WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Retuned Zenith wants to Rest ◈
Episode 4: (Revised)
──────
Before deciding what to do next, Yoo Kangmin was learning about the modern world.
The method was simple.
All he had to do was lie on the sofa, eat snacks, and watch television. The information came to him on its own.
“Hmm.”
The world he had returned to after sixty years was both familiar and strange.
He was lucky he still had even faint memories of modern society.
“It’s nothing but hunters.”
The opening of the gates had brought tremendous upheaval to modern society.
Being a hunter had become a dream job, and countless people wanted to become one.
Naturally, television, the internet, and YouTube all covered hunters.
Kangmin had little choice but to watch hunter shows or broadcasts of gate raids.
Between those programs, advertisements for awakening academies played again and again.
“We’ll awaken your dormant skills!”
“Double your physical abilities in just three months!”
They were similar to the advertisements on the building across from his kendo school.
“They sound like frauds.”
Kangmin muttered as he ate his snacks.
There had been people like that in the martial world, too.
People who sold third-rate martial arts as the greatest divine art under heaven. People who praised pills as cure-alls when they caused diarrhea rather than offering any medicinal benefits.
‘I nearly fell for that myself when I didn’t know any better.’
People apparently didn’t change much, no matter where they lived.
Just then, his younger sister came out of her room.
“Hey.”
“What?”
“Go stay in your room for an hour.”
“Why?”
“My tutor’s coming.”
Kangmin tilted his head and sat up.
“You still have a tutor?”
“I’m in my last year of high school.”
“You are?”
“You don’t even know how old your only sister is?”
Kangmin couldn’t answer.
The younger sister he remembered was still practically a middle schooler.
“I’m sorry.”
His straightforward apology only flustered her.
“What’s with you? Normally, you’d tease me and say it’s because I’m bad at studying.”
“I’ll pay more attention from now on.”
“Don’t bother! I can take care of myself! Fix that old-man way of talking first. Why have you been like this since yesterday?”
Just as a storm of nagging was about to begin...
Ding-dong.
The doorbell rang.
Yoo Gaeun checked the clock and hurried to the front door.
“That must be my tutor.”
Kangmin got up from the sofa.
He was about to head into his room when the front door opened.
“Hello.”
The familiar voice stopped him.
A woman with her black hair tied back.
Bandages covered her right arm and palm.
It was Yoon Seoha.
“...”
“...”
Their eyes met.
Seoha’s eyes widened in shock.
“You live here?”
“Yes. You’re Gaeun’s tutor?”
Gaeun looked from one to the other.
“What? You two know each other?”
“We met briefly at the convenience store yesterday.”
Seoha nodded, too.
“He helped me.”
“My brother did?”
Doubt filled Gaeun’s eyes.
Kangmin raised an eyebrow.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“It’s just strange hearing that you helped someone.”
“I never thought I’d hear that from you, too.”
Seoha couldn’t laugh at their exchange.
This was the man who had cut down a hobgoblin with a broken sword.
She had searched the neighborhood, determined to find him, but hadn’t even learned his name.
‘And he was Gaeun’s brother all along.’
She hadn’t needed to look so far.
He lived in the house she visited regularly to give lessons.
“I didn’t get to thank you properly yesterday. Thank you so much.”
Seoha bowed her head.
Kangmin glanced toward the front door.
“Never mind the thanks. Come inside first. This isn’t a conversation to have with the door open.”
“Oh, right.”
Seoha stepped inside.
Only then did Gaeun notice her arm.
“What happened to your arm?”
“I hurt it a little yesterday.”
“In a gate?”
“Yes. It’s nothing serious, so don’t worry.”
Kangmin also looked at the bandages.
“Can you teach with your arm like that?”
“I can write with my left hand.”
“I see.”
“It’s easier than swinging a sword.”
Seoha gave a small smile.
Kangmin chuckled and headed for his room.
“Have your lesson first, then. We can talk afterward.”
Seoha’s face brightened.
“All right.”
* * *
The lesson went on as usual.
At least, that was how it looked to Gaeun.
“Why does the sign change here?”
“Because you moved it to the other side. It’s the same method as the problem we solved earlier.”
Seoha turned back to an earlier page in the workbook.
Gaeun looked between the two problems and let out a quiet sigh.
“Oh. Right.”
“You used the right method. You just missed something during the calculation, so you only need to check that part again.”
Gaeun began writing.
Meanwhile, Seoha glanced at the closed bedroom door.
She still couldn’t believe it.
The person she had been searching for was in there.
How should she bring up what he had told her yesterday?
She had gone over it in her head several times before the lesson even began.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Yes?”
“Are you interested in my brother?”
Seoha immediately turned back to her.
“Where did that come from?”
“You’ve looked like you wanted to ask him something this whole time.”
Seoha hesitated before answering.
“He helped me a lot yesterday. I want to thank him properly.”
“Oh.”
Gaeun nodded.
“Then make sure you catch him after the lesson. My brother’s really good at pretending he didn’t hear you when he can’t be bothered.”
“That bad?”
“Really bad.”
Seoha held back a laugh.
Somehow, she felt she could already imagine it.
“Let’s finish your problems first.”
“Okaaay.”
Gaeun picked up her pencil again.
Seoha also turned her attention away from the bedroom door.
For now, she needed to finish teaching her lesson properly.
* * *
Two hours later.
With the lesson over, Seoha put her books and workbooks into her bag.
