Chapter 4. Cho Ryu Hyang’s Retest (2/2)

“When?”

“Whenever you are free is fine.”

“Alright.”

Jo Gi Chun nodded, and left to do his own thing.

Looking at that figure, Cho Ryu Hyang thought a bit.

Perhaps the teacher had a better view of him thanks to today’s events.

‘I might just be imagining things, though.’

Cho Ryu Hyang always had to suffer through punishments during lectures because of Peng Ga Ho.

It might be just his imagination, but he thought he saw a hint of benevolence in teacher’s eyes.

‘Let’s not hope for such things just yet.’

As he shook off that thought and walked out, he encountered someone waiting for him at the doorway.

“Congrats, math genius.”

It was someone he didn’t expect to see at all.

Cho Ryu Hyang looked at the person in front of him, with suspicion in his eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that, this event didn’t have anything to do with me.”

Nangong Yubin.

He was the child of the famous Nangong clan, and was called the greatest genius in the history of the school. To think this child, who he never exchanged words with, would congratulate him. Cho Ryu Hyang didn’t know how to respond to that.

And when he focused on his eyes and used his skill out of curiosity, he was genuinely shocked.

“74…….”

It was an astronomical number.

Most people had a value of 20-30… Nangong Yubin possessed a value about 3 times as much as other people did.

He didn’t know how that number got there, but if one was to simply look at it, Nangong Yubin had a talent that outstripped even Jo Gi Chun.

Perhaps there really were geniuses in the world.

“Actually, I was also one of those people that had doubts about your skills. I came to apologize for that.”

He was doing pointless things, Cho Ryu Hyang thought.

Cho Ryu Hyang didn’t know how to respond to such an action, so he just looked at Nangong Yubin with a slightly anxious face.

It seemed that his action brought great distress to the boy, so he panicked a little and spoke.

“No, to be a little more truthful, today’s test probably happened because I complained a little. I came to apologize about that.”

“…….”

“The people around me doubted your skills, and I, too, doubted you. I think that somehow got into Eu Hyun Guk’s ear. Things became complicated because of that. Sorry.”

Now Cho Ryu Hyang realized why this fellow waited for him here.

And he was shocked once again.

Were all children in famous clans like this?

It was an apology that didn’t even need to happen. The boy also knew that, but he came to apologize anyway.

“If it’s for that, I’ll accept your apology.”

There was no reason to reject it.

It wasn’t anything troublesome to him anyway.

But it seemed Nangong Yubin didn’t think that way.

His face turned into that of relief the moment he heard Cho Ryu Hyang’s reply.

A face that implied he just got a load off his back.

“For real? You’re accepting it?”

“…….yeah.”

“Fu~ That’s a relief.”

Cho Ryu Hyang was confused about what relieved him.

“I was actually really nervous, since it was my first time doing something like this.”

Nangong Yubin had a grin on his face as he said that.

“It was my first time seeing a genius, so I was curious, too.”

Cho Ryu Hyang fixed his glasses with an embarrassed expression.

He was being called a genius by a genius like Nangong Yubin. It made him feel a little awkward.

“I hope we get along in the future. I hoped to have a rival like you.”

“…….Did you, now.”

Cho Ryu Hyang suddenly felt uncomfortable.

The fact that the boy was approaching him all of the sudden like this weirded him out a little.

“I’m not going to lose next time. I was caught off guard this time, you know.”

Nangong Yubin smiled, showing his white teeth in the process.

“I’ll be expecting a lot from you next time, rival.”

Nangong Yubin disappeared after saying everything.

Cho Ryu Hyang watched the boy walk away in a daze for a while, then fixed his glasses, while uttering a few words under his breath.

“He might have a really shameless personality, seeing that he was able to say such a cheesy phrase like that…..”

He was a boy that Cho Ryu Hyang couldn’t understand.

Cho Ryu Hyang walked slowly.

His legs naturally drew him to the library.

“Ah? Is your body alright today?”

The guard at the entrance of the library asked Cho Ryu Hyang worriedly.

Cho Ryu Hyang didn’t know if this was a banter or not, but he just said that he was alright, and entered the library building. And he looked for a certain book for a long time. The thing that was weighing on his mind for a while. He needed to confirm it.

