25: Interest (2)

Her hair was tinged in a mandarin orange color.

Hong Hye-ryung, who was combing her long luscious hair with a comb, was pouting.

‘Annoying.’

No matter how much she thought about it, her anger just kept rising.

After the test was done, she thought that all the attention would be on her.

At least she felt that she didn’t have to rely on her father’s fame.

However, the result was unexpected.

‘Yu Jin-sung’s brother?’

She too had heard of Yu Jin-sung’s name before.

The story of him turning into an official of the palace to save his father, who was unfairly framed and exiled, touched the hearts of many women.

But unlike the others, it was just a story for Hong Hye-ryun.

And it wasn’t something that she was interested in.

Rather,

‘Who is he to get more attention than me?’

Many female students who were waiting in the temporary dorms were all talking about Yu Jin-sung’s brother.

[Did you hear that? I heard that the delay in the entrance test was all because of Yu Jin-sung’s brother?]

[Really?]

[Yes. According to the kid who came in late, the power he used was so great that the water in the lake just overflowed outside just like the tearing of the gates.]

[Oh my god. How could the brothers be so great? I am looking forward to seeing them.]

[Oh my. Are you really drooling at just the thought of them?]

[Why? I can paint any picture I want!]

‘… no! no!’

This wasn’t what she pictured.

From the entrance test to the final test, regardless of gender, only the name Hong Hye-ryung should have been engraved in the hearts of the other students.

But here, everyone was talking about the younger brother of Yu Jin-sung.

Either in a good way or bad.

She wondered what kind of person he was that stole all the attention she had to get.

‘… fine.’

Hong Hye-ryung got up and tied her hair up.

She wanted to wait until the ceremony in the morning but then changed her mind.

‘I’ll see what kind of skills you have.’

‘This jerk knows to get angry?’

He thought that Mumu would just ruffle his hair and laugh at what happened.

But seeing the terrifying expression Mumu had, was making Jin-hyuk sweat, and he felt a chill run down his spine.

“C-come…”

Puck! Bang!

At the same time with Mumu’s gestures, another man’s head fixed itself in the ceiling.

The sight of a person’s body, which was hanging down from the ceiling, wasn’t something that anyone could have usually seen.

‘Again, again!’

The expressions of the boys who were making fun of his appearance changed in an instant.

They were terrified enough to take a step back.

“Se-Seo-ryong. What should we do?”

‘What do you mean!’

Kang Seo-ryong couldn’t help but be flustered at the question.

Since Yu Jin-sung’s brother was this weird-looking kid, he thought that it wouldn’t be a huge deal, but the guy was completely different from what he expected.

After another five to six battles, even he was sure that he could win over someone like Mumu.

However, it was unreasonable to nail a person’s head in the ceiling.

“I think we should apologize and ask him to stop.”

‘Damn it!’

Kang Seo-ryong bit his lips at the words of one of the boys.

If he was here to visit Yu Jin-sung’s brother with a good intention, then he could have left the room normally, but he was here to teach the man a lesson and if he apologized it would be his clan that would be looked down on.

The other students who would hear of this would ridicule him.

Bang!

Meanwhile, another head was nailed to the ceiling.

Judging by the momentum, it looked like Mumu was going to nail everyone to the ceiling.

He was going crazy.

At that time, the boy standing next to Kang Seo-ryong hurriedly ran in front of Mumu and knelt.

“M-Mumu, was it? Please forgive me; I won’t even talk to you anymore…”

Mumu looked down at him indifferently.

And he said,

“My father said that a gentleman should always be generous.”

“Ahhh!”

At those words, the boy’s face brightened.

He thought that his actions were right.

“Thank you. Thank you so muc…”

But,

Puck! Bang!

Mumu raised his leg and kicked him, and just like others, this one too was stuck in the ceiling.

Kang Seo-ryong who saw that yelled.

“You said that you would be generous!”

“But he said that I didn’t have to be generous if they were targeting my family.”

“F-family?”

Kang Seo-ryong’s eyes widened.

So, the one behind him and that monster were brothers?

If so, then Seo-ryong realized that the target wasn’t Jin-hyuk whom he hurt, but Mumu.

Unlike him, who was bewildered, Jin-hyuk had a strange expression.

‘family…’

He didn’t think that the word family would come out of Mumu’s mouth.

