Perfect World [EN]: Chapter 233

235

Clang. Clash.

Their swords collided in mid-air, creating a dazzling display of sparks. With each clash, Herse grew weary, her breath coming in ragged gasps, while Beom-seok maintained a steady stance, calmly continuing the duel. Although Herse possessed superior physical strength, he conserved his stamina with seasoned efficiency, minimizing unnecessary movements.

‘He’s amazing, as expected. He truly deserves to be the skilled fighter who fought Amelie.’

She watched Beom-seok with eyes filled with near reverence. Only a calm, relaxed swordsmanship emanated from his hands, yet she was using all her strength just to defend. She wondered if she would be safe if Beom-seok went all out.

However, she couldn’t falter here. She had to somehow impress him and experience the joy of serving her master.

“Hyaat!”

With a sharp cry, Herse swung her sword wildly, attempting to break through the stalemate with an aggressive offensive. Her sword flew towards Beom-seok like a raging storm.

Clang. Clash. Clang.

Despite her reckless charge, Beom-seok calmly parried each attack. He wasn’t unskilled enough to be caught off guard by a hasty assault. No, he even went a step further, creating an opening and inviting her advance.

‘Hehe. Let’s see how she handles her offensive.’

Beom-seok smiled faintly, dodging the approaching sword tips. Despite her relentless attacks, Herse’s stance remained solid, a testament to her well-honed swordsmanship. As he considered recruiting her, he couldn’t help but feel pleased. He was already looking forward to how much she would contribute to the God Knights.

Then, a bizarre attack followed. Herse abruptly bent her upper body and knees, swinging her sword towards his legs. Of course, if successful, he would be unable to move, but that was only if she hit him. There was no way that the sword strike, delivered with her waist and joints bent, would have proper power and speed.

Beom-seok believed that he needed to correct this bad habit with a stern lesson, so he gripped his sword tightly. He jumped back to avoid the attack and then swung his sword down at her head with full force.

Whoosh. Clang. Thud.

Herse barely managed to block the powerful blow with her sword, and the impact sent her tumbling across the floor. Now, all he had to do was chase after her and lightly tap her with his sword, and Beom-seok’s victory would be assured. However, he stood frozen, his gaze fixed on the distant sky, trembling slightly. The moment he swung his sword, a great sense of unease had washed over him again.

‘This is it! Why didn’t I notice this? Herse’s swordsmanship is only half of a combined technique.’

The reason Herse’s attack seemed so absurdly futile was because there was a huge gap above her head. Any professional gladiator would never be hit by such a clumsy strike. However, if someone had extended a long weapon like a spear through that empty space, he would have been in a great crisis, forced to sacrifice a part of his body. It was a timing born from very animalistic and instinctive movements, leaving him no room to evade. If this was truly part of a combined technique, then she and her sister, Iphis, were truly gladiators beyond imagination.

Calming his trembling heart, Beom-seok approached Herse, who was standing up again and pointing her sword at him.

“What was that just now?”

She revealed a bewildered expression through her face shield.

“S-Sorry. It was a m-mistake.”

“You. You make mistakes twice in a row?”

“M-My condition must not be good. Please give me another chance. I’ll do it properly this time.”

Beom-seok patted Herse, who looked as if she was about to cry, on the shoulder and let out a long sigh before sheathing his katana. If even she, who had performed it, didn’t know about it, it was either a combined technique close to instinct or a habit that she would never be able to fix. There was no longer any reason to continue the duel. Unbelievable as it was, if it was the former, she was a gladiator he had to recruit, and if it was the latter, she was a troublemaker he should never bring into the team.

“That’s enough. The sparring ends here.”

“T-Then, am I not a recruitment target?”

Beom-seok took out his electronic notepad and examined the information of her sister, Iphis, before shaking his head. Coincidentally, her main weapon was a spear.

“No. I’ll decide after looking into a few more things.”

“So, you might recruit me?”

“You could say that. But please be quiet for a moment. I have a lot of data to look at about you right now.”

Herse couldn’t hide her joy at the fact that she wasn’t rejected yet. The thought that she might join the God Knights, her dream gladiator team, made her happier than ever.

“Yes, yes. I understand. Please take care of me.”

