Promise- Minsung

Chapter Fifty

Minho was embarrassed to say the least. He realized quickly that if he didn't improve, he was going to keep getting embarrassed. Which meant that as long as he was here, he had to work even harder.

Minho was up now on his own, heading up before anyone could come in and drag him out of his own bed. He was spending less and less time with Hei-ran.

And before he knew it, he had been training for more than a month at this stupid place.

But still, he was doing strange exercises instead of learning battle techniques or actually fighting with swords instead of sticks. That was what Minho thought he would be doing, and in reality he was just sore from all the bruises those damn sticks had given him.

Master Sang-hyuk was always just sitting there watching him. He was getting tired of this quickly.

At some point he had just asked, "Why won't you give me real training?"

"Because you don't deserve it," Master Sang-hyuk shot back.

"Then why did you even bring me here?"

"For you to prove that you deserve it."

Stupid. Minho was so tired of him.

But he was coming to respect him. The longer he stayed here, the more he saw the training men and women here. He was creating an army here, and all these people were better than him.

Why not pick one of them? He had asked that too.

"They are only better than you for now. You need to get better than all of them."

Good answer.

Minho lay awake this night. He was thinking of the San Palace again. Was Jisung alright? Yeong? His brother and his subjects that come with him?

"If you're worried about them, then learn to protect them," Master Sang-hyuk had said.

Easier said than done. Minho was dying here.

The next morning, Minho got up before anybody else. He was up shooting every target right in the center on the worst horse they had given him.

He was running faster than ever.

What more did they want from him? As he ran, he kept asking himself that. When was the real training going to start? If he was stuck here, he might as well get some.

Minho didn't rest until the afternoon. He lay back on the rocks near the stream as his robes floated along with the water, trying to break free from his body.

"Minho!" Minho didn't open his eyes as he heard Master Sang-hyuk arriving.

"This is your new teacher."

Minho sat up quickly to find a sword lying at his feet. He stared up at the face in front of him. "This is Wang Ka-Yee."

"I know you," Minho winced as he sat up, staring up at the foreign face in front of him. "You're the ambassador... right?"

"That's right," his accent was distinctly foreign but he could speak Korean. That was good. "I'm here to teach you."

Master Sang-hyuk nodded. "Fine swordsman. He'll be teaching you from now on. Then when he's done teaching you everything he knows, you'll come back to me. I'll teach you how to actually lead."

"What?" Minho laughed as he stared up at them from where he sat. "Everything he knows? That's going to take a long time."

"Then you better get started," Master Sang-hyuk laughed as he turned and walked away. "Better hurry."