Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 70
>Chapter Title: First Exam (5)
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‘Damn it!! In a fight, you have no choice but to look straight ahead!?’
The moment he faced Bang Mi-hwa's face head-on, Il-mok's obsessive symptoms began to surge.
And while Il-mok hesitated.
Bang Mi-hwa and her team members, who had closed in nearby, boldly charged at Il-mok's teammates.
Naturally, Bang Mi-hwa went for Il-mok herself, but she wasn't alone.
‘Even so, just in case there's any danger, wouldn't it be better to have one more person supporting?’
It was because Bang Mi-hwa had taken Ha Young’s advice.
In the end, Bang Mi-hwa and one cadet from the E Class rushed at Il-mok.
“Ugh! You filthy bastards!!”
Choi Woong faced Ha Young and another E Class cadet.
Finally, the weakest of them, Joo Seo-yeon, was targeted by one cadet from another team.
The one silver lining.
Swaaaa!
Jeong Hyeon, who had pulled back in advance, was providing support for the team from afar.
But that was merely preventing the worst-case scenario.
It was just barely holding on thanks to Jeong Hyeon’s support.
Among them, Il-mok was on the verge of losing his mind right now.
- Now's the time!
- You're fighting because of the exam anyway, right? You have no choice.
- Just use the Moonlight Carving Technique on her face!
- Balance the left and right! She'll probably love it too?
Another self sprouting wildly in his head kept tempting him to bring his sword to Bang Mi-hwa's face.
The last shreds of Il-mok's rationality clung on, grasping the logical flaw in that clamor.
‘Exam or not, the moment you bring a sword to her face, it's over!!’
Subduing without causing serious injury was the prerequisite condition allowing combat in this exam.
Major facial reconstructive surgery would shatter that condition entirely.
“Ugh.”
Il-mok unwittingly swung his sword, nearly slashing Bang Mi-hwa's face, but barely stopped his arm.
“Hmph.”
Seeing that, Bang Mi-hwa—convinced Il-mok loved her too much to attack—smiled arrogantly and swung her fan.
‘Damn it. At least avert my gaze for now.’
Il-mok had no choice but to fight with his eyes unnaturally averted.
He focused only on Bang Mi-hwa and the other cadet's bodies and weapons, avoiding their faces.
It allowed him to hold out, but the basics of combat were reading the opponent's movements.
Clang!
“Tch.”
Not reading their eyes was a huge hindrance in every way, and above all.
“Damn it.”
Forcing himself to avoid Bang Mi-hwa's face made his movements inevitably awkward.
* * *
Meanwhile.
Unlike Choi Woong or Il-mok, Joo Seo-yeon, facing a single cadet one-on-one, was the only one with even a bit of leeway.
Of course, she hadn't caught up in skill just from diligently training for twenty days.
Her opponent was from A Class, and Joo Seo-yeon had barely passed into the Demonic Path Academy to begin with.
On top of that, even if she'd trained her hardest for those twenty days, her opponent hadn't been slacking either.
So.
Swaaaa!
Thanks to Jeong Hyeon’s arrows flying in occasionally, she could at least hold her own.
The exam rules preventing her opponent from using dangerous techniques also helped.
Thanks to those two factors, Joo Seo-yeon, who had some breathing room, quickly realized.
At this rate, they were in danger.
‘If we all get subdued like this, we can't take second place!’
Even if she subdued her opponent with Jeong Hyeon’s help, if Choi Woong or the Young Master fell in the meantime, it meant nothing.
Those two had far greater influence than her. Especially the Young Master, who had no equals.
So why was that unequaled Young Master struggling against just(?) two attackers?
As Joo Seo-yeon's thoughts reached that point, a long-forgotten memory surfaced.
- He already adores me, so he'd never hurt me, unlike you, Cadet Joo.
Bang Mi-hwa's nonsense from when she'd sought her out on purpose.
But judging by the current situation, it didn't seem like nonsense after all.
‘The Young Master’s tastes run that way, huh.’
The thought arose naturally, but that wasn't important now.
Convinced the Young Master couldn't bring himself to attack Bang Mi-hwa because of love, Joo Seo-yeon made a bold decision.
To claim second place from this wench, for a rosy future with Jin Ha-yeon!
Clang!
While her flustered opponent barely blocked an incoming arrow.
Instead of swinging her spear at the enemy, Joo Seo-yeon.
Thud!
Suddenly launched her body toward where Il-mok was fighting.
“What the!?”
The panicked enemy hurriedly chased after Joo Seo-yeon and swung his sword at her, but it was a bit too late.
Joo Seo-yeon, propelling herself in a surprise move, hurled her entire body at Bang Mi-hwa.
“!?”
Bang Mi-hwa, about to swing her fan at the unexpected assault, had to hastily alter its path when her opponent threw herself defenselessly.
She had to subdue, not kill or seriously injure.
And in that instant when Bang Mi-hwa flinched. In that brief moment Joo Seo-yeon blocked Bang Mi-hwa's face with her body.
‘Now.’
Il-mok's sword, momentarily freed from the petrifying gaze, moved decisively.
Bending like a snake, the blade avoided Joo Seo-yeon's body and struck Bang Mi-hwa's meridian point precisely.
“Ugh.”
The moment Bang Mi-hwa's body stiffened from the meridian strike.
Thump.
Joo Seo-yeon crashed into her, and the two tumbled across the ground.
