Master Plays Senior Once More
“So I figure it’s about time you told me the real reason you came all the way out here.”
“Hahaha. Come on, hyung. I came to see your face. What other reason would there be?”
“I thought so too at first. But right now you’ve got the same look you used to wear back when you were always pestering me with questions. Anyone can see there’s something you want to ask, and you’re forcing yourself to hold it in.”
“…The only things that can ever fool you are ghosts and that kid of yours.”
“Hm? What was that?”
“Nothing!”
Balik had muttered something, but I couldn’t quite catch it. The bastard had the nerve to change his words mid-sentence. I was curious, sure, but something more important was on the table, so I let it go and focused on that.
“Anyway… you’re right. I’ve been hunting for answers any way I can, and nobody’s giving me a single one.”
“This about the Transcendent realm?”
“……?! How the hell did you know?!”
“Simple process of elimination.”
“Process of elimination? What kind of magic is that? How does a man you haven’t seen in years just instantly know the problem that’s been making your hair fall out?”
It wasn’t that hard a puzzle. Balik currently sat on the lofty seat of Mercenary King. Being king of the mercenaries meant real power—enough that even the haughty imperial bureaucrats had to watch their step around him. In other words, if he had a question, he had plenty of ways to get it answered. And yet he’d come all the way out to find a hermit like me. That left only one possibility.
The Transcendent realm.
“Still haven’t climbed it, have you?”
“…It turned out exactly like you said, hyung. Expert rank, sure—but the Transcendent realm? You told me it’d be tough, and damn if you weren’t right.”
Of course it was.
Balik was a genius of combat. His head might not have been the sharpest, but when it came to fighting, his talent outstripped anyone else’s. The problem was that it was pure fighting talent—not martial talent. Fighting talent and martial talent are not the same thing. To ordinary eyes they look identical, but once you reach Expert rank the difference becomes crystal clear. A sword and a bow can both kill a man, yet the gifts required to master them are completely different; the same holds for fighting and true martial arts.
That was why I had always seen it. Balik was the absolute peak when it came to fighting talent, yet he possessed almost none of the gift for martial arts. Normally it doesn’t work that way. Usually, if you’re born with fighting talent, a fair measure of martial talent comes along for the ride. Not with Balik. And that was where the trouble started.
Fighting talent alone was more than enough to reach Expert rank. It was not enough for the Transcendent realm. Against a Transcendent, that same talent would become a terrifying weapon and let him fight as an equal—but it could never smash through the wall of Transcendence by itself.
I had predicted it years ago. Balik would blast through Expert rank in no time and gain absurd power, enough to stand toe-to-toe with Transcendents… and that would be his ceiling.
It wasn’t as if I had never wanted to fix the martial talent he lacked. I had given him every scrap of advice I could, fretted over it with him, crossed blades with him again and again. In the end I never found a solution.
And that was when he had said to me:
If I can just make Expert rank, isn’t that more than enough for a mercenary?
He had meant it, too. That was Balik.
“For a mercenary, Expert rank isn’t just enough—it’s overkill, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, well… I can’t explain the details, hyung, but I got my ass thoroughly kicked.”
“You? Even a Transcendent shouldn’t find that easy.”
“There’s a heaven above heaven among Transcendents, you know. Anyway, I had the rotten luck to run into one of those monsters and got completely wrecked.”
“Sounds like a natural disaster.”
“…Calling it a natural disaster makes me feel even more wronged, but fine—whatever! Point is, I got hammered.”
“And?”
“And if I just hang my head and take it, I’m not a man, am I?”
“Planning revenge?”
“No, no. I’m not about to stake my life on some blood feud with that bastard. Still! After taking a beating like that, don’t I at least have to show him I’m not some pushover?”
Hmm… interesting. A man who normally would have said, “I won’t be able to walk with my shoulders straight until I land one clean hit on that guy,” had been provoked—yet felt no urge for payback? Had he fallen for the opponent or something? If that were the case, given his personality he would have just blurted, “There’s a woman I want to impress, so I need to get stronger.”
Anyway, it was a good thing. Difficult as it was, Balik only needed to break through a single wall to step into the Transcendent realm. Even after I went into seclusion, it had always nagged at me. He’s only one wall away… the summit is right in front of him…
“If you ask for my help, I’ll do everything I can. But you know as well as I do—I’ve only ever experienced Expert rank. And right now I’ve even lost that. You really think I can be of any use?”
“I know it’s asking a lot. I’ve asked Transcendents themselves and never gotten a real answer. I was so lost I didn’t have a choice.”
He wouldn’t have come to me without trying every other avenue first. When every method failed, he finally sought me out. That was the Balik I knew.
“I don’t expect to be much help, but I’ll give it everything I’ve got.”
I rose to my feet as I spoke.
“What are you doing?”
“Huh?”
“Pick up your sword.”
“Hyung… are you sure this is okay?”
