On My First Day Undercover, the Organization Collapsed - Chapter 167
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Organization Collapsed on My First Day of Infiltration Episode 167
It Couldn’t Be Better (2)
1 hour before the event started.
Upon hearing news that spectators were entering, the First Years came up onto the stage first.
“Alright. Now it’s exactly 1 hour until the performance starts! Everyone stay quiet and warm up while maintaining formation!”
First performance only.
It was a special performance to surprise the audience.
It was something Ziel had proposed while they were struggling to make an impression on the audience during rehearsal.
During his assassin days.
The moment assassination targets were most surprised was precisely the moment when Ziel, who had been in stealth, appeared.
‘Stealth.’
Ziel got the idea from there and asked Emerick, and Emerick came up with a concrete plan.
The result was exactly this.
Hiding with Omnidirectional Invisibility Magic.
Then spreading fog over it, and when the fog became thick, releasing the invisibility magic.
That way, the audience would be shocked when students suddenly appeared after only seeing an empty stage!
‘But Teacher Ziel, what is that?’
‘It’s a trap to disrupt the spectators’ senses.’
‘You’re going to trap the spectators?’
‘You could say that.’
Of course, they couldn’t fool spectators that included Master-level knights with just invisibility magic.
So with Ziel’s appropriate measures added…
A perfect first-time-only performance was completed!
The effect was tremendous.
All the spectators were surprised and shocked.
No matter how much you know it’s magic, when you actually see it with your eyes, the effect is extraordinary.
Even among these spectators, the only Master-level ones, Amos and Daren, were completely fooled.
“Hah, hahaha…”
“Even though it was magic, I couldn’t notice…”
A performance that began with thorough preparation.
But the real thing starts now.
At the very front.
The Sword Dance performance that began with Gilbert’s downward slash captivated attention from the very start.
To some eyes, it was simply a Downward Slash.
But it was different.
That first movement, which would be nothing remarkable if performed by just one person, when executed simultaneously by 100 people—
‘What on earth is this….’
‘It’s perfectly identical…!’
Tremendous force came rushing in.
That was the beginning.
The captivated gazes could never look away.
The following Diagonal Slash.
This too was executed by 101 people with perfectly identical timing.
Thud.
Stepping forward.
Whoosh.
Twisting arms and wrists.
Slash!
Even the diagonal Upward Slash!
In all of those sequential processes, there was not an inch of error, not a moment of hesitation.
Those simple, basic movements from the textbook were being elevated to art in that moment.
‘This is it, this is it! This is beyond the picture I wanted!’
Mortis cheering inwardly while mixed among the Spectators!
Yes.
He had been waiting for this scene.
Art unlike anything before in his life!
A different type of satisfaction from what he felt when making clothing and props and completing accessories!
That performance born under the guidance of the subject he considered his most perfect creation, wearing the clothing he had made.
Mortis suddenly realized.
‘Art… even the process leading up to the moment when that art is finally completed can become art….’
If he had just happened to witness this performance by chance, his appreciation would have ended at thinking it was impressive.
Process.
It was the moment when Mortis, who had always been evaluated by results and only valued outcomes, gained enlightenment.
Swoosh!
Meanwhile, the performance had moved past its opening phase.
As they reached the 15th movement.
The students who had been repeating cutting and thrusting motions in place suddenly began to move.
‘What’s this?’
‘Something’s starting!’
The 16th movement.
All the performers gathered around one person in the center.
And maintaining minimal distance, they drew their swords in sequence from the center outward-
Shing!
Shing!
Drawing their swords in radial formation one by one, a wave of swords spread from inside to outside.
The audience realized.
Why the performance was called ‘Flower of the Sword.’
A sight like a flower blooming!
And with 101 petals made of swords!
When those petals bloomed in sequence and finally reached full bloom.
“The flower…”
The students uniformly sheathed their swords and scattered in all directions, then soon paired up in groups of five and gathered again.
“Ohh…”
“My goodness…”
They created 20 new flowers, each composed of 4 petals and 1 sword standing tall in the center.
It wasn’t simply drawing swords and taking positions.
