Bachelor Swordsmanship Remastered [EN]: Chapter 8

008. Baekhojeon’s Report

“Ugh! Oww…….”

Yunhyun groaned as he struggled up the stone steps of Munyeongak [a building in the Imperial Palace] with trembling legs.

Yunhyun almost collapsed on the spot.

“……There’s not a single place on my body that doesn’t ache.”

Yunhyun frowned and muttered.

He only slightly missed a step while climbing the few stairs, but a groan escaped him involuntarily.

His entire body was screaming in pain, making him acutely aware of muscles he never knew he had.

His trembling legs were so weak that he could barely stand.

“Just standing for an hour has done this to me…….”

During that one hour, Yunhyun had to stand with his arms raised, maintaining his posture and tensing his entire body.

At first, Instructor Ilchunghyun seemed gentle and friendly, but once the actual training began, he showed no mercy. The moment his posture faltered even slightly, a stern command would come crashing down. Now, Yunhyun’s legs, arms, back, and even his neck were all aching.

“Anyway, it’s only the first day, and I’m already like this……, whew.”

Yunhyun finally entered Munyeongak and leaned back in his chair, letting out a long sigh.

If the first day was like this, the days ahead seemed daunting.

Still, his heart was full because of the book tucked under his arm.

Yunhyun smiled contentedly as he looked at the book.

“Still, learning properly is definitely different.”

Yunhyun had taken down quite a few sentences today.

If he had tried to understand this much by simply reading the book on his own, it would have probably taken him at least three or four months.

With that thought, Yunhyun opened the book and looked over the parts he had written down today.

Unfamiliar words and explanations, now understood at least roughly, were densely written in the book.

The handwriting became messier towards the back, and the very last part was a complete disaster.

But it couldn’t be helped.

After an hour of training, it was difficult to even move his arms properly.

“I need to organize this again before I forget it…….”

In fact, he hadn’t written much at all in the very back.

In other words, he had only pretended to move the brush as Instructor Ilchunghyun spoke, but in reality, he had wanted to put the brush down immediately.

With that kind of feeling, there was no way it could have been written properly.

Thud.

“Whew.”

Yunhyun closed the book and let out a long sigh.

Leaning back in the chair, he felt the fatigue washing over him all at once.

Right now, he didn’t want to organize anything; he just wanted to rest.

“Hmm? What’s this smell?”

Suddenly, Yunhyun frowned at the musty smell that brushed past his nose.

“Could it be…….”

Yunhyun unconsciously put his nose to his sleeve and quickly turned his head away.

“Ugh. T-this, this smell from my clothes…….”

It was his own sweat.

He hadn’t noticed it outside because of the slight breeze, but now that he was inside, the stench coming from his body was overwhelming.

He had been sweating so profusely that it would have been strange if he didn’t smell.

“W-what should I do?”

Yunhyun was at a loss.

It wasn’t that he didn’t have spare clothes, but he didn’t have enough to change every day.

Besides, if he kept doing this, he would run out of clothes to wear in just a few days.

‘A scholar can’t very well wash his own clothes…….’

Yunhyun frowned as he thought about sweating during training.

Instructor Ilchunghyun had definitely suggested that he take off his clothes earlier.

In fact, Yunhyun had wanted to take them off more than anything.

But he had refused once out of courtesy, and Instructor Ilchunghyun hadn’t mentioned taking off his clothes again.

“To only offer once and then give up…… For a military officer who’s even a royal guard instructor to be so timid…….”

Yunhyun grumbled, unfairly blaming Instructor Ilchunghyun.

And he decided that next time, he would just take them off after being told only once.

At this rate, his clothes wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Frowning and turning his head, Yunhyun’s eyes fell on a few books neatly stacked on one side of the table.

“Well, then…….”

On the table were the books he had found after searching through countless miscellaneous books over the past month.

Until yesterday, this pile of books had seemed daunting, but now it somehow seemed manageable.

“Shall we take a look?”

Yunhyun picked up the book on top.

It was the book he had chosen a few days ago.

‘A Report on the Comprehensive Approach to the Origins of Martial Arts Transmitted in Murim Factions [various martial arts sects]…….’

Looking at the title, which seemed to have been abandoned from the start as something to be read by many people, Yunhyun suddenly felt a sense of familiarity.

‘Come to think of it, I used to spend my days with only these kinds of stiffly titled books.’

That was all in the past now.

It had only been a little over a month since he had been searching through miscellaneous books, but the old days felt like a distant past.

Flip.

The words ‘Preface’ written in large letters caught his eye as he turned the page.

‘It is said that everything about a book is written in the preface. Even if you haven’t read the contents, you can at least pretend to have read it if you only read the preface.’

Recalling the useless tricks he had learned from over a decade of exam preparation, Yunhyun began to read the densely packed letters.

‘Following the will of heaven, and in accordance with the boundless grace of His Majesty the Emperor, who sits upon the Dragon Throne, I have been assigned to the Baekhojeon (White Tiger Hall) [a scholarly hall in the Imperial Palace] as a scholar…….’

Like any report written in the Imperial Palace, the preface of the book began with praise for the Emperor.

Yunhyun shifted his gaze, following the tedious and ceremonial sentences.

But only for a moment. The black letters in Yunhyun’s vision seemed to blur little by little, and before he knew it, his eyelids were naturally closing.

Sigh.

Yunhyun’s head drooped slightly, and soon a rhythmic breathing began to escape his lips.

Snore, snore.

The afternoon in the Imperial Palace, just entering early summer, was warm.

Yunhyun, exhausted from fatigue, was soon snoring softly.

