Master
“Phew. Shall we leave it at that for now?”
Colt, who had been frozen in place, raised both hands and started clapping.
Clap, clap, clap.
James quickly gathered himself and joined in.
Clap, clap, clap.
“...That was amazing, sir.”
“What incredible swordsmanship!”
“Hahaha. Thank you.”
James was still clapping along with Colt when Director Choi spoke up.
“In Korea, we believe in the virtue of give and take, you know.”
“...Pardon?”
“Since the two of you learned from books, wouldn’t you show me the swordsmanship you picked up as well? It looks like you even brought training blades with you.”
Director Choi thought the swords at their waists were practice weapons rather than sharpened blades. Carrying real swords around was unthinkable by ordinary standards.
But the large swords James and Colt had brought were real blades capable of slicing through human flesh and bone.
“...”
“...”
They exchanged a look and both wore troubled expressions. The reason they were hesitant to spar with real swords was not fear. After seeing Director Choi’s refined swordsmanship, the techniques they had learned suddenly seemed embarrassingly crude.
“...What do we do?”
“Yeah, we’re still basically hatchlings...”
“You needn’t worry. I won’t expect much. At the very least, I need to see how you move your bodies so I can adjust the lesson to your level, and if you’ve picked up any bad habits, I’d like to see whether there’s anything to correct.”
“Then may we show you a little?”
“Just don’t laugh when you watch.”
“Hahaha. Don’t worry.”
Director Choi stepped back to give Colt and James room to move freely, unable to guess how their demonstration would unfold.
“Colt. Let’s show him properly too.”
“Of course. He said it has to be give and take. We saw something amazing, so we should repay the favor.”
Director Choi tilted his head at the sight of James and Colt facing one another.
“Uh.”
“If they’re going to demonstrate swordsmanship, shouldn’t both of their faces be turned toward me...?”
Director Choi was beginning to suspect something was wrong. Normally, when people learned or demonstrated sword techniques, they didn’t fight each other; they simply went through the motions slowly, in a formal demonstration. Sparring was dangerous enough that even seasoned experts trained for years wore protective gear when they did it.
“Wai—”
But he was too late to stop them. The moment they faced each other, both drew their swords and lunged.
Shiiing. Shiiing.
“Haaah!”
“Come on!”
‘This is a major disaster!’
What’s more, it was obvious the swords they’d drawn were real blades, not training weapons. If they struck a person, this would mean death, not serious injury.
Whang!
James’s sword swung down as if it meant to kill Colt.
Clang!
And Colt blocked James’s strike with practiced ease. As though he had already expected the block, James instantly redirected his blade elsewhere. It was still a sword style grounded in the basics. The technique they were using was the Muyedobotongji sword form Director Choi had just demonstrated.
Clang! Clang! Chaang!
“...”
Director Choi stood there with one hand raised, trying to stop them, his mouth hanging open.
‘...They’re fast? And skilled?’
He had assumed at best they would be using low-level techniques learned by beginners, but the two of them were shattering his expectations. Not only was their swordsmanship far beyond what he had imagined, their physical ability was beyond comparison with ordinary people. They were swinging swords that looked incredibly heavy as if they were wooden practice blades.
“You’re warmed up now, right? Let’s really go!”
“Kolt!”
Their already quick blades began to pick up even more speed. Before, he could still follow their trajectories, but now the paths of the swords had become hazy.
‘They can still get faster than this?’
“Hah!”
“Come on!”
Whoosh! Whir!
The swords rushing toward each other with a booming hum looked as though they might strike their opponent any second. They had already been dangerous a moment ago, but now that their speed had increased, they were even deadlier.
‘A graze would kill! It’d be instant death!’
In Director Choi’s mind, he could already picture the two men with their limbs torn away and blood gushing like a waterfall. And there, in the background, he himself was being fitted with handcuffs by arriving police officers.
“!”
Snapped back to his senses, Director Choi shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Stoooop!! STOP!! I said stop!!!”
“That startled me...”
If Director Choi hadn’t charged in shouting, the two of them would have gone on thrusting blades at each other as they always did.
“Should we stop?”
“I was just about to show you properly.”
Their sword tips had barely missed Director Choi, stopping just before his face.
“...”
‘I really almost died.’
Stunned, Director Choi looked back and forth between the two of them before holding out both hands.
“Hand over the swords. Right now.”
Swords were killing tools. Not something to be drawn during a spar.
“Yes, sir.”
“Next time we’ll show you proper swordsmanship...”
Even as Colt tried to speak, Director Choi simply kept his hand out in silence.
“Tsk.”
James and Colt slid their swords back into their waists and placed the sheaths, swords and all, into Director Choi’s hands.
Wobble.
Director Choi staggered under the weight of the heavy blades.
‘This weight...’
They were far heavier than the real swords used for cutting straw bundles or bamboo.
‘And they were swinging these around like chopsticks?’
Clack. Thud!
Still in disbelief, he set the swords aside and let out a long breath.
“Hah... You two learned this from books alone?”
He couldn’t believe they had reached this level without anyone teaching them.
