The Bet

'A night spent eating good food with friends after a day of hard work instead of studying or practicing something for school, this is the life…' Myeol Mang thought to himself as he took a sip from his glass.

"Well everyone, this was definitely a fun night, but we still have to train tomorrow. So let's call it a night here." Seok Hwan said as he stood up out of his chair.

"Yeah, I'm pretty tired after the swordsmanship training today too, so I'm going to go get some sleep now." Myeol Mang yawned out.

"Alright, I'll see you at the training hall tomorrow morning then Myeol Mang." Mi Yeon replied as she stood up from the table.

As Myeol Mang slowly stood up from the table, Jin Tang cleared his throat.

"Everyone before you leave, I have two things to say. First is a question, does everyone at this table trust each other? I know Seo Jun, Mi Yeon and Seok Hwan trust each other, but do you three trust Myeol Mang and vice versa?"

"...."

"...."

"Well, you four have been living in the same palace for a month and a half, training and interacting with each other nearly daily. Yet you hesitate when questioned about your trust in one another. If you don't trust each other right now then you best find that trust soon, or else we won't be able to survive the upcoming raid."

"...."

"Fine, let's start with Myeol Mang," Jin Tang said as he turned to face Myeol Mang. "Out of everyone at this table, who do you trust even a little bit?"

"I'm assuming you don't count, Master Tang?"

"Correct, if you didn't trust me then you wouldn't be here training under my tutelage."

"Well, in order I guess I'd have to say it's Mi Yeon, Seo Jun then Seok Hwan."

"Well then, once you finish your training with Mi Yeon and Seo Jun you should build more trust in Seok Hwan."

"I trust Myeol Mang."

"Oh? So even though he doesn't trust you as much as he trusts Mi Yeon and Seo Jun, you still trust him back?"

"I do, and I understand why he doesn't trust me as much as Mi Yeon or Seo Jun. Myeol Mang and I haven't had much time to get to know each other when nobody else was around, so it's natural that he doesn't trust me much. But in the few moments we've had together I've seen that Myeol Mang's a good person, sure there are a couple confusing aspects about him like how he can jump three stages of internal energy in a few weeks of internal energy training, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't trust him."

"Well, I hope that I can trust you as much as you trust me in the future, Seok Hwan. But for now I really should go get some rest, It's getting hard to stay awake right now." Myeol Mang replied as he began to walk away from the table.

After leaving the main hall and walking to his room, Myeol Mang opened his room doors and was met with Sung Ho in the midst of changing clothes.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"Hey Sung Ho…" Myeol Mang yawned out as he walked into the room despite Sung Ho's attempts to force him out.

"Get out! I'm trying to change here!"

"Sung Ho, I'm not going to watch you change, that would just be weird. I'm going to sleep…"

"You're a pain in the ass sometimes, you know that right?"

"Yeah, yeah… I'm too tired to care right now though, goodnight Sung Ho…" Myeol Mang yawned out before flopping onto his bed.

---

Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

"Ughhhhh…"

"Myeol Mang, wake up."

"Master? Why are you here again?"

"I'm going to help you with your swordsmanship basics today."

"Right, I have training again today… I assume it's early in the morning already?"

"It's about to be dawn, so get up if you want to have a head start on your training today."

"Alright, alright…" Myeol Mang yawned out as he slid off his bed.

After changing into his training robes for the day and grabbing his sword off the floor, Myeol Mang walked out of the room and towards the training hall.

"Master, I'm assuming only I can see you when you're with me in this world?"

"That's right, I can interact with the objects of this world, but only you can see me. Anything I touch will turn invisible until I let it go."

"So if you were to grab me while in front of a crowd of people I would vanish from their sight entirely?" Myeol Mang asked as he opened the training hall doors.

"Yes you would turn invisible for the entire time I would be touching you."

"So in the future if I needed to turn invisible to make a martial artist stronger than me to ensure I could win against them, would you help me?"

"No."

"No? Why not?"

"Because after I teach you how to perform the Seven Heavens Sword, I won't be helping you anymore."

"You won't? Why not?"

"Myeol Mang do you honestly think I can spend all my time supervising every little thing you do?"

