The Swordsmanship Club (2)
Mak Daewoong walked out of Jegal So-so's office. He seemed to exchange a few messages with someone, then set off toward some destination or other.
The Training Center was abuzz with students in the thick of training and sparring. Mak Daewoong walked on with his eyes fixed straight ahead, and as the foot traffic thinned, the din faded away of its own accord.
Before long he had entered the Special Training Room wing and come to a halt before a door that was firmly shut.
...
Left to his usual temper, he would have raised his pot-lid-sized fist and pounded until the door shattered, but even he had to mind his manners depending on who was inside.
Whoever lay beyond that door despised having his concentration disturbed, and Mak Daewoong had no desire to ruffle his mood in the slightest. Besides, knock or no knock, the man would have long since noticed that he had come calling.
And so Mak Daewoong stood meekly before the door and waited — until, some time later, it slid open of its own accord.
The room inside was pitch dark, too dim to make anything out. Mak Daewoong walked in without a hitch and headed for a corner. He had been coming here far longer than a day or two, after all.
And there, sure enough, sat a man with his back turned — judging by his posture, he had just opened his eyes from a stretch of meditation.
The man asked without turning around.
"What did Jegal want?"
"Said to bring her someone."
"The Black Snake Chamber?"
"Looks that way."
A heavyweight of the Swordsmanship Club — the Vice President herself, no less — had paid the Thief Club a visit in person. The two clubs had had little contact of late, so for a matter serious enough to move her, it had to concern the club's interests. And nine times out of ten, that meant a breach of the Priority Bidding Right.
And if, on the heels of that visit, Jegal So-so was now summoning someone for a private word, the odds were very high that it involved the Black Snake Chamber.
"Who."
"Some punk called Kim Ho. First-year."
"...A first-year?"
"Thought I'd misheard at first, too."
The Black Snake Chamber was, in name at least, a B-rank dungeon. If Mak Daewoong went in, he wouldn't leave with his bones intact, and even the man before him would have anything but an easy time of it. And a mere first-year had entered that dungeon, savage beyond measure? Not a claim one could swallow easily.
So their thoughts naturally flowed in the same direction.
"So they propped up a fall guy?"
"That's how it looks to me, too."
— that someone stood behind Kim Ho. Sneak into a priority-bid dungeon, set up a first-year as the fall guy, and trade secret deals with Jegal So-so behind the scenes. A story entirely plausible on its face. The fact that Kim Ho belonged to no club only lent the fall-guy theory further weight.
"But I did some digging on the side, and it seems that first-year punk has been in and out of the Underground Floors plenty often himself."
Bold movements for a first-year barely two months into his enrollment. In which case, in the Black Snake Chamber affair as well, was he not less a simple fall guy than something closer to an accomplice?
The man asked.
"And what does she plan to do, once he's brought in?"
"My orders run only as far as bringing the punk in. Sounds like she means to hear him out first."
"No strong-arm tactics, she said," Mak Daewoong added.
...
The air inside the Special Training Room turned heavy in an instant. The man was beginning to let his displeasure show.
"That head of yours is still a flower garden, Jegal."
Allowing an intrusion into a priority-bid dungeon was as good as letting the Swordsmanship Club's territory be trampled. And her response was to summon the boy and hear him out? A method he found thoroughly distasteful.
For now the matter remained within the Swordsmanship Club's walls, but there was no telling when it might leak outside. And when it did, Jegal So-so's incomparably soft-handed handling of it would surely leak out along with it.
"How those White Path bastards carry on among themselves is no concern of mine, but I'll not have us turned into a laughingstock as well."
"Well said."
"Bring him before me. And before that—"
The price for coveting what belonged to others had to be paid. Accomplice or fall guy, it made no difference.
Summon him and hear him out? No — the talking could wait until after the man had tasted something hot. If anything, he would talk all the more freely for it.
Mak Daewoong, for his part, was in full agreement with this thoroughly Black Way philosophy, and nodded.
"Understood. Who am I to bring in?"
There was only one catch: Mak Daewoong could not lay hands on the boy himself. Save for the rarest of exceptions, an upperclassman striking a junior constituted a grave breach of academy rules. Subduing Kim Ho would therefore fall to fellow first-years — hence the question of who to assign the job.
Before answering, the man uttered a single word.
"Replay."
Mak Daewoong tossed over two crystal orbs, and the man caught and examined them without ever turning around. Kim Ho's two most recent replays. One was this week's crystal assault match against the ogre. The other, the crystal PvP against Jo Byeok of the Disciplinary Committee.
For a long while the man studied the replay orbs in silence. Then a flicker of interest came into his eyes.
"...He has a knack for dodging, I'll grant him that. His skill loadout is a nuisance, too."
Kim Ho, evading the attacks of both ogre and Jo Byeok and closing out the assault match and the PvP alike with perfect games. The way he had unraveled Jo Byeok's ultimate technique in the closing moments of the match, in particular, struck the man as genuinely impressive. And a skill set built on shoving and pulling one's opponent looked plenty troublesome to deal with.
"But he is not without weakness."
Jo Byeok belonged to the Disciplinary Committee and was a well-rounded fighter with balanced stats across the board, but in raw speed he more than earned his place among the very top of the year. That Kim Ho had allowed pursuit from a man like that meant his own speed was that much worse.
Which led to a simple conclusion.
"Then we simply overwhelm him with speed."
