The Unforgettable Face
"Um... I didn't commit any rudeness, did I?"
Seo-ah asked out of caution, but she wasn't particularly worried. The reason why watching a martial artist train is considered a taboo is simple: it allows one to observe another's techniques closely from a safe, nearby position. And that, in turn, leads directly to a matter of life and death.
What if someone with malicious intent watched my training and spread the minute details of my martial arts to others? Just imagining it was terrifying.
'If my unique martial arts were to be spread to others...'
Before long, countless martial artists in the Central Plains would study the countermeasures and learn them. The martial arts I had devoted my entire life to perfecting would be negated in an instant. It would also become a direct threat to my life.
'Of course, I don't have the ability to do that to others.'
However, it meant that martial artists took this very sensitively. Even if I didn't have the ability to clearly remember the twins' martial arts, discover their weaknesses, create counter-techniques, and spread them throughout the Central Plains, the perspective of the one being watched was different.
Fortunately, the twins didn't seem to think that way.
"Of course not!"
"By the way, do you want to learn martial arts too, Big Sister?"
"Huh? Suddenly?"
Seo-ah asked back, caught off guard by the unexpected remark. Baek-ak, perhaps thinking Seo-ah would accept immediately, replied with a puzzled expression.
"Hmm... no? You seemed to be watching us swing our swords with a blank look, so I thought you were interested..."
"Oh... right! That's true, but..."
"But?"
"It's so sudden, and is it really okay for you to teach me your martial arts?"
At those words, Baek-ak's expression turned subtle for a moment. 'Uh... is it not allowed?' He looked at Baek-ran with an expression that clearly showed he was thinking exactly that. Baek-ran glared at Baek-ak once, as if asking why he would even ask such a thing, and then opened her mouth.
"Of course it is, Sister! We don't have a master we serve separately."
Seo-ah nodded in spite of herself. Since they said it was fine, she thought it would be stupid to refuse the opportunity to learn martial arts. Baek-ran smiled and handed over the sword at her waist.
'A real sword...'
Seo-ah lifted the second real sword of her life. The first time was when No-ya had forcibly pushed it onto her. However, unlike that time, the fact that she had lifted it of her own volition felt like a very different experience to Seo-ah. Just a moment ago, she had been holding a laundry bat in her hand, but now she was holding a real sword. A subtle sense of incongruity and excitement washed over her.
'I want to swing the sword right away.'
No, wait. Pull yourself together. A real sword isn't a toy. Are you already thinking only about swinging it? Seo-ah calmed all her complex emotions as much as possible. To stay cool-headed.
Whether she knew it or not, Baek-ran watched Seo-ah's appearance closely and opened her mouth.
"Sister, what kind of internal energy cultivation method have you learned?"
Seo-ah looked at Baek-ran, flustered.
"Huh? How did you..."
"You don't have a martial physique, and it doesn't look like you've specifically trained your external body. But if you lifted that heavy iron sword in one go, it means you've learned an internal cultivation method, right?"
"Ah...!"
Only then did Seo-ah recall the time she lifted the real sword she had received from No-ya last time. She remembered herself back then, unable to even swing it due to the heavy weight of the sword, barely managing to support it with both hands.
Baek-ran asked again.
"So, what kind of method is it?"
"That, I don't really know either..."
"Huh?"
At the sight of the twins looking at her as if asking what that meant, Seo-ah thought it was impossible to hide that she had learned martial arts anymore, so she explained the reason why she came to learn it. How she happened to meet No-ya, and that she had received a martial arts manual from him. Of course, she could have hidden the story about No-ya, but she blurted it out partly because she felt like she would get caught if she tried to deceive the twins, and partly because she wondered if they might know No-ya's identity.
However, unfortunately, the twins didn't seem to know anything about No-ya.
Baek-ran said.
"So, you're asking us to keep it a secret, right?"
Baek-ak also thumped his chest and said.
"Trust us! We're not the immature kids we used to be!"
Seo-ah felt something akin to being moved by the twins' appearance, which had become much more mature than she had expected. Of course, the reason she couldn't trust the twins was because their immature appearance from their first meeting kept flickering in her mind.
Baek-ak drew his sword coolly from his waist and said.
"The name of the sword technique you'll learn is... Pa-baek-geom (Swift White-Shattering Sword)."
"Pa-baek-geom..."
Seo-ah chewed over the name of the sword technique she would learn for the first time.
Pa-baek-geom (Swift White-Shattering Sword). The sword that shatters the White. Here, the 'White' meant the Orthodox Faction of the Central Plains Murim. It was the exact opposite of the 'Living Sword' of the Central Plains; it was a sword technique of the Demonic path that suppressed the opponent with absolute power.
Baek-ran watched Seo-ah, who was diligently swinging her sword according to Baek-ak's guidance from a distance of one step away. To her astonishment, Seo-ah was perfectly mimicking the sword movements Baek-ak was displaying. She had only seen them once.
'Is that... possible?'
It seemed Baek-ran wasn't the only one thinking this. Baek-ak's loud voice proved it.
"Wow, Big Sister, you're amazing!!! You have talent! Can you follow this too?!"
"Hmm, hmm... try it once."
"Whoa!!! That's insane!!"
