A Week Without a Sword
A week later, on her way to the kendo dojo, Yoon Seoha received a call from the Hunter Association.
"Am I speaking with Hunter Yoon Seoha?"
"Yes, that's me."
"This is the Hunter Association's Sinyeong-dong Branch. You've been selected as a candidate for a special promotion exam in connection with the recent Sinyeong-dong gate incident, which is why we're contacting you."
"A special promotion exam?"
"In that incident, Hunter Yoon Seoha, you subdued ten common goblins and one Hobgoblin. The field report also records indications that you acquired a new skill."
"Th-that's..."
Yoon Seoha couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. The excuse—I only killed six of them, my master took care of the rest—was not going to fly.
"For someone with a previously measured F-rank ability, a record like that borders on the impossible. Depending on the results of the re-evaluation, you could be promoted to E-rank—or, in some cases, as high as D-rank."
D-rank. Yoon Seoha swallowed without realizing it.
It was a rank she had never once considered a realistic goal since the day she'd awakened. Only two steps separated F-rank from D-rank, yet the treatment was worlds apart—more gates she could enter, a larger share of the party's earnings. Best of all, she would never again be treated like a pack mule.
"Please visit the Sinyeong-dong Branch by ten tomorrow morning. Will that be possible?"
"Yes. I'll be there."
"Then we'll see you tomorrow."
The call ended. For a while, Yoon Seoha simply stared down at her phone screen. She was glad—truly glad—to have a chance at promotion. But reality soon came trailing after the joy.
"A promotion... Could I actually manage it?"
Her achievements had been acknowledged and she had earned a place in the re-evaluation. That was all. Nothing about it guaranteed the promotion itself.
"What do I do?"
If she went to the exam and her true skill showed through, even the Hobgoblin kill could be called into question. In the worst case, she might stand accused of collecting reward money she hadn't rightfully earned.
Yoon Seoha sprinted for the dojo. Only a week had passed, and yet the stairs up to it already felt familiar beneath her feet.
Bang!
"We've got a problem!"
The door burst open and Yoon Seoha came racing in. Seated in the middle of the training hall, Yoo Kangmin opened his eyes.
"You'll break the door."
"Is the door what matters right now?"
"If it breaks, someone has to fix it, doesn't he."
"That's..."
At the mention of repair costs, Yoon Seoha's voice shrank a little. Still, there was something more important at hand.
"Anyway—the association just called me."
"About what?"
"They want me to take a special promotion exam."
"And?"
Yoo Kangmin could not have been less interested. Whether she ranked up or not had nothing to do with him.
"What do you mean, 'and'?! If I pass this exam, it benefits you too, Master!"
"Huh? How?"
"If I make D-rank, the gates I can enter change."
"So?"
"My income goes up several times over what it is now."
"..."
"Oh, come on! Did you forget? You're getting twenty percent of everything I earn in the gates!"
At that, Yoo Kangmin sprang to his feet.
"What time did you say it was tomorrow?"
"Ten in the morning."
"Be here by nine. No—how about we simply hold an intensive training camp here, starting this instant?"
"A-a training camp?"
"That's right. As a special kindness, this humble master will watch over you all night long. Free of charge."
"Before that, hold on a moment."
Yoon Seoha hastily cut him off.
"Master, do you really think I can get promoted?"
"Is there a reason you couldn't?"
"Of course there is!"
Her voice rose.
"I haven't so much as touched a sword in the past week."
"And what did you learn instead?"
"Horse stance, standing, breathing..."
Three things. That was the sum of everything she had learned. As if that weren't enough, three days ago—once she'd grown somewhat accustomed—he had begun loading her down with sandbags as well.
"The promotion exam is conducted as live combat. They say I have to take up a weapon and prove my fighting ability, the way I would against a monster."
"Is that so? How refreshingly practical."
"Then how can you be so confident?"
"Because you have changed."
"I have?"
Yoon Seoha looked down at her own body. Aside from the fact that muscle soreness had become a daily fixture of her life, she couldn't feel that anything about her was different. No new skill had appeared, no stat had risen. Above all, since she hadn't been allowed to swing a sword, she had no way of checking whether she had grown stronger at all.
