The Night My Disciple Came to Devour Me
This rascal had only been thinking of fucking me from the very start.
Kwaaang-!!! “Guh!”
I smashed through the hut's wall with my back and slammed straight into the bedroom wall. Debris from the wall and ceiling rained down on me—crackle, crackle—but I couldn't brush it off. My entire body was paralyzed by an acupoint strike laced with some bizarre, untraceable internal energy technique. Unless I gathered my qi and forced it out with precise control, there was no way to shake off the numbness.
But I had no time for that anyway.
Step. Step. Step. Step.
The culprit who put me in this state was approaching.
“Kuh, urgh... Disciple, what in the world are you doing...?”
My body was rigid, but my mouth still worked. Propped against the slightly dented bedroom wall from the impact, I hung my head low—unable to see her face clearly—and asked my disciple.
“You're not under any curse or spell, so why...?”
I'd known from the moment she ambushed me that she wasn't being controlled. If she were, I would've sensed it immediately. No, she'd attacked me in full possession of her senses.
“Just three months ago, before you left for your journey through the jianghu, you were such a good girl.”
Only three months back, she'd thrown a fit, crying and begging not to go, saying she couldn't bear to leave my side. Sweet, prodigiously talented, utterly devoted to honoring her master—yet occasionally prone to adorable pouting. That was my disciple, Yeon Wol.
Yeon Wol wasn't the type to show up out of nowhere and ambush her master like this.
“Did something happen on your journey? If so, tell me. Sure, we martial artists settle things with swords and fists, but we're family first and foremost...”
“Master, I haven't changed. I'm still the same Yeon Wol, forever devoted to you.”
“Eh?”
Yeon Wol finally spoke. Cutting off her master was rude, of course, but etiquette meant nothing right now. What mattered was that she was willing to talk to me. Only that.
“If you haven't changed, then why...?”
“Because you messed up, Master.”
“What?”
I messed up? So she halted her journey and came storming back to attack me over that? Her words came out haltingly, laced with pain, and my mind raced. If she'd go this far against her own master, then yeah, I'd clearly committed some colossal sin.
I racked my brain, but in the last three months, I hadn't done anything that'd warrant this level of fury from her. Sure, if I dug way back into the past, there might be a few old skeletons, but...
“D-Disciple. This 'mistake' of mine... Was it something from long ago?”
“Ha, no? It was something you did very recently.”
“R-Right. I see.”
Her reaction suggested it wasn't ancient history. So something recent had pissed her off that badly... But I had no clue. After she left for her journey, I'd just gone about my usual routine.
The most noteworthy event in those three months? With my disciple finally off on her own, maybe it was time to start a normal family life. So I'd gone on a blind date today, arranged by a matchmaker... But nah, that couldn't be it. I was well past marriageable age; seeing someone wasn't weird.
I furrowed my brow, desperately trying to pinpoint my blunder, when Yeon Wol finally lost her patience and yelled.
“Jeez, you went on a blind date!”
“Eh?”
“How could you go on a blind date without me? That's not allowed! I trusted you, Master. I thought you'd wait for me to come back from my journey! How could you betray me like that?!”
Wait, the blind date was actually the problem? Yeon Wol was breathing raggedly, almost hissing, her shoulders heaving with each gasp. For a martial artist of her caliber, she'd normally suppress such emotional turbulence, but it was plain as day. To show her feelings so openly meant she was that furious.
“I trusted you... I trusted you, Master...!”
Head still bowed, she repeated it in a heartbreakingly pitiful voice, on the verge of tears.
Clearly, her feelings for me ran far deeper than I'd realized. She'd always seen me as a real father figure... Of course, I'd thought of her as a daughter, but her viewing me that way was on another level. We were only eight years apart, and I'd taken her in at thirteen. Thirteen wasn't so young that a twenty-one-year-old guy would feel like a dad. I'd hoped she'd at least see me as a young uncle, but no—Yeon Wol had truly come to regard me as her father.
Yeah, after seven years living just the two of us, if Dad suddenly brought home a stepmom without a word, that betrayal would sting. I finally understood why she was this mad—and just how badly I'd screwed up.
I'd betrayed the loyalty of a disciple who saw me as her father.
I had to apologize to Yeon Wol.
“Disciple, I'm sorry for going on that blind date without discussing it with you first.”
I wanted to bow my head properly, but with my body still numb, I couldn't. So I poured my sincerity into my words. Her ragged breathing eased a bit, as if some of her anger had subsided.
“Hmph. If a simple 'sorry' fixed everything, the word 'grudge' wouldn't exist in the jianghu.”
Not all her anger, though.
“S-So... what do I need to do to make it up to you?”
The moment I spoke, she seized the opening, as if she'd been waiting.
“First, cancel that meeting at the inn three days from now.”
“Eh? How did you even know about that?”
“Tch! Is that important right now?! Are you canceling or not?!”
I had no idea how Yeon Wol—out on her journey—knew about a conversation from today's blind date, but right now, I was the guilty one.
“A-Alright, I'll cancel it.”
What else could I say? Sorry to Lady Jin, but this was unavoidable. Comforting my beloved disciple Yeon Wol took priority over some woman I'd just met.
“Hmph, fine. I'll forgive your outrageous behavior—daring to go on a blind date while I was away—for now.”
“...Going behind your back was wrong, sure, but 'outrageous behavior'?”
“Hey! Still spouting nonsense? I'm offering to let it go, and you're begging for more punishment?!”
She'd never been like this. My Yeon Wol was sweet, polite, and utterly adorable. But what could I do? My mistake.
“N-No, forget it. I'm sorry.”
I mumbled another apology that was starting to feel habitual, then cautiously gauged her mood. Her bangs hid her eyes, but the corners of her mouth had ticked up slightly. Good—her anger seemed to have cooled.
“D-Disciple. Now that you're over it, could you release this acupoint strike?”
With the midnight commotion seemingly resolved, I asked her to free me. Shaking off that mysterious energy on my own wouldn't be easy. I could force it with focus and effort, but it'd take time and energy—far more efficient to have the one who'd struck it undo it.
“Huh? Nah, don't wanna.”
Her refusal came out as casually as if I'd asked for the weather.
“Eh? Why? You said you were over it. Don't tell me you're still mad deep down?”
“No way. You promised to cancel, so why would I be mad?”
“...Then why won't you release the strike?”
Over it, yet refusing? The answer came not in words, but in her actions.
“Well, because...”
Yeon Wol licked her lips with a bright red tongue, then beckoned lightly toward the bedroom where I lay.
Whoosh-!
A surge of potent inner energy from her casual gesture swept away the debris, dust, and rubble atop me. Now the bedroom held only clean bedding... and me, propped against the wall. A strange sensation hit me—like I was a meal laid out on a table. Goosebumps raced down my spine.
Step. Step.
Shoes off, Yeon Wol stepped into the half-demolished bedroom, the cloudless night sky gleaming overhead. The closer she got, the worse my premonition grew.
And premonitions like that always came true.
When she straddled my lap like mounting a horse, and I met her crimson eyes peeking through snow-white strands, realization dawned.
“Because now I get to fuck you, Master.”
She hadn't ambushed and paralyzed me out of anger after all.
This rascal had only been thinking of fucking me from the very start.