Meeting

“Hah… hah… damn. At this rate, I’m gonna drop dead first.”

How long had we been fighting?

I was sure we’d started when the sun was still up, but somewhere along the way the sky had turned the color of a sinking dusk.

“You’re tired too, right? How about we call it quits already? Aren’t you exhausted?”

As if in answer, the monster thrashed in my grip.

“Hey. Quit squirming and rest a second, you little bastard.”

The situation, in short: I had the thing locked from behind, my arms and legs hooked through every joint so it couldn’t move.

The difference was that this creature showed no sign of fatigue, while mine kept stacking higher by the second.

I was only holding on thanks to a month of conditioning; even so, the strength kept draining out of my limbs.

On top of that, the one hit I’d allowed mid-fight had been throbbing in a way that felt wrong for a while now.

It had been a fluke—the monster had suddenly whipped its arm like a lash and caught me. I hadn’t had a chance to check, but the way it ached with every movement, I had to be carrying at least a serious bruise.

Would be nice if a solution showed up already.

So that really was the only option.

Just then, far past the transparent gallery window, someone entered my field of view.

At the same moment, the monster in my arms went wild again.

I shouted toward her in a panic.

“Run! It’s dangerous here!!”

Damn it. Had she not heard me?

The woman paid no mind and kept walking straight toward me.

“This is a monster that won’t die no matter how hard you beat it, so get somewhere else, quick— huh?”

The woman who’d been there a second ago was already gone from sight.

Then, in the next instant, a sweet fragrance tickled my nose.

Flower scent?

Petals filled the air all at once, and a woman appeared with her hair streaming, murmuring under her breath.

No—literally. The monster turned to smoke and vanished.

“This is…”

I was still staring blankly at what had just happened when she held out a hand and spoke.

“A Black Shadow Ghost can’t be banished unless you strike its core directly with hidden force. You didn’t know?”

So the monster’s name was Black Shadow Ghost.

“I had a rough idea. Figured if I beat on it all day it might eventually die.”

I took the hand she offered and got to my feet. She sheathed her sword, offered a cupped-fist salute, and introduced herself.

“I’m Han Yumae of the Hwasan Sect. Are you all right?”

That was when the gallery notifications started going absolutely berserk.

In an instant, Anonymous 1—Hwasan Sect origin—flooded the entire gallery in a full-blown rampage.

I understood the joy of seeing a descendant from the same sect, but the nonstop notification chimes were more than an already exhausted Ye Hajun could handle.

So this is what the temporary ban function is for.

Anonymous 1 became the Uwhadeungseon Gallery’s very first temporarily banned user.

Figuring that was all the damage control he could manage, Ye Hajun let out a breath.

But the moment he got to his feet with Han Yumae’s help, the full weight of the fight crashed down on him at once. He couldn’t hold it—and ended up sitting right back down on the dirt.

“Sorry. You just got me up and everything. I genuinely feel like I’m about to die.”

“It’s fine. Would you like some water?”

“Please.”

Watching Ye Hajun take the waterskin and drain it without pause, Han Yumae asked,

“You said you’ve been at it all day. Did you come from that inn over there?”

He looked where she pointed and nodded. Han Yumae swallowed a quiet note of admiration.

I came because of what the innkeeper said, half-doubting it—and it was true.

Just before arriving here.

That morning, at the same inn where Ye Hajun had picked up word of the monster, Han Yumae had stopped for a simple lunch.

When she went to pay, the innkeeper had noticed her sword and carefully asked,

“Excuse me—are you a martial artist of the jianghu?”

“I am.”

“Then… could you possibly help? This morning a young man heard there was a monster and said he’d handle it himself, and he headed straight out there…!”

Which was how she’d ended up here.

Honestly, when I heard the innkeeper, I figured I’d be clearing a body… but he really had been fighting since morning. Bare-handed, against a Black Shadow Ghost.

Black Shadow Ghosts were not easy to kill.

The only methods were to mince them into helplessness with a blade, or to strike the core directly through hidden force.

For a martial artist who had cultivated enough to use hidden force, they were fairly manageable. For a human with no internal energy, one of them could casually wipe out an entire village.

And yet he’d traded blows with one of those all day—bare-handed, without a scrap of internal energy.

What an incredible person. And even this exhausted, the first thing out of his mouth when he saw me was “run.” He understands righteousness.

While Han Yumae was privately marveling at him, Ye Hajun had caught his breath and stood again.

“Are you sure you should be up already?”

“Honestly, no. But I can’t sleep out here.”

