I Became the Hidden Ruler of the Martial World

Baek Yoonjun was cooped up in a corner of his room.

There was no one to guide or trust the then 15-year-old boy.

And so, 10 years.

Baek Yoonjun died in a corner of his room.

There was no one by his side.

"Master, Master."

Baek Yoonjun slowly opened his eyes.

He saw a wooden ceiling with no fluorescent lights.

And.

"Did you have a nightmare?"

Tang Yuhwa, who hadn't grown much in height compared to when they first met but had matured quite a bit, was looking down at Baek Yoonjun with a sullen face.

'It wasn't a very pleasant dream.'

Baek Yoonjun frowned and got up from his seat.

Although Baek Yoonjun didn't need much sleep, perhaps because of a habit from before he learned martial arts, he sometimes fell asleep.

'It's been a while since I've had a dream.'

Even if he fell asleep, it was only for a very short time, and he had never had a dream like this time.

'It's an old story and a dream anyway. Let's not worry about it.'

Having gotten up from his seat, Baek Yoonjun looked down at Tang Yuhwa.

It seemed quite some time had passed, but she hadn't grown at all.

"How long have you been here?"

"Three years."

Tang Yuhwa was seventeen when she came to the mountain.

Since three years had passed, it meant she had now come of age.

'Twenty with that body?'

In Baek Yoonjun's mind, the nightmare from before had long since disappeared, and he was seriously worried about Tang Yuhwa's future.

"Who would take you?"

"Why are you picking a fight first thing in the morning?"

"It's not a fight, I'm seriously worried."

"No need to worry. I was popular in my neighborhood, you know."

"Right. I guess you're right."

"It seems like you're just trying to gloss it over."

Although he wasn't convinced by Tang Yuhwa's words at all, since it seemed like it would become a real fight if he continued, Baek Yoonjun understood appropriately and moved on to another topic.

"More importantly, why did you wake me up?"

"Today is the day to go for treatment."

"Has it already been that long?"

For three years, Tang Yuhwa had consistently gone down the mountain to perform medical services, and Baek Yoonjun, who couldn't send Tang Yuhwa alone, had no choice but to always follow.

'I don't want to go.'

Of course, for Baek Yoonjun, the extreme homebody introvert, it was something he didn't want to do, to the point of wanting to refuse it vehemently.

"Don't feel like it? Then I'll go alone."

Tang Yuhwa, as if she had read Baek Yoonjun's mood, performed a clumsy lightness skill and went out of the house.

"Wait!"

Baek Yoonjun, startled, grabbed the scruff of Tang Yuhwa's neck and lifted her up.

"What?"

Tang Yuhwa, held in Baek Yoonjun's grasp like a stray cat caught stealing fish, asked with her usual sullen face.

Although she had matured quite a bit, her expression was no different from before.

"Ahem, if a person is too diligent, they can get sick. How about resting for just one day today?"

"Isn't that because you don't want to go, Master?"

Baek Yoonjun, having been hit right on the mark, froze.

"Master doesn't like leaving the house and doesn't like meeting people. So I'll go alone, so let me go."

It felt as if she had not just hit the mark but had stripped his inner self bare and was looking inside.

Baek Yoonjun looked at Tang Yuhwa as if she were a strange creature.

Since she had little change in expression, he couldn't guess what she was thinking, but for some reason, he felt that she was full of conviction.

'It's not very pleasant to have my inner self laid bare to others, but since it's Yuhwa...'

Because it was Tang Yuhwa, with whom he had spent three years, Baek Yoonjun's heart relaxed a little.

"I thought it wasn't very obvious, but is it that obvious?"

"That's because I'm the same kind."

"Wasn't your expression because your facial muscles were stiff from the poison?"

"That has an effect too. But Master treated it long ago. This is my nature."

Since it was an answer that was understandable without thinking too deeply, Baek Yoonjun had no choice but to nod his head.

And at the same time, a question arose.

"Come to think of it, your stiff tongue was treated long ago, but is your way of speaking the same also your nature?"

"That's a habit."

Since he had a habit of being cooped up in a corner of his room, Baek Yoonjun also easily understood this.

"Therefore, Master can stay here. I'll go alone."

Tang Yuhwa struggled while being held by the scruff of her neck by Baek Yoonjun.

She really looked like a cat caught stealing fish.

Baek Yoonjun recalled Tang Yuhwa's actions over the past three years.

'This brat's actions are also like a cat's, so she has a personality where she can't stand not doing what she has set her mind to, even if she dies.'

