Ranker Who Lives Twice

Team: HH, Yahiko, thursdays (8/10)

“Crazy b****.”

Anastasia cursed as she healed her disciple’s destroyed arms and eyes. Victoria was deep in sleep from exhaustion.

Looking at her face, Anastasia let out a deep sigh.

She knew best how her disciple felt all this time.

Victoria couldn’t do anything because she was drowning in guilt, and when she finally got back to her daily life, she always looked depressed.

For the last hundred years, Anastasia had only seen her disciple act shamelessly. It had been ages since she saw her disciple acting like this.

When Victoria had thrown a tantrum saying she needed to save Kahn, Anastasia didn’t help her and locked her in a room instead.

If she let her go, Victoria would really go insane. Anastasia didn’t want to see her one and only disciple become a crazy b****.

But she had ended up like this in the end.

There was nothing Anastasia could do but scold her as she smoked the pipe in her mouth.

『……Victoria.』

Just then, a breeze silently gathered and took the form of a human. Rebecca settled down and held Victoria in her arms to console her old friend.

Some time passed like that, and Victoria slowly opened her eyes.

“Did you wake up? You little…”

“T-Teacher…”

“B****.”

“…..Sorry.”

“You did a cute number on the Adamantine Nova.”

Victoria couldn’t look Anastasia in the eyes and dropped her head.

“In case it was stolen by other people…..”

“Fine. That would have been an issue, so I understand. But the problem is that things became tricky even for me.”

The moment Anastasia checked the Adamantine Nova, she was almost scared to death.

There was a spell engraved clearly on it.

It was an item-binding contract. It was set so if the Adamantine Nova was some distance away from Victoria, it would explode immediately. Also, because it was bound, it would take a while to release it.

It meant one thing.

‘Even in that state, she’s gonna help out that Kahn bastard or whatever his name is.’

Anastasia was going to scold her again but just sighed and took the pipe out of her mouth.

White smoke spread around her.

“…….”

“…….”

The two didn’t say anything for a while. Victoria’s head hung low, and Anastasia just silently held her pipe in her mouth. Then, Anastasia spoke up again.

“So.”

“…..Yes?”

Anastasia shouted in an annoyed voice.

“So do you feel better after going through all that now?!”

Victoria smiled bitterly.

“A bit…..”

“Haaa. You pushover.”

The smoke wrapped around Anastasia and then disappeared.

“Still, if you feel a bit better now, that’s good. But no more.”

“But Teacher—”

“No means no.”

Anastasia cut her off. She wouldn’t allow any more rebellion. She seemed like she would forcefully hold Victoria back if she didn’t listen.

Victoria clenched her teeth. She had stalled for time as she wanted, but that was it.

She still hadn’t saved Kahn. Even now, he was probably off fighting other people.

Her gaze fell towards the Adamantine Nova.

Anastasia had said that it was tricky for her because there was a binding spell on it. That meant that for the time being, she would be the only person able to use it. Anastasia wouldn’t be able to stop her if she used that.

‘Wait. Then how did Cain’s subordinate use that…..?’

At first, she had thought that the spell hadn’t worked properly. She was extremely curious, but she decided to leave it alone and think about how to activate the Adamantine Nova.

If she could escape and create a temporary tool to use it…..!

Anastasia was about to shout at her disciple, who hadn’t given up hope yet.

Just then,

“That’s enough, Victoria.”

Yeon-woo suddenly stepped through the door. Behind him, the Ice King followed with an awkward smile.

“Why didn’t you kill him? I’m sure I told you to cut off his head and send it back to Iron Lion.”

Anastasia reproached Cain.

The Ice King had a sour face. Regardless of whether he was uncomfortable, Anastasia took out her anger on Yeon-woo for bringing the Ice King. The Ice King was the one who hurt Victoria the most, so of course she would be furious.

However, Yeon-woo firmly shook his head.

“No. He promised to help us from now.”

“How do you know that?”

“We made a pledge.”

He was speaking about the soul contract that they pledged on a demon’s name. If they broke the conditions of the contract, their soul would be sold to a demon.

The Ice King signed. He would die if he didn’t do it, so he didn’t have any other choice.

Anastasia put her pipe in her mouth. She still didn’t look satisfied.

“Anyways. So?”

“I learned the cause of this incident.”

“The cause?”

Anastasia had an inquisitive expression.

He sighed at the thought of having to repeat everything the Ice King said, but he stepped up to explain the fight for Bian Studies.

The moment the words “Ruyi Bang” and “descendants of the Monkey King” came up, Anastasia’s eyes became bigger.

Having lived for a thousand years, she knew the many secrets of the Tower, so naturally, she had heard about the Ruyi Bang pieces. At the time, she just thought it was a strange game the Monkey King had left behind, but it had unexpectedly appearedt in front of her.

When he finished explaining, Anastasia looked back at Freesia as if asking if it was all true.

