WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 52: Change (3)

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Change (3)

"How exactly are you planning to make up for this unfortunate ordeal we've been through?"

Watching Mumu act put out about it, Manager Lim Jeong couldn't hide his own bewilderment. Demanding compensation from the old master out of nowhere like that, where did he even get the nerve?

'Oh my goodness. Does he even know who he's talking to?'

Elder Hang was a far more frightening man than he looked. These days he wore the mild face of a kindly old man who enjoyed his drink while overseeing the archive of Changcheon Martial Academy, but before the Four Immortal Masters had even risen, he'd been known as one of the Twelve Masters of the Force of Justice, a supreme master in his own right. The Heartless Blade Guest, Hang Yeon. The vicious members of the dark path who'd died by his hand alone numbered well into the hundreds.

'Next to him, even the Six Stars of Heaven are still juniors by a wide margin.'

That was exactly why even the Academy Director always treated him with careful respect. Lim Jeong scrambled to hold Mumu back.

"Hey! Watch your mouth in front of the elder. Apologize this instant..."

Swish!

Elder Hang raised a hand and cut Lim Jeong off.

"Wait." "Sir? But, Elder..." "I'd like to hear what this child has to say."

At Elder Hang's words, Lim Jeong cautiously read his expression. He'd assumed the old man's temper would flare at Mumu's absurd talk of compensation, but against every expectation his face stayed perfectly calm. If anything, he looked intrigued. Elder Hang spoke with a gentle, almost fatherly expression.

"Very well, child. Can you tell me what this unfortunate ordeal of yours was?"

At the question, Mumu answered as if airing a grievance.

"Sir. Manager Lim Jeong here and I nearly died several times over today, all in one day." "Nearly died several times?" "Yes. Whether it was shoddy construction in the underground archive or just poor upkeep, the floor collapsed and we fell and nearly died. Just look at Manager Lim Jeong here, covered head to toe in injuries."

'Oh my goodness. Why am I getting dragged into this?'

Lim Jeong's brow furrowed at Mumu's words. Strictly speaking, this wasn't poor upkeep, it was because you forced that black iron staff loose, he nearly blurted out, but he swallowed the words just in time.

'Wait a moment...... is he trying to get ahead of this?'

That might be exactly what this was. If anyone investigated closely later, the fact that the collapse had been Mumu's own doing might come to light. Mumu pointed at his own torn clothes and said.

"And look at this. My clothes are in rags, and every joint in my body aches from the fall."

'...Didn't the clothes tear because his muscles swelled up?'

And no matter how closely he looked, Mumu didn't have a single injury anywhere. Not a scratch, not a bruise, and yet he said all that with a face so shameless it was almost impressive.

'Ugh. What nerve.'

Lim Jeong clicked his tongue inwardly. Just then Elder Hang let out a hearty laugh.

"Ha ha ha. Well, that's not entirely wrong. And what else nearly killed you?" "Of course there's more. With an accident that big, nobody sent a rescue team quickly enough, so Manager Lim Jeong and I nearly died stranded in some place called the Infernal Formation of Thousand Calamities and Myriad Transformations."

Lim Jeong found himself nodding along without meaning to. Before Mumu revealed the monstrous strength he'd been hiding, they really had come close to dying. They'd nearly drowned, after all.

"Anything else?" "And as you can see, some master here knocked himself out attacking us out of nowhere because he mistook us for thieves, so we nearly died from that too. Just look at Manager Lim Jeong. His face is still pale." "Oh my goodness. E-Elder, I'm fine, really." "Fine, my foot. Manager, weren't you coughing up blood from getting hit by the master here earlier? Look, there are traces of it all over the place where you threw up."

He pointed it out with an uncanny precision. Listening to this kid talk, it sounded like Lim Jeong himself had been dragged through every disaster imaginable, half by accident. Mumu spoke as if genuinely troubled.

"Thanks to all this, Manager Lim Jeong and I went through a lot today, and it would feel pretty unfair to just let it slide. Don't you think so, sir?" "......Elder, this is entirely not my opinion. There was an accident, sure, but I personally have no complaints whatsoever."

Lim Jeong waved his hands frantically. This kid had no idea how frightening this old man really was. Trusting that kindly face and trying something clever could genuinely end in disaster. That was when Elder Hang spoke.

"So you're asking for compensation befitting all this?"

At the question, Mumu scratched his head and answered.

"I'm not asking for anything huge, but since we came close to dying because of mistakes on the academy's part, wouldn't a little compensation be reasonable?"

At this, Elder Hang gave a short laugh and shook his head. Then he walked over to where Hwang Won lay unconscious and said.

"It sounds like you've been through quite a bit. But before we discuss the compensation you're after, would you mind if this old man shared a few things with you first?" "Like what?" "Actually, it's not even a few things." "Sir?" "It all comes down to one or two matters."

