Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 77
>Chapter Title: Sparring Tournament (2)
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An unexpected cheer made me turn around and look behind me without thinking.
Meeting the gazes of my classmates, filled with faith and expectation, a thought naturally crossed my mind.
‘Why are they suddenly acting friendly?’
I couldn’t understand why these guys, who had been so distant until now, were suddenly behaving like this.
Sure, I was the one who had drawn the line first, but even accounting for that, it still didn’t make sense.
‘…Well. No need to understand the thought processes of these wannabe lunatics.’
Just as I was about to brush it off like that, Ju Seo-yeon suddenly stepped forward and took the lead in the cheering.
“Young Master Il-mok! We believe in you! Demonic Path’s Greatest Prodigy, Young Master Il-mok!”
Was she treating the spear on her back like a cheering tool? She shook it vigorously as she kept up the cheers.
‘…No way she thinks I’d like this?’
Her intentions were obvious. She wanted to curry favor with me to become my maidservant after graduating from the Demonic Path Academy.
‘I don’t get the motives of the other crazies, but why can I read the craziest one’s intentions so clearly?’
I decided it was because I’d already met someone from the same mold first—Gu Yang-mun.
On top of that, stimulated by Ju Seo-yeon stepping forward, Bang Mi-hwa also came out and started spouting nonsense.
“Hohoho. Young Master Il-mok! If you avenge us, I’ll make some time for you!”
Thanks to the two women’s drivel, the cheers from my classmates grew even hotter.
In the midst of it, Jeong Hyeon-man, unable to adapt to the heated atmosphere, stood off by himself in the distance, just mouthing words toward me.
I shook my head at the chaotic scene and turned my body back around.
“Hoho. He must be quite shy.”
Bang Mi-hwa’s weird nonsense drilled into my ears, but I decided to ignore it.
Because an even crazier person was approaching from the front.
“Young Master Il-mok. I lost, but I believe you’ll flatten that good-for-nothing’s nose.”
Even Dokgo Pae, looking at me with eyes burning with camaraderie as if we’d been friends forever.
Crazies everywhere.
* * *
Watching the youngest young master receive enthusiastic cheers from his classmates, Baek Cheon thought to himself.
‘It’s like I’ve become the villain or something.’
He didn’t feel particularly bad about it.
The thrill of crushing someone who was expected so highly was incomparable.
Dokgo Pae’s assessment of Baek Cheon was fairly accurate.
Up until entering the Demonic Path Academy, Baek Cheon had been called the Baek family’s good-for-nothing, and he hadn’t undergone some dramatic transformation.
He had simply realized a more efficient way.
Rather than rampaging selfishly and causing chaos, maintaining dignity in his actions made it easier to get what he wanted in the long run.
‘Defeat the youngest young master and win the Lord’s favor.’
After graduating from the Demonic Path Academy, it was essential for building his position within the clan.
That didn’t mean he was underestimating the youngest young master. Since he’d beaten that wild boar-like Mak Ho-yeol, he had to be no pushover.
But Baek Cheon believed he would win if he gave it his all.
‘Heh heh heh. I get to see the juniors’ faces crumple and gain the Lord’s attention too. Killing two birds with one stone.’
While Baek Cheon smirked slyly inside and put on a confident expression outside.
Il-mok had already taken his position opposite him, and the instructor’s shout rang out accordingly.
“Begin!”
But even at the instructor’s command, Il-mok didn’t rush at Baek Cheon recklessly.
“Hmm?”
At his defensive stance, Baek Cheon waved the feather fan in his hand leisurely and said.
“Huhuhu. More timid than he looks. Very well, I’ll come to you.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Baek Cheon swung his arm through the air, and the hidden weapons gripped between his fingers flew toward Il-mok.
They were darts he’d secretly drawn from his sleeve while speaking.
Several darts streaked through the air in succession, and Il-mok deployed his lightness skill, twisting his body this way and that to evade them.
“Huhuhu.”
Baek Cheon pressed Il-mok relentlessly with the face of a predator toying with its prey, as Il-mok couldn’t close in and was busy dodging or blocking.
* * *
“Hmm.”
Not long after the final spar he’d been most anticipating began, Chu Il-hwan slightly furrowed his brow.
‘If he hides his skills again, there will be a special interview—I clearly warned him.’
It was because of the youngest young master’s appearance, who wasn’t pressing forward but was merely scrambling to block and dodge.
Cha Eun-young, the instructor watching the spar beside him, sneered at Chu Il-hwan.
“They called him a genius, but he’s nothing special after all.”
As he pondered how to respond to his spiteful subordinate’s jab and clicked his tongue.
Swaaaaack!
Suddenly, a feather needle flew precisely toward Chu Il-hwan’s face.
Pat!
Chu Il-hwan, who had been momentarily lost in thought, hurriedly swung his feather fan and barely deflected the feather needle.
‘Whew. Nearly made a fool of myself.’
That feather needle had been thrown by Baek Cheon at Il-mok. It had simply flown toward Chu Il-hwan behind him as Il-mok dodged.
Getting hit by a stray hidden weapon from a student? If that happened, his dignity as an instructor would hit rock bottom.
“Pfft. What a flailing mess.”
Cha Eun-young jabbed at him again, and Chu Il-hwan began to feel a slight twitch of irritation.
‘If the Lord weren’t here, I’d smash her skull right now.’
As his killing intent rose unwittingly, making his right hand twitch, and his gaze shifted back to Cha Eun-young.
Chaeng!
A grating metallic sound rang out.
Swaaaaack!!
A dart came flying toward Chu Il-hwan at tremendous speed.
“!?”
Chu Il-hwan, who had briefly looked away, barely managed to block the dart.
And Chu Il-hwan didn’t miss it.
“Tsk.”
