Chapter 154
Chapter 154
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 154
>Chapter Title: Practical Training (4)
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After spending the night in the barren wasteland amid swirling sand and dust, the Viscount Unit members and Demonic Path Academy cadets set out on their journey once more.
The Viscount Unit members, who had shown great interest in Il-mok on the first day, now began approaching some of the other cadets one by one.
“Huff. Huff.”
A short-haired cadet struggled to maintain lightness skill while regulating her breathing. One of the Viscount Unit members cautiously approached her.
He opened his mouth to offer advice.
“When using lightness skill, channel your internal energy…”
But before he could finish, the short-haired cadet, Jeong-hyeon, flew into a panic.
“Eek!”
Startled by the sudden voice of the unfamiliar man, Jeong-hyeon let out a scream and tripped over her own feet, collapsing to the ground.
The Viscount Unit member, shocked by the sight, drew closer to help her up, but Jeong-hyeon’s face instantly drained of color.
“Hey! Pull yourself together!”
As the panicked member grabbed her shoulder to shake her awake, fearing she might faint.
Snap.
Instructor Eun-ryeo, who had silently approached, grabbed the Viscount Unit member’s arm.
“She’s extremely shy. I’ll handle her and catch up, so please go on ahead.”
“I-is that so?”
With Eun-ryeo’s brief explanation, the well-intentioned Viscount Unit member nodded awkwardly and moved on.
Only after the approaching man had left did Jeong-hyeon finally regain her composure. She bowed her head deeply and apologized.
“I-I’m sorry, Instructor Eun-ryeo.”
“I’m fine, so don’t worry about it.”
Rather than helping Jeong-hyeon to her feet, Eun-ryeo stepped back instead.
Jeong-hyeon had already been startled once, and approaching her now might trigger another episode.
“Phew.”
As Jeong-hyeon sighed in relief and stood up, Eun-ryeo pondered for a moment before speaking.
“I’m not the issue. The problem will come after you graduate from the Demonic Path Academy. Whether it’s a combat unit or anywhere else, you’ll have to join somewhere eventually.”
“…I’m sorry, Instructor.”
“It’s not something to apologize to me for. But for that time, you’ll need to adapt little by little.”
“I-I’ll try my best.”
Eun-ryeo nodded once at Jeong-hyeon’s bowed-head response and spoke.
“We’ll fall behind if we delay any longer, so let’s get moving.”
The group was all using lightness skill or riding horses, already pulling far ahead.
Following the sand dust and footprints they left behind as markers, Jeong-hyeon and Eun-ryeo ran for a while before soon rejoining the group. They had stopped to rest.
Upon returning to the procession, Jeong-hyeon whipped her head around, her face set with determination as she began walking.
‘Instructor Eun-ryeo is right.’
She needed to practice mingling with people.
‘I-I mingled in the drama club too, so it shouldn’t be hard.’
Recalling her club days and steeling her resolve, she headed toward the very Viscount Unit member who had approached her earlier.
Having startled the one who meant to give advice, Jeong-hyeon decided to apologize.
“J-Just now, I-I’m sorry.”
She mumbled tensely, bowing her head. The Viscount Unit member started to stand up, but.
“Eek.”
Seeing her flinch in panic at his movement, he froze with an awkward expression.
“Ahem. I’m fine, so don’t mind it.”
“Th-Thank you.”
Jeong-hyeon bowed once more and turned away.
“Eek!”
But she screamed again at the presence of another Viscount Unit member approaching from the side, even though they were more than ten feet apart.
“Eek!”
After that, every few steps, she startled and nearly tumbled over. Watching this, the Viscount Unit member stroked his prickly beard thoughtfully.
‘She’s an interesting one.’
Turning his head, he scanned the surroundings and realized the amusing sights weren’t limited to her.
“Oh ho ho ho ho!”
From one side of the camp came the bold laughter of a young woman.
Looking over, he saw a female cadet covering half her face with a fan, unleashing a stream of haughty laughs.
“You’ve been using lightness skill for several hours—aren’t you tired?”
When a nearby Viscount Unit member asked, the fan-wielding cadet, Bang Mi-hwa, let out another haughty laugh.
“Oh ho ho ho. This is nothing to Bang Mi-hwa.”
Her clothes were caked in sweat and dirt, her face and hair matted and sticky with the same—yet.
She laughed haughtily as if it were nothing at all.
The Viscount Unit members around her saw it as youthful bravado from a young cadet and watched with fond amusement.
“Oh ho ho ho. As expected, no one can take their eyes off me.”
Her self-esteem soared sky-high as always.
“Mi-hwa, you’re the best! How can you look this beautiful after camping overnight and running all day?”
Ha-yeong was eagerly fawning over her from the side.
Their unabashed declarations drew wry smiles from the watching Viscount Unit members.
‘Oh ho ho ho. They keep smiling at me—they must all be smitten and unable to escape my charm.’
Of course, to Bang Mi-hwa, those were smiles of lovestruck men, not wry amusement.
Jeong-hyeon’s screams, Bang Mi-hwa’s narcissism, and Ha-yeong’s barrage of praise echoed for a while.
