Martial Arts Worlds-Chapter 369: Beast

'Arakawa Raizen… If he is surrounded by Martial Grandmasters, he must've leaped over the boundary between humans and gods.'

Kiernan thought to himself.

"Follow me."

Tanaka turned around and headed over to the dojo with Kiernan quickly jogging after him, but as soon as he was about to close the gates behind him, they closed themselves with a loud bang.

"?"

Kiernan raised an eyebrow in surprise, shook his head, and entered the dojo, brushing off the strange occurrence.

While making their way through the dojo's first floor that only had a few students training, he looked around at the walls adorned with various weapons and scrolls.

At one wall, there was a gold-framed photograph of a wide-shouldered, serious-looking man with pitch-black hair and a glorious smirk on his lips.

A name was written on the bottom frame of the photograph in gold, bold letters.

[Arakawa Raizen—The Founder of Yokai Style]

When he was walking by, a couple of students looked over with raised eyebrows and looked quite hostile with their auras spiking up.

"?"

Kiernan looked over and used his instinct—shockingly, every student displayed yellowish colors for some odd reason.

'Why the hell are they being hostile to me? I didn't think this place would be dangerous like that…'

"Don't mind them. They see you as another competitor. We have over a hundred students in the dojo, and only seven of them can join the tournament of dojos."

Tanaka said and made his way up the stairs with Kiernan quickly following after him and nodded thoughtfully.

'Once they see that I am no more than a cleaner, their hostility should fade away. To think that it was so competitive that it turned yellow right away.

'It means they wouldn't hesitate to kill me, and in the wrong circumstances, they would if it meant that they could participate in that tournament.

'What a harsh world, but I am no stranger to this kind of environment. I seem to thrive in places just like this one!'

After making their way all the way to the fifth floor, they arrived at the doorsteps of Raizen's office, and Tanaka, after gathering his courage, knocked on it once.

"Master Arakawa, if you have a moment."

It was silent for a few long seconds.

"Enter."

A deep voice sounded from inside.

"Whoo…"

With a deep sigh, Tanaka opened the door, stepped inside, and deeply bowed till his back bent nearly in half.

"…Who is this?"

Arakawa Raizen asked, sitting cross-legged at the end of the room on a pillow that seemed hard as stone, his eyes slowly narrowing.

It wasn't an ordinary-looking office but very much fit the theme of dojo—tatami mats covered the floor, and walls were lined with bookshelves filled with martial arts scrolls.

Arakawa Raizen didn't look like the photograph downstairs—he was older with wild-looking silver hair and a scar running from his left eyebrow down to his chin.

However, he was still the same wide-shouldered, muscular beast from the photograph, and it was hard to think that he was as old as he seemed.

'Aura of a beast—I expected it, but this confirms it—Arakawa Raizen is a beast of Martial King rank, and it looks like he has been one for a long time.

'He is old, and Martial Kings have longer lifespans than normal humans. He might already be over two hundred years old.'

Kiernan thought.

"We've someone wanting the cleaning job—this here is Kiernan Hunter from New Rakuya, and I've checked whether he could be a spy… I don't think he is."

Tanaka said respectfully.

"New Rakuya…? That is a long way from here and is usually home to weaklings. How old are you, boy?"

Arakawa Raizen asked.

"Eighteen years old, just turned."

Kiernan said with a respectful bow.

"You've barely entered the Age of Growth, and yet you're about to tip your toes at Martial Master rank. Impressive one, you are."

Arakawa Raizen's eyes shone.

'What the hell? I was able to gauge his strength, and while it was impressive, I thought he would be in his early twenties.'

Tanaka thought in surprise.

While searching Kiernan Hunter's name on the internet, he found out that he had won the nationals, but he didn't dwell deeper into that.

Therefore, he didn't notice that nationals happened only last year!

"You're here only to clean?"

Arakawa Raizen asked.

"Yes… I am new to this place, and I am here to learn. I didn't expect to get accepted to any of these dojos, so I'd like to show how hardworking I am first."

Kiernan said.

"Hmm…"

Arakawa Raizen put his hands on his knees, and squeezed them.

"Tanaka…"

He said in a deep, reverberating tone.

"Yes, master?"

Tanaka asked.

"Take this, young man… and show him his room. I want him to… start working immediately."

Arakawa Raizen said, bowing his head slightly, and looked like he suddenly fell asleep as he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore.

Without saying a word, Tanaka bowed, took Kiernan out of the office, and closed the door quietly so it wouldn't wake him up.

"You've officially been hired. I'll take you to your room, and then I will show you the cleaning closet where you can get your equipment."

Tanaka said while leading Kiernan down to the second floor.

"Alright, thank you."

Kiernan breathed a sigh of relief.

He didn't expect that getting a job as simple as this would be such a hassle. It would've been pretty fun if this was the first quest he failed.

'I don't exactly know what the requirement is to complete this quest, but I guess I will just focus on cleaning.'

Kiernan thought to himself.

Arriving at the second floor, Tanaka showed him the guest bedroom, and it was quite humble-looking, with a bed right under a window overlooking the serene garden outside and a desk in the corner.

It had wardrobe space for Kiernan to store his belongings and a small bookshelf next to the bed.

"I don't see you carrying any luggage. It means you're one of those minimalist travelers. However, I'll give you ten minutes to make your bed and settle in before we start the tour of the grounds."

Tanaka said and headed out.

"…This place isn't bad."

Kiernan walked to the bed and looked out of the window to the garden but then saw someone sitting by the pond outside.

She had flowing black hair and was wearing a long, flowing dress—she didn't seem like someone belonging to this dojo.

At that moment, she turned around, and her gray eyes, just like Kiernan's, stared straight at him like they were looking deep into his soul.