Chapter 119
Chapter 119. The Black Flame Dragon Dressed in Gold (4)
He smiled at the corners of his mouth and did not hide his killing intent.
The large man standing behind him also seemed to be trying to swell his body to several times its size and give off a sense of pressure.
They were Cheol Sun-jik and Nam Hwa-seong of the Twelve Peak Citadels.
“What was that called? That great spear-like arrow hidden inside the Illusory Arrows.”
“Who knows? You should ask him directly.”
When I looked at Murong Jae-hwa, Murong Jae-hwa rolled his eyes for a moment before answering.
“It is the H-Horse-Piercing Arrow.”
After hearing the name, Cheol Sun-jik gave a small exclamation of admiration and nodded.
“It is truly a fitting name. So Young Master Murong was the owner of that arrow. Thanks to you, I nearly failed to enter the Academy.”
“......”
He was continuing to harp on the matter of how, when we blocked Cheol Sun-jik and Nam Hwa-seong on Mount Song, we had also slipped away with a few of their Entry Tokens.
“If you were prepared to take them, should you not also have been prepared to have yours taken?”
At my words, Cheol Sun-jik and his party, the Twelve Peak Citadels, had their faces twist faintly.
Cheol Sun-jik looked at my face for a moment, then asked with his voice full of doubt.
“Are you all right?”
“What do you mean?”
“To form the Academy Representative Delegation, the power of the Twelve Peak Citadels will surely be necessary.”
“......”
“I naturally thought you had considered at least that much. As expected, you are someone who repeatedly goes beyond my expectations.”
With those words, Cheol Sun-jik and the Twelve Peak Citadels were guided into the banquet hall.
While I was briefly chewing over his words, a maidservant ran over to us as well.
“I apologize for being late. I will guide you to your seats immediately.”
The banquet began with the Murim Academy Head’s opening address.
The Instructors and lecturers came out in order and took time to introduce the subjects they were in charge of, and at the end, after a brief introduction about me, who had entered with the highest score, the musicians’ song and dance performance immediately followed.
All sorts of dishes came out in rows, and people moved from table to table, exchanging greetings.
Seeing the Deputy Academy Head, administrative officers, Instructors, and lecturers going here and there to greet people, Geum-pyo’s face stiffened.
“......Should we assume they originally know one another?”
At Geum-pyo’s words, Eun-ho sneered.
“They look too unfamiliar with one another to say they originally knew each other.”
The table where we were seated was in the very center, closest to the platform.
Even so, the lecturers passed by our table and approached only the other tables, exchanging greetings, sharing wine cups, and blooming conversations.
“But they are not going over there either, are they?”
Geum-pyo pointed to the table located farthest from the platform.
After glancing over there, Eun-ho said,
“Coincidentally, those are people who do not belong to the Nine Sects and One Gang, the Five Great Clans, or the Twelve Peak Citadels. They are probably people affiliated with the Merchant World or the government.”
“......”
Whether Geum-pyo’s expression crumpled or not, Eun-ho looked at me and continued speaking.
“Eldest Senior Brother. Should we not approach them first?”
Before I could even answer, Geum-pyo pointed at my chest and said,
“We are the main characters, are we not? It is stuck there so clearly, saying Top Entrant.”
Eun-ho sighed as he looked at Geum-pyo.
“Brother, Eldest Senior Brother has to form the delegation executives as the Academy Representative. If he remains isolated like this, he may not even be able to organize the academic curriculum, and in the worst case, he could lose the representative position.”
Eun-ho looked around.
“I heard that once someone becomes the Representative, people compete with one another to take executive positions. But there is no sign of that at all.”
“It is probably because I am from the Taeul Sect.”
I rose from my seat.
“Will you approach them first?”
“Yes. In any case, I need to form the executive staff. If they are absent, the Academy students will not move in the end either.”
If I could not command the thoroughly divided forces as one, I would lose the representative position.
There was no need to lose a representative position I had obtained with such difficulty over something absurd.
“I will go with you.”
When Eun-ho rose like that, Geum-pyo, Dong-ryong, and Murong Jae-hwa also began moving together.
However, the atmosphere that followed was completely different from what we expected.
