Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Night Stroll (2)
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Zi hour.
In modern terms, it was edging toward 1 a.m., deep into the late night.
The academy grounds past midnight felt oppressively eerie.
"……."
The cadets had all retired for the night to prepare for tomorrow, and even those training late moved only as shadows within the lit indoor training halls.
In that gloomy street, an even chillier wind blew.
"……."
Night Parade of One Hundred Demons.
Not quite a full hundred in number, but each one an irregular demon that defied easy classification as mere ghosts, lurking in the shadows and out for a night stroll through the academy.
"Bi-hyeong."
Only Mi-na, the sole registered cadet among them, walked at Bi-hyeong's side, matching his stride.
"Yeah?"
"...Do you have any info on our opponent?"
Instructor.
Not one of the regular professors, but still handpicked by a clan affiliated with the Association.
Their rank and strength wouldn't be anything to scoff at.
Heading straight to pick a fight with someone like that made Mi-na worry on multiple levels.
But Bi-hyeong just smiled leisurely.
"Yeah. I know exactly who the opponent is."
How could he not?
In the game, he'd caught the guy and triggered the branching storyline that led to wiping out his entire clan.
"The Ghost Prison Yu Clan."
The family his villain belonged to—a house that specialized in subduing monstrosities and wielding them thereafter.
"They'll be skilled in spells and the like given their high rank, but their main strength lies in 'formations' and commanding their subdued monstrosities."
In other words, knowing that meant he could fight them at a level one rank below their usual.
'Still, an instructor means at least 6th rank. One step down is still 5th rank.'
He had to hunt someone like that starting now.
But it wasn't impossible.
On the contrary, the odds overflowed in his favor.
"Mi-na. Just remember one thing."
"...What?"
"We're the ultimate counter to monstrosities."
Half-demon comrade.
Mi-na carried the essence of a yokai, just like him.
The blood of a yokai with immense power, not some weakling.
"Can you emit your presence?"
"Uh... not sure."
"Want to try touching your Demon Core?"
At Bi-hyeong's words, Mi-na nodded and focused on her own Demon Core.
Lower dantian.
Spiritual power dwelled there, orbited by her Demon Core, shining like a satellite with brilliant light.
'Amazing.'
Until now, she'd deliberately avoided touching it.
She didn't know how to use it yet, and she didn't want to risk exposing her yokai power unnecessarily.
She was one of Bi-hyeong's Hundred Ghosts.
The thought that her presence might harm him had instinctively kept her from it.
But not anymore.
With his permission, Mi-na checked her Demon Core without hesitation.
And she was a little—no, very—surprised.
'...Its energy density is higher than the spiritual power I've built up.'
Not just denser, but incredibly pure too.
Purer than most spiritual power, maybe... No, would that offend exorcists?
-Boss.
While Mi-na focused on her Demon Core,
Eoduk-i spoke from within Bi-hyeong's shadow.
-Isn't that a 'Fox Bead'?
'Fox Bead?'
Bi-hyeong knew of it too.
Korean folklore had it, didn't it?
A fox yokai living nine hundred years becomes a gumiho, and they possess a Fox Bead like a dragon's yeouiju.
'They say holding it grants ultimate truth in one field.'
Hold it and look at the earth to read ley lines, knowing fertile soil or rising values.
Hold it and gaze at the sky to read heavenly omens.
Such legends of fox yokai had now manifested in Mi-na, descendant of the gumiho.
'Did she gain it while awakening and reabsorbing the Imoogi's essence?'
-However, it's not quite worthy of being called a Fox Bead yet. Like a fox with only two tails instead of nine.
Bi-hyeong nodded at Eoduk-i's words.
'It grows with her rank, then.'
Meaning at 9th rank, it'd become a true Fox Bead.
Perhaps something unique like his own Demon Core's traits would emerge for her too.
'That's why it hasn't shown in my asset list yet—it's incomplete.'
Bi-hyeong watched Mi-na, looking forward to the future.
Her aura gradually grew eerie and yokai-like.
'Ugh, this again.'
Noble, bewitching, captivating with just a glance, no words needed.
It was her SSS-grade bloodline, Allure that Topples Nations.
"Bi-hyeong?"
Bi-hyeong only snapped out of it after summoning his own presence to some degree, her haughty question pulling him back.
Ugh. What the... She's bewitching.
"How's it feel to emit your presence?"
"This is my presence... It feels mystical. Like wearing the right clothes, but also uncomfortable ones."
Half-yokai, so it couldn't be helped.
For reference, Bi-hyeong had felt something else: like a massive garment enveloping him.
What could he do?
EX-grade goblin presence.
"You'll get used to it. Anyway, your presence is special too. You can more than handle the Ghost Prison Yu Clan's subdued monstrosities."
Plus, he had an ace up his sleeve.
Bi-hyeong walked on with Mi-na.
Far ahead.
Until the hidden 'lab' came into view.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A strangely warped space.
Like peering at objects through shards of broken glass.
In that space, Instructor Yu Kyung-su stared at the small capsule in his hand.
A recent experiment the Ghost Prison Yu Clan was preparing.
No, more precisely, one he himself was leading.
'Gu poison secret art.'
