Chapter 103
Chapter 103
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: Special Training (4)
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“I’m not blaming you, but true love knows when and where to show restraint.”
Those were the first words Corbus spoke after calling Yeomyeong out of the dormitory.
“A young man sharing a room with an unmarried woman of age, and on the same bed no less—that’s simply not proper. You understand, don’t you?”
His tone was that of an adult gently scolding a youth.
Every word from start to finish was steeped in misunderstanding, but Yeomyeong didn’t argue. He simply listened quietly.
The situation from moments ago was one anyone would misinterpret.
Alone with a sniveling Saintess, and in the same bed at that.
At least the part where he’d smacked her on the rear hadn’t been seen. Had that been discovered, it wouldn’t have been mere lecturing—he’d have been skewered through the skull.
In any case, Yeomyeong waited silently for Corbus’s admonition to end.
He planned to let her calm down first, then clear up the misunderstanding with suitable words.
But contrary to his expectations, Corbus’s lecture showed no sign of stopping.
“Your partner is the Saintess. To earn recognition for your love with her, you must become a man great enough to make every follower nod in approval…”
“Love is something overcome together, or so they say. With all the trials and tribulations ahead, you mustn’t even succumb to carnal desires…”
“Better dry wood than green, and charcoal better than dry wood at holding embers. A serious relationship is the same: endure the momentary pleasures and…”
“…Corbus. Hold on. Just a moment.”
Finally, unable to endure it, Yeomyeong cut her off. Before she could ask what was wrong, he continued.
“There’s a misunderstanding. The Saintess and I aren’t like that.”
“…What?”
The crow’s eyes went wide. Her beak hung open in disbelief.
“It seems you misunderstood because of the feather from the Blue Rat—no, Morine. But the Saintess and I are just… well, ordinary friends.”
“…”
“I should have told you last night, but things were hectic, so I didn’t get the chance. I’m sorry.”
Did Yeomyeong’s words come as such a shock?
Corbus stood speechless for a while, her beak flapping idly.
Only when the students finished eating and returned to the dormitory did she finally speak again.
“…So you’re saying you didn’t call the Saintess to the dormitory?”
“I’m not crazy enough to invite the Saintess to the men’s dormitory.”
Her blunt response made Corbus snap her beak shut with a click, as if realization dawned.
“…The Saintess came to the men’s dormitory on her own to see you. That’s it, isn’t it.”
“…”
Yeomyeong rubbed his face as it twisted into yet another interpretation.
“There were circumstances to it…”
“Those circumstances must involve you, no doubt. Isn’t that right?”
“Well…”
Corbus drove the point home as she watched Yeomyeong’s face subtly frown.
“Morine said she gives feathers not to the one who loves the Saintess, but to the one the Saintess loves.”
“…”
“To me, it looks like… she gave it exactly right. I didn’t expect it to be the Saintess’s one-sided crush, though.”
So it ends up like this anyway? Yeomyeong shook his head.
*‘Love from the Saintess, my foot.’*
A massive misunderstanding piled up from layers of small ones.
He could clear it up by explaining everything about Seti, the Saintess, and himself…
*‘…But then she’d go after Seti instead of me.’*
Suffering from Morine’s pranks(?) was burden enough on his own.
Yeomyeong let out the sigh he’d been holding and changed the subject.
“Um, maybe we should drop the Saintess talk here…”
“Oh, lessons in love are never enough, even after ten thousand times…”
As Corbus began to reply, Yeomyeong raised a hand to cut her off.
“…Check your surroundings first. Do you really need to discuss the Saintess here?”
Surroundings? Corbus tilted her head and looked around. The area was now packed with first-years who had gathered.
Some sneaking peeks, others peering from dormitory windows, and a few openly gathering mana in their eyes to watch.
The answer to why was obvious.
What better after-dinner spectacle than the school’s celebrity chatting side-by-side with a massive crow right in front of the dormitory?
“I got too carried away with the love talk.”
“…Better late than never.”
Yeomyeong replied with a sullen expression. It was the face he made since he couldn’t quite snark back.
Corbus cleared her throat awkwardly and took flight from her perch.
“Come with me for now.”
With those words and a flap of her wings, Yeomyeong followed her out of the dormitory grounds.
Students’ gazes followed, but fortunately, none were bold enough to tail them.
