Martial Arts Are Innocent
At the sheer absurdity of it all, I called out her name without thinking.
Fortunately, the two of them were just as flustered, so they had no time to care about how I addressed them.
Ha Seo-hwa sprang to her feet as if she’d never fallen at all and replied, “I was just passing by.”
Yeah, sure you were.
Even she must have realized how flimsy that excuse sounded, because she glanced at the female disciple beside her as if begging for help.
The junior disciple, having read Ha Seo-hwa’s intent, brushed off her clothes and stood up with an awkward laugh. “Right. We were just passing by.”
Master and disciple alike were terrible liars.
Given how they’d both been sprawled on the ground a moment ago, I could guess the general shape of what had happened.
Pretending not to notice, I gave them a formal salute. “It’s my pleasure to meet you. You must be Hyeon So-eun, Hall Master Hyeon?”
Hyeon So-eun asked, sounding surprised, “You know me?”
“I heard you’re Senior Sister Seo-hwa’s master.”
She was a spirited female disciple caught between a stern master and a reserved pupil.
Though she hadn’t become a Plum Blossom Sword User, she was still a formidable master at the Peak realm, having brought the Fourteen-Pattern Plum Blossom Sword Art to full mastery at the age of thirty-one.
Hyeon So-eun accepted my greeting with easy familiarity. “I just returned today after finishing an assignment. The whole sect has been buzzing about how you defeated Seo-hwa at Hwa-yeon Hall.”
“But I lost when we crossed blades the next day.”
“How could anyone call it a coincidence that you unfolded the Falling Blossom Sword after seeing it only once? I’d like you to keep getting along with our Seo-hwa.”
“Thank you. I’ll work even harder from now on.”
Once the greetings were over, the conversation died.
Without meaning to, I looked at Ha Seo-hwa, who was fussing with her clothes.
The instant she met my eyes, she shook her head.
It was as if she were insisting she hadn’t told her master about the duel in the forest.
In any case, master and disciple had been caught stealthily watching me and had no elegant way to explain it now.
It was awkward enough just standing there and looking at each other, so I spoke first.
“If you have nothing to say, I’ll be heading back.”
Hyeon So-eun gave Ha Seo-hwa’s back a light push with her palm, nudging her forward.
That brought Ha Seo-hwa a step closer to me against her will.
But she didn’t seem flustered at all. Instead, she looked straight at me.
Maybe she was simply good at keeping her face still, and the embarrassment never showed.
“Did you need something from me, or...?”
Even as I asked, I turned my gaze toward Hyeon So-eun. She was visibly rattled.
“S-Seo-hwa is approaching another disciple first...!”
From her muttering, it seemed she was shocked that Ha Seo-hwa’s social skills had improved even a little.
At the very least, it was clear that something inside her had changed.
Had I not seen Ha Seo-hwa sobbing in the forest myself, I wouldn’t have believed this scene either.
Ha Seo-hwa didn’t seem to notice the exchange between Hyeon So-eun and me. Her attention stayed fixed entirely on me.
The master told me not to follow strange people. I’m sorry.
She hadn’t followed anyone, but instead she’d ended up being caught by a strange person.
She’d disappeared for a while, then suddenly turned up again, and I had no idea what sort of nonsense this was supposed to be.
The truth was, there was only one reason Ha Seo-hwa would have come looking for me.
Seeing Hyeon So-eun standing beside me must have bothered her, so she asked roundaboutly, “Come to think of it, a few days ago you said you’d forgotten something you needed to tell me. Did you remember?”
Ha Seo-hwa shook her head awkwardly.
There was hesitation in the denial.
It wasn’t so much that she was seeking an answer as that she was still sorting through things, or perhaps hadn’t even been able to put a hand on them yet.
Either way, her inner demons could only be solved when she realized her own path.
I didn’t think even a genius would find the answer in a few days.
Ha Seo-hwa didn’t seem inclined to let me go.
If this went on, returning to the Library looked unlikely, so I quickly created an atmosphere of parting.
“I’m sorry, but I’m in the middle of reading some manuals. Would it be all right if I excuse myself?”
Ha Seo-hwa slowly nodded.
“All right.”
“Then I’ll be going inside.”
I bowed my head and turned away, but for some reason I could feel footsteps following behind me.
Ha Seo-hwa was trailing after me.
What are you doing?
I looked back at her pointedly, making my meaning clear.
When our eyes met, Ha Seo-hwa nodded as if she’d understood.
Then she turned her head over her shoulder and looked back at Hyeon So-eun just as I had.
“Master.”
“...Hm? What is it?”
“I want to read the manuals at the Library.”
“W-well, then go ahead.”
“I’ll return before dinner.”
Ha Seo-hwa turned back to me.
She wore a look that said the matter was settled, but there was so much to object to that I was left speechless.
Or maybe she simply wanted to speak with me alone.
The place where I read the manuals was tucked away in a corner of the Library.
