Thoroughly, Before It Rots
Even after the winner was declared, we didn’t leave the training platform.
To be precise, even after Ha Seo-hwa grabbed me and refused to let go, Senior Disciple Kwon noticed that something was off.
“Ha Seo-hwa. Is there some kind of problem?”
“...No.”
Ha Seo-hwa, still staring at me, let go of my collar at last.
Once I’d gathered up my wooden sword and belatedly climbed down from the platform, Jung Nam-jung went up after me.
Ha Seo-hwa was already back at the seat I’d been using, waiting for me there.
The other third-generation disciples must have sensed the strange air around her, because they all turned away.
If they’d stopped their conversations, it was less because they’d read the mood than because they’d kept one ear angled this way the entire time.
I didn’t really make any mistake.
Before I left the platform, she had pointed out that I’d deliberately thrown the match.
Which, in fact, was true—but it should have been stranger for her to notice.
I had lost by faking a mistake, as though I’d simply dropped the wooden sword from my hand.
As if I’d been overpowered by force.
It was only natural that she, having trained two years longer than I had, would be stronger.
The moment I returned to my seat, Ha Seo-hwa narrowed her eyes and wore an irritated expression.
When I sat down as if nothing had happened, she couldn’t hold back her frustration any longer and pressed me.
“You let me win on purpose.”
I answered with utter simplicity.
“Of course not. You beat me because you’re stronger, Senior Sister.”
“You weren’t this helpless when you lost yesterday.”
“Beginners’ luck. You must have been off your guard, too.”
“I wasn’t off my guard.”
She realized her words had been poorly chosen and added, “I was off guard at first, but after I gave you three moves, I wasn’t.”
“Then I guess luck was on my side. If you think about it normally, there’s no way someone who only entered the sect recently could beat you, right?”
“……”
“Or did you think I’d win?”
“You will.”
Ha Seo-hwa answered at once.
“It’s just that I didn’t want to win like this.”
“I see.”
“Yeah.”
“……”
“……”
I waited for her to continue, but she seemed lost in thought and remained silent for a long while.
I stole a sidelong glance at the closed-mouthed Ha Seo-hwa.
She was looking at me suspiciously.
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“I’m just looking.”
“Since Senior Sister won, tomorrow’s match—”
“Let’s do it again tomorrow.”
“Do you want to humiliate me in front of everyone that badly, Senior Sister?”
Ha Seo-hwa shot back shamelessly, “Training isn’t humiliating. Then what about that junior disciple over there on the platform? Should he be ashamed of losing to Senior Brother Jung Nam-jung while he’s smiling about it?”
“That’s different. I’d be ashamed to lose in front of everyone.”
“Then you have to learn more.”
“I’ll learn from Master.”
Ha Seo-hwa tilted her head.
“...You don’t want to spar? Back then, everyone used to like sparring with me.”
They probably only liked it the first time.
After being beaten senseless with wooden swords and rolling around on the training platform, nobody would keep liking it.
Setting aside any fondness they felt for her as a person, I’d heard that during sparring time they looked at her as though she were a fish bristling with thorns.
Because no one ever sparred with her twice, Ha Seo-hwa only remembered the part where the disciples had liked it.
Still, this was the first time she’d ever acted as though she wanted to be involved with someone in particular.
I wondered whether the third-generation disciples were envying me right now or feeling sorry for me.
Before training Ha Seo-hwa, Jin Young-mae probably thought she should start by teaching her how to speak properly, but unfortunately I hadn’t been able to tell her that in my past life.
On the other hand, I was puzzled.
Ha Seo-hwa wasn’t the sort of person who’d bare her teeth just because she lost a sparring match by disqualification.
She was young now, but one’s nature doesn’t simply vanish.
Of course, I hadn’t shared any emotional exchange with her in my past life, so figuring out what was in her heart was just as difficult then as it was now.
I’m not talking about romantic feelings between a man and a woman.
There had been no comradeship between senior and junior disciples, no easy warmth like close friends sharing each other’s company.
