CH 18

『Eh……?』

Renka, who’s head was turned from having been slapped, opened her eyes wide, frozen still for a moment, and then looked at me,

『Sh-Shirabayashi-san? Why……』

She asked, stuttering. But I answered,

『What? Why?』

Slap-!

And slapped her once again.

『……!』

Then Renka looked up at me, completely shocked.

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She was probably so confused that instead of being angry she just couldn’t think straight. She had probably never expect for herself, the daughter of a Japanese aristocrat, to get slapped by a Joseon person.

And I actually thought the same. I, who had possessed this regular Joseon person, never thought I would ever hit a girl of such high status.

At least I didn’t until yesterday.

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‘What the fuck is this country?’

I thought I had finally gotten quite used to this era, a time when social rankings and discrimination between the Japanese and Joseon people existed, but,

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I hadn’t. Having come from the 21st century, I still hadn’t been able to adapt to this fucking era. No, I just couldn’t accept it.

The Japanese aristocracy just stood above the law, and the powerless Joseon people were just treated as prospective criminals and punching bags.

Having seen such scenes happen one by one for a few days, the way the Japanese in high positions treated the poor Joseon people however they wanted had started to pile up like a chip on my shoulder, and now, the owner of the boarding house coming back all beat up had been the final straw.

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Of course, had the boarding house owner just been beaten up in some random place, I wouldn’t have thought as much about it as I was right now, but this was a situation I couldn’t just see standing still with crossed arms.

It was because this was a threat against me.

‘She’s probably doing this because I refused her proposal to come under her last time.’

To me it seemed that Renka was trying to pressure me by attacking the people around me because of the way I publicly refused her offer during the pre-field practice.

Her target this time had been Ham Won-sam, the boarding house daughter, but the next target could be Ham Seo-ju, his daughter, and further after that, my squad members, people like Lee Yu-ha or Song Byeong-oh could be the victims.

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I spoke to Renka, who was still frozen still.

『If you want to harm someone, harm me, instead of vilely attacking the people around me.』

『……!』

Of course, this time was different to when I slapped Murasaki in the face. Even if I was a Joseon aristocrat, for this girl, Renka, I was just a powerless Joseon person. If she really wanted to harm me……

Well, fuck it. Not like it would be my first time dying.

I had my pride, and I’d rather see my own blood than live like this and see others get hurt for me.

‘Even if I don’t have a country, I still have my pride, damn it.’

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Renka stuttered as she opened her mouth.

『Sh-Shirabayashi-san. I think there might have been a misunderstanding……』

『A misunderstanding? You bloodied up a person around me just to threaten me, but a misunderstanding?』

『……!』

『Well, I guess for someone like you it isn’t a big deal killing or saving a Joseon person like me anyway. So whether you kill me or save me, do whatever you want. But stop harming the people around me.』

As she heard this Renka’s eyes started shaking as if an earthquake was happening. And then,

『……Ah.』

She said, and she nodded softly as she said something to herself. Then Renka stood straight, facing me, and bowed down deeply and said,

『Moushiwake-gozaimasen (I am incredibly sorry).』

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As she apologized with the utmost respect.

Then it was me who was surprised. I had slapped her and said everything I had wanted to say, so I expected her to say “Did you think you would be okay even after this?” but……

‘……What is this?’

Wait, is she trying to trick me?

However, compared to how she was always smiling and relaxed every other time that she approached me, this time her attitude was clearly quite serious.

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『For deep within my heart, I am extremely sorry. I will take care of this with all I can, so I hope you will please reconsider.』

『Uh…….』

『Then, I shall get going, Shirabayashi-san.』

Renka had a docile attitude all the way until the end.

She turned around, waving her long black hair, and walked terrifyingly towards somewhere. The students that had been surrounding us parted like the Red Sea, clearing the way, and Renka disappeared across the hall.

‘…….’

Feeling the still tingling in the palm of my hand from slapping Renka in the face, I though.

‘This worked……?’

***

Having finished my confrontation with Renka, I started heading toward my first period, but there was something that still bothered me. I hadn’t seen Lee Yu-ha from the morning attendance.

『Has anybody seen Lee Yu-ha?』

I asked my squad members – still excluding Murasaki – then, Aikawa answered.

