Chapter 268: Deepening Misunderstandings. The Kang So-hyun Universe.
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 268: Deepening Misunderstandings. The Kang So-hyun Universe.
Early dawn.
After clearing my groggy mind and finishing my basic physical training.
I love this first moment when I take my stance.
It’s a sensation as if my hazy thoughts are being honed to a sharp edge.
It’s a precious moment where I remind myself of my goals and feel the reality of the effort I’m putting in.
“…Cathy, I really, damn well messed up, so please, do something about that look in your eyes. I feel like the hangover soup I had this morning is going to give me indigestion.”
“Hangover soup? Unnie, you can’t cook.”
“Oh. Shit.”
“Did So-hyun make it for you?”
“Cathy. That was a slip of the tongue. That’s not what’s important right now, is it?”
“So he did?”
…Well, if you were to ask whether this is an environment conducive to concentration, I’d have to say no, but I still like it.
I am absolutely not escaping reality just to ignore the ‘save me’ look in the Little Witch’s eyes.
I’m serious. In the first place, I really didn’t do anything wrong this time. The Professor even bragged that she’d handle everything herself.
It’s not because I’m scared.
“Unnie, since you’re here for dawn training, why don’t you show the kids a spar?”
“Huh? Cathy. A spar between a mage and a martial artist is a bit…”
“Professor Park A-ram. Then, I ask for a lesson.”
“Seeing as you’re even using formal speech, you have no intention of letting me go, do you?”
As soon as they began, beautiful magic circles embroidered the sky, and the blonde professor darted between the pouring spells with flashy footwork.
Even the sight of the erupting golden light being neutralized before a straight punch.
The spar between the two, which started almost by force, was certainly beneficial, regardless of how it came to be.
…Though I’d probably need at least a 4-stack Reinforcement to even attempt to mimic those movements.
“Now, did everyone see that? Even if the distance opens up against a long-range dealer, there’s no need to panic. You just need to close the distance calmly like this.”
It’s probably not as easy as she makes it sound, but since she showed us herself, what can I say?
I just have to try my best to emulate even a fraction of it.
“Ha… haha. Cathy, you’ve gotten damn strong.”
“Not at all, Unnie. I think the kids got some good motivation thanks to you.”
“Then you forgive me now, right? I’m telling you, nothing happened yesterday. I’m sorry for being a mean drunk, but please?”
“Of course. I trust you, Unnie. I trust So-hyun, too. You don’t have to be so defensive.”
“Phew, thank goodness. I’m telling you, we really just held hands and slept.”
“…Since I’ve forgiven you, you’ll be coming out tomorrow too, right? Unnie.”
“Pardon? When I don’t have research, I usually need to sleep until 10 AM for my body to feel…”
“I’ll take this opportunity to turn you into a morning person.”
“…Cathy, are you perhaps still angry?”
“What would I have to be angry about?”
“Then first, back off a bit. Hey? Uh? Why do you keep coming closer! Cathy!”
“Earlier, we learned how to hunt… I mean, how to deal with a long-range dealer from a distance. This time, conversely, I should show you how to open up distance from a martial artist when they’re close.”
“Cathy, calm down! I said we only held hands! It’s true!”
“Yes, I’m being serious too.”
After that.
Professor Park A-ram’s mana manipulation—deploying a total of 150 layers of mana shields simultaneously to block the Professor’s punch, then using 1,024 mana arrows at once to escape Cathy’s range and fleeing with Fly magic—was truly magnificent.
However, I doubt anyone among us could ever hope to imitate that.
“Did everyone see? This is how you open up distance!”
Professor Cathy spoke with a smile as she watched the fleeing Little Witch.
I’m telling you, it’s not that easy, Professor.
* * *
“Hup…!”
Cheon Yu-hak’s thrust flew toward my eyes.
His thrusts, now handled as if the Thunder Dragon Spear were an extension of his own limbs, were incredibly fierce. However, with Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils, it wasn’t at a level I couldn’t escape, and I was actually dodging them without much difficulty.
The problem was what came after dodging.
Using the advantage of his footwork and the spear’s reach, Cheon Yu-hak maintained a strict distance from me, and it was a more difficult combat style to deal with than I expected.
