WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Returned Zenith Wants to Rest ◈
Episode 17:
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“Open your eyes now.”
Lee Serin slowly opened her eyes.
When Yoo Kangmin released her wrist, her shoulders tensed without her realizing it.
“Keep breathing as you were.”
“Yes.”
She focused on the spark below her navel.
It flickered faintly, but it did not go out. It burned as it accepted her qi.
Noticing the obvious change in her condition, Han Jisu approached in surprise.
“Serin. How do you, um, feel? Are you okay? You really are okay, right?”
Normally, Han Jisu would have discreetly spread cold qi around Lee Serin to keep the temperature around her balanced.
Yet although she had kept her cold qi withdrawn for longer than usual, Lee Serin seemed completely fine.
“Unni.”
“Yes?”
Lee Serin held out her hand.
Han Jisu understood and took it.
It was not cold.
Without cold qi covering it, Han Jisu’s hand was warmer than Lee Serin had expected.
“Isn’t it hot?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“If it were hot, I would’ve let go already.”
Only then did Lee Serin smile.
She remembered holding hands with the other members as they greeted the audience.
At some point, she alone had begun hiding both hands behind her back as she bowed.
But now...
‘I can do it again.’
Lee Serin tightened her grip around Han Jisu’s hand.
This time, Han Jisu silently squeezed back.
“It’s nice that you’re happy, but focus. We’re not done yet.”
“Ah.”
Lee Serin quickly let go.
The spark was wavering slightly.
She hurriedly steadied her breathing, and it soon settled again.
“You need to get used to it. Make what you learned today your own.”
“Yes!”
“And don’t go making a huge fire just because it’s working out.”
“Ah.”
“You were about to, weren’t you?”
“N-no!”
“Whatever. You need to be careful for now, so stop fooling around and focus quietly on training. Understood?”
“Yes, Teacher!”
“Whew.”
By the time he had more or less finished forming dantians for all three of them, fatigue had properly set in.
Each possessed different talents, so even finding martial arts suited to them was exhausting work.
“Um, Teacher...”
“What?”
“I think we should discuss the tuition...”
“Tuition. Right, we should.”
It was time to receive proper payment.
The problem was that he had no idea how much to charge.
The difference between them was simply too wide.
‘I charge Yoon Seoha one million won a month... and I already received an advance of one hundred million won from Baek Dohee...’
Of course, their financial situations differed.
For an impoverished F-rank hunter like Yoon Seoha, one million won was likely an investment equal to nearly all her savings.
Baek Dohee and Lee Serin, on the other hand, had already accomplished much as hunters and were surely wealthy as well.
For people like them, even charging several hundred million won might be cheap.
“Um, perhaps...”
“What?”
“Could you tell me how the branch chief and that person over there are paying?”
“That’s confidential.”
“Ah.”
“T-then how much should I pay?”
“...”
A good idea came to him.
There was no need for him to agonize over how much tuition to set.
“You should decide.”
“Pardon?”
“Decide how much you can pay for these lessons. Yourself.”
Come to think of it, learning martial arts from him was an opportunity worth a thousand pieces of gold.
In martial society, countless people would offer up their entire fortunes for a single word of his instruction.
And had Yoo Kangmin not taught them the martial arts of gifted prodigies who could have aimed to become the greatest under heaven?
‘You’re the ones who encountered this rare opportunity.’
Naturally, Yoo Kangmin did not say that aloud.
“If it’s money I can use right away...”
Lee Serin spoke carefully.
If she named the wrong amount, he might not continue teaching her.
“Would ten million won a month... be enough?”
Yoo Kangmin looked at her.
That was all, yet Lee Serin somehow interpreted it as, ‘Is that truly your best offer?’
“Ah, no. Th-that’s too cheap, isn’t it? I can take on more hunter work, so perhaps twenty million won a month...?”
“Accepted.”
Yoo Kangmin forcibly held back the corners of his mouth.
He had considered even ten million won a large sum, so receiving twice that felt like a successful negotiation.
‘This is passive income.’
At this rate, running the kendo dojo would not be much of a problem.
‘It might not be a bad idea to buy this building outright.’
With Baek Dohee and Lee Serin’s help, becoming the building owner might be possible.
Then he could turn the entire building into a kendo dojo and conduct various kinds of training at once.
‘I should contact the building owner later.’
As he planned ahead, Yoon Seoha staggered over.
“Are you done?”
“Not yet! I’m taking a short break.”
“A fine attitude. When you rest, rest in horse stance.”
“Yes!”
Perhaps it was because she had risen to D-rank, but Yoon Seoha was remarkably obedient.
Then her eyes met Lee Serin’s.
“Huh?”
Once, twice.
Yoon Seoha’s gaze moved back and forth over Lee Serin’s face.
“C-could you be from NOVA?”
“Hello.”
“Wow. It really is you.”
Yoon Seoha was surprised, but not nearly as much as Yoo Gaeun would have been.
What mattered more to her now than why Lee Serin was here was the sensation she had felt while swinging her bamboo sword earlier.
“Did you come to learn from Master too?”
“Yes. Starting today.”