Soon the flowers made of swords slowly rotated, capturing everyone’s gaze.
Then they disappeared.
“Ah…”
The feeling of regret was only momentary.
The remaining 1 person.
Gilbert began to bloom the ‘Flower of the Sword’ in the center.
Solo Sword Dance.
Gilbert himself thought that sword dance didn’t even reach Ziel’s toes, but it had begun.
However, the moment Gilbert’s sword dance started, people found their gazes stolen once again.
“What a magnificent sword dance…”
Sword dance.
A performance unfolded with swords.
A culture that had been abandoned as swordsmanship developed in a practical direction for killing enemies through numerous wars.
But at this very moment, that culture was being revived in the hands of Ziel and the First Years, along with collaborators Emerick and Mortis.
‘This will do.’
Flower of the Sword.
However, the real flower had not yet bloomed.
The moment Gilbert finished his solo sword dance without a single mistake.
The waiting students returned to their original positions at the exact timing.
And the moment they quickly took out magic powder, sprinkled it on their swords, and activated the magical tools attached beneath their swords!
“My goodness!”
“The swords… are those mana swords?”
“That’s impossible! How can First Years do that?”
Once again.
They succeeded in shocking the audience.
Beautiful waves of mana flowing along the sword blades.
Dense mana was blooming that even rivaled master-level mana swords.
“…!”
Even Amos and Daren were surprised at that moment.
They soon realized these weren’t real mana swords, but it didn’t matter at all.
To worry about such details…
The unfolding moment was too beautiful to look away from.
‘Teacher Ziel… remarkable. The students are amazing too, but how did he compose such a performance?’
Daren recalled Celia’s letter.
She had said Teacher Ziel was planning something incredible again.
Since it was Teacher Ziel, he had expectations, but who would have thought it would be this kind of performance.
At first, he had felt somewhat uncomfortable with the word ‘performance.’
It wasn’t a swordsmanship competition, and he didn’t like the idea of a child who was the noble daughter of Rihart having a ‘stage’ in front of people.
But the moment he saw the sword dance performance, that thought completely disappeared.
Cool, impressive, and beautiful – that was all true.
But what truly surprised Daren was Celia’s swordsmanship movements.
‘When did she become so refined? Faster and more solid. The weaknesses I pointed out during vacation, she’s improved this much in just one semester…’
His daughter’s growth!
No matter how much you prepare for a performance and repeat the same movements hundreds or thousands of times to make them look decent-
‘She’s changed. Definitely.’
But you can’t fool the eyes of a master.
Daren’s hands trembled.
Rihart’s greatest talent.
That talent seemed about to bloom in earnest.
Just like the ‘Flower of the Sword’ he had just witnessed.
It wasn’t just Daren.
‘Delev’s swordsmanship has changed. Our family’s swordsmanship… are we finding the answer in our youngest?’
The greatest concern of family heads is how to supplement and develop their family’s secret sword techniques during their generation.
In that sense, Amos hadn’t found a suitable method yet.
Until yesterday, that was certainly the case.
But today, he seemed to have grasped that clue.
Daren.
Amos.
Not only these two family heads, but all the parents watching this performance were clearly feeling their children’s growth.
Even Olton Sopen, who was completely ignorant about swordsmanship!
‘Was my son’s swordsmanship at that level? I did hear from his master a few times that he had outstanding talent…’
The sword dance performance.
The ‘Flower of the Sword’ didn’t just surprise people as a performance.
It clearly drew out and showcased the growth of their children that all parents naturally hope for.
Without even the students themselves knowing.
Meanwhile, the performance was reaching its climax.
20 minutes.
A time that was neither long nor short passed in an instant, and finally the students returned to their original formation.
And just like the first movement, Gilbert raised his sword high and brought it down vertically-
Swoosh!
Following this, the last of the mana powder flowed down along the tips of the students’ swords as they drew them downward.
Boom!
The mana powder exploded and oxidized at the sword tips, spreading beautiful remnants of mana like scattered petals in the air.
Shing.
Thud.
Then, returning their swords to their scabbards, all movements came to completion.
And finally.
