Han Seola Is...
“Impossible.”
Master Raeji flatly turned me down.
No matter how many missions I brought him, he would glance over them for a moment and refuse to approve a single one.
He’d said the conditions were strict because I was going out alone, but I already had more than enough qualifications.
So there was something he wanted.
Master Raeji simply stood there with his hands clasped behind his back, looking out the window.
Just say it already.
“Master, didn’t you clearly say you’d let me go to the Central Plains?”
“I did.”
“Then why do you reject everything I bring you?”
He chuckled heartily before finally taking a seat.
“Sojin, of course I can tell your skills have improved considerably. But you know this too, don’t you? That sparring and real combat are worlds apart.”
“You’re right, Master.”
I nodded in agreement.
Master Raeji was speaking plain common sense.
No matter how I answered back here, I’d only look like a cocky little brat.
And given how long he was dragging this out, there was no way he was bringing it up for no reason.
He was going to lay out some conditions, or give me some sort of instruction.
“Didn’t I tell you? You have both form and substance, so your skill will keep improving with time.”
“You did.”
I’d been thinking I’d built up my strength through sheer hard work, but there was no need to correct him now.
It would be a pain to explain, anyway.
“Sojin, every mission you’ve chosen has been difficult and dangerous.”
“That’s right.”
Of course they had been.
The more dangerous and difficult they were, the better the reward.
“It’s good to have confidence in your ability, but for a cadet like you, who lacks real combat experience, it’s better to start from the bottom and work your way up.”
“And what exactly are you saying?”
After stretching out the silence for a while, Master Raeji finally got to the point.
“Sojin, I’ll give you a chance to gain some especially good experience. I’ll issue a special assignment in my name, so go out and collect some useful experience. What do you think?”
“……”
“Opportunities like this don’t come often. It’s a very honorable thing. Right... if you help me just ten times, then you’ll be free after that. Do whatever you want.”
“……”
He pulled out a sheet of paper from somewhere and added a brief explanation.
Ten times again?
I didn’t know the exact details, but it was something like helping Master Raeji with his work or going out on dispatch, handling the academy’s chores one by one.
In the future, he’d even write recommendation letters for the Martial Alliance, and if I was lucky, he might even appoint me as a master or instructor at the academy someday.
“Sojin, I’m giving this chance to you and you alone. This isn’t the kind of opportunity that comes often. Will you do it?”
A tremendously honorable opportunity, one that would only come once in a lifetime.
That was the kind of huge stroke of luck he was claiming had fallen into my lap.
Master Raeji smiled brightly.
And my answer, of course, was…
“No. I’ll be going now.”
“Good, you made the right choice, Sojin. Just suffer for ten times, and then—? What did you say?”
I refused.
Why the hell would I do this?
He’d dressed it up to sound incredibly honorable, but in truth it was no different from being Master Raeji’s slave.
It reminded me of when my professor back in the day tried to sweet-talk me into becoming a graduate student.
Chills ran down my spine.
Some idiotic contract condition that only gullible idiots would fall for—
it was probably because of the image Cheon Sojin had built up until now.
I’d rather go straight to the Martial Alliance headquarters and take missions there myself.
“Please find someone else. I’ll go ask another master for permission.”
Jeongdo Academy was made up of four halls, which meant there were four masters in charge of missions.
I’d only come here because he’d originally been Jin Sojin’s assigned master. There was no need for me to beg this one in particular.
Who does he think he’s fooling?
What he’d said about his underlings graduating and leaving him short-handed was probably true.
He must have been excited at the thought of making me do work after seeing how quickly my skills had risen, but that was never going to happen.
As I rose and headed for the door, Master Raeji jumped up in alarm and grabbed my arm.
“Hahaha… Sojin, why are you in such a hurry?”
“I was worried I might be wasting Master’s time.”
“Ahem... What I just said was a joke. Sojin, just five times—”
“I really should be going. I have afternoon training.”
“No, make it three—”
Creak.
When I firmly shoved the door open and tried to leave the room, he blurted out,
“Fine. I get it!”
“Master, what’s wrong with you?”
“Just once. Help me just once, and I’ll stake my name on giving you my full support for your missions from now on.”
Now he was finally starting to speak like a normal human being.
The martial world was a place where you could get your nose cut off while keeping your eyes open.
Even Jeongdo Academy was no exception.
“……”
I stopped with my foot still lifted, standing silently.
It looked less like I was trying to leave than like I was staying only because I hadn’t yet decided.
Because full support was still lacking something.
“Sojin, your internal energy seems a little thin… Do you perhaps need some elixirs? Once the mission is over, I’ll give you a few Steel True Pills as well.”
As expected of a man who’d spent decades at the academy, he was quick on the uptake.
If he was willing to hand over pills reserved for masters, then he really was desperate.
