## Chapter 26 – 26. Martial Arts (3)
# 26. Martial Arts (3)
“Humph~”
“…”
Having finally devoured two bags of chocolate, Chun Yeo-hwa hummed happily as she returned to the lakeside.
I trailed after Chun Yeo-hwa.
“Why are we back here?”
“Wouldn’t it be because I have belongings I haven’t packed yet?”
Leaving Chun Yeo-hwa to gather her hidden luggage, I plopped down in a suitable spot.
Truthfully, I could have just given her the chocolate and gone our separate ways, but since Chun Yeo-hwa was my match, I needed to improve our relationship to claim the settlement reward.
‘Even if it weren’t for the settlement reward, who knows what this crazy app might do if I leave my match, Chun Yeo-hwa, behind.’
I shouldn’t just blindly believe that the app will only reward my actions.
It might impose penalties depending on the situation.
Of course, that wasn’t the only reason.
First of all, Chun Yeo-hwa is beautiful. As beautiful as Iris, if not more so.
It would be a lie to say that I didn’t have ulterior motives as a man.
‘If only her personality wasn’t so… unique, she’d be perfect.’
Of course, it would be wishful thinking if she refused to travel with me.
In this desolate world of martial arts in the Central Plains, would any woman, even if saved from bandits, continue to travel with a strange man she just met?
‘I don’t even know why a princess of the Demonic Cult is here in the first place.’
I have a feeling that this will involve something as complicated as what happened with Iris.
However, unlike with Iris, I can’t find out what happened through the dating consultation curriculum.
‘She probably wouldn’t answer even if I asked.’
It’s already weird that I know she’s a princess of the Demonic Cult when we just met.
‘Should I just say I’m from another world?’
I told Iris without much thought, but the more I think about it, the less wise that seems.
This is a one-sided match.
I matched to meet women or become stronger, but what about the other person?
Iris, for example, had no idea about the match.
That means the match was made without at least getting the other person’s consent.
And where can I get the assurance that the other person is normal every time?
This app?
Even if I have a vague idea that my awakened ability is involved, the least trustworthy thing is this app.
I can chalk it up to luck with Iris, but I need to hide the fact that I’m from another world in the future.
I don’t know what the other person will think when they hear that.
Just seeing that hobbies like human dissection and corpse artistry were among the choices in the survey, this app doesn’t have any prejudice against the other person’s hobbies.
“Did you pack everything?”
“Stop rushing me. For a pervert, you sure know how to say things that make women dislike you.”
“…”
Should I just ditch her, farm elixirs here, and find another match?
I seriously considered it.
***
“Travel together?”
“Yeah, to the nearest city. How about it? I’m lost right now.”
I racked my brain, but couldn’t come up with a good reason to travel with Chun Yeo-hwa.
So, I decided to buy some time while heading to the nearest city to find another way.
“Hmm…”
Chun Yeo-hwa seemed lost in thought.
If she rejected even this, stalking would be the only option left, so I couldn’t help but feel nervous.
“Alright. It’s an obvious ploy, but I’ll play along just this once.”
“What…”
“Isn’t it obvious? You can’t do anything to me right now, so you’re planning to travel with me and look for an opportunity, aren’t you?”
“…Should I really jump you?”
“Hehe, don’t even think about it.”
The sword hanging from Chun Yeo-hwa’s waist gleamed ominously.
It was in its scabbard, but when did she draw it?
“I don’t want to see blood in broad daylight.”
“…You tried to kill me earlier.”
Anyway, after agreeing to a few conditions, I was able to travel with Chun Yeo-hwa to the nearest city.
First, I had to lead the way.
“Isn’t that obvious? I know nothing about you. To prepare for any possible situation, it’s only natural that I stand behind you. Just tell me which way to go.”
Second, I had to answer her questions as truthfully as possible.
“What exactly was that you used against the bandits earlier? A martial art that shoots lightning? I’ve never heard of such a thing. It’s not sorcery, and there’s no way such sorcery exists… Is it immortal arts?”
“Magic.”
“Magic…? What is that?”
“If you’re curious, let me touch your chest once.”
“You’re acting like a pervert.”
“You called me a pervert, so I have to respond.”
