Chapter 4 – Class Assignment Test (2)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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My first master used to be a former gangster.

According to him, he hadn’t been some neighborhood hoodlum, but a man who once ruled an era through his knife skills…

If a bald, pot-bellied old man like him had really ruled anything, then I feel like I must’ve conquered an entire century.

Honestly, I didn’t believe it all that much, but if he said so, then whatever…

Even if he was a man with a past stained in blood.

He once told me that, in atonement for injuring many people with a knife, he had cut off one of his own wrists, then opened a Japanese restaurant under the conviction that he would use knives to make people happy.

Aside from his filthy mouth, his skill had been the real thing, so I learned all sorts of things from him.

You know the type, don’t you? The kind of person you really want to hate, but somehow can’t quite bring yourself to.

Boss, why did gangsters use sashimi knives?

Why were you curious about that?

No reason, really. It’s just that in movies, every random thug runs around waving a sashimi knife. I was wondering if it’s actually like that in real life too. You know, black suit, one tucked into the leg, then someone yells, Stab him! and they all go charging in like waaah!

I swear, modern media was ruining young punks these days. Tsk tsk. Most of those gangster bastards couldn’t even afford a single T-shirt, never mind a suit, you little shit.

Even so, the boss spread the gap between his index and middle fingers to about five centimeters, stared me straight in the eyes with a serious expression, and said.

Since you’re someone who lives by the knife too, you know that not just humans but every living body contracts when a blade digs into the skin, right? Think about it. If you stab flesh with a broad kitchen knife, do you think it’ll come out easily or not? A sashimi knife was narrow, so you could stab the other person over and over and still pull it back out.

But why stab? You slice fish. Didn’t that work on people too?

You little punk. If you slash someone with a knife as tiny as a pair of chopsticks, what, you think it’ll cut that easily? Fish get sliced because they’re lying down. If something’s standing up, you couldn’t cut through a loaf of bread in one go either, asshole!

But in comics and stuff, they always go swish and then schk and it got sliced apart… Isn’t that just because you’re not good enough, boss…?

Not even the god of knives could do that, so quit talking nonsense and go sharpen the blades over there!

Even though eighteen years had passed, the stinging feel of my master’s palm smacking the back of my head with an exasperated look was still vivid.

* * *

Schk-

The smooth trajectory of the blade traced a silver line through the air. An arm wearing a gauntlet floated up for an instant, then dropped to the floor with a thud.

“Huh?”

Even Mao Shun himself, whose arm had been cut off, tilted his head as though he couldn’t understand what had just happened.

The cut was so clean that it took several seconds before a fountain of blood finally burst out.

“Aaaaaaaagh! Fuuuuck! Chao! Chao ni-ma!”

Only when the scorching heat followed did Mao Shun finally scream. Kang Geom-ma swiftly rolled the sashimi knife over his palm, switched to a reverse grip, and struck Mao Shun in the neck.

For an instant, the shoulder of Kang Geom-ma’s swinging arm blurred.

That was the last image Mao Shun ever remembered.

A red line appeared across his neck. The next moment, the head that had been screaming so loudly fell away. It rolled across the ground and bumped against the tip of Mao Jin’s shoe, where he stood behind him.

“Sh-Shun?!”

Mao Shun’s eyes had gone cold and empty.

The expression of triumphant confidence that had filled Mao Jin’s face was gradually dyed over with shock and fear. He reflexively took a step back.

Even though he had clearly seen it, he still couldn’t understand what had happened. The bastard in front of him had simply drawn a line through the air with the knife, and then flesh had split apart like butter.

Even without knowing much about swords, he knew on a basic level that the human body wasn’t supposed to be cut to pieces this easily.

What’s more, it had sliced in so precisely along bone and joint that there hadn’t even been the sound of bone or metal colliding.

Could something like that possibly be humanly achievable? And with a cheap sashimi knife like that, no less.

Thump.

The beating of his heart pounded outward from inside his chest.

Thump.

The bastard’s fighting stance was clumsy, like someone pointing a knife at another person for the very first time, and from five or six meters away he stood there trembling, struggling for breath.

But the hilt fit his palm perfectly. As if it were part of his body.

What the fuck was that bastard?

Mao Jin thought. Called one of the genius twins of House Iron King, he put his brain to work quickly.

I don’t know what he just did, but he’s exhausted.

If that was the case, then the situation could still be reversed. Watching his twin brother get cut down in a single stroke had been a performance beyond mere shock, but the direct cause of that outcome had been carelessness.

