Noah immersed himself in the changes on the board with full concentration.
Because of this, it took a long time for Noah to realize that his opponent’s next move did not appear.
‘hmm?’
When he came to his senses, countless dragons, including those that had fallen due to a match against Regina, suddenly rose up and filled the surroundings.
King Woojang, who was sitting across from him, looked at Noah and said,
“I lost.”
Normal baduk shows surrender by making a move that violates the rules, but Seonsul baduk could inflict fatal wounds on the opponent if misplaced.
Because of this, King Woojang admitted defeat in words, but Noah, who was in a state of extreme concentration, did not hear it.
Everyone who was obsessed with Noah’s concentration was waiting for Noah to wake up on his own.
“Looking at your expression, it seems that I did not have a way out. But I couldn’t read it, so it’s my defeat.”
“then… … .”
“Awesome. I never thought the day would come when I would lose to the person who first caught the stone today.”
From noble mtl dot com.
“Master!”
Upon King Woojang’s declaration of defeat, Hanbyeol was embraced by Noah.
Regina, who had come to her senses in the middle of the match, nodded awkwardly to Noah.
Noah won.
This fact does not change.
However, this great country was a great country on which a bet was placed.
There was one problem because of this.
“This match was played with the return of the lunar eclipse. I acknowledged the alternation of heroes with you, but there will surely be those who object.”
King Ujang was a leader, not a ruler.
The return of a lunar eclipse affects all beasts.
After winning everything, they changed the rules at will and lost to Noah, so there was no choice but to come out with people who said they would not accept the return of the lunar eclipse.
“… … Wait.”
At King Woojang’s words, Noah looked at Regina.
-The return of a lunar eclipse. What is a lunar eclipse?
Noah, who arrived at the end, did not even know what the stakes were in the first place.
-Enya’s scabbard.
-yes??
-This is the Holy Spirit Sword that was used by Enya before she was alive. The swords couldn’t withstand the force and all broke before they were finished, but the scabbard somehow survived because I didn’t use it myself.
Noah, who had been briefed by Regina, had no choice but to open his mouth.
‘No, that pillar was just a sword sheath?’
The more axes, the more stable the base.
However, as a result of Noah’s examination, this huge jinbeop that maintains the dragon palace was surprisingly composed of a single axis.
Noah, who had been thinking that the original stone had been used as a pillar, could not believe that it was only a sword sheath.
‘It looked bigger than Leviathan.’
Of course, it was perceived by the sixth sense, so the actual size could be different.
Still, the gap was so great that it was difficult to readily accept that only one sword sheath felt larger than a disaster-level monster.
“Of course, I am not saying that I will wash my mouth like this. They say it will take some time to convince them.”
“As long as it doesn’t take several years, I don’t think it would matter if it was a little late.”
“It won’t be. I don’t know if I can handle it a little faster if I have the right trigger.”
“meter?”
“I don’t like all the beasts living in the Dragon Palace for the rest of their lives. Even if it wasn’t your proposal, the discussion about getting out of the dragon palace has continued.”
What stood in the way of that was the mountain of God, and no one else.
“Did you intend to use Regina-sama’s request from the beginning?”
“From my point of view, it didn’t matter what the lunar eclipse was, but I had to get everyone’s consent, so in the end I had to see the match. Of course, I didn’t expect it to be like this.”
I couldn’t use it as a justification to convince Shinsan that I had to place a bet and lose on purpose.
“Give me time… … .”
Noah murmured and looked back at Hanbyeol.
Just as all knights aim to perfect swordsmanship, all beastmen aim to perfect swordsmanship.
The same would be true of Shinsan.
‘Isn’t it enough to prove that it’s better for beastmen to experience swordsmanship as well?’
Noah approached Hanbyeol and held her hand.
Hanbyeol’s aura was rapidly changing as he learned swordsmanship.
“teacher?”
Hanbyeol, who was holding both of her hands, just blinked her eyes, not knowing why Noah was suddenly doing this.
* * *
In the end, it was Tiu with cat ears and tail who greeted Noah when he returned at night.