He said it with a light smile, and Han Yumae offered him her hand.

“Then I’ll help you back to the inn. You weren’t injured fighting the Black Shadow Ghost, were you?”

“I took a few hits, but…”

As he said it, Ye Hajun pulled up his clothes to check his stomach—and found a dark, livid bruise already spread across it.

Until now the heat of combat had kept the pain at bay. The moment he saw the wound, the agony hit him full force.

“Ugh…!”

“That’s bad. I have some medicinal herbs with me—let’s get back to the inn and treat you first.”

“I’d appreciate that. Wait, why does everything sound like it’s getting farther awa—”

Ye Hajun’s words slurred, and his body slowly tipped forward.

“Great hero? Great hero!”

Huh?

When I opened my eyes, I was on a battlefield.

A blue sky overhead; below it, blood ran in rivers across a ground littered with corpses.

Before the thought When did I get here? could fully form—

“Die!!!”

A soldier charged into my field of vision, swinging a moon blade.

I flinched, trying to dodge—and a man appeared in front of me.

Even in armor, his massive frame was unmistakable at a glance, and he was bare-handed.

He stepped into the soldier’s guard, caught the descending sword-arm on his shoulder, and smashed the back of the man’s skull.

In the same motion he cleanly seized the collar of the neck armor, hooked a foot, and dumped the soldier, then drove a knee down into the fallen body in a single finishing strike.

Wait?

It was the bare-handed combat of Gunryeo Gwonhak—painfully familiar.

I didn’t even have time to finish marveling at how clean it was before another wave of enemy troops closed in. The man took them apart one by one.

Some with his hands. Some with their own weapons.

He had started empty-handed; at some point a weapon stolen from the enemy was in his grip.

Sometimes a sword. Sometimes a spear.

With every step he took, the bodies piled behind him—one, two—until there was not a single enemy left standing in his path.

“Who are you?”

The man turned and looked at me.

Soaked head to toe in enemy blood, radiating the pressure of a war god itself—the moment our eyes met—

“Hwah?!”

I woke up.

“Ugh.”

Pain bloomed in my left side at the same time.

I carefully sat up and looked at my stomach. At some point, it had been wrapped in bandages.

Where is…

As my head cleared a little more and I checked my surroundings, I saw a familiar ceiling.

“The inn? Yesterday… ah.”

The memories filtered back into place.

I’d fought a monster called a Black Shadow Ghost, met Han Yumae, and then blacked out on the spot.

I opened the gallery first—and an absolutely ridiculous post title hit me in the face.

What?!

I scrambled into the post…

Thankfully, it was a bait post.

These people, I swear.

Then the dream from earlier floated back up.

I was going to ask more about the dream, but now I was too annoyed.

That naturally reminded me of the other temp-ban target.

I should unban Anonymous 1 first.

There’s almost nothing more miserable than being locked out of the gallery.

After that I scrolled through the gallery posts, but most of them were about what had happened the day before.

The biggest topic, of course, was the monster—the Black Shadow Ghost.

I felt a little bad for the Blood Cult leader, but NotAnIceWaterDispenser wasn’t wrong.

Even the figures in the gallery didn’t know this monster.

More than that—I’d never seen one either.

I’ve been stuck here three years and I still didn’t know something like that existed.

Back in Cheongpyeong County I’d basically been an errand boy, so there had been almost no window onto the wider world.

Still. There was one person who knew about Black Shadow Ghosts.

I’d passed out in the dirt yesterday and woken up in the inn, so Han Yumae must have carried me here.

I also had Anonymous 1’s request to handle, and I needed to thank her anyway. I opened the door to head out—

“Ah. You’re awake.”

—and ran straight into her.

“I was coming to change your bandages in case you still hadn’t woken up.”

She held up the cloth in her hands as she said it. I bowed my head.

“Ah—thank you.”

I was still fumbling for what to say next when, thankfully, she spoke first.

“If you’ve only just woken up, you must be hungry. Would you like to eat together?”

“Sure. You helped me, so I’ll cover it.”

Han Yumae smiled as she answered.

“Not at all. I’m the one who’s glad to have been of help to a great hero of such high righteousness.”

Great hero? Me? High righteousness??

I was still reeling from words that made no sense when I realized she was quietly watching me.

“Is there something you wanted to say?”

“I still haven’t heard the great hero’s honorable name.”

“Ah.”

Come to think of it, I’d blacked out without even giving my name.

I offered a cupped-fist salute as smoothly as I could manage and said,

“Ye Hajun. And I’m no great hero. It’s good to meet you, Young Lady Han.”