Chapter 19: You brought it on yourself (1)

The sky began to brighten up and the heavy fog came down on the training ground. One person was sprinting across the ground with their running skill: it was Submeng the Crazy Blade. He had jumped out from the medical room from the main building and was escaping the premise. His martial arts skill was so high that the staff or guards couldn’t sense him if he tried to hide.

However, there were ones who were watching them from the roof. It was a middle-aged man with long red hair and a man with a weird mask on his face. It was Left Guardian Lee Hameng and the Great Guardian Marakim.

“That rat… I mean, the Right Guardian is leaving.”

“Good work for letting him be.”

“Well, it’s an order. At least I won’t have to see him sneaking around under my nose anymore.”

They knew that Submeng had snuck into the medical room all along, but they allowed him to continue.

“I guess I’ll have to put guards on the second floor again.”

The second floor was also loosely guarded because of this. It was done on purpose so that Submeng could freely enter and train Yeowun.

“I’ll be on my way then.”

Marakim tried to leave and Hameng asked, “Why is he looking after the 7th prince like this?”

Allowing Submeng to teach Yeowun meant that Lee Hameng had broken the rules of the academy himself when he was the Chief. If it wasn’t for the order directly from the Lord, he would have declined to do it. Marakim stopped and answered shortly.

“It is to be fair.”

“Heh, so I guess every child is dear to him?”

Hameng shook his head.

“Don’t question his will.”

Marakim then disappeared from the roof.

“Hah. I can’t even catch him if he really doesn’t want me to.”

Marakim, whose nickname was Wind God, had a fast running skill where even Lee Hameng couldn’t keep up with him. He frowned and mumbled, “It was only fourteen days… will there even be a difference?”

Even if Yeowun had learned from Submeng, it was only two weeks.

As the morning session started, Yeowun was still in bed.

“Hmm?”

Baek Jongmeng looked at him weirdly. Yeowun always woke up earlier even before he came to work, but he was still asleep.

‘Well, it’s his last day to get a good rest.’

From what he heard, Jongmeng knew that Yeowun’s group had Chun Mukeum, another heir from the Loyal Clan. This meant that Yeowun would have a hard time immediately if he returned. Jongmeng thought Yeowun would need at least a moment of peace and covered his bed with the curtain and returned to his desk.

Unlike Jongmeng’s thoughts, however, Yeowun’s body was going through heavy reconstruction.

[Estimated time needed for completion: 1 hour. Current progress – 80% muscle restructure complete, 75% joint reform complete.]

Millions of nanomachines inside Chun Yeowun worked to change his body shape to allow him to perform the Butterfly Blade Dance skill. He had started right after Submeng left, but it still wasn’t done yet.

‘Six hours? That takes too long!’

[It is the estimated time required to change the user’s body to fit target Submeng’s movement.]

Chun Yeowun was shocked, but it was understandable. And that’s why Yeowun had to stay in bed the entire morning. One more hour passed.

[Process complete.]

Yeowun then woke up from his anesthesia and got up, but he immediately vomited on the ground.

“UUUUUUGHHH!”

His entire body shuddered as it was overloaded from going through the heavy change and anesthesia. It was normal to have an adverse reaction from reforming his body to that of a well-experienced warrior.

“W-what’s going on?!”

Baek Jongmeng was nodding off on his desk but he got up and came running. He patted Yeowun’s back and got him back into bed. When Yeowun fell asleep this time, Jongmeng checked his pulse and he was shocked.

‘What’s going on? His pulse is as if he went through some heavy exercise.’

This heart rate hard to believe, especially for someone who had been sleeping. And as Yeowun was asleep, the Nano Machine was moving onto the next step to calm Yeowun’s state.

[Stabilizing user’s reaction to the body change.]

Soon after Jongmeng began feeling the pulse, it calmed down. Yeowun was now sleeping peacefully.

“What is going on?”

Jongmeng couldn’t understand what had happened. And after an hour, a little bit before lunch was over, Yeowun opened his eyes. He got up with excitement and clenched his fist.

He knew that the power he can put into his fist was very different. This showed how much training Submeng had gone through. If Submeng realizes that Yeowun had acquired his body in just six hours, he would be shocked.

“Doctor Baek?”

He didn’t sense anyone inside the room, but just called out to check. The doctor was out on lunch, so Yeowun got up and readied himself to practice the blade skill. He didn’t have a blade, but pretended his hand was the blade.

His body moved quickly and his hand slashed through the air. It was so quick that he was as fast as Submeng himself.

“Good!”

Yeowun became excited and tried to move onto the second formation, but he heard someone walking down the corridor and stopped.

‘Oh.’

He didn’t realize this, but his senses had also gotten more sensitive with his body. He mumbled as he looked at his palm, “I’m prepared.”

“Huh? Prepared for what? When did you wake up?”

The doctor came in and spoke to Yeowun who was standing in the middle of the room. Yeowun became embarrassed and replied, “…I mean, prepared to go back to the academy.”

Doctor checked Yeowun’s pulse again and declared that he was now healed and was free to leave. Yeowun then clothed himself with the martial arts uniform and took the tag with the red number 7 on it. Baek Jongmeng sighed, “I’ll be so bored without you.”

Unlike his expectation of seeing many patients, his room was empty. Yeowun smiled, “You’ll get a lot soon.”

There was an underlying meaning behind that, but Jongmeng just figured it would be good if he received more patients and answered, “Yeah? I hope so. No, I guess it’s better if there are no patients.”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

“Yeah. Good luck.”

If the doctor didn’t let it slide that Submeng was teaching Yeowun, it would have been troublesome. Yeowun was very thankful for the doctor and decided to send him some patients.

At the training ground, all the students were gathered in a group. Everyone in the 8th group turned to one direction. It was Chun Yeowun who finally came back after two weeks.

‘Finally here.’

The group leader, Chun Mukeum, cracked an evil smile. Chun Yeowun found Instructor Impeng and walked up to him.

“You’re here.”

“Yes, Instructor.”

“Are you all fine now?”

“Yes, sir.”

“That is good… I taught you already, but I’m sure you know where your place is?”

Impeng didn’t really seem all that excited to see Yeowun back. The formation battle required every individual to not fail for it to work well, and while Yeowun’s spot was the least important, it still was concerning.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Then go take your place.”

Impeng pointed to the location. Yeowun knew that he wouldn’t be welcomed for missing two weeks already, so he quickly took up the sword and shield and got to his location. Today was the real sword practice day that only came once a week. Mukeum tried to growl at Yeowun who was running toward him.

“You finally here? You cowardly chicken bas…”

But Yeowun ignored him and simply ran past him. Mukeum became dumbfounded, but something was off. Yeowun didn’t seem to fear him at all.

‘What is it? His look… it doesn’t…’

Instead, it looked like Yeowun’s eyes were telling Mukeum to challenge him to a fight.