Chapter 180
Chapter 180
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 180
Chapter Title: On the Way to Sampo (4)
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***
Unlike Korbus, who had fallen asleep as if knocked out, Neti never fully drifted off.
Thanks to that, she noticed everything—her older sister sneaking out of the room in her nightgown, and the Saintess scurrying after her.
It was so late even the crickets had gone to bed. Were the two of them just heading to the bathroom?
But contrary to her expectations, they didn't come back for a very long time.
It wasn't until nearly an hour had passed that Neti wondered if they might have gone to her brother-in-law's room.
At this hour of the night, her sister and the Saintess going to a room with a man alone...
As suspicion piled up, Neti suddenly let out a snicker. It was such an absurd thought, even to her.
If it had just been her sister, maybe, but the Saintess too?
The noble Saintess... well, maybe not as noble as she'd thought, but still, the Saintess wouldn't do something like that.
Neti shook the demon from her mind and waited for her sister and the Saintess to return.
But they didn't come back. Not until when? Until the sun rose.
Amid Korbus's thunderous snoring, Neti spent the entire night wide awake. She bolted up from the bed.
She threw on an overcoat haphazardly and rushed to her brother-in-law's room, knocking on the door.
"Excuse me? Brother-in-law? Sis?"
She knocked again, but there was no response.
Neti hesitated, hand on the doorknob. Was it right to get involved? It was ultimately a matter between her sister and brother-in-law—should she really butt in?
Just as that thought crossed her mind, the door creaked open on its own, as if it hadn't been locked from the start.
Neti didn't hesitate and peeked inside.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the room was empty.
As she sighed in relief and started to close the door, her eyes caught an overcoat draped over the sofa.
The one the servant had handed over with the nightgown last night.
'...So they really were here.'
As suspicion turned to certainty, Neti let out a hollow laugh.
She remembered teasing her sister about how far they'd gone.
Who would've thought that shy sister of hers had not only gone all the way but even done extra credit(?).
Her face burning, she grabbed it and turned to head back to her room when she spotted a passing servant and grabbed him.
"Excuse me, sir, do you know where the guests from this room went?"
The servant told her that her brother-in-law and sister were having breakfast in the dining hall, then kindly escorted her there.
Sure enough, the three of them were at the dining hall, having breakfast—nibbling on bits of bread or sipping tea while engaged in some serious discussion.
It looked like an ordinary mealtime, but Neti didn't miss the slight dark circles under her brother-in-law's eyes. He clearly hadn't slept a wink.
But more than that, was it even possible to go all night? Well, with two women...
'...Damn it.'
Neti slapped her reddening cheeks with her palms and approached the three.
"Neti? Up early? Sleep well?"
The Saintess spotted her first.
Following her bubbly voice, her sister and brother-in-law turned and waved. Neti nodded without meeting their eyes.
Whether Seti looked puzzled or not, Neti pulled up a chair between them and sat. The old chair creaked with a sigh, oblivious to her feelings.
"Neti, out of the blue, but there's something I need to tell you."
Yeomyeong poured her some tea as she spoke.
"Oh, something to tell me?"
Neti, who had been stiff and glancing nervously at the three, flinched.
Were they about to confess their relationship right here? As Neti swallowed hard, Yeomyeong spoke in a surprisingly calm voice.
"It's nothing major. It's about the rest of the journey."
"Huh?"
"We're heading back to Earth soon, so how and where we'll go next. I wanted your input."
With that opener, Yeomyeong took a sip of tea and began explaining.
The explanation wasn't long or complicated. To sum up Yeomyeong's words simply:
They planned to leave the city today.
Stop by another city to get false identities.
Then use those to pass through a dimensional gate back to Earth.
And...
"Y-you mean, ride a dragon? For real?"
"Yeah, waiting for the railroad repairs would take too long, so asking a dragon seemed better. Why, scared of dragons?"
"No, no! I wanna ride! I really wanna ride!"
The thought of a massive red dragon carrying her blew all her worries out of her mind.
Who cared if her brother-in-law was living it up(?). She was going to ride a dragon!
After a tank, now a dragon. As Neti's eyes sparkled at the bragging rights for her siblings, Seti muttered with a wry smile upon seeing it.
"...You shouldn't get your hopes up that much."
***
4:30 a.m. The boy's morning always began with training.
Light warm-ups followed by nonstop high-intensity sessions, then his five signature martial arts.
After finishing the routine he'd kept for nearly ten years, he could see the dawn rising in the distant sky.
The boy, drenched in sweat, stepped over to open the training room window.
The footsteps of diligent students, the dormitory stirring awake, and the sea breeze blowing in from afar swept across his face through the window.
Lord Howe Academy's morning.
The boy quietly savored the scene, checked the remaining time, and sat in the corner of the training ground to pull out his smartphone.
Habitually, he opened a Korean portal site and scanned the headlines.
『Blue House Terror Attack Sweeps Korea—Assassination Attempt on President?』
『NIS: Explosion Caused by 'Corpse Explosion'... Necromancer Terror Attack, Preliminary Conclusion.』
『'President's Staged Drama?' Rep. Hong Yong-wan Faces Party Backlash, 'It Was a Joke' Worst Apology.』
Fortunately, the headlines were filled with the recent Blue House bombing.
The boy sighed in relief but still skimmed the news just in case.
And sure enough, he found one about him.
