The Wall of the Realm
A month had passed since Ha-ryeon arrived.
She and I had been crossing swords day after day, and still I couldn't see the slightest sign that I might win. Every day I lost by a hair, or by a margin only a little wider than that.
"Young Master, you've worked hard again today. Sleep well."
"Yeah. You sleep well too, Tomusa."
I lay back with my hands folded behind my head.
Why did I keep losing to Ha-ryeon? Was my swordsmanship not polished enough? Was it because I still hadn't used that? Was it the gap between our realms? I couldn't tell. If I poured more into my swordsmanship, could I really win? If I used that, could I lure her into letting her guard down? If my realm rose, would the difference in our skill actually close? The worries only kept piling higher.
Ask Mother or Tomusa, and all either of them ever told me was to hone the sword. If I could see Master just once more, I might learn what the problem really was.... Master...? Right. Master had given me a jade token.
I hastily opened the drawer where I kept important things and checked the jade token Master had given me. He had told me to take it to Paejon once I came of age. Go to that man, and I might finally be able to see what was wrong with me. But would Mother ever allow it...?
"What is troubling you?"
While I was lost in the worry, Tomusa spoke.
"You weren't asleep?"
"No. I do not sleep until I have confirmed that you have."
So that was it. Had she been pretending to sleep all this time?
"Is something weighing on you?"
"I think I've hit a plateau lately. But I can't tell what the problem is."
Hearing that, Tomusa went on in a tone grown rather grave.
"So you have felt the wall of the realm. I understand that feeling."
"The wall of the realm...?"
"It is something every martial artist experiences, once they have begun to learn the martial arts. When the level of one's strength stalls and cannot reach the next realm, we call that the wall of the realm."
Right. Not everyone grows stronger in exact proportion to the effort they spend. Sooner or later, you come up against a limit.
"How do you get over that wall?"
"Ordinarily, one crosses it by gaining enlightenment, or a fateful encounter. There are also cases in which someone else passes down the essential formulas, and that alone is enough to break through."
Waiting around until enlightenment or a fateful encounter happened to find me was far too vague.
"Couldn't you pass the formulas on to me?"
"The internal cultivation methods you and I practice are different, after all. When the martial arts themselves differ, it is usually difficult."
So that was why she and Mother had no choice but to tell me, vaguely, to train with the sword.
"Tomusa, do you remember this jade token?"
I showed her the token in my hand.
"Is that not what the elder who first taught you martial arts gave you?"
"Right. And back then, Master told me that once I came of age, I should learn martial arts from this person. But if I take this and leave the clan, do you think Mother will allow it?"
Tomusa listened, and a kindly smile touched her face.
"The Clan Head is a martial artist herself. She will understand that heart of yours. I am certain she will permit it."
"All right. I'll trust you. The moment morning comes, I'm going to Mother."
I clenched my fist and held it up.
"Has this settled your worries?"
"Yeah. Because you advised me."
Tomusa stroked my head once.
"I am glad to hear they are settled."
"Then sleep well, Tomusa."
"A peaceful night to you as well, Young Master."
And so, a firm resolve set in my chest, I closed my eyes.
The moment I woke in the morning, I headed for where Mother and Father were.
"What brings you here at this hour?"
I took out the jade token I had brought and showed it to Mother.
"This is what Master told me to take to Paejon once I came of age. He said that if I brought it to Paejon, Paejon would teach me martial arts. Right now I'm feeling the wall of the realm, and I don't know what to do. Please allow me to learn martial arts outside the clan."
"May I see that?"
I handed her the jade token. Mother took it, turned it this way and that, and then gave it back.
"In exchange, there are conditions."
Was she really going to allow it...?
"First, you will take the escort I appoint. Second, you will send a regular report every week. Third, since I am granting your request, you will grant one of mine."
Every one of them was a condition I could accept. But the request Mother meant to make—surely it wasn't....
"It is neither the matter of the Young Clan Head nor anything to do with marriage, so do not fret so."
Oh. That was a bit of a relief, then.
"Understood. I'll accept those conditions."
And so the agreement between Mother and me was sealed.
