Chapter 437

4.

The story that Seong would be facing his backup team in a match had already spread through the Underworld long ago, through Helena.

Now Seong’s vassals had grown quite numerous, and there were also many Legions of Death with souls stationed in the Underworld, so the rumor started spreading at a pretty fast pace.

Well, even if there weren’t many of them, it was a rumor about Seong, their master.

In a way, it was only natural that it spread quickly.

They’d already known there was a foreigner team serving their master lately—but now they were hearing rumors that he was properly traveling together with them.

And on top of that—

“Hmph. A match against foreigners? Is that even possible?”

Valtar, hearing the news for the first time, openly showed his displeasure.

Following their master Seong was a truly commendable thing, sure—but it wasn’t unreasonable that he felt like they were being looked down on, as Seong’s vassals.

And of course, Valtar wasn’t the only one with that opinion.

“Hmph, that’s exactly what I’m saying. It feels like they’re daring to take us lightly—the blade of our lord.”

“Ah, just leave ’em be, will ya. They’ll end up dead like that—then they’ll come back to life and do it again, huh~”

“Hm. I’ll have to show them the sky is the sky for a reason.”

“Foreigners, huh. It’ll be fun to make them feel the difference in standing.”

Leonic, Barfur, Noctrynium, and even Silvanor—who’d become a vassal relatively recently—didn’t hide their displeasure and said it outright.

But it wasn’t like all the vassals reacted that way.

The timid Fiora, and the mage Serpina and Veladrina, and also Anemore and Kalisha were like that.

It seemed the direct warrior types were the ones who got indignant, while the ones who could fight at range or fill multiple roles tended to think, that could happen.

“Hmph. What that pervert knight says has a point, but foreigners aren’t something you can just look down on, either.”

“Kieeeeek.”

“Kkaaaaek.”

“I, I think so too.”

“Mm~ The foreigners are strong too. And they’re receiving Lady Helena’s instruction, so we don’t even know how far their potential will rise~”

Veladrina was analyzing, and Anemore and Kalisha nodded along as if chiming in, letting out cries.

Even timid Fiora agreed with Veladrina.

And Serpina, answering softly, too.

All five of them thought more or less the same.

Meanwhile, whether anyone said this or that, Belzarach was coiled up and sleeping at the very top of the Dark Castle—Noctrynium’s main body—in the highest place of the Underworld.

So even though the vassals’ opinions weren’t unified into one—the side that showed displeasure wasn’t truly enraged or furious at the backup team. They only felt like they were being looked down on.

So while the warrior and knight types were thinking they’d obviously win against the backup team there was someone watching them.

It was Drakanos, so aged that his face was full of wrinkles and even his expression was hard to read.

He looked at them, shook his head, and spoke.

mutter mutter mutter.

A faint voice—so faint you could barely make out what he was saying.

If Veladrina or Valtar had heard it, they would’ve known what it was.

Your eyes are covered by arrogance.

And Drakanos added one more line.

mutter mutter grumble (chuckle, if they come back after losing this time, I can raise the intensity of their training.)

If they’d heard that, arrogance and displeasure wouldn’t matter—they would’ve gone all-out.

But unfortunately, no one heard him.

And that was how time passed in the Underworld.

5.

Seong and the backup team ended the broadcast.

Their schedule was simple.

Seong went back into solo training.

And the backup team—

“Handling concepts looks free, but it isn’t.”

“......”

“......”

“......”

At Helena’s explanation, everyone listened closely.

They were focused on the real lecture now, but—there was also a strong sense of confusion.

And that was understandable.

'I thought ‘real training’ meant she’d grind us even harder...'

'So that wasn’t it.'

'I can definitely understand this, though.'

It was Helena’s teaching—teaching Seong had experienced too.

And it really was effective.

First, Helena made you learn it with your body by rolling you around herself.

After that, based on what she’d shown you, she explained the theory—so it couldn’t help but stick in your head.

It was the same for the backup team.

With things like that—training couldn’t help becoming a little more fun.

Especially—

“Hey, Kyou.”

“Y-yes?”

At Helena calling him, Kyou answered in formal speech without even realizing it—but no one mocked him or thought it was funny.

Because everyone was thinking Helena, smiling viciously, could flip at any moment.

They didn’t let their guard down.

Anyway, when Helena looked at Kyou and asked—

Kyou stared at Helena, tense.

