I Gave Up on Conquering the Heroines – Chapter 92

—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
—————————————————————–

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

 
“What are those?”

“You don’t need to know.”

“Letters, are they? There are so many. They all seem to be women’s names. You’re at that age, that age…”

Transylvania clicked their tongue and turned their head.

Ignoring their sarcastic remarks, I opened the letters one by one.

I started with Cornelia’s letters first.

‘Ten of them?’

Ten letters in just two weeks.

I could understand why Tay had expressed extreme fatigue.

I opened them in chronological order.

The early letters were all about business.

But…

Somehow, as time passed, the letters started to lose their professional tone.

I should visit Cologne when I have time and collect a bunch of checks while I’m at it.

Next was Alicia’s letter.

‘Fox’ was the code word for Yerina.

She never broke the code, acting thoroughly like some kind of soldier.

Of course, even though she updated me about Yerina’s whereabouts every time, it was almost useless since I couldn’t check immediately.

Now that I could receive real-time communications from Linda, Alicia’s reconnaissance should be helpful.

Finally, Mia’s letter.

It was time to look at the letter from the World Tree’s priestess.

A new prophecy?

Originally, the World Tree’s prophecies came down about once a year.

How long had it been since the last one came, and already another one had come down?

Could it be because the situation was changing rapidly?

Since the World Tree’s prophecies accurately predicted the future, there was a high chance it would be helpful to know.

“…Communication. Came.”

Just then, a crackling sound came from beside me.

Undecided handed me the receiver of the wireless communicator.

In this world where wireless communication hadn’t been commercialized, only one person used this frequency.

I took the receiver and adjusted the frequency.

The crackling noise turned into a clear voice.

[Ah. Ah. Can you hear me?]

“I can hear you. Go ahead, Linda.”

Linda’s voice had a slightly mechanical sound mixed in, but the quality was excellent for this level.

No, was Linda’s voice always mixed with a mechanical sound…?

Anyway, the sound quality wasn’t hindering communication at all.

[I contacted you because a letter just arrived here. It’s from the priestess of Elvenguard.]

“What does it say? Read the entire letter.”

[Another new prophecy has come down. I can’t tell you the details, but the content is quite serious, so please come as soon as possible. That’s what it says.]

Another prophecy in such a short time… and this time with the additional explanation that the content was quite serious.

Considering that Mia wasn’t the type to make a fuss over nothing, it seemed a truly ominous prophecy had come down.

We didn’t know if the future this prophecy pointed to would be tomorrow or the day after.

It meant it was better to hear it as early as possible.

With two prophecies piled up now, I couldn’t postpone it any longer.

“Something’s come up in Elvenguard.”

“Elvenguard is rich in mana, it’s the perfect place for sword training. If it’s urgent, let’s go to Elvenguard first. It’s not too late to teach you the secret technique after resolving that.”

“That’s what I should do… But are you okay going to Elvenguard?”

“What’s this suddenly? Ah…”

Transylvania tilted their head, then smiled as if they had realized something.

“I’ll need to disguise myself.”

Transylvania had a history of committing murder in Elvenguard in the past.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

“Your outfit stands out too much.”

“What’s wrong with this?”

“You look like a wandering swordsman straight out of a martial arts novel. Try this on.”

“…That’s. My clothes.”

Inside a carriage, Transylvania caught the clothes thrown at them and unfolded them.

It was a hoodie with a rather childish color combination.

Although they didn’t like it at all, they had no choice.

It was true that the clothes they were wearing now made their pale complexion stand out.

If they entered Elvenguard like this, they would be caught immediately.

Without a word, Transylvania loosened the clothes they were wearing and put on the hoodie.

Yoo-jin, who had been talking to Undecided with his back turned while Transylvania changed, belatedly turned around and nodded.

“It fits perfectly. Try putting the hood on too.”

“Ugh… I’ll have to untie my hair.”

When they tried to put the hood on, their braided hair got caught, making the back of their head stick out.

Transylvania untied their hair, letting their long hair fall.

Yoo-jin’s eyes widened at the long silver hair that reached past their waist down to their hips.

“Why don’t you just cut it?”

“Tsk! They say the body, hair, and skin are received from one’s parents! How could I carelessly cut off this precious hair!”

“No… Were you from the North?”

“Yes. I originally had a separate Northern-style name, but I’ve long forgotten it. Transylvania is a name people gave me arbitrarily, but I’m still using it because I have no other name to use.”

