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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Side Effects (1)
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My opinion must have been somewhat useful, because after breakfast, the Master ordered our return.
In other words.
"Leap well now."
It meant the hellish lightness skill training was starting up again.
Just like when we'd gone to Warm Hostel County, we rode in a carriage three times with breaks in between, repeating runs matched to lightness skill movements, until I finally made it back to the main mountain base.
"Huff… huff…"
As I caught my breath, panting heavily.
The Master, who had leisurely stepped down from the carriage, smiled softly and spoke.
"You've done well. Heh heh heh. You've trained enough in lightness skills for today, so I'll skip our afternoon training session together."
He spoke as if bestowing some great favor.
But after all this hardship, was this paltry reward supposed to be enough?
"Whew. Master. Then, when will I get the Explosive Demon Pill?"
The symbol of serendipitous fortune that always appeared in martial arts novels. A spiritual elixir.
He had definitely promised that if I successfully completed this trip, he would give me that elixir.
'If I just eat the elixir, getting into the Demonic Path Academy will be a breeze.'
And if entry to the Demonic Path Academy became easier, there'd be no reason to chase such a tight schedule like now.
My dream and hope. Work-Life Balance would arrive!
But the Master shook his head.
Just as I was about to blurt out 'con artist' without thinking, the con artist geezer added more.
"Your dantian hasn't grown enough yet, so it's too early to consume the Explosive Demon Pill right now. Once your dantian stabilizes a bit more and your meridians strengthen, I'll bestow it then."
"Is that so…?"
A naturally disappointed tone slipped out.
'He's not just brushing me off with words and planning to forget about it, is he?'
Having been screwed over so many times back in my Seo Ji-hoon days, suspicion arose first.
'It's not like some shitty small company that doesn't keep performance bonus promises, right?'
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's scale alone could slap the cheeks of a Korean conglomerate, but considering their haphazard way of handling things, it was entirely possible.
Still, I couldn't carelessly open my mouth.
Forget the evil corporation chairman geezer—even the fanatic Jin Ha-yeon would start dancing with her sword again.
And so, after the Master left, having only left a verbal promise, a short while later.
Knock knock.
A knocking sound echoed at the door of Wind Rock Hall.
Following that, with a 'slide,' the door to Wind Rock Hall opened, and a familiar little kid's face peeked in.
The kid, who had nervously scanned the inside of Wind Rock Hall, lit up upon seeing my face.
"Big brother~!"
I stroked the head of Seon-a as she came running with do-do-do steps and hugged into my arms, then asked.
"While I was gone, did you study and train hard?"
At my question, Seon-a beamed brightly and chattered nonstop.
About the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult doctrines she'd learned over the past two days, or how to kill people with the Blood Fox Crimson Claw Art.
"..."
I wondered what the hell these crazies were doing to a child, but since this was a cultish martial organization, it was unavoidable.
As I sighed inwardly, I soon realized the surroundings had gone quiet.
Seon-a, who had been chattering nonstop, had finished boasting and now looked up at me with her mouth closed.
"Our Seon-a really kept her promise to big brother so well. Then, I should give Seon-a a present too, right?"
I rummaged in my bosom and pulled out something I'd picked up in Warm Hostel County.
It was a hair pin.
The evening before, while wandering Warm Hostel County to check the village situation, I'd thought of the kid waiting for me and bought one.
I pinned the hair pin into the kid's long hair, which had a reddish aura.
'Hmm. Is this how you do it?'
Having never worn one myself or pinned one on anyone, it felt a bit off somehow.
But Seon-a, receiving my gift, looked purely happy.
As I watched Seon-a smiling brightly with the pin crookedly placed.
A cold voice pierced my ear.
"Young Lady Seon-a. Would you please head back for today? The Young Master has been handling a busy schedule from yesterday until this morning, so he lacks time to study."
Naturally, Seon-a looked back and forth between me and Jin Ha-yeon with anxious eyes.
From my position, it wasn't a particularly welcome situation.
In this demon cult full of psychos, the two things keeping me sane were my diary and this cute kid.
That said, if I just sided with Seon-a here, it could lead to pointless animosity between them.
"Today, instead of advancing the lessons, we'll do personal review. In exchange, Jin attendant, there's something for you to prepare separately."
