Chapter 301: The Woman Who Smelled of Plum Blossoms. The Woman Who Smells of Nothing.
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 301: The Woman Who Smelled of Plum Blossoms. The Woman Who Smells of Nothing.
What kind of person was my Master?
She was someone always cheerful, someone who immediately put her decisions into action, and someone who could never tolerate injustice.
Everyone believed she was strong, but because I alone knew of her fears and pain, she was someone I couldn’t help but worry about.
“Ah, just to be clear, there’s no other meaning behind it. I mean that I’ve come to like you as a man, from the perspective of a woman. I mean I want to date you in a romantic sense.”
I knew she was direct, but I didn’t realize she was this direct.
I mean, Master, you said in the 1st Timeline that you had no interest in romance…!
Of course, that was largely due to her incurable disease, but still, isn’t falling for someone this quickly a bit strange…?
“Why are you looking at me so weirdly? As if I said something strange?”
“…Well, I just received a confession out of the blue with absolutely no warning. Isn’t that strange?”
“No warning? That’s not true.”
“What? What kind of warning was there?”
Master looked at me as if she were truly dumbfounded. Then, she let out a soft chuckle and began to speak in a gentle tone, as if talking to a child.
“So-hyun. Listen carefully. Once upon a time, a girl was born into this world. She was born with great talent, but as the price for that talent, she was also born with an incurable disease. She was a girl who drew closer to death with every passing day.”
Hmm, she was obviously talking about herself.
“This girl put in a lot of effort in her own way. She sought out medicine to try and overcome the illness, and she devoted herself to swordsmanship that contained the laws of the Buddhist Realm. Thanks to her talent, she even achieved great success at a young age. But once she attained enlightenment, that realization told her: ‘Everything eventually comes to an end, so just give up and raise a disciple!’ Can you believe it?”
“That’s a bit of an exaggeration. It was an explanation of the natural order of things.”
“It’s the same thing. Telling someone with a terminal illness to prepare for it because it’s unavoidable.”
…Well, I suppose that’s true.
“Anyway, since things had turned out that way, I decided that even if I died, I wanted to be someone the world would remember. I hoped that people in similar situations could find hope by looking at me. So, I lived my life helping others and such.”
Mhm, this was the story of the woman I knew very well.
“Now, then. Suddenly, she had a fateful encounter.”
“Yes?”
“As if mocking my resolve to finally take on a disciple, there was a junior who swung a violent sword—one filled with the determination to never, ever submit to anything.”
Wait.
“I found my eyes following him. I grew curious about how far he could go, and as I kept thinking about him, I started wanting to become friends. So, I plucked up the courage to talk to him, and he turned out to be even kinder than I expected.”
Wait, isn’t this story going a bit too…?
“And because he never knew how to give up, seeing him try to push forward even when he was breaking apart made my heart ache. But at the same time, his refusal to surrender looked wonderful to me.”
Hearing it put like this, the buildup actually sounds quite solid…?
“So, well. He even used a sword style that resembled mine. I was harboring feelings for him, something between a disciple and a master, when one day, this cute junior suddenly got completely drunk. He started calling me ‘Master’ and insisted he would save me no matter what. At that point, I thought, ‘Just what does this kid know to be saying things like that?’”
Master was giggling, perhaps remembering that moment.
“To be honest, I didn’t expect anything at all. It was an incurable disease that no one could fix. I didn’t know what my cute junior was thinking, but I just thought it was adorable bravado—that he had somehow found out about my condition and was worried about me.”
But that wasn’t the case.
“Then, that mysterious junior asked me to go to a dungeon with him. He proceeded to disarm the dungeon traps with unbelievable skill, showing a violent side he usually kept hidden. He charged forward and eventually conquered the dungeon.”
Hearing this story from someone else’s perspective makes it sound a bit like that, doesn’t it…?
“Then, he held out the reward and told me that the real reason he came here was to cure me—that if I took that medicine, I would get better. I can’t tell you how shocked I was. To be honest, I was scared at first and wanted to refuse. It was a medicine that the junior could have used for himself, after all.”
