Fated Enmity, or Fate?
Bad karma? Or fate?
I had no idea who it was, but I'd lost track of their presence, and three days had passed.
The one sneaking glances at me, apparently not tired of it one bit, had shown up at the training grounds every single day for the past three days without fail.
I made an effort to track down this audacious bastard myself, but whoever it was seemed to be operating on a far higher realm than mine. Of course, my current realm was only about third-rate, so most people would be stronger than me.
In any case, I could manage to tangle a little with someone stronger than me thanks to my danger sense — but in a probing contest where that danger sense doesn't trigger, the answer is simple: they're one of countless people at third-rate level or above.
'The whole place is ringed with pine trees, so there's nothing I can do about it... and I'm so distracted I can't properly practice the Royal Guard Form.'
I briefly wondered if their goal was to spy on and copy the Royal Guard Form, but I quickly shook my head. The Royal Guard Form wasn't something you could learn just by watching.
I had a precedent for it — once, with my danger sense active, I'd tried to break down Wang Inho's Royal Guard Form, and it had been impossible.
There was simply no way a movement art like that could be copied by sight alone.
Then what on earth was their purpose in constantly spying on me?
Just as I was stewing in frustration, trying my best to get a read on the intruder, my danger sense flared — speak of the tiger and it appears.
Without a moment's hesitation, I gripped my wooden sword in a reverse hold and hurled it toward where I'd felt the presence. I'd thrown it in such a rush that there'd been no time to channel internal energy — pure raw muscle alone — but it flew precisely where I'd aimed.
The wooden sword carved through the middle of the pine forest, then rang out with a clank and dropped to the ground at a certain point. It had struck a pine tree.
I raced toward where the sword had fallen, spreading my qi sense out to its limits.
'Did they go into hiding again the moment I detected them?'
If so, they couldn't have gotten far. With that thought, I used the fastest movement technique I knew and hurriedly gave chase.
But in the end, unable to find a single clue, I had to return empty-handed, just like before.
The moment Mujin left the training grounds, a girl who had been watching him from behind slipped out of the pine forest.
"Two years younger than me, and his senses are that sharp?"
Wang Seolha clicked her tongue as she stared at Mujin's retreating back. She'd never imagined she'd nearly get caught in a mere three days.
'Rumor had it he was talentless....'
So Father had been right after all. He'd spoken poorly of the Young Lord too, but lately he'd been talking about the boy's talent far more often.
He'd even pulled her aside to warn her that she might lose her position as the finest prodigy of the Wang Clan.
Still, Wang Seolha was confident her own talent was superior to Mujin's.
It wasn't baseless confidence. Wang Seolha had been born with an elemental affinity for internal energy, and her swordsmanship talent was nothing short of genius.
Objectively weighing everything, she simply couldn't imagine a talent greater than her own.
'But I won't let my guard down. The moment I stop moving forward, he'll overtake me.'
That said, she needed to learn more about Mujin first. Know the enemy and know yourself, and you'll win a hundred battles out of a hundred — hadn't Mother told her that when reading to her as a child?
Wang Seolha recalled the Art of War her mother used to read aloud to her when she was little.
'Know the enemy and know yourself — do that, and you'll never be in danger, no matter how many battles you fight.'
With that thought, Wang Seolha resolved to dig even harder into the boy's behind-the-scenes life.
"You're off to the training grounds again today?"
Nari said, watching me with worried eyes. Lately I'd been seeing that look from her far too often, and it didn't sit well with me — but there was nothing to be done about it.
"The spy's been getting on my nerves, but I can't help it. I can't slack off on my training because of them."
"What about looking for a different location? I could ask the head maid right this very moment—"
I waved my hand before Nari could even finish.
"That would be a problem."
The training grounds I used were the special grounds reserved solely for the direct bloodline of the Wang Clan.
They sat at the very heart of a pine forest steeped in pure, tranquil energy — a structure designed so that every training session drew the turbid qi out of the body while the pines' purified essence flowed in to take its place.
For a child like me, that effect worked especially strongly; by the time I reached adulthood, I would possess internal energy as pure and refined as that of the Mount Hua Sect in the Central Plains. I couldn't throw away an opportunity like that just because someone was peeking.
When I explained all this, Nari answered right away.
"Then how about I speak to the Patriarch and have at least a guardian assigned to you?"
"I already brought it up. He just told me to keep training."
The fact that Wang Inho had said that despite the possibility that his heir might be under threat meant he'd judged there was no real danger.
If it was Wang Inho, he probably knew the intruder's identity already.
With that, Nari gave up as well. Since the Patriarch clearly knew and had taken no action, she could only conclude that one of the Wang Clan's collateral relatives was simply spying out of curiosity.
