MTLNOVEL Chapter 115 - How to Face the Past (1)
“Why are you here… Ah, you said you transferred to the Academy.”
“What, did you forget? I’m sad~”
Fox grumbled and tapped my leg with its fluffy tail.
Choi Borim looked flustered as she watched our friendly appearance.
“You two know each other?”
“Friends.”
“Yeah. We’re friends.”
Fox hugged my shoulder as if showing off our relationship. Then he smiled and greeted the others.
“Hello, my name is Michael Balder. It’s nice to meet you. It’s not like it’s my first time with the young master here. I was just trying to contact you today, yet you came to me on your own.”
“Balder?”
“That’s the name of the family I was adopted into.”
The Balder family was the family Fox was adopted into? I opened my eyes wide in surprise.
The irregular that Na Yuhan mentioned in the introduction part… The fox-human mixed-blood man was Fox.
As expected, Na Yuhan and Fox already knew each other, so they talked in a friendly(?) manner.
“Why are you here already? How do you know Nahyun?”
“The master told me to go and investigate this and that in advance. She also asked me to support the young master, so if you need anything, just call me. And I don’t think it’s necessary to tell you about our personal relationship. I’ll consider it an unnecessary question.”
“…Why you of all people.”
“Because I’m the most capable? You can’t deny it, can you.”
I blinked my eyes innocently, pretending not to know, and asked.
“You two know each other? Could it be that the friend you helped was Fox… Michael?”
“Huh? Ah, I didn’t help Michael, but I helped someone else in the Balder family.”
“As a result, you became the fiancee of the head of the Balder family.”
“Fiancee?”
According to the setting, I’m just learning about this for the first time. So I acted out the concept of ‘being shocked to hear that the person I like has a fiancé’ and made a face that looked like I was going to cry.
“I see… Yuhan has a fiancé…”
“You did something like that when you have a fiancé…? Do you want to die?”
“Calm down, Kang Yoo.”
“Grrrrr—”
It seemed like Siwoo was holding Kangyoo back from behind as he tried to run towards Yuhan.
Calm down, Kangyoo.
Na Yuhan seemed really flustered and tried to say something.
“No, this is just a business relationship for cooperation! We didn’t get engaged because of love or anything!”
“But since you’re fiancés, it’s better to fulfill your duties as a fiancee. Like not giving other women a chance.”
Na Yuhan opened her mouth and shut it tightly at Park Siwoo’s nonchalant addition.
Fox… Michael… No, let’s just call him Fox. Fox looked back and forth between me and Na Yuhan, then made a humming sound and hugged my shoulder tighter for no reason.
What’s going on here?
“
Dwie
!”
“AAAKH!”
Crunch!
In the meantime, Kangyoo let go of the arm Siwoo was holding onto, jumped out like lightning, and bit Na Yuhan.
He screamed after being bitten.
No, I mean, how did you escape?
I had to run away quickly to clean up the mess.
Anyway, after all that commotion, I was finally able to get back to the main point with Fox.
I really hated how he laughed at me, looking at me in such a tattered state.
“But Fox, no, Michael, do you really have the lucky letter right now? Actually, that letter is dangerous, so I came here to warn you.”
“Ah, this letter? I’ve known for a long time that it’s a conditional curse-type item that hides the curse characteristic. However, this letter’s dark attribute… I was researching if I could do something with the characteristic of showing something vividly in dreams if I removed the curse’s characteristic.”
“Doing what in dreams?”
“I’m researching how to show the past in dreams.”
“I see…”
“That’s why I put it over there to keep it until the curse activates.”
I looked at where he was pointing.
There was nothing.
“There’s nothing, though?”
“That’s im… possible.”
“…No way.”
“…It seems the curse has activated?”
In the meantime, Na Yuhan, who had joined the conversation while rubbing the bitten area with his hand, spoke with a serious expression.
He picked up the device that had started to whine.
“It seems like a letter has appeared for everyone. We need to gather the targets quickly. We told them to bring it to us if something happens, so they won’t damage the letter.”
“Ah, I have it too! I’ll get rid of mine right away! If this is the main body, we can wrap up the case right away!”
“No, don’t tear it right away—”
Before Na Yuhan could stop him, Choi Borim tore up her own letter.
Na Yuhan looked flustered and defeated.
At the same time, a strong wind blew through the Item Research Club, centering around the torn letter.
Whooooosh—!
“That… That was really the main body…!”
“W-What is it?!”
Choi Borim quickly moved away from the piece of letter.
Na Yuhan gritted his teeth and shouted.
“Those who can fight, prepare for battle! Researchers, evacuate the classroom! A monster will be summoned soon!”
“A monster? Indeed. Is it a monster created based on a curse? Since it’s a conditional curse… Hmm… I wonder if the letter will become stronger the more people it passes through.”
“You get out right now! You’re the top priority target!”
Na Yuhan summoned a flag and shouted at Fox. However, Fox shrugged his shoulders as if he had no intention of going out and took off the research gloves he was wearing.
He then took out a new pair of sturdy leather gloves that looked like combat items and put them on.
“I’m not sure. I don’t have the hobby of trembling behind.”
“I’ll help you!”
