I Made Her Train - 3
Just as my standing within the Eastern Merchant Guild had shifted after the Skeleton Gang subjugation, so too had Sowol's whole manner of treating me changed.
The most representative example of that would have to be this.
"Up already?"
"Yes."
She rose on her own every morning now, without my ever having to go wake her.
And since she was always waiting with everything prepared for the day ahead, the dried meat I kept stashed away for her never found any use anymore.
"Here. Eat up."
I placed the strip of jerky I'd been half-debating whether to just toss onto her open palm. She received it with due courtesy, popped it into her mouth, and as we stepped outside together while she chewed, a few of the warriors watching us broke into fond smiles.
"Miss! Learn well out there!"
"Off you go, Master!"
With their send-off at our backs, we climbed the mountain.
A full month had already passed since I came to the Eastern Merchant Guild.
Over that month, Sowol's stamina had grown by the day, and by now she could scale the mountain without so much as a single gasp for breath.
Excellent. All the effort I'd put into raising her was finally paying off.
"Let's move on to the next stage."
"And what would that be?"
Wiping away the sweat she'd shed swinging and thrusting, Sowol asked her question. As she brushed the pink hair clinging to her fair skin back off her face and fanned herself with one hand, I sat her down in her usual spot.
"What I'm about to teach you is the single most important thing in combat: how to read your opponent's intent."
In the game, it was something that showed up in the tutorial.
Characters on the protagonist's tier absorbed it naturally as they progressed through the main story, but she had no such luxury — so I had no choice but to teach her piece by piece, just like this.
"Reading... intent?"
"Right. When you fight on the line between life and death, every attack that comes at you takes one of two forms: the feint and the true strike. Learn to read intent, and you'll be able to tell them apart."
"And how do I do that?"
The instant she finished speaking, I shot a fist toward her.
Startled, Sowol stumbled backward, and I stopped my hand.
"Why did you dodge?"
"Because... it seemed like it was going to hit me."
"I stopped my fist, didn't I? What you did wasn't dodging — you flinched. You panicked before anything had actually happened."
"Hmm. Is that so?"
While Sowol tilted her head, evidently not quite following, I thrust my fist at her again.
This time she jerked her head aside as well, so I halted my hand right before her eyes and gave her nose a light pinch.
"Aiee!"
"I stopped again."
"Then you try it too, Master!"
Had her stubborn streak flared up? Face flushing red, Sowol stretched her hand out toward me.
An attack carrying no intent whatsoever.
In that case, ignoring it outright was the correct response. I simply watched it come — and Sowol stood frozen, fist halted before my eyes, mouth hanging open.
"How did you know?"
"By nature, when a person attacks you, their strike carries intent with it. Reading that intent — that is the foundation of this lesson."
"It's hard."
As she tilted her head again and again, I sent my fist toward her once more. This time she seemed determined not to dodge and held her ground — so my knuckle planted itself square on her forehead.
"Ow-ow-ow-ow!"
"I barely touched you; spare me the theatrics. That last one was a strike carrying true intent. The difference between the two is..."
"The difference is what?"
"You'll pick it up with practice."
"Aw, what kind of answer is that?"
She grumbled, but with talent like hers, she'd master it soon enough.
It wasn't a technique so very difficult, after all.
I lightly balled my fist, opened it, and reached my hand out to her.
"Wha—!"
This time she dodged, and my fist carved through empty air.
Whether it was luck, or whether that overflowing talent of hers was already beginning to show itself, I couldn't say... but there was nothing bad about it.
"All right. Again."
And so the training with Sowol carried on for quite some time.
Was it because she truly did have talent to spare?
As time passed, her judgment grew more and more precise.
"Starting to get the feel of it?"
"When I feel something sort of... tingling, it starts to seem like that's when you're really going to hit me."
"That's right. That's exactly what reading intent is. Master this alone, and you can fight off the attacks of any ordinary low-rank fighter without taking a single hit."
"Like you did against the Skeleton Gang?"
"Exactly."
Just as she said — when I'd fought the Skeleton Gang, I hadn't allowed a single attack through as I cut the enemy down.
What I'd used back then was this very art of reading intent, applied to its fullest.
"Anyone with a measure of experience will shift their feints into true strikes mid-attack. Once this skill becomes second nature, you'll be able to slip past those as well."
"I see... Then if I just master this one technique, wouldn't I be invincible?"
"Not a chance."
I laughed and reached my fist out toward her. Beaming, she didn't dodge even with my knuckle incoming — and then blinked at me in sheer bewilderment as it rapped her forehead.
"Huh? I didn't feel a thing."
"The next stage of this lesson: achieving no-mind. You can't claim for certain that no one in this world can strike without a shred of intent. Look no further than me, for one..."
Besides the final boss, there were a few others, after all.
"Um... then how am I supposed to dodge an attack like that?"
"That, too, belongs to the realm of instinct — hard to put into words. The best way is..."
I thrust my fist toward Sowol once more.
