Chapter 150
Jin-woo is sitting on the couch, fidgeting and shaking his legs.
Young-jae, who was fiddling with his cell phone next to him, speaks up.
“Jin-woo.”
“Uh, uh, huh?”
“Don’t shake your legs, it’ll be fine.”
“Ah.”
It was really nice to see them worrying about each other’s well-being.
Then.
-Knock.
I heard someone knocking on the door of the office.
“Hehe! It’s her! It’s her!”
“Jin-woo. Don’t be shy.”
Se-ah said what I was about to say and approached the entrance.
“Yay~ I’m coming!”
Her voice is an octave higher.
Se-ah opens the door with an uncharacteristic smirk on her face, then she sees a woman’s face behind the door, smiling brightly.
“Hello, Familia friends.”
She had black short hair in a half bun and a cool smile and wore a black off-the-shoulder blouse and denim pants.
It was the first time I’d ever seen her face-to-face, and I could see why she had a cult following.
She’s definitely got the looks to beat most idols.
“Oh, hello, I’m Kim Se-ah from Familia!”
Se-ah, surprised by her appearance, quickly bows her head in greeting, and Han Yeo-eun smiles brightly in return.
“Oh, yes. I’m Han Yeo-eun of Artemis, and……I’m the mentor of the guy over there who’s shaking in his boots. Jin-woo, your mentor is here, and you don’t say hello?”
“Good evening, Mentor, I hope you had a good day!”
“Yeah. I’m glad to see that you’re doing okay, too, and apparently you’re working hard on your midterms.”
She nodded in satisfaction as she watched Jin-woo jump to his feet and exclaim, then slowly walked into the clubroom.
She looked around and her eyes widened in astonishment.
“Wow. This is really a clubroom? I’ve never seen a clubroom with such good facilities even when I was younger. The academy must be giving you a lot of support?”
She looked around with a wide smile on her face, like a child in a department store, and then her gaze shifted to me.
“I heard you’re a bronze club, so how did you manage to get this much support?”
Is that what everyone who comes here wants to know?
“I bought it with my own money, and we’re a silver club now.”
“Out of pocket? You’re rich?”
“Yeah. My family’s pretty well off.”
Too well off to be a problem.
“So, boss, we’re a Silver Club?”
“We got promoted.”
“Uh, that’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
“…… Didn’t I tell you?”
Now that I think about it, after Julie told me that we were going to be a Silver Club, I didn’t tell the kids since I went straight to Jeju Island.
“First of all, the important thing is to get a special lesson from Guild Leader Han Yeo-eun today, we can talk about that later.”
In fact, she was already looking at the other children with great interest.
“First of all, this girl here is Ji Hyun’s disciple, and you were with Kwak Chun-sik last time, right?”
“That’s right.”
She smiled, obviously referring to the academy’s new student welcome party not too long ago.
“Then whose disciple is the other child?”
She tilts her head and smiles, and Young-jae replies, while bowing his head.
“I am currently being taught by Ms. Lottie…….”
“Lottie? Wow, having that crazy bitch as your mentor, you must have a lot of trouble. And that girl over there is……granddaughter of the Sword Saint, right?”
I ignored Jin-woo who was giggling in the corner.
Choi Yeon nods at her question.
“Good, I guess I’ll have to teach you all.”
With that, she glances at her wristwatch and checks the time.
“If it’s that time now……I’d better start soon. I can’t be away from the guild for that long either, so where can we train?”
Apparently, as the head of a guild, she doesn’t have much time to spare for us.
Mr. Kwak Chun-sik has entrusted his son to run the Budokan, so he has time to spare, but I suppose that’s the way it should be.
“There’s a training room over here that the club members use.”
“Really? I’ll go then. By the way, do you mind if I ask what kind of special lesson you were hoping to get from me?”
She asked with pure curiosity in her eyes.
The answer itself wasn’t too difficult, so I spoke up.
“We have a mental test tomorrow, and I hear you’re an expert in that area.”
“Hmm? Well, in that case, you’ve asked the right person. There’s one other person I need, do you mind if I call her?”
I had a pretty good idea of who she was going to call, so I nodded and replied.
“Sure.”
* * *
Just as I was warming up for my arrival at the training center, a woman in a pure white robe approached me with a bright smile on her face.
“Ah. Looks like you’ve arrived in the right place, head of the Artemis Guild’s medical team. I’m Hick.”
She was a snow-white-haired woman with round glasses.
Her robe had a name tag that read, “Gangnam Hick Plastic Surgery.”
“Plastic surgery……?”
Young-jae asked and in response, the woman quickly covered her name tag.
“Oh, hahaha, I have another job.”
As she says this, Hick, who has naturally moved behind Han Yeo-eun, spots Jin-woo and smiles happily.
“Ah! You’re here too, Mr. Jin-woo.”
“Oh, hello.”
“You’re always so diligent, Mr. Jin-woo~ Always cheerful!”
“Ah……yes. Thank you.”
The other children scratched their heads at the sight of Jin-woo, who usually never said thank you.
I know why he acts like that, so it doesn’t seem so strange to me.
Well, the others will find out soon enough.
“Now, I’m going to help you train the ‘mental strength’ that your president requested……because the training method I taught Jin-woo is a bit radical, but you shouldn’t worry too much, even though she has gray hair, her skills are good.”
Se-ah clenched her fists and nodded.
“I’m confident that I can take on the guild leader’s training anytime!”
“Really? You said you’re Ji-hyun’s disciple, right?”
“What? Ah, yes!”
