Chapter 33
I’m translating the chapter now and will preserve the HTML rules, including styled blocks for the system-like and network messages. After that I’ll do a quick consistency pass to make sure the chapter title and formatting are clean.CHAPTER_TITLE: Chapter 33
At the word “passed,” Irene shot me a murderous look, and Park Deokin’s face went blank.
“W-What do you mean, passed!?”
He shouted it, apparently only just now realizing what had happened.
“Ah.”
I was the same. I’d only belatedly realized the situation myself. Irene was staring at me.
Still, I couldn’t take it back now. I’d already seen it.
“...You passed.”
“Aaaah! Thank you……!!! Mommmm!!”
Park Deokin threw himself toward the floor and screamed. He seemed so overjoyed that I could even see tears running down his face. Watching him, Irene said to me in a chilling voice.
“...Are you insane?”
“...”
“No, seriously... ha...”
Before she could say anything else, she brushed back her hair.
“...Come see me later.”
“...Yes, ma’am.”
She was really terrifying.
* * *
After Irene left, the exam was over.
Just like that, it really had ended in no time. I hadn’t even seen anything that could be called a proper test, so that made sense.
What do I do?
I think I’d made a huge mess of things.
...I never would’ve thought something like that could show up.
What had appeared was the hidden rank beside the one that looked like C-class.
I suspected that was what they meant by potential when I’d heard about it before.
The eye that sees deeper things.
I’d never expected the skill I’d newly acquired in my mindscape to have an effect like that.
I’d wondered what I was even supposed to do with it, but it was an absurdly powerful ability.
And on top of that...
SS-class?
It was the SS rank, of which only three had ever been confirmed in the entire world.
And that Park Deokin had the talent of an SS-class superhuman.
As I thought about Irene’s reaction in the middle of that absurd situation, I muttered to myself.
“...Will this be okay?”
Probably not.
She looked terrifyingly angry. My head hurt. Was I going to die later because of this? Just as fear was starting to creep up my spine—
“H-Hey……!”
“You can’t do this……!”
I heard someone’s voice. I turned around and saw Park Deokin from earlier.
He was being held back by another staff member.
“...Me?”
I pointed at myself, wondering if he was calling for me, and Park Deokin shouted in a hurry.
“Th-Thank you so much! I’ll work really hard……!! Really, really thank you……!”
“...Ah. No, it’s nothing.”
His desperate expression made me give an awkward smile. That was when it happened.
Eye of Enlightenment has been activated.
The condition for awakening from Spirit Doctor (C) to Spirit Master (SS) is the affinity of the spirits you possess.
Currently, there are no spirits belonging to Park Deokin.
...That was a very considerate skill. I hadn’t expected it to tell me the method too.
Spirits?
I’d heard of them now and then, but where was I supposed to find a spirit? I’d accepted him because I’d seen hidden talent in him, and now it seemed there was a slight problem.
Hiss.
In any case, Park Deokin was eventually dragged away by the staff, and while I was still thinking about how to clean up the mess I’d made, someone else came into view in the distance.
“...”
“...”
Our eyes met. That much was certain.
The first to speak, frozen in place, was me.
“Long time no see.”
“...Uh.”
Jin Yeonhui looked uncomfortable at my greeting. Seeing that, I gave a bitter smile. She still seemed irritated with me.
“You’ve been well? I heard from Gyeongbeom that you were doing fine.”
“...In my own way.”
It was a short answer. Did she not want to talk to me?
At that, I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly.
“Yeonhui.”
“Yeah.”
“Just in case I’m making myself clear—”
I chose my words carefully.
“If what happened back then is still bothering you, you don’t have to carry it alone.”
“...”
As soon as I said it, she went rigid.
“Our parents’ deaths weren’t because of you—”
“I’m sorry. I have to go first.”
Jin Yeonhui left those words behind and hurried off. Watching her go, I let out a sigh.
It seemed that for now...
For now.
...that memory was still too painful for her to untie.
And that was probably...
No different for me.
It likely wasn’t any different for me either.
* * *
Dong.
By late evening, I pressed the doorbell carefully. I couldn’t sense any presence inside, but I knew better than to judge by that alone.
“...Are you there?”
I called cautiously. As expected, there was no reply.
“I, uh, bought a cake. If it’s okay with you—”
Creak.
The moment I spoke, the door opened. The scary part was that nobody had opened it.
...I guess that meant I could come in?
I gingerly stepped inside. Nothing happened. I changed into the slippers by the entrance and headed for the living room.
There was...
A demon.
A demon sitting there. Irene, sitting with the most terrifying expression in the world.
“Cake.”
She looked at me and said it flatly.
“Yes?”
“What kind of cake?”
“Oh, chocolate.”
“...Chocolate?”
“Yes.”
She watched me with interest. Had I made it through? At her reaction, I said hurriedly,
“No, it’s just, I asked around and they said you often bought cakes there... I looked at the ones you’d bought, and it seemed like you’d tried every kind?”
“So?”
“But you hadn’t had chocolate, so... I brought it.”
“...Hmm.”
After hearing my explanation, Irene’s knees loosened slightly.
