I suddenly understood why Nayun had opened the window. She had been looking at the stars too.
“Oh, right. They say this week’s travel club is canceled.”
Chae Nayun suddenly said. It was nothing strange. It had been like this in the original story too. In the original, Berbert’s plan succeeded and Natasha dumped Yun Hanhyeon, and in the present, because Berbert was imprisoned, Natasha dumped Yun Hanhyeon. Yun Hanhyeon must be suffering from the pain of a broken heart about now.
“But do you know an article about you came out in France?”
“An article? About me?”
“Yeah. Yeonha showed me. They were calling you a Korean Sherlock who caught the fraudster of the century.”
“Oh ho.”
“A delinquent who does nothing but pick fights all day and smokes like a chimney is a Sherlock.”
“······Just go to sleep.”
“Wasn’t I going to sleep anyway?”
Slam. Before she even finished speaking, Chae Nayun closed the window. I too was about to get up. But then an alarm rang from my smartwatch.
It was Chae Nayun sending a link to the article.
[Korean Cadet Who Caught the Fraudster of the Century, Berbert.]
So an article like this had come out too. I smiled vacantly and read through the translated sentences.
[Berbert was arrested at a mansion on the outskirts of Paris. Berbert was a fraudster who had committed thousands of frauds over 20 years······ Berbert tried to bury all charges using a domestic trick, but that ingenious method was thoroughly foiled by a Korean cadet of Cube with outstanding observational skills and deductive reasoning······]
Bang.
The window opened again. Chae Nayun’s voice, full of curiosity, came down.
“Hey. But what does a cigarette taste like?”
“······.”
* * *
“Oh my.”
Yu Jinhyeok finished his journey. For two days, he had watched 24 hours of the past. The reason it was specifically two days was because the limit for holding one’s bodily functions was two days. The moment he woke up, he went straight to the bathroom.
“Did you find anything?”
The secretary asked the bathroom.
“Yeah. There were a few strange things.”
“What did you see?”
“The day he was admitted to the orphanage, he stayed up all night in front of the orphanage for 23 hours and 55 minutes.”
Yu Jinhyeok could move about in the past recreated through virtual reality. However, the Yu Jinhyeok inside it was an astral body composed of mana, so every time he moved, some mana was consumed. Therefore, staying still was best if possible.
“Some kid abandoned a baby.”
“······Excuse me? A young child gave birth to a baby?”
“No. She was too young to give birth. But I don’t know anything beyond that. It got cut off there. It’s a strangely dense past, so I think I need to be in full condition to look further.”
Plop, plop. Stool poured out. The secretary frowned.
“Anyway. This looks like it’ll take a while. It’s too tough to do for free.”
“But you have to. Another request came in.”
The secretary showed the monitor screen.
On the monitor was a familiar photo, plain as day.
“What. It’s Kim Hajin again?”
It was the same Kim Hajin photo his nephew had requested.
“Yes. But look at the buyer’s rank.”
“Red······ Diamond?”
Red Diamond was the highest echelon of the Purple Banquet. The same rank as Yu Jinhyeok.
Upon reaching the Red Diamond rank, one could know the buyer’s or seller’s rank like this. Furthermore, because the Red Diamond rank had so few members, they could all know each other. That was why Yu Jinhyeok thought he knew whose account this was.
[Requesting investigation into this person’s past. Gently, without harm. Down payment: 100 million points. 500 million points upon completion. (Contract void if target notices or gets hurt.)]
One could roughly guess by looking at the choppy, disconnected sentences and the offered amount.
“This······.”
A continuous string of short words that didn’t form sentences, and an absurd economic sense that would spend a whopping 600 million to background-check a single person.
It was certain.
This was the ‘Wiseokdan’ account.
Yu Jinhyeok looked again at Kim Hajin’s photo on his smartwatch.
“······He really must have something going on?”
At this interesting subject after a long time, Yu Jinhyeok smiled deeply.
