I'm Coming to See You
I had realized I had no talent and given up the sword, but that hardly meant some clever alternative was waiting for me.
The most I could manage was a little crude fistwork, and picking up some other weapon now would only drag the training out far too long. So the weapon I chose was the art of fist and foot.
Of course, it was never going to be an ordinary art.
"Tracking it down nearly killed me."
The final boss of the original story had wielded an absurdly broken martial art, the Formless Twin Art, and now it was in my hands. As the word formless made plain, it was a martial art with no fixed forms at all.
And...
"It's an art that lets you learn the martial arts of other weapons on top of it, stacked together."
No forms. No limits on weapons. Pure cheat. The freedom to choose any weapon didn't really apply to me, but...
"It ought to be more than enough to weaken the final boss."
The protagonist had been nerfed. Wasn't it only fair that the final boss got nerfed to match?
"I didn't plan it this way, but... a good thing is a good thing."
With a little of the guilt set down, it was time to focus on training.
When I turned my head, a wooden box caught my eye. Stored alongside the Formless Twin Art, it held three spirit elixirs — one that had been kept with the art itself, and two more opportunities I had recovered on the way here.
My goal was first-rate. Spirit elixirs I had to spare, so there was no great need to fret over internal energy.
"So I'll come see you as soon as I can."
With the face of the fiancée I missed held in my mind, the long training began.
Three months had passed since I entered this damned closed-door training chamber.
Perhaps because I had wiped every art I knew and started over from nothing, the sense that I was weaker than before refused to leave me. No — it wasn't a sense. I really was weaker.
It was the result I had expected, so I decided not to dwell on it.
Half a year had passed since I entered the training chamber. I still couldn't feel that I had grown any stronger than before.
The one piece of good news was that I had finished absorbing the elixir kept with the Nameless Art before my internal energy could dissipate. I hadn't gained the full twenty years' worth, but I had succeeded in taking in eighteen years and six months of it.
Now it was time to absorb the next elixir.
A year had passed since I entered the training chamber. At last I gave a name to the new energy art I had put off naming again and again.
A martial art like the god of lightning. Strengthened through the Nameless Art, it seemed worthy of the title divine — and so that was the name I gave it.
I decided to stop thinking about strength.
Two years had passed since I came here. At last I could feel the wall of first-rate.
My understanding of the martial arts was deepening — I could feel it, clear as day. I no longer thought I would lose to the man I used to be.
Three years had passed since I entered. I had crossed the wall of first-rate long ago, yet I kept on training.
Part of it was that I still hadn't absorbed every elixir. More than that, I had caught the first thread of an insight I would never grasp if not now, and so I chose to continue.
Just a little longer, and I can see her.
By now I no longer knew how much time had passed. Somewhere along the way I had lost all sense of time and simply trained. When I came back to myself, far too much of it had already gone by.
"I said I'd go quickly... is she going to be angry...?"
I felt guilty for making Soye wait so long, but what I had gained was great enough that no other regret remained. I washed my face lightly with the water running in through the channel, shook off the sleep, and slowly opened the door of the training chamber.
"Bright..."
It had been so long since I had seen the sun that it took a while for my sight to return to normal. As my vision gradually cleared, halls and buildings that had hardly changed at all came into view.
"Same as ever, I guess..."
I turned and headed for Jin Muwon's room. I hadn't washed in five years, and I wanted to get clean as soon as I possibly could.
On the way there I ran into a maid hauling luggage.
"Excuse me, you can't just come in here— Y-Young Sect Master! H-have you finished your training and come out?"
"Yes. I was on my way to wash, so I'd like you to have a change of clothes ready for me."
"Y-yes! Right away."
Once I had washed and come out in the clothes the maid prepared, I could feel every eye nearby lock onto me.
"That's the Young Sect Master? His face is insane."
"It's just the shell. Still, it really is insane."
"Even before he went into seclusion, you could see the signs."
Even at fifteen, still a child, Jin Muwon had been reasonably popular on looks alone. Now that he was fully grown, praise for his beauty poured from the women — and at the same time, jealous muttering reached me from the men.