Freesia silently nodded. Then, she just continued to stand silently, like there was nothing else she had to add. Anastasia’s face hardened further.

“So then this b**** was played?”

Victoria shut her mouth.

It was Yeon-woo who answered instead.

“That’s probably not it.”

“You said that Blood Sword or whoever set everything up to gather pieces, no? And this b**** was played by him.”

“Kahn is probably being used.”

After hearing the cause of this incident from the Ice King, Yeon-woo was able to solve the mystery behind Kahn.

The first clue was the words the letter left behind after becoming ash. He still couldn’t forget what they said.

Help me.

In the tutorial, Kahn had headed towards Arangdan even knowing that he would be in danger.

He had requested help.

Looking back at it now, Kahn had been giving him signals from the Monkey King’s palace.

When seeing the stones with the 72 Bian on it, Kahn had been staring at them blatantly, as if searching for something.

He tried to say something to Yeon-woo several times, but he just shook his head and stopped himself.

Despite knowing what it was about, Yeon-woo left him alone, thinking Kahn wasn’t ready to share yet. He thought Kahn would explain everything to him someday.

But.

If that wasn’t it. If he was ready to speak but couldn’t. If Yeon-woo’s laidback attitude had been too relaxed.

Then. Kahn wasn’t asking for help for himself.

-It’s been a while since I was separated from him.

A brother-like fellow he had split up with.

‘Doyle.’

Could he have been asking for Yeon-woo’s help to help that child?

[Athena looks at you with sad eyes.]

Just then, a message popped up for the first time in a while after he left Tartarus.

However.

‘Please don’t pity me.’

Yeon-woo rejected her gaze.

[Athena looks at you with sad eyes.]

Yeon-woo ignored Athena’s message and explained his thinking.

“And your proof?”

“I have none.”

“But what do you want me to believe…..”

“You don’t have to believe me.”

Anastasia raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

“What?”

“I didn’t say it for you to understand. I only came to convince Victoria.”

Yeon-woo didn’t care about Anastasia’s glare and turned to Victoria, who was staring blankly at him.

“It’s only a guess. However, I don’t think I’m wrong. What do you think, Victoria?”

“I think….. you’re right.”

“And it’s probably the Devil Army pulling the strings and threatening Kahn.”

Victoria silently nodded and clenched her fists. When Kahn had first met her, he only asked for help and nothing else.

The moment she heard what Yeon-woo said, she felt like her head was clearing up. The Kahn she knew was someone who would throw himself away to protect someone special to him.

“So it’s not just the people here who you need to deal with to help Kahn; you also need to fight the Devil Army. You might become an enemy of all the rankers here.”

Unless you were one of the Nine Kings, fighting a war with a Large Clan like the Devil Army wouldn’t be easy. However, Yeon-woo said he was going to fight.

Victoria quickly checked the magic power remaining in her body. Thankfully, she was healed somewhat from the monstrous power that Anastasia planted in her.

It would be hard for her to fight, but she could support from the back. She thought Yeon-woo was obviously going to ask for her help.

“So.”

Anastasia must’ve thought the same thing because she was about to remove the pipe from her mouth to say something, but…..

“Please stay here.”

“…..What?”

They were completely unexpected words.

“If you step up, you’ll only be in more danger.”

He was telling her to stay here because she’d be a burden. The only reason Yeon-woo was telling her this was so she wouldn’t chase after him if he quietly disappeared.

“…..”

Victoria bit her lower lip. The fact that she couldn’t be of any help and would be a burden reminded her of back when she was powerless on the Five Mountains of Penances.

However, Yeon-woo immediately turned away after he finished. Along with the words that he would be back with Kahn soon.

* * *

“……Seseungnim.”

“Stupid b****.”

After Yeon-woo left.

Victoria clenched her teeth in consideration for a while and called for Anastasia. However, Anastasia didn’t say much and just put the pipe back in her mouth.

Because she was her one and only disciple, Victoria knew what it meant.

“Thank you.”

Victoria bowed and put a shirt on to leave. The Adamantine Nova followed her like a tail as she ran out the door.

“Can you send her like that? She’s the first child you were affectionate for.”

Freesia, who had been standing silently in the back, asked. Her face couldn’t be seen because she was wearing her wooden mask, but her eyes were curved. Her voice made it seem like she was smiling.

Not liking Freesia’s attitude, Anastasia frowned and pulled out her pipe with anger.

Only

“She’ll do what she needs to do. How long do I have to take care of her?”

“You’ve changed, Anastasia.”

“I don’t know who she takes after that she’s so stupid. Tsk! I should’ve stopped her when she said she was going to do that weird Sadhu thing.”

Despite her harsh words, her voice was filled with concern.

“There’s no teacher who can beat their disciple.”

Through the smoke, Anastasia looked blankly in front of her.

“And nothing is as scary as a woman blinded by love.”