<strong>Chapter 10: Chapter 10</strong>


    There were a vast array of shops selling writing supplies and books near Hwacheon Academy.


    Kang-hyuk went into various bookstores and bought all the books he could find rted to Horticulture.


    There of course wasn’t any need for him to personally take the books back to his residence.


    ‘If they can deliver the books to my residence for me, why should I undertake the additional burden?’


    He had the intention to return to his residence and study the books one by one. Even though the subject was Horticulture, he had no intention of teaching the students carelessly.


    He had finished what he hade for, and was journeying home when he bumped into a young man. He was wearing the blue teacher’s uniform of Hwacheon Academy.


    He immediately bowed to Kang-hyuk, and then asked, “Are you the new Horticulture teacher?”


    “I am.”


    “It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Geum-hang and I teach the subject of Spearmanship at the Academy. I’vee to take you back.”


    Kang-hyuk was a little taken and pointed at himself.


    “Pick me up?”


    “Before the beginning of the school year, there’s a banquet for the teachers. I’vee to pick you up for the banquet.”


    It was a situation which Kang-hyuk hadn’t expected.


    “Is itpulsory to attend the banquet? Seeing as I’m only a Liberal Arts subject teacher.”


    “It’s not at allpulsory to attend, but it would be a good opportunity to get to know all of the staff you will be working with for the rest of the year.”


    Kang-hyuk thought that he had a point.


    “Okay, I’ll attend. Where’s the banquet?”


    “I’ll take you there.”


    “Ah, but before that, I’ll need to stop at my residence.”


    “Your residence....?”


    For some reason, it seemed as though Geum-hang wasn’t too happy with Kang-hyuk wanting to stop at his residence first.


    “My servant is waiting for me, so I need to go by my residence to tell him I’m going to bete.”


    “If that’s all it is, then there’s no need to stop by. Your servant Baek-gap is already aware of the banquet.”


    “Ah, I see.”


    “In that case, let’s get going.”


    The venue of the banquet was already familiar with Kang-hyuk. It was known as Wolsoru.


    Kang-hyuk tilted his head to one side.


    ‘Huh? This ce is known to be pretty expensive. Even though the monthly pay of the teachers is quite high, this isn’t a ce that their sries can afford.’


    Moreover, they were headed towards the fifth floor of the building.


    The prices to hire the venue increased by the storey you wanted to hire. It’s said that the price to hire the top floor of the building was beyond imagination.


    Nheless, many hired the uppermost floor out. They were mostly people wanting to boast of their wealth through having their events at such an esteemed venue.


    “Oh, you’ve finally arrived!”


    “Come in!”


    The teachers, dressed in their blue uniform, weed them in, but Kang-hyuk felt something a little awkward about their wee.


    Their expressions reminded of him when he was the n Leader, being greeted by people that didn’t like him that had a forced smile on their faces.


    These were the expressions Kang-hyuk had to look at for fifty years, therefore there was no way he wouldn’t have been able to sense the awkwardness.


    ‘Something’s not quite right.’


    He felt that it would be best to keep on guard.


    Kang-hyuk sat down at therge table. The teachers began introducing themselves one by one.


    There were an array of teachers; Teacher of Swordsmanship, Teacher of Stick Fighting, Teacher of Memorization.


    Among the teachers was also the Whip teacher he had already been acquainted with, Ok Hae-mi. However, she had a strange apologetic expression on her face.


    Kang-hyuk was now sure that something untoward was going on here.


    What was also unusual was that he was the only teacher of a liberal arts subject present there.


    As Kang-hyuk’s suspicions grew, the cup in front of him was filled up with alcohol, and the teachers started to drink.


    Baek-gap was diligently sweeping the courtyard in front of Kang-hyuk’s residence.


    When he had first joined the Jimilgak, his rank was of 500, but through his sustained efforts, his present rank was of 73.


    The Jimilgak differentiated from the Hwacheon n in that it had a ranking system.


