The Reward: I Want to Learn Martial Arts!
“Hmm, then I shall grant you a reward. Tell me what you desire.”
“A reward?”
His granddaughter looked up at him with wide eyes. Danmok Cheon-gi had been thinking of that lowly child she'd taken a liking to lately. The boy followed merchants around, hauling ingredients and doing odd jobs—a heaven-forsaken orphan with no one to rely on. It wouldn't be a bad idea to bring him into the family estate from a young age and raise him as her personal servant.
“Then I really want to learn martial arts now!”
How could she use her spiritual energy more, more, more?
This had become Ryeon's core dilemma lately. It was directly tied to her own lifeline—and to Danmok Cheon-gi's remaining years.
But shoving spiritual energy straight into him would be like pouring seawater into the small, precious spring he'd carefully nurtured all his life. In other words, it would ruin everything.
As Ryeon racked her brains for a solution, her grandfather tossed her another lifeline.
The tea ceremony!
To Ryeon—who'd once tried making rock-hard glutinous rice cakes and deeply regretted it—the tea ceremony seemed like a cloud path ascending to the immortal realms.
Infusing spiritual energy step by step: as she thought of the tea leaves, steeped them in warm water, gently swirled the cup. And since the other person drank it right there on the spot, what could be better?
Thanks to that, her complexion and mood had both brightened lately. She expended her spiritual energy, Grandfather was gradually improving—what more could she ask for?
The only problem was that she still couldn't learn martial arts.
I thought if I waited until his heart softened a bit...
The family's situation couldn't even be called passable with empty words. Honestly, even to her eyes, it looked precarious.
The estate was vast, but much of it lay unused, with too few people, leaving desolate corners everywhere. As the saying went, even a rich man takes three generations to ruin. It seemed the Danmok family was barely hanging on thanks to that inertia.
The problem is, I'm the last of those three generations.
If she didn't revive the family soon, they'd end up with nothing. Wasn't that the future she'd witnessed?
It would be easier to liquidate this estate and move somewhere smaller, to consolidate what assets remained—but sorting through a place steeped in the family's history would mean abandoning any hope of revival. She couldn't do that.
Her aunt Danmok Hyeon-yo, acting family head, seemed to be pulling strings in Henan Province where the Murim Alliance was based, but relying on outsiders had its limits.
So Ryeon had figured that if the eldest grandchild said she wanted to learn something, they'd jump at it.
I never expected 'start with writing.'
It was learning something, at least. Though she already knew it all...
She couldn't exactly say she already knew her letters, so lately, she'd been cornered by her uncle Danmok Hyeon-u—who'd just emerged from secluded training—and was doomed to study writing.
“The chicken looks weird.”
“It's not weird—it's cool... looking.”
Ryeon glanced at Hwaryun, who was crouched beside her, staring at the chicken. The boy still looked like a small beast, but his complexion had improved since they first met. That was thanks to her making sure to feed him onigiri or dumplings whenever they crossed paths like this.
Truth be told, she'd worried he might leave for good without a word, so half in tears, she'd begged Jang ssi to track him down and check if he was okay. The nanny fretted over Ryeon's excessive interest in a boy of unknown origins but had rushed off anyway, fearing she'd really cry, and found out where he was staying.
How did he end up traveling from Hangzhou all the way to the Tianshan Mountains? If only I could get a little closer to him and invite him into the family...
“This is practically a phoenix, isn't it?”
Lost in her thoughts, Ryeon let out a small laugh at Hwaryun's words. Thinking of this kid as the future young cult master of the Demon Heavenly Cult sometimes sent chills down her spine—but seeing his innocent side, calling it a phoenix while respectfully addressing her as big sis after a few light knuckle-raps on the head, made him endearing too.
“No. It's an o-gol chicken. Black down to the bones. Right, Black Moon?”
The pitch-black chicken strutting inside the coop tilted its head at her. But its dark eyes gleamed with a red sheen, giving it an unusually intelligent look, and the tips of its feathers seemed to shimmer with a warm red glow.
It definitely wasn't like that at first...
“No matter how I look at it, that chicken's weird.”
Hwaryun squinted, glancing between the o-gol chicken and Ryeon. She pinched his slippery cheek, let go, and pulled an onigiri from her bosom.
