Just as my position in the Eastern Trading Company changed after the Skull Gang subjugation, Sowol’s attitude towards me also changed significantly.
The most notable change was this:
“Are you awake?”
“Yes.”
She now wakes up on her own without me having to go wake her up.
Since she’s already prepared and waiting, there’s no need for the jerky.
“Here. Eat this.”
I placed the jerky I was debating whether to throw or not onto her palm. Sowol politely received it and put it in her mouth, chewing. As we went outside together, some warriors smiled warmly at us.
“Young miss! Study hard!”
“Have a good day! Master Lee!”
We climbed the mountain, seeing them off.
It’s been a month since I came to the Eastern Trading Company.
During that month, Sowol’s stamina increased day by day, and now she doesn’t even pant when climbing mountains.
Excellent. The effort put into raising her has paid off.
“Now, let’s move on to the next stage.”
“What is it?”
Sowol asked, wiping off the sweat drops from slashing and thrusting. As she brushed back her pink hair sticking to her white skin and fanned herself, I had her sit down.
“What I’m going to teach you now is the most important thing in combat. It’s how to read battle intent.”
This is something the tutorial doesn’t cover.
Main character-level characters naturally acquire this skill as they progress through the main story, but since she doesn’t have that, I have no choice but to teach her step by step.
“How to read battle intent?”
“Yes. There are two ways to attack when fighting at the boundary between life and death. Feints and real attacks. If you know how to read battle intent, you can distinguish between them.”
“How do you do it?”
As soon as she finished speaking, I thrust my fist out.
Surprised by this, Sowol stepped back, and I stopped my fist.
“Why did you dodge?”
“Well… because it seemed like I was going to get hit.”
“I stopped my fist, didn’t I? You dodged because you got scared preemptively.”
“Hmm… Is that so?”
While Sowol tilted her head, not seeming to understand well, I thrust my fist out again.
This time, too, Sowol shook her head, and I stopped my fist in front of her eyes and lightly pinched her nose.
“Ouch!”
“I stopped this time too.”
“… Then you try it, Master!”
Had she become competitive? Sowol’s face turned red as she reached out to me.
It’s an attack without battle intent.
Then I can just ignore it, right? I just watched it, and Sowol stopped her fist in front of my eyes and opened her mouth.
“How did you know?”
“Basically, people tend to put intent into their attacks. Reading that intent. That’s the basis of this lesson.”
“It’s difficult.”
To her, who kept tilting her head, I thrust my fist out again. She seemed to be trying not to dodge this time, but my fist gave her a light tap on the forehead.
“Ow ow ow!”
“I didn’t even hit you hard, and you’re exaggerating. Just now, I attacked with intent. The difference is…”
“It is?”
“Something you’ll learn with practice.”
“Hey, what kind of answer is that?”
Though she grumbled, with Sowol’s talent, she should be able to learn it sufficiently.
It’s not that difficult a skill after all.
I lightly clenched and unclenched my fist, then reached out to her.
“Eek!”
This time, she dodged, and my fist cut through the air.
Whether it’s good luck, or if her overflowing talent is already showing… it’s not bad.
“Alright. Again.”
So, we continued training with Sowol for a while.
Is it because of her overflowing talent?
As time passed, she was distinguishing more and more accurately.
“Do you understand something?”
“When I get a tingling feeling, I think that’s when you’re really trying to hit me.”
“Yes. That’s reading battle intent. If you master this, you can fight without getting hit even once by most novices.”
“Like when you fought the Skull Gang?”
“That’s right.”
As she said, I cut down the enemies when I fought the Skull Gang without allowing even a single attack.
What I used then was an application of reading battle intent.
“Those who are more skilled change from feints to real attacks. If you become familiar with this skill, you’ll be able to dodge those too.”
“I see… Then, if I master this skill, I’ll be invincible, right?”
“Of course not.”
I smiled and reached out to her. Smiling, she didn’t dodge even while looking at my fist, and she was puzzled after getting a light tap on her forehead.
“Huh? I didn’t feel anything.”
“The next stage of this lesson. It’s how to achieve detachment. We can’t say there aren’t people who can attack without battle intent. Just look at me…”
There are a few others besides the final boss, you know.
“Uh… then how do you dodge those attacks?”
“This is also in the realm of instinct, so it’s hard to explain in words. The best thing is…”
I reached out to Sowol again.
This time, too, she didn’t dodge and got hit once more. As Sowol puffed up her cheeks, I pressed my finger against her puffed-up white cheeks.
