Chapter 40: Academy Exchange Meet - Twist (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 40: Academy Exchange Meet - Twist (4)
They lost.
Let me emphasize this.
Joaquin lost—miserably.
Episode. Academy Exchange Meet
The chariot carrying Abel and Ji Chang-hyuk hadn't even completed half a lap before its tail was caught. The defenseless metal balls were kissed by Parsi’s wolves.
Parsi's wolves eagerly licked the metal balls, as if pleased with the target. They seemed to be made of something canines loved. Perhaps that served as a catalyst to boost the wolves' motivation.
However, for those on the receiving end, it was nothing short of humiliation. Before thousands of spectators and hundreds of millions of viewers, the chariot carrying Abel and Ji Chang-hyuk was breached from the "rear." Starting with a snicker that burst from someone’s mouth, the vast arena instantly transformed into a sea of laughter.
"The 2nd-year match goes to Parsi!"
Abel hung her head with trembling fists, while Ji Chang-hyuk looked completely resigned. The highlight of the spectacle was Parsi’s chariot leisurely gliding past the two of them—reminiscent of a victorious general returning from war. To top it off, as if seizing the moment, the Parsi side even showered them with violets.
"Tsk, anyone watching would think they won a real war. Bunch of guys who didn't even fight."
Ryozo muttered, clicking her tongue, before shoving a bar of sweet red bean jelly into her mouth.
"If the chariot goes that fast, it just means the faculty is incompetent. Even at a one-twentieth ratio, moving at that speed proves they're unqualified to be professors, doesn't it?"
"...What you say is true, Academy Principal, but viewed another way, I believe this event aligns well with the purpose of the Exchange Meet..."
At the voice coming from behind, Ryozo merely flicked her eyes around. It was Victoria speaking.
Her shoulders slumped slightly, and her eyes were fixed on the ground. Anxiety swirled in her pupils.
Victoria parted her lips, her voice heavy.
"The focus here is not on the faculty, but on the cadets. I suspect that is the message the person who proposed this event wished to convey."
"..."
Ryozo munched on her sweet red bean jelly. Her jaw worked with a rough edge before her throat gave a large swallow. She then replied,
"The princess is right. I lost my composure."
"I did not mean to argue without cause. It is just..."
Princess Victoria stole a quick glance at me, and our eyes met. She immediately cast her gaze downward, like a culprit caught in the act.
Abel and Ji Chang-hyuk had been reduced to laughingstocks. For now, it was the two of them, but within half a day, the world would realize that the true target of ridicule was not Abel, but Ji Chang-hyuk. Victoria must have sensed that she was bound for the exact same fate.
Victoria was an outstanding cadet. She was in no way inferior even when compared to the Golden Generation. She simply had a bad partner.
Why did she have to get stuck with me, of all people?
This was precisely why I had seriously considered Nox's 'Raven's Blessing Transfer.' It was obvious without even looking that unless I smoothed out my overpowering presence, the carriage wouldn't even be able to set off.
"That's not—"
Ryozo flinched just as she opened her mouth. I rested my hand on her shoulder and shook my head softly.
After blinking a few times, Ryozo caught my drift. She flicked her upper teeth against her lip before shifting her gaze back toward the arena. I glanced sideways at Victoria and then looked in the same direction as Ryozo.
"The princess's personality is much weaker than I thought. What do you think of your student, instructor in charge of Princess Victoria?"
Ryozo whispered while keeping her eyes straight ahead. Drowned out by the crowd's laughter, it didn't reach Victoria's ears.
"Rather than weak..."
I picked my words carefully.
"Her self-esteem is low."
"...The princess's?"
"Is it really that surprising?"
"No... never mind. I suppose that could be."
Indeed, it could be.
I felt it while teaching Victoria, but she was different from her public image.
Her prickly attitude was a kind of defense mechanism. Others might not know, but I understood it all too well.
A quick glance.
Due to the harsh upbringing of Archery Saint Saki Kojima, Ryozo once had sharp edges to her personality. Thorns were embedded in every word she spoke, and she seemed entirely uninterested in everything.
Yet, her grades—both written and practical—swept the top ranks. If she simply wanted to fall out of favor with the Archery Saint, she could have abandoned her studies.
She wanted to be recognized.
Even though she despised her family and her father.
Ryozo craved recognition from them. Adolescence often strays off course in that exact way.
Victoria probably isn't much different.
For the record, I was completely ignorant about royal affairs. It hadn't been covered with much weight in Miracle Blessing M, and as a commoner, I had virtually zero point of contact with it.