Seo-ah didn't seem that happy even at Baek-ak's words that she had talent. She was slightly... happy, but had a strange, subtle expression. Perhaps it was because of Baek-ak's frivolous appearance, fussing to an excessive degree. Because anyone could see that it felt like exaggerated praise.
'I think I could have a little more confidence.'
Perhaps it was because of the fact that she wasn't born with a martial physique? Baek-ran felt that Seo-ah lacked a bit of confidence in her actions.
'Of course, she wasn't born with a martial physique, but...'
Perhaps her sister hadn't heard much about martial artists from that No-ya. Unlike Baek-ran, who had diligently completed the Gyomaguan for a year, the most important criterion for distinguishing between a master and a novice was not the martial physique, but enlightenment—that is, the outstanding inspiration that comes from one's Wuseong (innate talent/comprehension).
'The martial physique is important, though.'
Did all the martial artists below the First-Class level, who make up the majority of Murim, differ in the speed at which they reach their realm depending on whether they were born with a martial physique or not? Yes, they did. But from the Peak First-Class level onwards, it was different. The moment one faced the wall of the Peak Realm, called a true master, no matter how suitable a body one was born with to learn martial arts, if enlightenment didn't support it, one could never cross that wall.
'If the Cult had recognized Sister's Wuseong sooner...'
She wouldn't have had to experience the separation. Baek-ran swallowed her regret. However, it wasn't that she didn't understand the Cult's decision. How much time and effort would it take to make the hundreds, thousands of children 'rescued' from the Central Plains learn internal cultivation methods, and to find their innate weapons, having them hold and learn different weapons several times? Even if they found someone born with talent that way, the number didn't even reach ten percent.
On the other hand, checking the martial physique was finished just by feeling the body a few times. It was a regrettable matter. That a talent like her sister had rotted away doing chores for a year.
'She learned the sword by self-study for a year, and she's at that level? She's better than us.'
Even though she was a genius who had defeated countless later-generation disciples of the Cult in just one year and received the Silver Badge, she thought it was nothing compared to her sister's talent. Baek-ran approached Seo-ah, who was diligently training in the Pa-baek-geom.
"Sister. By any chance, could I see the sword technique you learned before?"
"I'm learning the sword for the first time."
"Pardon?"
"Ah, I have seen a sword a few times up close, though..."
"...The sword that No-ya displayed?"
"Yes. Should I show you that?"
Baek-ran nodded in spite of herself. Then, Seo-ah displayed the sword technique No-ya had shown, mimicking it as best as she could. It was a very simple sword form. Slashing horizontally with all her might. However, Seo-ah kept swinging the sword over and over again as if something wasn't to her liking. Then, she muttered with a face still full of dissatisfaction.
"Strange... I don't think this was the feeling."
'Sister, you're the strange one.' Not only did she directly swing such a simple basic sword form, but just by watching from the side, she absorbed and mimicked all the techniques of the Pa-baek-geom? My goodness...! Even the deputy commander, whom the instructors praised as a talent counted on the fingers of one hand in the history of the Cult, wasn't like that. Because the first wall of talent she encountered was the deputy commander, who was called the greatest genius of the New Cult, she hadn't shown much reaction to ordinary talent, and her own shining talent had only looked faded, but Baek-ran stomped her feet and said.
"Sister! Amazing! Amaaaazing! Talent!"
"Ah... Hahaha. Th-thank you?"
Baek-ran realized at Seo-ah's awkward reaction that she had acted as frivolously as Baek-ak for a moment. She probably thought I was just saying empty words. It was when Baek-ran was about to correct Seo-ah's absurd misunderstanding.
"No, listen carefully, Sister."
— You lowly thing! How dare you, not knowing your place!
Before an angry voice could be heard from outside the gate, Seo-ah and the twins headed outside the gate with their expressions hardened.
When they went outside the gate, So-so was sprawled on the floor with her cheek slapped, and a large carriage and a man who looked like its attendant were fuming.
"Do you know who this person is! How dare you not open the gate immediately!"
So-so continued, on the verge of tears.
"B-but, I have to send word inside first..."
"You still haven't come to your senses!"
It was when the attendant was getting angry and approaching So-so. Before Seo-ah could say anything, Baek-ak jumped forward and struck the attendant's face with his fist. The attendant, who had been hit in the face by the fist, sprawled on the floor.
"Who are you to act like that to my friend? Do you want to die?"
However, the attendant didn't fear the twins' anger. No, he actually seemed happy. The attendant immediately got up from the floor and approached the carriage.
"M-Master! H-he has come out!"
The door of the carriage opened. A young master with grey hair, dressed neatly, got off the carriage. Baek-ak took a stance, swaying, spat on the floor once, and said.
"Ptooey! Hey, you miser, are you crazy? Do you think we're pushovers just because the deputy commander is away?"
The uninvited guest who got off the carriage didn't reply to Baek-ak's words and scanned the surroundings. Seo-ah made eye contact with the uninvited guest. For a moment, it felt like time had stopped. In the stopped time, the uninvited guest opened his mouth.
"You. What are you?"
Seo-ah knew the face of that uninvited guest. How could she forget it? The face of the culprit who had cut down the twins from her nightmare and split her head in half. As Seo-ah stood there without a word, the uninvited guest began to approach Seo-ah.