By Zephyria Ugh (2)
“Instructor Heo was always complaining that his residence was too small and he didn’t like it, so I just made it a little bigger for him.” Is that a problem?”
“So you’re saying you broke down the entire wall of his residence!”
‘Eek!’
Seong Mu-yeon doubted his ears when he heard that.
“Also, I accidentally broke the flower vase that Instructor Seop cherished. Purely by accident, of course.”””
“……”
“And when I tried to clean the Instructor’s study, his Disciples tried to assault me out of the blue, so I hit them a few times in self-defense.” Is that okay? What am I supposed to do when people threaten me first?”
“……”
To Seong Mu-yeon, it sounded like he had beaten up all the people who had tried to stop him from making a mess of someone else’s study.
It seemed that Seong Mu-yeon wasn’t the only one who was dumbfounded, as the area, including Sang-geol, who had been questioning him, fell silent. Even Ma Jin-cheon buried his face in his palm and said nothing.
Sang-geol, suddenly realizing that this was a hearing to determine guilt, shouted in an angry voice.
“Shut your mouth! How dare you wag your glib tongue, you shameless bastard!”
“Junior Brother told me to tell everything in detail first.”
“You…! You…!”
Sang-geol’s face swelled up as if it would burst. Regardless, Baek Ryeo-il showed no signs of repentance. Rather, he was as calm as a third party who had just happened to join in, as if he had done nothing wrong. That attitude made people even angrier.
Sang-geol exercised a high degree of patience, calmed his breathing, and suppressed his anger. After taking a moment to catch his breath, he said sternly in a more composed voice.
“Baek Ryeo-il, I sentence you to three days of facing the wall in Repentance Cave as punishment!”
“Sure, whatever.”
“And after that, you will have to take charge of all the chores on Mount Hua for seven days!”
“Sure, whatever.”
Baek Ryeo-il shrugged as if it were nothing.
“Throw this guy into Repentance Cave right now!”
The law enforcement Disciples who had come to execute the law surrounded him, but due to past experience, they couldn’t easily reach out to Baek Ryeo-il. Baek Ryeo-il entered the cave in the wall on his own.
And then.
Thud!
The heavy stone door slammed shut.
“Wang Instructor, am I dreaming right now?”
Seong Mu-yeon muttered blankly. It was so unrealistic that he couldn’t understand it.
Wang Ho-jun said.
“Don’t even mention it. He’s actually become a lot more gentle. He used to collapse an entire building.”
“A building?”
“Grandmaster said he ignored his Master.”
“Just for that reason?”
“After that, he set it on fire and turned it all to ashes.”
“……”
He knew that Baek Ryeo-il had a fiery temper, but he didn’t know it was to this extent. In the original story, he seemed to have matured a bit as he got older. At least he didn’t destroy other people’s houses just because he was angry…
As the incident came to an end, the onlookers scattered. Even Ma Jin-cheon wandered off somewhere before he could even grab him.
Seong Mu-yeon wanted to hear Baek Ryeo-il’s side of the story, but the entrance to Repentance Cave was tightly closed and wouldn’t open, so he had no choice but to turn back. Baek Ryeo-il would not be able to come out of the cave, where not a single ray of sunlight entered, for three days.
“Master…”
Gang Woong kept looking back, worried about his Master. But he, too, had no choice and drooped his shoulders.
That night, Ma Jin-cheon, with dark circles under his eyes, came to visit Seong Mu-yeon.
“Oh my, Ma Instructor. You must have a lot of worries because of Master Baek? Come and sit down first.”
Seong Mu-yeon sat the pitiful man at the table and offered him warm tea and refreshments. Fortunately, since returning from Henan, the Disciples had been bringing gifts from time to time, so there was never a day when the Emerald Pavilion ran out of refreshments.
However, Ma Jin-cheon barely took a sip of tea and didn’t touch the refreshments. It was obvious that he hadn’t eaten properly. He looked several years older in such a short time, from how much he had suffered.
“Grandmaster…”
Gang Woong also looked distressed. All three generations were a mess.
Ma Jin-cheon, who had been staring blankly at his teacup for a long time, slowly rubbed his forehead.
“I’m sorry. Ryeo-il caused another accident… so I’m out of my mind.”
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. May I ask what happened?”
When Seong Mu-yeon asked, Ma Jin-cheon smiled weakly and said slowly.
To summarize, it was like this.