Thanks to that, Baek Yoonjun, who had been dragged around, was very mentally tired.

'Good memories... what nonsense is that! Haa, I don't want to go, but I can't send this brat alone either.'

As Baek Yoonjun thought that Tang Yuhwa had about one-tenth, no, one-hundredth of the martial power of Baek Sowol, who had learned from him for half a year, he became even more anxious about letting her out alone.

"Let's go together."

"Okay. Then you'll let me go now."

Baek Yoonjun gently set Tang Yuhwa down on the floor.

'Then I can just pick her up and go down the mountain as usual.'

After that, Baek Yoonjun tried to pick up Tang Yuhwa.

But Tang Yuhwa gently pushed away Baek Yoonjun's hand.

"No. Although we are master and disciple, men and women are different."

At Tang Yuhwa's words, Baek Yoonjun, recalling that she had just entered his room and woken him up, became dazed.

'It's okay to enter a strange man's room without permission?'

A question rose to his throat, but due to his homebody introvert nature, he couldn't spit it out.

"Then how do you plan to move? With your clumsy lightness skill, the sun will set before you even get down the mountain."

"So I prepared."

Tang Yuhwa took Baek Yoonjun's hand and headed towards the warehouse where the odds and ends of the house were gathered.

'Men and women are different, but is it okay to hold hands?'

Baek Yoonjun was someone who couldn't grasp the sense of distance with people at all.

'If I had known such things, I wouldn't have been cooped up in a corner of my room.'

Having given up on understanding, Baek Yoonjun was led by Tang Yuhwa's hand and headed into the warehouse.

"This is it."

To such a Baek Yoonjun, Tang Yuhwa introduced an A-frame carrier that was gently placed in a corner of the warehouse.

It was an object he had never seen before.

"Where did you get it?"

"I made it as you taught me, Master."

It was an A-frame carrier that Tang Yuhwa had made herself.

Leaving aside that she had made it herself, Baek Yoonjun's impression of the A-frame carrier was just one.

"Are you planning to throw this master away?"

"What are you talking about? I'm the one who's going to ride it."

"You want me to throw you away?"

"Why is throwing away the premise? Can't it just be used for carrying?"

"That's true."

Baek Yoonjun reflected on himself for being caught up in the stereotype that if you put a person on an A-frame carrier, you had to throw them away.

Feeling very embarrassed, Baek Yoonjun slowly shouldered the A-frame carrier and lowered his posture.

"Get on."

"You can't throw me away."

"I won't."

Tang Yuhwa leaned her body against the A-frame carrier and secured it with a strap.

"Where are we going today?"

"I'm thinking of going south."

"Got it."

Baek Yoonjun performed his lightness skill towards the south.

Since he had grasped Tang Yuhwa's limits over the past three years, he moved at a speed that Tang Yuhwa could withstand.

Tang Yuhwa, who had also adapted a little to Baek Yoonjun's lightness skill over the past three years, leisurely observed the sky and then looked at his back.

His back felt incredibly wide.

'Reminds me of my father.'

Tang Yuhwa's father had often climbed mountains to supplement the lacking medicinal herbs, and because of that, his clothes had been dyed green.

So, although the color was different from Baek Yoonjun's white robe, the wide and warm feeling was similar.

"My father often gathered medicinal herbs from the mountains, so his clothes were dyed green."

"Is that so?"

"Master lives in the mountains and also often gathers medicinal herbs, so why are your clothes white?"

"I guess it's because I don't really like getting things on my clothes."

Tang Yuhwa gently hugged Baek Yoonjun's neck.

"Can't Master wear green clothes too?"

"I don't really like colors on my clothes. You can wear them a lot."

"Okay."

Tang Yuhwa looked at Baek Yoonjun's white robe.

Tang Yuhwa's father had also enjoyed wearing a white robe.

It was just that it was always dyed green.

"Then I'll be the only one to wear green clothes."

"Right. It suits you well. Wear it a lot."

Tang Yuhwa stealthily looked at the clothes she was wearing.

It wasn't that the white clothes were dyed green, but it was originally a light green dress, but it was a dress that Tang Yuhwa quite liked.

"I think green clothes suit a doctor better than white clothes. Aren't most medicinal herbs green?"

"Is that so?"

Another thought came to Baek Yoonjun's mind.

'Aren't there many poisonous herbs that are green too?'

If it was natural, it was natural, but due to his homebody introvert nature, he couldn't spit it out.

And so, as they moved while having a leisurely conversation, the city of Sichuan began to be visible to the naked eye.

