The Hundredth Year and What Finally Opened
One hundred years.
For an ordinary human being, it was longer than a single lifetime.
And through all of that time, Seonwoo had advanced without rest, without stopping, with unwavering diligence.
But that did not mean there had been no problems along the way.
Just as the accumulated resentment born from repeated failure had dragged Seonwoo into this place, Hanwa.
Inside Seonwoo, who had only managed to keep moving because he could still feel that he was progressing, many negative emotions had also been piling up beside that forward motion.
The unchanging repetition of training.
His master had spoken of ten years, yet that span had long since been left behind, and now it had reached one hundred.
All of it came from the self-reproach that blamed himself for being unable to move on to the next step.
Those negative emotions had to be released before they grew into a great blaze of anger, and Seong Seorin knew that now was the time.
And the method would be sparring.
As for his opponent—
Swish—
"...Me?"
It was a cat, pointing at herself with an adorable front paw while her tail swayed.
Seong Seorin nodded.
"Yes. You learned a few things from me as well, and are you not close to my disciple?"
Swish—
The cat slowly averted her gaze. Her tail waved the way it always did when she disliked something, but she couldn't deny it.
The cat was the only being in Hanwa whom Seonwoo spoke to casually.
"Am I easy for you to talk to?"
"Yeah. You're cute."
"......!!"
"I want you to be my friend too."
"F-friend."
To Seong Seorin's eyes, it had been the very picture of a merciless sinking.
"...Baekseol."
"Hm?"
"My name is Baekseol. If we're friends, you should know my name, shouldn't you?!"
"Ah, right. Baekseol. Yeah. It really suits you."
From that day on, Seonwoo called the cat Baekseol.
And Baekseol always hovered around him, sitting nearby like a loaf of bread.
Given that sort of relationship, Seong Seorin had judged that Baekseol was the perfect sparring partner.
"...All right. I'll do it."
Baekseol accepted Seong Seorin's proposal.
To be honest, she was curious.
Cheonma Seong Seorin.
Even among the transcendent beings gathered here in Hanwa, she stood alone.
In truth, before she arrived, Hanwa had been a true demonic realm.
Could a being so full of resentment that it would be dragged into this place ever have been normal to begin with?
Every last one of them had been mad, and even those who looked sane had usually been twisted inside.
The one who had cleaned all of that up and created the present peaceful Hanwa was Seong Seorin.
And she had done it through one thing alone.
Martial arts.
With overwhelming martial power, she had neatly settled everything.
A few had come back to their senses in the process. The gold-haired handsome man beside Baekseol was one of them.
He'd been beaten until he was practically dead, and only then had his mind cleared.
Since he'd even had manners hammered into him afterward, he had been granted permission to set foot in the domain of the Heavenly Demon.
In any case.
Seonwoo had trained for a full hundred years under Seong Seorin, receiving endless praise from someone who could be said to have reached the very peak of martial arts.
Surely he must have achieved something worthy of that praise, and Baekseol wanted to confirm it for herself.
And—
She thought it would be nice if she could encourage him afterward, saying, See? It's fine.
Swish—
...Ahem.
Baekseol flicked her tail as if brushing away her own thoughts.
Then she fixed her blue eyes on the single punch Seong Seorin demonstrated.
A slow but cleanly extended fist.
Within that movement, the principles of martial arts were interlocked with the precision of a machine, completing themselves into one whole.
"There. Do it to about this degree."
It meant that anything up to this level would be perfectly acceptable.
"Yes. Understood."
Baekseol understood it perfectly after seeing it only once.
On the outside, she looked like nothing more than a cute, snow-white cat.
But in truth, Baekseol herself was one of the foremost beings in Hanwa.
Enough to have carved out a territory of her own even in the days when Hanwa had been a demonic realm.
Once the preparations were complete, Baekseol took her place across from Seonwoo while he was still going, "Uh—"
Come on. Show me.
What was it about you that made Unni praise you like that?
Swish—
She didn't say it aloud, but her tail revealed her anticipation.
In Baekseol's eyes, Seonwoo's current level was plainly visible.
Clear as if seen from a great height.
He was certainly trained beyond comparison to how he had been a hundred years ago, and martial arts had sunk deeply into him as well.
If he went out into the world as he was, he would be called a master.
But that was only by the standards of ordinary humans.
Compared to the realm Seong Seorin praised and Baekseol expected, he did not even come close enough to be worth speaking of.
So Baekseol intended to face him directly and experience for herself what was special about her friend.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes."
"...Yes."
Though he was full of hesitation, Seonwoo still nodded diligently at his master's question.
From the look of her confused disciple, Seong Seorin could already guess the result, but she did not stop.
"Then—begin!"
Craaack—
The moment Seong Seorin declared it, moisture froze in front of Baekseol and formed an ice arrow.
A basic manifestation of magic.
But the fact that it happened without so much as a sign, naturally and with exquisite precision, showed Baekseol's level at a glance.
At the same time, the arrow's tip was blunt rather than sharp, which also revealed her consideration.
Flinch—!
And Seonwoo's eyes trembled at the sight of the formed ice arrow.
He had never expected her to use magic rather than fists.
From the start, he had wondered how one was supposed to spar with Baekseol when she was, after all, a cat.
Now the answer had been given in this form, and Seonwoo failed to take it in.