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『Ah, me! Miss Lee is still in the dormitory.』

『In the dormitory?』

『Yes! I also live in the dormitory, so I went to check on Miss Lee in the morning, but she said that she thought she would get better if she rested until today.』

As she said, Aikawa was another student that had gone into the dormitories like Lee Yu-ha. And, since Aikawa was majoring in healing, I thought she might be able to tell any symptoms I wasn’t aware of, so I asked her.

『Did you see anything weird about her? I mean, you are a healing major.』

『I am not sure. Apart from looking low on energy, I did not find anything else being a problem…… I restored some of her energy before coming, as best as I could.』

If it was just a lack of energy, it was something that could happen without any major illness, due to just normal menstruation or just from being under the weather. If I thought about it this way, it wasn’t a big deal but……

『Please look after her.』

I asked Aikawa. I couldn’t go into the girls’ dormitory just because I was worried. And, on top of that, Aikawa, who was a healing ability user, didn’t think it was too big of an issue, so I decided to not worry about it too much.

After the third period common class, we were passing by the main building when,

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『Ah! Cadet Shirabayashi! I have been looking for you.』

A professor was calling for me. It was professor Saigane Seiji, the young lanky professor.

『Ah, yes, teacher.』

But as I approached to greet him, I could see that professor Saigane had a bandage over half of his face.

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『Did you get hurt?』

『Ah, this…… The other day, at the tea house, didn’t I have a hard time because of the poison? It’s some aftereffects of that.』

『That’s a problem.』

When I looked closely, I could see some rashes that hadn’t been covered by the bandage. He had said he was allergic certain chemicals in the poison. It was something I didn’t have to worry about for the rest of my life, thanks to my poison resistance ability.

Since we had started talking about the incident, I asked.

『Do you, perhaps, know what happened to the Joseon Awakened……』

『Haha! So you were wondering about him as much as I do!』

He patted me on the shoulder, with a nice guy smile, but soon after he put on a serious expression and said.

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『Well. The truth is…… Well, to start, he was let go.』

『Is that so?』

『Mmm. Maybe my asking the police to show him some leniency worked, but it seems the police accepted it. Of course, the police were planning on pretend to release him, just to monitor his actions and then destroy any remnants he might be hiding but……』

Releasing a criminal only one day after they catch him red-handed, it sounded like a nonsensical story, but I had seen something like this in police movies. Pretending to release a criminal, then chasing them to their hideout and raiding them. The professor continued.

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『But, it seems he went missing last night.』

『Missing?』

『Yes. I only heard about it this morning.』

Missing. It was an uncomfortable and unpleasant ending. Didn’t this mean that the police slipped up?

‘I’m glad he’s avoiding the death penalty, but letting a criminal slip……’

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As I thought this, professor Saigane took out a piece of paper from his pocket.

『This. There was a reason why I was looking for you but we went off course. There was a call to the school office from a Joseon girl. She was looking for you.』

A Joseon girl, it was probably Ham Seo-ju, the boarding house daughter. As I received the piece of paper, professor Saigane continued.

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『She wanted me to tell you that she was in the hospital. That he was admitted to the Gyeongseong Bumin Hospital.』

Admitted? Ham Won-sam had been beaten up to the point that he was bruised all around, but his injuries weren’t so bad that he would require hospitalization. Then why were they in the hospital?

‘Wait…… Had that bitch, Renka, just pretended to apologize, and then gone to the boarding house to harm Ham Seo-ju?’

I parted with professor Saigane and hurried out of school. Grabbed a taxi and then rushed to the hospital written on the note.

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At the reception desk, I asked for Ham Won-sam and Ham Seo-ju, and then went to the ward in the second floor. Ham Won-sam was lying down, covered in bandages, and Ham Seo-ju, who was sitting next to him, got up as she saw me come in.

“Mister! Why are you here? You should still be in school……”

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I ran into the ward as I asked.

“No wait, what happened to you? And why is your father covered in bandages?!”

“You see……”

Ham Seo-ju looked at me and continued.

“The people from the Shimazu came in the morning, and they said they were sorry and that they would pay for the hospital……”

“What?”

“And they drove us all the way here in a car. So they made father get checked by a doctor and they paid for all the treatment and the hospitalization……”

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He was sent to the hospital by the Shimazu Gumi?

Had Renka really apologized because she was sorry?

As I looked around, this was a decent intensive care unit for one person, even equipped with radios and telephones. It was clear that this was a luxury ward that most people wouldn’t be able to afford. And on top of that, in one side of the room, all sorts of fruits and beverages were piled up.

