Star Instructor, Master Baek

Chapter 110: Assembled!

TL: FoodieMonster007

“You’re going to… pay me? To go to school?”

“Yes,” Baek Suryong nodded firmly, fighting the urge to laugh at Yeo Min’s bewildered expression.

“…Why?”

“Because I need you to help us win the Heavenly Martial Festival. You have the potential to win the movement arts competition,” he said sincerely.

When it comes to movement arts, she’s the most talented I’ve seen in this life, he mused. She isn’t an all-rounded prodigy like Hyonwon Kang or Wiji Cheon, but she has the potential to become a master in a specific field. Maybe… she could even learn the Ice Moon Goddess’s movement arts.

The Ice Moon Goddess Eun Yerin was renowned for her ice techniques that could instantly freeze vast areas, but this visually impressive feat often made people forget her status as the ultimate grandmaster of movement arts.

Hmm… She even has a similar physique… It won’t be easy, but she can definitely learn Master Eun’s movement arts.

Now serious about teaching Yeo Min, Baek Suryong proposed, “Quit your job as a dancer and move to the White Dragon Manor. We’ll provide free room and board and train you in martial arts daily.”

Yeo Min, still mind boggled, found herself struggling to keep up with the conversation. “Wait, hold on. Do you even know how much I earn?”

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“No. How much do you make?” Baek Suryong asked confidently. Between Heo Cheon’s finances and Gongson Su’s tuition fees, there’s no way I can’t afford this girl. Besides, people work harder when they have a promised reward, he thought with a grin.

Seeing his confident smile, Yeo Min continued, “And what if I don’t win the Heavenly Martial Festival? Will I not get any money?”

Baek Suryong shook his head. “I’ll pay you a monthly base salary regardless. If you win though, I’ll reward you with a bonus worth five months’ salary.”

Still flabbergasted, Yeo Min hesitated, “Are you really a teacher? Is it okay to lure students with money like this?”

Baek Suryong’s expression turned serious. “Yeo Min, although I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with money, I know how desperate and pitiful a person can become without it.”

“……”

Baek Suryong sighed. The documents Tang Soso handed him had only basic personal details and the word “kleptomania” in the special notes, followed by a short summary: Yeo Min has an excessive obsession with money and habitually takes communal items from the dormitory. She was suspected in several thefts at the girls’ dorm last year but no evidence was found. After fighting with students, she left the dorm and has been staying at the Golden Dragon Inn since.

Yeo Min doesn’t have kleptomania at all. Excessive use or taking of communal items from the dorms isn’t technically stealing, and I get the feeling she was framed for the thefts since not even Grandpa or the Student Council found any evidence…

Baek Suryong looked directly into Yeo Min’s eyes. She wore fancy clothes and a smile on her face, but the smile didn’t reach her weary eyes.

Hollow comfort or warm words won’t work on someone with dead eyes like hers.

“Some say that one needs to let go of material desires and focus solely on martial arts to master it, but that’s nonsense only the privileged can spout. I’ve never seen a poor person say that, especially not when their stomachs are growling,” he began.

“Uhm…” Hyonwon Kang looked away, uncomfortable. Though he’d claimed not to be privileged due to the Hyonwon Clan’s decline, he had never truly gone hungry in his life. His family had always ensured that he was housed, clothed, and well-fed.

“…Pfft.” Yeo Min stifled a laugh, having never heard such words from a martial arts instructor before.

“Money is useless for a martial artist.”

“You must abandon worldly desires to master martial arts!”

“Tsk. You have talent, but you’re too greedy. Will you sell your soul for a few coins?”

Every teacher she’d had so far had taught her to stay away from money. They treated her obsession with money as a sin, and whenever she said she wanted to get rich through martial arts, they looked at her with pity. To someone who had to earn money desperately from a young age, their words were always empty echoes.

However, Baek Suryong was different.

“That’s why, I’ll pay you to learn martial arts from me,” Baek Suryong said, pulling out a new enrollment form with a mischievous smile. “Just sign here.”

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“Aha… Hahahaha!” Unable to hold back, Yeo Min burst into laughter, holding her stomach and laughing so hard that tears welled up in her eyes.

After a while, she finally stopped laughing and wiped her tears with her sleeve. “I’ve never met such a blatantly materialistic teacher in my life. I love your proposal.”

Yeo Min smiled as she looked at the enrollment form, then handed it back to Baek Suryong. “So I’m sorry to say this… but I have to decline,” she said sadly.

“Why?” Baek Suryong frowned.

Sensing he wouldn’t back down with a half-hearted excuse, Yeo Min decided to be honest. “I’ve already received a large advance from the Golden Dragon Inn. If I quit, I’d have to pay a penalty ten times the amount,” she explained.

“Ten times…”

“Hongmae! It’s your turn soon!” a man suddenly shouted from outside the room.

Hongmae was Yeo Min’s alias as a dancer at the Golden Dragon Inn.

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“Just a moment! I’ll be right out after fixing my makeup!” Yeo Min yelled back. Turning back to Baek Suryong and Hyonwon Kang, she hastily whispered, “You can leave through the way you came in. Thanks for the offer, but let’s pretend this conversation never happened. Please… just go.”

