“Maybe it’s because he’s old. I mean…ah! Wasn’t it because he broke it while he fell on a walk?”
“He was someone who crossed the Super Master stage and even reached Superior Master stage! He wouldn’t fall on a walk, would he?”
“Well, come to think of it…”
“That’s the result of him cutting his finger himself because of you.”
Jimyung’s eyes widened at Kang Hyuk’s words.
“What are you talking about?”
“Was it sixty years ago? Do you remember making trouble in the Hwachun Clan?”
“…I had a lot of accidents…I’m 80 years old already, so how do you remember all that?”
“I’m sure you do. Do you remember the Passerby case? The case of beating eight opponents to death for the smallest reason that they didn’t give way for you.”
“Err-Big Brother. That was 60 years ago! And it’s all in the past…”
“Yes, it’s all in the past. Thanks to your teacher, Monk Hyeduk.”
“What?”
“You would have been put to death at that time! But your Teacher kneeled before the elders, asking for your life! And he even cut off his ring finger on the spot.”
“…!”
Jimyung couldn’t say anything because he was shocked to learn this after so many years.
At that time, he beat several people to death, but he came out alive after being beaten to death.
He thought that it was strange, but he didn’t know that there was such a situation.
Kang Hyuk continued to talk.
“In the end, the decision of the punishment came to me. At that time, the Quickstorm Regiment’s organizational purpose was to have a regiment that can be discarded at any time. And with my permission, you were to live if I accept you in the Quickstorm Regiment. It was also a kind of death sentence, but it was more of a punishment, not a death sentence.”
“…”
“That night, Monk Hyeduk came to see me and kneeled before me too. And on behalf of the foolish student, the teacher himself asked me to take you in.”
Kang Hyuk sighed.
“You wouldn’t know, would you? What does it mean that he, who is in the position of chief of the Sorim Temple, knelt before the elders and before me?!”
“Damn it.”
Jimyung barely uttered.
“Damn that old man! Because of a guy like me…shit!”
“And you dare blame your teacher for making you a monk? If your teacher cut off the ring finger because of you, shouldn’t you at least try to be worth a finger?”
Kang Hyuk got up from his seat and glared at Jimyung.
“If you know how much sacrifice your teacher has made for you, don’t make such absurd remarks even if you can’t say anything out of respect! No matter how simple you are, you’re not even a human being if you don’t know how to be grateful.”
Jimyung nodded silently.
“I’ll watch you. Let’s go to the kids.”
“Yes, brother.”
Jimyung got up from his seat and walked alongside Kang Hyuk.
Kang Hyuk, who had been walking one or two steps like that, stopped and looked back at Jimyung. His face was more serious than usual, perhaps because of the shocking fact he had just heard.
Even though he was over eighty, he was immature.
Only then did Monk Hyeduk feel at ease when Jimyung took charge of the group called the Demon Destroyer Regiment.
And Monk Hyeduk came to Kang Hyuk and said thanks over and over again.
‘Jimyung, now that you’re a teacher, I wonder if you’ll get to know the heart of Monk Hyeduk!’
Kang Hyuk told Jimyung the secret about Monk Hyeduk also because Jimyung brought in his pupil now that he was in a position to understand Monk Hyeduk’s mind.
‘Yes, grow up now, boy.’
***
Uptown in Nakyang.
It is said to be an upper-class location, but not all residents were upper-class people.
Those who earned a decent living were also living uptown.
Even if the price of the house was high, anyone would like to live in a clean and well-off place rather than live in a dirty town.
And a group of people came into a proper mansion, neither big nor small, within uptown.
“Wow! Can I really stay here?”
They were Byuk Aerin, Ha Gojun, and Ha Goyun.
Ha Goyun, with a cheerful personality, had already befriended Byuk Aerin as an older sister. Because of their relationship, Byuk Aerin answered kindly because she liked Ha Goyun’s personality.
“Yes. Actually, this is one of the houses under my name. It will be sufficient for you to stay.”
“I’m grateful that you letting me stay in a house like this! Thank you very much!”
But even with the same words, Ha Gojun was surprised at the latter’s words.
‘I heard that it costs a lot of money to get a house in uptown Nakyang, and this is only one of her houses? Then she must be very rich…’
Then, Ha Goyun tilted his head.
“By the way, if you let us stay in a house like this, where do you live?”
“Haha. Are you worried about me?”
Byuk Aerin laughed in response.
“You don’t have to worry. I live in the official residence of Kang Hyuk, a teacher at Hwachun Academy.”
“His house?”
“Yes. I’m Mr. Kang Hyuk’s cook.”
“I see.”
Ha Gojun had a strange expression on his face from Byuk Aerin’s response.
‘A cook? Someone rich with multiple homes… why a cook?’
No matter how much Hwachun Academy was paying its employees, working as a cook would not have paid well.
Just from considering the salaries of the cooks he had hired before his family collapsed.
The Ha family paid a fairly generous salary, but the salary was still very tight.
Soon, they heard a woman’s voice.
“Are you there?”
At the voice, Byuk Aerin turned his head and said with a smile.
“Come in!”
Her cry opened the door as a woman in her late thirties came in.
She saw Byuk Aerin and quickly saluted.