TRPM 190

I watched Kang Garam training his stamina, then turned my gaze to the other side of the sparring hall.

The others were spending their free time in their own ways.

Ryu Amin and Ryu Ayoung were practicing: Ayoung using her manifestation ability to draw a magic circle and Amin activating it with his transformation ability. Elena and Lee Ha-eun were quietly chatting with each other. Jin Cheon-ha seemed to be having a hard time since he’d given up sorcery and gone down the path of magic—he was studying intently from a magic textbook.

And…

“Come on?!”
“Yeah, bring it on!”

Kwang—!

Elliot and Lee Doo-min were sparring, as usual.

Elliot’s sword and Lee Doo-min’s legs collided with a thunderous roar; the impact forced them to step apart briefly before they clashed again.

‘… Elliot’s sword can’t cut through Doo-min’s legs enhanced by the Ironman ability.’

Well, maybe not. The sword Elliot was using was a training blade, not a real sword, and he barely enchanted it, so you couldn’t expect much cutting power. The magic on the sword looked like hardening or reinforcement-type spells—basically to make sure it wouldn’t break. Doo-min’s physical power would snap a training blade easily, so it would actually be stranger if Doo-min’s legs got cut by that sword.

Bang!
Bang!

Anyway, Elliot’s blade and Doo-min’s legs struck each other repeatedly. Then, at some point—

Fwaak…!

Elliot suddenly used magic to target an opening in Doo-min’s defense.

“Not a chance!”

As if he’d expected Elliot to do that, Doo-min lightly deflected the spell and tried to counterattack.

“Told you I’d counter!”

Elliot must have expected Doo-min to counter, because he blocked Doo-min’s attack with a shield spell he’d prepared in advance.

“Figured you’d block like that!”

Then Doo-min, apparently having predicted that Elliot would block with a shield, pulled his fist back and swung again to smash the shield.

Pajik…!

A hairline crack appeared in Elliot’s shield. Because shield magic is essentially a tightly woven barrier held by mana, repeating attacks on the same spot makes it possible to break through. Doo-min knew this, so he kept hitting the same spot to break the shield.

“Knew you’d try that!”

At that moment, Elliot—apparently anticipating that Doo-min would target the shield’s weak spot—counterattacked with a spell he’d prepared as soon as a crack appeared, aiming to smash Doo-min, who was going to break the shield.

“Knew you’d do that too!”

Doo-min had even foreseen that and dodged Elliot’s attack leisurely.

…If you only heard them saying “I expected that!” over and over, it might sound like a sketch comedy. But given what those two had done so far, it made perfect sense.

‘Those two have sparred every chance they get. Naturally they know each other’s habits and fighting styles very well, so because they can predict each other’s thoughts, scenes like this play out.’

They watched each other so carefully that they tried desperately to predict the opponent’s next move, so they kept countering one another. This back-and-forth sketchy-sounding situation only ends when neither can predict the other’s move anymore…

‘… Twenty minutes since the match started. That took a while.’

After over a hundred exchanges, Elliot—who still had some stamina left—finally won.

“Phew… phew… that brings it to 63 matches: 32 wins, 8 draws, 23 losses.”
“Ugh… 63 matches: 23 wins, 8 draws, 32 losses….”

…They’d sparred only once before entering high school. Now it had been about a month since they enrolled. If this was their 63rd spar, that meant they’d been sparring roughly twice a day. Truly maniacs for training.

I sighed inwardly and took my phone out to check the time.

“What— it’s break time?”

No bell had rung to announce the break…

‘Ah, the sparring hall has no speakers, does it?’

Since the hall was in a completely separate building from the main or annex buildings, there were no speakers, so the bell that signaled break time wasn’t heard. As if to prove my thought, students from other classes began to enter the sparring hall one by one.

“What, class 1?”
“You’re still here? It’s break time—shouldn’t you go change?”

Our classmates realized it was break time too and started running toward the locker rooms. They didn’t want to shower and change and then risk being late for class—better to hurry.

I, on the other hand, had only sat down and meditated for a bit; I hadn’t trained, so I didn’t need to shower. I moved more leisurely.

‘Even if I had trained, I’d just clean up with cleansing magic.’

I was heading toward the locker room with the others when—

“?”

I saw Class 1–2 students hauling personal weapons into the sparring hall just like our class had. Ah, they’d been fooled too.

