Ex Rank Supporting Role’s Replay in a Prestigious School

Baek Ho-gun was at a loss for words.

Although Baek Ho-gun wasn’t someone who spoke much, it was the first time he found himself at a loss for words like this.
The child, as bright as the morning star, was smaller and weaker than Baek Ho-gun, and yet despite appearing intelligent enough to realize this, the child treated him as if he were less than an unwelcome guest.
However, despite the child’s behavior, Baek Ho-gun wasn’t angry, perhaps because the child’s radiance was so overwhelming.

The child was staring directly at Baek Ho-gun through the lenses of their glasses. The child’s eyes seemed to contain the night sky itself, and Baek Ho-gun found himself gazing at them, as if admiring the sky.
When Baek Ho-gun didn’t react, the child spoke again.
“Once you’re done watching, leave.”

The child’s second sentence was an unspoken command for Baek Ho-gun to leave.
Baek Ho-gun wasn’t angry, but he wasn’t planning to leave easily either.
“No.”

“Then shut up and watch.”
“I don’t want to do that either.”
The child, having judged that Baek Ho-gun wasn’t someone with whom one could engage in a conversation, turned their head away.

Perhaps thinking of the next move during their “conversation” with Baek Ho-gun, the child immediately placed a chess piece on the board.
For the next few moves, the child’s concentration was fierce.
Baek Ho-gun didn’t interfere, only watching silently.

Though watching might have been a distraction, Baek Ho-gun didn’t care. If a fight couldn’t be won with even one observer, it was a fight that was never going to be won in the first place.
After some time, the child spoke again, but not to Baek Ho-gun.
“Check.”

Baek Ho-gun didn’t know much about chess, but he was well-versed in combat.
Chess, after all, was a fight of its own, with pieces moving as soldiers.
Baek Ho-gun knew from the atmosphere that the child had just made a decisive move.
When a suspicious smile appeared on the child’s face, the darkness that had been covering the chessboard seemed to ripple violently.

Boom!
It was a fleeting moment, but the surroundings were briefly engulfed in light.
When the light subsided, the child’s strange smile faded.

The child’s expression had changed, but more than that, there was a change in the dream.
The number of stars had increased.
“One more star has appeared.”

Baek Ho-gun, briefly counting the stars that filled the night sky, realized the significance.
It seemed that with every victory over the nightmare, a new star appeared in the dream’s night sky.
When the child declared checkmate, the nightmare disappeared, and the stars increased. The meaning of this was clear.

The child had fought alone, defeating the nightmare as many times as the number of stars.
“...Have you been winning against the nightmare all this time?”
Baek Ho-gun said it more like an admiration, but the child answered sharply.

“How could I win every time in chess? I lose sometimes.”
It seemed the child had judged Baek Ho-gun as someone who didn’t understand chess.
Of course, Baek Ho-gun didn’t know the rules of chess nor how to play, but hearing such a remark to his face didn’t sit well with him.

Still, curiosity won over annoyance.
“That child doesn’t seem like one to show humility. It doesn’t seem like they’ve really won every time. Wasn’t the nightmare captured based on the outcome of the chess game? Then how did the child manage to hold back the nightmare?”
Baek Ho-gun, exercising patience, asked.

“How have you been dealing with the nightmare?”
“Why should I tell you?”
The child didn’t seem willing to answer easily.

Baek Ho-gun almost pressed further but stopped.
There was something Baek Ho-gun hadn’t noticed due to being mesmerized by the star-like light.
The child was exhausted.

Fighting against the chill of the nightmare had frozen their body, and relying on their light to fight in the darkness had accumulated fatigue.
Yet the child had still won in chess against the nightmare.
“This child isn’t just shining outwardly; they’re truly young. Yet they’re fighting.”

As Baek Ho-gun thought about the child’s victory in battle and the way they glowed like a star, his anger quickly faded.
Rather than pressing the child, Baek Ho-gun decided to change the question.
It wasn’t exactly a question; it was more of a concerned statement.

