Star Instructor, Master Baek

Chapter 130: The Delinquent and the Student Council President (1)

TL: FoodieMonster007

“Fuck. Why’d I have to get stuck with a goody-two-shoes like you?”

“Right back at you. The last thing I wanted was to get paired with a problematic delinquent…”

Hyonwon Kang and Dokgo Jun exchanged disgruntled looks. They were the same age and had entered the academy in the same year, but that was where their similarities ended. One was the Student Council President, the face of the entire Azure Dragon Academy. The other was a delinquent who, until recently, the academy had basically given up on. Even the way they dressed, the way they spoke, the way they carried themselves… From head to toe, they couldn’t have been more different.

Nevertheless, today, they were both thinking the same thing: I don’t want to be seen with this guy.

“Stubborn jerk.”

“Impossibly thick-headed idiot.”

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Their day’s troubles had started during their second Defense Against the Unorthodox Arts class that morning. At first, neither of them had any inkling why Baek Suryong kept flashing his trademark mischievous grin in their direction.

“Starting today, we’ll be patrolling the crime-prone areas of Nanchang in pairs or trios. I’ll announce the teams now. Team One: Dokgo Jun, Hyonwon Kang.”

Their names were the first called, and when no others followed, the whole class, including the pair, blinked in disbelief.

“…Mr. Baek, could you repeat that?”

“No way! Why do I have to be paired with this guy?!”

As expected, there was a loud outcry from both parties, but Baek Suryong scoffed at them and stuck to his decision.

“Mr. Baek…” Geo Sangwoong, the only fourth-year student in the class, raised his hand hesitantly, probably worried about the impending disaster. “Wouldn’t it be better to add a third person to their team? If no one else volunteers, I’ll…”

Unfortunately, his attempt at chivalry was quickly shot down.

Baek Suryong taunted, “Those guys are already third years, so two is enough. Or what, are you spoiled brats scared of the unorthodox sects in the slums? Need your teacher to hold your hand?”

His words struck a nerve, and the two boys known for their fierce pride couldn’t let it slide.

“Two of us will be enough.”

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“What are you talking about? I can handle this patrol alone!”

…Was what they had declared confidently, but now, both of them were regretting their morning bravado.

“We should take a left here.”

“What? It’s obvious we should turn right.”

The biggest problem was that there were only two of them, so a majority vote was out of the question. Whenever their opinions clashed, neither was willing to back down, even when it came to a simple decision like deciding whether to go left or right at a fork in the road.

“It’s left.”

“It’s right.”

“Left.”

“Right.”

“…Wanna settle this with a fight? Winner gets their way.”

“You sure about that? You’ll regret it.”

They nearly came to blows more than once, but Baek Suryong’s warning loomed large in their minds.

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“If you fight among yourselves on patrol, I’ll have you go through a repeat of our first lesson when you get back. Especially you seniors. Don’t disgrace the academy outside of these walls. The Headmaster takes a great interest in this class, and if you mess up, there’s a face-to-face meeting with him lined up for you.”

Baek Suryong’s ‘lessons’ were bad enough, but a one-on-one meeting with Mae Geuklyom? Even for the Student Council President and the academy’s most notorious delinquent, that was a nightmare best avoided.

In the end, they spent the entire morning in a tense standoff, achieving nothing but exhausting themselves.

GRRRROOOWL…

“Cough, cough!” At the sound of his rumbling stomach, Hyonwon Kang cleared his throat, embarrassed, but Dokgo Jun pretended not to notice.

“…Oi, Dokgo. Let’s just eat something,” Hyonwon Kang suggested reluctantly.

“Fine,” Dokgo Jun sighed, nodding.

For the first time that day, they were in agreement.

Luckily, a small inn was just around the corner. The place was run-down, practically crumbling, but given that they were in the slums, they were thankful for even that.

As they entered, they saw an old woman, hunched over and deeply wrinkled, sitting there in a daze.

“Elder, we’d like to order. Do you have a menu?” Dokgo Jun asked politely.

The old woman pointed to her ear and shook her head.

Dokgo Jun blinked, puzzled. “Excuse me? What do you mean…”

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Hyonwon Kang stepped in, shouting, “She said she’s hard of hearing. HEY, GRANNY! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!”

The old woman smiled and nodded slowly.

