Chapter 561 – #116_Trouble
#561
1.
Two red spear tips flashed sharply.
They were definitely straight spear shafts that wouldn’t bend, yet they twisted like a pair of snakes.
Between them, distorted fields and red barriers flowed out like molten metal.
-Bang!
Amidst the exploding sound, the Black Knight was the first to pull back, as always.
And as always, Shin Siwoo followed closely, not allowing any distance to form.
-Crack!
Pushing aside the ribbon’s interference, the spear finally reached out and drew a slanted line across the Black Knight’s helmet.
It was a significant improvement compared to before, but it wasn’t a satisfactory result.
It was just a bit short, unfortunately.
If he had adjusted his grip on the spear shaft when he stepped forward, he could have landed a solid blow on the head instead of the helmet.
A fleeting moment of unconscious thought passed, and he sensed that the turn had changed.
-Keeing!
A clear sound rang out, followed by a spread of blue magic.
With a coordinate shift that had a much shorter delay than Siwoo’s, the Black Knight, who had barely closed the distance, disappeared far away.
He had faced this opponent almost a hundred times.
He knew why the Black Knight was creating distance.
But knowing it in his head didn’t always mean he could react perfectly.
Siwoo sprinted with all his might.
His target was the Black Knight, who had created a distance of at least several hundred meters.
Around the Black Knight, black ribbons extended like vines, and with an acceleration formula inscribed on them, they pulled back red branches like the string of a crossbow.
Siwoo had used a javelin throw against Bianca in the past, but the Black Knight was using it in a more refined and precise manner.
“Bloom.”
Defense was impossible.
The ring tunnel, which stretched out like the barrel of a long sniper rifle, focused energy that should have been diffused into a single point.
Its compression power was beyond what Siwoo could handle.
Even if he tried to counter with magic, it would break down like an electronic device hit by an EMP, and it was obviously impossible to deflect it with physical force.
In other words, it was a fatal blow that could not be countered with either magic or physical strength.
He had tried to use spatial teleportation to get out of the way, but if he didn’t time the activation perfectly, he would be pierced all the same.
Therefore, from here on out, it was a fifty-fifty chance.
Whether to jump to the left or to the right, he could only choose one and evade with all his might.
He hadn’t found any other way to deal with it yet.
-Thud!
Today, it was the left.
Siwoo’s true leg pushed off the ground with all its might, and he flew like an arrow.
A red flash seemed to flicker, and a tingling heat brushed past his ear.
Following that, a sound that was several times slower and a disturbed wind shook his hair.
He had dodged it.
Taking this as an opportunity, he closed the distance in an instant.
He released his armor to become even lighter.
Using the released armor as wings of shadow, he glided across the ground, trying to fly towards the Black Knight who was floating high above.
“Bloom.”
The emotionless incantation and the red-branched spear tip.
Siwoo’s body, pierced by the arrow shot like a crossbow, fell to the ground miserably.
2.
“What the…”
Siwoo tilted his head, wiping his thoroughly soaked hair with a towel.
He had clearly dodged it.
He had narrowly avoided the Black Knight’s ultimate attack, the red-branched javelin, but then there was a second attack without any interval.
Moreover, the red branch that had clearly missed and gone off into the dark space was back in the Black Knight’s hand as if it had been shot again.
It wasn’t a matter of using coordinate teleportation or anything like that.
After intentionally overloading the already difficult-to-handle red branch and firing it, then recovering it with coordinate teleportation?
It was impossible, to say the least.
If it were that easy to control, his master wouldn’t have struggled so much when fighting the Red Knight.
“What is it… a bug?”
It was something that couldn’t happen in reality, but it might be possible within the trial space.
Since it was only a virtual reality recreated with the power of an artifact, if the performance of the unconscious was measured incorrectly, such an accident might occur.
He sat on the floor and pondered for a long time, but no clear answer came to him.
It didn’t seem like a problem that could be solved while sitting down.
His academic curiosity burned, and a sense of lightness enveloped his heart.
Still, the unease he always felt when he finished the trial a week ago was gone.
That was because Ruelie had delivered a message on Siwoo’s behalf a week ago.
With Ruelie’s help, the people who were worried about Siwoo would have received the message, and even though they couldn’t communicate with each other, what did it matter?
It was a great relief that his lovers, who had been suffering without knowing whether he was alive or dead, were now at ease.
“I didn’t expect her to help so diligently.”
At first, Ruelie had seemed a little jealous and upset, but after seeing Siwoo diligently writing letters, she seemed to have been moved. She thumped her chest and made a solemn promise.
She would help ensure that these letters would reach his lovers as soon as possible.
She had even put her witch’s name on the line and taken it upon herself, so how could he not be grateful?
Meanwhile, that grateful queen was lying on the sofa in the trial room, taking a leisurely nap.
A wry smile appeared on his face at her unchanging appearance.
