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nThe Demon clan, among the Original clans.

nThey, unlike the other Originals, did not pick a leader, nor did they form a group or tribe.

nHowever, there were three exceptions among such demons.

nFirst, the priests who serve the Demon god, one of their own superior being.

nSecond, the worshippers of the Demon King, who proved its power by annihilating countless demons.

nThird, demons who were submerged in the studies of the same topic.

nThis demon clan group was the third case.

n“Kang-ryup Jeo came into contact.”

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nAmong them, the demon in charge of contacting with the outer world muttered in the dark.

nThe demons, hearing that, closed their third eye connected to the present Earth.

nThey rose from their own magic circles.

nDifferent psychic waves and magical power flower around them.

n“Kang-ryup Jeo? Are you talking about the head of the Pig clan, Jeopalgyae?”

n“Yeah. He has asked for a deal through ‘the one’.”

n“Deal? What’s he asking for?”

nAt the end of a brief description of the deal with Kang-ryup Jeo, the demons questioned some things.

n“It seems a little tricky to do. Not impossible, but tricky.”

n“What are they offering in return?”

nThe demon, who was speaking fluently without hesitation, answered this question one beat late.

n“…… They will allow us to watch the upcoming Juo and TC’s party on board.”

nLaughter of disapproval broke out all over the void.

nThe demons did not hide their displeasure.

n“For getting us to do work? Only that?”

n“Allow? Such arrogance. I don’t like it. There is no place to avoid our eyes unless it’s the realm of gods.”

n“Yeah. All we need to do is know where the place is and prepare a bit, and even if a superior being interferes, we can project the place at least a little.”

nThe topic of the conversation of the demons changed to bad-mouthing Kang-ryup Jeo.

n“Wasn’t Kang-ryup Jeo appointed by the ‘enlightened one’ as a messenger? He should be practicing virtue to achieve Buddhahood, why is he on the present Earth?”

n“Remember he went astray after the Other-world war. He gave up his enlightenment by forming allies with ‘the one.’”

n“I can’t believe the Chunbongwonsu who lead an army of 80 thousand in the heavens and swept through the milky way became this pig now.”

n“He’s gone mad after getting the pink slip and losing his messenger job.”

nThe demon who told them about Kang-ryup Jeo’s message delivered the final blow.

n“Kang-ryup Jeo was so arrogant that he even nominated one of us. He said he wanted the most skilled demon to cooperate with him.”

nThe psychic waves and magical power waves of the demons fluctuated rapidly to reflect their owners’ emotions.

n“That pig dares to judge who the better one is out of us?”

n“Who did he even nominate?”

nBetween the sinister colors and forms of the psychic wave, the voice of the demons rang out.

n“You know the demon god of one of the seven great sins, Lord Invidius. The pig wants the Lord’s priest.”

nThe enthusiastic priest of the demon god of the seven great sins.

nAlthough overly passionate about it, that eccentric demon abandoned the priests’ group and engaged in the study of the frozen-type Other-world, making a remarkable contribution to the field.

nThose who recalled the demon unwillingly admitted it.

n“…… Well, that guy is good.”

n“You can’t say he isn’t the best of us.”

n“Humph.”

nThe conversation topic changed again to the priest of Invidius.

n“So where is that guy? I don’t see him.”

n“He’s been going a lot to the present Earth recently because of this ‘raven mask’ that perked his interest. Maybe he’s at Earth again.”

n“Come to think of it, I didn’t see him these days.”

nThen a demon who was silent until now opened its mouth.

nAnother priest, but not of Invidius.

nThe demons listened, thinking, ‘strange demons flock together.’

n“He’s on present Earth. He had some work to do.”

n“Work to do?”

n“He decided to make a deal with Jinwoong-palseon(8 leaders of the Bear clan that tried to kill all gods).”

nSome demons asked questions at the mention of Jinwoong-palseon.

n“Jinwoong-palseon…… The ones that have gone mad? Or the ones that have not gone mad?”

n“The normal ones.”

n“Which one of them? If it’s the Bear of Ecstasy, I want to meet them too. They seem to have made an interesting magic calculation.”

nThe priest shook their head in the dark.

n“The being who asked for a deal is Woong-nyeo of Bitan.”

n* * *

n“You’re not going to tell me where you were yesterday? You seem to have been with that Original clan for a long time.”

nJiho asked me while I was immersed in my thoughts.

nAn Original clan that annoys him.

nThe Original clan who gave Gyubin Hong a blessing.

nI was with that Original clan for quite a long time last night.

