Lesson One
Looking back, I realized Lee Yuha had followed me out through the school gates without my noticing. She wore a stern expression as she asked, “Why are you…… helping me?”
She took another step closer and looked me straight in the eye. “I am no fool. Do you truly believe I would not notice how many times you have kept me from being expelled?”
Lee Yuha was referring to the time I picked a fight with Murasaki to stop her quarrel with Yang Bok-ja, and to how I had just defended her in front of the student supervisor. Of course, that had been part of my intention, but my first priority had been saving my own skin. I had challenged Murasaki to keep the squad from falling apart, and earlier I had only used her as a convenient excuse to defend myself. In the end, both incidents had helped her, whether I meant to or not. A happy accident, you might say.
Still, a good deed was a good deed. I answered with a smile. “Well, we’re fellow Koreans. We ought to look out for one another.”
“Fellow Koreans.” A cold, mocking smile flickered across Lee Yuha’s lips. “Even someone like you feels a sense of kinship?”
……
Her question stemmed, naturally, from the string of misunderstandings that had begun that morning. Though perhaps they were not entirely misunderstandings. The body I now inhabited, Baek Chulyeon, really was the son of a family that had received a baronial title from Japan and even changed its surname. Even Song Byeong-o, an ordinary Korean student, had dismissed me at first as “a bourgeois lackey of Japan.” To a girl from a principled yangban household, I must have seemed the unforgivable offspring of a pro-Japanese traitor family.
Lee Yuha had already been disappointed once she learned my background. For the son of such a family to keep helping her, it was only natural she would grow suspicious.
So she had followed me out here, hoping for an explanation. The thought struck me that this was an opportunity. The sky was darkening, the area around the gates was deserted, and we were alone. Now was the perfect moment to clear up the misunderstanding that I was a pro-Japanese collaborator.
“Well…… it is true that I come from ‘that kind of family,’” I said quietly. “But I am not like the rest of them. Do you know why I picked a fight with Murasaki?”
“……I saw it. Was it not to keep me from being expelled after fighting with the Yang girl? I wanted to ask why you took my side—”
I cut her off. “No. That was part of it, but Murasaki insulted me first by calling me a Korean. That is why I challenged him.”
“……!”
Lee Yuha looked slightly surprised. She thought for a moment, then asked again. “But that was only because you did not want to be called a Korean, was it not? You are someone who wishes to become Japanese—”
“No, that is not it. Listen. Murasaki’s father is the chief of Jongno Police Station. If I were really a Japanese collaborator, would I have gone out of my way to make an enemy of his son?”
“That……”
Lee Yuha could not answer. I pressed on, pulling open my uniform collar to show her the name tag. “And this name, Shirabayashi, was forced on us by my elders. They changed our surname to a Japanese one without asking. I never wanted it. I want to keep the name Baek and the three Korean characters of Baek Chulyeon. I am not like Yang Bok-ja, who is obsessed with having a Japanese name.”
“……!”
“That is why I told you my name was Baek Chulyeon this morning. I did not want my fellow Korean students calling me by the Japanese surname Shirabayashi.”
Of course, I had said it to convince her, but it was not a lie. Even with the mind of a twenty-first-century Korean, the last thing I wanted was to be called by a Japanese name I had never chosen.
Lee Yuha stood silent for a long time after hearing my impassioned speech. I had said everything I could. If she still did not believe me, there was nothing more I could do.
At last, standing beneath the evening glow, she spoke. “……I did not know.”
She kept her face turned away. “I misunderstood you without knowing your circumstances. You must have had a difficult time…… I am sorry.”
She admitted her mistake and apologized. I was relieved the misunderstanding had been cleared. The worry that had weighed on me all day finally lifted, and I felt at ease.
“There is no need to apologize. It was an understandable mistake. If anything, I am the one at fault for speaking up so late.”
If we had not cleared things up today, I would have had to wait until the day after tomorrow. Now I could go home with a clear mind. I checked my watch, adjusted my student cap, and said to her, “It is getting late. You should head back. I need to get going as well…… Tomorrow—no, tomorrow is a holiday, so I will see you the day after.”
I turned to leave, but she called out again. “Wait……!”
“Hm?”
“What you said in front of the teacher earlier…… was that true? That you would…… teach me.”
Teach her? “Me, teach you? You will probably be taking magic classes, and I will be in swordsmanship. Our majors are different—”
“I meant…… Japanese.”
Ah, that. I had only said it on the spur of the moment to get out of trouble with the student supervisor. I had not expected her to take it seriously. When I stayed silent, Lee Yuha hesitated, then began a long, awkward explanation.
