My Range is One Million

Chapter 265: Jaehwang at Martial Arts Nursery – 2

#1

A month has passed since Jaehwang volunteered at Martial Arts Nursery. Originally, a volunteer would have gone back but at some point, Jaehwang’s name was changed from ‘Volunteer Cho Hyungbin to ‘Mr. Cho,’ and the three to five-year-old children in his class were called the ‘Brave Little Ones.’ What’s funny was that 10 of the 20 children whose condition improved were moved to ordinary teachers’ rooms, but the number of children Jaehwang had remained the same. Under the Martial Arts Nurseries principle, there should not be that many children assigned to one teacher, but Jaehwang still had 20 children because the number of orphans from the Kingdom now stands at around 200 and the Nursery figured that it was much better to leave them to a young volunteer named Cho Hyungbin than the ordinary teachers.

“That’s amazing.” Again today, Ms. Chae recited to herself, looking at Mr. Cho through the window standing with students in the playground.

Jaehwang was standing still and looked down at the children playing with his arms crossed. From a child care teacher’s point of view, it was the worst thing a teacher could do. The teachers always make it a rule to keep their eye level with a child. Also, arm-in-arm in front of children was a bad behavior that could be repulsive to them. The problem was that all such common sense was useless in front of Mr. Cho.

“Teacha! Teacha!!”

“Woah!”

Four volunteers have been put on for him, who lack basic knowledge, but they don’t have much to do either. Adults must not take their eyes off from the children at any moment. Those children, however, were around him and playing like normal children. It’s such a natural scene, but it was almost a miracle considering that those children were the most demanding children once.

“Please be prepared to wash the children.”

“Okay.”

The new volunteers know him as a teacher.

Obviously, he’s not very good at handling children, but when he said something, the children didn’t rebel a bit. Rather, they were busy getting up from their seats and standing next to him as if they had been waiting for his words to come out.

Ms. Chae even thought he was Hunter.

To explain the miracles he was causing, she searched the data and found that among the hunters, some were mentally specialized. But it’s just a possibility; she didn’t understand how it could happen.

Hunters with mental skills were expensive because they were rare. Even if their grade was normal and cannot be used for combat, they would usually go for high-income professions and don’t come to places like this one.

Anyway, thanks to his presence, things are gradually becoming stable.

“Ms. Chae.”

“Yes, sir.”

When the director came in, she bowed her head.

Originally a professor of social welfare at the university he graduated from, the current director quit school and became the head of the school after the Master Archer built the largest welfare complex in the world and poured astronomical sums of money into it for those who had been alienated from society.

“Would we be getting five new transfers for the Martial Arts Nursing Home tomorrow?”

“Yes, on the sunshine, moon, stars, clouds, and the sky rooms.”

“I hope we’re well prepared, okay?”

“Yes, I’ve had a lot of teachers lately, so it’s been easy. And since it’s close, I planned to make it look as if we were going on a picnic.”

“Good for you.”

This Martial Arts Welfare Complex was honestly more like a small city than just a complex. It was not just built to accommodate the underprivileged. There were not only two university hospital-level facilities, but it also had elementary, middle and high school facilities and all sorts of entertainment facilities from sports stadiums. In short, it was a place where a child had everything he needed to be born and become an adult. But then, it wasn’t just a place for children. There were also large towns for adults, and all of those facilities were for the best. Of course, unlike orphans, the conditions for moving in were very strict. Conditions were not social status or money. It was decided on the basis of whether or not the individual really needed help.

Anyway, the Martial Arts Nursery’s president was hoping for a synergy effect by linking the Martial Arts Silver Town and Nursery together these days. They both needed attention and love.

“Oh, and the governor and congressmen are going to visit in four days, so please tell the other teachers.”

“Okay, sir.” At the director’s words, Ms. Chae nodded.

“They’ve been begging to visit us once before, so just give them a quick tour. And you should never give volunteers a hard time with things like unnecessary cleaning.”

“Of course.” At the director’s words, Ms. Chae smiled.

Where she used to be, the principals would ask the teachers and children to clean up every day from a month before the visit by people like them. That man did not hesitate to mobilize the hands of a little child for finding a weed on the flower bed. The reason, of course, was to receive a penny more from the state. There, the children had to stay around the visitors all day for photographs.

But the head of the Martial Arts Nursery didn’t like them very much. He thinks such visitors were of no help to children’s emotional development and parenting. It’s so natural that national taxes were used for orphans. It was in itself inappropriate for those who enforce it to use it as a means of power.

The orphans would grow up to be one fine adult. That adult will be one of the members of the state and will make the country stronger and pay back the funds invested by the country, so there was no need to be grateful at all. Since the president had such a mindset, he only makes the announcement clear four days before his visit.

Of course, he could think this way because the Martial Arts Nursery, or the Complex itself, did not receive a single state support. It was a welfare complex maintained purely by the financial resources of the Master Archer. Of course, the government, which strives to impress the Master Archer, was providing administrative support for all the funds that Jaehwang was pouring into the welfare organization by giving tax breaks and all that, but those were just petty things.

“It’s been prearranged not to allow the visitors inside the building, so keep that in mind.”

At the director’s words, Ms. Chae spoke in a slightly uneasy voice. “Then wouldn’t they be upset?”

“They’ve come to take a picture so that they can get a line in an article that says they’re supporting the welfare complex created by the Master Archer.”

“Yes, sir.”

#2

“Aba ba ba ba..”

“Sam-soo, don’t eat dirt. Hyun-ji, you should play well with Sam-soo.”

