The Hand the Devil Extends
After Lee Tae-hyun backed Baek Seo-ha, the two factions collided head-on, and she was forced to step outside the Sword Sect for a while.
For one thing, Seong Yong-ho had begun treating Manabu as his direct disciple, which meant she could no longer use the closed quarters she had always occupied within the sect.
Besides, she'd be competing in the guild war as part of a different team — training side by side while revealing each other's full strength would have been a contradiction in itself.
But more than that.
This was the man who had swung his blade at Tae-hyun in a fit of temper over a few provocations.
Who knew what he might do to a rival vying for the seat of Sect Master?
And so, the responsibility for Baek Seo-ha's sudden eviction from the Sword Sect fell to—
"Here we are."
—her very first supporter, and the guild master (to be), Lee Tae-hyun.
"It's a temporary place I scraped together on short notice. Bear with it if it's a little inconvenient."
"Inconvenient…?"
Baek Seo-ha stared, dumbfounded, at the top of the towering building before them.
GORYEO HOTEL
Korea's most expensive, top-tier five-star hotel.
Never mind the service — everything from the dining to the various facilities was counted among the finest in the world.
The price was steep, but apparently the place was booked solid every single day, so even money couldn't always get you a room.
"How did you manage to get a spot?"
"This one's Cheonseong property."
"Ah…."
A reason for her head to nod along all on its own.
Members of the Cheonseong family received Goryeo Hotel vouchers every year.
The best suites, no less.
Not that I ever had use for mine.
Even in his delinquent days, Tae-hyun hadn't been the type to go seeking out hotels for his pleasures.
The facilities were excellent, but because it was owned by Cheonseong, something about it always made him feel watched.
One tantrum there and word would go straight to Lee Jin-sung — so even in his most lawless days, he had picked his playgrounds carefully.
"What are you doing? Get inside already."
Baek Seo-ha stood frozen at the hotel entrance, not moving an inch.
"We'll be here all night at this rate."
"It's just…."
"Hm?"
She mumbled, her voice shrinking as she fidgeted.
"I-I've never been to a place like this before…."
Baek Seo-ha had been taken in by Seong Yong-ho from an orphanage and had grown up within the Sword Sect her entire life.
She'd gone out often enough to enjoy the occasional cultural outing, sure.
But regrettably, the word 'thrift' had been forcibly stapled to her existence.
Why is one building this huge?!'
Goryeo Hotel was called a theme park in itself.
The main building, a golf course, a colossal sauna, a shopping mall… and on and on.
She could count on one hand the number of times in her life she'd visited somewhere this vast and opulent.
"Ugh…."
Heat rushed to her face in an instant.
Within the sect, she'd been something of a senior — and now the entire dynamic had flipped on its head.
Just as she was dreading what kind of barb might come out of that mouth — the mouth that was basically the gates of hell itself—
"Ah, right. It's uselessly spacious here, so it is easy to get lost."
Tae-hyun gave a small nod of understanding.
"It'll take at least a week before we can recruit 'that person' anyway… come on. I can walk you through the important facilities."
"Huh?"
"I'd know my way around places like this better than you, at least?"
And so, led along by him, she somehow managed to check in.
A suite in the Goryeo Hotel.
The absolute pinnacle of luxury that ordinary people would only ever dream of drawing—
"Whoa…!"
Baek Seo-ha stepped inside.
"The room is bigger than the place I trained in…!"
"Good grief. What's the point of a room this big if there's nothing of substance in it?"
The apartment Tae-hyun lived in was even larger than this.
Though it was so packed full of training equipment that there wasn't a bare patch of floor to stand on.
"I told them your name on the way in, so the restaurant will have a meal ready when you go down. Or you could just order room service."
Not that he recommended it.
The miracle economy here dared to charge 35,000 won for a single bowl of ramen.
He wasn't charging her anything, granted, but whether Baek Seo-ha could bring herself to order such ramen was another question entirely.
"Drop your stuff for now and come out. We've got somewhere to be."
Tae-hyun spent half a day giving her a rough tour of the hotel's facilities.
He could have delegated something like this to someone else, but somehow his own feet had carried him into it.
