Chapter 10
Yeon Cheongha looked at me with pitying eyes for a long time before speaking.
"Yasocheong, you seem to see the world in a very negative light. Considering how you've lived so far, I suppose it can't be helped."
He must have been talking about being kidnapped off the streets and living in Eumyeong Valley until just now.
"Anyway, it's not like we can take it back now."
At those words, Pae Maseong sighed.
"If you're that worried, you can just train hard and follow the instructor."
When I said that, Pae Maseong's face lit up.
"Can I go on assassination missions too, instructor? Wouldn't I be of help?"
I hadn't meant for him to do it right away, but Yeon Cheongha looked at Pae Maseong as if it were a plausible idea.
I looked back and forth between the two, wondering if they were really going to do it.
Then, this time, Yeon Cheongha's gaze turned to me.
"Are you going to take me with you too? I don't think I'm ready yet."
"It would be more dangerous to go alone. What are you going to do alone while the two of us are on an assassination mission? Wouldn't it be better to go on assassination missions with us than to be left alone in a strange place?"
I don't think so.
I think it would be better to just wait alone.
But Yeon Cheongha seemed convinced that his idea was right.
"It's not like a request will come in right away. And the number of assassination missions that the Lord assigns is limited. Since the number is limited, he won't just give us anything, so learn hard in the meantime."
Those words seemed to mean that we were dead now.
And that thought was not wrong at all.
* * *
The novel didn't go into detail about what kind of education and training assassins received, but I got to experience it all one by one.
I really don't think it was necessary to go this far...
Moreover, Yeon Cheongha was much more amazing than I had thought, and he knew how to handle a wide variety of weapons.
And he taught us with a sense of mission that he couldn't let us die while following him on an assassination mission.
If we had had a lot of time, he would have taught us step by step, but since we didn't know when we would be sent on an assassination mission, he said he had no choice but to teach us in the most efficient way possible and showed no mercy.
"There are all sorts of weapons in the world. You won't know which weapon you can handle best until you see it and handle it yourself. In fact, you might not be good with a sword but good with a spear, but if you've never seen a spear in your life and never had a chance to hold one, how sad and unfair would it be to die without even knowing you have the ability to handle a spear well?"
Yeon Cheongha placated us with such words. Even if he had just yelled at us to hurry up without placating us, we would have had no choice but to learn, but I was grateful that he at least said it that way.
As he said, the variety of weapons was truly diverse.
Many were derived from farming tools or medical instruments, and there were also many that were created for the purpose of tormenting people.
"Even if you can't handle this well, if you meet someone who handles this kind of weapon later, it will be much easier to respond if you know how to use it. If you know how the force is transmitted, you might be able to block the attack at its source."
Yeon Cheongha gave us various weapons and attacked us with them himself. Then, later, he had us hold swords and block his attacks with them.
Watching that, I realized that Yeon Cheongha was not only good at other things, but also at handling all sorts of weapons.
That also seemed to be a great ability.
Although it was said that all paths lead to one, I didn't think that just because you had mastered the sword, you could naturally handle other weapons just as well, but he was amazing.
"For now, I can only give you a superficial understanding. I don't know how to use the weapons properly myself. But if you see it and know it, you might remember it later, and you might want to delve deeper. It will be helpful to learn it separately then."
He also taught us about various poisons and things that would be helpful when escaping on an assassination mission.
He also taught us how to make smoke bombs, but that was so difficult that even Yeon Cheongha seemed to lack confidence.
"Sometimes I succeed in making them, but not every time. Anyway, smoke bombs are definitely helpful. When you're trapped among a large number of people and can't secure an escape route, you can temporarily blind them. But this only works on people with low martial arts skills; masters can spread their ki and chase you even if this goes off."
He taught us assuming the worst-case scenario, and even though we were just learning, we felt a sense of tension as if we were on an actual assassination mission.
"You're following along well. Normally, I wouldn't have taught this so hastily. If you hadn't followed along this well, I would have given up in the middle. I thought it was impossible from the beginning, so I wouldn't have felt regretful."
Then he thanked us.
Yeon Cheongha was definitely a good person.
It wasn't a great connection, but he was doing everything he could to make sure we survived without losing us.
Teaching us required time, and his own training time naturally became insufficient because he was teaching us. Yet, he was teaching us while enduring that, so he was making a great sacrifice.
