Chapter 145: Heartbreak (2)

Il-mok, who had drawn his sword, was feeling just as confused.

'Why did she take off her clothes?'

Why in the world would an assassin coming to kill him strip down to her undergarments?

'Don't tell me she's hiding hidden weapons in her undergarments?'

With that suspicion, he carefully watched Xiao Hong's every move for a moment.

"......."

"......."

How long did they stand there, each waiting for the other to make the first move?

Finally, Il-mok couldn't take it anymore and spoke first.

"...Instructor Xiao. Could you tell me what business brings you here?" he asked with a strained voice.

Xiao Hong finally opened her mouth after much deliberation.

"I-I just came to the wrong room, so don't mind it."

Realizing something had gone horribly wrong, she offered the flimsy excuse while hastily gathering her discarded robe from the floor. Her face was a shade of red he had never seen before.

—Eat! Eating is the only thing that matters!

—When you’re stressed, you need something sweet!

The extreme mental blow had caused her bulimia to start screaming again.

***

What happened that night seemed like a dream, and the next day started like any other.

But it wasn't like there were no changes at all.

Whenever he ran into Instructor Xiao Hong while going back and forth through the Hall of the Demonic Way, she would quickly turn around and rush off somewhere else.

And during her doctrine classes, which they were forced to share…

Glance.

Whenever their eyes met, her face turned bright red from her face to her ears, and she'd quickly turn her head away.

'Sigh.'

Her reaction was so obvious that I couldn't help but notice.

The reason Instructor Xiao Hong came to visit last night... it wasn't because of assassination.

'Why did I draw my sword...?'

A strange sense of regret lingered, but it felt like a lost cause now.

I’d basically chased away a woman who’d worked up the courage to visit me in the dead of night by pulling a blade on her. There was probably no hope now.

'Wait, more importantly, does that mean everything she's been doing up until now was...'

The realization that her actions had all been attempts to seduce me naturally led to a wave of disappointment. But then…

'No, hold on. Something about this isn’t right...'

I hadn't done anything, so why would a woman I’d just met suddenly throw herself at me? I’ve never lived the kind of life where my face alone was enough to make a pornhwa plot happen.

Naturally, suspicion started bubbling up.

'Besides, I'm only sixteen and Instructor Xiao must be over thirty, judging by her position alone. Don’t tell me… she’s into that sort of thing?'

A shiver went down my spine. Suddenly, I felt pretty good about chasing her out with a sword.

I had narrowly avoided getting tangled up with a pedophile.

Thanks to this shift in thinking, I could actually breathe a sigh of relief.

It was the classic sour grapes strategy.

***

After the classes ended, it was time to head to club activities.

Bang Mi-hwa and Ha Young were walking together with Ju Seo-yeon, who belonged to the same club.

"Mi-hwa, don’t you think Instructor Xiao has been acting a little strange lately?”

As usual, Ha Young was chattering away to her friend Bang Mi-hwa about whatever gossip came to mind.

"Or maybe not? She was a little weird from the start, wasn't she? The way she was giving Young Master Il-mok the eye on the very first day was pretty intense, don't you think?"

"Young Master Il-mok is a man worthy of being my partner, so it’s hardly surprising that Instructor Xiao would fall for him."

"Doesn't it bother you? He's someone you've set your sights on, but for an instructor to act that way isn't right."

"Hohohoho. Rather than being bothered, I feel sorry for her, if anything. It’s a crush that’s obviously doomed to fail, isn’t it? Young Master Il-mok's heart already belongs to none other than this Bang Mi-hwa."

When Bang Mi-hwa answered with sky-high confidence with her chest puffed out, Ha Young looked at her friend with an expression of admiration, thinking 'As expected!'

Then Ha Young's eyes fell on Ju Seo-yeon, who was walking with them.

'Come to think of it, Miss Ju also seems to admire Young Master Il-mok when she first entered the hall.'

Remembering this, Ha Young casually drifted over to Ju Seo-yeon. “Miss Ju, what do you think about Instructor Xiao?”

Ju Seo-yeon, who had no interest in either Ha Young or Xiao Hong, answered while looking elsewhere.

"Well, I don't really have any thoughts about it, so I'm not sure."

"Hm? Doesn’t Miss  Ju have an interest in Young Master Il-mok?"

"You mean me?"

Ju Seo-yeon finally looked at Ha Young with a puzzled expression.