Hyonwon Kang smirked at Dokgo Jun. “Looks like she can hear me. Let’s just sit down.”

“……”

Hyonwon Kang walked past Dokgo Jun and sat by the window. After a moment, Dokgo Jun followed and took a seat across from him.

Being a shabby inn, there wasn’t even a menu. The only thing written on the wall was somyeon.

Letting out a small sigh, Dokgo Jun held up two fingers. “…Two somyeon, please.”

The old woman nodded at the sight of his fingers and slowly shuffled toward the table with a cleaning cloth. However, her pace was so frustratingly slow that Hyonwon Kang abruptly jumped to his feet.

“OI, GRANNY!” he bellowed.

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Dokgo Jun tensed, watching him nervously. Is he really going to…? No matter how angry he is, is he planning to take it out on a helpless old woman?

If that were the case, Dokgo Jun wouldn’t forgive him. He gathered his qi, ready to intervene at a moment’s notice.

“Give me that!” Hyonwon Kang snapped, snatching the cleaning cloth from the old woman so swiftly that she could only blink in surprise.

“We’ll clean the table ourselves, so just hurry up and bring the noodles,” he added.

“……” Stunned speechless, Dokgo Jun stared blankly at Hyonwon Kang.

Hyonwon Kang returned to his seat, scrubbing the table with the cloth while grumbling, “I’m starving here, and she’s taking forever to clean the table before cooking. Ahh, fuck. Why won’t this stain come off?”

Infusing his qi into the cloth, Hyonwon Kang polished the table until it gleamed. Only then did he sit back down, looking satisfied.

That was when he noticed that Dokgo Jun was still staring at him in disbelief. Scowling, he barked, “What? What’s your problem?”

“…You’re a weird one. A really weird one.”

“Eh? You picking a fight now?” Hyonwon Kang’s frown deepened.

Dokgo Jun chuckled, shaking his head. “No, it’s nothing.”

He and Hyonwon Kang were like oil and water, completely incompatible. Even though they both came from prestigious families, Dokgo Jun was a prodigy who shouldered his family’s expectations, while Hyonwon Kang was a rogue from a fallen noble house. Naturally, he had never once considered the possibility of getting along with that guy. As a matter of fact, today was the first time that he was having a proper conversation with Hyonwon Kang.

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Not long after, the old woman returned with two enormous bowls of somyeon.

“Wow, this looks amazing!” Hyonwon Kang exclaimed. Clearly famished, he immediately began shoveling the noodles into his mouth.

On the contrary, Dokgo Jun took a few bites of the somyeon before setting his chopsticks down, less than impressed with the taste. With nothing else to do, he carefully observed Hyonwon Kang.

The thug from the Hyonwon Clan.

For the past three years, that’s what everyone called him instead of his name.

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Whenever Dokgo Jun heard that Hyonwon Kang was causing trouble, he would always click his tongue or sigh, thinking how pathetic the guy was. The day he heard that Hyonwon Kang had fought with Peng Sahyuk, he’d assumed that the boy would either be expelled or drop out from school.

But neither happened. Instead, this guy changed.

Hyonwon Kang was devouring the crappy noodles like a starving man. He was crude, rude, arrogant, and completely oblivious to those around him.

I used to think I could easily beat him in a fight… but if we fought now? I don’t think I’d lose, but I’m not sure I’d win easily, either. Damn… this is absurd.

Dokgo Jun found it ridiculous that he was even thinking this way. He, the strongest of the Azure Dragon Academy students, couldn’t be sure that he could defeat Hyonwon Kang easily? Just the notion was driving him crazy.

Though, he did have a guess about why Hyonwon Kang had changed, and why he had grown stronger.

“Hey, can I ask you something? Just what happened between you and Mr. Baek Suryong?” he suddenly asked.

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“…Cough, cough!” Hyonwon Kang immediately choked on his noodles, coughing violently, before glaring fiercely at Dokgo Jun. “Why are you bringing up that person’s name while I’m eating? If I get indigestion, it’s your fault.”

“…Simply hearing a person’s name won’t make anyone sick.”

“Man, it’s different when you know a punch is coming versus when you get hit out of nowhere.”

“What are you even talking about…?” Dokgo Jun asked, getting increasingly bewildered by the moment.

