The Crown | myg

eighteen

With Beomgyu following behind me, I walk over to the weapon wall on the other side of the room. When I reach the wall, I turn back around to face him and gesture with one arm to the wall.

"You must learn all of these things," I say as his eyes roam over the wall.

"Why all of them?" His eyes roam back to me and he scrunches his eyebrows together in confusion.

"Think of it as a test. An exam, maybe. I'm your teacher," he nods and I continue speaking. "If you don't at least get a seventy percent on each part of your training, you can't participate in actually bringing down the bad guys. Capiche?"

Beomgyu purses his lips a little before nodding again.

"Don't worry, I'll make it fun," I smile gently before gesturing to the wall again. "But you have to pick something to start with."

I watch as his eyes roam over the wall for a moment before landing on something.

"Can we start with knife throwing?" He asks. "But can you surprise me with training from now on?"

I nod and laugh a little. "Knife throwing first, then surprise training after."

While Beomgyu walks over to the target on the wall, I grab the knives from the wall and walk over to him.

"Stand in front of the target," I say as I take my place and begin to pull knives out of the bag and place them on the table in front of me.

"What?" Beomgyu breathes and stands completely still, not moving from the spot he was in previously.

I don't look up from the knives. "Stand with your back against the target."

After a few seconds, he walks over to the target and places his back against the target so he's looking at me.

"Do you trust me?"

"Not really," he whispers.

I chuckle and place one of the knives in my hand before spinning my body towards him. My arm quickly moves forward and, within an instant, the knife has wedged itself in the wood just beside Beomgyu's neck.

"If that were an enemy, I would have just saved your life," I wipe my cheek before rubbing my hands together and walking over to him to pull the knife from the board. "You won't be as good as me, but I can sure make you a better assassin than those other newbies."

Beomgyu swallows. "How, um," he breathes. "How many stages of this training are dangerous?"

"Any of them can be," I say as I retrieve my knife and walk to the table again. "You only have ten days to learn from me and practice on your own time, on the eleventh day you have to go against one of us."

I rub a few blades together before turning to him, my hand outstretched with a knife in it.

"What do I have to do?" He asks as he takes the knife. "On the eleventh day, I mean."

"Use all of your training to either take down your opponent," I say with a smile. "Or put up a fight so good they forfeit. There's a third option."

"What's the third option?"

"Impress them," I raise my eyebrows a little. "No one has ever done it. But, if you can impress your opponent enough, they may just let you pass without a huge fight. Maybe not even a fight at all."

"Well," he looks at the blade in his hand. "Who am I going against?"

"The only one willing to risk hurting someone as young as you," I respond as I take a few knives from the table and throw them at the target one by one, landing them all in the center circle.

"Who's that?"

I throw one more knife, but this one I throw into the face of one of our practice dummies.

"Me."

Beomgyu sucks in a sharp breath and turns towards the target. "H-how do I throw one of these?"

"Hold it by the blade, every three steps you take back you have to rotate the knife to hold by the other end," I position his thumb across the blade in the proper position and kick his feet so he's standing straight. "Pull your arm back and throw."

Beomgyu does as he's told and throws the knife towards the target. To my surprise, it hits the inner edge of the black circle around the edge. Nowhere near a bullseye, but a start.

"The knife hit the handle on the target," I say as I go to retrieve the knife that has ricocheted from the target and landed on the floor. "You need to throw it harder."

-----

We've been throwing knives for nearly the whole day, six hours, to be exact, and Beomgyu has really caught on. I even had him throw from many different distances to test how far he can throw it. He's even hit a bullseye a few times.

To congratulate him, I bought him the meal of his choice for the both of us and had it delivered to the mansion. As requested, I bought two large orders, one for each of us, of kimbap and kimchi fried rice, along with large soft drinks.

I shove my last few grains of rice into my mouth and clap my hands together. "Time to work with a live target."

"Please, don't throw more knives at me," Beomgyu begs, his mouth full of rice.

"You can't learn to throw knives at a live target if I'm throwing them at you," I turn away and stand in front of the target before turning to him. "You'll be throwing them at me."

He nods awkwardly before swallowing his rice and washing it down with his drink. With no confidence, he grabs a knife and stands where he knows he will throw best from. With a deep breath and no hesitation, he throws the knife at me.

The knife slams into the board and I hiss loudly before pulling away and clutching my ear. I pull my hand away to see a small amount of dark red liquid on my finger. He sliced a chunk out of my ear.

"Not bad," I say as I turn to him, blood leaking down my ear and neck. "Not bad."