“I’ll see you again tomorrow then!”
After Kim Muhyuk, drenched in sweat and looking satisfied, headed back ho,
Sword Demon Choi Geon stayed alone on the rooftop, staring vacantly at the boy’s retreating back as it shrank into the distance.
“...Feels like I’ve been possessed by a ghost.”
When he first realized Kim Muhyuk had learned his swordsmanship, he’d been surprised, sure—but he hadn’t thought it was outright impossible.
Back when he’d served as a sword instructor at the Martial Alliance, he’d taught more than a few hundred disciples.
At least ten of them had received so much direct guidance that you could have called them his true direct disciples. So he had figured, maybe this kid was the disciple of one of his disciples.
They’d been connected, however faintly, by a small thread of fate, so he’d brought the kid ho thinking he’d at least send him off with a gift.
“But that kid understood my sword more deeply than anyone I’ve ever taught. Even more than that bastard himself... Hff!”
A stab of painful mory surged up out of nowhere, making his breath catch.
It was the kind of thing that should never happen to a master of his level, but Choi Geon, as if used to it by now, took a long, deep breath and forced his reeling mind back under control.
“...If he were that bastard’s disciple, he’d never have dared co looking for .”
Murmuring to himself, eyes suddenly gone cold, Choi Geon rubbed at the old scar throbbing in his shoulder.
—How do you plan to take responsibility for the failed operation?!
—Do you feel no sha? Your reckless plan got dozens of young martial artists killed!
—You’re claiming the Martial Alliance’s operation leaked in advance? You toss that out with no proof and call it an excuse?!
—Murderer! Hypocrite!
...More than twenty years had passed, yet Choi Geon still woke from nightmares of those days.
Back then, the Martial Alliance had launched a secret operation to wipe out a demonic cult that had swelled in power in a short ti on the back of drugs and sorcery.
Sword Demon Choi Geon had led an elite strike unit, dispatched to behead the cult’s officers in a single blow.
But they’d walked straight into a prepared ambush. Almost all of his unit died, and he barely made it back alive.
—There was a trap! I won’t deny my share of the bla, but I will not step down until we uncover the mole who leaked our plans!
—What a pathetic excuse!
—All I see is a man trying to dump his responsibility on soone else!
Led by the leaders of the Eight Great Sects, countless people had demanded that Choi Geon take responsibility and resign.
He had no intention of dodging responsibility. He was prepared to take as much bla as they wanted to pile on him.
But until the mole who had leaked their intel was exposed, he had absolutely no intention of stepping down.
At least, that had been true—right up until the mont soone who never should have stood on their side appeared among the people pointing fingers at him.
—...I will testify. Because of Sword Demon Choi Geon’s reckless insistence on pushing the operation through, many lives were lost. There was no sign that any information was leaked. All of it happened because of Sword Demon Choi Geon’s poor judgnt.
—How could you...!
It had been a disciple he’d spent nearly ten years treating like his own flesh and blood.
On the day that disciple—who would later beco one of the elders of the Eight Great Sects—gave that testimony,
Choi Geon gave up on fighting unseen enemies and walked away from the Martial Alliance.
“I swore, from that day on, that I would never teach anyone the sword again...”
The wounds carved into his body had scarred over and healed, but the heart-demon etched into his mind was still gnawing away at him twenty years later.
As if trying to shake that heart-demon off by force, he gave his head a rough shake and looked toward the direction where Kim Muhyuk was disappearing.
“Who’d have thought so brazen little brat would show up and make break that vow.”
The boy nad Kim Muhyuk understood even the things he had chosen not to teach anyone.
Back when he’d instructed young swordsn at the Martial Alliance, there had been things he hadn’t been able to pass on properly because his own system hadn’t been fully settled yet.
So of the things the boy was doing even hinted at solutions to questions he himself had agonized over for years.
Did he really systematize a sword art all on his own?
Just from that ancient book and those videos?
If that’s true, calling him a genius doesn’t even begin to cover it, does it?
Unaware that Kim Muhyuk had been learning the completed sword he himself would forge in the future, Choi Geon could only feel like he’d been possessed by sothing uncanny.
“In all my life, I’ve t and cut down more anomalies than I can count... but I’ve never seen anything stranger than this.”
Choi Geon let out a short, incredulous laugh. Kim Muhyuk’s figure had already vanished completely into the dark.
Turning away, he drew the back scratcher in his hand lightly through the air.
