Leave the Team or Become Its Leader
The empty lot behind the shrine was already bustling in the early hours of dawn.
"Alright! Alright! Stop!"
Massive pieces of heavy machinery roared as they tore into the earth, while laborers moved in a flurry of activity, laying the foundations for construction.
Taejung Mulsan had begun full-scale building work in earnest. Thanks to Yoon Tae-jung rounding up every top-tier construction crew in the country, the project was scheduled for completion before the start of the next semester.
Because of that, the cadets' dawn training had to take place in one quiet corner of the lot where the work had not yet begun.
"Everyone here?"
Kang Hyun, whiskey bottle in hand, perched himself on the fence.
"Yes, Professor!"
The five of them straightened as one. For the record, Do Jeong-hyeok was already up on the peak, pounding away at the boulder. Night or dawn made no difference to him. He had to shatter that rock before he could move on to the next stage.
"Here you are, Professor! Thanks for the meal last night!"
Kwak Do-jin held out the card that had covered yesterday's tab. Kang Hyun plucked it from the air with a casual gesture of telekinesis and slipped it into his pocket.
"Right. Did you all come up with team names?"
"Of course!"
Kwak Do-jin stepped forward first.
"The martial art you said you'd teach me is the Demon-Subduing Sword, isn't it? So I went with Myeolma-dae—Destroy the Demons. Does that work?"
"Myeolma-dae?"
"Yes."
"Hmm."
The corner of Kang Hyun's mouth curled upward. He had originally envisioned something independent, like the name of a Murim sect. What the kid had brought him sounded more like a subjugation unit under the Martial Alliance.
"Well, the name's the team leader's call. Doesn't matter to me."
Kang Hyun gave a nod of approval, and Kwak Do-jin let out a breath of relief.
Next was Yoon Hyun-jong.
"Mine is Ssangryong."
"Ssangryong?"
"I was going to use Hyun-jong, like my father… but I dropped it. Felt bad for any teammates who'd join later."
"Good. Ssangryong suits you better anyway."
It also matched the Invincible Twin Swords he would be learning.
Then the youngest, Han Tae-ho—who had been watching the others carefully—suddenly raised his hand.
"Seniors! As the youngest here, mind if I speak my mind?"
Sharing drinks the night before had already made him a good deal bolder.
"The team names are all way too old-school Murim. If we're building something new, shouldn't we plan for going global someday?"
"…So what's yours, then?"
Kwak Do-jin asked, looking half-exasperated. Han Tae-ho threw his chest out and declared with full confidence:
"Team Blossom!"
"…What?"
"Plum blossoms are plum blossom in English, right? But that doesn't roll off the tongue and it's too long, so I cleaned it up and made it trendy—Team Blossom! Neat, right?"
The seniors were left speechless. Was he just bragging that he was going to learn the Plum Blossom Sword Art? And the name itself sounded like something out of a game guild.
"I'll say it again: team names are free for the team leader to decide."
Kang Hyun drove the point home.
"The second you lose the leader's seat, the name can change. Keep that in mind."
"That will never happen!"
Of course, if one of the Professor's actual disciples ends up learning the Plum Blossom Sword Art, that's a different story! But if it's pure effort without talent, I won't lose to anyone!
Kang Hyun caught the resolve in the kid's eyes and let out a quiet snort of amusement. At that level, raw effort really could chew through everything.
Last was Cha Yu-sik. Even now he still looked deep in thought.
Cheonrang.
One of Korea's three great guilds—the wolf pack he had wanted to claim for himself since childhood. But all through the previous night, one thought had kept circling.
What if the head seat of Cheonrang that I've been clawing for is just a narrow little well?
If, under the Professor, he could start with the Boundless Sky Palace Sword Art and eventually reach the pinnacle of the Emperor's Sword Form… did he really need to scramble so desperately to become the pack's alpha?
What if, instead, he left the pack, built his strength, and one day returned as the wolf that protected the entire family?