But here, the villain who would dramatically change the story appeared.
“A monster suddenly showed up, and for a moment, I thought, ‘Ah, I guess it’s not meant to be,’ and ‘It couldn’t be that easy.’ But as if none of that mattered, he struck down the monster. The sight of him smiling afterward was so dazzling, so beautiful…”
Her eyes held both affection and a powerful sense of hope.
“That sight was like the light of hope overcoming the impossible—exactly what I had dreamed of.”
Perhaps I had, far too easily and far too carelessly, taken up the largest portion of her life.
“By the time I came to my senses, the illness that had tormented me and all my worries had vanished. A future that felt like a fantasy, something I never thought I could grasp, was now held firmly in my hands.”
I see. So that’s it. This is how everyone felt. Hearing it directly made me understand.
“Now, let me ask you again. A junior I was already interested in turned out to be the savior of my life. Is it strange for me to fall in love with you, the person who became the new hope of my life?”
It wasn’t strange.
“Even if it’s a one-sided affection for now, is my desire to express it something that happened without any warning?”
No, the story had already progressed quite far.
Right, from Master’s perspective, it made perfect sense.
I thought I had improved a lot, but once again, I had acted and spoken only from my own perspective.
— So what if you don’t have talent! Don’t worry about the pace others are going at. What matters isn’t arriving quickly, but arriving at the right place! I’ll do it with you!
Because I had so many debts of gratitude to repay you.
— So-hyun, are you really not going to drink with me? Is your Master going to be sad? Should I just be sad?
Because I had so many things I needed to apologize to you for.
— So-hyun. You know… the truth is, I don’t want to die yet…
Because as your pathetic disciple, giving you a future was something I simply had to do.
I don’t think I considered how my actions would appear to you, who knew nothing of my selfish obsession and history.
To the young girl Lee Ha-ru, not the woman everyone would one day call the Plum Blossom Sword Empress.
To the Lee Ha-ru who saw Kang So-hyun as just a swordsmanship friend, not the Kang So-hyun who was a disciple who had learned the sword from her for a long time.
I should have thought more about how the act of solving her life’s greatest worry and problem without asking for anything in return would be perceived, and what kind of impact it would have on her.
“Well, I think that’s enough of an explanation. Can I hear your answer to my confession now?”
What should I say?
Could I really reject this confession here?
If asked if I had feelings for her, of course I liked her, but wasn’t that a bit different from romantic interest?
“You’re troubled, aren’t you?”
“A little.”
“Then the answer to my confession is a rejection, right?”
“…I suppose so.”
“If I had made up my mind a little sooner, would the answer have been the same?”
“I’m not sure. ‘What ifs’ aren’t very meaningful assumptions, are they?”
There were several reasons.
There were already many people around me, and I knew that our relationships were built on them making more compromises than I realized.
Would it be right for me to selfishly add another person to that?
In the end, it was a similar context to Professor Park A-ram.
I was an indecisive guy, afraid of betraying the people who loved me, yet also afraid of being hated for rejecting her just because she was late in the order.
“Hmm, so that’s how it is? Junior Ha-ni.”
“…What?”
But come to think of it, strangely enough, the people who said they liked me never seemed to back down easily, even when I expressed my intent to reject them.
Master was waving her smartphone with a mischievous face, and the phone was connected to a call on speaker mode.
[…Yes, I see. I saw very clearly how So-hyun rejected you.]
“So, you know you shouldn’t misunderstand and think So-hyun is cheating, no matter what I do from now on, right?”
[Um, Senior. I’ve been thinking this since you first called me to say you were going to confess, but… do you perhaps have some mental issues as well?]
“Yes, I think so. To be honest, because of my circumstances, I didn’t think I’d ever fall in love. But I fell for him much faster than I expected—and I fell hard.”
…I mean, what is even happening?
“But I don’t want the relationship between Junior Ha-ni and So-hyun to grow distant, and I’m not really into the whole cowardly secret affair position.”
[…So you’re saying you’re going to declare war openly?]
“Yes. Isn’t it the way of a swordsman to show through actions rather than words?”
