TRPM 394

The mercenary woman’s reason for confessing to me that she had received a request to investigate me was not that she’d gone mad.

“Artist, I thought the backlash would be worse if this fact were kept secret from you and then discovered later. In that case, I’d rather just give up the request.”

She wasn’t particularly short of money, she said. She had her reasons.

“If that’s the reason, I understand.”
“Who is the client?”
“I don’t know. They’ve always hired me through an intermediary. As for the intermediary’s identity… I’ll keep it secret out of loyalty to them.”

One thing was certain, though—

“That intermediary seems fairly clean and principled. By the standards of this world, they’re a pretty decent person.”

This world tended to be relatively dirty, though.

“Hmm…”

Hearing that, I briefly tried to think of people who might place such a request.

‘… There are too many.’

There are plenty of people who would want information about me. So with only the details she gave, it’s practically impossible to identify the client precisely.

‘… If I told this mercenary to keep it secret, she probably would.’

Would I believe her a hundred percent? Not completely. But given how confidently she spoke right in front of me and considering her actions before the regression, I didn’t think she’d lie. That said, if I didn’t give her accurate information in the first place, there’d be no request to fulfill.

“Where… Ines?”
“Yes.”
“What would you like to learn from me?”
“There’s a lot I want to learn. There are so many useful skills for mercenary work. I want to learn fighting techniques, stealth, tracking… Oh! Above all, I’d like to learn that telepathy ability.”

By telepathy she must mean the ability to transmit soundless messages. Since she said her job was mercenary work, she’d understand the importance of those skills.

“Fine. Then the schedule…”
“Ah, the schedule is up to you, Artist.”
“?”
“I’ll be staying in Korea while I learn the skills. So I’m available anytime.”
“… All right then.”

That ended the interview with the mercenary Ines. Naturally, once Ines left, the last woman remaining, Linda, entered.

“Hello.”

When she’d been in the sparring hall earlier she’d worn light clothes that made swinging a sword easy, but now she wore a business suit like an office worker. There probably wasn’t much time between the sparring hall and the director’s office, so she must have changed clothes along the way. Or that outfit might be an artifact that can transform into different forms.

‘If it’s an artifact that only changes the clothes without other effects, it wouldn’t be that expensive.’

If I looked closely I could probably tell whether it was an artifact or not, but I decided not to bother.

“Linda? What would you like to learn from me?”
“Of course, swordsmanship.”
“Nothing else?”
“No. Swordsmanship is enough.”

… According to Sophia, Linda had been raised to be an assassin after being kidnapped, but was rescued by Chairman Richard and now worked under him.

‘She said she lacked skill, so instead of working as a spy like Sophia, she works as staff.’

But it bothered me that despite supposedly lacking skill, she passed the criteria I set. Watching her use swordsmanship freely without the system’s help showed she had talent, so why say she was lacking?

‘Of the six who came today, except for that young one named Taiu, she seemed the weakest… maybe.’

Thinking that, I discussed scheduling with Linda just as I had with the others.

“Thank you.”

After finishing all the interviews, I—

“… Phew…”

Letting out a deep sigh, I realized this was harder than I’d thought.

“Hehe, good work, student Geonwoo.”
“You did better than I thought.”
“……”

Hearing my sigh, Chairman Shin Hanji and the Great Spiritmaster beside him looked at me with approving eyes. Considering their ages, such looks were not unexpected…

“Student Geonwoo?”
“Yes?”
“Did you have any strange thoughts?”
“… No, I didn’t.”

Phew…

“Hmm… I’ll trust you for now. So? When do you plan to start lessons? From tomorrow evening?”
“… That might be difficult for a while.”

I answered Chairman Shin’s question like that.

“Is there any reason the students who want to learn can’t just match your schedule?”
Oh—did he mean I needed time to prepare how to teach?

“If you need advice on that, contact me anytime.”
“I appreciate it, but that’s not the issue….”

The simple truth: I was busy.

“Ah, I have a training retreat tomorrow.”
“… Huh?”

I’m a student first, so I can’t skip school events. It isn’t mandatory, so I could miss it if I wanted, but I had no intention of doing that.

That afternoon… because of what had happened at the academy today, our school temporarily closed. So after lunch I didn’t have to return to school and naturally intended to go home.

“…”

If not for the person who quietly approached me, I would have gone straight home.

“Do you have something to say to me, Great Spiritmaster?”

The figure who’d come up beside me was the Great Spiritmaster who’d decided to learn swordsmanship from me.

“I’m a bit curious.”

The Great Spiritmaster came up and inspected my face as if studying it.

“Hmm…”
“……”

I watched the Spiritmaster’s actions. I could feel her concentrating on me.