The moment they performed the Knight’s Courtesy, signaling the end of the performance.
“Woooooooooo!”
“Amazing!”
“Incredible! That was really fantastic!”
Cheers and applause that seemed to spread beyond the Sword School Event Area to the entire Academy covered the stage.
“Hic.”
“Gasp.”
The First Years’ bodies trembled.
The past few weeks of preparing for the performance flashed by like a revolving lantern.
The praise they received at the end!
It felt as if they had lived their entire lives up to this point just for this moment.
A truly indescribable feeling.
Their bodies felt like they were floating, their blood ran hot, and this excitement made them naturally gasp for breath!
This was exactly…
Euphoria.
“Hmm.”
Ziel, who had been watching from afar, also felt a similar emotion, though weaker.
However, unlike the students, he couldn’t give a clear definition to his emotions.
Of course.
He clearly knew it was a very positive emotion…
‘How satisfying.’
He definitely felt the emotion of satisfaction.
He also felt an impulse.
‘Why do I want to go up front and shout?’
Even now, he wanted to jump onto the stage and say it.
That he had taught these students.
But he held back firmly.
‘The students are the protagonists of the festa.’
Ziel never forgot that fact.
Meanwhile, the applause never stopped.
Rather, the cheers grew even louder, and the applause only grew stronger.
Among the spectators, there were even people with tears welling up from being moved!
“How much those young ones must have struggled while preparing… really…”
“It was a perfect performance. I’ll never forget it. Ha, I didn’t expect something like this at a Sword School festa!”
“When’s the next performance? I absolutely must reserve a front row seat!”
Berhal was among them too.
‘This is insane. We won. This… might go down in history.’
Berhal was certain of victory.
No matter what Arcane School prepared, they couldn’t surpass this!
20 minutes.
That dreamlike time would probably be remembered for a long, long time.
“The next performance is at 3 PM. Let me announce again. The next performance is at 3 PM. Please note that during the festa period, there will be two performances per day. Thank you to everyone who watched the performance.”
As the applause and cheers subsided, Teaching Assistant Tiron came up to make the announcement, and the spectators sent another round of applause.
“Next time I should prepare flowers to throw up there!”
“Magnificent! It was a beautiful performance!”
The First Years could finally exit.
Of course, they maintained their composure even until the moment they came down from the stage, but…
“We did it! We really did it!”
“This is crazy, really crazy! How did we pull that off!”
“I was 100 times more nervous than during rehearsal!”
When they returned to the waiting room tent.
The First Years were swept up in indescribable emotions, cheering and shouting.
“What kind of thrill is this! This is seriously insane!”
“We really didn’t make a single, not a single mistake!”
“Teaching Assistant! What was that solo! It was even better than our rehearsal!”
The long practice sessions!
And the fruit they tasted at the end was so incredibly sweet.
Because of this, there was one person the students wanted to see more than anyone else right now.
Not their parents.
Not the spectators.
Not even the seniors.
It was-
“Teacher Ziel!”
“Teacher! Did you see our performance?”
“Of course he saw it! We were amazing, right?”
Just then, Ziel entered the waiting tent.
“We were incredible! Amazing, right?”
“Wow, I was seriously shaking from the very first movement!”
“I performed thinking that you were watching, Teacher!”
The First Years swarmed around him as if they had been waiting, chattering excitedly!
“….”
Ziel had many things he wanted to say.
But the moment he saw his disciples’ faces, he couldn’t.
Instead….
Instead of all those words, he brought out what he would say last.
“You all did well. It couldn’t have been better.”
“Teacher…!”
They had naturally expected criticism to follow!
“There’s a rehearsal scheduled in one hour, so enjoy the festival until then. That’s all.”
Ziel left the tent after saying only that.
The students left behind were certain.
“We really did well….”
“Teacher didn’t point out any mistakes!”
“Amazing….”
At this very moment.
The First Years had nothing to envy in the world.
“What should we do now?”
“Let’s go out and have fun! Don’t get hurt!”
“I’m so excited! Let’s go buy something to eat!”
It was the perfect opening of the Sword School Festa.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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