Chapter 149: Graduation Ceremony (1)

A short while after Il-mok left An Jeok-un’s office, a hidden Xiao Hong revealed herself. She let out a faint sigh as she watched Il-mok’s retreating figure.

“Hoo.”

Thank goodness the Eighth Young Master didn't fall for An Jeok-un's scheme.

‘I still have a chance!’

While listening to An Jeok-un and the Eighth Young Master’s animated conversation, her bulimia kept acting up and she found herself drooling with saliva. But for some reason, the Eighth Young Master, who had shown interest, had rejected the offer as sharply as a knife at the last moment.

Having survived this crisis, she realized something important from this whole ordeal.

‘That’s right. If a honey trap doesn’t work, I just need to use a frontal assault!’

Just like the Eight Trigram Hall did, couldn't she also entice the Eighth Young Master by highlighting the merits of the Law Enforcement Hall?

She stood there for a moment, lost in that thought as she watched Il-mok’s figure.

"Hmm? Instructor Xiao, what are you doing there?"

Chu Il-hwan, who had been wandering around the Hall of the Demonic Way, called out to her.

"Ah..."

Chu Il-hwan could roughly figure out the situation by seeing Il-mok disappearing beyond the pavilion and Xiao Hong's gaze following him.

"You still have feelings for Disciple Il-mok."

Chu Il-hwan muttered strangely wistfully, then felt something was off about his own words.

‘Hm? Why do I feel disappointed…? I see. It must be because I was saddened that her lovesickness hadn’t yet been cured.’

While Chu Il-hwan was diagnosing his own symptoms, Xiao Hong shouted with a startled face.

"N-no! It's a misunderstanding! I have no feelings whatsoever for Disciple Il-mok, Head Instructor!"

She vehemently denied Chu Il-hwan's assumption but was equally surprised inside.

‘Why am I so flustered? Right! I must be worried about my mission from the Chief being discovered!’

Right after she yelled, an inexplicable, awkward atmosphere flowed between Chu Il-hwan and Xiao Hong.

"Ahem. You really have no interest in Disciple Il-mok?"

“I-I have no personal feelings for him, Head Instructor.”

An uncomfortable silence fell between them once more after this exchange.

Creeeeak.

With a grating sound, the office door opened, and An Jeok-un appeared with a bored look on his face.

“What are you two doing in front of my office?”

Startled by the sudden appearance of a third party, Chu Il-hwan and Xiao Hong yelped in alarm.

“I-I was just passing by!”

“M-me too!”

Feeling like a pair of kids caught doing something naughty, the two quickly used their lightness skill to escape the scene.

An Jeok-un glanced at where Chu Il-hwan and Xiao Hong had been standing, then quickly lost interest and returned to his office.

"As expected of the Hall of the Demonic Way, it's full of weirdos."

As a person from the Eight Trigram Hall, he didn't want to associate with crazy people suffering from Demonic Arts’ side effects.  An Jeok-un, who had taken on the rather unwelcome position of acting instructor at the Hall of the Demonic Way, had only one interest. That is recruiting Il-mok to the Eight Trigram Hall.

"Still, his initial reaction was good. I should be able to bring a good result by coaxing him bit by bit.”

He conveniently forgot that Il-mok was also suffering from side effects.

***

After Il-mok had rejected An Jeok-un’s recruitment offer, he didn’t approach Il-mok overtly, but he did try to subtly win him over.

"As expected of Disciple Il-mok. Studying formations is fun, isn't it?"

“Hahaha. If you go beyond simply learning how to break them and try to cast them yourself, it will be a whole different feeling.”

He’d keep talking up the joys of Formations and sorcery, trying to spark Il-mok's interest.

Of course, his efforts were completely fruitless.

‘Fuck. Why won’t he leave me alone? Is he trying to poison me with mercury too?’

It was unnerving how he would approach with a gourd containing mercury-laced ink hanging from his side.

On top of that, An Jeok-un wasn't the only one trying to subtly win over Il-mok.

