Chapter 128: The Devilish Man (3)

After club activities wrapped up for the day.

Slurp.

Il-mok stopped by the infirmary where Physician Seo was stationed, sipping on some tea that was supposed to calm his nerves.

"Phew."

He let out a light sigh as the warm liquid went down.

Seo Jae-pil, who'd been watching him with sparkling eyes, leaned in. "Did you manage to pick up anything useful?"

Il-mok nodded at his question.

“I think the new instructor is suspicious.”

“Hmm. May I ask why?”

“Unlike the other instructors, he’s far too interested in me. To a blatant degree.”

Seo Jae-pil nodded at Il-mok's observation.

“I see. If you felt that way, then there’s likely something to it. However, isn’t it a bit strange?”

"What do you mean?"

“No matter how you look at it, wouldn’t it be incredibly foolish to be so obvious?”

Il-mok nodded at Seo Jae-pil's point.

He'd been thinking the same thing to some extent.

“Considering their methods so far, it does feel a bit off. That’s why I haven’t reported it to the Hall Master yet.”

The man’s constant attempts to provoke him into a rampage were infuriating, but Il-mok still had enough rationality left to separate his personal feelings from the facts.

'The whole "stab first, questions later" approach is pretty risky right now.'

Part of him just wanted to set a trap and frame the bastard since he found him irritating.

But that would be a terrible move for several reasons.

It would basically announce to his enemies that he was using himself as bait.

Plus, if the bastards got spooked and went into hiding, he'd lose his chance to root them out completely.

'There are people targeting me, and I can't just let this end without dealing with them properly. That would be way too unsatisfying.'

If that happened, his other self—that crazy perfectionist with severe OCD—might really start having meltdowns every single day.

Seeing Il-mok lost in thought about how to handle Ma Do-yeong's situation, Seo Jae-pil spoke up.

“As it happens, I began the counseling sessions with the instructors today. I’ve already met with the Hall Master, the Vice Hall Master, and a few others. So would you mind waiting just a bit longer?"

“You’re planning to probe Instructor Ma Do-yeong during his session?”

Seo Jae-pil nodded.

“Asking about you directly would only raise suspicion. Instead, I plan to hold several sessions and casually ask about their thoughts on the students in general. And this won’t be limited to just Instructor Ma Do-yeong.”

“That makes sense. Besides Ma Do-yeong, there could be other rats. It would be risky to focus only on him.”

"Exactly, Young Master."

Looking at Seo Jae-pil, whose eyes were practically gleaming as he stared at him, Il-mok nodded with an uncomfortable expression.

'His skills as a physician seem solid, but the guy's completely unhinged. I really can’t bring myself to trust him completely.'

But since there wasn't anyone else to replace Physician Seo right now, he decided to trust him for the time being.

“Alright, I’ll leave it in your hands.”

"Yes, Young Master. Oh, and since you're here anyway, would you mind telling me about what's been happening lately or any emotional changes you've experienced? If I record them, they could serve as excellent research material in the future.”

Seo Jae-pil was basically saying that Il-mok was his test subject.

With a faint sigh, Il-mok recounted the events and emotional shifts of the past two days. Seo Jae-pil listened with an absolutely delighted expression and jotted everything down.

Il-mok stood up to leave. “Ah, one more thing. Are you allowed to send a message to headquarters?"

"I regularly exchange communications with the Pure Mind Hall."

The Hall of the Demonic Way was mostly made up of instructors, assistant instructors, and disciples, but they couldn't run the place with just those people.

They needed cooks, people to transport ingredients, and others to clean the dorms and do laundry for the students who were focused on training. The instructors and assistants typically used these channels to communicate with the headquarters and only made direct trips to headquarters when they had specific business.

Meanwhile, the disciples were banned from any contact under the excuse that they should focus solely on training, which was pretty fucking bizarre, but it was a familiar system to Il-mok.

'Basic training in the military was exactly the same.'

