◈ Episode 52 Teaching True Education (4)
The office of the Chairwoman of the White Lily Association.
Horok-
The man in front of her was sitting at his desk, quietly drinking coffee.
Seolyeon’s one and only assistant spoke up with a concerned look on his face.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, what?”
“Although this isn’t the first time we’ve let an outsider into the Lily Palace, it’s still a bit unusual to let a student into the Lily Palace……..”
At the secretary’s words, Seolyeon opened her mouth, still stirring her coffee.
“I thought that story had already ended within the family.”
“That’s true, but…….”
“If student Kim Joohyuk goes in and drags that prideful child out, isn’t it a bargain?”
At Seolyeon’s words, the secretary fell silent.
Because she was right.
It would be a bargain to let Kim Joohyuk into the White Lotus Palace once, as long as he could bring her out, who was a genius who had appeared in the Seol Family and possessed a talent beyond common sense that could be called a natural disaster.
He was well aware of that.
“But, is that…… possible?”
“What?”
“That student, Kim Joohyuk, beating her.”
The secretary knew about Kim Joohyuk.
No, how could he not?
Kim Joohyuk was a huge celebrity right now.
His name had become so well known that anyone in the industry had heard of him at least once.
Of course, he was only famous because he had the title of ‘dealing with the wicked as a student’, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t strong.
The fact that he was only a student and hadn’t even signed a contract with the Constellation was a sign that his power was already beyond the scope of a normal student.
However, despite knowing this, the secretary asked Seolyeon.
“…….”
At the secretary’s words, Seolyeon stopped lifting the coffee cup to her mouth.
A moment of silence.
Undeterred, the secretary spoke up once more.
“Didn’t you also lose when you faced her a year ago, even though you didn’t use magic power?”
The secretary’s words could be said to be arrogant.
But Seolyeon didn’t seem to be bothered by the comment, taking another sip of her coffee and speaking with a calm expression.
“That’s for sure, and I don’t think I’d lose even if I used my magic power now.”
“……Yes?!”
“Why, are you surprised?”
“No……he…….”
The secretary stammered for a moment, unable to find the right words, but Seolyeon smiled.
“But it’s true, that brat…… Yanlang right now, even if I were to fight her with my magic power, I’d probably lose, because already when we fought, her magic power was only a piece of paper away from mine.”
Yanlang, the third daughter of the Seol Family.
Recalling her appearance, the secretary stood dumbfounded for a moment before opening her mouth.
“……, is this real?”
“Of course, why would I lie to you, the person I’ve been with for 15 years?”
As she spoke, she thought of Yan;ang, who was still locked inside the White Lotus Palace and hadn’t come out.
The girl who, at the age of fourteen, had been imprisoned in the White Lotus Palace for defeating the family head of the Seol Family, her older sister.
“If that’s true,…… then isn’t there no point in doing this now?”
The secretary’s voice interrupted Seolyeon’s thoughts.
“Is that so?”
“Of course it is, if even her magic power has grown to the point of defeating you, doesn’t that mean that her current strength is absolutely beyond Kim Joohyuk’s reach?”
The secretary’s reasoning was reasonable.
Even the Chairwoman, Seolyeon, thinks that the person she was a year ago is completely different from the person she is now.
A talent that far exceeded common sense.
That talent would definitely not leave Yanlang alone in the Lily Palace.
The talent she possessed was that outrageous.
However.
“Well, that could be the case, but on the other hand, it’s better to hope than to do nothing.”
The words out of Sullen’s mouth made the secretary shut up.
“Besides…….”
“……?”
“Maybe a little, maybe there’s hope.”
“……Hope?”
As the secretary shook his head as if he didn’t understand, Seolyeon thought back to the first time he met Kim Joohyuk.
The way he had opened his mouth as if he had gotten to the bottom of everything just by sitting across from him.
Of course, it wasn’t enough to know anything.
But still.
‘A little, maybe?’
Seolyeon thought, and smiled as she thought of the Kim Joohyuk who had just met her.
####
Yanlang, the third daughter of the Seol Family.
She has been called a genius by everyone since she was a child.
Give her one, she knows ten, and she knows a hundred.
Her growth rate was so monstrous that at the age of thirteen, she had already single-handedly defeated everyone in the Seol Family except for the head of the family Seolyeon.
No, it wasn’t just a monstrous growth rate.
It was a monster.
At the age of thirteen, he single-handedly defeated the contractors of the Snow Family.
Crushed the second daughter, who had begun her training four years ahead of her, as if she were wringing the hand of a child.
Even her eldest daughter, who had trained eight years ahead of her, was a mere child before her.
Is that all?
She had also defeated the contractors of the Seolang Guild, which was run by the Seol Family, and even the head of the Seol Family’s household, the Seolyeon Hwa.
Therefore, Yanlang knew that she was a genius with unbelievable talent.
She thought that the student in front of her, who was the same age as her, was also an idiot with unremarkable skills.
And so it was.
Until a little while ago.
“What are you doing?”
“……!!”
As she watched him open his mouth in a nonchalant manner, her face lit up with surprise.
A blow from him.
Of course, it was only a light blow to her, but others would have a hard time even blocking it.
But the man in front of her?
“Oh, that’s it, you’re an asshole and you just say what you want to say and then attack, are you a jerk too?”