“As you said, it is true that I never attended a modern school. ……You must find it laughable. Someone born into an enlightened household and given a modern education would think so.”
Enlightened! The word sounded like it belonged to the early 1900s, not the late 1930s. She really did seem to have come from thirty years in the past.
“To enter this school, one must master Japanese. I learned enough from my clan elders to read and understand it, but I have never spoken it with people my own age, so the words do not come easily.”
No wonder her Japanese had been so clumsy. She really had taught herself at home. A foreign language had to be learned through conversation…… (Though I was hardly one to talk, having inherited Baek Chulyeon’s language skills for free.)
“My peers all treat me with distance, so it is difficult for me to mingle with them……”
“So?”
“That is why…… since we have already begun speaking, and since you speak Japanese well and seem well-versed in general knowledge from growing up in an enlightened household……”
She kept circling around the point. “So…… if it is not too much trouble, could we…… sometimes……”
Lee Yuha fiddled with the silver daenggi in her hair, now dyed red by the sunset, and finally blurted out, “Could you spend time with me?”
Now that the misunderstanding was cleared and we were on friendlier terms, she wanted me to teach her Japanese and general knowledge from time to time. Hmm. What to do? I was not exactly an expert on Japanese or the common sense of this era either. Japanese came from Baek Chulyeon’s memories, and as someone from the future, my grasp of this period’s everyday knowledge was shaky at best. Still…… I was probably better than someone who might as well have come from the past. Teaching her would not be impossible.
“Well, that is……” I started to say it was fine, but when I saw how serious her face was, a mischievous urge struck me. I had been on edge because of her all day, and there had been several awkward moments. A small bit of payback seemed fair. Without changing my expression, I said, “Could you repeat what you just said in Japanese? That will be Lesson One.”
“What? ……You mean ‘Could you spend time with me’?”
“Yes, that. You can manage that much, right?”
It was not a difficult sentence. Lee Yuha thought for a moment, then stammered, “Watashi to…… tsukiatte kuremasen ka?”
“Mm. That is correct.” I nodded, and only then did Lee Yuha smile faintly. She looked nice when she smiled. Of course, once she realized the double meaning of that phrase in Japanese, she might try to freeze me alive on the spot.
***
After parting with Lee Yuha at the gates, I continued on my way home. I got off the bus, left the main road, and climbed the hill. The streetlights disappeared, but the moon and stars were bright enough to light the way. This was still a quiet residential area far from downtown Gyeongseong, but one day Seoul would expand and this would become prime real estate. I wondered where exactly this would be in the future. Seongbuk-gu, maybe?
While musing, I opened the boarding house gate. The landlord’s daughter came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron. “You are back.”
“Yeah.”
“Have you eaten? Or shall I prepare something?”
It was already half past seven. I considered going out, but that would mean heading all the way into the city, and wandering unfamiliar streets in the dark did not appeal. Besides, after climbing a mountain all day, I was exhausted and had no desire to go anywhere else.
“I will eat here.”
“Then I will bring it in shortly. ……Ah! How was the bento? Did it suit your taste?”
Ah, right. The lunchbox. I fished the empty container from my bag and handed it over. “Yeah. It was delicious.”
“?”
“?”
Oh no…… “I mean, it tasted good! I was tired, so my tongue got twisted!”
“I see……”
How awkward. She had gone to the trouble of making it, and I had not even eaten it. Still, at least someone else had enjoyed it. A young lady from a yangban family had found it tasty, so that counted for something, right?
As I was taking off my shoes to go to my room, the landlord’s daughter, who had been heading back to the kitchen, asked, “What about tomorrow’s bento?”
“I do not have school tomorrow.”
“Understood. Then I will only prepare dinner.”
I went to my room, ate, and after the table was cleared, I lay on the floor thinking. Good. The first day of school had gone reasonably well. Thanks to the massive amount of mana I had absorbed while hunting the demon beast, my status window would recover in a few days. I had also secured a scholarship on top of the tuition my family sent. And the misunderstanding with Lee Yuha was resolved. All that remained was to put Murasaki in his place once classes started in earnest. That did not worry me either. And now I even had a day off. Tomorrow I could wander around Gyeongseong at my leisure.
With that pleasant thought, I went to bed early. Early-bird bedtime……!
***
At the same time, in a luxurious Japanese-style mansion with a beautiful garden, Renka stood with her sword raised high, staring at the bamboo target before her. After a long moment, she let out a sharp kiai and swung the blade down like lightning.
