Chapter 101

The Demon clan, among the Original clans.

They, unlike the other Originals, did not pick a leader, nor did they form a group or tribe.

However, there were three exceptions among such demons.

First, the priests who serve the Demon god, one of their own superior being.

Second, the worshippers of the Demon King, who proved its power by annihilating countless demons.

Third, demons who were submerged in the studies of the same topic.

This demon clan group was the third case.

“Kang-ryup Jeo came into contact.”

Among them, the demon in charge of contacting with the outer world muttered in the dark.

The demons, hearing that, closed their third eye connected to the present Earth.

They rose from their own magic circles.

Different psychic waves and magical power flower around them.

“Kang-ryup Jeo? Are you talking about the head of the Pig clan, Jeopalgyae?”

“Yeah. He has asked for a deal through ‘the one’.”

“Deal? What’s he asking for?”

At the end of a brief description of the deal with Kang-ryup Jeo, the demons questioned some things.

“It seems a little tricky to do. Not impossible, but tricky.”

“What are they offering in return?”

The demon, who was speaking fluently without hesitation, answered this question one beat late.

“…… They will allow us to watch the upcoming Juo and TC’s party on board.”

Laughter of disapproval broke out all over the void.

The demons did not hide their displeasure.

“For getting us to do work? Only that?”

“Allow? Such arrogance. I don’t like it. There is no place to avoid our eyes unless it’s the realm of gods.”

“Yeah. All we need to do is know where the place is and prepare a bit, and even if a superior being interferes, we can project the place at least a little.”

The topic of the conversation of the demons changed to bad-mouthing Kang-ryup Jeo.

“Wasn’t Kang-ryup Jeo appointed by the ‘enlightened one’ as a messenger? He should be practicing virtue to achieve Buddhahood, why is he on the present Earth?”

“Remember he went astray after the Other-world war. He gave up his enlightenment by forming allies with ‘the one.’”

“I can’t believe the Chunbongwonsu who lead an army of 80 thousand in the heavens and swept through the milky way became this pig now.”

“He’s gone mad after getting the pink slip and losing his messenger job.”

The demon who told them about Kang-ryup Jeo’s message delivered the final blow.

“Kang-ryup Jeo was so arrogant that he even nominated one of us. He said he wanted the most skilled demon to cooperate with him.”

The psychic waves and magical power waves of the demons fluctuated rapidly to reflect their owners’ emotions.

“That pig dares to judge who the better one is out of us?”

“Who did he even nominate?”

Between the sinister colors and forms of the psychic wave, the voice of the demons rang out.

“You know the demon god of one of the seven great sins, Lord Invidius. The pig wants the Lord’s priest.”

The enthusiastic priest of the demon god of the seven great sins.

Although overly passionate about it, that eccentric demon abandoned the priests’ group and engaged in the study of the frozen-type Other-world, making a remarkable contribution to the field.

Those who recalled the demon unwillingly admitted it.

“…… Well, that guy is good.”

“You can’t say he isn’t the best of us.”

“Humph.”

The conversation topic changed again to the priest of Invidius.

“So where is that guy? I don’t see him.”

“He’s been going a lot to the present Earth recently because of this ‘raven mask’ that perked his interest. Maybe he’s at Earth again.”

“Come to think of it, I didn’t see him these days.”

Then a demon who was silent until now opened its mouth.

Another priest, but not of Invidius.

The demons listened, thinking, ‘strange demons flock together.’

“He’s on present Earth. He had some work to do.”

“Work to do?”

“He decided to make a deal with Jinwoong-palseon(8 leaders of the Bear clan that tried to kill all gods).”

Some demons asked questions at the mention of Jinwoong-palseon.

“Jinwoong-palseon…… The ones that have gone mad? Or the ones that have not gone mad?”

“The normal ones.”

“Which one of them? If it’s the Bear of Ecstasy, I want to meet them too. They seem to have made an interesting magic calculation.”

The priest shook their head in the dark.

“The being who asked for a deal is Woong-nyeo of Bitan.”

*    *    *

“You’re not going to tell me where you were yesterday? You seem to have been with that Original clan for a long time.”

Jiho asked me while I was immersed in my thoughts.

An Original clan that annoys him.

The Original clan who gave Gyubin Hong a blessing.

I was with that Original clan for quite a long time last night.

