Chapter 119
Chapter 119
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Spear and Shield (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Nine veils that blind the eyes which gaze upon the world.
A monotone voice recited the third curse bestowed upon me.
No one shall know of your existence beyond the veils, nor shall they know of your deeds.
The Faceless Witch declared.
Even if your achievements reach the heavens.
My future as a knight was completely sealed off.
Unless you tear through the nine veils yourself, or catch the attention of a being who can see through them to your existence.
In her voice as she spoke, there was not a hint of apology.
Only I can feel your presence and know what you have done.
A voice as sweet as honey told me.
To give up on being a knight and become a sorcerer.
To make a pact with her at once.
“Ah.”
I let out a short groan at her blatant temptation.
For a moment, I had forgotten.
Perhaps I had unknowingly started to hope after receiving her help several times.
I was momentarily confused by her naive act, making excuses after placing a few trivial curses on me.
Exchanging thoughts must have led me to a misunderstanding.
I had thought that maybe, just maybe, she wasn't as wicked as I believed.
Until a moment ago, that was the case.
I was once again reminded of what kind of being she was.
She was a being who protected wicked sorcerers.
A witch who had devoured her own contractor right before my eyes.
“So you had another motive.”
The moment I remembered her true nature, which I had forgotten, my heart grew cold.
The Faceless Witch is bewildered.
The Faceless Witch…
I set down Barisada.
Wait, hold on…!
The thoughts that had been cluttering my mind suddenly stopped.
“I won't thank you.”
Her decision to lift my curse was because of the Witch's Law in the first place.
It was to block my future as a knight and bind my fate to hers.
“But I won't resent you either.”
My constitution had changed after taking the Gaecheondan anyway, so I couldn't even properly perform Starseeking.
Blaming her for it now, of all times, wasn't like me.
Besides, her curse hadn't been entirely bad for me.
Channel 「Outskirts Constellation」 has been reactivated.
The ‘Outskirts Constellation’ channel, which had been inactive for a while to avoid the pursuit of the beings from the highest echelons of the world above, was now active again.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] This one has arrived.
[Elegant Lefty] I have arrived as well!
[Curious Sloth] Manjong-nim (meaning Mannyeonjongja hehe)~~~!!
[Curious Sloth] It's been a while~~~
And the stars had returned.
* * *
“…And that's what happened.”
As soon as I finished speaking, the channel exploded with conversation.
[Curious Sloth] No wonder Manjong-nim's presence suddenly vanished! I was so surprised~~
[Elegant Lefty] Nine veils… even we can't do anything about that.
[Curious Sloth] Hahahahaha. You should all thank me~~ If I hadn't been looking for a chance to reactivate the channel, we might have lost contact with Manjong-nim forever~~~~
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] He harbors a fragment of our power, however faint. That would not have happened.
[Curious Sloth] I'm just saying~~~ Still, if it weren't for me, it would have taken quite a while to reconnect with Manjong-nim, right~~? You admit that, right??
[Elegant Lefty] Agreed.
The witch's curse had turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
“So, can you not see me right now?”
[Curious Sloth] You're a bit blurry compared to before, but we can still see you, more or less~~~ It's a privilege for channel members~~
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] Now that I think about it, you…
[Elegant Lefty] Where'd your hair go? Did you decide to become a monk in the meantime?
[Curious Sloth] Manjong-nim already explained it~~ He said it happened while treating the curse~~~ You should listen properly when people are talking~~~~~~ Your Majesty and Lefty-nim, you drive me crazy sometimes~~~
As if trying to make up for all the lost time, the stars' chatter was endless.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] Baegya. Baegya. I feel like I've heard a similar name before.
[Curious Sloth] That! It's that one~~~! You know the one~~!!!
[Elegant Lefty] Right. That's the one. The sword that simpleton made when he secretly descended.
[Curious Sloth] What do you mean, simpleton? Simpleton~~ He has a perfectly good epithet, 'The Masked Cripple'~~~ You shouldn't make fun of a being who isn't in good health like that~~~
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] You call that epithet 'perfectly good'?
[Elegant Lefty] Isn't 'simpleton' better?
[Curious Sloth] You two are asking for trouble~~ Don't you know how things are these days~~~?
After lecturing the Elegant Lefty for a good while, the Curious Sloth belatedly offered me congratulations.
[Curious Sloth] You've got a good sword~~ Congratulations~~
“A good sword… is it?”
[Curious Sloth] Phew. I won't go into detail~~ If the creator ascended through metallurgy alone, you can guess the rest, right~~~?
Half out of a desire to mess with Roman, and half out of the attachment I'd developed while polishing it in my past life, I had chosen this sword. The fact that it was causing me so much trouble had left me feeling quite down.
Amidst all that, the Curious Sloth's assurance of Baegya's performance put my mind at ease.
Besides, ‘The Masked Cripple’...
As someone who was a cripple in my past life, it was an epithet I couldn't help but feel an affinity for.
The lingering attachment I had for Hwaryeong and Changrin, which had remained in a corner of my heart, vanished as if it were a lie.
“More importantly, how have you all been? I was worried since I couldn't contact you for a while.”
Feeling lighter, I asked the stars about what had been going on.
[Curious Sloth] Don't even ask~~~ The entire Stratum was turned upside down~~~ They were in an uproar searching for you for a while, Manjong-nim~~~~~
[Elegant Lefty] The bastards from the highest echelon were stirring up trouble everywhere until recently. A lot of brokers died because of it.
