Ngeeeeeeeennnngggg~
It took Yerina about a year to learn the first subject, ‘Grace’. Of course, Yoo Seodam was not simply wasting his time while she was doing that. He used [Fast Forward Time] to fasten the training.
In the first place, Yoo Seodam came to this world to use up his probability, which could somehow turn him into a protagonist if it accumulated too much. One of his best extracting methods was none other by accelerating time. Unlike when using time leap, Fast Forward Time allowed him and Aracelli to continuously intervene in important events while also staying together with Yerina and Saeran throughout the process. That is why, they didn’t even realize that Aracelli and Seodam had accelerated their time together. A few days for Yoo Seodam and Aracelli was a year for Yerina and Saeran.
“You’ve been through a lot. Shall we go find the next master now?”
“Oh, yes.”
Even though she had only learned one subject so far, Yerina had changed drastically. She was now taller than she was a year ago. And, because she ate well, she was quite lively. That was not the most surprising thing though. What surprised Yoo Seodam was the fact that she became so mature.
“It would be great if a princess with brains like you could become the Empress! These days, they only focus on their muscles, but their heads are all empty!” The old woman, who taught Yerina grace, praised her for passing the first test. After listening to it, they immediately moved to the next place.
“Guardian, what is the princess going to learn next?”
“It’s ‘Charm’. It’s time for her to learn how to decorate herself to reach the highest point kf beauty. She also needs to learn how to act in a way that would make her attractive to other people…”
Within a year, Saeran had started trusting Yoo Seodam a lot. He couldn’t figure out why, but the truth was, she was overestimating Yoo Seodam’s power.
‘He quietly dealt with the monsters in the Sea of
Death without leaving any trace…’
In fact, Yoo Seodam was simply killing the sea monsters by using the power of electricity such as a stun gun and a million-volt whip. But Saeran, who only thought of him as a swordsman, had no choice but to think that he had terrifying strength, to be able to deal with such monstrous beasts in such a disadvantageous arena for a swordsman, such as the ocean.
“As you know, there’s no princess who has learned ‘Charm’ properly. They always think that the best way to show their charm is to show the strength of their muscles, not their appearance.”
“Haha.” Yoo Seodam laughed helplessly. No matter how he thought about it, it was just absurd.
“It is a strong belief in this empire that adjusting one’s behavior for other people and presenting themselves in a delicate and beautiful manner is something that only the weak would do.”
A woman only had to show off her muscles! Aside from that, the act of putting powder on their face or wearing clothes with jewels had disappeared 500 years ago.
Will it be easy to show off your charm in a world where the essential ‘beauty’ has disappeared?
* * *
Just like the teacher of ‘Grace’, the teacher of ‘Charm’ was also banished to the deepest part of the continent 500 years ago. Though, banished was just a sugar coated word since the truth was, they were being thrown away because the Empress of the Empire did not want anything that did not have to do with muscle inside her Empire.
It’s definitely a setting which didn’t appear in the actual [Main Story]. After all, there was absolutely no reason for any useless science to appear in this world where everything revolves around one’s muscles.
‘Am I looking for the background of the story again?’ Yoo Seodam thought to himself as he let out a yawn while watching over the three women walking down the road. The place they were currently at was in the ‘Malek Mountains’, a place with a very rugged terrain, where powerful monsters appear all the time. Therefore, it was impossible for just anyone to enter this place unless they were a strong person.
Perhaps because of that very reason, Malek Mountains, was not only the place where the ‘Charm’ tutors, who were exiled 500 years ago, were located at, but also a place where royal families often come in order to test their strength.
‘It was at the level of the C to B rank field…’ But when Yoo Seodam took a closer look into the area, it wasn’t a very dangerous place. It seemed like it was deemed as a dangerous place by (Muscle) warriors of this world simply because they didn’t have the know-how of how to navigate through forest or hunt monsters effectively. Then again, they do spend half, if not full, days of their everyday lives immersing themselves in training their muscles. Their motto was ‘it’s only the weak who figure out the opponent’s weakness in advance!’
While jumping from tree to tree, Yoo Seodam narrowed his eyes when he noticed some movements in the bushes at a distance through the one-eyed telescope he carried. Immediately, Yoo Seodam activated the [Looking at Everything with a Cold Gaze (B)] skill, and the target’s information, weakness, strength, and energy waves were all processed in his mind.
‘Oh, something at the strength level of peak B rank… A pretty rare creature around here.’
Yoo Seodam quickly rushed towards the direction of the monster. On the way, he gave a quick glance at the three women.
