There Is No Hidden Villain in This Novel Chapter 42

I thought I was mentally prepared, but the blow came when I wasn’t aware. I was hit squarely by the staff aimed at the space between my ribs connected to my heart, on my side. The pain was one thing, but my face burned with embarrassment. Fuck.

The onlookers were staring as if they couldn’t believe Cassis de Millang’s defeat.

“You’re dead now, you punk! Cassis de Millang loses!”

“Hold on, I object to the ruling.”

Damn it. I can’t stand it. This embarrassment. I need to talk my way out of this somehow.

“A person doesn’t die from something like this.”

Wow, that’s a real stretch. What do I know about whether a person dies from this or not? But I was the one making the absurd claim. To give this parade of absurdity any basis, I had to say something that others couldn’t possibly refute.

“Perhaps if it were the eleven-year-old me.”

The ultimate defense has appeared. The eleven-year-old Cassis conquered a dungeon single-handedly. Cassis de Millang knows because he’s done it. Therefore, the ruling is invalid.

Honestly, what could they say to refute that? The person himself said he’s done it.

Now, how about that! Try to answer that!

“…Fine. We’ll consider the ruling invalid.”

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

“However, people usually die from a blow like this. From now on, I’ll rule it as a death, so try to dodge.”

“Yes, I understand. I also made a mistake because I didn’t expect you to evaluate me at the level of a cadet, so please don’t worry. I was merely intending to give up my flesh to take the bone.”

“…”

The principal’s gaze seemed to sink deep for some reason, but I didn’t lose and gave him a pretty smile until the end. Of course, I was boiling with rage on the inside.

‘Fuck, how am I supposed to beat Ryuseong when we’re not in bed?’

Ah, of course, I’ve never won in bed either…

‘Fuck, stop with the brutal facts…’

Still, before the referee signals the start of the duel again, I have to devise something and look cool. It means that even if I lose, I shouldn’t die pathetically; I have to do something.

So, I immediately started to make comparisons. I need to know what makes me different from others to understand what I’m lacking and where my advantages lie.

The biggest difference between other ordinary, common friends and Cassis de Millang is the location where their abilities are contained. He holds mana in his lower abdomen.

But we’re about to fight with wooden staffs, so is that really impor…

‘Huh?’

Maybe that could be a hint.

I told the referee, who was about to call for the start, that my shoelace had come undone even though it hadn’t and to wait. Kneeling on one knee, I quickly rummaged through the bookshelf in my mind and recalled a certain page from the original novel.

It was about a certain martial art.

‘…What an absurd circulation. Was this person planning to perform a Peking opera with his internal energy?’

‘I wonder. If one reaches the pinnacle with this, they might attain the level of a supreme master.’

‘What? For you to rate it so highly, this must be a more valuable martial art than I thought!’

‘I think it’s worthless.’

‘Huh, huh? Why?’

‘Because one who can pursue the ultimate truth with this would reach the ultimate truth with any other martial art as well.’

He said that and then monologued.

「It was surely created by an arrogant man. The dragon’s gaze. A terribly profound eye that looks down upon all creation from a vast height that a mere earthworm cannot even dare to comprehend.

I can decipher his gaze. I can approach it. But I do not want to.

This is not a text written to be passed down. If he had wished for future generations to continue it, he should have descended to the earth. For that is the essence of a martial arts manual.

But perhaps the nameless immortal thought from the beginning that others would not understand.

Is that why he wielded his brush so crudely, as if it were his own diary?

Mocking the earthworm, with the dragon’s eye, he hides traps between the lines, taunts, and scorns, as if to say, ‘try it if you can.’ He does not hesitate to cripple those who fail to meet his standards.

The martial arts manual, in which the arrogant gaze from above the clouds is perfectly transcribed, must have waited all this time in the abandoned shrine. It must have longed for the day a chosen one would recognize it and soar magnificently above the clouds.

However, if you love the earth, you should not mock the height of the earthworm. He was an ancestor born from the ground who scorned the ground. But a human should not look down on another human…」

That was why Ryuseong did not take that martial arts manual outside. He simply left it as it was.

He thought that while most people who found the book would scoff at it as nonsense, if some other genius were to encounter it, then it might be chosen, though…

A genius who could understand this book would eventually make any martial art shine to its pinnacle; it would only be a matter of speed.

He thought that would be its destiny.

‘…That destiny, can’t I just snatch it?’

As I fumbled with the never-untied shoelace, I felt the world before my eyes sparkle like a different universe.

Gasp. Am I a genius, for real?!

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

And to find it, I have to conquer a dungeon. A dungeon outside the school. It’s not even within my reach right now, but the reason why recalling that manual proves my genius is because I had memorized how to begin that martial art. They had devoted a whole page to an illustration, so I just happened to glance at it.

That very fact was saving me now.

‘I’m confident in my ability to memorize things blindly!’

I even got into Korea University with that talent, this body did!

So I decided to attempt the initiation right now. They say you usually have to meditate, meaning you have to sit cross-legged.

“Are you making a new shoelace and tying it?”

“…”

Given the temperament of our dear principal, who was looking down on me scornfully and only exchanging unpleasant words, it seemed it would be difficult to sit in a proper cross-legged position. In that case, I have no choice.

‘The cross-legged position is to maintain concentration.’

