#5

Chapter 2

The One Chosen by a Person (1)

Gwi-hyeok didn’t waste a second after taking Hyeong-un on as his disciple. He marched straight over to the innkeeper.

“I’ve decided to take Hyeong-un as my disciple. I’ll be taking him with me, right this very day.”

“Excuse me?”

The innkeeper’s eyes widened, wondering if he had misheard.

Gwi-hyeok spoke bluntly.

“I dislike repeating myself, so be sure to engrave what you just heard into your mind. Take this—consider it a gesture of thanks for facilitating my meeting with Hyeong-un.”

“Th-this much?”

The innkeeper’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as he stared at the money Gwi-hyeok had tossed his way. It was ten gold coins.

“I’ll be stepping out for a bit. While I’m gone, make sure you don’t bother Hyeong-un. Understood?”

“Y-Yes! Yes, sir!”

Gwi-hyeok snorted at the Innkeeper’s response and strode out of the inn. As he walked down the road, he muttered to himself,

“Seok-jun, just in case, make sure no riffraff gets near him while I’m gone.”

Surprisingly, an answer came back.

—I understand. I will post the guys on him.

The response did not come through a physical voice. It was a voice transmitted from hundreds of paces away, tuned solely for Gwi-hyeok’s ears, concealed from all others.

Among those who train in martial arts, there is a technique called ‘Transmission of Sound into the Secret’ (jeon-eum-ip-mil), or simply ‘Sound Transmission’. It is a skill used to beam one’s voice to a target at a distance. By utilizing ripples in Qi, the technique allows one to convey a message without even opening their mouth, and no one except the intended recipient can hear it.

In other words, Gwi-hyeok was not wandering alone; he was accompanied by a group following him in the shadows. He moved with people so stealthy they could hide their presence to the point that no one around them could even tell they existed…

Suddenly, Gwi-hyeok asked,

“Do you have something you wish to say?”

—May I ask a question?

“Go ahead.”

—Why did you choose that brat?

“You should know, weren’t you listening in on our conversation?”

—It is only because I cannot find conviction in that reason alone. For you Lord Yeong-seong (Spirit Star), who cast aside countless candidates and left the position of disciple vacant for so long, to suddenly…

The man named Seok-jun was addressing Gwi-hyeok by the title Spirit Star.

“I suppose that’s true. It’s something I only realized myself after coming here…”

Gwi-hyeok gave a short, cynical smirk.

“The reason those ‘prodigies’ lined up before me all these years never satisfied me wasn’t due to a lack of talent.”

—Then, what was it?

“It was because they failed to move my heart. My motivation is fundamentally different from that of others. A brat who failed to become a Star-Fated Prodigy, a boy who is essentially ‘nothing’… who was oppressed and treated like less than human for it. The thought suddenly struck me: I want to raise such a fellow with my own hands and prove that he can outshine even the so-called Star-Fated Prodigies.”

To raise the finest timber into something greater.

Most people likely choose their disciples with such a thought in mind. But Gwi-hyeok was different. He took Hyeong-un as his disciple because the boy’s experiences and circumstances resonated with his heart.

—There will be severe backlash. The Council of Elders certainly won’t sit idly by.

“It doesn’t matter who says what. Hyeong-un is my disciple. How far he can go from here on out is a burden he must shoulder himself, but his starting point remains unchanged.”

Gwi-hyeok spoke with cold finality, then asked.

“Is the item ready?”

—It should be. Shall I confirm?

“No, it’s fine. I’m already there anyway.”

The place Gwi-hyeok headed towards, was an apothecary located in the central district of Hojang.

This was a place that sold all manner of medicinal herbs and specially refined elixirs—a place with little connection to ordinary people.

Yet Gwi-hyeok entered as confidently as if he were walking into his own home and bluntly asked,

“The item?”

“I have it ready.”

The owner of the apothecary handed over the prepared package immediately, as if he had been waiting solely for his arrival. He nodded, accepted the item, and began making his way back.

Upon returning to the inn, a bout of commotion was in full swing.

“Ugh… d-damn it!”

A group of men stumbled out of the inn, spitting out curses. Their faces were in a wretched state—battered and bruised as if they had been thoroughly thrashed—as they supported their injured comrades on their way out.

When Gwi-hyeok stepped inside, he saw several tables and chairs overturned. On one side sat three men. Gwi-hyeok gave them a fleeting glance and let out a short smirk. As he headed up the stairs, he spoke.

“The disguises are quite impressive. You truly look like mere vagrants.”

—It’s the most comfortable way to travel when we’re following you, Spirit Star.

The three men were part of Gwi-hyeok’s retinue. Acting on his prior instructions, they had disguised themselves as ordinary patrons in order to block anyone who tried to approach Hyeong-un.

The ones who had just been beaten and chased out were wandering fighters—vagrants—who had come to “test” Hyeong-un, just in case.

“…But there really are a lot of them. Just how far has the information spread?”

—It’s practically public knowledge at this point. They say the star-power awakened by the Prodigy was so potent that even bottom third-rate phantom-deviners could sense it.

“Tch. What about the other locations?”

—One more has been added, and another is still unconfirmed. It’ll take some time for that information to reach us.

“There’s no rush; we can look into that later.”

Having said that, Gwi-hyeok stepped into the room. Hyeong-un was fast asleep, his breathing soft and steady, perhaps due to the exhaustion from his injuries. Gwi-hyeok gave him a light shake to wake him.