"I don't feel like anything has changed."
"Know thyself. If that were as easy as it sounds, everyone would be a Socrates."
"I'm sorry?"
"It means I know exactly how far you have come."
With that, Yoo Kangmin began to circle her slowly. As he slipped into her blind spot, he quietly took up the bamboo sword lying at hand.
"Does it, now...?"
Yoon Seoha was tilting her head, still doubtful—
Whoosh!
Yoo Kangmin swung the bamboo sword at her flank. A blatant ambush, aimed squarely at her blind spot.
"Eek!"
And yet Yoon Seoha did not simply take the hit. Before she knew it, her body had pivoted on her right foot.
Swish!
The bamboo sword swept past, grazing the hem of her clothes.
Yoon Seoha stared at him, aghast.
"What was that for?!"
"There. A week ago, do you think you could have dodged my attack?"
"...! N-now that you mention it."
"Not holding a sword does not mean you have not been learning it."
Yoo Kangmin went on, the bamboo sword resting against his shoulder.
"The horse stance exists to forge you a center that will not collapse, no matter how you swing. The breathing exists so that you can carry that movement on without exhausting yourself."
Every last bit of the training had, in the end, been preparation for swinging a sword.
"A sword is not swung with the hand alone."
Yoo Kangmin pointed the bamboo sword at her feet.
"It begins in the feet, travels up through the legs, passes through the hips and shoulders, and emerges from the hands last. What you have spent this week learning is precisely that beginning."
"Even so, it's only been a week."
"Well begun is half done, as they say. You are already halfway there, so worry not."
Yoo Kangmin had taught the martial arts to countless warriors in his time. There had been disciples overflowing with talent, and geniuses who, taught a single thing, grasped ten. There was no way that achievements like Yoon Seoha's could escape eyes like his.
"You have changed. Of that there is no doubt."
"Even so... I still can't bring myself to believe in me."
She had far too many memories of failure for that. Memories of a past where nothing changed no matter how hard she tried still clutched at Yoon Seoha's ankles. One week of training felt like far too little against the mountain of failures she had piled up over the years.
"If you cannot believe in yourself, then believe in me."
There was not a trace of doubt in Yoo Kangmin's voice. That certainty flustered her all the more.
"You believe in me, Master?"
"No. I believe in the man who taught you."
"..."
"If I say you will pass, then you pass."
It was an arrogant thing to say. And yet, strangely enough, hearing it settled some of the anxiety in Yoon Seoha's chest. No one had ever believed in her like this before.
"If you truly cannot, then how about a bet?"
"A-a bet?"
"Yes. I only bring it up because you insist on fretting. I am wagering that you pass the promotion exam."
"W-wait a moment. Then what do I wager?"
"Wager that you fail."
"What if I fail on purpose?"
"Then naturally, I strip you of your discipleship. Ah—and failing the exam counts as the same thing."
Yoon Seoha shot him a look of pure disbelief.
"So I have to succeed no matter what! What kind of bet is that?!"
"Not confident?"
"Who said I wasn't confident?"
"Then it is settled."
Yoo Kangmin held out his hand. Yoon Seoha hesitated for a moment, then clasped it.
"Now, the training camp begins."
"There will be no training camp."
"Why not?"
"How am I supposed to pull an all-nighter the day before my exam!"
"Rest, too, is part of training, of course. But sometimes—sometimes there are things one only understands when the body is driven to its very limit."
"No! No way! I haven't been able to prepare anything!"
"Prepare? For what?"
"Well—I need washing things, and..."
"There is a convenience store, is there not."
"And a change of clothes..."
"Just ask my little sister to bring you some."
"I-it's not happening, I said!"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. The young these days are sorely lacking in perseverance."
"You're young too, Master! It's not as if there's much of an age gap!"
In the end, the training camp was cancelled. Instead, Yoon Seoha was allowed to head home only after holding the horse stance for twice her usual length of time.
The next day, Yoo Kangmin accompanied Yoon Seoha to the Hunter Association's Sinyeong-dong Branch.
"Oh ho."
