He wondered what kind of man would go to the infamous White Sun Valley just to collect compost. Not only that, he was able to placate a spiritual animal with a single punch.
At the same time, he had a feeling that it was best not to know, and reminded himself that the Clan Leader most likely omitted this information from him for a good reason.
He sighed, picked up a broom, and began to sweep the courtyard when he suddenly felt a presence near him.
'What could that be?'
He looked around, but was unable to see anyone.
"Am I imagining things because I'm tired? I did have quite an experience today as well…"
Baek-gap muttered this under his breath, and resumed his sweeping.
As he was sweeping, he could feel a touch on his body.
"...!"
He felt as though it was most definitely a person's touch.
'But there's no one here at all?'
He had heard that Kang-hyuk's residence, and the residence opposite, had both been vacant for quite some time.
The rumoured reason being ghosts.
As a member of the Jimilgak, Baek-gap was well aware that the rumour had been spread to conceal the secret pa.s.sage in the forest which was nearest to the two houses.
'I know that it can't be ghosts, yett there's still cold sweat dripping down my back! I need to pull myself together..... as a warrior of Jimilgak, how can I be so weak?'
Baek-gap slapped himself, and turned around.
tThe morning glory vines were swaying back and forth with the wind. This was what had touched him.
"Hahaha! Morning glory vines? I was so frightened by a vine's touch? Hahaha!"
A look of astonishment began to spread across Baek-gap's face.
"Wait, morning glory vines? We sowed the seeds for those today…. these aren't even a magical plant, these were ordinary seeds from the market."
Baek-gap slowly turned his head away and let out a scream.
"Aaaaah!"
***
As Kang-hyuk entered the restaurant, he immediately spotted a man wearing a blue uniform waving at him.
"Over here!"
Kang-hyuk walked over to him, and spoke politely.
"Are you Ju Gung-wol Seonsaeng?"
"I am Ju Gung-wol!"
"It's nice to meet you. I'm Kang-hyuk."
They bowed to each other in greeting, and sat down.
Kang-hyuk began to look into Ju Gung-wol's energy.
"Does he have a peak level of cultivation?'
Ju Gung-wol smiled as he spoke, "It's a relief you didn't fall into the martial teachers' trap. I also heard you won the drinking contest last night."
The rumours had spread quickly.
"I guess I did. Hahaha."
"The prices of the drinks there are eye-wateringly high, I'm glad you didn't have to foot the bill in the end!"
Kang-hyuk wriggled his eyebrows. Ju Gung-wol seemed to be unaware of the debt settlement he had with the teachers.
'They've concealed it on purpose.'
Ju Gung-wol burst out laughing.
"I was almost caught in that trap, but I was able to evade it as I had to leave the banquet early as I became ill and vomited."
"Is that so?"
"I got quite lucky. In fact, I've escaped similar unfortunate situations with this luck of mine!"
The food soon arrived, and the table was filled with a variety of gourmet dishes.
Ju Gung-wol's mouth slightly opened as Kang-hyuk brought out a bottle of Wolsoru wine.
Their conversation had begun to flow when there was a sudden interruption.
"Seonsaengnim! Kang Seonsaengnim!"
The door of the restaurant swung open as a man rushed in. It was Baek-gap.
"Oh? Baek-gap? What's the matter?"
Baek-gap jumped to speak.
"There- there's a big problem!"
"A big problem?"
"There's a problem at the residence!"
Ju Gung-wol quickly spoke up.
"A big problem! You should hurry and go see what it is!"
"You'll have to excuse me then."
After apologizing to Ju Gung-wol once more, Kang-hyuk got up and left the restaurant.
"What on earth is the big problem?"
Baek-gap attempted to formulate an explanation but was unable to, and simply cried out.
"anyway, you'll see when we get there."
Kang-hyuk wondered what could cause a peak warrior like Baek-gap to be in such a state, and hurried back to the residence.
***
"Oh my…."
Kang-hyuk had arrived back at his residence and was unable to hide his surprise. His residence was filled to the brim with vegetation.
It was still spring, and in summer, there was definitely going to be a profusion of flowers.
Not to mention the fact that he had only just planted the seeds.
"It's a good thing that the neighbouring houses are empty! If anyone caught sight of this…."
"They would just think you're a talented Horticulturist."
"...."
"Ah! I can see the Hollyhock and the Morning glory vines! And that tall plant is Rose Balsam. The trees have grown significantly as well!"
Kang-hyuk looked pleased and nodded.
Baek-gap cried out at Kang-hyuk's observations.
"Seonsaengnim! How can you be so laid back about this! The trees' growth in this single day is as much as a hundred-year-old tree. Not to mention the flower seeds. They didn't just grow slightly, they're already vines! It doesn't make any sense!"
Kang-hyuk laughed heartily at Baek-gap's protestations.
"It doesn't make any sense? Baek-gap."
"Yes?"
"The thing is, throughout my life thus far, I've seen many things which don't make any sense."
His own age-reversal was one of those things.
The exaggerated growth was obviously not a natural occurrence, and Kang-hyuk pondered why it could have happened.
'Did I use too much of the sun-infused compost? Perhaps I should use less of that compost in the future. Or was it my energy melding with the energy of nature? Or is the fundamental cause of this all… that over there?'
Kang-hyuk looked at the flower bed where he had planted the Morning glory vine seeds. He then turned again, looking at his residence with a great abundance of vegetation.
"Anyway, this much of an overgrowth is just a slight issue. If the trees were just slightly taller than me and the height of the flowers were to my knees, that would be perfect."
He hadn't even finished his sentence when he suddenly witnessed an astonishing sight. The flowers and trees had spontaneously reduced their height to that which he had wished them to be.
