Devoted Love 1

Summer vacation.

A short time of only about a month.

Some will try to relieve accumulated fatigue.

Or dedicate themselves to self-improvement.

“Father.”

Baek Da-eun’s choice was the latter.

“I have a request.”

Emerald eyes shining resolutely.

Seeing his daughter’s eyes like this for the first time, Baek Kang-hyuk was momentarily at a loss for words.

“Please train me.”

Baek Kang-hyuk is not strict with his daughter.

No matter what anyone says, he undoubtedly raised his daughter preciously like a princess.

He remembered the hell of the first Gate.

Those times when order collapsed and there were no dreams or hopes.

So he didn’t want his child to experience such abnormality.

Baek Da-eun’s noblesse oblige spirit was something she learned on her own due to her past with unreliable parents, Baek Kang-hyuk had never once forced his daughter to train or have a mindset about abilities.

But now.

His daughter came to him of her own accord and pleaded.

Despite no kind of coercion.

“…Did something happen?”

“There’s someone I want to surpass somehow.”

Baek Da-eun is an S-class awakener.

If there’s a reason for his strong and proud daughter to speak like this, there must surely be a corresponding reason, even if it can’t be fully expressed in words.

“…I see.”

Eyes filled with determination.

On the battlefield long ago, Baek Kang-hyuk had seen those eyes many times.

“Alright.”

His child has resolved to do something.

Then as a parent, he should rightfully help with that.

“It will be a grueling month.”

“…Yes!”

Preparing for the day that would soon come.

Baek Da-eun clenched her small fist.

Everything was for that person.

Because she wanted to become a strength for that person.

However, if there was something she overlooked.

“Wait, Michaela, this is school…!”

“Just a kiss. Just a kiss.”

“Liar, you always say that when we’re outside, but then…!”

Hadn’t she perhaps somewhat underestimated her rival?

“I love you, Seoyeon.”

“…Me too.”

The much-grown Baek Da-eun became able to do many things.

For example, she can feel the wind like skin.

She can hear sounds flowing on the wind.

“I love you too, Michaela.”

It was an ability that the original her would have only obtained far in the future.

With that ability, Baek Da-eun hears.

What her loved one is saying, and to whom.

“…”

With that ability, Baek Da-eun meets.

Who her loved one is with, and what they’re doing.

“…I.”

Baek Da-eun─.

There is a center in this world.

There is one clear axis.

It means the center of population.

It means the center of culture.

Hence, its name was the Central Plains.

It was the center of the world.

Other tribes were merely Western barbarians, Southern savages, Northern nomads.

They cannot be considered civilized people.

Even today when monsters disturb the world, it was the only undeniable truth.

While small countries on the periphery turned into hellscapes of human life, only this Central Plains land was uniquely safe from that threat.

Those with will and power defeated monsters to fulfill righteousness and chivalry.

They built a wall of civilization to maintain the purity of the Central Plains.

Today, young posterity emulate such chivalrous people.

They want to become knights who practice righteousness through martial arts.

“What do you mean?”

Nam Gung-hyeong was also one of those young posterity of the Central Plains.

“Study abroad? And to Dong-i…!”

He was having a particularly perplexing moment.

The reason was very simple.

To him, a rising new talent, a growing sprout.

The elders of the family were trying to send him to study abroad in the East.

The Nam Gung family.

One of the Five Great Families managing the military power of the vast Central Plains on behalf of the government.

Nam Gung-hyeong was a rising talent of such Nam Gung family.

The most skilled among the young posterity.

To suggest going to Dong-i to someone like him.

He couldn’t help but feel something was strange.

Dong-i.

A tribe that uniquely maintains civilization along with the Central Plains.

A tribe that performs mysterious magic, creating objects that don’t exist in the Central Plains.

But in the end, they’re just lowly barbarians that can’t even reach the toes of the Central Plains.

Their nature is extremely violent, so they don’t follow the teachings of the Central Plains.

The eternal enemy of the alliance, the land ruled by Cheonma.

Their identity is the descendants of the ancient Gija.

Barbarians who served and admired the Central Plains.

To study abroad in such a land of Dong-i.

What on earth could be learned there?

It wasn’t easy to understand.