Of course, if I were determined to win, I could stack reinforcements and crush him with pure power, but there are limits to that method. I wanted to break through using control if possible.
“Is Ruyi still under repair?”
“Yeah.”
No matter how you look at it, the difference in reach between a dagger and a spear in a head-on fight is too extreme.
I feel like I could at least make a go of it if I had a short sword.
In the first place, daggers aren’t weapons made for fighting head-on.
Since Ruyi, my main armament which also handled defense, went in for repairs, my combat power was significantly reduced.
…Actually, it’s a problem that could be solved if I could use Black Shadow more actively, but I can’t use it openly for fear the kids might find similarities with the Masked Villain’s shadow attacks.
I only use it occasionally to create traps or for misdirection, and it’s incredibly frustrating.
“Well, preparing good equipment is a skill. Managing it is also a skill, so I have no intention of going easy on you.”
“Are you stating the obvious? Are you going to ask for mercy in a real fight because you left your weapon behind?”
“You certainly know your stuff. The guy who kisses a professor on the cheek in the classroom on the first day of the new semester is truly built different!”
“Okay. You’re dead.”
“Haha, give it a try!”
I said that, but his footwork wasn’t something trained in a day or two.
I already tried a simple shadow trap, but he dodged it.
If only I had a slightly, just slightly longer weapon, or a shield to block his thrusts.
“An opening…!”
“Ugh…!?”
Not missing the split second I was distracted, Cheon Yu-hak lunged in.
A thrust of a perfected realm flew toward me. I parried it with my dagger, but he didn’t lose his posture and had already finished aiming his second thrust.
Is a single stack of reinforcement still not enough?
Just as I was about to shift gears up another level.
— Shururu.
I heard a sound from somewhere.
And then, my arm moved on its own.
“What…!?”
Reaching out toward a thrust that had already been launched—normally, that would be a suicidal act. Cheon Yu-hak also tried to pull back his thrust, but perhaps the momentum he’d put into it was too intense; he could only stare at me with wide eyes.
“Get away…!”
And just before his thrust could blow my arm away.
“What…?”
A black shadow suddenly surged out and coiled around Cheon Yu-hak’s Thunder Dragon Spear.
It was Black Shadow.
“What is this…!”
“Hey, don’t eat it! Let go! Let go, you brat!”
— Help. Will be. Prove.
Prove what…?
Fortunately, it didn’t seem to have any intention of eating the Thunder Dragon Spear. After spitting it out, it coiled back around my arm in the shape of a small snake and settled there.
What the, why did this guy come out all of a sudden?
“That is…?”
Oh, boy. Yu-hak saw the whole thing. A snake made of black shadows, how fascinating. Right?
I wonder how our Black Shadow plans to smooth this over.
— Eat?
…What? Don’t say such horrifying things.
“I see, an artifact. So the shadow traps you used occasionally were made with that.”
Could I knock him out with a hard blow to the back of the head and wipe his memory right now?
“I didn’t know because you only used it for traps, but it seems it can be used in more diverse forms than I thought.”
Huh…? Wait? The reaction is a bit different from what I expected. This sharp-eyed guy doesn’t recognize it? Really?
“To think you were hiding such a move, as expected of you. Let’s end today’s spar here. If you had lunged with your dagger the moment the spear was caught, it would have been my loss.”
“Uh, yeah. Sure. Let’s do that.”
…What, that was surprisingly anticlimactic. If I’d known it would be like this, should I have just used it normally?
I mean, while shadow-manipulating artifacts are rare, it’s not like there’s only one in the world.
Was I just being too self-conscious?
* * *
That hope of Kang So-hyun’s was, of course, just a hope. Reality was cruel.
Because after the dawn training ended, Cheon Yu-hak quite naturally called the others together using a group chat that didn’t include Kang So-hyun.
“Everyone is here.”
At this point, they were meeting so often it was almost like a regular gathering, but their attitudes remained serious and even grave.
“What do you mean by that? That So-hyun seems to have an artifact he can’t control?”
“I am certain. During today’s spar, an artifact surged out regardless of his will and protected him.”