To her surprise, however, Baek Suryong didn’t move. Instead, he folded his arms and asked, “How much is the penalty?”

“…I’m sorry, but I don’t want to tell you that. I might love money, but I hate owing people even more.”

Even if Baek Suryong offered to pay the penalty, Yeo Min planned to refuse. No matter how desperate she was for money, her pride wouldn’t allow her to cross a certain line.

BAM!

Just then, the door burst open, and the guard from earlier strode in. “Hongmae! I told you to come out quickly!” he scolded, looking around the room with sharp eyes. When he spotted Baek Suryong still there, he clicked his tongue and snapped, “You’re still here? You need to leave now. Hongmae needs to get ready for her performance. If you’re trying to pull something, choose the right time and place…”

“Hey,” Baek Suryong interrupted in a low, but firm voice.

“…What?”

“Lead me to the innkeeper of the Golden Dragon Inn. I need to see him right now.”

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“Are you out of your mind? Why would I do that?” The guard approached Baek Suryong intimidatingly, shaking his head in disbelief. “Listen up, pretty boy. Get the hell out of here right now, unless you want to leave in tears.”

Baek Suryong sighed. “Stop talking trash and just lead me to your boss before you regret it.”

“Bastard!” The guard bellowed, swinging his fist.

However, Baek Suryong moved like lightning, grabbing the guard’s neck.

“K-Keuk!”

“Don’t make me repeat myself. I’m not in a good mood,” he warned, his eyes glowing a faint red.

The guard, meeting his gaze, started trembling in fear. “S-Spare me…”

“Lead me to your boss.”

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“Y-Yes. This way, please…”

The guard, his attitude completely changed, started leading the way cautiously. Baek Suryong followed, and Hyonwon Kang and Yeo Min, caught off guard, quickly trailed behind him.

“Teacher! What are you doing?!” Yeo Min asked, exasperated.

Baek Suryong replied emotionlessly, “You said the penalty is ten times the amount? I don’t want to pay that much. So, I’m going to negotiate.”

Yeo Min felt her heart skip a beat. “Negotiate? Do you even know what kind of person the innkeeper of the Golden Dragon Inn is?”

“Well, probably a rich guy?” Baek Suryong said casually, scratching his ear.

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Anxious, Yeo Min stomped her foot in frustration and pleaded, “If you make him angry, he’ll call upon all the experts here, including the customers, to beat you up… You could disappear without a trace…”

Baek Suryong looked back at her. Every step she took, her colorful skirt swayed, revealing her pale legs. She dances in something like this? He sighed softly, then turned to Hyonwon Kang. “Wonkang, take off your coat,” he demanded.

“What? Me?”

SMACK!

“Should I take it off for you?”

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Left without a choice, Hyonwon Kang reluctantly handed over his coat, and Baek Suryong draped it over Yeo Min, lecturing, “Listen, girl. To master movement arts, you need to take good care of your legs. From now on, no more clothes or shoes like these. Understood?”

“…Yes,” Yeo Min replied meekly.

Nodding, Baek Suryong grabbed the guard by the neck and said, “I’ll go ahead. You two follow me at your own pace.”

“What?”

WHOOSH!

Baek Suryong used his movement arts, dragging the guard along. Seeing this, the guards stationed at the stairs quickly blocked his path.

“Who are you?!”

“Do you know where you are…”

However, before they could draw their weapons, Baek Suryong attacked, knocking them all unconscious in a flash and clearing the path to the seventh floor without raising a commotion.

“That’s the place,” the terrified guard stuttered, pointing at a door.

“Thank you,” Baek Suryong said, then knocked out the guard. Approaching the door, he raised his foot and…

CRASH!

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…Kicked the door down.

“Which one of you is the innkeeper of the Golden Dragon Inn?” he demanded.

Spitting out his drink, a well-built middle-aged man looked up in shock. “Who are you?”

Baek Suryong introduced himself, saying, “I am Baek Suryong, an instructor at the Azure Dragon Academy. I’ve come because one of my students is under your care. I heard she signed an unfair contract to work here… Hmm?”

Baek Suryong paused mid-sentence, staring blankly at the person seated next to the innkeeper.

“Geo Sangwoong?”

“Mr. Baek?”

Geo Sangwoong sat beside the innkeeper, looking as shocked as Baek Suryong.

“What are you doing here… Oh?” Before he could finish his question, Baek Suryong’s gaze shifted behind Geo Sangwoong to another familiar face. “…Yasu Hyeok? You’re here too?”

“Eh?” With a stupid look on his face, Yasu Hyeok, who was standing behind Geo Sangwoong like a servant, asked, “Why are you here?”

“…That’s my line,” Baek Suryong said.

Just then, Hyonwon Kang and Yeo Min burst into the room, panting.

“Teacher! Don’t leave us behind!”

“Please stop this madness…”

…Geo Sangwoong, Hyonwon Kang, Yeo Min, and Yasu Hyeok. Looking at the first to fourth-year Azure Dragon Academy delinquents gathered on the top floor of the Golden Dragon Inn, Baek Suryong laughed wryly, “Huh, looks like all the kids I came to recruit have assembled here. What a coincidence.”