Chapter 12. I’ll Pay a Disciple’s Fee
Chapter 12. I’ll Pay a Disciple’s Fee
A large mansion in Spain.
The butler walked down a corridor lit by the dim glow of sunset and headed for his master’s room.
When he opened the door and stepped inside, the master had just woken up and was looking at the fading sunset.
For lambs, even this much light would have been a fatal blow, but for a master who had lived for countless years, it wasn’t much of a threat.
“What is it?”
The butler bowed his head and reported.
“An incident occurred in Korea. The risk of exposure to the media is high.”
“Which Discipline Knight is residing in Korea?”
“Chae Seorin.”
“Ah… that child. Fine—leave it to her.”
Hearing the master’s command, the butler backed out quietly.
By now, the sunset had vanished completely, and darkness filled everything.
It seemed the master would remain that quietly still tonight as well.
The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency was a complete madhouse.
Reporters swarmed in from all sides, shoving cameras and microphones in whenever they found the slightest opening.
Superintendent Kim Juhyeok, temporarily assigned as the person in charge of the case, was running around frantically while directing the investigation.
The Incheon faction members—the most important suspects—had suffered severe injuries and were transported to the hospital.
They all had complex fractures. Their lives weren’t in danger, but they were screaming in extreme pain.
The most crucial suspect, the Incheon faction boss, had the worst injuries.
He was being pumped full of painkillers, not in his right mind, and unfit for interrogation.
“No! Why are you treating innocent citizens like criminals?! Because you people didn’t do your job, my brothers all died! What are you going to do about my brothers—bring them back to life?!”
These were the thugs who had stormed the Incheon faction, broken the members’ bones, and made the first report.
They were a brand-new organization with no name even in any lineage records, but they called themselves the Isu faction.
Yes, they had injured the Incheon faction members, but they also deserved credit for reporting the case and exposing it to the world.
And in a place that was already loud enough, those guys were the loudest of all.
“So when they come at you with sashimi knives, we were supposed to just die?! My brothers all died because of those bastards! So you’re saying I should’ve had my throat cut and died too?!”
“Hey! Yeongsik!”
“Hyungcheol hyung!”
The cries and shouting of the bereaved filled the place as well.
In the middle of this chaos, Superintendent Kim Juhyeok steadied himself and organized his thoughts.
First, identify every victim…
Then compile causes of death with the National Forensic Service team…
And determine the scale and purpose of the crimes.
To do that, the most important link was the testimony of the Incheon faction members hospitalized right now.
Getting the full story out of them was the key.
“It’s bad, Superintendent!”
A detective stationed at the hospital called in, frantic.
Kim Juhyeok’s heart sank.
They’d deployed a large number of officers to guard the suspects.
If a call like this still came through, it meant something ominous.
“All hospitalized Incheon faction members are dead!”
“What the hell are you talking about?!”
“The officers on watch all lost consciousness, and the suspects went into cardiac arrest and died.”
Kim Juhyeok’s vision swam.
If this stood, the entire blame would land on him.
Any promotion was gone.
A refreshing morning!
Today as well, I clocked in exactly at 9:50.
But today, the owner was at work, sitting in the office.
It had been a while since I’d seen him.
“Hello, boss!”
The owner, who was replaying surveillance footage in the office, glanced at me and gave a small nod.
At the counter, Chanhyeok hyung looked at me with a corpse-like face and spoke.
“You’re here?”
“Nothing happened, right?”
“Yeah, nothing in particular. Then I’m heading out—good work!”
He started gathering his things to leave, but the owner suddenly sprang up from the office and stormed to the counter.
“What time is it that you think you can clock out? Chanhyeok, isn’t your shift until 10? And what the hell is that handover attitude? ‘Nothing happened’? You need to hand over every room status properly! This is why people end up dying on the premises—you all work like this, completely sloppy!”
At the owner’s thunderous yelling, Chanhyeok hyung flinched and turned his head, only fidgeting with random room keys.
“And how many rooms can we sell right now? Only three! If customers suddenly come and we can’t sell rooms, are you going to take responsibility? You need at least the bare minimum of responsibility!”
Long… so long.
I let the owner’s nagging go in one ear and out the other while I checked the room status.
I’d already expanded my telekinesis field, so I knew Cheolmin hyung had come into Room 105 early yesterday morning.
He was supposed to give me the promised 500 million won today…
Would he do it on his own?
Do I need to press him?
The owner’s rambling didn’t stop.
Then suddenly, the door to Room 102 flew open, and Bella—wearing pink sweatpants, barefoot—came stomping out, scowling as she marched toward the counter.
“Loud. Bella can’t sleep! Loud!”
The owner, who’d been going off at full volume, went wide-eyed and shut his mouth.
I smiled at Bella and greeted her with my eyes.
Bella glared at the owner, at Chanhyeok hyung, and at me, then returned to Room 102.
“Th-th-that young lady is—!”
“She’s a long-term guest in Room 102. She paid in advance—double payment—for sixty-two days.”
“Ah…”
Thanks to Bella, the owner’s nagging stopped.
I checked the time.
Exactly 10:00.
On the surveillance feed, I confirmed the cleaning aunties were arriving, loading supplies onto their carts, getting ready to work.
“Hyung, go on in!”
I said with a grin.
Chanhyeok hyung hesitated, then bowed to the owner and left.
“I’m going up to inspect the rooms!”
“What—how can you leave the counter empty? Why isn’t the manager here yet?”
“The manager comes in at 11.”
“Tsk… none of you have any sense of responsibility. That manager bastard is the biggest problem. I can’t even fire him… tsk.”
The owner clicked his tongue, then called the manager and barked at him to get here quickly.
“I’m taking the tablet, so you don’t need to worry.”