They haven’t been together for long, but still, Mumu was referring to him as family.

Something strange happened inside him.

It was then.

Grab!

Kang Seo-ryong grabbed Yu Jin-hyuk’s hair and then grabbed his neck hard.

Jin-hyuk frowning asked.

“What is this?”

“I don’t know. This jerk. I know that bastard won’t leave me alone, so what more can I do!”

“What?”

Jin-hyuk looked at Kang Seo-ryong’s hand, which grabbed his neck.

The hand was trembling.

This guy seemed extremely nervous.

Because of that, he couldn’t see the big picture and was acting on a whim.

Kang Seo-ryong yelled at Mumu.

“Yah! Don’t come closer! Did you say he is family? If you take one more step, I will break this bastard’s neck.”

“Break?”

Mumu raised his eyebrows.

Kang Seo-ryong, who was terrified, felt even more scared at that, but he couldn’t back down.

Unlike the other idiots who were hanging from the ceiling, he didn’t want to start his schooling with his body hanging from there.

He had to hurry.

If it got noisy, then people were sure to come.

And when they do, he would lose his face.

Kang Seo-ryong spoke to Mumu.

“Let’s trade. If you let me go, I will let this one go unarmed. How is that?”

He had no intention of hurting Jin-hyuk.

It was just a threat.

If he actually hurt someone in the school severely, his admission would be canceled immediately, and his life could get ruined.

Tremble!

Kang Seo-ryong’s eyes trembled.

Blood vessels had popped on the expressionless face of Mumu, and his facial muscles were changing.

It was the first time he had seen someone’s facial muscles move.

While he was shocked, Mumu opened his mouth.

“I need to kill you for real.”

Creepy!

At the words which Mumu casually spit out, Kang Seo-ryong felt his leg muscles go weak.

There was only one thought running in his mind.

That the guy in front of him was really fixed on killing him.

Not just him; even Jin-hyuk knew how real those words were.

‘That bastard might end up doing this.’

He felt like he had to calm Mumu down.

But right now, his body was helpless, and he couldn’t even gather his strength…

Grab!

He felt the strength in his hands.

He didn’t know when, but his strengthless body was back to normal.

Jin-hyuk, who felt that, didn’t hesitate to grab the hand of the Kang Seo-ryong, which was holding his hair and then kicked him straight in the face.

Puck!

“Kuak!”

Kang Seo-ryong, who was too concerned with Mumu, got hit and stumbled back.

Jin-hyuk widened the distance right away and spoke to Mumu.

“Mumu. I am fine so stop….”

Before he could even finish those words.

“Ugh!”

Puck!

Mumu grabbed Kang Seo-ryong, who was staggering, and pushed him against the wall.

Bang!

“Kuk!”

The wall of the room was destroyed, and Mumu, along with Kang Seo-ryong, fell straight down.

‘Shit! This, this is the fifth floor!’

As he said, Mumu’s temporary dorm was on the 5th floor.

Startled, Jin-hyuk ran to the wall, which was broken.

But when he looked down, while he should have seen the guys who fell down, he could neither see Mumu or the other one.

‘What happened? Mumu?’

He couldn’t figure out where they disappeared to.

In the meantime, he heard muffled sounds from behind.

People were coming up to see what was happening because of the weird sounds.

In that group, Ha-ryun was also there.

‘He must be in a lot of trouble now.’

Since he couldn’t kill Mumu right away, he intervened and helped the others out.

The dust Ha-ryun used was a medicine rather than a poison, and it made people powerless for a short while.

It couldn’t be traced back as it wasn’t poison, and it vaporizes, leaving no trace.

The downside was that if it was used once, then one would get immune to it the next time.

‘It can only be used once, but it is so useful.’

He thought that once the guy turned powerless and didn’t have internal energy, he was bound to get hit.

Now, Ha-ryun’s eyes widened, wondering if he should enjoy the scene.

‘… what was that?’

Four bodies were hanging from the ceiling, with their heads stuck inside.

And he saw Jin-hyuk standing near the broken wall.

The one called Kang Seo-ryong was nowhere to be seen, and seeing the smashed wall, he figured out that they fell outside.

‘No? That isn’t him!’

He looked at Yu Jin-hyuk, who was in Mumu’s room.