It was like the concept of non-aggression between the government and Murim in Wuxia novels—the imperial court must not intervene in Murim affairs. A loophole devised by Wuxia writers trying to maintain "plausibility." A similar logic seemed to apply to this world as well.
Even if I don't know much about the royal family, I can tell Victoria isn't treated very well.
Being born into a flashy family wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. And the living proof of that was just joining us.
Trudge... trudge...
Abel walked over with a soul-drained face. Her listless steps staggered worse than an undead's.
"Good job—"
Don't do it, Leon.
"..."
Good boy. At least you have a shred of tact.
Thump.
Abel collapsed into her seat as if slamming her hips down. Ji Chang-hyuk sat down behind her as though dragged by an invisible leash. Though their specific reasons differed, neither could easily shake off the shock of defeat...
"It's okay."
Abel ruffled her mint-colored hair. A fresh scent of grass drifted out.
"You lose some, too."
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."
"I told you, Chang-hyuk."
Abel offered a bright smile and stroked Ji Chang-hyuk's head.
"We did our best. Strictly speaking, this wasn't your fault. It was my fault for failing to smooth out my momentum even after knowing the information in advance. Still, we ran half a lap, didn't we?"
"B-But—!"
"Don't cry. You're a man."
Abel smiled so broadly that the corners of her eyes trembled.
"Sword Princess. Sword Princess."
"Hmm?"
Unable to watch any longer, I brought my bent index finger to the corner of Abel's eye and wiped away the glistening liquid.
"Huh?"
Abel brushed her thumb against her cheek, then raised bewildered eyes toward me.
"Why am I crying...?"
Abel, you're the true winner.
She suppressed her hereditary competitive drive for her student's sake.
As her husband, I couldn't be prouder.
* * *
"The 2nd-year match was a massive upset! Who would have thought Joaquin would fall so easily to Parsi, who lost in the Flag War!"
A Joaquin victory was the expected outcome. But when a turn of events occurred, the crowd grew even wilder. On top of that, the underdog effect split the cheering sections sharply.
The voices rooting for Parsi grew considerably louder. Viewership ratings were sure to spike. Though Abel's expression was growing increasingly sour...
"This is getting more and more exciting! Moving right along to our next match!"
"The 1st-year chariot race starts right now!"
"I will go avenge us."
As he always did in the past and present, Leon reassured us in his clean, polite manner.
"Let's go, Lina."
Chae Lina stood up following Leon. Just before turning her back on us, she swept a cold glance over me.
- Keep this in mind. At this rate, these cheers will soon turn into the wails of the dead.
The thing I hate most is people ordering me around. I'll handle things on my own, so focus on your immediate duty.
- I don't understand. Why do you linger on a world like this?
Because I'm a lingering fool. What of it?
- ...
Those with black hair and black eyes. Except for the two of us, it felt as though the world was losing its color. That strange resonance shattered the moment Chae Lina took a step forward.
Her neatly braided black hair swayed gently. As I knitted my brows, Ryozo looked puzzled.
"I've been meaning to ask for a while, Geomma. Why are you so hostile toward your cousin? I'm not trying to pry, and I know you two aren't close, but do you really need to growl at each other like that?"
This question felt a bit overdue. Fortunately, it gave me enough time to prepare an excuse.
"You know how I struggled back when I was a cadet. I even skipped meals in the early days of my first year."
"Yeah. You said stir-fried pork was fifty thousand won, and you couldn't eat it because it was too expensive. Considering current prices, that's practically convenience store lunch box money."
"...Haha."
Her skewed sense of money is as prominent as ever.
"Anyway... my family was doing pretty well for commoners. But my father stood as a guarantor for the wrong debt and ruined us."
"Don't tell me...?"
I shrugged nonchalantly.
"Unfortunately, yes."
It wasn't entirely a lie.
I simply borrowed from the tarnished past of my previous life. In my past life, my biological father ruined our household by standing as a guarantor for a bad debt. Desperate and lost, that man transformed into an abusive rascal. A life with no way out—and he picked me as the target to vent his frustration on.
"I had no idea that happened."
"Even if it was an adult matter, enduring that kind of hardship during adolescence leaves a deep scar. That's why I act a bit prickly toward Lina."
"Yeah. Right. That makes sense."
Ryozo snuggled closer to me, wrapping her warmth around my left arm.
Not to be outdone, Abel hastily pressed against me and claimed my right arm. A whistle echoed from somewhere.
To them, Kang Geomma must look like a bastard blessed with heaven-sent luck. Without knowing what kind of days I actually live through.
