As Prophet - Chapter 62
Only Krnovel
Episode 62. Twenty Duck Steps
The resignation stretched out its body.
“I won’t do that. That’s not what I came here to do.”
“If you don’t do that, you won’t get any better.”
“Where is that? I won’t do that.”
Dalcheon shook his head.
“You are not following instructions. You three, please step aside and turn back.”
“What do you think of us?”
“I already told you what I saw. I will write down the reason for sending you back separately and report it to the governor. Please go back. You are disturbing the students’ studies.”
These are the people who are told to go down to Dalcheon but cannot go.
Dalcheon went up to the main hall and quickly wrote down a few things on a piece of paper. ‘You are arrogant, you are shameless, those who have no talent have climbed too high. I made you do twenty duck walks, but you didn’t do them, so I told you to turn back.’ He wrote things like that exactly as they were.
Baek Yi-jeong approached him secretly and winked, but it was no use. He simply came to a conclusion and dealt with it easily.
“It’s a human matter, so you can’t do that. If you go back, they’ll be in trouble.”
“Didn’t you see that earlier? The whole time we were together, you were laughing, grumbling, and saying that it was no use doing that. I thought you had a bad attitude, so I made you do twenty duck walks, but you refused to do that again… .”
“It would be better to speak. The education of adults is a little different from that of children, Your Majesty.”
“How?”
“Adults can’t be spoon-fed. You have to focus on changing their posture and attitude. After that, they can do it on their own. Once they get on track, you can just point them out and they’ll be fine.”
Dalcheon blinked his eyes.
“That’s right. Posture and attitude… … . If your posture and attitude change like this, then it’s good. If not, then don’t.”
“This approach will only cause a backlash.”
“Hmm, this is my first time doing this too. I’ll give it a try.”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“If it doesn’t work out, then don’t worry. Hehe.”
“You are so irresponsible.”
Dalcheon smiled bashfully. His eyes were spinning as if he was thinking about something. Looking at them, one of them didn’t even do twenty laps of the martial arts course, but was just pretending to do it in a clumsy manner at the place where the national swordsmanship was being practiced. Dalcheon approached the general who was doing the same thing.
“Here are three people, their attitudes are bad, so I told them to do twenty laps of the martial arts course, but they refused to do so. So I told them to go, but they refused to go. What should I do?”
“Oh, these guys… I’ll take care of it.”
The Grand Prince’s words were more than enough. Dalcheon politely asked.
“I don’t want to hear that the governor swung his fist, so would you do that?”
“Me?”
“Yes, please.”
Everyone heard what the two were saying. The general raised his sword and approached the three.
“You guys, the governor told you to go, so why aren’t you going and making a fuss?”
The resignation was aroused and he asked.
“What are you again?”
“Me? I am Your Majesty’s second son, Yeong. He is known to the world as Prince Hwaseong.”
“Huh? What did you say?”
These are the people who have no way of knowing the face of the great general who is hidden in the world. Those who are surprised by the word great general step back. The great general swung his sword and drove them away.
“Don’t these dogs listen to their master? Where did they get their official titles and start talking nonsense?”
The sword of the well-trained general fiercely attacked the men, causing them to retreat. They did not dare to fight back, and eventually were pushed out of the school building.
As the men stepped onto the road, the general took out his bow and drew the string. I thought he was just threatening me, but he pulled it right back. The three men ran away.
“You little bastards, you little dogs!”
The general straightened his shoulders and shook his head. It seemed like he had played a role for the first time. Dalcheon found the person who was running the errand and sent a letter to the training center stating the reason why he had kicked out the three people.
* * *
A slow afternoon. Three people were walking around the training center yard at a duck-step. Dojeong, sitting on a raised platform in front of the training grounds, stared at them fiercely. In his hand was a letter from Dalcheon, which contained the reason for sending them back.
“You little shits… … . Put them where they’re supposed to go, where they’re supposed to go!”
Behind Dojeong, the training center’s officers, vice-ministers, sergeants, and judges stood in a row. Dojeong yelled at him for educating his juniors poorly, even though he had done nothing wrong.
“I told them to do the national swordsmanship, but their attitude was bad. I told them to take them out and do twenty laps around the training ground, but they refused to do it. Those kids. Who would want to teach them?”
Jeong (3rd rank, lower rank) shouted.
“Yes! We have to send them here half-dead!”
“I tried to send it after spinning it twenty times, but it told me to spin it more.”
“Yes. If we were to do that, where would we get twenty laps if he wouldn’t listen? We’d immediately kick him in the side with a double kick, then pin him down and beat him like a dog. We’d hang him on a pole over there and beat him like a dog.”
“Isn’t that so?”
“Yes.”
After the men had made twenty laps, Dojeong ordered them to beat him up as the training center had told them to, and then sent them back to Yangju Academy. It was an absurd situation.
* * *
Those who arrived at the school building late in the afternoon loitered around the southern end of the school building. Dalcheon knew they were there, but he didn’t pay any attention to them. As he left the school building, Mukhyeong, who had become much more gentle, went down and tried to appease them.
“I went to the training center and did twenty laps. I got scolded by Elder Dojeong. Elder Jeong hung us up and beat us with a club. Please spare us. We were arrogant. I will do better now, so please accept us again.”
Mukhyeong went up and tried to persuade Dalcheon, but failed.
“You haven’t done twenty laps yet?”
Sajik answered with an expression on his face like he was about to cry.
