Chapter 19: Jin Cheongha
‘A spar…….’
Jin Cheongha was one of the top powerhouses among the Felix cadets.
Avoiding a fight with her would be the best course of action.
But what she was asking for now was a simple spar.
‘It’s worth fighting her at least once.’
In any case, I was in a position where I couldn't avoid real combat as the story progressed.
If so, it wasn't a bad idea to have a proper fight in the controlled environnt of a spar.
Because roughly gauging a technique's power by striking a scarecrow and fighting against a person were two completely different things.
Actually, more than that.
‘Once I’ve caught Jin Cheongha’s eye, I’m bound to fight her once.’
Jin Cheongha had a nickna.
A Golden Retriever that swallowed a Shepherd.
In a word, a crazy dog.
Though she possessed the cheerful beauty of a Golden, when it ca to fighting, she was a character who couldn’t get enough of it, even more so than a Shepherd.
[Wanna have a fight? (Y / Y)]
In the original work, Jin Cheongha was the one who threw out choices like this.
Unless you forcibly quit the ga, you couldn’t escape the battle.
Considering her persistence, it was better to just readily fight her once and get beaten.
She was the type to control herself well, so there was little worry of getting hurt.
“If it’s a simple one, then I accept.”
“Oh! This is the first ti soone’s accepted right away. You’re interesting, you know?”
Jin Cheongha grinned, then gestured lightly and led
to the sparring room.
Upon arriving at the spacious sparring room, Jin Cheongha kicked off the ground and leaped lightly onto the sparring stage.
An incredible jumping power that allowed her to leap to a height level with her chest without bending her knees much.
It was a movent that was more fitting to be called flying than jumping.
She stood in front of an unmanned terminal and began setting it up with familiar motions.
“Hmm~ it seems we both use swords, so what should we do? A real sword would be dangerous, right? Let’s use training wooden swords for our weapons~ and the protective barrier……”
A voice like a chirping sparrow.
‘She’s excited.’
The setting was that it was her habit to ask for a spar as soon as she t soone who looked strong.
Perhaps just the fact that I caught her eye could be said to be a sign of growth.
However, the feeling of actually seeing a scene I had only ever seen from beyond the monitor was hard to describe in words.
‘Well, it’s not like she asked for a spar because I look strong, though.’
My idle thoughts were brief. Jin Cheongha, who had been stroking her chin as if satisfied, turned to
and shouted.
“Alright. All set! Go to your position and stand there!”
The mont we each stood at our designated positions, the floor opened and our weapons rose up.
“It’s a basic wooden sword for training. This way, we won’t get seriously hurt. The basic rules are, you lose if you forfeit the match or if your protective barrier is destroyed! I’ll go easy on you, so don’t worry too much-.”
I gripped the wooden sword.
A completely different feeling from the sword I had been using so familiarly.
“Then~ begin!”
With the shout, the buzzer attached to the arena blared loudly.
At the sa ti, Jin Cheongha’s form blurred, and she rushed right in front of .
It was instantaneous.
A blue light flashed.
Kang-!
‘It’s a wooden sword, but it has this much power?’
A swift sword ca rushing in, and I dodged it by a hair’s breadth.
The trace of the sword that grazed the tip of my nose created a stinging sensation.
“Ooh! Good reaction.”
She said she’d go easy.
If she went a little harder, she could probably kill soone.
Jin Cheongha’s sword ca at
like a surging wave.
This was how she handled a sword.
Was it said that the sword of the Cheongryu Family she belonged to was reminiscent of the flow of water?
Each ti our swords clashed directly, I could properly understand its aning.
A sword that was striking down from above would suddenly co up from below, and without a single gap, a sword would fly in from the side.
Like the sea, it was a sensation of waves relentlessly crashing in.
Just avoiding the elegant flow was an ordeal.
As we exchanged blows, I was pushed into a corner.
Because there were many attacks that I couldn't avoid without stepping back.
However, it was different from before.
‘It’s definitely lighter.’
There was a change brought about by recent training and small growths.
My body listened to
better than before, so to speak.
Once again, Jin Cheongha charged in.
The mont her arm, holding the sword high, drew an arc.
I dodged the downward strike from above and rotated my body, using my right foot as a pivot.
The movent I thought of was reflected in my body and beca reality.
Jin Cheongha’s side was exposed for an instant.
As if performing a pre-inputted motion.
My muscles began to tense.
[Cross Slash]
Two lines were drawn, crossing at high speed.
Swish-
Where the sword had grazed past, strands of blue hair fluttered down.
“Wow~ you’re fun.”
Jin Cheongha, who had sat down at so point, was looking up at .