‘Long enough to leave a trace?’

After parting ways with Jiho Hwang yesterday, I was in three places for a long time.

Inside the barrier of Eun-kwang High.

The air limousine with Jared Lee.

The EverLake building, inside Jae-in Kwon’s room.

‘The school barrier was strengthened after the butterfly incident so that can’t be it…… It’s most likely to be in Jae-in Kwon’s room.’

I will ask senior Jae-in Kwon later, but I think asking Jiho about this is needed, too.

“I went to see senior Jae-in Kwon yesterday.”

“Jae-in Kwon…… That guy even got the Blue Violinist in his hands, huh.”

Jiho Hwang frowned.

He said that being was annoying, but I didn’t know Jiho didn’t like him.

“So what kind of Original clan is that being?”

“You saw him too, through the magic circle.”

The Original clan I met through the magic circle?

He means the 12 zodiac meeting.

He can’t mean one of the 12 heads of clans that had nicknames only a child would have?

That original clan is the self-proclaimed “wit,” the head of the Mouse clan.”

So Jae-in and Gyubin had a huge Original being on their side.

‘Both going through a lot of trouble, I suppose.’

Not that I should say anything, with Jiho Hwang by my side.

*    *    *

Lunchtime.

For lunch, I chose the menu that I thought would be the fastest.

Stewed chicken legs with ginger and onions.

Eggs cooked in a sauce called ‘Kooksujang-gook.

And a chicken rice bowl with slightly cooked Enoki mushroom.

‘I wanted to eat the seafood steam with snow crab, mussels, octopus, and shrimp……’

If gourmet Hyo-don Meang knows about this, he’ll say I made a dumb decision.

But I couldn’t choose the seafood steam because it took long to serve and eat.

I needed to check something during lunchtime.

‘There are a lot of messages cheering me on today.’

After lunch, I went to a walkway with little people.

As I sat on the bench and started the device, I saw a pile of messages that I hadn’t checked since the morning supporting me for the chess tournament.

I gave a brief thank you, scrolled down the chat rooms, and found the name I was looking for.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

[Me] Hello, Mr. Gyubin Hong.

[Me] I want to ask you a question, are you busy now?

Gyubin Hong replied faster than I thought.

[Gyubin Hong] Hey, Ui-shin. It’s lunchtime now so it’s ok!:)

[Gyubin Hong] What’s the matter?

He has often checked up on me, but recently he asked even more about how I was doing.

Somehow, Gyubin’s recent behavior seemed to have something to do with the question I was trying to ask.

[Me] Do you know about the self-proclaimed “wit” of the Mouse clan?

Immediately after the end of my question, Gyubin sent a ton of messages.

[Gyubin Hong] He finally reached you too? ^^

[Gyubin Hong] Ignore it. Once you get to know him, it’ll be so troublesome!

[Gyubin Hong] it was annoying when he whined for me to take his blessing, and became more annoying after receiving the blessing. He pops in suddenly, nagging about what he likes, what he doesn’t like. Always asking me to investigate this! Take a look into that!

[Gyubin Hong] Never get involved with him! He is the most clingy, needy, obnoxious, and obsessed Original I’ve ever met!

‘Obnoxious and obsessed’ was used by Geumchan-Wangchan to describe Gyubin Hong once.

The Original and player connected by blessing must take after one another.

[Gyubin Hong] Especially when he smiles and says, ‘I like this very much’ in that polite speech he rarely uses!

[Gyubin Hong] If that happens, run away and don’t look back. Run inside the barrier of Eun-kwang High! Got it?

Because of Gyubin’s skills of predicting the future, the head of the Mouse clan, the “Wit” always bothered him.

I don’t exactly know what he’s like yet, but if Gyubin, who was practically the pronoun of obsessed and clingy, reacted to the guy this seriously, I’d better steer clear of him.

[Me] Okay, thank you.

[Gyubin Hong] Wait, Ui-shin. Where did you hear the nickname ‘Wit’? You’re not already involved, are you? T.T?

I wouldn’t say involved.

But I couldn’t tell him where I heard that ‘Wit’ nickname from.

How should I get through this?

He’ll be busy working anyway, so maybe I’ll just ignore it.

I was wondering what to do when,

“Ui-shin Cho.”

Someone who approached me without a sound spoke.

