Chapter 3 Part 2

Alta moved on to the next turn, and a new sparring partner returned. Since they were mixing teams for sparring, the opponent wasn’t always from their own team. Jeong Tae-ui had sparred with unfamiliar faces several times.

The new sparring partner who just returned was the man from Instructor Golding’s team, the one whose back he had bumped into a little while ago. That opponent seemed to recognize Jeong Tae-ui too, and frowned. Jeong Tae-ui muttered, ‘Huh…’ awkwardly, scratching his head.

He sighed, thinking he hadn’t wanted to get acquainted this way, and gripped his wooden sword again. Even though it was a wooden sword, if one was hit by that wooden stick, which was heavier than a regular one, it hurt terribly even with protective gear on, so he couldn’t let his guard down for a moment. If he was unlucky enough to be hit badly, it was straight to the Medical Ward.

It hadn’t even been a week since he arrived here, but Jeong Tae-ui had already visited the Medical Ward more than ten times. Four of those times, his sparring opponent had fallen, and he had helped them. The rest of the times, he had been the one to fall and had to go. The Medical Ward was on B2, along with the Lecture Hall and practical sparring arenas, and now he could find his way there with his eyes closed.

He was slowly getting used to the system of the branch. He had broken the ice with his colleagues, and even though he didn’t know the names of the guys from other teams individually, he had gotten to know their faces. Well, there were only about 100 people in total, and during regular training hours, they constantly faced each other and sometimes even beat each other up. So, if you got badly beaten, you couldn’t help but learn their faces, if only to get revenge.

The martial arts training they were doing now had a theme for each session, and today it was wooden swords. The only rule was to use the wooden sword effectively, which made the sparring almost indistinguishable from a brawl.

Jeong Tae-ui watched for an opening from the man charging at him. A dull thud echoed as their wooden swords clashed head-on. At the same time, a sharp pain shot through his wrist. This man, too, seemed to possess immense strength.

“Alright, then…”

Jeong Tae-ui abruptly grabbed the opponent’s collar and spun around.

The opponent, momentarily startled, spotted Jeong Tae-ui’s opening and mercilessly struck him with his wooden sword. It felt like he was going to die from the pain. The man was unbelievably strong and struck without any mercy.

Jeong Tae-ui bit back a curse, enduring the blows, and threw away the wooden sword he held in his other hand. Then, grabbing both of the opponent’s collars with both hands, he threw him over his shoulder.

The effort of charging in bare-handed while taking blows paid off; the opponent, who had resisted and staggered for a moment, finally hit the ground on his back.

As the man lay on the floor, Jeong Tae-ui picked up the wooden sword he had thrown and straightened his collar. A look of horror appeared in the eyes of the opponent, who was just trying to get back up from the floor.

“Hey, are you seriously going to—”

“Now, it’s your turn to get hit a bit.”

Jeong Tae-ui said casually, rolling up his sleeves, and with an indifferent expression, began to strike the man. The man quickly got up while being hit, but in that time, he was hit twice as many times as he had hit Jeong Tae-ui.

Once the man was fully upright, Jeong Tae-ui stopped the beating. He had to listen to the man rub his forearm and thigh, his face flushed crimson, screaming loudly.

“You ignorant, cheap bastard! Don’t you know how to fight?!”

“What are you talking about? You just experienced it.”

Jeong Tae-ui blinked with a placid expression. Beyond him, Alta – who had already forgotten how he had been hit in a similar way earlier – chuckled, shrugging his shoulders.

The man, his face beet red, charged at Jeong Tae-ui bare-handed, without even a wooden sword. Jeong Tae-ui frowned slightly at the man who grabbed his collar and clenched his fist to punch his jaw, then lightly struck the man’s neck with the wooden sword he held.

“Gah…”

“You know perfectly well your opponent has a weapon, yet you charge in bare-handed? What do you expect? You should think about your body.”

Jeong Tae-ui spoke calmly, frowning as if in pity. The man, still clutching his neck with one hand, didn’t release Jeong Tae-ui’s collar and stumbled back a couple of steps, tearing Jeong Tae-ui’s upper garment in the process.

“Hey, look at that guy talking. He tells us to think about our bodies, think about our bodies. Like a cat worrying about a mouse.”

“Evil bastard. If something bad happens internally next time, that guy will surely be the victim.”

Voices of his colleagues murmured from behind.

Jeong Tae-ui stared blankly at his suddenly exposed chest and then glared fiercely at the voices.

“I can hear everything.”

“Well, if there’s nothing stuck in your ear, of course, you’d hear it. Oh, hey, I can see everything. My, my, those pink nipples are so cute.”

“…”

This is why I don’t associate with guys like those old men and only like cute and lovely young men. If I had heard something like that from a guy with the same preference as me, how awful would I have felt? If it had been a honey-sweet young man, I would have gladly offered a hundred nipples as bait and reeled in his entire body, but there’s no joy in hearing such things from those old men.

Jeong Tae-ui scrunched up his face and hastily gathered his clothes, tying the torn edges. The guy who had been struck in the neck by Jeong Tae-ui’s wooden sword seemed to be in considerable pain, still standing frozen like a statue, clutching his neck and panting.

“Why are your clothes in such a state? The budget manager will be angry.”

His uncle, who seemed to have finished his business and was about to leave, scanned Jeong Tae-ui and chuckled.

“It’s natural for clothes to wear out and tear during training, isn’t it?”

“Those clothes didn’t just wear out and tear. Anyway, it’s quite a sight, but the stares are embarrassing. Go ask Shinru for new clothes. While you’re at it, show off your physique.”

His uncle smiled ambiguously and left.

After that, unpleasant voices chuckled, saying things like, ‘Now’s your chance to see Shinru’s face,’ ‘While you’re at it, just change in front of him and come back,’ and ‘We’ll all understand if you come back a little late.’