266. Sword Emperor's Forest (1)
266. Sword Emperor's Forest (1)
"I've been informed of your recent activities by the China Public Security Hunter Association. You've certainly stirred up some interesting trouble."
When Rina summoned me to the Chairwoman's office,
she brought up the China matter right away.
'Hmm, how much does she know?'
After a brief moment of consideration, I let out a chuckle.
She probably knows most of it.
Knowing Rina, she'd have started verifying everything the instant she received the report.
"Shin Do-hwa... I thought she'd been oddly quiet. I never imagined that woman was hiding in China, pulling strings like that."
Just as I expected, Rina already knew.
I'd deliberately avoided revealing the Shin family's involvement to China, since it could easily escalate into a national incident.
"Yes, I handled it quietly."
"So I see. At any rate, you resolved this one without making a racket. Well done. Jin Yu-ha."
For some reason, Rina delivered the compliment in an oddly soft, ingratiating voice.
"As expected, a performance befitting one of Velvet Hunter Academy's top cadets."
Twitch.
'Did this scumbag eat something weird...?'
Sure, I get that she's in a good mood because the outcome was far better than the way the Chimera incident spread in the game.
But hearing her say that with a greasy expression made my stomach turn and sent goosebumps up my arms.
"Ugh... can we just stick to your usual style? Watching you put on airs of elegance when it doesn't suit you at all, you seem to be struggling yourself, Chairwoman..."
I said, narrowing my eyes.
"Yah! You utter ingrate! I'm trying to compliment you here!!"
Rina immediately gnashed her teeth and snapped back.
Yeah, that's the expression that suits this magic scumbag.
"Anyway, so what's the matter? I doubt you called me here just for the China business..."
"Hmph."
Chairwoman Rina tilted her head up, stroked her chin, and looked at me.
She was trying to look down on me, but because she was so short, the angle forced her to look up instead.
She stared at me blankly for a moment, then opened her mouth.
"Jin Yu-ha. You are to go to the Sword Emperor's Forest for some time. Go there and receive instruction from the Sword Emperor."
"Huh? All of a sudden... the Sword Emperor? Instruction...?"
I gave her a dumbfounded look at the completely unexpected suggestion.
"Why? You have nothing to do for a while, do you not? Unless you have something else planned?"
"No, that's not it exactly... But what do you mean I have nothing to do! I'm a cadet, we have classes to attend."
And I need to build up my strength to prepare for the huge incident that's about to erupt.
Rina folded her arms, as if the very notion was preposterous.
"At this point, academy classes are hardly meaningful for you or your party members anyway, are they? If you go out on training with first-year cadets, do you honestly think you'd get any decent practice?"
Rina said all that with an insufferably smug look on her face.
'I swear I want to flick that forehead of hers so goddamn hard...'
Well, it's not like Rina was wrong.
The situation with me and my party now is that we're already treated as clear Irregulars.
During academy group projects, I'd end up forming a one-man team, and in graded evaluations, I was increasingly acting as a demonstrator assistant rather than a cadet.
The other cadets seemed to feel that was fairer too.
So, telling me to go train in the Sword Emperor's Forest was her own way of being considerate.
However, there was a reason I couldn't just accept that consideration at face value.
Namely, the swordsmanship I'd just started learning.
The Moon Shadow Sword Technique.
Because my Master's lessons were the only time I could learn it!
"It's problematic because I'd be missing my Master's lessons."
I politely declined Rina's offer.
But,
as if she'd been waiting for me to say that, Rina opened her mouth.
"Ah, I forgot to mention this. You won't be seeing Seol-hee for the next month."
"...Excuse me!?"
"I dispatched Seol-hee on a long-term assignment a moment ago. It should take about a month."
"What the hell..."
My Master's sudden absence.
I couldn't help but be thrown into confusion by her words.
If my Master is gone, who on earth am I supposed to learn the Moon Shadow Sword Technique from?!
Notifying me like this without any discussion.
What kind of bullshit is this?
I glared murderously at the brat who was talking out of her ass.
"You will stop looking at me with such insolent eyes."
"No, how can you just suddenly spring something like this on me—"
"You were receiving special treatment up until now."
"...Excuse me?"
"Seol-hee is a person so busy that even having ten bodies wouldn't be enough. She was carving out what little free time she had, piece by piece, to look after you. That was the abnormal situation."
"..."
"Now, Seol-hee has accumulated tasks she simply cannot put off any longer, so it's unavoidable."
When Rina said that in a calm voice,
my heated head instantly cooled, as if splashed with cold water.
'...Ah, right.'