Fighting down the fear crawling into him, Mao Jin awkwardly picked up Mao Shun’s severed arm.

The bastard still wasn’t making any real move, only muttering something under his breath from before.

“…24… 23… 22…”

…Why was he counting numbers? Mao Jin cast the thought aside as it tried to wedge its way into his mind, and strapped his brother’s gauntlet onto his own right arm.

Clack.

“Hup!”

With the heavy weight and pressure, the muscles in both arms swelled.

A treasured heirloom of his house, an S-rank weapon.

The Security Gauntlets.

The power of the weapon had been split because the twins had inherited one each, but it was only when the pair was united that the gauntlets truly drew the user’s potential to the utmost limit. Feeling his frame grow incomparably sturdy, a savage curve spread over Mao Jin’s mouth.

“I don’t know what little trick you pulled… but die, you Kimchi bastard!”

Even though he said that.

He still couldn’t shake the fear that had already seeped into his body. The more that fear rose, the more he needed to erase it. Mao Jin clenched both fists and manifested three blessings at once.

The Blessing of Determination, which amplified defense, the Blessing of Intervention, which let him leap instantly onto an enemy, and the Blessing of Fighting Spirit, which heightened the power of his fists. They were blessings of a level that the lowborn scum of the special advancement class could never even dream of possessing.

“I’ll smash your skull open!”

The instant Mao Jin kicked off the ground with a crack and closed to point-blank range.

The bastard’s shadow stretched long across his vision and vanished.

Fwhk-

A short sound of air being sliced.

Cracking sounds bursting out all at once.

Thunk-

Thunk- Crack-

Thunk-

Crack- Thunk-

Thunk- Thunk-

Crunch-

At the same time, a cold, burning sensation stabbed through his whole body.

His neck went stiff as stone, refusing to turn even a little.

Then a heavy sensation welled inside his mouth, and red liquid streamed down his jawline like a spiderweb.

With great effort, Mao Jin rolled his eyes down and looked over his body.

One in the solar plexus and neck, four in the wrists and feet, and three in both ribs and the lower abdomen.

A total of nine knives had been driven all the way in up to the hilt.

Uhh- aaah- ngh-

His vocal cords had been cut, and the scream was swallowed beneath his throat.

Little by little, his vision began to fade.

Even in the middle of that, the bastard kept muttering numbers to himself.

“…4… 3… 2… 1.”

At that moment.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

With eyes growing dimmer and dimmer, Mao Jin burned that scene clearly into them.

A ghost wearing the shape of a human

Was howling up at the sky with a sword in hand.

* * *

The first thing that entered my eyes when I opened them was an unfamiliar ceiling.

When I moved my body a little, I felt the rustling texture of bedding I didn’t recognize.

When I turned my head, white curtains blocked my view on three sides, and the familiar smell of medicine filled the space inside them. A hospital?

“Nngh…”

When I tried to raise my upper body slightly, a short groan mixed with a nasal sound leaked out of my mouth. Breathing felt stuffy, so when I tensed my nose, a roll of bloodstained gauze popped out.

Shrrrk-

Right then, someone pulled open the curtain on my right.

“Headmaster, the student is awake!”

When the man in a white coat shouted loudly, I heard approaching footsteps.

“Oh my, looks like you’re conscious.”

“…”

A green-haired beauty in a black robe, and behind her a white-haired old man standing with his hands clasped behind his back. At a light gesture from the beauty, the doctor bowed quickly and left.

Why were these people here?

It was my first time seeing them in person, but they were faces I knew.

Two of the Seven Sacred Heroes who had defeated the sixth corps commander of the Demon King fifty years ago.

Among them, the one known as humanity’s strongest, Sword Emperor Siegfried von Nibelung, and the academy head, Sage Media Poison. The appearance of these living legends left me dumbfounded.

“You look much better than you did on screen, kid. Does your body feel all right?”

“Ah, yes. More or less…”

The academy head sat down on the edge of the bed. Every time she moved, skin showed through the gaps in her clothes. It was impossible not to look.

Maybe she noticed, because she lightly hitched up her robe and pressed herself closer before bringing a hand to my forehead.

“Would you look at that. I think you still have a bit of a fever.”

Media moved the hand she had placed on my forehead toward her groin area, pretending to compare the heat. Wasn’t she supposed to put it on her own forehead?

The mix of that hazy voice and her alluring smile was far too dangerous for a healthy adolescent boy like me. Besides, no matter what she looked like on the outside, the woman was nearly seventy on the inside.

Inside my head, I began reciting the national anthem.

“I think I’m fine now.”

