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Chapter 9 - Backstory - Part 1

TL: Eevee

Ed: Oer

If you're going by the argument that it is not the strong who survive, but those who survive are strong, then that would mean I'm the strongest human of the prehistoric civilization because I survived, even if I don't know how or why. They say luck is also a part of skill as well. I should be proud of this then.

However, I don't always have to be number one, so it would have been nice if my friends and family had survived as well…. Although I didn't say that out loud.

"Jinsu!"

Pyongang yelled sprightly, unaware of my sombre mood.

At least I have you.

"Hm?"

"Let's get married."

You, what? Just what kind of logic do you need to process to get that output? I take back what I said earlier. My migraine isn't settling because of you.

"I refuse."

"Whyyy! Look at me! This pretty! This figure! This strong! Kind! Young! Loaded with cash and authority!"

Kind? I had my doubts there but I agreed with the rest

"How old's our widdle Pyongang-chan?"(1)

"Theventeen yearth old!"(2)

"Poliiiicee!"(3)

I can hear the handcuffs jingling already.(4)

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is watching and the child protection law takes no prisoners. What's this kid going on about. Wait, haven't both vanished now?

"What?"

"You can't legally marry until the age of 20."(5)

To be precise, you can with parental consent, but I decided not to tell her that because they might actually allow it. Even with parental consent, you need to be above 18.

"It's alright, there's nothing like age restrictions in the continent's laws. You even get cases of one year olds marrying."

Now that is pure and utter insanity. What do children know for you to destroy their futures.

"My own morals refuse to allow it."

"In that case~ shall I make you allow it?"

Saying that, Pyongang seductively hugged me from behind. I could feel her body that you would never believe was underage.

"I don't have any experience~ But I know the theory rea~lly well~ All you have to do is look at the chandelier swinging on the ceiling and it'll all be over~"

A, at this rate I'm going to get arrested under child protection laws!

In my moment of danger, salvation came from the most unlikely of places.

"Isn't that enough for now?"

"Hup."

As soon as I heard Flute's voice bordering on absolute zero, my mind snapped back to reality. Although we haven't been together for too long, Flute showing emotion is rare. And it's the first time I've heard a voice as frigid as that.

Quite… an angry voice? The problem is whether Pyongang's going to take that as a joke or not.

"You wanna die?"

I thought not.

From anyone else it would sound like your standard cliche threat, but since Pyongang's the one saying it it sounds like anything but.

"Stop it. If you keep picking on Flute then I really will get angry."

What about my words?

I thought just maybe, but her reaction was more volatile than I thought. Pyongang lowered her head slightly before she started quivering,

"Uuu. Only taking her side, I hate you!"

She yelled, running out of the room like a scolded child.

Slam!

Despite all that, she still shut the door on her way out. Although, seeing as the door could no longer perform its function, having been totaled, it was quite ambiguous as to whether you could call it a shut door or not.

Although I didn't feel the slightest trace of guilt, it was quite unexpected. I thought that she would take it rather lightly as she was meant to; I didn't think she'd show a reaction much like a pure-hearted child….

"What can I say… she's like a storm."

"Thank goodness."

"What?"

"That Pyongang-nim listens to Jinsu-nim's orders."

Yeah, I'm surprised too.

To be honest, I don't actually have any relations.h.i.+p with her at all. If she keeps acting this straight around me, I don't know how I should react to her.

"But is Pyongang really that strong?"

"Pyongang-nim is the princess of the strongest family of black dragons, the Yi family. On her mother's side is Phoenix race, of beastkin royalty. You can say that she's the product of only the strongest bloodlines. Pyongang-nim's siblings themselves can be said to be among the strongest people in the entire continent."

So she's a diamond spoon + genius is it?

Since life is unfair by nature I could accept that.

"And even among them, Pyongang-nim is in a league of her own. Because she has the special abiities of both the black dragons and the phoenixes."

