Chapter 26

Master kept his promise.

After that awkward meeting with Eldest Brother, despite his busy schedule, he personally performed the True Qi Guidance and personally fixed my meridians for me.

Thanks to the fact that he is the supreme master within this Demonic Cult and he personally performed those treatments, my body was able to recover quickly without any lingering effects from the injuries, and I was able to leave the medical wing after just a few days.

And to my luck, the Windrock Palace had been fully repaired within that short span of time. Even then, Master fulfilled his promise to me.

That is to say—

"Huff. Huff."

"Tsk. How will you strike at the enemy's weak point if you're so slow?"

He worked me like a dog.

I had noticed it during the last mission, but this man didn’t know the meaning of moderation. Then again, to become the leader of this den of madmen, a half-hearted effort wouldn’t have been enough.

For Master, a life of endlessly striving was the norm.

‘Just let me rest, for fuck’s sake!!’

I was the type who only aimed to achieve the bare minimum required to complete my task.

That said, Master didn’t keep me occupied all day.

He was a busy person as the cult leader, after all.

Roughly six hours a day, maybe?

But even though it was only six hours, being pushed to the extreme for six hours straight left me utterly exhausted.

By the time I had endured about ten days of this hellish training with Master—

"Hmm. I think you've gotten the hang of it, so starting tomorrow, we'll return to the previous schedule of two hours a day."

Master finally declared my liberation.

And my daily life returned to normal.

In the morning, I take history lessons from Jin Hayeon.

"Please turn to the next page, Young Master."

Of course, there was no way the cracks in her bones could have healed in just ten days.

I told her she should just take a break until she recovered, but she didn’t listen to me.

―As Young Master's attendant, how could I rest easy after failing to protect you?

So there she is, with both her arms broken, yet still insisting on teaching. Maybe she feels more at ease if she does the bare minimum of her duty? Either way, being a hybrid child of fanaticism and psychopathy is truly something.

Psychopaths are supposed to prioritize their own safety, but for Jin Hayeon, the Demonic Cult came first. That’s why she never abandoned her duties even when her own body was injured.

However, since she couldn’t use her arm, she was limited to teaching and couldn’t attend to my other needs. So they had to assign another servant to pick up the slack.

As our lesson was wrapping up, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

As soon as I gave permission, the door opened, and the attendant who had recently been assisting Jin Hayeon entered.

He was tall—around six feet—and looked like a college student who had been a bit of a troublemaker in his high school days.

‘Who the hell is this guy?’

This was definitely not the usual servant

And since when did I have a male servant? That was just weird,

Fortunately, the other party resolved my confusion.

"I greet Young Master Il-mok. I am Ouyang Mun, a member of the White Tortoise Group."

However, questions still lingered.

"But what brings a warrior of the White Tortoise Corps here?"

I had no connection to this guy. He was a complete stranger, and I had no ties to the White Tortoise Corps either.

The guy stammered for a second, then looked over at Jin Hayeon.

“Well, I actually came to see Hayeon. I heard she's been staying in Windrock Palace and hasn't come out, so I came here to find her."

I looked at Jin Hayeon with a puzzled expression. She responded with her characteristic emotionless face.

"He's a fellow graduate from the Hall of the Demonic Way, Young Master."

"Hmm."

Did this place also have a culture that shouted ‘love your country, love your classmates’?

"You two must have been quite close at the Hall of the Demonic Way?"

"That's right."

“We were just in the same class.”

The man and woman gave contrasting answers to my question.

Hearing the line drawn by her answer, the young man’s face flushed and he shouted at her.

"Just a classmate?! Have you already forgotten our memories of competing for the top spot?!"

Oho.

So, they actually competed for the first place among the most talented individuals in this damned cult.

"So which of you graduated from the Hall of the Demonic Way as the top student?"

At my question, Jin Hayeon looked at Ouyang Mun with a cold look, while Ouyang Mun rubbed under his nose with his index finger, showing an ambiguous reaction that seemed both proud and embarrassed.

'Did he come here to brag?'

Suppressing my bewilderment, I asked.

"So, what is it you want to say to Miss Jin?"

The young man’s body flinched and then glanced between me and Jin Hayeon while behaving fidgetily.

'Is it something he can't say in front of me?'

While I was pondering this question, he opened his mouth while subtly avoiding Jin Hayeon's gaze.

“Ahem. Well, I heard... that you were injured while stopping the First Young Master's rampage. You see, you should have trained harder.”

"Are you trying to say I'm weak?"’

The class valedictorian had just spoken. And the salutatorian replied in a voice that could freeze fire. “I’m not calling you weak! I just don’t get why you’re wasting your talent doing menial work as an attendant. Have you forgotten our promise? We promised at the Hall of the Demonic Way to do great things together for the Divine Cult."

“I chose this path for that very purpose as it allows me to stay close to the Supreme One and his disciples. If I keep getting stronger and prove myself, one day I might even become the Heavenly Demon’s shadow. As a member of the cult, where could there be a more glorious path than this?”

Until now, I have been harboring one question while living with Jin Hayeon.

