Chapter 216
『Translator: RainTL』
༺ Garrand The Sword Emperor (1) ༻
Winter Holidays.
This was the fourth winter I was spending in this world. The winter was as cold as always, but there was a drastic difference compared to before.
“Faster!”
Her shout was followed by three stabs of silver dots that were difficult for my eyes to even follow.
- Kang!
However, I used the same set of stabs to offset her attack. It was a miraculous stunt, and I didn’t even understand how I did it myself.
“Those are the 97 moves of Six Ways of the Spear. With that, I have passed down everything about Six Ways of the Spear.”
I was learning the final moves of Six Ways of the Spear that I hadn’t managed to learn in the last iteration. The secret and profound arts of the Six Ways, as well as nigh 100 different moves, would have been impossible to learn, had Master not been alive.
“Shall we take a rest?” she offered.
“Sure.”
The final midnight of the Autumn Harvest Festival went by rather peacefully, and the Academy, which was supposed to meet its demise, was able to reach its winter holiday in one piece.
And it was thanks to that that I was able to practice spearmanship with Master as I was right now.
“Let’s have a cup of tea.”
“Should I reduce the brightness a little then?”
“You probably should.”
Hearing that, I slightly reduced the power of the “Sun” that was being manifested over us. The Sun, lighting up the otherwise dark Shadow World, slowly turned dimmer until it was no longer shining brightly over our heads.
I was starting to get used to maintaining the balance with Sun Manifestation, which consumed a tremendous amount of mana, and training in Six Ways of the Spear, which required utmost concentration.
“There is nothing more for me to teach you,” said Master.
“I still haven’t beaten you even once, though.”
“Training is different from a real fight, and Korin, you are the type who is stronger in a real battle.”
“...I can’t rely on uncertainties like that. I need to be much stronger than I am right now.”
Only then would I be able to confront Tates Valtazar and come out on top, even if I had to fight him 1-on-1 on the off chance that such an outcome came to be.
As if she saw through my thoughts, Master patted my head before giving me her other arm.
“Touch it.”
“Uhh… Umm. Okay.”
Thinking that there must be a reason, I touched her soft, slender, and beautiful arm.
“Observe every part of it, carefully.”
“May I… ask why?”
I was following what she said and fidgeting with and massaging her clean arm, but couldn’t really tell why.
“What are your thoughts?”
“Umm… It’s very pretty.”
“...!”
She suddenly slapped the back of my hand after hearing that. It stung quite a bit.
“F, for goodness sake! Not something like that!”
“Well… That was my honest opinion though.”
“R, really?”
Master gave an empty cough with her face deep red.
“Did you have… a different intention?”
“Tell me the difference between my arm and yours.”
“Well… Yours is thin and… mine is thick?”
“You are correct. Your muscles and your tendons are far superior to mine. The muscles and tendons in my arms are much weaker in comparison.”
“But if you enhance them with aura… Huh?”
I belatedly realized something. Has Master ever… used aura against me?
“Wait. Wait, that… doesn’t make any sense…”
Master cut me off without waiting for me to finish murmuring in utter confusion.
“Do you know Garrand Arden?” she asked.
“The Sword Emperor? Well, I’ve only seen his face once this time but… I saw him a few times before.”
“Go see him, and tell him about your relationship with me.”
“Have you met Garrand Arden?” I asked.
“Back when he was an immature young man… and a few times after that. You might be able to understand something after talking to him.”
“Can’t you just teach me instead?”
Master shook her head in response.
“This is something that cannot be taught; you must be enlightened to it yourself. Your strength is already perfect, and that isn’t what you need. Go talk to Garrand Arden and make him acknowledge you. That is how you can fight against Tates.”
Garrand Arden, huh?
I was feeling the need to talk to him sometime soon. Since Master was recommending it on top of that, I decided to do it with haste.
“Then let’s stop here for today. Training any more than this won’t be very meaningful.”
“Alright.”
These days, the focus was more on quality than quantity. It made sense because Master couldn't spend all of her time helping me train.
“Then I’ll see you…”
“K, kuhum…!”
She suddenly let out an unnatural cough before sneaking a glance at me with a slight blush on her cheeks.
“Umm… Any farewell hugs?”
“But I’ll be seeing you very shortly anyway.”
“Ah, r, right…”
Master became dispirited in the blink of an eye. She was an adorable person, and I was happy to be liked by someone like her.
Walking up, I wrapped my arms around her back until her small body was fully locked in my arms.
“Thank you as always… for everything.”
“Ah, uhm! Yes! It’s very warm. Let me go get some water!”
She said while fanning the heat away from her cheeks. She looked exceedingly adorable.
****
This winter had been very harsh in the last iteration.
The city met its demise; the Academy fell and I lost Master. Just like the player, we weren’t able to stop Tates Valtazar and his forces just by ourselves.
