Chapter 4 Part 11

All the men were injured in one way or another. Among them, some had blood-soaked bandages wrapped around their broken heads, while others had poultices as big as pot lids thickly stuck on their shoulders and the nape of their necks. In severe cases, some were occasionally seen with splints on their arms and legs.

To be in such a state even before the training properly began, the future was not just anticipated, but utterly daunting.

Only a few who hadn’t been involved in last night’s brawl, or who happened to be away at the time and had no opportunity to get hurt, were walking around unharmed. And Jeong Tae-ui was one of them. The path in front of Jeong Tae-ui had been so utterly devastated that he couldn’t have joined the fight even if he’d wanted to.

“Hey… the atmosphere for breakfast is really something else.”

Morrer, who had entered the dining hall after Jeong Tae-ui, muttered as if disgusted. Morrer also had poultices stuck on his wrists and various other places. He had peeked his head out, wondering what all the noise was, and was almost swept away, taking a light blow. Although he had no intention of joining the fight, he wasn’t the type to just stand there and take a hit, so as he ended up beating his opponent, he found himself quite injured too.

Jeong Tae-ui, after choosing a few self-serve dishes, turned and stared absently at the forks and knives in the cutlery holder, then sighed and took out only a pair of chopsticks.

“Forks and knives have never looked as ominous to me as they do now.”

He couldn’t shake the thought that everyone in the dining hall was holding a weapon in their hands.

However, after placing only chopsticks on his tray, Jeong Tae-ui was about to turn to find a seat when he flinched upon seeing a man a few steps behind him, holding a tray with only toast, salad, and coffee, and picking up a fork.

“If you look at it that way, the chopsticks you picked up are the same. When you think about it, things that can’t be used as weapons are rarer in this world.”

The words, “Oh, of course, for someone who doesn’t need a separate weapon even with just a thumb,” rose to the tip of his throat, but Jeong Tae-ui barely managed to swallow them.

The man glanced at Jeong Tae-ui’s tray, which held only rice, a few vegetable sides, and a few pieces of meat, then spoke in a friendly manner.

“Is that all you’re going to eat? Haven’t you heard that you should eat breakfast like a king?”

“I have heard that, but have you ever heard the phrase ‘six of one, half a dozen of the other’?”

As he said this, staring intently at the man’s tray, the man laughed aloud. His low, quiet laugh sounded pleasant. This man, who could be called the source of so many men’s many injuries, was himself completely uninjured and pristine. His neat attire was not disheveled in any way.

“Hmm. There aren’t many empty seats. …Ah. Two seats are open over there. Shall we go?”

He very naturally gestured with his head to Jeong Tae-ui. A slightly flustered Jeong Tae-ui turned back, thinking of using Morrer as an excuse to refuse, but Morrer, who disliked getting involved in incidents as much as Jeong Tae-ui, had already retreated far away and was sitting at another table.

Jeong Tae-ui silently held his tongue for a moment, but it would have been ridiculous to say, “You’re from the Europe Branch, so I can’t eat with you.” And he couldn’t reveal his true feelings by saying, “I’ll keep my distance from you because if I’m with a jagged stone like you, I don’t know when I’ll get hammered.” So, he silently followed him.

Not good, this was not a good sign.

His uncle had advised him to simply avoid being noticed at all costs, and Jeong Tae-ui had, of course, taken that advice to heart. Even without explicitly hearing that advice, it was what he wanted himself.

Last night, he had unluckily walked straight into the situation, never imagining that the person staying in his room would be that man, but he thought that would be the end of it. Fortunately, it passed without any major issues—though the men making noise in the hallway certainly had serious issues—and he was feeling relieved, thinking that from today, he would truly live by sticking to secluded and shadowed places.

“Does it bother you a lot?”

He never imagined that this man, who was smiling broadly and speaking in front of him, would go out of his way to talk to him. He had naturally thought that yesterday’s matters would remain yesterday’s, and today’s today’s, and it would all just pass.

Jeong Tae-ui, picking up rice with his chopsticks, asked the man sitting opposite him bluntly in return.

“Bothered? About what?”

It wasn’t an answer implying he wasn’t bothered. There wasn’t just one or two things bothering him, and he couldn’t tell which specific point he was asking about. Was it the fact that the worst, most dangerous person had spoken to him first, or that he was speaking in a strangely friendly manner, or the cold gazes of the people sitting at the six-person table occupied by Europe Branch members?

The man laughed after hearing Jeong Tae-ui’s answer.

“To sit in the middle of a table where only Europe Branch members are sitting, I thought you had guts.”

At the words spoken with a calm smile, Jeong Tae-ui, with chopsticks in his mouth, looked at him with displeasure.

“You told me to come here. And there weren’t any other empty seats.”

Jeong Tae-ui, speaking like that, was not at all comfortable. Not just the table he was sitting at, but all the tables in the surrounding area were entirely occupied by Europe Branch members. Arrow-like gazes poured down like rain. The words, “You and your friends sit somewhere else,” could have easily flown at him, but the reason they didn’t was, nine times out of ten, because of the man sitting in front of him.

The men at the same table flinched and fell silent when Jeong Tae-ui and this walking weapon, Ilay League-row, sat down. At that moment, Jeong Tae-ui could easily guess how this man was treated even by people from his own branch.

…Thinking about it, it might not be that he beat them up because they were Asia Branch members, but rather that he beats up anyone who annoys him.

“Surely he doesn’t act the same way within his own branch…?”

He muttered to himself while eating, and as if he heard him, Ilay League-row asked back.

“Who?”

At that moment, Jeong Tae-ui paused his chopsticks for a very brief moment but soon, as if nothing happened, picked up a vegetable side dish.