Why was Mumu not there but his brother?

‘Wait… he made them all like this despite being hit by the dust?’

Ha-ryun’s eyes narrowed.

Since Jin-hyuk looked lower than himself, he didn’t really care, but even after being hit by the dust, Yu Jin-hyuk handled the others.

It was unbelievable.

Grab!

Ha-ryun clenched his fist.

It seemed like he had too many opponents than he had initially expected.

In particular, the brothers of Yu Jin-sung were similar to the descendants of the Four Guardians and didn’t seem ordinary.

Ha-ryun retreated.

And then he smiled.

‘This guy and that guy too, you make things easy.’

Rather, his will was revived.

Unlike him, Jin-hyuk could feel his head start to ache.

The students had gathered around and looked at him with eyes full of awe.

“Woah! Aren’t these ones who talked about taking care of him earlier?”

“Right. They were talking in the hallway.”

“Oh god!”

“He isn’t a normal martial artist.”

“He must have done this to show them that there is no mercy to the enemies who aim at him.”

“He is a scary one.”

They seemed to misunderstand something.

They thought what Mumu did, was his doing.

Since Mumu had fallen out of the room, the students all thought it was his doing.

And Jin-hyuk thought about clearing the misunderstanding.

He sighed and looked at the students and said.

“You got it wron…”

Whisper.

Before he could speak, students suddenly looked at the hallway.

A beautiful girl walked in, causing the crowd to make way with her scarlet hair.

Everyone looked at her in awe.

“That big sword on her back? Hong Hye-ryong?”

“Hong Hye-ryong?”

“Why is the successor of the Southern Sword here?”

When her identity was revealed, the gathered students were shocked.

Jin-hyuk, too, was shocked.

For the first time, he was mesmerized by the appearance of a woman, but when he found out her identity, he got his senses back.

‘Why is she here?’

As he was puzzled, the woman glanced around the room and then looked at Jin-hyuk as she opened her cherry lips.

“A hand which has no mercy for the enemies… You are pretty good. You deserve to be Hong Hye-ryong’s family rival.”

‘!?’

What the hell?

Flustered by the declaration, the others were all dumbstruck.

“Oh my god!”

“The successor of the Southern Sword of the Emperor recognized him!”

“Damn it! That one is interested in him.”

“I am envious.”

Jin-hyuk’s head was confused at the words.

Things were getting bigger.

‘This is driving me crazy.’

He couldn’t understand how things got so twisted.

Meanwhile, in a forest without people nor far from the dormitory.

A middle-aged man wearing half-white robes who arrived there dropped Kang Seo-ryong, who was grabbing his neck.

“Euk!”

Kang Seo-ryong, who had sat on the floor, looked at the unknown person in front of him.

Seeing that, the middle-aged man frowned and said,

“I saved your life, and you are being so wary of me?”

“Saved from falling do…”

“What are you talking about?”

“Huh?”

“I saved you from that one.”

The middle-aged man shook his head and looked at a figure which was fast approaching them.

It was Mumu.

‘Shit!’

As soon as he saw Mumu, Kang Seo-ryong trembled in fear.

That guy was a monster.

“I-I don’t know who you are; that guy is trying to kill me…”

“It would be better to worry about that at a later time.”

“Huh?”

“Go to sleep now.”

Tatatak!

Kang Seo-ryong, who was scared, was making a fuss which annoyed the middle-aged man, and so he put him to sleep.

Mumu tilted his head and asked.

“Who are you mister, why did you take him?”

He was hoping to crush the guy from the fall.

Because he tried to kill Jin-hyuk.

But when they fell through the wall, this man appeared and grabbed the kid by the nape of his clothes and snatched him away, making Mumy follow him.

“Mister? Hahaha! You really are an interesting kid!”

The middle-aged man laughed out loud.

He was Dan Pil-hoo, another deputy head of the Heavenly Martial Arts Academy.

At the request from Byeok Yimun, he came to check out what kind of guy the one called Mumu was and was really surprised at the unexpected sight.

‘Did he say he mastered the light movement above water?’

He was skeptical at what he was told, but now he was excited.

He could see why Byeok Yimun was so interested in the kid.

Dan Pil-hoo stopped laughing and spoke to Mumu in a serious voice.

“Kid. Will you let this uncle take you in as a disciple?”