Shwick—
A thin crack opened for an instant in the cool night air, then dissipated.
Even the most slender branch, the mont it entered the hand of a true master, beca a razor-edged sword.
Right now, in Sword Demon’s hand, that flimsy back scratcher was no less sharp than a peerless treasured blade.
Shwick. Shwick—
Choi Geon extended and swept his “sword,” replaying in his mind the way Kim Muhyuk had been training.
It was swordsmanship so close to flawless that, had Kim Muhyuk been watching, he would have stood there slack-jawed, completely absorbed.
Following the exact sword paths he’d morized from a single viewing, Sword Demon weighed the effort the young swordsman had piled up and the mindset that had built it.
“As I thought...”
Lowering his “sword,” Choi Geon gave a small nod.
He felt even more certain of the impression he’d gotten in the brief ti he’d guided the boy.
There isn’t much I need to teach him.
On the broad level, the boy nad Kim Muhyuk was already a fully ford martial artist with almost nothing left to correct.
All he needed was to scrape away a few bad habits from driving his body too hard, the rough patterns that had soaked into his movents, and his excessive hunger to win, and he would soon find his own path.
It’s like looking at my past self.
The thought popped up on its own, but Choi Geon quickly let out a dry chuckle and shook his head.
Comparing the kid to himself was absurdly overrating his own younger days.
Kim Muhyuk possessed talent far beyond what Choi Geon had had in his youth.
The only person who ca to mind as a real point of comparison for that kid was... absurdly enough, a single man.
—Korea is too small for . I’m going to travel the world, fighting duels.
A young man who had given his greetings and departed barely a week after he’d started learning swordsmanship from him.
It was talent that had reminded him of Richard Han, The Strongest in the World.
“A kid that extraordinary...”
—I’m a huge fan of Sword Demon Choi Geon.
“Ahem!”
Kim Muhyuk’s words suddenly replayed in his head, and he coughed awkwardly.
He was too old for this kind of foolishness, and yet, when he’d heard that line, he’d been so flustered he’d nearly gone red in the face.
“Shaless brat. You think a line like that is enough to make swoon?”
Eyes narrowing, Choi Geon snapped his head in the direction Kim Muhyuk had gone.
He could no longer see the boy, but he spoke as if the kid were still standing there in front of him.
“Just watching from the side so you don’t lose your way...”
Might that be enough to see the birth of another peerless martial artist who would step beyond Korea and out into the world?
Choi Geon felt his heart beating faster, in a very different way than before.
He’d always been the kind of man who liked to teach.
That was why he’d taken the job of sword instructor at the Martial Alliance in the first place.
Watching talented late-bloom prospects grow through his instruction had been one of his greatest joys.
“...If it’s just one last ti, I suppose.”
He felt a sudden desire to help that boy accomplish what he himself had never managed to achieve.
Just as the kid had said with that desperate look on his face—so that he could accomplish it all without giving anything up or losing anyone.
“On top of that, he’s even a Five Elents affinity wielder...”
Everyone carried at least a little of the Five Elents’ energy inside them, but having the right compatibility to cultivate them as martial arts was another matter entirely.
Among spell-casters or ascetics, there were people who trained for decades just to balance the Five Elents inside their bodies.
For martial artists, if your constitution itself was poor, being a Five Elents affinity wielder didn’t an much.
But if your constitution was exceptional...
No need to bring up the Five Elents Divine Art yet.
Muscles and bones trained as if carved from stone, a constitution blessed by heaven. What kind of swordsman would be born if you added proper guidance to that?
Clenching his fist tight, Choi Geon realized he was smiling without aning to.
“Heh. Feels like I’m catching a late-breaking breeze.”
Choi Geon ca down from the rooftop and stepped into his ho.
As always, the space was nothing but bleak and empty.
On top of the fridge, a Post-it he’d never seen before was stuck in place.
—I packed so sandwiches and waterlon for dessert, so please eat them as soon as you can!
When he opened the fridge, he found neatly wrapped sandwiches that could have co straight from a shop, and a side-dish container filled with waterlon cut into easy-to-eat pieces.
“When did he...”
Had the kid snuck them into the fridge on his way down?
Choi Geon stared at the handwriting for a long mont, then took out the waterlon and started eating. He couldn’t even rember the last ti he’d had waterlon.
“Clever little brat. You really think I won’t notice you’re just looking for an excuse to co back and pick up your containers.”
But despite the gruff words, a gentle smile was tugging at the corners of Sword Demon Choi Geon’s mouth.
