I Am the Youngest Disciple of the Martial Arts World’s Mastermind
Chapter 36
Chapter 36
The Youngest Disciple of the Murim’s Hidden Mastermind
Chapter 36
As I stood there dazed, Master spoke in a gentle voice.
“Let us tend to your injuries first.”
I took a faint breath.
“Master.”
The mention of treatment brought something to mind.
“Yes? What is it?”
I hesitated, watching Master’s expression closely before speaking.
“…I brought a child back with me from the base of Cheongsanbong. Could you treat him first…?”
“…….”
Only then did Master’s gaze shift toward Ryang, who was draped over Hyeonhak’s back.
If it was Master, he would have realized from those few words alone that I had braved a mountain trek in the dead of night and persuaded Senior Brother Hyeonhak just to save Ryang.
Sure enough, after a brief moment of thought, Master replied in a low voice.
“I see. This child does need treatment as well. How did he end up in such a state?”
I thought he would be angry that I had brought an outsider. Surprisingly, he examined Ryang quite calmly.
Is it because he’s around my age? As I thought, he seems to have a soft spot for children….
“However.”
At that moment, Master’s eyes swept over Ryang’s limp fingertips, and he immediately pierced through to the heart of the matter.
“Did you bring him from the Demonic Cult?”
“…Hic.”
As I feared, his origin in the Demonic Cult remains a constant stumbling block.
I nodded slowly.
Master murmured as if everything finally made sense.
“It seems you went into a den of the Demonic Cult to bring that child back, and you injured your hand in the process.”
“…W-well, if you put it that way, I suppose so.”
It sounded like he was saying my injury was Ryang’s fault, so I instinctively shrunk my shoulders.
Master let out a soft sigh and gestured toward the Medical Hall.
“Hyeonhak, treat that child as well.”
“Yes, Master.”
“If Soso went to such lengths to save him, there must be a reason.”
“……!”
It worked.
“Now then, shall we go?”
“Whoa.”
Master effortlessly picked me up and held me in his arms.
I was startled at first by the sensation of being hoisted into the air, but once I settled, I realized his embrace was incomparably more stable than being tucked under Danhwi’s arm.
As he carried me into the Medical Hall, Master continued to speak.
“You went up against the Demonic Cult. It is a great mercy that you escaped with only these injuries.”
Seizing the moment, I raised my voice to praise Hyeonhak.
“Senior Brother Hyeonhak defeated them all!”
I felt sorry that he was getting scolded by Master because of me.
“Hmm. Were you not afraid?”
In response to Master’s mischievous question, Hyeonhak, who was following behind, answered instead.
“She claimed she was not afraid.”
Hyeonhak’s gaze lingered on me in Master’s arms for a moment before dropping away. Then, he muttered under his breath.
“I did not realize Junior Brother Soyoung enjoyed being carried. Had I known, I would have carried her up Cheongsanbong myself.”
“……?”
Did I hear that right? From the stoic Senior Brother Hyeonhak?
“Heh.”
While I was doubting my ears, Master adjusted his hold on me, the corners of his mouth curling slightly.
“Hyeonhak. Do you even know how to hold a child? It is not as if they enjoy being held just any which way.”
Master, what’s wrong with you too?
While I looked back and forth between the two, Master set me down in a chair and spoke.
“Now, hurry and treat Soso’s hand first. Look at the state of it. You can ensure it doesn’t scar, can’t you?”
“Yes.”
Hyeonhak laid Ryang down on a cot inside the Medical Hall and approached me first.
Huh? Wasn’t he going to treat Ryang first?
“Me first? But he’s hurt much worse than I am.”
I looked back and forth between Master and Hyeonhak with a bewildered expression.
With a blunt face and without a single change in his complexion, Hyeonhak uttered something quite embarrassing.
“If I do not treat Junior Brother Soyoung’s hand first, my mind will not be at ease, and I will be unable to focus on the treatment.”
“There you have it. What can be done?”
“This will sting for a moment.”
Senior Brother Hyeonhak slowly approached me, holding a cotton ball soaked in what looked like disinfectant.
I tried to back away, but Master held my shoulders firmly.
I’m scared…!
“Aaaah…!!”
***
“Ugh…….”
In the end, I was only able to escape Hyeonhak’s clutches after my hand was thoroughly disinfected and wrapped in a thick layer of bandages.
I hadn’t realized it because I hadn’t been seriously injured before, but Senior Brother Hyeonhak’s treatment was as painful as it was effective.
“…….”
Tears pricked my eyes as I stared at the tightly closed door of the Medical Hall.
‘I will treat the boy now, so Junior Brother Soyoung, go back and rest.’