My Master is originally a person who operates in the shadows, leading the Demonized Human Extermination Squad.
How could that job possibly be leisurely?
Because she always came running the moment I called, I'd momentarily forgotten.
That she was always looking out for me.
In the end, I had no choice but to accept it.
If it were for any other reason, maybe not.
But it was because she was busy with her personal duties.
As a proper disciple, I couldn't selfishly take up my Master's time just because I wanted her to coach my swordsmanship.
"...Understood. However—"
*
And so, the Chairwoman's office after Jin Yu-ha had left.
"Did you truly have to go this far?"
A voice came from behind Rina.
Rina glanced back and answered brusquely.
"Did you not say yourself that you have nothing left to teach Jin Yu-ha?"
"That is exactly why I came looking for you, Chairwoman. To learn something further to teach him."
Having had her disciple snatched away right before her eyes, Baek Seol-hee spat the words out, her voice thick with suppressed fury.
"This is the answer."
"This is the answer? Handing my disciple over to that woman, the Sword Emperor?"
"Hmph, he is merely learning from the Sword Emperor for a while. It's not a permanent handover."
"But—!"
A flustered Baek Seol-hee raised her voice, for the first time trying to argue, but Rina cut her off.
"Hmph, your love for your disciple is truly profound. However, if you're so worried, why not go along with him?"
"...With him?"
"Yes. In exchange, I will permit you to accompany him into the Sword Emperor's Forest only under the condition that I place a restriction on you with my magic."
"...What is the restriction?"
"For the next month, you may not speak to anyone, nor make contact. All you may do is observe from afar. Do you still wish to go?"
At Rina's question,
Baek Seol-hee nodded her head gravely.
Hummm—
And then Rina's hand glowed blue.
* * *
"The Sword Emperor's Forest, huh..."
In my personal room at the hideout, I put my feet up on the desk and sorted through my thoughts alone.
First of all, the offer itself wasn't that bad.
The dungeons in that area were at a difficulty appropriate for my current level,
and training under the Sword Emperor was a special opportunity that hadn't even existed in the original game.
'Still, the best bet is definitely learning swordsmanship from my Master...'
Because, Sword Emperor or not, that was the fastest way to increase my mastery of the Moon Shadow Sword Technique and get stronger.
But I can't just cling to an impossibility forever.
Haa─
I let out a short sigh and shook off my regret.
"Still, she's the Sword Emperor, so I'm bound to get some help with the sword."
The Sword Emperor (劍帝),
an SSS Rank hunter.
Her defining trait is being a madwoman obsessed with the sword.
Among Korean hunters who wield a sword, it was no exaggeration to say she was one of the very best.
If Rina didn't exist, her name would have been rightfully placed at the country's number one spot—that's how towering her reputation 'was'.
But at the same time, she was a figure largely unspoken of these days.
Hardly anyone even remembered her.
Because she'd shone brightly for a brief moment during the most intense period of the Gate Incident, then abruptly went into seclusion.
If you asked who the best swordsman hunter in Korea was
and mentioned the Sword Emperor, you'd get called a low-HP noob or a dinosaur, which says it all really.
She was someone slowly fading from collective memory,
but I knew the Sword Emperor in quite some detail.
Because the Sword Emperor's granddaughter was a very special character.
And she has deep ties to me, too.
You might wonder how deep the ties could possibly be with someone I've never even met.
Of course, they run deep.
Deeper than the deep sea.
No, they're so deep they could pierce right through the mantle.
The Sword Emperor's granddaughter.
She is a prospective new student set to enroll in the academy next year,
and a 5-star character who simultaneously receives curses, praise, and expectation from countless people.
And she's the merciful woman who squeezed out every last drop of her assets, liver and gallbladder included, to let me survive in this place.
The owner of the Alice Box.
【Sword Flower, Alice ☆☆☆☆☆】
Real name, Kim Mal-sook.
Yeah, she was the reason I'd been transmigrated into this body in the first place!
I frowned and scratched my head.
"Tsk, I've already used up almost all the stuff I was planning to give her when I met her... barely anything but dregs left... should I bring even that?"
Just then.
Creeeak─
"Huh? Give what to who?"
Lee Yu-ri, who had arrived before I realized, opened the door and responded to my muttering.
"Oh, Gukbap, you're here?"
"Yeah, since you called a meeting, everyone's gathered in the conference room. I came to get you."
"Really? Let's go, then."
"But what were you gonna give to who? You have to give them dregs?"
"Nah, it's nothing."
I shook my head lightly and headed to the conference room with Gukbap.