At the forefront, Aracelli was cutting tree branches obstructing their way with Wind Cutter magic to make it easier for Saeran and Yerina to walk. The princess was chatting with her right behind her, and it seems like she felt relaxed because they hadn’t encountered any monsters since they entered this forest.
Fwoosh-!!
Yoo Seodam’s shoes bounced off on one thick branch and flung his body to the air. And immediately after, the head of a certain monster who had reigned as the ruler of this area was cut off without a sound, just like what happened to other mobs who encountered Yoo Seodam in this forest.
* * *
Splash~! Splash~!
Pitter-patter-pitter-patter…
The heavy rain drops trickled down from the clouds above, hitting and wetting the ground.
As the party of three girls sat together in a fairly large cave and lit a bonfire, their emotions became somewhat damp. By now, Princess Yerina had become quite acquainted with Aracelli and she had quite a lot of fun listening to Aracelli’s personal story.
“Wow. In Aracelli’s hometown, magic was regarded as the most important study?”
“Yeah.”
Throughout their journey, Aracelli consistently taught Yerina some magic. Afterall, once the succession battle took place, 4 years from now, Yerina had to be strong enough to fight and win against muscle monsters who scored 7,500 kg in the 3 main exercises.
Maybe Yerina was lucky to have met Aracelli and Yoo Seodam, or was it them who were lucky? She said that she had always been secretly studying magic because she had a deep interest in it from a long time ago. On top of it, she was also quite smart and was blessed with talent. Therefore, her progress was quite noticeable. So, both Aracelli, who was teaching, and Yerina, who was learning, enjoyed each other’s company quite a lot.
“…By the way, Aracelli, why did you leave your hometown?” Princess Yerina asked. It was a question she asked out of pure curiosity. Even Saeran quietly looked forward to her answer. The time they had spent together hasn’t been that long. But, Saeran and Yerina know for sure that Aracelli was by no means an ordinary wizard, even though they had little to no knowledge about magic.
“I’m following Professor.”
“Professor? Do you mean the woodcutter?”
“Yep. Back in my hometown, he was a professor.”
“Aha… If that’s so, why is he working as a woodcutter here?”
Aracelli broke into a cold sweat at Yerina’s question. After all, it was merely something that Yoo Seodam had said randomly.
“I don’t know… Maybe he wanted to run away from society?”
“I see… it seems like I forced such person to return to the society.” Princess Yerina’s expression darkened.
“Oh, no. Please don’t think so. Professor always said he would never do things that he didn’t want to, and would only do things that he wanted to.”
“Hm… I hope it’s truly the case.”
While talking like that, a question rose on Yerina’s head.
“Uh… where is Sir Guardian?” Now that Yerina thought about it, it was always like this. Whenever they all gathered together and had a conversation, or when they wandered around the remote areas, she hardly saw Yoo Seodam. However, it never occurred to her that he wasn’t there. Was it because she enjoyed talking with Aracelli that much? No, that wasn’t the case. It was just because she always felt his presence wherever she was.
‘Why?’ Yerina didn’t know why. But, as Saeran and Aracelli were silent at her question, she moved her gaze from them to the cave.
Then suddenly, with water trickling down from his body, Yoo Seodam walked leisurely from the depth of the cave. Yerina wasn’t completely sure about it because of the darkness, but she thought there was something like blood on the hem of his trousers. With a very tired face, he set down a sack containing a few small beasts on the floor.
“Ahhh…. I’ve been looking for something to eat and found this deer. But it looks like it’s been dead for a while. Though, it will be fine if we cook it thoroughly, right?”
“Yes. Shall we prepare right away?”
“If you want to do that, then I’m grateful. I will dismantle it now.”
Then, Yoo Seodam started to take out the butchering tools from the air and Aracelli casted a magic.
Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
A formless veil spread out from her hand and stretched out to envelope Yoo Seodam and herself inside it. It was a barrier to block the smell of blood from spreading in the cave. Aside from that barrier, even now, several layers of barriers were blocking the rain and cold air, and they were even preventing any monsters from approaching the cave.
“Magic is amazing.” Yerina muttered. It was something which never could be done with muscles. Though, muscle addicts would say, ‘When an enemy approaches, you just have to tear them apart!’
After some time, they finally finished cooking. And then, they quickly filled their stomach. Even though the quality of the meat was far from good, Aracelli somehow turned it into an edible dish by adding spices and seasonings. So they didn’t have to complain about the taste at all.
