24 Hearts

[Good news! After a month-long break, we will begin uploading this series at full speed. For those that don’t know, we paused this series to retranslate 45 chapters of I Became the First Prince. The team has a capacity of 30 chapters a month. We will be splitting 50% of the effort between I Became the First Prince and this series. 15 chapters a week each. By increasing the per chapter cost to 5 points, we can sustainably move forward with this series.] [This series will begin its Premium release rate on Saturday, Nov. 28th. Expect 2 chapters this Saturday, and 2 next Wed in the meantime. (Nov. 20)]

14====================

Serenia: City of Adventurers.

“Really? Thank you, Judas!”

There was no real reason for her to be grateful, so I just laughed instead of answering. The truth of the matter was that I was exhausted and had little strength left for words. Did this little girl know it? Did she know that Kain would possess great beauty in the future, becoming a handsome man indeed? This place, this world, was somewhat unlike my game – very much a reality in its own right, so I was unsure whether Kain would have an interest in only one woman or all of them. It was a bit sad, really, because Riel did not know the situation. Her unrequited feelings toward Kain would remain in her heart well into her adulthood, so she might still have hope, seeing as not everything here seemed to happen as it did in my game’s original storyline.

“Whaaat, your expression is sooo weird! Why is that?”

She was quick to notice things for a young one. I gave a little chuckle.

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

I turned my head to the house. Riel had tilted her head but did not ask me further questions.

As I lay there, I turned my eyes to the heavens. The sun was setting in a gorgeous explosion of color as red light reflected off the clouds.

It was all so beautiful, and I almost fell asleep, just staring at that wondrous sight.

The cool breeze was drying the sticky sweat on my body. It felt as if I would surely fall asleep were I to stay in that position – I was completely tired, both mentally and physically. I knew that after a nice deep sleep, I would feel a bit better.

And so, unheeding of my surroundings, I lay there in the training area and embraced sleep. When the distant echoes of my consciousness once more coalesced, I stared blankly at the sky. The sun had almost completely set, and twilight, followed by darkness, was racing from the opposite side of the heavens. It seemed that time had passed.

“I slept.”

It had been a sweet little doze, and yet my body still ached, as if begging for just a little more rest. It felt a bit creepy outside. It wasn’t that cold, but I knew that if I spent the night outdoors, I might still catch a flu. Nope! I decided and awoke fully with a groan.

Riel was sleeping, with her face buried between her knees and her arms thrown over them.

What the hell are we still doing here? Why hasn’t Kain come back?

I thought about it and figured that Kaseun had not been home, which had kept Kain away longer. Or perhaps Kaseun had scolded Kain for the fact that we had secretly come here to spar against one another.

I felt like telling the butler that I would rest here. Maybe Kain was still waiting for Kaseun to return, and because I didn’t know whether the boy would come, I had to wait where I was.

“Phaw,” I groaned as I stood with a sigh. My bones and muscles seemed to be screaming at me to lay back down.

“Ugh!”

It really hurt all over, and I just wanted to rest as soon as possible. As I considered this, I noticed Kain come running from afar.

“Judah! Grandpa said it’s okay for you to sleep here!”

“I’ll be coming soon… Riel, get up, Kain is here.”

I woke Riel up from her deep sleep. She raised her head as she heard me call her name. She then looked around and yawned as she nodded as if she understood the situation fully.

Riel returned to her home, guided by the butler. Kain and I went to Kaseun, our faces tired, and both of us were then scolded. He said that if we did things like that, one of us could have been injured, and what must he do then? It felt as if he was preaching a sermon to us, yet his words didn’t really enter my ears since I was so tired.

We mumbled replies and blinked our weary eyes. This only made Kaseun sigh. He calmly explained that if we were going to fight again, we had to promise that we would do it only if he were watching and after he had given his permission.

It wasn’t all so bad then because the results were that I had gained his permission to spar against Kain as much I liked in the future.

After sleeping in the mansion that night, morning came, and we enjoyed our breakfast. Kaseun set out our future training schedule. He reckoned that, since Kain and I would be sparring anyway, we would start training with him that morning.

In the simplest of terms, I would now be faced with constant competition. There was a difference in our skill with swords, but I kept silent and followed the plan as it was.

The most important thing for me was that I now had a sparring partner, even if it had to be under supervision.

Kaseun didn’t really give advice on the outcome of our duel, and I felt no need to ask unnecessary questions. All I wanted was to develop myself and hone my skills, whether I experienced victory or defeat.

My skills improved day by day. I learned a lot from Kaseun from the simple repetitive training regime that he had set up, from his explanations of the also from his vast wellspring of experience.

There was a downside, though, for little by little, my rivalry with Kain began to grow. I knew all too well that someday, we would become enemies. However, it felt natural for me that we ate and trained together as we became acquainted with each other’s swordplay.

There came a time when I was afraid, for we were given real swords and instructed to get used to wielding them in battle. It was so unlike facing off against each other with wooden swords, and it almost didn’t feel as if we were training at all. I was afraid that it could come to a point where we could start swinging at one another with murder in our hearts. It felt as if I held little affection for Kain, knowing what future was in store for us. We struggled to face one another safely with real blades, so the exercise did not go as planned.

