Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Stimulation (4)
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A space filled with pure white light.
Standing within it was a towering colossal wall and a girl clutching a spear.
Stab— Stab— Stab—.
Teresa relentlessly thrust her spear toward the wall.
The wall before her eyes was already covered in the marks she had left over a long time.
Like a massive beehive, it was riddled with thousands, tens of thousands of holes.
Stab— Stab— Stab—.
As she thrust her spear at the wall, Teresa felt puzzled.
‘I… was training?’
Stab— Stab— Stab—.
At the same time, she realized.
‘Ah… it’s a dream.’
It was a lucid dream.
A dream where she recognized it as such.
But that awareness soon faded, and vagueness clouded her mind.
‘A dream? Or reality?’
Teresa was confused.
Whether this was a dream.
Or if she was training in reality.
How long she had been doing this.
Everything was unclear.
So she gave up thinking.
‘…Doesn’t matter.’
Dream or reality, what did it matter?
She had always been thrusting her spear.
In reality.
In dreams.
She was obsessed with thrusting her spear to the point where the boundaries between the two worlds crumbled.
And there was only one reason.
To shatter the wall right before her eyes.
Stab— Stab— Stab—.
She drove the spear in without rest, solely for that purpose.
And finally.
Stab—.
Crack—!
The wall, pierced like a beehive, finally crumbled.
Rustle—.
As the massive wall collapsed into fist-sized chunks of stone, a fleeting light entered Teresa’s eyes, which had resembled rotten fish eyes.
‘Ah!’
It was ecstasy.
The overwhelming thrill of finally breaching one wall.
With that, Teresa slowly stepped forward.
Through the rising dust.
Over the wall that had blocked her until now.
One step.
Two steps.
And three steps.
Exactly three steps in.
The thick dust settled, and her vision cleared.
And what was revealed…
‘Ah…….’
Another wall.
Not the one she had just shattered, but a pristine one.
And taller, thicker.
Having broken one wall, another now blocked Teresa’s path.
As always.
‘…….’
The ecstasy in Teresa’s eyes soon turned back to rotten fish eyes.
She gripped her spear.
‘Again…….’
Step step—.
Teresa walked silently to the wall and began thrusting her spear once more.
As always.
Stab— Stab— Stab—.
* * *
Yuri tilted his head at the unbelievable story and asked,
“Freakshow?”
“There were plenty of other nicknames too. Cripple, inferior, and so on. The Winchester family is such a famous house that when the scandal finally broke after so long, everyone was chattering about it.”
“Wait, that cripple—you mean someone with some kind of physical disability… right?”
“Yeah, that cripple.”
“But Teresa Winchester seemed perfectly fine to me?”
Though he hadn’t known her long, Teresa had never shown any sign of discomfort.
If anything, she seemed healthier and sturdier than most.
She didn’t seem like someone who’d be called freakshow or cripple.
At Yuri’s question, Johan answered immediately.
“As expected, her whole body from head to toe is already…….”
“…Old man, say one more word.”
Grrrrr—.
“I’ll cling to you like a dog and tear you apart, even if it crushes every bone in my body.”
“Ahem, a-anyway! It’s true that the child from the Winchester family was called freakshow.”
“I’m telling you, she’s fine.”
“Tch, she looks fine on the outside.”
“Then……?”
“That child was one who should never have been born into a martial house.”
“…What does that mean?”
“Do you know how prestige settles on a family?”
“What’s with the random question?”
“Because they’re powerful? Rich? Have great martial body arts? Sure, those play a part. But what makes a great house a great house… is bloodline.”
Yuri still looked lost, so Johan slowly continued his explanation.
“To be precise, it’s the talents passed down through the bloodline from generation to generation that make a great house.”
“Ah…….”
Building power.
Amassing wealth.
Mastering martial body arts.
All human endeavors, so talent is crucial.
And for descendants of a family that rose to prominence through martial prowess, excelling in martial body arts was a given.
It was obvious.
But that obvious truth…
Didn’t apply to Teresa.
“As one advances in realms, they inevitably face walls. Low realm or high, you must overcome or shatter the wall to progress. And so-called geniuses face walls ridiculously lower than others.”
The walls geniuses faced weren’t just low.
They were thin and easy to shatter, and while others walked ten steps to a wall, geniuses walked a hundred, a thousand before hitting one.
No blocks meant rapid growth, naturally.
But Teresa was different.
“They say that child… has a constitution that hits walls unusually often from birth.”