He was currently sitting on the toilet.
* * *
A week passed quickly, and finally that day arrived.
The day Chae Nayun and I were to compete in archery skills. Today, I had to prove the words, “If I practice for just a month, I’ll be better than you—.”
So the moment Friday classes ended, I headed to the archery practice range. Chae Nayun and her group followed behind me. When I glanced back, there were insanely many. It seemed like almost 70 people, and among them were famous figures like Kim Suho, Yu Yeonha, and Sin Jonghak.
After walking for about 15 minutes, I arrived at the archery practice range built on a nearby artificial mountain.
The archery practice range was roughly similar to the clay pigeon shooting ranges I’d seen in dramas, but unlike a shooting range, the lanes were enormous. From a lane about 50 meters away from me, Chae Nayun asked while warming up.
“The rules are the same. You practiced archery this past month, right?”
I replied dryly.
“No.”
“What?”
“I didn’t practice like this. Explain.”
“······.”
Chae Nayun’s brows furrowed deeply.
“Hoo. See that faraway place? The max range is 1km. Starting at 100m, it gets 50m farther each time we succeed······ Ah, I’ll show you a demonstration first.”
Chae Nayun picked up the bow. Then she cleared her throat roughly and shouted.
“Shot!”
Instantly, an object shot into the air from the 100m distance. It showed movements shaking this way and that, trying to avoid the arrow. When that object reached the center of the sky, Chae Nayun fired a wooden arrow. The arrow pierced the object precisely.
Indeed, it was a textbook posture and a textbook trajectory.
The onlookers’ exclamations echoed through the area. I slightly opened my mouth too.
“What. Is it harder than you thought?”
At Chae Nayun’s confident question, I smiled slightly.
“No. It’s too easy compared to what I thought.”
And I held my hand out to Chae Nayun.
“What.”
“Bow and arrows. I didn’t bring any.”
“······I figured you’d pull a stunt like that, so I brought two in advance.”
Chae Nayun bared her teeth and growled for no reason, then turned around. Some male lackey appeared and handed her a bow and arrows.
“Take it.”
“Yeah.”
I put the arrows down on the floor and picked up the bow first.
“Ready?”
“Hold on.”
It was my first time handling a bow. In the first place, a bow was a main weapon, so I couldn’t freely take it out. Since it was a national bow (gukgung), it was clear how to shoot it, but······
I stretched the bowstring this way and that, nocked an arrow, and did various things.
“So this is how you shoot it.”
No matter how talented one was, it seemed impossible to cover that posture.
“······.”
Chae Nayun glared at me as if I were absurd. I smiled vacantly and said.
“Ah, I’m joking. I’m ready. Let’s go. Start.”
Since I could just watch Chae Nayun’s posture and copy it anyway.
Chae Nayun clicked her tongue and looked ahead. She shouted loudly.
“Start!”
That shout echoed as it spread.
End
“You get three chances total. You can fail up to twice, and the person who hits the farthest wins.”
Actually, this archery competition followed international rules. I had watched heroes compete on TV a few times too. It was one of the hero sports, and over there various variables occurred like earthquakes on the ground, so it was quite a spectacle.
“Am I first?”
Chae Nayun asked.
“Yeah. You’re first.”
“Okay. Then 100m is too easy, so let’s start at 200m.”
Chae Nayun nocked an arrow on the bowstring and pulled it back tightly. Her sharply upturned eyes aimed at the target that would soon soar up.
“Shot!”
After the short shout, a target appeared from the right side. Chae Nayun immediately turned the bow 60 degrees and fired. The target at 200m was hit cleanly.
“Hey. Now it’s your turn.”
Chae Nayun grinned and crossed her arms. Then she observed me with an arrogant posture.
I first awkwardly imitated the posture Chae Nayun had just held. Legs spread moderately, center of gravity right between those two legs. Both hands gripping the bow and bowstring firmly.