Then—

“Kyou, you’re a Storm Lord, so why do you only use lightning?”

“...Pardon?”

“Storm means you’re the lord of a storm. That means you can use lightning together with a vortex like a typhoon. Air friction, and lightning is energy created in clouds—so if you use it together with a storm, its power should increase. So why do you mostly use only thunder and lightning?”

“...Ah?”

“A Storm Lord isn’t a Thunder Lord.”

At Helena’s words, Kyou’s eyes flashed like a martial artist who’d just gained enlightenment.

Lightning might be the most powerful part of a storm, but lightning couldn’t become the storm itself—and Kyou realized his mistake.

While Kyou was sinking into that realization and organizing his thoughts—Helena left him as he was and called out to Embris instead.

“And Embris.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

With Embris answering like her discipline was fully drilled into her, Helena looked at her and said,

“Blood-based techniques used through magic types are very useful.”

“Th-thank you.”

She thanked her for the praise—but she didn’t have a single naive thought that that was all.

The moment Embris thought that—just as expected, Helena’s thunderous scolding came down.

“Then why are you trying not to use your body?”

“...What?”

“You’re an apostle of the Blood Lord, aren’t you?”

“Y-yes.”

“Then you’re a vampire in the end—so is a vampire a mage?”

“...Ah?”

She almost said “no,” but—controlling blood didn’t mean she was “just a mage,” so Embris immediately gained insight.

What Helena meant when she said using concepts wasn’t “freedom.”

Now Kyou and Embris nodded like they finally understood.

And lastly, when Helena looked at Luna—the most skilled of the three team leaders—

Luna swallowed hard and looked back at Helena, tense.

And sure enough—

“Luna, you need to recognize what the Primordial Power really is. Would you call simple brute strength ‘Primordial Power’? It’d be good for you to think about what barbarism is, in your mind.”

“...Barbarism.”

At that, Luna nodded too, looking like something had occurred to her.

After that, Helena looked at Kim Che-geon—someone you could call the strongest among the team members—and spoke like she genuinely couldn’t understand.

“Why don’t you ride a horse?”

Kim Che-geon had gone from a Unique-grade samurai to achieving the Legendary-grade Gaema Warrior.

This time too, his class change was from the Goguryeo era, very far from Joseon—but anyway, it still had roots in Korea, and Kim Che-geon liked that.

“A-a horse, you mean?”

“Yeah. If you’re a Gaema Warrior, your combat power would go up if you fought on horseback, so why do you insist on fighting without riding?”

“...Ahem. Because I want to use my swordsmanship....”

“Cut the worthless reasons. Starting next time, summon a horse and fight.”

“...Understood.”

Kim Che-geon drooped.

But Helena, whether he was sulking or not, gave feedback to the rest of the backup team members as well.

Since everyone happened to have lord-tier Legendary-grade classes, Helena was able to teach them extremely well.

For a long while, the feedback continued, and everyone listened and chewed on it.

After that, they went back to surviving Helena’s bombardment again—but they definitely didn’t have as many openings as before.

It wasn’t true that they understood every bit of feedback.

Still, everyone was skilled, so they were able to apply a lot of it.

Kim Che-geon’s performance in particular was outstanding.

The way he rode a horse and swept across the battlefield didn’t really look like the Joseon swordsman people usually imagined—but it was more than enough to look like the Gaema Warriors created by King Gwanggaeto the Great long ago, or like a mounted knight.

In fact, compared to the other Legendary-grade classes, he showed an outstanding performance.

At this point, calling him “near-Almighty grade” wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

So Helena, too, seemed quite pleased.

“Hm. Then shall we stop here for today?”

At Helena’s words, everyone’s faces brightened.

Getting stronger was fun and a good thing—but if you didn’t get tired, you weren’t human.

They were exhausted, so when the entire backup team bloomed into smiles—Seong approached them from behind.

“Are you all done?”

The moment everyone tensed, thinking he might say something like, ‘Now train with me,’—they heard something unexpected.

“They say a new team is joining the backup team?”

At Seong’s words, everyone tilted their heads, puzzled.

Wait, someone else is joining the backup team?

At least, to keep a backup team like this, the team leader would have to be an Almighty-grade person.

While thinking that, they suddenly realized someone like that did exist.

“Ah, don’t tell me?”

“Ah, that guy from the UK....”

The moment everyone said those ominous words—Seong nodded and said,

“Yes. Reaper is bringing his team members along.”