Seeing her reaction, Ha Young looked equally bewildered.

"You always used to say it, didn't you? That after completing the Hall of the Demonic Way, you'd enter the Hidden Guard Pavilion and become Young Master Il-mok's personal attendant."

"Ah! That's right. I absolutely must become Young Master Il-mok's personal attendant!"

Seeing her answer with a newfound determination, Ha Young nodded her head as if she’d figured something out.

‘I see. She was just hiding her true feelings because she lacked confidence. She’s content with just being by Young Master Il-mok’s side as his attendant.’

Having reached her own conclusion, Ha Young turned back to her best friend.

'In contrast, Mi-hwa is so admirable.'

She felt incredibly proud of her confident friend.

While Ha Young was busy comparing Ju Seo-yeon and Bang Mi-hwa, Ju Seo-yeon, completely unaware—or more accurately, completely uninterested—in what Ha Young was thinking, was steeling her resolve.

‘Second place!! I have to get second place, no matter what!!’

Perhaps because she had worked toward that single goal for over half a year, she who had started as the weakest in the Hall of the Demonic Way had now reached a level where she could aim for the Upper Class.

If she kept growing at this rate, becoming the salutatorian before graduation wouldn't be just a dream.

"Ehehehehe."

A creepy smile spread across Ju Seo-yeon’s face as she imagined her future as Il-mok’s attendant.

***

A few days later.

Chu Il-hwan was strolling through the hall leisurely, as if he were on patrol.

'Sigh. Managing instructors isn't an easy job either.'

Normally, managing instructors wasn't his job.

The Head Instructor’s role was mainly to mediate and unify the opinions of the other instructors, then report to the Hall Master or Vice Hall Master and relay their orders back down.

But with Vice Hall Master Yu Geuk gone and the position still vacant, his duties had been split between him and the Hall Master.

That's how Chu Il-hwan ended up with the additional task of managing the instructors who taught the new disciples.

For that reason, he had to call in Xiao Hong and give her advice.

It was enough to drive him crazy.

A man who had devoted his forty years of life only to martial arts and work now had to give romance advice to a woman in her early thirties.

'Back then, I really thought I was going to lose my mind.'

The side effects of his Demonic Art kept whispering that it might be better to just kill Xiao Hong and Il-mok to eliminate the source of the problem entirely.

Chu Il-hwan's steps stopped as he recalled the events from a few days ago.

'Still, I'm glad it's been resolved well now.'

His gaze landed on the window of a pavilion where doctrine class was currently in full swing.

Through that window, he could faintly hear Instructor Xiao Hong's voice as she diligently continued the education.

'She had gotten quite gaunt, but recently she seems to have gotten some meat back on her bones. I'm glad she's healthy.'

Chu Il-hwan nodded to himself, thinking of how Instructor Xiao Hong was slowly returning to her old self.

'It seems she's successfully cured her lovesickness.'

Chu Il-hwan breathed a sigh of relief and turned to continue his stroll through the hall.

"Head Instructor Chu Il-hwan!"

Just then, someone called out to him urgently and came running.

"What's the matter?"

The middle-aged man who had stopped him was the head cook in charge of the hall's dining facilities.

“W-we’re running low on ingredients, sir. I was hoping you could request an additional supply shipment from the main headquarters, Head Instructor.”

“Ingredients? But didn’t we just get a shipment recently?” Chu Il-hwan asked, confused.

The head cook just laughed awkwardly and turned his head toward the hall where Instructor Xiao Hong was currently teaching her class.

***

Several more days passed, and a full eight months had now gone by since Il-mok and his peers had entered the Hall. And just as they always had, the eighth test arrived for the students.

“We’ll do our best to avoid Young Master Il-mok.”

The test was conducted in groups of four. When Choi Woong, who belonged to the Upper Class, said this, his friend Seong Hwan, who had also been kidnapped into the Meditation Club with him, nodded in agreement.

"With this kind of lineup, as long as we could avoid the Young Master until the very end, we should have a decent grade."

It was a strange thing to say. No matter how much they avoided him, they would eventually end up facing Il-mok's group in the end. But they had no intention of actually trying to win against Il-mok’s team in the first place. It had somehow become an unwritten rule.

First place belongs to Young Master Il-mok anyway, so we should aim for second place.

That's what all the disciples recognized, except for Dokgo Pae.