    The closer one’s ranking was to 1 was indicative of the strength and skill of the warrior.


    Baek-gap had sessfullypleted the task he had been given previously, and during his break, he had been given another one.


    But he felt a little strange.


    He hadn’t questioned the task of dutifully serving the youthful teacher known as Kang-hyuk, or even the order to observe his every move and to report them back to the n Leader.


    It was because whilst he was serving Kang-hyuk, he couldn’t help but feel a nervousness in his being.


    He wasn’t intimidated by Kang-hyuk’s outward appearance as he looked as though he was younger than him in age, and he didn’t seem to have much martial strength either.


    However, he felt a powerful vital energy exuding from him, which overpowered even a peak-level warrior like himself.


    ‘Who on earth is he really?’


    He also found it strange how the n Leader looked flustered whenever he encountered Kang-hyuk.


    He recalled the words of the n Leader.


    “Be sure not to do anything that would anger him. Perform your task of serving and watching over him well, but if you go beyond that and end up angering him, you’ll be sure to find yourself in hell.”


    Baek-gap sighed, and thought to let it go. He would perform his task dutifully.


    He was in the midst ofbing his hair when he felt a presence by the front-gate of the house.


    It was a slightly dopey looking man. But as he was wearing a blue uniform, Baek-gap was sure that the man was a teacher.


    Baek-gap bowed his head and gave his greetings to the man.


    “Greetings. For what business have youe for?”


    “May I ask, who are you?”


    “I am the servant of Kang-hyuk Seonsaeng. My name is Baek-gap.”


    “I see. I’m Ju Gung-wol, and I’m the music teacher.”


    “Nice to meet you. So what have youe by here for?”


    “This is the residence of the Horticulture teacher Kang-hyuk, right?”


    “Indeed.”


    “I wanted to meet him.”


    Baek-gap looked a little troubled at his request.


    “I apologize. He is currently at the banquet hosted for the teachers. Did you not wish to attend?”


    “...!”


    Ju Gung-wol hit his thigh in exmation.


    “Oh my! What a pity!”


    “Why do you say so?”


    Ju Gung-wol replied fervently.


    “Kang Seongsaeng shouldn’t have attended such an event!”


    Baek-gap’s face turned pale.


    It was a situation of great emergency.


    He suddenly remembered something else the n Leader had said to him.


    “If anything happens to him whilst you are present, report it to me immediately, and in the case that you hear of something happening to him from someone else...”


    He didn’t wish to recall the rest of the n Leader’s sentence.


    When the music teacher left after sighing, Baek-gap immediately left for the forest behind the house. Hidden in the forest was a trap door, under which there was a secret passage that led to the Jimilgak within the Hwacheon n Headquarters.


    As soon as he entered to Jimilgak, he presented his identity tag, and using a secretnguage, spoke of his mission to the man sitting there.


    “The crickets in the water are pping their wings! It’s an urgent situation, I have to see the n Leader.”


    “I understand.”


    His request was immediately conveyed, and soon the n Leader was standing in the Jimilgak.


    “My greetings to you, Leader.”


    Baek-gap was trembling.


    “For what purpose did you wish to meet me?”


    Baek-gap eximed.


    “Please, please kill me!”


    “What happened?”


    “That- well, Kang-hyuk Seongsaengnim went to the banquet for the teachers today...”


    “He went and...?”


    “Well....I found out that the banquet was hosted by martial arts teachers with the purpose of causing injury to Liberal Arts teachers.”


    “What?!”


    Mu-jin expression grew fierce, causing Baek-gap to shrink even more.


    Mu-jin calmed his expression upon seeing Baek-gap’s fear.


    “There’s more to this, isn’t there.”


    “Yes, well, the event is held at the top floor of Wolsoru. After the martial arts teachers feed the Liberal arts teacher a huge amount of alcohol, they are expected to copse, and they then leave the copsed teacher at the venue and leave.”


    “....they were able to afford Wolsuru?”