Ruelie, who hadn’t even changed out of her pajamas, was scratching her exposed belly.
Her sleeping posture was like an old man who had passed out on the sofa after a heavy drinking session.
“Your Majesty.”
“Umm…”
Ruelie scratched her belly and opened her eyes.
“Haaah… Did you finish the trial?”
Ruelie yawned widely and stretched with vigor.
“Yes, Your Majesty. Aren’t you going to do it today?”
“It’s bothersome… It’s tiring…”
“We promised to work hard every day. The saying ‘three days of resolve’ wasn’t made to be kept for just three days.”
“Ugh! Didn’t I say it’s bothersome! I was having such a sweet nap, but you’ve left a bitter taste in my mouth!”
Ruelie, on the contrary, became angry.
She tidied her messy hair and then lay back down on the sofa in a Cleopatra pose, yawning widely.
As Siwoo had said, Ruelie had put her heart and soul into the trial for exactly three days.
Six times on the first day, five times on the second day, and six times again on the third day.
She hadn’t even slept properly while she was engrossed in the trial.
That meant she had received magic power replenishment five or six times a day.
After finishing the trial, Ruelie would always come waddling over and tug on Siwoo’s sleeve.
Because of that, not only a sofa and a table but also a bed had been placed in the trial room, and the number of sheets that had to be washed every day easily exceeded three or four.
She had burned herself out so much that she had woken up with a nosebleed during the last trial on the third day.
With that kind of momentum, it seemed like she would finish the trial faster than Siwoo, but…
Ruelie had stopped the trial as if it were a lie.
It had already been four days since she had come to the trial room just to laze around.
And Siwoo was instinctively aware that he was involved in her sudden change in behavior.
“Then shall we clean up and go in? I’ve just finished too.”
“Do as you please.”
Because from the moment she stopped the trial, Ruelie’s tone had begun to subtly mix with irritation and grumbling.
To be more precise, he thought it was closer to acting spoiled for no reason.
That’s right.
Although he didn’t know the cause, there was trouble in his relationship with Ruelie.
Perhaps the fact that Ruelie wasn’t challenging the trial, that she was always hanging around but never once asked to sleep with him, and that they had suddenly started sleeping in separate rooms, were all for the same reason.
The biggest obstacle here was that Siwoo couldn’t even guess what that reason was.
Even though she had been treated so roughly by his lustful self, she had generously forgiven him. What could have happened that would make her hold such a long grudge?
“Your Majesty.”
“What is it?”
Ruelie turned her head as if she had been waiting for him to speak.
Should he at least apologize?
“I’m sorry.”
“Oh? So you’re finally feeling sorry now?”
This confirmed the hypothesis that Ruelie was sulking because he had done something wrong.
Ruelie, who had been the most energetic lately, got up from the sofa and approached Siwoo with a bright smile.
“I’ve been waiting for you to apologize. Well, my heart is as vast and merciful as the sea, so I can overlook such a mistake.”
“Ah, haha…”
“It’s your fault for dragging out such a trivial matter. It’s all your fault.”
“Y-yes, that’s right…”
Ruelie even linked her arm with his affectionately.
Considering how icy her attitude had been lately, it was a very Ruelie-like change.
In the first place, Ruelie was the type who didn’t hold grudges at all, and it meant that it was a problem that would have been easily resolved if he had apologized.
“Let’s have a meal. I’ll order some high-quality fruit for the first time in a while. Ah! How about we go to the sauna together for the first time in a while?”
“Yes.”
However, even in this seemingly smooth situation, Siwoo felt a discomfort as if he had indigestion.
Relationships between men and women were like a maze.
It was natural to wander endlessly and encounter difficulties.
Therefore, when things were going too smoothly, one should never forget that.
At the end of a straight path, there was always a cliff.
Ruelie, who had been walking with a smile, suddenly stopped.
“Ah, come to think of it…”
Her dark blue-black hair swayed gently, and then her head turned with a creak.
She was looking directly at Siwoo.
There was no smile on her face.
“Do you know exactly what you’re sorry for?”
This was the reason he had felt uncomfortable.
He had only asked to confirm, just in case, but Siwoo didn’t know what part of his actions had made Ruelie sulk.
If she asked a reverse question like, ‘What did I do wrong?’, he wouldn’t be able to answer.
He felt a cold sweat run down his spine.
This was dangerous.
He would have been better off not apologizing.
“Well, that is…”
If Ruelie’s question was a very cliché question, then wouldn’t the situation when he failed to give a proper answer also be cliché?
As expected, Ruelie’s pupils narrowed to a dot.
“Don’t tell me… you apologized just to cover it up, thinking you could get away with it?”
Ruelie quietly removed her arm from his, seeing that Siwoo couldn’t answer.
“That’s enough. You always do this.”
Around the time the message he had sent a week ago arrived on the mainland, another upheaval was brewing in Akula.
