No Dark Secrets In This Book

Episode 42

I thought I had definitely finished preparing myself mentally, but an attack came before I realized it. I was properly hit by the stick aimed between the ribs connecting to the side, the heart. Putting aside the pain, my face felt hot. Fuck.

People around were looking at me as if they couldn’t believe Cassice Demillang’s defeat.

“You’re dead now, dude! Cassice Demillang loses!”

“Wait, I object to the judgment.”

Damn. I can’t stand it. This embarrassment. Let’s try to smooth it over by saying something.

“A person doesn’t die from this much.”

Wow, I’m really forcing it. How would I know if a person dies or not from this much? But I was the one who forced it. To somehow attach a basis to this forced parade, I had to at least say something others couldn’t refute.

“If it were my 11-year-old self, maybe.”

The absolute defense appears. 11-year-old Cassice single-handedly raided a dungeon. Cassice Demillang knows because he did it. So the judgment is invalid.

Honestly, how could anyone refute that? The person himself said he did it.

So, how is it! Just try to answer something!

“…Fine. The judgment is invalidated.”

After a short silence, the answer I was hoping for came back. I smiled as if it was natural, but inwardly I was singing a serenade of joy.

“However, most people die from this level of impact. From now on, I’ll give a death judgment, so try to avoid it.”

“Yes, I understand. I also didn’t expect you to evaluate me at the student level, so don’t worry about my mistake. I was just trying to give flesh and take bones.”

“……”

The principal had a somehow deeply sunken gaze, but I smiled prettily without losing until the end. Of course, I was furious on the inside.

‘Fuck, how do I beat Ryuseong when it’s not even in bed?’

Ah, of course, I haven’t won against him in bed either……

‘Fuck, stop the fact violence……’

Still, before the referee announces the start of the match again, I have to come up with something and look cool. Even if I lose, I shouldn’t lose pathetically, I have to do something.

So I immediately started comparing. I need to know how I’m different from others to know what I’m lacking and where I have an advantage, right?

The biggest difference between other ordinary and common friends and Cassice Demillang is where they put their abilities. Since mana is placed in the danjeon.

But when we’re about to fight with sticks, is that important now……

‘Huh?’

Maybe that could be a hint.

I told the referee who was about to shout the start to wait because my untied shoelaces got untied, knelt on one knee, and quickly rummaged through the bookshelves in my head to recall a page from the original story.

It was about a certain martial art.

‘…It’s a ridiculous cycle. Was this person trying to do a Chinese opera with internal energy?’

‘Who knows. By reaching the extreme with this, he may reach the level of a supreme being.’

‘What? You value it that highly, so this martial art was more valuable than I thought!’

‘I think it’s worthless.’

‘Huh, what? Why?’

‘Those who can pursue the extreme with this will reach the extreme with other martial arts too.’

He said that and monologued.

“It must have been made by an arrogant person. It’s the eyes of a dragon. Eyes so profound that earthworms can’t even comprehend, looking down at all creation from a vast height.

I can decipher his gaze. I can approach it. But I don’t want to.

This is not a writing meant to be passed down. If he wanted posterity to carry it on, he should have come down to earth. That is the essence of a martial arts book.

But did the unknown sage think from the beginning that others would not understand it?

So he roughly wielded the brush like his own diary.

While mocking the earthworms, he hides traps between the lines with the eyes of a dragon, as if saying try it if you can, mocking and despising. He doesn’t hesitate to cripple those who can’t surpass his standards.

The martial arts book, which has the arrogant gaze from above the clouds fully transferred, must have been waiting in the sand all along. It must have been longing for the day when the chosen one would recognize it and soar above the clouds.

But if you love the earth, you shouldn’t mock the height of the earthworms. He is an ancestor who was born from the earth and despised the earth. But humans must not look down on humans……”

So Ryuseong didn’t take that martial arts book out. He just left it as it was.

Thinking that if someone discovers this book, most will laugh it off as nonsense, but if another genius encounters it someday, maybe they can be chosen then.

If it’s a genius who can understand this book, no matter what other martial art they grasp, it’s only a matter of speed until they shine at the extreme someday.

He thought that would be their destiny.

‘……Can’t I snatch that destiny?’

As I fumbled with my shoelaces that were never untied, I felt my vision sparkling like a different world.

Wow. Am I really a genius?!

‘Of course, I don’t have the martial arts book!’

And to find it, I have to raid a dungeon. A dungeon outside the school. The reason recalling that martial arts book right now, when it’s not even within my reach, proves my genius is because I memorized how to enter that martial art. I just gave it a glance because they put a whole page of illustrations.

That fact was saving me right now.

‘I’m confident in memorizing things blindly!’

I went to Korea University with that talent, this body of mine!

So I decided to challenge the entry right now. Usually, you’re supposed to meditate, so you have to sit cross-legged.

“Are you making shoelaces and tying them?”

“……”

Given our principal’s temper, who looks down on me with a pathetic gaze and only exchanges sarcastic words, it seems difficult to sit in a proper cross-legged position. Then there’s no choice.

‘Sitting cross-legged is to not lose concentration.’

