The Regressor is too Powerful in Martial Arts – Chapter 40

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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Lee Ha-eun, a genius who was second to none when it came to support magic, had eventually even learned Sanctuary, the highest-level support magic among recovery spells.

…At the age of 9.

“Ueeeh… I’m dizzy….”

Although she quickly ran out of mana, the fact that she was successful at all was also because she had a lot of mana for her age….

Yeon Mi-rae muttered as she looked at Lee Ha-eun, who was complaining of dizziness due to mana exhaustion.

“…Really… The world is unfair.”

I looked at Yeon Mi-rae, who was now creating and maintaining a sword force manifestation and muttered inwardly.

‘That’s not something for you to say.’

Time passed, and Lee Ha-eun and I became fourth-graders in elementary school while Yeon Mi-rae, after graduating from high school, became a cadet at an academy.

Yeon Mi-rae enrolled in the Seoul Awakener Academy, which was famous for being the highest-level academy in Korea.

She had not only entered as the top student, but she had also defeated all of the seniors attending the academy, not just the first-years who were in the same grade as her, and had confidently become the student council president….

‘…Isn’t the student council president usually chosen by a vote…?’

Since when has it become a system where the strongest person became the student council president…?

No, while that may also be a concern, it wasn’t that important….

Publicly, Yeon Mi-rae, an Aura Blade user, had nothing in particular to learn from the academy’s instructors or professors.

Yeon Mi-rae was a strong person of a much higher realm than them, so there was no way that the instructors or professors could handle her.

Although the dean and the chairman of the Seoul Awakener Academy were said to be an Aura Blade user and an Archmage respectively, Yeon Mi-rae had said that their styles were too different from hers, so she had nothing to learn from them.

“In the first place, I’m not a knight who uses aura, but a martial artist who uses internal energy, right? So it’s most efficient to learn from you, Master.”

“Is that so?”

If Yeon Mi-rae said so, then it must be true.

Meanwhile, Lee Ha-eun had also grown at a rapid pace.

There was the fact that I had taught her support magic that suited her, but more than that, the biggest factor was that Lee Ha-eun had shown motivation in her training.

“I want to get strong quickly too and play Artist!”

“……”

“……”

Yes.

Lee Ha-eun was training because she had seen me and Yeon Mi-rae acting as the Artist and his disciple and wanted to do it too.

Although my activities as the Artist weren’t a game.

Whatever her motivation, I was in favor of Lee Ha-eun becoming stronger, so I didn’t stop her.

Though I had no intention of taking the still-young Lee Ha-eun to a place where I was active as the Artist, no matter how strong she became.

‘Apart from that, is it a relief that she’s keeping her mouth shut about the fact that me and Yeon Mi-rae are the Artist and his disciple?’

I had been a little anxious ever since I had learned that my suggestions didn’t work on Lee Ha-eun, but it was a great relief that she would listen if I just asked her, without having to cast a suggestion.

There was a possibility that she might accidentally let it slip, but… Still, since it was something said unknowingly by a young child, other people probably wouldn’t take it seriously.

And so, a certain day came when I was attending school and training normally without any particular worries.

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“Next week, we will have a 2-day, 1-night training camp at a nearby training center. It’s all written in the family newsletter, so when you go home, give it to your parents right away… And whether you’re going or not, you all have to submit an application form by Friday, okay? Got it?”

“Yeees~.”

“Yeees~.”

The children in the class answered the teacher’s question.

I wonder how many children would actually submit their application form by Friday as the teacher had said.

After thinking that, I also thought about the training camp.

‘A training camp….’

The training camp that the pre-regression me had experienced was close to a recreational activity combined with an evacuation drill.

So, I remembered that we had trained to evacuate in an orderly manner while assuming a situation where monsters came out of a gate, and after that, we had spent time doing various activities.

When I was in middle or high school, they had also provided education on things like CPR or how to use a gas mask.

‘I heard that they used to do something like endurance training in the old days….’

All of that had long since disappeared into history though, so I’ll move on.

In any case, based on my pre-regression experience… I thought that it was fun in its own way.

Because it was a different experience from the usual, spending time with children in an environment away from family, and in contrast to at home where I slept at 9 or 10 PM at the latest, at the training camp, I had played for a long time and had only gone to sleep when it was almost 12 AM.

‘Even if it’s an Awakener-specialized elementary school, the broad framework probably isn’t that different.’

Thinking that, I put the family newsletter and the training camp application form in my bag.

I would just have to show it to my mother this evening and get her signature on the application form.

“Geon-woo!”

“Hm?”

As I was about to go to the training room after the end-of-day meeting, a few of the children from our class approached me.

It wasn’t Lee Ha-eun. Rather, it was the boys in my class.

“Geon-woo, let’s enter the talent show together.”

“Hm?”

Wondering what they were talking about, I checked the family newsletter again, and there was indeed such an item.

It stated that a talent show would be held during the training camp.

“Well… Okay.”

Thinking that this too would be a memory, I readily nodded my head.

“But what are we going to do for the talent show?”

“We’re going to do this dance.”

At my question, a child held out his smartphone.

On the smartphone, a video was playing where idols were doing a group dance to an idol song that had recently come out… which was a good enough memory to me.

‘…The difficulty of the dance is quite high.’

I didn’t know about myself, but it was at a level where I was worried if the kids in our class could do it well.

Of course, since the children in our class were Awakeners, their motor skills were good, so it would be possible for them to just follow it, but… the problem was time.