The Instructors who had been thoroughly humiliated by Baek Ryeo-il today were the ones who had accompanied Ma Jin-cheon on his trip to Henan. They seemed to think that if they had listened to Ma Jin-cheon and left the restaurant before the incident happened, he wouldn’t have been hurt like this. They seemed to have felt guilty about it, but Baek Ryeo-il happened to find out about it, and he immediately set out for revenge.
Seong Mu-yeon tilted his head after hearing the explanation up to that point.
“…I don’t quite understand. Anyway, it was the demonic cultist who caused the accident, so why is he taking it out on the Instructors?”
“If everyone could act rationally, why would the world be so chaotic? Especially Ryeo-il… He tends to overreact when it comes to things related to me. So I guess he thought that if those kids had believed me and left quickly, they would have been safe at least.”
“Ah.”
Seong Mu-yeon nodded. He remembered how Baek Ryeo-il had recklessly charged at anyone who seemed to be ignoring Ma Jin-cheon before.
“I should have dealt with it more firmly.”
Ma Jin-cheon had a gentle nature and couldn’t say things he didn’t like, so he was often ignored by his Junior Brothers.
After venting for a while, he seemed to feel a little better, drinking tea and eating a few snacks.
Just as he was thinking that he probably hadn’t come to him just to complain, Ma Jin-cheon opened his mouth with difficulty.
“May I ask Young master for a favor? I’m sorry. I keep asking for favors… But I can’t think of anyone other than Young master, so I’m shamelessly coming to you again like this.”
“What are you talking about? What is it?”
Ma Jin-cheon spoke with difficulty.
“Could you please bring some food to Ryeo-il?”
During the wall-facing, no food other than water was given. It was a punishment and at the same time a practice to overcome hardship and suffering.
“Mount Hua Disciples are not allowed to approach. If I were to help a punished Disciple recklessly, I would receive an even greater punishment, but since it happened because of me.”
It wasn’t a big deal for a martial artist like Baek Ryeo-il to go hungry for three days, but Ma Jin-cheon seemed to be worried. And for good reason. He was the one who had raised Baek Ryeo-il, who had lost his parents at a young age, like his own child.
Seong Mu-yeon readily agreed.
“It’s not a difficult task.”
He jumped up with enthusiasm. He thought he could just go and deliver the food right away. But that was Seong Mu-yeon’s misunderstanding.
“Thank you. I’m really getting a lot of help from Young master these days. So I’ve prepared something.”
Ma Jin-cheon began to rummage through something he had brought.
It was food ingredients.
Flour, meat, vegetables, and so on…
“Don’t tell me. Do I have to cook it myself?!”
Ma Jin-cheon smiled shyly.
“We can’t get caught. I couldn’t bring food from the kitchen.”
“……”
Seong Mu-yeon was speechless. He wondered where he had gotten those ingredients. But he decided not to ask. There are some things in the world that you don’t need to know.
“Young master, please sit down! I’ll cook it quickly.”
Ma Jin-cheon stopped Seong Mu-yeon from helping him and entered the kitchen with a spirited look. It was the first time the kitchen, which Seong Mu-yeon had been polishing brightly but had never used except for boiling bathwater, was being used.
“……”
“……”
Seong Mu-yeon and Gang Woong, who were left behind beyond the tightly closed door, just stared at each other blankly.
“I didn’t know Grandmaster… knew how to cook.”
“Me neither.”
Ma Jin-cheon looked very confident. It seemed that Baek Ryeo-il had been locked in Repentance Cave more than once or twice, so he must be very familiar with it.
But…
Thump! Clang! Bang bang bang! Clatter, bang!
The sounds coming from the kitchen were unusual. Even young Gang Woong doubted whether this was really the sound of cooking.
Thump, bang! Crash!
“No, this isn’t it!”
Seong Mu-yeon, unable to bear the loud noise, threw open the kitchen door. Seong Mu-yeon’s jaw dropped as he looked at the situation inside.
“What is all this?”
The kitchen was literally a battlefield. Half-cut ingredients were rolling around on the floor, and all sorts of white powder were smeared everywhere. Ma Jin-cheon was almost wrestling with the stove, and his hair was almost completely white from being covered in white powder.
Ma Jin-cheon, who had made eye contact with Seong Mu-yeon, smiled awkwardly. His face was also covered in flour.
“Actually, I’ve never cooked before…”