The Third-Class Acts Like the First
The night deepened. Having narrowly escaped death, Seo-ah rose from her bed and looked around. The twins were lying side by side, fast asleep.
The words the twins had spat at the uninvited guest named Jin Geuk echoed in her ears. The ferocious expressions of the martial artists she had seen during the day overlapped with the faces of the children sleeping soundly before her. Why were they so good to her? Back in the village, Seo-ah hadn't done anything particularly grand for them. She had simply struck up a conversation because they looked lonely, and taught them how to retaliate because they were being bullied.
When they grew up and looked back on their innocent past, she would just be the kind older sister or neighbor found in any village—someone they would eventually drift away from as they aged, a relationship that would become awkward. That was the position Seo-ah felt she occupied. 'It makes me feel like such a small-minded person.' She hadn't expected the children to welcome her so warmly. Though they had been separated for a year, that time could hardly be called a simple year. It had been a much longer, more arduous year. She had thought it wouldn't be strange if their feelings for her had faded. But she was wrong. Over that year, rather than dulling, the twins' feelings had only deepened as they chewed over the past and reminisced about her.
Perhaps it was because there were no adults in the Gyomaguan they could properly rely on, and they had been abandoned by their parents. They were willing to draw their swords for her, unafraid of a life-or-death duel. Perhaps the children saw her as something much greater than her own meager self-perception—not just the 'Boss' of a childhood game, but an adult to rely on, a mentor to guide them. Seo-ah felt burdened. She wasn't that great of a person. She couldn't protect them, nor was she exceptionally brilliant. She had come here thinking she would just push them into the memories of the past and perhaps benefit from them now that they were disciples of the Cult. Her heart was narrow, her thoughts shallow. Yet, this wasn't necessarily bad; most people in the world were likely just like her.
The problem was the fact that the 'me' the children imagined wasn't a pillar to support and lead them, but a mere ordinary person. However...
'I suppose I can pretend to be a pillar.'
In the Demonic Cult, where it was hard to find someone to rely on after being abandoned by one's parents, she couldn't turn these children away. Even if she were just an ordinary person, that would be fine. She would become their pillar. With eyes filled with a mix of apology, gratitude, and hesitation, Seo-ah stroked the children's hair once before shifting her gaze. A short distance away, So-so was sleeping with her blanket kicked off and her belly exposed, looking like a scene out of a cartoon. 'You, too... you must have it hard.' Of all the people, she had to get close to her and end up caught in such a whirlwind.
With a look of apology, pity, gratitude, and the exasperation one feels toward a troublemaker—quite different from the look she gave the twins—Seo-ah roughly covered So-so with her blanket and headed to the courtyard.
Under the moonlight, Seo-ah came out to the courtyard late at night to practice martial arts. Now, at least everyone here knew she practiced them. One might ask why she didn't just practice in the morning. That was a fair point. But today was different; she had watched the real-sword duel between the Cult's rising stars from the sidelines, determined not to miss a single moment. How could she not feel a desire for the sword? 'My cultivation of the mental arts is on track, too...' She could now build up her internal energy quite skillfully using the mental arts the old man had passed on to her. She could practice that in the morning; consistency was what mattered for mental arts. She could do that anytime. But the clash of swords she saw today was different. Before the memory blurred with time, Seo-ah intended to at least try to imitate the swords she had watched from the sidelines.
Heading to the storage room, Seo-ah bypassed numerous weapons and chose a sword with a weight as similar as possible to the one she had received when the twins were instructing her that morning. Just then, a familiar voice reached her ears.
Seo-ah turned her head toward the sound. Beside her stood the old man with hair turned completely white. For a moment, Seo-ah pondered what to say. 'I've mastered the mental arts you gave me. It might be ambiguous to say I've mastered them, but... how is it? Am I worth taking as a disciple?' 'How did you follow me into the Gyomaguan?' 'It hasn't even been a week yet... you could have stayed a little longer.' But she knew. She knew the old man she saw before her wasn't real. She knew that no matter what words from her head she spat out, she wouldn't get a satisfying answer. Perhaps this was closer to the voice of her own inner self.
'Certainly... it’s close to a miracle that I can even hold a real sword.' True martial artists didn't use their internal energy just to hold a real sword; it was a massive waste. It was clear that using the shortcut of internal energy to hold a real sword at her level was just her own greed. Without a word, Seo-ah picked up a wooden sword. As she returned to the courtyard, the old man's voice was heard again.
Seo-ah recalled Jin Geuk's sword. It was fierce. Unlike the twins' swords, it wasn't ever-changing, flashy, or particularly fast. It felt like the will to destroy, to crush everything in front of it. Destruction. Pulverization.