In any event, once away from the dormitory, Corbus and Yeomyeong quickly headed to the island’s southernmost point.
“…Where are we going?”
“Someone wants to meet you about those fellows we dealt with last time. We’re heading to the rendezvous point.”
“…Someone’s waiting, and you wasted all that time on Saintess talk?”
“Ahem. Well, once you start giving love advice, you have to see it through…”
“…That’s enough. Say any more, and I’m heading back.”
After their brief banter, they arrived at a small rest station on the outskirts.
A spot for night patrol guards or landscapers tending the woods to take a break.
Yeomyeong brushed off the leaves and grass clinging to him from the run, then grasped the doorknob.
But just as he went to open it.
Familiar voices drifted from inside.
—Why are you so late? Nothing happened, I hope.
A cool, precise mid-tone. The silver-haired elf’s voice from Incheon.
—Jeez, who the heck is this last person that they’re so late? Even the boss wouldn’t treat us like this.
The rat brat’s voice from Incheon and Manchuria, the one who’d attacked Elder Jang Man.
The moment he heard it, blood rushed to the back of Yeomyeong’s neck.
As he took a deep breath to suppress his killing intent, the final voice came.
—Ah, you’re finally here.
The one he heard every day on the school broadcast.
***
Creak.
As he opened the door and stepped in, four pairs of eyes in the rest station turned to Yeomyeong in unison.
But the golden eyes of Yeomyeong locked onto only one.
A man with an M-shaped baldness exposing his forehead and a nose sharp as a blade.
Wallad, the Blue Rat operative who’d ambushed Elder Jang Man.
The moment he saw Yeomyeong enter, his mouth gaped wide.
“Ch-Cheon Yeomyeong? Wh-what are you doing here…?”
“…Wallad. You remember me? Then you remember my warning too.”
“W-wait! Th-there are circumstances here! Fuck, I didn’t come to the academy on purpose!”
Yeomyeong glared at the desperately excusing Wallad, mana rising within him, but clenched his fist tight.
*‘…Hold back. Hold it in.’*
He took a short breath. Wallad deserved death, but he wasn’t important enough to kill here and now.
What truly mattered in this room was…
“Nice to meet you. Student Cheon Yeomyeong.”
A sweet-bitter middle-aged woman’s voice, like coffee laced with heaps of sugar.
Yeomyeong slowly turned to look at the owner of the voice, seated at the head of the rest station.
Wavy long brown hair framed a beautiful middle-aged woman whose faint eye wrinkles only enhanced her subtle smile.
She held countless titles and positions but preferred to be called…
*‘…Principal Himena.’*
Why was the woman who should be in the principal’s office here? As Yeomyeong puzzled, she rested her chin on the table and spoke.
“This is our first time meeting in person.”
“…”
“The first and last transfer student. Hero of the first-years. Which should I call you?”
“…Just Cheon Yeomyeong is fine.”
Yeomyeong subtly shifted his gaze to confirm the man and woman flanking the principal like guards.
The silver-haired woman to her left was a familiar face: Miridis’s guard from Incheon, the elf princess.
Rime, was it? With her ears covered, she just looked like a mysterious beauty, not obviously an elf.
And to the right… the only near-stranger in this rest station.
Short blond hair, a handsome man with eyes squeezed shut as if blind.
Faculty or upperclassman, he didn’t know, but his aura was no joke. It evoked the superhuman mercenaries from Manchuria.
As Yeomyeong roughly assessed the room’s power level, the principal smiled and spoke.
“Alright. Student Cheon Yeomyeong, any guess why I had Corbus summon you?”
“No, none.”
“Then about… Ms. Rime here, do you know her?”
At that moment, the silver-haired elf slightly raised her head and nodded to Yeomyeong. The gesture’s meaning was clear.
*‘Play dumb.’*
Yeomyeong did.
“…No, I don’t know her.”
“And this, Student Ado?”
The closed-eyed man said nothing. Just the briefest glance toward Yeomyeong.
“Same. Don’t know him.”
“…He was last year’s freshman representative. Now a second-year, your senior.”
Freshman rep? To represent in one field meant considerable skill.
But fitting as the principal’s guard? Eh?
“Do you know what these two have in common?”
Another question. Yeomyeong cocked his head and replied.
“…Did you call me here to play twenty questions?”