A big city that Baek Yoonjun would never set foot in due to his nature.

Tang Yuhwa looked at that Sichuan with a distant look.

"That's my hometown."

"Huh? Is that so?"

Baek Yoonjun landed on a nearby mountain and looked at Sichuan with a dumbfounded face.

"It's your hometown, but is it okay not to go?"

"It's fine. I think I'll get depressed if I confirm that there's no one I know."

Baek Yoonjun glanced at Tang Yuhwa.

Her expression was the same as usual, but her gaze was distant, exactly the gaze of someone looking at their hometown.

Although it wasn't obvious on the outside, all sorts of thoughts came to Baek Yoonjun's mind.

'It's her hometown, so should I take her there? But it's a big city. It looks like there will be a lot of people even from here.'

The numerous Baek Yoonjuns in his mind, cooped up in a corner, began to offer their opinions. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

'She herself said she's not going, so isn't it just unnecessary meddling?'

The opinion of most of the small Baek Yoonjuns was 'Let's not go!', and Baek Yoonjun's thoughts were also solidifying towards not going.

-Is that okay?

At that moment, one of the small Baek Yoonjuns in the corner spoke up.

The small Baek Yoonjun that corresponded to Baek Yoonjun's conscience, and among the small Baek Yoonjuns, it boasted a particularly small size.

But at the opinion of that very small Baek Yoonjun, the small Baek Yoonjuns shut their mouths and looked away.

Baek Yoonjun also couldn't escape the feeling of a guilty conscience.

'She's not just anyone, but my disciple.'

Having made up his mind, Baek Yoonjun moved his feet.

"Where are you going?"

Tang Yuhwa, who was riding on the A-frame carrier, tilted her head.

"Let's go to Sichuan once."

"Why go?"

"Just because."

At Baek Yoonjun's unaccented answer, Tang Yuhwa gently patted his shoulder.

"Don't overdo it. Master can't go to crowded places."

Baek Yoonjun became curious about how much Tang Yuhwa knew about him, but due to his homebody introvert nature, he couldn't ask.

'I've felt it before, but this brat is really quick-witted.'

Although he was impressed by Tang Yuhwa's quick wit, that was not what was important now.

"I can go."

Just because he was a homebody introvert didn't mean he had no pride.

He couldn't voice his opinion and couldn't ask questions, but there were times when he was proud.

The problem was that he mostly showed it in useless places.

'This time, this is right.'

Baek Yoonjun thought that this time, he was being proud about something quite decent.

"You don't have to go."

"I want to go."

"That's a lie."

"How do you know if it's a lie or the truth?"

"I can see it all."

Baek Yoonjun arrived near Sichuan while bickering with Tang Yuhwa.

'It's bigger than it looks from a distance.'

Having arrived nearby, Baek Yoonjun's pupils shook like crazy.

He had come this far out of pride, but Sichuan was a size that was on a different level of burden for Baek Yoonjun to wander around, both in scale and population.

"Should we go back now?"

"Get down for now."

Baek Yoonjun gently set down the A-frame carrier, and Tang Yuhwa untied the strap that was securing her body and got off the A-frame carrier, checking Baek Yoonjun's complexion.

'He's overdoing it a lot.'

His usual indifferent appearance.

But in Tang Yuhwa's eyes, she could see that Baek Yoonjun was extremely burdened by Sichuan itself.

"Master."

"What?"

"Thanks."

She naturally knew that the reason he had come here despite feeling so burdened was because of her.

Tang Yuhwa quietly closed her eyes.

From the time they met until now, all she had received was kindness.

She had been saved, learned medicine, and even learned martial arts, which she didn't particularly want to learn.

He had also always listened to her stubbornness, even though he clearly showed his dislike.

Although it didn't show on the outside at all, Tang Yuhwa was infinitely grateful to Baek Yoonjun inwardly.

"I will repay your kindness a hundredfold."

"What kindness for something like this."

Baek Yoonjun answered nonchalantly, but in Tang Yuhwa's eyes, he looked extremely proud and happy.

"But it's not easy."

"What is?"

"Master hasn't aged or weakened at all for three years. Wouldn't a path for me to repay your kindness open up only if you get a little older and sick?"

"Are you cursing me?"

"No. I'm just thinking about how to repay your kindness."

"You don't have to."

"I can't do that."

Baek Yoonjun and Tang Yuhwa moved towards Sichuan, bickering.

Seen from a distance, they looked perfectly like a master and disciple, or a father and daughter.