Chapter 27
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Finding the Lost Conscience
-----------------------------------------------------------------
At the sound of my name coming from Number 143’s mouth, I turned to Uijin with sparkling eyes.
“See? I told you they were scheming.”
Uijin looked down at me with a look of utter disbelief at my hushed whisper.
“You’re happy about getting disqualified?”
“At least I didn’t get any points deducted.”
I clamped my mouth shut at Seongliri’s voice and perked up my ears.
“Who’d get caught messing with a canteen? Things were going perfectly according to plan, and I wasn’t about to get found out.”
“That’s bullshit. You looked fine.”
“That’s just because he only sipped a little at a time! I still messed up his condition.”
Number 143 sneered, and Seongliri shot back sharply.
I recalled how my stomach had been rumbling nonstop lately.
My perpetually empty canteen.
And how Seongliri kept offering me his.
Uijin let out a deep sigh and strode up the stairs. The two turned at the sound of his footsteps, their eyes widening in shock.
“I’d like to hear more details about that conversation you were just having.”
They stumbled back, scrambling for an escape, but they couldn’t slip out of Uijin’s sight.
“Yeah, explain exactly what you fed me. It’s not going to permanently damage my body, is it?”
“Gahhh!”
“Mooommm!”
When I poked my head out from behind Uijin, Numbers 143 and Seongliri screamed in unison like they’d seen a ghost.
Number 143 frantically pointed at Seongliri and spilled everything without a shred of loyalty.
“It was him! He came to me first and suggested we knock out Number 1 together! He told me to make sure you couldn’t drink from your canteen! I only tampered with yours, but this bastard poisoned a fellow trainee!”
Uijin’s expression hardened at the word “poison.” The pressure he exerted on them grew heavier.
“…Poison?”
Seongliri shook his head desperately in denial, his legs trembling as he struggled to stay upright.
“It’s not poison! I can prove it!”
“Yeah, let’s hear it, Instructor. I’m curious why he was fine after drinking the same water, but my stomach was killing me.”
There was one reason I’d taken Seongliri’s canteen and drunk from it.
He’d drunk from it right before handing it over.
But there’d been a faint bitter aftertaste at the end, so even though Seongliri seemed fine after drinking it, I’d only taken tiny sips.
Yet he was completely unaffected, while I’d been running to the bathroom nonstop.
Seongliri bit his lip hard and trudged over, plucking a single blade of grass.
“I put the sap from this plant’s stem in the water. The sap by itself has no effect. But…”
He glanced at me before continuing.
“If you combine it with those dark red berries growing behind the training hall, that’s when the effect kicks in.”
“Dark red berries… You mean the ones you kept giving us as snacks, saying they were edible?”
The ones he’d fetched for us when we’d complained about dry mouths.
Come to think of it, he’d skipped them himself, claiming he hated sour flavors.
“Effect? What kind of effect?”
“It stimulates the bowels. It’s a common prescription for patients with constipation or women from ordinary households trying to lose weight.”
This little shit fed me laxatives.
No wonder I kept needing the bathroom. What if it had hit during the exam? You vicious bastard.
Especially climbing the cliff… Ugh, I don’t even want to imagine.
Lost in that horrifying thought, I felt Uijin grab my cheeks with one hand and turn my face this way and that.
“No wonder you look a bit thinner…”
He released my cheeks and smacked the top of my head.
“I told you not to eat random crap.”
“Everyone else was eating them too.”
I pouted in protest, and another heavy flick landed on my forehead.
Uijin turned to Numbers 143 and Seongliri, who were fidgeting with their heads bowed, and delivered his verdict.
“It wasn’t poison, so no formal punishment. But you intentionally sabotaged another trainee, so as of today, you’re both disqualified from the Mount Hua Sect Core Disciple entrance exam. It’s late, so pack your things at the training hall first thing tomorrow morning and leave.”
Number 143 tore at his hair and stomped down the training ground stairs.
In stark contrast, Seongliri stood frozen, tears streaming from his wide eyes.
“Come on, let’s go.”
Judging it unwise to leave him alone, Uijin shoved Seongliri and me down the stairs.
As soon as he dropped us off at our room in the training hall, closed the door, and left, I spoke up.
“Why pit me against Juyeong?”
“That idiot got caught dumping your water by Juyeong. He figured if you two fell out, Juyeong wouldn’t tell you about it.”
