Chapter 37: Academy Exchange Meeting — Turn (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 37: Academy Exchange Meeting — Turn (1)
Speed Weapon once asked me:
—Geomma, who do you think among our peers has made the greatest leap forward?
I answered without a moment's hesitation. They say birds of a feather flock together; I often had thoughts similar to Weapon's.
‘Chloe.’
To Weapon, it seemed an unexpected answer. Then again, our class was packed with talents like Abel, Ryozo, Rachel, and Leon. Calling us the "Golden Generation" wasn't an empty boast. I doubt a lineup like this could ever be assembled again, whether now or in the future.
Because this was a lineup deliberately constructed by that damn Counterforce.
According to the original scenario, Chloe Auditore was not included in that illustrious roster.
Like me, she started out as Extra B. Originally, she would have spent a quiet cadetship in the Tiger Class before operating in the shadows as a member of the Auditore.
The culprit who derailed her almost smooth (?) life trajectory... was me.
Meeting me completely flipped Chloe's life upside down. Once nothing more than Extra B, she craved strength as if possessed. She constantly walked a tightrope over a precipice, whipping herself forward.
—That’s true for Ryozo, Abel, and Rachel too!
That was true. Everyone worked hard.
However, once the primary enemy, the demons, lost their self-sustainability, opportunities to sharpen real-combat instincts vanished.
Chloe alone was different. The enemies of Auditore do not lie outside. They seek out and excise the tumors festering within.
Her combat sense hadn't dulled in the slightest. Far from dulling, it grew sharper with each passing day. On that point alone, she was at my level.
So, the conclusion is...
Rumbleeeee.
Killing intent so bone-chilling that even I got goosebumps. That was the realm Chloe had attained, soaked in blood through countess massacres.
“Sword Demon Kun.”
Chloe had grown strong.
“I’ll protect you.”
So she possessed at least some right to say those words. At least a little.
Episode. Academy Exchange Meeting
The Blood Moon.
Also called the Blood Moon, it was a rare meteorological phenomenon even in this world teeming with fantasy tropes.
Ironically, the Black Sun—something you could never see on Earth—hung permanently in the skies of the Demon Realm.
It could be said to be the rarest sight in the sky within this world of Miracle Blessing M. And that Blood Moon was now dominating the night sky.
“Making things... difficult for... Sword Demon Kun...”
Draped in the cold night air, Chloe took a step forward. Having just snapped out of the vision, I couldn't fully gather my senses right away.
Screeeech.
Ugh, dammit. It wasn't an excuse; a headache was genuinely throbbing. A piercing pain felt as if a bundle of needles were rolling around inside my head.
Just as Chae Lina said, it seemed to be the process of erasing memories. The vision was a dream, and the evaporation of memories was the natural next step. I’d need Lycan's help to keep holding onto them, though...
‘To think he’s absent at a time like this.’
For this to happen while we were taking time apart. Because of that, my memories were slated to be wiped while my eyes were wide open, and I almost got severely done in by Chae Lina.
Screeeeeech.
The spine-chilling sound of metal dragging across the pavement clawed at my mind. Chloe was dragging her katana across the ground as she approached Chae Lina.
One step, then another.
To my eyes... her back looked as if a red filter had been overlaid across it. Sure enough, the Blood Moon was shining down on the earth. This wasn't a hallucination; it was reality.
Even while gritting my teeth in pain, I couldn't help but marvel internally.
‘To think she sharpened Raven’s Blessing to this extent.’
Raven's Blessing was the greatest presence-concealment blessing in existence and the symbol of Auditore. It was a unique ability that condensed one's presence and killing intent internally rather than releasing them.
It was written on Kkeomuwiki that one could trigger a sudden rampage of all that tightly compressed killing intent in a single moment.
According to the lore, anyway.
I’d never seen it myself. I heard that realm was something even the head of Auditore, Al'tair Auditore, only reached around the age of sixty.
Screeeeeeeeeeeech—
Chloe achieved it. In her twenties, she altered the battlefield's atmosphere through sheer killing intent alone. Right now, she had mastered a divine feat that only the Sword Emperor, Spear Saint, Al'tair, and I could pull off.
Chae Lina also looked visibly flustered. She maintained an indifferent expression, but she couldn't trick my eyes. Her eyes rippled like the reflection of the moon on the fountain water.
In that instant.
“Your name.”
Slowly stepping closer, Chloe opened her mouth. Her voice rasped as if scraping the inside of her throat.
“...Are you Huginn or Muninn? Why are the ravens of truth here? That shouldn't be happening. That... violates narrative logic...”
Chae Lina muttered incomprehensible nonsense. Catching a glimpse of the words that followed, it sounded like a poem.
Huginn and Muninn fly every day
Over the spacious earth.
I fear for Huginn that he will not return,
Yet I worry even more for Muninn.
