133 – Martial Realm Nymph # 3
Since I was young, I could pick up various skills quite easily.
Whether it was studying or playing games, I became familiar with things faster than others.
I had a decent head on my shoulders and was resourceful.
In third grade,
I had perfectly adapted to school and received a lot of affection from my teachers.
During that time,
someone transferred to our school.
While it may not seem like a big deal now, a transfer student was a massive event in a child’s life, and all the kids were excited.
“This girl’s name is Xiao Xiao. Let’s all get along from now on.”
She was an impressive child with braided hair that had been meticulously styled and a sparkling white dress like a princess.
Her bag, pencil case, and shoes were all brand new and glittered.
“Soohee, how about introducing yourself?”
“…….”
She didn’t say anything, either shy or unsure.
“Shall we move seats? Juyoung, can you move one seat back and let Soohee sit next to Il-do?”
“No? I don’t want to! Teacher! My eyesight is bad, and I won’t be able to see if I sit back!”
“Juyoung, you’re tall. It’s more appropriate for you to sit in the back. Il-do, since you’re the class president, you need to take responsibility and look after the new student, Soohee. Got it? I’ll check each day.”
At that time, I was the class president.
I had been elected during the class president elections.
My mom even brought hamburgers to the class when I became president.
That was the atmosphere during break time.
The students, excited to meet a transfer student for the first time, crowded around Soohee and bombarded her with questions.
“Where did you come from?”
“Do you have a cat? How about a puppy?”
The children, only just in third grade, were innocent and full of curiosity.
Soohee blushed and either nodded or shook her head.
It was then that someone asked,
“Are you mute? Why aren’t you talking?”
The prettiest girl in class, named Gongjuyeong, who was tall and seemed a bit more mature than the other girls, asked.
According to rumors among the kids, a fifth grader from the track team had confessed to her─ such stories circulated.
Gongjuyeong had been my partner before Soohee transferred in, and despite her sharp personality, she occasionally gave me candy or treats like ‘Mai Chu’ or ‘Sweet and Sour.’
It was nice being able to get snacks as my partner.
Anyway,
children can be cruel, even in their innocence.
“Are you mute? Can’t you speak? Don’t you know Korean?”
Looking back, Gongjuyeong was clearly displeased with Soohee for changing her seat.
From then on, Soohee, who could be considered isolated after earning the disfavor of Gongjuyeong, was something I began to pay more attention to as class president.
I suspect that this was when my relationship began to sour with the girls in our class who I had gotten along well with.
Anyway,
I walked home together with Soohee, whose direction was the same as mine.
“Is this your home? ‘Uddeum Health Center’?”
At that time, our neighborhood still had many dilapidated houses due to slow redevelopment.
Soohee lived in a house with a worn wall and an impressive slate roof, and I was surprised by her mother, Dang Yeong-yeong, who was very young and beautiful.
She felt more like an older sister than a mom.
“Is that you, Il-do? Please take good care of our Soohee. It’s been a little while since she returned to Korea, and I’m busy with various things. Oh dear, I’m busy.”
While saying this, her mother placed a clear glass bottle filled with soju in the yard and stuffed it with snakes, centipedes, and wasp nests.
At that young age, I thought it looked quite scary.
“Here, pocket money. Use it to buy something delicious and play. You’re Il-do, right? You look sharp. You need to take good care of our Soohee.”
She slipped two one-thousand won bills into my hands.
“Oh, yay!”
So, I headed to ‘Uddeum Stationery Store’ with Soohee, played games like Machine Snail 3, or bought unhealthy snacks like sausages to share.
I was happy.
Two thousand won.
That was quite a substantial amount for a third grader!
I could play Machine Snail 3 for twenty rounds!
Then maybe I could defeat that difficult boss in round four!
How many days had passed like that?
The girls in class called me to the back of the classroom and said,
“Hey! Il-do! Are you dating Soohee?”
“Answer quickly!”
It was Gongjuyeong and her group of friends.
Gongjuyeong said,
“Don’t hang out with her anymore. You know my dad is a prosecutor, right? Prosecutor. He’s a really important person! He catches bad guys and stuff! My dad said that Soohee’s dad is someone under surveillance!”
“Surveillance?”
“He said he even fought by throwing Molotov cocktails at tanks abroad! So he can’t live with his family and lives separately! Isn’t that scary? He must have done bad things for sure.”
At that time, I was a ten-year-old child.
I didn’t know what it meant to fight by throwing Molotov cocktails at tanks, but I did understand that ostracizing Soohee just to not let her hang out with me was a bad thing.
“Anyway, Il-do, if you don’t hang out with Soohee, I’ll let you join our cat-viewing club. Normally, boys aren’t allowed, but I’ll make a special exception for you. How about it? Sounds good?”
“No, I like squirrels more than cats.”
I firmly rejected.
From then on, I continued to walk home with Soohee or play games at the stationery store, and that day, an incident occurred.
# # #
“☆Birthday Party Invitation★
You have already been invited…!
To this birthday party of Soohee…!”
“Il-do… do you think this will work…?”
“It will! These days, invitations have to grab attention to be competitive! Attention is important! Everyone will flock like clouds.”
At that time, I thought it was essential to throw an extravagant birthday party for Soohee.
I felt she needed to have many friends.
On the day of Soohee’s birthday, Dang Yeong-yeong ordered chicken and pizza, and bought a game console that children liked, connecting it to the TV, despite having a tight budget.
She even worried, “What if too many kids come, and there’s not enough food?”
“You are formally invited to the Greatest Martial Arts Tournament.”
Seeing the invitation reminded me of the past.
Soon, Inoi, who had been sleeping soundly, awoke with a start.