The Viscount Unit Leader, Eachwon, who had been timing with an hourglass, stood up and shouted.
“Time’s up—prepare to depart!”
An hour after resuming the journey at his command.
“Hm?”
A strange sound escaped the lips of the lead Viscount Unit member.
“Someone’s approaching.”
The Viscount Unit Leader muttered to himself, sensing the same thing.
“It’s finally showtime!!”
Suddenly, Dokgo Pae shouted excitedly and charged straight ahead alone.
“D-Dokgo, President… St-Stop…”
Gwak Sul, whose collar Dokgo Pae had grabbed with one hand, trailed behind.
But Dokgo Pae soon had no choice but to halt.
“Stop.”
A middle-aged man who had flown forward blocked his path.
He was the one who had first voiced suspicion earlier—the leader of the First Squad in the Viscount Unit.
“Overprotection isn’t needed!! A true warrior grows through real combat, doesn’t he?!”
Dokgo Pae yelled at the First Squad Leader blocking his way and tried to charge again, but the squad leader’s hand was faster.
Swoooosh.
The spear drawn in an instant stopped right before Dokgo Pae’s throat.
“They’re just passing nomads, not our targets. And above all, disobeying orders means forfeiting your head.”
At the squad leader’s threat, Dokgo Pae inexplicably grinned with delight.
“I welcome a spar anytime!”
Clang!
As if his body itched for action, Dokgo Pae drew his massive sword and struck at the spear. Their impromptu duel began.
Of course, it didn’t last long.
Though Dokgo Pae was a vice president at the Demonic Path Academy, he was still just a cadet.
Thwack!!
The First Squad Leader’s spear easily exploited a gap in Dokgo Pae’s massive sword form and struck his side.
“Guh…”
Even as intense pain choked his breath, Dokgo Pae swung his massive sword again.
Thwack!
Each time, the squad leader’s spear targeted gaps and battered his body.
He wasn’t stabbing, but the blows were fierce enough to nearly break bones.
In mere seconds, Dokgo Pae was covered in bruises all over and collapsed.
“Whew. Thanks for the lesson! Looking forward to next time!!!’
Unlike someone who’d just been thoroughly thrashed, he yelled with ecstatic joy.
His mad behavior screamed lunatic to anyone watching, but both cadets and Viscount Unit members accepted it with resigned faces.
“The cadet who got dragged off earlier—was called ‘Dokgo,’ right?”
“Hm. I heard this class has the Dokgo family’s eldest son. Must be him.”
“Disobeying superiors like that already—his Massive Sword technique must be quite advanced.”
The Dokgo family’s eccentric tempers were already infamous within the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
The journey continued after that. During repeated marches and rests, it was inevitable that some Demonic Path Academy cadets and Viscount Unit members would suffer demonic art side effect outbreaks or rampages.
But comparing frequencies, the cadets overwhelmingly had more incidents.
Considering demonic art side effects intensified with higher realms, it was odd—but also natural.
Humans adapt. The longer one stayed at a realm, the more they acclimated to and controlled the side effects.
Those heavily afflicted were usually those whose realms had surged rapidly.
Greater martial talent meant greater risk of side effects.
In the Viscount Unit, the veterans had mostly adapted to their side effects or transcended to Extreme Demon, weakening them.
Thus, the Demonic Path Academy cadets—fastest-growing and most emotionally unstable age—stood out with their side effects.
“…This class is especially bad.”
Even accounting for that, the Viscount Unit Leader shook his head, unable to adjust.
As the sun fully set and everyone prepared to camp, the leader scanned them. His deputy nodded at his remark.
“Last class, aside from the Baek family’s second son and that Mak Ho-yeol cadet, they were fairly well-behaved.”
“There’s at least four here as bad as those two.”
The leader and deputy’s gazes turned somewhere.
Piercing the darkness, a cadet slipping away from camp toward somewhere—Il-mok.
“Heh… Taking time for a proper bath even now.”
Naturally, Il-mok was among their list of lunatics.
* * *
The next day, after preparing at dawn and running half a day.
By afternoon, they reached a fairly large village in Singang—their first destination, Torovan.
Since the Viscount Unit’s target was raiders preying between Torovan and Hapmil, they took time there to regroup.
Feeding horses, preparing food and water, visiting the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s branch hall in Torovan for intel.
By the time preparations finished, the sun was setting.
“The areas they frequent have no cover to block sight, so moving together risks them fleeing from afar. From now, we’ll split into six squads disguised as merchants.”
The Viscount Unit Leader continued his briefing.
Thirty-eight Viscount Unit members, four Demonic Path Academy instructors, four assistants, and twenty cadets.
Sixty-six total, divided into six squads of eleven.
The six squads would spread out, patrolling the raiders’ main haunts from Torovan to Hapmil—that was the plan.
“Each squad leader gets these signal flares. Don’t fire early or they’ll bolt—wait until close, after combat starts.”
Il-mok watched the chattering leader with a bored face, thinking.
‘Six squads means one-in-six odds of encounter. Might just end with a leisurely stroll.’
No fight needed, a faint smile tugged at Il-mok’s lips.