Chapter 125
Chapter 125
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 125
Chapter Title: Crossroads of Revenge (3)
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***
Hong Seti narrowed her eyes and glared into the sewer.
There was no trace of panic or fear in her sparkling blue eyes amid the darkness.
This kind of darkness was far too familiar to her.
‘A subspace created with twisted mana…? No, they’ve inverted a barrier over the sewer.’
A space no different from the ‘ranch’ where the Korean government had raised her sisters and other livestock.
Seti saw right through the sewer’s true nature without much difficulty and swallowed a sigh.
‘The Korean government… no, not them.’
Not in Manchuria or beyond the dimensional gate, but in the Academy under the watch of the US and Australia—they wouldn’t dare pull something like this out in the open.
It’d be nice if the government were that stupid, but Korea wasn’t that soft.
In the end, the most likely suspect was the cult priest Aiba had mentioned.
She had no idea how he’d created a barrier of this caliber… but he’d already pulled off one terrorist attack, so a second wasn’t out of the question.
Lost in such thoughts, Seti wandered the sewer until she sensed a presence and halted.
Holding her breath and pricking up her ears, she heard footsteps. Not one set, but two.
Unbidden, she drew up her mana. An ominous premonition crawled down her spine.
“So, like I was saying, junior, when that happens…”
Moments later, two male students in familiar uniforms emerged from the shadows of the sewer.
One of them was a face Seti knew well.
The handsome guy with refined features whom the clueless girls called ‘prince.’
The traitor’s son, Jeon Yunseong.
He had strapped an imperial knight’s sword of unknown origin to his waist and was chatting with some unknown guy.
“Junior? Senior, just speak casually with me.”
“Is that okay? I am your senior, after all… but you’re the freshman rep.”
The man wore a sleazy smile.
Judging by his uniform, he seemed like a second-year… but something felt off. Hard to pinpoint, but a sense that she shouldn’t get close.
Seti didn’t step forward and instead quietly backpedaled. She had no intention of joining those two…
“…Who’s there?”
The second-year senior spotted her first, even before Jeon Yunseong.
At this distance? Seti bit her lip slightly.
Had he cast a spell to pierce the darkness? The man’s gaze was fixed precisely on her.
“Uh… a first-year junior?”
Seti stared him down without responding. The man seemed a bit flustered, scratching the back of his head as he spoke.
“Look, I get that running into someone down here is tense, but no need to be so hostile.”
“…”
“I’m Arthurs, a second-year. You know this guy, right? Jeon Yunseong.”
The second-year who introduced himself as Arthurs stepped forward, yammering on.
“You’re not some ghost or anything, right? If you’re alive, mind saying something?”
That’s when it hit her. The source of the unease—his demeanor.
Despite being trapped in this mysterious sewer, he brimmed with composure.
It wasn’t just a matter of being bold or not. No tension in his expression, muscles, or aura.
“Hey…”
Splash. The moment he took a step closer, Seti’s eyes narrowed. Fight or flee?
She didn’t agonize long. She chose to retreat.
She desperately wanted to fight and uncover his true nature, but she couldn’t waste her strength here.
Without her hammer, and with Jeon Yunseong jumping in, even borrowing divine power wouldn’t make it an easy battle.
‘…I need to find Yeomyeong first.’
The instant Seti finalized her decision and moved to unleash Flying Leg Art—
A brilliant light erupted from behind her. A deep white glow, like sunlight and moonlight blended together.
Caught mid-motion, Seti stopped and turned around.
Her pupils contracted to adjust to the light, taking a moment.
Then she saw a blonde girl floating two massive orbs of light above her shoulders.
“…Shoemiri?”
“Seti. I finally found you.”
Finally?
Before Seti’s delicate brows could furrow, Shoemiri added,
“Yeomyeong’s desperately looking for you right now. Shall we go join up with her first?”
“Miri, what do you—”
As Seti started to question her, Jeon Yunseong spotted them and wedged himself between the two.
“Miss Shoemiri?!”
He leaped across the sewer in a stride eerily similar to—no, almost identical to—Flying Leg Art’s flutter step, rushing past Seti to Shoemiri.