Because of that, right now, I was somewhat lost as to what to do.
Normally, the player was supposed to travel around the continent following the storyline but…
“There’s not much to do.”
These days, there was nothing urgent to do.
Dun Scaith, Fermack Daman… and even Miruam. All the pressing problems had been dealt with, and the Academy was still standing strong on top of that. Training meaninglessly didn’t sound right either.
And because of that—
“There. A bit higher.”
“Here?”
I was scratching Hua Ran’s belly.
I scratched her soft belly over the thin layer of clothing as Hua growled softly in satisfaction. She was basically a cat at this point.
“Little Navi~. Does it feel good?”
“I’m not Navi.”
“Yes yes. Little Hua.”
These days, Hua was a lot more docile than before. She began coming over at night and let me touch wherever I pleased without creating a fuss.
“Does it feel good?”
“Yeah.”
Fuu… I know this isn’t the right thing.
I know I shouldn’t be doing this but…
“Oppa. Can you scratch my back?”
“Uhh… Ran?”
“I demand fair treatment,” Ran joked with a smile.
When I scratched her back over the clothing, she started rustling her body.
“That tickles. You can put your hand underneath if you want to.”
“No can do!”
“You can touch and scratch at the same time though?”
“No can…”
“Do you want to touch my belly at the same time?”
“No…”
“You can do whatever you want to, actually.”
“Stop teasing me… You have no idea what I might do.”
“Hehe.”
What a mischievous little devil!
Ran floated an alluring smile before tickling my chin with the crown of her head.
“There are two of us~. You can basically marry two people you know~?”
“Marriage is not a ‘buy 1 get 1 free’ scheme.”
“That’s how much I like you though, Oppa. I can put up with that much.”
Ran still had the bewitching smile on her lips. After finishing her sentence, she brought her lips to my cheeks without a sliver of hesitation.
“Hua isn’t good at showing affection so~ I can do that for you whenever you want.”
“Dear me…”
“Or do you not like me because I’m worse off than others? I’m still growing, you know? You never know; I might be bigger than Sister Marie in the future.”
“That’s probably going to be hard.”
Marie’s “that”… is off the charts, you see.
“You already have a perfect set of eyes, nose, and lips. I can’t imagine you becoming even prettier.”
“Hue…”
Her cheeks immediately turned red. She was strong on the offensive, but it seemed that she was weak to compliments.
She snuggled closer in so I wrapped my arms around her body.
Despite my ambiguous stance, Ran didn’t voice a single compliment. She instead showered me with love and affection without a hint of discomfort.
It was… concerning, thinking about what would happen after I eventually had to choose someone.
“Are you still diligently doing your practice routines on Ways of the Fist?”
“Yes. I was more talented in martial arts than I thought.”
“Hua couldn’t really do it though.”
“She’s too strong, after all.”
Both personalities of Hua Ran had equal specs, but Hua was overwhelmingly more talented at fighting in general. Her relentless personality and innate talent in aura made her a perfect fighter.
However, that came at the cost of being awkward at martial arts, where you had to delicately and effectively make use of each move.
“The Association is probably going to assign you an evaluation test as well. You should prepare for it.”
“Evaluation… But Hua said she wasn’t interested in becoming a Unique Grade Guardian.”
“It’s still a good idea to become one. Being a Unique Grade Guardian equals authority.”
The player eventually had to become a Unique Grade Guardian. That correlated to what the player would be able to do during the final war.
“No matter how precarious of a situation it may be, the world will refuse to fight as one. However, it will be different if the top figures have power and authority.”
If aliens were to invade, would the world fight as one like what happens in some Hollywood movies?
Probably not.
But what if the presidents of each nation were trustworthy people who shared an objective?
“Will becoming a Unique Grade Guardian be helpful?”
“Yes, because Unique Grade Guardians have the authority to aim for the presidential position of each branch.”
“President?”
“It’s an old tradition. No one really remembers it at this point but…”
Taking the seat of the president by challenging them was a rule that still existed. It simply went under the radar because there wasn’t anyone strong enough to defeat the executives and subordinate guardians as well as the president of a branch at once.
Whenever there were people like Garrand Arden the Sword Emperor showing up, they would immediately give them an honorary presidential position to avoid conflict, which was another reason for the lack of precedents.
“But they will see us as kids, and will refuse to give us the same treatment they gave that old man.”
Besides, there was also the fact that Marie and Hua Ran were demi-humans, who were treated like demons for a long time.
It was highly unlikely that they would give high positions within the Association to demi-humans, whom they had been hostile to.
That was why it was hard to expect much cooperation from each branch of the Association even in the game and the last iteration, because Park Sihu and I were the only ‘pure-blood humans’ that could have the word ‘Unique’ in our title.
