142 — While Mr. Kim Han Was Missing (2)

“Gyaa….”

“Jaryong! Let’s play!”

Despite Naruan’s nagging, the Jaryong did not budge. It curled up on the bed where Kim Han slept and didn’t move.

“Let’s play~!”

But at Naruan’s persistent whining, the Jaryong shook its head cutely and stood up.

Annoying and childish as it was, this small human was among those who had been told to take care of things while the master was away.

Like an uncle reluctantly dragged out by nagging nephews after a long rest at home, the Jaryong trailed after Naruan, visibly annoyed.

What Naruan wanted to do was just roll around at the training ground, but for the grown Jaryong that was childish.

When the training ground came into view, the Jaryong recalled the day it had gone there with the master not long ago.

That day the master’s hand held something brown. The Jaryong didn’t know what it was, but at the sight of it an intense hunger unlike anything it had felt before surged.

Because it was in the master’s hand it held back and only swallowed saliva, but perhaps sensing that, the master put it into its mouth.

Since that day the Jaryong could understand the words of humans including the master. It also naturally ‘learned’ how to use power.

Among them were methods to shrink the body, to levitate and fly. It also learned effective ways to attack enemies.

The master wanted a baby-like body. They agreed to keep that day’s events a secret between the master and the Jaryong until the master said otherwise.

Even the master’s small, noisy companion hopping around now didn’t know about it.

“Jaryong, fetch!”

The Jaryong ignored Naruan’s command to fetch the thrown ball.

The Jaryong thought it pathetic. Such things were for dumb puppies; surely no smart, great subordinate of the master would like this.

Let’s say it didn’t remember having once run over to fetch it before.

The Jaryong sat down on the training ground floor with a blasé expression, belly to the ground.

Naruan huffed in anger at the Jaryong’s uncooperative(?) behavior, while the other girls screamed in delight.

In the end the Jaryong was surrounded by the crowd of girls.

After being pestered by the human girls for a while, the tired Jaryong headed to the master’s room and met Aru (follower) bustling in the first-floor hall.

“Gyaa?”

“Oho, Jaryong. Your popularity remains, I see. I’m busy then!”

Perhaps because he’s a dragon’s Aru, that child always hurried away whenever he saw the Jaryong.

He didn’t behave like that with other humans but fled at the sight of the Jaryong; could it be he had guessed the secret known only to the master and the Jaryong?

“Gyaa…?”

The Jaryong stood there for a long time, pondering whether to call him over and give him a good scolding.

Merus liked everything about the Rebound Legion.

The environment for training, members with outstanding potential, and good masters, he liked it all.

He especially appreciated that the captain, Kim Han, accepted him and that the members freely approached and treated him like family; he liked the legion’s atmosphere.

But there was one thing that made Merus uncomfortable: the Jaryong, who monopolized the love of legion members and mages.

It wasn’t that the small dragon named Jaryong was unpleasant from the start.

When he first saw the Jaryong, it was so small and adorable that he too found it cute.

But from some day the Jaryong became strange. Even its purring sound carried a kind of fear.

Each time his whole body bristled. The scales felt like they stood on end and he couldn’t even meet its gaze.

It was like that even now. At the Jaryong’s purring stare he had to hurry away.

“Mr. Merus?”

“Oh my, you scared me… Ah, military strategist.”

“Is something… the matter?”

“Nothing. Haha.”

Lee Hyo-ju, who tilted her head, explained why she had come to see Merus.

“Mr. Merus, do you have a talent or power to read other representatives’ information?”

“…Sorry?”

In the mansion where Kim Han had disappeared, thunderous roars of magic and the clashing noise of weapons or divine power occurred almost all day.

At this moment, the Rebound Legion was in the midst of a training craze like never before.

At the training ground behind the mansion, four priests—Mae Young-ryeong, Apher, Chloe, Patrick—were always on standby.

They treated the wounded, and sometimes joined realistic sparring to heal teammates and participate in team battles.

Among the four priests—excluding the sacrificial druid Cheong—the representative who drew attention and admiration from Rebound members was not Mae Young-ryeong but Apher.

Unlike typical priests who stand still casting healing spells or hide behind tanks, she moved actively and intervened aggressively in combat.

Apher showed why a monk could come from among priests.

Perhaps due to knight training, her divinely blessed movements were as nimble as a martial artist’s.

Her healing magic was neither excessive nor lacking, and attempts to target her first failed thanks to her excellent improvisation and movements.

“If she had a talent for Force instead of Divinity, I’d want to teach her my pugilistic techniques,” Jimnas said after watching her movements and combat sense.

It was Jimnas’ remark after seeing her moves and combat sense.

The group that sparred the most consisted of warrior-type representatives.

Naruan bullied with overflowing stats, but the battles between Kitas, who used a registration card after joining the legion through Kim Han’s introduction, and Naruan were like a painting, so there were always many spectators.

Kitas was a speed-oriented warrior.

Perhaps because of that, until she joined the legion, paladins or flirtatious mages and mercenaries couldn’t evade her blade.

So Kitas spent three years deluding herself that she was strong.

That illusion was shattered when she met Kim Han, and she asked him for advice about registration cards.

The technique Kim Han introduced was ‘Drunken Immortal’.

“For a speed-based warrior, stamina and strength must support you. That’s part of your training, so I’ll skip it; if a speed warrior enters a brawl without footwork, they die first. So if you mix illusion and suppleness into your speed, you can withdraw in any situation.”

‘Drunken Immortal’ was both a footwork and divine technique. With movements like a drunken immortal’s dance, Kitas’ combat power rose more than 1.5 times.

Her fantastic moves and Naruan’s elusive motion made their sparring look like a beautiful dance, leaving the onlookers in awe, as today.

