The First Step
Raon held his breath.
A fortuitous encounter.
A footwork personally transmitted by the strongest martial artist on the continent was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity among once-in-a-lifetime opportunities — something no mere tablet could ever buy. If word of this ever spread, the entirety of House Zieghart would be thrown into an uproar.
He resonated the Ring of Fire. A deep, rolling hum filled his chest, and his slightly dazed mind snapped into crystalline clarity, as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head.
"You seem ready. Then I shall begin."
Glenn's foot parted the pale moonlight spread across the floor. The movement was as leisurely as a man out for a stroll, yet Raon could not grasp its flow. It bloomed crimson like a flame on the left, then rippled and streamed like water on the right. The bizarre current his feet created left Raon unable to breathe.
Glenn's footwork was impossibly profound. Fast, yet slow. Soft, yet unyielding.
I still have to watch until the end.
He could not give up simply because it was difficult. Even a tenth of Glenn's teaching would be an enormous gain. Raon watched without blinking even once, until Glenn's feet finally came to a stop.
That all-too-brief, intoxicating moment ended, and Glenn came to a halt before him. Even after demonstrating a footwork of the ages, his breathing was unhurried, and not a single fold of his clothes was out of place.
"Did you see it?"
Those sharp crimson eyes, like a predator's, posed the question. Had he truly seen it? How far had he grasped it?
"...I'm sorry. I couldn't see it."
Raon bowed his head, biting his lip. It was footwork of an entirely different caliber — a level of martial study that four Rings of Fire simply could not comprehend.
Glenn showed no particular reaction, as if he had expected as much. He merely looked down at Raon with indifferent eyes.
"Show me only as much as you understood."
He pointed at the floor and stepped back. It seemed he wanted Raon to attempt the footwork himself.
I'm going to disappoint him.
He had seen many currents and felt a profound martial principle, but what he could actually perform right now was nothing more than a speck of dust. He could already picture Glenn's icy gaze.
In that case...
Raon bit his lip lightly. Rather than clumsily attempting to show many things, he decided to recreate the one that had left the deepest impression.
That one.
The first step. The first stride that launched from an unusual stance — right foot forward, left foot drawn back. He would recreate that single step that had parted the moonlight and pierced through space itself.
"Hoo..."
Raon drew his left foot back and extended his right foot forward. The distance between his feet was shoulder-width. Because he had observed the stance while circulating the Ring of Fire, it was identical to Glenn's without the slightest discrepancy.
Everything was contained in that step.
Fast and slow. Strong and soft. Infinitely mutable. It was a single step that could go anywhere.
He lifted his left foot. Then he thrust it forward, pouring in everything he had felt from Glenn's footwork and every martial principle he had accumulated.
The golden moonlight spread across the floor warped into a triangle, and a deep resonance rolled through the entire Audience Chamber. It was a step incomparably weaker than Glenn's, but the flow itself was not so different. It was a first step from which one could move in any direction, in any manner.
Glenn's eyes narrowed. Roen's mouth fell open.
Raon exhaled and lowered his eyelids. He had taken only a single step, yet dizziness washed over him. He must have been far too tense, far too focused.
"Is that single step all of it?"
Glenn turned and looked at Raon's left foot, still extended forward.
"Yes."
Raon answered concisely and opened his eyes.
"You must have seen more than that."
"Because I couldn't even reproduce a tenth of it, let alone the whole."
"You couldn't reproduce it?"
"The footwork you demonstrated, my lord, contained far too much — like the stride of a Martial God. It is beyond what someone as unskilled as I can fully grasp."
"So the first step was the easiest, then?"
Glenn's voice turned as cold as a midwinter wind.
"No."
Raon continued, looking at his left foot still extended forward.
"The first step you showed me was the most important, and the most striking. It was burned into my mind more deeply than any of the footwork that followed, so I believed I had to recreate that first step."
"Why did you think the first step was the most important?"
"Because from it, one can move anywhere, at any moment, in any manner. A thrill ran through me as if I were watching the stride of an omnipotent being, and I can still see that step even now."
Deceiving Glenn through martial knowledge was impossible. He spoke honestly of what he had seen and felt.
"Hmph."
