264. Moon Shadow Sword Technique (1)
264. Moon Shadow Sword Technique (1)
After returning to the academy from China.
I dismissed the party members and headed straight for the training ground.
A training ground that now felt not just familiar but downright boring.
Even though it had a system that automatically repaired itself after training.
The footprints I'd stomped into the same spots again and again—
and the scars from repeated sword swings—still lingered in places, not yet fully restored.
'Hmm.'
I stood there staring blankly at the training ground.
It felt strange. As far as I could remember, this was the first time I'd ever walked into the training ground and done nothing but look around like this.
Just then.
Step—
A single footstep caught my ear from behind.
That subtle consideration—she always killed all sound of her approach, but when she was around me, she deliberately let her presence be known.
Yeah. My Master.
It was Baek Seol-hee.
"Master."
I turned my head to face her.
And there she was, wearing the same expressionless look as always.
"······."
Staaare—
Twitch.
Twitch.
Master narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked at me, then her eyebrows flinched twice.
"Disciple, you've learned the sword."
I'd deliberately avoided drawing my sword, hoping to see the look of surprise on Master's face.
It seemed my plan had failed from the very start.
'Well, still······. Two flinches is at least a decent result.'
Two consecutive eyebrow twitches were not the kind of admiration you got to see often.
I nodded, letting a small grin slip out.
"Yes, that's right. I picked it up during the mission in China."
"Huh. That's fast. I expected it would take at least a few months······."
Master let out a dry laugh, but her tone almost made it seem like she was past being surprised.
'Since not only did my Star Rank rise to 3-Star, but my Swordsmanship Specialization went up to SS-rank too.'
The synergy of both had accelerated even my ability to acquire new sword techniques.
Still, receiving Master's acknowledgement sent a swell of pride through my chest.
It was, after all, worth coming straight to see Master right after the mission ended.
Not that that was the only reason I came, of course.
'But since we're already on the subject. Should I ask?'
"Master, how did that work, anyway? I was shocked too. When did you ever teach me this sword technique?"
I can say this now, but.
Way back when she first just threw out that cryptic line—"Contain multiple Sword Auras within a single slash"—and told me to figure out the rest on my own, honestly, it had felt impossibly daunting.
But, now I understood.
That throughout all that training, the Instructor had already been teaching me everything.
When I synthesized everything I'd learned and found the answer, that answer had become the sword technique itself.
Master, who had been gazing at me quietly, slowly opened her mouth.
"······That sword technique is called the Moon Shadow Sword Technique."
"Moon Shadow Sword Technique······."
"Yes. It is the sword technique containing the essence of my art. My everything. And at the same time, it is an incomplete sword technique."
At her words, my face filled with shock.
"Th-This is incomplete?"
I couldn't believe it.
Speed, direction, destructive power, and offense and defense.
A sword technique where all of it was boundlessly free yet simultaneously connected into a single whole—that was incomplete?
Honestly, the first time I used this sword, I even felt a sense of omnipotence, like I couldn't lose to anyone who held a sword.
'Then how strong is it when it's completed······?'
It felt like I'd just climbed one mountain only to find an even higher wall blocking my way.
As I was mulling over that for a moment.
Master spoke again.
"You asked when I started teaching you."
"Huh? Yes."
"Mm. It was from the very moment I took you as my disciple."
"······."
"In the first place, this is the only sword I can wield. And yet, I am a failure who could not complete it."
"A failure, what are you even saying······."
"Hmph. As you know, I have no particular talent for explaining things with words. So I'll explain the rest with my sword."
Shring—
With those words, Master drew the black sword from her hip.
In response, I steadied my expression and drew Moonlight as well.
"Yes. Please teach me a lesson."
* * *
Clang!
Clang!
Claang!!
A spar between master and disciple, held for the first time in a long while.
Seen from far away, the sword dance of those two people was neither all that dazzling nor a disorienting blur of speed.
But, if you looked just a little closer, you would understand.
The sheer absurdity of the spar taking place right now.
The swords paused as if suspended in the empty air for a moment.
Then, in a single instant they would accelerate, hurtling toward the opponent's vital points in the blink of an eye.
Rather, that interplay of speed and stillness deceived the eyes, giving birth to a fierce battle of wits between the two.
WHIZZ!
Whish!
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Claang!
Without a moment's pause, blade crashed against blade, shockwaves ripping through the air one after another.
Beads of sweat dotted Jin Yu-ha's forehead, and Baek Seol-hee, facing him, was also putting considerable strength into her entire body.
Claang!
As she parried Jin Yu-ha's swinging sword, an overwhelming feeling bloomed within Baek Seol-hee's chest.
'······Remarkable.'
Sword Auras surging in like a tidal wave from all directions.
Every moment mixed with illusions, turning the eyes dizzy.
Everything was an illusion, yet simultaneously became reality.
'He truly has mastered the Moon Shadow Sword Technique.'
To be honest, back when she first started teaching Jin Yu-ha, she hadn't been certain her disciple could even reach this point.
And yet the time it had taken her disciple to reach this realm was barely one year.
Even she, who was once called a monster, had not been at this level.
It was a growth speed that pulled a dry laugh out of her.
Even though her disciple displayed such a monstrous rate of growth.
Baek Seol-hee still couldn't fully understand Jin Yu-ha.
If a person like Kang Do-hee, or Sofia, or Im Ga-eul from Utopia had shown such a growth rate, she would have acknowledged it—but she wouldn't have found it this miraculous.