"Oh… I guess you can't spend all of your time watching over me like some kind of guardian."

"You understand, good. Now finish the other seven hundred diagonal slashes, you have around an hour before Mi Yeon and Seo Jun show up to do so. And I will be correcting your form in between swings."

"Alright Master." Myeol Mang replied as he drew his sword from its sheath.

Shiiing!

"Hooooooooo…"

Swish!

---

After waking up early that same morning and leaving his room, Seo Jun then walked to Mi Yeon's room.

"Mi Yeon, are you up? It's time for training."

"Mmmmm… No train!"

"Mi Yeon, get out of bed, we have training with Myeol Mang soon." Seo Jun said as he walked into Mi Yeon's room.

"Mmmmmm, fine I'll get up…" Mi Yeon groggily replied as she rolled off her bed.

Thud!

"Hurry up Mi Yeon, if you don't Myeol Mang is going to be at the training hall before us."

"Alright, alright. Get out of my room so I can change clothes."

After leaving Mi Yeon's room and waiting for several minutes, Seo Jun called out to Mi Yeon once more.

"Are you done changing?"

"Yeah, I'll be out in a second! Just start walking to the training hall, I'll catch up with you in a minute."

"Alright, you'd better not go back to sleep, or else I'll send Seok Hwan to come get you." Seo Jun replied as he began to walk towards the training hall.

After getting halfway to the training hall, Seo Jun heard Mi Yeon approaching from behind him.

"Took you long enough." Seo Jun said as Mi Yeon skidded past him.

"Sorry, I couldn't find my sword for a second, for some reason it was under my bed."

"Well, you were pretty tired last night, did you fall straight asleep after getting back from dinner?"

"Yeah, but I always sleep with my sword in my bed, so I'm not sure how it got under my bed."

"That's weird."

"Huh? What's weird?"

"You sleep with your sword in the bed with you, that's weird."

"No it's not! It's practical! What if somebody were to attack me in my sleep? Then I could just grab my sword from right next to me and defend myself!"

"Defending yourself while you're asleep? Have you reached a state of unconscious movement or something?"

"Geez, I'm too tired for you right now Seo Jun!" Mi Yeon exclaimed as Seo Jun opened the training hall doors.

"Haaaaaaaaaah!"

Swish!

"Huh?" Mi Yeon and Seo Jun replied in unison as they witnessed Myeol Mang performing sword swings in the training hall.

Noticing Mi Yeon and Seo Jun at the training hall doors, Myeol Mang then sheathed his sword and turned towards the two.

"Good morning Mi Yeon, Seo Jun."

"Uhhhh, good morning Myeol Mang, how long have you been training today?" Mi Yeon replied as she slowly gazed at Seo Jun.

"Only an hour or so."

"An hour… Myeol Mang, how many swings did you do in the past hour?"

"Roughly six hundred."

"Six hundred swings in an hour on top of being here before us…"

"Master Tang was right then, wasn't he?"

"Yeah, he was."

"Wait, what do you two mean?" Myeol Mang said as Mi Yeon and Seo Jun continued to look at each other in astonishment.

"Sigh… Last night after you went to sleep, Master Tang made a bet with all three of us."

"A bet? What was the bet?"

"The bet was that you would show up at the training hall before Seo Jun and I and be training at an astounding pace."

"So Master Tang predicted that I would be here before you two and have completed an insane amount of swings in the time I was waiting for you two to show up?" Myeol Mang questioned as he looked at the original Myeol Mang, who was leaning against the wall while smiling.

"Yeah, but since he was right now all three of us have to go through with our side of the bet."

"What did you guys bet?"

"We bet that if Master Tang was right, we'd place more trust in you."

"Oh!"

"The bet doesn't affect Seok Hwan since he already trusts you a significant amount, but since Seo Jun and I didn't trust you as much now we have to start trusting you, or else Master Tang will give us a punishment for not fulfilling our side of the bet."

"Mi Yeon, Seo Jun."

"Yes, Myeol Mang?" Both replied in unison.

"You don't have to force yourself to trust me, we have three weeks to build up trust in each other, and then all the time after the raid to build more trust. So take your time, I won't see you as lessers because you can't trust me immediately."