The bold query caught her off guard, and the principal chuckled.
“Ah, sorry. I got nostalgic for my teaching days with students.”
“…”
“To summarize the important part: these two are… at the academy to guard specific individuals.”
Specific individuals to guard. Like Rime for Miridis, this Ado for someone else.
Yeomyeong organized his thoughts briefly and asked.
“Still don’t follow. What’s that got to do with me?”
“Thanks to you, Student Cheon Yeomyeong, their charges survived the recent terror incident unscathed.”
“…”
“From the academy’s standpoint, we can’t thank you enough… and these two are grateful as well.”
Politician-speak dragging on, hiding the core. Yeomyeong suppressed his irritation and replied.
“I didn’t do it for thanks. No need to worry about it.”
“…Humble too. Far better than I expected.”
She paused after that. Tap, tap, tap.
Fingertapping the table, she slowly opened her mouth.
“Student Cheon Yeomyeong. Our academy has many important people. The Saintess, national prospects, famous politicians’ heirs…”
“…”
“We tighten security, gather special instructors, prepare secret guards… but we can’t protect everyone. This terror was a prime example.”
Yeomyeong recalled Baonic’s ‘author’s notes.’ Anything like this?
…No.
“Guards matter in quality too, not just quantity. Especially one highly skilled, in the same year, under the same special instructor? Perfect.”
What nonsense is this? Yeomyeong didn’t hide his sour expression.
“How about it? Secret guard for an important figure. Care to try, Student Cheon Yeomyeong?”
“…”
“Of course, compensation goes without saying. Money, elixirs… anything the academy can provide.”
Only then could Yeomyeong look the principal straight in the eye.
Shoulders slumped despite her bravado, eyes weary beyond makeup’s cover.
She embodied the academy’s desperation, begging a mere first-year for secret guarding.
Feeling pity, he still answered honestly.
“I’m sorry.”
“…”
Did she not expect outright refusal? A faint crack appeared in her expression. Brushing hair behind her ear, she replied.
“Student Cheon Yeomyeong. May I ask why?”
No time for guarding others when revenge lacks hours.
Unable to say that, he made it plausible.
“I lack both the skill and the spare time to guard anyone right now.”
“…Hmm.”
Not convinced, but she nodded slightly. Yeomyeong stepped back and asked.
“If that’s all, may I go?”
“…Yes. Feel free. If you change your mind, let me know via Corbus. You’re welcome anytime.”
Yeomyeong bowed without replying and left the rest station.
Seeing Wallad up close made him yearn for Elder Jang Man in Incheon.
He couldn’t go personally with his laundered identity, but at least contact…
As such thoughts crossed his mind while exiting.
Someone followed from the rest station and grabbed his shoulder.
“Cheon Yeomyeong. Hold up a second.”
It was Ado, the second-year freshman rep senior.
“Rumors say you’re a Holy Knight. True?”
His serious expression asking about Holy Knight made Yeomyeong sigh unwittingly.
Likely the rumors from hanging with the Saintess: secret weapon of the Holy Knight Order, etc.
“No. I’m a bit… short on faith to be a Holy Knight.”
He thought it humbly worded, but Ado’s brows arched long.
The next instant, his voice turned aggressively sharp, like never before.
“Then what’s a low-faith punk like you doing hanging around the Saintess?”
“…”
“Got the guts to refuse guarding, but no brains to know your place?”
Morine, Corbus, now this weirdo senior?
*‘Saintess, you really…’*
As Yeomyeong shook his head inwardly.
Ado crossed the line.
“If you’re planning to leech off the Saintess like that Seti or whoever, here’s some advice. Caterpillars live on pine needles. Got it?”
This bastard…? Yeomyeong swallowed his boiling rage and turned his back.
*‘…Hold it.’*
Payback could come later. Patience now, prepare for next—best move.
But that resolve didn’t last. Barely a few steps, and Ado spat more.
“Tch, if it weren’t guard duty, I’d exterminate the parasite myself—”
Yeomyeong instantly raised a hand to cut Ado off, glancing between him and the still-open rest station door.
“Senior.”
“What?”
“The Saintess heals even a severed arm just fine. Can you do that too?”
“…What?”
“You’d better be able to.”
The words ended.
In one motion, Yeomyeong closed the distance and drew the sword at Ado’s waist.
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