Chapter 3. The Academy That Turned Upside Down (1/2)
Chapter 3. The Academy That Turned Upside Down
When Cho Ryu Hyang had woken up, 10 days had gone by. When he first opened his eyes the first thing that entered his vision was an old, wrinkly man servant’s face.
“….uurgh!”
“Ha, have you gained your senses, young master?”
Cho Ryu Hyang looked around absent-mindedly. He was very confused. His head was filled with knowledge everywhere, which was stuck in countless places in his mind. There was knowledge in his head he didn’t have before. As he was organizing the knowledge in his mind, something happened.
The old manservant ran outside all of the sudden. There were series of loud sounds outside, and a huge fellow ran into the room. It was Peng Ga Ho.
“Cho Ryu Hyang, did you just wake up now?”
As soon as he came in, he grabbed a seat, and sat down. He took a look at Cho Ryu Hyang, and opened his mouth.
“It doesn’t look like you’re going to die any time soon.”
Cho Ryu Hyang smirked.
Peng Ga Ho didn’t know this, but Cho Ryu Hyang right now was extremely healthy.
No, his body was actually suppressing an unknown power inside from bursting forth.
Surawang Chapter 3 illustration
“How many days was I out?”
“You were out for ten days, you crazy bastard.”
“Ten days?!”
“You made us really worried. You know how anxious grandpa Jang got because of you? He probably sent word to the main house. You’re going to have a lot of fun with that.”
Cho Ryu Hyang’s face was full of shame.
Grandpa.
Grandpa Jang was someone who followed him all the way from the main house to serve him. Cho Ryu Hyang was extremely grateful towards grandpa Jang because of that. Even though they had a master-servant relationship, Cho Ryu Hyang held special feelings for grandpa. Thinking that the person was going to reprimanded by his parents because of him, he felt sorry for grandpa.
“I’ll try my best talking to them.”
“If you’re a proper human being, it should be your duty to do so. He was making a huge fuss about it, calling me and the doctor and everything, just so that he could try save you.”
“He went that far?”
Cho Ryu Hyang cautiously started to lift up his upper body. However, as soon as he tried, Peng Ga Ho stopped him and said:
“Just lie down for now. If you suddenly move after ten days, your muscles are going to get a shock.”
“…..Yeah. That might happen.”
Thinking about it, there was a need to know a bit more about what happened to his body . But it really was quite strange. He felt like he just lied down for a little bit, but ten days had already gone by?
“I was so surprised when I found you leaning against the wall, unconscious… speaking of, do you know this?”
“Know what?”
“You’re the first person in the history of the school to faint because of overwork in the library of all things. The first!”
Cho Ryu Hyang made a bitter smile.
He had nothing to say to that.
“I made you get worried for no reason.”
“Goddammit, even if you like books that much, how did you manage to faint at that place of all things? I just don’t understand you.”
Cho Ryu Hyang didn’t faint because of overwork, but he didn’t feel like explaining.
It was because Cho Ryu Hyang himself was still confused if the event that took place in the library was real or not.
“Just rest here. I’ll go call the doctor and then I’ll leave.”
“Okay.”
Peng Ga Ho was about to leave when he stopped by the door.
He hesitated a bit, and then he opened his mouth.
“……Stop worrying me like that. You and your weak body…”
“…….”
Cho Ryu Hyang couldn’t find an appropriate response.
The reason was because Peng Ga Ho came at him at both warmly, and yet struck him heavily. Only after the doctor came in to check up on him, and prescribed him a few medicines, was he able to be truly alone.
“What’s this?”
There were immense changes going on in his body.
Could Cho Ryu Hyang truly use the mystical powers and perform miracles, just like what the book said? When he thought about that, Cho Ryu Hyang’s head got jumbled up a bit. Cho Ryu Hyang always thought that his rationality and logicalness was his strongest points. After attaining a power that he himself couldn’t explain with words, however, his mind became chaotic. But what weighed on his mind the most currently was not this.
“What’s this?”
Since awhile ago, something, or someone, in his head was unraveling the knowledge packed inside his brain in a way that Cho Ryu Hyang could understand scarily fast. It felt like some kind of an entity was teaching him about these newfound knowledge, step by step. It was a interesting experience. As soon as questions popped up in his mind, it was answered almost at the same time. It was definitely weird.
Cho Ryu Hyang closed his eyes. The moment he did so, a figure popped out in his mind.
‘The old man in the picture!’
The old man looked at Cho Ryu Hyang in an arrogant way.
It seemed that this old man was the one that was explaining everything to him.
[Have you come to your senses, greenhorn?]
It was a type of communication where words were transferred directly into his brain, instead of being transferred by sound.
Cho Ryu Hyang hesitated a little, then opened his mouth and replied.
“Yes, chancellor.”
The old man smirked at him.
“You don’t even believe that I am Zhuge Liang, and yet you lie about it with a straight face.”
