The Incompetent Hero and the Elixir Smuggling Ring (4)
Once we'd finished buying everything we needed, Baekryeon and I left the city in a hurry and set out for Dandong.
Well — Baekryeon was the one in a hurry. I wasn't particularly rushing.
"Couldn't we have taken things a little easier?"
"I-I'm the one who's embarrassed here, Doryeong!!"
"You're the one who's embarrassed. Not me."
"...Uuuugh!!"
At my unhurried tone, Baekryeon's face flushed as red as a ripe tomato and she snapped at me. Or rather than snapping, it was more like she was sulking out of sheer mortification.
The sight of her brought last night's adorable little moans flooding back, and the corner of my mouth lifted on its own.
"Well, who told you to moan that loud in the first place?"
"D-Doryeong!!"
When I needled her on purpose, Baekryeon pouted hard and whipped her head away. Even that was so endearing that I started toward her to smooth things over — and then, abruptly, she stopped walking.
What's with her all of a sudden?
"Baekryeon?"
"Doryeong. Over there."
I followed the direction she pointed. A familiar beauty stood leaning against a tree.
Still hasn't given up, huh…
I took a step forward and, in the same motion, put on the mask and the wig. I deliberately let my footsteps sound out, one after another, and the other party seemed to notice me as well — she pushed off the tree and stood upright, facing me. Our eyes met in silence. After a brief stretch of that, I spoke her name.
"Dan Seollin."
"Jang Cheon-woo. I've been waiting for you."
"I wasn't waiting for you."
I genuinely hadn't been. Still, knowing her personality, I had a feeling she wouldn't give up that easily.
"Fight me."
"And why would I do that?"
"I'll prove it. My strength."
"Is there anything left to prove? I fought your father to a draw. Are you about to claim you've surpassed him?"
Dan Seollin shut her mouth.
Yeah. Even if you had a hundred mouths, you couldn't say that.
"…At the very least, right now, I can fight better than Father."
Wait, she's actually saying that?
"So… just once is fine. Test me. See if I'm fit to travel with you."
"And what standard are you setting for this test? You can't beat me. Not a chance."
"…I will win. Fighting to lose doesn't suit the Dan family."
"Talk is cheap."
I drew a sword from my inventory. Dan Seollin confirmed that I'd drawn it, then opened her mouth.
"This is a road ordinary civilians walk. If we fight at full strength here, innocent people will get hurt. So let's change locations."
Huh…?
What is this? Why is she suddenly saying something so reasonable?
The sudden burst of perfectly normal, common-sense speech made me a little suspicious — but she wasn't wrong.
"Fine. We'll move, then."
"Follow me. I've already prepared a place."
With that, Dan Seollin vanished.
…Couldn't I just take this moment and go about my business?
"Doryeong, what will you do?"
"For a second I thought I could just leave. But knowing her personality, if I walk away now I've got no idea what she'll pull later — so I'm going."
"Mm. I think that would be best as well."
Baekryeon and I set off in the direction Dan Seollin had gone. After a while, a distinctly open clearing came into view. Dan Seollin was waiting for us in the center of it.
"Not a bad spot you found."
"…"
It wasn't too far from the road, and it wasn't too close either. As long as we kept our power in check, the road itself shouldn't take any damage.
"All right. As for the conditions of judgment… I'll decide those myself."
"Fine."
"Then… Baekryeon. Call the start."
"Understood."
Baekryeon walked slowly to the middle of the clearing, between Dan Seollin and me. She drew her hwan-do and raised it high toward the sky.
"Sparring… begin!"
Baekryeon's blade came down and struck the earth.
And in that same instant, I launched myself straight at Dan Seollin.
"?!"
"Euk—?!"
Dan Seollin herself — and even Baekryeon, who had just announced the start — flinched in shock.
Dan Seollin specialized in hidden weapons and poison. Distance was everything to her. She needed to hold a range that was neither too far nor too close for her tools to work at full power. Out of consideration for that, I'd started the match at the distance she'd intended.
But the moment Baekryeon declared the spar open, I erased the space between us in a single leap and stood right in front of her.
"Let's end this."
"!!"
Shhhk—!!!
Dan Seollin rolled desperately aside and slipped the cut. Of course, I'd already known she would dodge. A strike that wasn't full power — one with room left over — could still change direction mid-swing.
"The sword's path—?!"
KWAANG!!!
The blade twisted in a way that defied common sense and came for her again. Dan Seollin hastily wrapped her hands in green qi the way Poison Sovereign Dan Seolpung once had, trying to catch the sword — but she was overpowered outright and sent flying.
"S-Seollin!!!"
"Don't worry. I hit her with the flat."
This wasn't the same as fighting Dan Seolpung. He might have been weaker than me, but he was still strong enough. His qi could take my blade, which meant I could freely use the edge without concern. Dan Seollin was nowhere near that level. If I'd cut with the edge, the green qi would have split and her hands would have gone with it.
…And Dan Seolpung would not have let that slide.
We'd already agreed to cooperate. No point creating unnecessary friction.
As that thought crossed my mind, a strange presence rolled out from where Dan Seollin had landed. I knew who it was, of course.
"Blood Awakening, is it."
With a bang, Blood-Awakened Dan Seollin erupted into view and flung her hidden weapons.
"Soul-Chasing Swallowtail Darts!!"
