Childhood Friend of the Zenith – 316 (Part 1)



316 (Part 1)

<Chapter 317> The Dragon’s Secret. (7)

In a room stained black in the middle of the night.

A small handful of flickering flames barely illuminated the space.

Chirp chirp chirp—

There were two teacups placed in front of me.

According to the careful touch of a hand the empty cup was filled with fragrant tea.

What kind of tea could it be?

It was the first time I was smelling it.

It had a sweeter scent than the plum tea that Hwa San had brewed for me.

As I inhaled the tea’s aroma through my nose

a voice suddenly whispered in my ear.

—…Living like this I’ve never seen such pettiness before.

It was Jang-ryong’s voice sitting next to me.

It was filled with considerable dissatisfaction.

—What?

—To be so brazen isn’t that a bit too much?

It seemed he was upset because I had sold him out right after waking up.

I merely snorted with an innocent face.

—If you were in that situation you would have done the same right?

—How many times have you seen me to say such terrifying things? I’m not that kind of person.

Sure he would say that.

‘How much have I suffered in my past life to not be that kind of person.’

The ultimate secret technique.

Selling out a friend was something I learned from none other than Jang-ryong.

Every time we were caught by Mo Yong-hee while we were messing around

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Jang-ryong would sell me out and run away.

How many times had he thrown me as bait when the small sword sect was angry and fled on his own?

That guy was indeed that kind of person.

—Anyway it wouldn’t have worked out right? That guy is just too narrow-minded.

—…It’s certain you’re insane.

—Oh reflex.

…

Crunch.

I heard the sound of Jang-ryong grinding his teeth.

Just when I thought he might not be able to hold back my teasing and would get angry

“Looks like you two have a lot to talk about.”

At the words of Cheonghae Il-gum sitting in front of us Jang-ryong and I had to stop our telepathy.

It seemed Cheonghae Il-gum had noticed that we were communicating through telepathy.

He took a sip of the tea he had brewed himself and let out a small sigh.

Ha.

“This is quite… I can’t tell whether I should be surprised that a Gwan-do student is communicating through telepathy or scold you for it.”

Since telepathy uses qi and sound

it requires delicate application.

This is undeniably a realm of mastery.

It was indeed surprising that a Gwan-do student was using it so casually to converse.

For me it was no longer something to be impressed by.

“The tea placed in front of Gwan-do students is made from Yuseol leaves. The Principal grows it himself.”

I wondered what it was but it seemed to be Cheonghae Il-gum’s personal hobby.

“Try it. It should be good.”

Slurp.

I took a sip of the tea at Cheonghae Il-gum’s invitation.

It was hot but

‘This much is nothing.’

I was in a position to light fire with my hands so this was no big deal.

The taste felt nice on my tongue.

It was slightly sour yet sweet.

Similar to plum tea but sweeter.

As I warmed my insides with the tea amidst the cold wind

Thud.

Cheonghae Il-gum set down his teacup.

“I’ll ask directly.”

Just when I thought the tension might ease I felt it tighten again.

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“What were you doing there?”

Cough…

That was indeed direct.

He skipped the small talk and went straight to the point.

As expected of the top swordsman of the world he was quite sharp.

‘Damn.’

I hadn’t expected things to get tangled like this.

If only that thought hadn’t acted like a dog back there I could have escaped without any issues.

Ha.

I felt dizzy.

Anyway whenever I tried to do something it never turned out well.

If that situation hadn’t been saved by Shin Noya appearing what would have happened?

‘It wouldn’t have been good.’

I couldn’t tell what I was trying to do but

the space itself had felt distorted and the power I sensed at that time

would surely have led to a big problem if it hadn’t been for Noya’s help.

‘Why is this old man silent in the midst of all this?’

Right after Noya saved me with an unknown power I was dragged to the Principal’s office by Cheonghae Il-gum.

I kept calling out to Noya who must have woken up again but

Noya didn’t respond.

Could it be that he fell asleep again?

Then what was that mumbling earlier?

‘Cheonghae Il-gum…’

Tsk.

How should I handle Cheonghae Il-gum?

He was looking at me with his characteristic white eyes.

It seemed he had no intention of letting it slide.

Well given the situation how could he just let it go?

After taking a moment to catch my breath

I looked at Cheonghae Il-gum and said

“I was looking for the secret.”

I omitted unnecessary excuses.

No matter what I did it wouldn’t work anyway.

In this situation lying would only be a bad move.

Since it had come to this

I had to break through head-on.

“The secret?”

“Yes.”

Cheonghae Il-gum’s expression was subtle.

Of course it would be; I was suddenly saying that a secret existed beneath the Shinryonggwan

and that a mere prodigy like me knew about it.

‘Up to this point I had anticipated it.’

I had asked the sword master for a favor but

since the situation was unpredictable

I had prepared countermeasures just in case.

Whether they would work or not was another matter.

While my eyes were darting around

Cheonghae Il-gum asked me

“If there was a secret how did you come to know about it?”

As expected the question came.

I carefully pulled out a card from my pocket.

“This is…?”

Seeing the card I pulled out Cheonghae Il-gum widened his eyes in surprise.

The card he was looking at was the Ilgeol card.

It was similar to the token of the open boss I had received from the deity before.

I had also shown it to the king.

I had been carrying it around wondering when I would use it.

‘…Will this work?’

Showing this to Cheonghae Il-gum meant something else.

A very simple expression.

The information that there was a secret beneath Shinryonggwan

was given to me by the open boss.

That was the implicit expression.

Of course it wasn’t given directly by the open boss.

Even if Cheonghae Il-gum had a way to contact the boss

if the boss said it wasn’t true

it could also be interpreted as having heard it from someone in the open.

What if this doesn’t work?

Then I’d just have to face the consequences.

If I had thought of the worst-case scenario from the beginning

I wouldn’t have even thought about looking for the secret.

“…It’s the Ilgeol card.”

“Correct.”

“Did the boss give it to you directly?”

“I cannot say.”

“Don’t you know that it’s not something that can be brushed aside as a matter of whether you can speak or not?”

“I know. But I cannot say.”

“ ”

It was a defiant attitude.

I was genuinely scared but if I explained further I would be in deep trouble so I had no choice.

“Fine. Even if we set aside where you got that information what did you see in the secret you found?”

“Nothing at all.”

“Ha… Nothing at all?”

Of course that was a lie.

Having gone through that there was no way there was nothing.

I hadn’t even been able to check the items contained within there one by one

and the fact that I couldn’t bring anything back made my anger rise but

I had to keep it from showing on the outside.

‘The secret was closed.’

Afterwards I checked again but

the entrance where Jang-ryong and I had gone in had disappeared

and even the formations that I had felt were there had seemingly vanished.

‘Was it the power of thought?’

Connecting it to the fact that he had tried to distort the space entirely

did he erase the room I thought was the secret?

If that’s the case

‘It’s possible that the space where the secret was created in the first place.’