273. Sword Emperor (3)
273. Sword Emperor (3)
Fortunately, Jin Yu-ha had avoided the worst-case scenario Baek Seol-hee could have imagined.
"......No matter that you're my master's master. You can't declare you're making someone your disciple without asking their consent."
Jin Yu-ha had preserved his loyalty to his master to the very end.
This time his deliberation had dragged on, so I'd wondered.
But apparently that monster brat had him completely wrapped around her finger.
Tch, he was practically over the line.
The Sword Emperor clicked her tongue as she eyed Jin Yu-ha, looking regretful.
Then she quickly reconsidered.
No, there's still plenty of time. It's not like he's only here for a day or two. He came to learn the sword, didn't he?
Right, this was a kid who'd come to her seeking instruction.
Stick close to him, patiently teach him the sword—it was only a matter of time before he opened up.
People ensnared by the sword were all selfish creatures with a screw loose somewhere in their heads anyway.
Hm, he seems to follow that monster brat pretty closely. If I tell him some stories from the past, he might open up even faster.
Slow and steady.
Like taming a wary street cat.
Make it so he simply can't stand not receiving her teaching.
The Sword Emperor's eyes took on a chilly gleam.
One day he'll be clinging to my pant leg, begging me to take him as a disciple. I'll turn him into someone who can't be satisfied unless I'm his master.
She was confident.
"Alright, if you put it that way, I can't argue. You win. I'll give up on trying to make you my disciple."
The Sword Emperor spoke the words casually, not meaning a single one.
Jin Yu-ha exhaled in relief at the fact that he wouldn't have to continue that uncomfortable conversation.
"Well, I did agree to look at your sword, so I'd better do my job. Show me the sword you learned from my disciple, here before your grandmaster. Everything you have."
"Yes, understood."
"Don't disappoint me."
Shrrring—
Jin Yu-ha steadied his gaze and drew his sword.
* * *
The thought of demonstrating my swordsmanship before my grandmaster made tension spike through me.
This was the person who had taught my master the sword.
Of course her eye for the sword would be anything but ordinary.
I can't disappoint her.
This sword carries my master's honor.
She said to show her everything.
I steadied my heart, recalling all the sword I had learned so far.
Master isn't someone who says a single word carelessly.
She doesn't speak much to begin with, so she chooses the necessary words. Even when she lets a single word fall, that one word holds multiple meanings.
Like the Moon Shadow Sword Technique.
Thinking back now, the Moon Shadow Sword Technique really did feel like a swordsmanship that resembled my master.
The essence of the Moon Shadow Sword Technique, too, was concision and implication.
Holding the possibilities of myriad sword paths within a single stroke.
Those possibilities encompass 'speed,' 'direction,' 'intent,' 'posture,' 'Mana,' 'flow'—all of it.
And so, depending on the combination, the sword path branches out into an infinite array of paths.
Depending on the enemy you face. Depending on the timing. You can select the appropriate path and attack.
Then the Sword Emperor's words—'show me everything'—must mean something like: contain as much as possible within the simplest thing.
Yes.
I don't need to swing many times to show everything.
A single stroke is enough.
Because that one stroke will be everything I can hold right now.
And the single stroke I'm most confident in is—
A straight line descending from above my head to the ground.
This was also the very first sword I practiced when I first came to the academy, when I first met my master.
Back then, there were times I stood all day with my sword raised above my head just to draw one true straight line.
If back then I drew that one straight line so slowly,
now I return to that beginning.
Dismantling the thick sword path I can trace as easily as breathing.
Into dozens of lines.
Into hundreds of points.
And further still, into countless possibilities.
As I had on that day I first came to the training ground, I raised my sword above my head.
"Huuuuhhh—"
I drew a low breath.
Opened my eyes.
Whoooosh—!!!
And brought the sword down in a single stroke.
At that—
Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk. Ssk.
Hundreds of materialized sword scars engraved themselves into the empty air.
"!?"
This was the first time my sword qi, which had been nothing but possibility, had stretched forth materialized like this.
A dazed expression settled on my face.
And then.
Thump!
The Sword Emperor, who had been watching with her arms crossed—
she had landed on her ass on the floor.
Her eyes were wide open, glaring.
"Crazy bitch......"
The Sword Emperor spat the curse in a trembling voice.