However, the grave atmosphere lightened strangely the moment Cheon Yu-hak spoke. Based on his words alone, it wasn’t exactly a situation that felt like a crisis.
Cathy, Kang Ha-ni, and Kim Ga-eul—who were second to none when it came to caring for him—all reacted as if he were being oversensitive. What more needed to be said?
“…I mean, So-hyun’s artifacts are all quite unique, and artifacts that protect their master regardless of the master’s will aren’t exactly rare, are they?”
“Yeah, that alone wasn’t enough to warrant an emergency contact.”
“What a relief. I thought something huge had happened.”
“It was a shadow.”
“…What?”
“That artifact, it was undoubtedly in the form of a shadow. A form of shadow we know very well.”
However.
The moment Cheon Yu-hak explained why he viewed this situation so seriously, the students, Cathy, and even Park A-ram—who had been dragged there by Cathy—couldn’t help but stiffen their expressions.
“…A shadow artifact in the shape of a snake. Its energy was also very similar to the one ‘he’ uses.”
That’s right. Cheon Yu-hak was no fool.
He was certainly not an idiot who would fail to remember the energy of an artifact used by a powerhouse he had personally experienced.
He had simply judged that making a scene on the spot wouldn’t result in Kang So-hyun confessing anything, so he forced himself to stay calm. He decided it was better to consult with the others rather than complicate the situation by causing an uproar.
In other words.
“Everyone’s eyes have finally changed.”
“…This wasn’t the time to be drinking and playing around.”
“Since when? Why did it suddenly approach So-hyun? Why?”
It meant that, regardless of Kang So-hyun’s intentions, the gulf of misunderstanding was beginning to deepen once again.
In fact, if Park A-ram hadn’t been there, or if she had been in her usual calm state, the matter would have eventually been settled with the usual conclusion of ‘let’s be good to So-hyun.’
However, Cathy had insisted on dragging Park A-ram to this meeting, and A-ram was in a state of confusion from the incident that had occurred since dawn, plus she was slightly agitated from doing exercise she rarely did.
“…Actually, there’s a hypothesis that Leilan—I mean, the Chairperson—and I have. Would you all like to hear it?”
And so, she inadvertently spoke of something she would have normally approached with more caution.
“Unnie?”
“Professor? What on earth do you mean…?”
“Everyone, please keep in mind that this is strictly a hypothesis and could be slightly wrong. Still, Leilan and I have cross-verified it several times, so unfortunately, it likely isn’t far off.”
With a grave face, she began to slowly and very detailedly lay out the absurd hypothesis she and Leilan had formed.
Her deduction, created by coincidences interlocking and misunderstandings piling up, was unfortunately quite plausible and possessed a strange persuasiveness.
It was also content that clearly scratched the itch of certain suspicions the listeners had already been harboring.
“…So that’s how it was.”
“I see, it’s a possibility. All the strange behavior he occasionally showed now makes sense.”
That’s right.
To put it simply.
The individual misunderstandings they had each held until now, and the delusions about Kang So-hyun that seemed like they would never align, began to miraculously interlock at this very moment.
Against the backdrop of the nonsensical delusion that Kang So-hyun was being used by the Masked Villain with a specific purpose, receiving power in exchange.
They were accelerating the misunderstanding by sharing their deductions and conversations.
Whether it was a misfortune or a blessing for him that not a single person among them thought he and the villain were the same person.
And when the story finally ended after a long time.
It is said that they all had eyes filled with resolve.
It was the historic day the draft of the ‘Kang So-hyun Universe’—which would continue to torment him for a while—was born.
* * *
And as for what the protagonist of the story was doing.
“Hmm, since things turned out like this, maybe I should try strengthening Black Shadow before Ruyi’s repairs are finished? I haven’t really fed it much lately.”
Now that I think about it, it’s actually not a bad idea.
It barely uses any Innate True Qi when I use it as a main armament, and its utility is just as good as Ruyi’s.
Seeing as there was no real reaction even though I got caught, maybe it’s okay to just use it?
“I should’ve done this sooner if I’d known.”
He was spouting such foolish nonsense.