“… … So, let’s say that I was actually of beast blood. They say you can put it in when you get used to it, but it’s not that far yet, so I think I’ll have to go around like this.”
“ear.”
“Hey, can you stop looking at me like that? Do I have anything to be ashamed of?”
“tail.”
“Are you listening? I’m awkward too, so can’t I just look at it in moderation?”
“Until it moves.”
“You’re not listening at all!”
Either that or not, Noah kept looking at the ears and tail as if possessed.
Unlike other beastmen who knew that they were of that kind in the first place, it felt new because it depended on Tiu, whom they knew from the beginning.
When he thought about it, Noah’s head turned to Regina.
“Why am I watching? I don’t have a tail.”
After looking at Naru, she hugged her ears with both hands.
“No matter how much a guest touches it, I can’t forgive it.”
Then the head returned to Tiu again.
“Wait Master! Why am I skipping it!”
“That’s right, you don’t have animal ears or a tail.”
Hanbyeol was closer to a human than Naru of the same generation, and the only characteristic of a beastman was his tattooed back armor.
“That’s true! Then would you like to touch the horns that grew when you became a dragon?”
“Its ingredients are the same as those of the Holy Spirit Sword.”
“I hate Master!”
At Noah’s refusal, Hanbyeol stopped eating and ran out.
Instead of chasing after the heartbreak, Noah just looked at the remaining rice as if it was a waste.
“It’s too much to leave this much.”
“You must be too much.”
Noah’s baduk and Tiu’s adaptation were finally over at dawn.
Thanks to that, they returned to the dorm and had a late-night snack time instead of dinner.
“I thought of it when I said it was horns, but then, Tiu, do you think you will change your Holy Spirit Sword and grow your horns later?”
“The horns won’t grow unless you learn a special skill.”
The answer came from Naru.
Naru, who woke up and prepared a meal for the party, even washed the dishes and waited by the side, perhaps thinking of going to sleep.
“Beasts eat star shards to build a stance within their bodies when learning seonjutsu. The digested fragments of the stars are used as an axis of truth within the body.”
“Eating star fragments, like the saints?”
It was Noah who had seen the saints in Top Sword during summer vacation.
Those who do not use star fragments to make swords, but rather eat them and strengthen their bodies.
Among the various virtuosos in the world, they were unusual, so they remained in Noah’s memory.
“It is the opposite. Seeing the beastmen eating star fragments, the saints were created. Even though we don’t eat so ignorantly and thoughtlessly.”
Naru said in a rare emotional voice.
-What’s going on with him?
-I do not know either. If you ask Soyo, he might know.
It was a bit of an atmosphere to ask directly, so the conversation was cut off.
After eating, the group went back to sleep.
After working hard all day, everyone fell asleep right away.
* * *
After that, the party’s stay at Yonggung continued.
In the case of Tiu, it took more practice before he could control his ears and tail, and it took time to make the demon discriminator.
During that time, Noah continued to teach Hanbyeol swordsmanship.
Naru continued to accompany them like that without a word.
It was a kind of training for Naru.
‘Why did Hanbyul learn human swordsmanship… … !’
Although Yonggung belonged to the empire, exchanges between humans and beasts were very limited.
For normal prisoners, it was as if communication had virtually ceased.
For this reason, the human beings that most prisoners remember was when prisoners in the past were persecuted as a type of witch beast.
The reason why he reached the right level as he is now is because he met people like the savior Enya and the hero Regina in the Great War 20 years ago.
The perception of the young beastmen was okay, but Naru was not.
In the Yonggung, an environment isolated from the outside world, they were able to self-sufficiently do many things.
However, self-sufficiency is impossible for star fragments.
There was no choice but to import through exchanges with the central government.
And what Emperor Gwanghwi suggested in return for the fragments of the stars was joining the sword forest of the dragon palace and enlisting in the ranks.
Unlike the Knights of the 8th Family, which he cannot handle personally, he becomes a mercenary of the imperial family who can act like an enforcer.
Naru’s parents were both mercenary hand-in-hand knights who worked in the Black Forest.
And 10 years ago, he went missing from the mission and was declared dead.
