Un Hyeon's wrestling with books began in earnest the next day.
Scholar Un Hyeon of the Blue Dragon Hall went to the Hall of Literary Profundity at the crack of dawn and spent the whole day there.
In the morning, he looked through books and picked out those even slightly related to the Murim.
Picking out books was also a big task. The number of books whose titles he checked in a day easily exceeded dozens.
However, books about the Murim did not appear easily. Most were reports of unknown purpose, and there were many books whose authors were unclear.
There were even books where the titles were so faint that he had to read the contents to know.
After spending the morning classifying like that, in the afternoon he read the books about the Murim he had found previously.
To Un Hyeon, the subject of Murim was a field he had never dealt with before.
Naturally, he didn't even know where to start.
So he had no choice but to read randomly.
He understood parts he didn't understand in this book through that book, and found things not explained in that book in yet another book.
When a month had passed like that, all he had gained were miscellaneous words whose meanings he didn't even understand properly.
Un Hyeon was getting exhausted.
"Phew."
Un Hyeon sighed, looking at the books piled up in front of him.
"What on earth should I do..."
The road ahead was bleak.
He had tried hard for the past month, but the progress wasn't even worth a handful of sand, so pleasing the Crown Prince would become an impossible dream at this rate.
"Thirty-seven thousand volumes..."
The problem was this tremendous number of miscellaneous books.
Stories about the Murim that the Crown Prince wanted must be buried among these, but he had no talent to find them.
"Still, it must have been reduced to about thirty-six thousand volumes."
Un Hyeon muttered. He thought the number of books he checked the titles of and passed over in the last month would be roughly a thousand.
But having said it, it was even more bleak.
Thinking again, even if one hundredth of these were books about the Murim, that would be three hundred and sixty volumes; if he read one a day, it would take a whole year.
Un Hyeon, who was calculating by counting on his fingers, suddenly stopped his hand.
"If I could even read one book a day..."
Un Hyeon looked at the books placed aside next to him.
Seventeen books.
Seventeen books found in the last month, and only nine of them read.
Even then, most were books he passed over without understanding what they were saying.
"At this rate, just reading them will take over three years."
The problem didn't lie in reading.
The problem was that even if he read, he couldn't understand.
Moreover, understanding wasn't everything.
He had to transform this into a story the Crown Prince would like, and quite possibly, like very much.
If it were poetry or songs, he could write quite elegantly, but he had never even touched stories like this.
"Haa..."
Un Hyeon sighed once again.
The more he thought, the more he lost confidence in not just one or two things.
"But is there any other way? With nowhere under heaven to lean on, I have no choice but to settle down here somehow..."
Thinking of his situation, Un Hyeon suddenly felt sorrowful.
He had safely finished his studies for the examination with the help of his financially capable uncle.
But he couldn't forget the face of his aunt looking at him with scornful eyes.
To his aunt, he would have been nothing more than a loafer wasting money helplessly.
One of the things he was happiest about after placing first this time was the expectation that his aunt's gaze towards him would change.
'But that...'
Un Hyeon sighed again.
He thought it was tremendous luck, but suddenly everything got twisted.
He had realized firsthand that worldly matters indeed do not flow as one thinks.
"Even so, I can't just sit here and collapse."
If he sat and collapsed, he would eventually rot away. Nothing gets done by just sighing.
Rattle.
Un Hyeon stood up from his seat.
The antique chair of the Hall of Literary Profundity was pushed back with a sound.
There was still one more thing he could do.
"Haaaa! Haap!"
Robust young men shouted in unison.
In a square located in a corner of the Forbidden City, young men with their tops stripped off were engrossed in training, dripping with sweat.
"Fifth Form (第五式)!"
As a shout burst from the mouth of the man standing at the very front, the young men moved all at once.
Thud.
"Haaaaap!"
The sound of the young men stepping at once shook the stone floor, and the loud shouts rang out in all directions.
The momentum was quite severe, so Un Hyeon watching from afar flinched his shoulders without realizing it.
'T-this is more than I thought...'
Those sweating with their tops off were rookies who had just entered the Brocade Guard (Jinyiwei).
Just as Un Hyeon took the civil service exam and passed, they were martial artists who took the military service exam and passed this time.
Strictly speaking, one could say they were Un Hyeon's peers, but no one thought so.
Because the discrimination between civil and military officials was unexpectedly deep-rooted.
'Is that person the training instructor?'
The person commanding the young military officers was a man with a large physique and a full beard.
Even from a distance, his impression was quite ferocious.
'...I won't even be able to speak to him.'
The reason Un Hyeon came all the way to this Brocade Guard training ground was simple.
He needed someone who could teach him the basics of martial arts (武功), or at least the gist of it.
If one spoke of people who knew martial arts within the Forbidden City, it was natural to think of the Brocade Guard.
The problem was whether they would help Un Hyeon.
'My lot is truly pathetic.'
Thinking about it, it was truly a spectacle.
What was lacking in a scholar like him that he had to spy on the training of military officers, and novice ones at that?
"Phew, damn it."
Un Hyeon, startled by the words he spat out inadvertently, covered his mouth.
'Damn it', how dare a scholar say such words?
It was then.
"What is the matter?"
"Ugh!"
At the sudden voice from behind, Un Hyeon freaked out and fell forward.