Glenn gave a slight nod and spread his legs. His expression hadn't changed, but the atmosphere in the Audience Chamber seemed to soften just a little.
"You have good instincts."
He assumed the same stance as before — left foot back, right foot forward.
"The name of the footwork I showed you is Supreme Harmony Footwork. Now that you know the first step, True Heaven, is the most important... you are already halfway there."
With that even voice, he took the step once more. The instant Raon saw that stride — a stride that could advance anywhere in the world — the hair on his body stood on end.
His aura core trembled, and aura surged forth. It raced through his mana circuits and drove his body forward. Without even realizing it, Raon perfectly recreated the True Heaven of the Supreme Harmony Footwork that Glenn had just shown him.
"Better than before."
Glenn nodded with an expressionless face and turned around. He ascended the dais and sank back into the jade throne.
"This concludes the reward I shall give you."
"With just that single first step?"
"I showed you a great deal. You simply took only one thing from it."
He closed his eyes just like that. It seemed he had nothing more to say.
"...I understand. Thank you."
Raon clicked his tongue inwardly and nodded. He hadn't gained a great deal, but simply knowing that such a footwork existed had already opened his eyes.
"Take this with you."
Glenn tossed something he had been holding. Raon caught the red gemstone as it fell toward his chest.
"Ah."
It was the Goblin King's magic stone he had given Glenn earlier.
"Every object has its rightful owner. You obtained it, so you should keep it."
He brushed off his hands as if he had not the slightest attachment to it, and closed his eyes once more.
"Please wrap it in this."
Roen held out a black cloth — a fabric that blocked the magic stone's energy.
"Thank you."
Raon wrapped the Goblin King's magic stone in the cloth and tucked it into his robes.
He's giving this back to me...
He had expected Glenn to research it, destroy it, or lock it away in a warehouse. He had never imagined it would be returned. Every single thing this man did defied Raon's expectations.
"You may go."
"Yes. Thank you."
Raon stepped back. He was about to open the Audience Chamber doors when he remembered how much he had received this time, and simply leaving felt a little wrong.
"Um..."
"What is it."
"P-please take care of your health."
Honestly, he had no idea what to say, so he offered the most basic greeting one would give an elder and bowed his head.
Glenn said nothing, his brow furrowing, while Roen covered his mouth, his hands trembling.
"...I'll be going, then."
Raon smacked his lips and left the Audience Chamber. He had a feeling he'd chosen the wrong words.
"Take care of your health?! Even that sharp mind of yours turns to stone at times like this!"
Ugh...
He had never spoken words of genuine feeling to adults before, so he hadn't known what to say.
"Haa."
He sighed and was walking down the corridor of the Lord's Palace when a new message appeared before his eyes.
The Ring of Fire has observed the Supreme Harmony Footwork, which has reached perfection.
Acquisition of Supreme Harmony Footwork will be accelerated.
The Audience Chamber Raon had left was still filled with moonlight.
Roen gazed at the moonlight spread across the floor, then lifted his head.
"I never expected you to bring out the Supreme Harmony Footwork."
He had known Glenn cherished Raon and had expected a special reward, but he had never imagined it would be the Supreme Harmony Footwork.
The Supreme Harmony Footwork is a technique the Head created himself, after all.
It was the first footwork Glenn Zieghart had created after breaking free from demonic influence. To teach the Supreme Harmony Footwork — something that couldn't be obtained even with a Gold Tablet, something he hadn't even transmitted to his own sons — Glenn cherished Raon far more than expected.
"Did you see."
Glenn slowly opened his eyes. Unlike moments ago, when they had held nothing but coldness, a warm, honeyed light now lingered in his gaze.
"He copied True Heaven after seeing it only twice."
"Pardon?"
"Raon. That boy took half of the Supreme Harmony Footwork after seeing it exactly twice. Isn't that remarkable?"
It wasn't just his eyes. His voice was a tone higher than usual, and the corners of his mouth had climbed right up.
"Heavens..."
Roen's jaw dropped. He had lived as Glenn's shadow for decades, but this was the first time he had seen the man this delighted since the birth of the eldest young master.
"Cutting down the Green Lightning Demon and holding out against the Mad Blood Demon was no stroke of luck. His eye for technique, his control over body and aura — none of it is at the level of an ordinary person."