Joo Seo-yeon had also been struck in her meridian by her pursuer mid-leap, leaving no room for a proper landing technique.
But even with her meridian sealed, Joo Seo-yeon didn't stop talking.
“I’ve got this woman pinned, Young Master!!”
And Il-mok, fully released from his seal, wore an oddly cold expression for some reason.
“Aaah. It's been a while. This sensation.”
His rampage began, his obsessive symptoms already inflamed by Bang Mi-hwa simply shifting to his sword.
It wasn't slaughtering the enemies with a thousand cuts and ten thousand kills.
It was just that the obsession had transferred to his blade.
Il-mok's sword traced a perfect path, so beautiful the word slipped out naturally.
“Guh….”
The cadet cooperating with Bang Mi-hwa against Il-mok had his meridian sealed in a single exchange.
“…Damn it.”
The cadet who had chased and subdued Joo Seo-yeon spat curses upon realizing something was wrong.
Pok.
But Il-mok's sword, flying like an arrow, had already struck his meridian.
Having swiftly sealed two more, Il-mok moved with uncharacteristic urgency.
To aid Choi Woong, who was under attack...
Whoosh!
No.
It was simply to vent this maddening obsession's backlash by swinging his sword.
“Kuuh….”
Ha Young and the other cadet attacking Choi Woong couldn't hold out long against Il-mok's sudden joining and had their meridians sealed.
Joo Seo-yeon, who had been watching the fight while pinning Bang Mi-hwa, cried out in admiration.
“As expected of the Young Master!”
Even lying there with her meridian sealed, she didn't stop talking.
“Huff. Huff.”
Choi Woong, who had been under attack until moments ago, panted as the thought crossed his mind.
‘To think we tried to take down a guy like this with three people. I must've been insane.’
It was a moment of newfound realization of his past foolishness.
And Jeong Hyeon, who had fled far ahead to provide support, belatedly pushed through the brush and returned.
“Y-Young... Master?”
Jeong Hyeon stopped a zhang away and called out to Il-mok, who was still gripping his sword, trembling.
But instead of answering, Il-mok said something out of left field.
“Don’t come near me.”
With that, Il-mok suddenly began a sword dance.
- Not enough yet.
- To make that woman’s face symmetrical, I need even more refined swordsmanship.
It was rehearsal for Bang Mi-hwa's plastic surgery.
“…….”
But at that breathtakingly beautiful sword dance, far beyond their level, Choi Woong and Jeong Hyeon could only stare in awe.
“Young Master! If it’s over, could you unseal my meridian please!?”
“Eek! Get off me quick!”
Only Joo Seo-yeon, ever thoughtless, and Bang Mi-hwa pinned beneath her, let out piteous cries echoing through.
* * *
The day after the exam.
They were diligently training in martial arts as usual, but a strange atmosphere hung in the air.
Unlike before, the training was under the supervision of an assistant instructor instead of Instructor Chu Il-hwan, and cadets were being called one by one to some hall by the assistant.
Instructor Chu Il-hwan was in that hall.
He was informing the cadets of their exam results through individual interviews.
“Cadet Il-mok, enter.”
At the assistant's call, Il-mok's face turned ashen.
It wasn't because his strategy of hiding his skills had gone up in smoke due to yesterday's exam.
‘To be alone in a room with that lavender pervert instructor!’
The mere thought sent chills down his spine, and it was about to become reality.
Il-mok entered the hall feeling like he was being led to the slaughterhouse.
“Come in.”
“Yes, Instructor.”
Like Jeong Hyeon, Il-mok exchanged greetings while keeping a zhang's distance from Chu Il-hwan.
“Have a seat.”
“I prefer standing, Instructor.”
“???”
Chu Il-hwan stared at Il-mok with a baffled expression for a moment.
Shrugging as if it didn't matter, the instructor smiled brightly and asked.
“I saw that sword dance at the end of the exam. Impressive.”
“Ha. Haha. W-Well, inspiration struck me in the heat of battle.”
Il-mok joked around.
He didn't want it known he'd been hiding his skills, and above all.
‘I can’t exactly say it was practice for plastic surgery!’
It was a complicated story all around.
Chu Il-hwan smiled faintly, taking Il-mok's answer as a mere lie.
“Inspiration, huh... So your skills suddenly improved.”
“Y-Yes, that's right. Haha.”
“Haha. If that's what you say, then sure.”
Narrowing his eyes at Il-mok, Chu Il-hwan grinned mischievously as if struck by a fun idea.
“By the way, I hear you and Cadet Bang Mi-hwa are quite close.”
Having shadowed Il-mok's team throughout the evaluation, he'd witnessed the final fight and hadn't missed it.
The fact that Il-mok had floundered, unable to attack Bang Mi-hwa at the start.
Normally he'd dismiss it as rumor, but having seen it himself, he couldn't help but wonder.
The Demonic Path Academy didn't particularly care if cadets dated, but he was just feeling playful.
Il-mok, about to deny the instructor's absurd nonsense, realized something crucial.
‘Why would this lavender pervert instructor ask that? No way!?’
Quickly composing himself, Il-mok replied in a solemn tone.
“I can't speak carelessly where someone might get hurt. But this much I can say for sure. I love only ‘women,’ Instructor.”
“???”
Chu Il-hwan stared at Il-mok with a look of utter bewilderment at the sudden nonsense.