She didn't dodge this time either and took another rap — and when she puffed out her cheeks, I pressed a finger firmly into that plump white cheek of hers.
"Nothing but steady training. From now on, I'll keep attacking throughout every lesson, so do your best to dodge on your own."
"Ugh... understood."
No back talk. I do like that about her.
By the time we'd spent a good long while trading blows and dodges, the sun was climbing toward its peak.
Shall we call today's lesson here, then?
When I rose from my seat, Sowol rose as well and patted the dust from the seat of her pants.
Then she wiped the sweat-grimed face with a towel and snapped her fingers.
"But Master — how did you become so strong?"
"I got strong using methods no one should ever use."
"...I'm sorry, what?"
Bone-grinding, blood-purging effort — and exploits. Mostly exploits.
Honestly, sure, I'd gobbled up every unclaimed opportunity this world had to offer, but becoming one of its handful of strongest within a single year simply didn't add up.
Fortunately, this world was built on a game — which meant the old-guard veterans who'd been playing since day one knew every bug under the sun.
I was no veteran myself, but I'd still poured a fair share of hours into this game.
Even if I hadn't discovered them all firsthand, I knew my way around the cracks in this world's seams.
Not that knowing that had made the journey here any easier.
"...What is that supposed to mean?"
The more those exploits got used, the higher the risk of the world itself splitting apart — so there was no need to tell her.
I gave her a smile at the question, then ruffled her hair with abandon.
"Such things exist. You're better off not knowing yet."
I want to be like him.
I want to become someone like that.
And so, I could not stop.
Even after the lesson ended and she returned home, Sowol turned the day's training over and over in her mind.
Senses. To read an opponent's intent, she would have to hone all five of hers to a razor's edge.
"Hoo..."
Eyes closed, breathing out in a long, slow stream, Sowol gradually opened them. Then she rose from her seat and stepped outside.
"Father."
"Oh! My daughter! What brings you here?"
"It's about my Master..."
"As it happens, with your Master's own permission, I've had him looked into a little."
"You have? What did you find?"
"Nothing."
"Excuse me?"
"Beyond the fact that he hails from somewhere in the East, there was almost nothing to be learned about his past. There were dealings connecting him to the Church and a few noble houses, but even those only stretch back a year or two at most."
Lee Hyun.
A master who had appeared at the family out of nowhere. He was favorably disposed toward the household, but verifying who he was and what manner of man he might be — that much was simple due diligence.
Which was why the family had thrown its full weight into the inquiry, only to be handed results like these.
"Like a man dropped straight out of the clear sky," So Jung-yang said, and heaved a heavy sigh.
"Whenever I ask your Master himself, he only laughs it off... Might you look into it yourself, then?"
"...Yes. Understood."
So she would have to ask Lee Hyun directly.
Sowol was silent for a moment, then nodded.
He was someone she wished to be like.
All the more reason she had to know.
Leaving her father's room, Sowol made her way to the quarters where Lee Hyun was staying.
His lodging was a small thatched cottage tucked inside the Eastern Merchant Guild's inner compound.
Passing through the garden, she arrived to find Lee Hyun there as always, sipping his tea with a face of perfect tranquility.
"Master."
"Class ended a while ago, didn't it? Ah — don't tell me you have somewhere to be again?"
"If I do, I'll let you know in advance. When that happens, I'd like you to come along."
"Because you're pretty, is that it?"
"Yes."
Letting out a stifled laugh, Sowol nodded and pointed to the seat across from him.
"May I sit?"
"Of course."
"Thank you."
The moment she took her seat, tea was poured before her.
The black tea glowed a deep red, trailing curls of warm steam.
Sowol gazed at it blankly for a moment, then fixed her eyes on Lee Hyun.
"You seem to have something on your mind?"
"Sometimes when I look at you, Master, it's as though you can read my thoughts. Yes, there is. Something I'm curious about."
"What is it?"
"Where is your hometown, Master? Do you have a family? What about friends? Do you have a goal? And... and..."
She had so many things she wanted to ask.
As though spilling out every doubt she'd carried all this while, Sowol asked and asked, and Lee Hyun merely smiled his faint smile and listened to the waterfall of questions.
"...That's all."
"I see."
"You have no intention of answering, then?"
"If I did, I'd have told you from the start, wouldn't I?"
It was only natural to want to know everything about the person you wished to become.
And yet Lee Hyun had taught her not so much as a single thing about himself.
Sulkily, Sowol puffed out her cheeks like any girl her own age — and Lee Hyun flashed her a sly grin and held out what he'd fished from his sleeve.
"That's..."
"A compliment sticker. Collect ten and I'll grant you one wish — remember? Do try to gather them."
"......"
When he put it that way, it needled her stubbornness all over again.
Sowol clenched her fist beneath the table.
You're always like this. Hiding everything, concealing everything — never once showing yourself.
"...Understood."
Then I'll see it done. Someday, I'll make you show me everything — right here, before my eyes.