“If you’re hurting, just say the word. This big sister will stay right beside you and nurse you back to health. Just. The. Two. Of. Us.”

Media’s fingers moved toward the first button of her robe. Just as verse four of the national anthem was coming to an end, the Sword Emperor finally cut in with a look of displeasure.

“Media, enough of your fooling around.”

“Ugh, you fossil. Fine, fine.”

Media glared at him as she straightened the robe that looked about to slip completely off.

I survived.

Damn, Sword Emperor! I believed in you!

If my body had reacted and betrayed me to my urges, I would’ve been truly fucked.

Getting expelled would be one thing, but if the reason written down turned out to be something like Regarding a perverted new student who got turned on by a headmaster approaching seventy…

Maybe it would be better to kill myself and prepare for a third life.

“…Are you really going to keep calling me that? Even with a student here?”

“Isn’t that precious chivalry you love so much all about keeping your word once you’ve spoken it? Or what, are you saying the great Sword Emperor speaks out of both sides of his mouth now?”

The Sword Emperor let Media’s sneer pass through one ear, then slowly turned his gaze toward me. His brilliant golden eyes let a faint pressure leak out, as if trying to measure me.

That gaze was clear enough to hurt, and my ribs seemed to tighten on their own.

“What is your name?”

“Kang Geom-ma.”

“I’ll get to the point. Kang Geom-ma, just what exactly did you do?”

“…”

Honestly, I remembered bits and pieces of what had happened. The image of myself cutting up those trash twins with a sashimi knife flashed rapidly through my mind. After that, the last thing I remembered was the bluish scenery seeping into my vision.

…

The sensation from then hadn’t felt like mine, but it had definitely been me. While I hesitated to answer, the blue sword at the Sword Emperor’s waist trembled slightly.

There’s nothing to gain by getting on that monster’s bad side here.

I had to maintain a careful attitude.

I had a rough idea of what kind of person he was.

The type people would call an old-school hardliner. But I already knew how to deal with someone like that.

Twenty years in food service. In other words, nearly twenty years spent serving customers.

Time to show Korea’s spirit of customer service to the strongest human alive.

Make the explanation clear, keep the excuses brief.

“No matter what the class assignment test was supposed to be, I judged that those two had crossed the line. Even so, I do believe my response went too far. If there is punishment to be had for that, I will accept it willingly and follow whatever disposition is decided without complaint.”

At that one answer, the Sword Emperor gazed at me intently.

Honestly, I thought it had been a pretty solid response, but judging by his expression, it didn’t seem to be what he had wanted to hear. Even so, I couldn’t let myself shrink back here.

If I kept acting meek, I’d only get dragged along at that old hardass knight’s pace. A man needed to know how to throw around a little swagger depending on the situation.

The bluff of a real man.

In Korea, that was called gao.

With a calm face, I met those rippling golden eyes head-on.

“…”

“…”

As the awkward silence settled between us.

Media, who had been looking back and forth from one of us to the other, let out a deep sigh.

“Honestly, fossil. You’re hopeless with young people.”

Clicking her tongue briefly, Media said that.

Then, almost at once, her frown brightened and she grinned at me.

“He talks like that, but the one who opened up your blocked meridians while you were unconscious was Zeke. They say people only get more stubborn as they age, right? So forgive him for my sake too, okay? Heh.”

“I told you not to say that, Media. Ahem. Ahem.”

“Look at you, getting embarrassed.”

The Sword Emperor did that? Why?

My whole body still ached, but compared to that, it felt light as a feather… no, that was an exaggeration. More like as light as a feather soaked in water.

“While you were unconscious, we pulled the footage of what happened in the subspace and watched it with the faculty. Throwing yourself into danger to protect a pitiful young girl! It was exactly the prince of my dreams! No, a hero itself!”

Media winked one eye at me in a sticky, clinging way. That look in her eyes was different from the Sword Emperor’s, but in another sense it also made me feel like prey. Was she… drooling a little too?

“And don’t worry, we’re not here to make an issue of what you did during the test. Honestly, those two got admitted only because their family greased the palms of the academy elders, but those disgusting twins ended up dropping out on their own at the same time. It felt so damn satisfying!”

They would’ve been in a different class from me, no doubt, but just the thought of having to attend the same school as those bastards had been enough to make my skin crawl, so the moment I heard they had withdrawn, a wave of relief washed over me.

“We didn’t come here to interrogate you. We came to tell you something, so relax.”

“Excuse me? Tell me what?”

A fresh smile spread across her face.

“Geom-ma, you’re the top student! Congratulations!!”