You got one letter to send to your parents at the very beginning, and after that, you only earned a phone call as a reward for exceptional performance. And even then, it was for what, a minute?

'If a medieval cult of psychopaths operates at the same level as modern military training, which one's the weird one here?'

Il-mok was internally concluding that both were equally fucked up when Seo Jae-pil asked, "Do you have some important message to send to headquarters?"

Normally, disciples were forbidden from contacting the outside world, but given the circumstances, Il-mok could communicate through Physician Seo.

And Il-mok nodded with a serious expression.

"I need to send a message to Elder Demonic Physician."

"What should I tell him?"

"Tell him to send some hand sanitizer."

"......"

The sheer gravity with which Il-mok delivered the line left Seo Jae-pil, for once, momentarily speechless.

Seo Jae-pil barely managed to collect himself and asked in a dubious tone, “You… you’ve used it all already?”

'It hasn't even been ten days since you got back from headquarters...’

He swallowed those words and waited for Il-mok's response, who shook his head.

"There's still some left, but it takes time for the message to arrive and for Elder Demonic Physician to send the sanitizer, no? I’ll feel more at ease if I receive it before I run out completely.”

True to someone suffering from OCD, Il-mok was trying to prevent the worst-case scenario.

Physician Seo made an "I see!" expression of understanding and nodded.

"I'll take care of it."

After Il-mok left the infirmary with Seo Jae-pil's confirmation, Seo Jae-pil picked up his brush.

But he wasn’t writing a message to Demonic Physician.

—The Eighth Young Master didn't seem to realize it himself, but his compulsive tendencies had seeped into his daily life. The fact that he was worrying about running out of sanitizer first, even when his life was in danger...

As his brush flew across the page, Seo Jae-pil thought to himself, Indeed, the Young Master is a truly magnificent research specimen.

***

The next day, while the disciples were busy getting their asses kicked by the instructors during training, Seo Jae-pil was conducting interviews with the instructors in turns.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Physician Seo Jae-pil from the Pure Mind Hall."

"I'm Eun Ryeo, an instructor at the Hall of the Demonic Way."

Since classes here were divided into Upper and Lower Classes, two instructors taught simultaneously while the other two rested. He conducted counseling sessions during these breaks.

"Hmm. So your side effect is excessive sympathy. That must make it difficult for you to refuse others’ requests.”

"...That's correct."

Eun Ryeo nodded while feeling a strange mix of emotions as Seo Jae-pil saw right through her.

It was a weird feeling. A wariness and relief hit her at the same time.

As if sensing her turmoil, Seo Jae-pil smiled gently.

“This counseling is standard procedure. It has already been conducted throughout the headquarters. Even the Lord of Ten Thousand Demons has received it, as have the heads of every division, so please, do not worry.”

"...I understand."

Knowing that even the Heavenly Demon, their object of worship, had received this counseling made her feel a bit more at ease.

They continued to chat for a while over tea meant to calm the mind.

"Teaching young students must present difficult moments because of your side effects, Instructor Eun Ryeo. How do you handle it?"

“…Because of that issue, I make a conscious effort to appear cold on the outside, paying close attention to my expression and tone of voice.”

As they discussed her condition and coping mechanisms, the topic of Jeong Hyeon naturally came up.

"Oh my. I plan to counsel the students after I have finished with the instructors. I will be sure to pay extra attention to Disciple Jeong Hyeon.”

"Thank you, Physician Seo."

Now that they were talking about disciples, Seo Jae-pil saw his chance and decided to probe a bit.

"So, besides Disciple Jeong Hyeon, are there any other disciples you're concerned about?"

And amazingly, Eun Ryeo took the bait immediately.

"If I had to think of someone, it would be Disciple Il-mok."

"Hmm. Isn't Disciple Il-mok famous for being a genius?"

"Sigh... There's no doubt about his talent, but there's one disappointing thing."

"If you don't mind me asking, what would that disappointment be? You don't have to tell me if it makes you uncomfortable."

Eun Ryeo hesitated for a moment but soon spoke up.