Elder Hang gestured lightly with his chin toward the unconscious Hwang Won and the surroundings.

"You say you came close to dying, and fair enough, but thanks to that, part of the Infernal Formation of Thousand Calamities and Myriad Transformations has stopped functioning, and the repair cost alone will run well past a fortune. How do you plan to make up for that?" "Uh...... um......."

Mumu fell silent. He'd brought up compensation on purpose, hoping to quietly bury the things he suspected were his own fault, and he hadn't expected the old man to start tallying up his own list of grievances one by one.

"......You're answering compensation with damages?" "Ha ha ha. We should settle accounts properly, shouldn't we?"

With that, Elder Hang continued on as if he was only just getting started.

"Setting the damages aside, what about the disruption to classes?" "Classes?" "That's right. This academy doesn't teach its cadets for free. We give lectures in exchange for the tuition you all pay. And that includes Instructor Hwang Won here." "Ah......" "Instructor Hwang Won is a Special Master Grade instructor, so he runs premium special lectures and even oversees a group of dedicated cadets under his personal charge. And now, thanks to this, there's a gap left behind." "Ah...... is that so?" "'Is that so,' and we just leave it at that? What about the cadets who paid steep lecture fees just for the chance to study under one of the Six Stars of Heaven? What am I supposed to tell the cadets under his personal charge? And how is the academy supposed to absorb the losses from that gap?"

Watching Elder Hang speak as if genuinely pained by it all, Lim Jeong marveled inwardly. Mumu had tried a clever little scheme of his own, but the old man's decades of experience gave him a shamelessness and a smoothness that ran a full level above him. The mood seemed to be tipping the other way now. Mumu scratched his head and said, looking troubled.

"But that Special Master Grade instructor tried to kill me. Was I just supposed to stand there and take it?" "With nearly every bone in his body shattered, he'll be living like a cripple for months. And you can still say something like that so easily?" "Um." "If you were a level above him, wouldn't simply subduing him have been enough?" "......."

Had he gone a bit overboard? He'd thought he held back plenty, enough to make sure the man wouldn't die.

"This is really awkward. So then......" "We're not finished yet." "There's more?" "Yes. Tell me honestly, was it really you who brought down Instructor Hwang Won?" "Yes. That's right." "Then that in itself is a problem." "Sir? What's the problem with that itself?"

Mumu asked, genuinely puzzled. Elder Hang answered as he slowly walked toward Mumu.

"An academy is a place that gives instruction. But what would you think if someone with far greater martial skill than the instructors giving that instruction had enrolled here?"

'Just as I thought......'

At the sharp point being raised, Lim Jeong clicked his tongue inwardly. He'd been wondering when that would come up. And honestly, that version of the question was probably the gentler one, softened only because Elder Hang already knew they'd fallen into the third underground floor by pure accident. Surpassing an ordinary instructor would already be a problem on its own, but someone with enough skill to bring down one of the Six Stars of Heaven had, without exaggeration, already left the level of an ordinary cadet far behind. Age aside, there was no real reason for the academy to accept someone like that in the first place, and if he'd hidden that strength and enrolled anyway, his motives could easily be read as suspicious.

'Anyone would suspect him.'

The chances were far too high that he could be a spy for the dark path, or that he'd come after the treasures of Changcheon Martial Academy. Someone needed to speak up for Mumu here. Hadn't Lim Jeong already heard why Mumu had enrolled in the first place?

"Eld......"

But in that instant, Lim Jeong found he couldn't get the words out. The possibility that Mumu had deceived him too couldn't be ruled out entirely.

'Oh my goodness. Right, that could be it too, couldn't it?'

But thinking it over carefully, that didn't seem right either. If his intentions had really been foul, couldn't he have simply killed Hwang Won and himself and made off with the treasures on the third floor? He wouldn't even have needed to go that far, he could have abandoned Lim Jeong inside the Infernal Thousand Calamities Ten-Thousand Transforms Formation and left him there. But he hadn't done that.

'Why does this feel so hard to pin down?'

He simply couldn't get a read on this child called Mumu. Still, Lim Jeong steadied his wavering thoughts before long.

'That's right.'

The way Mumu had tried to protect him all the way through the formation, the way he'd said "us" just now while trying to defend himself, folding Lim Jeong into it, this kid was kinder than any cadet he'd ever seen at the academy. If he'd misjudged the boy, well, that would be his own mistake to own.

"Um......"

He hadn't even gotten the words out yet. Elder Hang cut him off and spoke first.

"But all of this only holds if one particular assumption turns out to be true." "......And what would that be?"

At the question, Elder Hang looked at Mumu with sharp eyes and said.