The North corresponded to the East in Earth terms, no wonder their appearance and attire seemed Asian.

Yoo-jin felt a little, just a little, kinship with Transylvania.

Especially in the aspect of having to hide his origins and act according to a foreign country.

“Besides, because blood ghouls are already dead bodies, once hair is cut, it never grows back. You can cut it anytime, but you can’t undo it, so there’s no harm in being cautious.”

“…W-what did you say? It doesn’t grow back?”

Undecided’s mouth fell open.

Undecided froze, touching her own short hair.

Yoo-jin picked up Undecided and sat her between his legs, patting her head.

“Short is good. It’s easier to wash too.”

“Talk all you want, you unfilial children.”

How could one be filial to parents who were already dead?

Undecided had such a question, but decided not to voice it.

Living for hundreds of years must have made their stubbornness that much stronger.

It would only hurt her mouth to speak up.

“Hah. The world has changed a lot. In my time, blood ghouls were simply targets for extermination, no matter how much reason they had left or if their fangs were removed. Now they’ve become pets.”

“…Not. A pet.”

“Then what are you?”

“…A companion. Animal.”

“What the…”

The world was going to the dogs.

Transylvania shook their head and pushed all their hair inside the hoodie with a rustle.

There was still a lot of time left until Elvenguard.

As if intending to take a brief nap, Yoo-jin closed his eyes and soon started to breathe peacefully.

As if standing guard while he slept, the blood ghoul girl kept her eyes wide open, staring at Transylvania.

‘He has no openings.’

Of course, the one with no openings wasn’t referring to the blood ghoul girl.

It was about Yoo-jin, who was sleeping.

It might look like he was sleeping normally, but to Transylvania’s eyes, it wasn’t so.

Yoo-jin never let go of his tension even while sleeping.

If Transylvania were to put their hand on their sword here, Yoo-jin would immediately open his eyes and react.

‘He certainly has no talent.’

Transylvania had only observed this human’s swordsmanship for a very brief moment and that was only one move, the 0th form of the Dakia-style.

But that was enough for Transylvania to evaluate Yoo-jin’s swordsmanship.

To Transylvania’s eyes, which had been swinging a sword non-stop for hundreds of years, seeing just a part was enough to see the whole.

Yoo-jin was not what you’d call a genius.

Unlike those born with the soul of a swordsman from the start, Yoo-jin had no talent for the sword at all.

None at all.

None.

Not a little, but none at all.

He was the type who would be perfect sitting in a boring office doing paperwork.

‘It’s all just skill honed through effort. He has nothing of his own.’

Instead of innate sharpness, Yoo-jin’s swordsmanship only had sturdiness honed through effort.

He might surpass lazy people who relied only on talent, but he was no match for those who had both sharpness and sturdiness.

Geniuses adapt swordsmanship to their bodies.

Ordinary people adapt their bodies to swordsmanship.

Geniuses eventually create new swordsmanship styles.

Ordinary people worry about how to use the swordsmanship they’ve learned.

Yoo-jin was clearly an ordinary person by any measure.

It was hard to imagine him creating a new swordsmanship style with his body and talent.

Unless he poured in hundreds of years of effort to surpass talent.

That was impossible with a human body.

‘But what if he makes it his own?’

The Dakia-style was originally an incomplete swordsmanship.

Born from the fingertips of a genius long ago, it bloomed into a secret technique through Transylvania’s hands, but in the end, even Transylvania no longer used it, and it remained incomplete with no one remembering it.

Existing swordsmanship styles were finished products that had passed through the hands of numerous swordsmen.

They were perfect, with no more shaky parts or contradictions.

As such, it was nearly impossible to fit one’s body into those swordsmanship styles.

But if it was the Dakia-style, which was incomplete and full of gaps, if it was the Dakia-style, which still had room for improvement by fitting, cutting, and filling, perhaps even this ordinary person could catch up to the footsteps of a genius.

Like Transylvania themselves, who had reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship after hundreds of years of stubborn training without talent.

Could this human also break through the wall of talent?

With that thought, Transylvania felt an illusion as if their long-stopped heart was pounding.

‘I don’t know. Let’s just try it out and see.’

Of course, how pathetic he would be could only be known once they started training.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

[Im betting on Transylvania being a masochist, im just sayin it now so i can say i told u so to u guys later]