“...Sit down.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
Just as I was about to sit down with permission—
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
Irene stopped me. And then—
Whoooosh-! A gust of wind swept through the room. The breeze brushing past me made me furrow my brow. Then—
“I cleaned off the dust.”
“...Yes, ma’am.”
Following Irene’s words, I sat back down in the chair.
When I quietly handed her the cake, she immediately took it out of the box.
At the same time, she produced a fork from nowhere and took a bite.
“Not bad.”
She nodded, looking satisfied. Good. Had I survived?
“So. Why did you do that earlier?”
Nope. Apparently not.
I swallowed dryly.
I’d accepted a C-class applicant. What was I supposed to say? That I’d just done it without thinking? As all sorts of excuses flashed through my head—
“...No, it’s just, uh...”
“It was unusual.”
“I had my reasons, too. Huh?”
Irene kept her eyes on the cake as she spoke to me.
“A C-class should, in the first place, be someone who can’t even take the exam. But the fact that he came to the test site anyway means there was something there.”
“...Ah.”
She was right. It didn’t make sense for a C-class to show up for a knight exam in the first place.
But he’d come anyway? I hadn’t thought that far.
“So I looked into it...”
Irene handed me something. It was a sheet of paper. A document containing Park Deokin’s information.
“Another screening process...”
“...Another one?”
“Search.”
“Search?”
At that, I checked the information. It contained an explanation about a Spirit Doctor.
I’d wondered what a Spirit Doctor even was...
The skill was unusual. Just as the name suggested, it dealt with healing spirits, but it was said to have the power to identify and track a target’s characteristics or certain fragments of them.
“Remembering characteristics or fragments means...”
One reason surfaced in my head.
“...Was it because of the God of War?”
His request to find the God of War. I wondered if that was why he’d been brought in.
“Maybe?”
“...”
“But that wasn’t the only thing...”
Irene looked at me with a strange expression.
“He definitely seemed like he had something...”
“Seemed like it?”
“A feeling. I trust my instincts. Did you feel anything too?”
“...Uh, yes. Something similar.”
“Your intuition... is good. Unlike how you look...”
“Haha.”
Honestly, the one with truly good intuition seemed to be her.
I don’t really know what she means by “a feeling,” though.
If what she was talking about was similar to the potential I’d seen, then that was something extraordinary.
I was identifying it through a skill, but in her case, she was truly grasping it by instinct.
“Still.”
Clink. The fork came toward me and stopped right in front of my face.
“...Be more careful next time.”
“...Understood.”
“...I’m letting this one go because even I thought it was a little ambiguous.”
“...Thank you.”
“Now go.”
“Understood. Thank you.”
Thank you for sparing my life. Repeating the words in my head, I headed outside.
* * *
Click.
The door shut, and Irene, left alone, stared silently at the cake.
“Hmm.”
She did have a good instinct. That much was true. Or maybe it was better to say her field of vision was wide.
It changed her opinion of Lee Jinwoo a little.
It wasn’t because he had gone out of his way to buy cake. Plenty of people had brought her gifts simply because they’d heard she liked cake.
But...
...Similar type?
She thought back to what had happened at the test site.
That one’s no good, and that one’s no good either.
When she was clearing people out one by one, there were times when someone acceptable would slip in among them. Whenever she watched for that...
He’s looking?
Lee Jinwoo, who had been busy checking profiles, sometimes stared at people for a long moment.
She had thought it was a coincidence.
What is it?
That man called Park Deokin. She had been about to brush off the clumsy man who appeared there, but...
Hmm?
Something in him felt different. It was a subtle difference. Seeing that, Irene had hesitated. A C-class rating meant there was nothing to be done.
Even if it was ambiguous.
And so she was about to declare his disqualification.
-Pas-
-Child.
The voice inside her called to her, and just as she was about to flinch at it—
-Pass!
Lee Jinwoo, standing beside her, shouted it aloud.
“...”
She took another bite of cake. The sweet chocolate flavor spread across her mouth.
“...It’s good.”
Could there have been something there? Had he seen what magic failed to catch?
She didn’t know.
...And now isn’t the time to think about that.
Irene shook her head. Right now, neither Lee Jinwoo nor Park Deokin mattered.
She had to remember why she had come to Korea in the first place.
The God of War.
She had come to find him.
With that in mind, Irene moved her hand.
Would you like to enter the Reincarnation Network?
Dragon Magician has entered.
She entered the network under the nickname she had set. She continued to sift through the endless stream of messages, and at the same time, she checked the inbox she had sent.
The comment she’d left for the God of War still had no reply.
Had he simply not seen it because there were too many? No, that wasn’t it.
Even if he had seen it...
...He still wouldn’t have answered.
Irene believed that much. And because of that, she was even more curious.
Just what...
Where was he, and what was he doing? What did he want? And why...
...had he appeared at all?
A hazy memory. Fragments she could barely glimpse because her Synchronization Rate was so low nagged at her thoughts.
“Hmm...”
With those thoughts in mind, she closed the network.
...Where is he, and what is he doing?
As Irene closed her eyes and thought of the God of War...
* * *
“Now what the hell is this...”
Lee Jinwoo, meanwhile, was holding his head in frustration as he faced an uncomfortable situation.
And a very serious one at that.