Ch.73Hero’s Trial (4)

As soon as I made up my mind to run away, Agath caught me. This body really is pathetically weak.

“Calm down and first…”

“Goddess, thank you for providing our daily bread today.”

“Please regain your senses…”

“I’ll finish the prayer after I eat.”

Agath showed no signs of joking or excitement. Rather, she looked genuinely peaceful, like a flower in a greenhouse.

Alright, persuasion is definitely impossible. So I have no choice but to wait for help.

The closest room is Ju-an’s, and the next closest is…

Suddenly, Agath stopped moving.

“Are you okay?”

Looking behind, I saw Ju-an had arrived in an instant.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“What happened this time?”

“I almost suffered someone’s last desperate struggle before death.”

“…What does that even mean?”

“Do you think you could understand this person?”

“No.”

“Then don’t bother trying.”

Once again, I managed to get through this without incident. Ju-an approached me and asked:

“So what are you going to do with this person?”

“Is it possible to unfreeze just her head?”

“But then she would die immediately.”

“Why?”

“Since her body is frozen, her heart must be stopped too. What do you think would happen if only her head could move?”

“Blood wouldn’t reach her head… oh.”

If blood doesn’t flow to your brain for just 10 seconds, you lose consciousness. After 30 seconds, brain cells suffer critical damage…

Anyway, the manager warned me about this when explaining how truly dangerous it could be.

“That’s a much scarier ability than I thought.”

“Exactly.”

“Isn’t there a way to let her talk but prevent her from moving?”

“I could try, but if I make a mistake, it could be really serious.”

“Okay, then just unfreeze her completely. If she seems dangerous, you can freeze her again.”

Ju-an made some hand gestures with a displeased expression, and Agath began moving again.

Agath stood still, looking back and forth between me and Ju-an, then sighed and spoke.

“I failed.”

“You’re very calm about it.”

“I had a feeling this would happen.”

“Then why did you do it if you knew?”

“Because emotion overcame reason.”

Agath calmly walked to another room.

“It was fun while it lasted.”

And just before entering the room, she smiled calmly and spoke.

“…Is she really okay?”

“She brought this on herself.”

What goes around comes around. She should have lived more kindly.

But she won’t actually die. She’ll probably just get beaten to within an inch of her life before being released. Or maybe she’ll be told to live quietly forever.

But would Agath even listen if told to live quietly? She already failed after less than 6 hours.

For now, I should rest for tomorrow’s trial.

“Anyway, thanks. See you tomorrow~”

“See you tomorrow.”

With that, I returned to my room and threw myself onto the bed. Now I need to sleep…

Come to think of it, because of the time difference, I still have a while before I should sleep. But I need to sleep now anyway.

Let me try taking off the ring. Maybe I’ll suddenly get tired and fall asleep quickly.

When I took off the ring, I really did feel tired. But while my body was tired, my mind remained wide awake.

My eyelids felt heavy as if I could fall asleep any moment, but my mind was lighter than leaves blowing in the wind. Maybe watching some TV would help me fall asleep?

With that thought, I turned on the TV in the room and saw something strange.

On the screen beyond was me. But the content being reported was odd.

[Finally, four reincarnated people have gathered in the Holy Nation. The list of reincarnated individuals includes: hero candidate Nam Ju-an, magic prodigy Park Ha-eun, mind controller Seo Tae-yang, and psychopath Lite.]

Then they continued reporting on my actions, somewhat exaggerated.

[Reincarnated Lite acted violently from her first day, inflicting fatal wounds on a villain and causing significant damage to a department store building.]

I turned off the TV. I wonder if I could sue for this? This is seriously exaggerated.

I certainly had no such intentions. I was just unexpectedly strong, that’s all. So being called a psychopath is unfair.

But really, people live the same way everywhere. Both in this world and where I came from, all these news articles exaggerate to grab attention.

If they later conclude they were wrong, they’ll just bury it without a single apology. In the end, I’m the only one who suffers.

Still, venting like this helped me get to bed as planned.

***

When I opened my eyes and checked the time, it was around 10 o’clock. Usually I’d still feel tired after sleeping this much, but today I feel incredibly refreshed.

Is it because I’m in the Holy Nation, protected by some divine energy? Anyway, it’s an awkward time for a meal. If I eat now, I won’t be able to eat lunch, but if I don’t, I’ll be hungry.

I’ll just have a snack and eat lunch later. With that thought, I washed up and got ready to go out.

Sadly, I no longer feel any excitement looking at my body. Is it because I truly recognize it as my own body now?

Anyway, I’ll get back to normal when I return to being a man. I just need to endure until then.

By the way, are there any pants in my clothing options? If not, I’ll have to ask for some.

When I opened my bag, I saw various types of summer clothes. Come to think of it, the Holy Nation is hot and humid like summer now.

Fortunately, there were shorts in the bag. Finally, I can say goodbye to this damn skirt.

I put on the shorts and a top, creating what looked like a bottomless fashion style.

…Something feels off. There’s nothing particularly wrong, but it just doesn’t seem right. Is it okay to show this to others?

If Agath sees me, she’ll immediately make sexual jokes, and if Ju-an sees me…

Okay, it doesn’t matter. Let’s just go with this.

***

As soon as lunchtime came, a guard brought lunch to my room. And the menu consisted only of dishes I like.