I just started manipulating internal energy in the posture of tying shoelaces.

Instead of touching the eight extraordinary meridians in order as the illustration taught me, I circulated mana by inversely calculating and transferring it to the mana circuit.

Then the wind surrounded me and swirled around once. This was unexpected even for me, but my coat hem was fluttering sacredly and silver hair was fluttering above my forehead.

“Duke Cassice……? What is this……”

“The light……!”

Then the principal stopped the students from chattering. No, he didn’t just stop them, he was the most infuriated but still put up a barrier so that the sound wouldn’t reach me. He was on the verge of snapping, ‘Do you think it makes sense to start an internal energy technique in that posture,’ with his knuckles turning red and blue, but he endured like an educator.

Honestly speaking, circulating mana while tying shoelaces is not a recommended method for anyone other than someone like Cassice Demillang. I’m doing it because I trust this body’s absolute control over mana, but if it were my own body, I would never do this.

Imagine a human having to control a bomb flowing through their blood vessels with willpower alone. That’s not something you should do. If the example is not intuitive, shall I change it a bit? Imagine dying every time you make a mistake in a rhythm game. Is this something a person should do? But that’s what the awakened ones had to do to use their abilities. In short, the students here are the most outstanding among their peers who have honed themselves to never make a single mistake in a rhythm game.

And Cassice Demillang is the second most outstanding among them.

In other words.

“Now that it’s over, you can remove the barrier-.”

“Are you crazy! What are you doing without being told……!”

“I was just trying to lightly manipulate mana before entering the fight, but enlightenment came to me.”

“……”

It meant I could spout this kind of ‘enlightenment’ bullshit. Interrupting the moment an awakened one gains enlightenment was something only human trash would do, so this is undoubtedly an all-purpose excuse in the realm of making excuses.

I looked at the principal with pride, and he pointed at Ryuseong like a madman.

“Ryuseong Lee! Crush that bastard’s fast talk! Quickly! When you grab the weapon, it starts!”

He seemed to want to vent his frustration of not being able to criticize me through Ryuseong.

And Ryuseong acted like the principal’s avatar. He spun the black and heavy wooden stick once with his hand and then nodded at me.

As if telling me to grab the wooden stick rolling on the floor, it was a light brown wooden stick made of bamboo. More elastic but lighter than one with a black iron core embedded. I refrained from bending over to grab it, thinking an attack would come right away. Instead, I kicked the wooden stick to stand it up, and before my senses could react, I quickly snatched the lifted stick and rolled to the side.

As expected, Ryuseong threw a thrust as soon as I grabbed the weapon. He was taking advantage of the words ‘it starts when you grab the weapon’ in a nasty way.

‘You’re trying to knock me out to let me rest, what is this?’

Despite kindly taking care of me for the three days I was taking the antidote, he seemed to want to give me physical therapy too. You think I’ll obediently take the hits to be dragged to the infirmary after being knocked out with a punch?!

I immediately blocked the following attack with the wooden stick. However, I couldn’t overcome the force and bounced back.

A barrage of kicks rushes toward my defenseless open chest. Just before hitting the floor like a water strider and getting kicked, I hooked the stick on the foot that was trying to crush my solar plexus and pulled it like a lever while sweeping the floor. The principle of leverage was applied without fail, and his position and mine were switched.

But was it the price of leaving the weapon at his feet? The stick was stomped on. A thrust aimed at the head follows for me whose weapon was suppressed.

So I let go of the stick without hesitation.

‘Save the brain cells!’

The original Cassice tried to have a head-on match of strength against strength with Ryuseong. He seemed to think that was the way to save his pride.

But I think it’s okay even if it’s not a head-on match.

I just need to look cool.

Wouldn’t it be cooler to roughly keep up with him since Ryuseong is the protagonist anyway?

‘Rather than charging head-on and losing like you, Cassice Demillang.’

I spun around and dodged his thrust. I immediately extended my palm with rotational force, and my grip that slid up the stick’s friction grabbed Ryuseong’s sleeve like a snake.

I cunningly twisted the center to snatch his weapon and slid the inside of my foot over his shin to shake his balance.

The staggering Ryuseong tried to kick me to break the weight balance of my lower body, but I had already devised the next move. Using his forearm as a foothold, I jumped up. I occupied his shoulders like riding a horse and pressed his neck with my thighs as if suppressing him.

But no matter how much force Ryuseong used, far from falling, he didn’t even suffocate, and tried to throw me off by spreading my thighs right away.

‘Th- This, I didn’t expect?’

Of course, there’s the effect of me recklessly using Cassice’ body like eating poison and skipping meals, but the difference starts from pure strength, to the point where close-quarters wrestling techniques don’t work.

He eventually spread my thighs, escaped from the risk of suffocation, and threw me to the ground. I rolled using a breakfall technique, and when my senses screamed, I quickly jumped back, and the blue stone where I had been was shattered. Is this real? Just because he struck down with the stick, an intact stone shattered. Even if I die and wake up again, it would be hard for me to exert that level of strength.

But Cassice Demillang has a talent greater than Ryuseong.

I know what they are.