Chapter 257: Side Story – Familiar (1)
qwBiTThe end of the long Winter came with a late Spring.gPyUMEp
8NFbBEEHowever, traces of the Winter had yet to fully disappear. Piles of snow had yet to melt from rooftops, and demonic beasts waking up late from their hibernation often drifted downward.GOo3C
7sinVvLAlthough an enormous war had just ended, the world was still in chaos.MTjD
Z0q1G4YKnights and mages were valuable in times like this, including even the current students of the Academy.IO1E
AKiRWith great power comes great responsibility. I vowed to do whatever I could to help the people that were still in great suffering.H449iNC
rLvNQ“So… Is that your excuse for just running away without making a decision?”qBfKh
rhkX“What a dickhead.”dfI
BjTKLark and Jaeger commented while looking at me like I was some piece of trash.9m2C3H
CdAqqk“You guys are such horrible friends. Don’t look at me like that!”buvLFDS
wKlYjuK“I can’t; I just can’t understand this guy.”3CC
AO8Seriously, they were the few ‘male’ friends that I had, so I hoped they would be a little bit nicer.5NT
nxb“Fuu… Maybe I need to ask other people.”NFpuF64
zGvt“Do you even have friends to consult with apart from us? Apart from maybe Dorron and Kranel?” asked Lark, seeming genuinely curious.I9n
PbnrWell, I did have quite a few friends though.fvb
vytjCgb“I could ask Professor Deina, Professor Lulara, Mary, Melina, Jenna-sunbae, Jurie, Liel-sunbae or Elza-sunbae – you know, the one that graduated this year. They should be able to help out. Hmm… Or, wait, since it’s about relationships, maybe Mielle or Claria could help me better… There’s also Mrs McMillan – I helped her when she had a problem with one of her cats – and Anna might be able to help as well considering how mature she is. Actually, I guess asking a 10-year-old girl about relationships isn’t the best idea.”pNX
fce“…There are more and more names being added.”gsv
2AXVMwP“I swear, this guy is one hell of a bastard.”j2habY7
iQdIeThe two of them condemned me with eyes of contempt. There seemed to be a misunderstanding here.sAyFCh5
mYHow“It’s not like that, you idiots! They’re all just friends!”SvTC
a8pmwFCIt was guys like them who always said ridiculous things like how men and women couldn’t become true friends.zG3Ba
I0oNGn4But that wasn’t the case, and I was the living proof of it.98nonDO
H1kRt1I had close friends like Younghee-noona, Hanbyul, Seyoung, Misha and Fujiwara. They were super close with me alright!85mYL
KUQqXK– Thud!n0YA
vYVhbISuddenly the carriage came to a stop. We had arrived at our destination, which was a small village not too far from the Academy.QwTwIO1
Nv4Ahx“Aigo, dear guardians! You have arrived!”tKxZ13I
AyKsThe chief, whom we had seen here and there, welcomed us with great passion.qiEM
g0E4y“Haaht?!”oM5R0KS
eCqbuGYUpon seeing me, the chief immediately got on his knees and bowed down.MWA8nXn
QSYWU“O, O Sun…!”bno0N
MNlSsHe wasn’t the only one. The villagers who had gathered around the entrance to see the visitors all went on their knees.nh8HR
IiZvxP““O Great Sun…!!””y9Jdnx
l8YRSeeing them on their knees, Jaeger smirked.jKKI
Bw9P“Did you hear that, o great savior?”fh1Lr
TQ2f“Aigo…”u5W
0VCBHUzI had a headache seeing that. This was because of Estelle’s rumors to a great extent.wSXM
OdF0During the process of fighting back the Old Faith’s prophecies about the Apocalypse, Estelle added lines about me on her own accord.oIu
2IewPVA New Sun will rise.wAj
fu8QDThis alone might have been simply interpreted as a hero that would save the world, but Estelle preached prophecies that implied different things about me, as if really trying to make me a god.tfJ