“Can you memorize it all in a week?”

“Yeah.”

“Of course. We’re going to practice hard starting today.”

…Is that so?

It was when I was thinking that…

“No! Geon-woo is going to sing!”

“We want to hear Geon-woo sing!”

“Your dance is lame!”

The girls, led by Lee Ha-eun, blocked the space between me and the boys and said that.

…For reference, the reason the girls were asking me to sing was simple.

Because my voice was good, and I was also good at singing.

‘As I trained in Sound Art, my voice naturally got better, and my vocal range increased, so I became good at singing.’

At the same time, since I had also learned how to play musical instruments, which were tools that assisted Sound Art, I was also good at handling popular instruments.

Yeon Mi-rae had even said while looking at me:

[You truly are an Artist. Do you perhaps also draw well?]

The improvement of my voice was just a side benefit that came from training my Sound Art, but it wasn’t a bad thing.

Because when I become active as an Awakener in the future, my public image will also be important.

A good voice was advantageous for building favor with people.

Anyway…

The problem now was the talent show at the training camp.

‘Actually, I don’t care whether it’s dancing or singing….’

For dancing, I could just follow the dance in the video, so it didn’t matter. And as for singing, I could sing most songs, so it didn’t matter either.

The problem was that the boys and the girls were in a conflict over whether to have me dance or sing.

If I chose one side, the children belonging to the other side would surely sulk.

‘…If I had my way, I’d just say I’ll do both, but….’

Unfortunately, it seemed that only one team per class could participate in the talent show.

Although when I say ‘class,’ the only classes participating in the training camp from our school were our class and a fifth grade class, for a total of only 2 classes, since the training camp wasn’t just for our school, but also for other Awakener-specialized elementary schools. As such, it was decided to accept only one team per class.

“So I’m saying Geon-woo is going to dance with us?!”

“Who gave you boys the right to decide among yourselves!”

“…Let me know tomorrow when you’ve decided.”

I left the children raising their voices to their squabble and headed to the training ground.

The children would fight like that all day, and then, at some point, they would reconcile and find a compromise.

I had left the room while thinking that.

As I was going to the training ground, I suddenly remembered a certain fact.

‘Wait, if we’re doing the training camp with other elementary schools….’

It means that I can see those guys who’ll be at other elementary schools now, right?

The guys I’ll meet when I enter the academy later?

‘Let’s see… Who were the ones who had awakened before coming to elementary school like Lee Ha-eun…?’

I felt happy at the thought of meeting my friends again after a long time.

The friends who had ignored my title of the world’s only martial arts ability user and had treated me as an ordinary friend.

The friends who I was grateful for as they had stepped up every time my mother was kidnapped.

Though they wouldn’t remember me now.

Although some of them had attended Awakener-specialized schools from middle or high school, there were definitely also some who had attended Awakener-specialized schools from elementary school like the current me.

‘Come to think of it, the twins had attended an Awakener-specialized school from elementary school, right…?’

The twins who always fought each other while claiming that she was the older sister and he was the older brother.

The twins who seemed to have recognized each other as enemies at the genetic level.

And yet, they were twins who cared for each other more than anyone else.

Thinking that I might be able to meet those two at this training camp, I looked forward to the event.

Though I didn’t know if the school those two had attended was among those participating in the training camp this time….

‘…It probably is. And if I go to the training camp, I’ll be able to meet those twins.’

It was a vague feeling.

But I trusted my gut.

Because the feeling that a person of as high a realm as me felt wasn’t an ordinary feeling.

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Time passed, and the day of the training camp approached.

The matter of the talent show was also roughly sorted out, and the conclusion was that I ended up both dancing and singing.

…The girls seemed to be satisfied as long as I sang any song, and the boys seemed to be satisfied as long as they and I danced.

Thanks to that, it was decided that I would sing and dance in the center of the stage while the other children in our class would be the backup dancers behind me.

‘…Somehow, I’ve become the main character.’

Well, seeing my mother being so happy after hearing from Lee Ha-eun about the talent show and that I was the main character of the stage made me not even think of refusing.

“Ha-eun! What did you pack in your bag?”

“Board games to play together at night, and cards…. What did you pack?”

“I packed snacks to eat on the way, snacks to eat there, and snacks to eat on the way back.”

“…It’s all snacks? What about a change of clothes?”

“It’s in the corner. My mom packed it for me!”

The children were having such a conversation while unpacking each other’s luggage.

Haha… The snacks would probably be shared with everyone on the bus while we were on our way to the training center.

As for the board games and cards… they would probably play with them in their rooms at night.

If they didn’t fall asleep, being unable to overcome their fatigue after playing for a long time doing things like recreational activities.

“Geon-woo, what did you pack?”

“Me? I….”

As the children were showing each other the contents of their bags, it seemed that my turn had come.

It would be strange for me to be the only one to not show the contents of my bag, and since there wasn’t anything to hide in it, I also opened my bag and showed the contents to the children.

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T/N – Well, it’s a transition chapter to the next mini arc, so not much happening in this chapter. Though I’m curious about the twin friends the MC has and how they’ll be.

Also, lol at Mi-rae’s Artist comment. I’m quite curious what else the MC can do. Can he really draw well, like what Mi-rae suspected?

Lastly, who wants to bet that this training camp trip will go to shit during the mini-arc? The MC seems to be the trouble magnet type, so I won’t be surprised if it really turned out like that.

If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.