Reincarnation of the Martial Emperor

Chapter 7: From today, you are the class president.

Was he maybe thirteen years old?

A young man with long, flowing hair, who looked like a youthful girl, was greeting me with an anxious expression.

“You are very late. Brother.”

According to the family relationship chart I had figured out beforehand, this young man who called me brother must be the fourth son of the clan head, Jaegal Yeong.

But even his voice was somehow not like a boy's.

Well, I would get to know this young man gradually.

I glanced over the young boys who had arrived from the Crouching Dragon Hall.

Ugh, these tiresome Jaegal bastards.

I heard they studied for almost ten hours at the Crouching Dragon Hall, and yet to make them take review lessons in the evening after that.

“This is the book for today's review.”

I stared down at the book Jaegal Yeong handed me.

A Treatise on the Deceptive Strategy of Gold Flow.

I swear, it was the first time in my life I had seen this title.

Unable to contain my curiosity, I began to read the treatise while standing.

"Gold Flow" meant ‘the flow of money,’ and "Deceptive Strategy" meant ‘to rule deceitfully.’

In the end, what the author of this book wanted to say was a macroscopic methodology to cause confusion to those who read the state of the world by twisting the flow of silver.

It was just nicely packaged as an academic theory, but in reality, it was expounding on a way to deceive people, that is, a method to delude and strike the opponent with a show of money.

I was utterly fed up.

These crazy bastards were already teaching this to children around ten years old.

The prodigies who were considered the best among the Jaegals who learned such schemes from birth would pass the Nine Phoenix Gates.

Eventually, one of them would become the military strategist of the Alliance.

The Great Murim Alliance had been engaged in a battle of wits with such fearsome geniuses until now.

Now I think I finally understand why the Ghost Spirit Master had aged so quickly, and why he kept bothering me with his resignation letter day in and day out.

I suddenly felt sorry for no reason.

I smacked my lips and handed the treatise back to Jaegal Yeong.

I knew nothing about such schemes, nor did I have any intention of teaching them.

“Today's lesson is not a review.”

“……Yes?”

“First, I will see the children myself and decide on the content of the lesson.”

Jaegal Yeong's pupils were trembling as if caught in a storm.

He soon poured out his flustered feelings with his mouth.

“Have you decided to follow grandfather's will? Are you truly going to reveal your wisdom to the family?”

“What?”

“N-No, you absolutely must not! Didn't you promise me! If you teach them directly, the children's capabilities will rise by leaps and bounds! Just do the review lesson as you always have!”

I was even more flustered than he was.

If the children's capabilities grew rapidly, wouldn't that be a good thing for the Jaegal Clan?

Was it something to be so repulsed by?

“The more the children resemble you, the sooner the Nine Phoenix Gates will come! Do you really intend to throw those pitiful children into such a dangerous experiment?”

Jaegal Yeong, who was calling the Nine Phoenix Gates an ‘experiment’ rather than a test.

I stared blankly at his eyes, which were gradually sinking into sadness, and then opened my mouth.

“What do you mean, the Nine Phoenix Gates is a dangerous experiment?”

“……Yes?”

His expression was now tinged with bewilderment beyond mere perplexity.

A gaze that seemed as if he couldn't possibly understand how such words could have come from my mouth.

“You, brother, who missed your second brother so much…… how on earth could you say such a thing…….”

In that moment, my mind flashed.

The squirrel-hair brush that showed clear signs of being handled countless times.

When that strangely shaped brush overlapped with Jaegal Yeong's sad expression, I felt as if all the fog was finally lifting.

I had come to understand who the Nine Phoenix Gates had led to their death, and why the former owner of this body was at odds with his grandfather, the Old Man of Heavenly Wisdom.

‘The second young master of the Jaegal Clan died while challenging the Nine Phoenix Gates?’

Of course, the act of learning a family's secret arts sometimes came with considerable danger.

The Poison Wall, the final gateway of the Sichuan Tang Clan, still produced numerous casualties even now.

The reason they maintained that vicious gateway of the Poison Wall was because they believed that the Poison Human born from it was worth that much.

But the Jaegal Clan was a literary family, not a martial family.

Why on earth would a literary family's test call for a person's death?

But I had to swallow the question that lingered in my mouth.

If I acted any more carelessly, I would only arouse this young man's suspicion.

In any case, the Nine Phoenix Gates was scheduled for me, so if I faced it directly, I would be able to learn about the secrets of the Jaegal Clan.

“You're being rather talkative today.”

“Brother!”

Jaegal Yeong, who grabbed my collar and then blocked my path.

“If you have a separate reason for suddenly acting like this, please tell me what you are thinking!”

“I'm not thinking about anything special.”

“What?”

No, actually, my thoughts were very complicated.

To build up a position in this family to the extent that I could move the clan head, this teaching gig would have to be the start…….

Huu.

How long has it been since I taught a bunch of brats.

I soon passed the side table and stood before the podium.

The children of the Crouching Dragon Hall were each using abacuses or measuring tools to make or calculate something.

Suddenly feeling a surge of curiosity, I asked the children.

“What are you doing right now?”

A child with particularly clear eyes raised his voice articulately.

“We're making an axle device!”

“An axle device?”

An axle device was a kind of mechanism that moved or stopped objects.

As expected, small beads were continuously and dizzyingly rolling along a grooved wooden frame.

It was quite fascinating how something was activated every time a bead passed by and touched a latch or a lattice.

While my interest was piqued, I couldn't help but feel a chill in my chest.

If someone were to ask this Martial Emperor when he had seen the most deaths, he would answer without hesitation, ‘the bloody affair of the Myriad Sword Tomb.’

The death that befell them was due to all sorts of terrifying mechanisms, not by each other's spears and swords.

