Training
The sound of bones shattering rang out especially loud in the stillness of the night.
The man clutched his wrist and tumbled across the ground.
Agonized screams poured out without end.
Caught off guard by the sudden turn, the remaining two froze for a moment.
I did not miss the opening.
Instead of stomping the earth, I slipped forward like a shadow and stood before them.
They recoiled in horror at the sight of me emerging from the darkness, stumbling backward.
My eyes already burned crimson with rage.
I had cut down countless enemies while roaming battlefields for ten years, yet it had been a long time since pure fury like this had filled me.
I could not forgive them.
"You tried to lay a hand on someone of mine?"
"…You said we wouldn't actually hurt her!"
My voice was low and heavy, yet the killing intent within it seemed ready to freeze the very air around us.
At that sound—like something rising from the depths of hell—the faces of the remaining two drained white with terror as they muttered among themselves.
They sensed the danger on pure instinct and tried to flee, but it was already too late.
So they took a few coins and thought they could play media games, did they?
They were hunters like me, yet I felt no need to draw my relic sword. Their intentions were transparent.
A blade would be wasted on trash like this.
"Did you think I would care about the law?"
These fools had never even heard of my usual reputation.
Or if they had, someone had clearly planted false hope in them—relying on the frame of Korea as a nation of laws, and on the fact that I was a public figure as a hunter.
They must have an angle. Planning some media stunt, no doubt.
Now that I had a family at my back, they meant to turn me into everyone's enemy. But I had my own thoughts on that.
First, I would clean this up.
I was bare-handed, yet Cheok Jun-gyeong's techniques already lived in my fists and feet.
One of them, terrified, charged with a wild punch.
A clumsy attack if ever there was one.
I twisted lightly aside, caught his arm, and without hesitation snapped the elbow joint the wrong way.
A wet crack of bone, and the man's hideous scream tore free.
"Gyaaaaah!"
"Does it hurt? Then scream quietly."
I drove a kick into the screaming man's gut, forcing the breath from him so the noise stopped.
I was afraid Seoa might be startled.
He choked out a wet sound, spat air, and flew several paces before slamming into the ground.
He lay there, unable to move, only gasping for breath.
Only the leader remained.
He had already lost all will to fight and was trembling violently.
Watching two comrades crippled in an instant right before his eyes, the reaction was only natural.
He stumbled backward, feet tangling, and landed hard on his rear.
"H-hiiik! I-I'm sorry… I'm sorry! I-I was just doing what I was told!"
"I know."
He began begging in pure terror.
I could see the crotch of his pants darkening with wetness.
A foul stench stabbed my nose.
I approached him slowly.
To him, the sound of my footsteps must have been those of an executioner.
"Who ordered this?"
"Ch-Choe Kanghyuk… the Titan Guild Master…"
"The terms?"
"M-money and… official guild membership… just scare that woman…"
I let out a cold snort.
Choe Kanghyuk. That piece of garbage.
He had instigated this for such a paltry price?
His arrogance and stupidity drew a dry laugh from me.
"Then deliver this to Choe Kanghyuk as well."
I crouched in front of him and seized him by the collar.
He squeezed his eyes shut in terror.
I whispered into his ear in a voice cold as ice.
"Just once more."
The killing intent in my voice made his body convulse.
"If you touch someone of mine even once more, or if you so much as loiter around me again…"
I clamped both of his shoulders hard.
A sharp pop of joints, and a pained groan burst from his mouth.
Both arms had been fully dislocated.
"I will erase your entire guild from this land. Remember that."
I flung him to the ground.
He was on the verge of blacking out from the pain in his arms and pure fear.
On the ground lay three wretched C-Rank hunters: one with a shattered hand, one with a broken arm and a crushed gut, and the leader with both shoulders dislocated.
I had also damaged the meridians that handled mana circulation. They would never work as hunters again.
Permanent disability was inevitable.
There was no mercy.
They had crossed the line.
I no longer spared the trash even a glance.
Gathering the cold remnants of my rage, I turned around.
Seoa still had not recovered from the shock. Her face was deathly pale as she trembled.
Her eyes held fear—and confusion at the cold, ruthless side of me she had just witnessed.
…Did I frighten her?
It could not be helped.
But I had never wanted her to see me like this.
With a complicated heart I approached her.
I shrugged off the thick jumper I was wearing and draped it over her trembling shoulders.
"Are you all right?"
My voice was still a little low, but I tried to make it as gentle as I could.
Seoa looked up at me without a word.
Her large eyes wavered with unease.
I silently dropped to one knee in front of her.
Then carefully—very carefully—I lifted her into my arms.
Her light, slender body settled easily against my chest.
She flinched for an instant, then wrapped her arms around my neck.
Her delicate trembling transmitted straight through to me.
"It's all right now."
Holding her close, I started slowly toward home.