I hoped that one day, Pae Maseong would repay the grace he had received from him.
I wouldn't pretend not to know either, but it would be more helpful to him if Pae Maseong remembered him once than if I repaid the grace.
"Pae Maseong, you must not forget the instructor. When you reach a high position later, you must think of the instructor and repay all the grace you received today."
I said that whenever I had time, and Pae Maseong smiled as if he found it amusing and nodded.
"I don't know if I'll really reach a high position, but even then, I'll never forget instructor, and you, Socheong. And when I'm in that position, I think you and the instructor will also be in high positions."
That probably wouldn't be the case, but since he thought so, I didn't see any reason to stop him, so I stayed quiet.
Pae Maseong was really changing day by day.
At first, we started at the same starting line, but with each step he took, it felt like the gap between us was getting wider and wider.
If I were a chick, would Pae Maseong be like a phoenix?
But I wasn't envious or jealous of such a Pae Maseong. My goal was just to live a quiet, safe, and comfortable life.
I definitely did not want to have the lives of hundreds of thousands of people depending on me.
But what was also strange was that I was somehow managing to endure Pae Maseong's training process, which was clearly superior and excellent to anyone's eyes.
Yeon Cheongha would sometimes look at me with a wondrous face.
It seemed that I was more surprising than Pae Maseong. He seemed to find it unbelievable that I, who was not Pae Maseong, could do as much as Pae Maseong, who could do it because he was Pae Maseong.
That was also based on the premise that Pae Maseong was not ordinary, but I had no complaints at all.
If Pae Maseong becomes the number one under heaven, and I become the person most favored by that number one under heaven, then no one in the world will be able to touch me.
And they will try to look good to me and bring me good things.
Wouldn't that life be really good?
I could enjoy life without working.
But now, even while having such fantasies, my body had to move without rest. While avoiding the flying whips that could come from anywhere.
* * *
The Lord of Cheonrim was a truly amazing person.
I was just amazed that the Lord had gotten a promise from Yeon Cheongha and still hadn't decided on the assassination mission to entrust to him.
I knew that the Lord had come out a few times in the meantime and watched us train, but he still didn't assign us any work.
It was the same until we turned sixteen.
Thanks to that, we were able to train diligently, and later, more people came to see us.
Those people observed Pae Maseong for a long time next to the Lord and then left.
When I saw them standing next to the Lord, their relationship with the Lord seemed to be somewhat equal.
It meant that more and more important people were taking an interest in Pae Maseong.
Pae Maseong changed day by day, and his martial arts achievements were enormous.
Even someone who didn't know about martial arts could not help but know how great a talent Pae Maseong had.
Even if you didn't have an eye for martial talent, if you saw Pae Maseong, you would naturally think, 'This child has martial talent.'
Even during that time, Yeon Cheongha's training process did not get any easier.
On the contrary, the intensity increased day by day, and he even tried to teach areas that he had not taught before.
From how to train poisonous creatures, how to use poisonous creatures in assassinations, how to make poisonous insects, to how to make aphrodisiacs.
But what he taught later was definitely shallow, and I felt that even Yeon Cheongha himself didn't know the details.
"If you know it, it will be useful later."
After teaching us to a certain extent, when he hit a wall himself, Yeon Cheongha would say that and leave the rest to us.
Some of them were really interesting, and I felt that if I had the chance, I would really have to learn them.
But Pae Maseong didn't seem to be particularly keen on learning such miscellaneous things, and later, he even told Yeon Cheongha directly.
"Instructor, I don't want to learn these things anymore. I want to focus on swordsmanship. I don't have enough time to just focus on swordsmanship, so I don't want to waste time learning new things."
Pae Maseong had respected Yeon Cheongha until now, but it seemed to be changing little by little as time went on.
When he reached a certain level, Pae Maseong seemed to have realized that he was good, and he seemed to have realized that there was a difference in level between him and Yeon Cheongha, and that he had now surpassed him.
That didn't mean he was ignoring Yeon Cheongha, but he no longer blindly accepted what Yeon Cheongha taught him as he had before.
Yeon Cheongha, as if he had expected such a day to come, didn't look particularly upset and agreed.
"What about you, Socheong? If you don't want to learn either, I won't teach you."
"I'm fine, instructor. There might be something I'm really good at among the things I haven't learned."
I didn't say it thinking about his feelings; I really thought so.