Eventually, Kaseun postponed such bouts until later, telling us to think about it in the meantime. ‘

Time passed little by little, and I decided to reveal a secret to Kaseun.

I hadn’t wanted anyone to know until I was able to leave Serenia, but I had reached a dead-end in my personal training sessions.

Kaseun’s help was needed, so I informed him of my Shadow Swordsmanship and asked his advice.

I certainly did not call it Shadow Swordsmanship, but Kaseun was still amazed by my skill, and this from a man who had wandered the continents and held an honorable platinum disk. He did note that my skill was unique and similar to those once possessed by the Knights of the Ruin as well as the Black Lions.

Nearly a hundred years had passed since the destruction of these orders, and most people have forgotten the name of the ruin itself. Some knew of that history and knew it well, and Kaseun was one of them.

He inquired as to how I had learned such skills and who else knew of it.

To his first question, I just said that I didn’t know or couldn’t remember; his latter question, I answered by saying that only he knew of my skills.

Kaseun remained silent after that, perhaps because I had reminded him of my ‘memory loss’ after the murder of my parents. As soon as he had heard of the murder, Kaseun had run to my house, but I had already been taken to the temple by then. The lord’s soldiers had stationed themselves in the house, and the bodies had not yet been attended to. Kaseun was disgusted by the event, so he stormed off to the mercenary guild to demand an explanation and try to determine responsibility for the act. He then went to the lord of Serenia, stating that he would become my guardian, filling out all the requisite documents.

Finally, he had visited me at the temple. The old paladin had told Kaseun that my memories had been lost after the event – that I suffered from fragmentary amnesia. Kaseun had seemed to notice this himself upon his first glance at me, and since then has lived a good life and seemingly forgotten about my lapse in memory.

He asked whether I knew of anything else, testing me as if he was asking if I knew of Shadow Justice instead of just Justice. I shook my head, knowing that some things I had to keep hidden. Kaseun then sighed out loud and said that he was truly sorry about what happened to my parents.

He went on to state that Justice was only half of the skillset that had been employed by the Knights of the Ruin and the Black Lions. However, Justice was still valued as superior to common swordsmanship. Kaseun went on to tell me what he figured my Shadow Swordsmanship to be and started to correct my posture bit by bit. It seemed to me that, in some way or another, Kaseun had encountered Shadow Swordsmanship while he had traveled the continents.

His advice was very helpful, and thanks to that, my Shadow Swordsmanship skill, which had never risen, suddenly started to rise at a rapid pace. Its workmanship, which hadn’t increased even while I had practiced for nearly a year on my own, rose from a 1/20 to a 2/10 in just two months. Because of my new training in Shadow Swordsmanship, my training schedule with Kain was slightly altered.

Excluding weekends, my regular training was done every two days instead of every day, which included the training with Kain.

Our duels occurred on Fridays.

Because we now only trained once every two days, the sessions lasted much longer.

When I asked what Kaseun was planning to do during our breaks, he responded that he too needed his spare time.

I agreed with him, though I had no enjoyable activities to fill this free time with.

I was not truly Judah’s age, and I was sure that I couldn’t play even if I wanted to play. There were also no games here that one could play on their own, which was natural.

Even though – through immense leaps on magical theory – this world possessed such amenities as fridges, gas stoves, and water purification systems, entertainment devices such as computers, TVs, and smartphones did not exist.

The most prevalent form of entertainment in this world was the game of chess, and other than chess, the other games were simple things that required physical strength.

The enlightened lords of Serenia had established their library, so the populace could freely read books. I knew that such a marvel was not to be found in the other, more backward regions of my world. It aided me little, though, for I had read all the books in the library. If it was a fun book, I could read it twice or thrice, but I really didn’t want to be stuck in a library, reading all the books I had already read over and over again.

I sorely wished that there existed another stimulating activity. Every time that I was bored or inactive, Earth came to mind. I could do almost anything with just a single computer in the corner of a room in that reality. I could create my games and chat with people, and laugh while enjoying the society. I could order delicious food delivered to my door by using my phone.

Right then, I was also thinking about food, and then the thought suddenly hit me: This world had a fortunate abundance of cuisine. Spices and many species of vegetables were widespread, perhaps because adventurers brought all kinds of food to the inns and taverns that they rested in. The range of mercantile activity, the range of traveling merchants, was also wide, which meant that tolerable food was to be found in most places.

I could eat pizza, sweet and sour pork, chicken, and jajangmyeon – all of these existed here. I knew that kimchi was to be found on the second continent. It had been by the Creator’s hands that all such modern food had been put in the inns, taverns, and restaurants in every village and city so as to add a more in-depth dimension to the game.

Thanks to such culinary bounty, the vague ambition that always scratched at the back of my mind, imploring me to return to my original reality, became a bit dulled. True enough, I wished for a computer and to lie on a comfy bed while enjoying the cold air from an AC unit.

Sometimes such feelings of depression would rise within me when I felt a nice cool breeze, but if the depression became too serious, the personality of Judah became activated, and so my depression forcibly subsided.

“Haaah.”

I ended my day with such thoughts, lying in bed earlier than I was used to, and I ended my day with a deep sigh.