A short while later.
The place I arrived at after following the old man from the general store was the Academy Master’s office.
“Here, isn’t this the Academy Master’s office?”
“That’s right.”
Why did he call me here of all places…?
While I was still wondering, the old man abruptly opened the office door.
“Uh…”
I was worried that was way too rude, but there was no one inside.
“What are you doing? Not coming in?”
“Ah, yes. I’m coming in.”
“Close the door. It’s cold.”
“Yes…”
I closed the door. In that short time, the old man plopped down on the chair next to the Academy Master’s desk.
“Isn’t that the Academy Master’s seat?”
“Right. And for the next half month, I’m the Academy Master.”
“What?”
“I’m acting Academy Master. That kid said some family business came up, so he has to go back to his clan for a bit.”
“I see.”
Ah, so that’s why the old man came here.
Academy Master Yeong Se-yun’s clan, huh?
A clan of the Yeong family around here…
A certain clan quickly came to mind, and I carefully asked,
“Senior, is the Academy Master’s clan perhaps the Gangju Yeong Clan?”
“That’s right.”
I recalled what happened in my previous life.
The Gangju Yeong Clan had some history and tradition to its name, but one small issue kept snowballing until it finally destroyed the clan.
The current Academy Master would have held a pretty high status within the clan.
So he must have received generous support from them, but once the clan collapsed, that support would have been cut off.
So that’s why running this academy became difficult.
“Anyway, why did you call me here?”
“Do you have about half a month free?”
“As if I’d have ti—”
“Make time, even if you don’t.”
If you were going to say that, why’d you even ask if I had time?
While I grumbled to myself, the old man chuckled and went on.
“He said he’s taking a few of the Assistant Instructors with him when he goes back to his clan.”
“I see.”
“So we’re short on manpower. Which is why I’m telling you: be a Assistant Instructor for half a month.”
“Huh?”
I scratched my head.
“Honestly, I thought you were going to tell me to go with the Academy Master to his clan.”
“Why?”
“Because you care about the Academy Master a lot, don’t you?”
The old man burst out laughing at my words.
He didn’t answer, which meant my guess was right. When he had been talking with the Academy Master earlier, his eyes had been filled with trust and affection.
“So I figured, since you were worried, you’d ask me to go with him.”
“You grabbed the wrong end of the stick.”
“Yeah, thinking about it, I did.”
In that case, I should tell him this.
“Senior, there’s something I heard a while back. Has the Academy Master already left?”
“No. He’ll leave tomorrow morning.”
“Then please pass this on to him. Tell him to guard the family heirloom carefully.”
The old man’s eyes gleamed at my words as he replied,
“I’ll be sure to tell him.”
“Thank you.”
As expected, the old man didn’t ask me anything.
In my memory, the root of the trouble in the Academy Master’s clan had been the heirloom.
Now that I’ve given him a heads-up like this, he should be able to handle it.
He’s strong enough to be acknowledged by the old man, so nothing should go wrong.
“So, are you accepting the temporary Assistant Instructor position I suggested for the next half month?”
At his question, I sighed and answered,
“Even if I say no, it’s not like I actually have a choice, do I?”
“Wise choice.”
.
.
.
Next day,
I sent only Brother Jeong-ho and Poet Song Rok, plus his family, ahead to the main branch in Hubei Province.
And Palgap and the Escort Guards packed up their belongings and came to Righteous Person Academy. We were going to be living and eating at the academy for the next half month.
“This way, please.”
It seemed the old man from the general store had asked him to, because Assistant Instructor Wi guided us to the assistants’ quarters.
“You can use this room and that one.”
“Thank you.”
Palgap opened the door and went in first, glanced around the room, and said,
“Looks like we should clean first.”
Honestly, the room assigned to me in the dormitory wasn’t what you’d call good.
It was pretty worn out.
Every time Palgap stepped, the floorboards creaked.
On top of that, the walls were cracked and warped in places, letting in little drafts of cold air.
They must have thought they were giving us a decent room…
For some reason, I felt like I was starting to see why the old man had roped me into being a temporary assistant.