“Try solving the problems you got wrong today again before our next lesson.”
“Okay.”
“You know you can’t just memorize the answers, right?”
“I know. I’ll send you pictures of anything I don’t understand.”
After saying goodbye, Gaeun went into her room.
Seoha was gathering her bag and getting up when it happened.
Creak.
Kangmin’s bedroom door opened.
“Finished?”
“Yes.”
Kangmin came into the living room and sat on the sofa.
Seoha sat a little way from him.
“What did you want to talk about?”
“First, thank you for saving me yesterday. Not just me, but everyone in the convenience store.”
Seoha bowed her head again.
“You evacuated them first.”
“That wasn’t enough.”
“You still did what you needed to do.”
Seoha raised her head.
Kangmin continued casually.
“You could have run away, but you stayed.”
“Well, I’m a hunter.”
She answered as though it were only natural.
Kangmin looked at her for a moment.
‘I see.’
In truth, Seoha had been of little use in that situation yesterday.
Her skills had been that poor.
Yet without her, everyone inside the convenience store would have been in danger.
He had resolved the situation in the end, but he had no intention of dismissing her courage.
“All right. So what did you want to ask?”
“You corrected my stance yesterday.”
“I did.”
“After that, I fought six goblins on my own. I gained a new skill, too.”
“A skill?”
“Yes. I gained a skill called Intimidation. It was the first new skill I’d gained since awakening.”
“And?”
“I wanted to ask if I really did it properly.”
Kangmin raised an eyebrow.
Seoha carefully added,
“Everything was so urgent yesterday that I just moved as you told me. But when I tried it again on my own later, I couldn’t get it right.”
Kangmin held back a laugh.
With her arm injured, she probably couldn’t even hold a sword, yet she had trained to reproduce those movements. He found that admirable.
“What went wrong?”
“When I tried to relax, the sword wobbled. When I tried to hold it properly, my shoulder stiffened.”
“Of course you struggled if you tried to move exactly as you did yesterday with an injured arm. Rest until it’s fully healed first.”
“Was that why?”
“No. Doing something once doesn’t mean you’ve made it completely your own.”
“I thought so.”
“Still, getting that far after hearing it once was quite good.”
“I was?”
“Was I talking about someone else?”
“...”
Seoha couldn’t answer.
Those few words, “quite good,” felt strangely unfamiliar.
“I’ve only ever been told I have no talent.”
“By whom?”
“At the academy. And by the people I went into gates with...”
Kangmin recalled her movements in the convenience store.
A single remark had changed her stance.
At one point, she had even corrected her own movements before he could give his next instruction.
And she had done that in the middle of an emergency.
Even he was a little curious about how quickly she would learn if taught in a calm setting.
“Not learning what you needed to learn doesn’t mean you have no talent.”
“...”
“You have talent for the sword. Quite a bit, in fact.”
“Then could I become strong, too?”
“If you learn properly.”
“Even though I’m F-rank?”
Kangmin didn’t know what this thing called a status window used to classify people.
But one thing was certain: there was no reason someone who started at F-rank had to end at F-rank.
“You could even if you were Z-rank.”
Seoha couldn’t speak for a while.
Then she asked cautiously,
“Could I learn that swordsmanship? Here?”
“I have no intention of teaching anyone right now.”
“I see...”
Seoha lowered her gaze.
Kangmin watched her for a moment before adding,
“Correcting your stance a few times yesterday is different from teaching you regularly. Once I begin teaching someone, I can’t do it halfheartedly.”
Taking on a disciple came with responsibility.
It often went beyond simply teaching martial arts. A disciple’s debts of gratitude and grudges could become the master’s own.
Now, he wanted to rest without any of that.
To eat with his family and catch up on sleep.
At least for a while, that was how he wanted to live.
“So my refusal to teach you doesn’t mean you aren’t capable.”
“Yes.”
Seoha nodded without protest.
“Just hearing that means a lot. Thank you.”
“...”
“Yesterday, I was told to leave my party. They said I was too weak for them to keep taking me along. So I was going to quit being a hunter. But yesterday, I finally managed to do something. I wanted to know what I’d been doing wrong.”
Seoha gave a small smile.
“I thought I’d simply reached my limits.”
Kangmin said nothing.
Seoha picked up her bag and stood.
Then, as if something had just occurred to her, she asked,
“Would it be difficult to teach me as a student rather than a disciple?”
“A student?”
“Yes. I heard you run a kendo school. If possible, I’d like to take lessons there. Would that be all right?”
Kangmin looked at her.
“I’m not asking you to take responsibility for my whole life. I just want to learn the sword.”
“...”
“Of course, I’ll pay the training fees.”
Training fees.
Kangmin turned those words over in his mind.
Come to think of it, he had been running a kendo school.
He had taken in students, taught them swordsmanship, and received payment in return.
That was quite different from accepting a disciple in the martial world.
‘This isn’t the martial world.’
The school had closed.
He also needed to think about how he would make a living.
He couldn’t expect his mother to cover all his living expenses just because he had returned.
Someone who wanted to learn the sword was right in front of him.
She had talent.
And she was even offering to pay.
‘If I’m only teaching swordsmanship...’
Kangmin shifted in his seat, sitting a little straighter.
Seeing that, Seoha added,
“I’m not asking you to give me your time for free. I tutor people, too, so I understand.”
Kangmin looked at her.
After a moment’s thought, he spoke.
“How much?”
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