There was no good place to take a sniping point from afar. I summoned my dual pistols.
Everyone must have figured out the situation in that short time, as they each held their weapons.
Choi Borim was dumbfounded and stepped back, saying she would help with the evacuation.
Not long after, black powder gathered around the letter, forming the shape of a knight on horseback.
The powdered knight silently raised his huge halberd and pointed it at Fox.
And then he charged.
“Shield of Protection!”
As Na Yuhan swung his flag and activated his skill, the huge halberd slammed into the newly formed defense barrier.
Clang—!
A sharp metallic sound was heard. Fortunately, the shield blocked the halberd.
The knight who had been aiming at the shield frowned and ran his hand over his body. Then, the knight’s body gradually shrank down, and the powder that fell from his body was absorbed into the halberd.
The halberd, which had become larger and stronger, slammed down on the shield once again.
CLANG—!
This time, the shield shook.
“Ugh…”
“Here we go!”
I fired a magic bullet at the knight.
The <Shield of Protection> skill allows attacks from people registered in the same ‘party’ to pass through the system. My magic bullet passed through the shield without hesitation and charged into the black knight’s body.
And it passed through the knight’s body.
The knight’s body turned into powder for a moment and scattered, yet there was no change.
What is it?
“The main body! We have to completely burn the letter fragment that is the main body and turn it into ash! That will act as the core!”
“Got it!”
“You should have told us earlier, shouldn’t you?”
“Even if you really tell me that! Anyway, if you try to attack the main body, he’ll target the attacker first, keep that in mind!”
CLANG—!
Na Yuhan glared at the slightly cracked shield and irritatedly spoke to Fox.
Currently, the letter fragment was floating in the air, and it was surrounded by a strong wind shield, making it difficult to approach.
He snickered and spoke to Choi Soojung and Na Yuri on the other side.
“Miss Choi Soojung, you can release that much wind, right?”
“Of course!”
“Miss Na Yuri. I believe you can burn it easily.”
“Yes!”
“Why are you giving orders… Well, I was thinking of asking you two, but you know. Senior Soojung, Na Yuri! You two release the wind shield and burn the letter! We’ll somehow catch this cursed monster!”
“Don’t worry!”
“Let’s finish it quickly!”
Na Yuhan waved the flag lightly and shouted.
“Min Jaeyoon! Come here and absorb this knight with your curse absorption skill! Block the attack splash!”
“Mmhm!”
“Kangyoo, Park Siwoo, and Senior Hana, protect the researchers! Nahyun and Shin Baran, protect me from my side. If you give it holy magic, it’ll still be able to deal some damage!”
“Got it!”
“What about me?”
“You take your time and deal some damage!”
DRRRRT—!
The crack in the defense barrier gradually grew bigger and soon the gap began to widen.
Soon, as the defense barrier was about to break weakly, Na Yuhan shouted.
“Summon Ally! Min Jaeyoon!”
Min Jaeyoon, who was summoned right in front of him, ran towards the knight while putting up the curse.
The knight swung his halberd, named Vicky, but Min Jaeyoon leisurely grabbed the halberd’s pillar.
DRRRRRR—!
As Na Yuhan said, the knight’s body was being absorbed into her by turning into dust, as if she was using the curse absorption skill.
The knight struggled to pull out the halberd, yet then gave up on it and stepped back, as if he thought it wouldn’t work.
At that moment, the wind that had been blowing behind him began to calm down as if it had cleared away.
Although the knight flinched and tried to look back, Shin Baran and I fired holy attribute attacks to check him.
The knight’s body was damaged.
He tried to retreat as if he couldn’t stand the approaching Min Jaeyoon and our holy attribute attacks that were firing to check him.
“Where.”
But behind him, at some point, a sacred curtain of shining thread was drawn, blocking his escape.
Fox, who was smiling leisurely, waved his hand.
Then, the thread began to tighten around him.
The knight began to struggle, but in front was Min Jaeyoon, and behind was the holy thread.
There was nowhere to run.
As the knight gradually lost strength like a butterfly caught in a spider web, a magnificent fire broke out.
“It’s burned!”
As soon as the fire started, the knight, now completely small and black powder, scattered like a letter that had turned to ash.
Great!
I clenched my fists in joy.
With this, the matter of the lucky… no, the cursed letter seemed to be settled for now.
Thank goodness no one was seriously hurt.
The moment I let out a small breath in relief, a round of applause was heard from behind.
Why the applause?
We turned around in confusion.
“I came here because there was some commotion, but this is amazing!”
“Senior?”
Sion was clapping as if he had been lured by the commotion.
The way he was clapping so brightly, as if he had no idea what had happened because of him, was really… What should I say…
“I’m somehow annoyed…”
I almost nodded without realizing it at Shinbaran’s soft muttering.
Even if it wasn’t because of Sion, it was bound to happen someday, right? But still, it’s like a person’s thoughts.
I mean, the sight of him thinking,
eing? What is it?
when we’ve worked hard.
…No, this is also a pointless thought. It’s fortunate that it ended well. I cleared my mind of distracting thoughts.
However, what Sion said next confused me again.
“As expected, it’s the party that’s most often mentioned as a candidate for the conscription freshmen!”
“… A candidate for conscription?”