty when I played nun to drop their guard. Mmm—not the time.
"I'm Azidahaka, by the way."
"You... really?!"
"Your folks were delectable."
I flicked out my forked snake tongue with an ecstatic grin, and blood vessels burst in Kim Jae-su's eyes.
"You fucking cunt!"
"Taste the evil dragon's breath."
Even in human form back then, I could breathe it.
Still could now.
My breath was pure white flame—white flame that incinerated everything.
I gaped my jaws at Kim Jae-su barreling in like a brain-dead bull and unleashed it.
Kwarururuk!
One brutal blast torched his upper body to a crisp.
"Oh dear, thought you'd tank it, but your torso's just... gone."
"Y-You monster..."
"Sorry, haven't done this in ages—missed the head. Eh, won't die till the target's ash anyway."
My flames outdid white phosphorus.
Didn't snuff out until the victim was fully cinders. Had to watch their body crumble to dust as it burned.
Kim Jae-su was living it right now.
Not just burning alive—that agony defied words. Flames clung to his right upper body (face aside), methodically ashing him out.
"Gaaahhhh!"
Minutes later, I lopped off the howling bastard's head with my sword.
Head on ice for the association to ID later.
Would tip them off to internal traitors too.
"Eun-ha?"
"Choi Si-woo?"
"Reina took him to the clubroom like you said."
"Let's clean up the rest. Gotta save whatever hunters we can."
Every survivor counted for the showdown with China's greed later.
Lee Yoo-jeong's golems were holding the main academy building.
Thanks to that, trainees and dorm cadets seemed to have made it.
But offing Kim Jae-su didn't wrap things up.
The main building—where Reina had gone—was getting swarmed by monsters.
"That's a lot of monsters and monsterfied freaks."
Golems had the academy attackers stalled, but windows wouldn't hold forever.
And golems weren't endless cannon fodder.
I wreathed my sword in white flame.
"I'll fight too!"
Han Su-ji drew her spear.
"Nah, that was just talk. You're beat from tangling with Kim Jae-su."
Former mentor or not, fighting him—watching him die—takes it out of you.
Monsters were small fry anyway.
One swing, and the white flames fanned out wide, setting the horde ablaze.
"Kieeeek!"
"Grraaaah!"
In seconds. Like the world purifying itself.
The white flames that once roasted people now slew monsters to save cadets.
"We lived! We're alive!"
"Yoo Eun-ha forever!"
Cadets cheering and clapping from the windows.
If Blazing Bat had been here, it wouldn't have gotten this bad.
His monster thugs, no doubt. Monsters courtesy of Black God Cult backing.
Cult brass included summoners, but city barriers blocked easy calls.
Capital region especially. Kim Jae-su must've dropped the barrier for this raid.
"Eun-ha, over there!"
Where Han Su-ji pointed: a gate at the academy's back door.
Manmade.
Hunter, monster, and monster corpses strewn before it.
Behind them, guild and association hunters—geared up, poised to breach—now gawking at my white flames mopping up the main building swarm.
And with that, Kim Jae-su's raid event wrapped.
But the damage? Catastrophic.
Association D-to-F-ranks essentially wiped.
Guild rush reinforcements took hits too.
In this karma-tuned world, hunter losses this bad weren't supposed to happen.
Korean Hunter Association
The day Kim Jae-su betrayed them and struck Hansung Academy.
Chairman Choi Cheol-sik and Vice Chair Jeong Na-yoon were dying inside.
Hunter losses way too steep.
"Dead hunters alone top 300. Association hunter forces are done."
Hunter Deployment Authority.
In national crises, deploy association hunters sans government okay—for monster floods or war.
This academy hit chewed through so many. No reserves left. Worse: missed the betrayal, let monsters and monster-humans rampage downtown.
"Guilds?"
"Rose Guild lost a dozen D-ranks in the scramble. Steel Guild's sub-master Choi Jun-o's in ICU from one hit—probably done hunting for good."
Not just association—guild hunters too. Choi Jun-o was a solid A-rank name.
Damage off the charts. The guy who'd teamed with Yoo Jin-seok for the Pyongyang breakout, brazenly turning on humanity?
"Who took down Kim Jae-su this time?"
"Yoo Jin-seok's sister, Yoo Eun-ha. Check this out."
Jeong Na-yoon fired up the video file from second-year cadet Lee Yoo-jeong.
The monitor showed Yoo Eun-ha unilaterally pounding S-rank villain Kim Jae-su—the guy who'd bedeviled Divine Sword, Spirit Arrows, and Flame Spear.
"Second awakening or what? That power... Hell, even sidelining the white flame, her raw physicals crushed him."
Not her main ability—just basics. Pure hand-to-hand had him reeling, then she pulverized that demon dragon scale spear.
Downright miraculous.
"Yeah. She's combat-ready anytime."
"Isn't the team tourney coming up?"
"Still, this cohort's stacked."
Even so, who else but Yoo Eun-ha could flatten a pre-grad Yoo Jin-seok ally?
Nope. This fiasco exposed Hansung's soft spots anyway—pushing her was smart for the academy.
"Yoo Jin-seok'll be thrilled."
Sis this stacked? Stronger than his cadet days, even.
Cadet days? Took him ages post-grad to hit that peak.
Her at cadet level? Post-grad, she might snag a Twelve Apostles slot—the org of the world's top twelve hunters.
"How about the association slaps a title on her?"
"Us?"
"Makes it look like payback for her help. Yoo Jin-seok's association anyway."
No need to drag her in.
Just a title implied ties.
"Sword user, white flames."
"Yep."
"Sword Princess of White Flame?"
That white flame matched old Azidahaka pics, but her princess vibe sold it.
Azidahaka reborn—as Sword Princess Yoo Eun-ha.