Chapter 2
The kids who had been in the same carriage as me were dressed similarly, their clothes as ragged as mine. It meant they had also been snatched off the streets while begging. Because of that, they didn't seem to feel too wronged by the current situation. Having ridden in the carriage together and run to the cliff together, they seemed to think we had become friends in that short time.
The boy I had saved seemed a little different, but once the order was given, he ran hard right beside me. It looked like he could have gone faster, but he never ran ahead of me.
I had used all my energy at the start and was gradually losing steam, so many kids eventually overtook me. Even then, that boy kept pace with me.
"There's a light up ahead!"
"It really does have an end."
The children shouted and ran ahead.
As they poured out, dozens of people dressed in black night gear stood in formation.
One of them handed out wooden tags to each person in order.
It seemed they were given out in the order of arrival, and arriving even a little earlier appeared to be advantageous.
Seeing them hand out the wooden tags, some children from behind rushed forward to get theirs first.
However, the boy who had been with me waited for me and deliberately took his tag after I got mine.
I didn't feel particularly grateful, so I didn't understand why he was going to such lengths.
"The wooden tags you received each have a number written on them. Your score is one hundred minus that number. From now on, you will receive a wooden tag each time, and your rewards and punishments will be determined by the sum of all the scores you get."
I knew it was all nonsense. It was just a lie the men, who would come to be called instructors, told to make it easier to control the children. None of that mattered; the only thing that was important was who survived the competition held every six months.
"Enter the building in front of you in groups of twenty. That is where you will be staying from now on."
The boy next to me quickly checked his wooden tag again.
I checked mine too; my number was twenty.
I figured we would be in different rooms, but the boy suddenly snatched my wooden tag and swapped it with the one from the kid behind him.
"..."
The boy who had been number twenty-two seemed pleased, thinking his score had instantly improved by two points.
I knew the score didn't matter, so I wasn't upset about that, but I was a little angry at the boy for acting so arbitrarily.
But after doing that, he smiled sheepishly as if to apologize, and I couldn't stay mad.
"Now we'll be living together. Let's get along. I'm Pae Maseong."
Pae Maseong.
Yes, Pae Maseong!
The name that had been on the tip of my tongue but wouldn't come to me finally surfaced.
The Heavenly Demon, Pae Maseong. The Red Heavenly Demon Emperor, Pae Maseong.
‘I’m meeting him here?’
I was confused about whether I should be glad to have met Pae Maseong in this place.
As the protagonist, Pae Maseong would be at the center of all sorts of incidents, and I thought that being next to him would put me in danger as well.
Pae Maseong seemed to find it strange that I just stared at him blankly without saying anything after hearing his name, and he scratched his head.
"I'm sorry for switching the wooden tags without asking. But I wanted to stay with you... I'll be sure to listen to you from now on."
The Heavenly Demon said he would listen to me.
The Heavenly Demon, Pae Maseong.
Of course, he wasn't the Heavenly Demon yet, just a snot-nosed kid, but a kid like this would have a different kind of potential from the start.
For now, I just nodded.
The kid had been kidnapped and brought to a place like this; he must have been in shock. I didn't want to make him more uncomfortable.
"How did you end up here?"
"My family is poor, and my parents said it was hard to raise me..."
It sounded like a heartbreaking story, so I decided not to ask any more.
"What's your name?"
What was it again?
"Ah, Yasocheong."
"Ah."
We were the same age, and Pae Maseong said we should be friends from now on. Though he had been speaking informally to me even before asking my age.
While we were talking, the other children also started talking amongst themselves. The men who would be called instructors left us alone and didn't come in. This kind of time wouldn't be given for long.
"The people outside seem dangerous, and I don't think they'll go easy on us just because we're young, so it's probably best to listen to them. If you have people you need to meet again, you should be even more obedient. You have to survive here to see them again."
I didn't know when I would get another chance to say something like this, so I spoke up, and the children listened intently.
"Could we die?"
Someone asked, and I nodded.
"Has anyone here learned martial arts?"
I asked just in case, but no one had.
"Anyone who has learned to read?"
Again, no one.