Beom-seok smiled faintly and began to examine her match records before her recent slump. He figured that if he found matches in numerous league games where only one of the two sisters participated and compared them with the others, he could roughly confirm the presence or absence of this unidentified combined technique.

He arranged the match results on two menus and examined them, summing them up.

‘The difference is too stark. If I’m lucky, that terrifying combined technique might exist.’

As a result of examining the data, when only one of Herse and Iphis participated, they showed results of around I0~C3 [rating system, likely indicating a wide range of performance], but when they participated together, they both maintained C1~C0 level results. With completely 극과 극 [extreme to extreme] results, Beom-seok had no choice but to acknowledge the possibility of this absurd combined technique. It made no sense that there would be such a difference in skill simply because the sisters didn’t participate together.

Beom-seok closed his electronic notepad and looked at Herse.

“Herse. Since when have you been practicing swordsmanship with your sister, Iphis?”

“Since shortly after I was born. The team bought us early on and sent coaches to train us.”

That meant they had been practicing swordsmanship and spear techniques together for eight years without ever being apart. Perhaps this combined technique was a product of chance, created by the combination of the twins’ connection and the long hours of training they had shared. The reason Herse didn’t know that she was instinctively using the combined technique was probably because of this. Since she didn’t even recognize its existence, there was no way she would know that her swordsmanship was part of a combined technique.

After roughly sorting out the situation, Beom-seok walked over to Hobbes. He needed to start negotiations, although he would need to watch the match videos of them participating to know the details.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

Hobbes waved his hand and said,

“No, I was wondering if it ended sooner than I thought. But what are your thoughts on sparring with Herse?”

“She makes absurd mistakes often. I think this is why her recent performance hasn’t been good.”

He showed a bitter expression at the harsh evaluation, but he couldn’t say anything. It had happened right in front of his eyes, so there was no way to make excuses.

“Ah, yes. I’m sorry about that. She’s not usually like that. I don’t know why she’s doing this.”

“Still, she’s a child with good growth potential, so if you raise her with the intention of teaching her swordsmanship from the beginning, I think there will come a day when she shines. I can’t guarantee it, though.”

“We would have nothing more to wish for if that were the case.”

However, the Juan Irons team didn’t have the patience to wait for a long time. Even though she was a case where they bought her from the Elf School for almost free, her price, which was close to 400 million krang [currency], had now fallen to 190 million krang. Now that she couldn’t even participate in league matches, her price would fall further as time went on. It was determined that it would be better to sell her off quickly and cash in rather than take a risk.

Beom-seok, who had roughly noticed this, cautiously opened his mouth.

“Hobbes-nim [honorific suffix]. Are you willing to trade with us?”

Hobbes nodded without hesitation. At other times, he would have tried to raise the price by making him anxious, but right now, there was no team other than Beom-seok that would take Herse.

“If you take care of the price, I’m willing to agree.”

“Good. Then let’s end today’s negotiations here and proceed with the second negotiation at our team office. What do you think?”

Since it was what he wanted, he didn’t express any particular opposition. There was nothing to gain from Beom-seok continuing to hang around his team’s training camp.

“Yes. Let’s do that. Then when should I come to see you?”

“Hmm. About a week later would be good.”

“A week?”

“Yes. There are some things I need to look into about Herse. It’s a very large sum of money, so I can’t be too careful.”

Well, he couldn’t just impulsively engage in a large-scale transaction involving nearly 200 million krang. Even he would have taken extra care and paid close attention to the review. Hobbes, who could fully understand, decided to accept the offer.

“Yes. I understand. I’ll come to see you in a week.”

“Thank you. Then I’ll see you then.”

Afterwards, Beom-seok returned to his office, changed into casual clothes, and hurriedly left the Juan Irons training camp. This was because he had too much to do in order to conclude this deal. He had to raise the 부족한 [insufficient] funds, and he had to check the match videos to confirm the existence of the combined technique. In addition, he had to proceed with Iphis’ transfer, so he had to spend the next week before the next transfer negotiation period very busy.

“Master. Are you back?”

When Beom-seok arrived at Juan Citizen’s Park, Erpina came out of the car and greeted him. He didn’t even have time to greet her before putting Erpina in the car and sitting next to her.

