Chapter 231 You Still Learned a Lot, Didn’t You?

In the end, Richard Han decided to follow Kim Muhyuk to the swordsmanship academy as well.

After calling Gu Hyeonwoo ahead of time to clear it with him, Kim looked at Richard.

“Wait here for a bit. I’m going upstairs to change.”

“Take your time, my friend. I’ll chat with the owners while I wait.”

“...Try not to act too close to them. They have absolutely nothing to do with martial arts.”

Despite Kim’s quiet warning, Richard just grinned and headed for the counter, saying he ought to try some of the other desserts.

“...”

Kim glared after him for a moment before heading upstairs.

As he climbed the stairs, he checked the message Kim Bokja had sent him.

[Rabbit: Who the hell is that creepy guy?]

Despite how cheerfully she had been laughing and chatting with Richard, apparently she had sensed something ominous about him.

Good. She noticed.

Kim let out an inward sigh of relief and replied.

[Kimoo: I’m coming up to the second floor.]

When he opened the door to the beauty shop, Kim Bokja was already waiting with a grim expression.

“...I’m out of pomade. Can I use some hairspray?”

As he spoke, Kim tapped rapidly on his phone. Quick on the uptake, Bokja nodded and played along.

“Pay for it. Ten thousand won per use.”

“That’s a damn rip-off. I’d be better off going out and buying my own.”

Kim grumbled without even looking at the hairspray.

Outwardly, the two carried on an ordinary conversation while rapidly exchanging messages with their hands.

[Kimoo: How did you know he wasn’t ordinary?]

[Rabbit: Something felt wrong from the start. You know I’ve got good instincts.]

Kim had no idea just how sharp Richard Han’s qi perception was.

For all he knew, Richard might be able to eavesdrop even if they blocked the sound with a qi barrier, private transmission, or spellcraft.

He probably already knows I came up to the second floor...

But there was nothing suspicious about briefly stopping by a friend’s shop.

[Rabbit: And Apricot is terrified. That little guy didn’t even tremble in front of the Giant Tree Ghost, but right now it’s hugging the inner core its mother left behind and shaking like a leaf.]

After reading the message, Kim looked toward the corner of the beauty shop.

Apricot was huddled deep inside its little house.

Peep... Peeeeep...

The baby Great Anomaly had squeezed its eyes shut in terror.

Even though Richard Han had not actually done anything to it.

Kim watched Apricot with concern, then typed another message.

[Kimoo: The guy downstairs is Richard Han.]

Bokja’s eyes widened.

Her fingers flew across the screen.

[Rabbit: The Strongest in the World? Why is he here?]

[Kimoo: He says he heard about me from the Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader and got curious enough to come find me. If that’s really all there is to it, great, but...]

By now, Kim had shared most of what he knew about the Heavenly Demon Cult with the other Blue Wolves members.

But this was the first time he had told Bokja that Richard Han might be the one behind it.

[Kimoo: The Heavenly Demon Cult may have sent him.]

Bokja fell silent for a moment before looking up at Kim, her expression rigid.

“...You’re joking, right?”

Kim slowly shook his head, then told her the worst possibility he could imagine.

[Kimoo: Of course, I might be making too big a leap. But information about the Blue Wolves is already exposed. If they’ve decided we need to be eliminated before we become a bigger problem...]

He wanted at least one other person to take the situation as seriously as he did.

As the Blue Wolves’ vice leader and the person more attached to the crew than almost anyone, Bokja certainly grasped the gravity of the situation.

Perhaps a little too well.

[Rabbit: What if you, me, Shin Kangheon, Choi Geon, and my master all attacked him together? Could we kill him?]

Purple ghost fire glimmered faintly in Bokja’s eyes as she asked in complete seriousness.

Kim froze for a moment, considered it carefully, then shook his head.

[Kimoo: Impossible. And the moment we failed, there’d be no going back.]

Choi Geon, now a peerless master.

Dr. Man, Korea’s greatest spellcaster.

And Kim himself, Shin Kangheon, and Kim Bokja on top of that.

Together, they were unquestionably an overwhelming force.

But the Strongest in the World was not someone they could kill with merely that much.

[Kimoo: Like I said, this is only the worst-case scenario. Just keep it in mind. Nothing is likely to happen right now, so don’t worry too much.]

[Rabbit: So he’s a nuclear bomb that might go off, but probably won’t go off right this second? Wow, what a relief!]

They could not keep this conversation going for too long.

Kim rose, bringing it to an end.

“Thanks for the hairspray.”

Bokja watched him with an expression that said she still had plenty to say, but forced herself to grumble as usual.

“Oh, whatever. Just take it. Buy me a new one next time, okay?”

Hairspray in hand, Kim mouthed, Sorry for giving you something else to worry about, and headed upstairs.

“Haa...”

Bokja let out a sigh without realizing it and looked around.

“As if that damn nightmare wasn’t already giving me enough to worry about.”

The beauty shop on the second floor had become both her sanctuary and her workshop.

On the first floor was < cafe Naru >, where the older couple who always welcomed her were waiting.

The Blue Wolves Office was on the third floor, and the crew’s hideout on the fourth.

This entire building was, for all intents and purposes, her home.

Bokja’s expression hardened with resolve.

“...No one gets to touch this place. No one.”

At that moment, madness churned violently behind her eyes as purple ghost fire flared within them.

Madness was not exclusive to martial artists.

As spellcasters reached greater heights, they too experienced a madness unique to themselves—and eventually built that madness into a world of their own.