jV4fx4IAnd most importantly—5mfLpi
LZRvh2“To be fair, anyone who saw that wouldn’t think of you as human.”3g4
G9XzHMh“Honestly… I can’t see you as a human either.”h95q
tF3oREven Jaeger and Lark had such reactions, because of the Sun I manifested to bring light back to the world and melt the Winter.caUOiQ
4Q0People seemed to have seen the descent of the Sun that brought warmth back unto the world from everywhere, and witnesses were telling stories even from the corners of the continent.m3tY1S
2DYWas it fair to see someone who was capable of doing that as a normal human? Even the royal capital appeared to have unending discussions on that topic.IRE
aSyXJ“Well, that doesn’t change anything,” I replied. “I’m just a human who’s a bit too amazing.”Dsr
EbzX9“Here he goes again.”kBTiXlc
CX7“It’s times like this that you do seem like a normal human.”02Ln
tgu0yThe two of them continued grumbling all the way until we were ready for our job today of military civil aid. Our job was to remove the snow around the town and deal with any demonic beast or spirit that could appear in the vicinity.Ex7lI5y
JG1LIt was like a volunteer activity, with the only monetary payment being a reimbursement for our travel fees.2sxc7BG
YflKHKP“By the way, is it really okay for you to be out here?”zwl3bU
GotdJaeger asked while scooping up a pile of snow. Lark replied in my stead.gHdgouq
ZaV“He’s just buying time. He probably couldn’t decide what to do and just opted to run away. This civil aid is nothing but an excuse.”PCiR1Y
R5kIGB“Kuhk…!”2hb30j
7B2Lark knew me too well.3Lgv
UblX“But is it really that hard?” asked Jaeger. “It’s only five… wait, how many was it again?”5k2H5l
9Wn“Marie-sunbae, Alicia, Hua Ran, Miss Lunia, and Her Highness Estelle and Miruam… We have to include Chairman Erin as well. It’s seven so far, I guess,” replied Lark yet again.W17
XuDWhat was that ‘So far’ for? Huh? Lark?!Eu1P41x
qhx2OO“That is so much. But shouldn’t you consider Hua Ran as two?”QqC
t1Zr3xo“Well, but for Hua Ran, it’s not like he needs to choose one of them.”zixU
bPnx“Then wouldn’t Hua Ran be the best choice?”0K2fT
V1A8YONo choice but to embrace polygamy…! Jaeger uttered nonsense which Lark cut off with a shake of his head.HGG
hhWr“On that note, you would have to group up the Arden sisters and Her Highnesses as well.”8HXK
s1x0Lark mentioned the Arden sisters who were eagerly waiting for a chance to steal each other’s love, as well as the two princesses whom the King had officially given his permission to take.N9S7L
9XWSA81“But dude, you can’t give up on Marie-sunbae either. You know how much money they have? They have dozens of mines and 2 million hectares of farmland.”EBJ
0QDa“It’s so ridiculously big that I can’t even fathom it.”9gHPp
hB1H1“And her breasts are huge too!”XoHR
0zNkQCY“…It is an honor to have her as my future boss,” said Lark Buhgman, a predestined future employee of the new tower of mages, the Dunareff Tower, thanks to the power of connections.5Cn8lF
rHSm1Nh“But Alicia’s also hard to give up on. It feels like she’s the perfect example of a good wife. She has a great personality after all.”RKxUDcH
7ZDM“She’s kind and sometimes cute when she shows her clumsy side.”S124nP9
1eEF“Most importantly, I think she’ll be open to cheating and accept them as wives.”e1v
AOJY5rd“…I agree. She would be the perfect wife for Korin.”4KoO
Ef2WOCl“And Hua Ran too! Seeing Ran whisper, she’s like a fox.”E0D8y
ybU“Plus, Hua is mostly indifferent but quite cute when you start talking to her.”7rCsRF
yhrAD“And one plus one combo as well! Two flavors!”QtT0Jk
AetXAWithout refraining, I looked on with eyes of contempt at the two of them and their stupid conversation.5gwW8l
