Chapter 66 – Sword Emperor Siegfried (1)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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My eyes opened loosely. Through the narrow strip of vision between my lids, I saw a familiar white ceiling.

A hospital room at Hoakin Academy. I still couldn’t get used to the chemical smell of medicine lingering at the tip of my nose.

That artificial afterscent snapped my mind fully awake. It didn’t take long for reality to soak into my skin. This was the third time already, after all.

When I moved my body slightly, I heard a series of cracking sounds as my bones fitted back into place.

I must have been lying down for quite a long time. I forced my eyelids open again. They were so heavy that I had to strain the muscles around my eyes for a while before I could finally open them properly.

“Ugh…”

A faint groan slipped out between my teeth. It felt like my bones and muscles had been chopped into pieces and then assembled again. My body convulsed finely from the intense pain.

If I had simply been stabbed by a sword, only that part would have hurt like crazy, but when my whole body hurt, there was nothing I could do about it.

Still, looked at another way, this pain drilling through my whole body was proof that I was alive.

‘The fucking problem is that it hurts so much.’

I braced a hand on the bed and raised my upper body. A handprint was left pressed into the white bedsheet.

As the ringing in my ears gradually stopped, I heard the sound of paper turning and folding. I gathered my blurry focus and turned my gaze.

“Looks like you’re awake.”

“…Sword Emperor?”

The Sword Emperor, wearing glasses, folded up the newspaper in his hands. Using only his left hand, he neatly folded the square spectacles that had slid all the way down his nose and placed them atop the paper. It was a movement so smooth it looked practiced.

At the place where his right arm should have been, his sleeve fluttered limply. Sensing my gaze, the Sword Emperor covered the missing arm and gave a gentle smile.

“You really are possessed of rare spirit, young man. After lying unconscious like the dead for two weeks, the first thing you do upon waking is worry about someone else instead of yourself. But don’t worry. I’ve just gotten skilled at living with one arm.”

“…Was I lying down for two whole weeks?”

“Mm, to be precise, you were in this hospital room for one week. The other week you were in the operating room.”

“A whole week in the operating room…?”

At my deeply startled reaction, the Sword Emperor shrugged his right shoulder and went on.

“Medea threatened the entire hospital and told them to save you. Because of that, more than ten medical staff worked on your surgery. It was quite a spectacle, one I’d never seen in my life. Thanks to you, I feel like I’ve gotten to see a great many new things in my seventies. Hahaha.”

The Sword Emperor laughed aloud in a low voice.

Gone was the severe dignity he had always shown until now. He looked like an ordinary old man one might meet anywhere.

After laughing for a while, he gathered the folded newspaper and glasses from the table and rose from his seat.

“Anyway, now that you’ve regained consciousness, I’ll be taking my leave. Ah, and once your bones have all healed, come to the Headmistress’s office. I’m usually there.”

With that, the Sword Emperor turned with disciplined precision. His empty right sleeve swayed in the air. Seeing it made the tip of my nose sting.

“Sword Emperor.”

The voice that called after him reached his back. He turned only half his upper body and answered.

“Mm, what is it?”

“Have you perhaps been the one tending to me this whole time?”

A subtle expression passed over the Sword Emperor’s face, and then he turned his head back toward the door. The streaks of white in his hair swayed like silver threads.

“What nonsense. I only stopped by the hospital today because I happened to be in the area, and luckily you opened your eyes.”

The Sword Emperor waved his empty right arm once and pushed the door open.

With the hospital room door half open, he seemed to remember something and tossed out one more remark.

“Ah, for reference, you won’t need to worry about hospital bills from now on. This room will be reserved for you from here on out. Be sure to chew your meat thoroughly, and get plenty of rest. Well then, I’ll be off.”

With his left hand, the Sword Emperor tapped the white wall as though knocking on it, then shut the door behind him without looking back and left.

“What was that?”

I tilted my head for a moment, then buried my back into the blanket again. The chill in my guts loosened all at once, and a drowsy fatigue washed over me until I drifted softly back to sleep.

At the time, I hadn’t understood what the Sword Emperor meant.

It was only after I stayed three more days, got discharged, and then heard the details from a nurse that I learned the truth.

That the Sword Emperor had emptied his own funds to reserve the entire VIP ward, and that he had stayed by my side the entire time I was hospitalized.

