Chapter 3
Among the instructors, some seemed to think that Pae Maseong was deliberately mocking them.
Those instructors would beat Pae Maseong, and it was a common occurrence for all the children to be punished because of him.
As a result, the children took their anger out on Pae Maseong.
Since they couldn't imagine getting angry at or defying the instructors, they directed it at Pae Maseong instead.
I tried to teach Pae Maseong separately a few times, but he couldn't grasp things that weren't difficult to understand and had all sorts of questions.
If they were told to do a hundred horizontal slashes, the other children would do the same motion a hundred times without a second thought, but Pae Maseong seemed to question the very motion of a horizontal slash.
The instructors would order them to do a hundred horizontal slashes with the intention of watching them do it, but when Pae Maseong alone couldn't do it and struggled, they would get furious.
Then they would get angry at everyone, and the children who were scolded by the instructors would get angry at Pae Maseong. This cycle repeated itself.
'Wow, why is the protagonist like this?'
I wanted to understand and help Pae Maseong as much as possible, but sometimes it was overwhelming.
Pae Maseong, for his part, was having a very hard time with the situation.
He must have hated that the other children were being punished because of him, and he seemed to feel an immense sense of self-loathing for being the only one who couldn't understand.
"Socheong, why am I like this?"
Pae Maseong agonized over it alone.
I wanted to give him an answer, but I didn't know the answer myself, so I had nothing to say.
"What is it that you don't understand, Maseong? You just have to watch what the instructors do and follow them similarly."
"I want to do that too, but what the instructors show us is different every time. So I don't know which one to follow."
"No, you just have to do it roughly."
This kid is strange.
Eventually, I was about to get annoyed with Pae Maseong too, but I held it in, thinking what would happen if even I turned on him.
Pae Maseong would practice alone while the other children were sleeping.
Things that were so basic that you'd think, 'Aren't you an idiot if you can't even do this?'
When I woke up in the middle of the night, Pae Maseong was often gone.
I thought about just going back to sleep, telling myself I didn't know either, but in the end, I couldn't help but worry. So I would stay by his side while he practiced, and then I'd get bored and end up practicing with him.
I hadn't planned on working this hard, it was really strange.
It felt like I was getting dragged into Pae Maseong's pace.
* * *
"Socheong, thanks to you, I'm finally getting the hang of the horizontal slash."
You're just getting it now?
I wanted to ask that, but I held it in and told him I was glad.
The other kids looked enviously at the First Class children eating in the center of the dining hall, but Pae Maseong seemed completely uninterested, lost in thought about the horizontal slash he had just mastered.
Even while eating, Pae Maseong seemed to be thinking only about the horizontal slash, and that seemed to have gotten on the nerves of the First Class children.
"Hey, why is that idiot still here, making things hard for us? Why do we have to suffer because of that idiot all the time?"
The one who said that was Cho Yusan.
His name was Cho Yusan.
He was from a collateral branch of the Cho family.
Even the children who didn't know that this was an assassin training facility managed by the Cho family would have gotten a sense by now that the Cho family's status was different.
That was what the Cho family wanted, so the instructors encouraged that atmosphere.
The reason they had a separate First Class and gave them special treatment was to instill in the children the idea that the Cho family was special and that they should consider it natural to sacrifice themselves for them at any time.
If you just had the surname Cho, the instructors would often let things slide even if you made a mistake, and you would be praised highly even if you weren't very good. So, the words of those children carried a lot of weight.
"His head must be made of stone if it's not working. Should we help him understand?"
When Do Hawol, who acted as Cho Yusan's lackey, spoke, Cho Yusan smiled as if he found it amusing.
He didn't even need to nod. Just one smile was enough for the lackeys who were eager to please Cho Yusan to step up.
Do Hawol could have dealt with Pae Maseong himself, but he seemed to think that there was no need for a First Class member like him to get his hands dirty.
Then he looked towards the children who shared our dormitory.
"Hey, you guys who live with Pae Maseong. Shouldn't you be the ones to take care of this?"
Then, Do Hawol's eyes met mine.
'Why did I look?'
I regretted it immediately, but our eyes had already met, and Do Hawol seemed to think that I, who was always with Pae Maseong, was the right person for the job.
All the members of the First Class group murmured as if they found it amusing.
Pae Maseong, thinking that I was in a difficult position because of him, looked at me and muttered softly.
"I'm fine, so hit me, Socheong."
Even though I had woken up in Yasocheong's body, I had lived much longer than Pae Maseong. It was ridiculous to think that I would hit Pae Maseong because of those arrogant and rude punks.
"I don't know what Maseong did wrong."
At my words, Do Hawol stared at me blankly and then snorted.
"Birds of a feather flock together, so you're the same? Then you can both get beaten up."