The moment he blocked the dart, the youngest young master clicking his tongue faintly.
“Heh heh heh heh.”
Finally grasping the situation, Chu Il-hwan let out a low chuckle tinged with madness.
‘Playing it like this, huh?’
The youngest young master wasn’t hiding his skills. He was just pretending to struggle.
The reason for the act was.
Chaeng!
To send Baek Cheon’s thrown hidden weapons toward him, like just now.
‘Revenge, is it?’
Having figured out Il-mok’s intent, Chu Il-hwan didn’t erupt in anger but let out an involuntary hollow laugh.
‘I thought he was a genius, but I didn’t expect this level.’
A spar against a senior from the previous cohort—no less the top graduate Baek Cheon—and yet he was precisely gauging his own position and deflecting Baek Cheon’s hidden weapons toward him.
What’s more.
Swaaaaack!
Baek Cheon’s hidden weapon, which clashed with Il-mok’s sword, accelerated as it flew toward Chu Il-hwan.
It defied common sense. Normally, a hidden weapon colliding with a sword would lose power and speed from the rebound.
Yet the youngest young master was altering the weapon’s trajectory using subtle sword principles at the moment of impact, and furthermore, pushing it with his sword at the last instant to accelerate it.
All while the intense spar was underway, targeting only the moments when he himself looked away.
It should have been infuriating, but Chu Il-hwan found it amusing instead.
‘Heh heh heh. The student’s laid out such an entertaining game—how could I ruin it?’
With a good idea popping into his head, Chu Il-hwan approached Cha Eun-young, who had been nagging and jabbing at him earlier.
Turning his back to the ongoing spar, he glared at Cha Eun-young and said.
“What did you say earlier?”
“Hmph. Distinguish between public and private. The Lord and Vice Lord are watching.”
Pretending to be outwardly enraged at Cha Eun-young’s mocking words, Chu Il-hwan inwardly heightened his senses to keenly monitor what was behind him.
“You think I’ll hold back just because they’re here?”
“Step aside, will you? You’re blocking the view of the spar.”
As he was about to retort to her words.
Seeing this as his chance with Chu Il-hwan’s back turned, Il-mok used the Pear Flower Intercepting Wood technique on Baek Cheon’s thrown dagger and sent it straight toward Chu Il-hwan’s occiput.
“Hmph. It’s because you’re short…”
Chu Il-hwan, mid-rebuttal to Cha Eun-young, suddenly bent at the waist as the dagger Il-mok had redirected neared his occiput.
Whoosh!
He evaded the dagger with a sudden duck.
Cha Eun-young, whose attention was fixed on Chu Il-hwan, only then had her view clear and belatedly spotted the dagger flying right at her face.
“Eek!?”
Startled, she let out a bizarre shriek and hurriedly swung her arm.
As befitting an instructor of the Demonic Path Academy, she barely deflected the unexpected dagger despite the surprise attack.
“Uhahahahaha. D-did you just say ‘eek’? Keh heh heh.”
Chu Il-hwan, who had bent over and was now clutching his stomach in laughter, mocked her, making her face flush beet red.
At that moment, a transmission from Demonic Path Academy Lord Yeom Ga-hwi pierced the ears of the two instructors.
- The students are watching. Both of you, restrain yourselves.
At the Lord’s command, both instructors hurriedly straightened their postures and looked toward the sparring platform.
But.
Pfft.
Cha Eun-young couldn’t hold back her anger at Chu Il-hwan’s deflating snort from beside her.
“Cadet Baek!!! How long do you plan to play along with your junior’s pranks!!”
* * *
Hearing the female instructor’s shout from behind, Il-mok glanced back and clicked his tongue.
‘Tsk. Already caught on?’
Chu Il-hwan grinning mischievously, and the female instructor beside him with a flushed face.
It seemed targeting Instructor Chu Il-hwan any further would be pointless now.
Turning his gaze back to the front, Il-mok thought.
‘Looks like this side’s caught on too?’
Perhaps because he’d been scolded in front of everyone during the spar, Baek Cheon’s face—which had been relaxed and confident until now—was distorted in rage, flushed red.
“How dare you humiliate me. You must truly want to die?”
Baek Cheon’s speech had completely changed.
“I’ll kill you!!”
Forgetting this was a spar, he bellowed with murderous intent and launched more hidden weapons.
“Tsk.”
Realizing it was too late to target Chu Il-hwan, Il-mok moved decisively.
Pat!
He closed in on Baek Cheon via the shortest path, deflecting the launched hidden weapons with minimal movements several times.
“Oh? Blocking them? Try blocking this too!”
Baek Cheon swung the feather fan he held toward the rapidly approaching Il-mok.
The fan qi clinging to the fan sliced through the air like a sharp blade toward Il-mok.
Chaeng!
Il-mok generated sword qi and easily deflected the fan qi, stepping forward once more.
Pat.
“Keh heh heh. Die already!”
At the hinge of the fan pointed right at Il-mok’s nose, iron prongs suddenly sprang out.
‘Crazy!?’
Il-mok, who hadn’t expected hidden weapons in the fan, twisted his entire body desperately to avoid a hole in his head.
Thanks to his heightened focus, the scene of the iron prongs grazing past his nose appeared in slow motion to Il-mok’s eyes.
‘Whew. Nearly died for real.’
To think he’d resort to such despicable tactics even in a mere spar, not a life-or-death duel.
As Il-mok let out a sigh of relief after barely saving his neck.
“You damn bastard! How dare you dodge my attack! Just die already!”
Baek Cheon, who had already retreated again, spewed curses nonstop while hurling more hidden weapons.
‘…Is this why he was called a good-for-nothing?’
With his mask off, Baek Cheon boasted a mouth fouler than a street thug.