The Promise
"Then I'll take my leave first."
When Seomun Hwi rose from his seat and clasped his fists in salute, Soga-yul rested her chin on her hand and regarded him.
"That request I made earlier—I hope you'll keep it."
Recalling the words Soga-yul had spoken after handing him the sect leader's token, Seomun Hwi slowly nodded.
"...Even if you hadn't asked me separately, Sect Leader, I would have done so of my own accord. As I said, I consider Cheongwol a dear friend."
Seomun Hwi's answer seemed to please her considerably; Soga-yul broke into a grin.
"That kid is lucky. To have someone like you as the first friend she made after coming out into the Central Plains."
Remembering the words Cheongwol had spoken to him late at night from her bed, Seomun Hwi chuckled as well.
"We'll have to wait and see who was the lucky one."
With that, Seomun Hwi opened the door and headed back to the reception hall.
As the young master of a great clan, there was no need for him to remain in the reception hall—yet Seomun Hwi had no intention of moving to another pavilion. If he went there, he wouldn't be able to stay with Cheongwol.
As expected, Cheongwol was sitting in front of the door, staring down at the floor. The redness around her eyes had somewhat faded, but her expression remained dark.
"Cheongwol."
At the sound of her name, Cheongwol forced the corners of her mouth up and looked at Seomun Hwi.
"You're back already? You said it was important, so I thought you wouldn't come until after sundown."
"I thought so too. But things went more smoothly than expected."
"...That's good."
Cheongwol said this while carefully gauging Seomun Hwi's reaction. She needed to tell him that she had decided to learn martial arts from the Sect Leader of the Kongdong Sect, and thus could not go with him to the Seomun Clan.
"Um... about what you said at the inn before..."
But her fretting over how to broach the subject proved unnecessary—Seomun Hwi shook his head slightly, as if he already knew everything.
"I already heard from the Sect Leader. You decided to stay at the Kongdong Sect."
Cheongwol looked at him with slightly surprised eyes.
"Ah, so the Sect Leader told you first..."
"Yes. It's a shame we won't be able to go to the clan together, but it's your choice, and I respect it."
After that, the two of them fell silent for a while. Cheongwol, who had to remain at the Kongdong Sect to learn martial arts from the Sect Leader. Seomun Hwi, who had finished the clan's business and now had to return to Anhui. Neither of them said it aloud, but both could feel that the end of their brief connection was slowly drawing near.
"Hey..."
Just as Cheongwol was about to say something, Seomun Hwi drew his sword from its scabbard first.
"On the day I first took up a sword, my father said something to me."
Recalling his father roughly ruffling his hair with those large hands, Seomun Hwi raised the sword before his eyes.
"If you truly wish to know someone, cross blades with them. A single sword path will reveal the road that person has walked more clearly than a hundred words."
"..."
"I respect my father, but I never took those words at face value. I thought them the arrogance—or the delusion—of the orthodox sects. How could crossing blades a few times possibly let you know a person?"
With a single sword between them, the two faced each other.
"But now... I sincerely hope those words were true."
After a brief steadying of his breath, Seomun Hwi spoke softly.
"Im Cheong-wol—if you don't mind, would you spar with me?"
It was a rather sudden request, but Cheongwol did not look away from his sword. She understood why he wanted to cross blades with her. And the truth was, she had wanted to cross blades with him as well.
It was far too narrow a space for a proper spar, but that was no issue for Cheongwol. To someone raised under harsh training, environment was merely one of countless variables to be controlled.
If there was one problem to point out, it was that Cheongwol had never sparred with anyone except her grandfather. Seomun Hwi, on the other hand, may have lacked real combat experience, but he was well-versed in sparring and skillfully managed his breathing and distance.
Clang!
When Seomun Hwi's sword came flying toward her eyes, Cheongwol hastily raised her hand and struck it aside. But she had only barely managed to deflect it. His sword path was faster and sharper than she had expected, and she nearly lost her grip on her own blade.
"Ugh!"
Cheongwol quickly employed footwork to create distance, but Seomun Hwi did not pursue—instead, he reset his stance. He knew that pressing an opponent whose martial arts he didn't fully understand could leave him open to a counter.
"Hah..."
Thanks to that, Cheongwol was able to catch her breath briefly once more—and she had no choice but to admit it. That she had taken this spar with Seomun Hwi too lightly.
