The Eve of the Storm
"Young Master, why are you so restless?"
"Huh? I'm not. I'm perfectly fine."
That was a lie. Alone with Myoryeong, his heart felt ready to burst. He was so nervous he could hardly stand it.
"Young Master, if you keep dodging me like that...!"
Myoryeong crept closer, fingers twitching.
"I'll eat you right up!"
"Eek, don't~! That tickles!"
She shoved her hands under his arms and set about tickling him without mercy.
"Ahaha, that tickles~. Okay, stop... stop!"
She didn't let up until every last bit of strength had drained out of him. He lay there gasping.
"Have you calmed down now?"
"Yeah... I'm all right now."
Myoryeong settled him on her lap and stroked his hair. The moment he rested his head against her chest, he was struck all over again by how small he was. She was already slight for a grown woman, and yet he fit so neatly into her arms. Well, he'd grow someday.
"I don't know why you're so uneasy around me today of all days, but I'm fine. I can wait as long as it takes."
"Ugh... it showed, didn't it...?"
"Only a fool wouldn't notice."
Myoryeong kept smoothing his hair back.
"I'm sorry... it's just, today you looked different somehow...."
"No. You don't need to apologize."
"But I was being unpleasant."
"Unpleasant? I liked it. I got to see a side of you I hadn't seen before."
She patted his head, gentle and reassuring, as if to soothe the tangle of his thoughts.
"Still, something about you really did seem different today."
"It did? How?"
"Um... well...."
The moment he tried to put the feeling into words, his cheeks burned so hot he swallowed them back down.
"Young Master, how~?"
Whether she could read his heart or not, Myoryeong started poking his cheeks, pressing him for an answer.
"Uuugh! It's a secret!!"
At the sight of him, she let out a small laugh.
"Then if I tell you one of my secrets, will you tell me yours?"
"Your secret?"
"Yes. A secret about where I come from."
"Ooh! Yes!!"
Neither Tomusa nor Myoryeong ever talked about themselves, so he had never known a thing. He had never imagined he would learn it like this.
"But why tell me now, of all times?"
"Stories like that are meant to be shared once two people truly understand each other."
"H-hey... when you put it like that, it sounds weird!"
"I'm joking. It was simply the Family Head's order."
Mother's order?
"Mom told you not to say anything?"
"Yes. She said it might come as a shock to you, so I was to avoid mentioning it if I could."
He swallowed dryly.
"I-is it... a serious story?"
"Mm... a little...?"
"Eek...! Then I don't want to hear it."
That was when Myoryeong pulled him tight and rubbed her cheek against his. He could feel his face heating in real time.
"Come now, don't be like that. Please listen."
"O-okay, I get it...! L-let go!!"
It was so embarrassing, so ticklish, he thought his brain might melt.
"All right. Better?"
"Yeah. I'm good...."
"Then I'll begin."
Her voice shifted, turning somehow grave.
"...Okay!"
"I was originally a disciple of a sect that has since been wiped out. The one who took me in was the Family Head, who had been close with our Sect Leader. What do you think her first order to me was?"
"Um... Mom? I have no idea."
"So what did you do?"
When he asked, Myoryeong went on in a quiet voice.
"I said I wanted to go out into the murim."
"Ooh!"
"But wandering the jianghu, stumbling into fortune, meeting masters—it all felt empty."
"And after that?"
"I told her I just wanted to stay on as a servant of the family. It was the only way I could think of to live a comfortable life without a single worry."
She calmly swept his hair back.
"Do you know what I felt, working as a servant?"
"What?"
"Emptiness. Why had I trained so hard in the martial arts? Why had I gone out into the murim? I kept thinking I should have just lived like this from the start."
A self-mocking laugh slipped out of her.
"And about a week after I started working for the family, I lost my way as if something had possessed me, and found myself outside your room. I heard someone inside sounding as if they were in pain, so I went in. There you were, lying there groaning. I had never seen the child before, but you were clearly hurting, so I reached for your forehead to check for a fever, and...."
"And?"