KBoQwa“…Seriously, the way you guys think is horrible.”CJ7Gm
6HF4nJaeger turned around.kwa9VKJ
nXf“Who do you like the most then?”rdf596r
2gKUy“…”Ovk7kE
8piPk“Don’t you have to choose someone in the end? You’re not going to ignore all of them are you?”MZA7uL
RBZ“I can’t… do that.”779b9Ek
J9oQZuI had to make a decision. I had to, but there was… a problem…KnmkLy
r3tmE2U〚I will not disregard the misfortune of the good.〛c0ah
9ZwYkF[Fulfil your Precept]Kx8rr
IGe0MFrom Marie to Master… there was a system message for everyone except for Miruam.JhehPsM
XXmRight – the Precept, ‘I will not disregard the misfortune of the good’ also applied to my romantic relationship as well.a6dD4EZ
HcCVMBIf I were to choose someone, the rest of them would lead a sad life, and the Precepts wouldn’t allow that to happen!Na4UQI
YGqrxThe reason Miruam was excluded… was probably because my own standard of Miruam was far from that of a good person.wQJ
jYhoHowever, that didn’t mean I could exclude only her from the list of options, since she was also one of the people who loved me.lwLagFB
WBwQv8“The aftermath is the real problem… If I were to choose someone, then the rest of them would…”kYQOck
afWdUMXIt would be going against the Precept for the rest of them. That would be the first time I would experience a penalty of that level from going against the Precept, because I had never gone against it in the first place!GwxvM
AgDGYRBesides, it had a difficulty rating of S, and I couldn’t possibly imagine how big of a penalty it would be.9CFLUZ
VrG‘Thinking about how it was for Tates in the game…’BUD
e8q2HbIn the original game, Tates had lost a drastic amount of his power, but my current situation was even worse.OxHv
GE1NIt would make 6 people unfortunate – six S-rated penalties!9MCl8
3T6gz“You’re right… I don’t think the rest would just sit there and accept it if they see you choose someone else.”Qh97N5
hAyTKcThe two of them, who had no idea what my concerns were about, appeared to have taken it the wrong way.Y8MF2vR
5GH“No, well… That’s not the issue here.”4Q5t
ngcKXzFI thought about a what-if scenario – about what other people would do if I were to choose only one of them as a lover.EWWtWv7
tXSustI“…They are all nice, so I don’t think anything dramatic would happen.”z2BTOuj
9BxiV“…”lyG
BO4“…”I2hg
qiF4BJ“What… What’s wrong with you guys?”RlRaD
K5nT1E“…Nothing.”10zLh
1jPi“If you say so, Korin.”ROT
P9iHWeird, but in any case, it was to postpone the problem and buy time that I volunteered to come here.gur
jgPI applied for a mission that would take several days to complete and this one alone was long enough to fill up this year’s required voluntary service hours.Y9Nqphp
6lGvwtX[A one-week-long military civil aid… Hmm, well, I feel like I know why, but I will give permission.]kNDK
SseLady Josephine seemed like she knew my intention judging from how she was shaking her head.MWVCT
9kD‘After a week or so… I should have more time to think for the time being.’FOfYXs
px3ir3Marie was due to graduate, and Hua Ran and Estelle were going to be busy dealing with things related to the Order. And as for Miruam, well, she was always busy.ECownG
qllfRIBecause all of them had urgent matters at hand, I was sure I would be able to buy a lot more time by disappearing for a short period of time.Dzxy
ZxNJl‘But would having more time let me solve this problem?’odf
Pv4fXjNWhichever decision I were to make, it would make everyone unfortunate except for one, right? Was this even a solvable problem?yBtMHE
6K2TDamn this Precept. Was it too late to remove it? It had been a reliable aid helping me through hardships all until now, but to think it would smack me at the back of my head at the very end!JDKchf
