Chapter 77
Chapter 77
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Translator: penny
Chapter Title: Entering Silver Hall (3)
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"……."
The gazes of his colleagues stung.
"……."
Even Jo Hyun, whom he thought he got along with reasonably well, and Squad Leader Yang's face had turned ghostly.
It was as if light would shoot from their eyes.
"You really..."
Squad Leader Yang, apparently utterly flabbergasted, opened and closed his mouth as if about to unleash a tirade.
"Waaah! Instructor! Nice to see you!"
A lively filly charged at him from behind.
"Baek Ri-seol, Student."
"Aigoo. Call me Seol-ah. Even 'honey' is fine."
Honey? What honey?
He grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and yanked her back hard. Soon, Moyong So-hye appeared, her face as if she'd been fed nothing but misfortune for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
"Sigh. Sister. Please pick the time and place."
"I'm being plenty careful."
"Plenty? You're sorely lacking. By the distance from the East Sea to the West Sea?"
As Moyong So-hye dragged Baek Ri-seol away, two tall figures stepped forward.
"Instructor."
"We've arrived as ordered."
Squad Leader Yang greeted the two who were curiously looking around.
"Jegal, Student. Nangong, Student."
"We heard you were appointed Squad Leader. Congratulations."
"Please guide us well from now on."
The instructors' tense faces brightened at the sight of the two performing solid clasped-hand salutes.
'Can't show the young students us cowed.'
They had been trying hard to reclaim their pride lost in the confrontation with Jang Cheol-sim.
Chu Un-hwi, who had been crushed by the stares, stuck out his hand eagerly.
"Jegal. You ready?"
"Instructor. Calling me just by my name is a bit too famili—"
"Come on, Jegal. You ready? Or not?"
Jegal Tan let out a deep sigh and pulled a book from his bosom.
"I've prepared thoroughly, without gaps."
Yeo Mae-hong tilted her head at the smooth cover, as if proving his new responsibility.
"What's that?"
"Oh, this?"
Flutter. The opened book was unidentifiable just by looking. No title, just pages full of text.
Jegal Tan beside him answered instead.
"It's a clan record."
"Cl-clan record?"
"It compiles Silver Hall exam questions from the past five years and organizes the evaluation criteria."
The instructors' expressions turned strange as they listened.
Why prepare something like this?
The effort for such a grand compilation was impressive, but everyone knew he was the type to skim through even instructor duties half-heartedly.
For such a person to go to this trouble...
Maybe he'd surprisingly try to live diligently in Silver Hall?
"Good. You've all memorized it?"
"Yes."
"What about Nangong?"
"I've memorized it all too. I studied desperately."
"Me too! I studied so hard at home, even I was surprised!"
"Ugh. Memorizing this in just ten days is too much."
"Good. Now you're ready to teach well. Do your best."
As if.
As they watched him dump the work on the very students meant to be taught right in front of them, even unflappable Squad Leader Yang clicked his tongue.
"Instructor Chu. You're not planning to foist the work on these young students, are you?"
"Would I? I'll just borrow a little help."
"Your face shows no enthusiasm at all."
"That's a misunderstanding. My heart is bursting with passion."
Thick-skinned as iron—that was a talent too.
"Grr. You..."
As the Bronze Hall instructors geared up for a full scolding...
"You there. Come over here."
Silver Hall instructors were beckoning grumpily from afar.
They seemed to be pointing at various tools, frowning.
Menial labor was usually for new rookies, but they were trying to shove it onto the temporary instructors.
"Can't be helped. We are the fresh newbies here."
"It's fine. We've done it plenty in Bronze Hall."
"Let's get to it."
As the instructors shuffled off reluctantly, Chu Un-hwi nodded to the four.
Receiving the signal, the four stealthily moved toward the training ground.
Preparing for the first class involved quite a bit of heavy lifting.
Wooden dummies, weights made of stones and sand.
And practice swords—all had to be dragged outside one by one.
The incomprehensible part was whether they really used all these for training.
There were barely fifty students outside, yet enough gear for two hundred.
Instructor Jo Hyun, sweating as he carried things, asked.
A glib reply came back.
"Sometimes on clear days like this, we air them out. Silver Hall uses expensive equipment, so maintenance is key."
Sun-drying, they call it.
Yeo Mae-hong followed up.
"Wasn't this class supposed to be herbology?"
The instructor, face reddening, replied with a softened tone.
"Right. Next, we dry all the herbs in the sun."
"All of them."
Nearby were stacks of nearly a hundred bundles, each as tall as a person.
They'd use barely a bundle for class, yet dry them all?
'They're giving us a proper hazing.'
The prospects looked grim.
Amid this, in the corner of his vision, someone was bickering.
A young Silver Hall instructor was raising his voice at someone.