“I went back to the training center.”
“That is the training of the training center, and the education of the academy is different from that.”
“Ahh!”
“If you don’t like it, go back. That’s just a small amount to appease the lord’s anger. Let’s go back for now and see what happens after that.”
“All right.”
Mukhyeong started twenty laps on the spot. Meanwhile, Dalcheon thought deeply about the method of adult education that Baek Ijeong had mentioned, and thought that it was a really necessary process to change their attitude.
After circling twenty times and coming up to the main shrine, I saw people bowing their heads and looked to the other side. Everyone was practicing breathing on the main shrine’s veranda.
“It’s time to study breathing. Come up and take your place. Breathing should be long and thin, and you should see the breath coming in and out. Come on!”
The three men hurried up and took their places behind them. Cheolmuwoong glanced back and smirked. With our ranks, he probably didn’t care about being the head of a small school. It seems that what we showed while doing the martial arts wasn’t enough.
As the breathing exercise continued, Mukhyeong’s body rose about an inch from the floor. Sajik, who had joined later but was only pretending to do it, grew his eyes as big as a lantern. A person was floating in the air.
Strange!
My hair stood out and my mouth opened wide at the sight I saw for the first time.
“What are you doing instead of studying?”
Sajik groped and pointed to the silent figure with his fingertips.
“I, I, I over there… … .”
“Aren’t you going to study? Would you like to do twenty laps again?”
“no.”
Sajik realized too late that the backgrounds of those studying at Yangju Academy were not ordinary. He also found out too late that Dojeong had sought out the master after much searching.
“If I work hard, will I turn out like that?”
“I don’t know. It varies from person to person… quite a bit. Just focus on your breathing.”
Dalcheon handed out three pieces of paper. The basics of the sitting meditation method were written on it. It was something everyone already knew, but the boy’s face was filled with pride as he handed it to me as if it were some kind of scripture.
“Can I do this?”
“I said it’s different for everyone.”
“It’s not like it’s impossible when you get older, right?”
“Then just die.”
Dalcheon didn’t pay any more attention and went forward. Then he sat down behind a small boy, a kid, who was among the adults, and placed his palm on the famous point. This was to induce true energy.
The corners of Dalcheon’s lips moved silently. No sound was heard. It seemed as if he was telling the boy who was studying by phone, but soon after, a faint light leaked out from behind Dalcheon’s back.
Light up!
It wasn’t a mad, rampaging madness, but a beam of light emanating from the human body like the ribs of a fan. Cheolmuung, who was right behind him, stood up without a sound and moved to the far side of the people sitting together. The three who had just joined were startled again.
When about half an hour had passed, a bell rang, and those who had been concentrating on their breathing exercises sat up.
“I’ll take a break for a while and then do it again.”
Dalcheon lifted the little boy up by rubbing his shoulders, then took his hand and led him outside.
“Are you going to keep turning it, Your Majesty?”
“Well, don’t rush and take it slow. Since you’ve become a Sojucheon, I’ll teach you Onyang tomorrow. If you put a silkworm cocoon in warm water, the thread will come out slightly. If you pull it out, the thread that wove the cocoon will come out straight. Now that you’ve got the thread, you should study hard.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Those who were there during break time looked at the little boy’s accomplishment with envy, and some congratulated him.
“Hehehe. Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“Come on, let’s get out here in the front yard and relax. Something like a gentle dance would be nice!”
“I don’t know any dance.”
“If you change the last letter of ‘검식(劍式)’, it becomes ‘검무(劍舞)’. It’s a dance.”
“Oh, yes.”
“Imagine holding a sword in your hand and move. Slowly, comfortably, and smoothly. Come on.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
As the little boy stretched, Cheolmuwoong and Baek Uihyung followed behind him.
“Hmm.”
The moment passed quickly. Baek I-jeong rang the bell again, and those who had been resting came into the main hall.
The three realized belatedly that studying here was very realistic and very different from studying in the world. They study similarly in the world, but they make no progress. They say they work hard, but they are just standing still. At some point, they are blocked by an invisible wall, and they just make no progress a habit.
But this place… … is different first of all. The teachers are different, and the students are different.
The man who had been swinging his sword and calling himself a great general earlier quietly loitered around, then ran in when he heard the bell ringing. He found his place, sat cross-legged, twisted his body, and took a posture. It was a breathing exercise that achieved nothing. Nothing changed even after a lifetime. So at some point, I gave up. But these guys are different.
Dalcheon followed in, watched the few students, and nodded. The second period began, and the main hall fell into silence. At a precise time when you could almost hear a pin drop, the thought suddenly occurred to me that I could resign. The thought that something that I had not been able to do suddenly became possible.
He said that the teacher is important and the companion is important. In this kind of atmosphere, I had a fleeting thought that I might be able to become a master of my own. Originally, the atmosphere is important when it comes to studying.
It was that evening that the three of them took a deep breath and joined the study. They asked to eat and sleep here instead of going home. They paid for the food and lodging while eating dry food during dinner.
It’s the same whether it’s a nearby stable or a house here. Even if you go to the vicinity of Hanyang, your home isn’t Hanyang. You’ll end up renting a room in a house near the training center.
Even after dinner, the study did not end. The martial arts class was being held for the military service examination candidates, and the enthusiasm was extraordinary. The three people had already passed the military service examination, but perhaps influenced by their enthusiasm, they sat at the end and read the martial arts class together.
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