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I looked at Ham Won-sam, who was lying down on the hospital bed, and asked Ham Seo-ju.

“What about your father?”

“He’s asleep.”

The reason why I had thought he was completely covered in bandages was because they had applied a lot of bandages on the bruised spots.

Then, without a doubt, this meant that Renka had actually formally apologized to me.

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‘I can’t believe the slap worked.’

Finally relaxed, I sat down and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Phew……”

“Why are you sighing like that?”

“You’ve got no idea how nervous I was today.”

“Again with the nonsense……”

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Since I was thinking about going to my parents’ house this evening, I had been worried Renka might try to do something to Ham Won-sam and his daughter, but now I could go visit home without any worries.

So, I was about to get back up feeling much more at ease than earlier when,

“Are you leaving already? At least have some fruit before leaving.”

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Ham Seo-ju said as she stopped.

‘Hmm……’

I checked my wristwatch. I had come out of school in the morning and I was planning on taking the train in the evening, so I had a lot of time left. I thought about resting a bit.

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As I sat back down, Ham Seo-ju took some apples out of the plastic box that was sitting on one side of the room.

“I’ll ask the nurses for a knife.”

She went running out and soon came back in with a paring knife. She sat back down, held the big apple in her tiny hands and began peeling it, but the way she was working the knife was rather clumsy.

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Now that I looked at her fingers, they were full of scratches, and it made me feel bad thinking that she had been packing me lunch with these hands.

“Your knifework is so bad. Hand it over. I’ll peel it.”

I took the apple and knife off her, and started skillfully peeling the apple. After all, I was quite familiar with the way of the blade.

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Looking at my skill, peeling the apple without ever once letting the peel break off, Ham Seo-ju had her mouth open in awe. I found that image funny, so I joked.

“You see? They say women marry well only if they are able to peel an apple like this, without letting any off the skin break off.”

At that, it seemed Ham Seo-ju got upset,

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“Pfft! Who can’t do that?! Give it over!”

She said, and taking the paring knife off me, she took a new apple and started to try to peel it in one piece. However, the peel broke off and her attempt failed.

“Argh, that is annoying…….”

This was something that wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Even so, Ham Seo-ju seemed frustrated, so she took a new apple and started to try again.

I found it funny somehow, so I continued teasing her.

“Hey, I told you not to let it break. You won’t be able to marry!”

“I will!”

“It’s breaking off……”

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***

Meanwhile, that morning. Right after Baek Cheol-yeon slapped Renka—.

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‘Where did this all go wrong?’

Thought Renka.

‘Was I not told that everything was going well?’

For her, more than the fact that she had been slapped by Baek Cheol-yeon, who was a Joseon person, the fact that her plan had gone astray was a bigger shock.

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She had thought that she was gaining Baek Cheol-yeon’s favor as planned, to learn about his secret, but the fact was that he had started hating her.

‘My plan was wrong?’

For Renka, who had been born as nobility so gaining people’s favor was as easy as taking a candy from a baby, and for Renka, who had never experience failure before,

More than the humiliation of being slapped in front of people, that fact that her plan had failed was even more shocking.

So Renka began to calmly try to figure out where everything had started to go wrong.

…vilely attacking the people around me…

Renka thought, listening to Baek Cheol-yeon’s words ringing in her ears. That was it. My order was to test the owner of the boarding house. Had Baek Cheol-yeon taken offence in that?

…bloodied up a person around me…

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At that, Renka was taken aback. Bloody? The owner of the boarding house was bloodied up? But she had only ordered to test him……

Renka suddenly remembered the conversation she had in the mansion yesterday.

…Takahiro-san. I hope that you did not unnecessarily bother that man more than was needed…

…Ah, yes. Of course, my Lady. He was just a regular middle-aged man, so we just lightly tested him and let him go, however…

Renka finally understood where this had all gone wrong.

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‘So that is what happened.’

Yes. That was where it all went wrong.

‘Fufu……. If I don’t show you a proper apology for this, Shirabayashi-san.’

Even if a late apology after making a mistake may be too late, she had no intentions to give up on Baek Cheol-yeon yet. Her giving up would, in itself, be an admission that she was wrong.

If she apologized profusely enough, she should be able to change his mind.

If only what went wrong is cut out, the plan would no longer go astray.

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She went straight to the staff office. The place she was headed for was the cadet’s armory next to the staff office. Personal weapons weren’t allowed on campus and they had to be kept there, so her sword, naturally, was also there.

