Graduation - 1
It was around the time spring was fading that I took Sowol on as my disciple. In other words, a little over nine months ago, counting from today.
The first time I laid eyes on her, I remember thinking: Ah. I'll have this one fully trained within a year.
As if to prove that prediction true, Sowol had grown at a startling pace.
"Hah... hah..."
Despite the chill of the approaching winter, her pretty face was smeared with sweat. Which said everything about how fiercely she'd been pushing herself.
She could now wield the Moonlight Wave and the Moonlight Flash without the slightest strain, which meant it was just about time to pass on the third form.
"Master. Whew... is this good enough?"
I looked over the aftermath she'd left behind. The forest where we climbed up to train every day was littered with felled trees, as though a master woodcutter had passed through. Every last bit of it was Sowol's handiwork.
"Excellent."
Not even a year since she'd first taken up a sword, and she'd come this far. My prediction had landed right on the mark, and that pleased me.
"Hmph. Oh, this much is nothing."
She scoffed at my praise and sounded utterly self-assured, but the satisfaction lingering on her face gave her away. Yes. I was proud of her too. Not that I'd hand over a Praise Sticker for it, of course.
"Then I'll pass the third form on to you."
"Yes, Master!"
"The third form of the Moonlight Sword Style is the Moonlight Dance. The sword dance I performed back on Mount Wol-ah was an application of it as well."
"Really?!"
Clearly delighted, Sowol came darting over, eyes sparkling. Her passion for learning was one of the things I liked best about her. I patted her head and began the explanation.
"The mana flow of Moonlight Dance takes the Moonlight Wave and the Moonlight Flash as its foundation. You have to weave the two together to sustain your sword aura on the blade."
"But last time, no aura gathered on your blade at all, did it, Master?"
"You don't release the aura. You seal it entirely inside the sword itself. Not so much as a sliver of mana may go to waste."
"Ah... I see."
"Other martial sects call this stage the Unity of Sword and Body—keeping the sword and your body as one."
"That sounds difficult."
"It's one of the Three Great Sword Styles for a reason. Now then, let's begin."
After teaching her Moonlight Dance's mana flow, I walked her through every movement. As always, she was awkward at first, but after a few repetitions she began absorbing it with ease. Her talent really was something else.
"Hmmm... would this be enough?"
Having run through Moonlight Dance once, clumsily but passably, Sowol fiddled with her wooden sword and tilted her head. Was that enough, she asks? It was more than enough—it was excellent.
"All that's left now is sharpening your proficiency. Train hard."
"Yes, Master!!"
Sowol had just answered with a bright, beaming face when snowflakes, pure white, began drifting one by one from the sky. The first snow of the year. She stared up at it, dazed, then let out a small cough.
"Brr..."
Well, she had been sweating buckets; no wonder the cold had caught up with her. I draped the coat I was wearing over her shoulders.
"I'm fine, really..."
"Keep it. I can hold my body temperature with mana."
If she caught a cold and her training slipped, I'd be the one worn out for nothing. I stopped her from shrugging the coat back off, did up its buttons for her, then gathered up our swords.
"Let's go. Let's take it easy today and get something warm inside us."
"How about some warm liquor, Master?"
"That doesn't sound bad either."
When training wrapped up and we returned to the Eastern Merchant Guild, the place was bustling. The snow, it seemed, had begun falling in earnest. Watching people throw waterproof tarps over the goods or hustle them indoors, I sent Sowol back to her room and headed for my own quarters.
There, in front of my quarters—quiet and spotless as always—a single letter lay waiting.
"A letter has come from the Church."
A passing maid offered that explanation as I stood there holding the thing, utterly baffled. The Church? Don't tell me they're summoning me to the year-end mass.
With a flutter of dread, I opened the envelope stamped squarely with the Church's insignia. If it truly was a summons to mass, what excuse would I have to invent this time...
"Oh ho."
Fortunately, it was no summons to mass. It was from Serin—my friend, a high priestess of the Church, and one of the central characters of the religious war that lay in this world's future.
This letter, having set out from the Holy Nation of Teholon, ...
I skipped all that.
...Quit joking around. How have you been? I've been well. Day after day spent battling the cults, but I'll tell you, it's tremendously rewarding. I trust you're raising that disciple of yours properly? Oh—and the thing you're most curious about. The Church has finished its list of talented children. I've attached it for you.