『Top Student Korean? Lord Howe in Uproar!! Midterms: Cheon Yeomyeong #1! Traitor's Son: 'I Resent My Father Who Betrayed Korea.' Shocking Confession!』
Typical nationalist clickbait.
He'd usually ignore it, but he couldn't look away from a title mentioning him and his father.
Checking the article cautiously, it was predictably trash—fabricated lies exaggerated and stitched together.
Of course, not everything was fake. His recent midterm #1 ranking was real enough.
'...Though the Cheon Yeomyeong at the academy now isn't the real one.'
The boy, Jeon Yunseong, felt the irony as he read the news and comments.
No one knew where the real Cheon Yeomyeong had vanished to, yet Koreans were lost in fantasies of him returning to elevate the nation's prestige.
Well, people see what they want, not the truth.
Starting with his own father...
Creak.
At that moment, someone opened the training room door and entered.
Snapping from his thoughts, Jeon Yunseong turned to see a familiar middle-aged man meeting his eyes.
Short-cropped hair, massive build, and a distinctly American military uniform.
"Captain Patrick?"
Jeon Yunseong reflexively stood and saluted. The soldier called Patrick returned the salute and spoke.
"Sgt. Jeon Yunseong, sorry to barge in so early in the morning."
"No, sir. I'm fine."
"You don't look fine."
"...It's the rules. The training room is for students only. Outsiders can't just come in like this."
A valid point, but Captain Patrick brushed it off.
"Don't worry. I sneaked in without being seen."
Regardless of Jeon Yunseong's furrowed brow, Captain Patrick strode over in his combat boots and said,
"Enough chit-chat. Down to business. I have urgent news for you."
"Urgent news? Urgent enough for you to deliver personally?"
Instead of answering, Captain Patrick pulled a small crystal from his pocket.
A memory crystal. A magic tool for transmitting memories, made with tech similar to forbidden artifacts.
"This?"
"I don't know the contents either. The item itself is top secret."
"..."
He took it crisply. The cold crystal clung to his hand like it was waiting for mana.
Jeon Yunseong was about to infuse it with mana when he looked at Captain Patrick and said,
"Captain, those students who vanished in the sewers... Any trace of them?"
The captain's eyebrow twitched faintly. He stared at Jeon Yunseong in disbelief before replying lightly.
"Classified."
Not "haven't found them," but "classified." A roundabout way of saying they had.
Jeon Yunseong saluted gratefully and infused the crystal with mana.
The next instant, his vision changed.
***
The place where Jeon Yunseong opened his eyes was a familiar city. He'd never been there, but he'd seen it plenty on TV and in books.
'...The Empire's capital?'
The memory crystal's scene wasn't mere imagination or cheap 3D graphics.
No smells or textures, but what he saw and heard was vividly real.
Towering palace and mage tower, streets mixed with carriages and cars, even filthy back alleys—all lifelike.
And as if some festival was underway, stalls lined the streets, and crowds in varied fashions swarmed the city.
Especially around the palace, an enormous throng had gathered, including celebrities Jeon Yunseong would recognize.
What kind of memory is this? Not just showing beyond the dimensional gate.
Pondering that, Jeon Yunseong unwittingly looked up at the sky.
Seeing the blazing sun overhead, he realized this memory was "last time."
When he infused the crystal, it was dawn just breaking, but here it was high noon.
Why show a memory from this exact moment?
As he wondered about the military brass's intent, something entered his view falling from the sky.
Narrowing his eyes, the people in the vision spotted the falling object too.
—What the hell is that? An attack?
—Attack? How many Earthlings are even here!
—Alchemists screwing around again.
They murmured briefly at the comet-like thing burning through the atmosphere.
Then someone bellowed. Almost a scream.
—Te-Teleport! Anyone with dimensional gate or teleport magic, now?!
He was a superhuman famous enough for Jeon Yunseong to know. Tanahashi Nase, was it?
A kingpin in the mercenary world... Why was he panicking like that?
—Damn it! Name your price—anyone who can teleport, step forward!! Now!!!
Teleport or dimensional magic weren't kids' names; no one responded to his desperate cries.
As someone approached to ask what it was, the falling object crashed into the capital's heart first.
Screams or Tanahashi's final curse didn't register. A massive light swallowed the palace first.
The next instant, everything in the light's range vaporized outright.
Buildings, cars, trees, humans.
The flash stabbed his eyes, and Jeon Yunseong turned away instinctively.
Peeking through slitted eyes at the explosion, he saw air rushing in through his fingers over his face.
'What the hell is that—'
Before his thought finished, the flash became an explosion.
!!!!!!
Heat and shockwave devoured the city. Fortunately, the millions felt nothing.
Flames screamed in place of the dead. Dust that was someone, ashes that were something soared skyward for their souls.
Even as mere observer, Jeon Yunseong closed his eyes again.
An instant for the living, near eternity for the dead passed.
When Jeon Yunseong finally opened his eyes, a massive mushroom cloud rose into the sky.
The cloud of death that claimed millions.
As he gaped blankly at it, someone screamed.
From the capital's outskirts, under collapsed mage tower rubble, in boiling rivers.
The survivors, the unlucky ones, wailed.
No pleas for help. Primal terror, fear, agony.
Deathbed gasps, envy for those who died first.
The sounds pierced despite plugged ears; Jeon Yunseong couldn't hold back vomit.
As he dropped to his knees and retched bile,
The vision ended.
***