“While studying the doctrine is important, putting the learned doctrine into practice is also crucial. In that sense, entering the Law Enforcement Hall can be said to put the cult’s teaching into life.”

During the mandatory doctrine education classes, Instructor Xiao Hong has recently been bringing up stories about the Law Enforcement Hall during her lessons. She keeps emphasizing how important the Law Enforcement Hall is and how rewarding it is to uphold the law there.

Of course, being from the Law Enforcement Hall, it was natural for her to promote her former workplace. Except...

‘Why does she keep looking at me when she says it?’

Whenever she preached about it, her gaze inevitably fell to Il-mok. This was the complete opposite of how she'd been avoiding Il-mok for a while after that night's attack incident.

Unfortunately, Il-mok was not one to be easily swayed just because An Jeok-un or Xiao Hong were trying to recruit him. Whatever the two of them rambled on about, Il-mok let it go in one ear and out the other.

‘Once I graduate from the Hall of the Demonic Way, I'm definitely transferring to a branch office.’

His head was filled with thoughts of being assigned to a quiet rural branch office and living a leisurely life.

Fortunately for Il-mok, the recruitment war between An Jeok-un and Xiao Hong ended soon enough.

“I don’t care where you came from, but you are now instructors of the Hall of the Demonic Way,” said the Hall Master Yeom Ga-hwi in a stern voice. Xiao Hong bowed her head deeply while An Jeok-un answered indifferently.

"I still belong to the Eight Trigram Hall, Hall Master."

"...Aren't you currently serving as an instructor at the Hall of the Demonic Way? Or did you perhaps receive orders from the Eight Trigram Hall to recruit students when you came here?"

Xiao Hong barely managed to hide her startled reaction as she bowed her head, but her Demonic Art was honest.

Growwwwl.

A sudden wave of hunger caused her stomach to cry out.

"I-I am s-sorry, Hall Master."

She blushed and offered an apology, all the while wiping the drool pooling in her mouth with the back of her hand.

Thanks to that, a dead silence fell over the Hall Master’s quarters. Feeling somewhat deflated, Yeom Ga-hwi sighed and issued a warning.

"Sigh. I'll overlook this just once. But if you try to recruit students to specific organizations even one more time like this, you will have to bury your bones in the Hall of the Demonic Way.”

It didn't mean serving the Hall of the Demonic Way for life. It meant he'd kill them and bury them here.

Xiao Hong bowed deeply and left the Hall master’s office. Meanwhile, An Jeok-un maintained his deadpan face and left.

‘Damn smartass.’

Yeom Ga-hwi frowned as he watched An Jeok-un's retreating figure.

‘Even his threatening methods are completely crude.’ An Jeok-un thought as he left in displeasure.

The warrior and the Formation master really didn't get along.

***

Around the time Xiao Hong and An Jeok-un were pestering Il-mok, Baek Cheon, who had returned from field training, was having a meeting with Eun Ryeo, the club supervisor.

"You want to perform a play at the graduation ceremony?"

Baek Cheon answered confidently even when faced with Eun Ryeo’s dubious face.

"That's correct, Instructor."

In about two months, the graduation ceremony for Baek Cheon's cohort was scheduled to take place. And Baek Cheon didn't want to end his last day on an empty note.

"Our Theater Club has been practicing together for the past six months, but we have never been able to actually perform a play at all. So we want to show off the fruits of our hard work on the special day of graduation."

“Are you planning to perform the play by yourself?”

"Hahaha. Although I'm more than confident that I could satisfy everyone by myself, there’s the camaraderie we’ve built practicing together, so shouldn’t we put on the play as a group?”

“…And the other members all agreed to this?”

"Of course!"

Baek Cheon’s confident reply made Eun Ryeo frown.

"Disciple Jeong Hyeon too?"

"Hahaha! I gathered everyone together the other day and asked, and not a single person expressed any objection."

"......"

Eun Ryeo almost let a curse slip out.

"Do you really think Disciple Jeong Hyeon would have been able to voice an objection in that situation?”