"You! Planning to work at all?"
"What did I do?"
"Think I wouldn't notice you dawdling with that light pouch?"
"Ah—. I said no."
Chu Un-hwi, fuming as if grabbing an innocent man, dangled a palm-sized pouch.
"Just do it! Do it!"
For some reason, today Instructor Chu seemed especially annoying.
As a subtle hazing began among the instructors...
The students eyed the four newcomers to the training ground with sparkling interest.
Baek Ri-seol drew the most attention.
Perhaps due to her striking looks, curiosity flickered in the male students' eyes.
"Whoa—did our academy have a beauty like that?"
"Look at her uniform. Bronze Hall, maybe? Wait. That armband—isn't it assistant instructor? A Bronze Hall student as assistant?"
"Who cares, if she's pretty."
"I prefer the petite one."
Apart from the majority male students' interest, the female students' gazes fixed on Nangong Yun-ho and Jegal Tan.
"That tall one looks familiar."
"Oh? You like tall and sturdy? I prefer the sharp-eyed one next to him."
"Now's not the time to be picky."
"Listen to her."
Whispers spread here and there.
It was a place for flunkies needing extra care.
They'd reached Silver Hall level, but most showed little improvement.
Few from prestigious families; bored with sudden remedial training, they lit up at small entertainment.
Yet some were from notable houses or sharp-eared.
They knew something about the sudden four.
"Haha. Cute green rookies. Shall I chat them up?"
"Better not."
"Huh? Why the deep voice suddenly?"
"That guy's an instructor hunter. Though you might not know."
"Ins—instructor hunter? For real?"
A literary student of mechanisms and formations who devoured multiple sword instructors.
Said to wield powerful martial arts and a fierce temper, unmatched.
Still a ghost story among Silver Hall students.
"Whew. Close call."
As some startled, others questioned.
"What? They look ordinary..."
"An instructor hunter looks that nerdy?"
"Rumors aren't to be trusted."
"Heh. Shall I be the 'hunter of instructor hunters'?"
The four standing in the corner of the training ground heard all the murmurs.
The serendipity from summer break had sharpened their hearing to catch even whispers.
Their facial muscles twitched as they stood at attention.
Then it burst.
"Pfft."
Baek Ri-seol started it.
"Pfft. Instructor. Pfft. Hunter."
"...Grr. No need to laugh."
"Kekekeke. What a fitting nickname. Jegal clan's black sheep. Instructor Hunter. Right, Nangong Student?"
Nangong Yun-ho, usually expressionless, now had twitching lips.
"Pffhem. Jegal. Khk. Tan. It's fine. Sometimes. Pfft. Mistakes happen. Kek."
Betrayed by his usually supportive friend, Jegal Tan flushed.
"Says the one. Little Baek seems popular too."
"All praising my looks? With a face like a half-kneaded dumpling, but eyes spot-on. If they come close or talk, I'll kick 'em off the roof a few times, then bury 'em in the backyard."
"……."
Jegal Tan realized anew.
Her house white-path close, but her dark heart black-path close—she wouldn't blink at mere words.
"Ah. Embarrassing. Hunter of hunters? Why not say 'hunt the hunter of instructor hunters'?"
"Grit."
Jegal Tan's patience bottomed out.
Moyong So-hye smoothly intervened.
"St-still. Thanks to it, we avoid hassle."
"Well, there's that perk."
Nangong Yun-ho quickly sided, but Baek Ri-seol's venom continued.
"Ghost of Bronze Hall, hunter. Not one normal person."
"Sister's nickname is Bronze Hall Witch."
"Heeng—. Bronze Hall Snow Woman, different?"
"Snow Woman's a ghost too. Ice ghost."
"Not as much as Bronze Hall's Iron Fist."
"Ugh. Spot on."
Indeed, none could win Baek Ri-seol in words.
As the three fell silent, Baek Ri-seol snorted and eyed the instructors trudging out en masse, eyes twinkling.
"Oh. Starting now?"
She grinned at the one lagging last, dragging feet like a lazy donkey.
"Majestic as ever today."
"Sister's good except the eyes."
Moyong So-hye grumbled, then asked Jegal Tan.
"First class is herbology, right?"
"Yes. Precisely, distinguishing herbs from poisons."
Time to show summer special training results.
Especially with Jegal Tan's hard-won clan record—victory assured.
"Instructor said brute skill is the answer."
"Per Instructor's 'eat anything without dying' lesson, no poison herbs exist."
"...Nangong bro. Exclude that man's teachings. Stay in common sense world."
"Noted."
"Prove skill, no complaints. No complaints, dump work easy. Don't forget?"
Foul deal, but caught in instructor's web, no choice.
"Shall we?"
"Let's."
The four strode confidently to the training ground.