All sorts of children were brought to Nether Shadow Valley, not just those of low status. To select children who would pledge their loyalty from a young age, direct and collateral descendants of the Cho family and its subordinate families also came.
But it seemed there were no such children in our room.
It was fate that we met like this, and I hoped that the children here could survive a little longer. So, I told them about the things they would learn here in the future.
It was hard to say that I knew these things, so I just vaguely suggested that such things might be necessary.
They were children who had been dragged here under unfortunate circumstances, but perhaps that was why their will to live and survival instincts were stronger.
The children seemed to think it was possible and listened to what I said.
"We can use the time we have now differently, but there might come a time when we're really short on time. Wouldn't it be helpful to do what we need to do then, now?"
The children nodded, and I told them what I knew.
But that time was not given for long.
"Everyone, come outside now."
A loud voice came from outside, and I went out faster than anyone else.
If I set the mood, the other children would follow, and right now, that was the only way to avoid a beating.
The children in other places were beaten for being slow, but we were already standing in an orderly line.
If resistance would help, I would have tried it, but there was no way to escape this place with a group of young children.
The assembled instructors glanced at us.
They seemed to find it strange.
"From now on, you will live here. By the time you leave this place, you will have grown into respectable martial artists. You should be grateful that we are taking in kids like you, feeding you, housing you, and even teaching you martial arts."
The man who started speaking told us to call them instructors and that we must absolutely obey their words from now on.
"For those who do not obey, only death awaits."
I don't know what they went through in the meantime, but the atmosphere gradually became tense.
"You will learn martial arts here and be trained as proud martial artists. But those who lack perseverance or are insincere will inevitably fall behind."
His speech was long-winded, but I roughly understood what he wanted to say.
These people were trying to train assassins to send on missions, but they seemed to want to avoid using the word 'assassin' as much as possible.
I didn't know about later, but at this stage, they seemed to want to keep it quiet, which I thought was better for the children.
If they had been told they were being trained as assassins, they wouldn't have the expressions they had now.
Some children had faces full of anticipation.
Becoming a martial artist was something that gave many people hope. There weren't many people who could treat someone who had learned martial arts carelessly.
Many of them had probably never even seen a real martial artist, so how many of them wouldn't be tempted by the words that they could become one just by enduring here, without spending a lot of money to learn at a martial arts school?
Even Pae Maseong had a slightly excited look on his face.
"We are a very well-known sect, and we receive requests for various jobs. If any of you are judged to be competent, you may finish your training early and go out on missions."
The children murmured at those words.
They seemed to think it would be great if that could really happen.
I thought that the children who went on missions would be fed to the poisonous creatures.
Now that things had come to this, I had to learn as much as I could without falling behind until I had enough strength.
Pae Maseong's eyes also shone, and he focused intensely.
Even though he was young, he was still the protagonist, and he seemed to be different in that regard.
While the instructor was speaking, a few people walked among us.
They passed by without a word, but they seemed to be examining our bone structures.
Some people wrote things down, and later, a new group called 'First Class' was formed.
They were selected based on children with good bone structures and high status, but Pae Maseong and I were not included.
Not a single child from our group made it into the First Class.
The children looked at the First Class group with envy.
Anyone could see that the children in that group were superior in every way, from their physique to their appearance, so it was natural to want to get close to them.
The instructors also treated the First Class children better, so discrimination naturally occurred.
From now on, the only way for us to surpass those children was to push through with perseverance.
* * *
In the dining hall, the children stared blankly at one side.
In the center of the dining hall, the First Class children were eating first, and their tables were laden with all sorts of delicacies.
In contrast, children like us were given only porridge or rice balls. Even that was often not enough, and countless children were unable to eat due to various punishments.
The training was so intense that it was impossible to endure without eating, but the instructors pushed us to our limits from the very beginning.
Pae Maseong would often ask me with a tearful face what we should do.
I thought that since Pae Maseong was the protagonist, he would stand out from the beginning, but that wasn't the case.
Pae Maseong had a hard time understanding what the instructors were saying and struggled more than the other children.
When they did the same thing, the other children followed without difficulty, but Pae Maseong seemed to have a particularly hard time understanding.
(End of Chapter)