WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
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Chapter 60: Ki-Restraining Bracelets (3)
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Ki-Restraining Bracelets (3)
"Ahh..."
Mumu stared at the gaping hole in the Discipline Bureau's ceiling and scratched his head with his left hand. He'd only lifted his right arm a little, and even he hadn't expected something like this to happen. Looking at the hole punched through the clouds, the reality of it sank in even harder.
'...So this is what it was.'
The power he'd kept suppressed all this time. He hadn't known it was on this level. And this was still just the strength of one arm freed from the Ki-Restraining Bracelet. He hadn't even gone all out.
'Can I even control this?'
Even Mumu himself had to wonder. Right now he felt like an elephant that had to place its feet with the utmost care just to avoid crushing an ant. There was so much power flooding through him that he doubted he could keep it in check even under normal circumstances.
'So that's why.'
The thought struck Mumu out of nowhere. At first he'd only grown more and more confused about why anyone would have put a Ki-Restraining Bracelet on him in the first place. But now that he'd actually felt his own unleashed power firsthand, he understood there might be no controlling it right away. That was when Master Yang Baek-jeon spoke to Mumu.
"You... you... you released the artifact, so how...?"
His voice shook badly. Yang Baek-jeon was so stunned by the situation that his heart was pounding fit to burst. Watching him, Mumu said, looking a little awkward.
"It's because I took it off." "Y-you took it off, and that's why?" "Ahh. That thing is really heavy, you know." "Heavy?" "I don't know who put it on me, but it was so heavy I couldn't use my strength properly because of it. Though thanks to that, I did a ton of muscle training."
That was how Mumu had ended up training his muscles in the first place. Yang Baek-jeon looked down at the Ki-Restraining Bracelet in his hand. He'd assumed the artifact was the source of Mumu's abnormal strength. No, that was what he'd been told. But this turned everything on its head.
'Not strengthened by the artifact's power, but the artifact was sealing his power away?'
It sounded like something out of some fantastical storybook. It was so absurd that words failed him.
"Um... is that really so surprising?"
'!?'
Was he seriously asking that right now? He'd lifted his arm lightly and the ceiling had gone flying and a hole had opened in the clouds. Seeing something like that with his own eyes and not being shocked would have been the strange part.
'...I've heard until my ears rang about how Southern Blade Imperial Uncle, one of the Four Immortal Masters, once cut down a mountain peak several li away with a single stroke, but was that actually possible?'
If it was, that meant the kid in front of him, no, this person, held power to match theirs. Once his thoughts reached that point, a sudden idea struck Yang Baek-jeon.
'C-could it be...'
Yang Baek-jeon swallowed hard and spoke.
"...Might you be a reclusive master?"
He'd heard stories like that before, once upon a time. Of extraordinary masters whose enlightenment ran so deep that repeated Body Reconstruction turned them back into children. It was called returning to youth.
'Right. That would explain it.'
There was no way a mere seventeen-year-old cadet could hold power like this. Yang Baek-jeon wondered if Mumu might be a reclusive master who had reverted to childhood. Mumu tilted his head and said,
"What do you mean by that?" "If you're testing a junior for sport, please stop here." "I have no idea what you're talking about." "But a master's power like this..." "Um. I think you've got the wrong idea. I'm not a reclusive master or anything like that. And if you wore this and did as much muscle training as I did, you'd get this strong too, Master." "......"
Training your muscles makes you this strong? Was he mocking him right now to get out of this situation? Yang Baek-jeon felt nothing but confusion. At that, Mumu said,
"That thing is really heavy. If you don't believe me, want to try wearing it?" "You want me... to try wearing that?"
Yang Baek-jeon looked at the Ki-Restraining Bracelet in his hands. Just holding it, it hadn't felt heavy at all. If anything, it felt light. And yet wearing it had kept Mumu from using his strength properly?
'...What am I even supposed to believe here?'
One of two things had to be true. Either the Mumu in front of him was a reclusive master who'd reverted to childhood, or his power really had been suppressed by the artifact, and wearing it himself would settle the question for good. He already knew how to release the thing now, so there was no reason not to try it.
"Very well."