Our relationship had been that of the sect leader’s disciple and an elder’s disciple.
We were only the sort of people who crossed paths when Mount Hua made official appearances, standing together as the sect’s rising talents.
And yet that was exactly why I knew her character so well.
She wasn’t so small-minded as to lose her temper over a junior disciple who had only recently entered the sect.
There seems to be a reason she’s angry. No, is she even angry? Honestly, that’s not entirely clear either.
The cause is always nearby.
No one lives without hardship, and no one lives without worries.
This was probably a problem of her own.
The issue was that I had become the spark.
The fact that her attitude toward me was different from what it had been in my past life meant, without question, that I was the cause.
Well, it made sense enough that her attitude would change once I beat her in a spar on the first day, but there was still a limit.
Ha Seo-hwa had always driven herself hard and lived by strict self-restraint.
At one time, I thought those behaviors came from discipline, and I even tried to model myself after them.
But looking back now, her nature had a strong self-destructive streak.
The Ha Seo-hwa I was seeing now was not behaving normally.
Maybe it was a demonic heart.
At the very least, it was right before that.
I didn’t know the true shape of it.
But the Ha Seo-hwa I remembered had reached the level of the Three Dragons and Three Phoenixes, so whatever it was, time should have solved it eventually.
And when she was younger, it hadn’t been this severe.
I looked at Ha Seo-hwa again.
Not as a fellow third-generation disciple, but as a senior disciple of the sect leader’s line.
She doesn’t like sparring.
She always threw herself into training as though she were trying to punish herself.
But now she was the one urging me to spar with her.
The outline is starting to come together.
For the sake of my plan, I had challenged her.
And I had made a splendid show of winning.
Thanks to that, I’d won the sect’s attention and even secured access to the Library, but I’d also stirred up her demonic heart.
So it’s because of me?
Something that time should have resolved on its own had flared up because I’d meddled.
While I was thinking about her, Ha Seo-hwa spent the entire sparring session at my side, distracting the spectators by rattling off one reason after another why she needed to spar with me.
When I didn’t answer, she apparently assumed I was ignoring her and even grabbed my forearm.
Perhaps because she trained every day, her grip was surprisingly strong for a girl, and it hurt.
I pried at the hand clamped around my arm and said, “Fine. I’ll do it.”
Even though she’d been the one to ask, Ha Seo-hwa looked startled.
“Really? You mean it?”
“Yes. I’ll do it as many times as it takes until you’re satisfied, Senior Sister, so in return please help me out.”
Ha Seo-hwa asked with visible confusion, “Help you? With what?”
What else?
“You said you’d teach me martial arts. I’ll train alongside you and learn by watching.”
* * *
The Ha Seo-hwa I knew lived by an extremely rigid daily routine.
She rose at the hour of the rabbit to pay respects to her grandaunt, Jin Young-mae, and her master, Hyeon So-eun.
After breaking her fast with bigudan, she circulated her energy until the hour of the dragon, building up her internal force.
When training at Hwa-yeon Hall ended, she ate lunch with another bigudan and trained again until the hour of the snake.
When training was over, she straightened her posture and went to sleep.
Unless she was eating dinner with Jin Young-mae and Hyeon So-eun in the middle of training, or had been asked by one of them to deliver something, she had no real time to rest.
Once she grew old enough that Hwa-yeon Hall training was no longer necessary, she trained individually during that same time instead.
So for her, eating lunch in the dining hall with the other third-generation disciples after training ended was already unusual.
Coming to someone else’s quarters instead of returning to her own after training was even more unusual.
Her master, who had been preparing for training to match the time I returned from Hwa-yeon Hall, widened her eyes in surprise at the unexpected guest.
“Seo-hwa. What brings you here...?”
Ha Seo-hwa answered her master’s question.
“I’ve come to ask permission to train together with Sung-woon starting today.”
“You mean you want to train under me?”
“Yes.”