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] We barely made it out ourselves.
I wondered what a broker was, and apparently, they are individuals who help the beings of the Stratum descend to the lower world or arrange pacts.
Something about the highest echelon's surveillance getting tighter.
And how they couldn't do anything at all.
For a while, the stars badmouthed the beings of the highest echelon.
[Curious Sloth] Even today, if it wasn't for the newbie, we probably wouldn't have had a chance to check on you, Manjong-nim~~?
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] What was the newbie so upset about to cause such a ruckus again?
[Elegant Lefty] If Your Majesty doesn't know, how would I?
[Curious Sloth] I heard~~ Someone apparently touched their stuff~~~?
As I desperately tried to follow the conversation that jumped from topic to topic, I naturally learned about the situation in the Stratum.
To put it simply, a foul-tempered newcomer was going around picking fights and causing chaos everywhere, so the atmosphere was a mess.
It seems that getting one bad rookie can mess everything up, whether it's up there or down here.
“Anyway, it's good to see you all again.”
I suppose I've received a lot of help from the stars, both seen and unseen.
The presence of the returned stars was incredibly reassuring.
For a long while, I chatted with the stars I hadn't seen in ages.
After we had more or less caught up, I asked about the other curses the Faceless Witch had placed on me.
The nightmare curse was exactly as the witch had described.
Hearing it again, it still didn't seem like it would be much of a problem.
The problem was the second curse.
[Elegant Lefty] A lie at a crucial moment... sounds like the 'Poison on the Tip of the Tongue' curse.
[Curious Sloth] Isn't that a really troublesome curse~~~?
[Emperor Who Abandoned His Country] It is troublesome. Because you can't predict the outcome.
If you're lucky, it might pass without incident, but if you're unlucky, your entire destiny could change.
Even the stars couldn't make a hasty judgment about the second curse and urged me to be careful.
“Yes. I'll be… *yawn*. I'll be careful.”
A wave of drowsiness washed over me.
It seemed Baegya's curse had truly been lifted.
Having been unable to sleep for days due to the ‘Unsetting Sun’ curse, I couldn't possibly endure the sudden wave of sleepiness.
“For now, I'm going to get some sleep.”
Yawning repeatedly, I bid farewell to the stars and closed my eyes.
“Guh.”
And then I fell asleep as if I had fainted.
* * *
In a daze between sleep and wakefulness, I shot my eyes open.
My body felt incredibly refreshed, as if I could fly.
It was the first time.
Ever since returning to the past, even when I slept, it didn't feel like I had rested.
Being hacked to pieces all night in my dreams, it would have been stranger if the quality of my sleep had been good.
But today was different.
For the first time in a very long time, I had slept soundly.
It was only natural, when you thought about it.
Roman didn't appear in my dream last night.
There was no horrific pain of my body being torn apart, nor did I have to suffer the gut-wrenching sight of Roman's face.
I didn't even catch a glimpse of that real-life nightmare monster, or whatever it was, that the Faceless Witch had mentioned.
“Hmm. I think I did dream about something, though.”
I quietly searched my memory.
But no matter how hard I tried to remember, nothing specific came to mind.
Like most dreams, upon waking, only a vague feeling remained.
And the afterglow of such a dream never lasts long.
“Nngh.”
I shot up from the bed.
I twisted my waist back and forth, stretching my body.
The muscles all over my body, stiff from lying in bed for the past few days, slowly began to loosen.
I checked the time.
Outside the window, the sun was high in the sky.
“Huh?”
Looking at the bright sunlight pouring in, I was startled.
I missed the morning class.
Yesterday, I had the excuse of being sick, but today, I had no such excuse.
“Damn it. Damn it all!”
The Cradle's rules were extremely strict.
Missing class more than three times without a valid reason meant automatic expulsion.
I hurriedly put on my uniform.
I was hoping to at least avoid being marked absent.
Just as I finished getting ready and was about to leave the room.
“But where is the class?”
I checked my terminal.
The class schedule for the Silver Eagle cadets should be posted somewhere.
As I fumbled with the terminal, a blinking icon caught my eye.
It was a notification for a new message.
I checked it and saw it was a message from Professor Yuria.
It roughly said that she had submitted a sick leave request for me, so I should rest well today.
There was also a question about my condition and a suggestion to visit the infirmary.
“Phew.”
Letting out a belated sigh of relief, I sat on the edge of the bed.
“Hmm.”
It was good that I wasn't marked absent, but now that I had missed class, I had nothing to do.
I was getting antsy.
My body felt so good that it was actually a problem.
I was too full of energy to just stay in my room.
In the end, I got up, thinking I'd at least swing my sword around in the dormitory's training hall.
“Let's see just how great this body of yours is, that it had to cause such a fuss.”
I grabbed Baegya and headed straight for the training grounds.
All the cadets in the dormitory were attending class, so the place was empty.
Naturally, there was no one in the training grounds.
I stood in the middle of the large training ground and held Baegya upright.
I paused.
Just as I was about to swing the sword down, I belatedly remembered something I had forgotten.
-------------------------------
*To the unworthy, I bestow the trial of the ‘Unsetting Sun’.
*To the unworthy, I bestow the curse of a ‘Sweet Dream on a Midsummer Afternoon’.
*To the unworthy, I bestow the curse of a ‘Harsh Winter’.
*To the unworthy, I bestow the ‘Trial of Baegya’.
-------------------------------
The foul-tempered sword didn't just bestow three curses.
“Ah?”
The Trial of Baegya had begun.