The Special Ones
“Master.”
I was watching Garam and Master’s duel from a distance when Iris approached me from the side.
“Can I ask you just one thing?”
“Since when did you start asking for my permission before asking anything?”
“It’s about Grandmaster.”
I stared at Iris for a moment before nodding in approval.
“Grandmaster… exactly how old is she?”
“…That’s what you wanted to know?”
“Ugh! Master, come on! Honestly, this is something I can’t help but be curious about! Just look at her! Garam looks way more like the older sister, and Grandmaster is so young it’s hard to tell if she’s even an adult!”
“There are circumstances behind it. What’s certain is that she’s older than you, Garam, and even me.”
“How on earth does she take care of herself to stay that beautiful? I’ll have to ask her about it later.”
“….”
I guarantee that if she asks, Master will probably say something like, “If you wish, I shall personally perform marrow cleansing for you,” and then proceed to separate flesh from bone. …Come to think of it, that would be more like bone and muscle separation than marrow cleansing, wouldn’t it? Anyway, I wonder when this kid will finally awaken her serious side as a Hero. The other disciples had already accepted their fates and started acting more mature by this point. As expected of our youngest, it seems even growing up is coming last for her.
“Shh. It’s starting. You should pay close attention too.”
“You’re right. …Will Garam be okay, though?”
Maybe it was because she had witnessed the true power of the Heavenly Demon earlier. A faint flicker of fear and worry crossed the girl’s face. It was only natural—she had taken the Cheonma Shingong head-on, after all.
“Master got a little too worked up earlier. I don’t know why, but…”
“Maybe I just rub her the wrong way.”
“….”
Just like me, it seemed that part was bothering Iris too. Master rarely showed her emotions, yet the rage she had displayed earlier was something I had never seen before. As I watched the girl, I recalled what Master had said. A devourer of those around her. Someone who consumes the people close to her. Iris was born with the inescapable fate of a Hero. There was no way that could be true. It couldn’t be.
Taeng—!
I remembered them keeping a considerable distance, but somehow Garam had already closed the gap and was charging in fiercely. Master still kept her right hand tucked behind her waist. She wasn’t even holding a sword in her left hand, yet she effortlessly blocked Garam’s blade.
“She blocked the sword with her bare hand?”
“Master is using a technique to reinforce her body. She was already incredibly sturdy, and now she’s wrapped it in energy on top of that. It should be harder than most steel.”
“Whoa…”
“Whoa? What do you mean, whoa? I taught you the same thing.”
“You taught me? When?”
“The mana cultivation method I gave you is derived from that, you hopeless disciple.”
It had been impossible to teach the Cheonma Shingong to my disciples exactly as it was. So I had modified it slightly for each of them, tailoring it to suit them perfectly. It was the desperate struggle I had gone through to make them stronger in a short period of time. Thanks to that, everyone from Garam to the disciples before Iris had benefited greatly. And yet this disciple of mine had learned it and was now acting like she was seeing it for the first time.
Clang! Clang!!
The sounds were of swords clashing against swords, blades meeting blades. But what the eyes saw was a sword colliding with a human hand. Master didn’t move her right hand at all. She blocked Garam’s sword purely with the edge of her left hand.
Tat!
Perhaps deciding that this fight no longer held any meaning, Garam retreated and twisted her sword slightly. At the same time, mana began gathering around her all at once.
‘…That technique.’
It was Garam’s ultimate skill, Moon Under the Moonlight, which she had no choice but to develop despite her fragile body. A cheat skill that inflicted absurd damage across a wide area with zero reduction. A technique with single-target level damage used as an area attack should have had some kind of penalty, but Garam seemed to have replaced that penalty with her water-like body, because there was none.
Grrrrk—!
While the area around Garam grew darker, only the sword she held emitted light. During that time, Master simply watched without interfering or checking her at all. She probably wanted to see Garam’s full power once.
“Haaat!”
Finally, moonlight began to dance from within Garam’s embrace. The first thing that flew out wasn’t a beam of light but a single gust of wind. From a distance it might have looked like nothing more than a breeze, but the energy contained within it was anything but ordinary.
Kwoong—! Thud—!
The sound of something heavy striking Master’s arm rang out. She had simply received the incoming wind, yet it produced such a tremendous roar. Following that, sword energies carrying a chilling aura flew toward her. It was as if they were absorbing every bit of moonlight from beneath a massive full moon. Dozens, hundreds of sword energies poured down toward Master.
“Ah!”
Iris, seeing Garam’s ultimate skill for the first time, let out a gasp and couldn’t close her mouth. Even from afar, the chilling aura was palpable. A beautiful yet murderous sight. A technique that literally erased everything beneath the glow of moonlight. As I watched Garam—who had received the same teachings as me—display such power, I prayed that Iris would feel something from it. …Well, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much.
Kugugugu….