With an expression like a child who had discovered a Christmas present.
After a mont of silence.
“Let’s stop here!”
Jin Cheongha, who had now stretched out her legs and sat down, shouted lightly.
‘Huh?’
Jin Cheongha is stopping the fight?
Are my ears deceiving ?
But she put down her sword as if to prove the words she had just spoken.
The floor opened and retrieved the sword, and the barrier that had enveloped the sparring arena began to disappear.
No matter how much of a practice spar it was, Jin Cheongha was stopping the fight?
I couldn’t help but be surprised, as I had been prepared to take a few hits.
“What? Why are you so surprised?”
“I was a bit surprised because you stopped in the middle of it.”
“Ah- you’re disappointed?”
‘That’s not it…….’
Jin Cheongha gave a grin.
“I’m a little disappointed too.”
She continued speaking as she scanned my body from top to bottom.
“You, have you ever learned the sword?”
Learned the sword?
All I’d done was the Tactical Manual’s semi-forced training and using skills I’d copied from others. Could that be called ‘learning’?
Quickly reaching a conclusion, I shook my head.
“That’s exactly it.”
Jin Cheongha crossed her arms and nodded.
“You, you have incredible talent! Your reaction is also very fast! And that technique I just saw. But, there’s no flow.”
Listening to her words, my eyes scanned a part of my status window.
[Evasion Instinct]
At the sa ti, I asked about a part of her words I was curious about.
“Flow?”
“Yeah, flow! How should I explain it……. A wave? A wave gets higher or lower as it flows, right? The sword is the sa. It has a flow.”
She mid gripping a sword and moved her body.
A movent that was smooth before becoming rigid for a mont.
A mont later, she looked back at .
“But you have no wave at all. And then suddenly, it feels like a very high wave cos crashing in for just ‘one layer’?”
I had an inkling.
Normally, I just swung vaguely, but the mont I used a skill, I implented a specific swordsmanship.
“In cases like this, it’s either specifically intended or your skill hasn't caught up with your talent yet. It doesn't seem like you intended it?”
Was I figured out, in a way?
If a skill was considered talent, then it was true that my skill was pathetic compared to my talent.
“If you understand the flow, you’ll be able to utilize your talent better. So! Let’s postpone the real spar until next ti!”
“Pardon?”
What? I asked back as if it were a reflex.
“Let’s just say I lost today. You have to accept my challenge next ti! You know that’s the winner’s etiquette, right?”
She said cheerfully.
‘Wait, no way.’
Only then did I look at the scoreboard above.
[Jin Cheongha (Loss)]
That’s right.
Jin Cheongha had set this spar as an official match.
[Jin Cheongha: 317 Wins, 3 Losses]
‘This is crazy.’
This was crazy.
This wasn’t in the original plan.
***
A leisurely morning in Felix.
Soone brought up a fresh topic.
“Hey, did you hear? I heard Jin Cheongha lost this ti. She went from 2 losses to 3.”
“What? Did she fight an instructor?”
“No. They said it was a freshman.”
“Huh? A freshman?”
Shocking news was spreading rapidly within the academy.
Early this morning, Jin Cheongha had been defeated in a spar.
And by a single freshman.
It was none other than Jin Cheongha.
The tireless combat fanatic and the top fighting power of the second years.
Until now, the only cadet who had defeated her was the Student Council President.
At least, that’s how it was known.
“No way, you’re lying, right?”
“It’s true, I’m telling you.”
“Isn’t it an error? Jin Cheongha lost to a freshman?”
“Could it be Hyun Woojun? If it’s him, it’s at least possible.”
“Isn’t it Seol Hayun?”
“Couldn’t it be Lily? Lily Evans.”
As they were listing the nas they knew one by one, soone who had been listening silently opened their mouth.
“There’s already an article on the school’s intranet. They said it was ‘Ryu Jinwoo’. I don’t know who that is, though.”
“Ryu Jinwoo?”
A na they’d never heard before.
Everyone paused at the sa ti.
A silence as if the air itself had cooled.
But that void was soon filled with a new excitent.
“I’ve never heard that na before. Who the hell is he?”
“I don’t know. Isn’t sothing wrong?”
“Or maybe Jin Cheongha was sick or sothing?”
Everyone started buzzing over a single newly erged na.
***
“Wow, Jinwoo, you’re so popular.”
Do Haru said, holding back her laughter, or rather, pretending to.
“‘The Sword of Cheongryu, Defeated!’ The headline is insane. They said it’s an article that ca out today.”
Do Haru held out her phone and chattered excitedly.
What she showed
was the headline of an academy newspaper article called ‘Zero Tis’.