"You took my hand and smiled. That was when I understood. You needed me. So I ran straight to the Family Head and said, 'I want to live as the Young Master's guard. This is my last request.'"
He had braced himself for something grave, but it wasn't much of anything. He had gotten nervous for nothing.
"It was like love at first sight."
"L-love at first—!"
"No. It was love. And when someone of the murim falls in love at first sight, it carries a special meaning. It was a special meeting."
"Why does a martial artist falling in love at first sight mean something special?"
He looked up at her.
"People of the murim judge others by strange standards. We don't come to know someone by their looks or their character. We judge whether we can beat them or not. A swordsman mad for the blade, especially, judges only one thing: whether they can cut that person, or whether they cannot."
He couldn't quite grasp what those words meant, yet something rang deep in his chest.
"I... I see...."
"Oh my. Are you embarrassed?"
Myoryeong poked his cheek.
"I am not!!"
He put on a deliberate huff and rejected her touch.
"Aww. I think you are."
They had been fooling around like that for a while when Tomusa came over to them.
"You took a while, Tomusa."
"Yes. I was held up by a rather important conversation."
"Don't tell me... you got scolded for hitting Haryeon's bodyguard?"
At that, Tomusa let out a short laugh.
"No, it isn't that. I wasn't scolded, so there's no need to worry."
She said it while stroking his hair.
"Thank you for worrying about me."
"Yeah!! Then starting today, the three of us train together!"
"Yes. I'd like that."
"Let's head to the training ground."
And so they spent the hours until evening on the training ground, running all sorts of experiments. The Hapgyeok Formation was flawless in theory, but it confirmed a serious flaw: his throwing range was extremely short. Still, that would only improve as his body grew, so he decided not to worry about it.
"Young Master, you're still talking about that even before bed."
"Of course! You have no idea how much I was looking forward to it."
Tomusa and Lee Hyun lay on the bed, chattering. Lee Hyun yawned wide.
"Why am I so sleepy today?"
"You worked hard. Your body's tired."
"You think so? Then I'll sleep first. Good night, everyone....."
No sooner had he said so and closed his eyes than he was asleep, not even a few minutes later.
Good. The sleep draught in the food seems to have taken. I hope that one took it too.
Tomusa turned the thought over as she pretended to drift off. But contrary to her hopes, Myoryeong sat bolt upright. Then, just as she had the night before, she wrapped a secretive power around her hand and moved to touch Lee Hyun.
A sharp crack.
"Hey. What are you doing?"
Tomusa had meant to wait for the right moment before taking her down, but Lee Hyun's safety came first. She snatched Myoryeong's wrist.
"What? Doing what?"
Myoryeong drew the energy back out of her hand and played innocent.
"That ominous energy you just wrapped around your hand. What was it!"
At those words, Myoryeong's eyes went cold—the eyes of an assassin, marking Tomusa as an enemy. She drew her sword at once with her free hand and swung hard, with the momentum to sever Tomusa's wrist.
Tomusa had no choice but to let go, and Myoryeong did not miss the opening. The instant her hand was free, she dove out the window and leapt onto the roof.
"You son of a bitch...!"
Tomusa drew her own sword and gave chase. Steel hissed through the air as Myoryeong swung at her the moment she climbed onto the roof. Tomusa nearly fell trying to dodge, but the muscles of her lower body refused to allow it.
A piercing whistle split the night. Before crossing blades, Tomusa had hooked her fingers into her mouth and blown with all her strength—the signal that the operation had begun.
Steel rang. Myoryeong charged in and swung, and the sudden ambush nearly sent Tomusa tumbling off the tiles.
"You'll need more time before you can tighten that formation. I can tell just from the fact that the Family Head isn't here. And you are the one meant to buy time until it closes in. But you cannot beat me. Your gait. The sword art you use. The way you fight. It was only a short while, but I figured it out then."
Tomusa remembered her fight with Haryeon's bodyguard.
Damn it. I thought it was strange I couldn't see her. She was hiding and watching the whole time.
Myoryeong kept swinging, driving her toward the edge of the roof.
"Stop thinking you can get in my way, and get lost."