Chapter 5
Should I say something to him about it?
If he wanted to make friends, Pae Maseong needed to make an effort too, but the problem seemed to be that he found it bothersome and gave up.
The children murmured a little longer before finally quieting down.
'By the way, if Pae Maseong goes to the First Class, what will happen from now on?'
In the novel, Pae Maseong is discovered by an instructor who recognizes his abilities, receives martial arts instruction, and goes on many assassination missions.
If he entered the First Class, that might happen even sooner.
'Should I have prevented him from showing his abilities?'
It was too late for that anyway, and I tried to think of a way to warn Pae Maseong.
But no good ideas came to mind, and the night deepened.
* * *
The next day, when we went to the grand training ground, new people I hadn't seen before were standing in front of the instructors.
They didn't call Pae Maseong over separately but just watched him train.
A few of them also caught my eye.
I thought I must have been mistaken since there was no reason for it, but our eyes met frequently. It wasn't just one or two people; several people seemed to be looking at me.
'What is it? Do I also have a special talent for martial arts?'
Once that thought crossed my mind, the things that had been coming naturally until then suddenly became awkward.
Then, when I glanced at Pae Maseong, he was swinging his wooden sword as if possessed, having completely gotten the hang of it.
It was hard to believe he had been so clumsy before, seeing how well he was doing now.
In the end, no one approached Pae Maseong until the training was over.
As I was walking to the dining hall with Pae Maseong, wondering who the new people were, I heard the First Class children talking amongst themselves.
"Don't the people from Cheonrim only come here during the graduation ceremony, Yusan? Did they perhaps come to see you? You've met them before, right?"
"Ah, so that's it. They came to see Yusan. That could be it. The instructors said it's been a long time since a collateral branch of the Cho family entered Eumyeong Valley."
"You didn't know that either? They were openly staring at Yusan the whole time. There's no reason for Yusan to stay in Eumyeong Valley for long. Yusan's martial arts skills are probably better than the instructors' here anyway."
I realized what a misunderstanding those kids were having.
Seeing the group of people who had come to see Pae Maseong, they seemed to think they had come to see Cho Yusan.
Seeing that Cho Yusan didn't deny it made me feel embarrassed for him.
What kind of nonsense was it to say that the young Cho Yusan was better at martial arts than the instructors?
Still, finding out that those people were from Cheonrim was a great discovery.
Eumyeong Valley was an assassin training facility, and Cheonrim was the assassin organization managed by the Cho family, so Cheonrim was the ultimate destination for those who completed their training in Eumyeong Valley.
The fact that people from Cheonrim had come to see Pae Maseong could be taken as a sign that the leadership of the Cho family was keeping an eye on him.
I couldn't understand what they saw in Pae Maseong, who had just started swinging a wooden sword.
Come to think of it, Do Hawol was not next to Cho Yusan.
The spot that Do Hawol always occupied was empty, and because of that, the other children seemed to be flattering Cho Yusan to try and take that spot for themselves.
I wondered if any more interesting stories would come out after that, but it was all just flattery towards Cho Yusan, so I quickened my pace with Pae Maseong.
"I'm hungry."
"Really?"
"Ah, I wasn't asking you for food."
If I said something like that, Pae Maseong would say he wasn't very hungry, give me his food, and then his stomach would rumble for the rest of the day, so I quickly added.
"I'm sorry, Socheong. I have nothing to repay you with. You always put your life on the line to save me."
"I do? When did I?"
"You did yesterday when the instructors came to the dormitory."
Ah, so that's how he saw it.
Even if I had done that, I wouldn't have been able to protect him, but Pae Maseong seemed to have been grateful for it for a long time.
"I never had any friends before. This is the first time I've had a friend. So I'm really happy. That's why I don't want to go to the First Class either."
He was a bit pitiful.
He would become even lonelier when he became the Heavenly Demon later.
This seemed to be the best time in Pae Maseong's life to make friends.
"Still, if they tell you to enter the First Class, don't refuse. It's definitely a good opportunity."
"I'm fine."
He usually listened to me easily, but he was particularly stubborn about that.
We arrived at the dining hall first and finished our meal before the others.
I didn't see Do Hawol in the dining hall either, but when we went to the dormitory to rest, Do Hawol was there in front of it.
As if he had been waiting for Pae Maseong from the beginning, Do Hawol charged at him like an angry bull.
I thought Pae Maseong would be in danger, and my prediction was not wrong. But it wasn't like I could take the beating for him, nor was it a problem that could be solved that way.
I stealthily slipped away and ran straight to where the instructors were.
When I told them that Pae Maseong was being beaten by Do Hawol in front of the dormitory, a few instructors disappeared with a gust of wind.