It wasn't that she had looked down on his martial arts or overestimated her own skill. Rather, the problem lay in her mindset of treating it as a casual match. Knowing that continuing the spar like this would be disrespectful to Seomun Hwi, Cheongwol drew a deep breath.
And a moment later, a sharp aura began to slowly emanate from her body.
"Sorry. Here I come again."
Seeing Cheongwol draw up her internal energy, Seomun Hwi found himself smiling without realizing it. Unlike the figure who had been scrambling merely to defend, her aura had changed so distinctly that his body tensed of its own accord.
Tap!
In the span of a single blink, the distance between them closed in an instant.
"...!"
With the sun at her back, Cheongwol's strike came flying—Seomun Hwi squinted and barely twisted his head aside. Her sword grazed his cheek by a hair's breadth, leaving a shallow cut.
"...I asked for a spar, not a life-or-death duel."
Seomun Hwi looked down at the blood on his hand with a show of complaint, but Cheongwol only smiled leisurely.
"This is the kind of spar you wanted, isn't it?"
Faced with Cheongwol's knowing attitude, Seomun Hwi eventually let the corners of his mouth lift as well.
"I suppose so. I just thought you had no heart for it, the way you kept taking hits."
"Who was taking hits? I was just going easy on you for a bit."
The tension having eased somewhat, Cheongwol shot him an incredulous look, and Seomun Hwi merely shrugged.
"If we're going by words alone, finding someone who isn't a master would be the harder task."
As Seomun Hwi continued to tease her, Cheongwol's eyes narrowed.
"I'll make you say you want to stop. I guarantee it won't take long."
Even from that single internal-energy-laden strike earlier, he had felt the gap in their skill—but Seomun Hwi did not want to show weakness before Cheongwol. A true friend was not someone who lagged behind or pulled ahead, but one who could walk side by side.
And so Seomun Hwi tightened his grip on the sword once more and leveled the tip toward Cheongwol.
"Come at me already. Standing still is starting to get boring."
"You okay?"
Cheongwol's face suddenly appeared above Seomun Hwi, who lay on the dirt floor catching his breath. Unlike his own body, cut and bruised all over, Cheongwol's face was clean and unmarked.
"...Just so there's no misunderstanding—I'm not particularly weak."
Seeing Seomun Hwi still trying to protect his pride even while covered in dirt, Cheongwol didn't bother to argue and simply lay down beside him.
"Yeah. You're the first martial artist this strong I've faced in the Central Plains."
Seomun Hwi was about to feel somewhat satisfied by her words when something felt off, and he looked at Cheongwol lying beside him.
"Have you ever sparred with another martial artist before?"
At Seomun Hwi's question, Cheongwol answered with a playful smile.
"Nope. You're the first."
He realized Cheongwol was teasing him, but he didn't mind as much as he might have expected.
"First among one. Still means I'm the best, then."
"You're the best as a friend, too."
"Enough of that."
"Okay."
Perhaps because of the intense spar, the two of them treated each other far more freely than before.
...Is this what he meant by needing to cross blades to truly know someone?
Thinking something so absurd that his father would have been flabbergasted to hear it, Seomun Hwi gazed up at the sky. As if utterly unconcerned with the fierce winds soon to sweep across the Central Plains, the sky was simply quiet and blue.
"Are you leaving first thing tomorrow?"
As he watched the clouds, lost in thoughts about the clan's future, Cheongwol carefully asked Seomun Hwi.
"If nothing comes up, I suppose I should. The clan is waiting for me to return as soon as possible."
"...I see."
At Seomun Hwi's expected answer, the corners of Cheongwol's eyes drooped slightly.
"That's just how it is in principle—staying a little longer wouldn't be a problem. Of course, I'd need to ask the Kongdong Sect for—"
"No, don't do that because of me."
Seomun Hwi hurriedly tried to soothe her feelings, but Cheongwol quietly shook her head instead.
"Instead, just promise me one thing."
Cheongwol lightly caught the edge of Seomun Hwi's collar with her fingertips and looked up at him.
"That even if I come looking for you again, you won't pretend not to know me."
The tremor in her hand, transmitted through the fabric of his collar, spoke of how much fretting and inner turmoil she had endured before saying these words. The first friend she had ever truly opened her heart to since birth. It might have been nothing special to Seomun Hwi, but to Cheongwol, he had already become someone extraordinary.
And fortunately, it was the same for Seomun Hwi.
"I really should stay a little longer before I go. Seeing you make such a needless worry like that."