Whoosh—!
The ice arrow shot forward like a ray of light.
But it did not fly in a straight line.
It traced a bizarre trajectory—one difficult to follow even while watching it with both eyes wide open.
That trajectory was a form shaped according to the martial principles Seong Seorin had demonstrated.
Baekseol had reproduced the attack of a martial artist rushing in and throwing a punch through an ice arrow.
And Seonwoo—
Crash!
"Ugh."
He failed to block it properly.
He had not even been able to hold it clearly in his sight to begin with, so of course he could not respond correctly either.
"......"
And Baekseol's blue eyes turned cold as the next attack followed.
Crrrack—!
This time, four ice arrows came flying in.
Seonwoo barely managed to recover his balance, but once again he could not stretch out his hands properly.
Clang, clang, clang!
As he took the hits head-on, his stance collapsed completely.
Thump.
Sss—
Then the spar ended with the final ice arrow aimed at his throat.
It was an empty, futile defeat.
"......"
Swish—
Baekseol's tail swayed.
Her earlier anticipation had vanished. Only anger showed there now.
Seonwoo gave her a smile full of apology.
"I'm sorry, Master."
Then he lowered his head to his master.
He had shown her a disappointing sight.
To that, Seong Seorin said—
"You are doing it wrong, Disciple."
For the first time, she told her disciple that he was mistaken.
"Disciple."
"...Yes, Master."
"I know your kind heart well. Even in sparring, you did not wish to truly clash with a friend, did you?"
Swish—
"But, Disciple. This is not a fight. It is a friend exerting herself for the sake of a friend."
"And is it not only proper that you answer her with your utmost as well?"
Then Seong Seorin smiled softly.
"To begin with, Baekseol is not such a weak child that you need worry over her. Even if you do your best, she can take it easily enough. So, Disciple."
"Yes, Master."
"Open your eyes."
"Set your heart straight and breathe. Retrace the road you have walked, and look with both your eyes."
"If you truly wish to see, you will see. Your eyes have already opened."
Thump—
At his master's voice sinking sharply into him, Seonwoo's heart beat.
"Show yourself properly to the friend who is waiting for you."
Thump—
Seonwoo shifted his gaze from his master to Baekseol.
Swish—
The snow-white, adorable cat who had become his friend was silently holding him in her eyes.
She was demanding that he show her clearly where he stood.
"...Hoo."
Seonwoo closed his eyes and exhaled.
Very deeply.
He poured all of his hesitation, anxiety, and every other negative emotion into that breath and expelled them, then straightened his posture.
And what remained was only sincerity.
Sss—
When he opened his eyes again, everything had changed.
...!
Thump—
Baekseol's heart, facing him, gave a leap.
Seonwoo's level had not changed at all.
And yet the instant he opened his eyes again, Seonwoo himself had changed completely, and that was why Baekseol's heart had raced.
He was different.
Fundamentally, utterly different.
At last, she felt as though she might finally see the something special Seong Seorin had praised in him.
Then the changed Seonwoo smiled faintly and said,
"Could I ask you one more time?"
"...All right."
"Yeah. This time, I'll do it properly."
"Haha! Good. Then—begin!"
Smiling in satisfaction, Seong Seorin declared the start of the second spar.
Crrrack—!
At the declaration, an ice arrow formed once more.
Just as a martial artist might settle into stance and clench a fist within a single breath.
Whoosh!
And then it fired, exploding with compressed force.
Just as before, it traced not a straight line but a strange trajectory that could not be followed even when seen.
Within the bounds Seong Seorin had set, it drew a form filled with martial principles and aimed for Seonwoo's vital points.
Sss—
Seonwoo breathed, and this time he captured it clearly with both eyes.
He saw it.
And before it had even completed half its trajectory, he took a single step.
Slip—
The next instant, the ice arrow Baekseol had fired skimmed past Seonwoo's side.
As though it had been aimed there from the beginning.
"......"
Swish—
Baekseol's tail swayed.
The agitation in her heart showed there exactly as it was.
To be clear, Baekseol had not gone easy on him.
She had not carelessly tossed it out. Within the level Seong Seorin had set, she had drawn a proper form with complete precision.
And he had read it before it had even reached the halfway point of a human punch, then moved first and dodged it perfectly?
Baekseol's curiosity flared.
And Baekseol was not the kind to restrain her curiosity.
Crrrack, crack, crack—!
In an instant, six ice arrows formed.
Pak, pak!
All of them shot out without delay.
It had not surpassed the level Seong Seorin allowed.
As their number increased, the forms became simpler.
But at this level, the mere fact that the number had increased could in some ways make things far more difficult.
Especially if one intended to read the form first and avoid it—then it became all the more deadly...
"...!"
Sss—
Before Baekseol's thought had even finished, Seonwoo had already taken his next step.
Pat, pat, pat—!
One step.
And with that one step alone, all six ice arrows missed Seonwoo entirely.
Baekseol could not believe it.
The single mysterious trajectory drawn by that one step had caused all six trajectories to slide harmlessly away.
Unable to accept it, Baekseol replayed that instant over and over in the blink of an eye.
...Huh?
And the moment she realized why it had been possible, every hair on her body stood on end.
Watching the spar between the two of them, Seong Seorin smiled faintly.
Yes, Disciple. You are doing well.