Chapter 3 Part 1

2. White Hands

Crack, a fierce and fast sound rang out. Then, bright red blood flowed down.

“Aargh!”

Alta, clutching his nose, kept his eyes tightly shut for a moment, then saw the blood flowing into his palm, opened his eyes wide, and became irritable.

“This son of a bitch used a dirty trick again!”

“The one who gets hit is the idiot, I tell you…”

What Alta wanted was for Jeong Tae-ui to meet his attack head-on and engage in a power struggle, but Jeong Tae-ui had no desire to do so, knowing he would clearly lose. It wasn’t a fair test where skill was scored, and what reason was there to just passively take hits in a training session where people were actually hitting and getting hit?

So, he subtly parried Alta’s attack, dodged it, and in that motion, landed a punch directly on his face, which caused this uproar.

While half-listening to Alta’s barking shouts, he rummaged in his pocket to hand over a handkerchief, when suddenly a hand like a pot lid flew from behind and severely smacked Jeong Tae-ui on the back of the head.

“Ouch!”

Clutching the back of his head, which had been hit with a loud thwack, and tearing up a little, he turned around to see Carlo Sagisawa, who had just finished a round with his own opponent, standing there with an expression half-amused and half-feigned anger.

“If you keep using petty tricks like that, you’ll get a proper beating someday, I tell you. Do it properly, properly.”

“…Ugh…. I’ve heard that five times, and this is the sixth time my petty trick has worked.”

Jeong Tae-ui grumbled as if wronged. Then Alta came right up next to him and squawked.

“As if anyone would have gotten hit if they’d known in advance!”

“If you know in advance, no one will get hit even if you use a straightforward approach.”

Jeong Tae-ui made a very reasonable defense, but Alta still seemed to be boiling with anger and kept shouting.

Jeong Tae-ui mumbled, “Alright, I get it, I get it,” and stepped a few paces away from him. Then he suddenly bumped into someone standing behind him and stopped.

“Ah, sorry.”

“Watch where you’re going. And do something about that loudmouth on your team.”

The opponent, whose back he’d bumped, said with a frown. It was someone from another team.

While Jeong Tae-ui stared blankly, raising his eyebrows, the man brushed off his bumped shoulder and walked away.

“What was that?”

“That’s one of Instructor Golding’s team. A jinx.”

“Do you know him?”

“I know his face and name, but if you’re asking about a personal relationship, then ‘no idea’.”

Carlo Sagisawa shrugged and shook his head. As the bleeding seemed to have stopped, Alta returned the handkerchief, grumbling, “What a rigid attitude.”

“Did something bad happen with that team over there? Everyone’s attitude seems a bit awkward.”

“Nothing bad. But nothing particularly good either. It’s always like that.”

“Always?”

“There’s more competition than cooperation, so why would we be friendly?”

“…Wow, this place is really bleak, this neighborhood…”

Jeong Tae-ui shook his head. They had bad relations with other branches, and even internally, the teams didn’t get along. What kind of human relationships were these?

If I stay here much longer, I’ll lose all my humanity.

Jeong Tae-ui clicked his tongue, leaned on his wooden sword, and squatted down. Just then, he was hit on the back of the head a second time.

“Ow!!”

This time, the hit was weaker than Carlo Sagisawa’s, but getting hit in the same spot again doubled the pain. Next to Jeong Tae-ui, who was clutching his head again, there was another thwack, and Alta also clutched his head.

“Who rests sitting down during sparring? And Alta, you’re his sparring partner, right? If he sits down and rests, you should be mercilessly beating him in the meantime.”

The person who said that with a beaming smile was his uncle, who had long since lost all his humanity.

Jeong Tae-ui stared at him with watery, blurry eyes and muttered.

“Uncle—, Instructor Jeong, why are you here? It’s not your time now.”

However, no answer came.

Just as Jeong Tae-ui said, his uncle, who should have been discussing strategy in the West Lecture Hall 3, seemed to have come for other business and walked over to the instructor standing ahead, who was in charge of the Second Martial Arts Training. Behind him, a man glanced at Jeong Tae-ui, smiled silently, and followed his uncle.

“Ah, it’s the driver.”

Jeong Tae-ui blurted out.

He was the man who had driven the car with his uncle from when they arrived in Hong Kong until they reached this island. Now, wearing an indoor uniform, he had a sterner impression than before, but it was definitely him.

“Driver? Oh, you mean Kang Gyowi? Of course, he drives the instructor’s car.”

“What’s an Aide now?”

“He’s a member like us, but simply put, he’s an instructor’s general secretary. He drives the car, helps with work, and acts as a guard.”

The rank system, which he thought was simple, kept revealing new layers the deeper he dug.

As Jeong Tae-ui mumbled, “What, a horn of plenty?”, he overheard his other colleagues murmuring.

“Lately, sparks have been flying between instructors. Didn’t Chief Instructor Jeong fight Instructor Golding recently?”

“Hmm, so it’s because of that. The Promotion to General Manager. They say he’s moving to Headquarters.”

“Then it makes sense to compete over performance from now on. For us, it doesn’t really matter who becomes Director-General or Vice Director-General.”

“You shouldn’t laugh that comfortably… The South America Branch was once turned upside down, remember? Several people probably died in the fierce intrigue / backroom struggle that happened behind the scenes back then. If things get serious here too, there’s no telling what might happen.”

“Hey, let’s stop, it’s scary. We just have to take care of our own lives.”

“…”

Jeong Tae-ui quietly glared at his uncle, resting his chin on the handle of his wooden sword. In conversations like these, he found himself resenting his uncle more and more. Even if only one member here were to die, judging by fighting skill, physical strength, and so on, Jeong Tae-ui would be among the most outmatched. It was as good as being put first in line to die.

“There’s really nothing to rely on but luck, I guess… Jae-ui, Jae-ui, please share some of that luck with me…”

Since coming here, sighing seemed to have become a habit.

Jeong Tae-ui let out another long sigh, then, with an “Ugh,” stood up.