“Aren’t you cold?”
“Not really, I’m fine.”
“The surroundings are dark. Is that alright?”

“It’s better than the light hurting my eyes.”
The chill and darkness of the nightmare had a greater effect on the mind than the body.
The child had the mental fortitude to endure it.

That’s why the child had managed to withstand the nightmare.
After exchanging a few more words with the child, Baek Ho-gun made a proposition.
“I know about the nightmare. If you tell me how you’ve been stopping it, I’ll tell you what I know.”

“...”
“It might help you in fighting the nightmare.”
The child, who had been responding swiftly until now, fell silent for the first time.

Though they couldn’t trust the person who suddenly appeared in the dream and was being bothersome, it seemed unlikely they would just send him away without hearing him out.
Baek Ho-gun’s world was similar to this one but had more differences than similarities.
While the world of Baek Ho-gun was filled with mystery and fiction, reality and fantasy were almost entirely separate in this world, so there was no information about the nightmares here.

In contrast, Baek Ho-gun’s world had the Truth Clan, which had been studying and preparing countermeasures against the nightmares, with many tales about the nightmare as well, making it a potential resource for the child.
After some deliberation, the child finally spoke.
“Do you know what stalemate is?”

Stalemate?
Baek Ho-gun realized it was a chess term, but beyond that, he had no idea.
Baek Ho-gun admitted his ignorance boldly.

“No.”
“Get lost.”
The child responded without hesitation.

There was contempt in the child’s eyes, and from that point on, no matter what Baek Ho-gun said, the child only responded with “leave” or “get lost.”
So, Baek Ho-gun decided to leave the nightmare to the child and stepped back for now.
After stepping back, Baek Ho-gun immediately went to research what a stalemate was.

After learning about it, Baek Ho-gun had an epiphany.
He hadn’t even heard the child’s name.
In the annex of the Hwangmyeongho mansion.

As Baek Ho-gun was hearing about his first encounter with Jo Yi-shin, when the part where Baek Ho-gun had been kicked out came up, Eun Ho spoke.
“From Yi-shin’s perspective, that’s understandable. If I were to explain it simply for you, Baek Ho-gun, it would be like someone who doesn’t know anything about kendo trying to teach you how to fight. How could you trust that?”
“True. And that mad tiger doesn’t seem like the type to want to learn anything from others, so Yi-shin probably didn’t trust him. Yi-shin has always been as smart as my son since childhood.”

“I agree. No matter how well Yi-shin explained, Baek Ho-gun would’ve known that he wouldn’t listen properly. After being kicked out a few times, I guess he finally came to his senses.”
Unlike Jeok Ho, who would bluntly speak with curses, Eun Ho spoke kindly like a spring breeze, though his words were growing sharper.
Baek Ho-gun, regardless of what his friends and younger siblings were saying, had a bright face.

He still seemed to only listen to the words he wanted to hear, just like before.
Every time Baek Ho-gun spoke, Hwang Ho had to press his temple with his little finger.
Baek Ho-gun, enjoying watching his friends' reactions, spoke up.

“If you have a lot to say to me, I should keep quiet so I won’t be a bother.”
Jeok Ho flared up.
Baek Ho-gun hadn’t even said anything yet, but now he was trying to stay quiet?

Hwang Ho felt a hot surge rise in his chest instead of his temple.
Hwang Ho had waited patiently when Baek Ho-gun became a member of the divine beast’s race and never asked about the details.
But now, using the authority of the leader, Hwang Ho felt the impulse to call in Baek Ho-gun’s disciple and torture expert, Kim Shin-rok, to make him open up.

Fortunately, before Hwang Ho could act, Jeok Ho spoke first.
If you are reading this translation anywhere other than .net or SilkRoadTL, it has been stolen.
“Baek Ho-gun, you’ve been talking nonsense. Where did you get bitten by a dog? Stop with the barking and nonsense. We have something to talk about.”

