"Come up at once. I trust the passage wasn't too treacherous."
"…Why from behind?"
"Well, I wanted to confirm with my own eyes that no one was tailing you."
Lord, that fellow really is peculiar.
"Now then, ascend. I must hear your report as well."
"Right. I will. It seems we'll be dealing with a rather large organization."
"Moejang! Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, and sweet dreams!"
"It's morning now, and none of those greetings match the time at all."
"I was simply making up for the greetings I missed yesterday. More importantly, shouldn't you be wondering if we completed the mission?"
"From your expressions alone, success is practically jumping out."
"Damn it, Otis… you know us too well. You nailed it! Well, not exactly with surgical precision… but at least I've learned where they're sending the people."
"Hmm… that's welcome news."
"And I've managed to use [Arts] too. Though I'm still inexperienced…"
"[Arts], you say? Fascinating. Are both of you highly adaptable to [Arts]?"
"Enough. Save the banter for later and start by telling me which organization they're connected to."
"Tsk, killjoy. It was the Ironworks Guild in Dragon Gate that was involved."
"Dragon Gate, huh… understood. Well done. After two hours of rest, both of you report to my quarters."
"Hyun. Have you truly grasped [Arts]?"
"Yeah. But I can't quite get a feel for it. I understand it's wind, but it feels like it just leaks away at times, and at others, it doesn't."
"Hmm… in cases like that, you simply have to use it extensively to hone your feel. Grip your sword properly."
"Oh, are we sparring?"
"With about two hours to spare, I will indulge you."
"Very well, come in."
"Coming through! No mercy!"
The two in the training hall vanished at Lee Sang's declaration of commencement, only to reappear at the center of the arena as silhouettes clashing steel.
'Too fast...! I definitely ramped up my speed in advance, yet...!'
Even after scaling the mountain and already warming up my body before the fight, my speed should have been sufficient, yet I failed to secure a definitive initiative.
"Swing your sword with greater precision. With such swings, you wouldn't even cut through an illusion."
"Ah! Your advice is… much appreciated!"
Strangely, I held the initiative. Whether he was holding back or simply talking instead of striking even when he could, he wasn't landing blows.
'It really feels like fighting a shadow. My blade misses by the slightest margin.'
The horizontal slash sweeping from right to left barely grazed as he stepped back with ease, then he checked my advance with a side kick. His thrust, utilizing subtle technique, was deflected by the spine of my blade before he charged his entire body with violet energy and shoved me away.
"My student, what do you believe swordsmanship truly is?"
"Hmm! My! Breathing? Or is it the harmony of clashing with your opponent?"
"No, swordsmanship encompasses every technique by which a swordsman harms the opponent. It isn't swordsmanship simply because one wields the blade deftly; rather, the swordsman himself must be honed as if he were a single, razor-sharp sword."
No wonder he bumped my shoulder—I thought I'd been in a collision. And so you can envelop even the [E.G.O] body.
"You're practicing a swordsmanship bound by the blade itself. That may be swordsmanship in name, but it is not true swordsmanship."
"I see… at least you're not serenading me with jazz, huh?"
"Jazz, eh? I don't know why you suddenly bring it up, but if that's your way of comprehending my words, so be it."
So, a swordsmanship that employs the blade without being confined by it.
"In that sense, [Arts] are the most alien from the standpoint of conventional swordsmanship. Traditional combat is just blades meeting and contests of timing to cleave the opponent. In that elementary form, a swordsman's duel has morphed into a battle of 'magic-wielding' swordsmen who perceive the opponent's [Arts] and contest elemental affinities. It's even more a 'magician' than a swordsman."
"So! You're saying you don't like that, huh?!!"
The madman disarms me, counters blow after blow, and speaks about it so nonchalantly?
'Hey, you inside there. You won't lend me that flame, will you?'
........
'I figured as much.'
No matter how I call, there is no answer. Whether he can't hear or simply chooses not to…
"I see no reason to quarrel over preferences. The world's way is that eras pass and generations turn over; why should the blade be any different?"
"At any rate… he truly is a strange man."
I regrip my sword and swing from below to above, as if cleaving the world itself… my anger overflows. I haven't landed a single effective strike, after all.
[Siuwusangjeonse (兕牛相戰勢)]
"Yes… I am a strange man. Thus, I shall ask you this."