“Erpina. Let’s go.”

“Shall we go back to the training camp?”

Beom-seok paused for a moment before nodding his head. He had to go to borrow money because he didn’t have enough funds, but it was too early since he didn’t know the results of Iphis’ recruitment.

“No. Let’s go to Lima City.”

“Yes. Then I’ll start.”

Erpina immediately set the flying car’s route. Soon, the flying car carrying Beom-seok and her rose into the sky above the parking lot and flew quickly towards the northwest.

Beom-seok, who glanced at the scenery of the clouds passing quickly outside the car window, took out his electronic notepad and connected to the communication. Then, he clicked on the phone number listed as Esther and pressed the call button. It was to check on Iphis’ transfer situation.

After a few communication tones, Esther’s face appeared.

“Esther. Is Iphis’ transfer going well?”

She in the screen asked for understanding from the man in his late 30s sitting in front of her and got up from her seat. Then, she left the reception room and said in a small voice.

– They seem to have not yet given up on their expectations for Iphis. They seem willing to watch her for a long time.

Beom-seok frowned as if he was in trouble. Iphis was absolutely necessary to bring out Herse’s abilities. Recruiting only one of them was worse than not recruiting at all.

“Hmm, is that so? This is troublesome.”

– Why?

“I went to see Herse. I found out that the current slump stemmed from the separation of the two twin sisters. So I have to recruit both of them.”

– Then what should we do? It’s not that they have no intention of selling her at all, but they’re asking for a pretty high price.

“How much?”

– 370 million krang.

Beom-seok frowned as if he was dumbfounded. He thought Iphis was worth that much, but it seemed a bit mean to put the official price at 240 million and then add 130 million more as soon as he visited.

“This is too much. To outsiders, she’s just a Wide League-level gladiator.”

– I agree. Then what should we do?

“Let’s close the table for now and tell them to discuss it again at our team office in a week. And tell them not to come if I’m thinking of offering more than 200 million krang.”

– Are you sure? You said that you can’t solve Herse’s problem without recruiting Iphis.

“It doesn’t matter. I saw Herse today, and I know that Iphis’ slump can’t be easily fixed in a year or two. Or it could last forever. We can buy her for a pittance anyway when time passes, so there’s no need for us to overdo it now.”

– Is that so? Why?

“They have a habit close to instinct that they don’t even realize. It acts as a big advantage when they play together, but it becomes a very serious disadvantage when they’re apart. If other teams find out about this fact, Iphis will be defeated by Area League-level gladiators over and over again. If you hold out for a while and strike when the habit pops out, you’ll be incapacitated immediately.”

Esther pondered his words and opened her mouth.

– Then shouldn’t we conduct a little more recruitment negotiations based on that fact? If we do well, we might be able to persuade them.

“That’s not possible. It’ll be a headache if that team finds out the fact and targets Herse.”

– Yes. I know that too, so don’t worry. I’ll never talk about the sisters’ connection.

Beom-seok looked at her and pondered for a moment. This transfer was Esther’s first solo negotiation. It didn’t seem like a bad idea to let her do as she pleased to gain experience. If he only recruited Herse, he was confident that he would eventually get Iphis in his hands.

“Okay. Then, before entering negotiations, arrange a sparring match between Iphis and the weakest gladiator among that team’s second team.”

– Sparring?

“Yes. If you see Iphis being brutally defeated with just a simple piece of advice from you, the trade manager will think again.”

– That’s not a bad idea. What advice should I give?

“Don’t say anything special, just focus on defense, and when Iphis makes an unreasonable move, strike her down immediately.”

– Yes. I understand. I’ll do as Chairman says.

“Okay. Then, good work and I’ll see you at the training camp.”

– Yes. Goodbye.

Beom-seok, who ended the communication, searched for match videos of Herse and Iphis playing together on the internet and displayed them on the screen. It was to 확실히 [certainly] grasp the existence of the combined technique. And after a while. A satisfied smile was drawn on his lips.

============================ Author’s Note ============================

The weather is cold today. Everyone, be careful not to catch a cold. Have a nice day. Then I’ll see you again tomorrow.