“Sigh… if Master is asking me this much, how could I refuse as a disciple? Fine.”
I could squeeze a little more out of him, but that would only become a hassle, and that wasn’t my real goal, so I decided to let it go here.
“……”
“Master, why are you looking at me like that? Should I just leave?”
Master Raeji’s face had stiffened slightly.
Probably because the balance of power had flipped in an instant.
“Ah, no. Sit down.”
He might already be regretting what he’d just done.
Judging by how flustered he was, I must have acted in a way he hadn’t expected at all.
The old Jin Sojin was gone.
“Then could I hear what you want me to do?”
*
*
*
North of Lanzhou City in Gansu,
disciples of the Heaven-Defying Sword were furious.
Those trashy black-dao bastards... to think I got cut by a thug’s blade like that.
The day I inherited the name of the Heaven-Defying Sword, a storm of blood would sweep through the evil sects.
He applied golden wound medicine to the stab wound and wrapped his arm in bandages.
He’d already cut off the rear pursuit and dealt with everyone in the area, so it should stay quiet for a while.
“Hoo.”
“Big brother, you worked hard today too.”
“Lingling, you did well.”
The girl he called Lingling smiled shyly as she handed him a gourd flask.
She was a bit of a nuisance, but there was no helping it.
“It’s nothing… I didn’t really do anything.”
Corpses were strewn all over the place.
Sticky blood dripped from the ring she held in her hand.
As expected, the Linglin sisters were useful.
Simple-minded women...
If it hadn’t been for them, this mission would have had a high chance of failing.
Their social skills were another matter, but their ability alone was solid.
To surpass that disgusting hypocrite, Wei Shiyun, there was no other choice.
“You fucking bitch!!”
“What exactly did I do to deserve that?”
Don’t those women ever get tired?
The other members were so exhausted they were resting against trees or on the ground, yet those two were still bickering in a situation like this.
They’d been fighting nearly every day since setting out for the Central Plains, and I was about ready to lose my mind.
I wasn’t exactly patient to begin with, so a vein throbbed on my forehead.
“Linlin, enough.”
“I nearly suffered a serious internal injury because of that worthless bitch just now.”
The woman Linlin was glaring at was Han Seola, the recent recruit.
She’d been famous in the academy as a master of the White Water Soaring Freedom Art, but it turned out she was only so-so—nothing more than a first-rate martial artist.
I couldn’t hide my disappointment at how low her cultivation was.
“B-but it wasn’t my fault. So why are you coming at me…?”
“What? You want to die?”
Her ranking and her actual skill didn’t match at all, but she was still unbelievable for someone supposedly in the top hundred.
It did bother me that she had never once recorded a victory in sparring…
“Miss, please stop as well. We never know when those black-dao bastards might show up.”
“...Hmph!”
“……”
“Enough of that. Let’s start preparing camp.”
That didn’t mean she had a high level of martial understanding either.
If this was the Jincheon Squad, they had once been a fairly high-ranking team... so why? There was no way Guyang Jihee could maintain results like this on her own. Should I have recruited Tang Soyeong after all...? Or Shin Juha? Damn it...
The more I thought I’d drawn a dud, the more displeased I became with Han Seola.
My anger was boiling up inside me, but...
Calm down. I’m the disciple of the Heaven-Defying Sword. I’m going to be the hero who leads the righteous factions in the future.
If I couldn’t even lead ten members, I’d be laughed at.
I couldn’t tarnish my master’s name.
There must be something else besides martial skill. Jin Sojin was a bastard, sure, but he wasn’t stupid.
“I really don’t like camping outdoors.”
“Linlin, we’ve already gone too deep into black-dao territory. Just bear with it a little.”
“Okay. Sister…”
Do you think I like sleeping outdoors?
Why did those black-dao bastards have to plant themselves so deep in the mountains... disgusting insects.
While everyone moved in perfect coordination, one person stood out all the more sharply.
“Miss Han, what are you doing? You need to get ready quickly—”
“Huh? For what?”
“We need to set up camp. If we have to turn back from here, it’ll take at least half a day, so we need to conserve our strength.”
“I don’t know how to do that kind of thing.”
The answer came so naturally that I was left speechless.
“What? What do you mean by that... If you’re from the Jincheon Squad, you must have been on outside missions before.”
I sharply pointed out the inconsistency, and she nodded without much concern.
“Yes, that’s right. But...”
“But?”
“Wasn’t that the squad leader’s job? Sojin did everything for me. And even if I tried, it wouldn’t help much. It’s better to just stand still and...”
The squad leader does it? Sets up camp? Me?
I was dumbfounded.
*
*
*
Clatter—
Clatter—
Neighhhh—!
“We’ve arrived, sir.”
I heard the horse whinny, and a moment later the carriage came to a stop.
Are we already there?