Unless someone was standing outside with an ear pressed to the wall, it was difficult to eavesdrop.
Only after escorting Hyeon So-eun away did I finally enter the Library.
It was a rare sight to see three third-generation disciples gathered there. The attention of those around us lingered for only a moment.
Once I returned to my seat and picked up my brush, Ha Seo-hwa sat down stiffly opposite me.
While I continued moving the brush, I asked, “If you have something to say, then say it now.”
I hoped she’d ask quickly and then leave quickly.
At my words, Ha Seo-hwa asked in halting fashion, “You.”
“Yes, me.”
“Do you find martial arts interesting?”
“You sneaked up on me just to ask that?”
“...You said you were just passing by.”
She was clumsy, but since she’d already made one excuse, it seemed she intended to stick with the same line.
“Whatever I think of martial arts won’t help Senior Sister.”
“Why not?”
“You’re asking me this, when I entered the sect much later than you?”
“But you beat me. More than once, too.”
“Then it sounds like Senior Sister was weak, after all, since she lost so many times.”
“...That’s right. I am weak.”
I’d thought she’d bristle, but to my surprise she accepted it so readily that I was taken aback.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do from here.”
“If you’re weak, then you have to become strong.”
“I know that. I mean, how?”
“Isn’t figuring that out your task, Senior Sister?”
I jerked my chin toward the manuals stacked on the table.
“At the very least, even while you’re worrying right now, I’m still becoming stronger.”
Ha Seo-hwa’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Those are martial arts that fall below the level of the Falling Blossom Sword.”
“Yes. I heard.”
“And the Jade Maiden Art is for female disciples.”
“I know.”
“Even if you master it, it won’t make you stronger...”
“And yet it was still created by an ancestor of the sect.”
Though it had been created for third-generation disciples, every formula contained the insight of its founder.
The disciples of the Nine Great Orthodox Sects wanted instruction from renowned masters of their own sects.
But the truth was that everything they wanted was already contained in the manuals.
The understanding of the martial artist who created the art, and the difficulties they had grappled with while creating it, were all embedded in the formulas.
“Can you really become strong just by reading manuals?”
“If you could learn martial arts just by reading a manual, then there’d be no need for masters. But it’s also true that the creator’s understanding is woven into the manual, isn’t it?”
Whether one could realize that understanding was another matter entirely.
It was difficult, but if you could grasp it, you could gain the hard-won insight of a top-tier expert without paying a thing.
“If you hate difficult things and just keep swinging a wooden sword in a crude, mindless way from morning till night, you’ll only stay where you are. If you repeat something simple over and over without any clear purpose, you’re just wasting time.”
As soon as I finished explaining, Ha Seo-hwa carefully took the untouched manual of the Jade Maiden Mind Method into her hands.
“...You’ve been swinging it from morning till night?”
“I do read the manuals, too.”
Ha Seo-hwa tried to act innocent, but she couldn’t hide the red tint creeping up her ears.
In her mind, the Jade Maiden Mind Method was probably something she’d already memorized with her eyes closed. Maybe that was why it seemed a little boring. Very few children like reading from a young age.
After a brief silence, Ha Seo-hwa spoke again.
“If I do this, can I become as strong as you?”
“I wonder. To be honest, I’m inclined to think that someone who already believes they’re weak can’t really become strong.”
I waved my hand as if I’d misspoken.
“Please forget I said that. I’m saying all sorts of things.”
“...”
“If you think martial arts are cruel, why don’t you ask Hall Master Hyeon to show you the Fourteen-Pattern Plum Blossom Sword?”
The Mount Hua Sect was famous for its plum blossom-themed martial arts.
Mount Hua disciples pursued swift swords and illusionary swords, and once they reached the pinnacle, they could make plum blossoms bloom in midair with the blade.
There were countless bandits who had followed the phantom blossoms with their eyes, only to have their throats slit without ever realizing what had happened.
Ha Seo-hwa shook her head.
“I’ve seen it.”
“No, that was cruel too?”
“The sword techniques were sharp. It’s martial arts made to suppress others.”
“Well, all martial arts are made for that in the end.”
Hyeon So-eun was a disciple of Jin Young-mae, the Hall Master of the Law Enforcement Hall.
The disciples belonging to the Law Enforcement Hall had to punish rulebreakers with severity.
Every one of them carried a sword with no softness in it.
That was why Ha Seo-hwa’s sword also had a trace of mercilessness to it.
“By that logic, there isn’t a single sword in the world that isn’t cruel.”
“Your sword wasn’t.”
“I’m also using Mount Hua’s martial arts.”
Ha Seo-hwa nodded.
“But even while I was training, I kept thinking of your sword. Especially the Falling Blossom Sword you showed me—it kept haunting me.”
I set down my brush and met her eyes.
She had such desperate eyes that it would have been impossible to ignore them.
I understood then.
It was the first time I’d seen that.