If the bout were decided at speeds far beyond Jo Byeok's, then no matter how nimbly the man slipped and slid like a loach, he would end up eating an attack.
The man's order came down.
"Take Cheolsu and Minsu with you."
The ogre came barreling in with terrifying momentum.
"GRUUUOOO—!"
Thudding across the ground as it closed the distance to Gwak Ji-cheol, the beast swung its club down. The instant Gwak Ji-cheol was about to be flattened into a pancake, soil as fine as sand gathered between him and the club, forming a slanted wall. The club slammed into the earthen barrier and glanced off to the side, as if sliding down a playground slide.
The whiffed swing threw its stance off a touch, but the ogre did not let up, stretching out a hand to snatch up the human before it. The hand was unnervingly fast just in its extension — even a graze promised serious damage.
"...!"
But Gwak Ji-cheol, as though he had anticipated even this, triggered a spell he had cast in advance. A massive earthen palm erupted from the ground and smacked the ogre's hand hard to the side.
-Whap!
"GRUUU!"
Paying it no mind, the ogre pressed in with its whole body. Gwak Ji-cheol scrambled his feet just in time to back out of its charge path, then raised another sand wall like a slide to shed the club and readied his earthen palm spell again—
—when the ogre did something unexpected. Instead of swinging its fist, it lifted a foot to kick. The instant the unprepared Gwak Ji-cheol was about to meet that massive foot—
-BAM!
"Khehk!"
I kicked Gwak Ji-cheol flying first.
Gwak Ji-cheol rolled head over heels across the floor and clambered back up. He had been punted so many times by now that he seemed used to it, picking the fight right back up without missing a beat.
He cycled sand wall and earthen fist in turn, and—
-Pah—!
Crystal Charge: 100%
The crystal finished charging, and the ogre vanished on the spot.
"Whew..."
Gwak Ji-cheol finally caught his breath and flopped down onto the floor. He made a sorry sight, but in truth he had come a long way. Only days ago he had done nothing but eat club strikes and hit the dirt; now he was shedding attacks with respectable skill.
Getting beaten to a pulp really is the fastest way to learn.
And so the beatdown training method extended its undefeated streak for another day.
Just then, Dang Gyu-young popped up out of a shadow at the edge of the room, signaling the end of the mentoring session.
"Let's call it here for today. Good work."
"Thank you."
Gwak Ji-cheol dipped his head in a bow, then stole a glance my way, gratitude brimming in his eyes.
A little more practice, and then I can tell him to go bring home the points.
Gwak Ji-cheol vanished through the teleport portal, and we followed him out.
As we walked, Dang Gyu-young opened her mouth.
"Hey, the Swordsmanship Club came by yesterday?"
"What about it?"
"They asked who it was that went into the Black Snake Chamber."
"And you told them it was me, right?"
"Yep. You're the one who said to toss them everything."
Dang Gyu-young pursed her lips slightly, as if she had wanted to pitch in a little more, but I drew the line without hesitation. I had pushed this through on my own stubbornness, so it was only right that I took responsibility and saw it through myself. I had zero intention of dragging the Thief Club into it.
"I'm fully prepared for the negotiation. You don't need to worry about me."
"Got it. Oh, and I already told them to set all the evidence to private."
On this one point, we had reached a separate agreement. The Disciplinary Committee still had its feelers out, so the fact that we had set foot in the Deep Layer that night had to stay buried as thoroughly as possible. If it came to light, every last one of us would be facing major disciplinary action.
Which was why the Black Snake Chamber clear replay, the photos, and every other piece of potential evidence needed to be locked behind private settings. The Swordsmanship Club's attention was fixed squarely on the question of who had ignored the Priority Bidding Right and entered the dungeon, so apparently the moment Dang Gyu-young revealed my identity, they accepted the proposal without a fuss.
"In exchange, though, they asked for one favor."
"What kind of favor?"
"They're sending a second-year your way."
If all they wanted was to arrange a meeting, having Dang Gyu-young pass it along in person like this was far more efficient — a message would have served just as well. And yet they insisted on sending a second-year, which meant...
"Sounds like they're not on good terms. With that second-year, I mean."
"Guess not."
The idea was to borrow my hands to stick it to him. Political interests were probably tangled up in it to no small degree, too. Not that I needed to trouble myself with any of that complexity. My task was very simple: whoever came looking, I just had to smash them.
Dang Gyu-young asked, as if in passing.
"Want me to attach a few of our kids, just in case?"
"No, thank you. I'll handle it alone."
"Tch. Have it your way."
Perhaps because I kept turning her down, Dang Gyu-young looked a little put out. In any case, she had club business to attend to and I had mana cultivation to get through, so our destinations lay apart. It was about time we split up.
"Go on in, senior."
"Yeah. See you tomorrow."
After exchanging farewells with Dang Gyu-young and parting ways, I set off at a steady pace for the Training Center. Then I looked ahead and couldn't hold back a wry laugh.
They do say a tiger comes running the moment you speak its name.
A male student stood waiting at the junction. As I drew near, he stepped into my path, exactly as expected. He was built along the same lines as Jo Byeok, but this one radiated the aura of a mountain bandit, somehow. A glance at his tie pin: silver. Second-year. And the gaze he leveled at me dripped with undisguised hostility.
"Kim Ho."
"Yes, senior."
"You know why I'm here?"
"I do."
"Follow me."
The second-year turned on his heel and led the way.