The scene of over a hundred masters being crushed and annihilated all at once by a huge iron coffin was so horrific that I still can't forget it.

In the end, when these young children grew up, they would become the engineers who create such frightening mechanisms.

The fundamental power by which this Jaegal Clan had reigned as one of the Five Great Clans for over four hundred years despite possessing mediocre martial arts.

Thus, in the axle device where the power of a light bead was amplified hundreds of times, I caught a glimpse of the origin of the Jaegal Clan.

“Everyone, put it away.”

At my words, the children of the Crouching Dragon Hall began to clear their desks calmly, without a single change in their expressions.

If a teacher got serious, they should at least pretend to be flustered, but for even these young children to have such composure.

I couldn't feel any sense of humanity in this Jaegal Clan at all.

I soon looked at the child in the very first row and asked.

“I've roughly heard about your daily routine. If we include the morning meditation, you all are dedicating all your time, except for when you sleep, to studying. Why do you live like that?”

“Gongming said that for a person to delve into principles and seek out reasons is a heavenly quality and nature bestowed by the heavens!”

“In my class, if you're just going to recite what you've learned, then lie down and sleep. I am asking for your thoughts right now.” ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ Nov3lFɪre.ɴet

The child in the first row bowed his head, his face turning red.

He must have prepared for the review by memorizing the book thoroughly, so it was understandable that he would be flustered when I suddenly spouted some nonsense.

But I was not Jaegal Hwi, but the Martial Emperor.

Before I knew it, I had returned to being the instructor who used to teach the fledglings of the Great Murim Alliance back in the old days.

“There is a purpose in a human's life. Revenge, survival, or to protect someone, and if not that, one might wish for success and fame.”

I glared at the child in the first row again.

“Self-cultivation without a purpose is no different from fucking around in the air. Who I will become, what kind of life I will lead, that comes first. A single sword strike from one whose heart is set right is equal to a thousand slashes from one who swings without meaning.”

I picked up a steel bead that was rolling under the desk and continued my question.

“To pursue learning without thought is just madness. They are the ones who will one day be devoured by that learning. The wisdom of one who is shaken by the ways of the world and crumbles at a small temptation. A human like a floating water weed who just follows along without any conviction.”

Smirk.

“There are twenty-two roots of floating water weeds sitting here, who will one day be devoured by madness.”

As expected.

Like the fledglings of the Great Murim Alliance back in the old days, these children's faces also turned bright red.

A few were even on the verge of bursting into tears.

I paid them no mind and glared at the child in the first row.

“I believe I asked a question.”

“I… I……”

The boy, with sweat gradually beading on his forehead.

This question was the limit of the countless children of prestigious families I had experienced so far.

The reason I, in my youth, was able to beat down all the Black Assassins who ruled Baengrang Village was because I had personally closed the eyes of Wi So-gun, who had died without even being able to resist.

Master Gwangcheon, who dug through graves like a madman to find the remains of his disciple.

Soso, who couldn't bear the sorrow of betrayal and threw herself off a cliff.

The last gaze of Baek Jagang, who had pushed me away and had his heart pierced.

The gray rain that drizzled down later when I faced his remains, which had become a skeleton.

All of those were the memories that made this Jin Gang-cheon into the Martial Emperor, the Alliance Leader of the Great Murim Alliance.

Because the only way to protect everyone was to embrace the underworld.

But these prestigious Orthodox Faction bastards experience those defining moments of a person's life late.

Flowers that are just being cultivated without even knowing why they have to endure the rain, why they have to grow up.

I had experienced countless Orthodox Faction bastards who broke down like that.

Hidden madness becomes hypocrisy, and in the end, they become dogs that only chase after power.

Among the Orthodox Faction bastards who speak of the path of chivalry with their mouths, those who could actually be called knights were few and far between.

A short acquaintance, but all I could do for these young Jaegal bastards was to show them the path of a person, not the path of such a dog.

“Are you unable to answer?”

Finally, an honest answer flowed from the boy's mouth.

“……I don't think I've ever once thought about the reason I study until now.”

I smiled faintly and sat down across from the boy.

“Look at that fellow over there.”

“Yes?”

“The one sleeping in the third row.”

In that moment, the gazes of the Crouching Dragon Hall children all gathered in the direction I was pointing.

“That fellow is the one who lay down immediately without a moment's hesitation when I scolded him to just lie down and sleep.”

“Ah…….”

As expected, the boy looked as if he couldn't understand me, who was wearing a satisfied expression.

“Do you think that fellow is pathetic?”

“N-That's not it, but…… I still think you shouldn't sleep with your head down during class!”

“That's right!”

“You shouldn't do that!”

“Haha!”

I was in a strangely good mood at the children's innocent reactions.

This has a different flavor from those cunning underworld bastards, huh?

“He is a fellow who knows the time and the justification. He didn't hesitate because I told him to lie down and sleep. He thought this lesson was meaningless.”

“Still……”

“He probably intends to get some shut-eye now and do something else at another time. Why? Because he is not a floating water weed that is swayed here and there. Because he has a clear purpose in life.”

I threw the bead I was holding in my hand towards the sleeping boy.

Thwack!

I smiled and spoke to the boy who was getting up groggily, grimacing.

“Why do you study?”

An answer came immediately, without a moment's hesitation.

“I'm going to save people.”

My head tilted to the side on its own.

It was because I had never experienced a child who gave such an answer.

He wasn't a physician, so what did learning schemes have to do with saving people?

“What is your name.”

“It is Moyong Baek.”

“A collateral branch.”

A collateral branch competing with the direct lineage in the Crouching Dragon Hall?

My curiosity piqued, I smiled and nodded my head.

“From today, you are the class president of this class. That's all for today's lesson.”

Moyong Baek was staring at me blankly, wiping his drool.