Hunters in full gear were everywhere to be seen. Stepping into the building, Yoo Kangmin looked around with an intrigued expression.
Not so different from the Murim Alliance.
Different world or not, people lived much the same. If there was any difference at all, it was simply that the halls were filled with hunters wielding skills in place of martial artists tempered by the martial arts.
Still... what a sorry lot, every last one of them. Well, only natural, if they've never trained properly.
In plain honesty, it was a disappointment. Yoon Seoha, at least, could plead her F-rank—but the hunters of higher rank were hardly any better.
"Why are you staring like that?"
Yoon Seoha asked in a small voice.
"Because they're a mess, all of them."
"Who is?"
"Everyone."
"Don't go saying things like that. Most of the people here outrank me."
"High rank and knowing how to fight are two separate matters."
"Please, just don't say anything at all."
"I merely stated a fact."
"That fact is exactly what starts fights."
Yoon Seoha was already growing anxious. They were making for the reception desk when—
"Yoon Seoha?"
The familiar voice stopped her mid-step. A man standing in front of the elevators was looking their way—a man with a shield so massive it could shroud his entire torso strapped across his back.
D-rank tanker, Jang Taeho. Until only days ago, the party leader of the party Yoon Seoha had belonged to. Three familiar party members stood at his side.
Jang Taeho walked up to her.
"What's someone like you doing here? Come to shop for a new party?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"I'm here to take a special promotion exam."
"A promotion?"
Jang Taeho gave a hollow laugh.
"You?"
The party members beside him wore equally incredulous looks. Jang Taeho knew Yoon Seoha's abilities better than anyone. Back when she was in his party, she had struggled to handle even two goblins on her own.
"And what feat did you manage, exactly?"
"I killed a Hobgoblin in the Sinyeong-dong gate."
"What?"
Jang Taeho's laughter died. He stared at her face for a long moment, then snorted.
"Nobody knows your limits better than I do."
"..."
"You couldn't even take two goblins alone, and you killed a Hobgoblin?"
"I did. Check the official records if you don't believe me."
"Hah. Bet you just swooped in and scavenged the finishing blow off someone else's kill."
Yoon Seoha's expression stiffened. Unfortunately, it wasn't entirely wrong.
"Seems the association doesn't know the whole story. Don't get greedy for nothing. All you'll get from the exam is humiliation when you're found out."
"That's my problem to worry about."
"Hold on."
"What?"
"If you really do get promoted all the way to D-rank, I could see my way to letting you back into our party."
"..."
"Not that you should go thinking you'll get the same cut as the current members right away. Ten percent of the earnings should be about right for a while."
He had treated her like baggage when he threw her out, and now he was doling out a "chance" to return as though it were charity. The display of magnanimity turned her stomach.
"I'm not coming back."
"What?"
"I said I have no intention of ever joining that party again."
"Do you have any idea how long I dragged an F-rank like you along?"
"And you skimmed just as much off my share for it."
"You think you could have entered a gate on your own?"
"Which is exactly why I'm going to try it on my own now."
At her answer, Jang Taeho's eyebrows twitched. Only then did his gaze slide over to Yoo Kangmin, standing beside her.
"And who's this? Your new party leader?"
"My master."
"Master?"
Jang Taeho looked him up and down.
"Which Awakener Academy do you lecture at?"
"He's not with an academy."
"Then what is he?"
"He runs a kendo dojo."
A brief silence fell. Then Jang Taeho and his party members burst out laughing.
"PUHAHAHAHAHA! A kendo dojo?"
"Don't tell me you've been flailing a bamboo stick around at some dojo, and now you've come to take the promotion exam?"
"Hunters still learn kendo these days?"
"Run along now. Go on. Snapping up an opportunity the moment a man like me offers one—that's a skill too."
"Haah..."
Yoo Kangmin, who had been listening to all of this, slowly shook his head. The conversation had told him more than enough about what their relationship had been.
"So you were driven out by trash like that?"
"Yes."
"Shameful."
"Hey, why am I the one getting scolded?"
"The shame is that you ever stood under trash like that."
Jang Taeho's laughter cut off dead.
"What did you just say?"