What Juyeong had told me wasn’t about Number 143 dumping my water—it was about him putting dirt in it.
Wait, I’d been ranting about finding the guy who dumped my water, and Juyeong knew the culprit all along but didn’t say shit?
I shot Juyeong a betrayed glare, and he rolled over in his bedding.
Fine, at least he told me eventually. He probably would’ve kept quiet forever if I hadn’t helped him on the cliff.
With my low expectations from the start, forgiveness came easy.
I turned back to Seongliri squarely.
“Why’d you do it?”
“Because if you failed, my chances of making the top thirty would go up.”
He wiped away tears irritably and answered. Then he suddenly exploded.
“I had to pass this exam! I’m sick of being the eldest, stuck raising my thoughtless little siblings under parents who just fuck around!”
No sooner had Seongliri’s outburst ended than a sharp scoff echoed in the room.
Seongliri and I whipped our heads toward the source.
Juyeong had thrown off his blanket and sat up, sneering.
“What a load of crap. You’ve got parents and a home to go back to, and that’s your desperate, noble reason for dragging someone else down?”
“What do you know!”
As the atmosphere turned hostile, I clapped my hands to draw their attention.
“Look, everyone’s got their own stories and hardships, so let’s not belittle that. Seongliri, quit yelling—my ears hurt. Just apologize to me.”
Seongliri, who’d been glaring daggers at Juyeong, deflated at my words.
“Sorry. It won’t hurt your body or anything.”
I nodded warmly at his straightforward apology.
“There’s the Zhongnan Sect selection exam next month. They’re a lower level than Mount Hua, so you should pass that one easy.”
“Why invite me to Zhongnan while shitting on Zhongnan…?”
“Huh? Did I shit on Zhongnan?”
I’d only repeated what I’d heard at Mount Hua, but if it came off as an insult, my bad.
“Anyway, good luck not getting caught pulling shit there.”
With that, Seongliri gave me a complicated look before pulling his blanket over his head.
I put out the lantern and lay down. Soon, faint sniffles came from his corner.
Listening to them stirred something odd in me. Did I forgive too easily? Should I go punch him and send him packing?
As I pondered, Juyeong sighed.
“If you’re gonna bawl your eyes out, at least go to some empty room far from here so we can’t hear you. If your crying keeps me up and I fail, you taking responsibility?”
Even toward someone leaving tomorrow, Instructor Juyeong of the Fearsome Maw showed no mercy. The sobs gradually faded.
And so the last night sharing a room with three passed in silence.
* * *
Before the wake-up drum even sounded that early morning, Seongliri stood at the Selection Hall gate, eyes puffy, and held out his hand to me.
“I hope we cross paths in Shaanxi someday.”
Reading the subtext—good luck on Zhongnan’s exam, and definitely pass Mount Hua’s—I grinned.
Instead of shaking his hand, I balled my fist and socked him in the face with just enough force.
He clutched his stinging cheek and stared blankly at me as I waved brightly.
“Bye. Consider us square now.”
“Yeah, Biyeon. Don’t just take whatever people hand you anymore.”
Seongliri fired back one last time before striding out the Selection Hall gate without a backward glance.
I watched him descend the stairs, then turned to head back to the training hall. That’s when I spotted Numbers 143 and 500 approaching side by side.
Number 143 looked down at me, his discomfort plain on his face, patted Number 500 on the back, and hurried through the gate.
He’d gotten enough of a beating yesterday, so I let him go.
I grabbed the hem of Number 500’s uniform as he glanced at me and turned to leave.
“Why’d you help me? You told me to go check the training ground.”
He scratched his head, sighed deeply, and confessed readily.
“Truth is, I kept seeing Inseo messing with your canteen but looked the other way because I wanted you gone.”
Juyeong, Number 500—why didn’t any of you speak up when you first saw it?
You guys have the most ambiguously installed consciences.
I patted him as we headed to the training ground. We’d end up late and booted out that gate together at this rate.
“But then I thought of my little brother and regretted it. Before he left, he told me to tell him what the exam was like if he joins as an Outer Disciple next year.”
I nodded, picturing Number 500’s twin, who’d missed the cutoff by a single step and had to turn back.
Number 500 ruffled his own hair, squinted, and grumbled.
“How the hell am I supposed to face him when he learns I turned a blind eye to cheating just to knock someone else out and pass?”