“Wouldn’t Elder Jin or your senior sister Hyeon be looking for you?”
As though she’d been waiting for that, she produced the excuse she’d prepared in advance.
“My grandaunt ordered me to interact with others more.”
So Jin Young-mae apparently wasn’t just standing by and doing nothing.
“She said it would be better to build rapport with a newly admitted disciple than with anyone else.”
“If that’s what you want, then I have no objection. But my disciple is Sung-woon, and the training can only be Sung-woon’s as well. Is that still all right?”
Ha Seo-hwa nodded.
“That’s fine. In fact, please do it that way.”
“Very well. If that’s what you want, I won’t say any more. Then let’s begin with basic exercises.”
Master instructed us both as casually as ever.
Normally, basic exercises were what I should have been training in, but I was different.
Because I had already absorbed the techniques of Falling Blossom Sword Art, training with only the basics would no longer do.
So Master trained me in parallel with other martial arts third-generation disciples were likely to learn as well, including Falling Blossom Sword Art, Fire Cloud Sword, and Seven Stars Steps.
“You’re surprisingly skilled, even though it’s the first time I’ve shown you.”
“It’s still difficult. Especially the Seven Stars Steps.”
“How could you do it well from the very beginning? Even if you’ve absorbed the fundamentals of Falling Blossom Sword Art, you mustn’t underestimate other martial arts. Seo-hwa’s movements are the very model of proper form. She’ll be a fine example, so watch her carefully.”
“Understood, Master!”
Ha Seo-hwa also trained by following the martial arts I was learning.
She knew a few techniques that someone of the third-generation disciple rank normally wouldn’t get to learn.
It might have felt tedious, but she trained more eagerly than I’d expected.
She practiced Fire Cloud Sword, then Falling Blossom Sword Art, then Seven Stars Steps...
As our bodies, exhausted from circulating and resting our energy, were soothed, the sun had already begun to set.
When it reached the hour of the rooster, Master clapped her hands.
“You’ve both worked hard today. Rest for a while, wipe off your sweat, and after dinner you can head to the Library.”
“Thank you for guiding us again today, Master.”
“Nonsense. That’s only natural for a master.”
After patting my head, Master turned and asked Ha Seo-hwa, “Seo-hwa. Are you planning to go to the Library as well? Or will you return to your quarters?”
Ha Seo-hwa looked from me to Master and back again before answering, “...I was planning to go to the Library.”
“Then you can go with Sung-woon. You must be hungry after moving around.”
Master said she’d prepare a portion for Ha Seo-hwa as well, then went inside.
I picked up the two wooden swords I’d set down briefly on the floor and headed toward the woods beside the quarters.
As soon as I took my wooden sword, Ha Seo-hwa followed me like a shadow.
“That’s a strange kind of training.”
“Is it?”
“It’s not the kind of training a disciple who’s only been in the sect for half a year should be doing. Normally you’d be practicing the basics and then meditating for a long time to grow used to your energy...”
“I felt my energy on the very first day.”
Ha Seo-hwa nodded.
“Amazing. I’ll praise you for that.”
“Thank you.”
“But the training itself wasn’t special. It’s the same training the other third-generation disciples are doing. The pace is just faster—ordinary, really.”
“Did you think there would be some special method? Some secret to why I was able to beat you, Senior Sister?”
“......”
“You’re not just learning from Elder Hyeon, either. You’re also being taught by Elder Jin. If you think this is a waste of time, you don’t have to come.”
“I’ll come.”
Ha Seo-hwa said it firmly.
“I don’t think it’s a waste of time, either.”
“Then that’s fine.”
I gave a little shrug.
Jin Young-mae was a Transcendence-realm expert.
Although she wasn’t ranked among the hundred greatest experts under heaven, she had also come from the Plum Blossom Sword Masters and now led the Law Enforcement Hall, so her individual martial prowess was formidable.
Wouldn’t it have been better to pester her into showing me even one form? Why insist on this instead?
“By the way, where are we going now?”