“But Sam-soo is not funny because he can’t talk.”

“Remember your promise to me, Hyun-ji?”

“Yeah! Keep your word!”

“Yes, I’m counting on you.”

A little girl answered, then she grabbed Sam-soo’s hand to take him to a group of children. No matter how unalerted the children could become, he cannot move them like robots.

“Brave class.”

“Yes!”

The children rush to answer Jaehwang’s low-key words.

“Be friendly to your friends.”

“Okay teacher!”

“Woah. The children listen to Mr. Cho very well.”

“Oh, no-no.”

Jaehwang shook his head but the volunteer, knowing that he only opens his mouth when he talks to the children, kept asking him questions.

“But is that true, Mr. Cho?”

“Yes? What?”

“There’s a saying that you’re the one who came down from the Martial Arts House to inspect the dark. Well, it is just a rumor, and it doesn’t matter to volunteers like us, but if you’ve come down from the Martial Arts House, have you seen the Master Archer?”

“No, I just applied because I was interested in the Nursery and while others call me a teacher, I’m actually just a volunteer like you.”

At his answer, a generous woman who appears to be in her late 40s nods her head.

“So it isn’t? That’s all the chatty ladies talk about. Haha. By the way, which school do you go to? Hm, seeing how you deal with children, is it social welfare? Did you go to the army?” She never stopped talking as if she wanted to get all the answers to his questions.

That’s when the smartphone rang in Jaehwang’s pocket.

“Will you look after the children? I’ll be right back.”

“Oh, yes, go ahead.” When Jaehwang took out his phone and checked the screen, she nodded so as not to make him worry.

When he disappears from their sight, the children might be a little nervous, but they’ve lived with the volunteers for the past few days, so they’re enough.

It was when Jaehwang tried to walk away with his phone, a child toddled on his leg while rubbing his head. The most recent kid, Jubin, who just came in, was a child who had been left at the other people’s homes because both of his parents were preyed on by monsters a month before the Kingdom of the Three Sky religion broke down. Even the family that was entrusted with him must have been unkind — the kid was always nervous and was not properly toilet-trained. Sadly, he was a poor kid who couldn’t sleep at all unless he was in Jaehwang’s arms.

Jaehwang knelt down and hugged the child tightly with a warm expression. His initial purpose was to take a step closer to the path of God but now, he didn’t care about that. People say that Jaehwang was a big help to children, but it was only half right. Rather, thanks to these children, Jaehwang has recently been able to look back on what he lacked. No, not to mention this grandiosity, just being with these kids made him feel so comfortable.

He didn’t know when was the last time he’d been so relaxed compared to what’s happening now. Jaehwang intends to visit here steadily from now on. Though he had made numerous achievements, he thought that the best thing he had ever done was to create this place.

“Jubin, I’ll go take pee and come back.”

In Jaehwang’s words, the child gives Jaehwang a small pinky finger. The expression of a child who stuck out his fingers was full of determination as he knows what this means.

“Okay. Promise…”

Although his fingers were so small that he barely managed to touch Jaehwang, who promised the child with a finger crossed, he soon took his phone and headed to a quiet open space on one side.

Jaehwang, a little far away from the children, soon took the phone to his ear.

“Yes Irumi, go ahead.”

“Yes. Jaehwang. Approximately three hours ago, a mana-change that was expected to be a gate appearing was detected in Paraguay. Local research shows that the lowest intermediate-level gate will be created, and the type of gate will be determined to be connected to Dark Earth.

When was the gate most dangerous? When it was just created. Of course, opening the gate did not necessarily mean that the monsters would pour out, but a wave, whether big or small, would happen. The Dark Earth Gate, in particular, was home to troublesome monsters, and many sacrifices were inevitable to prevent it.

There was also a way to seal the gate permanently, but with a mana wave of the lowest intermediate level, its size could generate the maximum gate size that occurred in Tokyo. In that case, the probability of failing to seal it was also large and the World Hunters Office sent a request to Jaehwang for assistance in order to secure the people’s safety.

“How much time is left before gate’s activation?”

“In as early as ten days.”

Jaehwang nodded as he counted with his fingers. If he makes it a schedule of about a week, it should not disturb his promise to go on a picnic with the children.

“I’ll be free for a week or so. Please reschedule it and arrange it to finish it as quickly as possible.”

“You’re a week or so. Do you have another schedule? If that’s important, you can reject this one.”

To her knowledge, Jaehwang, who had not had any recent work but was making a time limit, was seen as if he was doing something big. Of course, it’s just a picnic promise with the children, but she wouldn’t know.

“No, it’s alright. How is the purchase of the land around the welfare complex going?”

“The work is going smoothly. There were some people asking for more than the set price, but most of them were outsiders who came in for higher land prices, and the government designated them as anti-speculation zones, and they were all negotiated at reasonable prices.”

“All right. In the future, set the direction for the creation of a relevant department. You can’t be in management forever.”

Irumi was now in charge of all the affairs of Jaehwang, but her essence was a Hunter. She was a nine-star Hunter who was close to Kwon Je with the help of Shin Duk recently.

“No. If I can help with your work…”

“Wait a minute.” Jaehwang cut off Irumi’s words and turned his head.

Although he was far away from the children, he could see what the children were doing with his eyes closed. But now, strange airwaves have been detected within his sphere of influence and he could feel the children’s airwaves fluctuating with anxiety.

“Who’s here…”

With his words, his new model vanished from where he was standing.