Chapter: 14
“Son~ When are you arriving~?”
“I told you not to call me that!”
Yeonwoo pouted.
He had followed along because it seemed like he was going to get something tasty.
But there wasn’t even a whiff of delicious food.
Just as he was getting bored, wondering how much further they had to go before something good would appear, Gwanhyeok, who had been walking ahead, stopped.
Yeonwoo went “Oh,” forming an O with his mouth, and poked his face out from behind Gwanhyeok’s back to check where they had arrived.
Yeonwoo’s expression crumpled.
The place Gwanhyeok had brought him was the Gwan family’s training ground.
Far from delicious food, it was a harsh place that reeked only of warriors’ sweat.
“I’m leaving.”
Yeonwoo immediately turned around. But.
“Drag him along.”
At Gwanhyeok’s single command, Yeonwoo couldn’t move. Gwanhyeok’s attendant had grabbed Yeonwoo’s arm.
“What?”
Yeonwoo frowned and looked back.
He stared for a moment at the arm the attendant had grabbed.
“Not letting go?”
At that moment, Yeonwoo’s gaze chilled coldly.
Even though he was just staring blankly, the quiet gaze carried a creepiness that made the attendant flinch involuntarily.
But he couldn’t let go of the arm either.
The attendant was more afraid of his master, whom he had to see every day, than of Yeonwoo, who was younger than him.
“Um…”
The attendant swallowed dryly and whispered in a voice low enough that Gwanhyeok wouldn’t hear.
“I-I’ll give you some beef jerky.”
“……?”
“You… like it, I heard…”
Though she had been sold as a servant, since she had been adopted, Yeonwoo’s status was that of the Gwan family’s young lady.
The attendant offered a deal, maintaining propriety while not going against Gwanhyeok’s will.
“How many?”
“One… Two…?”
The attendant added one more finger, glancing at Yeonwoo’s reaction.
Hmm-
Yeonwoo narrowed his eyes and pondered for a moment.
“Fine.”
Yeonwoo grabbed the attendant’s hand and shook it vigorously. Then he placed the remaining dried fruit he had been holding into the attendant’s hand.
The attendant, who had no way of knowing what it meant to hold hands and shake, looked bewildered, while Yeonwoo approached Gwanhyeok.
“So, what do I have to do?”
Gwanhyeok raised an eyebrow crookedly.
She had been uncooperative just a moment ago, so what was the reason for this sudden enthusiasm?
It was strange, but at any rate, it worked out.
“Follow me.”
Gwanhyeok led Yeonwoo inside the training ground.
The training ground was empty.
While Yeonwoo looked around the training ground with curiosity, the attendant ran over, picked up two wooden swords from the weapon rack, and brought them to Gwanhyeok.
“Here.”
Gwanhyeok held one out to Yeonwoo.
“What’s this?”
“Have you never seen a wooden sword before?”
“Nope.”
Gwanhyeok flinched.
She’d never seen a wooden sword?
He was startled for a moment, then pushed the wooden sword into Yeonwoo’s arms as if annoyed.
“This is why I hate you. For a beggar.”
“But I’m not a beggar, though?”
Beggars get to wander around freely and pick up and eat whatever they want, don’t they?
“Ha! Why. Just because you got sold off to a big family like this and they’re spoiling you, do you think you’re something now?”
“Spoiling? Is that something you eat?”
“Stop with the wordplay!”
“Spoiling.”
Gwanhyeok huffed and glared at Yeonwoo, then picked up his wooden sword and stood opposite her.
Gwanhyeok raised his sword toward Yeonwoo.
“I’ll say it again, I hate you.”
“Me too.”
“Just listen!”
Yeonwoo stuck out his lips.
Gwanhyeok continued.
“Maryonggwan is not a place for someone like you who’s never even held a wooden sword. It’s an arena of opportunity to select the main school’s elite.”
Yeonwoo blinked.
“For someone like you, who doesn’t even know martial arts, to go to a place like that…! It makes my blood boil with rage! That spot was originally…!”
Gwanhyeok’s hand holding the sword trembled.
“It was originally my spot…!”
Yeonwoo tilted his head.
“Then just go?”
“I can’t go because of you! Because of you!”
“……?”
“Because you were sold here! Father would never send me off!”
“……?”
Yeonwoo simply couldn’t understand Gwanhyeok’s words.
If he wants to go, shouldn’t he just go?
I don’t really want to go anyway?
Then, in an instant, he realized something.
‘Oh, no!’
If the son goes, he might stop giving me food?!
They’re giving me food instead of going!
‘No, no! That absolutely cannot happen!’
In an instant, deep anger filled Yeonwoo’s gaze as he looked at Gwanhyeok.
“Son, it’s not good to covet what others have.”
“Who stole mine first?!”
‘Ah, that’s true!’
Yeonwoo hesitated.