“iig……!”
A blatant Kim Joohyuk slur.
In response, she frowned, retrieved a fist, and immediately spun around to swing her foot, aiming for his face.
An incredibly fast and sharp kick.
An attack that lacked any semblance of sloppiness, one that would have caused others to gasp in admiration if they had seen it, and one that was so fast that some might not even be able to see it properly.
Tuck-!
This time, he blocked her kick.
Bam!
“Chiyaaah!”
He slammed his fist down on her head.
Yanlang screamed in response.
Kim Joohyuk looked at her and smirked.
“What’s this, you said you’re going to beat me, and now you’re not?”
“What, what!?”
“Crap, wow, is it true that you’re building up your ego with this kind of skill? Aren’t you embarrassed?”
Kim Joohyuk sneers again.
“You little bastard……!”
Yanlang was the one who started the fight, but feeling her pride was scratched, she quickly pounced on Kim Joohyuk.
Paaaaah!
“Crunch!?”
Yanlang couldn’t believe it, but Kim Joohyuk hit her in the head once more.
With tears streaming down her face from the horrific, throbbing pain in her skull, Yanlang looked at Kim Joohyuk with an expression of incomprehension.
Suh-.
“…….”
Kim Joohyuk suddenly realized that Yanlang’s expression in front of him had changed.
‘What the hell.’
Unlike a moment ago, her emotionless eyes were looking at Kim Joohyuk, and her posture took on a natural bow.
A very natural sequence of actions.
Kim Joohyuk let out a small gasp as he watched.
‘She suddenly changed like this?’
It was strange, but Kim Joohyuk had taught many students 300 years ago, so he had a general idea of the level of skill the person had just by looking at their posture.
And now she was in front of him.
‘She’s definitely good.’
She had a very neat posture that Kim Joohyuk recognized, even if only a little.
As an added bonus, the way she was able to organize her emotions in an instant and focus on the battle was somehow a little better than the disciples Kim Joohyuk had seen 300 years ago.
The moment he thought that.
“!”
Yanlang reached Kim Joohyuk.
His speed was at least three times faster than before.
Literally in the blink of an eye, Yanlang bursts into Kim Joohyuk’s arms and tries to punch him in the head with his fist.
Yanlang, still in his embrace, throws a series of punches at Kim Joohyuk.
Kim Joohyuk, on the other hand, dodges her attacks with minimal movement.
Watching him, Yanlang thought to herself.
‘He’s like me.’
Kim Joohyuk’s age didn’t seem like much to Yanlang.
At the very least, he was around her age, or a year or two above or below her.
That’s about it.
But even so, he was dodging her attacks so lightly.
Beyond that, even if she caught him off guard, he managed to land two strikes.
Therefore.
‘Interesting……!’
She grinned at the sudden surge of determination.
He should be, too, because she hadn’t seen anyone her age with her level of skill.
A genius, indeed.
Therefore, there were no peers of similar power around her.
Of course, looking up, there were people around her who were stronger than her.
But she didn’t think of them as competitors.
They were almost all veterans in their 30s or 40s, and their skills had stagnated.
And her?
She got stronger with each passing year.
Over and over again.
As if there was no limit to her growth, she got stronger.
And that’s why she didn’t see them as competitors.
Why?
Those who don’t grow and those who do.
They were all people she could beat anyway once she was done growing.
She didn’t see them as competitors because she had proven it by beating her own mother.
But what about the one in front of her?
He was her age.
That meant he was still growing, just like her.
That’s why Yanlang smiled.
She smiled because, for the first time in a long time, she had an opponent who could stir up her fighting spirit.
She smiled because for the first time in a long time, she had an opponent that she could use all of her strength against.
Kugkugkugk-!
As Yanlang swung her fists, her body gradually began to fill with magic power.
This exquisite and fast maneuvering of magic power instantly penetrated every inch of her body, making her body stronger and more flexible.
Bam!
As proof, each of her punches and kicks now burst with energy waves.
Momentary bursts of extremely controlled maneuvering.
She poured her full power into it.
Punching and kicking, spinning and attacking.
And yet.
Still, her attacks were no match for Kim Joohyuk.
But it didn’t matter.
‘Then more……!’
She could still get stronger.
Kwagagagak!
Yanlang’s body instantly began to surge with blue waves.
An astonishingly huge amount of magic power.
For a moment, even Kim Joohyuk’s eyes widened as the enormous magic power seeped into Yanlang’s body once more-!
Boom!
Blue waves began to ripple with each of her attacks.
With a confident expression on her face, Yanlang once again charged at Kim Joohyuk.
However.
“Uh……?”
Her slightly confident attacks failed to reach Kim Joohyuk just like last time.
Along with that, a strange feeling of nervousness began to rise in her head.
It was only then that she wiped the smile from her lips and drew on her magic power further.
The massive magic created by her talent accumulated in her flesh at will.
In the giant tower created by her talent, dozens of techniques she had created were reproduced in her hands.
Kagagagagak-!
The space around Kim Joohyuk and Yanlang had already been shattered.
However, she continued to attack.
At some point, she suddenly realized two things.
The first was that not a single one of her attacks had gotten through to him.
And the second was.
“What……?”
Kim Joohyuk was not in the same place as her.
“Is it all over now?”
-but on something much higher than herself, she could realize.