Namsan Sect 3
"What are you going to do?"
"About what?"
"Food."
Jimin's words had grown short.
The leisure at the end of her sentences had disappeared.
There was poison in her mood.
She did not show it openly, but anxiety had begun to seep in.
Someone who started later might pass her.
That thought was followed by another.
Even her position as instructor could be shaken.
The training was over, yet she stood among those who did not want to go down.
Her body was exhausted, and her mind was burning.
One by one, people began to rise.
At that moment, Jimin shouted.
"Hey, you over there. Are you just going to go down?"
The tired bodies kept facing the direction they had been headed.
Only their heads turned back.
They were in a state where even turning the body felt like a waste of strength.
When a person is exhausted, only the ears remain alive.
Everything else seems to stop.
Even at the moment one wants to collapse and lie down, the ears stay open.
"Why?"
Inwardly, she wanted to fly over in a single breath and plant a side kick into him.
Her body remained where it was.
"Are you just going to go down?
The tuition fee.
You should pay the tuition fee.
Do you think I spent the whole day teaching by digging in the dirt for free?"
There was no judgment on the man's face.
Do as you please.
That was the look he wore.
Let us pay.
The tuition fee.
I just want to rest.
"Sure. But how much?"
Jimin looked at Soun.
It was not a look asking for agreement.
But she had already spoken.
The man was covered in dirt and sweat, yet the texture of his clothes was silk.
The cloth clinging to his body revealed his background.
"I accept whatever you offer with sincerity. Write down your name."
She spread out a sheet of paper, but darkness had fallen and the letters blurred.
"Just pay and go."
The man had stopped about twenty paces away.
It seemed he had no strength left to move.
"Can you come and take it?"
His voice had no energy.
Jimin's eyebrow rose.
Her body shot upward.
She flew in with a precise side kick.
But the man twisted his body.
He avoided the foot that came flying like a painting, also like a painting.
A day of training had already settled into his body.
His breath and sense of qi reacted first.
His body moved with the flow and slipped aside.
Soun's eyes widened.
Was it the mnemonic verse?
The movement had no strength in it.
That was why it was even softer.
Natural.
Outwardly, he seemed to stagger.
Yet thought, breath, and body moved as one.
Recitation led into form, and form locked together with the sense of qi.
Soun's gaze deepened.
That boy.
He has the makings of greatness.
"Enough. Stop there.
Think of it as a contribution and pay what you can before going down.
From tomorrow, we will need to eat as well.
There are also things here that need fixing.
Bring money, and bring tools."
The direction was clear.
Strength returned to Jimin's eyes.
Her hesitation disappeared.
Pouches were turned inside out.
Silver coins fell.
Copper coins rolled.
Gold coins came out as well.
The man's face remained calm.
Even when the gold coins were swept away, his gaze did not waver.
"What is your name?"
"Sogyo… My name is Sogyo."
"With a name like that, why not join the army? Why are you here?"
"I will go."
"Go, then."
Jimin tapped his shoulder.
At that moment, her sense of qi touched him.
His energy flowed without obstruction.
He had already crossed the gate.
With his mouth, he was still reciting the secret manual.
Jimin's eyes paused for a moment.
To reach this point in a single day.
The money gathered was not small.
The mood of "let us pay quickly and leave" had somehow changed into "let us pay generously before leaving."
Silver coins piled up.
Gold coins stacked on top of one another.
A house's worth of money gathered as one day's tuition fee.
Light returned to Jimin's face.
Her eyes sparkled.
There was something that made people smile faster than martial arts.
Its name was money.