"No need for such pleasantries. You've heard of your mission, haven't you?"
"Of course, ma'am!"
Byuk Aerin then looked at Ha Gojun and Ha Goyun and said.
"Let me introduce her. She's a maid to provide convenience for you while you're here. She'll take care of the food, laundry, and so on."
The woman then spoke, "You can call me Chu Marley."
"Nice to meet you, Ha Goyun."
"I'm her brother, Ha Gojun."
Ha Gojun immediately realized by the maid's greeting. She was a weak-looking maid, but she was a Murim warrior as well.
And it was possible to see why Chu Marley, a warrior, was chosen to be a maid.
'Since Bhante is bad at taking care of himself, I'll be a little relieved if she's here.'
Chu Marley looked around and asked, "What about the meal?"
"I haven't eaten yet."
At Ha Goyun's words, she nodded.
"Okay. Then I'll prepare the meal first."
As soon as she went into the kitchen, Kang Hyuk and Jimyung entered the mansion.
"I'm here."
Byuk Aerin laughed as soon as she saw them. It was because she knew what had happened between the two.
Of course, she couldn't laugh as they were just back from the hospital on the surface.
'But what's wrong with Jimyung's face?'
It wasn't the Jimyung she knew who used to smile. For some reason, his expression was quite somber.
Did he get hit a lot?
She then asked, "You've gone to the hospital already...?"
"He had a simple stomachache, so he took some medicine, and got better quickly."
"That's good."
On the vacant lot where the Golden Small Flower was harvested, Oh Tae continued to step with the Stepping Skills.
Two hours had already seemed to have pa.s.sed, but Kang Hyuk showed no sign of showing up.
"You're saying you're not even close to this yet?"
Even when he thought about it, his Stepping Skills were pathetic. He didn't think so from the beginning.
When he first used Stepping Skills here, he thought that this was a piece of cake for him.
But when he calmly used the Stepping Skills and watched his Stepping Skills, it was as Kang Hyuk said. His Stepping Skills had been a little deformed by the effects of his uncomfortable legs.
So when he started to do the proper Stepping Skills again, something amazing happened.
His poor inner workings on the side of his legs began to move smoothly.
Only then did he realize that the reason why his Martial Arts didn't make any progress was in his Stepping Skills.
No, it was on his left leg that was the cause.
'That little thing made me get stuck in a bottleneck!'
Now that his injured leg was better, he had to learn the proper Stepping Skills.
So he'd been practicing Stepping Skills very hard.
The problem was that he was a human being and that he had a limit to his physical strength. Having already performed Stepping Skills for two uninterrupted hours, he began to run out of stamina.
"How long are you going to..."
Sweat began to pour down.
"When will I finish?!"
***
A house in a commercial village.
Inside the place where Jimyung was supposed to stay, Kang Hyuk was having a cup of tea.
The mansion was familiar to Kang Hyuk. It was because it was one of the Quickstorm Regiment's safe houses, which was purchased by Byuk Aerin. After all, it was not used as a safe house anymore.
"The moon is bright. The tea is delicious. Aerin is really good at this."
Kang Hyuk had a satisfied look on his face, but he seemed to have forgotten something for a while.
'What is it? I think I have something important to do. I left my work to Baek Kap and a.s.sistant Chun, so they'll take care of it… I told them to rearrange the things I took out if I'm late, so they must have organized that...'
He thought hard about it but still couldn't remember.
'Well, if I can't remember, it's probably not important.'
He soon forgot about his troubles.
However, he had to make sure that his a.s.sistants did his job well. They were plants for the education of government officials.
Kang Hyuk soon got up from his seat after he finished drinking tea from the teacup and put it down.
"With that, I'll leave you alone."
"Are you going?"
"Yes."
Kang Hyuk then looked around the room where Ha Gojun and Ha Goyun were sleeping and told Jimyung, "Don't get into trouble."
"Of course."
"Good night then."
Kang Hyuk and Byuk Aerin then headed for Hwachun Academy.
Now Jimyung seemed to have grown up a little, but Kang Hyuk wasn't sure if he would cause trouble. He thought that Jimyung would act rationally to a certain extent because he was over eighty, but the idea was bound to break.
So Kang Hyuk was honestly worried but decided to rest a.s.sured since Chu Marley was in the mansion.
She was a member of the Jimil Intelligence, and she was more senior than Baek Kap so she could handle it.
"Teacher."
Byuk Aerin soon spoke to Kang Hyuk, who was walking down the street.
"What's wrong?"
"Doesn't it remind you of the old days?"
"Old days? Why do you ask that?"
"There's half of the twelve former Quickstorm Regiment members gathered in Nakyang now."
"Yes. Come to think of it, there are six people in Nakyang, including me! How about you? Do you recall the old days?"
Byuk Aerin grinned.
"I'm reminded of the past, but that's not all too good either."
"How come?"
"Even if you think of the old days, it's just an old thought and you can't go back to the old days."
Kang Hyuk nodded at Byuk Aerin's words.
"You're right about that. No matter how much you miss the past, you can never go back to the past. But you know what?"
Kang Hyuk saw the moon in the sky.
"I don't think it's just bad. Doesn't being unable to go back to the past mean you don't have to go back to the old times?"
Byuk Aerin laughed at the remark.
"I see. The h.e.l.l training is never going to happen again."
"Hahaha! I'm sorry about that, but isn't it enough that you've become strong?"
"Haha, yes."
Before they knew it, they pa.s.sed the main gate of the school building.
"I'm going to look around Yeonkyo Garden, so go back to the house first."
"Okay."
Byuk Aerin then bowed after Kang Hyuk's words and headed straight to his official residence.
As for Kang Hyuk, he headed to Yeonkyo Garden.