n‘Long enough to leave a trace?’

nAfter parting ways with Jiho Hwang yesterday, I was in three places for a long time.

nInside the barrier of Eun-kwang High.

nThe air limousine with Jared Lee.

nThe EverLake building, inside Jae-in Kwon’s room.

n‘The school barrier was strengthened after the butterfly incident so that can’t be it…… It’s most likely to be in Jae-in Kwon’s room.’

nI will ask senior Jae-in Kwon later, but I think asking Jiho about this is needed, too.

n“I went to see senior Jae-in Kwon yesterday.”

n“Jae-in Kwon…… That guy even got the Blue Violinist in his hands, huh.”

nJiho Hwang frowned.

nHe said that being was annoying, but I didn’t know Jiho didn’t like him.

n“So what kind of Original clan is that being?”

n“You saw him too, through the magic circle.”

nThe Original clan I met through the magic circle?

nHe means the 12 zodiac meeting.

nHe can’t mean one of the 12 heads of clans that had nicknames only a child would have?

nThat original clan is the self-proclaimed “wit,” the head of the Mouse clan.”

nSo Jae-in and Gyubin had a huge Original being on their side.

n‘Both going through a lot of trouble, I suppose.’

nNot that I should say anything, with Jiho Hwang by my side.

n* * *

nLunchtime.

nFor lunch, I chose the menu that I thought would be the fastest.

nStewed chicken legs with ginger and onions.

nEggs cooked in a sauce called ‘Kooksujang-gook.

nAnd a chicken rice bowl with slightly cooked Enoki mushroom.

n‘I wanted to eat the seafood steam with snow crab, mussels, octopus, and shrimp……’

nIf gourmet Hyo-don Meang knows about this, he’ll say I made a dumb decision.

nBut I couldn’t choose the seafood steam because it took long to serve and eat.

nI needed to check something during lunchtime.

n‘There are a lot of messages cheering me on today.’

nAfter lunch, I went to a walkway with little people.

nAs I sat on the bench and started the device, I saw a pile of messages that I hadn’t checked since the morning supporting me for the chess tournament.

nI gave a brief thank you, scrolled down the chat rooms, and found the name I was looking for.

nMe Hello, Mr. Gyubin Hong.

nMe I want to ask you a question, are you busy now?

nGyubin Hong replied faster than I thought.

nGyubin Hong Hey, Ui-shin. It’s lunchtime now so it’s ok!:)

nGyubin Hong What’s the matter?

nHe has often checked up on me, but recently he asked even more about how I was doing.

nSomehow, Gyubin’s recent behavior seemed to have something to do with the question I was trying to ask.

nMe Do you know about the self-proclaimed “wit” of the Mouse clan?

nImmediately after the end of my question, Gyubin sent a ton of messages.

nGyubin Hong He finally reached you too? ^^

nGyubin Hong Ignore it. Once you get to know him, it’ll be so troublesome!

nGyubin Hong it was annoying when he whined for me to take his blessing, and became more annoying after receiving the blessing. He pops in suddenly, nagging about what he likes, what he doesn’t like. Always asking me to investigate this! Take a look into that!

nGyubin Hong Never get involved with him! He is the most clingy, needy, obnoxious, and obsessed Original I’ve ever met!

n‘Obnoxious and obsessed’ was used by Geumchan-Wangchan to describe Gyubin Hong once.

nThe Original and player connected by blessing must take after one another.

nGyubin Hong Especially when he smiles and says, ‘I like this very much’ in that polite speech he rarely uses!

nGyubin Hong If that happens, run away and don’t look back. Run inside the barrier of Eun-kwang High! Got it?

nBecause of Gyubin’s skills of predicting the future, the head of the Mouse clan, the “Wit” always bothered him.

nI don’t exactly know what he’s like yet, but if Gyubin, who was practically the pronoun of obsessed and clingy, reacted to the guy this seriously, I’d better steer clear of him.

nMe Okay, thank you.

nGyubin Hong Wait, Ui-shin. Where did you hear the nickname ‘Wit’? You’re not already involved, are you? T.T?

nI wouldn’t say involved.

nBut I couldn’t tell him where I heard that ‘Wit’ nickname from.

nHow should I get through this?

nHe’ll be busy working anyway, so maybe I’ll just ignore it.

nI was wondering what to do when,

n“Ui-shin Cho.”

nSomeone who approached me without a sound spoke.

nIt was a clear, mild voice, but it was so sudden I couldn’t help but be surprised.