* * *

Inside Wolf Class. It was the morning of the day that had passed two weeks and two days since Kang Geom-ma had been hospitalized.

From the third seat from the back, Saki Ryozo rested her chin heavily on one hand and looked out the window. Her long eyelashes lay loosely over her eyes.

Her face was expressionless, yet all sorts of emotions rose and vanished repeatedly in her pupils.

Once Kang Geom-ma was admitted to the hospital, male cadets came to speak to Saki Ryozo regardless of class.

Each time, she shot a cold stare straight between their brows. The male cadets would then retreat awkwardly with forced smiles and flee.

“…Ha.”

Saki let out a long sigh. Her days were an unbroken chain of lifeless monotony.

Even after sleeping all day, her mind stayed foggy, and sweet bean jelly no longer tasted as sweet as before.

“I wonder if he’s woken up by now.”

Saki murmured quietly with an absent gaze. Once the deserted island survival training ended, she had heard the news that Kang Geom-ma was in critical condition.

Apparently more than ten medical staff had carried out major surgery on him for an entire week.

And even though Kang Geom-ma had barely been pulled back from death, grim rumors that he was still wavering between life and death continued to pass from cadet to cadet.

Whenever she heard that, Saki felt the urge to drive an arrow straight between their brows.

‘Kang Geom-ma, that guy definitely won’t die.’

Saki declared it inwardly. And yet, she too knew nothing of Kang Geom-ma’s actual condition.

The academy had strictly forbidden any approach to Kang Geom-ma. Guards took shifts day and night outside the ward where he was hospitalized.

Even when Speed Weapon and Chloe had come to visit him, they were not allowed through. The guards simply repeated that it was the Headmistress’s direct order and blocked all outsiders from entering.

“…Is it something related to the Sword Emperor?”

In truth, public attention at present was focused not on Kang Geom-ma, but on the Sword Emperor. The Sword Emperor, who had accompanied the cadets for their protection, had returned from Avalon Island missing one arm.

Saki had also been on Avalon Island, so she had sensed the anomaly firsthand. It had been from a distance, but she had felt a resonance of mana sharp enough to make every hair on her body stand on end.

In fact, the map of Avalon Island had changed greatly after that day.

Lava had bubbled up where there had been none before, and artificial ridgelines had appeared across the mountain slopes.

Even if she didn’t know the exact facts, some magical beast or demonic human must have invaded, and the Sword Emperor must have stopped it. However, nothing had yet been revealed about what kind of enemy it had been.

All kinds of media outlets from around the world had sent countless interview requests to the Sword Emperor, but he remained silent.

Only Headmistress Medea had stepped forward as his spokeswoman, saying she would inspect the situation in detail and then make an announcement.

“Ha, this is frustrating.”

Saki muttered and threw her head back sharply. Her pale blue hair spread and gathered like a fan.

Various hypotheses circled in her mind. But her insight was not the sort that would jump to conclusions from unsupported guesses.

“…When are you coming back, making me worry like this.”

Saki murmured. It felt as though thick acrid smoke had filled her chest. Even her sharp insight couldn’t identify the nature of this emotion.

Still, right now, she felt as if even Kang Geom-ma’s blank nod of acknowledgment would make her welcome him like someone she had reunited with after decades apart.

When the image of Kang Geom-ma hovering between life and death crossed her mind, the area around her eyes grew red and sore.

Saki sniffed pointlessly at the sharp sting in her nose.

She shook her head to clear away the thoughts. Her sky-blue hair spread and gathered again like a fan. Just then, she sensed a presence.

“Sniff, sniff. Geom-ma…”

Two seats away sat Chloe, repeatedly wiping her tears away with her sleeve.

Since Kang Geom-ma had been hospitalized, there had not been a single day without tears in her eyes. Her swollen eyes had dried out of moisture and were bloodshot red like a rabbit’s.

Saki found the sight pitiful, but it also gave her a slight chill.

At a glance Chloe looked like a cute girl, but the things she had done during Kang Geom-ma’s hospitalization lay far outside common sense.

‘No matter how you look at it, trying to break into the ward in the middle of the night just to see Kang Geom-ma is not normal…’

Because of that incident, Chloe had been caught by the guards and given a week of confinement. Today was the first day she had returned to class. According to what was said afterward, her resistance had been fierce beyond belief.