But is this voice-activated?
“Shot?”
The moment I muttered that, a target sprang up. I panicked for a moment and missed the bowstring. Naturally, the arrow missed far away.
“Pfft. Snort. Bwahaha.”
Chae Nayun laughed. It wasn’t just a laugh. With one hand she exaggeratedly clutched her stomach, and with the other she pointed at me.
“Did you really not practice? Want to start over from 100m~?”
I shook my head.
“Handicap.”
Though I had failed, I already got a feel for the posture from one shot.
Chae Nayun’s posture was certainly textbook, but I didn’t necessarily have to be textbook. In the first place, the textbook was made for application. Perfectly mastering the textbook doesn’t make one first-rate. It’s merely the minimum condition to become first-rate.
And my talent makes me an innate top-tier.
“Then is it my turn to shoot again?”
“Yes. Yes. If you fail three more times now, you’re eliminated~”
Nodding my head, I stood holding the bow. I didn’t aim. The target moved around anyway. So there was no need to aim in advance.
“Shot.”
Then the target soared up. I predicted its path, aimed my bow exactly at the point it would reach, yet slightly off. The arrow passed by grazing the target.
“······Tch. What are you, seriously?”
To me it was a performance, but Chae Nayun’s expression became one of lost interest. The surrounding atmosphere rapidly cooled. To them, I was slowly becoming an attention seeker who was all talk. Were two consecutive failures a bit over the top?
“I’ve got the feel for it now.”
“Feel, my ass.”
“I’m going again.”
I quickly muttered.
“Shot.”
This time, the moment the target soared up—that is, when it had risen about 2m from the ground—I shot the bow. The target was pierced precisely in the center and destroyed.
“Oh······?”
Chae Nayun was surprised for a moment at that high-speed shot. The onlookers were the same. I smiled leisurely and gestured.
“Your turn. Don’t feel pressured.”
“······You must have practiced after all.”
Now 250m. Chae Nayun glared ahead, drawing the bowstring.
“Shot!”
The leaping target shook its body this way and that in midair. Chae Nayun contemplated and fired. The arrow hit the target. For now, Chae Nayun was still composed.
“Next is your turn.”
The proceedings after that were boring to me. Because it was simply a matter of taking turns hitting the target with arrows.
But for the onlookers, it seemed otherwise; they watched us with bated breath, riveted.
And so 300m, 350m, 400m, 450m······ the distance gradually grew farther, and now 500m.
“······.”
Around here, Chae Nayun’s arm began to tremble from tension.
Chae Nayun would likely self-destruct. Chae Nayun did not possess the qualities of an archer. Her personality was not calm. She got angry easily and was easily shaken. She was not someone who could win in this kind of nail-biting match.
“Shot.”
Even so, Chae Nayun steadied her mind with a deep breath and released the bowstring.
“······Ah.”
But that arrow grazed past the target. At 500m, she had finally missed once. I intuitively knew that a part of her mentality had been chipped away.
“Shot.”
Though she succeeded on the next shot, her lives had decreased to two. She exhaled a sigh of relief.
“Whew······.”
But Chae Nayun wouldn’t surpass 600m.
I would make it so.
To apply psychological pressure, I deliberately shouted the moment Chae Nayun finished.
“Shot.”
And I fired immediately. The 500m target was pierced in a single shot.
Chae Nayun, her complexion darkening, tried to pick up the bow again, but I blocked her.
“From now on, I’ll go first. We’re exactly at the halfway point, right?”
Without asking for permission, I picked up the bow first. Immediately, I called out the next 550m.
“Shot.”
A target soared up at the 550m position. I could see the thing clearly. A bird-shaped target doll made of black cloth. Its movement path was also visually predictable. I fired estimating the arrow’s flight speed and the thing’s flickering movement like an afterimage.
Once again in one strike, the arrow smashed the target.
“Your turn.”
