The House That Severs the World
Dansewon (Pavilion of Severing the World).
The moment I returned to my lodgings, I got straight to packing.
We'd caught the bandits, and I'd left the decision of what to do with them to the villagers. My work here was done, which meant there was no reason to linger.
As I packed with the thought that we'd have to leave at dawn tomorrow, my eyes landed on Ansong, shuffling around with a faint air of reluctance.
"What are you doing? Aren't you packing?"
"Well, it's just... doesn't leaving this suddenly seem a bit much?"
"A bit much? We should have left five days ago. We depart the moment the sun comes up tomorrow, so pack ahead of time."
"Yes, my lord...."
At my firm reply, Ansong sulked and began packing in silence. Apparently he'd grown attached to the village. I understood—I'd felt the same thing myself more than once. But the feeling never lasted long.
People, as it turns out, barely spare a thought for anyone else.
It was only hard in the beginning. Give it some time, and you stop thinking about that person altogether. I had my own life to worry about—who had the leisure to fret over someone else? It might sting now, but Ansong would get over it soon enough too.
I was musing on this while checking whether any of our provisions had gone off when I felt something tugging at me from behind.
Tug. Tug.
I turned around to find Seonhwa gripping my collar with a slightly anxious expression. Was she reluctant to see me go as well?
"......"
"......"
Except she said nothing. When the silence stretched on for a good while, I turned back to my provisions.
Tug. Tug.
And she tugged at my collar again. Every time I turned, the same silence. It took maybe three rounds of this before Seonhwa finally opened her mouth.
"Thank you."
"Ah."
So that's what she wanted to say. All that hemming and hawing had made me think she was about to ask for something.
"I told you I'd deal with them. I just kept my word."
"And... um."
"Yes?"
"I want to become strong. Will you... teach me martial arts?"
Asking me to teach her the martial arts. I'd seen this before plenty of times. Back when I was earning a fortune as a Great Master and clearing out bandits, village brats would come up to me declaring that they wanted to grow strong too. And every time, I told them to stop talking nonsense.
So I opened my mouth to say the same now—but the image of Seonhwa standing guard over the village headman, blood streaming down her throat, flashed through my mind.
That's a bit too real to brush off as nonsense.
Then how was I supposed to soothe her? As I wracked my brain, Seonhwa began staring up at me with desperate, pleading eyes.
"Why do you want to become strong?"
"Because I want to protect what needs protecting......"
Fidgeting as she spoke, Seonhwa looked unsure of herself. But her sincerity came through clearly.
In that instant, I remembered the days when I'd been obsessed with nothing but talent and martial arts. The days when I never once stopped to ask why I needed to be strong.
One thing was certain: Seonhwa, who had never learned a single martial technique, understood something I hadn't back then.
...Though honestly, I wasn't so sure about that anymore.
"On my way back through, I'll stop by here. I'll teach you a little then. Can you wait for me?"
At the request to wait, Seonhwa pressed her lips shut and thought hard, then asked with unmistakable suspicion.
"When?"
"Hmm... about four years from now?"
"......"
"You don't want to?"
"......"
I guess not. Now what.
Seonhwa shot a glance at me sweating nervously, then said quietly, "Then I'll come with you."
"What? That's not— wait, you have a wound on your neck, don't you? Rest comes first."
"It's not a deep cut."
Why is she suddenly so good with words?
"It's still your neck, though. What if it scars? You won't be able to get married."
"......"
Whether my desperate persuasion finally wore her down or not, Seonhwa clamped her mouth shut again. Then, without warning, she spread out a blanket.
What is she doing?
As I watched her in puzzlement, Seonhwa lay down in her spot and promptly closed her eyes.
Zzz. Zzz.
The fact that she was sleeping here instead of going home meant she at least had some inkling of what was brewing in the village. But why fall asleep all of a sudden?
Don't tell me it was because I told her to rest? Truly, I couldn't make head or tail of this child.
At first light, we rose and left the village to the sound of the villagers' farewells.
"Young Lord. Just keep straight along this road."
With Ansong holding the map and navigating, we made quick work of the surrounding area. At best, we'd arrive in three days.
"Want a piggyback?"
Head shake.
...If only Seonhwa weren't there.
Seonhwa clung tightly to my hand, gawking at everything around her. It was her first time outside the village, so I suppose everything must have seemed wondrous.
Haah.
I let out a sigh and cast my mind back over how things had come to this.
When I woke and finished preparing for the journey, Seonhwa said that since she'd rested, I should take her with me. With no intention whatsoever of doing so, I coaxed her with the promise of martial arts lessons later. She said nothing.
Assuming she'd understood, I bade farewell to the villagers and took a bold first step—only to be forced to a halt almost immediately.
Seonhwa was trailing after me, bundle in hand, hurrying along at my heels. I whipped around and shot the headman a meaningful look, but he only chuckled heartily in return.
Is it really okay for a father to be like this?