"What in the...... What in the world did you teach that kid!!!!"
Her huge shout rang through the training hall.
*
Crazy......
The Sword Emperor, barely pulling herself together, got to her feet and rubbed her face.
She simply could not believe what she had just seen.
Just one completely unremarkable downward strike.
At first, when Jin Yu-ha raised his sword above his head, she hadn't been that surprised.
She'd just been swelling with anticipation that this boy would carry on her sword.
His upright stance.
His precise bodily balance.
The aura flowing through him with dignity.
And the traces of effort you could feel in the way he gripped the sword.
All of it declared that Jin Yu-ha was a shining 'gem in the rough.'
But.
Gem in the rough, my ass.
That anticipation shattered into pieces
the moment he brought his sword down.
She prided herself on having a keener eye for the sword than anyone.
Not once in all her years had she let a sword fall from her embrace,
not a single moment had she neglected her training.
Because of that, she could see,
and she could understand.
Just how absurd the sword Jin Yu-ha had just swung truly was.
If she had to express the sword he'd swung in a single word—
lunatic arrogance.
How could it be anything but?
The delusion of containing all the swords of this world in a single stroke is a thought no one but a thoroughly deranged madman could ever entertain.
No, you can imagine it.
The issue was that this lunatically arrogant swordsmanship hadn't stopped in the realm of imagination.
She looked at Jin Yu-ha with trembling eyes.
What kind of training must he have endured up to now to drag that sword out of the ideal and into the realm of reality?
Underestimating it, he'd probably have died hundreds, thousands of times a day.
Not an imaginary death, but actual death.
If he hadn't teetered on that death's edge day after day, performing miracles, swinging his sword like a tightrope walker, he could never have created such outrageous swordsmanship.
For an ordinary person, it would've been no surprise if their heart had crumbled, their spirit had broken, and their brain had burned to ash long ago.
That bitch and this bastard.
The monster brat who threw her body around every single day like a human dying to die.
Baek Seol-hee's image superimposed itself over Jin Yu-ha's face.
— Brat, is dying fast really your dream?
— I'm not a brat. I'm going to perfect the sword.
— Hah, if that's a sword that can be perfected doing that crap, is it even a sword?
Back then, she'd thought she'd broken Baek Seol-hee's spirit by crushing her with sheer force.
But apparently the girl had kept doing the exact same thing after she'd left this place.
And so in the end, she'd created this kind of sword.
Neither of them is right in the head.
She couldn't acknowledge this as a sword.
There was no Way (道),
no Heart (心),
no Intent (意).
There was only a lunatic, utterly arrogant dream.
Shiver—
Goosebumps like the skin of a raw chicken prickled up over the Sword Emperor's forearms.
Crazy bitch, absolute crazy bitch...... That monster brat spawned a sword demon......
Of course, she didn't know it, but—
the very first epithet Jin Yu-ha had ever earned was Sword Demon (劍鬼).
* * *
"Uh, Grandmaster, are you alright?"
I approached the Sword Emperor, who had suddenly shouted, clamped her mouth shut, and was now glaring at me fiercely, and asked.
"......"
But the Sword Emperor still didn't speak.
Did I mess up somehow?
Or maybe something had gone wrong.
Worried, I asked her again.
"......Did I perhaps do something wrong?"
At that, she shook her head.
"No. But before that, answer me one thing."
The Sword Emperor suddenly grabbed my shoulder and spoke in an urgent voice.
"Baek Seol-hee—did she complete that sword you just swung?"
She said she failed...... So she wanted me to complete this sword......
I considered whether I should protect my master's pride here,
but if it were her, she'd definitely choose not to hide it.
I shook my head.
"No, my master said she had failed."
"Yeah, I thought so. Because this is that kind of sword. A sword that girl can never complete......"
"Huh? What does that......"
I asked back, flustered,
but the Sword Emperor hardened her face gravely, as if she had no intention of answering my question.
"Now that I've seen this, I can't tell you to become my disciple anymore. But you must still carry on my sword."
It was a contradiction.
She says she won't tell me to become her disciple,
yet at the same time, I must carry on her sword.
"I see now why Rina sent you to me. Hah, that damned brat......"
The Sword Emperor pressed her fingers to her brow and let out a deep sigh.
"Starting tomorrow, you're going to learn how to fear death all over again."
That was how she described the training she was going to give.