"What should I prepare for you?"
"Mock interview prep."
"Mock interview?"
Jin Ha-yeon asked back as if hearing it for the first time.
I had expected as much.
"Prepare a mock interview based on what you've taught me over the past fortnight. It'll practice for the Demonic Path Academy entry exam too, and let me check what I've forgotten or missed."
The mock interview wasn't something I'd just thought up on the spot. I'd been considering doing it around the two-week mark.
From my long exam-prep life, I knew there were various memorization methods in the world.
Scientifically speaking, memorization was the process of turning short-term memory into long-term memory.
And the most important thing for that was 'repetition.'
But that 'repetition' didn't get better just by repeating fifty times when first learning.
The most efficient way was reviewing once just when you're about to forget.
Review once on the day learned, once the next day, once a week later, once a month later, once three months later, once a year later.
In that sense, mock interviews—or mock exams—were quite important.
No need to uselessly re-read already long-term memorized content every time; you could check which memories had faded, which parts you couldn't recall. In other words, beyond exam practice, it boosted review efficiency.
And for that, above all, the quality of questions on the mock exam was key.
"Please make questions as close as possible to the level of the actual Demonic Path Academy entry exam. And within the range I've covered over the past fortnight, prepare questions covering every part without omission if possible."
At my instructions, Jin Ha-yeon made an expression of wonder unlike her usual self.
As if she hadn't expected me to think of such details.
"We'll do mock interviews once every fortnight from now on. Oh, while we're at it, it'd be good to include Seon-a too. She's studying doctrines and such for the Demonic Path Academy entry anyway, right?"
After instructing Jin Ha-yeon, I turned to Seon-a this time.
"Then, shall we check tomorrow how well Seon-a kept her promise?"
At my words, Seon-a gulped and her eyes trembled anxiously.
After pondering a moment, Seon-a suddenly slipped out of my arms.
"I-I'll go study a bit more."
With those words, Seon-a left Wind Rock Hall with quick steps.
The loosely pinned hair pin wobbling side to side particularly caught the eye.
* * *
After that day, Il-mok's routine flowed similarly.
Except for conducting one mock interview midway.
As per Il-mok's orders, Jin Ha-yeon prepared mock interview questions with ruthless thoroughness, and Il-mok answered every single one perfectly.
"Wow! How does big brother remember all that?"
Seon-a, who had ended up taking the mock interview together unexpectedly, was full of wide-eyed admiration.
That said, it wasn't that Seon-a couldn't answer any questions at all.
As the pampered jewel of the prestigious Hyeok-ryeon family in the cult, she had already read the doctrine book several times.
But being so young, Seon-a's studying was close to simple rote memorization.
She answered Jin Ha-yeon's questions, but all in short answers or single sentences, straight from the doctrine book.
In contrast, Il-mok rattled off answers so fluidly it was a shame not to call it eloquence.
Answering a question on a certain passage from the doctrine book, he'd follow up citing related passages in sequence, or use various metaphors.
'…He didn't bring up the mock interview just for Young Lady Seon-a, did he.'
Naturally, Jin Ha-yeon began looking at Il-mok with slightly different eyes.
Who would've thought he'd truly understood and memorized every bit of the past fortnight's lessons without missing a single thing.
Come to think of it, even during the Warm Hostel County trip, Il-mok had seemed different somehow.
'Perhaps Young Master Il-mok really is a genius….'
In reality, he was just a guy used to studying, but Jin Ha-yeon had no way of knowing that.
In any case, separate from Jin Ha-yeon starting to misunderstand, Il-mok's daily life flowed on similarly.
His external martial arts training with Jin Ha-yeon had also gotten on track, and muscles were starting to form on his body bit by bit.
The same went for martial arts training with the Heavenly Demon.
Thanks to the back-and-forth to Warm Hostel County familiarizing him with lightness skills and footwork, lately he'd been focusing on training that combined them with the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword.
In his remaining spare time, he always repeated Qi Circulation and Breath Adjustment for a fortnight or so to build up his inner power.
Around when his rice-grain-sized dantian had grown to peanut-sized.
"This should be enough; now we can start training on handling inner power."
The Heavenly Demon delivered news that made Il-mok's heart race.
But before teaching the martial art right away, the Heavenly Demon preached the greatness of demonic arts.