I showed the owner the tablet with the surveillance footage, went up to the fifth floor, and started inspections beginning with checkout rooms.
After that, I finished organizing supplies in the storage rooms on each floor and came back down.
The owner was chewing out the manager.
Maybe because Bella had told him to be quiet, the owner was scolding in a lower voice, but the manager wasn’t meek either.
“You little shit, Donggeun. If you weren’t my wife’s brother, you’d have been kicked out ages ago. If I trusted you with this, you should work responsibly. From what I see, you weren’t even at your post while I was gone!”
“What, brother-in-law, why would you say something so hurtful? Do you even know how much happened while you were away? I handled it all cleanly. If you talk like that, it stings. And you saw it, right? Sales? Even with everything going on, we hit the highest sales ever.”
“That’s not because you did any business! They just came in on their own!”
“Come on! Why say something that hurts like that!”
I listened to this familiar scene with my ears while calling the remaining guests to confirm checkout.
That was when the door to Room 105 opened, and Cheolmin hyung came out.
Cheolmin came out in a clean white dress shirt and suit.
If he stood there expressionless, he gave off serious charisma.
The moment he saw me at the counter, he bowed ninety degrees, then walked into the office.
The manager’s face went pale again, and the owner looked like he had no idea what was going on.
“Hey, manager. You been well? And who’s this?”
The manager stood up from his chair and yielded it, and Cheolmin naturally sat down in his place.
“Manager, can I get a coffee? Not those beans in the lobby—mix coffee.”
“Y-yes, right away. And this is our owner.”
“Owner? Ah… the one who was overseas? Good to meet you. I’m Choi Cheolmin, staying here in Room 105.”
When Cheolmin hyung sat and held out his hand, the owner rose awkwardly and shook it.
“By the way, have you eaten? It’s lunchtime.”
Just then, the door to Room 102 opened and Bella came out.
That pink sweatsuit didn’t suit her.
“Hi, Cheolmin. I hungry. Food what eat!”
It hadn’t even been that many days, but Bella’s Korean was getting smoother and smoother.
Is she a genius?
“Oh, it’s Ms. Bella. I just woke up too. Want to order some Chinese food, something simple? Benefactor, you have to eat here, right? I’ll order. You two gentlemen want some too?”
Seeing the long-term guests basically taking over their office, the owner wore a stunned expression, clearly wanting to say something—yet not knowing what.
“Ah… eat comfortably. We have something to do, so we’ll step out for a bit.”
The manager grabbed the owner by the collar and dragged him outside, gesturing to me that they were going to eat.
The owner’s face looked complicated, but I didn’t really care.
“Chinese food means jajangmyeon.”
When I said that, Cheolmin hyung looked at Bella.
Since she couldn’t understand that much yet, he showed her pictures of Chinese food and explained in Russian.
While Cheolmin enjoyed his mix coffee, Bella asked him something in Russian, and he mixed her a cup of Korean-style coffee too.
After one sip, her face looked happy.
Chinese delivery’s motto was speed.
About ten minutes after ordering, it arrived.
One tangsuyuk, two jajangmyeon, two jjamppong, and one fried rice.
“She said she wanted to eat everything, so I ordered a variety.”
When Bella saw me mixing the jajang sauce, she copied me and started inhaling it.
Cheolmin ate jjamppong and spoke lightly.
“Yesterday’s matter was handled so you won’t have to worry at all.”
Well… that much, sure. It wasn’t anything.
I nodded and sped up my jajangmyeon inhaling.
It was because I felt a petty competitiveness toward Bella, who was eating faster than me.
“I brought what I promised and kept it in Room 105. Take it later.”
I’d had my nose buried in the bowl, but at that, I looked up at Cheolmin with a pleased feeling.
He was smiling warmly again.
The more I saw him, the more kind he seemed.
I shook my head vigorously and went back to eating.
Next was tangsuyuk.
But maybe it had been made in advance—it was a little soggy.
Still, I couldn’t let Bella take it all, so I sped up.
After clearing jajangmyeon, jjamppong, fried rice, and tangsuyuk clean, Bella went out to the parking lot yard, sat in the sunlight, and started dozing.
I could’ve done it, but Cheolmin insisted on doing it himself.
He cleaned up the dishes and made two cups of mix coffee, then held one out to me.
I’m supposed to serve the guest…
Well, if he wants to do it, I won’t refuse.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
Cheolmin dropped his warm smile and spoke with a grim expression.
“Yes. Go ahead. I’ll do anything I can.”
Then Cheolmin hyung suddenly stood and made a deep bow to me.
“Thanks to you, we resolved a huge problem without major complications. The brothers who left unfairly will be able to rest with their eyes closed. Once again, thank you.”
Did this really warrant a bow that deep?
Strictly speaking, it was closer to a contract—payment exchanged.
But Cheolmin still didn’t lift his head.
“Shamelessly, I have one more request. Please accept me as your disciple. I know you are a master of martial arts. Through this incident, I realized my limits. Forget the monster I saw—I’m a pathetic weakling, worse than the punks swinging sashimi knives. I want to grow strong through you. I never want to lose precious people again.”
What the hell is he saying…
I didn’t know what to answer, so I stayed silent.
I knew Cheolmin was mistaking me for a martial-arts master from wuxia novels, not a psychic.
Since I didn’t want my secret exposed, that misunderstanding was welcome, and I’d even encouraged it.
But how was I supposed to teach martial arts I didn’t even know?
Forms… internal energy… huh? Internal energy?
A clever thought flashed through my head.
Could it work?
It felt like it might…
But when I stayed silent, Cheolmin spoke again.
“If you take me as your disciple, I’ll give you one billion won immediately.”
Ah…
Even if it can’t be done, I’ll have to make it work.
One billion won is the kind of money that can turn the impossible into possible.