Long ago, legend told of trapping venomous creatures like centipedes, wasps, and toads in a jar, letting them devour each other to brew ultimate poison.
That was gu poison.
Yu Kyung-su was recreating it using 'monstrosities'.
'Finish this, and my name rises to the Association's top echelons—no problem.'
But to do that, he needed utmost secrecy.
To perfect gu poison, he'd dipped a toe into inhuman realms.
Kyaak—.
For a moment, it sounded like a young girl's scream from the capsule.
"Tired. Held it too long?"
But Yu Kyung-su played dumb, turning to the wall-mounted monitor.
Work done, time for clan orders.
"Hm. The monstrosities planted in cadets are functioning normally."
Long preparation for this space, and this year he'd approached cadets as a friendly instructor, secretly implanting them.
No worry of discovery.
Monstrosities born from parasite ghost stories that might kill people.
They wouldn't be found easily.
"As expected. Most are asleep."
Dark screens.
Meaning the implanted monstrosity couldn't see through the host's eyes.
Yu Kyung-su gathered academy intel this way, collecting cadets' weaknesses to control them.
"Tch. More important than this is my experiment, but the clan doesn't get priorities."
To leash future forces early.
Important, yes, but not fun.
Or so, until a certain female cadet entered another's room.
"Hm? That's... the library chairwoman?"
The woman doubling as morale chairwoman.
She welcomed the female cadet in pajamas.
Seemed like friends.
The implanted one entered naturally, chatting away.
"……."
Yu Kyung-su couldn't focus on their talk.
Just the chairwoman's occasional glimpses: slim waist, wide hips accentuating it.
Lust stirred in him.
"Ho? Never noticed before, but she's my type."
Slurp.
Licking his lips, he leaned closer to the monitor for more.
That was the moment.
"Hm? You... ."
On screen, the chairwoman stared at her friend, then flashed cold eyes.
"Gah!"
Yu Kyung-su recoiled, bursting the parasite link and killing the friend.
"W-what? Did she notice?"
...No way.
Even professors hadn't detected his subdued monstrosities.
No matter her talent topping all cadets despite her age,
she shouldn't have spotted it.
'...Still risky. Note it down.'
Yu Kyung-su frantically jotted on a memo pad.
Then.
"……!!"
Sudden sharp intent from behind.
Yu Kyung-su shoved the memo aside and leaped away.
Slash!
Cleanly sliced wall.
And the space's rift cracking further.
From within, a voice tinged with thick regret emerged.
"Ah, close. Could've taken your head in one swing."
A voice all too familiar to Yu Kyung-su.
"...Cadet Shin Bi-hyeong? Why are you... ."
"Ah, well. Out for a night stroll, took a wrong turn, and spotted you snapping pics of female cadets."
Bi-hyeong grinned.
"So I swung my blade a bit."
"...You know that's nonsense?"
"Hm? What's nonsense?"
Bi-hyeong tilted his head, genuinely puzzled.
Yu Kyung-su removed his signature glasses, eyes icy unlike usual.
His tone shifted to his true self, no acting.
"That's not what I'm asking, Shin Bi-hyeong. How did you enter here? You should've traversed the monstrosity's domain."
His own subdued monstrosity.
Attacking it should've triggered a warning.
But no alert meant no attack on it.
'How?'
How did he get here then?
Yu Kyung-su couldn't comprehend.
Bi-hyeong sneered lowly at those trembling eyes.
"Snuck in, obviously. Brain not working?"
Lab location, internal layout—Bi-hyeong knew it all.
'How many times have I cleared this?'
Ridiculous.
Since the guy didn't know, Bi-hyeong kindly explained entry.
"Thanks to this."
Whoosh!
Blue flames gathered, forming the cap.
The single blue horn growing from one temple summoned immense presence.
Roooar—!!
"What... ."
Yu Kyung-su was speechless.
Shock after shock.
Finding this place, evading guard monstrosities at every checkpoint.
But more shocking still...
'...My hands are shaking? Me? To a mere cadet!?'
The vibration crawling his skin was pure 'fear'.
'How... can he exude such overwhelming menace? Shin Bi-hyeong's just 3rd rank.'
Half his own 6th rank.
Not a mere numerical gap—earth and sky.
'...All from that bizarre aura. Squeezing my spirit...'
But he couldn't just take it.
Circulating his cultivation, sending energy to his mind freed him somewhat from the pressure.
Hoo.
Exhaling pent-up emotion like blocked breath, Yu Kyung-su's eyes gleamed coldly.
"You're one of my kind, huh."
"Don't lump me with trash like you."
Bi-hyeong's brow furrowed at that.
"Don't want to be associated with a creep secretly filming cadets."
"That's not what I—"
"Also."
Bi-hyeong's voice dropped sharply.
Like ghosts' wails from hell's depths woven into each syllable, chilling.
"Don't put me on the same level as a stinking villainous scum like you."
Blue ghostfire ignited in Bi-hyeong's eyes.
From him, his shadow deepened, spreading to devour the cracked space.
"Eoduk-i."
Time for the Hundred Ghosts.
"Yes, boss."
A small arm burst from the shadow.
Piercing Yu Kyung-su's gut.