With that, Yang Baek-jeon slid the artifact onto his left wrist. It clicked shut, tightening around his wrist.
'Nothing feels different...'
Kreek!
At that instant, the number on the adjustment screw shifted from Opening to One. And then something unbelievable happened.
"Huh?"
His wrist grew unbelievably heavy, and his left arm dropped straight toward the floor. Startled, Yang Baek-jeon drew up his Force of ki.
"Hup!"
Only by drawing up his Force of ki could he barely hold it up. He had to push all the way to second-grade Force of ki just to bear it with any ease. It was a tremendous weight. This wasn't something raw muscle alone could manage.
'What in the world is this? Is this really supposed to be an artifact?'
It had to be an artifact, of course. Something this small growing this heavy wasn't otherwise possible. That was when Mumu stepped closer and said,
"One was about the weight I wore when I was one or two, so it'll probably feel way too light. You should turn it up a bit more." "...One or two?"
He'd endured this weight at one or two years old? Was this some kind of joke? How could a baby possibly bear something like this?
"Still, Master, you're a grown man and you've trained in Martial Arts, so you should be able to handle up to Four, right?" "Wait, suddenly Four is..." "Eh, it'll be fine."
With that, Mumu turned the adjustment screw on the bracelet Yang Baek-jeon was wearing. Passing Two, then Three, it felt heavier each time, and he thought he might just be able to bear it, but the instant the number reached Four,
'!?'
Boom!
At that instant Yang Baek-jeon's left hand slammed into the floor. The wooden planks looked ready to shatter. 'Wh-what kind of weight is this...'
Veins bulging on his neck and forehead, Yang Baek-jeon shot straight from third-grade Force of ki to tenth-grade in an instant, straining with everything he had to lift his left arm. But this had gone well past merely heavy.
"Aaaaargh!"
Even with a full battle cry, it did nothing. He couldn't lift his fallen left arm off the floor no matter what he did. Unable to bear it any longer, Yang Baek-jeon frantically spun the adjustment screw from Four back to One.
Kreek!
The moment he did, the crushing weight pressing down on his arm vanished all at once. By comparison it felt astonishingly light. Yang Baek-jeon stared at the Ki-Restraining Bracelet, clicking his tongue in disbelief.
'I don't know if it's really true he wore this since he was a baby, but has he been living with this thing, this excuse for an artifact, on him this whole time?'
He genuinely couldn't believe it. He himself couldn't lift his arm even at tenth-grade Force of ki with the screw set to only Four. And yet Mumu had it set to Eight, twice that, and still moved around just like an ordinary person.
'So that's why.'
Only then did Yang Baek-jeon understand Mumu's monstrous muscles. He had no idea how the boy had trained, but he must have had no choice but to push his body to its absolute limit just to overcome that crushing weight. The secret behind that incredible strength was solved.
"...You've had this on both arms since you were a child?" "No." "No? But just now..." "There's some on my ankles too."
Mumu casually rolled up both pant legs to show him. Seeing it, Yang Baek-jeon momentarily lost the ability to speak. He hadn't even been able to move with just one on, and Mumu had four of them on right now, one on each arm and each leg.
'...This monster of a kid.'
He couldn't help but think Mumu wasn't even human. How had he lived a normal daily life wearing four of these things? Just as he was about to give up trying to make sense of it,
Kreek!
'Huh?'
The adjustment screw turned back to Four on its own.
Boom!
"Hup!"
Yang Baek-jeon's left hand slammed into the floor again. The screw had turned without anyone touching it, and the sheer confusion of it left him reeling. Seeing this, Mumu let out an "ah" of realization.
'Right, it goes back to whatever setting it was on before.'
He'd wondered why that happened, but it seemed the screw had some kind of tendency to snap back to whatever number it had last been set to.
"Ugh!"
Yang Baek-jeon hastily turned the number back down to One. Then, trying to turn it all the way to Opening to remove it entirely, something felt wrong.
"Wh-why won't this move?"
The adjustment screw wouldn't budge, caught on something just like before, and no matter how much Force of ki he drew up to force it, same as last time, it wouldn't turn. Even with tenth-grade Force of ki, it made no difference.