“Ah.”
Yoon Seoha turned to Yoo Kangmin.
Before she could ask, Yoo Kangmin answered.
“Yes, you came first.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Your expression did.”
“Ahem.”
Yoon Seoha cleared her throat, then cautiously asked Yoo Kangmin,
“By the way, Master. Could I try raiding a gate?”
“A gate?”
“Yes. I’ve been promoted to D-rank, so I thought I might be able to clear an E-rank or F-rank gate alone.”
Not all gates were the same.
They were generally divided into two types. Simply put, the distinction depended on where the entrance was and where the exit was.
For example, the gate Yoo Kangmin and Yoon Seoha had encountered at the convenience store had been an outflow-type gate.
It expelled monsters from another world into reality.
In other words, the entrance was in another world, while the exit was reality.
Since these outflow-type gates could appear anywhere at any time, emergency responses were carried out as soon as they emerged.
Fortunately, they tended to be relatively low-rank.
Entry-type gates, on the other hand, were structured so hunters entered them.
Hunters could return outside during a raid if necessary, but the gate would not disappear until the core inside had been destroyed.
That was why the Association controlled access, while companies and guilds acquired raid rights to extract resources.
The key was to delay clearing a gate and secure as many resources as possible before the gate’s interior went into rampage.
If they failed, another incident like the West Incheon gate rampage could occur, so management and supervision had become stricter in recent years.
“Raiding a gate. Not a bad idea. There’s no teacher better than real combat.”
“Really?”
“Yes. You’ll have to do it someday, won’t you? That’s how you make money, too.”
“That’s true.”
To test what she had learned, she would eventually have to enter real combat.
No matter how well she swung her sword inside the kendo dojo, there was no guarantee she could do the same before an opponent trying to take her life.
“But I’m coming with you this time.”
“What?”
“I want to see how you fight.”
“Really? I’d love that!”
That was what he said, but Yoo Kangmin was curious as well.
What kind of world lay beyond those gates?
He wanted to see for himself how they differed from the rift that had sent him to the martial world.
‘I should check at least once.’
Yoon Seoha beamed, then suddenly realized something.
“B-but, Master. You aren’t a hunter. How are you planning to enter a gate?”
“Ah.”
He had not considered that.
Only hunters could enter gates.
“I will take care of that.”
Baek Dohee, who had been listening beside them, raised her hand.
“With Master’s ability, there is no need for him to take the test.”
“Is that allowed?”
“I have personally verified your ability. You can register through a branch chief’s recommendation.”
Yoo Kangmin nodded.
At times like this, he felt he had taken in a good disciple.
“Then make me D-rank.”
“D-rank?”
“As long as I can enter with her, that’s enough. D-rank is just right.”
Baek Dohee looked at Yoo Kangmin for a moment.
“What? Is that not possible?”
“It is possible, but...”
He had turned Yoon Seoha into a D-rank hunter within a week, healed her injury, and even brought Lee Serin’s rampage under control.
It felt strange to issue a D-rank hunter ID to someone like that.
“Then it’s settled.”
The man himself, however, seemed entirely unconcerned.
Baek Dohee eventually took out her phone.
“I will have it prepared before we depart tomorrow. And...”
“And?”
“If it is all right, may I accompany you as well?”
“You already want to enter a gate?”
“I do not mean that I wish to fight. I want to see how Master instructs someone in real combat.”
She knew it herself.
In her current condition, there was little she could do.
Still, the hope that perhaps she could at least enter briefly if she went with Yoo Kangmin raised its head.
“Me too.”
This time, it was Lee Serin.
Han Jisu immediately turned to her.
“You have a schedule tomorrow.”
“It’s in the afternoon. The morning is free, right?”
“How do you know when the raid will end?”
“We can just finish early.”
“You think you get to decide that?”
“Haa. Neither of you is going.”
Disappointment appeared on Baek Dohee and Lee Serin’s faces.
“One of you still has trouble walking, and the other needs to get used to the breathing technique you just learned.”
“But...”
“And what do you think people will see if the two of you go together?”
Baek Dohee closed her mouth.
The Association branch chief and a famous idol.
The moment they became involved, it would no longer be an ordinary raid.
“Wouldn’t people be curious about who the branch chief is learning from? Why NOVA’s singer listens to that person?”
Lee Serin could not answer this time either.
“I want to teach quietly. If people start gathering in front of the dojo, neither of you will be able to come and go comfortably.”
Han Jisu nodded faster than anyone.
“That is true.”
She could already picture reporters crowding the dojo stairs.
The thought alone made her dizzy.
If Lee Serin’s unusual symptoms became known as well, there would be more than one or two matters for the company to handle.
“So this time, I’m only taking Seoha.”
“Understood.”
Baek Dohee was the first to step back.
Lee Serin reluctantly nodded as well.
Watching them, the corners of Yoon Seoha’s mouth lifted slightly.
Yoo Kangmin immediately pointed it out.
“Why are you smiling?”
“It’s nothing.”
“This isn’t a picnic.”
“I know.”
Still, she was a little happy that she alone would be going with him.
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