"That is true."
Astonishly, Raon had grasped the essence of the Supreme Harmony Footwork in that brief moment.
"However, what truly moved me is something else."
The smile at Glenn's lips deepened a little further.
"His judgment, I presume. It is astonishing. A fifteen-year-old child discerning what is important and what must be discarded. If I had the chance, I would want to raise him myself."
"I am not speaking merely of today's events."
"Then..."
"The fact that he stood alone against the Mad Blood Demon to save everyone."
Glenn continued, looking at the carpet where Raon's footprints remained faintly.
"Raon has good instincts. The moment he saw the Mad Blood Demon, he would have realized he could never win."
"He would have, yes."
"And yet the boy blocked its path until the end. Even with his body ruined from saving the village chief, he did not retreat. He bought time for the villagers and the trainees to escape."
If Raon had not held out, that village and those trainees would have become nothing but bloodstains in the Mad Blood Demon's grasp. There are not many who would sacrifice themselves for others in a moment of mortal crisis. And if that person is a fifteen-year-old child, you could count them on one hand even if you searched the entire continent.
The fact that such an extraordinary boy was his own grandson filled him with such emotion that a smile formed of its own accord.
"It has been a long time since I last saw you smile like that."
Roen smiled gently.
"Ahem. Delighted? Hardly."
The corners of Glenn's mouth dropped in an instant. He pulled them down even further than usual, to the point that he looked older.
"Sir Raiden returning after single-handedly destroying a White Blood Cult branch, and young master Raon slaying the Green Lightning Demon. What a pile of joyous occasions."
"Well. It's not as if they're such great or special accomplishments."
At the praise of his grandchildren, the corners of Glenn's mouth lifted slightly once more.
"Heh-heh."
Roen murmured something like "is that so" and nodded. A beaming smile still hung at the corners of his mouth.
"Come to think of it, when young master Raon said 'please take care of your health' earlier, you couldn't hold back your laughter, my lord. If you wish to pretend to be cold and composed, you might want to try a little harder..."
"I am not pretending!"
Glenn raised his voice in a rare outburst, but Roen's smile did not fade.
"What's this?"
Raon returned to the Annex and pointed at the message he had seen earlier.
Wrath, who had been hanging from the bracelet like a parrot, shot up into the air.
"It is Learning."
"Learning?"
"It is an element of the system This King created while in the Demon Realm, in order to learn the techniques of those with special abilities or outstanding martial prowess. Seeing this reminds This King of yet another matter. Among the insolent ones who dared challenge This King..."
"In short, it means my learning ability has increased."
"Do not interrupt This King!"
"But I'm right, aren't I?"
"Hmph. Close enough."
"How am I supposed to use it?"
"As if This King would tell you. If you would receive This King's wrath..."
"Never mind. It's obvious anyway."
Raon smirked and wiggled his fingers.
"It just means my ability to acquire the Supreme Harmony Footwork has increased. What kind of secret is that supposed to be?"
"Insolent brat!"
Wrath let out a voice dripping with irritation.
"I should start right away."
Raon quietly opened the window and left the room once more.
"Do it tomorrow when the sun is up. Following you out is a bother."
There might be a time limit.
"There is no way such a thing would..."
The way you said that, there is one.
"H-how did you know."
Your reaction was off.
If it were the usual Wrath, he would have erupted with rage. The fact that he had only sprinkled a light irritation made Raon think he was hiding something.
"I told you. You're in the palm of my hand."
"Do not get cocky! This King is a monarch of the Demon Realm, something a mere human could never fathom..."
Wrath glared, spreading a terrifying coldness.
There it is.
Raon pointed a finger at Wrath's swelling frost.
If you'd come out like that from the start, I wouldn't have noticed anything was off. You're really easy to handle.
He filled his right hand with the flames of the Cultivation of Ten Thousand Flames and shoved Wrath away.
"Damn you! You are the worst existence This King has ever encountered!"
A Demon King calling me the worst is a compliment, right?
"Krghhh! This King will kill you. No matter what it takes, This King will kill..."
Yeah. Later.
Raon headed for the training grounds, listening to Wrath's curse-like screams.