“Hmm~. So what you’re saying, Oppa, is that you want us to become Unique Grade Guardians to take over the Association, right?”
“They will be vigilant of us already. It won’t be easy but…”
Marie, Hua Ran… and me.
It should be possible for us, monster guardians.
“If we can at least get two from the three branches, we will be able to save a lot more people.”
It was only a half-success in the last iteration because Park Sihu was the only Unique Grade that was available.
Although I attempted to become a Unique Grade guardian myself, the final evaluation I received was ‘Semi-Unique’. The walls of Unique Grade were higher and harder to climb than expected.
However, even that half-success allowed us to reduce the number of casualties by a lot.
Although we couldn’t stop Dun Scaith from reducing the South to ruins, we were able to swiftly deal with the rebellion of the Old Faith to the West and managed to stop the northern borders from being breached.
“Oppa.”
“What is it?”
“I think it’s amazing how you always try to save people. It’s so cool.”
“Kuhum… That was very abrupt…”
“That’s the kind of person you are, and that must be why you saved us, right? But…”
Ran locked her fingers behind my neck.
“When eeeeverything is over, we still want you to care about only us~”
“Not right now. I have a lot to do.”
“Tch… Oppa. You’re so dense but obstinate, did you know?”
“Yeah. I didn’t know I would turn out like this either. I wasn’t like this in the past.”
“Is that when you were in your hometown?”
“Guess so.”
I was too busy playing around with friends on Earth, and the biggest difference to now was that I wasn’t popular in the slightest.
Hah… I guess I would have to face a different set of problems even if I were to go back to Earth.
At least I’m popular here so… should I just stay here?
****
Normally, the guardians affiliated with the Academy took their evaluation tests at the end of the year, with the change to their Grade being decided over the holidays.
However, this rule didn’t apply to me because of the ambiguous state of my official Grade.
Korin Lork.
Entered the Academy 2 years ago as Grade 5, but was promoted to Grade 1 Knight in just one semester in an official evaluation.
During the second year unofficially became semi-Unique Grade, but even that was changed after the incident with Mound.
Stopping the advance of an army with the Sun, I defeated countless challengers and the last fight against Eochaid Bres was clearly that of a superhuman above superhumans; proving that there was a sky above the sky.
In other words, the public perception of me was already that of a Unique Grade Knight.
Considering how even Marie was a semi-Unique Grade and Hua Ran’s Unique Grade was also unofficial, it could be said that I was grabbing a bit too much attention recently.
That was why Lady Josephine represented the Academy to recommend me as well as Marie, Alicia, and Hua Ran for the evaluation test.
“Oh. Mr. Korin! This way! Here!”
When we arrived at the waiting room of the Central Guardian Association located near the capital, I found Alicia who had gone to the East with Lunia beforehand.
“Did you enjoy your visit back to your hometown?”
“Yes! I have some horse jerky. Do you want some?”
“Hoh~. Sure thing.”
I was about to take the jerkies when Alicia suddenly opened her arms out wide.
“Huh?”
“It’s the first time in 2 weeks. I deserve a hug.”
“Uhmm… Right now?” saying that, I looked around.
We were in the waiting room of the Guardian Association… There were a lot of eyes on the surprising actions of the young lady from the Arden Household.
“My arms are getting sore. Quick.”
“Mhmm…!”
I gave Alicia the hug she demanded.
These days… she’s being more and more touchy.
“Hehe. Can you tap me on my back?”
“Okay…”
After I gave her a few taps on the back, Alicia whispered in my ears.
“It’s been so long… Can we?” she suggested in a soft voice, and I immediately noticed what she was alluding to.
“Y, you became quite bold all of a sudden, didn’t you?”
“I had to read the mood every second in the East. I don’t want to do that when I’m with you either, Mr. Korin.”
Alicia these days… was frightening. She was becoming more and more like Lunia.
“Then let me—”
“W, wait…”
That was when Alicia, who was bringing her lips towards mine, was suddenly pulled back with a scream, “Uaahk!”
“Ms. Hua Ran?”
With an indifferent look on her face, Hua said after pulling Alicia back.
“You’re… too close.”
“Hing… It’s been 2 whole weeks though.”
“...”
Both Alicia and Hua knew that they liked the same person.
What can I say… I’m the sinner in this situation.
“Hahaha! I see. As they say, heroes love women indeed!”
An old swordsman approached in a burst of hearty laughter.
His gray hair was disheveled and his martial uniform was tattered but… no one dared to even think about chasing the man out.
“Greetings, Sword Emperor.”
“Been a while, young man.”
Garrand Arden.
He was the only Unique Grade Guardian in the current generation – the strongest swordsman who lifted the Arden Household into being out of nothing.
“Thanks to you I enjoyed the clouds a whole lot.”
The eyes of a ferocious beast glared straight through my eyes. Right… we still had to go over that one thing.