Vol. 1 Chapter 2.2

It was a considerable height, but he canceled out the impact with a clean somersault. The little girl let out a startled squeal.

Yes, even I admit that was pretty cool.

He suppressed his twitching lips and pressed his palms together.

“Greetings, benefactor. This humble monk represents Shaolin…“

“So-jin! Are you alright?”

The beautiful benefactor’s voice cut him off. Contrary to his expectations, the girl’s face had turned pale. Apparently, she hadn’t been impressed, she’d been terrified.

“O-oh dear, I didn’t mean to startle you…”

“Hey, what’s wrong with you? You can’t just jump out in front of people walking down the road! You scared the child!”

At her barrage of reproaches, he was as speechless as a monk caught sneaking meat. Feeling the need to clear up the misunderstanding first, Gong-yeo forced himself to speak.

“That’s not it, benefactor. I simply wanted to make a cool entrance…”

At those words, the beautiful benefactor shot him a sharp glare.

Zing!

H-hu-huh! How can a gaze be so intense!

“Get out of the way right now. What kind of monk acts like this?”

She took the pale-faced girl by the arm and walked past Gong-yeo. Startled, he quickly blocked their path.

I haven’t even cleared up the misunderstanding…I can’t let them leave like this!

“Benefactor, wait a moment. Let me formally apologize. It’s a misunderstanding. A misunderstanding.”

“…I said move.”

Her voice dropped cold. The atmosphere changed completely, but flustered Gong-yeo didn’t notice. Instead, a random thought crossed his mind.

I have to make up for this somehow. This is my chance to show off my hidden charm.

“Let me help you. I’ll lend you my support.”

He subtly tugged at his sleeve, revealing the lean muscles of his arm. He also let his firm chest show just a bit. Enough to be seen, but not too vulgar he was careful about that.

Heh heh. The benefactor has probably never seen such amazing muscles before.

Just then, the ties of his robes, worn from years of seclusion, silently came undone.

“Eek?”

He hurriedly tried to cover himself, but his upper body was already fully exposed. Having witnessed something she shouldn’t, the young girl covered her eyes and screamed.

“Kyaa! Miss!”

The beautiful benefactor, stepping in front of the girl, hardened her expression.

“Well, well. I thought it was something serious, but you’re just a perverted monk. I had no idea the history of flashers went back this far.”

“What, fla… what? Anyway, that’s not…”

Just as Gong-yeo was about to spout excuses, something sliced through the air with tremendous force.

SWISH!

THWACK!

A fierce high kick exploded against his bald head.

“Guh!”

Never having dreamed a kick would come his way, he took the clean hit. It was powerful enough to make his vision blur.

“Kruh…”

As his sight grew dim, he heard her final shout, her fist raised.

“Die! Shaolin flasher!”

Along with the intense impact of a fist smashing into his face, “Iron Arhat” Gong-yeo..true to his name’s irony, lost consciousness.

 

 

* * *

 

After Gong-yeo collapsed, Yeon took So-jin and left without looking back. On the quiet walking path, only the sound of leaves rustling in the wind remained.

A moment later, a man jumped down to where Gong-yeo lay. He.. too, had been hiding in a tree.

Landing without a sound, he pressed his fingers to the unconscious Gong-yeo’s neck.

“He’s alive.”

He figured Gong-yeo would wake up soon even if left alone. The signs of violence scattered here and there couldn’t be helped, that was the monk’s own doing.

“Hm.”

The man recalled the moment of intense violence. The roundhouse kick, followed by a storm of punches the merciless strikes.

“That was truly an iron fist.”

Having received a fresh shock after a long time, the man became curious about her identity. Among all the so-called juniors running around, none left such an impression.

She wasn’t wearing clothes that suggested her background, nor was she carrying a sword.

In his mind, several sects and clans were eliminated. Namgung,Wudang, Mount Hua… places you could recognize at a glance or that were famous for swords. From the remaining options, he narrowed down the organizations likely to attend the gathering.

“That leaves only a few.”

He had never heard of such a young lady belonging to any of those sects. No matter how uninterested he was in martial world gossip, that was strange.

Then, a clan name suddenly crossed his mind. A clan famous for fists, one whose successor he had never met.

“…Could it be the Hwangbo Clan?”

The fact that they didn’t swarm around under the pretense of building connections fit. And the use of fists also matched. There was also the rumor of her being the most beautiful in Shandong. But…

“I heard she was extremely frail?”

His gaze turned westward, toward the Guest House. A faint curiosity, a rare thing, flickered in his usually indifferent, dark brown eyes.

“I had no intention of going to some exchange gathering, but…”

Muttering softly, he began to walk.

With each step, his tied-back black hair swayed freely. The setting sun stretched long shadows along its path. On the empty walking path, as if he were the only one beneath the sky, his shadow grew endlessly.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Yeon stopped by her lodgings to change clothes. Her outfit had gotten sweaty from beating up the perverted monk. She also fixed her makeup.

Even in this era, there were powders for the face. Called “Bun,” they were mainly used to whiten the face, and there were techniques to make the face appear smaller by highlighting the forehead or nose bridge.

Other methods included drawing eyebrows with soot-based pencils or dabbing red pigment on the lips and cheeks. All were effective in their own way, but Yeon tried not to overdo it. Hwangbo Yeon’s beauty was already perfect on its own.

Finally, she put on jade earrings and completed her preparations. Yes, this wasn’t makeup..it was arming herself. She couldn’t go to a battlefield full of social elites without a weapon.

“Let’s see. Whose weapon will be the most powerful? Heh heh.”

As Yeon smiled meaningfully, So-jin’s eyes sparkled.

“Miss, you’re so beautiful…”

With So-jin looking at her like a devoted fan, Yeon headed toward the battlefield.