2svesRHProblems like this were best discussed with Master, but even Master was a part of the problem in this case.2bUl02
xxso“AHHKKK…! DAMN ITTTTTT…!”UiI9Q
jPJ“He’s doing that again. He’s gone mad for sure.”egFHNKh
qnUXRXt“Let him be. He’s having the freaking happiest dilemma of a man.”pRs7
tSQ0dVe“I did see this coming from a mile away though.”Dbhljgy
XK7VfH6These two friends were of no help. They did nothing but look at me with contempt like I was having a happy dilemma, and calling me a damn player.BpOW9Ph
y8dA“Ehew…”s3Owv17
cioYCWorrying wasn’t going to get me anywhere, so I decided to continue helping people since I was here and headed to the chief.38C6w3
9ZuNMc“Sir Chief.”5LDoX
Ve1“Aigo, Esteemed Sun.”HVH6i
ghUkz“Please don’t be so formal. You can treat me as per normal.”QDNNl
DSFe6bk“How could I possibly be so insolent to the Champion of the Sun acknowledged by the Saintess?”YTtN2o5
nhAsZ“…”emfmZi
wGf1Seriously, what was she doing out there?jBlA
hLiO“What’s the most urgent task at hand? Should I melt all the snow?”Qspdw2
qisUnfortunately, I couldn’t use the Sun for a while. It had been overused when I was melting the Winter around the world and needed some time.mb3Tb
mjoI had to focus on recovering my divine energy, but I could still use Runes of the Sun to melt the snow built up around the village.whbR
QwnNI“More urgently than that…” the chief said. “Right, there is a mage who came here several days ago.”IOSKVb
mKw3“A mage? That’s strange. When I checked the record, there were no guardians that were dispatched to this region.”J7SUy
W0ggOORight now, I was the Chairman of the Guardian Association. Although I was soon going to give away the position to someone else, I did my research before coming here and there weren’t any guardians sent here.OVJsG
cmY“It was a mercenary lady. She visited our village in the middle of her trip, and kindly volunteered to deal with the demonic beasts at a cheap price.”KAXBb98
cf9“Really?”8iy4GiX
eatYEven low-grade mages were expensive to hire. For a remote village like this to be able to afford one… they either had to be a really low-grade mage, or someone really kind.ESyQu
vld“She left to search for demonic beast nests but hasn’t been back for two days. She did take a camping kit with her but… she was a young lady so I’m a bit concerned for her sake.”pXLM
5kwNBeing away for two ways sounded pretty normal. If the nest was on the bigger side, there were several measures that had to be made to make sure none of the beasts escaped alive, after all.1bKM
1YHMUBesides, it was especially more time-consuming for mages, who unlike knights couldn’t simply run into crowds of demonic beasts and bash all of them to death.VOGkRDf
ilw“Which way did she go? I will go help.”VB5
IuMfE“Aigo! I’m sure the Esteemed Sun would easily be able to deal with the beasts, but I am afraid it might seem like I am ordering around an esteemed one.”Yt4BncM
ZsnP“Please treat me like normal. Please.”PWE
9XWkC5Leaving behind the chief, I went towards Jaeger and Lark who were still removing the piles of snow.YPCR5t
zltjjXI“I have to head off to the mountain over there for a bit.”WvPntGK
7R5H3“Huh? What is it for? We need runes to melt the snow though.”2wjIo
biTes“Ask Lark for fire. There seems to be a nest of demonic beasts over there. I’ll quickly deal with it and come back.”ZlQTD0q
Jbyy“Alright. Leave the village to us and go. Do you need rations?”LjmhCAD
Re0zQL“I have mine.”KiKIx7
3VT5Leaving the two of them behind, I headed in the direction that the mage lady had gone off to.DuiIe