Before long, the starting bell for the 1st-year chariot race rang out.
"The winner of the 1st-year chariot race is...!"
The result came swiftly.
"Joaquin Academy—!"
The back-and-forth race tilted sharply toward Leon and Chae Lina at a certain point. I guessed it was likely due to Leon's bloodline effect.
Leon was a Nephilim who possessed both angel and demon blood in equal measure. He must have steadily trained to control the powers of light and dark, incorporating advice from Metatron, the former Archangel, and Meain Poison, the Ancient and the All-Power.
The main goal was perfect control over Balmung.
The secondary objective was to conceal his angelic and demonic powers under normal circumstances, releasing them only when the situation demanded it. Leon's lineage was a secret known only to a select few.
His effort had borne fruit. Leon had reached the point where he could suppress his presence in an emergency. It was a form of presence erasure that was somewhat similar to, yet fundamentally different from, Raven's Blessing.
Crunch, crunch.
Abel bit her nails. It seemed she felt as if she had lost not only to Parsi, but to Leon as well.
Having a handful of salt rubbed into her wound, it's no wonder she's quivering with frustration.
Leon and Chae Lina returned.
We each offered our praise for their hard work. Abel managed to force herself to do so as well.
"Finaaaally! The time has come!"
The host gave us no time to breathe a sigh of relief. Fearing he might lose the momentum, he called out the next competitors.
The crowd responded passionately. They had endured through the long hours waiting solely for this moment.
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.
As Victoria and I moved, the spectators stomped their feet rhythmically in their seats. Vibrations resonated right through the soles of our shoes.
The climax came when we reached the chariot track. A ground-shaking tremor reminiscent of a stampeding herd of bison kneaded the sky, the earth, and our very skin. Atmospheric pressure alone felt strong enough to flatten the road surface.
Waaaaaaah!
The host led the event with rising excitement. Amidst an almost overwhelming spotlight, Victoria boarded the chariot first. While I was boarding, she waved to the audience with a face like a porcelain doll. Men in the crowd fainted backward in ecstasy.
I stood beside her. Parsi's chariot lined up right alongside ours.
The noise dimmed. An atmosphere awkwarder than grit between the teeth flowed between Victoria and me.
This is awkward.
Still, looking at Victoria—whose face was so pale and earthen it could bow down to the dusty ground beneath our wheels—I felt that as an adult, I ought to offer her a word of encouragement.
"I know saying this right now might add to your pressure, but in times like this, there was something I wanted to tell you, Princess."
"..."
She looked up at me with eyes like a cat sheltering from a rainstorm. Holding the reins with one hand, I scratched around my mouth awkwardly with the other.
"I'm not good at teaching people. That's just who I am. But somehow, you managed to learn quite a bit from me."
"..."
"That alone fills me with pride. What's more, I'm proud that my very first student—and likely my last direct disciple—is you, Princess."
"..."
Sand settled on her delicate eyelashes, glittering like gold. Victoria blinked to shake it off.
"It was an honor for me as well. Not just today, but every single moment I spent with you, Heavenly Sword."
I let out a silent laugh.
"You ought to say that even if we lose, though."
"You said it yourself, Heavenly Sword. Joaquin will not lose to Parsi."
She gripped the reins firmly.
"And so it shall be."
It happened in an instant. A blaring siren hammered our eardrums.
Biii-iii-iii!
Parsi's chariot shot forward. Victoria's hair unfurled dramatically in the wind. Despite having already run two races, the wolves on the other side showed not a single trace of exhaustion.
Victoria whipped the reins again and again. Accompanying the crack of the whip, the reins rippled continuously like wave forms between her and the front of the chariot.
However...
As expected, the wolves didn't budge an inch. After a few attempts, deciding it was impossible, the beasts even let out a lazy yawn. Then again, Joaquin's wolves had accumulated far more fatigue than Parsi's.
"Hold on."
I pressed Victoria's shoulder and pulled her back. Receiving the reins smoothly, I uttered just two words.
"Run."
It was a warning.
"My blade slaughters beasts without discrimination."
Just as the faces of Skoll and Hati were about to twist into hideous grimaces, I carved into them with the maximum amount of killing intent I could muster.
"Yeeeep!"
Listening to their dog-like whimpers, I flipped back the waist area of my black coat slightly. As I gave them a quick glimpse of the Sashimi sword I had recently received, the two beasts were scared out of their minds.
Snapping to attention, Skoll and Hati dug furrows into the ground simultaneously. The once-plump beasts thinned out in real time as the wheels of the chariot began to turn.