We first approached the Nine Sects and One Gang and greeted them, but no one turned their head toward us or paid attention to us.
Rather, some people even rose from their seats and moved elsewhere.
“Greetings!”
I raised my voice slightly louder and greeted them first, but few turned to look at me.
Even those few merely glanced once at my clothes, then turned their heads again, busy talking among themselves.
“......”
Geum-pyo’s face flushed bright red, and Eun-ho’s face hardened.
Dong-ryong did not know what to do, while Murong Jae-hwa looked as if he was about to leap forward and flip the table over at once, so I blocked him.
“That is enough.”
“But Brother......”
“They seem busy, so let us go elsewhere first.”
I started to head toward the table of the Five Great Clans, then glanced back toward the Nine Sects and One Gang.
Sure enough, as soon as we moved away, everyone who had been talking was quietly watching us.
“Ahem...... I have been inside for too long, and it feels stuffy. Shall I go out for some air for a moment?”
“I will go with you.”
As we approached the table where the members of the Five Great Clans were seated, they suddenly rose from their seats and began leaving the banquet hall.
“......Hoo.”
“We should assume it is intentional.”
Eun-ho’s expression was miserable.
Geum-pyo puffed steam from his nose as he spoke.
“Senior Brother, can you not just appoint the executives as you see fit?”
“......The Academy Representative arranges half of the academic schedule. And the Representative receives demerits for every Academy student he fails to have attend that academic schedule.”
Whether or not to attend the academic schedule arranged by the Academy Representative was decided by the will of the Academy students.
In the end, only by having an executive staff capable of moving many Academy students would those students attend the academic schedule arranged by the Representative.
Originally, this was meant to create a place of exchange where the Representative who had taken first place could bring together the students of that year’s cohort, but for someone from the Taeul Sect, it had become a weakness in its entirety.
“What happens if you receive demerits?”
“......I have to step down from the representative position.”
At the very least, I had to be able to move more than half the Academy students, but with the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans already turning their backs, it was safe to say I had already received more than half in demerits.
“......If they are deliberately trying to push you out of the representative position......”
“Hoo...... Then Eldest Senior Brother will have to step down from the representative position. On top of that, in the worst case, if all the Academy students impeach Eldest Senior Brother...... they said he could even be expelled from the Academy.”
“......Fuck, how is that allowed!”
Until just a few hours ago, Geum-pyo had only been delighted, saying that this was the first time in his life he had worn such fine clothes, but now his face was twisted beyond words.
“They are really going to act like this?”
Geum-pyo’s voice was quite loud, so it echoed throughout the entire banquet hall.
The Instructors and lecturers who had been talking at other tables looked this way at Geum-pyo’s loud voice, and the Academy students also glanced over one by one, but no one reacted strongly.
“Haa......”
Inside the banquet hall, bright lights filled every side so thoroughly that one could not feel it was night, and cheerful music and delicious food were placed everywhere.
But none of us could enjoy the festive atmosphere.
“This time, my prediction was correct.”
The Gold-Silver-Copper Brothers and Murong Jae-hwa, who were all on edge, glared toward the place where the voice had come from.
There sat Cheol Sun-jik, whom we had met at the entrance, relaxed and at ease.
“Have you grasped reality a little now?”
“......”
“If you had worked with us from the beginning, you would not have had to worry about any of this.”
“If I had worked with you, entering this place itself would have been impossible.”
Cheol Sun-jik smiled meaningfully.
“In the first place, this was not something the Taeul Sect could contain.”
“You speak as if the Twelve Peak Citadels could contain it.”
The number of people who passed from the Twelve Peak Citadels’ sects and those who followed them was roughly two hundred and fifty.
A number far short of half.
Cheol Sun-jik suddenly brought up something out of the blue.
“I heard through rumors that Young Master Jin deliberately gave up the Special Admission Track.”
Cheol Sun-jik looked once at Murong Jae-hwa.
“And that you gave the Entry Token you received from the Grand Strategist to someone you had never met before.”
“What are you suddenly trying to say?”
“You also leapt into the Murim Academy Regular Exam with only three Junior Brothers, without a single warrior.”