He was already hiding, so who wouldn't be startled to hear a heavy voice from behind?
"Ha, my. I didn't intend to startle you..."
As Un Hyeon turned his head, he discovered someone standing behind him.
He looked up, but the sunlight was dazzling, so he couldn't see the figure properly.
"Are you all right?"
He extended a hand to Un Hyeon.
Un Hyeon answered while calming his startled heart.
"Ah, I-I am fine."
He didn't take the hand offered.
But that person grabbed Un Hyeon's shoulder area regardless.
And as he lifted his arm, surprisingly, Un Hyeon's body was lifted up like a jackstone.
Thud.
He lifted Un Hyeon lightly and set him down gently on the ground.
Un Hyeon, who ended up standing involuntarily in a daze, widened his eyes and looked at the person standing in front of him.
He was a middle-aged martial artist wearing light armor who looked quite decent.
He didn't look like a person with tremendous strength, but his face dyed in copper color and his attire indicated that he was a military officer.
"Seeing as you look like a civil official, what brings you here?"
His voice was profound.
Un Hyeon snapped to his senses.
Quickly tidying his disheveled clothes, Un Hyeon answered the military officer.
"Ah, I am Scholar Un Hyeon of the Blue Dragon Hall. Actually, I was thinking of asking a bit about martial arts..."
Martial Arts (武功). It was one of the words Un Hyeon had obtained after a month of struggle.
"Martial arts?"
The military officer tilted his head.
Usually, the scholars he knew had no interest in martial arts.
No, they even despised it. Young scholars like Un Hyeon in front of him were even more so.
The military officer frowned slightly and asked Un Hyeon with sharp eyes.
"Is there a place where martial arts are specially needed? There shouldn't be anyone bold enough to touch a scholar of the Forbidden City under heaven."
Un Hyeon didn't understand the military officer's words immediately.
But soon he could figure it out.
This military officer thought Un Hyeon was being assaulted or threatened by someone.
Un Hyeon waved his hands.
"Ah, it's not like that. I'm not trying to use it somewhere..."
Before Un Hyeon could even finish his words, a loud voice was heard from behind.
"Greetings to the Instructor (敎頭)!"
Then the voices of many people shouting at once followed like thunder.
"Greetings to the Instructor!"
Looking back, Un Hyeon froze on the spot.
From the young martial artists in the training ground to the rugged military officer with a full beard, everyone was standing looking this way.
At their flashing gazes, Un Hyeon stepped back without realizing it, but a heavy voice brushed past Un Hyeon.
"Continue the training."
It wasn't a very loud voice.
However, everyone in the training ground reacted immediately.
"Align!"
As the bearded military officer shouted with a booming voice, the young martial artists straightened their bodies all at once.
"Start again from the First Form (第一式). First Form!"
Thud, thud.
"Haaaa!"
The young martial artists began training in perfect order.
Un Hyeon looked at the middle-aged martial artist anew.
In fact, Un Hyeon thought the middle-aged military officer looked a bit easygoing, perhaps because his impression was soft.
But all military officers showed respect to him, and started training at his single word.
'S-seems he is someone high ranking...'
In the meantime, another military officer ran towards Un Hyeon.
"Instructor, you have arrived?"
The young military officer who gave a military salute to the middle-aged martial artist looked at Un Hyeon.
"But this person is...?"
His gaze looking at Un Hyeon was quite fierce.
As Un Hyeon flinched without realizing it, the military officer called Instructor answered.
"He is Scholar Un belonging to the Blue Dragon Hall. He came because he had something to ask. You don't need to mind this side."
"Yes!"
The young military officer gave a disciplined military salute again and turned around.
Of course, before that, he didn't forget to glare at Un Hyeon once more.
Only after he ran to the training ground could Un Hyeon relax his tension a little.
"Introductions are late. I am called Il Chung-hyeon, the Instructor of the Imperial Guard."
The military officer who revealed himself as Il Chung-hyeon lightly clenched his fist and performed a fist-and-palm salute (抱拳).
Un Hyeon was about to follow him and perform the salute without realizing it, but quickly stopped and bowed his head.
"Ah, I am a scholar of the Blue Dragon Hall..."
A smile hung on Il Chung-hyeon's lips.
"I heard the introduction earlier. Rather than that, how about we move to another place?"
"Ah! L-let's do that."
Suppressing the honorifics that were about to come out unconsciously, Un Hyeon barely replied.
The place the two moved to was a small pavilion open on all sides.
Although small in size, as expected of a place in the Forbidden City, antique patterns decorated every corner.
"So Scholar Un's circumstances... were like that."
Having heard the story, Imperial Guard Instructor Il Chung-hyeon nodded.
But his complexion wasn't that bright.
Un Hyeon watched his expression anxiously.
Even if it was for the Crown Prince, it was ultimately for entertainment.
Un Hyeon's request to teach him about martial arts might have touched the pride of the proud Imperial Guard Instructor.
Il Chung-hyeon, who was lost in thought for a moment, turned his gaze to look at Un Hyeon.
"I, too, am a person belonging to the Imperial Family like Scholar Un. Besides, having heard all the circumstances, pretending not to know now is not something a manly man should do."
Un Hyeon's face, listening, brightened at once.
"So it seems I cannot refuse Scholar Un's request."
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