But he couldn’t disobey the words of the elders either.

Perhaps there might be enlightenment arranged in that far-off barbaric land.

Nam Gung-hyeong finally accepted the proposal of the elders with deep and wise eyes.

If there was one fact he didn’t notice.

The reason the elders’ eyes were deep might be not because they were wise, but because they had seen darkness whose end couldn’t be known.

The precious vacation melted away with the summer heat.

Students once again put on the shackles called school.

For Han Seoyeon, it was a very satisfying month.

She didn’t make anyone die.

She achieved results beyond the original work.

She shared intimacy with her loved one.

Now she could say she’s somewhat like a munchkin protagonist.

…Except for the nights.

“Attention everyone!”

New semester.

The Hunter Academy conducts one major event at this time.

“Today, an exchange student has come from China!”

Exchange student.

A foreigner, not Korean, is invited by the Academy to stay as a student for one semester.

The origin is often from nearby Japan or China.

Many Koreans had big complaints about this system.

How could it make sense for Japs and Chinks to enter the Academy, the highest competition rate higher education institution in Korea?

From cries of inequality of opportunity to concerns that Chinese would interfere with children’s education.

Adults say.

Japan and China have been hostile to Korea since ancient times, and they are inferior races that are of no help.

They say those races are worse than cockroaches.

Regardless of whether that’s true or false.

It’s clear what impression it would give to the new generation of children.

They say such a race suddenly becomes a fellow student one day.

Students don’t like this policy either.

The reason this system was passed is only one.

As always, it was because of the great hero’s will.

The hero said.

As a superior race leading the world, Koreans should give learning to inferior failed races.

Saying that is the burden Koreans must bear.

Koreans became solemn and ashamed at that benevolent thought.

Not daring to even meet eyes with the noble hero.

‘…Well, it’s just PR after all.’

Of course, this was a story unrelated to Han Seoyeon.

She knew.

The things Yeon did in China in collusion with the core power holders of the former Chinese Communist Party.

In return for guaranteeing their absolute stability and power, she obtained one cooperation.

An extremely cruel cooperation.

A huge barrier was built across China.

A great wall disconnecting from the outside.

A world reset with everything in ruins.

Yeon forced one culture on the Chinese people.

It was wuxia.

A medieval life far from modern cutting-edge devices.

The Chinese Communist Party cadres who were promised power didn’t mind.

They brainwashed the people, limiting the genre of the world they lived in to wuxia novels.

Thus, the Chinese people gradually distanced themselves from useless existing Western science to defeat monsters, and sought to cultivate martial arts.

Martial arts was a half-correct answer.

Because it was correct, it was even more vicious.

Martial arts was a byproduct that Yeon obtained while researching the correlation between mana and the human body long ago, but it was a kind of industrial waste that was discarded because its value was less compared to the use of abilities.

Although it was far inferior to the Academy curriculum developed by Yeon, it could defeat monsters and weird things, so.

The people gradually revered martial arts and rejected the remnants of Western culture that were of no use in fighting monsters.

They said that their martial arts containing thousands of years of Chinese history was indeed the correct answer.

Murim Alliance, Five Great Families, Nine Schools One Faction.

Believing in pseudo-groups that only appeared in novels and didn’t exist in actual Chinese history.

China sank.

Therefore, it’s no longer a country, but the Central Plains.

Ironically, their daily life itself is permeated with modern devices.

All were Korean exports.

China is an easy target of hatred, and at the same time, a huge colony of Korea.

“Please introduce yourself!”

So there’s a little sympathy.

“My name is Nam Gung-hyeong.”

Han Seoyeon didn’t particularly have pro-Chinese sentiments, but it was clearly excessive if it went too far.

And that was all.

She wasn’t a righteous person in everything, after all.

Han Seoyeon was just an extremely selfish person who only protected what she wanted to protect.

A boring presentation continues.

After a long time, a girl with roll-shaped hair comes into view.

“Da-eun.”

Was it because the voice was low?

There was no answer.

“Da-eun…?”

She calls that name again.

Still no answer.

“Da-eun.”

As if not hearing.

Like someone engrossed in other thoughts.

“…”

Han Seoyeon’s voice would not reach Baek Da-eun’s ears.