Slash ／ ／ ＼ Slash ＼ Slash ／ ／
Three strikes in the blink of an eye. Yet the bamboo target remained perfectly still. A moment later, flames flickered along the thin cuts, and the target slowly burned through before collapsing in pieces.
Crash……
Renka swung her sword twice to sheathe it, then closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. Haa……
As she caught her breath, she recalled the events of the day at school. During the practical training, Baek Chulyeon and his squad had defeated a large mid-tier demon beast that had appeared in the training ground. Officially, it was said that the squad members had worked together, but Renka knew it had only been possible because of Baek Chulyeon’s leadership. He had rejected her offer, gathered a ragtag group that was bound to hold him back, and still managed to take down a large mid-tier beast.
But Renka also knew the truth. That squad would not last long. No matter how hard Baek Chulyeon tried, there were too many sources of conflict within it. That was her conclusion based on everything she had seen and heard.
Renka lifted her gaze slightly and peered into the darkness. On the surface, the only person living in this vast mansion was herself, aside from a few servants in the distant annex. Yet she could see them—dark figures perched on the roof and among the trees. They were a group of ninjas guarding her from the shadows. Two units dispatched by her father in Kagoshima to protect her in Gyeongseong. The Shimazu group by day, and the ninja unit by night.
Renka looked at the darkness where the ninjas hid and spoke softly. “Osue.”
The moment she spoke, a girl in black appeared behind her, kneeling on one knee. Small in stature, she was wrapped head to toe in black cloth like the others, her hair swept to one side to cover half her face. Katsurai Osue. One of the ninjas in the shadows, she was the spy Renka had secretly planted among the students.
Without turning around, Renka raised her sword toward the bamboo target again and said, “Tell me everything that happened today. Leave nothing out.”
Osue had been assigned to the same class as Baek Chulyeon from the start. Once Renka became interested in him, she had ordered Osue to monitor his movements within the school. Osue bowed her head and began her report. “I shall report, my lady.”
As Renka listened, she became even more convinced that Baek Chulyeon’s squad would not last. The relationship between Lee Yuha, the daughter of a ruined anti-Japanese yangban family, and Yang Bok-ja, the daughter of a pro-Japanese merchant, was fundamentally incompatible. Their argument earlier that day was only the beginning. Murasaki, who had once led his own clique, would never accept a Korean like Baek Chulyeon as his leader. He had even reported Baek Chulyeon and Lee Yuha for speaking Korean to the student supervisor. Another sign of inevitable internal strife.
The most fatal part came next. According to Osue, when Baek Chulyeon and Lee Yuha were summoned by the student supervisor, Baek Chulyeon had used Lee Yuha as an excuse to avoid losing points. That, Shirabayashi, was your greatest mistake.
In front of Lee Yuha, who bristled at the very idea of calling Japanese the “national language,” he had boldly declared to the student supervisor that he would teach her the national language. Heh…… You should never have said that to Ri.
Lee Yuha. The daughter of a fallen yangban family. Her Japanese was still clumsy and she was naive, but Renka acknowledged that she possessed considerable talent. During the battle against the Onigumo earlier that day, Lee Yuha’s contributions had been significant. With that level of ability, it was only a matter of time before she stood out among the students. Not only her skills, but also her prestigious lineage—ruined though it was—and her elegant, refined appearance. Before long, she would become the idol and center of the Korean students at the academy.
If Baek Chulyeon had formed an alliance with her, Renka’s plan to win his favor and uncover his secrets would have fallen apart. But now…… Their relationship is about to become irreparably strained.
Fortunately for Renka, that would no longer happen. This incident would drive a wedge between Baek Chulyeon and Lee Yuha. Already forced to endure the contempt and interference of the Japanese students, Baek Chulyeon would now face rejection from the Korean students as well, led by Lee Yuha. It was obvious.
Renka narrowed her eyes and smiled faintly. Once Baek Chulyeon was abandoned even by his fellow Koreans, there would be only one place left for him to turn—
Osue added, “Afterward, the two of them spoke a few more words outside the gates, but since they spoke in Korean, I could not understand most of it. However, at the very end, Ri addressed Shirabayashi in Japanese……”
Renka, who had been raising her sword, paused with mild interest. “Outside the gates, where Korean is allowed, Ri chose to speak Japanese? Hmm…… What did she say?”
Osue answered, “She asked Shirabayashi, ‘Will you go out with me?’……”
Renka dropped her sword. “What!!!”