“How did you end up here…? You okay? Not hurt anywhere? If you got bit by a beastkin zombie, tell me. That second-year senior over there has potions…”
As Jeon Yunseong’s words dragged on, Shoemiri replied coolly.
“I’m fine, so don’t worry about me.”
“No, still…”
Jeon Yunseong tried to continue, but Shoemiri brushed past him toward Seti.
Seti glanced back and forth between Jeon Yunseong and Shoemiri.
“…You sure you’re really okay?”
“Yes, I’m completely fine.”
She said that, but the look in her eyes as she gazed at Seti was somehow strange. Like she was looking somewhere else.
“Seti.”
Shoemiri grabbed Seti’s arm tightly and whispered so only she could hear.
“…You feel Yeomyeong, right?”
“…”
“Just follow that sensation in your chest. Follow that feeling.”
***
Somehow, the four of them ended up walking the sewer together.
More precisely, Shoemiri and Seti led the way, with Jeon Yunseong and the second-year senior trailing behind.
One might expect some conversation, but silence hung between them.
Jeon Yunseong’s mouth flapped at the sight of Shoemiri’s back, but it never turned into talk.
For a long while, only their footsteps filled the sewer.
The second-year senior, who’d been eyeing Jeon Yunseong, suddenly spoke up.
“Junior… no, Yunseong, remember what I said earlier?”
“Ah, yes, I do.”
Despite the abrupt question, Jeon Yunseong nodded.
It’d be weirder if he didn’t remember.
How could he forget that terrifying claim—that this bizarre sewer might be the precursor to a dimensional gate swallowing the Academy?
“No hard evidence or anything… but in the knight order cases I studied, there was one almost exactly like this. A dimensional gate made with black magic.”
“Hmm…”
“Might just be my hunch, but you never know.”
“True, if it’s not that, this situation doesn’t make sense.”
Hearing his reply, the senior paused, then spoke in a gravely serious tone.
“Yunseong, any chance… you’d come with me to check for dimensional gate traces?”
“Huh?”
“Something feels off. I could handle it alone, but with your help…”
Knowing it was a stretch, the senior trailed off.
Jeon Yunseong didn’t answer right away, instead staring at the backs of Seti and Shoemiri ahead.
As he suddenly fell silent, the sewer lapsed back into quiet. The senior, facing that silence, shot him a sharp sidelong glance.
Moments later, when Jeon Yunseong’s pursed lips parted again, out came a polite refusal.
“…Sorry, Senior. I can’t do that.”
“…”
“Even if you’re right… the adults will handle it. With the US military at the Academy port, it’s not our place.”
Did his explanation satisfy the senior? He nodded slowly. But right after, he muttered so softly Jeon Yunseong couldn’t hear.
This one’s a no-go.
***
Awooooo!
A wolf howl that could shred eardrums echoed deafeningly through the sewer.
A howl no zombie’s rotten vocal cords could produce.
“Ugh, seriously… zombies aren’t the end of it?”
The Saintess grumbled as she chambered a round in her assault rifle. Yeomyeong, leading the way, calmly set down his warhammer and cloth wrap, drawing his sword and shotgun.
“Feels like they’re always after you…”
“…Being popular’s a curse. Didn’t you know?”
As if the lame joke were a signal, an enormous clamor of footsteps boomed from beyond the sewer.
Just listening to the growing noise made it clear.
‘Something bigger than beastkin zombies is coming.’
The Saintess reached the same conclusion and immediately invoked a blessing.
“O White Ulthubati, grant us the power to vanquish evil.”
Gone was her usual cheeky tone; her prayer was utterly reverent.
In response, pure white light bloomed in the air, settling over her assault rifle and Yeomyeong’s sword.
“Should last ten minutes. If Yeomyeong weren’t a heathen, it’d be thirty.”
The Saintess aimed down the sewer as she spoke.
“What do you say? Convert now? I could even make you a Saintess’s direct Holy Knight.”
“…Let’s end it in ten.”
The moment Yeomyeong finished, the Saintess pulled the trigger.
Bang!
A bullet trailing white light lit up the sewer, piercing something in the darkness.
Flash!
The next instant, light burst from the bullet.
In the momentary blaze engulfing the sewer, the forms charging at Yeomyeong and the Saintess came into view.
