Upon stepping outside, Lee Seah immediately pulled out her phone.
[Director Kim Hyeongseok]
The Director’s instruction was to bypass the chain of command and report directly to him if it involved Black.
Ring, ring.
The call connected before it even rang a few times, and a bright voice came through.
– Oh, Agent Lee? What brings you to call on a weekend?
Lee Seah’s lips quivered.
‘That’s because I came to work on a weekend!’
“Black says he’s moving out of the safe house.”
– Moving out? What are you talking about. To where? Is he going into hiding?
“Not that; he says he wants to move to the faculty housing.”
– Faculty housing? Leaving that spacious safe house behind, why?
Lee Seah reported the incident that had taken place at the training ground that morning.
“It seems he intends to keep those five close and begin training them in earnest.”
– Hmm.
He didn’t know why Black was picking out students to teach, but as a nation, they had nothing to lose.
The problem was…
– We can’t leave that man alone at the Academy twenty-four hours a day.
“But we have no justification to stop him when it is what he wants, do we?”
– True. Therefore, shouldn’t someone stick close to him and mark him tightly?
“…!”
Cold sweat ran down Lee Seah’s spine.
She knew better than anyone who that ‘someone’ was.
‘So, working on weekends isn’t enough, and now you’re telling me not to commute at all?’
– Agent Lee. If you register as the professor’s secretary, we’ll assign you one of the residences attached to the faculty housing.
‘D-Director?’
– I’m sorry. I know full well how cruel of a mission this is for a fresh rookie.
‘If you know, you shouldn’t do this!’
– But out of the entire Special Task Force, aren’t you the only person who can communicate with Black? Right? Agent Lee. Are we still connected? Why aren’t you answering?
“…I am listening.”
– Special allowance. I will add three hundred percent of your current monthly salary.
‘Do you think I’m doing this for the money?’
Actually, she knew.
That she was the only person in the Special Task Force to do this job.
And that this was a job requiring quite a bit of a sense of duty.
‘You knew it was this kind of job when you joined.’
A job that requires sacrificing for the nation.
Compared to the Black agents risking their lives executing covert operations in remote overseas locations, moving into the Academy might just be a spoiled complaint.
Furthermore, wasn’t the man she had to watch over the nation’s absolute top fighting power?
Haa, letting out a short sigh, she asked.
“You said you would give me a good performance review, right?”
– Of course! Who knows? Later on, if a dedicated Black task force is formed instead of a Special Task Force, who do you think will be the team leader?
“Understood. I will do it.”
– Thank you. The nation will never forget your sacrifice.
Click.
The call ended.
Lee Seah looked at the firmly closed front door of the safe house once again.
Sense of duty or whatever.
Now that she had accepted it, her future really did look bleak.
“Hoo, this is my fate…”
* * *
Sunday at dawn.
The roof of the old wing’s training ground.
Kang Hyeon sat with his legs crossed.
Today, he was once again suppressing the writhing demonic aura of Asura using the Extreme Yang Mental Art…
‘Hmm?’
A faint presence was felt from the direction of the training ground.
Kang Hyeon slowly opened his eyes.
‘There’s still an hour left until the promised time?’
Looking to see who it was, it was the 20th-term Seo Haein.
After confirming there was no one around, she took a spot in the corner and familiarly began to loosen her stiff body.
‘A hard worker.’
Training before dawn without anyone telling her to?
But she is always dead last?
‘Interesting.’
His interest piqued, Kang Hyeon finished circulating his energy and watched her.
Soon, having finished stretching, she picked up a wooden sword.
Swish! Swoosh!
A sharp sound of cutting through the air echoed through the quiet training ground.
‘Is that the foundational stance of the Clear Wind Sword Technique?’
Kang Hyeon, who held all the world’s martial arts in his head, instantly saw through the root of the martial art she was executing.
At the same time, he became certain.
There was a clear connection between the Murim he had been to and the martial arts manuals coming out of the dungeons here.
‘The Clear Wind Sword Technique.’
Fundamentally, cadets choose a major when they first enter the Academy.