“...The waterlon’s sweet.”
After twenty years of living without interacting with anyone, the old man found himself, for the first ti in a long while, looking forward to tomorrow.
*****
The next day.
What exactly is a Five Elents affinity wielder?
I stared out the window, watching the clouds drift by.
It was the start of my senior year of high school, early autumn, when the lingering heat still clung thick in the air.
I didn’t have much interest in academics, but I was at least trying not to space out during class.
But the mont break ti rolled around like now, my head automatically filled up with everything I’d been through the past few days.
He definitely looked seriously shocked. I get that having the right constitution to learn all Five Elents is rare, but is it really sothing you react to that strongly?
Still, it hadn’t looked like a negative reaction. More like his thoughts had suddenly gotten complicated...
There might be information about my constitution that I don’t know yet.
On top of that, if I started replaying what he’d taught yesterday, and thinking about the relationship between Sword Demon and the Eight Great Sects, and what my training should look like going forward, ti just vanished.
That was why, even though I was aware more and more people were gathering around , I didn’t really pay it any mind.
“Hey, Muhyuk.”
“...Yeah?”
A high-school classmate whose face I barely rembered spoke to .
It was a pretty rare thing. I’d always gone through school quietly on my own, since I didn’t really have much to talk about with friends who weren’t aiming to beco martial artists.
I think there were a few back in freshman year...
There’d been a handful of rough-talking guys who said they wanted to be martial artists too and tried to buddy up to . After we’d had a few spars, every last one of them suddenly decided to “focus on their studies” instead, and things naturally drifted apart.
Ever since then, I practically never had conversations at school, so I looked at my classmate with the kindest smile I could manage.
“Did you need sothing from ?”
“S-sorry! I didn’t an to bother you...”
“It’s fine. So what do you need?”
“I-it’s because of this...”
For so reason, my classmate couldn’t et my eyes and hunched his shoulders like he was trying to make himself smaller as he held out his smartphone to .
“Muhyuk. Is this you?”
“...Ah.”
So that’s why people kept sneaking glances at from every direction today.
The video that had gone up on YouTube showed fighting Nightfiend Sword.
The cara was shaking all over the place trying to keep up with the movent, but every ti the footage paused for a mont, my face ca through clear enough that anyone could tell who it was.
“Let see that for a sec.”
When I checked the comnts, my high school and my na were already out there.
A peek at my own phone showed a fat stack of ssenger notifications. Most of them were from my dad, Shin Kangheon, and Kim Bokja.
“...Yeah. That’s .”
I didn’t see the point in denying it. No one would have believed anyway, so I just nodded.
“Holy shit! You were that strong?”
“At this level, won’t one of the Eight Great Sects try to recruit you?”
“That video’s only been up a few hours and it’s already over a hundred thousand views. It’s definitely breaking five hundred thousand before the day’s over.”
“...”
I wanted to joke around lightly with them too, but nothing clever ca to mind, so I just t each person’s eyes and nodded once.
That was enough to make the crowd scatter like the tide going out.
...Weren’t they trying to get closer to ?
With things quiet again, I replayed the YouTube clip and started reading through the comnts.
I had a feeling this was going to get more annoying than I’d expected, given how big the reaction already was.
I should swing by ho first and then go see my teacher.
Once all my classes were over,
I jumped straight out the third-floor window the mont horoom ended.
Whoosh!
All I could think about was getting ho fast before anything annoying kicked off.
But whether my reaction had been a little too slow, or the other side’s response had just been fast—
A limousine was parked right in front of the school gate, waiting for .
“Hey? Isn’t that logo Azure Sky Sword Gate?”
“Yeah, it is. Why’s Azure Sky Sword Gate here?”
“Is it because of that video? The one where that martial artist fought our school’s upperclassman?”
I didn’t need to listen to the murmuring students walking past to know who was in that limousine.
The character for “Azure Sky,” with a sword laid horizontally across it.
The logo of Azure Sky Sword Gate, one of the Eight Great Sects, was emblazoned on the side of the car.
“So you’re Kim Muhyuk?”
A woman stepped out of the limousine and walked straight toward .
Short hair down to her shoulders, long arms and legs, with the vibe of a runway model.
She was dressed in a sharp formal suit, but you could tell from her stride alone that she was no ordinary office worker.
“Can you spare a little of your ti?”
The disciple of Azure Sky Sword Gate who’d approached gave a friendly smile as she spoke.
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