265. Moon Shadow Sword Technique (2)
265. Moon Shadow Sword Technique (2)
An intruder suddenly leaped through the Chairwoman's Office window.
Baek Seol-hee.
"My disciple is too outstanding."
Baek Seol-hee opened with her usual line.
'Looks like she showed up to bore me with disciple bragging again. Ha, though that doesn't sting anymore...'
Hadn't that guy Jin Yu-ha said he respected me?
And right in front of none other than Baek Seol-hee herself.
Rina lifted her head with a triumphant expression.
"......?"
But the atmosphere was different from usual.
Unlike the times when Baek Seol-hee always wore an expressionless face and couldn't stop her lips from twitching to brag just one more time.
Baek Seol-hee was hanging her head low with a gloomy expression.
"......I no longer have anything I can teach."
Baek Seol-hee's cheeks bulged out as she mumbled.
She had something in her mouth, and even her pronunciation was slurred.
'What does she have in her mouth this time...? Wait, what? Nothing left to teach?'
Rina stared blankly at Baek Seol-hee, who had come to her looking like a fool, then furrowed her brow.
"Seol-hee...... What the hell kind of bull— I mean, nonsense is that?"
"......My disciple is a genius and has mastered everything I possess. I have nothing left to teach as a master."
Rina was dumbfounded by those words.
What kind of master could possibly claim she'd taught everything in just one year?
Honestly, even the academy's four-year enrollment period was considered short.
That was why, after graduating, cadets who hit a wall while serving as active-duty hunters would return to the academy to seek help from their masters.
'......Of course, Jin Yu-ha is certainly special. But he caught up to Seol-hee in just one year? That makes no sense.'
The growth rate of the Utopia Party, Jin Yu-ha included, was genuinely shocking even to Rina herself.
Especially Jin Yu-ha—despite being a mere cadet, he could already hold his own not just against academy fourth-years but even active-duty hunters.
But still, the Baek Seol-hee before her.
She might always wear a blunt expression and act a few screws loose,
but she was one of the handful of powerhouses Rina counted on her fingers.
That was precisely why Rina gave her special treatment and kept her close.
'Did that guy pick up another lucky encounter somewhere? No, even so, there has to be a limit.'
No matter how much she racked her brain, she couldn't picture Jin Yu-ha defeating Baek Seol-hee.
Yes, at times like this, it was best to just ask outright.
"......Did you really lose to Jin Yu-ha?"
Baek Seol-hee raised her head as if asking what she was talking about.
"No. He still has a long way to go. Though it won't take that long."
"Then why in the world are you saying you have nothing left to teach, Seol-hee?"
"......My disciple has sprouted the seed of the Moon Shadow Sword Technique."
This time, even Rina couldn't help but be shocked.
"Th-The Moon Shadow Sword Technique, that insane swordsmanship!?"
Baek Seol-hee nodded heavily.
The Moon Shadow Sword Technique.
It was a bizarre swordsmanship created over a lifetime by Baek Seol-hee—who was born with a talent for the sword that appeared maybe once every hundred years—
pouring in relentless effort day and night, even receiving magical support from Rina.
Rina had evaluated that swordsmanship of Baek Seol-hee's like this:
[ A monstrous swordsmanship, the pinnacle of selfishness, designed so that no one but herself could ever wield it. ]
The fact that Jin Yu-ha had learned it was truly astonishing.
If she opened a class to teach that, how many academy cadets would last even a week?
Frankly, Rina could only shake her head.
She'd be lucky if there were no casualties before that.
Complaints would probably pour in after the very first class, with students saying they lost their minds.
'Seol-hee, who called him her cherished disciple and then pounded the Moon Shadow Sword Technique into his body for a year. And that guy, who gladly swallowed that insane training that no one in their right mind could endure. Neither of them is sane......'
Rina, who roughly knew what process Baek Seol-hee had gone through to create that sword technique, shook her head.
But if that was the case, it made even less sense.
Jin Yu-ha sprouting the seed of the Moon Shadow Sword Technique meant he had just laid the foundation.
This was a critical juncture where his future achievements would depend on how he was taught from here.
Yet at this crucial moment, she was saying she had taught everything she could.
Did that make any sense?
"......Then isn't this just the beginning?"
Nod.
Baek Seol-hee nodded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Twitch.
A vein bulged on Rina's forehead.
But she held it in and continued.
"Right. If he's laid the foundation of the Moon Shadow Sword Technique, now you teach application. Surely Jin Yu-ha hasn't fully grasped all the mysteries within it. Wouldn't that take far more time than what he's done so far?"
An uncertain voice slipped from Baek Seol-hee's lips.
"......Because I already failed."
Rina's mouth fell open, dumbfounded by her answer.
"Seol-hee, are you an idiot?"
Chairwoman Rina even spat out harsh words she wouldn't normally use.
"With that failed swordsmanship, you crushed Sword Gods and Sword Emperors just fine."
"That's because the swordsmanship those bastards had was weak......"
"And didn't you come close against the Sword Emperor, too?"
Bristle.
Baek Seol-hee couldn't hold back at those words and snapped her head up.
"I didn't lose. If that woman hadn't crushed me with brute Mana."