By the time I tilted my head at his increasingly incomprehensible words,
“Young Master Jin is far too outstanding.”
“......”
“You are too outstanding and shine far too brightly, so you cannot stand together with anyone.”
The Gold-Silver-Copper Brothers and Murong Jae-hwa nodded.
“I also gave up the Special Admission Track. I yielded my place to my most cherished Junior Brother. But even so, I did not give up mobilizing one hundred warriors. It was only to that extent. Enough to be acknowledged by the others of the Twelve Peak Citadels, but conversely, not enough to be checked by the Nine Sects and One Gang or the Five Great Clans.”
For the first time, Cheol Sun-jik wore a refreshed expression.
“You ask whether the Twelve Peak Citadels could contain it? Of course they could not. But on the contrary, I would have been able to prove that I was one of the Twelve Peak Citadels. After drawing an appropriate concession from the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans, I would have created harmony.”
Cheol Sun-jik quietly looked at me.
“Young Master Jin is a threat. That is why you cannot prove yourself. Therefore, for them, it will be more comfortable to expel Young Master Jin than to cooperate with him.”
“......If that happens, the Murim Academy will once again be led by the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans. Do you want to repeat that again?”
Cheol Sun-jik smiled faintly.
“Has that happened only for a day or two? We have waited two hundred years. Would it be difficult to wait another fifty years, another hundred years? And would it truly take that long?”
As I had felt even in my previous life, Cheol Sun-jik truly was like a snake.
“......”
At just a few words from him, the shoulders of the Gold-Silver-Copper Brothers and Murong Jae-hwa, who had been on edge, drooped.
“No one in this banquet hall will pay attention to Young Master Jin. Until Young Master Jin is expelled, they probably will not listen to a single word you say.”
Cheol Sun-jik swept one glance over the Gold-Silver-Copper Brothers and Murong Jae-hwa before speaking.
“Shall I tell you the best method?”
“......”
Cheol Sun-jik continued speaking without even waiting for my answer.
“Step down from the representative position on your own. Then return to the position of an ordinary Academy student. At the very least, you will be able to avoid forced expulsion.”
“......”
“Then I hope you enjoy the rest of the banquet.”
Cheol Sun-jik gave a clasped hands greeting and returned to his own table.
We stood in the center of the banquet hall, unable to even think of returning to our seats or speaking to other people.
“Let us return to our seats.”
“Senior Brother...... I am sorry, but may I go back to the dormitory first?”
Geum-pyo said that without even raising his head.
Since I understood how he felt, I was just about to nod.
Murmur, murmur.
The atmosphere inside the hall suddenly changed.
The noises and the music that had made us seem even more pathetic stopped all at once.
The musicians seemed to realize their mistake and began playing again, but those inside the hall who had been conversing noisily could not continue speaking.
They merely stared blankly at the banquet hall entrance.
And there, three women of beautiful bearing, as if light were shining upon them, were entering.
“......Hm?”
“......Huh, did the Academy invite courtesans?”
“That cannot be, but with beauty like that...... there is no way I would not know them in Hunan.”
Regardless of men or women, Instructors or lecturers, everyone’s gaze fixed on the three women entering the banquet hall.
The garments that fluttered whenever they moved gave off a strange air, and their faces looked unreal, as if they had been drawn in a painting.
Each of their actions carried elegance, and only after seeing the smiles on their lips did one realize that they were real people.
The women who entered the banquet hall slowly looked around the room.
Every time their gazes moved, the gazes of the people followed with them.
After looking around like that, the three women saw us standing in the center of the banquet hall and slowly approached.
“Gulp.”
I heard Geum-pyo swallow, though just a moment ago, he had been so dejected that he wanted to return to the dormitory.
That was how nervous everyone in the party had become.
At that moment, the woman standing at the very front of the three opened her red lips and spoke.
“Young Master Jin.”
All the gazes that had been avoiding and ignoring me until now focused on me at once.
Not only the Gold-Silver-Copper Brothers, but even Murong Jae-hwa looked at me with eyes full of disbelief.
“......”
After hearing the voice, I tilted my head.
The way she moved and the sound of her voice resembled someone exactly.
“Lady Namgung......? What in the world happened?”