“Indeed…”

After observing me for a long time, she seemed to reach a conclusion and asked me a question.

“Artist. Can you use spirit magic as well?”

Ah. So that was what she wanted to check.

Whoosh—

I moved my inner energy and used spirit magic. More precisely, I imitated the spirit magic Elena and Chloe had shown.

“Ooh…! So you used spirit magic with a non-spirit energy—so this is possible too!”

Seeing me use spirit magic, the Spiritmaster seemed to understand up to that point. Or so I thought, but then…

“Artist. As that fellow said, you’re not a mimic who avenges with the same powers, but rather a person specialized in imitating others’ abilities.”
“… That fellow?”

I narrowed my eyes at the Great Spiritmaster’s following words. I didn’t know who had tipped her off, but she’d figured out that I wasn’t a ‘vengeance ability user’… and she even seemed to recognize that my ability was suited to imitating martial arts, aura, magic, and psychic powers.

Wait… if so—

“Great Spiritmaster. The real reason you came here today is…?”

To confirm my true power?

“Hmm? Ah, no. It was just to relieve my boredom.”
“……”

“But I can’t deny that your friend’s words made me interested in you, Artist.”

The name “Great Sorcerer” surfaced.

“……”

That name sent a shiver through me. Great Sorcerer… again you?

‘How long has it been since you took the necromancer to China and yet I keep hearing about you?’

I showed my displeasure clearly, and the Spiritmaster smiled wryly.

“I heard some things; it seems that Great Sorcerer friend of yours is doing dirty work.”
“……”

I didn’t deny the Spiritmaster. At the same time, another thought occurred to me.

‘So the Great Sorcerer discovered the nature of my ability?’

If the Great Sorcerer knew, then Oracle—who worked with him—must know as well. After all, they would have a zombie made from my pre-regression corpse. If they studied that zombie’s body, it wouldn’t be impossible to learn something about my power.

“(Heh heh….)”
“(… That man is laughing to himself, thinking something strange again.)”

Hearing the Great Sorcerer’s characteristic chuckle, Cheonma narrowed his eyes and said so.

“(Sigh… what are you laughing at now?)”

Oracle sighed and asked the Great Sorcerer.

“(Heh heh… I used divination and it seems Artist found out that we had discovered his abilities.)”
“(… How does the Artist know?)”
“(Heh heh….)”
“(… Great Sorcerer, what did you do?)”

When the Great Sorcerer refused to answer properly and just laughed, Oracle realized what he must have done and pressed him.

The Great Sorcerer nonchalantly explained his action.

“(I merely hinted that information to my friend the Great Spiritmaster. It seems the Great Spiritmaster met the Artist and mentioned me.)”
“(… When? No—why?!)”

We know the Artist’s true ability. That information, depending on how it’s used, could become a powerful weapon. And yet this Great Sorcerer is throwing it away like that? Oracle’s head throbbed as he asked.

“(… So?)”
“(Huh? So what?)”
“(I mean, you must have had a reason for using the information that way. Was it worth it?)”
“(Heh heh… Oracle, are you now reading my mind?)”

Of course there was a harvest. The Great Sorcerer said so and produced a strange typewriter from his coat. The typewriter’s keys were melted, and oddly it had a small scale attached.

“(Heh heh… we gave some information, so the Artist will have to give us some information too.)”

That’s only fair, right?

“(Fair… so that’s why there’s a scale?)”

Oracle looked at the scale attached to the typewriter.

“(I’ll skip explaining the exact mechanism of this spell since you wouldn’t listen or understand… heh heh….)”

The Great Sorcerer pulled a sheet from the typewriter. Chinese characters were written on the paper:

散功毒

Seeing the characters, Cheonma said,

“(It seems to be an English typewriter but you wrote Chinese well. Anyway, ‘sanggongdok’…)”

Having read many martial arts novels, Cheonma understood what ‘sanggongdok’ meant very well: a poison that scatters internal power. For martial artists who use inner strength, it’s a deadly toxin.

“(But would such a poison work on someone of the Artist’s caliber?)”
“(Heh heh… It might surprisingly work, don’t you think?)”

Whether such a poison actually exists in reality is uncertain.

“(So… the Artist probably hasn’t developed resistance to a scattered-inner-power toxin.)”
“(… Since the information came from your spell, it’s definitely worth experimenting.)”

If a real poison had been created, testing it on the necromancer’s modified doppelgänger should reveal the result. Muttering that, Cheonma told the White Lotus Sect leader:

“(They must have heard everything, right? Make the poison. A toxin that destroys inner strength.)”
“(Yes. I will give that order.)”