“If you’re Ji-hyun’s disciple, you should be able to handle it, right?”
“……Eh?”
At the same time, a small dagger appeared in her hand.
“This is a sword called Karnwenan, and it’s supposed to deliver pain but no wounds when it attacks, so it’ll be quicker to check its effectiveness yourself, right?”
In a flash, she’s out of sight.
And then.
“Hmph?!”
Se-ah, who was standing in front of me, fell to the ground, clutching her side.
“Oh, it’s painful to fall like that.”
In an instant, Han Yeo-eun, who had moved to Se-ah’s side, plunged a knife into her side.
Swoosh. The sword was pulled out of her waist with a sound and Se-ah unconsciously held her wound, but no blood was flowing.
“You, it hurts so much……!”
“You’re not going to sit around getting stabbed and hurting like that in real life. Get up now.”
Se-ah grimaced and stood up, the coldness of her words signaling the start of training.
Han Yeo-eun nods, twirling the dagger in her hand.
“The training method is simple: from now on, I will attack you at full strength for ten minutes, and you will defend at full strength or hold out until the time limit. Simple, right?”
At that, Jin-woo takes a ready stance as if he’s used to it, saying, “At least it’s not a real sword today,” while Young-jae and Se-ah still look confused.
Choi Yeon says nothing and draws the sword at her waist.
“Hick. Time again.”
“Yep. I took out my stopwatch. By the way, if you get hurt or faint during the training, you don’t have to worry because I’ll revive you somehow, juniors?”
It’s so refreshing to hear her say, “If you die, I’ll bring you back to life.”
“What kind of mental training is this?”
Se-ah asks, still in pain, and Young-jae answers for her.
“I heard that they use mental magic to give you pain and judge how you respond……Surely this method is a cinch.”
“That’s right, I trained with this method and got a perfect score. Then, shit.”
Her figure disappears once more.
As I maximized my senses and scanned my surroundings, I heard the sound of swords clashing to my right.
“You blocked this?”
“……!”
Han Yeo-eun is leisurely wielding her dagger with one hand, while Choi Yeon barely manages to block the attack with her trembling hands.
“Your senses are good, but……your physical abilities haven’t really opened up yet, have they?”
Boom!
Choi Yeon’s sword floats upwards.
“──Let’s see how well you tolerate pain.”
With that, she reversed her grip on the sword and plunged it into her spine.
Was she serious about attacking with all her strength?
The body of Choi Yeon, who received the attack, crumbled, and Han Yeo-eun looked behind her and smiled wickedly.
“Quickly heal her.”
“Yep.”
The others stared in horror as Han Yeo-eun approached with a familiar stride.
Knowing Choi Yeon’s strength, they can’t believe she’s so easily taken care of.
But that’s the reality, and the difference between the current top and the newcomer.
Soon, Han Yeo-eun’s gaze focuses on me.
“Let’s see what a great disciple Mr. Kwak Chun-sik has.”
At the same time, she disappeared, but I had already prepared myself.
I had scattered aura around me so that I could locate her at any time, and I was paying attention.
When I felt life to my left, I made a fist, and there was Han Yeo-eun, bent over, almost touching the floor.
“Are you out of your mind?”
But she twisted and turned, her attack grazing my ankle.
It was only a graze, but due to the nature of the weapon, a tremendous pain shot through my spinal cord and swept through my senses.
However I was used to this kind of pain.
Gritting my teeth, I planted my left foot on the ground, spun, and swung my right foot toward her.
“Counterattack?”
She smirks as she twists and turns to avoid the kick, almost acrobatically.
“Still, you’re the boss, right? All right, let’s see how long you can hold out-─hmm?”
──Ting!
She casually swings her sword in the air.
At the same time, sparks fly in the air and a dagger is embedded in the ceiling.
“Brilliant, huh?”
She turns her head in the direction the dagger came from and looks at Jin-woo with a wry smile.
Jin-woo raises the corner of his mouth in response.
“I’m just doing what I’ve been taught.”
“Of course you are. What kind of fool stands idly by while an enemy attacks his own comrades? You are my mentee after all.”
───Geeeeeeeeeee.
As she smiles in satisfaction, a swarm of indigo-colored light begins to gather around her, it was a dark aura reminiscent of the night sky.
There was an indescribable beauty to it, but there was also an unspeakable terror in the silence.
Choi Yeon, who had meanwhile regained her senses, could hardly believe that she had just passed out, grabbed the sword from the ground and immediately lunged at Han Yeo-eun, who grinned so brightly you could see her teeth.
“That’s how it should be!”
I shouted as I rushed to the other side, knowing that at this rate, Choi Yeon would be knocked out again.
“Attack at the same time!”
The battle between Korea’s top-ranked hero and Familia (?) was about to unfold right here and now.
* * *
“Mr. Jin-woo, how many points did you get?”
The children talking about their test scores with smiles on their faces.
“A perfect score. What about you?”
“……I got a perfect score too. What about you, Young-jae?”
“I got a perfect score too. The boss……must have a perfect score, right?”
“Yep. Although I think Choi Yeon got a 98, judging by what she just tapped in.”
Could it be the result of yesterday’s special lesson?
The entire Familia succeeded in scoring in the top 1%.
Now all that’s left is tomorrow’s competition.
And for that…….
“Oh. Looks like you all did well on your exams, Eugene. Did you have any trouble?”
“Hehe. I’ll have an Americano.”
The two old men had already arrived at the Familia’s clubroom.
……Haaa. When will the exam be over?