After finishing their meal, Saeran, who was powerless to stop Yerina from washing the dishes, cleaned her up once she finished. At that moment, Aracelli’s head jolted up.
“Something is approaching.”
“Is that so? Is it a monster?” Yoo Seodam asked. Even though his detection ability was quite good, it was still incomparable to the range of magic detection which Aracelli had set up in advance.
“No. It’s a person.”
“A person?” Yoo Seodam’s brows furrowed.
Why are people coming to such a remote place? There would be no reason at all for that.
“Are they coming this way?”
“Yes. I think they are also trying to avoid the rain.”
It was still raining heavily outside, and the largest cave in the area was the very place they were currently at. So it was natural for people to come here.
“Hmm… Well, what can we do? It’s not like we own this place, so just let them be. The Princess and Saeran should be safe inside.”
Puk!
Heavy footsteps echoed through the heavy rain. Only then did Yoo Seodam realize that the person who came had an unusual energy.
‘The energy wasn’t calm at all. It’s burning fiercely like fire…’
Before long, an unidentified person entered the cave.
“Hmm? What are you doing here?”
“… Her Majesty the Empress?”
And that person was none other than Primel Primelia, the Empress of the Friedelia Empire. Behind her, a person, who boasted a larger size than the Empress herself, walked in, he was the ‘Zaberov’, the Empress’ Guardian Knight.
In the past, when the empress was still a princess, among the guardians of the seven princesses, Zaberov was the strongest of them all. He was the strongest person in the world at that time and possessed powerful muscles that could not be defeated by anyone or anything!
Zaberov used an ax larger than human body as his weapon. It was said that once he wielded it, the walls of the city would be torn apart like a piece of paper, and the enemy often surrendered before the fight even began.
Yerina and Saeran immediately rushed towards her and paid their respects to the Empress, but she seemed uninterested in them.
“You all. Do you know what kind of cave this is?”
“It’s just a normal ownerless cave in the forest.”
“Ownerless? This cave has an owner.”
Yerina and Saeran’s complexion instantly turned pale. It was because they wouldn’t be able to do anything if the Empress insisted, ‘This cave exists in my land, so it is mine.’
However, even though the Empress was a musclehead and a battle maniac, she was not a thug.
“The owner of this cave is… the King of the Mountains, ‘Black Dog Hwang’.”
“…”
“Bl-Black Dog Hwang…!”
Yerina and Saeran looked at each other, shaking. Afterall, there’s no one in the empire who did not know the famous monster, Black Dog Hwang. Wasn’t he the legendary werewolf who collapsed four cities with a single body, and destroyed two fortresses that had never been invaded, before suddenly disappearing?
After disappearing to the Malek Mountains 30 years ago, there was no news of him at all, so it was slowly being forgotten.
‘That Black Dog Hwang is in this cave…?’
However, even after hearing the empress’ words, Yoo Seodam still spoke in a confident tone. “This cave is ownerless.”
“What makes you think like that?”
“Because I killed the owner of this place. No one lives in this cave anymore.”
“Ohh?” At his remark, Yerina and Saeran, as well as the Empress and Zaberov, seemed to be intrigued; their eyes lit up intensely.
“Is that really true? I also applied for a duel with him in the past, but after losing 10 years ago, I finally came back thinking that it was time to get my revenge..” Zaberov said, his voice lowered. “…are you saying that you, a coward with armor, have defeated the Black Dog Hwang?”
Kwaang!!
As Zaberov stomped his foot, the ground shook as a weblike crack spread all over. Yoo Seodam looked at it unamused. It could be said that he had some amazing muscle strength. Although his muscles might not be as good as they used to be since his prime has passed, his technique in power fighting must have reached an unmatched level.
“Then, would you like to try it?” Yoo Seodam smirked.
“What?”
“My strength.”
“You weakling. Just by looking at your muscles alone, I can tell you are weak. It looks like it’s going to break if I hit it.”
Yoo Seodam didn’t say anything in retaliation. Actually, he didn’t feel the presence of this Black Dog Hwang they talked about at all.
‘Is that mountain dog really what they called Black Dog Hwang?’ Yoo Seodam couldn’t believe it. While he tried hard to shake his disbelief, Zaberov took his ax from his back and slammed it down to the floor.
“What should I do to him, Your Majesty? Should I tear the mouth of the man who dared to tell a lie in front of the Empress, who is the most majestic under the sky?”
At that, the Empress smiled at him as if intrigued, and nodded her head.
“Hmm… Do that and make him never lie ever again!”
Because they had the best muscles in the world, ‘losing’ was something they had never thought about.
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