The girl could barely speak when it was just the two of them. There was no way in hell she could have said anything with the entire club gathered around.

However, the words that came out of Baek Cheon’s mouth were beyond Eun Ryeo’s expectations.

“What are you talking about, Instructor? Disciple Jeong Hyeon expresses her opinion from time to time. And quite loudly, I might add.”

Baek Cheon had witnessed it several times. When it came to Il-mok, her enthusiasm was surprising.

Of course, she would start with a yell and end with something close to a whimper.

"Besides, Disciple Jeong joined the club to develop her confidence. I am certain that performing a play together at the graduation ceremony will be of great help to her.”

Eun Ryeo felt like she'd been struck by lightning.

‘Have I been… too overprotective of her?’

Reflecting on her own actions, Eun Ryeo nodded with remorse.

"I'll submit a proposal to the Hall Master for this idea."

It was a decision that would have made Jeong Hyeon cry tears of blood if she had known.

Just then, Eun Ryeo realized she’d forgotten to ask something important.

“By the way, I believe I haven’t heard about what play you intend to perform at the graduation ceremony."

Baek Cheon answered with an extremely confident tone.

"It's a play I created myself. Inspired by Young Master Il-mok's story."

***

After the pestering from Xiao Hong and An Jeok-un finally stopped, time flew by. Il-mok had gotten used to the new Formation class, so the days just spun by like a hamster wheel.

Two months passed like this, and finally, the morning of the graduation ceremony arrived.

He finished breakfast as usual and headed to the training ground where the students were already gathered.

‘This feels more like a high school graduation ceremony than the military.’

That was the first thought that crossed his mind after he saw everyone lined up in rows of ten by class and year.

Il-mok was heading to where his peer was when he felt something strange.

‘Hmm. Why does Jeong Hyeon look like a pitiful pup today?’

Her anxiety seemed worse than usual.

“Are you feeling alright?” He asked, approaching just close enough not to startle her.

"Eek!"

Even though he’d kept his distance, she reacted as if she’d been electrocuted.

"N-n-nothing's w-wrong."

She was definitely not okay judging by the way she was trembling.

‘Hmm. Maybe it's because there are more people than usual?’

Thinking that, he turned my head and saw two more people who seemed weirder than usual.

"Ohohohoho!"

"Ahahahahaha!"

It was Baek Cheon and Bang Mi-hwa.

If Jeong Hyeon looked more anxious than usual, those two looked more insane than usual.

‘Are they acting like that because of the crowd too?’

The thought process of those crazy nutjobs was truly hard to fathom.

“Don’t worry so much. It’ll be fine."

Right after he gave some words of comfort to Jeong Hyeon, who seemed particularly anxious today—

"Silence!"

"We're starting the graduation ceremony now, so pay attention!"

The shouts of Head Instructors Chu Il-hwan and Cha Eun-young echoed across the grounds.

Every cadet’s gaze snapped forward, and following their line of sight, they saw two figures approaching.

"!!!"

A murmur rippled through the students.

"We greet the Lord of Ten Thousand Demons!"

The old man approaching with Hall Master Yeom Ga-hwi was none other than Master.

All the students bowed in reverence at the sudden appearance of the living god of the cult.

Meanwhile, the Hall Master and his Master reached the platform.

Once Master stepped onto the dais, he spoke.

“You may all rise.”

At Master's command, all the students rose with reverence.

“Today, the future pillars of our Divine Cult complete their training at the Hall of the Demonic Way. I have come personally to commend you all.”

And with that opening line, so did begin the long-winded old-geezer type speech.

"Remember that graduation from the Hall of the Demonic Way is not the end. You are still young. When you leave the Hall of the Demonic Way, it means a new beginning awaits you."

A lengthy lecture followed about what kind of life to live after graduating from the Hall of the Demonic Way.

‘I'm going to lose my mind.’

He almost yawned without realizing it, which made him break out in a cold sweat. While yawning at a school graduation ceremony might not be a big deal, yawning here could cost him his head.