Just as I’d seen her crying for the first time, this expression too felt unfamiliar.
She was no different from the other disciples who had fallen into inner demons.
She looked as if she were lost, wandering until she was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion.
And the reason I couldn’t simply leave a disciple like that alone was...
surely because I had spent my whole life training to be the next sect leader.
Slowly, I spoke.
“Senior Sister. What if someone who used demonic arts went around doing righteous deeds?”
“Demonic arts scatter a person’s nature. They make deviation into madness easier, heighten the emotions, and when you see blood, they stir up excitement and pleasure...”
“That was just an example. If it’s too hard, I can explain it more simply. Human nature exists in as many forms as there are people, you know?”
“...Isn’t that obvious?”
“No, I don’t think it is. A martial artist can be a problem, but martial arts themselves are innocent.”
Ha Seo-hwa’s expression grew solemn.
“Martial arts are just tools used by people, like swords.”
I closed my eyes briefly, then opened them again.
In that fleeting instant, the burning peaks of Mount Hua and the common folk who’d come to seize me drifted before my eyes.
“In the end, isn’t it people who are cruel? You know that better than anyone, don’t you—just as I do.”
A murderer, whatever he held in his hands, would ultimately use it to harm others.
And a chivalrous hero, no matter what he carried, would ultimately use it to help others.
A knife in a woman’s hands was for preparing warm food; a murderer’s knife was for killing someone.
Martial arts weren’t all that different.
After hearing me out, Ha Seo-hwa said nothing for a long while.
She set down the manual and lowered her head, lost in thought.
Meanwhile, I finished reading all four manuals and copied down several formulas onto paper.
Most of them had nothing to do with the Violet Mist Divine Art.
If I started by writing down only the formulas of the Violet Mist Divine Art on the very first day, it would look too deliberate.
Restoring the Violet Mist Divine Art was something I had to accomplish gradually. If I became impatient, everything could come crashing down.
I put away my brushes, paper, ink, and inkstone. I left the manuals in front of the junior disciple, who was already nodding off. When I returned to my seat, Ha Seo-hwa was looking at me.
“I’ll be going now.”
“I have a favor to ask.”
“A favor?”
“Show me the Falling Blossom Sword one more time.”
“...It won’t really help even if you see it again.”
“Your Falling Blossom Sword was different from everyone else’s. I want to see exactly what’s different and confirm it for myself. I’m not just asking you to show me for no reason. I’ll give you this.”
Ha Seo-hwa hurriedly took a small wooden box from her sleeve and opened it.
A white pill wrapped in cloth caught my eye.
“This is called a Little Yang Pill.”
A low-grade medicinal pill that allowed the user to build up half a year’s worth of internal energy upon taking it.
More importantly, since it was a yang-based pill, it was especially effective for men who took it.
It might seem ill-suited for a female disciple like Ha Seo-hwa to possess such a pill, but...
sects such as Mount Hua would sometimes give female disciples who practiced yin-based arts yang-based pills like the Little Yang Pill.
Otherwise the internal energies in the body could become unbalanced and harm the body.
Had she been saving it without ever taking it?
While I looked at the Little Yang Pill in silence, Ha Seo-hwa grew unexpectedly talkative.
“I didn’t steal it. I received it from Master last autumn after I brought the Jade Maiden Sword Art to eighty percent mastery. You don’t have to tell me the answer. It doesn’t have to be a duel. I’ll think about it myself. So...”
Before Ha Seo-hwa could even finish speaking, I took the offered Little Yang Pill and tucked it inside my sleeve.
Ha Seo-hwa stared blankly at the hand that had just been holding the pill.
When she lifted her head to look at me, there was something strangely meaningful in her gaze.
“How could a true junior ignore a senior sister’s earnest request? Come with me.”
Ha Seo-hwa hurried to her feet from the chair.
What I needed most right now was internal energy.
I was pushing myself as hard as I could while practicing the Violet Mist Divine Art, but it still wasn’t enough.
The Little Yang Pill wasn’t some extraordinary medicine, but as payment for showing the Falling Blossom Sword once, it was generous enough.
Just as I was about to leave the Library with Ha Seo-hwa and take a step forward—
“That’s an interesting conversation you’re having.”
We froze in place.
Slowly, we turned our heads and looked down the corridor of the Library at the men standing there with their hands clasped behind their backs.
One of them was Oh Joo-yup, the Library Elder.
The other was an old man with white hair and a short white beard. Yet his back was not bent. His grand frame alone overwhelmed most men.
“The Falling Blossom Sword, you say. Would it be all right if we observed as well?”
I knew this great figure well.
“And return the Little Yang Pill to Seo-hwa. If the Falling Blossom Sword pleases me, I’ll give you a better pill in its place.”
One of the Ten Great Martial Artists of the Martial World, the Sword Sovereign.
Baek Gun-won, the sect leader of the Mount Hua Sect, stood before me.