“Here, kiddo—eat this.”
“You're a kid too, big sis.”
Hwaryun had picked up Jang ssi calling her “baby miss” and now used it himself. What followed wasn't always polite, but Ryeon didn't mind.
He wouldn't eat the onigiri if she just handed it over, so she split it in half, then halved the rest and stuffed it into his mouth. As she did, she brought up what she'd been mulling over.
“Hwaryun, you know your letters, right?”
“Do you, big sis? Do you know them?”
“You always dodge the question and throw it back.”
“Where would I learn letters?”
From the way he talked, he already seemed to know the Thousand Character Classic inside out. Ryeon grumbled inwardly.
“Really? Then wanna learn with me? I don't know them yet either.”
“Why don't you know...”
The boy trailed off, as if about to retort. Ryeon rubbed her cheek, a bit embarrassed. The eldest daughter of a prestigious family hadn't learned a single letter by age eight because she'd lain comatose—and had only now come to her senses.
“Uncle said he'd teach me. Come along. It'll be evenings. He said it's fine!”
Hwaryun gave her a puzzled look, but Ryeon kept stuffing onigiri into his mouth without waiting for an answer.
He swatted her hand away, dodging the rice ball.
“I don't wanna.”
“Why not?”
“What good are letters to me?”
Ryeon suddenly had nothing to say and just kept pushing the onigiri in.
“W-Well, so later when you grow up, y'know? You can read martial arts manuals and stuff. Big sis will teach you everything.”
Hwaryun chewed and swallowed the rice ball before replying.
“I'm not gonna learn martial arts.”
So stunned by the words, Ryeon stared at him with eyes wide as saucers.
“What? Why?”
Even as she stammered in shock, Hwaryun replied indifferently.
“'Cause in a fallen house like this, no matter how good you get, you're just waiting on the young miss and young masters.”
“...!”
Ryeon wanted to say it wasn't exactly like that, but the words wouldn't come. Because he wasn't entirely wrong.
Ah! So that's why Hwaryun joined the Demon Heavenly Cult?
There, the strongest could sweep away anyone without regard for status? The thought made her heart sink again. He had the personality for it, sure!
No way!
“W-Well then, not a martial family—do you know the Huashan Sect in Shaanxi Province? It's a sect, not a family. If you've got the skill! Anyone can become sect leader, no matter their background! It's so cool...”
“Shaanxi's too far from here.”
“You little...!”
Brat! The Demon Heavenly Cult's Tianshan Mountains base was over ten thousand li northwest! How'd you even get there if distance is the issue?!
She couldn't yell that out loud.
“Th-Then where do you wanna learn martial arts?”
“It's not like I can learn just 'cause I want to.”
“No, just hypothetically—say you could.”
Kids wished for impossible dreams all the time, didn't they? Imagining living in a ninety-nine-room mansion or whatever.
But Hwaryun seemed utterly uninterested.
“Learning to fight just means you'll end up dead. Better to stay far away from that stuff.”
Ryeon gaped in disbelief. Who was this cynic?
Was Hwaryun like this as a kid? How does a boy like this end up as Demon Heavenly Cult young master? Did he just have so much talent that he stumbled into it by accident?
That thought was infuriating in its own way.
Oblivious to her inner turmoil, Hwaryun grabbed her arm and kept going.
“You shouldn't do that stuff either, big sis.”
For a boy two years younger, his voice carried a startling maturity. Staring at him in bewilderment, Ryeon tried persuading him again.
“B-But... when those evil Blood Valley guys attack, don't you need some way to protect yourself?”
This life, let's stick to the righteous path just once! Please! Heavenly Hwaryun!
But at those words, a mischievous smile spread across Hwaryun's face.
“Then the cool righteous martial artists of the world will come save us from the evil Blood Valley.”
The words carried a hint of cynicism toward the entire murim world.
Ryeon just worked her lips soundlessly.
“No, but... even so, if you know letters... you can write letters.”
“Need paper for that.”
“If you know letters, you can earn money to buy paper. Buy food, and later even a house.”
“Why are you so set on teaching me letters?”
Ryeon was at a loss for words.
Why? “Well...”