It was a clear, mild voice, but it was so sudden I couldn’t help but be surprised.

“Mr. Cheong-Hwon Kong.”

The person who spoke to me was Cheong-Hwon Kong, who taught Introduction to Enemy Studies and was Han-yi’s mentor.

He is a scary person whose trace cannot be sensed while he took his eyes off the blackboard and read the textbook in class.

He silences his traces at all times out of habit.

“I was worried that you didn’t come to class again last time.”

On Teacher’s Day, I skipped his class to go to Hyo-don’s middle school.

That must be why he’s here.

Although I had no clue how he found me on this huge campus.

“Ui-shin, if you have any suggestions, I’ll listen.”

Cheong-Hwon Kong smiled, looking very generous.

All the classes I’ve skipped were Cheong-Hwon Kong’s classes, I think……

It was reasonable that he thought I skipped his classes because I didn’t like him or something.

Besides, the last time I skipped class was on Teacher’s Day.

“…… Sorry.”

“Please contact me before you fail to come next time.”

Cheong-Hwon Kong’s face seemed a little bitter.

“You’re competing in the Chess tournament. I heard that today is the last day…… Are you going to prepare for the tournament?”

He’s indirectly asking me if I’m going to skip class today again.

I wasn’t planning to from the beginning this time.

“No, I want to listen to your class.”

Cheong-Hwon Kong was pleased with my answer.

“You’re coming to class today?”

“Yes.”

Like last time, he came to get me to prevent me from skipping class.

‘Strange, I can’t think of any excuses to say.’

His words, expressions, all of it were gentle, but somehow he is intimidating.

“Oh, the school bell is ringing. We can go to class together.”

The class bell that indicated lunch break is over was Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastorale,” set in the forest of Heiligenstadt, a place on the outskirts of Vienna.

Among them, the 4th movement titled ‘Thunder, Storm’.

It was a symphony depicting rainstorms, lightning, and the fleeing animals in the forest.

‘I think the broadcast crew made this song the bell with the intention of relieving food coma.’

Last time, it was Edvard Grieg’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King.’

Every time I get caught by Cheong-Hwon Kong, an intense music was the class bell.

Although I became a slacker to this teacher, Cheong-Hwon Kong’s Introduction to Enemy Studies was a rewarding and excellent lesson.

*    *    *

After school, newspaper club room.

“3rd-grade class 0 made a floating garden!”

“How in the hell did they get that up there?”

Rumors began to spread that the third-grade class 0 had moved to avenge against the energy of the universe.

The reason they didn’t start right away and waited until school was over was probably because they lost the bet and had promised their homeroom teacher to listen to every single class.

“I need to catch their trails this time! I’ll dig into the heads of those crazy peoples!”

Saeron Moon, who failed several times to cover their story, burned with a new passion.

The newspaper club members planned on how to cover them.

Then, Saeron and the rest suddenly looked at me.

“We can’t go and cheer for you today, suspicious vice prez of class 0, but we do root for you!”

“Yeah, it’s okay to be suspicious, so good luck.”

And the newspaper club said that I’m suspicious, too.

The cheer slogan and my portrait painted by Green Min were hot on the general bulletin board.

The newspaper club must’ve seen that, too.

Thanks to the fame of Green’s painting, this had spread far too much.

“Hahahaha! This finally caught on to the newspaper club!”

Jiho laughed out loud with glee.

Anyways, I headed to the Chess tournament stadium with the newspaper club’s support on my back.

*    *    *

The 3rd gym of the General Club Hall grounds.

Four games were played in the two-day tournament.

60 or so players, including seeded players who were picked randomly, were now reduced to 4.

‘The survivals are all my playable characters! Let’s DO this.’

Block A was Jun-yeoul Yeom and Seung-hyun Park.

Block B was Kyung-gu Kwak and me.

‘It’s surprising that no third years made it here.’

In the semifinals, my opponent is Kyung-gu Kwak, who belongs to the second-year student Council.

He was a friend of Jun-yeoul Yeom and was taught by the same mentor as Suhyuk Joo.

Like Suhyuk, the palm of his hand was as hard as metal as a player using a pair of swords.

‘As the #2 double-sword master of Eun-kwang High should, his hand is rough.’

The coin throwing results were:

Kyung-gu was white, and I was black.

“Begin.”

Je-gun Yong’s voice rang through the stadium.