In my arms Seoa began to sob quietly.
From fear, or from relief?
I said nothing and simply held her tighter.
Hoping that the beat of my heart, the warmth of my body, might give her even a little comfort.
Under the moonlight we walked on, leaving the pitiful wrecks behind us.
Seoa still had her arms around my neck, trembling faintly.
Then she spoke.
"Those bastards…"
Her curse made my body jolt.
"Those sons of bitches…"
"Mm."
She spat the words as if venting something, then flinched again in my arms.
She lifted her head and looked at me; our eyes met.
Was she afraid of me? Tears welled in Seoa's eyes, catching the moonlight.
"…Taejun-ssi, you should have broken their legs too."
Looking again, I saw pure anger—directed at the ones who had dared provoke us.
A faint smile touched my lips as I nodded in answer.
"Then next time I'll make sure they can't even walk."
"You have to. Why won't they just leave you alone?"
She poured out the grievances that had been building for so long.
"Haeun too. I scolded her."
"I heard."
Of course I had. After she went into the room and closed the door, it was the first time I had ever heard Seoa that angry.
She had not shouted or anything of the sort.
In her own quiet, calm way she had warned Lee Haeun. There had been many things in that conversation I had not known.
"…You heard?"
"Yes. The whole world sees me as a Gate murderer, do they?"
"…"
She looked uneasy at my admission, so I spoke honestly.
Over the past ten years inside the Abyss Rift I had killed many people as well. I could not even claim it had been necessary.
The Abyss Rift was a Gate that housed 'demonic entities' capable of beguiling humans. No wonder there had been no survivors.
So how was one supposed to clear such a Gate?
I had made the decision to cut down every beguiled comrade.
If I had failed to clear it, hell would have unfolded—far worse than an ordinary Gate rampage.
Lee Haeun's not-quite-revelation had finally explained the distance my parents kept, the hush-hush atmosphere among the villagers when I first returned.
"I don't think that."
Seoa spoke from within my arms.
In that moment I could not hear the voices of those who had fallen to my hand.
"I believe in you, Taejun-ssi. The Taejun-ssi who came back into our arms could never be like that."
"And if I really was?"
"…"
"You aren't going to ask why?"
At the question of whether she would ask, Seoa burst into heavy sobs.
"What good would asking do? Asking would only leave another wound on your heart. You just have to forget what happened in the Gate and live happily from now on."
So that was why Seoa had never asked about me.
Whenever we talked it was always about the future, about the neighborhood, about herself.
I sorted my thoughts and watched the ground as we walked the dark path home.
"Why is the world like this? Taejun-ssi is a hero. How can they do this?"
All the way home, and through the entire night, Seoa's quiet weeping never stopped.
I soothed her slender trembling body in my arms and carried her to the room, but even after laying her on the bed and pulling the covers over her she could not calm down.
"Don't go. It feels like you'll just vanish again."
She only clung to my collar and burrowed closer.
In the end I sat on the edge of the bed and patted her back until exhaustion finally claimed her.
Even in sleep the traces of anxiety and fear remained on her face, and my heart was not at ease watching her.
In the darkness I looked down at her sleeping face and sank into deep thought.
Seeing Seoa cry had fixed the direction of my rage.
Last night—the side of myself I had shown.
Seoa had seen everything. The shock and terror she must have felt were hard even to imagine.
I had only wanted to protect her, yet in the end I had only made her more uneasy.
Choe Kanghyuk, that bastard.
I could not forgive him.
But rage alone solved nothing.
Unlike the warning I had given those men, I wanted to storm out right now and wipe them all away—yet I could not know what might happen while I was away from my family.
Still, I could not stay glued to her side forever.
There was no guarantee that something like this would not happen again the moment I had no choice but to leave, even briefly.
Near dawn, as the sky began to lighten, I made my decision firm.
I carefully brushed the stray hair from Seoa's sleeping forehead.
Her soft breathing reached my ears.
To protect this peace, I would do whatever it took.
The breakfast table was wrapped in heavy silence.
Mother and Father seemed to have vaguely sensed last night's disturbance, yet they asked nothing.
They only watched Seoa and me by turns with worried eyes.
Seoa's face was still pale, her eyes slightly swollen.
She barely touched her rice, only poking at it with her spoon, and Mother's sighs grew deeper.
"Child, are you all right? Is something bothering you?"
"N-no, Mother. I'm fine. I just… didn't sleep well last night."
Seoa forced a smile, but the shadow on her face would not hide.
I finished my meal in silence.
Then I set down my spoon and spoke.
"Seoa."
At my call she lifted her head.
Eyes still clouded with unease turned toward me.
I spoke as calmly as I could, yet with firm resolve.
"Starting today, you'll train with me."
"…What?"
Not only Seoa—Mother and Father as well stared at me in surprise.