Once they choose a major, the professor in charge of that major recommends a mental art and sword technique registered in the Western library.
She was probably recommended that sword technique.
‘The professor who recommended it is incompetent.’
Kang Hyeon clicked his tongue inwardly.
The Clear Wind Sword Technique was one of the foundational martial arts of the Qingcheng Sect, specialized in nimbleness and sharpness, known to be a good martial art for women to learn.
However, the bone structure of Seo Haein reflected in his eyes was completely different from her outward appearance.
‘Her bone structure is completely different.’
Maybe she grew up eating nothing but anchovies; despite her slender frame, her bone density was tremendous.
‘What they call a heavy-boned person.’
For that kind of body type, a tyrannical sword technique, or outright saber arts, would be more advantageous than a sharp, swift sword.
Dead last, my ass, if only she had properly learned the right martial art.
Add that level of effort to it, and she would easily chew up and spit out the majority of the bastards here.
Pop.
As he uncorked his whiskey and secretly watched her train, the remaining members began to gather one by one.
Han Taeho, Yoon Hyeonjong, Cha Yusik, and Kwak Dojin, in that order.
When the other cadets appeared, Seo Haein also stopped training and waited awkwardly.
Kang Hyeon did not think about what intentions each of them brought here.
They each had their own circumstances and things they wanted.
‘However.’
Was it right to teach them?
Honestly, the most efficient course of action for Kang Hyeon right now was to scour the entire world and pick out only true geniuses.
He needed to bring in seven individuals possessing innate martial bone structure, constitution, mentality, and talent—even if he had to kidnap them—and make them master the Seven Luminaries Formation.
Because only then could he stop the Demon God, Asura.
‘Just like those old men did.’
If it were those old men, they wouldn’t have even spared a glance at such clumsy bastards in the first place.
And if they were forced to teach them?
‘Teach, my ass. They would have just beaten them.’
Kang Hyeon’s lips twisted.
He, too, started by getting beaten at the age of thirteen.
Even when his bones broke, his internal organs ruptured, and he vomited blood, they would shove a handful of elixirs down his throat and beat him again.
It was a process of making him more accustomed to being beaten than breathing, so that eventually, he wouldn’t even feel fear in the face of any attack or death.
Grind.
His teeth ground together.
Respect for his masters?
He had none.
Rather, just thinking about those days still made anger boil up inside him.
If it was acceptable to abuse a child to save the world, then what about the life of that child?
In truth, even when he roamed the martial world, what Kang Hyeon envied most was a fond relationship between master and disciple.
Because it was something he didn’t have.
‘I will not become like those old men.’
Kang Hyeon gently closed and opened his eyes.
Hadn’t he sworn it before?
That he would live this life his way.
Preparing for Asura was important, of course.
If this world blew up, his room to lounge in and his delicious whiskey would all disappear too.
But just as important, no, more important than that, was taking care of himself.
It was a precious, once-in-a-lifetime life, after all.
Suppose he did save the world by beating seven people like beasts to turn them into emotionless weapons to deploy the Seven Luminaries Formation, exactly as those old men did.
Even if he did, would he be happy?
‘No.’
Kang Hyeon shook his head.
That would just be passing down the horrific hell he had experienced to other innocent people.
He didn’t want to save the world only to spend his life clutching a bitter heart and drowning himself in whiskey.
He didn’t want to become like the old monsters he despised so much.
‘And.’
Kang Hyeon’s gaze turned to the crowns of the five people huddled together in the training ground.
‘Those kids will be the mirrors proving that I am walking a different path from those old men.’
* * *
Cha Yusik was expectant.
He had thought about it all night yesterday.
‘Who is Professor Kang Hyeon?’
A contract professor abruptly appointed after the entrance ceremony.
A parachute from the Management Bureau and a figure openly protected by Dean Seo Ilhyeon.
And.
A man who could crush someone like him, at the level of an A-rank Hunter, with overwhelming killing intent.
He searched all night, but nothing came up.