Among the ward staff, Chloe, who had shouted furiously with hollow eyes, was spoken of like some ghost story under the name Red Ogre.

‘……’

Saki had just been about to turn away after briefly watching Chloe’s profile when an unwelcome face appeared at the door of Wolf Class.

“Weapon, why do you come here all the time just to be annoying?”

“Tch, it’s not like I come because I want to see your face either, you know?”

Weapon glanced at the sniffling Chloe before shifting his gaze to Saki. Tucked under his arm was a large rolled-up sheet of paper.

“What’s that?”

Resting her cheek on her curled fist, Saki gestured with her eyes.

“Ah, this? It’s our club poster. That’s why I came. Once the boss gets discharged, we’ll go straight into the process of founding the club, but we’re still short one member. And when I thought about it, I realized I’ve always just relied on that guy and never really done anything proactively myself.”

Weapon spoke while rubbing beneath his nose in embarrassment. In his tone was a certainty that Kang Geom-ma would return safely.

At those words, even Saki’s dull eyes widened. Chloe also stopped crying at once.

“…Weapon, you.”

“W-what? I know what I said sounds cheesy!”

Weapon, his cheeks flushing, grumbled loudly. A faint smile rose at the corners of Saki’s lips as she added.

“I’m saying I’m impressed, impressed.”

“Sniff, that’s right. Geom-ma is definitely going to leave the hospital healthy, so until then we have to do what we can.”

Chloe nodded vigorously in agreement.

“This is the first time you’ve actually surprised me, Weapon.”

“Uh, uh? Mm, was that a compliment? Anyway.”

Caught off guard by their response, Weapon scratched his cheek and let out an awkward laugh.

“Well, first show me this poster you made. Let’s see if there’s anything that needs fixing.”

“Ahem, I doubt there’ll be anything to fix. This is a poster personally created by none other than Speed Weapon after pulling an all-nighter yesterday.”

When Speed Weapon spoke grandly, Saki’s brows curved beautifully. Chloe, on the other hand, looked at it with sparkling anticipation.

Trying to compose herself, Saki gestured for him to unfold it. Weapon gave a short cough and unfurled the tightly rolled paper.

Fwoorrrl.

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☆★Recruiting members to join the travel club.♥♡

♣We were looking for people like this~!

-People who want to share the fiery friendship and romance of youth while casually conquering dungeons together^^

-People who want to freely travel all across Korea’s eight provinces and enjoy camping and trips!!^^

-If you feel academy life was boring, then come on over right away!

♦Application requirements and method

-Requirements: Any cadet of Hoakin Academy!

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“……”

Saki stared blankly at the poster. The irregular mix of emoticons and text.

Most of all, the highlight was the fluorescent multicolored background and the sky-blue otter character wearing a wistful expression.

It was so absurd that she wound up muttering aloud what she had been thinking inwardly.

“…Wow, I don’t think I could make something like this even if I tried.”

“Haha. Well? Pretty shocking, right?”

At Weapon’s question, Saki gave a dubious little nod.

“Yeah, in a lot of ways.”

“Tch, just as expected of the top student. You really do appreciate my aesthetic sense.”

Full of confidence, Speed Weapon thumped his own chest with his fist.

Saki had many things she could have said, but for the moment she said none of them.

She looked back and forth between the poster and Weapon’s face.

‘Is this bastard in his right mind?’

His intentions were admirable. But the quality of the poster was so poor that she couldn’t bring herself to praise it. All she could do was let out a low murmur and twitch one corner of her mouth.

Just as Weapon was about to start passionately explaining his artistic philosophy.

Riiip.

The paper was cleanly sliced from side to side by a pink box cutter. Through the split, the stunned face of Speed Weapon could be seen.

“Ch-Chloe. What the hell was that for?!”

Weapon pointed at Chloe.

Click.

She retracted the blade that had been sticking out and said faintly.

“…I can’t let Geom-ma see trash like this.”

“What am I supposed to do now if you just rip apart the thing I stayed up all night making?!”

Chloe silently tilted her head to one side.

Click.

The sound of metal sliding into plastic was terrifying. Weapon’s pupils shook hard. Silently, he shot Saki a look asking for help.

Wearing a clear smile, Saki patted Chloe on the head.