After all, the fact that Il-mok was a womanizer was common knowledge among the instructors. It had been reported to the Hall Master and had likely even reached the ears of the Heavenly Demon.

She didn't like gossiping about a disciple's personal life as an instructor, but if it was already widely known, she figured it couldn't hurt.

"It's natural for a young man to be interested in women, but Disciple Il-mok seems a bit excessive about it.  What’s more, it pains my heart to see the already fragile Disciple Jeong Hyeon get caught up in it and struggle so much recently.”

This was, of course, fascinating news to Seo Jae-pil, who had heard absolutely nothing about Il-mok’s womanizing ways.

After the thirty counseling sessions ended and Eun Ryeo left, Seo Jae-pil continued his interviews with the other instructors.

With Jeong Gyu-seok, the doctrine instructor:

"Is there anything that's been bothering you lately?"

"Honestly, I was pretty upset about the Meditation Club being formed recently. Three disciples left our doctrine research club to join that new club!"

“Hmm. That sounds like a perfectly valid reason to be upset.”

"Ah, don't misunderstand. It's not that I'm upset about losing the disciples. It's just that if the goal is mental stability, doctrine research would be way more effective than meditation, so I'm wondering why they even bothered creating a meditation club."

They also discussed how the trio that had originally been in the doctrine research club had switched to the meditation club because of Il-mok.

Next was Cheok Il-so, the external arts instructor.

“Hahaha! If you’re asking who’s been on my mind lately, it would have to be the cadets from the Bodybuilding Club. Mak Ho-yeol, Dokgo Pae, and Gwak Sul! We’re kindred spirits, so I can’t help but keep an eye on them!”

"Having disciples who get along well with you must be really heartwarming to watch."

“You have no idea! Actually, all of them are quite interested in Disciple Il-mok, so I've been keeping an eye on him too. If possible, I'd love to get Disciple Il-mok to join our Bodybuilding Club as well."

The conversation was mostly about the Bodybuilding Club.

***

A few days later, Il-mok visited the infirmary for a follow-up counseling session and to pick up the hand sanitizer he’d requested.

Taking the sanitizer bottle that Seo Jae-pil handed him, Il-mok asked, "Did you manage to find any leads?"

Since he was already there, Il-mok was curious if there had been any progress.

“Well, I have completed the first round of interviews with all the instructors, including Ma Do-yeong, but…”

Sensing Physician Seo's hesitation, Il-mok asked, "Was there some kind of problem?"

"It's not exactly a problem... but it's going to be hard to pin Instructor Ma Do-yeong as the culprit."

"...What's the reason? Did Ma Do-yeong not mention me at all?"

"That's not it. In fact, if he had deliberately avoided talking about you, my suspicions would have grown stronger.”

"He talked about me, so why don't you find him suspicious?"

Seo Jae-pil sighed lightly.

"The thing is, every single instructor talked about you, Young Master."

"...Did you ask about me directly?"

Seo Jae-pil looked aggrieved after hearing his tone.

"I just casually asked if there were any disciples they were concerned about lately, and every single one of them started talking about you."

"???"

Looking at Il-mok's completely bewildered expression, Seo Jae-pil let out a dry laugh.

When he compiled everything he'd heard from the instructors over the past few days, the results were mind-boggling.

According to Instructor Eun Ryeo, four female disciples were creating chaos trying to win Il-mok's affections.

According to Instructors Cheok Il-so and Jeong Gyu-seok, the male disciples were desperate to become friends with Il-mok.

From Hall Master Yeom Ga-hwi to the Vice Hall Master and all the instructors, everyone was keeping an eye on Il-mok.

And that wasn't even the end of it.

'Come to think of it, the Supreme One pays special attention to the Young Master too, and the same goes for the Elder Demonic Physician and me. And according to the rumors, even the young lady of the Hyeokryeon Family follows him around.'

The Young Master was truly a devilish man, enchanting everyone regardless of age, gender, or whether they were ally or enemy alike, without even trying.