Chapter 81 – Martial Arts (4)
“……”
Paeng Soso stumbled into the stone seat like a wet puppy in the rain.
I wanted to watch the other participants’ martial arts, but now is not the time.
I didn’t expect Paeng Soso to be so gloomy.
Come to think of it, Paeng Soso said she had been practicing alone except for when she first learned. Maybe this is her first defeat against someone her own age. That would explain why she’s feeling so down.
Anyway, I’m trying to cheer her up by getting up, but…
Paeng Ojin must have had the same idea because he got up first and spread his arms wide.
“Good job, Soso!”
He came towards us as if to hug us.
Shack, shack-
But Paeng Soso smoothly dodged Paeng Ojin’s arm and hugged my waist.
“Soso…?”
…I feel sorry for the old man. I should have at least accepted his hug.
Paeng Ojin looked very hurt, but Paeng Soso didn’t care and put her chin on my shoulder and started whining.
“I lost, Jin Gaga.”
“Yeah.”
“I lost completely.”
“I think so.”
Paeng Soso, who leaned her entire weight on me, rubbed her cheek against mine.
“I couldn’t land a single attack…I was so stupid and left myself open…”
“It’s not that you couldn’t do it, your opponent was just really good. I always lose to you when we spar, don’t I?”
I patted Paeng Soso’s back and said that, but then her arms around my waist tightened.
Not enough to hurt, but enough to keep me from moving.
Instead of getting angry, Paeng Soso whispered in my ear with a hopeless voice.
“So, please comfort me.”
“What?”
“Whisper sweet words, play with me, feed me delicious food, even at night…you know what I mean?”
“Uh…yeah…”
No, was that the point?
I reluctantly agreed, and Paeng Soso finally let go of me with a giggle.
Her smile didn’t show any signs of gloominess. In fact, she seemed to be in a good mood.
Still, just in case, I should ask again.
“Are you okay?”
“What do you mean? Do you think I would be gloomy just because I lost once?”
“…A little?”
Paeng Soso patted my head as if praising me.
“Thank you for worrying about me. But you haven’t forgotten when we first met, have you?”
“When we first met…oh.”
Chapter 81 – Martial Arts (4)
“……”
Paeng Soso slumped onto the stone seat like a wet puppy in the rain.
I wanted to watch the other participants’ martial arts, but now wasn’t the time.
I didn’t expect Paeng Soso to be so down.
Come to think of it, Paeng Soso said she had been practicing alone except for when she first learned. Maybe this was her first defeat against someone her own age. That would explain why she was feeling so low.
Anyway, I tried to cheer her up by getting up, but…
Paeng Ojin must have had the same idea because he got up first and spread his arms wide.
“Good job, Soso!”
He came towards us as if to hug us.
Shack, shack-
But Paeng Soso smoothly dodged Paeng Ojin’s arm and hugged my waist.
“Soso…?”
…I feel sorry for the old man. I should have at least accepted his hug.
Paeng Ojin looked very hurt, but Paeng Soso didn’t care and put her chin on my shoulder and started whining.
“I lost, Jin Gaga.”
“Yeah.”
“I lost completely.”
“I think so.”
Paeng Soso, who leaned her entire weight on me, rubbed her cheek against mine.
“I couldn’t land a single attack…I was so stupid and left myself open…”
“It’s not that you couldn’t do it, your opponent was just really good. I always lose to you when we spar, don’t I?”
I patted Paeng Soso’s back and said that, but then her arms around my waist tightened.
Not enough to hurt, but enough to keep me from moving.
Instead of getting angry, Paeng Soso whispered in my ear with a hopeless voice.
“So, please comfort me.”
“What?”
“Whisper sweet words, play with me, feed me delicious food, even at night…you know what I mean?”
“Uh…yeah…”
No, was that the point?
I reluctantly agreed, and Paeng Soso finally let go of me with a giggle.
Her smile didn’t show any signs of gloominess. In fact, she seemed to be in a good mood.
Still, just in case, I should ask again.
“Are you okay?”
“What do you mean? Do you think I would be down just because I lost once?”
“…A little?”
Paeng Soso patted my head as if praising me.
“Thank you for worrying about me. But you haven’t forgotten when we first met, have you?”
“When we first met…oh.”
I remembered the reckless runaway girl from before, who now seemed so confident.
“Hey, Jin Gaga! Did you just look at me with eyes like my father’s?”
“What kind of eyes are those?”
“The eyes of surprise at a child’s growth!”
How did she know?
As I was lost in thought, Paeng Soso lightly tugged on my nose.
“Strictly speaking, Jin Gaga isn’t the youngest among us, right? I’m pretty sure you turned 21 this year…right?”
“Right.”
I answered with a slightly nasal voice, and Paeng Soso smirked and pointed her index finger at the tip of my nose.
“Wow! So you’ve been pretending to be all grown up until now, but you’re actually younger than me!”
“…Soso, weren’t you 21 too?”
“Exactly! By the way, you should call me ‘nuna’ since I’m older than you. Try it, ‘nu-na’.”
“……”
As I pursed my lips, she clung to my side and poked me in the ribs, even my back and neck, repeatedly.
“Oh come on. Just try it once, okay? Yes? Yes?”
In my past life, I was already a little older than Paeng Soso when I died, so that’s a bit…
“If I call you ‘nuna’ when I’m comfortable talking to Yeonhwa, doesn’t that mean you’re older than Yeonhwa?”
“Oh, that’s a bit…”
Paeng Soso suddenly retreated with a slightly embarrassed expression, just like I did earlier.