Because, after all, those people were lumps of innate talent from the very first moment she saw them.
Jin Yu-ha, on the other hand, how to put it.
If she had to describe Jin Yu-ha's sword in one phrase.
'A struggling sword.'
Even though he was born with heavy shackles bound to him,
his sword is thick with the struggle of breaking them one by one.
And yet, he charges ahead faster than anyone.
'It must be precisely because he's that kind of child that I can hope for the completion of the Moon Shadow Sword.'
The essence of the sword she had trained her entire life.
Jin Yu-ha had succeeded in making it sprout.
Even though her disciple had firmly carried on her progress like that, Baek Seol-hee couldn't bring herself to smile with joy.
Because, put another way, it also meant she had nothing left to teach him.
She herself was already a person who had failed to complete the Moon Shadow Sword.
If she intervened any further, Jin Yu-ha would inevitably set foot onto the same path of failure she had walked.
From this point on, he would have to complete it on his own, without anyone's help.
Yes. This relationship too was now nearing its end.
'It is a shame, though······.'
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Of course, just because she stopped teaching him didn't mean her relationship with Jin Yu-ha would end.
Still, the thought that she could no longer act as his master.
Filled her with a complex, subtle feeling—both regretful and a little sad.
'Is this why they say masters who raise outstanding disciples are inevitably reduced to something so unsightly······.'
Pfft.
Claang—
Baek Seol-hee's sword blocked the thrust Jin Yu-ha had extended.
The two of them came to a halt, blades pressed against each other.
The tip of Baek Seol-hee's sword rested against Jin Yu-ha's neck, while Jin Yu-ha's sword fell a handbreadth short of Baek Seol-hee.
"Huff. Huff. Huff—. I, I've lost.······"
His whole body drenched in sweat, Jin Yu-ha withdrew his sword and bowed his head.
Baek Seol-hee stared at Jin Yu-ha without a word.
The time had truly come now to speak of the end of their master-disciple relationship.
She hadn't known the end would arrive so soon, so she hadn't decided on the right words, on a single thing to say.
'First, I suppose praise is in order.'
Praise for a disciple who had bloomed so brilliantly under a worthless master like herself.
"Truly, truly remarkable. Disciple."
Baek Seol-hee spoke to Jin Yu-ha, her sincerity packed tightly into her awkward words.
At that, Jin Yu-ha smiled brightly, as if he were truly pleased.
"Thank you. It's all thanks to you, Master."
"······."
Standing before a beaming Jin Yu-ha, Baek Seol-hee found her lips wouldn't part easily.
'······The more I hesitate, the more I hold Jin Yu-ha back. I must say it. That this is as far as we go.'
Baek Seol-hee steeled her heart once more internally.
Alright.
I'll say it now.
That was the moment.
"Master."
Before Baek Seol-hee could even part her lips, Jin Yu-ha called out to her first.
"What is it."
"Ah, I'm sorry but, could you close your eyes for a moment?"
"Eyes?"
"Yes."
"Alright. Understood."
Baek Seol-hee closed her eyes.
"Then, could you open your mouth a little now?"
"······Mouth?"
First it was close your eyes, and now it was open your mouth.
Baek Seol-hee could make even less sense of her disciple's intentions.
But since it was a request from Jin Yu-ha, there was no reason she couldn't grant it.
Ah.
Baek Seol-hee opened her mouth, eyes still closed.
"······."
Maybe it was because this wasn't a part of the body you normally show so openly to someone.
Opening her mouth in front of her disciple was, she found, more embarrassing than expected.
A moment later.
She felt something Jin Yu-ha was holding approach her mouth.
'What is this, a stone······? No, it holds Mana. A Magic Stone? ······Hmph. So it was just a silly prank.'
It felt somewhat deflating, making her earlier tension seem pointless.
Her disciple sometimes pulled these innocent little pranks on her.
'Well, it means he thinks of me as close, so of course I don't dislike it······. But today I need to have a serious talk······.'
Even as she thought this to herself, Baek Seol-hee kept her eyes obediently shut and her mouth open, just as Jin Yu-ha had instructed.
The Magic Stone Jin Yu-ha was holding touched her tongue.
And then.
In a single moment, a sudden alien sensation.
Hot—
'What? My tongue, it's hot······?'
Hadn't she lost all sensation in her tongue a long time ago?
In the midst of that confusion.
Something else entered her mouth.
Baek Seol-hee's eyes flew open.
An intoxicatingly sweet taste, enough to make her head ring dizzily in an instant.
It was the first sense of taste she had experienced since she was a child.
Right before her eyes, Jin Yu-ha was grinning bashfully, holding up the pure white Magic Stone.
"It's tanghulu. I bought it from the most famous place when I went to China. I figured a sweet flavor would be the best first taste."
Baek Seol-hee stared squarely at Jin Yu-ha, her cheeks bulging out from the tanghulu in her mouth.
"How does the sweetness taste after so long?"
"Sweet······."
Baek Seol-hee answered in a muffled voice, the tanghulu still in her mouth.
Baek Seol-hee, gazing straight at Jin Yu-ha.
'As I thought, I want to remain your master just a little longer······.'
Yes.
If that's the case, wouldn't it be enough if I simply leaped over the wall myself first?
'If I have no more sword to teach, then I simply need to go find something to teach. If it's incomplete, then I simply need to discover a clue toward its completion.'
Baek Seol-hee's eyes settled low, deepening.