SSS-Class Summoner

Chapter 16

The Practice (1)

"Hey...!" Kim Byung-cheol and Kwon Se-hyeong called out to Il-hyun.

"I'm sorry, I need to go." Il-hyun replied.

Leaving his friends, Il-hyun followed Lee Soo-yeon, who was already opening the door.

He left the building and his newly-acquired coat started swaying in the wind. The sword swung loosely on his waist. It would take a while to get used to that.

Il-hyun felt stern eyes pressing into his neck as he boarded the plane.

The inside of the aeroplane, quite unlike its exterior, was cleaner and less sparse than expected.

It was like something out of a war movie. It seemed to be full of messy and weird equipment. There was a seat at the back and a monitor on the side of the door.

The plane soon rose. The take-off was almost silent.

As a vertical launch and landing aircraft, it soared up rapidly without the need for a runway.

Il-hyun looked out through the open hatch and could see the world from above.

He had had a fantastic experience on the back of the falcon before, but the feeling here was quite different.

While he was staring blankly, the door hatch automatically descended from above and closed.

Lee Soo-yeon, sitting a couple of meters away, called out to Il-hyun:

"Hey, I know I told you this before, but now that I'm a team member, it's gonna be a lot easier. Here's Ghost."

"Good to see you again. Ha."

Ghost, held out his hand for the handshake, and took off his mask, much to Il-hyun's surprise.

There was a secret lying behind Ghost's mask. Anyone was likely to think that, but Il-hyun knew it for certain.

Now the secret was revealed. Il-hyun looked bashfully at Ghost's face while the latter took off his mask.

Contrary to the rumors, there were no colossal burn marks or scars on his face. Il-hyun looked intensely at Ghost's face and considered it neither ugly nor handsome. The secret after all was that there was no secret.

It was the face of a very ordinary young man.

"Oh... It's very different from the face I imagined."

"I hear that often."

"Do the rumors not get to you?" Il-hyun asked. "Why are you even covering your face? If you didn't cover it, people wouldn't be trying to guess what's behind the mask."

"I can't tell you. It's a very complicated situation."

"What's complicated about it?"

Lee Soo-yeon, sitting on a seat with her arms folded, started laughing. The hilarity of Ghost's concept of "complicated situation" had really tickled her.

Ghost took no notice, or at least pretended not to notice. He decided to change the topic.

"Il-hyun, do you mind if I call you brother?"

"Huh? Ah... sure."

Il-hyun wasn't quite sure how to reply to this request.

The tone of Ghost's voice wasn't exactly earnest when he had asked the question. Ghost came off as pretty smug.

"How did you manage to break the core again?" Ghost asked.

"Oh, that." Il-hyun looked incredibly satisfied with himself.