There was an incident where Hong Yeonhwa suddenly burst out, asking what that meant, but it wasn’t that important.
Anyway, after comforting Paeng Soso all day as she wanted, we continued our training with a little more intensity than usual.
Based on what Hong Yeonhwa saw and what Paeng Soso experienced firsthand, I added various training methods to counter the Changgungmu sword technique.
Well…I still didn’t think I could win.
But as Paeng Ojin said, while winning or losing was important, giving it your all was just as important. At least in the orthodox sect, that was the case.
I can’t afford to make any mistakes in a situation where many people are already curious about the fact that I, the most ordinary person, am leading Hong Yeon-hwa and Paeng So-so as my wives.
In other words, this is just a kind of image defense.
That’s what I thought.
***
Wow—————!
The cheers of the enthusiastic audience were even more intense than during the preliminaries.
However, most of them were cheering for the expectation of how Nam Gung-hyeok would knock me down in a cool way.
Well, even if the commoners who don’t know much about martial arts see Nam Gung-hyeok, they can’t help but cheer for him.
But that doesn’t mean I’m discouraged or anything. I only need two people to be enough.
As I climbed onto the stage, I saw Paeng So-so waving her hand with a big smile, and Hong Yeon-hwa, who was riding a horse on Paeng So-so’s shoulder.
You can see where they are without going that far….
I smirked and stood a little away from the center of the stage.
Nam Gung-hyeok, who arrived first, bowed his head with an expression that I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“I’ll learn a thing or two.”
“Ah, please do.”
We exchanged formal greetings and soon began the sword fight.
Thud.
As the sound of the gong rang out, I leaned forward and slammed the ground with my lower body.
The enhanced strength from the Mu-ryang Divine Technique exploded with tremendous force, and I swung my sword with that speed.
Clang!
Although it was almost like a surprise attack, Nam Gung-hyeok simply blocked it with a simple expression.
Of course, I didn’t think it would work from the beginning. This is just the beginning.
Although Nam Gung-hyeok changed direction due to my attack, the flow continued. I swung my sword relentlessly without stopping my movement.
A thrust from the lower right to the center. But it bounced off upwards. Then I swung it down vertically.
Nam Gung-hyeok’s sword, which flew like the wind, pushed my sword to the side. Then he switched to a horizontal slash aimed at my side.
Then, a lightning-fast strike hit my sword. Of course, I had to fall down.
But here, I have to take one step forward instead of repositioning myself, or Nam Gung-hyeok will surely not miss the opportunity.
Here, I have to move one step forward freely, even if I can’t deceive the opponent’s eyes or move quickly.
There’s no need for any fancy moves, just a basic martial art that adheres to the principle of moving in any direction from any position.
That’s enough.
I twisted my upper body forcefully to avoid Nam Gung-hyeok’s attack while shifting my lower body firmly to his right side.
Then, a diagonal slash starting from the upper right.
A decisive blow with a calculated assumption that it would be difficult to deal with an attack coming from behind the shoulder.
Thud.
But even this didn’t work on Nam Gung-hyeok.
His sword, which bent like a cloud, not only blocked my attack but also twisted and pushed it away with great force.
I had a strong intuition that if I continued to be pushed back like this, I would be at a disadvantage, so I forced myself to put more strength into my body.
“Hup…!”
Was this unexpected? Nam Gung-hyeok’s eyes, which had been stoic all along, widened slightly.
Well, the previous attack was precisely aimed at the weakness of his strength.
Unless you have a brute strength like mine, anyone would have been hit mercilessly.
…Is this an opportunity?
I tried to swing my sword quickly, taking advantage of Nam Gung-hyeok’s surprise, but it just bounced off again.
“……”
“Tsk….”
I raised my sword again, swallowing the unnecessary anxiety while staring at Nam Gung-hyeok, who was staring at me silently.
The following situation was similar to Paeng So-so’s martial arts.
The clash of swords against swords, biting each other, and sometimes pushing with a loud noise.
If I poured out everything I had learned so far, Nam Gung-hyeok would silently endure it and occasionally counterattack.
Now that I’ve faced his sword directly, I understand why it’s called the Changgungmu-Ae Sword Technique and the Cangqiong Sword Technique.
Nam Gung-hyeok’s sword was like the sky that contained everything, sometimes moving like the wind, sometimes like lightning, and sometimes like a cloud.
Even my sword was completely absorbed, so it couldn’t even hit properly.
The most surprising thing was that the entire area was Nam Gung-hyeok’s domain, as if he could look up at the sky from anywhere or look down from the sky from anywhere.
The situation was like looking at the clear sky, and the more I faced him, the more I felt suffocated.
I understand why Paeng So-so made basic mistakes out of impatience. There seems to be no way to win this.
But I don’t need to be impatient like Paeng So-so.
I have enough stamina and inner strength, and I came here to show my best, not to win.
It’s actually a situation that is very faithful to the original purpose of gaining experience. Where else can I face this kind of martial arts?
I have Hong Yeon-hwa, but it feels satisfying to know that I can face another kind of martial arts other than magic.
Nam Gung-hyeok’s expression was getting worse and worse, but he finally opened his mouth, which meant that I had tried everything I could. He had been holding back his words for a long time.
“I said I would learn something from you before the fight. I take that back.”
“Hmm?”
Whoosh!
Nam Gung-hyeok swung his sword widely, creating distance between us, then pointed his sword at me and spoke in a cold voice.
“There’s nothing for me to learn from you.”