“As you can see, into the woods.”
“Why?”
“You said you wanted to spar, Senior Sister.”
Ha Seo-hwa murmured, “In the woods, when there’s a wide courtyard right there...?”
“It’s cramped for now, but if we go a little deeper, we’ll find a space that’s about right for sparring.”
As I spoke, I thought deeply about Ha Seo-hwa’s demonic heart.
I was a talent who had been raised for over a decade as the next sect leader of Mount Hua.
I knew how to look at disciples and judge them, so observing a young third-generation disciple was no difficult matter.
I knew very well that whatever she said now, she wouldn’t listen.
If all her behavior up to this point—and everything she would do going forward—wasn’t merely a desire to become stronger than others, but instead an urge to prove her own strength...
“Then I’ll have to crush it thoroughly before it rots.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
Once we’d gone a fair distance in, I stopped walking.
Then, as if to show it off, I slung the wooden sword over my shoulder.
“Senior Sister. I’ll spar with you, but on one condition.”
“A condition?”
“I’ll only spar with you today.”
Ha Seo-hwa’s fine brows drew together.
“And don’t tell anyone what happened here. Not even Master, not even my grandaunt. If you won’t promise that, I can’t spar with you.”
“That’s different from what you said. You promised to spar with me as many times as I wanted.”
“Yes. I’ll do it as many times as it takes to satisfy you today, Senior Sister.”
Ha Seo-hwa’s voice cooled.
“Don’t play word games.”
“Think of it however you like. But after this spar, you won’t keep pestering me for a while. And you’ll keep quiet about what happened here, too.”
“And why would I do that?”
“I can say with confidence that Senior Sister herself will do it.”
I threw one of the wooden swords I was carrying to Ha Seo-hwa.
“But if you later find your own answer and ask to spar with me again, then I’ll be your sparring partner anytime. So, will you promise?”
Ha Seo-hwa hesitated for a moment, then slowly nodded.
“All right, I promise. But what exactly am I supposed to find the answer to?”
“You already know what the problem is. You just haven’t realized it, or you’re deliberately looking away.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“If you don’t know, then understand it through the spar.”
“...I could still decide not to keep my promise. Why should I trust you?”
“People who actually keep their promises never go around saying things like, ‘I might break this promise.’”
And more than anything else—
“I don’t think the grand-disciple of the Law Enforcement Hall Lord is the sort of petty person who won’t keep even one promise.”
I knew she was someone who would keep her word.
But just in case, I brought up Jin Young-mae on purpose.
Ha Seo-hwa held deep respect and affection for her.
As someone who valued her own dignity, Ha Seo-hwa would absolutely keep the promise.
“Let’s make this quick. We need to finish, have dinner, and then go to the Library.”
“Arrogant.”
“I was born arrogant.”
Even so, I wasn’t going to insult my elders or slaughter my own sect.
I had always respected the elders of the sect, respected my senior brothers, and led my junior disciples with virtue.
The reason I’d been able to do all that was largely thanks to the wooden-sword etiquette lessons my sect leader had drilled into me until my bones ached.
That is to say, I’d been educated by being beaten.
In fact, I’d been pummeled and rolled around hard enough to make my bones ache.
I wasn’t going to ignore Ha Seo-hwa, but I wasn’t going to go easy on her, either.
“For the record,”
Before the spar began, I told Ha Seo-hwa casually, “I’ll only use Falling Blossom Sword Art in this match.”
Ha Seo-hwa’s face twisted.
“You mean you’re going to face me with only a martial art you haven’t even learned properly?”
“Whatever martial art I use, it’s all something I learned recently. And you lost with a martial art you hadn’t learned properly either. Besides, Falling Blossom Sword Art is the strongest martial art I can use, isn’t it?”
At my reply, Ha Seo-hwa said nothing more.
The two of us slowly leaned forward, then rushed at each other and slammed our wooden swords together.
The next instant—
“...Huh?”
Ha Seo-hwa was rolling across the ground.
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