The thought crossed my mind, but then I remembered Wang Inho and decided to let it go. I'd had no parents in my previous life, so maybe this was just how it was now. Knowing those two, they'd probably discussed it between themselves beforehand anyway.
At any rate, I'd half given up by now and was simply holding her hand in case of wild beasts or bandits. Carrying her would have been the better option, but Seonhwa had refused that outright.
Was it boldness, or sheer stubbornness? As I gazed at the top of her head with complicated feelings, she seemed to sense my eyes and looked up—staring back at me with a look that clearly asked, What?
At this point it was almost endearing. Almost.
"Young Lord."
Ansong, who had been navigating with the map since earlier, came over.
"Do you truly intend to teach this child the martial arts?"
"What choice do I have? The kid's followed me all this way because she wants to learn."
I couldn't teach her the arts of the Wang Clan or the Moyong Clan, so my plan was to show her the techniques I had found genuinely useful in my previous life.
At that moment, Seonhwa squeezed my hand tighter. Teaching her the martial arts must have put her in a good mood.
Seven days after Seonhwa joined us, we arrived in Sacheon. With no villages along the way, we'd camped out every night, and by the end we were a sorry sight indeed.
On the bright side, we hadn't run into a single wild beast or bandit. Small mercies.
"So where do we go from here?"
"Hmm. According to the map, we're near the coast, so we should head further down."
"Seonhwa, you holding up?"
"Yes....."
Seonhwa was currently riding on my back. A ten-year-old girl who had never learned a single martial technique couldn't possibly have walked this far under her own power.
She'd been stubborn at first, but as the road wore her down, she'd finally given in and climbed onto my back. It reminded me of Ran.
I wonder if she's doing well.
It hadn't even been twenty days since I left the estate, but I found myself missing it. Deep down, it seemed, I'd already started calling that place home.
Carrying Seonhwa and following Ansong's lead, I walked on until the sea slowly came into view. The moment it did, Seonhwa—who'd had the dead-eyed look of the exhausted—suddenly lit up.
"It's beautiful."
Peering over my shoulder at the water, she looked a far cry from the girl who had grimly held her ground even as a blade pressed against her throat.
"Isn't it?"
"Yes. It's beautiful."
We paused briefly to take in the ocean before setting off again. This wasn't our destination, after all.
How much farther did we walk? Just as Seonhwa, refreshed from the sight of the sea, was beginning to flag again, it appeared—our destination, the entrance to Dansewon.
And the trees surrounding that entrance were... rather odd.
"Are you sure this is the place? What kind of tree grows like a spear shaft?"
"Yes. This plant is called bamboo."
"Bamboo? Never heard of it."
"This is my first time seeing one as well. Up close, it's rather strange-looking."
Seonhwa, startled too, swept her wide eyes across the surroundings. As we passed through the countless stalks of bamboo, something resembling an enormous temple came faintly into view.
Is that Dansewon?
We pushed the doors open slowly and stepped inside—and found nothing. Literally nothing: not a single room, not a single stick of furniture.
The only things present were cold weapons layered in dust. The floor was paved flat with stone, cracked here and there—traces left behind by those who had come before, most likely.
"So this is what it was....."
Ansong sighed and pulled an ambiguous expression. It was admittedly a bit underwhelming for something the Wang Clan had supposedly built specifically for closed-door cultivation.
And yet it was special, in a different sense. The name Dansewon alone—the Hall of World-Severing—made its purpose abundantly clear.
"Perfect place for training, actually."
My body was already itching to begin. I handed my bundle to Ansong and was about to head inside when—
Tug. Tug.
There she goes again.
"What?"
"Me too. I want to train."
"I go first."
"You said you'd teach me martial arts—"
"Fine, fine."
Having learned that once Seonhwa dug in her heels, there was no end in sight, I surrendered on the spot. So I left her bundle with Ansong as well, and we went inside together.
She'd stay quiet while I trained, as long as I taught her something first. That was the thinking, anyway.
I found a wooden sword of a suitable size and handed it over. Fascinated, Seonhwa turned it over, examining it from every angle.
"Heavy, isn't it?"
"No."
It will be eventually. Smiling faintly, I started by adjusting her grip on the sword. After that it was nothing special—how to twist her body when swinging for more power, how to align the blade with her frame, things like that.
I made sure her fundamentals were rock-solid from the very beginning. Unless you were blessed with talent like mine, the basics were everything. No matter what art you studied, form came first.
After about a full shijin of instruction, I could tell Seonhwa was worn out.
"Shall we take a break?"
"Haah... hah... yes, please."
Thank goodness she wasn't being stubborn this time. I watched until Seonhwa had sat herself down on the floor, then drew the sword from my waist. After all, training only counts as training when it's done with a real blade.
Back at the estate, I'd been young enough that they'd made me use wooden or blunted practice swords. But what kind of training was that? Training had to mirror combat. Do it properly in practice, and it comes out properly in a fight.
First task. The time had come to turn the Doojeonseong'i into an actual sword art.