“Yes. There are some incredible sword forms in the Muyedobotongji...”
“Jimmy. It wasn’t just swordsmanship. It also went into great detail on the fundamentals needed to learn martial arts.”
“The fundamentals really are the most important thing.”
“Exactly. In martial arts, the basics are everything.”
“Techniques and irregular applications come naturally once you’ve learned the basics, right? I’m sick of hearing it by now, Colt.”
As though agreeing with their conversation, Director Choi nodded vigorously, then quickly regained his composure and asked, “Ahem. Enough chatter! The point of my question is whether you’ve ever been taught by someone.”
“...”
“...”
James and Colt looked at each other. Colt had been the first to teach James swordsmanship, and recently James had been receiving instruction from Colt, too. Their skill gap kept widening.
“Colt’s been teaching me.”
“You were the one who first taught me swordsmanship.”
Director Choi asked again, still clearly unconvinced.
“You truly haven’t learned from anyone else?”
“I did think about going to a kendo dojo once, but I never got around to it because I wasn’t really feeling it.”
“We haven’t learned from anyone except each other.”
At James and Colt’s firm answer, Director Choi stepped closer and put a hand on each of their shoulders.
“I’ll be counting on you two from here on. Just trust me and follow my lead.”
“Then we just register at the training center and learn with the other members?”
“No.”
“...We can’t register?”
“Are we just not good enough?”
Director Choi’s negative answer was because their level was not suited to training alongside ordinary people.
‘It would be absurd for those two to train at the center with regular students.’
“You can register with the center. What you can’t do is train together with everyone else.”
“Then what?”
“If we learn in a group, there’d still be things to pick up from that...”
“I’ll teach you personally, one-on-one. Every martial art recorded in the Muyedobotongji, and every traditional Korean martial art handed down in Korea, all of it!”
Director Choi’s eyes were burning. Their talent alone was astonishing, but so was their hunger for martial arts.
‘Two people with the potential to become the strongest martial artists in the world have appeared!’
He felt as if Korea’s traditional martial arts had been handed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spread across the world.
“Then that means you’ll be our master?”
“Jimmy. It’s not that it’s becoming. It already is. Thank you, Master!”
At Colt’s greeting, James quickly bowed as well.
“Thank you! Master!”
“Hahahahaha!”
Director Choi was deeply excited by the future of Korean traditional martial arts.
‘Through these two, I’ll show the greatness of Korean martial arts to the entire world!’
He was determined to spread every martial art in the Muyedobotongji around the world, just as taekwondo had spread worldwide.
“Let’s start today! Right now!”
“Shouldn’t we collect the registration fee first...”
At James’s words, he immediately pulled an envelope from his chest.
“That’s...”
Director Choi had no intention of charging separately for teaching such gifted students, but the amount James mentioned made him pause.
“I only brought a modest ten thousand dollars.”
“!”
Director Choi was shocked by the sudden appearance of such a large sum, but Colt frowned and said, “Jimmy. Isn’t that a little too modest?”
“Is it?”
“Let’s double it.”
“Right. Ten thousand dollars apiece sounds about right.”
Their direct assessment of Director Choi’s level had been even more impressive than they had expected. Ten thousand dollars felt like nothing at all.
“I’ll bring the other half tomorrow.”
“W-wait a second. That’s far too much.”
He had never intended to accept money in the first place, and even if he did, the maximum fee was only two hundred thousand won per person.
“We can’t stay long anyway. We’re only planning to study for a month.”
In truth, even a month was a long estimate.
‘The real magic won’t take more than five minutes.’
Just as when they had learned Korean before, they planned to use magic to extract all of Director Choi’s martial knowledge and implant it into themselves and Colt. The month was merely a way to hand over an appropriate amount of money.
“O-only a month?”
“If you look at the level we reach and think it’ll take longer, just tell us.”
By Director Choi’s estimation, a month was nowhere near enough.
“It’ll take ten years. That’s how long it would take to learn every martial art in the Muyedobotongji, not to mention all the traditional martial arts of Korea.”
Director Choi planned to teach them taekkyeon, archery, and subak as well. Even tasting all the martial arts he knew would take at least a year, and truly mastering them would require a minimum of ten years of training.
“Then let’s consider this registration fee as prepayment for ten years. And of course, I’ll pay Colt’s registration fee separately tomorrow.”
James could finally hand over the envelope he had taken out.
“Still, that’s too much...”
“If you think it’s too much, then use the rest for the other trainees.”
“...”
In truth, Director Choi’s traditional martial arts training center had so few registrants that he kept it running by earning money elsewhere. That was how much affection he held for Korea’s traditional martial arts.
“...So there are days like this too. Ho ho.”
“There’s no need to feel burdened.”
James glanced around the training center as well.
“Master, if you ever need to expand the center, let me know in advance. I’ll buy a suitable building and make it so you can use the entire place.”
“...”
Colt placed a hand on Director Choi’s shoulder, who was staring at him in stunned silence, and said, “Master, the two new disciples you took on today happen to have a bit of money.”
“...”
It was a stunning combination: one man with assets in the two-trillion-won range and another worth twenty billion won.
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