Descendant of the Goryeo Sword Master
The Cheok family of Jiyeon had been famous for exorcism for generations.
More precisely, they had made a name for themselves as exorcists who wielded swords.
But the strength that came with power also brought with it great danger.
“Our sword is strong, yet it also carries the taint of evil spirits.”
I had never understood those words when I was young.
Not until the moment my brother, driven mad by the sword, slaughtered my parents and the entire clan.
“Brother…?”
The brother whose soul and heart had been stolen by the sword, turning him into a killer.
Was it the last flicker of his sanity that made him abandon his younger sister?
Yet the fact that she was the only survivor of the family had become a curse for Jiyeon.
“Everyone… Who would have guessed the family would be wiped out by the very genius they called successor?”
“What am I supposed to do with this little kid left alone?”
“The famous Cheok clan has fallen like this. Truly, the world is beyond comprehension.”
“Tsk! The child is listening.”
What others said mattered nothing to her.
All that remained was hatred and betrayal toward her brother.
She had the duty to destroy the family that had betrayed her and to bring down the brother who had been devoured by the sword.
Afterward, she lived alone and repeated training until her blood flowed.
Thanks to that, Jiyeon awakened her talent early.
But training alone had limits.
Finding clues about her brother was nearly impossible.
So Jiyeon decided to enter Cheonjihae.
Korea’s top exorcism corporation.
There, she could grow strong quickly, and information would be abundant.
‘I cannot be satisfied with simply entering.’
Jiyeon’s goal was to find and kill her brother as soon as possible.
To achieve that, she would need to stand out in Cheonjihae.
Additionally, she needed the weapon rumored to be awarded to the top student.
Among them was the sword she desired.
‘I will take first place in this entrance exam without fail. And I will climb the ranks faster than anyone else.’
That resolve had driven her into the practical exam.
Everyone else looked tense, but Jiyeon felt no fear.
Fear was something she believed she felt only because she lacked training.
‘If I truly trust my own skill, there is no reason to be afraid.’
To that extent, Jiyeon trusted her sword.
“Ah, hello.”
So she did not care that the man beside her seemed somewhat lacking.
Her spiritual talent was average at best.
At most, the man would be given leeway because of his face.
‘…It was better this way. That way I could stand out more.’
She decided to ignore him completely and take the exam alone.
With her own sword, it was more than enough.
‘To become the top student, I must hurry!’
I had heard that many outstanding talents would participate in this exam.
The only daughter of the CEO of a famous barrier company.
And Go Juyeong, known as the archer.
They were all geniuses that could not be underestimated.
No matter how much Jiyeon, she had to hurry.
‘Break through the forest as fast as possible and catch as many monsters as I can.’
From the very beginning, she had charged forward with full power.
As expected, Jiyeon slaughtered monsters at a shocking pace.
Because of this, she became separated from her teammates, but she did not mind.
If they could not even keep up, they were not worth helping in the first place.
‘I will definitely enter as the top student and find my brother’s clues.’
The exam had already vanished from Jiyeon’s sight.
Only the image of her brother, now a killer, killing her parents flashed before her eyes as she slashed at the monsters.
…Had the problem been that I got distracted while swinging the sword?
Or that I had rushed out of the exam venue without noticing and gone deep into the forest?
- KWAANG!
“Kyuk!”
Suddenly, a colossal monster appeared from the side and swung its arm.
It was similar to the monsters she had fought so far.
The only problem was its size.
The absurd bulk made her think of a giant.
“What the…?”
Jiyeon was the kind of person who never backed down easily.
But in the face of this enormous creature, she was stunned.
‘Is this monster even part of the exam? No, that can’t be.’
Being told to fight such a monster was basically a death sentence for the examinee.
How could Cheonjihae, a major corporation, do something so cruel?
“…Was it my mistake?”
I had gone too far and entered too deep.
No, before that, I had been so focused on killing the monster that I had not noticed this one was right beside me.
‘This is dangerous.’
It was impossible to defeat this monster alone.
If I ran, there would be no opening.
- KWAANG!
“Cheet!”
While she was thinking, the monster continued its attack.
Its speed was even faster than its size suggested.
“Haat!”
Jiyeon seized the opening and swung her sword at the monster’s arm.
- KAAANG!
But even her boasted swordsmanship could not break through.
The difference in basic spiritual power was simply too vast.
- KUWOOWOONG!
“Keok!”
Instead, the opening created by her attack allowed the monster’s arm to brush against her.
Even though she had barely dodged the direct blow, the impact was overwhelming.
Her well-trained body rolled across the ground in agony.
‘How am I supposed to…?’
There was no way to defeat the creature.
No, beyond that, there was no path to escape its grasp.
‘Could I die here? Without properly beginning revenge for the family?’
The fear of death.
