I Put Them Through Training - 2
Little by little, she was beginning to understand what it meant to stand on the boundary between life and death.
Sowol stole a glance to the side. The warriors of her house, who just yesterday had been laughing and joking among themselves, now swung their weapons with terrifying expressions. Those caught by a blow died—and her own people died beneath the weapons swung in the name of survival. Whether a single strike was blocked or not was the line between life and death. And so she had no choice but to keep her wits about her.
CLAAANG!!
"Ugh...!!"
Had she not learned to draw on mana, she would have lost her grip on her sword at the very first blow. Gritting her teeth, Sowol spun the mana within her body at a furious pace. That power let her surpass the strength of any girl her age, and yet she still could not bring herself to attack.
'This is nothing like the goblins...'
Killing a person. Those words meant she had to be prepared to die herself. Was she truly prepared for that? She had always thought it was nothing at all. But here, standing on the boundary between life and death, she found herself wondering whether she had ever really meant it.
"Die!!"
CLANG!!
Sowol batted aside the axe aimed at her head and clenched her jaw. Kill, or be killed. She knew that—so why wouldn't her hands move?
"My lady!! Look out!!"
A single moment of lost focus, and death was already closing in. She didn't want it. She didn't want to die. She wanted to survive. The moment that thought took root—
Amid the clash of steel on steel and the shouts ringing back and forth across the battlefield, that calm, level voice reached her ears with perfect clarity.
Lee Hyun's voice kept boring into her. Listening to it, Sowol let her body move on its own.
"What—?!"
She evaded the attack of a Skeleton Band man charging from behind with nothing more than a single step back. She deflected a thrust from her side with the slightest turn of her blade. She rolled across the ground beneath a flying chain, then swung her sword and sheared through a spearhead driving in toward her. She thought of nothing. Her body simply moved as it willed, as instinct demanded. That was all that mattered.
Moving on that thought alone, Sowol looked up to find a hulking man standing before her. A man wearing a massive orc-skull helm—the chief of the Skeleton Band, the one they called the Skeleton Warrior: Lungbit.
"You snotty little bitch!!"
Lungbit's enormous axe came down. Could she dodge it? Could she block it? The death she had been refusing to face was right in front of her eyes. Before fear could take hold, Sowol closed her eyes. This, too, was nothingness. She must feel no fear at all.
CLANG!!
Sowol opened her eyes. The axe that had been falling to split her skull hung motionless in midair. Holding it there was a single sword. And the sword's owner was...
"...Mister?"
"So. Have you felt the boundary between life and death now?"
Somewhere along the way, every enemy around them had been cut down. Had he done all of it? Before she knew it, Sowol was nodding.
"Good. That's the end of your private lesson. Decent results, I'd say."
WHAM!!
Lungbit, who had been straining and grunting to force his axe down, went flying backward. Lee Hyun had done nothing more than kick him, yet the man tumbled several meters across the ground, grinding his teeth, caked head to toe in dirt.
"Who the hell are you?!"
"Me?"
Lee Hyun smirked, giving his sword a lazy twirl before catching it in his grip.
"Her teacher."
Sowol stared at Lee Hyun, dumbfounded. No—not just her. Everyone on this field was staring at him. The warriors of the Eastern Merchant Guild, and the members of the Skeleton Band alike. Everyone who should have been trying to kill each other stood frozen, unable to tear their eyes from Lee Hyun's sword dance.
The flow of his blade traced straight, unbroken lines that glittered under the moonlight, and his hands moved with the effortless freedom of a dancer. He was, quite simply, beautiful. Bathed in moonlight, his swordplay unfolded with such maddening beauty that one could almost believe it belonged to a sword god descended from the heavens.
No one could move. Drunk on movements that stole the very breath from their lungs, they came to their senses only when Lee Hyun's final strike fell—when the head of Lungbit the Skeleton Warrior, who had ravaged this region and reigned here in the name of terror, soared into the sky.
"What the hell are you all doing?"
"U-Uh, uhhh!! Your boss is dead!! Throw down your weapons and surrender this instant, and I'll spare your lives!!"
