Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Unforgettable Training Camp (5)
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'Why the hell is the Wraith Legion here...'
Cheon scowled. This was no ordinary situation. Wraiths were creatures faithful to their own 'grudges' by nature. For them to move in an organized fashion meant one of two things usually. Either they shared the same grudge, or...
No matter that this was beyond the border, no matter how dense the forest, the light of the lighthouse still reached the skies here.
This was no place for the Wraith Legion to roam. They loved the darkness and hated even the sight of light. So what did it mean that they were here anyway?
'This isn't a coincidence.'
[An academy cloak... How nostalgic.]
No sooner had he finished the thought than a voice rang out. It came from a man dressed in pitch-black eastern-style formal robes. Cheon's face hardened. It was a clean voice. So clear and resonant, it was impossible to believe it belonged to a wraith.
'This is chilling.'
Just hearing it felt like it was staining his soul. Cheon bit his lip and spoke.
"...You know who we are, yet you reveal yourself?"
[Heh heh... No need to act tough. You and I can see right through each other, can't we?]
"If you think we're weak just because we're young, you're in for a rude awakening."
Even as he said it, Cheon gripped his spear tightly. With his precognition pushed to its limits, there was no need to worry about a surprise attack. In a battle involving the Iseo Clan, the one who could always see further into the future held the first strike.
The wraith laughed.
[Iseo. Iseo. The great Iseo of the Ten Great Families. You always delude yourselves into thinking you hold the future in your grasp.]
"We've never held the future. We just choose it."
[Believing you can choose it is arrogance to begin with. Look at the future you've chosen. Look at this Northern Region, I say. The children, the artisans who devoted their lives to nothing but baking bread, the scholars who said they'd be content just finding one more flower unknown to the world—they all perished in the night.]
"...You talk like we destroyed the North. You just got beaten by the Seeds of the Night while wasting time on art, philosophy, and other pointless nonsense. Victim mentality like that's a disease. As if a wraith's mind could ever be healthy."
[How ignorant. So utterly ignorant.]
The wraith shook his head. Thick tears of blood welled up on his ashen skin, smooth without a single wrinkle. The wraith muttered darkly.
[That ignorance will kill you today.]
The words had barely ended when Cheon's spear flashed. It was too fast for the eye to follow. The spear that wrapped around the wraith who'd been speaking at length before him whipped up a vortex that swallowed the ground, reducing four wraiths to ash.
It should have.
'He's strong...!'
Cheon ground his teeth. The vortex he'd mustered with all his might tore apart the moment it touched the wraith's sword. Even third- and fourth-year seniors couldn't nullify his strike that easily.
Which meant the wraith was at least professor-level.
Cheon ground his teeth and shouted.
"Hay and Serifa take the front. Macdead and Lungil on the flanks, Hazelrek and Millet on the rear. Anya, Ban—you stick with me and help wherever it's needed. Move!"
Second-years: Cheon, Hay, and 'Iron Fist' Serifa.
First-years: Anya, Lungil, Macdead, Ban, Hazelrek, and Millet.
Against them, the Wraith Legion numbered at least thirty.
'We have to hold.'
Cheon fired a white signal flare into the sky. Reinforcements would take... about half an hour.
Even if he stood on the same timeline as the others, his eyes saw a bit further into the future. If he helped anyone before they fell into crisis, they might hold out without casualties until reinforcements arrived. It wasn't impossible, he thought.
And then Cheon realized it was far harder than he'd imagined.
In the futures he foresaw, Macdead died five times, Hazelrek twice. Millet had his guts ripped out by wraith hands, and Lungil charged the wraith captain only to have his head lopped off without resistance by a single sword stroke.
Among the first-years, only Ban and Anya could fight back without his help.
"Huff... huff..."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, ah..."
Cheon felt like he needed two bodies. Pushing his precognition to the limit left no room for rest. Living through two timelines at once was no small burden. That was why the Iseo Clan rarely engaged in all-out battles...
'Where the hell are reinforcements?'
No matter how far he peered into the future, they weren't coming. Even pushing past his limits into the distant future, nothing changed.
And that was when it happened.
Anya sighed.
"No way..."
