Vol 3 Chapter 35

"Huh?"

"...Let's have a drink."

"Eh? What?"

"Shh."

Kapros put his finger to his lips, lowering his voice so the current high school student walking ahead wouldn't hear. Kran nodded vigorously, his eyes turning red. The way the back of his head fluttered from nodding too hard was amusing.

"Where? In the game?"

"...No. Outside."

"What? Really? You mean meet outside?"

"Forget it if you don't want to."

At Kapros's firm response, Kran shook his head frantically, his eyes wide open and sparkling as if he might fall over in surprise.

"No way. Who said I didn't want to? Yeah, let's meet. Why not?"

"And let's contact hyung too."

"Huh? By hyung, you mean... that doubly scary Kion-hyung and Palton-hyungnim? I thought you were just inviting me?"

Kapros shook his head, laughing at Kran's expression that so clearly showed his plans had been ruined.

"They'll get angry if we don't invite them."

"Ugh, that's scary... Alright, let's do that."

As Kran nodded and smiled contentedly again, Un-o, who was walking ahead, turned his head with a puzzled expression.

"What are you doing back there?"

"Shut up, you rude high schooler! Your hyungs are coming now."

Kran replied energetically, seemingly excited as he grabbed Kapros's arm and started walking faster. Un-o looked at Kran, who was smiling innocently like a child, gave a cool smile, and then turned around, throwing out a remark.

"You keep looking down on me for being young, but youth means more energy, you know."

As he said this, he deliberately stared at Kran's lower half too intently, causing Kran to shout angrily.

"What? You think just being energetic is everything? Size! Technique! Experience matters too!"

"..."

Everything would have been fine, but unfortunately for Kran, they had already entered the outskirts of the village, and many elves were staring at them.

"Sob sob sob... I can never enter that village again..."

Un-o glanced down at the miserably collapsed Kran, then turned his head towards Kapros and spoke.

"This is the place."

The place Un-o had brought them to was a forest located on the opposite side of the village from where they had come. But no matter how much they looked around, there didn't seem to be anyone else.

"There's nothing here."

"No... They'll be here soon."

"Hmm. I see I can't fool you after all."

As soon as Un-o's words fell, someone suddenly appeared from among the dense trees where there had been nothing before, as if by magic.

"The people behind you must be those guests of Ilumine that everyone in the village has been talking about lately, right?"

The elf who appeared with his hands behind his back was a tall, middle-aged man with green hair and particularly well-defined shoulder muscles. Considering that elves like Ilumine didn't show signs of aging even after living for over 500 years, it was hard to guess his age.

"Yes."

"I'm Rashin Jin. It seems your journey in this village is coming to an end now. Then we can't be late either."

Rashin Jin said this and then quietly looked at Un-o with smiling eyes.

"You know today is the last day, right?"

"...Yes."

Un-o answered with a noticeably stiff face and determined eyes at Rashin Jin's words. Rashin Jin smiled once more and gestured broadly behind him.

"Well then, let's go. We'll finish the last part there."

As Rashin Jin turned around with those words, Kapros carefully observed Un-o grasping and releasing the arrows in his quiver.

The arm that gripped the bow and drew the arrow with a familiar motion was firm and smooth. The calm, controlled breathing stopped, and the muscles and tendons in his exposed forearm briefly twitched, but the bow didn't move.

As the hand pulling the string to its limit slowly came to a stop, sharp eyes confirmed the target, and simultaneously, a silver arrow slipped through his fingers at a terrifying speed.

Whoosh, thunk!

In the blink of an eye, the arrow's fletching could be seen quivering on the target it had deeply penetrated. Surprisingly, that target was the center of a rock.

"Wow!"

Kran clapped his hands beside them, his mouth wide open.

"That's really cool! The charisma is no joke. Maybe I should have tried archery too."

Kapros looked at Kran incredulously, and Kran, seeming to realize how embarrassing he sounded, scratched the back of his head and avoided eye contact. But Kapros didn't intend to say anything, because it really was impressive.

"Does it look impressive? That's still far from it."

Rashin Jin, standing behind them, laughed and spoke.

"Pardon? You mean that?"

Rashin Jin nodded in affirmation to the startled Kran and slowly explained.

"Technically, there's not much lacking. Left like that, he might develop in his own way. But the reason this descendant of the Thunder God came to me was to learn how to go beyond what's visible."

Go beyond what's visible? Seeing the puzzled expressions on Kapros and Kran's faces, Rashin Jin answered with a quiet smile.

"Arrows were created to pierce the target as quickly as possible. This is like condensing energy into a single, tiny point and shooting it, so when fired, it releases an enormous amount of energy in an instant. The target naturally can't help but feel it. But it's precisely because they 'know' that they get hit by the arrow, and because of this characteristic, most archers end up pursuing only speed. That's not necessarily bad, but it's just a visible arrow. It's a bow that hits even as it's seen."

A bow that hits even as it's seen. It was a puzzling statement that seemed both understandable and not.

"So one day, I, an elf and archer who can harmonize with nature, had this thought. What if we could hide that inevitable concentration of energy when shooting an arrow? If we could harmonize it with the surrounding energy, couldn't we surpass the limitations of bows and arrows?"

"Well, just hearing about it, I'm not sure about the effectiveness of that method."

As Kapros quietly questioned, Rashin Jin, still smiling, looked at him and said, "Hmm... Then let's do this."

"Would you mind stepping back a little? Then I'll demonstrate and explain directly."