It was so completely out of nowhere that despite my chaotic mind, a dry laugh escaped me. What on earth was Chae Lina so obsessed with? I felt like capturing her right here and having a three-way confrontation with Yoo Se-in immediately.
Chloe approached nonchalantly, merely tilting her neck with a creak.
‘Chloe in that mode.’
It had been a really long time. No matter when I saw it, it made my knees buckle.
“Auditore always asks for a target’s name before executing them. So I will ask once more.”
Chloe spoke again. It was an ultimatum.
“Your name.”
“I’m... My name is...”
...Whoooosh.
Chae Lina’s voice scattered. A mountain wind blew in from the north. The wind, which had crisscrossed the paths and slopes of the Alps Mountains, had finally reached Parsi Academy.
Me, Chae Lina, and Chloe. The space in front of the fountain where the three of us faced off was noisily silent. The sounds of the wind and the fountain had somehow turned into white noise.
Flex.
A faint sound of muscles coiling echoed. The source was Chloe's thighs.
KABOOM!
The silence that had lasted for a moment shattered with Chloe's explosive leap. Stamping her foot with enough force to cave in the ground, she closed the distance in a single breath. There was no time to block it.
‘She intends to kill Chae Lina.’
Having experienced Chloe’s methods firsthand, I knew. Once she made up her mind, she carried it out. She would achieve it no matter what.
Furthermore, she was in ‘that mode.’ The cool reason that could restrain her had long since melted like ice in her blood-red madness.
‘I need to step in.’
Pathetically enough, my feet wouldn't move. Driving me insane. Should I just give up my humanity and ascend to a full god at this rate?
As I cursed under my breath, Chloe's shoulders blurred. A wind-and-water-tearing sonic boom reverberated. The blade clad in red killing intent blasted toward Chae Lina.
Chae Lina seemed to flinch, but quickly moved her hand toward her hip. Rather than relying on luck to dodge, she intended to launch a counterattack.
CLANG—!
A resonant metallic clash. From the epicenter, visibly distinct shockwaves rippled outward in multiple layers.
In the dead of night, the three of us engaged in this violent encounter widened our eyes as if by agreement.
“...Ah shit, ptui.”
The intruder was Saintess Yoo Se-in.
Reaching out both arms between Chloe and Chae Lina, she deployed a barrier. A pair of wheels with rotating runes blocked the attack and protected Chae Lina.
“Haah, seriously. Throwing up barriers all the time drains my divine favor...”
Yoo Se-in complained while a nosebleed trickled down her face. Judging by her pale complexion, she was forcing herself to act nonchalant.
“...Move.”
The other personality of Chloe spoke, pressing her blade hard in midair where it was blocked by the barrier.
“Oh, ho. Look at this. Turns out there are two personalities in one body?”
Yoo Se-in somehow managed to smile with trembling hands. Then, in a split second, she broke her gaze away from Chloe and turned around.
“Two personalities in one body. Huginn and Muninn. The ravens of thought and memory.”
Yoo Se-in forced a gentle smile on her face and spoke to Chae Lina.
“Isn't this enough to satisfy narrative logic?”
“You... what are you...”
This time, Chae Lina was noticeably shocked as well.
“Let’s save... phew... introductions for later. It seems we have a lot to talk about regarding narrative logic. Hoo-aah. Besides, aren't there three more left after Ragnarok? If you act like this from the very first round, how are you going to handle the ‘end’?”
“You... you're a snake.”
A shrill, cracked voice echoed as if her vocal cords were tearing.
“That black-haired mister over there doesn't care about the laws of the universe, but reading the setting lore of this world happens to be my job. And well, that lore book can only be read by a reincarnator like me, you know? Don't you know that too?”
“...That’s.”
“In the first place, the three of us are entities forced into existence by the Counterforce, ignoring all narrative logic. Whew. So, if you spill any more divine secrets here, things will spiral out of control even further... Ugh, I’m dying here. Anyway, you just take a nap for now.”
Yoo Se-in moved her bloodless lips once more.
“Obliviate.”
Chae Lina’s eyelashes fluttered once before gently closing. As she fell backward with half-closed eyes, Yoo Se-in formed a barrier on the ground to catch her.
‘She neutralized Chae Lina with a single word.’
Se-in finally turned her head toward Chloe.
“Amor Aeternus.”
“...Uh, ...uh.”
In stark contrast to her stance of trying to smash the barrier with all her strength, Chloe’s eyes went unfocused. After blinking a few times, she soon met the same fate as Chae Lina. Gurgle, gurgle. The peaceful sound of the fountain returned gently.
“Oof, I’m really gonna die, gonna die.”
Yoo Se-in placed both hands on her hips and arched her upper body back. After groaning for a long while, she turned her head toward me.
“Kang Geomma, you are truly a sinful man.”
She shook her head side to side.
“...In so many ways, really.”
* * *
We decided to call Weapon and leave the two unconscious girls in his care. He came running barefoot with a messy bedhead. Judging by his appearance alone, he looked thoroughly unreliable, but we were decade-old friends.