No one was hurt yet. But they couldn't help feeling an unprecedented chill.
The white signal flare lit up the sky.
Not just theirs, but dozens more, illuminating every sky in the borderlands.
The wraith shook his head with a eerie chuckle.
[Did you think it would be that easy? Did you think the North's grudge was that light? Did you think it ended decades ago?]
[No.]
[Our grudge is far from resolved.]
[It won't end until the Kingdom falls.]
"......"
Cheon held his tongue. He had no idea what was happening under those lights. Maybe the lights themselves were fake. The other groups might be progressing smoothly.
The wraith captain spoke.
[But no matter how complex the maze, there is always an exit.]
[I shall grant you your last hope personally.]
[Hand over the lighthouse keeper's kin.]
[Then you can all leave without further sacrifice.]
"You were after... me?"
Anya asked in a trembling voice. As the daughter of one of the Nine Great Clans, it'd be a lie to say she'd never faced a kidnapping attempt. But a wraith wanting to kidnap her? That was a rotten joke, even for them.
The wraith captain laughed. He gazed at Cheon, who couldn't easily respond, as if he understood everything, as if hesitation was only natural.
And well he might. The wraith captain had never truly joined the assault before now.
'Can we win?'
Cheon pushed his precognition. He bit his lip. Dozens, hundreds of ways to challenge him... but the moment the wraith drew his sword, the outcome was always defeat.
Hay approached. Even he, always smiling, couldn't smile now.
"Cheon. Can we do it?"
"...I don't know."
For an Iseo to not guarantee 'victory' meant only defeat was visible. Hay bit his lip.
"Then let me..."
"You guys, run...!"
Before Hay could finish, Serifa cried out with a pale face, stepping in front of them and thrusting her fist.
And that was her last act.
The hand said to crumple even iron plate like paper sliced off like a reed. Two fine lines appeared on her pretty face only to tear it apart in an instant, and her severed legs stood on the ground, unaware they'd lost their owner.
"...What?"
"Se, Serifa...!"
[You think too much. I trimmed it down a bit. How's that? Still want to stand on honor? Just abandon her like you did the North, and it'll all be over.]
Cheon trembled, unable to respond. His classmate had died right before his eyes, yet it didn't feel real. His mind filled only with questions.
What should he do? Really abandon Anya? Would they keep their promise? Fight? But foresight showed only defeat against him. If they all died knowing the end, wasn't it better to save who they could?
Why was a monster like this here?
Weren't wraith legions supposed to lurk in the darkest nights?
Was war breaking out?
If so, they had to survive.
He had to report this.
But how could he abandon a junior?
Refusing to abandon one junior and letting others die—did that make sense?
His thoughts spiraled endlessly. Everyone looked to Cheon. Anya stared blankly at Serifa's mangled corpse and the speechless Cheon, as if refusing to believe this was real.
And as they did, the wraith captain's lips curled up.
"There's no need to agonize, senior."
It was Ban. He glared at the wraith captain, gripping Yuri's broadsword.
"Serifa-senior's dead. They want to take Anya. We're not so lame we'd tuck tail against scum like that."
"B-Ban..."
"I wouldn't beg mercy from the bastard who killed Serifa-senior anyway, and I have no intention of abandoning Anya to scrape by. Let's go down swinging. To the end. Together. At least we die together, right?"
It might be a nuisance. 'Die together' might just be his own thought, and maybe Cheon wanted to run.
But who knew. Death could come anytime. For a swordsman, how you lived mattered as much as how you died, didn't it?
Maybe childish thinking. Sure. He was young. But so what? Youthful choices had their own value, didn't they?
The wraith captain was looking at Ban now. Terrifying. He knew just from meeting eyes. This wraith held power beyond his reckoning.
He didn't blame Cheon for freezing. It was that strong. Bluffing against an unbeatable foe might just be foolish.
Truth was, he wanted to run too.
He wanted to live.
Live to become a swordsman.
But never once had he wanted to be a swordsman who survived by abandoning comrades.
So...
"If you're already dead, go haunt the afterlife. Why play the villain here?"
A laugh escaped him, unbidden.
How strange.
Only facing death did he finally feel like a true swordsman.