“Ah… M-Master.”

“Hmph.”

Gwi-hyeok twitched for a split second. Though he was the one who told the boy to call him that, hearing the words Master felt utterly alien to him.

‘Good grief.’

Given his status, he was expected to take a disciple, but he had managed to hold out for ten years by putting it off day after day. It was a relief to finally have one, but he couldn’t help but sigh at the thought of how troublesome things were about to become.

But Gwi-hyeok swallowed back his sigh and held out the item he had brought with him. It was a bottle carved out of wood.

“Drink this.”

“What’s this…?”

“Medicine.”

At those words, Hyeong-un opened the wooden bottle and cautiously took a sip. Since it was called medicine, he had expected an unbearably bitter taste, but it was bland like water and felt slightly viscous—almost sticky—on the tongue.

The effects, however, far exceeded anything Hyeong-un had imagined.

It hadn’t been long since he finished drinking it when heat began to boil up from deep inside his body, rapidly spreading throughout his entire frame.

“Ah……”

“It’s a regenerative elixir crafted by Alchemists. By this evening, at the latest, the swelling in your face should be completely gone.”

“Whoa… such medicine really exists in the world.”

Thanks to the beating he received, Hyeong-un’s face was a mess of cuts, bleeding, and dark bruises that had swollen to a grotesque size. To think that such swelling could vanish in less than a day…

Hyeong-un asked.

“By the way… this…”

“Hmm?”

“This medicine… isn’t it incredibly expensive?”

At that, Gwi-hyeok let out a small chuckle.

“You don’t need to worry about things like that. You’re my disciple now.”

After saying that, Gwi-hyeok laid Hyeong-un down and let him sleep.

Whether it was from the pain or the effects of the medicine, Hyeong-un soon drifted off, breathing softly.

“We depart tomorrow afternoon. Make the necessary preparations.”

—The afternoon? Not in the morning, my lord?

“Didn’t I tell you already?”

Gwi-hyeok replied as if the question were absurd.

“I said I was going to have a look at the Star-Fated Prodigy.”

Once it became known that the Star-Fated Prodigy was in the city of Hojang, information about which children had been born on the day the star fell spread alongside it.

Information brokers operating in the back alleys enjoyed an unexpected boom, and—as Gwi-hyeok’s subordinate had said—the information had spread to the point of it being virtually public knowledge.

Now that some time had passed, Gwi-hyeok’s subordinates were even able to uncover the actual identity of the Star-Fated Prodigy.

“Who is it?”

Hyeong-un asked.

Just as Gwi-hyeok had predicted, by that evening, the swelling had subsided and the pain had vanished, allowing Hyeong-un to pick himself up and dust himself off. Gwi-hyeok took Hyeong-un and departed early the next morning.

Though the inn had been his “nest”—the place where he had eaten, slept, and worked for several years—he felt no sorrow. There was absolutely nothing there worth holding a lingering attachment to.

“I hear it’s a brat named Yu-ha, from the Cheon clan.”

The Cheon family was a fairly influential clan within the city of Hojang. They operated an Escort Agency of considerable scale, specializing in transporting goods and guarding people. They also ran a Martial Arts School where they taught their family-inherited martial arts, alongside several other business ventures they had a hand in.

“Ah, the Baek-ha Escort Agency…”

Even Hyeong-un knew of the Baek-ha Escort Agency and the Baek-ha School operated by the Cheon clan. Since the Baek-ha School didn’t seem to discriminate when accepting students, anyone could enroll as long as they paid the tuition. However, Hyeong-un couldn’t even afford that, so he had spent his time envying the children who attended.

Gwi-hyeok spoke.

“It seems they were doing all right to begin with, but either way, they’ve struck gold. Until the power of the stars awakens, a Star-Fated Prodigy isn’t much different from anyone else, but now… well. It’s as if a treasure capable of rewriting their family’s history has simply dropped into their laps.”

Gwi-hyeok explained that ever since it was confirmed that Cheon Yu-ha was the Star-Fated Prodigy, various conflicts—both large and small—had been breaking out in the vicinity. Hyeong-un asked, looking puzzled.

“Why is that?”

“Because there’s only one Star-Fated Prodigy, and many who want to claim him. Conflict is inevitable.”

The weak ones had already been shoved aside, and now only very formidable individuals remained as “guests” at the Cheon Estate, standing in opposition to one another.

From the intel Gwi-hyeok had obtained, even the Castle Lord who governs Hojang is trembling with anxiety, not knowing when a major catastrophe might erupt.

“Those who were pushed out of the power struggle went around ‘prodding’ children born on the same day as Cheon Yu-ha—kids like you—hoping for a miracle. It seems they even discovered a few kids with decent talent along the way.”

“Well, I certainly wasn’t one of them,”

Hyeong-un grumbled, stroking his wounds. Although the injuries were healing at an incredible speed, they still stung.

Gwi-hyeok smiled.

“Don’t worry. Now that you are my disciple, you will become far stronger than those kinds of people.”

Hyeong-un was not a Star-Fated Prodigy, nor did he possess any exceptional talent. Yet, Gwi-hyeok intended to raise him to be strong—stronger than those talented ones with their ‘star fragments,’ and even stronger than the Star-Fated Prodigy himself. He had already devised a plan on exactly how to achieve this.

“Anyway, let’s enjoy a little ‘entertainment’ before we leave.”

“Entertainment?”