The brilliantly shining moonlight gradually faded away. The wide clearing was now covered in hideous scars, as if a monster had swept through. If someone of mediocre skill had been there, not even a corpse would remain—there wouldn’t even be fragments left.
“…My disciple certainly taught her well.”
However, her opponent was my Master, the Grandmaster of my disciples, the Heavenly Demon. Although Garam was my first disciple and had reached the pinnacle with the sword, she still had a long way to go before she could reach Master.
“It stings. How long has it been since I last bled?”
Blood? Looking closely, blood was indeed flowing from Master’s hand. It wasn’t a deep wound—just a shallow cut. Still, the fact that someone had managed to injure the body of the Heavenly Demon was undoubtedly an impressive feat.
“Haa… haa… haaah…”
On the contrary, Garam—who had used her ultimate skill—looked far worse than Master, who had taken the hit. She had somehow overcome her weakness of having a fragile body through grueling training that cut into her very bones. Even so, she still had the limitations of a glass cannon; her stamina was noticeably weaker than the other disciples’.
“I acknowledge the power. If it’s enough to wound me, then there should be nothing in this world that technique cannot cut. However, if there is something it cannot cut…”
Master lightly kicked off the ground. Her steps were so light it looked like she was simply going for a stroll, yet with that single stride, the distance between her and Garam closed in an instant.
“The next part is obvious, isn’t it?”
Thud—!
…Wait a second. Wasn’t that just a light flick to the forehead that Master gave Garam? Why did it sound like a cannon firing instead of a simple thwack? And why was Garam—who should have been clutching her forehead and whining—flying off into the distance?
“…Master.”
“…What.”
“…I’ll listen to you better from now on.”
“…Good.”
As a bonus, I also resolved to behave better around Master from now on.
Click.
“How is she?”
“It’s nothing serious. She’s just asleep. The shock was one thing, but that technique takes a heavy toll.”
“That’s a relief.”
Iris kept glancing toward the room where Garam was lying down. They had seemed to get along decently earlier, but now she was even worrying about her. For me, who considered it best when my disciples got along with each other, it was a very welcome sight.
“Master.”
“Yeah.”
“Um… you know. I suddenly got curious about something.”
“What is it? If it’s another weird question, you’re in trouble, Iris.”
“…Your master. I mean, Grandmaster is incredibly strong, right?”
“That’s true.”
“And you, who learned from Grandmaster, are also incredibly strong.”
“That’s also true.”
“Then why do you keep telling us, ‘You are the only hope’?”
I knew a question like this would eventually come from Iris’s mouth. The other disciples had asked it at least once as well. From the disciples’ perspective, it was only natural to tilt their heads in confusion. Why would someone far stronger than them claim that they were the Heroes destined to quell the chaos of the world? Especially when that person could easily overpower those very Heroes. Wouldn’t it be much better if they stepped forward themselves?
‘It’s not that we won’t. It’s that we can’t.’
Garam, Iris, and all the other disciples had been born with the fate of Heroes. And only those Heroes could save this world. They were the only ones capable of facing the true boss of this world—the Fragment of the Demon God—an existence that made regular monsters look like nothing. No matter how strong my Master, the Heavenly Demon, was, and no matter how skilled a teacher I was in training my disciples, we could not inflict any meaningful damage on those Fragments. Only those born with the fate of a Hero could deal effective damage. That was the rule that existed in this world, in this game.
‘Of course, that makes sense. Master is an NPC, and I’m an outsider. But my disciples are the actual characters who fought in that game. In the end, the outcome of the battle rests on their shoulders.’
That was why I had worked so hard to become their master. It wasn’t just to ride on the coattails of their glory. It was to keep the ones who could save this world firmly by my side. It was the path that would allow me to survive in this world that would become the apocalypse itself once Season 2 began.
“…Iris.”
However, I couldn’t explain it to her exactly as it was. The truth was that this was a world inside a game, and they were merely game characters. The bosses of that game could only be defeated by them. How could I possibly say something like that? Especially when I was no longer even sure if all of this was truly a game anymore.
“Yes, Master.”
So I decided to mix truth and lies appropriately.
“I’ve told you before. Neither I nor my master are people of this world. We came from a very distant place. I told you that not long ago. Do you remember?”
“Yes. You said you somehow ended up drifting here.”
“That’s right. Because of that, my master and I cannot interfere with the affairs of this world. Protecting this world is the duty of those who belong to it—you. I can only teach you how to become stronger and faster than anyone else.”
“…Does that mean you and Grandmaster are not ordinary people, but special beings?”
At Iris’s question, I shook my head. To her, my master and I probably seemed like special existences. But in reality, it was the complete opposite.
“No.”
“Then what?”
“The special ones are you, Garam, and the rest of my disciples. Rather, it is my master and I who are the ordinary ones. You are the most special beings in this world. That is why you are the Heroes.”