“Is that even possible?”
“If there are geniuses, there are dullards too. So naturally, some hit walls more often than others, right?”
“…Yeah, that makes sense.”
“Well, Teresa isn’t a dullard. Her basic aptitude is said to be exceptional. The problem is she encounters walls with bizarre frequency compared to her talent.”
It wasn’t just more walls.
Teresa’s walls were taller and thicker than others’.
Shattering or overcoming them required several times the time and effort.
“In a martial house where talent in martial body arts is paramount, that bizarre constitution of hers… is no different from a curse from heaven. That’s why she was called a cripple and freakshow.”
Looking at the silent Yuri, Johan continued slowly.
“Think about it. Even starting the same and reaching the same realm, you advance a step without facing a single wall.”
“…….”
“But that child faces ten, a hundred, or more walls just to cover the distance you do in one step.”
Yuri asked cautiously,
“Then… what happens?”
“Are you really asking because you don’t know?”
No, Yuri knew.
He was just confirming.
To check if his thoughts were right.
Catching on, Johan answered flatly.
“People in this world tear their hair out in frustration, stalled at a single wall for years, even decades. Plenty go mad from the despair. Facing several times more such walls… is agony we can hardly imagine.”
“…….”
“If she’d been born to an ordinary family, her curse might not have been an issue. But the house she was born into is Winchester. The premier martial house, Winchester.”
If Teresa had given up living as a martial house heir, her life might have been easier.
But the Teresa Yuri saw hadn’t given up.
She wouldn’t have entered the Cradle on an Imperial Dragon Token if she had.
Nor would she have thrust her spear even after fainting, training so maniacally.
“Ah……!”
Yuri let out a short sigh.
His face went slightly blank.
‘…So that’s it.’
He finally understood.
The frustration and irritation seeing the fainted Teresa.
The source of that unpleasant feeling.
It was…
‘Loathing.’
Self-loathing.
‘Teresa, that person…….’
Her skill was in no way inferior to his current level.
And that was achieved purely through effort, despite her curse.
She had survived the Imperial Dragon Token trials through pure effort.
Pushed herself endlessly to claim top spot in the 49th cohort.
Yet she didn’t rest.
Right after the spar, she dove into training.
Even to the point of passing out.
But what about him?
‘When was the last time I trained that intensely?’
He hadn’t done proper training since entering the Forest of Beginnings.
‘Was I too busy to train?’
No.
He could have if he wanted.
No, cutting sleep, he could have trained no matter how busy.
Before the Forest of Beginnings, hadn’t he lived that way?
That’s why he grew so fast.
Yet just this morning.
[Can’t I afford to slack off a little?]
He’d thought that while strolling the forest path.
Yuri mocked himself.
‘Slack off? Me? What have I even done?’
Fifteen steps in the Hundred Steps Rite?
Dethroning the Sword Lord?
‘That… wasn’t my achievement.’
His limit was ten steps.
The Sword Lord hadn’t even glanced at him then.
It was Johan’s demon that let him reach fifteen.
That brought the Sword Lord down from the throne to face him.
‘Yet I was arrogant, thinking I did it all alone.’
Seeing the fainted Teresa made him realize it.
His heart knew, but his head lagged, causing frustration and irritation from the disconnect.
‘Senior Teresa…….’
He thought again.
What it must have felt like for Teresa, born in a martial house with that curse.
And the efforts she made to enter the Cradle on an Imperial Dragon Token and reach now.
‘Jerry said it: Teresa only started standing out recently.’
Before, she was probably no different from other token holders.
Her accumulated blood and sweat finally bore fruit lately.
‘…Teresa Winchester.’
It was a first for Yuri.
Feeling envious of someone’s ‘effort’.
Feeling ashamed of his own.
And strangely, his heart raced.
His body itched to start training right now.
Johan silently watched the quiet Yuri.
‘Hm?’
Yuri’s shifting eyes piqued Johan’s interest.
‘Something happened with that Teresa girl, it seems.’
Something about Teresa had stimulated the kid.
One of those shifting gazes was rivalry.
And Johan didn’t mind that.
No, he welcomed it.
‘Rivals… won’t come easily for Yuri.’
Like himself, this kid would outpace peers unrivaled.
Others would chase him later, but he’d always lead alone, fighting only himself.
So Yuri gaining stimulation from a peer was invaluable.
‘Then I should make that experience even more valuable.’
Johan smiled inwardly.