The sticky feeling she had felt when she saw her brother, now a killer, holding a sword.
That sensation rose again, weighing her legs and arms down.
“No!”
Jiyeon forcefully shook off the fear.
She gripped the sword tightly and planted her trembling legs on the ground.
“I am Cheok Jiyeon, head of the Cheok family. I will not flee because I fear monsters or death!”
With nothing but mental strength, she faced the monster, sword in hand.
Even if she died here, she could not leave behind the stigma of dying from running away.
‘At least leave a scar…!’
Just as she clenched her teeth and confronted the monster and her fear.
“Eh? What is this?”
A teammate broke through the bushes and appeared late.
It was not a situation where Jiyeon felt hope that someone else had arrived.
Rather, despair and guilt rose that an innocent person had been dragged into her mess because of her arrogance and greed.
“Run away!”
So she shouted at the man immediately.
“This is all because of my mistake! You don’t have to risk your life too! Run away right now and request support!”
Dying here would be nothing but a dog’s death.
She did not know what kind of person the man was or whether he was a spiritualist.
But he was definitely not strong enough to defeat this monster.
‘I cannot let this man die because of me.’
Unlike her, that person probably had a home to return to and family waiting.
She did not want them to feel the pain of losing that.
‘At least I need to buy that man time to escape…!’
Just as Jiyeon was trying to unfold the extreme will of the family that still lacked training.
“Die.”
- KUWOONG!
The mountain-like monster that had not seemed like it would fall collapsed to the ground.
“......Eh?”
Jiyeon stared at the situation in front of her with dazed eyes.
The monster was clearly lying there.
A corpse from which no life force remained at all.
Anyone could see it was dead.
‘How…?’
The man had not done anything particularly remarkable.
He had simply muttered a spell toward the monster.
With that alone, such a monster had fallen.
‘Was that… possible?’
An unbelievable situation.
But it was foolish to deny it after seeing it with her own eyes.
‘Does that ordinary-looking man have such powerful spirit magic?’
Upon thinking about it, she had heard something.
A spiritualist who reached a certain level could hide their power to the extreme.
It was rare for an examinee to possess such strength.
But in the exorcism industry, where talent mattered most, it was not impossible.
‘…Was I the pathetic and unhelpful one?’
She had not even known the skill level of the person standing right beside her.
How was she supposed to defeat her brother, called a genius, and take revenge on the family at that level?
“Huu!”
A slight clarity returned to her mind.
She had run only for one goal.
Suddenly, she realized she had been running inside a well.
“Excuse me.”
After organizing her thoughts, Jiyeon bowed her head deeply to Nam Dohyeong and apologized.
“I got blinded by my goal and ran without looking around, creating this situation.”
Jiyeon stopped abruptly when Nam Dohyeong saw the monster, looking more surprised than when he had seen the monster.
“I will definitely repay this debt later. Even if it meant nothing to you…”
“Eh… Huh? What?”
“I apologize again. And… thank you. Thanks to you, I feel like I’ve learned my own level.”
Jiyeon sincerely expressed her apology and gratitude.
Thanks to this experience and the man, she realized that her way had been somehow wrong.
‘What? Why? Did I hit my head wrong on the monster earlier?’
Because she had bowed her head deeply, she could not see the expression on Nam Dohyeong’s face.
****
‘This exam was quite successful.’
While listening to the steadily accumulating reports, exam supervisor Lee Jae-hak nodded.
This time, there had been so many outstanding talents that it could almost be called a bumper crop.
They were even diverse in their specialized fields.
From the company’s perspective, having many diverse talents was naturally easier to utilize.
In that sense, the newcomers had a high probability of being useful until the end.
‘There are a few trash among them, but they’ll be filtered out on their own. It’s just that all of them have average records, which is a shame.’
The reason they went through such a complicated exam was to occasionally select those who excelled only in real combat.
A kind of dark horse?
‘This time, no such guy came out. Well, that’s usually the case.’
Anyway, it seemed like the exam could be ended soon.
Thinking that, Lee Jae-hak was about to rise from his seat.
“Ma, supervisor! Big problem!”
“What? Did someone die?”
Since the practical exam involved fighting monsters directly, it always carried danger.
So they had prepared waivers in advance.
But if a death occurred, the situation became troublesome.
“N, no! Much more amazing… No, you’d better see it for yourself!”
“Hmm.”
The rambling employee’s words made no sense.
It would be faster to go check directly.
‘It would be better to scold them if it’s nothing special.’
As Lee Jae-hak was running, his eyes lit up.
“Oh?”
A huge monster was being dragged by the employees’ hands.
Next to it, a woman and a man holding swords—presumed to have caught the monster—were walking awkwardly.
“…Interesting.”
It seemed the dark horse of this exam had been decided.
And it was a genius of considerable level (disaster).