"Heh heh heh. No need for surprise. The inner power that would take those hypocrites of the Central Plains at least two years to gather with their crude gathering methods is already accumulated in your dantian. Even with what those Central Plains unbelievers call divine arts or supreme techniques, it would take at least three months to gather that much."
Three times faster qi absorption than Central Plains divine supreme arts.
But Il-mok understood it was just wordplay.
'But there are side effects instead.'
Of course, Il-mok didn't commit the folly of saying it aloud.
"As expected! The demonic arts of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult are truly the world's best. Master."
"Heh heh heh. You understand very well."
In a good mood, the Heavenly Demon burst into hearty laughter and slowly drew the Heavenly Demon Sword from its sheath at his waist.
Demonstrating the first form of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword, the sword-drawing technique Soul-Stealing Ready Sword, the Heavenly Demon recited the oral formula of the Soul-Stealing Ready Sword fluidly.
After slowly finishing the demonstration and explanation of the draw, the Heavenly Demon sheathed the sword, then began drawing again while explaining the formula in detail.
"As you grip the sword with a superior hold, simultaneously draw up from the dantian and send it to the Sea of Qi acupoint. And the qi flow starting from the Sea of Qi acupoint…"
In the time it took to slowly draw the sword once more, the Heavenly Demon finished explaining, leaving Il-mok to ask in a puzzled tone.
"Th-that's it?"
Whether the oral formula or its detailed explanation, it was shorter than expected. Nothing particularly complex.
"Heh heh heh. Demonic arts prioritize efficiency. Those self-proclaimed prestigious orthodox sects, fearing someone might steal their martial arts, write their formulas long and complex with cryptic riddles, but our demonic arts are not like that. The same goes for inner power flow. They deliberately operate inner power in complicated, difficult ways, but we do not use inner power like that."
"Why do those orthodox hypocrites deliberately handle inner power so difficultly?"
"Heh heh heh. Because they're cowards. Trying to avoid dangerous acupoints makes the path complicated inevitably."
"Ah…."
In short, instead of detouring around places with dangerous acupoints, they just charged straight through.
'No wonder they're all lunatics….'
As he recalled the dangers of demonic arts once more. The Heavenly Demon, looking at Il-mok, said.
"As you said, the formula is simple, so you've already memorized it all. Now, try performing it yourself."
Il-mok did several deep breaths to ease his tension, then placed his hand on the sword hilt.
"Since it's your first time, recall the formula and perform it slowly."
Even without the Heavenly Demon's advice, Il-mok intended to.
Since it passed dangerous acupoints, performing it recklessly could cripple him.
"Hup."
Finally taking a deep breath, Il-mok held it and slowly drew the sword.
Mentally reciting the short formula the Heavenly Demon had taught, he operated his inner power accordingly.
Ziiing.
Surprisingly, even drawing slowly, upon completing the Soul-Stealing Ready Sword form, a sword cry rang out.
It meant that much formidable power was imbued in the sword.
Il-mok gazed wondrously at the sword blade that had emitted the cry, then performed the Soul-Stealing Ready Sword several more times.
But perhaps because his dantian was still only peanut-sized, after a few times, it emptied completely.
"Perform Qi Circulation and Breath Adjustment. Once the dantian is refilled, we'll start again."
Following the Heavenly Demon's orders, he recovered inner power via Qi Circulation and Breath Adjustment, then repeated the Soul-Stealing Ready Sword several times more by operating inner power.
Once the formula became familiar to his body, at some point he could perform the Soul-Stealing Ready Sword at a speed no different from swinging a normal sword.
Wiiiing.
Watching the sword emit an even clearer cry now that speed was added, Il-mok soon furrowed his brow.
He turned his gaze with an uncomfortable expression, then began looking around by turning his head.
"Is something wrong?"
At the Heavenly Demon's puzzled question, Il-mok replied.
"Uh, my position feels a bit off."
"Your position?"
At the Heavenly Demon's question, instead of answering, Il-mok suddenly stepped one pace to the right.
"Phew. This is exactly the center of Wind Rock Hall. It felt uncomfortable being skewed to one side…"
Cold sweat suddenly dripped down Il-mok's back as he abruptly stopped speaking.
'Fuck.'
Il-mok realized the side effects of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword had begun.