Was this his way of telling me, ‘If you’re going to sponsor the place, do it properly’?
Even though the room was in pretty bad shape, Palgap didn’t say a word about it and quietly started cleaning.
That’s Palgap for you.
Assistant Instructor Wi scratched his head, his face turning a bit red, and said,
“I’m sorry the cleaning’s lacking. The academy’s really short on manpower… Since the assistants’ quarters are cleaned by the assistants themselves, I only gave it a quick once-over…”
I waved my hand with a smile.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s clean enough. Palgap just has high standards, that’s all. And if the assistants are supposed to clean their own rooms, then we should follow that.”
I continued,
“In that case, while we clean, I’d like to hear the details.”
“Understood.”
Assistant Instructor Wi gave me a brief rundown of the essentials.
First of all, the curriculum at Righteous Person Academy is basically three years long.
“When you say ‘basically’ three years, you mean there can be extra years, right?”
“That’s right. If it’s judged that they aren’t properly educated yet, they have to study for an additional three years.”
“…”
I felt like I’d just learned one reason Assistant Instructor Wi had turned into such a straight-laced guy.
But going by what he’d said yesterday—“They’re still in their early years, that’s why they try things like that. By their third year, they don’t pull such stupid stunts”—that meant there were quite a few people who ended up doing the extra three years, didn’t it?
“In the mornings we mostly study literature, and in the afternoons they study their specialties.”
Assistant Instructor Wi also explained what they learned here.
“All the classes are divided by level. So for the morning literature classes, if someone can’t read yet, they start by learning characters, then Elementary Learning and…”
“Hold on. Isn’t Elementary Learning something little kids study? No, more importantly—are there really people entering this academy who haven’t even learned to read yet?”
As far as I knew, the minimum age to enter this academy was fifteen. This place was special in a lot of ways.
“…”
From the look in his eyes, I felt like I’d gotten my answer.
“Well, that figures.”
If they ended up being sent here, they were probably utter delinquents. How would they have studied properly?
Anyway, the literature classes were divided by level like that, and they taught everything from the Thousand Character Classic up through the Four Books and Three Classics.
“After lunch, they receive training tailored to their specialties, but to be honest, since we’re lacking in manpower, that training mostly focuses on martial arts.”
Assistant Instructor Wi turned his body toward me and said,
“But the world isn’t made up only of people who practice martial arts, is it? Whenever we have the capacity, we also teach them how to farm and teach enough arithmetic for them to work in the trade world.”
“I see.”
Those words set my mind turning.
What if I dispatched staff from our academy back home to systematically teach here?
Wouldn’t I be able to secure the kind of talent I wanted faster and in greater numbers?
While I was thinking along those lines, Assistant Instructor Wi continued.
“And after dinner, we have character education time.”
“Character education?”
“As you know, the students at this academy don’t exactly have admirable personalities.”
Well, that was true.
This was a rehabilitation-focused academy that only took in people with problems.
“The Academy Master personally takes charge of the character education.”
Since the Academy Master was away right now, the old man serving as acting Academy Master would be handling it.
“Once character education is over, they have some personal time, and then by around ten at night it’s bedtime. After roll call, the lights go out.”
Assistant Instructor Wi went on.
“Except for unavoidable circumstances, the rule is that from bedtime until around six in the morning, no one is allowed to leave the dormitory.”
“I understand.”
“This is when the assistants get busy.”
“Huh? There’s overtime work or something?”
“You could call it overtime, but it’s also our core duty: correcting behavior that violates the academy rules. At night, an awful lot of them somehow sneak out of the dorm and go off doing whatever they want.”
“Then how do you ‘correct’ them? Just talk them down nicely and send them back?”
Assistant Instructor Wi let out a snort at my words.
“In that case they’d probably beat up the assistant instead, don’t you think?”
I recalled how yesterday he’d swung a wooden sword at the students who were drinking in the academy.
“By any chance, is your nickname Yaksha?” (TL Note: A type of Demon)
He cleared his throat at my question.
“Ahem, ahem… Anyway, most of the students who enter this place don’t think of their teachers as teachers. More than half of them were expelled from their original academies for raising a hand against their instructors.”