Only after Lee Hyun spoke—sounding, if anything, baffled that he had to—did everyone snap back to reality. Right. This was no place to stand around admiring a sword dance. Which was why So Jung-yang had bellowed so roughly, and the bandits, only now shaking off their trance, scrambled to level their weapons at the guild warriors already moving swiftly into formation.
But could they keep fighting? Their strongest, Lungbit, had died just like that—so absurdly easily? If that sword dance unfolded again, would a single one of them be able to stop it? One by one, the terror-stricken bandits began to drop their weapons.
Sowol had watched it all from beginning to end. She turned her eyes to Lee Hyun. What was this feeling welling up inside her as she watched him retrieve his sword so casually, as if none of it meant anything—as if he hadn't just conjured this entire scene? Sowol pressed a hand to her chest. Her heart was pounding like mad.
'I want to do that too.'
That sword dance from moments ago.
'I want to become that.'
Like him, who had overwhelmed everything here.
'I, too...'
Sowol gazed at him in silence. Only then seeming to notice her stare, Lee Hyun grinned and walked over.
"So. How does it feel to have passed your private lesson?"
"I don't know."
"You will soon."
A hand reached out slowly and settled on her head. Ordinarily she would have dodged it—Sowol couldn't stand anyone laying hands on her—but for some reason, she didn't want to refuse this one. The hand patted and stroked her hair, warm and gentle. It was a warmth one would never expect from hands that had ended so many lives.
"Well then. Shall we head back?"
With those matter-of-fact words, the hand left her head. Was that why? Sowol felt a pang of loss.
"Yes."
Nodding, soothing that small ache, she watched him walk ahead and said quietly,
"Master."
"Oh ho. So you finally acknowledge me, do you?"
Until now, Lee Hyun had been to Sowol nothing more than a man selling knowledge for coin. But that had changed. She wanted this now. She wanted to become like Lee Hyun. And for that, she had no choice but to acknowledge him. At Sowol, who laid those feelings bare without hiding a single thing, Lee Hyun simply smiled, calm and unbothered.
No matter how I looked at it, I'd done well. All I'd done, after all, was unleash the Moonlight Sword—one of the Three Great Sword Styles of Ragnarok—on a pack of two-bit bandits.
Just look at him. Until now, So Jung-yang had regarded me with nothing more than the polite courtesy owed to a guest. Now? He was looking at me the way people look at a star.
"Th-that was magnificent. That sword dance of yours."
"It was nothing. By the way, the situation... appears to be wrapped up?"
"Ah. Y-yes, quite. Yes, it's all settled. Once we link up with the lord's forces, I expect this will be over."
"I see. My thanks for your hard work."
"Oh come now, hard work? Nonsense. You're the one who truly toiled, Master."
All I'd done was kill a few men and swing the Moonlight Sword once. Hardly anything worth calling toil.
"By the way... do you intend to teach Sowol that sword dance as well?"
So Jung-yang asked, hemming and hawing. Whether I intended to teach Sowol the Moonlight Sword, was it.
"Yes. I do intend to teach her."
"Ooooh!! Is that so?!"
The Moonlight Sword was a sword art of such caliber that this world regarded it as one of the Three Great Styles. Honestly, once she could wield it properly, she could be considered fully grown—and that would mean one of my missions was complete.
"...Really?"
Sowol, standing behind me, asked carefully. Hoping, by the look of her.
I crouched down to meet her eyes and held out my pinky.
"That's right. I always keep my word."
Sowol stared at the offered finger for a long moment, then hooked her own pinky around it. The moment the promise was sealed, So Jung-yang cried out,
"This is truly... I hardly know how to repay you..."
"Watching a disciple of rare talent grow is the greatest reward there is. Hahahaha."
'So grow up strong and sturdy—that's all I ask.'
"Even so... ah, no, that won't do. How about this instead—I'll create a position for you in our guild outright, so you can simply stay with us for good? You wouldn't need to do any actual work. As long as your name is on our books, Master, we'll handle everything else."
"That doesn't sound bad."
With my name attached to a guild as massive as the Eastern Merchant Guild, pointless friction would never come looking for me. Not bad at all. Until I earned the qualification of Sage, that arrangement would suit me just fine.
"Hm?"
Just then, Sowol caught hold of me. Did she have something on her mind?
"Then... does that mean you'll be staying with our family, Master?"
To that question, I only smiled.