Hyonwon Kang clicked his tongue. There was no point in trying to explain it to him. Only those who had taken Baek Suryong’s lessons would understand. Sullenly, he groaned, “Anyway, what about the teacher?”

“I was just curious about his teaching methods. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. I’m not trying to pry…” Dokgo Jun asked cautiously, but Hyonwon Kang shrugged as if it was no big deal.

“Nothing much. He drills me hard, corrects my posture, throws in some advice now and then… Oh, and he taught me a new martial art.”

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“A new martial art?”

Hyonwon Kang grinned and nodded. “Yeah, a blade technique. I’ve only just started learning it, but it’s seriously amazing.”

Recently, Hyonwon Kang had been learning the Asura Blood Heaven Blade from Baek Suryong. Although it was a new technique, he had picked it up with astonishing speed, and felt as comfortable with it as if it had been made for him from the very beginning. Even Baek Suryong was shocked.

With a grin, he added, “At this year’s Heavenly Martial Festival, I’m going to crush Peng Sahyuk with this technique and win the Dragon and Phoenix Tournament.”

“……” Dokgo Jun fell into deep thought, seriously considering the possibility.

“What? Why are you giving me that face? Aren’t you going to say something like, ‘You’re so damn full of yourself’ or ‘Stop bragging’?”

“Hahaha!” Dokgo Jun burst out laughing. “I was just surprised to hear you talking about winning the Heavenly Martial Festival.”

Hyonwon Kang slurped down the remaining broth from the enormous bowl, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Why’s that so surprising? Someone’s been pushing me hard, so I might as well go out there and win. It’s my master’s wish, after all.”

“…If you can really defeat Peng Sahyuk, the Azure Dragon Academy winning the overall championship at the Heavenly Martial Festival wouldn’t just be a dream.”

“Is that so? Then it’s settled.” Hyonwon Kang grinned cockily.

Dokgo Jun shook his head helplessly. Living in the White Dragon Manor must have made him as confident as his teacher.

His expression darkened. A part of him was envious. Compared to Hyonwon Kang, who was growing stronger every day, his own martial arts seemed to be stagnating.

It’s been months since I’ve made any progress in the Nine Swords of Dokgo.

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People called Dokgo Jun the greatest prodigy of the Azure Dragon Academy, and his family praised him as the most gifted genius in decades, but Dokgo Jun was keenly aware of his own limits.

If I were at the Heavenly Martial Academy, I’d wouldn’t have made it into the top tier at all.

For the longest time, he had trained relentlessly, even breaking down his day into hours and minutes to make the most of his time. Yet, for months, he had not improved at all.

At this rate…

Dokgo Jun clenched his fists under the table. This slump was the reason why he had signed up for Defense Against the Unorthodox Arts. He hoped that a change in teaching style and environment would help him achieve a breakthrough.

I mustn’t get impatient. Enlightenment doesn’t come easily.

Resolving to remain steadfast, he changed the subject, proposing, “I’ve been thinking. How about in the afternoon, we each take turns being the leader for an hour? During that time, the other person follows without question.”

“Sounds good. Should’ve suggested that earlier,” Hyonwon Kang readily agreed.

Having reached a consensus, the two stood up to resume their patrol. However, just as they approached the old woman by the door to settle the bill, the inn’s door shattered, and a bloodied man tumbled inside.

CRASH!

“Guh! Gah…” Gasping for breath, the man crawled across the inn’s floor.

Outside, voices jeered at him.

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“What do you mean, you can’t pay the protection money? You are courting death.”

“Let’s show him what happens when someone messes with the Scarlet Tiger Gang.”

“You, block the back door. You guys, go get his wife.”

Men with tiger tattoos on their arms entered the inn, laughing among themselves.

Dokgo Jun’s expression hardened. Stepping forward to confront the newcomers, he warned, “Doing this in broad daylight…”

“Oi,” Hyonwon Kang interrupted.

”!!” Startled by the sudden surge of killing intent beside him, Dokgo Jun turned to see Hyonwon Kang grinning savagely.

“I’m going first,” Hyonwon Kang declared.

“…What?”

“Did you already forget what you just said? I’ll be the leader for the first hour, so don’t get in my way,” Hyonwon Kang explained, then lunged at the Scarlet Tiger Gang members before Dokgo Jun could react.

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