“…”
Assistant Instructor Wi handed me a scroll, and I unrolled it.
It was the school regulations.
[Do not leave the academy without permission]
[Do not use violence against instructors or assistants]
[Do not drink alcohol inside the academy]
[Do not smoke inside the academy]
[Do not casually sleep with women], etc., and so on were written there.
“If you catch a student violating those rules, don’t hesitate to beat them.”
These were the kind of rules no other academy would even dream of having.
I felt like I finally understood why the Academy Master really disliked anyone trying to meddle in how this academy was run.
This place is unique.
It’s where people who normally ignore age, throw their weight around, and live however they please end up.
But would ordinary education work on them?
Of course, for ordinary people, regular schooling and some kind words are more than enough.
But for complete scoundrels who’ve already gone way past that point, you need a kind of education tailored for scoundrels.
And honestly, if the students at Righteous Person Academy get beaten, it’s because they did exactly what they were told not to do.
If they don’t want to get hit, all they have to do is follow the rules, right?
Like that, I listened to the explanations about the rules and the other duties of an assistant, and the half month of assistant life that had never been in my plans began.
.
.
.
One of the reasons the old man from the general store asked me to be a temporary assistant for half a month was because of the classes.
One of the people going along with the Academy Master to his clan was the instructor who taught basic arithmetic.
After lunch, I headed to the classroom.
What I was going to teach was beginner-level arithmetic. Beginner arithmetic… that meant first-year students, right?
I was walking toward the classroom, thinking about how to teach them, when my steps came to a halt.
“—My lord, I have something to report.”
At that moment, Escort Guard Jin Yu’s voice transmission reached me, and he passed on some very important information.
Those bastards…
Sending Jin Yu ahead of time to scout the mood had been worth it.
So this was why the instructors and assistants had warned me to be careful.
Classroom Three.
The ones gathered there were first-year students.
And under the Academy Master’s educational philosophy that everyone should at least be able to do basic calculations, it was also a mandatory class for all first-year students.
And, true to Righteous Person Academy’s first-years, they had little interest in the class itself and were far more curious about the assistant who was supposed to be teaching today.
“Hey! You hear? The instructor for today is someone else.”
“Yeah, I heard. They said it’s an Assistant Instructor.”
“I heard they’re crazy good-looking. Think it’s a woman?”
“Could be.”
“So, what do you say we make ’em cry today?”
“You got a plan?”
Whispering among themselves, they started plotting.
Their shameless plan was to sucker punch the assistant the moment they walked in and strip their clothes off by force.
“They won’t be on guard yet, right?”
“It’s been a while since we had a good show, huh?”
While they were snickering, one student who’d been peeking through the crack in the door shouted,
“Hey! The Assistant Instructor is coming!”
“Get ready!”
More than half of the first-years were children of martial families, so they were pretty confident in their fighting skills.
The problem was that they were using that in all the wrong ways.
As the door opened, one of the students threw a punch straight at Eun Seo-ho.
“Thwack!”
But that punch was blocked with ridiculous ease.
“One plus one?”
“Guh!”
“Wrong!”
“Thud—!”
As he spoke, Eun Seo-ho’s foot smashed into the boy’s shin, and at the same time he blocked another student’s punch and asked,
“One plus two?”
“…”
“Thud—!”
Eun Seo-ho’s kicks were anything but gentle, and everyone whose shins he nailed dropped on the spot, groaning.
“Three plus two?”
“F-fi-five!”
“Correct.”
The student who answered correctly was spared a beating and patted their chest in relief.
After giving a simple arithmetic problem to every student like that, Eun Seo-ho stepped up onto the platform.
Three out of five of the students were still crouched on the floor groaning, and Eun Seo-ho grinned as he looked at them.
“My name is Eun Seo-ho. I’ll be teaching you basic arithmetic for the next half month. Let’s have a lot of fun in class together.”
Seeing Eun Seo-ho’s expression, the students shuddered.
It was an instinctive fear, born from the sudden realization of what their future held.
–TL Notes–
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