"You said it yourself, that you did it, but no matter how this old man looks at it, it doesn't seem like you and Manager Lim Jeong alone could have handled both the Infernal Formation of Thousand Calamities and Myriad Transformations and Hwang Won here, one of the Six Stars of Heaven." "That's......" "This old man isn't finished yet."

Shhhhhhk!

The instant those words left his mouth, the air around them grew heavy. The gentle smile vanished, and from a suddenly grave Elder Hang came a sharp presence, as if thousands of blades were flying in all at once.

'C-can't breathe.'

Even Lim Jeong, suffering an internal injury and still only inept at Master rank, found it hard to draw breath. He'd expected something like this, but Elder Hang's presence went beyond anything he'd imagined. It felt as if the slightest movement would cut him open.

'This is dangerous.'

Every inch of the space around them lay within Elder Hang's range. A supreme master of that caliber was a blade in his own right, even without one in hand. Mumu's eyes turned sharp and serious.

'......Different.'

Of everyone he'd met so far, Elder Hang was the first person who actually felt strong. He hadn't known what "presence" really meant until now, and it turned out to be unbelievably heavy. The sensation of something invisible pressing down on his shoulders was entirely new to him. Just then Elder Hang spoke again.

"If this old man's guess is correct, then two further assumptions follow." "......Which are?"

'Ho.'

The moment Mumu spoke, a flicker of interest crossed Elder Hang's eyes. The presence he was giving off right now was sharp enough to make even seasoned masters flinch in fear. Lim Jeong's bloodless face alone proved that much. And yet this boy could still open his mouth under that kind of pressure.

'His potential really is something.'

His own judgment back at the entrance examination hadn't been wrong. But that judgment had only ever been about potential. Right now, Mumu gave off no sense of any energy that could actually threaten him. Elder Hang went on.

"The first assumption is that either you or Manager Lim Jeong hid your true strength, but seeing as you can't even withstand this old man's presence right now, that doesn't seem to be it. The second assumption is that someone besides the two of you slipped in here. What do you say to that?"

With those words, Elder Hang sharpened his presence even further. It felt like the kind of pressure that would take a head off the moment a lie was told.

"Can you put this old man's doubts to rest?"

Elder Hang suspected someone else was involved in all this. Just then, Mumu lowered his head and folded his hands together neatly. His posture looked noticeably more respectful now.

'It must have been hard to hold up.'

No matter how much bravado he put on, he was still just a seventeen-year-old cadet. Withstanding this kind of razor-sharp presence at all was already impressive. In any case, since he'd bowed to it like this, surely he was about to tell the truth.

"Child. Then tell me. If you speak honestly, this old man will withdraw..." "Sir." "Yes." "If the first assumption is true, does that mean I get kicked out of the academy?" "What?"

At those words, Elder Hang's brow furrowed. He'd assumed the pressure would break the boy into confessing, so how could he still say something this outrageous...

"That would be a bit of a problem."

Creak!

A strange sound rang faintly in his ear. It was very quiet, but Elder Hang's ears caught it clearly.

'That sound?'

That was the exact moment.

Craaack!

The instant the adjustment screw on the Ki-Restraining Bracelet clicked into place at three, the muscles of Mumu's right arm, the biceps and forearm, swelled visibly and flushed a deep red, hot enough that pale steam began to rise off the skin.

Flinch!

'This is......'

At the strange transformation, Elder Hang moved without a moment's hesitation, throwing himself forward to subdue Mumu at once. His instincts, honed over decades, were screaming at him with absolute certainty that this was dangerous. That was when Mumu drove his fist forward.

Baaaaam!

The roar came first. It had been nothing more than a simple motion. And yet the instant the fist shot out, an explosive force tore through the layers of air around it, unleashing a tremendous shockwave.

Kaboooooooom!

The floor shattered, and the broken debris surged up like a wave, crashing straight into Elder Hang's body.

'What?'

Lim Jeong's eyes went wide at how suddenly it all happened. What on earth had just happened in that split second?

Shhhhhhhk!

As the dust from the flying debris settled, a figure appeared standing about twenty paces away. It was Elder Hang. He'd taken the shockwave head on, and yet there wasn't a mark on his body, though his crossed arms trembled faintly, betraying just how much force had actually hit him.

'Elder Hang, pushed back?'

It was a sight hard to believe even seeing it firsthand. Elder Hang himself stared at Mumu with a look of pure disbelief. His ki sense hadn't picked up on any energy at all, and yet the boy had been hiding power on this scale the entire time. If the shockwave alone from a single punch could push him back like this, then of course Hwang Won hadn't stood a chance.

'What in the world is this power......'

What was truly shocking was that this power had nothing to do with internal energy at all.

Footnotes:

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