    “It seems to be the case.”


    Mu-jin momentarily closed his eyes. He remembered that he had been to the venue together with Kang-hyuk once.


    Whilst the banquet was held under the guise of forming friendships, its true purpose was far from it.


    However, as the n leader, it would most likely causeplications if he stepped in.


    “Hahahaha!”


    Mu-jin burst intoughter.


    Whilst Baek-gap and the other warriors present began to look increasingly confused, Mu-jin kept onughing.


    After hisughing fit, Mu-jin finally spoke.


    “Don’t worry and go back. When he returns, give him a bowl of refreshing honey water.”


    “What? There’s nothing to worry about?”


    “Yes, don’t worry. But as a warrior of Jimilgak, shouldn’t you have been able to predict the situations he might befall, before they ur?”


    Baek-gap had no choice but to admit his mistake.


    ‘Damn it! I was so relieved when I found out I was only being assigned to Hwacheon Academy. How could I have messed up on my first day?’


    The n leader told Baek-gap to raise his head.


    “I’ll decide your punishment for this mistake of yourster. But in the future, never let your guard down.”


    “I’m sorry!”


    “You can return now.”


    Baek-gap breathed a sigh of relief and returned to Kang-hyuk’s residence. Mu-jin gazed at his departing figure and stroked his beard.


    His face ached fromughing too much.


    ‘Anyway, in matters involving alcohol.... it’s unlikely there’s anyone in this world who could beat Hyung-nim in a round of drinking.’


    Kang-hyuk sipped his wine and looked around the table.


    It had only been an hour and a half since the banquet had begun, but the teachers after drinking ss after ss werepletely hammered with their heads dropping to the table one-by one.


    ‘Am I the only sober person here?’


    Kang-hyuk rose from his seat. The liquor of Wolsoru was known to have an exquisite vour whilst also being expensive.


    However, he felt that it would be a little strange for him to sip it alone whilst everyone surrounding him had copsed from drunkenness.


    ‘Ah, so I’m not alone.’


    Kang-hyuk walked towards a woman who was enjoying the evening views from the balcony.


    The woman wore a blue uniform, and had a whip attached to her waist.


    It was Ok Hae-mi.


    “It seems as though Kang Seonsaeng is the winner.”


    Kang-hyuk tilted his head to the side. He was unable to smell any trace of alcohol on her person.


    Seeing his confused expression, sheughed.


    “To be honest, I didn’t really want toe today. But they suggested that if I didn’t want to participate, I could be the judge instead. Which is why I haven’t drank any alcohol.”


    As she was the judge, and had dered him as the winner, she spoke with authority.


    “You can go leave to your residence.”


    Kang-hyuk nodded his head, but hesitated before turning to leave.


    “But, what should we do about the copsed teachers?”


    Ok Hae-miughed at his question.


    “Don’t worry about that, you can just leave.”


    “Is it really okay? But they may be endangered in this state...”


    “Its fine, Wolsoru has excellent guards, and this is a trustworthy venue.”


    “Hmm..”


    “Moreover, although they’re teachers, they are also Moorim Folk. Once they regain consciousness, they’ll be able to release the drunken energy from their body.”


    Moorim folk indeed had the ability to move the Qi within their body to bring about a release of all drunkenness and a return to normal consciousness within a short period of time.


    However, this was only possible when they were somewhat conscious.


    Kang-hyuk was unable toprehend the sight of the copsed teachers.


    ‘Any normal Moorim person would know to control the amount they drank if they were going to drink as not topletely lose consciousness. Tsk tsk. They’ve lost it.”


    In truth, the teachers had no intention of bing drunk.


    However, the sight of Kang-hyukpletely emptying ss after ss without bing intoxicated hurt the pride of the martial arts teachers.


    In order to protect their ego, they too began to drink. But s, they were unable to surpass Kang-hyuk’s drinking ability.


    In the end, they became drunken to the extent of bing unconscious and were unable to release the drunken energy from their body.