At that, Pae Maseong shook his head.
Then, with a sudden burst of courage, he stood up and confronted Do Hawol.
"I-I can get hit, but Socheong didn't do anything wrong. So don't hit Socheong. If you're going to hit someone, just hit me."
Pae Maseong was sometimes stubborn in ways I couldn't understand.
Was it because I had saved him by putting a centipede in the instructor's clothes at the beginning, or was it because I had stayed with him while the other children ostracized him?
Do Hawol glanced at Cho Yusan. Everything Do Hawol did was to please Cho Yusan, so he had to know Cho Yusan's intentions first.
"If he's begging like that, shouldn't we grant his request?"
When Cho Yusan spoke, a smile spread across Do Hawol's face.
Do Hawol was also around our age, at most two or three years older. I couldn't understand how he could be so vicious.
"If you're a martial artist and we're all here to become martial artists, why don't you two have a duel instead of just beating him up one-sidedly?"
At that moment, that was all I could say for Pae Maseong.
I didn't think Pae Maseong had any particular chance of winning in a duel, but I had a glimmer of hope that it would at least give him a chance to do something.
You never know.
In novels, people sometimes gain sudden enlightenment through a chance opportunity. I thought that if he was lucky, Pae Maseong might be able to do that too.
Do Hawol seemed to feel greatly insulted by my words.
His face turned bright red, and he snapped at me, asking what I had just said.
I hadn't meant to mock Do Hawol, but since his opponent was Pae Maseong, the blow to his pride must have been enormous.
But Cho Yusan seemed to find that amusing too and nodded.
"Yes, that sounds good. We are people who will become martial artists, after all."
He looked at Do Hawol as if it didn't make a difference, and Do Hawol nodded, seeming to understand Cho Yusan's meaning.
It seemed he was telling him to defeat Pae Maseong with the sword forms they had learned so far.
"If you say you're just practicing what you've learned, I think the instructors will praise you. They might even let it slide if he gets a little seriously injured. I think they would even if Pae Maseong dies by mistake."
When Cho Yusan went that far, a momentary silence fell over the dining hall.
A few children looked surprised, wondering if he was really telling him to kill Pae Maseong over this.
But the First Class children laughed as if they found it amusing.
Looking at Pae Maseong, he seemed surprised too.
"I'll go get the instructor, Maseong."
At that, Cho Yusan called out to me.
"You, your name is Yasocheong, right? I think it would be better for you to just stay there. Unless you want to be next after Pae Maseong."
But even if I was threatened like that, I couldn't pretend I didn't know.
Originally, Pae Maseong wasn't supposed to die at the hands of Do Hawol at this stage, but there was no mention of Pae Maseong being hated by the other children because he couldn't even do a horizontal slash, so I was worried.
"That bastard doesn't even know how to do a horizontal slash."
Someone from the First Class said, and a loud burst of laughter erupted around him.
At other times, I had no expectations of or trust in the instructors, but right now, they seemed to be the only ones who could solve this problem.
However, I couldn't take more than a few steps before I was caught by Cho Yusan's gang.
When Cho Yusan gave a signal, they came and blocked my way.
"We can't do it here, right? Let's go outside, Maseong."
Do Hawol said and went out first, and Pae Maseong followed him.
'What should I do? Do Hawol is still young, so he wouldn't really kill Pae Maseong, right? He's just saying that, right?'
While I was thinking that, the children, led by Pae Maseong and Do Hawol, went outside. Even after that, the First Class punks who were blocking my way didn't move.
I tried to push past them, but the First Class wasn't called the First Class for nothing.
They either had good bone structures or good families.
The ones who became First Class because of their families had either learned martial arts from a young age or were lucky enough to have undergone body-refining and taken elixirs.
There was no way I could defeat them and get past.
"Stop sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong, Yasocheong. If it weren't for you, we could have gone to watch too, but we can't because of you."
Now, only a heavy silence filled the dining hall.
'He won't kill him. As long as he doesn't die, there's still a chance.'
In the end, I just repeated that thought and waited for Pae Maseong to return.
Even if he died, Pae Maseong would get another chance.
He wasn't fated to die and be reborn this way, but Pae Maseong was a guy who would die once and come back to life, using the memories of his past life to get revenge, so even if he died, it wasn't the end.
Even though I knew that, my heart was burning with anxiety.
Then, I heard a commotion outside, and the punks who had been blocking me moved aside.
They probably thought it was all over, so there was no need to block me anymore. They must have thought that there was nothing I could do even if I brought the instructors now.
I pushed past them and ran to Pae Maseong.
I had expected the First Class gang to come in first, and Pae Maseong to be lying outside, beaten to a pulp. But.
"...Huh?"
When the door opened, the first person to come in was Pae Maseong.
(End of Chapter)