Later, during the break after second period, Lee Doo-min bumped a piece of equipment by his desk as he stood up. Seeming to remember something, he said:

“Looking back, why did I fall for that? It’s obvious training weapons would be used in the sparring hall.”

“… Ah! Yeah.”
“Hey, Doo-min. You didn’t know, right?”

Some kids who had lugged their equipment all the way to the sparring hall then back to the locker room and had to leave it there complained at Doo-min as if he’d tricked them. Doo-min was the one who’d first said, based on what seniors told him, that they should bring personal gear.

“I didn’t know either! If I’d known, would I have brought these heavy pieces?”

Doo-min held up the metal gauntlets and boots by his desk and complained. He was a victim too. The others saw he’d been fooled as well and stopped berating him. Instead they regretted not realizing the truth sooner.

“I thought school sparring and casual sparring were different…”
“Come to think of it, the teacher didn’t say to bring anything.”
“At first I didn’t believe it either… but when everyone else at school was carrying weapons, I thought it was real. I thought the teacher had told only the other classes and forgotten ours.”

While I listened to their complaints—

“… Geon-woo, you knew, right?”

Kang Garam looked at me and asked. All eyes turned to me.

“Yes, I knew.”

I nodded.

“You knew?!”
“Then why didn’t you tell us?!”
“…You guys must have forgotten—I was out of the country for the past three days, so I didn’t come to school and didn’t have a chance to tell you.”

“You could have told us while we were in the locker room!”

“Well…”

I was going to say I thought it’d be more fun not to tell them. Predictable reaction, so I tried to put it another way.

“I thought it’d be more fun not to say anything.”
“What are you talking about?!”

Oops, slip-up. I meant to say something else but blurted out the same thing.

“…They probably did that on purpose.”
“See, that’s what I thought.”

The girls muttered among themselves at that, but I ignored it. I dodged the protesting boys’ attacks with ease and smiled.

“Argh… you’re getting on my nerves!”
“Don’t just stand there!”
“Try and hit me once.”

I spent the remainder of the break messing around with them. Of course, none of our boys managed to land a hit.

Oh, by the way…

“You guys were using magic in class during break, right? You’re ready to take the demerits?”
“Ugh?!”
“Aw, man…!”

Those who used abilities in the classroom—not in the sparring hall—and attacked others were penalized. Especially Ryu Amin and Lee Doo-min, since their homeroom teacher Son Ji-hye seemed to view them as troublemakers; they looked utterly devastated.

The next day.

“… Hah…”

After a good sleep I spread my ki and sensed the area.

‘Hmm, no watchers today.’

I’d apprehended and handed over to the police all the people who had been spying on me yesterday. Of course, not every watcher was gone, but I was sure no one was watching my house anymore.

‘If someone could watch me without my senses picking them up, then they’re impressive in their own right.’

After a light qi-gathering exercise to absorb mana gathered in my room and convert it to inner energy, I left my room. It was Saturday, so I didn’t bother changing into a uniform.

“You’re up?”
“Good morning.”
“Even though it’s past nine.”

When I came out, Yeon Mirae from next door greeted me in our living room. She must have had the breakfast my mother made and then sat on the sofa watching TV.

‘Ah—my breakfast’s there.’

While I’d overslept on a weekend, my mother had made breakfast and then gone out. Since it wasn’t a workday, she’d probably gone to meet friends. I checked and reheated the meal with a Sammaejinhwa (a magical reheating method). Mom probably intended for it to be microwaved, but microwaves and Sammaejinhwa both warm food, don’t they?

“… You use Sammaejinhwa for something like this…?”

Yeon Mirae looked at me in disbelief.

“Why?”
“No—seeing my teacher use a skill he can’t manage properly as if it were a microwave makes me respect you.”
“……”

It came out sarcastic, but she was actually sincere—she truly respected me enough to say that.

“Not going to work today?”
“It’s a holiday. Only staff on duty are working; everyone else’s off.”
“Is that so?”

I asked while taking a bite of my reheated breakfast.

“Then want to come with me to Ieodo?”
“Ieodo…? Do you mean the prison island?”
“Yeah, that one.”

I had matters to attend to at Ieodo this weekend. I didn’t absolutely have to go, but I couldn’t ignore it.

[(Our PMC’s next target is to attack the prison island.)]
[If you want to confirm whether that’s true, come to the prison island yourself.]

Albatross PMC’s planned attack on the prison island was scheduled for this weekend.