『Cadet Shima…… Lady Shimazu?!』

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The junior teacher that was guarding the armory was unsure whether to call Renka cadet or Lady, but eventually called her Lady and opened the door to the armory for her.

Renka, with her sword in hand, left the main building without saying a word and headed for the parking lot.

A black Buick car with the Shimazu Gumi’s signature was parked on one side of the parking lot. Separate to the car Renka rode to commute to and from school, this was the Shimazu Gumi’s vehicle that was always on standby in the parking lot in case of emergencies.

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The junior union member that was on standby in the car, reading a magazine, saw Renka approaching and,

『O-Ojou-sama(Lady)!』

He shouted out, as he hurriedly opened the back door for her. As Renka got on the backseat without saying a word, the union member climbed back into the driver seat and asked her.

『Where should I take you, my Lady? Should I go to your residence? Or to the Gyeongseong Branch office……』

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However, Lady Shimazu didn’t say a word. The union member looked at the Lady through the rear-view mirror, and swallowed nervously.

He had been told by his seniors in the union that, the situation when he should be most careful with Lady Shimazu, was when she was not speaking. Her not speaking meant that she was furious.

The union member realized that this was such a moment. No, he could tell how angry the Lady was just from the pressure of the mana she was emanating.

The union member was sweating bullets. At moments like this, he should just read the room and act on his toes. If not……

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『I-I will now start the car.』

The union member started driving and checked the Lady’s expression through the rear-view mirror. However, the Lady sat expressionless, like an Empress doll sitting on an altar on Hinamatsuri(雛祭り). The union member felt like he was going crazy.

‘I don’t know…… I just don’t!’

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The union member’s anxiety reached its peak as they crossed the Cheonggyecheon Bridge and reached the Hwanggeumjeong 4-jeongmok Intersection. This was the crossroads. Continuing straight toward Namsan Mountain meant they would reach her residence, and turning towards the Gyeongseongbu Office meant going to the union office.

‘Where is it? Where does she want me to go?’

She had come out not one hour after school had started. Then? Had she left something home? Or, did she have urgent business at the union office? If she was to stop by her house, she wouldn’t have brought her sword out…… So, the office?

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‘The office!’

The union member turned the steering wheel to the right. At that moment, the union member looked through the rear-view mirror, and he saw the Lady move as she tightened her grip on her sword.

‘Eek……!’

Was this not it? Did she want to go to her house instead of the office? The union member’s mind went blank for…… No, it wasn’t that. Her body had been swayed as the car rocked from changing directions, and she had just tightened her grip to not drop her sword.

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The union member barely managed to hold onto the sweaty steering wheel and eventually stopped the car in front of a magnificent four-story stone building, located on one side of Hwanggeumjeon 1-jeonmok Boulevard. This was the building of the Shimazu Gumi Gyeongseong Branch office.

The union member rapidly got out of the car and opened the back door. The Lady started walking toward the entrance of the building without saying a word. The union member, still sweating, thought.

‘I survived…….’

『W-Welcome! My Lady!』

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As the union members on standby by the door opened the door, confused, Renka walked straight in. The ground floor lobby was full of low-rank members and visitors who had come to the union to file requests.

『My Lady!』

『W-What are you doing in the union office at this hour……』

Several of the union members in the lobby greeted Renka, but she went straight to the lift, still not saying a word. The elevator boy who was standing in front of the lift also noticed Renka’s unusual aura and asked,

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『W-What floor to, my Lady?』

But she didn’t answer. The elevator boy also noticed that something was up with her. He agonized over it for a moment, and eventually he controlled the lift to stop on the fourth floor, where the union’s top executives were located.

As the elevator boy’s longest ever few seconds passed, the lift reached the 4th floor. He opened the lift doors and with a trembling voice said,

『We have arrived on the 4th floor, my Lady!』

As soon as the lift doors opened, Renka started walking across the long corridor on the 4th floor. The elevator boy let out a sigh of relief.

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A number of union members on the 4th floor also greeted Renka, but she ignored them and stood right in the middle of the hallway,

She unsheathed her sword like lightning,

Opened the red lips she had kept closed so far,

And from her mouth a roar came out,

『TAKAHIROOOOOOOOO!!!』

***

“Uh-oh, it’s breaking off! Be careful with the knife!”

“Ah! Stop saying that! It’s really going to br……”

“Oh oh!”