"What's wrong?" "The screw won't turn!" "But it turned on its own a second ago, didn't it?" "Grrgh! It won't move!"
At that, Mumu bent down, gripped the adjustment screw on the bracelet Yang Baek-jeon was wearing, and turned it. It ground and caught on something just like before, so Mumu applied a little more force,
Kreek!
and the screw finally turned from One to Opening. At the same instant, the Ki-Restraining Bracelet came loose.
'Ah!'
Seeing this, Mumu thought he understood why the bracelet hadn't come off earlier. It seemed a Ki-Restraining Bracelet could only be released by someone other than the wearer, not by the person wearing it themselves. Having finally figured out the secret, Mumu nodded quietly to himself.
"Hah... hah..."
Yang Baek-jeon let out ragged breaths, staring at the Ki-Restraining Bracelet with an exhausted, disbelieving look. He found himself in awe that Mumu had lived with something like this on his body all this time. Just then, Mumu suddenly slipped the bracelet he'd taken off Yang Baek-jeon's arm onto his own right wrist.
"Huh?"
Yang Baek-jeon couldn't hide his bewilderment. Why would he put back on something he'd just worked so hard to remove?
"Wait, why are you putting it back on? If you wear that again..." "I don't think I can adjust to this all at once." "What?"
Mumu turned the adjustment screw back to Eight, tilted his head toward the gaping hole in the ceiling, and said,
"I might end up hurting people around me if I can't control my strength, right?"
At Mumu's words, Yang Baek-jeon stared at him blankly. Was that really why he'd put that crushing weight back on his own wrist? Wasn't this the same boy who hadn't even known how to release the thing, who'd asked him to cut it off just to get free?
'Putting it back on out of fear he might lose control of his own strength.'
For someone with such monstrous power, the boy seemed to have a surprisingly kind nature. He'd just gained the means to be free, and yet he put that crushing weight back on for a reason like that. Watching Mumu closely, Yang Baek-jeon carefully opened his mouth.
"...I'm sorry for misunderstanding you." "For what?" "I brought you to the Discipline Bureau because I believed you'd passed the entrance examination relying on the artifact's power. It's true I acted on bad information, but this was clearly my own failing."
With that, Yang Baek-jeon offered Mumu a formal, respectful bow with clasped fists. Mumu smiled brightly and said,
"Ahh. It's fine. I'm glad your misunderstanding got cleared up, Master."
'This kid...'
Seeing him take it so lightly, without the slightest resentment, something flickered in Yang Baek-jeon's eyes. If it had been him, being suspected like that might have made him furious. He'd thought it a moment ago too, but the boy really did seem to have a bright, good-natured temperament. It was almost a relief that a kid with this kind of monstrous power turned out to have such an upright, kind nature. But at the same time, worry crept in.
'What am I supposed to do about this?'
He wasn't sure it was right to let a cadet with power like this keep attending the academy. The misunderstanding about the artifact was cleared up, but this boy's overwhelming strength seemed like more than even the academy's masters could handle.
'Even if I look the other way for now, it's only a matter of time before this power comes to light...'
Boom!
Just then, someone kicked open the door of the Discipline Bureau and burst in. It was none other than Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu.
"Vice-Master?" "Vice-Master, sir?" "Master Yang! I don't know why you brought that kid Mumu to the Discipline Bureau, but...!?"
Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu couldn't finish his sentence. His eyes went wide the moment he spotted the Discipline Bureau's ceiling, blown clean away. From the outside, the building's outer walls up to the third floor had looked perfectly intact, so he'd had no idea something like this had happened on the inside.
"You! You! Again!"
Dan Pil-hu clutched his forehead.
'Ugh, my head.'
He'd lectured Mumu just the night before about not showing off his strength carelessly. And in barely a single day, the boy had gone and done this? Watching Dan Pil-hu's all-too-familiar reaction, Yang Baek-jeon narrowed his eyes, pointed a finger at the ceiling, and asked.
"...Did you know about this too, Vice-Master?" "Ahem... well, about that."
At his question, Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu rubbed at his beard, looking thoroughly troubled. His head was already pounding over how he was going to smooth this whole mess over.
Footnotes:
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