“What’s the problem with a little sparring after all this time?”
To Balik it felt all wrong. Jade had given his Aura Heart to Sera and was weaker than he used to be—yet now he wanted a spar. Worse, even though his health looked much improved, he was still clearly weaker than before. What if Balik swung too hard and seriously hurt him? The worry rose unbidden.
“Maybe it’s because I’ve been carrying a bow for so long, but a sword feels damn awkward.”
“…You’re really sure about this?”
“Was the me you knew the kind of man who put on ridiculous airs?”
“Of course not, but…”
“Stop fretting and come at me. Do you think I’d challenge you to a sword spar without a single thought in my head?”
“…Ugh.”
The Jade he knew never bluffed. If anything, he was the furthest thing from a braggart. So he must have some real confidence to be acting like this. Still… even in a spar, if that body took so much as a scratch…
That kid would actually try to kill me…
But if his hyung was going this far, there had to be a reason. And honestly, Balik wanted to see what that reason was with his own eyes.
Shwing!
Whoooooosh!
Balik swung his massive greatsword. His beloved blade had been ruined by Sera, so this was just something he’d picked up along the way—not perfect, but serviceable enough to keep carrying.
“I’d feel terrible if I hurt my hyung after finally seeing him again, so be careful—extra careful.”
“Don’t worry about it. You look like a brute, yet you still fuss over everything.”
“We made a deal years ago not to talk about my looks!”
“How long are you going to keep talking when you’re holding a sword? Come on already.”
“…Fine! I’m coming! Coming!”
KRAAAAAANG!
He gathered aura, kicked off the ground hard enough to leave a crater, and charged at full power, greatsword already in motion.
Whoooooosh!
The blade came down with the force of a single stroke meant to cleave heaven and earth. Jade simply sidestepped it.
“Your attacks are still as straightforward as ever.”
“That’s fine by me!”
Whoooooosh!
A simple attack is easy to read and easy to counter. But if the power packed inside that simple attack is overwhelming? Then the story changes. When the force is so great you can’t even block, all you can do is dodge.
KRAAAANG!
Combine that crushing power with real speed, and you have a nightmare. That was exactly how Mercenary King Balik was known on the battlefield—a living nightmare.
Yet Jade was handling that nightmare with perfect composure.
“I knew you still had something up your sleeve!”
Balik laughed boisterously as he shouted. He wasn’t going all-out, but the blows were far from light—and Jade was slipping past every one of them with astonishing agility and speed. Seeing it with his own eyes filled Balik with joy. Knowing that the man he idolized hadn’t simply grown weak was something any swordsman would celebrate.
For pure speed, Natural Mana was more effective and efficient than aura—that was what made it possible.
“You’ve gotten stronger. No comparison to before.”
And in that moment Jade understood.
He’s only one step short.
Just one step.
One more step, and Balik would enter the Transcendent realm.
But that single step was the problem.
Countless Experts failed to become Transcendents not because they didn’t want to, but because the step required to reach that realm never came easily, no matter how much time and effort they poured into it.
Wanting it and being able to take it were two different things.
That one step was exactly that kind of wall.
But you can take it.
Whatever anyone else said, he was his little brother.
If it was his own brother, of course he could do it.
The old Jade would never have thought such a thing. Absolute trust in another person—something he had learned thanks to his disciple—was something he was putting into practice right now.
So I have to give this everything I’ve got as well.
“Balik.”
“……?”
“You’ve already been cut.”
“…Huh?”
Shlick!
A thin line of blood welled from Balik’s shoulder and stained his clothes.
“…What the hell?!”
Balik couldn’t understand it.
His body was constantly sheathed in aura. Any attack first had to collide with that aura. Even if his attention had wandered, the aura should still have protected him.
Yet it had been completely ignored.
No—more than that…
When was I cut?
He had been cut without even realizing it?
Was that even possible?
A fear born of the unknown crawled up Balik’s spine.
“Hyung… you’ve been hiding one hell of a terrifying technique.”
“I told you. Your hyung isn’t the kind of man who puts on ridiculous airs.”
“Yeah… this is the hyung I know!”
The man who had first made a green mercenary named Balik—someone who had never feared Expert or Transcendent—feel the crushing despair of knowing he could never win.
No matter how many years that man spent in seclusion,
no matter that he had lost his Aura Heart,
he still stood before him now,
a quiet powerhouse, lofty and unshaken.
“Kkya-ha! Hahahahaha! Hyung really is the best!!”
“Honestly…”
Jade shook his head as if exasperated and swung his sword again.
Thuk!
Another shallow cut opened on Balik’s body.
“Don’t get drunk on the fight. How many hundreds—how many thousands—of times have I told you that?”
“Heh! Hahahahaha!”
But Balik only burst into manic laughter and charged Jade again and again.
He knew perfectly well that it was the surest way to win against the Jade of today.