Why was she, an esteemed graduate of the illustrious Hall of the Demonic Way, choose to work as an attendant, more so now that I know she graduated second in her class.

But now, I know the answer to that question.

'Hmm. So her goal is to become like that person who was always by Master's side?'

The man who dealt with the assassins from the Murim Alliance when Master was kidnapping me. Come to think of it, that man had been wandering the martial world alone with the Master, so he must have been in charge of all the miscellaneous tasks.

In other words, to become the personal guard of the Heavenly Demon, you had to be a butler and a one-man army all at once.

But Ouyang Mun didn't seem to accept that answer.

“That’s just an excuse! You’re just scared to aim higher, so you’re hiding behind this nonsense and ditching the promise we made!”

As I watched Ouyang Mun shouting indignantly with a reddened face, a thought crossed my mind.

‘What was that thing called again…’

Ah, right! Tsundere.

On the surface, it might seem like he was red from anger, but if you look closely at his eyes, they tell a different story.

From the way he averted his gaze whenever he met Jin Hayeon's eyes, it was clear he was head over heels for her.

But tsundere? Really?

'What is he, an elementary grade-schooler?'

Constantly picking fights with the girl you like. It was the kind of thing that only elementary schoolers would do.

No, even elementary school kids these days don't act like that anymore.

'I guess that's what you get with someone from the old days.'

Regardless of my thoughts on the matter...

"Are you looking down on my duty of serving the disciple of the Supreme One?"

"I'm not looking down on it! It's just the truth! Have you been training properly since you started this servant duty? You haven’t seen any real fights! We used to be equals, but now I’d wipe the floor with you.”

The two of them were engaged in a heated argument.

'Ah, young love.'

As a guy in his mid-thirties, watching these two bicker like college kids was kind of adorable.

Well, except for the fact that it was one-sided.

"And what's so great about being an attendant anyway! It's the people you serve who are impressive; the duty itself isn't anything special!"

"Can you take responsibility for those words?"

"Responsibility? What responsibility?"

"If you're so confident, why don't you try it yourself?"

“Hah! You think I can’t? Fine! Since your arms are busted anyway, I’ll take over as Young Master Il-mok’s attendant until you’re better!”

Ouyang Mun's face twitched as he shouted this.

At first glance, he might have looked angry, but I could see it.

'He's absolutely thrilled. Over the moon even.'

He was having a hard time hiding his smile at the thought of being able to stay close to Jin Hayeon all day under the pretext of serving me.

And to manage his expression, he suddenly fumbled with his sleeve and pulled something out, and handed it to Jin Hayeon.

It was a small container filled with what looked like expensive medicinal herbs.

“Here, take this so you heal faster! D-don’t get the wrong idea! I’m a busy man, I can’t substitute you for long, so I’m giving this to you because I have no choice!”

Oh, give me a break.

***

Not long after, the servant who had been attending to me in Jin Hayeon's place came, but...

"I will be serving the Young Master, so you may leave."

Before I could even open my mouth, Ouyang Mun had already shooed her away. The idea of a man serving me felt a bit odd, but Ouyang Mun’s skills weren’t as bad as I expected.

Maybe because of his experience as a graduate of the Hall of the Demonic Way and the youngest member of the White Tortoise Corps.

"Isn't it hot today, Young Master? Well, as it happens, I'm quite skilled with a fan. Haha."

"Haha! I knew you'd say that, so I brought water in advance, Young Master!"

Like a diligent new recruit in the army, he was quick-witted and attentive to my needs.

"Hmm. Why are you here, young man?"

Of course, when my Master visited in the afternoon, he also questioned this situation.

“Replying to the Supreme One, this one is helping out his fellow disciple until the White Tortoise Corps assigns me to another mission.”

Master simply nodded and accepted his smooth answer. “Haha. To see such harmony between disciples, it’s truly pleasing to the eye.”

“Har- harmony? Y- you are too kind Supreme One! Ahahaha!”

Funnily enough, his composure completely crumbled when he was dealing with anything related to Jin Hayeon.

As for a certain ice-block he was completely infatuated with…

“…”

She just stared at him with cold eyes akin to those of a wicked mother-in-law waiting for her daughter-in-law to make a mistake.

‘Seeing that he still likes her even after receiving such treatment, that guy is definitely not in his right mind either.’

Then again, how many sane people could there be in this den of madmen?

For some reason, the sight of his one-sided love felt pitiable to me, so I decided to let him stay as a temporary attendant.

Absolutely not because I found the situation amusing.

“Haha! I’ve been practicing acupoint massage on the seniors of the White Tortoise Corps so many times that I’ve become quite skilled at it, Young Master.”

Since he had his use, I didn’t dismiss him outright.

Like that, I spent my days sparring with him or Third Brother whenever he popped up to my place, receiving Master’s teachings, and attending morning lectures with Jin Hayeon.

Only when days had passed did I realized one thing, ‘Where is Little Seon-ah?’

The little kid who used to visit me without fail every day hadn’t shown her face for half a month now.