Zzz, zzz.

An unexpected noise spread quietly through Munyeongak, and the breeze that entered through the window gently caressed Yunhyun’s disheveled hair.

Thus, Yunhyun was enjoying a sweet afternoon rest.

***

It was over a month later that Yunhyun picked up the report with the complicated title again.

The martial arts training led by Royal Guard Instructor Ilchunghyun was quite strict, and for Yunhyun, who had never properly moved his body before, just keeping up was exhausting.

The same was true of that strange breathing technique.

For a while, Yunhyun would barely make it back to Munyeongak, bury his head in a book, and fall asleep.

So, not only was he not reading books, but he had even stopped sorting through the miscellaneous books.

But humans are creatures that adapt to their environment, aren’t they?

The time he spent falling asleep gradually shortened, and finally, today, he had come to the point of picking up a book.

And none other than this book with the complicated and long title.

Rustle.

Yunhyun slowly read through the preface and sighed as he turned the page.

“Well, it’s not like there couldn’t have been someone before who had the exact same hobby as His Highness the Crown Prince…….”

According to what was written in the book, the author was a scholar from a place called ‘Baekhojeon.’

And this Baekhojeon was, coincidentally, the exact same place as the Changryongjeon [another scholarly hall in the Imperial Palace] where Yunhyun was now.

One of the previous emperors, wanting to satisfy his interest in the Murim world, had established the Baekhojeon during his time as Crown Prince.

The Crown Prince continued to maintain the Baekhojeon even after becoming Emperor, and the author of the book was the only scholar who worked there.

“So, the person who wrote this book is, in other words, my senior.”

Yunhyun tilted his head as he looked at the book.

“But Baekhojeon? Where, no, when was that?”

He couldn’t figure it out.

The preface only mentioned ‘His Majesty,’ and there were no titles or mentions that could be used to estimate the era.

In any case, according to the book, the author performed his duties very effectively and faithfully.

Even after the Emperor’s passing, the Baekhojeon was maintained.

The emperors who succeeded him did not want to close the Baekhojeon that the previous emperor had established.

However, unfortunately, it seemed that the later emperors did not have the same hobby, and the author became someone who simply played around and ate at the Baekhojeon.

As he spent his days like that, serving, or rather, watching several emperors, the last writing that the author left behind as he grew old and left the Forbidden City [the Imperial Palace] was this book.

So, in other words, it was his only work in his lifetime.

“Is there anything left of what this person did?”

Yunhyun flipped through the book to the back.

What Yunhyun needed right now was something like a model answer sheet.

Perhaps what the Baekhojeon scholar who wrote this book did was the closest thing to it.

However, unfortunately, such a thing was not easily visible.

Moreover, seeing how grand the praise for the emperor who arranged for this book to be placed in Munyeongak was, the possibility of other achievements of the author, such as stories about the Murim world that the previous emperor liked, seemed quite low.

“That’s truly a shame.”

It was when Yunhyun clicked his tongue and muttered that an unexpected response suddenly came from behind.

“What is it that you find so regrettable, sir?”

Yunhyun was startled by the clear voice and turned around.

A eunuch wearing a brown eunuch’s uniform stood there with a smiling face.

“Ah, Eunuch Park!”

Yunhyun’s face brightened with joy.

Eunuch Park Gyu bowed.

“Yes, it is I, Eunuch Park. It has been a while.”

“Y-yes, it has. Ha, haha.”

Although he had a welcoming expression, there was a hint of awkwardness in Yunhyun’s voice as he replied.

Eunuch Park Gyu pretended not to notice and asked Yunhyun.

“Did something unfortunate happen?”

Yunhyun waved his hand.

“Ah, it’s nothing. I was just talking to myself……, hahaha.”

Even as he spoke, Yunhyun avoided making eye contact.

Not only his eyes.

As if trying to distance himself, Yunhyun was slowly backing away.

Eunuch Park Gyu nodded, pretending not to know.

“You were talking to yourself. I thought something had happened……, oh my?”

Eunuch Park Gyu suddenly opened his eyes wide and said.

“Oh my, isn’t there a stain on your official robe, sir? And besides…….”

Eunuch Park trailed off.

But the sight of him covering his nose with his sleeve was more clearly piercing Yunhyun’s heart than words.

“What is this smell?”

Eunuch Park Gyu, covering his nose with his sleeve, frowned as he looked at Yunhyun.

“S-sorry.”

Yunhyun stammered with a flustered expression.

“I, I have some circumstances, so, so it turned out like this.”

The reason Yunhyun had been trying to distance himself from Eunuch Park was precisely this.

Unfortunately, Royal Guard Instructor Ilchunghyun had never offered to let him take off his jacket after the first day.

As a result, Yunhyun’s official robe was not only wrinkled here and there but also stained.

Since this was the best of his clothes, there was no need to even mention the others.

In fact, Yunhyun himself didn’t notice it well, but even now, a musty smell was emanating from the vicinity.

Eunuch Park Gyu, covering his nose with one hand, sighed and said as if in passing.

“Well, if I were to exert some influence, it’s not like I couldn’t do something about your official robe, sir…….”

“R-really, Eunuch Park?”

Yunhyun’s reaction was as Eunuch Park Gyu had expected.

But unlike Yunhyun’s delighted expression, Eunuch Park Gyu subtly backed away.

“But I need to know what’s going on, or else how can I ask someone else for a favor?”

Yunhyun’s face hardened.

Another reason he had been trying to avoid Eunuch Park was the fear of being caught learning martial arts.

If he, a scholar, was learning martial arts from a Royal Guard Instructor, anyone would find it strange.