Chae Nayun stared blankly at the sight of the target shattering, then flinched. Her lips had gone dry before she knew it. She swallowed and, without a word, raised her bow.
“You know it too, don’t you?”
Before Chae Nayun could shoot, I provoked her. It was what you’d call trash talk—something to gnaw away at her composure.
“You’re not very good with a bow.”
For an instant, Chae Nayun shot me a glare. Without mana arrows, hitting at 550 meters was more than enough to be called good. After all, wooden arrows couldn’t ignore air resistance no matter how much help they got from a Korean traditional bow.
But being “more than good enough” was not the realm Chae Nayun yearned for. Merely being good enough would never allow her to accomplish her “goal.”
“Then why…”
“Shot!”
Chae Nayun shouted loudly, cutting me off. Gritting her teeth, she loosed at the target that had risen into the air.
But an archer who wasn’t calm couldn’t bring down a target.
The arrow skimmed past it.
“Then why do you insist on using a bow? I was curious about that too, so I thought about it.”
“Shut up!”
Chae Nayun shouted out of sheer stubbornness.
“Shot!”
And this time, concentrating as much as she could, she released the string. This arrow shot down the target.
Without giving Chae Nayun even a moment to rest, I immediately began my turn.
“Shot.”
Before the remnants of Chae Nayun’s target could even fall to the ground, my target shot up. When I fired my arrow, the target shattered. I still wasn’t straining myself at all. But Chae Nayun’s face was beginning to turn deathly pale.
I continued what I had been saying.
“You know it too, don’t you? That your talent lies with the sword.”
Chae Nayun had not become Yu Sihyeok’s disciple for no reason. The highest-rank hero Yu Sihyeok chose his disciples by looking only at talent, regardless of status, background, birth, or age. The so-called “Children of Yu Sihyeok.”
Chae Nayun was one of them.
“I told you to shut up.”
Chae Nayun spat out the anger she had been clenching between her teeth. Then she raised her bow.
But now it was 600 meters. I knew the maximum range of this light Korean bow—when not using mana arrows—was 1.4 kilometers. This was less than half that distance, but it was only the “maximum range.”
The meaningful range, in other words the distance at which one could hit more than 50% of the time, was half of that, and on top of that, the target wasn’t even standing still. It fluttered this way and that in midair.
The current Chae Nayun couldn’t hit it.
“You’re just scared, aren’t you? Of holding a sword and fighting. Of getting splattered with blood up close.”
That was how Chae Nayun was in the original. She had been traumatized by her mother’s murder. But now, even her brother had ended up like that. Her trauma must have grown even deeper.
“That’s why you keep rationalizing it every day. I have just as much talent with the bow as I do with the sword. I have talent for the bow. I can become the greatest hero with a bow too.”
I let out a deliberate sigh.
“But with your bow, forget avenging your brother—you can’t even kill a single Djinn properly.”
That was the decisive blow. Snap. Chae Nayun lost her grip on the bowstring. Once again, the arrow pierced empty air.
Her third failure in total.
Chae Nayun was defeated in vain.
“What did you just say…?”
Chae Nayun glared at me with eyes full of rage. Blood was seeping from the hand that gripped her bow.
“With that strength, you’d be better off holding a sword.”
I turned my gaze forward. Then I called out shot. Not once, but twice; not twice, but three times.
600 meters, 650 meters, 700 meters.
A total of three targets rose with only brief intervals between them. I fired three rapid shots. The three arrows pierced the three targets in order.
I didn’t end it there. I wanted to know for myself just how far the limit of grade six went. Even though Chae Nayun had retired, I kept firing the bow.
750 meters, 800 meters… As the distance increased, the atmosphere grew heavier, and Chae Nayun’s rough breathing grew louder. That breath, mixed with anger and defeat, felt as if it were stabbing into me.
“900 meters. I’ll stop here.”
I ended it at 900 meters. Since 900 meters had been a little close, there was no need to go out of my way and risk failing.