"Did he really come back?"
"I thought he was dead, and look at him, strolling back alive."
"Shh, watch your mouth. Rotten or not, he's a martial artist. He hears even a whisper!"
"Let him hear! What's a nobody like him going to do?"
Ironically, all that slander aimed at me was what finally made it feel real that I had returned. I was just wondering what to do about the insults being thrown at me so openly when the Chief Manager came running toward me.
"Young Sect Master! You've returned!"
"Chief Manager? It's been a while."
"Yes — six years, Young Sect Master!"
"Six years already? Never mind that. Young Sect Master...?"
Come to think of it, the maid earlier had called me Young Sect Master too, instead of young master.
"Three years after you entered closed-door training, the Sect Leader passed the position of Young Sect Master on to you."
"Is that so?"
"And seeing how bright you look, I take it you achieved the goal you set."
"I got my hands on more than the goal I'd set when I first went into seclusion."
"Oh? Is that so? Congratulations, truly!"
"Enough. Anyway, what brings you here? The Chief Manager is a busy man. Did you really come in person just because I came out of seclusion?"
"Of course I had to come myself once the Young Sect Master emerged. There is a matter, of course..."
"Father called for me again?"
"Yes. He said that if you had nothing particular to attend to, you should come see him at once."
"Understood. I'll go right away, so go tend to your work."
"Yes, Young Sect Master. Congratulations once more on your achievement."
I sent off the Chief Manager, who beamed as though my success were his own. Then I turned my steps toward the place where Jin Muwon's father would be.
"The Young Sect Master has arrived."
"Let him in."
Following the servant's guidance, a middle-aged man who had not changed much in six years received me. The man who had been bent over his documents soon opened his eyes wide and stared.
"You crossed the wall?!"
"Yes. Only just — but I crossed it for certain."
"Hah..."
"So why did you call for me?"
"I called only because I was curious what you achieved in seclusion."
"Is that so? Then I'll take my leave."
"Wait."
"Yes...?"
"What do you intend to do from now on?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm asking about your plans. You've crossed the wall. There must be something you want to do."
"..."
The reason I had endured six long years of waiting, and trained through all of it... I had been able to bear that long stretch of pain only because I wanted to become a man worthy of her.
"I... am going to the Tang Clan."
"The Tang Clan?"
"Yes. I'm a rotten bastard who hasn't shown his face to his fiancée in six years."
"That girl must have caught your fancy."
My brow twitched at that girl, but I did my best not to show it. I was about to turn the subject aside — getting angry now would do me no good — when Jin Yeoheun spoke first.
"If it's now, you may withdraw from the engagement. I accepted it back then because you were worthless."
"What did you say?"
"Exactly what I said. I might understand if she were of the direct line, but she's nothing more than collateral blood. It's a waste to send you, as you are now, to a woman like that. You've earned the qualifications. I'll find you a woman of a more fitting station."
Boom!
At Jin Yeoheun's outrageous words, I lost control of my anger for an instant and released my energy. I regretted it at once and drew the force back, but things had already gone too far to undo.
"I will pretend I heard nothing."
"You'll regret it. For a woman of that sort..."
"That will never happen! Insult my fiancée again, and I will not let it pass."
When I met him with open hostility, Jin Yeoheun said nothing more.
"I'll take my leave."
"..."
I shut the door hard and left the Sect Leader's office. Watching a man who looked at human ties only for what he could gain from them filled me with disgust, and I no longer wanted to share that room with him.
Now that I've earned the qualifications, he'll match me with a more qualified woman? Don't make me laugh.
I didn't need the greatest beauty in the world dragged before me. I hadn't fallen in love with Soye for her looks alone.
I didn't need the greatest heroine under heaven either. I hadn't fallen in love with her fame.
I didn't need the greatest merchant under heaven. Money held no value for me.
I loved Soye because she was Soye. Every hard and painful moment had been for her.
After that, it took the Young Sect Master of the Thunder Power Sect — his closed-door training at an end — less than three days to pay a visit to the Tang Clan.