The idea made his heart beat a little faster.
The seat of Cheonrang versus the seat of the guardian wolf.
"Hah."
Cha Yu-sik drew a deep breath and stepped forward. The hesitation had cleared from his eyes.
"I'll go with Irang."
"Irang?"
Kang Hyun raised an eyebrow.
"A wolf that left the pack?"
"That's right."
The firm answer made the other cadets' eyes widen. In a way, it was a declaration that he was cutting the Cheonrang label free. Knowing how desperately he had wanted that name only made the choice more startling.
"There's just one thing I'd like to ask you, Professor."
Cha Yu-sik spoke carefully.
"If someday I want to return to my original pack… am I free to go?"
By the standards of the hunter industry, it was an arrogant question. He was essentially saying he would come under Kang Hyun, learn martial arts, but that his roots were still Cheonrang and he might one day return to them.
Kang Hyun only let out a short, dry laugh.
"Didn't I tell you yesterday? It's your freedom."
His voice was languid as he continued.
"Every choice is yours. I won't meddle. That's exactly why I refuse to take you as formal disciples."
It was the truth.
There's no need for you kids to become my chains.
The old monsters of the past had locked Kang Hyun in hell for twenty years—using the bond of master and disciple, and the duty to save the world, as their excuses.
Bullshit.
He had no intention of passing that sickening custom down to these young cadets.
They're just proof.
Living proof that Kang Hyun had returned to this world and was somehow managing a new life of his own. If, after he took Asura's head, they grew splendidly and returned to their own packs to live their own lives… the quiet pride of that moment would be enough.
Cha Yu-sik, of course, had no way of knowing any of that. His heart was hammering hard.
How can he be so detached?
Ordinary guilds demanded bone-deep loyalty just to hand over a single martial art. This man was teaching techniques of staggering power without a trace of possessiveness or obsession.
Is his vessel just that large? Or…
In the Professor's eyes, was something like the Emperor's Sword Form no more significant than a pebble lying by the roadside?
Either way, it didn't matter. What mattered was the respect that was beginning to bloom.
Cha Yu-sik bent at the waist in a deep bow.
"Thank you."
His voice carried across the empty lot.
"For as long as I wear the name Irang and belong to this team… I will receive and follow your orders with the same weight I give my father's."
This was no longer merely the relationship of cadet and professor. It was the relationship of a team leader belonging to a guild and that guild's master. Cha Yu-sik made the distinction clear.
"Um… Professor."
In the silence that followed, Seo Hae-in raised her hand.
"What's my team name?"
Ah.
Kang Hyun gave a small snort, as if only just remembering.
There had been a separate reason he hadn't bothered to critique the childish naming sense of the others. Compared to the name Ma Chul-woong had cooked up and left behind the night before, Myeolma-dae and Team Blossom were positively refined.
"You're the Tiger Research Institute."
"Pardon?"
Seo Hae-in's eyes went blank. She looked like she was questioning her own eardrums.
"Tiger Research Institute?"
"Hup."
The other cadets' eyes sharpened for a moment. Someone hastily covered their mouth; someone else's cheek twitched. It was obviously Ma Chul-woong's handiwork, so no one dared laugh out loud—but inside they were reeling.
Tiger Research Institute?
What is this, a zookeeper club?
It would be embarrassing even to tell their parents later.
Son~ what's the name of the guild that scouted you?
Tiger Research Institute.
…Did you get a job at the zoo?
Just imagining it was enough to make them dizzy.
"What, don't like the name?"
"N-no!"
Seo Hae-in ducked her head timidly.
"I-it's a really cute name. Haha."
Her face, however, already looked ready to cry.
"If you don't like the team name, there are two things you can do."
Kang Hyun held up two fingers.
"Either leave the team, or become the team leader yourself and change it."
Seo Hae-in's face went paper-white.
To become team leader I'd have to get stronger than Hunter Ma Chul-woong!