We were completely in sync. Weapon didn't ask me this or that; he called personnel and had Chloe and Chae Lina transported on stretchers. They were sound asleep with no signs of waking up, which made transport easy.
We cleared the scene. Yoo Se-in and I relocated. Using my Lightning Magic, we left Parsi behind and took up position on a peak of the Alps Mountains. Snowflakes whipped against my skin.
“There’s no one to overhear us here, so this is great.”
“Aren't you cold?”
“Since when are possessors and reincarnators afraid of the cold?”
Yoo Se-in chanted a spell.
“Luce in altis.”
A golden shield with a three-meter radius materialized around us. Inside, it was warm and cozy, feeling almost like being a fetus.
“...”
As drowsiness set in, a sudden wave of reality hit me.
‘What kind of nonsense is this?’
Talk about a bolt out of the blue. How could so many things explode in a single night?
‘My memories are evaporating in real time, too...’
The harder I tried to grasp them, the more they slipped through my fingers like sand scooped up on a beach. Seriously driving me insane.
Yoo Se-in glanced at me as I stood with a hollow expression despite my weariness. Then, she nonchalantly patted my shoulder a couple of times.
“I recommend you just forget it if you can. That was something you weren't supposed to hear or see in the first place, Geomma. That pretty girl just made a mistake because she was in a hurry.”
“What is everyone so rushed about anyway? Let me in on it. I’m going crazy from frustration.”
Yoo Se-in brushed it off even more coldly than the alpine snow and rain.
“I told you earlier. It violates narrative logic. My desire to tell you is burning like a furnace, okay? But if I do, the single viable variable will collapse, so there’s no choice.”
“What are you, Doctor Strange?”
“Oh, wait. You saw that movie before coming here? Fuck—I got dragged in right before that came out!”
High up the slopes of the Alps Mountains, beneath an exquisitely enchanting view, a silly exchange between two Otherworlders continued for a moment.
“Anyway, Geomma, focus on this Exchange Meeting. The next event is Skoll and Hati.”
“Not giving me a straight answer must also be because of the Counterforce and narrative logic stuff.”
“Wow, look at you! They say even a dog at a village school recites poetry after three years. You’ve gotten pretty quick on the uptake after hanging out with this big sister, huh?”
Should I hit her?
“I’ve hidden clues all over the place, so put your heads together with your friends and figure them out.”
“Are they just my friends? Yoo Se-in, they're your friends too.”
“Friends... ah, right.”
Dwelling especially on those two words, she gave herself a light bonk on the head, sticking her tongue out halfway.
“Look at my mind wandering.”
Softly smiling, Yoo Se-in raised her head. She closed her eyes, bathing fully in the moonlight.
“Don't worry about the redhead and the pretty girl for a while. I’ll handle them. I can't explain right now, but those two are absolutely necessary.”
“...Got it.”
“Just so you know, treat the redhead better. You might not know it, but she devotes herself to you wholeheartedly, body and soul. Whew, Oh Lord, please do not forgive this sinful man’s sins. He’s absolute Satan, Satan.”
“...”
Unnoticed, the murky haze that had draped over the full moon had cleared away.
“Mmm, the weather’s great!”
Close to the heavens. Here, at five thousand meters above sea level, I did not look up at the sky. I stared silently at Yoo Se-in, who was soaking in the moonlight.
‘You’re fighting your own battle in your own way.’
On the other hand, what about me, Kang Geomma? I only run away. Making shallow self-excuses about how my responsibilities have grown. It was a moment when I longed for the recklessness of my boyhood.
‘If something comes up...’
Rustle.
I rubbed the front lapel of the black coat Abel had gifted me with my thumb, feeling its firm texture against my skin.
My true master.
The moonlight guiding me.
My two sashimi knives comforted me. Telling me not to be afraid. That even if the apocalypse comes, as always, they are with me...
An hour passed, and I forgot ‘the recent experience.’ However, it was not complete oblivion; it bobbed like residue on the surface of my consciousness.
But I never imagined that it would actually come in handy. And like that, of all things.
* * *
[Until the ■■ of □□ (0/4)]
[Reward: 【? ? ?】]
* * *
It returned like a boomerang in the form of a status window.
* * *
The second event was the center of utmost attention.
Viewers whose dopamine had overflowed during the Flag War were completely enchanted by the Exchange Meeting.
People desperately waited for the next episode. The reality that it wasn't dropped all at once like Xflix felt incredibly cruel.
Five days passed.
Ⓐ Invincible Sashimi: It's starting!
Amidst everyone's anticipation, the Hero Association announced the name of the next event to the world. Entitled Skoll and Hati. They were the names of the wolf brothers from Norse mythology.
Various speculations circulated online.
Some suggested that since they were twin wolves, it might be a three-legged race. It was half-joking.
...I knew it.
Ⓐ Invincible Sashimi: A chariot race, for real?
It was, after all, the 21st century.