A journal that was read not only by Zero Academy cadets but also by many outsiders.
In other words, it ant that the news of
defeating Jin Cheongha had taken wing and was spreading everywhere.
“……”
What I wanted was the title of having refused Jin Cheongha's offer to the Student Council, not the title of having handed Jin Cheongha her first loss.
‘She shouldn’t have registered it as an official spar in the first place, or she shouldn’t have surrendered. Why did she do that, that person.’
At this point, I was in a state of just letting things happen as they would.
I had never expected Jin Cheongha to surrender in the first place.
It was a route that had never occurred even once when I played the original ga.
It was, in a word, an unexpected variable.
I stealthily scanned the hallway with a sideways glance.
Eyes gathered at the door and outside the window.
All of them were directed toward .
I wondered if this was how animals in a zoo felt.
After the article went up, the classroom had beco a subtle spectacle.
The visitors were cadets who knew Jin Cheongha.
Footsteps of those gathered in twos and threes would co and go just when I thought I had forgotten about them.
Among them, there were so who sent particularly intense glares, and they were clearly people who had been beaten by Jin Cheongha at least once.
For people who were already itching for revenge after losing to Jin Cheongha, a freshman who suddenly defeated her appears?
The rest was obvious.
“Hey, move.”
A single voice from afar changed the atmosphere of the classroom.
A silhouette walking slowly, yet steadily.
The embroidered golden crown on the cuff of the black jacket was conspicuous.
That symbol alone caused a stir in the surroundings.
“Wow, that crown emblem, isn't that Crown?”
“Sh-, be quiet. They’ll hear. It’s that senior.”
I could hear small whispers.
The problem child group of Felix.
A place where rumors were rampant that they were talented and had strong backing, but were a problem because they were too strong.
Crown.
And a person who was well-known as a problem child even there.
“Never seen you before. Are you that Ryu Jinwoo?”
Tsk- he clicked his tongue and asked.
Wearing sunglasses, he approached
with a tilt of his chin.
His swaggering attitude was like a third-rate punk's, but I knew.
This person's skills were the real deal.
“Heard you beat Jin Cheongha.”
He ca right up in front of , bent his waist, and abruptly shoved his face toward mine.
‘You’re going to touch, you jerk.’
A distance so close it obscured my vision.
He looked down at , our noses almost touching.
“This is weird. I don’t feel any magic power, and you don’t seem like much. Did you use so kind of weird trick?”
Yang Giran furrowed his brow and raised his montum.
The mont it seed like sothing was about to happen.
“Yang Giran.”
As soone called his na in a low, gentlemanly voice.
“Huh? What bastard is calling my na so freely-.”
Yang Giran, who had imdiately turned around, paused for a mont.
“Ah- Instructor Hojin, nice to see you.”
The person was Hojin.
Having identified him, Yang Giran clicked his tongue lightly.
“This is a freshman class. What brings you here?”
“Aigh, you’re so formal. I heard my close dongsaeng enrolled.”
Yang Giran suddenly smiled in a friendly manner, moved to my side, leaned his body over and reached his hand toward my head.
Swoosh-
And at that mont, my body reacted on its own.
I ducked my head low.
“Ugh-!”
Yang Giran lost his balance and tumbled forward.
With his back bent, he fell, half-leaning against the desk, crumpled in a posture as if he had pulled a muscle while doing yoga.
In that mont, sounds of stifled laughter erupted from here and there.
A vein throbbed on Yang Giran’s temple.
“This son of a-.”
Yang Giran’s unpleasant voice was heard quietly.
‘Ha, damn it…….’
I was about to curse as well.
I hadn’t intended to dodge.
It was just that [Evasion Instinct] had activated.
Why in the world did it activate?
“Well, from what I see, you two don’t look very close. To cut to the chase, go back to your classroom. Being here for any reason is a violation of school rules.”
Just like Instructor Hojin, who didn’t waste words, a cold remark was shot at Yang Giran.
Yang Giran, who had barely managed to get up, glared daggers at .
An expression that had a lot to say.
I wanted to say that I was wronged too, but it would be useless.
Feeling dizzy, not eting his eyes was the best I could do.
“……I’ll see you later. Tsk-.”
But they say people who say ‘see you later’ are never scary.
In any case, he muttered that lowly and left.
A short while later, once Instructor Hojin had cleared the area, peace was finally restored.
Although an uneasy feeling that it could be shattered at any mont lingered.
“Wow, that was nice timing from Hojin. Right?”
Do Haru said, once the surroundings had quieted down.
“……”
The thought that it might have been better if Hojin hadn’t co crossed my mind, but I decided not to say it out loud.
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