I just started to handle my internal energy in the posture of tying a shoelace.

Instead of touching the eight extraordinary meridians in the order the illustration taught me, I reverse-engineered it, transferred it to the mana circuit, and circulated my mana.

Then, the wind swirled around me. This was something I hadn’t expected, but the hem of my coat was fluttering sacredly, and my silver hair was scattering over my forehead.

“Lord Cassis…? What is this…”

“Light…!”

Then, the principal stopped the cadets from chattering. No, it wasn’t just stopping them; even though he himself was the most enraged, he put up a sound-blocking barrier around me so that the noise wouldn’t reach me. The joints of his bones were red and bulging as if he were on the verge of snapping, ‘Do you really think it makes sense to start an internal energy technique in that kind of posture,’ but he endured it like a true educator.

To be honest, circulating mana while tying a shoelace was not a recommended method unless you were someone of Cassis de Millang’s caliber. I was being cocky because I trusted the absolute control this body had over mana; if it were my own body, I would never have done this.

Let’s imagine a human having to control a bomb flowing through their own blood vessels with willpower alone. That’s an impossible feat. If the example isn’t intuitive enough, shall we change it a little? Let’s imagine you die every time you make a mistake in a rhythm game. Is this something a person can do? But for Awakeners to use their abilities, they had to. In other words, the cadets were the most outstanding among their peers who had trained themselves to never make a single mistake in a rhythm game.

And Cassis de Millang is the second most outstanding person among them.

Which means.

“I’m finished now, so you can remove the sound-blocking—”

“Are you crazy! Who told you to do something I didn’t ask for…!”

“I was just trying to lightly handle my mana before starting the fight, but enlightenment came to me, and I couldn’t help it.”

“…”

It meant that I could get away with spouting bullshit like ‘enlightenment’ like this. Obstructing the moment an Awakener attains enlightenment was something only human trash would do, so this was undoubtedly an all-purpose excuse-shuffling technique.

I looked at the principal proudly, and he pointed a finger at Ryuseong like a madman.

“Ryuseooong, you baaastard! Crush that guy’s glib tongue! Quickly! It starts when he grabs his weapon!”

It seemed he was trying to vent the frustration he couldn’t unleash on me through Ryuseong.

And Ryuseong acted like the principal’s avatar. He spun the jet-black, heavy wooden staff once in his hand and then gestured at me with his chin.

It seemed he was telling me to pick up the wooden staff rolling on the floor, which was a light brown one made of bamboo. It was more elastic but lighter than the one with a black iron core. I decided against it, as it seemed a blow would come flying the moment I bent my waist to pick it up. Instead, I kicked the staff to make it stand up, and before my senses could even react, I quickly snatched the airborne staff and rolled to the side.

As expected, Ryuseong launched a thrust the moment I grabbed my weapon. He was annoyingly taking advantage of the words “it starts when you grab your weapon.”

‘Is he trying to knock me out and make me rest, or what?’

After kindly nursing me for three days while I was on the antidote, it seemed he was now trying to give me physical therapy as well. Treatment by knocking me out with his fists and dragging me to the infirmary? Like hell I’ll take that meekly!

I parried the immediately following blow with my wooden staff. However, unable to overcome the force, I was flung backward.

A kick rushes toward my undefended chest. Just as I’m about to hit the ground like a skipping stone and get kicked, I hook his foot, which was aiming for my solar plexus, with my staff and pull it like a lever, sweeping the floor. The principle of the lever was applied without fail, and his position and mine were switched.

But was this the price for leaving my weapon at his feet? The staff was stomped on. With my weapon neutralized, a thrust aimed at my head follows.

So, I let go of the staff without hesitation.

‘Save my brain cells!’

The original Cassis tried to face Ryuseong head-on, strength against strength. He probably thought that was the way to save his pride.

But I think it’s fine even if it’s not a head-on confrontation.

I just need to look cool.

Anyway, if Ryuseong is the protagonist, wouldn’t it be cooler to just barely keep up with him?

‘Cassis de Millang, it’s better than stubbornly charging in for a head-on fight and losing like you did.’

I spun around and dodged his thrust. Immediately, I extended my palm with the rotational force, and my hand, which had slid up the friction of the staff, gripped Ryuseong’s sleeve like a snake.

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

The staggering Ryuseong tried to kick me to collapse my lower body’s center of gravity, but I had already devised my next move. Using his forearm as a stepping stone, I jumped up. I took over his shoulders as if getting a piggyback ride and pressed down on his neck with both thighs as if to subdue him.

However, Ryuseong, no matter how much force I applied, not only didn’t fall but didn’t even seem to be suffocating, as he immediately tried to spread my thighs and throw me off.

‘I, I didn’t expect this?’

Of course, the fact that I had been misusing Cassis’s body by taking poison and not eating had an effect, but the difference in raw strength was so great that close-quarters wrestling techniques wouldn’t work.

He finally managed to spread my thighs and escape the brink of suffocation, then threw me to the floor. I used a breakfall and rolled away, and when my senses screamed, I quickly jumped back to find that the bluestone where I had been was shattered. For real? A perfectly fine stone had shattered just from him striking it with a staff. I could die and be reborn and still would find it difficult to produce that kind of raw strength.

But Cassis de Millang has talents greater than Ryuseong’s.

I know what they are.