“Right, you didn’t even get to hear the name. How did you manage to invoke your divine name?”
As Eun Ho filled Baek Ho-gun’s empty cup with appropriately brewed white tea, he continued speaking.
Seeing this, Hwang Ho was horrified.

He couldn’t understand why Eun Ho was still treating Baek Ho-gun like an older brother.
“Talked to him again.”
Baek Ho-gun spoke those short words and took a sip of tea.

During this, Jeok Ho couldn’t stand his frustration and started rampaging.
After observing this, Baek Ho-gun spoke of his meeting with the morning star-like child.
Baek Ho-gun returned to the dream.

On the way, he had fought some remnants of the nightmare, but it wasn’t anything significant.
Of course, considering Baek Ho-gun’s standards, it wasn’t anything special. Any average member of the Truth Clan would have had their body cracked and soul shattered through a long journey.
At the end of that journey, Baek Ho-gun met the child from the morning star once more.

When Baek Ho-gun arrived, the child, having just finished a match, was sitting alone in front of the chessboard, reviewing the game.
Baek Ho-gun immediately spoke.
“I know what stalemate is.”

“So what?”
The child ignored Baek Ho-gun and continued with what they were doing.
Baek Ho-gun, not being looked at, had to explain what stalemate was by himself.

Once he finished explaining, the child finally lifted their head and looked at Baek Ho-gun.
The child’s eyes were the same as when Baek Ho-gun first saw them, like the night sky.
Gazing into those eyes, Baek Ho-gun ventured a guess.

“If your chess game ends in stalemate, does that mean the nightmare wins?”
Baek Ho-gun had made a guess after learning what stalemate meant.
Even if the child won or lost the game, the nightmare could not win.

But the defiant child was fighting the nightmare through chess, so they must have established a rule about the game beforehand.
Could that rule be related to stalemate?
Would the nightmare lose if the game ended in stalemate?

Given this, it wasn’t strange for the child to disregard Baek Ho-gun for not knowing about stalemate.
“You’re not an idiot.”
The child didn’t deny Baek Ho-gun’s guess.

But did they really see him as an idiot before?
Just before Baek Ho-gun furrowed his brow, the child spoke.
“My name is Jo Yi-shin.”

Jo Yi-shin introduced himself.
It was informal, but still a reasonably polite manner.
Jo Yi-shin even explained the meaning of his name, seeming to like the inclusion of the word "dawn" in it.

Once Jo Yi-shin finished his introduction, Baek Ho-gun spoke.
“I am Baek Ho-gun.”
Jo Yi-shin listened carefully to Baek Ho-gun’s introduction.

Though Jo Yi-shin was exhausted from the chess game against the nightmare, he was still paying attention.
While Jo Yi-shin had strong mental fortitude, his resistance to the nightmare’s power was almost nonexistent.
Baek Ho-gun, impulsively, felt the urge to grant Jo Yi-shin a divine blessing.

He couldn’t just let the nightmare prevail in this world with Jo Yi-shin alone dealing with it.
But since Jo Yi-shin had already established the rules for fighting the nightmare through chess, there was little Baek Ho-gun could do to intervene.
“If I grant you a powerful divine blessing, maybe I can fight alongside you.”

To travel back and forth between this world, Baek Ho-gun would need to leave behind his divine name.
Rather than bury it somewhere in this world, he thought it might be a good idea to grant Jo Yi-shin the blessing.
Though Baek Ho-gun had never given a divine blessing before due to his pride, he now considered it for this child he had only met twice.

Baek Ho-gun said.
“I will grant you a divine blessing with my true name.”
Since this was a concept that didn’t exist in this world, Baek Ho-gun briefly explained what his true name and divine blessing were.

After hearing the explanation, Jo Yi-shin asked.
“Do you know how to play chess?”
“I know how to play Chinese chess. The rules of Chinese chess and chess are similar…”

“Get lost.”
Jo Yi-shin, sharper and more irritable than anyone Baek Ho-gun had ever met, dismissed him immediately.