Wolf beastkin zombies from before, interspersed with…
“…Pind?”
A massive brute like a gorilla with two extra arms and a wolf head mashed on.
The Saintess let out a hollow chuckle at the sight of the beasts barreling toward them.
“Zombies, then monsters…”
“A classic combo.”
“Classic? Where the hell do they teach that combo?”
Whether the Saintess shot back incredulously or not, Yeomyeong charged at the zombies and Pind.
As Wave Yang Art’s mana layered over the gleaming white blade, he thrust into the lead Pind.
“D-Die!!”
Smarter than the monsters from Manchuria, the Pind even spat words from its maw.
Of course, Yeomyeong answered by jamming his sword down its throat.
Splurt!
Unlike the zombies’ cold blood, this was hot. Yeomyeong swung again without care.
Unlike zombies, the Pind didn’t die easily. Even split head in two, it reached out.
Not mindless instinct—cunning strikes targeting ankles or knees.
Get him down once, then crush with mass. That was the calculation.
‘…Someone’s controlling it?’
Yeomyeong frowned at the changed tactics.
The thrashing itself wasn’t the issue; the problem was his disrupted sword flow.
Each time he dodged and created distance, more zombies and Pind surrounded him.
But their attacks never landed solidly.
Bang!
Whenever Yeomyeong’s sword hesitated, the Saintess’s bullet filled the gap.
With just one more in support, he wielded his blade with far more leisure than fighting zombies alone.
So leisurely, the Saintess could even joke.
“Yeomyeong! Save bullets—shoot some sword beams!”
He did. As if venting pent-up rage, he gathered mana in his sword and slashed horizontally through the air.
Whoosh!
The long-unleashed sword beam whipped up wind, cleaving the sewer. If it were real sewer walls, they’d have split too—a ferocious strike.
In its wake, Pind and zombies bisected, entrails spilling out in chunks.
“…Wow, you get stronger every time I see it.”
Brushing off the Saintess’s impression amid the blood sea, Yeomyeong drew a deep breath.
Worried his inner killing intent might stir, but thankfully, no sign.
“Saintess, stay sharp. Plenty more left.”
As Yeomyeong warned, more zombies and Pind surged from the distance. The Saintess swapped magazines and replied.
“Man, this takes me back to Manchuria.”
“…Really? Not me.”
“…You’re hopeless. Even if not, you’re supposed to play along.”
“Don’t lie. Is the Five Gods’ doctrine I know wrong?”
“The one about not touching a woman’s body carelessly? You only turn heathen in front of asses?”
“…”
…Why does she turn different the second she picks up a gun? Yeomyeong idly wondered, drawing up mana again.
Plenty more Pind and zombies to kill.
***
Follow the sensation in your heart.
Seti moved as Shoemiri instructed. Partly because she had no other choice, but truly because she felt something from beyond the sewer.
Had Yeomyeong come here too? No, he definitely had.
No evidence, but she felt conviction bordering on certainty.
And as if to prove it, evidence soon appeared.
Zombies littering the sewer.
Others might not know, but Seti could tell—the one who’d diced them was Yeomyeong.
‘…Found you.’
Seti quickened her pace slightly. She ignored the grumbling from the creepy second-year and Jeon Yunseong trailing behind.
To her, Jeon Yunseong was an object of loathing.
Once, she’d seen him as a future comrade.
She’d even thought of him as a hero who’d transcend jealousy and awe to save her sister.
But since learning his truth that day, Seti had never once seen Jeon Yunseong as an equal human.
Someday… the Jeon family father and son would pay dearly.
…As Seti turned the sewer corner with such thoughts—
The tickle in her chest vanished.
“…Saintess? Yeomyeong?”
Beyond, the Saintess and Yeomyeong sat atop a pool of blood.
“Huh? Seti? It’s Seti!”
Spotting her, the Saintess beamed, dusting off and standing. Yeomyeong paused cleaning his sword and looked her way.
Finally found you. Seti ran toward Yeomyeong, joy swelling.
No—she couldn’t move.
Because Yeomyeong’s eyes, fixed not on her… but behind her, had hardened.
It was a gaze of pure hatred she’d never seen before.
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