n“Mr. Cheong-Hwon Kong.”

nThe person who spoke to me was Cheong-Hwon Kong, who taught Introduction to Enemy Studies and was Han-yi’s mentor.

nHe is a scary person whose trace cannot be sensed while he took his eyes off the blackboard and read the textbook in class.

nHe silences his traces at all times out of habit.

n“I was worried that you didn’t come to class again last time.”

nOn Teacher’s Day, I skipped his class to go to Hyo-don’s middle school.

nThat must be why he’s here.

nAlthough I had no clue how he found me on this huge campus.

n“Ui-shin, if you have any suggestions, I’ll listen.”

nCheong-Hwon Kong smiled, looking very generous.

nAll the classes I’ve skipped were Cheong-Hwon Kong’s classes, I think……

nIt was reasonable that he thought I skipped his classes because I didn’t like him or something.

nBesides, the last time I skipped class was on Teacher’s Day.

n“…… Sorry.”

n“Please contact me before you fail to come next time.”

nCheong-Hwon Kong’s face seemed a little bitter.

n“You’re competing in the Chess tournament. I heard that today is the last day…… Are you going to prepare for the tournament?”

nHe’s indirectly asking me if I’m going to skip class today again.

nI wasn’t planning to from the beginning this time.

n“No, I want to listen to your class.”

nCheong-Hwon Kong was pleased with my answer.

n“You’re coming to class today?”

n“Yes.”

nLike last time, he came to get me to prevent me from skipping class.

n‘Strange, I can’t think of any excuses to say.’

nHis words, expressions, all of it were gentle, but somehow he is intimidating.

n“Oh, the school bell is ringing. We can go to class together.”

nThe class bell that indicated lunch break is over was Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, “Pastorale,” set in the forest of Heiligenstadt, a place on the outskirts of Vienna.

nAmong them, the 4th movement titled ‘Thunder, Storm’.

nIt was a symphony depicting rainstorms, lightning, and the fleeing animals in the forest.

n‘I think the broadcast crew made this song the bell with the intention of relieving food coma.’

nLast time, it was Edvard Grieg’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King.’

nEvery time I get caught by Cheong-Hwon Kong, an intense music was the class bell.

nAlthough I became a slacker to this teacher, Cheong-Hwon Kong’s Introduction to Enemy Studies was a rewarding and excellent lesson.

n* * *

nAfter school, newspaper club room.

n“3rd-grade class 0 made a floating garden!”

n“How in the hell did they get that up there?”

nRumors began to spread that the third-grade class 0 had moved to avenge against the energy of the universe.

nThe reason they didn’t start right away and waited until school was over was probably because they lost the bet and had promised their homeroom teacher to listen to every single class.

n“I need to catch their trails this time! I’ll dig into the heads of those crazy peoples!”

nSaeron Moon, who failed several times to cover their story, burned with a new passion.

nThe newspaper club members planned on how to cover them.

nThen, Saeron and the rest suddenly looked at me.

n“We can’t go and cheer for you today, suspicious vice prez of class 0, but we do root for you!”

n“Yeah, it’s okay to be suspicious, so good luck.”

nAnd the newspaper club said that I’m suspicious, too.

nThe cheer slogan and my portrait painted by Green Min were hot on the general bulletin board.

nThe newspaper club must’ve seen that, too.

nThanks to the fame of Green’s painting, this had spread far too much.

n“Hahahaha! This finally caught on to the newspaper club!”

nJiho laughed out loud with glee.

nAnyways, I headed to the Chess tournament stadium with the newspaper club’s support on my back.

n* * *

nThe 3rd gym of the General Club Hall grounds.

nFour games were played in the two-day tournament.

n60 or so players, including seeded players who were picked randomly, were now reduced to 4.

n‘The survivals are all my playable characters! Let’s DO this.’

nBlock A was Jun-yeoul Yeom and Seung-hyun Park.

nBlock B was Kyung-gu Kwak and me.

n‘It’s surprising that no third years made it here.’

nIn the semifinals, my opponent is Kyung-gu Kwak, who belongs to the second-year student Council.

nHe was a friend of Jun-yeoul Yeom and was taught by the same mentor as Suhyuk Joo.

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nLike Suhyuk, the palm of his hand was as hard as metal as a player using a pair of swords.

n‘As the #2 double-sword master of Eun-kwang High should, his hand is rough.’

nThe coin throwing results were:

nKyung-gu was white, and I was black.

n“Begin.”

nJe-gun Yong’s voice rang through the stadium.

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