Master and Disciple - Moonlight

The first B-rank quest I received after wandering around for a full day. And unlike any of the quests I’d gotten before, the description was incredibly unique.

I still didn’t know exactly what kind of sect the Cheonwol-mun was, but the two skills I already possessed came to mind.

Just these two skills alone could be called downright overpowered. Of course, they had the characteristic of possessing room for growth because they were built on the foundation of potential, but even setting that aside, the chance to learn an exclusive martial art ranked at least B was extremely tempting.

‘Anyway…’

Hwayeong, who had asked if I would come here again tomorrow, was now fidgeting and stealing glances at me. Honestly, a part of me felt uneasy. The fact that this woman named Hwayeong hadn’t fully mastered her own martial arts, and the fact that I wasn’t here to learn from her but to train alongside her. There was no way a quest called Moonlight would be B-rank for nothing. It would involve a difficult process, and if my abilities fell short, I might collapse midway through.

But still.

“Yes, I plan to come tomorrow as well.”

I stopped thinking about it and accepted the quest. Failure? It was better for my mental health to think about that after I crashed into it headfirst. Rather than doing nothing and regretting it later, it was better to challenge something that looked difficult and shake it off cleanly.

“Ah, I see. Understood.”

Leaving those words behind, Hwayeong sheathed her sword. The training that would begin tomorrow. Since this was my first chance to properly learn swordsmanship, I couldn’t help but feel excited.

But they say the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.

“……Why isn’t she here?”

A full day passed, and as soon as night fell I rushed straight to the training hall, expecting to meet Hwayeong who should have been there. But the only traces left were those of people who had finished their daytime training and left. I couldn’t sense any sign of the Hwayeong I had met yesterday.

‘They said it was an exclusive martial art, but surely not……?’

Feeling utterly dumbfounded, I slowly retraced the conversation from yesterday.

「Will you come again tomorrow?」

「Yes, I plan to come tomorrow as well.」

「Ah, I see. Understood.」

She had never said, “Let’s train together tomorrow.” She had only asked cautiously, “Will you come again tomorrow?”

Come to think of it, it was an exclusive martial art. It was only natural that she wouldn’t readily give away a unique technique that belonged solely to her sect and no other.

“This is annoying.”

Still, I couldn’t say the opportunity was completely gone. The quest hadn’t disappeared, which meant this current situation wasn’t a sudden variable but the exact route needed to progress the quest.

I left the training hall and began wandering the entire academy, searching for a secluded spot where a person could swing a sword alone. I checked empty classrooms. I visited every large and small training ground, and whenever I found a place that seemed deserted, I stepped in first and thought about it later.

About an hour later, I began to hear the familiar sound of cutting air from not too far away. Following the noise, I eventually found her training in a small clearing on a hill inside Jeongmu Academy.

Swish! Swish-swish! Bang!

Dust rose from the footwork she displayed, and through the gaps, beautiful silver lines revealed themselves. It was similar to yesterday’s movements, but her stance was clearly a little wider, just as I had advised.

‘So that’s how it is?’

I kept a suitable distance from her and carefully drew my sword.

Thinking back, the quest I received wasn’t about “learning” her sword. It was simply to observe her sword and train for ten days. And to help her attain enlightenment. That was the main content of the quest, and the reason for its high difficulty.

‘But is that even possible?’

I wasn’t sure if it was realistically possible to learn swordsmanship without any special guidance. There was a saying that even a dog could recite poetry after three years in a school, but… well, I wasn’t so sure.

I shook my head to clear away the stray thoughts. It was something I had to do anyway.

I watched every single one of Hwayeong’s movements in detail. Her footwork, the direction and speed of her sword, and the sound of the air being cut. I did my best to gauge the level of martial prowess she displayed.

I didn’t know what forms she was executing. I couldn’t understand what her footwork meant, nor whether her sword path was meant for attack or defense.

But one thing was certain.

I had one ridiculously overpowered passive skill that didn’t need words.

A day passed, then two. At first I had worried whether this was even a possible quest. But either I surprisingly had talent for the sword, or the Quick Comprehension skill was truly broken, because learning the sword went smoother than I expected.

My daily routine was usually like this.

Right before sunset each day, I would arrive at the clearing first and wait for Hwayeong. When she began training, I would take in as much of her sword as possible and, if needed, mimic her with the smallest possible movements.