“Ah! I felt the aura of a memory and dozed off…! This Inoi, must watch the fluffy tempest clouds carefully…!”
Inoi loved watching the tempest clouds contained in the glass bottle even in the late hours of the morning.
The clouds, looking like cotton candy, sometimes swelled and shook, and while I didn’t know how it worked, it looked incredible.
“The god of the west wind, Zephyrus, rode these tempest clouds…! And the king of the gods, Zeus, raised these tempest clouds as pets…!”
“Is that so?”
“But aside from the gods, no other nymph could raise tempest clouds…! This Inoi will be the first…! This Inoi will be the supreme nymph…!”
Flipping her shoulders back proudly, Inoi declared loudly.
Unlike Illinois, who loved money, or Coris, who found joy in anything, Inoi was the nymph who loved to show off and boast the most.
“But still, it seems to be lacking in herbs…! At this rate, summer will end, and the tempest cloud may disperse…! I need to hurry to find this ‘Tempest Flower’…!”
The tempest flower that Inoi had drawn in her sketchbook was indeed a flower that spun round and round like a tempest.
It resembled a type of dandelion but was said to be very rarely found in the forests where the nymphs lived.
It was an incredibly precious flower.
“How precious is it?”
“It’s as precious as ‘Eternal Ginseng’ or ‘Legendary Ditch Water’…! If I can’t obtain the tempest flower, I can substitute it with ‘Eternal Ginseng’ or ‘Legendary Ditch Water’…!”
I had also heard about Eternal Ginseng before.
There were vague rumors that an Awakened consumed it and ascended from A Rank to S Rank.
But the name ‘Legendary Ditch Water’ was something I heard for the first time.
Knowing that it was something Inoi wanted, it must be extraordinary!
“Legendary Ditch Water. It sounds fitting for me, Ha Il-do, a living legend. Mwahaha.”
Anyway,
I looked at the airplane ticket attached to the invitation.
It was a ticket to an airport newly established in Shanghai, China.
“There’s only one.”
“This Inoi also wants to visit the Rimboo Forest in Sichuan…! It’s surely a forest where nymphs lived long ago, so there must be tempest flowers there…!”
With this, I had no choice but to adjust the schedule.
I needed to procure more tickets.
The next morning, time had passed like this.
“Il-do, I have to set out to the Pacific Ocean soon. Can you look after Illinois for me? I’m a bit uneasy leaving it to others, and you’re the right person for it.”
Seo Ye-rim, who had left for the world-class ranked mission “Argonaut,” came to me.
She needed someone to protect Illinois while she was away.
That’s why she had asked to see me.
“Why do you keep renting that Illinois from the House Master? Please stop trying to abandon Illinois like crossing over the snake fence…!”
It seemed like Illinois disliked being away from Seo Ye-rim.
Seo Ye-rim treated her nymph, Illinois, very well.
“Illinois, can you make medicine to cure illnesses?”
Illinois was skilled at making medicines as a nymph who dealt with drugs.
She primarily made pills that lifted moods but also created ordinary medicine.
Could Illinois team up with Ari, who was an excellent doctor, to make medicine to cure Dang Yeong-yeong’s illness?
So, I showed Illinois the blood sample I had brought, and Illinois frowned.
“What is this blood…? It’s poisoned blood…! Poison is in opposition to me, the drug nymph Illinois…! We cannot work together…!”
Is that so?
I didn’t fully understand what she meant, but it likely meant it would be hard to heal.
“Seems I have to go to Shanghai after all. I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep Illinois with me since I’ll soon be away.”
Hearing my words, Seo Ye-rim, who had been tapping on her phone, frowned.
“Why Shanghai?”
I thought showing her would be quicker than explaining it with words.
Sliding it out,
I showed her a letter embroidered with a phoenix and dragon in golden thread on red paper, and her expression immediately brightened.
“Isn’t this an invitation from the alliance?”
“That’s right. You knew?”
“This is a tournament where they gather the next generation of Awakened and give prizes to the winners after the competition. It’s also called the Dragon and Phoenix Club or the World’s Greatest Martial Arts Tournament.”
As expected, Seo Ye-rim, being a member of a global megacorp, had a lot of knowledge and was quick to understand.
And naturally, her grasp of information was better than mine.
“Usually, foreigners aren’t invited. If a foreigner is invited, it’s usually as a clown. It’s a role to be defeated by the Chinese Awakened to highlight the greatness of Chinese martial arts.”
Long ago, Chinese martial arts had declined and were thoroughly crushed by fighters in the 21st century.
Then, in the fifth industrial era, China faced a new phase and invited Awakened from around the world, allowing its own Qing-Gong practitioners to defeat them, proclaiming, “Chinese martial arts are great!”
In other words,
it meant that I was called to play the role of being defeated by China’s great martial arts.
“This is a trap, Ha Il-do. You know that much, right? The viewership ratings for the Dragon and Phoenix Club exceed 78%. You could be humiliated in front of all Chinese people.”
“I know. But if I go in knowing, it turns into a battle of wits. No, more than that, did you say the ratings are 78%?”
My mind spun, and my hands and feet trembled.
Wasn’t this a chance for me, Ha Il-do, to leap into a global star in an instant?
The fifth wave of the Korean Wave—
it was going to rise like a tempest from my hands!
While I was thinking this, Seo Ye-rim made a phone call.
“Hey. Yeong-eun, it’s me, Seo Ye-rim. Cancel next week’s Argonaut schedule. Yeah. I won’t participate. Cha Yura can handle things alone. Yeah, okay.”
Click.
After hanging up, Seo Ye-rim said,
“Illinois, grab your passport. We’re going to China too.”
“Meheh…! I feel very good…! I heard there might be a poison nymph in China that’s connected to Inoi…! Let’s go and beat them up!”