‘There it is.’

The item he was looking for was found faster than he expected. That was because he could see the book where it was put last time.

As he pulled out the book, he could clearly see the name written on it.

『Moon Edge Flower Algorithm Magic (1)』

He didn’t realize last time, but it seemed that there were two volumes to this book.

He opened the book carefully.

And his eyes widened in surprise.

‘As expected…….’

The contents of the book were wiped clean. No, to be more accurate, everything within the book, every single word, was gone. It was as if someone just forcefully dragged out all the characters in the book and threw it away.

‘Did everything in the book get inserted into my brain?’

Even now, if he thought of something, he could feel the immense amount of knowledge swimming through his brain. His brain was filled with decades of research at once.

But it was a useless thing.

To make the knowledge actually something that he could comprehend and use, it required a tremendous amount of work.

While he was thinking, he suddenly came up with a question, and shut his eyes immediately.

‘Is there a second volume to this book?’

[There is.]

Cho Ryu Hyang felt that he knew the answer even before he asked the answer.

It was actually a question he should’ve asked a long time back, but he just remembered to ask it now.

‘Does that book also contain elder’s great knowledge?’

[Child, it seems you are mistaken about something.]

‘Mm? What’s that?’

Was there something about his question he didn’t know about?

[Idiots needs an idiot’s language to understand things.]

It was a riddle-like phrase.

The old man spoke again a little after he said that.

[You think there are many who trained their mathematical skills to the point of being able to comprehend my knowledge?]

Cho Ryu Hyang contemplated upon that a bit.

Truly, an existence like him was rare. But he also felt that there were indeed more like him in the world.

There were many people like Jo Gi Chun, who dedicated their life to math, after all.

The old man affirmed his thoughts cooly.

[You’re right. There are indeed more like you. But what are the chances of them reading this one book? I presumed that there was almost no possibility for them to come across this. So as a backup, I created another text.]

The old man stopped there for a moment, and made a bitter smile.

And he changed the subject a little.

[I saw your performance at the stage today. It seems there still are a lot of idiots that look down on math.]

Cho Ryu Hyang scratched his head and smiled.

It seemed that the old man felt the same way he did.

The art of math was being neglected too much, past or the present.

It was something he was able to experience firsthand today.

[If I wrote my knowledge down on paper with numbers, of course these uneducated fools wouldn’t understand it. So I kindly wrote down my knowledge with letters and gave them what they wanted.]

What they wanted?

When Cho Ryu Hyang became curious, the old man answered immediately.

[The formation techniques. This is what I have given to my descendants.]

Cho Ryu Hyang was finally able to understand what the old man was talking about.

An idiot’s language for the idiots.

It seemed this was why he wrote the first book with numbers, and the second book with letters. A way to preserve his knowledge, even a little.

The old man smiled.

It was an evil smile that didn’t really fit the image of the old man.

[But there is a big difference between knowing how to catch a fish, and understanding how to handle a fish.]

Cho Ryu Hyang blinked a few times. He didn’t understand what the old man was talking about.

[You’ll understand the meaning behind my words in the future.]

Cho Ryu Hyang didn’t realize.

He didn’t realize that it would take him decades till he finally understood what the old man meant…

Right then, his head spun and his body lost all the strength it had before.

‘Oops!’

Cho Ryu Hyang opened his eyes quickly, and leaned his body against the library wall to regain his breath.

Talking with the old man took up too much power. It wasn’t easy to handle it yet.

Whilst recovering his body from the talk, Cho Ryu Hyang looked around the library. There were still many books to be read, but that was useless to him now. It wasn’t like those books would help him increase his powers, anyway.

It might’ve seemed like a boast to others, but Cho Ryu Hyang already had more than enough knowledge about math. Perhaps too much.

But there was something missing.

It seemed that missing something wasn’t just some simple knowledge.

He didn’t know what it was, but he had an endless desire to learn that something.

After thinking by himself a little more, Cho Ryu Hyang put the book back into the shelf and stood up. He forgot about the promise to visit the teacher. He decided to go resolve it now.

Little did he know that that event would change the course of his life greatly.