And quite fortunately, Dokgo Pae wasn't in their group.

Though Dokgo Pae had calmed down a bit since teaming up with Gwak Sul, the stigma remained firmly lodged in their minds.

If you’re on a team with Dokgo Pae, your grade is going straight to hell.

While Choi Woong and Seong Hwan were psyching themselves up, Ha Young, who was in the same group, sighed regretfully.

'They haven't been putting me in the same group as Mi-hwa lately. I should talk to Instructor Chu after this test.'

In contrast, Ju Seo-yeon, who was also in the same group, had gleaming eyes.

"Good! We'll definitely get good grades and surprise Young Master Il-mok!"

Three people from the middle-lower ranks of the Upper Class, and one person from the top ranks of the Lower Class.

For a group of four, the balance seemed somewhat off, but this was unavoidable because of Il-mok's existence.

"Tsk."

Il-mok glanced over the three students by his side and smacked his lips lightly. He vaguely recognized their faces and names, but that was about it.

'I think I saw them at the Doctrine Research Club last time...'

In other words, they were people he had almost never interacted with. The three of them, all bottom-feeders from the Lower Class, had been grouped with him.

Because Il-mok had grown beyond all normal standards, the instructors had essentially strapped three sacks of dead weight to him to balance the scales. And because Il-mok had been saddled with the three weakest students, the other teams had naturally ended up with strange compositions as well.

It was no longer possible to form teams of two from the top class and two from the bottom class like in the beginning, so this was the makeshift solution the instructors had come up with after racking their brains.

Il-mok looked over the three who were staring at him with resigned faces.

'They're being pretty obvious about their expectations.'

The 'Since we're with Young Master Il-mok, high scores are guaranteed for this test!' look is all over their faces.

'Damn it.'

Il-mok cursed inwardly and his gaze moved to the sword hanging at his side.

'It's been pretty quiet lately, so it should be fine, right?'

Prolonged combat is dangerous, but short skirmishes would probably be fine, right?

Of course, he had no reason to fight for these three. And since he’d already won first place in most of the exams, bombing this one wouldn’t make a huge difference.

And yet, Il-mok knew he had to draw his sword.

At the very least, he had to clean up his own mess.

"You three hide and move around on your own. I have a group I need to deal with separately, so I'll move alone."

At Il-mok's words, one of the three who had been eagerly expecting said with a shocked face.

"Wh-what do you mean by that? W-we'll help too, Disciple Il-mok!"

“It’ll be too slow if you come with me. Every team we meet will probably run on sight, and I don’t have time to babysit you three while I’m chasing them down.”

Having firmly crushed the hopes of the three who were planning to just ride on his coattails, Il-mok immediately used his lightness skill and flew off somewhere.

Il-mok, who had disappeared from the trio's sight in an instant, recalled the directions each group had moved just before the test and ran off.

And after slowing down at some point, he began tracking their traces.

'Found them.'

Having picked up the trail in just a moment, Il-mok moved carefully along the traces while minimizing his presence, and soon he was able to spot his target.

Shing.

Il-mok, who had drawn his sword in an instant, rushed toward his target while using his lightness skill to the maximum.

'Sorry, Miss Ju!'

Il-mok's target was just one person: Ju Seo-yeon.

'If I don't want to take you as a personal attendant, this is the only way!'

Since he had promised to take her as a personal attendant if she graduated second, he had to prevent her from becoming second.

"Young Master!?"

Ju Seo-yeon swung her spear with a shocked expression and shouted at Il-mok's surprise attack.

Clang!

The moment her short spear met his sword, Il-mok’s blade traced a bizarre, snake-like path, sliding past her weapon.

Thud.

And Il-mok's sword, having passed the short spear, instantly pierced Ju Seo-yeon's pressure point.

"Young Master Il-mok!?"

Only then did Choi Woong, Seong Hwan, and Ha Young call out Il-mok's name with shocked faces.

"Phew."

Worried that a prolonged fight would trigger his side effects, Il-mok wasted no time on conversation and swung his sword again.

Watching the beautiful, silver arcs drawn by Il-mok’s blade, Choi Woong, Seong Hwan, and Ha Young all had the same thoughts.

'Why us again…?'

'WHAT DID WE EVER DO TO YOU?!'

'I really should have been on Mi-hwa’s team!!'

And so, the three of them were subdued without even knowing the reason why.