Cho Ryu Hyang’s face went red with the old man’s words.
It seemed like the old man could read Cho Ryu Hyang’s mind because he was in his mind.
If it’s like this, Cho Ryu Hyang was unable to lie to him.
It’s a little troublesome.
“To be honest, it’s a hard to believe….”
Cho Ryu Hyang quickly stopped himself from shouting ‘Don’t lie!’ in his mind.
Unexpectedly, the old man’s face implied that he didn’t really care about Cho Ryu Hyang’s attitude.
[Doesn’t matter. A person’s name and status in actuality just a meaningless cloak. Anyway, the time we will be able to spend talking to each other won’t be long, at least for now.]
For now? Does that mean they would be able to talk in great lengths in the future?
When that question floated into Cho Ryu Hyang’s mind, the old man immediately answered him.
[Good question. Yes. Like you just thought, we will be able to talk in great lengths in the future. But that won’t happen any time soon.]
Even though he didn’t really ask the old man the question, the old man answered immediately.
This was actually quite convenient.
[You’re body is still developing, so there will be some problems that appear when using the powers I gave you, but that can’t really be solved right now.]
What abilities were there?
When Cho Ryu Hyang wondered this, the old man replied.
[Are you curious, child?]
Of course he was curious.
If what the book said was true, then he would be able to walk great distances, and fly, even. These powers would indeed help him out a lot in life.
Did the old man read his thoughts?
The old man’s face grew stern.
[Your greed is indeed really amazing. Child, why are you trying to just take this information from me? Based on how hard you train in the future, the abilities you acquire will differ.]
Then was there no ability at all?
Cho Ryu Hyang became a little disappointed. The old man then smiled in a mysterious way, and said this.
[For a child, you polished up your math skills quite nicely. If you go outside, you’ll be able to see a whole new world.]
What did this mean?
Cho Ryu Hyang felt sleepy all of the sudden, and started falling asleep then.
Watching this, the old man complained a little.
[So this is the limit so far. It takes far too much power for you to talk to me right now.]
The old man wasn’t really satisfied with it, but he couldn’t do anything about it.
After all, it was a blessing to even acquire a child like this. The old man resolved himself by telling himself that the boy would be quite all right once he trained him. He had high expectations for this child.
* * *
“Did you try finding it out?”
“Yes. But it became more complicated than I imagined, your holiness.”
“Why?”
“The person your holiness is trying to find, the number one in mathematics, is actually located at the imperial palace.”
“The imperial palace?”
“Yes, your holiness.”
A great hall.
In the middle of this hall, there was a finely dressed official, and a lean middle-aged man. The middle aged man had a playful, harmless look on his face. If a person actually knew who this man was, no one would actually dare to look down on him.
This man was the pope of the current Heavenly Demon God’s Church, and a member of the 15 guests of the land (三皇五帝七君). He was one of the 3 sovereigns, even. And this man was the Dark Emperor, Gongson Chun Gi (公孫天器) .
“Damn it, things really did get complicated.”
Gongson Chun Gi licked his lips, as if he felt inconvenienced by this whole affair.
Looking at that, the man dressed in red carefully said this.
“If this one moves, he will be able to bring the man in.”
“Really now? Are you going to jump over the palace walls or something?”
“If you wish for me to do so, I will gladly do it.”
When the man said this with absolute loyalty in his voice, Gongson Chun Gi shook his head after contemplating on the man’s statement a little.
“No, it’s fine. We shouldn’t overexert ourselves. Getting ourselves tangled with the imperial palace isn’t really good.”
It was regrettable, but Gongson Chun Gi decided to not go for it.
It wasn’t as if there weren’t any other ways to do this, anyways.
“Do we have a backup? We have one, right?”
The red man replied immediately.
“Of course.”
“Who is it?”
“Other than the man known as the number one in math, Ju Ho Yu (周虎柳), there is the former number one, known as Jo Gi Chun, who retired recently.”
“Jo Gi Chun? Where’s that guy at?”
“He is currently teaching children at an establishment known as ‘Theoretical Maths and Martial Arts School’.”
“‘Theoretical Maths and Martial Arts School’? What’s that?”
“It’s an academy located at the Shan Xi province. It was an academy created for rich clans, and is known to be the biggest of its kind.”
“Really? Then why am I hearing it for the first time?”
“It’s in the Shan Xi province, and it doesn’t have too much to do with martial arts, it seems. It is famous for academics, but not martial arts, so the main church didn’t pay attention to it.”
“I see. Then lets use that guy. He seems alright.”
“Should this one…… bring Jo Gi Chun here?”
“Yes. He seems alright. He’s retired too, so he probably doesn’t have too much to do right now, anyways, right? Yeah, it’d be perfect to use him.”
Gongson Chun Gi had a satisfied expression on his face.
“With his level, he should be able to see through the formation, right?”
“Rather than the formation itself, there are the strange equations one must solve, which is why we need him. He should be able to figure it out by himself.”