Chapter 299 - [20th Round] s.p.a.ce vs. Time
FSHH!
As if changing the outfit of a game character, typical angelic rags appeared in the blink of an eye and covered her body, albeit only a small part of it.
Her Divinity was overflowing.
“Reading your mind makes me feel like I’m being s.e.xually hara.s.sed.”
“So don’t read it.”
She shouldn’t pretend to be n.o.ble either.
The director just called a student an a.s.shole.
Her ident.i.ty was questionable.
“What do you mean? I’m but a friendly director enforcing the school rules. To that end, all I did was reprimand a student for insolently looking up a lady’s skirt. I’m also an understanding and compa.s.sionate leader, though, so I will forgive you just this once.”
“Grandma…”
“Riel, you little b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Keep your mouth shut while I’m still talking.”
Hero Richel immediately fell silent.
The director smiled brightly again.
“Hoho! I am kind to students and strict with my family members.”
“I’m apparently a member of your family, then.”
“Are you insane?! Don’t you even dare say that— Ahem! Kang Han Soo is such a comedian. Hohoho!”
She tried to keep a smile on her lips as she landed, wiping the cold sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.
I never took my eyes off her as she descended.
There were many ways to occupy someone else’s body.
Possession, adventuring, incarnation, reincarnation, usurpation, introduction, fusion, coexistence…
What happened to Rice Cake, then?
“…”
I couldn’t verify it in any way, so I looked around, wanting to hear the excuses of the First Spirit and my cowardly wife, both of whom knew the director well.
I gave them time to defend themselves.
“I haven’t seen my aunt in such a long time, but I won’t tell you how long exactly to avoid revealing my age.”
“I’m in the same boat as my niece.”
Was that all?
“Go on.”
“Yes, Yes. I just never imagined that my aunt, who insisted that women personify the wealth of a family, would look very different. It’s not my fault.”
“That’s right. If you have a conscience, show us how you really look, boo!”
The director shuddered when she heard criticism from her niece and friend.
But she didn’t back down.
“Are you two accusing me of something that happened in the distant past? At that time, women who ate well and had large forms were called beauties. Now, I have become the symbol of poverty and hunger.”
“What a pitiful excuse, auntie.”
“Shameless.”
“If it didn’t lead to complications such as hypertension, hyperglycemia, leukemia, infertility, arthritis, shortness of breath, cholelithiasis, fatty liver disease, apnea, rhinitis, asthma, arteriosclerosis, stroke, arrhythmia, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, snoring, and hyperlipidemia, I would’ve retained my previous beauty!”
“Hey, auntie? You do know that you don’t sound convincing at all, right?”
“I feel so sorry for you that my tears are already welling up.”
“Tsk.” The director, being pressured by her niece and friend, blushed.
Her grandson, Hero Richel, was silent, but the expression on his face was enough to tell me what he was thinking. ‘This is the first time I’ve seen my grandma being embarra.s.sed by others!’
I now roughly understood what truly happened.
I secretly hoped it wasn’t, but the reality was brutal.
Puppet.
Rice Cake was the director’s avatar.
There was a reason why the First Spirit and the Second Demon didn’t recognize her.
It didn’t matter how beautiful she was if her bones ended up hidden under layers of fat anyway.
▶ Embarra.s.sment: Recognize her by bones? Not flesh?
‘You heard that right, Trainee Teacher!’
As far as beauty was concerned, one’s collarbone and pelvic bones should be clearly visible.
That aside…
What options did I have left?
If she was the director’s avatar, then there was nothing I could do.
A puppet was a puppet.
“That’s right, cadet Kang Han Soo. Saintess Hippolia, whom you call Rice Cake, is my puppet. The students never noticed, but I’ve always been with them, conducting the Festival of Heroes, even though I’m the school director.”
“Hmm…”
Sports events and festivals in schools began with the opening speech of the director and princ.i.p.al.
‘Did you know about this, Trainee Teacher?’
▶ Denial: No. I’m a trainee. I always hung my head down in front of my seniors, so I haven’t had many opportunities to see their faces. I saw a framed photograph in front of the director’s office, but I think it was a photograph taken in the distant past.
She seemed to have many regrets about the past since she hadn’t changed her photo in quite a long time.
“Why?”
I was really curious.
“That’s a very good question, cadet Kang Han Soo. It leads us to the heart of the matter. I love that you’ve taken an interest without throwing accusations like my friend and niece.”
“Enough nonsense. Get to the point.”
“Watch your tongue, motherf.u.c.ker— Hoho! Beauty is relative. Just like how rare stones are cla.s.sified as precious stones, its formula is no different. Beauty is comparable to rarity.”
“I see.”
I thought I knew why the director was obsessed with the past.
In the old days on Earth, when people found it difficult to gain weight due to poverty and problems with obtaining food, chubby women had their advantage.
The fantasy world was similar.
The average woman here looked so gorgeous that their skills had become part of the criteria that a.s.sessed their beauty.
Charm, n.o.bility, dignity, divinity, innocence, seduction, sociability, mating, l.u.s.t …
Those were human standards, however.
It was different for angels, a race already born with skills.
“You seem to understand.”
“No.”
Angels didn’t put on excess weight because their skills always adjusted their figure and appearance.
But the First Angel mistook her obesity for “beauty” because it was rare.
It was really funny.
“Funny? My niece and friend criticizing me for being different from my past body is what’s funny. Enough of this. Isn’t it time to solve another problem of ours? Disciple Kang Han Soo, let my grandson Riel go and retreat.”
“And if I refuse?”