She resigned herself to a lifetime as Researcher Number One of the Tiger Research Institute.
Kang Hyun, however, thought differently.
You never know what the future holds.
Ma Chul-woong couldn't afford to get careless. Seo Hae-in might not be disciple material, but she had a fair amount of talent. Of course he didn't say any of that out loud.
Complacency is poison.
As Seo Hae-in continued to look miserable, Kwak Do-jin tried to stick up for her for no particular reason.
"Even so, Tiger Research Institute is a bit much… sounds like something a kindergartener came up with."
At that exact moment—
Thud. Thud.
Heavy footsteps approached from a distance. They spun around to see Ma Chul-woong walking toward them.
"Eek."
Kwak Do-jin scrambled backward. Ma Chul-woong closed the distance in a few strides and shoved his face right into Kwak's.
"You? The one who just called me a kindergartener?"
A two-meter-plus frame with a long, vicious scar across a face that looked like a bandit chief's. For a second Kwak Do-jin thought he was going to soil himself.
"N-n-no, sir! I just meant the name is so intuitive even kindergarteners could say it easily!"
Ma Chul-woong ignored the excuse entirely and walked over to Kang Hyun, bowing his head.
"Hyung-nim."
"Yeah."
"Like you said last night, I came to pick up my teammate. Figured we'd train together."
Kang Hyun nodded.
"Go ahead. Take her."
It was far better for Seo Hae-in that way. Kang Hyun's current level of martial arts was so distant that, to someone still laying foundations, it would sound like empty talk about the clouds. Better for her to spar and learn through real contact with Ma Chul-woong, who was practicing the same arts, and only have Kang Hyun open her meridians when the two of them hit a wall together. That would pull her growth rate higher.
"Let's go, kid."
"Uh, uh…! Y-yes, Team Leader!"
Ma Chul-woong took the lead; Seo Hae-in followed stiffly behind him. Envy flickered in the other cadets' eyes.
Training with an active S-rank hunter?
…At this point I'd crawl into a tiger's den, never mind a Tiger Research Institute.
They were all licking their lips with envy when—
"What are you waiting for."
Kang Hyun's languid yet weighty voice rolled across the empty lot.
"None of you are holding weapons."
Dawn training had begun.
"You want me to register the teams?"
Lee Se-ah's eyes went round.
"Yeah. Five of them. Separately."
Kang Hyun gave a rough explanation, and Lee Se-ah—true to her top-of-the-class Bureau background—grasped the intent instantly.
"So we set each one up as an independent guild, then assign you a twenty-percent stake in all of them? And you can just hand the team leaders their ten-percent shares yourself?"
"If that's convenient, do it that way."
"And on your side we create a management group—independent, but handling the administrative support!"
"Exactly that."
Right now the teams were small, but once they grew they would need a body capable of managing them. After all, the goal was to extract information from the guilds.
"This is getting huge in scale. My god, if even Ma Chul-woong is joining…"
A gasp of pure admiration slipped from Lee Se-ah's lips.
Just what is Black's real purpose?
A man with overwhelming power whose only visible work was teaching cadets. On top of that he was growing Taejung Mulsan and now founding guilds—not one, but several, laying the foundation for a future alliance that could dominate the world.
Is he planning to become some kind of shadow mastermind who pulls the world's strings?
"Do a good job. When you leave the Bureau later, there'll be a share for you too."
"Aah, please stop tempting me with money."
"Want me to take it back, then?"
"No! I'll give it my absolute best!"
Just as Lee Se-ah was joking around—
Vroooom!
The roar of engines carried from far beyond the office window. Two large buses were rolling in through the main gate.
"Oh, they're finally here!"
Lee Se-ah called out. Kang Hyun stretched and rose from his seat.
The Mongolian exchange group.
At last the foreign academy cadets had arrived as exchange students.
The dean asked me for a favor, so I suppose I should go greet them.