A Code Only We Know
I'd had a nightmare.
Where... was this?
A mountain? I was deep in the mountains. A campfire crackled nearby. Had I been camping? And where had my bodyguards gone? They had to be close. I ought to look for them.
I shoved myself up, brushed the dirt from my clothes, and started walking at random through the dense mountain hollow.
"Tomusaaa~ Myoryeong~ Where are you~."
I wandered for a long while before I caught sight of white hair gleaming in the moonlight.
"Huh? Tomusa?"
I ran straight for her.
"Tomusa, what are you doing over there!"
She was leaning against a tree, one hand clutched over her heart.
"□□□ □□□ □□ □□□□□"
She thrust an arm toward me, shouting something.
"What? I can't hear you. Say it louder."
"□□□ □□□□□!!"
"Y-you don't have to get angry. What's wrong, Tomusa? Does something hurt?"
"□□□! □□□ □□□□□!!"
All at once she drew her sword and charged.
"Tomusa!!"
"Tomusa!!!"
Splash.
I jolted, arms and legs shooting out—and only succeeded in thrashing the water in the tub.
What the hell. It was a dream.
I must have been worn out today.... Having a nightmare that ominous, and then making a whole scene of it. Wonderful.
"Young Master, are you all right? You've been very quiet."
"Yeah, I'm fine. It was, uh... oh! I was meditating. That's why."
"...I see. You may come out now. Time's up."
What was that? There'd been a pause before she answered. Anyway, I washed up in a hurry and stepped outside.
"Ooh, Tomusa, look! My skin's all springy."
"Please don't bare your skin in front of other people, Young Master."
"An arm should be fine, shouldn't it?"
Tomusa looked deeply conflicted by that. Was this really something to agonize over?
"Anyway, look. My skin's completely different."
She must have reached a decision at last. She cracked her eyes open a sliver and poked at my arm.
"The medicine has certainly taken well. I am only checking how far the medicinal effect extends."
Would you look at that excuse.
"Then let us go and eat."
"Yeah, let's."
"..."
She was watching me with a peculiar look in her eyes.
"You don't need it this time?"
"Need what?"
"...Never mind. It's nothing."
With that, she puffed out her cheeks. What was going on? Why was she really acting like this? I left the suddenly strange Tomusa behind and went to enjoy my dinner.
"You're a little late."
Mother and Father were already seated, waiting for me.
"I'm sorry."
I offered a light apology and sat.
"It's fine. I know you've been learning the sword, so it doesn't matter."
"You knew?"
"Of course. Who do you think permitted someone to teach you the sword?"
So Mother herself ordered them to teach me. Huh. I had no idea.
"Hayeong. So, is I-hyeon keeping up?"
"His stamina still gives out, but considering his age, I believe he is doing admirably."
"Of course he is. Whose son do you think he is?"
Mother squared her shoulders, bursting with pride.
"I-hyeon. How was it, going into the medicinal bath for the first time?"
Father asked.
"It was... it was amazing! I was exhausted, but the fatigue just vanished, and my stamina came back too."
"So it worked. That's a relief."
Father smiled and stroked his beard.
"I'm glad the bath proved effective. Since we've confirmed it, train him even harder, Hayeong."
"Yes. Understood."
"Nooo! What does the bath working have to do with my training getting harsher!"
I shouted, and all three of them looked at me as if I were the strange one.
"If you recover faster, the intensity ought to rise as well. Isn't that obvious?"
Mother wore an expression that said she couldn't understand me at all.
"Training is a cycle of suffering and recovery. What your mother means is that since the amount you recover has grown, the load has to grow with it."
Father explained from beside her, and I finally understood.
Who puts it that simply.
"In any case, raise the intensity of his training."
"Understood."
I'm already at my limit, and they want to push it higher. I'm going to die.
"You'll... raise it slowly, right?"
"It has to go up all at once, or it won't be effective."
Ah. I'm dead.
"Don't make that face, I-hyeon. You're struggling now because you're laying the foundation. Build that foundation well, and the sword will become more delightful than anything else."
My shock must have shown plain on my face. Mother pressed me for it.
"Uuuugh... all right."
"And there's something else I need to tell you. I've chosen the spirit elixirs the two of you will take."
Finally!
"Hayeong, I believe you've never taken a spirit elixir either. Is that correct?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"Then I'll have to assist both of you."
A spirit elixir. I was looking forward to this. How much would my internal energy grow?
"What kind will we be taking?"
"Hayeong will take ginseng. You will take the Plum Blossom Pill."
"The Plum Blossom Pill of the Mount Hua Sect?"
"Yes. It brims with yang energy, so it isn't suitable for the people of our family. But you've overcome your Yin-Yang Blocked Meridians, so I thought it would suit you, and I chose it."