Three projectiles streaked toward me, trailing green light. Qi-charged hidden weapons — if I tried to bat them aside the ordinary way, my sword would shatter, or my wrist would, or I'd fail to stop them entirely and end up skewered, poison flooding my whole body.
In a normal situation, that is.
Kang!!
"Light."
Compared to Dan Seolpung's hidden-weapon arts, this was nowhere near enough. Speed, weight — she didn't surpass him in a single aspect. I genuinely had no idea where she'd found the confidence to pick this fight.
Jeok.
A strange sound rose from the ground. The moment I shifted my gaze from Dan Seollin to the earth where the noise had come from—
Puh-ung!!
"?!"
A sound like fireworks going off, and murky smoke began surging up from the ground.
"This is—!"
Detailed Description: A poison of the Dan family. Combines five different toxins to generate a dense poisonous fog. Depending on which five poisons were prepared in advance, the effects vary wildly. Based on the user's mastery, the mist can range from a trivial haze that couldn't kill a single person to a lethal cloud capable of causing instant death within three seconds of inhalation — a technique that is as much a finished product as a skill.
Poison—?!
In that instant, one of Dan Seollin's earlier lines flashed through my head.
I've already prepared a place.
That hadn't meant she'd simply found a spot to fight. The Dan family's specialties were hidden weapons and poison — and poison had a very particular trait: it could be set in place ahead of time, exactly where you wanted it.
This whole location was—!
"Ten-Thousand-Li Poison Domain. I put this formation together by myself. It was a lot of work. I hope you enjoy it thoroughly."
"You crazy little—"
Dan Seollin's personal stage. Not a simple spar — a poison trap built from raw hunger and will, from the absolute determination to win, pride and everything else thrown aside. The silver lining, if you could call it that, was that the toxins making up the mist didn't seem to be extreme poisons.
"Hup!!"
Whoooosh!!!
I swung my sword, trying to blast the mist away with the wind pressure — but the fog refused to move the way I'd expected. It clung to the space itself, as if glued in place.
In that case, there was only one option.
Mt. Tai Cleaver
A single stroke.
A silent horizontal arc of the blade. In the same breath, the poison mist was caught in that trajectory and swept away.
I never thought I'd use a Sword King Secret Art on Dan Seollin when I hadn't even used one on Baekryeon.
This was why matchups couldn't be ignored.
While that thought was still running through my head, the mist that had been blocking my vision vanished completely — and what greeted me was a storm of countless hidden weapons.
"Ten Thousand Blossoms Rain: Hollow."
Ten Thousand Blossoms Rain: Hollow. In other words, a hollow shell of a technique that only imitated the form. Even so, against an ordinary opponent it would have been more than threatening enough.
But staking the match on that technique at the last moment? Bad choice.
"I've already broken the real Ten Thousand Blossoms Rain. If you think a cheap imitation is enough to take me down… you've underestimated me badly!"
Pabababababababat!!! Ting! Kakakakakakakang!!!
I didn't need to knock every projectile aside. Among the endless rain of hidden weapons, there were a few cores. I only deflected those. That alone was enough — the ricocheting weapons struck others, which struck still more, and within the downpour a kind of safe zone opened up around me.
"If I had to name it… Ten Thousand Blossoms Rain: Dissolution, maybe."
Yeah. Pretty good name, if I do say so myse—
Puh-puh-puh-pung!!
"!?"
"You're right. The same technique wouldn't work on you. And more than that, mine is an incomplete phantom of a technique. But that's exactly why I chose it. Of all the techniques I know, this is the only one that can hide poison inside the weapons themselves without the opponent noticing."
Some of the deflected projectiles scattered yet another poison. Of course it came straight at me — and if I took a full dose of that, things would get very unpleasant.
"…Haa."
Earth Cleaver
"Fine. You win."
A clean vertical cut, driven from above to below. In a single exchange, every hidden weapon and every scrap of poison coming my way was blasted aside and scattered into the empty air.
"Haa… haa… haa…"
"Haa…"
Dan Seollin looked spent. Her Blood Awakening had already faded; she panted hard and then simply collapsed into a sit. I watched her and let out a long sigh.
"Why are you so desperate to follow me, anyway?"
"…I want to get stronger."
"You're already strong enough."
"It's not enough!"
Even with her eyes half-lidded from exhaustion, Dan Seollin shot back without hesitation.
"Back then — during the Beastman Alliance's attack — I couldn't do anything."
"I seem to recall you protected everyone in the Dan family until Baekryeon arrived."
"But in the end, I still couldn't save them. I hit my limit. That isn't good enough. I'm of the Dan family. I need the power to punish anyone who bares their fangs at us. Without fail."
"Then learn it at the Dan family."
Baekryeon was one thing — we used the same kind of close-range weapons. This girl threw hidden weapons. Why was she latching onto me?
"When I'm near you… I get the feeling I'll become stronger."
"…"
I looked over at Baekryeon. She shrugged and met my eyes.
Great. Another one saying the exact same thing Baekryeon did.
"All right. Then this is the final test."
"Wha— you never said anyth—"
"Right now, Dan Seolpung and I are thinking about a traitor within the Dan family."
"!"
At my words, Dan Seollin's whole body went rigid. Then she looked at me as if to ask whether I was serious.
"So here's my question. Who is the traitor candidate that Dan Seolpung and I have in mind?"
Dan Seollin thought for a moment, then opened her mouth.
"Dan Seollyun."