STWW 10

Chapter 10

“Mr. So is not here.”

Dan Eun, who had offered to guide her, spoke first, and Soo furrowed his brow in puzzlement.

Dan Eun glanced back slightly, sighed as if she had expected this, but didn’t let it out.

It seemed the way Ho Yeon referred to his senior (literally “elder brother” or “senior disciple”) was rather unpleasant to him. Calling a teacher “uncle” could indeed be considered rude.

“From the letter you sent, it seems he wishes to learn from you,” she added.

“He refuses to be called ‘teacher’ or ‘master.’”

“Hm.”

There was something slightly off-kilter in her tone. When Ho Yeon glanced at her, her expression was subtly different from before.

The twitching of her cheeks, the faint droop of her lips she tried to hide—it all gave her away.

Dan Eun let out a small laugh, the sound like air escaping a balloon. Seeing someone react like this, layered on top of a protagonist’s unrealistic traits, was oddly entertaining.

From the original story, Ho Yeon had a tendency to cling with affection. It had deepened after Soo’s death, if memory served correctly. But now, since he was alive, it seemed only light jealousy appeared.

“How old are you?”

The way he cut off his sentence in a slightly grumpy tone was, if anything, kind of cute.

“Nine.”

“Hmm. So he said his senior is away.”

Ah… really adorable.

And then, when she used honorifics toward him, she added a little “yo” out of pride. Dan Eun suppressed a chuckle.

“Yes.”

“Where did he go?”

“To the Clan.”

“…I sent a letter.”

She muttered softly under her breath, and Dan Eun tilted her head slightly, pretending not to notice. Since she was walking ahead, he couldn’t see her face anyway, so pretending ignorance was easy.

Though her face remained expressionless.

Soo hadn’t known about the letter. She was the culprit.

Upon receiving the letter and reading it, she had immediately burned it.

After all, letters sometimes get lost. While she felt a little sorry, she wasn’t burdened with guilt.

“Someone came looking from the Clan.”

Better than seeing him die, wasn’t it? Seeing someone die in front of you would fit the awakening event perfectly; receiving a letter made it seem like this was that moment.

At the start of the original story, Soo was already dead, so it was hard to know exactly what had happened.

One slightly puzzling point was Ho Yeon’s age. Was it appropriate to trigger an awakening at this age through such an event?

In martial arts stories, age barriers were surprisingly strict. The units for measuring inner strength often corresponded to sixty years—called a gap.

So perhaps awakening at a younger age was intentional.

Regardless, Dan Eun decided to separate the two senior disciples, who cared for each other deeply.

To the one anxious about being left alone and wondering how he was seen, she gave a light push on the back, easing the burden.

“Did he go to the Armory?”

The headquarters of the Martial Arts Alliance was there.

Dan Eun shook her head. Her neatly arranged hair swayed with the motion.

“To the Gangseo Province branch.”

“Then he must be in Namchang.”

“Will you go look for him?”

Ho Yeon unconsciously shook his head but then opened his mouth, realizing his mistake. While she was walking behind him and could see his gesture, she did not.

“No. I thought he might come soon anyway.”

“Well… who knows how long it’ll take. He may not only handle matters at the Gangseo branch.”

South of the Yangtze, there were no large sects recognizable by name.

Instead, regional martial families held influence, but they had their own internal rivalries, making it difficult to request help from the Martial Arts Alliance when needed.

That’s why Soo, who didn’t belong to the southern sects, often received calls for help and had Yi Wi Kyung—a former young member of the Alliance—as his teacher.

“Don’t expect too much.”

The hair that had swayed lightly with her steps slid down smoothly. Slightly annoyed, she ran her fingers roughly through it.

Ho Yeon looked down briefly, then lifted his head. Stones caught in his feet were annoying.

As they reached the hill cutting through the bamboo grove below Gweibong, a house came into view.

Dan Eun looked at Ho Yeon, surprised.

“Is there something you need here?”

“…No. Just, just…”

Her words faltered as her gaze dropped, and her ears turned red.

“Really?”

Dan Eun, turning calmly, let out a small sigh.

Ho Yeon stiffened slightly.

“I don’t think the room has been cleaned?”

“That doesn’t really matter—”

“No. You can’t give a guest an unkempt room. Wait a moment. I’ll finish quickly.”

She hurried down the hall and disappeared beyond the corridor.

Ho Yeon, left behind, watched helplessly as her skirt vanished from sight.

The word guest lingered in his ears.

He lightly clenched and released his fists, lowering his head.

Dan Eun quickly began cleaning the empty room.

Even though it was a small guesthouse for solo stays, she wondered why it was built so large, sighing at the thought.

She opened the window for ventilation and swept and wiped the room with a broom and rag.

Magic would have made it easy, but doing everything manually was a kind of compulsion for her.

Her efficient movements quickly made the room spotless.

She cleared dust off the bed, then brought fresh bedding from another room while the floor dried.

To warm the room, which had grown cold with clean air replacing dust, she brought in a brazier and lit it.

Leaving the window slightly ajar, she returned the cleaning tools and hurried across the corridor to call the room’s occupant.

A slicing sound of the wind passed.

Ho Yeon, who had stepped outside during cleaning, looked at Dan Eun with a face unmarked by sweat.

“May I request a sparring match?”

“….”

Dan Eun blinked a few times as he simply stared at her.

“Why?”

“Just… for self-introduction.”

He clearly hated losing, and that showed in this one sentence.

And that was just an excuse. Even a protagonist could be naive and childlike.

Using self-introduction as a pretext wasn’t completely wrong—it was familiar.

—One round?

—Could you go away?

No, that wasn’t it.

She pushed aside her thoughts with a sigh.

They could gauge each other through sparring. That much was certain.

And acknowledging each other via sparring was a very common cliché.

Ho Yeon opened his eyes fully, previously squinting slightly to assess.

“I’ll just change clothes for a moment.”

She lightly lifted her skirt and turned.

But what Song Ho Yeon intended was to use sparring to establish hierarchy and vent frustration.

Accompanying him was not difficult.

She loosened her waist tie, removed her skirt and outer robe, roughly placed them on the bed, and put on martial attire.

But that arrogance couldn’t go unchecked.

Even in childhood, as a protagonist, he must have had overflowing talent, and he knew it. Asking for sparring to sort hierarchy meant he didn’t even consider losing.

From experience, Dan Eun could tell Ho Yeon was no ordinary child.

Even if he had only been learning the sword for a few months, he would still be formidable.

But the method to stop him didn’t have to be victory alone.

The two children held wooden swords and assumed their stances.

Ho Yeon felt an odd sensation.

The one standing calmly with the sword exuded no tension or similar resolve. He could barely tell if she was even looking at him.

Soo occasionally sent letters, sometimes greeting the master on his behalf.

From what he had heard, she had only learned the sword for three to four months.

Thwang!

The clash of wooden swords rang unusually sharp.

Dan Eun lightly blocked with the least effort and used the sliding motion to twist the sword.

Using the recoil from the misaligned sword, she lightly moved her body back.

She was skilled. Of course, this style didn’t use sword energy. Or perhaps, if sword energy were used, there would always be a weak point.

“Haaah.”

Ho Yeon exhaled and swung from below.

Thwang. The side of his sword struck; Dan Eun moved back and seized the chance to target his arm.

She lunged through the brief opening, but then realized too late and bowed her head.

Grabbing the back of his sword, she thrust forward.

Twisting her waist, she struck his side. He raised his leg, but she dodged with ease.

Even after dodging, a chilling sensation ran down her spine, leaving her with goosebumps.