Kitas seemed to approach Naruan’s right, then straightened a bent knee and attacked to the left.

The moment her dagger threw two sharp streaks of light, Naruan was already gone.

Pushing off lightly from the ground, Naruan’s body descended onto Kitas’ back and swung a large black scythe like lightning.

They exchanged attacks and defenses without an inch of carelessness, and the watchers watched their duel with dreamy eyes, full of admiration.

A beautiful duel. The fighting spirit exchanged between them was fierce, which might be why their movements were all the more beautiful.

In a brief moment dozens of exchanges passed, clashing and separating repeatedly, then Naruan moved at a speed incomparable to before, as if he’d been holding back.

The vanished Naruan appeared to Kitas’ right, the blue scythe poised near her throat.

“Stop.”

When Jimnas called the sparring to a halt, thunderous applause and cheers echoed through the training ground.

As the fight ended, Naruan returned to a childlike smile and dashed over to the Jaryong, while Kitas watched with a mother’s smile.

The training and sparring craze showed no sign of cooling even late into the night; the training ground’s magic lamps stayed brightly lit.

The training and sparring craze wasn’t limited to warrior-type representatives.

Mages, too, had been in shock and were grinding through each day after five of them had attacked Arun and been routed on the first day.

On the evening Kim Han entered the underground training hall, before Arun and the mages even arrived at the training ground, mages from the magic tower who had heard the news filled the training ground.

“I explicitly said to spare no means or method. Don’t later complain ‘where’s the rule for this’ or ‘it’s cheating.’”

Despite Arun’s uncharacteristically firm voice, only Simon seemed tense.

Alain, Jul, Louis, Jeanne, and spirit maiden Soria—among the six representatives, none were nervous.

In fact, aside from Simon, they thought Arun was reckless.

But they didn’t know that when Arun faced combat differently than usual, he was a Talis doppelgänger who would do anything to win.

Had they known the final information Kim Han checked about Arun before entering the training hall—had they known the difference between Arun and themselves—would they have been nervous?

The moment Jimnas, acting as judge, shouted ‘Begin’, the mages wrapped defensive magic around themselves.

But not Arun.

An agility of 101, something many warrior representatives lack, brought Arun in front of the enemy mages in an instant.

Moreover, the mages, all except Simon, were absurdly casting with their eyes closed.

Arun moved swiftly toward his next target while chaining spells faster than anyone.

In what could be called an instant, Arun reached the necromancer Jul, who seemed the most troublesome.

Arun swung not the pointed tip but the blunt head of the ‘Divine Tree’s Branch’ at Jul, who screamed and fell.

In the process, two casters were so surprised their casts were canceled.

Having taken note of them, Arun next approached Alain, the shore mage whose attribute was similar to his.

The moment Alain completed a protective spell, Arun was swinging his staff at him.

But unlike when he struck Jul, Arun’s staff shone with pure white light.

Kwaang—!

“Gak!”

Alain flew to the edge of the training ground, a spray of blood spouting from his mouth.

Only after two of the six were out did magic finally begin to rain down on Arun.

At the moment everyone expected Arun to dodge backward.

“Wind Bomb.”

Arun extended his left hand behind him and cast a novice-level spell.

With the sound of air popping, the spell Arun produced struck the ground and created rebound force.

Using that force as a springboard, he darted perilously through the oncoming magic.

Passing between the two female mages who had canceled their casts in surprise—sage Louis and sorcerer Jeanne—Arun spoke a decisive magical word.

“Striking.”

Like when he sent Alain flying, he swung his white-glowing staff roughly, taking out the two women still mid-cast, and returned to his original spot.

In a moment there were bangs—bang, bang, ka-bang—and four mages were out in an instant.

Only Simon, Soria, and Arun remained standing in the training ground.

Soria, staring blankly at Arun, snapped to attention by Simon’s shout and hastily prepared a spirit summon.

“Prepare!!”

Arun did not stay still for even a moment.

Arun’s ability to move while continuing to cast was close to miraculous.

Simon held out a bit but then also fell to the ground; left alone, Soria bit her lip, dismissed her current spirits, and strained to summon higher-grade spirits.

“Noes, Selaim, Silairon, Raioner (Lightning Spirits)!!”

Soria, already panting from the summon, opened her eyes wide.

Her turquoise eyes fixed on Arun as she begged the spirits to take care of him.

However—

Before the spirits could react, the spell Arun had summoned struck both the spirits and Soria while she was summoning.

“Ice Core. Smash. Transmute, Sharpness—!”

Core-type magic normally changes the environment to a given attribute. That’s why a giant chunk of ice was summoned.

After the summoned core shattered, each fragment was imbued with cutting-force magic and reversed the spirits’ summons.

Just as the ice shards were about to bury Soria, Arun forced himself to cancel the spell.

“Guh— phew… Everyone, good work.”

Arun, who spat a mouthful of blood perhaps from forcing the cancellation, declared to the six stunned representatives that the sparring was over.

“Wow!”

“Kyaa! Arun!”

Unlike the six dumbfounded representatives, the mages and other representatives who had watched the exciting sparring from the start could not hide their amazement.

As the sparring continued after the first day, Arun earned an almost incongruous ‘respect’ among the mages.

He had trained like Talis, willing to stoop to dirty tactics to win, for four years.

Arun’s approach to combat was efficient, ruthless, and he was beginning to show the demeanor of a battle mage.

Arun generously shared his know-how with his peers. His teachings were a new world for the mage representatives.

Why mages must also train their bodies.

Why you mustn’t close your eyes while casting.

How to cast while moving quickly.

Don’t stop casting until you faint and fall.

He even advised spirit summoner Soria to learn elemental understanding and tactics for proactive combat.

Thus, after Kim Han’s absence, the members of the Rebound Legion grew stronger in their own ways.