"But do you even know where that man resides, speaking so?"
"...Huh?"
Seeing my reaction, Mother let out a long sigh.
"I shall have a carriage prepared as far as where he stays. And I will send word before you go, so wait until a reply arrives."
I nodded at her words. To think Mother would actually permit me to leave the clan.
"You look pleased."
Ha-ryeon, who had been eating breakfast with us, asked.
"I'm going outside the clan to learn martial arts."
"Oh? That's good. You'll be able to set your sights on a higher realm."
She offered the congratulations with genuine feeling.
"Go and come back, and won't I end up stronger than you?"
"Haha. I suppose I'd better be nervous."
Ha-ryeon smiled.
"Even so, I won't go down easily. Training with you has stacked my experience points up fast. I'm certain it won't be long before I step onto the threshold of the Pinnacle."
I swallowed hard at that.
"That's possible in a single month?"
"Training with you let me see what I was lacking. You'd do well to be nervous."
Ha-ryeon was growing every single day too. I had to learn martial arts from that man and leap the wall of the realm quickly.
"But how did you cross from First-Rate into the Pinnacle?"
"I received the essential formulas of our clan's martial arts from my mother. That's why I could cross the wall of the realm relatively easily."
So when mother and daughter learned the same martial art, passing down the formulas was possible. I wished I could see Master just one more time.
"Even so, once I step onto the threshold of the Pinnacle, I think I'll feel the wall of the realm again."
"You can't receive the formulas a second time?"
"Usually not. The meaning of a martial art, once it has been passed down, doesn't change. After that, it's a matter of lacking enlightenment, or of lacking training."
Enlightenment....
"How hard is it, usually, to gain a true insight?"
"It's a chance that may or may not come even once in a lifetime."
"Are there people who gain insight more than once?"
"There could be. But it wouldn't be common."
Martial arts really were a difficult thing.
"Haven't you ever asked your mother how she climbed to such a high realm?"
"What Mother says isn't something ordinary talents like us can understand. Why wouldn't I have asked?"
Ha-ryeon sighed.
"Then do you know how it works, those stories of people who break the wall of the realm by eating a spiritual elixir?"
"That would be using the elixir's energy to break through an insufficient amount of training. And even then, it cannot be the energy of an ordinary elixir. It has to be something that holds tremendous power, like a Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng or a Thousand-Year Fiery Pear. Swallow them carelessly and you may fail to control that energy and fall into qi deviation, so it is by no means an ordinary method."
Then just how incredible were the protagonists in those martial arts novels, the ones who ate a spiritual elixir and smashed straight through the wall of the realm?
"I didn't know you were this interested in the study of the martial arts."
Ha-ryeon propped her chin on her hand and stared at me hard enough to bore a hole through.
"Have I been winning too much lately? Maybe I should have gone a little easier on you."
"Hmph. I don't need that."
"Call me big sister, and I might let you have one."
She narrowed her eyes to sly slits and teased me.
"No. I'm going to surpass you with my own skill. And why does it have to be big sister, of all things?"
"You didn't know? Being called big sister is every woman's wish."
Wasn't that the exact same line the men of my old world used to pull? Call me big brother.
Put it like that, and I was never saying it. Not a chance.
"Then shall we make a bet? After you finish your training, we bet on who wins. If I win, you call me big sister. If you win, I'll grant you one request too."
"There's no reason I'd accept a reason like that...."
No, wait. This might actually be an opportunity.
"Fine. I'll take that bet."
An old man read the letter that had come by messenger bird, and slowly a smile began to spread across his face.
"What the hell are you grinning like a fool for?"
A woman, catching sight of it, addressed him.
"Got a reason, auntie. That disciple of mine says he's coming to see me."
"Hmph. Ten years on, and you're still making a damn fuss bragging about that disciple."
"You'll see him yourself soon enough. Then you'll realize just what a monster that brat is."
"Ugh. Get old and you change, you old fossil."
"And how long do you mean to live pretending you're still young? Grow up a little."
The old man looked at her with open contempt.
"What did you say?! This old geezer, I swear—!"