Chapter 15
“Isn’t that a real sword?”
“Hey! Baek Do-Jin! What are you doing, you madman?!”
Hearing those sudden shouts, the other students looked over and were frightened. Aiming a sword at a fellow student was an unbelievable sight, even considering Baek Do-Jin’s nickname.
“Damn!”
Several of Do-Jin’s classmates moved swiftly. They jumped between the strange green-haired boy and Do-Jin.
In order to prevent the guy who had been with them for more than a year from crossing the line, they pointed their sparring tools, arcane weapons, at Do-Jin.
“Baek Do-Jin! Calm down!”
“Get lost!”
Do-Jin’s little body blurred and disappeared.
[Flash Steps.]
It was his Initial Skill.
Flash steps had the fatal disadvantage of a short teleport range and unpredictability in the user's intended teleport coordinates.
When Do-Jin reappeared, he was behind the two students, albeit with his legs mid-air and his head angled steeply toward the ground.
Do-Jin immediately faceplanted.
It wouldn’t be strange if he had broken a few bones, but Do-Jin popped right back up. “Loreeeeeeeeen!” he roared. Loren’s image was captured in his blazing eyes, and he firmly swung his greatsword.
“Ah...!”
The second-year students who’d tried to block Do-Jin lamented. It was too late. The madman had crossed the river of no return.
The green-haired boy seemed also to be a freshman, but it didn’t matter. Lion’s Castle wouldn’t care no matter what the story was between the two freshmen. Do-Jin wouldn’t escape punishment once he used his sword to injure someone for personal reasons.
Baaaaang!
Blood splattered, but it wasn’t the green-haired boy’s. Do-Jin’s nose was bleeding from the backlash of his own attack.
Loren had launched something roughly circular into the air that met Do-Jin’s attack and blocked the huge greatsword easily. It was a Skill of some sort, but the color and shape of it were distinctly different from the magic-type Shield Skill.
“...Bones?”
The identity of the white, roughly circular shield was surprisingly a collection of bones. To be precise, it looked like a curled-up spine.
On seeing the bones, the students seemed to be reminded of something and they took a closer look at Loren.
They saw it.
The boy’s eyes were stained gold.
“A-a Bloodline Skill!’
“It’s real! Austria’s...!”
Amid the students’ awe and consternation, the spine unfurled like a whip and wrapped around Do-Jin’s sword.
“Do-Jin, I see you’re still as short-tempered as ever. How can you swing a sword at a friend that you haven’t seen in so long?”
“Shut up! Please! Shut up, you son of a bitch!”
Bound by the spine, Do-Jin’s sword wouldn’t budge, so he let go and used the hilt as a step, launching himself toward Loren.
He’d intended to close the gap instantly with a flying knee aimed at Loren’s chin. It was a clever move, and Jae-Hyeok thought highly of Do-Jin’s potential precisely because of such cleverness.
But Loren seemed to have read Do-Jin’s thoughts.
Controlling the spine wrapped around Do-Jin’s sword, Loren had changed the sword’s angle and upset Do-Jin’s balance just before he’d jumped off it.
The knee meant for Loren’s chin was instead blocked low by Loren’s elbow. Lorean said, “We are supposed to get along well. Did you forget your parents’ advice?”
“Uwaaaaah!” The nature of Do-Jin’s shout was different from usual. It contained such deep resentment and anger that it caused even the hearts of the students who were ignorant of the situation to sink.
A new spine appeared in front of Loren. It was coiled into a bone shield and blocked all of Do-Jin’s next punches.
Bam, bam, bam!
“......”
A heavy silence fell over the training ground.
At first, Do-Jin’s strikes grew stronger even as the flesh tore from his knuckles. But at some point, they began to weaken. Do-Jin’s hands looked fat from the swelling, and it was clear bones were broken.
Bam, bam, bam...
However, Do-Jin didn’t stop. He felt angry and pathetic at his own weakness. Tears ran down his face, and the sight of the small boy struggling to catch his breath between choked sobs was pitiful.
Eventually, Do-Jin’s fists came to a complete halt.
“Have you finally cooled down? Let’s go and get treatment first. I’ll take care of it, so don’t worry and rest well,” Loren whispered while holding Do-Jin in his arms. The gold disappeared from his eyes as he took back his bones.
The students were confused by Loren’s sudden change in temperament.
“......”
Loren was walking while supporting Do-Jin, only to come to a stop.
Another boy was leaning against the entrance of the training ground, deliberately blocking Loren’s way forward with his long legs. He asked, “Why is the son of the Duke of Austria here?”
“Lion’s Castle made the transfer convenient for me, so I decided to come as an exchange student. Now get out of the way.”
“An exchange student? I figured the chairman was overly meddlesome, but this is beyond my imagination. They even accept foreigners despite being a national institution.
Loren replied, “What the chairman does is not for you to comment on.”
“Oh well, there must’ve been some type of deal between the high-ranking people.”
“Why are you still blocking me? Can’t you see the wounds on my exhausted friend? Get out of the way.”
“You speak strangely, but you speak Korean quite well. Did you grow up with Baek Do-Jin when you were younger?”