Which meant…
‘He is definitely an S-rank fighting force secretly nurtured by the Management Bureau or hidden for some reason.’
From Cha Yusik’s perspective, where the succession structure was solidifying in a bad direction, he was a lifeline dropped from the sky.
‘I need to get stronger.’
If he got stronger and could at least defeat his older brother?
His father would definitely look at him differently.
The Heavenly Wolf.
Because he was a man who firmly believed that the alpha wolf leading the pack must be the strongest.
‘What will he teach us?’
It probably wouldn’t be anything ordinary.
If it were, he wouldn’t have so confidently written that he would teach them how to get stronger.
A secret manual?
Or a newly pioneered divine art?
Cha Yusik’s heart pounded.
Looking around discreetly, he wasn’t the only one harboring such expectations.
The freshman, the eternal last place, the Mad Dog, and the silver-spoon kid.
They all waited expectantly, wondering what kind of fortune would come.
Just how much time had passed?
Thud.
Someone landed on the ground.
It was Kang Hyeon, dressed as messily as always.
“…!”
The cadets flinched.
‘Since when was he up there?’
‘There was no presence at all?’
‘No, is it even okay to jump down from that height in the first place?’
The old wing building was five stories high.
The height to the roof alone was well over fifteen meters.
Even if he could jump down… at least some dust should have kicked up, but there was nothing.
It was like seeing a ghost.
“You’re all here.”
The first to react was Yoon Hyeonjong.
“You have arrived!”
When a cadet met a professor, bowing in greeting first was the basics!
When he bowed, the other four instinctively bowed their heads in a fluster.
“I see you all arrived early. I will praise you for not being late.”
Swish.
Kang Hyeon lightly shook the whiskey bottle in his hand.
“From now on, you will assemble at this training ground every morning at 6 AM.”
“Pardon? Every day?”
The one who asked back was Kwak Dojin.
Because he was usually sensitive to class hours.
“Of course. Did you think a bastard who wants to get stronger could do it by training once a week?”
“…But usually, cadets’ weekdays are fully packed with major and general education classes.”
“You don’t attend those classes anyway, do you?”
Kwak Dojin’s eyes widened.
He instinctively realized that the indifferent-looking professor had read his student record.
“And whether you come or not. I do not care. Whether you give up halfway and run away. It is entirely your freedom. I will not teach you by suppressing you.”
Because he had decided not to act like those old men.
Violence is efficient, but it makes a person passive.
So the moment the violence disappears, they will easily give up.
‘Because that’s what I wanted to do.’
In contrast, what if it was a path they chose themselves?
They would be able to endure the pain experienced in that process on their own.
But when he actually said it like that, the cadets’ expressions turned strange.
‘He means he won’t hand over the secret manual easily, right?’
Taking it the wrong way, Cha Yusik shouted.
“I will come!”
In a resolute voice.
“Even if I have to give up all my other major classes, I will stand in this spot every morning at 6 AM!”
“Ho, is that so?”
“Yes! If it is to learn your martial arts, Professor, I must be prepared for low grades.”
“Martial arts?”
Kang Hyeon’s lips twisted.
“What martial arts?”
“Pardon?”
“Martial arts? Mental arts? In your pathetic state?”
In Kang Hyeon’s eyes, it was like things that were just born and couldn’t even crawl asking to be taught how to run.
Their lower bodies were frail, and their stamina looked weak.
Swinging a weapon in that state would only tire them easily, and they wouldn’t even be able to find their balance.
Meaning, learning martial arts would be pointless.
“You will redo your foundational work from scratch.”
Gulp.
Cha Yusik’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
Foundational work?
Right, perhaps there was a secret energy art to solidify the foundation?
“Everyone spread your feet wider than shoulder-width apart.”
“…!”
“And bend your knees. Until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Keep your back perfectly straight, eyes facing forward.”
The cadets’ expressions became even stranger.
Was he telling the elites of the National Hunter Academy to do the horse-riding stance… something only taught at neighborhood dojos?
“Shouldn’t bastards who want to learn martial arts at least be able to stand on their own two feet properly?”
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