So our family's internal cultivation method carries yin energy.
"But how does our house have a spirit pill from the Mount Hua Sect?"
"Sit in a seat like mine long enough, and gifts of every sort find their way to you. That one came along with the rest. Now, enough chatter. Let's eat."
And so dinner ended without incident.
"Young Master, the Family Head already cautioned us once. Is it really all right for us to sleep like this?"
"If anything, quitting because we were warned would be stranger. Times like these, the rule is to carry on exactly as we always have."
At that, Tomusa stepped right up to me in a single stride.
Hrk. Even so, this feels too close.
"Shall I pat you?"
"Mm... yeah!"
Pat, pat. Tomusa's hand tapped against my chest. Each time she did, my heart settled, and sleep came drifting in on the rhythm.
"Tomusa. Want to make a code?"
"A code? Why all of a sudden...."
"I just had an ominous feeling. And doesn't it sound fun? We'd call each other by names only the two of us know."
Tomusa swept my hair back once.
"All right. Let's decide on a code."
"Is there a nickname you want to give me?"
A small laugh escaped her at that.
"How does Clover sound?"
"Clover? I like that."
Getting a nickname put me in such a good mood that I broke into a bright smile.
"And what will my code be?"
"You look like a rabbit, so how about Rabbit?"
"If it's too obvious, it isn't a code."
"Hmm... then Turtle?"
Tomusa looked utterly dumbfounded. Then, calmly, she went on in a whisper.
"Why a turtle?"
A great yawn dragged itself out of me.
"'Cause a turtle's shell protects the turtle... same as how you protect me...."
Zzz... a soft little snore.
A feather-light kiss.
The next morning. Fortunately, I was spared training, on the grounds that I had woken early. The training that began after breakfast, though, was not something I could skip. Still, daytime training was fun, so it was bearable.
"Tomusa, is it hard to become a Peak master?"
"Peak... do you mean?"
"Yeah. They say from Peak master on, you can release qi outside your body."
"That's true, but why a Peak master, of all things?"
She looked at me, puzzled.
"Because if you wield the Flame Art, the qi comes out as real fire when you bring it forth!"
At my innocent words and my smile, Tomusa smiled too.
"For the qi of the Flame Art to become flame, and the qi of the Ice Art to become crystal, you have to be a Transcendent Peak master at the very least."
Tomusa, thoroughly shattering my hopes.
"Transcendent Peak means you've joined the ranks of the Hundred Great Masters Under Heaven, doesn't it?"
"That's right. Transcendent Peak masters are that rare."
Transcendent Peak was a realm you reached only after passing third-rate, surpassing second-rate, overcoming first-rate, arriving at Peak—and only then going beyond. Impossibly far....
"My motivation just died."
"That's only how it usually goes. The ability to wield internal energy and the measure of strength are two different things."
"Really?"
"Of course. Your ability to handle qi is already first-rate, Young Master. You only have to climb two more steps."
Hearing encouragement that wasn't quite encouragement, I felt as if I might come back to life.
"But how hard is it, actually, to reach Transcendent Peak?"
"Hmm... let me give you an example. Imagine we gathered a hundred people with ordinary talent for the martial arts. Of those, only one reaches the realm of first-rate."
"O-only one in a hundred makes it to first-rate?"
"Transcendent Peak is harder still. Of a hundred first-rate martial artists, only someone exceptionally gifted, who has also worked with everything they have, breaks through the wall of Peak and rises to Transcendent Peak."
The way she said it then felt like a warning not to even covet such a thing—as if she meant to frighten me off.
"Wait. One in a hundred. Gather a hundred of those, and it's one again.... One in ten thousand!!"
"Correct. You really are good with numbers, Young Master. Only one in ten thousand can inscribe their name among the Hundred Great Masters Under Heaven."
So a Transcendent Peak master was that brutal a thing to become....
But I couldn't give up here!! The Hundred Great Masters Under Heaven. I would put my name on that list.
"Tomusa, I'm going to become one of the Hundred Great Masters Under Heaven."
A laugh burst out of her—then a hasty cough, a desperate attempt to swallow it back.
"Don't laugh at me!!"
"I wasn't laughing at you."
She waved her hands, all innocence.
"Who laughs right in someone's face and then turns around and denies it!"
"I laughed. I didn't mock you."
Ha. She was going to deny it to the bitter end.
"Then what was it."
"...You were just cute...."
"What? I can't hear you."
"....You were just too cute."
"I can't hear you!!"
"That's enough. I've said all I need to."
At last Tomusa gave up on the conversation entirely.
"Then it's a match!"
She snorted.
"Hey!!!"