“Yes. Do-Jin and I are childhood friends.”
“Eh, you must’ve learned Korean because Baek Do-Jin couldn’t learn German to the end. He’s smart, but I don’t think he’s studious.”
“You lack manners.” Loren felt a strange hostility from Jae-Hyeok’s act of blocking the way, and his eyes turned gold. A spine rose from the ground, forming a hand to try and grab Jae-Hyeok’s ankle.
Jae-Hyeok’s sword draw was slightly faster.
Bang!
The hand-shaped spine quickly turned into a shield to block the attack.
“Sword drawing? The Kang family… ”
Jae-Kyeok declared, “Whether you think you’re his friend or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s clear he doesn’t like you, so give him to me.”
“The son of the Kang family is a friend of Doo-Jin’s?”
“Friend? I don’t think so?”
“Then don’t intervene. It is unpleasant to have someone else interfering in our relationship.”
“No, he doesn’t like you. Didn’t you hear me? You’re a funny one. When learning Korean, did you only learn to speak and not listen?”
“You said you aren’t Do-Jin’s friend. So why are you doing this?”
“He’s my teammate,” Jae-Hyeok said. He’d been captured by the intense look in Do-Jin’s eyes from the first time he saw him. Anger, hatred, and venom roiled behind those eyes, and they made Jae-Hyeok feel like he was looking into a mirror.
He was naturally drawn to it and had a vague feeling that if they were together, they would be able to understand and rely on each other. But Jae-Hyeok didn’t know enough about friendship to know if this meant they were friends or what.
Jae-Hyeok declared, “I’m going to protect my people.”
“You are an aristocrat, but I am also one. Do-Jin is my person before he is yours.”
“You aren’t listening to me. Damn, do all the Austrian aristocracy have their ears blocked?”
“I see that the Korean aristocracy are very rude.” Loren sighed and set Do-Jin down on the ground. “If you don’t get out of the way, I will use force. With the Kang family’s position, this is unlikely to turn into a diplomatic issue.”
The spine changed from a shield to a sword.
Loren warned, “Your eyes didn’t change when you drew your sword. Your lack of talent left you without a Bloodline Skill. The difference in our strength is obvious. I am warning you, step aside.”
“Damn, I only told you to leave this Do-Jin behind, and you drew your sword. Crazy bastard.”
“You were the one who drew your sword first.”
“That was self-defense. You were the first to attack. I guess you’re both crazy and shameless. ”
“...I am done using words.”
Loren’s eyes were tinged pure gold, and they were as cold metal too; just meeting his gaze caused a bone-chilling sensation. Jae-Hyeok clicked his tongue. First the Shinra family cropped up, and now even the Baus family appeared at Lion's Castle...
Weren't the students at Lion's Castle getting way too high-profile?
Jae-Hyeok had a headache. It felt like his plan to achieve the best possible results in team training and competitions was blocked by a huge wall.
It would be difficult for Jae-Hyeok to even have a chance of winning against Loren.
Golden eyes.
They were the proof that Loren had awakened a Bloodline Skill.
There were approximately ten such people in all of South Korea. Very few people inherited Bloodline Skills, which were the Skills of their ancestors.
Actually, Jae-Hyeok’s second Initial Skill was also a Bloodline Skill. But Jae-Hyeok refused even that and postponed his awakening.
Jae-Hyeok knew he couldn’t win against a necromancer of the Bause family. The Baus family had made Austria into a great power and not by any fluke. Their strength was well known.
I’ll just be humiliated.
Jae-Hyeok smiled bitterly and tilted his upper body.
He had to restore honor to his father and his family. He didn’t want to suffer a helpless defeat in front of so many people. He knew he should avoid this fight. Nevertheless, he had no intention of turning a blind eye to Do-Jin, who had shed tears even while exhausted. He knew Do-Jin’s hatred and anger were directed at Loren, and that was enough.
Just as Jae-Hyeok hated the one who took everything from him eight years ago, that person was probably Loren to Do-Jin.
Turn a blind eye to his situation? Never.
Jae-Hyeok didn’t want that.
If he found himself in the same situation as Do-Jin, he thought it would be too sad if those around him turned away when he was caught by his enemies.
“It is strange.” Loren tilted his head when Jae-Hyeok showed no signs of stepping back. “Your life story is famous even in my country. You wouldn’t have been able to make friends because you had been confined to the mansion. You have probably only known Do-Jin for a few days. I don’t understand why you want to fight with me? Why risk your honor for others?”
Jae-Hyeok replied, “Even if I lose my honor, I will have a chance to get it back someday. But regret might torment me forever if I do nothing.”
“Forget that I ever treated you as a noble. You are too blind to deserve that title. To put it in terms that you, a fool, can understand, there will never be a chance to regain the honor you will lose to me today.”
Both two boys were around the same age. However, one side had honed his Bloodline Skill to a high level while the other didn’t even have golden eyes.
It was like the difference between heaven and earth. Anyone could see that the talent gap between them would never be closed.
Only Jae-Hyeok thought differently.
“Be careful. You’ll probably regret what you said today for the rest of your life.”
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