The moment that world was completed, they were called Grand Spellcasters.

Thanks to the nuclear bomb that had suddenly appeared on their doorstep, Kim Bokja had unknowingly taken her first step into that world.

*****

By the time Kim had changed and returned to the first floor, Richard Han was standing there with both hands full of bags packed with desserts.

“What’s all that?”

“You said we’re going to see children at the academy, didn’t you? If you bring them something tasty, you’ll be an instant favorite.”

That kind of thoughtfulness had never even occurred to Kim.

He nodded with a conflicted expression, said goodbye to his parents, and left the café. Richard fell into step beside him.

“My friend, you really need to work on your social skills. The world is full of problems that can’t be solved through force alone. That’s why it pays to make people like you beforehand—for when those situations come along.”

“...”

Kim was dumbfounded to receive social advice from the mad cult leader who would one day rule the world through sheer force.

When the two arrived at the Azure Sky Children’s Swordsmanship Academy run by Gu Hyeonwoo, Kim secretly looked forward to what would happen.

Surely even the Strongest in the World would have his energy drained by a horde of children.

But even here, Richard Han showed exactly why he was the Strongest in the World.

“Hahahaha! Look at all you adorable little pups! Want to play with swords with me?”

“Yeees!”

Like a border collie effortlessly controlling a flock of dozens of sheep, Richard had the children surging back and forth in perfect order at his command.

Even Gu Hyeonwoo stared blankly in admiration.

“What did that friend of yours do for a living? He’s a natural.”

“I was actually thinking of hiring another employee. Do you think maybe—”

“No. Please don’t.”

Within less than an hour, Kim was sweating bullets trying to stop Gu Hyeonwoo from recruiting Richard Han as an employee.

By the time he finally managed to talk him down, Richard glanced their way, grinned, and herded the entire flock toward them.

“All right! Now let’s play with Muhyuk over there too!”

“What?”

“Yeeeees!”

In the end, Kim was just as physically and mentally exhausted as ever by the end of the day.

Richard, meanwhile, declared that he had had a great time and promised to return tomorrow.

“See you tomorrow, my friend!”

And so the nerve-racking days continued, with the Strongest in the World showing up the next day, and the day after that.

Richard even became fast friends with Jung Minhyun when he stopped by Naru.

“...You know a lot about anomalies?”

“I’ve even seen a Great Anomaly before, though from a distance. Do you know about the Giant Thorn Fly that appeared in New York?”

“Gasp! You actually saw that?!”

Watching Richard instantly hit it off even with an anomaly fanatic made it seem as though there was no human being on earth he could not befriend.

“How does he win over everyone...?”

Kim stared in disbelief, feeling as though his own crew members were being stolen from right in front of him.

The only ones Richard had not won over yet were Choi Geon and Hwang Suksu, and that was only because both had been too busy lately to visit Naru.

Still, the time Richard spent around him was not all loss for Kim.

The danger was immense, but so were the benefits.

Little by little, I can see it.

Kim committed every tiny movement Richard Han made to memory.

The way he walked.

The way he ate.

The way he interacted with others.

Even the movements involved in breathing and speaking.

Merely watching Richard from close by allowed Kim to glimpse, however faintly, fragments of the world in which the man stood.

A martial artist so perfect it gives me chills.

At times, inspiration struck him like lightning.

There were even moments when he would realize he had been staring blankly at Richard for who knew how long.

“Do you think, among all the countless stars in the universe, there are worlds where martial artists like us exist?”

“My friend, what do you think would happen if you could cut time itself?”

“The legendary martial artists of the ancient martial world. The heroes of myth. If we could bring them back to life...”

Richard occasionally spouted things so absurd they bordered on nonsense.

Yet even those became questions Kim found worth pondering.

Several days passed that way.

Then one day, Richard Han disappeared, leaving Kim only a short letter.

“...Even when he leaves, he does whatever he wants.”

Somehow, despite having been there only a few days, Richard had managed to acquire a ticket to the finals of the World’s Strongest Sparring Tournament. He left it with Park Jiyeon before departing.

Inside a gold-foil envelope were the ticket and a short letter.

—Thanks for the fun! Unfortunately, you didn’t help me even a speck toward reaching the ultimate heights of martial arts, but watching you day after day was pretty entertaining.

The playful cheerfulness in Richard Han’s letter lasted to the very end.

—Still, you learned a lot, didn’t you? You said you weren’t going to learn from me, but by the end you were openly staring.

“...Damn it. Fine. I learned.”

Kim had no choice but to admit it.

Over the past several days, merely having Richard Han beside him had vastly expanded his own world.

Simply realizing that there was a goal waiting so far above him had pushed the limits he had unconsciously drawn around himself far into the distance.

—Don’t forget what you promised me. I’m going to become even stronger than I am now. So you need to find a way to become strong enough to defeat me. You absolutely must.

The words sounded almost like a warning—or a threat.

Kim’s eyes sharpened as a fierce smile spread across his face.

“I’ll do it. And then I’ll make you cringe every time you remember writing me a letter like this.”

Then he reached the final line.

It contained a warning he never could have imagined.

—Watch out for the Heavenly Demon Cult. Not everyone there will be as friendly to you as I was.

“...”

So Richard Han really did know everything about Kim and the Blue Wolves.

Then was he saying this because he was genuinely concerned for them?

Or was it merely another deception?

Kim decided not to jump to conclusions.

There was nothing more foolish than trying to guess what went on inside a madman’s head.

*****

And before long, the day of their departure for America arrived.