Thinking that Pae Maseong wouldn't be beaten to death by Do Hawol if he just held on until now, I returned to the dormitory to find the situation already resolved.
It seemed Pae Maseong had also been hit before the instructors arrived, but it was nothing compared to Do Hawol.
Do Hawol seemed to have come to take out his anger for what Pae Maseong had done to him the day before, but it would have been better if he hadn't.
He was bleeding from every pore, as if he had been hit by a fist imbued with internal energy. In that state, one of the instructors dragged Do Hawol away. It seemed he would be thrown to the poisonous creatures in the underground caves.
"You have a place to go with us, Pae Maseong. There are people who want to see you."
"I'm not going to the First Class."
Pae Maseong said without listening to the details.
"If you're going to take me to the First Class, please take Socheong too. Socheong is my only friend."
The instructors had a somewhat dumbfounded expression, but I was touched.
I didn't know if the instructors would listen, but hearing Pae Maseong say that made me feel that I hadn't lived my life here in vain, and I was pleased.
"Let's go for now."
When the instructor urged him, Pae Maseong looked at me with a wistful expression and followed the instructors.
Will I be able to benefit from Pae Maseong now?
By the way, will he do well? There won't be anything to worry about yet, right?
Why is the protagonist so high-maintenance and like a child left by the water?
* * *
It was determined that Pae Maseong's martial talent was indeed extraordinary.
This was the result of a direct confirmation by the masters from Cheonrim.
If those people said so, then it could be trusted.
It would be much better than what I, who knew nothing, saw.
Once the masters of Cheonrim confirmed it, the treatment of Pae Maseong changed completely.
It didn't just end with him entering the First Class; his status within the First Class was also high.
It couldn't be said that he was comparable to Cho Yusan, but he had risen to the position that Do Hawol had originally occupied in one go.
Pae Maseong didn't seem to be very interested in that position, but once his rank rose to that level, no one in Eumyeong Valley could treat him carelessly anymore.
The same went for the instructors.
From now on, Pae Maseong was under the direct interest of Cheonrim, and they would be observing his progress in martial arts, so it seemed difficult to punish him carelessly.
I was definitely relieved that the incident of being thrown to the poisonous creatures in the underground caves would never happen again.
That didn't just apply to Pae Maseong; it was the same for me.
Wherever Pae Maseong went, he emphasized to everyone he met that I was his only friend, and I unintentionally became a celebrity in Eumyeong Valley.
"Hey, Socheong. Are you very close with Pae Maseong? The instructors are being really nice to him. They seem to be saying that Pae Maseong will graduate earlier than the other kids. If so, are you going with him then?"
Wherever I went, there was a line of children who wanted to say at least a word to me.
My plan to live quietly had long been derailed.
"I'm not sure about that either."
"You're so lucky. You're close with Pae Maseong, so you got into the First Class."
The children seemed to be envious that I had entered the First Class and was eating good food and living in a good place.
The children in the First Class were also given different clothes.
It was no different from a caste system within.
As time passed, it became increasingly difficult for children who were not in the First Class to talk to the First Class children. Even if I didn't stop them, they seemed to feel the difficulty themselves.
The First Class gang was also nice to me now.
Even if they didn't like it, they had no choice as the instructors' interest in Pae Maseong grew.
* * *
Over the course of five years and several competitions, the number of children training in Eumyeong Valley was now around a hundred.
The children who lost in the duels were led away by the instructors and disappeared. There was no doubt that those children were thrown to the poisonous creatures in the underground caves.
In the meantime, the instructors were also largely replaced.
The instructors who came later seemed to be much more skilled than the ones who came at the beginning, and they taught a small number of people intensively.
At first, I thought it was strange that there were no important names from the novel among the instructors, but now I understood why.
Important figures wouldn't be wiping the noses of snot-nosed kids.
When the number of trainees in Eumyeong Valley reached about a hundred, new instructors came, and we could choose which instructor we wanted to learn from.
Just because we wanted to, we couldn't all learn from the person we wanted. If many children wanted the same person, we had to compete. I thought that the information I had would finally shine this time.
"Socheong, which instructor do you want to learn from? Everyone says they want to learn from Instructor Son Eun. They say Instructor Son Eun is a very famous grandmaster in Cheonrim. He has succeeded in the most assassination missions in Cheonrim, and the people who commission jobs also want to entrust them to Instructor Son Eun."
At first, the people who had kept it a strict secret that this was a training facility for an assassin organization were now slowly starting to reveal that part.
At some point, they had to teach the virtues necessary for an assassin, so it would have been difficult to hide it forever.