I refused to bow down to the princess of the Demonic Cult any further.
Third, I had to provide chocolate.
“You ate it all earlier.”
“That’s a lie.”
“…Eat in moderation. You’ll get fat.”
“That won’t happen. I’ve mastered several Immortal Maiden Arts. Thanks to them, I don’t gain weight even if I eat more than necessary.”
Wow, what is that?
That’s a martial art that reeks of money.
If you sold it to rich women, they’d come running with bundles of cash.
“Ah, of course, there’s a side effect of weakened sexual function if a man masters it, but what do you think? I think it’s a martial art that you really need.”
“On my face? Doesn’t seem necessary.”
“…You have a strong sense of self-love.”
As the two of them exchanged silly banter and walked through the forest, Chun Yeo-hwa stared at Kang Hyun-woo, who was walking ahead, with a chilling gaze.
The previous appearance of being unable to hide her bloodlust like a third-rate assassin was nowhere to be found.
The perfectly refined bloodlust was so quiet that Kang Hyun-woo, who was right next to her, couldn’t feel it.
‘Just what is he?’
From the moment she met Kang Hyun-woo until now, Chun Yeo-hwa had never let her guard down for a single moment.
Not even when she was pinned under the iron net.
Not even when she was defenselessly packing her luggage by the lakeside.
If he were to aim for her life, she was ready to take out the hidden dagger from her bosom and stab him in the neck at any moment.
But fortunately, or perhaps not, Kang Hyun-woo had not shown any bloodlust at all since meeting her, except when dealing with the bandits.
That made it even harder to gauge his identity.
If he were an assassin under the First Young Master, he wouldn’t have come alone like this. She thought he might be stalling for time to call his comrades, but he hadn’t shown any signs of that either.
Moreover, the chocolate he gave her wasn’t poisoned or drugged, but a genuinely… no, an incredibly delicious treat.
Of course, she couldn’t rule out the possibility that his earlier actions were a ploy to lower her guard, so she couldn’t immediately dismiss her suspicions of him.
But as time went on, she began to wonder if he really was an assassin sent by the First Young Master to assassinate her.
Currently, the Demonic Cult was in a bloody battle for succession.
Among the five successors, she and the First Young Master were the most likely candidates.
But that was in the past. Having lost most of her forces due to the First Young Master’s schemes, she was no longer a candidate for the successor of the great Demonic Cult, but merely a loser.
Her martial prowess, which had once reached the pinnacle, was now only around first-rate after being poisoned.
Thanks to the Moon Spirit Demonic Art, she was resisting the poison, but even that was reaching its limit.
The deadly poison that had invaded her dantian was slowly eating away at her life.
Having lost her position as successor, her subordinates who followed her, and the martial arts she had mastered her whole life, she was now wandering the unfamiliar Central Plains, fleeing from assassins who might come at any time.
In that situation, the appearance of Kang Hyun-woo made Chun Yeo-hwa’s mind even more complicated.
He seemed to have fallen from the sky.
Even if her current level was only around first-rate, she could confidently say that she could read the presence of even those who had reached the pinnacle of mastery, at least when she was bathing.
But he had been standing in front of her since some point.
As if he had been there from the beginning.
It was an excellent stealth technique for an assassin, but if he were an assassin, why hadn’t he aimed for her neck and just stood there blankly?
Moreover, the ability he called magic, whether it was sorcery or immortal arts, was also a problem.
If he were an assassin, he wouldn’t have been foolish enough to show his hand to his assassination target.
That’s why she was even more confused.
She couldn’t trust him now, having lived a life where she couldn’t trust others.
It was easier to constantly doubt others than to trust them. She felt more at ease thinking that others were looking for an opportunity to stab her in the neck than believing that they trusted and followed her.
The reason she allowed him to accompany her was also because if he was an assassin, it was better to keep him by her side and observe him.
‘I don’t know exactly what magic is, but it can’t be perfect. If I see even the slightest suspicious circumstance…’
Chun Yeo-hwa quietly stroked the sword at her waist.
“So, what city are we going to?”
“…Xi’an.”
***
In fact, I don’t know enough about martial arts to know all the place names.
Even if she kindly tells me it’s Xi’an, it’s not much different from telling a foreigner to go to Pocheon!