‘What…? Please let me watch too!’
‘It will be a quite complicated procedure. I can focus better if I am alone.’
‘He is right. Go out and get some rest, Soso. You must sleep well to heal quickly.’
‘…Okaaaay….’
When they put it like that, I couldn’t persist any longer.
Seeing how Master was backing Hyeonhak up, I even suspected they had treated me first just so they could kick me out when it was time to treat Ryang.
“Hmph.”
I wanted to watch too…….
It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Master or Senior Brother Hyeonhak, I was just worried about Ryang. I had seen with my own eyes how terribly he was injured.
So, instead of going far, I sat down right in front of the Medical Hall. I intended to wait for Senior Brother Hyeonhak or Master to come out.
“Sigh…….”
Dawn was just beginning to break.
I looked down at the sandy ground where the sunlight was starting to spill, picked up a broken twig, and began to scribble drawings.
I drew the shape of a person and a circle inside it.
It represented the Gu Poison inside Ryang’s body.
‘If it’s something that couldn’t be dealt with on the spot, the Gu Poison must be quite severe…….’
In the game, Ryang awakens when he kills a person for the first time, and through that power, he breaks the curse of the Gu Poison himself.
But that possibility is gone now.
He has to rely entirely on Senior Brother Hyeonhak’s medical skills.
“…….”
Can Senior Brother Hyeonhak do it?
I looked at the door with a worried expression.
***
Inside the medical room, after Soso had been sent out, only Cheong-ui Sanin and Hyeonhak remained.
Hyeonhak took Ryang’s pulse and let out a faint sigh.
He had a suspicion about something.
Thus, Hyeonhak asked without hesitation.
“Master. Do you intend to take this child as a disciple as well?”
This situation was the result of Master’s command to ‘Grant Junior Brother Soyoung’s requests without fail.’
Perhaps Soyoung taking this child from the Demonic Cult and bringing him to Cheongsanbong was a scheme Master had orchestrated all along.
Achieving a desired result without lifting a finger was the specialty of his Master, who never stepped into the martial world himself, choosing instead to deploy only brilliant strategies.
‘Furthermore… he is indeed extraordinary.’
He had felt it vaguely when he took the boy’s pulse briefly at the inn, but now that he could examine him properly, something dangerous was seething inside the youth’s body.
An unexpected situation, where Gu Poison was not the only problem.
‘Though it has only been a few months since Junior Brother Soyoung joined, and it is the first time you have taken disciples in such quick succession, with this level of potential, he is worth taking as a disciple…….’
At that moment, a firm voice cut through Hyeonhak’s thoughts.
“No.”
“……?”
Cheong-ui Sanin shook his head and corrected him in a low voice.
“I have no intention of taking this child as my disciple.”
“…….”
No? Hyeonhak was momentarily flustered but asked back calmly.
“Ah, in that case, do you intend to send him down from Cheongsanbong?”
If so, he would be unable to keep his promise to Junior Brother Soyoung.
For someone living outside Cheongsanbong, it would be difficult to perform conspicuous, transcendent procedures such as removing the Demonic Cult’s Gu Poison.
However, Cheong-ui Sanin shook his head once more.
“That is not it either.”
“……?”
By this point, Hyeonhak was utterly bewildered.
“…How can someone who is not a disciple stay on Cheongsanbong?”
Cheong-ui Sanin smiled faintly as he looked down at Ryang’s face, whose eyes were closed.
He must have suffered quite a bit as a slave in the Demonic Cult, yet he was a strikingly handsome boy.
He still looked young, but in a few years, he would grow up and take on a very familiar appearance.
“…….”
Cheong-ui Sanin gazed at Ryang’s face for a long time, lost in thoughts that no one else could understand.
Then, suddenly, he raised his head and smiled as he met Hyeonhak’s eyes.
“I said I would not take him as my disciple. However, I have no intention of stopping him from becoming someone else’s disciple.”
“Then, could it be……”
Hyeonhak’s brow furrowed slightly.
“I refuse.”
“He is not the type to become your disciple in the first place. Your natures do not align.”
“Then who on earth……”
Hyeonhak’s thoughts naturally drifted to Danhwi, then to Gwangeum.
It didn’t seem likely that Danhwi or Gwangeum would easily accept this child either.
The mere sight of this boy, whose entire body was stained with the traces of Demonic Arts, would likely repel them.
Unless it was someone like Junior Brother Soyoung, who had almost no deep knowledge of the Demonic Cult and thus had saved a so-called slave of the Cult without hesitation…….
…Wait. Surely?
“Do you intend to entrust him to Junior Brother Soyoung?”