But he quickly shook his head, wiggling his finger shamelessly.
“No, that’s not it. How is that yours? Father bought that to give to Yeonwoo.”
Don’t.
“Don’t call him Father with that mouth!”
You were sold here! You beggar!
“Father just doesn’t know yet! I can do well too!”
If I get into Maryonggwan, I can prove it enough…!
“…So hurry up and raise your sword! I’ll show Father properly!”
“What can you show with this?”
“That I can do it! And how pathetic you are, how unworthy you are! Everything! I’ll show him everything!”
Gwanhyeok raised his sword toward Yeonwoo once more.
Yeonwoo still couldn’t understand Gwanhyeok’s words.
So, what is it that he’s going to show?
Yeonwoo furrowed his brows and turned the wooden sword this way and that.
Then, for now, he grabbed the short handle like Gwanhyeok had and raised it toward him.
“Like this?”
“From now on, you and I are going to spar.”
“Spar?”
“Idiot, it means you and I are going to fight.”
“Aha!”
Got it!
“So, it means you and I are going to fight over who gets to go to Maryonggwan?”
“Yeah. Now you’re finally making some sense.”
Gwanhyeok grinned.
“You can get hurt during sparring, and you might bleed. But we don’t blame each other. Got it?”
Yeonwoo nodded.
“Good. Then you start. It’d be cowardly for me to strike first against someone like you who doesn’t even know a wooden sword. Even so, I’ve already been practicing martial arts for five years…”
That was when.
Thududud-!
Yeonwoo raised his wooden sword and charged at Gwanhyeok.
‘So…’
I just have to hit him, right? With this?
Whoosh-!
“……!”
At her figure, which had closed the distance in an instant, Gwanhyeok belatedly assumed a defensive stance.
Yeonwoo brought the wooden sword he had raised high down with all his might—
Crack-!
Yeonwoo’s sword was blocked by Gwanhyeok’s sword, which he had lowered his body and laid horizontally.
Clang- Clang-!
Gwanhyeok hurriedly stepped back a couple of paces.
“Y-you! That’s dirty! Who attacks while someone is talking?!”
“Why? You said start?”
“Ugh…!”
Gwanhyeok raised his sword again.
His hand was trembling noticeably more than before.
It wasn’t because of fear or anger.
‘How does such a tiny thing have this much strength?!’
A rock…
‘I thought a rock was falling…!’
Gwanhyeok tried hard to hide his embarrassment and gripped his sword tightly.
Honestly, it was unexpectedly strong, but there was no way he could lose to a brat who didn’t even know the first thing about martial arts.
“I’m really not going to go easy on you…”
“Hmph!”
Yeonwoo stuck out his tongue in a mock.
It was a childish provocation from a child, but it got on Gwanhyeok’s nerves just fine.
Clang-!
Gwanhyeok gripped his sword and charged at Yeonwoo.
‘Because she’s strong, her sword is heavy.’
If blocking it once was enough to drain the strength from his hand, blocking it a few times might split his palm open.
‘If that’s the case…’
He just had to not block the sword head-on!
Whoosh-
Gwanhyeok, who had been running, lowered his body at some point.
Yeonwoo, who had been waiting for the attack with a determined expression, was caught off guard for a moment.
Thudud- Whack-!
“Ow!”
Gwanhyeok, who had circled around to Yeonwoo’s back, struck her back as he passed.
Yeonwoo let out a short cry and was pushed forward.
But Gwanhyeok didn’t wait for Yeonwoo to regain his stance.
Thwack-! Whack!
Back! Shin! Forearm!
“Ouch! Ouch!!”
Yeonwoo twisted his body this way and that from the pain of being pummeled.
But Gwanhyeok’s sword flew relentlessly, without mercy.
“It hurts! I said it hurts!!”
It was chaotic.
Where it was coming from, where he was—there was no time to pay attention to that because of the pain.
“Stop it!!”
Whoosh-!
Yeonwoo finally couldn’t take it anymore and swung his sword. A wide, full of openings swing, clearly random to anyone watching.
‘Now!’
Gwanhyeok moved behind Yeonwoo, whose sword was flailing in the air, and swung his own.
Whoosh-!
‘I’ll knock him out like this!’
The moment the hard wooden sword’s blade, struck down with all his might, touched the back of Yeonwoo’s head—
Abruptly—
The wooden sword stopped, blocked by something.
“……!”
Gwanhyeok’s eyes widened.
Someone’s fingers were touching the tip of his wooden sword.
“That’s enough.”
Two fingers, easily holding his sword as if supporting a light feather.
“……”
Gwanhyeok raised his trembling gaze to look up at the owner of those fingers.
A man wearing a black half-mask stood with his back to the sun, looking down at him.
Just being looked down upon sent an oppressive pressure over his entire body.
Gwanhyeok met the man’s quietly sunken gaze from beyond the mask and swallowed dryly.