It would be strange if a foreigner knew famous cities like Seoul or Busan, but also knew the names of other cities in the provinces.
“Where is Xi’an?”
“…Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
What? Why? People can not know, right? Looking at me with a ‘what kind of guy is this?’ expression is a bit much.
I want to confiscate her chocolate.
“Xi’an is the capital of Shaanxi Province and one of the largest cities in the Central Plains.”
“Shaanxi? Where Mount Hua Sect and the Zhongnan Sect are?”
“Yes.”
The Nine Great Sects, a group consisting of nine sects and one gang that appears in most martial arts stories, claiming to be ‘super strong and influential, but also kind.’
The Mount Hua Sect and the Zhongnan Sect are Taoist sects belonging to it.
‘So the capital of Shaanxi Province was Xi’an?’
But something’s strange.
Then the bandits who appeared earlier were trying to be bandits near the capital?
Aren’t they afraid of the government troops?
I told Chun Yeo-hwa my doubts.
“It takes about two days to get to Xi’an. And government troops? For government troops to patrol outside the capital, the government troops in your homeland must have been quite diligent.”
It was about two days’ walk away, and the government troops were only interested in the security inside the city, not the security outside the city.
“Of course, if bandits become too rampant and even large merchant guilds complain, they’ll step in. So bandits don’t touch guilds that are too large. In the first place, such guilds have skilled escort agencies attached to them.”
“Thanks for the explanation.”
As a reward, I threw her a chocolate, and she happily unwrapped it and ate it, which was now quite familiar.
She’s like a cat.
“But why are you going to Xi’an?”
I wanted to travel to the nearest city, not to Xi’an.
Even if Xi’an was close, there was no need to go to a place that wasn’t her destination.
Especially if it took two days.
“Why are you curious about that?”
I was taken aback by her voice, which had turned cold, the opposite of when she was eating chocolate.
“No reason.”
“Don’t forget. We’re only traveling together to Xi’an temporarily.”
She was so firm that I was reminded of the girls from my school days.
‘Was I being too clingy…?’
Except for Iris, I’ve never had a proper conversation with girls my age, so I didn’t know how to respond in this situation, so I could only quietly walk a little further away.
‘Oh, right. Iris was 500 years old?’
But aside from her age, she seemed younger than me overall, so it didn’t feel like she was 500 years old.
Her face, her voice, her body.
‘I suddenly miss Iris.’
It felt like newlyweds who had only spent their first night together and were suddenly separated.
No, we didn’t even spend our first night properly.
A sudden shrine, the appearance of the World Tree, dungeon exploration.
Honestly, I feel like I could do it five times in a row with my current stamina, but I only did it once. Just thinking about that makes me want to pour cow dung on the World Tree as fertilizer because I’m so upset.
Of course, if I did that, Iris would probably foam at the mouth and collapse, so I couldn’t actually do that.
Anyway, Chun Yeo-hwa and I continued to walk through the forest without much conversation.
Just thinking about her cold reaction earlier made it a little difficult for me to speak first.
As I repeated the process of just telling her the direction, the sun was gradually setting.
I heard that night comes early in the forest, and that was true.
‘Wasn’t that the mountains?’
That wasn’t important right now.
“The sun will be setting soon, what are you going to do?”
I didn’t need to look to know that we’d have to camp out, and if we didn’t find a place and light a fire soon, we’d wake up covered in morning dew.
“This way.”
Chun Yeo-hwa, who had told me to lead the way, suddenly threw out a word and quickly walked away somewhere.
Her speed was unusual.
‘Is that martial arts too?’
The speed itself seemed ordinary, but she moved through the trees, bushes, and unkempt paths as if she were walking on a well-paved promenade.
Now I understood how Chun Yeo-hwa had kept up with my speed during the day.
No matter how fast I am, there are sections where my speed slows down as I avoid trees and pass through bushes.
But Chun Yeo-hwa didn’t have those sections.
Honestly, I wanted to learn it if I could. There are martial arts on Earth, but it’s not something you can easily learn just because you want to.
‘…I heard they have chocolate that’s supplied to the royal family, should I try to seduce her with that?’
Even if nothing else works, she might teach me martial arts if I give her expensive desserts.