"And now… comes the main event."
"What's left now?"
"Who does this hotel belong to?"
"…Cheonseong."
"And Cheonseong is the number one name in the country when it comes to the hunter industry."
Among the many reasons Goryeo Hotel was Korea's finest — one stood above the rest.
It had facilities built for hunters.
Beep!
Tae-hyun unlocked the facility entrance with a keycard.
Through the doors emerged a training hall bristling with cutting-edge equipment.
"Should be more efficient than the slap-dash training you did at the sect."
The facility normally required a separate reservation.
But for suite guests, private rooms came standard.
And even the private rooms were larger than most facilities.
"Well then — shall we begin?"
"Begin what?"
Tae-hyun, without a word, operated the device set along the edge of the hall.
Sparring Simulation Mode: Online.
A barrier has been charged for all participants.
The first to deplete their barrier loses the match.
Prepare for the duel.
Particles like holographic graphics spread across the entire space, forming an artificial arena.
"Combat mode?"
"We've come all this way — you ought to try it at least once."
A square sparring ground made of translucent walls.
Within it, two hunters stood facing one another.
"And by the way. You've been awfully quiet this whole time."
"…."
"If it were me, I'd have been raising hell without pause. Suddenly thrown out of the Sword Sect, your spot as direct disciple stolen from under you… and you have nothing to say? Doesn't it make your blood boil?"
"I…."
Baek Seo-ha's fingertips trembled.
Ever since she'd heard Seong Yong-ho's words, it felt as though she were wandering through a dream.
Through a particularly vicious nightmare, at that.
She had devoted her life to raising the name of the Sword Sect — repaying the kindness of the man who'd taken her in.
That was what she had to do. Her lifelong duty.
She had never once considered any other path.
And yet.
'That child is weak and incompetent.'
With a single remark from Seong Yong-ho, her entire life had been negated, root and branch.
'Seo-ha, one day you will become Sect Master and lead the disciples. I have faith in you.'
'Work harder still. You are the disciple of the Sword Emperor himself, above all others.'
She knew she'd failed to meet expectations.
She couldn't claim she'd never once disappointed him.
But.
To be buried this mercilessly.
To be thrown away without even a sliver of room left to recover—
Then what had all those years been for?
If a lifetime spent walking in his radiance could be erased with nothing more than a single sentence….
Why do I….
"Snap out of it."
Tae-hyun's voice cut through the flood of swirling thoughts.
"In that state, you'll be eliminated before you even set foot in the guild war, let alone fight in it."
Tae-hyun adjusted his grip on the spear.
"Draw your sword. They say a swordsman speaks with her blade, don't they?"
"…."
"Honestly, I have no idea what that's supposed to mean."
The corner of his mouth curled up, insufferably.
"But if you lose to me, maybe you'll get honest about your feelings again — like last time."
"Last… time?"
One memory flashed through Baek Seo-ha's mind.
The scene of her sobbing her eyes out in front of Lee Tae-hyun, after the final match of the succession ceremony.
"Th-that was—!"
"What? Want me to make you cry again? Maybe that'll finally loosen that tongue of yours."
"We agreed never to talk about that!"
"Did we? I don't really remember. If it bothers you so much, win for once."
Baek Seo-ha vs. Lee Tae-hyun
"I'll make you bawl your eyes out, nice and thoroughly."
And with those words—
Tae-hyun's figure vanished in an instant.
"Wha—?!"
"Behind you."
Before she could even process the voice that had appeared at her back, the spear came swinging for her flank.
"Hk—?!"
She barely caught it with her sword, but there was no opening for a counter.
A storm of thrusts hammered down without pause.
[95%]
[92%]
The barrier gauge chipped away with every strike.
'Wh-what is this?!'
He was strong.
Attacks so fast and heavy she could barely block them came flying multiple times per second.
Compared to the last time she'd seen him, he'd grown at least fourfold.
'That's even possible?!'
It was a truly staggering rate of growth.
What terrified her more was knowing this wasn't even his full strength.
That state he'd shown against the boss of the B-rank gate…!