How satisfying. Turning to the very last page, I found detailed dossiers on five children. Hm... I'd seen these kids before, too. With talent that couldn't match Lyla's, none of them warranted my attention.
As for everything else... by the time this letter reaches you, the subjugation of the surrounding cults should be complete. But there's something I discovered in the course of it. I found traces of the Asura Cult.
The Asura Cult. A heretic sect that exalted faith in a single god and declared every other deity to be empty and vain. It wielded tremendous power and offered human sacrifices at every one of its masses—without question, the worst of all the cults.
We had believed the Asura Cult to be completely eradicated. But it seems that was a mistake on our Church's part.
A mistake, all right. The Asura Cult was the master of the hostile faith that emerged in the religious war event. The cult—swollen strong from devouring every lesser sect—revealing itself openly to the world, and being struck down for it: that was the very heart of the religious war event.
I calmly skimmed through the rest of the letter. There was a great deal said, but the gist was this: the group that had set its sights on the Eastern Merchant Guild appeared to have been a faction of the Asura Cult.
Hm. The Asura Cult, of all things. Now that was an unexpected claim.
It may not truly be over yet. Just in case, see to it that Guild Master So is kept well protected. I'll report upward and have holy knights dispatched there as well.
My thanks for that. So all I had to do was hold out for a few days, then? I folded the letter away into my pocket and went straight to find So Jung-yang. He needed to know, one way or another.
"Welcome, Master Lee."
So Jung-yang greeted me from his office, where he'd been buried in work, and I came straight to the point. At the news that a cult was after him—and not just any cult, but the one called the worst of them all, the Asura Cult—he gave a wry smile.
"When you run a business, you see your share of assassinations, kidnappings, and every other manner of trouble. I suppose these people are simply one more of that breed."
"That's one way to look at it."
"The Church sending people on my behalf—I'm grateful."
"It will take them a few days to arrive. Until then, I'd advise staying alert."
"Thank you."
"I'll also keep my excursions outside the guild to a minimum. That way, whatever happens, I can respond at once."
"I can't help feeling I lean on you far too much, Master Lee."
"It's nothing."
"Then, since we're on the subject—why not settle in with our Eastern Merchant Guild for good?"
It was true my name was on the guild's rolls, but that was little more than a temporary arrangement. What So Jung-yang was proposing was that I become a formal member of the Eastern Merchant Guild. That, however, I could not do. I had a next disciple to find, and once I finished teaching her, the Sage's Tower awaited, where I would have to claim the qualification of Sage. After that, a post as an instructor at the Academy. I had far too much left to do to be tied down to the guild.
"A pity."
"But I'll keep teaching Sowol, so worry not."
"...Something about that phrasing strikes me as odd, Master Lee. 'Teaching Sowol'... it sounds almost as if you mean to leave once you have taught her everything."
"Yes. Once I've taught Sowol all there is to teach, there will be nothing left for me to do here."
"No—no, how could you say such a thing? Even if that task of yours does come to an end, I hope you will remain our honored guest at the Eastern Merchant Guild. Have our guild's warriors not grown stronger thanks to you? So then..."
"Haha. I appreciate the sentiment, but I have goals of my own that I must see through..."
"Haah... if that is what you say, then I can hardly stop you."
He seemed to understand there was no holding me any longer. So Jung-yang heaved a heavy sigh as he looked at me.
"Our Eastern Merchant Guild will welcome you whenever you come, Master. Please, even if only now and then, grace us with your presence."
"I'll try."
Whether I'd actually find the time was another matter.
Nothing else of note passed between us after that. We talked of this and that—the neighborhood, the guild's recent dealings—and by the time I left So Jung-yang's room, the hour had grown quite late. Ugh. Hurry back and get some sleep already...
"...Oh. So it's starting already."
And here I'd thought it would take a few days. At the sudden onset of a chill, sinister air, my hand went to my sword.
Clouds were gathering across the sky, smothering the moonlight. One by one, the torches within the guild began to gutter out in the rising wind. And threaded through that wind came a foul, crawling feeling—and there was no mistaking what it meant.
Smiling, I drew my sword and spoke into the darkness.
"Hiding so very carefully, aren't we? I can see your hair, so come on out."
At my words, figures dressed in black began crawling out of the shadows one after another. Just as I moved to loose a spell at the sight of them—
"KYAAAAAH!!"
A piercing scream. It was Sowol's voice.
"As for you lot—we'll finish this later."
Getting to Sowol came before dealing with the likes of you.