The old man's gruff, blunt voice carried a note of joy, just as it had when she had pointed out his own sword style. "What is imbued in your younger siblings' swords?" Swift White-Shattering Sword. Po (Shatter). Likewise, it was a hegemony that crushed what was in front of it. But the Swift White-Shattering Sword Seo-ah had seen wasn't as fierce or heavy as Jin Geuk's sword.
Kwai (Swift). "And it's ever-changing." Hwan (Illusion). Huh...? That was strange.
Because that wasn't what was needed to crush the hegemony of that stingy bastard. The old man smiled faintly and whispered to her.
Seo-ah took her stance. But how much had she really held a sword? 'It’s awkward.' Since she felt it herself, anyone else who saw her holding the sword would surely laugh. The old man's voice, more familiar than any kind or gentle one, reached her.
Seo-ah glared at the old man with a slightly sullen expression. It was the look that said, 'You don't need to confirm something I already know, do you?'
Had she ever even been properly taught how to hold a sword? The old man clicked his tongue again.
Only then did Seo-ah realize what the old man was talking about. It was true. Hadn't she watched the basics of martial arts for a longer time than anyone else over the past year? Starting from the basic stance, to the horizontal and vertical slashes that were the most fundamental. Even if she lacked technique—no, precisely because she lacked it—Seo-ah remembered the old man's sword down to every minute detail. Because they were basic movements, they weren't difficult. Seo-ah closed her eyes and followed the old man's stance to take her own. Only then did a satisfied voice reach her.
Seo-ah nodded quietly. The old man continued.
The grey-haired young master appeared before her. "Can you see what movement he is taking?" He was in the stance he had used when he first swung his sword at Baek-seol.
How should she break that sword? Could she even break it? She could tell at a glance. It was a superior sword technique that couldn't even be compared to the Swift White-Shattering Sword. There was no way she could.
Seo-ah recalled the unknown person who had taken the stance that seemed to shimmer before the old man. She had observed that appearance carefully and asked the old man if it wouldn't be better to take the force out of the sword. But...
As the old man's words ended, the grey-haired young master before her began to run toward her. He brought his sword down. "Don't dodge. Focus. Watch. Now, what must you do?" It wasn't different. She could break it. It wasn't different. She had already experienced it. At the very least, it might be easier to dismantle this technique, which remained clearly in her mind, than to dismantle the moves of an invisible opponent. In the sense that she wasn't born with a natural talent for martial arts, in this world so different from the modern one, she might have been suppressing herself to avoid jumping into dangerous situations out of fear. She had been busy belittling herself, thinking she couldn't do things she was perfectly capable of. Had she truly thought she couldn't gauge and dismantle that sword? Or was she just scared and thinking she couldn't do it? 'I've already done it.' It was no different from when she had tried to collapse his invisible stance. 'It’s not different.' Seo-ah opened her eyes wide and stared at the sword slowly approaching her. Just as when she had advised on the old man's sword, the flow of force in Jin Geuk's sword seemed visible. It wasn't visible on the surface, but where she needed to attack because the force couldn't reach, so that the sword could no longer approach her, began to appear before her eyes.
Seo-ah put strength into her grip. Intent flowed into the wooden sword. The internal energy, the size of a grain of millet in her dantian, surged out. Strongly. Strongly! Break it. What breaks hegemony is an even stronger hegemony. It didn't need to be stronger than the techniques of the Swift White-Shattering Sword she had learned today, or all the flows running through that sword. If it were just stronger than the faint gap, it would be enough to break the balance. Seo-ah swung her sword horizontally. It was a movement that felt simple yet perfect, unlike any time she had swung a sword before. She felt instinctively that she had performed a horizontal slash just like the old man's. The world seemed to split in half.
With the sound of the entire world shattering, Seo-ah opened her eyes. It was morning.
"This is nonsense..." Baek-ran couldn't understand the scene unfolding before her eyes. That her sister, who had just begun to hold a sword, had fallen into an epiphany—a heaven-sent opportunity that comes to only a few martial artists—while holding one. That she had suddenly taken a stance and... imbued her sword with firm intent and internal energy. That was... even if it was for a very brief moment... that was... the absolute majority. The final destination for martial artists. "First-Class...?"
Of course, she hadn't fully reached the realm of the First-Class. It was merely a realization, a glimpse beyond the wall while lost in an epiphany. But that brief experience was enough to change her sister's life forever. 'The vice-captain only just reached the First-Class...' And that was after being cared for with countless medicinal herbs and the best instructors of the Gyomaguan. Without any medicinal herbs. Without anyone's special help. First-Class? "Haa..." Seo-ah, not even realizing what she had done, greeted them nonchalantly. "Uh... good morning?"