At that time, the mission to which the two were dispatched was to investigate the illegal activities of the saints.
As they had to eat star fragments for training, the saints had their own power.
However, there was a suspicion that he was doing something illegal with that power, so he went on an infiltration investigation and disappeared.
For this reason, after the disappearance, the Dragon King of the East Sea directly investigated the power of the saints, but only relatively ordinary illegal acts were discovered.
The whereabouts of Naru’s parents were nowhere to be found.
‘There’s no way my father and mother disappeared for no reason. The disappearance must have been orchestrated by the saints.’
There are also good people.
It also meant that not all humans are good.
In particular, the saint eaters were famous for consuming not only star fragments, but witch beasts or whatever, if necessary.
Star fragments weren’t that common, so they were mostly like this.
If so, is there any reason to be different from a beastman that was considered a talking beast in the past?
It was natural that there would be no body left if it was eaten.
Of course, this is speculation and there is no proof.
No, maybe it could be considered a delusion.
If that was true, there was no way that the East Sea Dragon King would have passed by.
‘But it doesn’t change the fact that the two of them disappeared because they ended up intertwined with humans.’
For Naru, it was a betrayal for Hanbyeol to abandon the beastman’s swordsmanship and choose human swordsmanship.
Even Hanbyeol, who is also a descendant of Shinsan.
As one of the common rabbits, it was difficult for Naru, who risked her life to do so.
“If that’s Hanbyeol’s dream… … I’ll break it down.”
* * *
“Was the manifestation of the Mystic Eye temporary? It seems that he doesn’t even know that he has manifested the Mystic Eye.”
From noble mtl dot com.
When Tiu was able to practice alone, Soyo’s daily routine was to take care of Shinsan and watch Noah.
Since he is so good at taking care of himself, just like Noah teaching Hanbyeol, it was enough to look after him for a while, so he was free.
On the other hand, Noah’s side wanted to meditate alone, but he could not be vigilant because he frequently touched the dragon palace’s jinbeop.
“Regina-sama also told me not to tell her about the demonic eye. Is it because he wants to avoid being noticed by the emperor? It wouldn’t make any sense anyway.”
Emperor Guanghui had a rather ruthless personality among previous emperors.
I don’t know when it started, but at least it’s always been like that since ascending the throne.
“The emperor, who regards even his children as tools, cares about my sister’s son like that. Whether or not he has a demonic eye, his attitude towards Noah will not change.”
It was clear that if Noah awakened and was incorporated into the imperial family, Emperor Guanghui would unconditionally pass on the throne to Noah.
In addition, given Noah’s swordsmanship skills, there was a high possibility that others would not object to it.
“The strongest talent in history who inherited only the strengths of both parents. Who would refuse an emperor like this?”
Humans tend to envy those who are considered to be similar to or inferior to them.
However, if there is a strong person on top who they do not even dare to follow, they want to be recognized instead of being jealous.
The genius, who was sitting there and using even the Yonggung’s method as a teaching aid, was too brilliant for the criminals to envy.
“Yes? Are you hungry? You ate earlier, Mr. Shinsan.”
Soyo looked down at the mountain with the sensation of biting his thumb.
Inside the basin she was holding, Shinsan was looking up at Soyo as if he had something to say.
“Isn’t that it?”
Soyo was able to look around the entire Dragon Palace from a sitting position with his clairvoyance, but he could see it, but he could not always see it.
On the other hand, Sinsan, who maintains the palace itself, was able to detect it faster than anyone else when an emergency occurred.
“I treated him politely as a guest of Mr. Cain, but I can’t call him a guest anymore after that.”
If you are not a guest, you are just an intruder.
And for the intruders of the dragon’s palace, there is only death.
The riot, which was about to get up right away, was bitten again by the divine mountain.
“Leave me alone? Is there any reason for that?”
Shinsan nodded his head without saying a word.
True to his name, Shinsan (神算), he was a wise man who looked down from the sky to places others could not fathom.
“If you say so, I will be quiet.”
So after 3 days.
With the completion of the magic discriminator, a confrontation between rabbit and turtle, swordsmanship and swordsmanship took place in the Dragon Palace.