“Huu…”

After some time, she would leave with a tired expression. That was when my real training began. I would step into the clearing she had used, study her footprints, and carefully copy the movements she had shown. Finally, around sunrise, I would head to the medical hall, become a test subject for Dan Hwi-so’s medicinal pills, and in exchange for that trade, take a nap.

That was how my incredibly fulfilling days came to an end.

But on the seventh day of secretly learning Hwayeong’s sword, perhaps because I had become too absorbed in the Moonlight Sword Art, I ran into an unexpected obstacle.

“Siin… young hero?”

At the voice coming from behind me, goosebumps erupted across my entire body and cold sweat began to pour down. Originally, Hwayeong should have left for her quarters by now. But for some reason she had returned to the clearing, and of all times, it happened to be the exact moment I had gained a small enlightenment in the Moonlight Sword Art and started swinging my sword.

“Since when?”

In the murim, stealing someone else’s martial art wasn’t simply a matter of stealing knowledge. In a world where people risked their lives just to obtain a single martial arts manual, it was only natural.

“Pardon? What do you mean?”

So I decided to play dumb for now. Maybe she hadn’t seen me stealing the martial art…

“That movement just now. Wasn’t that the Moonlight Sword Art?”

Nope. Caught red-handed. This was definitely being found out.

Ah, right. The face of the woman whose martial art had been stolen slowly began to twist. The cute young lady’s face I had seen on the first day was gone. Now a hornless goblin was glaring at me as if it wanted to kill me.

“W-wait, please listen to me…!”

Srrrng.

She drew her sword. Then, without any further explanation, she took a step toward me.

And.

Clang!

I raised my sword and deflected Hwayeong’s incoming blade. There was no hesitation in her sword. But the fortunate thing was that for the past week, I had set everything else aside and focused solely on watching and studying her sword.

Clang! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Clang! Clang!

Swinging, slashing, thrusting, rising cuts. Recalling the sword she had repeated every single day, I met her blade.

‘She’s insanely strong…!’

Every time my sword clashed with hers, sparks flew and scattered the moonlight. The surrounding air was fickle. At times it was sharp enough to tear the opponent apart, at others it pressed down heavily and crushed me.

But the attacks that had felt only threatening at first gradually became familiar as my wounds increased. After a long exchange of blows, just as the first form of the Moonlight Sword Art that I had barely managed to follow was about to end, I slowly began to notice something strange about this fight.

‘Why……’

Her sword naturally thrust toward my waist as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I deflected it as smoothly as flowing water. Next she aimed at my wrist, and I twisted my sword ever so slightly to let it slide off. The same happened when she targeted my leg, and again when she aimed a killing blow at my throat.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

‘Why does it feel like she’s going easy on me?’

These were all sword paths I already knew. They were the sword she had swung every single day, and the sword I had watched and copied. At some point, she had stopped truly aiming for my life. She was simply matching her sword to my lacking one, helping me complete the forms.

The exchange continued. Finally, when the first form reached its end, she quietly sheathed her sword and spoke.

“Since when?”

It was the same question as before. But this time, I looked her straight in the eyes and answered confidently.

“It has been a week.”

“I see.”

She lowered her head as if deep in thought and remained silent. But only for a moment.

“……Were there any shortcomings in my sword?”

The quest that had nearly ended in failure due to Hwayeong’s disappointment. Thanks to incredible luck and skill synergy, I had finally obtained not only the martial art but also the master who would teach it to me.

The friction between Hwayeong and me was resolved rather well. Looking back on the situation, if I hadn’t been able to properly counterattack during that fight, that clearing might have become my grave. It made no sense for a B-rank quest to come with no price. I had to learn an absurd sword art by secretly watching from the sidelines, and even though she was only a woman in her early twenties, I had to perform the forms well enough not to “disappoint” a murim practitioner.

In truth, this was a quest that no one but me could have completed.

“This is going to kill me…”

Completing the quest was one thing, but being injured was another. My entire body screamed with muscle pain and the stinging wounds from her sword. I headed to the medical hall to get some sleep and recover.

Creak.

It was the usual scene. After finishing my nightly training, I entered the medical hall, greeted Dan Hwi-so, and lay down on the bed. Seeing me, Dan Hwi-so clicked his tongue briefly and then began preparing to feed me the experimental pills he was developing.

“Hmm? Who are you? Are you hurt?”

What was different from usual was that the spar with Hwayeong had left me with quite noticeable injuries. The physician’s face brightened when he saw my wounds, and a system notification appeared before me.