Kang-hyuk then laughed out loud.
"Good, very good! That's right, I am the owner, therefore follow me well! Hahaha."
Baek-gap watched Kang-hyuk with his mouth agape at seeing Kang-hyuk coolly talking to the plants as though they were puppies.
'Will I have to keep on putting up with this?'
Whilst there was no such thing as a resignation within Jimilgak, after the events of the day, Baek-gap had a strong desire to write a resignation letter.
***
Evening had fallen.
The shadow of a group of five people could be seen gathered in front of Kang-hyuk's residence.
They had been chosen to represent all of the martial arts teachers.
Either by the utilization of threats or their fists, their collective motive was to obtain the debt contract from Kang-hyuk.
This was, of course, immoral behaviour for teachers that should have been setting an example, but they were Moorim teachers of Hwacheon Academy.
It was a place where power reigned over logic and ethics.
In addition, they felt that they had a sound justification for their poor behaviour. They looked at each other and nodded with comradery.
"Let's do it!"
"We shall emerge victorious!"
As they were about to step into Kang-hyuk's residence, they were met with an unexpected occurrence.
Something wrapped around a teacher's foot. They turned around to look at the teacher standing behind them.
"Why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Why did you touch my foot just now?"
"I didn't touch your foot."
At that moment, another teacher let out a cry.
"Ah! Did someone step on my foot?"
"No, what are you talking about?"
They began to quarrel amongst one another, until they eventually realized that something had touched their feet, but it wasn't anyone amongst their group.
"Thinking about it, I remember hearing rumours of this place being haunted."
"….I've heard those rumours as well. That's also why the neighbouring houses are empty."
"Could it really be?"
"a ghost?"
"Aaaagh-!"
They began to run away in fear.
Whilst they were martial teachers, they felt that their opponent was beyond their level.
Inside the residence, Kang-hyuk had been observing the scene, grinning at the plight of the teachers. He telepathically spoke to the morning glory plant.
"You fellows, your prank went too far! Although it wasn't bad either. Hahaha!"
The morning glory vines in the flowerbed wriggled about in response.
Baek-gap could hear the sound of a girl's laughter once more. But that sound was buried under the sound of his sigh.
'Ah, I really want to write that resignation letter!'
***
The morning of the next day had arrived, and there was a gathering at the conference room of Hwacheon Academy.
The princ.i.p.al sat in the centre, with the martial arts teachers to his left and the liberal arts teachers to his right.
It was the day before the Academy opened again, so this was the first meeting of the academic year. During term time, the teachers generally met daily at eight in the morning for their meeting.
Hwacheon Academy had four periods of vacation in the year, each lasting a month. The vacation periods were known as- before the first half of the year, before the second half of the year, after the first half of the year and after the second half of the year.
Tomorrow was the beginning of the first half of the year and the admission day for new students.
"We will now start the meeting."
The princ.i.p.al, Eun Myeong-myeong responded to Ok Hae-mi's opening statement.
"What are we going to be discussing today?"
A teacher spoke up urgently, almost as though they had been waiting for the question.
"Erm-we will be discussing tomorrow's admission of new students."
The teacher's name was Oh-Tae.
He was a teacher of swordsmanship who mainly taught first and fourth-year students.
His teaching career had already spanned ten years and he had a smooth face with a handsome appearance. He was also nicknamed 'The Grim Reaper' by his students.
He glanced over at Kang-hyuk, who was sitting at the end of the table, and said, "We should decide who should look over the new admissions tomorrow."
"Yes, we should. Does Oh Seonsaeng have any suggestions?"
"What about Kang-hyuk Seonsaeng? He hasn't been a.s.signed any tasks as of yet, and his cla.s.s doesn't start until the day after tomorrow."
Eun Myeong-myeong narrowed his eyes at Oh Taek's suggestion.
"You want to a.s.sign the task of guiding the new admissions to a teacher that only arrived here the day before yesterday? Kang-hyuk Seonsaeng himself needs a guided tour of the Academy."
"….Then, who should we a.s.sign the task to?"
"Isn't the task of guiding usually a.s.signed to one of the martial arts teachers?"
Oh-Taek begrudgingly responded, "Well, that is true, yes."
"I know that the students usually encounter their swordsmanship teacher quite frequently, am I right?"
"Yes, there is daily sword practice so…"
"Then it's decided. It would be good to familiarize yourself with the first-year students you will be teaching. Weren't you also the guide last year and the year before that?"
"I was indeed."
"Well that's even better. It's better for you to do it as a person who's already familiar with the job. Why don't we permanently a.s.sign you the task of guiding all of the new admissions?
"What?"
Eun Myeong-myeong sharply raised his brows at Oh-Tae's cross-question.
"What do you mean by that? Are you against my, the princ.i.p.al's, decision?"
Oh-Tae felt the tension rising in the atmosphere and broke out in a cold sweat.
Whilst Eun Myeong-myeong had stepped down from his former position as the master of a clan to become the princ.i.p.al of the Academy, a master was still a master, and his anger gave fear into Oh-Tae's heart.
Oh-Tae vigorously shook his head and answered quickly, "No-not at all! I will follow your suggestion."
The tension in the room melted as soon as he agreed, and Oh-Tae was able to breathe a sigh of relief.
'd.a.m.n it! I didn't want to be called the Grim Reaper again.'
He was annoyed that things were unable to go as he wished.
His attempt to pa.s.s on the guiding of the new admissions to Kang-hyuk was linked to the events that had transpired at Wolsoru.
'A mere Liberal Arts teacher wants to be equal to the Martial Arts teachers?'