Just hearing about I can understand that she's an amazing person. I understand perfectly well she's one h.e.l.l of a munchkin. But I just can't grasp the reality of it. It felt like if you asked 'how strong is Muhammed Ali?' and you were told that he floats like a b.u.t.terfly and stings like a bee.

"Is that a big deal?"

"Normal people have one or two special abilities. Having three abilities means that you're a genius that appears every ten years, if you have four abilities then you're treated as a genius that appears once every hundred years."

"So Pyongang's a genius that appears once every hundred years?"

I can't really imagine it with her dumb act, but there's that.

"No. Pyongang-nim is nowhere near that level."

"Eh?"

"People in royal clans have four different types of abilities that can manifest, and Pyongang-nim has all four of the black dragon's and all four of the phoenix's special abilities. There has never before been a person like that in history."

And she gave me a simple explanation on special abilities. Abilities can't be obtained by work or effort, but determined solely by inherent potential. Although there are differences in power between abilities, most of the abilities held by royalty are said to be particularly strong.

The abilities of the black dragons were Northern Guard (AoE defence), Heaven's Harmony (weather control), Subterranean Dragon (earth control(6)), New Moon's Calamity (cutting through pretty much everything), those four.

The abilities of the phoenixes were Tailwind (speed boost), Eternal Oath (the highest level healing ability), Unextinguishable Flame (the strongest fire attribute) and Wise Five Colour King (willpower).

Each one sounds ridiculously strong, and Pyongang has all of them.

Who was it? The one who authorised this balance patch.

Haa…. It looks like I'll really have to stay on good terms with Pyongang.

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(1-4) This entire exchange was completely bulls.h.i.+t to translate. Translating someone saying things in a cutesy s.h.i.+t manner made us all flip tables. Literally, it took the entire Myoniyoni team present at the time to get decent localisations and this was the best we could manage. On behalf of the entire translating team at Myoniyoni translations and one little sister, 'f.u.c.k this s.h.i.+t.' Also, Haku (Taming Master translator) mentions that we collectively lost all our dignity trying to translate this. (lol) For more translator shaming: https://pastebin.com/frPwXQm6

(1) Pretty much asking how old Pyongang is in a cutely childish way - Google and Naver both failed me, and Haku, and Yoni, and Xceed, and Emptycube - yeah, pretty much bulls.h.i.+t until Haku gave us the above line, at the aforementioned expense of his dignity.

(2) Responding cutely in kind, because little kids (not really a little kid) lisping happily is cute (apparently)

(3) Raws had "아청아청하네!" where 아청 is an abbrevaation of 아동 청소년 which in turn translates to 'underaged youth.' Now Korean is another language much like English where new words make dictionaries obsolete the moment they're printed. In this case the abbreviated noun 아청 is used as an adjective which in context means something along the lines of 'waaay too young!' or "loliloliloliloliloli!" or smth like that.

(4) Original line was 철컹철컹도 할 것 같아 which literally translated means 'it feels like it was going to 'chulkung chulkung," which is the SFX for the clinking of handcuffs. I presume further explanation is unnecessary. Very often used in context of describing attraction for lolis.

(5) Okay, I'll explain this again later, because this lets up a later joke, but East Asia has two ways to calculate age. In Korea, the first being the variant everyone else use by the Gregorian calender, which when referred to, is "만 (mahn) # years old."

The other is calculated by 'Age = (Current Year - Birth Year) + 1' where +1 refers to the 9 months at birth, and the current year - birth year stemming from a system where age ticks over at Lunar New Year rather than birth age. Ergo, under this system, everyone born in the same year should (theoretically) have the same age. Since Pyongang never specifically clarified that she's 17 by the Gregorian calander, MC (and presumably, native KR speakers) a.s.sume she's talking Lunar calender age, which converted is 15/16. What's important is that it is THIS method of calculation which is used in a conversational basis and is a.s.sumed to be in use when you're talking about age. Relevant Wikipedia article: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_age_reckoning#Korean)

(6) Written as earth control, read as earthbending