[How bold. I like that you’re bold, but… do you happen to know that So-hyun isn’t just dating me?]
“Oh! That’s actually hopeful news for me! If possible, I’d prefer it if there were many more than just one or two. To the point where adding one more wouldn’t even be noticeable.”
[There aren’t that many yet!?]
“Aw, what a shame. Hmm? But not yet? Does that mean it’ll be like that in the long run?”
The conversation was so far beyond common sense that I couldn’t keep up.
No, first Professor Park A-ram, and now this… is this proactive attitude the average sentiment for women in this world…?
“Anyway, since I’m the one selfishly seducing him, please don’t hate So-hyun.”
[Wow, that’s quite persuasive. Why are you being so honest? What if I try to stop you?]
“Just because there’s a goalkeeper doesn’t mean goals don’t get scored, right?”
Good grief, I’m actually hearing that line in real life. And I’m the goalpost?
“I’m joking. It’s not like that. The reason I’m being this honest is simple.”
She smiled brightly, as if looking at Ha-ni through the phone.
“I actually quite like you, Junior Ha-ni. I want to become friends with you too!”
[I think it’s going to be hard for me to become friends with you, Senior.]
“Well, since I’ve said everything I wanted to say, I’ll see you at the training grounds tomorrow at dawn!”
[Are you actually a psycho…!?]
Click. Master hung up the phone.
“I think I left a positive impression, don’t you?”
“I’m almost certain you didn’t.”
I know from frequent experience in the 1st Timeline—getting hit with that would drive anyone crazy.
“…You know I didn’t accept your confession, right?”
“Mhm, of course. You just keep rejecting me, my disciple. Your Master will keep attacking. I was prepared to fight an incurable disease for my entire life; swaying a man’s heart should be much easier than that.”
As Master naturally closed the distance, I reflexively stepped back, but my back hit the wall.
There was nowhere to run…?
“For your information, unless it’s because you actually dislike me, I have no intention of giving up. So, So-hyun, you should be the one to give up if possible.”
Unfortunately, I knew better than anyone that those weren’t empty words.
Because she was the Master who, if she said she would swing her sword with me a thousand or ten thousand times, would truly do so.
Because she was the Master who, once she made up her mind, would never bend.
“There might be a tree that doesn’t fall after ten chops, but is there a tree that won’t fall after a thousand or ten thousand chops?”
The biggest problem was…
After objectively examining my own state…
I didn’t think she would need ten thousand chops to bring down the tree that was me.
…Seeing as my heart was already pounding quite a bit, it seemed I really was weak to aggressive displays of affection.
“Honestly, who told you to be born with such a cute face and be so kind to women? This is your fault.”
She really was leaving me speechless.
Afterward, I managed to escape from Master, whose eyes were gleaming as she suggested we “take things a step further,” and made it back to the dormitory. However, I couldn’t rest easy because a pouting Ha-ni kept teasing me, calling me a Casanova.
“Casanova!”
Luna, Daddy isn’t that kind of person…
* * *
And this is the story of another person who was watching that scene.
“Hmm, so our junior eventually managed to entice Ha-ru as well.”
Baek Seol.
The Student Council President of the Academy and a die-hard rationalist.
And recently, she was also a psychopath who felt frustrated because she couldn’t clearly understand even her own heart.
She felt disappointed that the junior she thought was similar to her seemed to be drifting away, but she couldn’t interfere because she understood that his path was humanly correct.
Interfering would not be rational.
She also shouldn’t trouble her junior, who already had many people he liked.
That, too, was not very rational.
She held a weakness over him, but using it to blackmail him wasn’t very rational either.
Her junior would likely find a way out of such a scheme eventually, and his hatred for her would only grow stronger.
Baek Seol frowned and tilted her head at the unknown, mysterious emotion.
She had never been like this before.
Then again, she hadn’t really had many things she wanted until now.
“A little bit.”
She wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular, but her voice was loud enough to be heard if anyone had been nearby.
“It’s no fun. Being rational.”
She began to deny her own ideals.