A chill ran down Baek Seo-ha's spine.
"How… how did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"How can you get strong that fast?!"
"Our Seo-ha. Did you forget already?"
"…What?!"
"I told you that day. Remember?"
Sure enough — the day of the succession ceremony.
When she'd asked him in the hospital ward for the secret of his growth, Tae-hyun had answered.
"You fight like a cornered animal. Desperately — for yourself, and yourself alone."
Back then, she hadn't understood those words.
She had needed to grow strong for the sect. For Seong Yong-ho.
But things were different now.
There was no Sword Sect. No Seong Yong-ho.
All that remained to her now was Baek Seo-ha herself.
"Don't look away for anyone else's sake. It's pointless."
[87%]
[82%]
"Seong Yong-ho took back everything he ever gave you. Without even a chance to fight it — over an absurd excuse."
[70%]
"And you're just going to sit there and take it? Because he was your benefactor?"
[64%]
"Be honest. This isn't the Sword Sect anymore. You are not Seong Yong-ho's direct disciple anymore. He's the one who made it that way."
[50%]
"So be honest. Say what's really in your heart instead of looking away from it."
"I…."
Baek Seo-ha's lips quivered.
"If you whisper like that, I can't hear you."
Crack!
The spear punched clean through her guard, biting deep into her shoulder and thigh.
[21%]
The gauge plummeted.
"I…."
The thing she'd never allowed herself to dwell on.
The thing too precious to claim, so she'd pretended not to see it.
An old, long-buried truth.
"Say it."
[12%]
[1%]
Just as the duel reached its end—
"Hk—!"
A hot flame roared up from the depths of Baek Seo-ha's heart.
"FUCKING HELL!!!!!!!!"
Her sword smashed away the relentless storm of thrusts.
"Dragging some weird-ass bastard in here and kicking me out — that's FUCKING BULLSHIT!"
Shink!
Her keenly honed blade pointed straight at Tae-hyun.
"One little notice and I'm out on my ass — it pisses me off! And handing the Sect Master's seat over to some foreigner? What kind of sense does that make?!"
"Right, see, this is why it's better to just let it all—"
"And that four-eyed FUCK of a geezer looking down on me — that pisses me off too!"
"Uh, okay—"
"And then you suddenly tell me to fight in your guild war?! Why the hell do you people get to decide that without asking me?!"
Hold on a second.
"I've swung a sword my whole life! 'You don't know anything but the sword'? Of COURSE I don't! And do you have any idea how embarrassing it was to be sweating it out in a hotel all day today?!"
"I-I'm sorry you felt that way…."
"AAAARGH! Everything pisses me off! I just want to smash it ALL to hell!"
There was one thing Tae-hyun didn't know.
Baek Seo-ha's true nature was far, far rougher than he'd imagined.
The her of the future had already burned down to nothing but ash, so he'd never been able to notice.
That a heap of ashes is proof of something that once burned more magnificently than anything in the world.
"It's not fair! It's NOT fair! GRRRAAGH!!"
The emotions she'd held down for so long detonated all at once, blazing like the fires of hell.
"I know. That if you stay like this, everything will be taken from you."
Baek Seo-ha stopped mid-swing and seized Tae-hyun by the collar.
"So… from now on, the reasons don't matter. I'll cooperate with you. Lee Tae-hyun."
"Really?"
"Because I refuse to just stand around like this."
If you do nothing, nothing changes.
"In exchange — promise me this."
The murky haze in her eyes was gone without a trace.
Baek Seo-ha met Tae-hyun's gaze, clear and unflinching.
"Now that you've set this whole thing in motion — you will make me Sect Master."
And in return—
"If I become Sect Master…"
"If?"
"I'll pay you a price to match it. I promise it — as the future Sect Master."
For the fellow disciples of the Sword Sect who had believed in her.
For Lee Tae-hyun, who had stepped forward and stood by her side.
'…No.'
This was for herself — to keep from losing everything she had built over a lifetime.
For Baek Seo-ha, plain and simple.
'I will become Sect Master.'
Tae-hyun smiled in satisfaction and lowered his spear to the floor.
"Deal."