She was greatly mistaken if she thought I couldn’t harm her because she was using Rice Cake’s body.
‘Never obey your enemies.’
That motto helped me survive my first round.
Since then, nothing had changed.
▷ Race: First Angel
▷ Level: 999+
▷ Job: G.o.ddess (Demon Lord → Level ↑)
▷ Skills: Divinity G, Haste ZZZ, Slow ZZZ, Flying ZZ, Infinity Z…
▷ Status: Blessing, Protection, Divine Dragon, Management, Director…
Her stats were as vile as this whole system.
Her G.o.ddess profession automatically raised her to a level higher than that of the Demon Lord.
But it didn’t matter.
I had no intention of beating the director with Fantasy skills from the beginning.
PSSSSS!
I would deal with her with my own power.
“Disciple Kang Han Soo, you seem to have forgotten. I am the First Angel. Just as you control s.p.a.ce, I control time.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t know anything. Have you ever noticed that the baby dragon you named Green Cake is growing too fast?”
“…”
To be honest, yes.
However, I thought it was because of Rice Cake, who raised and educated him.
But that wasn’t all.
Although he belonged to the Fantasy dimension and not the Festival of Heroes, Green Cake didn’t disappear even after regression.
It was a phenomenon that was initially impossible.
But the director’s intervention explained it all.
“Your adopted son, Green Cake—”
BANG!
Concentrating demonic power in my right hand, I threw a punch at the director.
“Wha—?!”
Bending down due to the blow that landed on her stomach, she spat out blood.
The damage it caused wasn’t as huge as I hoped, though.
She managed to slow down my attack speed to soften the impact.
Even so, it still turned out well.
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My surprise attack was successful.
Before she spoke, she should’ve known that playing hostage wouldn’t work against me.
In my first round, that was the most common cause of death for my companions.
Without hesitations, I threw away my companions that became hostages because of their audacity to act alone.
I didn’t mind if they died since I always made sure to avenge them.
As the True Hero, I brutally exterminated enemies who hid behind hostages and neglected their defenses out of their belief that I would surrender.
“That’s not what a ‘Hero’ is!”
“Speak for yourself.”
It might seem like we entered a truce after my surprise attack since we were having leisurely conversations, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
WHOOOO!
Time had slowed down a lot, after all.
My attacks could no longer even reach her body.
But I wasn’t too bothered by it.
“Tsk. You separated s.p.a.ce!
“Yup. You can’t leave this place without my permission anymore.”
However, her subjugation wasn’t eternal.
The Demon Vault we were trapped in was shrinking ever so slowly because of the director’s time manipulation.
What was she saying about me not knowing her power over “time” again?
Einstein’s theory of relativity was one of the basic knowledge of high school students living on Earth.
I was prepared against her.
“Auntie got caught?”
“Heeheehee! I knew the Drug Demon Lord could handle her!”
My cowardly wife and the pitiful spirit reacted differently.
To me, however, it was obvious.
The MAX-Cla.s.s Righteous Demon Lord had won this battle.
“Disciple Kang Han Soo.”
“Surrender.”
“I admit. Thinking that you were inexperienced was a mistake.”
“No negotiations.”
“Don’t you want to go home?”
“I’ll do that once I’m finished with you.”
“No. It will be too late by then.”
WOOOOOOOOO
I felt the First Angel exert pressure against my s.p.a.ce. However, the cracks caused by the acceleration or deceleration of time couldn’t create any holes.
“Do you still believe that you can escape from here?”
“Of course.”
“…”
“If it keeps going like this, you’ll definitely eventually win. I can’t fight, after all. Will your family still be alive by then, though?”
“Your bullsh*t won’t work against me.”
The Demon Vault was completely cut off from the outside world.
Of course, that meant there was no communication either.
The director wouldn’t be able to instruct anyone to harm my family on Earth.
“How dare you a.s.sume that I, the director, will try to harm a student’s family? I’m surprised it even occurred to you in the first place.”
“Your words, not mine.”
“You misunderstood me. I mean, by the time you get out of here, your family members will have grown old and returned to nature.”
“Hmm?”
What nonsense was she talking about?
“Time is relative. While I am explaining this, three decades have already pa.s.sed in the dimension of Fantasy. On your home planet, that’s… three years, right?”
“Tsk.”
It didn’t sound like a lie.
The First Hero had done this to me once before.
Now that she was in my trap, she could no longer influence the outside world, but she could still freely manipulate time within this s.p.a.ce.
Hence, it was theoretically possible.
“Forty years now.”
“…”
“We can take our time negotiating, but you’d better hurry. Five years on Earth have pa.s.sed now.”
I closed my eyes.
And thought about my family.
My mother, my father. My mother again… Oh! I almost forgot about my younger brother, who took away my mother’s love and attention.
I was prepared.
“Keep going.”
“…”
“Years, decades, centuries, millenniums, eons. Do what you want. You’re not getting out of here. Even if it’s at the cost of losing something of value, I’ll at least be protecting something far more valuable.”
“You…”
“So what are we going to talk about next? Oh! Do you like spines? Rice Cake loved it when I rubbed her back between the 4th and 5th lumbar vertebrae. Looking back now, I think she wanted to please my tastes. What does your actual body think about it, though?”
“Ah, you a.s.shole…”
Ha! How inappropriate.
“Isn’t this the kind of hero you’ve been dreaming of?”
“What?”
“A selfless hero.”
“…”
“I’m right, aren’t I?”
Even if a hero had to give up their own happiness, they should never succ.u.mb to evil.
I got it now.