“Consistent training. I’ll keep attacking during lessons from now on, so try to dodge well on your own.”
“Ugh… Alright.”
Good that she’s not complaining.
After continuing the lesson of hitting, getting hit, and dodging for a while, the sun was rising high in the sky.
Shall we end today’s lesson here?
As I stood up, Sowol also stood up and dusted off the dirt on her bottom.
Then, after wiping her face dirtied with sweat with a towel, she snapped her fingers.
“By the way, Master, how did you become so strong?”
“I became strong using methods that shouldn’t be used.”
“…Pardon?”
Along with bone-breaking, blood-spitting effort, I got strong using bugs.
Honestly, even if I say I used up every opportune moment without an owner, does it make sense to become one of the strongest in just a year?
Fortunately, this world is based on a game, and because of that, the stagnant old-timers knew all sorts of bugs.
Of course, I’m not an old-timer, but I did play this game quite a bit.
Even if I didn’t find them myself, I knew about the bugs in this world.
Of course, that doesn’t mean it was easy to get this far.
“…What do you mean by that?”
The more you use these bugs, the higher the risk of the world breaking, so there’s no need to tell her about them.
I smiled at Sowol’s question and then roughly patted her head.
“There are such things. You don’t need to know yet.”
***
I want to resemble him.
I want to become like him.
That’s why I couldn’t stop.
Even after returning home after the lesson ended, I recalled the training I learned today.
Sensation. I had to make my five senses sensitive to read the opponent’s battle intent.
“Phew…”
Sowol, who had been exhaling with her eyes closed, slowly opened her closed eyes. Then she got up and went outside.
“Father.”
“Oh! My daughter! What’s the matter?”
“It’s about Master…”
“As a matter of fact, with Master Lee’s permission, I did some investigation about him.”
“Really? How did it go?”
“There was nothing.”
“Pardon?”
“Other than the fact that his place of origin is in the East, we couldn’t find out almost anything about his past. There are some matters related to the church and a few noble families, but even those are just things that happened in the past year or two.”
Lee Hyun.
A strong person who suddenly appeared in the family.
Although he was favorable to the family, investigating who he was and what he did was almost necessary.
That’s why he used all the family’s resources to investigate but to think this would be the result.
So Jung-yang let out a heavy sigh, saying it was as if he had just fallen from the sky.
“Even when I ask Master Lee directly, he just laughs… Why don’t you try to find out yourself?”
“…Yes. I understand.”
Does this mean I should ask Lee Hyun directly?
Sowol was silent for a moment, then nodded.
He’s someone I want to resemble.
That’s why I needed to know more.
***
Sowol left So Jung-yang’s room and headed towards Lee Hyun’s quarters.
His quarters were a small thatched cottage in the inner courtyard of the Eastern Trading Company.
Passing through the garden, she arrived to find Lee Hyun sipping tea with his usual calm face.
“Master.”
“Today’s lesson is over, isn’t it? Ah. Do you have something else to do?”
“I’ll let you know separately when I have something to do. I’d like you to come with me then.”
“Because you’re pretty?”
“Yes.”
Sowol nodded slightly and pointed to the seat in front of Lee Hyun.
“May I sit?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you.”
As she sat down, tea was poured in front of her.
The red tea was steaming warmly.
Sowol stared at it momentarily, then fixed her gaze on Lee Hyun.
“Looks like you have something to say?”
“Sometimes when I look at you, Master, it feels like you’re reading my thoughts. You’re right. I have something I’m curious about.”
“What is it?”
“Where is your hometown, Master? Do you have a family? Friends? Do you have a goal? And… and…”
There were many questions she wanted to ask.
Sowol asked as if spilling out the doubts she had been harboring, and Lee Hyun just smiled faintly, listening to the cascade of questions.
“… That’s all.”
“I see.”
“Do you not intend to answer?”
“If I did, wouldn’t I have revealed it first?”
It’s natural to want to know about someone you want to resemble.
Nevertheless, Lee Hyun didn’t teach her a single thing about himself.
Dissatisfied with this, Sowol puffed up her cheeks like a child her age, and Lee Hyun, grinning at her, showed her something he took from his sleeve.
“That’s…”
“A praise sticker. I said if you collect ten, I’ll grant a wish, right? Try to collect them well.”
“……”
Saying that just makes her want to rise to the challenge.
Sowol tightly clenched her fist under the table.
‘You’re always like this. Always hiding everything, trying to conceal.’
“…Alright.”
‘If that’s the case, I’ll do it. Someday. I’ll make you show everything to me.’