Even if Wang Inho were out of his mind, he would never allow some unknown person to hide in a place only the direct bloodline could enter.
So I kept going to the training grounds, and every time, I could feel that presence secretly watching me.
Damn it. This is seriously pissing me off.
Setting aside whether they were a threat or not, the distraction alone was driving me insane.
So.
To catch the bastard, I trained my qi sense alongside my regular practice.
I couldn't manage it in a day or two, but I'd catch them before too long.
Three weeks passed like that, and finally I was able to spread my qi sense wider and deeper than ever before.
I don't know who you are, but today is your last day of hiding. With that vow, I arrived at the training grounds as usual.
I pretended to focus on my training as hard as I could while spreading out my qi sense. Before, the presence had been faint or entirely imperceptible — now I could feel it quite clearly.
'Hiding in the pine forest on the left. Exact position... about ten chi from the foremost pine?'
I trained while slowly moving toward where the intruder was hidden. The strategy was simple: get as close to them as possible so they couldn't slip away.
"Aigoo~ The Royal Guard Form is so hard I keep stumbling~"
Reaching the far edge of the training grounds, I looked toward the pine forest on the left and made a show of tripping over my own foot. Then, channeling my internal energy into my feet, I shot forward.
TWOOONG!
I immediately re-gripped my wooden sword and swung. The intruder, caught off guard by the sudden ambush, hadn't even been able to set their stance properly.
Gotcha!
A smile spread across my face as I swung the sword. But even with their stance broken, the intruder executed a falling-body tumble and evaded.
SWIIIISH!
My sword cut through empty air.
I hurried to get a look at their face, but they'd smeared their face completely with dirt during the tumble, making it impossible to guess who they were.
Judging from the long hair and slight frame, though, I could tell one thing — it was a girl.
"Who the hell are you, and why do you keep spying on me?"
"......."
"I'm asking why you're spying on me! Do you like me or something?"
"!!!!"
At those words, she awakened. Awakened in the most literal sense. Internal energy burst wildly out of her, and the air around us abruptly turned cold.
Ah. I think I'm fucked.
KWAAAANG!
I would probably remember the murderous look in her eyes as she charged at me for the rest of my life.
I tried to dodge backward away from her awakened assault, but a pine branch snagged on my clothes.
"Aw, dammit!"
POW!
"Kkh...!"
And so my ribs shattered into fragments under her fist— is what you'd think, right?
My body went limp and vanished, melting soundlessly away. Her eyes went wide with shock.
This, my dear girl, is the Royal Guard Form, the secret art passed down through the Wang Clan.
I was already behind her, sword mid-swing. This was the end of a long, exhausting month-long campaign!
"Hmph."
Hmph?
SHAAAATTER!
KAANG!
Ice blossomed out around her body all at once. My sword was stopped dead against it.
'What the hell is this?'
Yin-cold qi? No. Something different. It felt different — the way Wang Yeomsu's Red Flame was different.
And in that split second of my confusion, she scattered ice in every direction and fled.
The moment I realized I'd lost her, I gave up on the chase. She was someone inside the Wang Clan anyway, so there was no point in chasing her down like a fool.
Granted, this insane family is absurdly large — everyone except the Patriarch's immediate family counts as collateral relatives. But as the Young Lord, if I could just find a single clue, I could identify her in no time.
So rather than pursuing her, I focused on finding clues.
I channeled my internal energy into the ice she'd created, and replayed the battle with her over and over in my mind. My biggest gain was the lotus-shaped hair ornament she'd dropped.
She'd probably lost it during that falling tumble.
'Show it to Nari and she'll know right away.'
Meanwhile, Wang Seolha was seething.
"Me — performing a falling tumble!"
She'd had no choice, of course, but she was the finest prodigy of the Wang Clan. The fact that she of all people had been forced into a desperate tumble made uncontainable fury boil up inside her.
And she was dumbfounded. It had been only a month. Her realm was clearly the higher one, yet she'd been caught completely off guard.
Wang Seolha felt a stab of crisis. If this went on, she thought, she really might lose her place as the finest prodigy of the Wang Clan — just as Father had warned.
'Haah..... Might as well calm my mind. I should wash up and go to bed early tonight.'
Wang Seolha removed the hair ornament from the left side of her head, then clutched it tight in her hand. This ornament, her mother's last keepsake, was to her her mother herself.
She reached up to take out the ornament on the right side as well.
But something felt off. At this distance, her hand should have touched it easily, yet strangely, it didn't.
For a long while she rumpled her hair every which way searching for the ornament, but when it never turned up in her hand, Wang Seolha finally understood.
'Huh?'
It's... gone?
And so was born the moment that would decide whether Mujin and Wang Seolha's story became an enmity — or a fate.