"Right, that's the level of the Moon Shadow Sword Technique. If only you'd had enough Mana, you could have held your own against the Sword Emperor."
"Not held my own—I would have—"
"Quiet. Let me speak. Anyway...... With that failed swordsmanship, you smashed all of them to pieces, and you have the nerve to call it a failure."
"That's......"
"So, who's going to teach Jin Yu-ha now? Do you plan to tell him to train alone and figure it out, like you did?"
Truthfully, at first, Baek Seol-hee had intended to do exactly that.
She thought that rather than being taught by her—someone who had failed to complete the sword technique—it would be far more helpful for her disciple to seek the answers on his own.
But greed had crept in.
Which was why she had come to Rina.
"What a foolish answer. And sorry, but there's no time."
"......Time?"
"......"
Rina didn't answer that question.
Being someone who read the currents of the world, she could roughly guess.
Probably a year at most.
Or perhaps even sooner, a great crisis would descend upon the world.
And when that time came, the one who would lead the charge at the very front would be that guy, Jin Yu-ha.
Rina clicked her tongue and looked at Baek Seol-hee.
'......Foolish thing. The answer is already decided.'
She just needed to keep teaching Jin Yu-ha the same way she had been.
If she thought she had failed, then when Jin Yu-ha tried to head in that direction, she just needed to step in and correct him.
And if a better way existed, she just needed to put her head together with Jin Yu-ha and search for a new path.
Masters originally learned from their disciples, and disciples learned from their masters.
Wasn't it the proper way for both to learn from each other and grow?
But right now, Baek Seol-hee seemed unable to find the path because she viewed Jin Yu-ha through the rigid hierarchical lens of master and disciple.
'......Right now, nothing I say will get through to her.'
Hmm. What to do.
Jin Yu-ha was a considerably important matter to Rina as well.
She couldn't just let this slide.
'Ah, that'll work.'
After thinking it over, a mischievous grin spread across her face.
"Yes, Seol-hee. You're not qualified."
Rina looked straight at Baek Seol-hee and spoke.
"You, quit being a master."
* * *
Whoosh—
Whoosh—
Alone in the training ground that my Master had left empty, I swung my sword.
'......I'm still lacking.'
My Master said this sword technique was still incomplete.
That was why she called herself a failure.
But I couldn't even begin to guess why this sword was incomplete in the first place.
I only felt, deep in my bones, the sheer gap between my Master and me.
We had undoubtedly fought with the same swordsmanship, but it was different.
Compared to the sword my Master swung, my sword was nothing more than a shallow sleight of hand.
The sword my Master wielded didn't just bewilder the eyes—
it hid entirely within unawareness, and by the time you noticed, it was already touching your body.
If my Master hadn't deliberately given off a presence and slowed her swings for me, I would have stopped being a person of this world in the very first exchange.
'Hmm, what's the difference? Where does it start being different......'
I was swinging my sword, lost in thought after thought, when a hesitant voice crept in from beside me.
"H-Hoobae......"
It was Ga-eul sunbae, wearing an anxious, fidgeting expression.
I turned my head and let out a chuckle.
I had a feeling I knew why she had come.
"Y-You said it would only be a moment, h-hoobae...... I know I shouldn't do this, but I couldn't hold back and came anyway."
Ga-eul sunbae twisted her body and stared off at a distant mountain while she spoke.
I sheathed my sword and turned toward her.
Then I took the White Magic Stone from my chest pocket.
"Did you want it that badly?"
"Yeah, yeah!"
Ga-eul sunbae nodded like a puppy with a treat placed right in front of its eyes.
"Hmm, well...... Here."
Fwip—
I tossed the White Magic Stone.
"Acceleration!"
Ga-eul sunbae even cast Acceleration on herself before catching the White Magic Stone.
She really was an amusing sunbae.
"I-It's finally in my hands......"
"Sunbae."
"Huh......?"
"Keep that safe, and you need to fully recharge it and bring it back to me once a month."
"......Once a month?"
"Yes."
I nodded.
My Master's sense of taste.
It would have been great if it had been cured in one go, but that wasn't the case.
I had gotten the idea from the fact that in the game, the White Magic Stone was used as a material for top-grade curse-purging items.
My Master had rolled a tanghulu around in her mouth for a long while, savoring the taste, and then let out a regretful voice.
- Ah, it's gone.
Right after that, even when she pressed the White Magic Stone to her tongue again, her sense of taste didn't return.
As I stood there flustered,
my Master examined the state of her body based on her tongue's sensation and the White Magic Stone's Mana, and arrived at a conclusion.
- It seems I can use that about once a month. I don't know if it'll cure me...... but it's true that my sense of taste temporarily returns.
Once a month.
And not a cure either—just temporary.
'Still, being able to taste something even once a month is something.'
Compared to when she could feel nothing at all, now there was hope.
I felt a deep sense of regret inside, but I rationalized it away like that.
"Once a month...... Okay, got it!"
Ga-eul sunbae clutched the White Magic Stone in her hand and nodded.
That was when.
Ding—♬
My phone rang.
[ Come to the Chairwoman's Office for a moment. ]
It was a summons from Chairwoman Rina.