This is getting scary. How do they know my clothing size, and how do they know what food I like?

Maybe they know a lot more about me than just this. Where do they get this information from?

…It must be either Agath or Rebecca. Let’s just eat.

After finishing my meal and lounging around, I got a call from Ju-an.

“Hello?”

-Hey, they say we’re leaving now.

“That’s earlier than I expected. Where should I go?”

-They want us to gather at my room first.

“Got it. I’ll head there.”

As soon as the call ended, I made my way to Ju-an’s room. Are we all gathering there before departing?

Anyway, when I arrived at Ju-an’s room, only he and I were there.

“The others aren’t here yet. So where are we taking the trial?”

For some reason, Ju-an’s face turned slightly red, and he didn’t say anything.

“Hey, can you hear me? Say something if you can hear me.”

“Um… I’m just asking to make sure, but you are wearing clothes on the bottom, right?”

“Yes. Look, I’m wearing them.”

I lifted my top to show Ju-an that I was wearing pants. His face turned even redder, and he quickly averted his gaze.

“What’s wrong now?”

“Um… you know your stomach is showing, right?”

“…Oh.”

I quickly lowered my top to hide my stomach. I’m so embarrassed I could die.

“Still, it’s good that you’re embarrassed now, unlike before.”

“S-so when are we leaving?”

“When everyone gets here.”

As the awkward atmosphere continued, Ha-eun entered, followed almost simultaneously by Tae-yang.

“Hello. Where do we go now?”

“Wait a moment, everyone take these first.”

Ju-an handed each of us two scrolls from the desk.

“The one with the red mark is the scroll to get to the trial location, and the blue mark is to return here.”

“…They gave us such scrolls just for transportation?”

Ha-eun exclaimed in shock. Ju-an explained why we were given the scrolls.

“I heard it’s because that place is sacred, and its location shouldn’t be revealed. That’s why we travel like this.”

“But no matter how you look at it, isn’t this a bit wasteful? Using something so valuable just for transportation…”

Ha-eun said while cherishing the scroll. I wonder how valuable these things are.

“Are these really that precious?”

“Senior, do you know how much one scroll costs?”

“No. Maybe around 100,000 won?”

“Each one costs at least 100 million won.”

“…What?”

“Teleport scrolls start at a minimum of 1 billion won each.”

The scrolls that Leo uses as casually as eating meals are all incredibly expensive. So Leo is throwing away several hundred million won each time he uses a spell.

“If Leo were to make the scrolls himself, how long would it take?”

“Probably about a week per scroll.”

If Leo made only scrolls instead of taking requests, his monthly salary would exceed several billion won. Wizards are much more impressive than I thought.

And thanks to this, I deeply realized why magic is a useless discipline in battle.

Unless you can overwhelm with capital, there’s no answer, and the required capital is beyond imagination.

“So we’re really allowed to use these?”

“What’s the point of saving them? Let’s just use them.”

“But it feels such a waste…”

“Then how else are we going to get to the trial site?”

“Fine, I’ll use it.”

So the four of us burned through tens of billions of won to move from this place. It really is a shame.

Anyway, we moved to what looked like some ancient ruins. And suddenly, a voice came from somewhere.

“Those who wish to challenge the trial, pass through this door.”

I’m nervous, of course. Can I really accomplish something here? No, I have to somehow.

So the four of us were about to enter the trial…

“I’m scared. Can I go back?”

“…”

“I’m really so scared I might faint. It’s obvious I won’t be of any help anyway, so…”

“Ju-an, drag him along.”

“Got it.”

So the three of us dragged Tae-yang through the door.

***

“Hey, Tae-yang.”

“What is it?”

“Why did we come here?”

“I was wondering the same thing.”

Ju-an handled the Trial of Strength all by himself.

The Trial of Wisdom was also well handled by Ha-eun, her nine doppelgangers, and Ju-an again.

Thanks to them, Tae-yang and I just stood by without doing anything.

Anyway, we’ve now reached the third trial, the Trial of Mind. And once again, a voice came from somewhere.

“Beyond here lies the world that the entrant truly desires. Pass the trial by escaping from that world.”

Fortunately, only one person can enter at a time. If all four of us had to enter, we would have failed immediately because of Tae-yang.

Anyway, I stepped forward and said:

“I’ll go this time.”

“Are you sure? I can just…”

“I think I’m the best at this among us.”

I continued speaking as I stepped toward the shining door.

“I’m the most accustomed to giving things up. It was the same with my previous body, and with the lifespan of this current body. So I’m really confident about this.”

And as I surrendered myself to the light, I said:

“I’ll be back soon.”

***

I was woken up by a sudden phone call while sleeping deeply. I answered it.

“Hello…”

-Lite? You’re not still sleeping, are you? You need to go to school.

“School all of a sudden? We were clearly heroes…”

There was something I wanted to say, but I can’t remember. There was definitely something very important…

-Did you have some weird dream again?

“Maybe?”

-Just get ready now. If you waste any more time, you’ll really be late.

“Okay, I’ll get ready and leave soon.”

So I got out of bed and went outside to see the familiar living room I’d been seeing for 19 years. But something seemed a bit off.

What does that matter? Let’s just get ready and go to school.

…But I feel like there was definitely something important…