The place we arrived at following Chun Yeo-hwa was under a large tree.
“We’ll spend the night here tonight.”
It certainly seemed like we wouldn’t get wet even if it rained, and there was enough space to light a fire in the forest.
“Have you ever camped out? You look like a rich young lady just from the clothes you’re wearing.”
“Of course.”
Chun Yeo-hwa skillfully began to prepare a place to sleep, starting to clean up the surroundings.
“Go and get some dry firewood. Even if the days have gotten warmer, it will be cold in the morning.”
“Do I have to?”
I took out a small brazier and stones from my inventory.
“…Is that magic too?”
I felt good seeing Chun Yeo-hwa surprised at me taking things out of thin air.
“Similar.”
After setting up the brazier in a suitable place, I took out a small pebble from my inventory.
This is a special stone called fossil that comes from volcanoes. The effect varies depending on the size, but if it’s this size, the fire won’t go out for up to 12 hours once it’s lit. I bought several at home to give to Iris next time I see her.
As I threw a small fireball into the brazier containing the fossil, a fairly large flame soared up.
“How about it?”
As I smiled and looked at Chun Yeo-hwa, she immediately avoided my eyes as if she didn’t like something.
“…If you only pursue convenience, people become lazy.”
“It’s better than wasting energy on unnecessary things.”
I approached Chun Yeo-hwa, who was still tidying up her sleeping place, opened my inventory, and took out a tent this time.
It was a one-person tent from Mountain Spot, which is known as the most expensive brand in camping gear.
It automatically manages temperature and humidity and is made of a material that cannot be torn by the claws of a wild bear.
It also had the advantages of pest control, cleanliness maintenance, and a mattress as plush as a hotel bed.
“Wh-what is that?”
“A tent.”
The moment Chun Yeo-hwa saw what I called a tent, she couldn’t take her eyes off it as if she were possessed.
Kang Hyun-woo’s ability to start a fire in an instant was certainly surprising.
Not having to laboriously find dry firewood and rub sticks together until a fire started was revolutionary, but she deliberately looked away because she didn’t like his smug expression.
But the tent was different.
It had been half a year since she was pushed out of the succession competition and came to the unfamiliar Central Plains, and she had never slept comfortably for a single moment.
She always had to sleep lightly, both outdoors and in inns, due to the anxiety that assassins might come at any time.
The outdoors, in particular, was the worst.
Having been treated like a princess of the royal family since birth, her camping life was indescribably miserable.
She still couldn’t forget the first day she had to camp out. All she had on the ground were a few large leaves that she had hastily gathered. She had barely managed to find ones that weren’t wet, but the moment she lay down on them, Chun Yeo-hwa realized.
Even if you stack the leaves, it doesn’t change the fact that your back hurts.
What’s more, the bugs that constantly touched her here and there made her already uncomfortable sleeping place and light sleep to guard against assassins even more terrible.
Moreover, she always had to groan as she got up with a sore back after sleeping on the dirt floor.
But this tent was different.
As if by magic, the inside was warm and comfortable. Moreover, the soft and smooth cloth spread on the floor had something that made her feel strangely emotional.
Above all.
‘There’s no way someone who uses such magic is an assassin under the First Young Master.’
Of course, nothing was clear about his identity, but there was no way someone like this would be under the First Young Master.
If rumors spread that there was someone with this ability, the cult leader would have stepped in himself and tried to recruit him.
‘There were several opportunities to aim for my neck. The fact that he hasn’t shown even a single sign means that my neck isn’t his goal right now.’
She would have scolded herself for being complacent if it were normal times.
But she couldn’t help it now.
Chun Yeo-hwa was finding it difficult to make normal judgments due to the fatigue that had accumulated from camping out for the past month and the poison that was gradually eating away at her dantian.
For her, the existence of this tent and the speculation about Kang Hyun-woo’s identity were nothing short of an opportunity to take a comfortable and sweet sleep without worrying about assassins or camping out, at least for today.
However, there was one problem that blocked her rising desires.
“…But this thing you call a tent. Do you only have one?”
“I only have one?”
A silence flowed between the two at that moment.
“Yield it.”
“Why should I?”
“…”
Chun Yeo-hwa, full brain operation.