Bk6GTTCThe mountains were quite rough with no roads, but there was no issue finding the nest of demonic beasts.ab4Tl
IFE6DE‘Boar-type monsters, huh.’w7BxnC
cnOSYZThey excelled at climbing mountains and lived in large groups. Although they were Grade 4 demons at best, there were a lot of them and they had to be dealt all at once.MOo9P0
lRCwOr the other option was to build traps all around to make sure they couldn’t run away and start another group elsewhere.bLOvrr
819h91‘No wonder the mage couldn’t come back straight away.’5IF3lzA
Y4ZFx9Killing them with large-scale flame spells was difficult because it might lead to bushfires or destroy the natural wildlife here. When dealing with a nest like this in the middle of a mountain, a large group of average guardians was much better than having one exceptionally powerful guardian.vaIHpl
uJPm‘Let’s find the mage first.’gZ8p
rp7FHShe must have been making preparations for the past two days, so most of the preparations should be made by now. In fact, she might not even need much of my help.pHH0K2
2QDcwIt didn’t take long for me to find the mage.Bmwky
fVDHiU“Who is it…!”YlwkRZ
anngNoticing my presence, the mage immediately turned around and I quickly threw my hands in the air and revealed my agenda.fCk8Ru
vUTf“Calm down, calm down. I came from the village under the chief’s request.”4aeuRx
rqT4e“…”mMTp
xrCXETThe mage lady seemed vigilant with her staff still pointing at me. She was quite… the beauty.f8egY
EJnZNShe had a slim but healthy S-line body, and brown hair that gave off a cool aura. For some reason though, her face, or rather her atmosphere, felt quite familiar.KCDqA2x
jWP82H“Sorry, I had to be very cautious these past two days observing the nest. My apologies, Mr. Korin Lork.”PUC
NTLHI“Do you know me?”inWBH
vlNFHearing my question, she replied with a faint smile as if it was a dumb question to ask.0GVoBf
WRvu“Who wouldn’t be able to recognize the Sun?”2Qd
vSASF“The rumors are a bit too widespread, right?”HQUjj
Y3TTBEjWalking up, I offered a handshake.0lXtef
t713END“I’m Korin Lork. A 3rd year student of the Academy.”mwQ64
c0hMRN“Aren’t you missing a few titles in there?”GnN
8REr“I do have a lot of titles. Collecting titles is a hobby of mine.”a3hMJ7
6GIGrade 1 Justice of the Peace, Leader of the Korin Guardians Guild, a baron of the kingdom, Chairman of the Guardian Association and more… It reflected just how busy of a life mine had been.BOht
ppCJ“I didn’t hear about a mage being dispatched to this region. Are you a mercenary?” I asked.QsP
zLa7l0“A fresh one. I haven’t been able to register at the Association yet.”kgHC0E
zajTOz“No wonder. I would have remembered a beauty like you registering, after all.”2fEjHrx
hDp“…Can you say that again?”tj6
Ggi0“Hmm… Apologies if that put you in a bad mood.”jACW6Fz
FhlEi“No no no. That’s not what I mean. I just didn’t catch what you said.”vae7dD6
zPQv8NReally? Don’t mages have much better physical abilities than normal people? Well, since that’s what she was saying, I repeated my words again.dr8ARK4
4u3lhX“I said, I would have remembered a beauty like you registering.”HAjItW
1Pta5B“Really?”xOPrb
oSaGM08Although she had an indifferent look on her face, the corners of her lips were slightly tilted up and there was a faint flush on her cheeks. She seemed to be in a good mood.twxB9
yzKYThere was someone similar to her though… Who was it again?x3QN
Odat“Oh right. I forgot to give my name.”pw3
ZfifWThe mage lady said after, for some reason, tightly holding onto my hand that I was offering for a handshake.hKlqS
vb9yCUj“My name is Park Sirin.”ZtaWwd
VikFrom the east, huh!oWHGkw
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HaydenZeMan
VIP Qi RefinementUh oh