The news that I had a fiancé spread just as fast as the scandal about me spending the night with Jeok Igeon.
And the effect was enormous.
“Seolha, I was wrong about you for a moment there. I had no idea you were engaged!”
“Same here. You’re not that sort of girl at all.”
“So when’s the wedding?”
“…The wedding?”
“Of course. Aren’t you leaving your maid’s post because of it? That’s what So-ok said.”
Ah. So-ok.
How could she go around repeating something I’d only told her in confidence?
We’d shared a room for five years, and she’d always been a good friend to me, so I’d only wanted to give her a little warning in advance. I never thought it would circle back around like this.
They said one lie led to another.
That was exactly where I was now.
If I said anything even slightly off, they’d start doubting me again.
So I forced myself to look happy.
“We haven’t set a date yet. We’ll work it out little by little.”
“He must be a wonderful man. Seventeen is awfully young to get married, isn’t it?”
Of course it was. Ridiculously young.
“What are you talking about? If he made it into the Blood Shadow Unit, she should hold on to him no matter what. He’ll earn a steady salary, and he’ll be away from home half the time. What more could you want in a husband?”
“Is that so?”
Watching the older maids giggle while hemming me in from all sides gave me a strange sense of cultural whiplash, but I somehow managed to keep my expression steady until the end.
In any case, we wouldn’t even see each other anymore in two months.
If I could just endure until then, a hopeful future was waiting for me.
“Ladies, about the Second Young Lord’s lunch today…”
Thanks to the lie I’d offered up like a sacrifice, the preparations for Jeok Igeon’s meals went smoothly after that, without a single interruption.
And in direct proportion to that, my martial arts improved at a startling pace.
In complete secrecy.
“What you must learn first is Demon Birth Sword, the foundation of all swordsmanship.”
On the first day of training, Jeok Igeon placed a wooden sword in my hand and began the lesson.
Who would have thought the day would come when I learned swordsmanship for real?
All the martial arts novels I’d read in my past life flashed through my mind like a panorama, and for a moment I sank into a deeply moved reverie.
“Demon Birth Sword consists of three basic forms, and one advanced form that links them together.”
Huh?
Why did that sound so familiar?
In every martial arts novel, when the protagonist first learned some basic sword art, the teacher always said something exactly like that.
“First form. Demon Army Suppression.”
Thud.
Jeok Igeon stepped in hard and brought the sword down in a powerful cut.
“Second form. Demon Wind Sweep.”
He twisted at the waist and swept the blade horizontally.
“Third form. Demon King’s Path.”
Vertical. Horizontal. Then the next one had to be a thrust.
Bang!
Jeok Igeon’s sword pierced the air, and the burst of sound followed a beat later.
“Advanced first form. Demon Wind Under Heaven.”
Swish!
Whoosh!
The final move chained the previous forms together in a seamless sequence.
He moved so quickly my eyes could barely keep up.
“Did you see it?”
Jeok Igeon sheathed his sword and looked at me. Even after all that movement, his breathing hadn’t changed in the slightest.
“Now do it.”
Practice already, after a single demonstration.
As expected, Jeok Igeon never went easy on anything.
This was honestly nerve-racking.
To tell the truth, martial arts still felt like clouds in the sky to me.
Could I really do something that belonged to people who’d long since surpassed ordinary human limits?
I’d completely forgotten, in that moment, that my Ren and Du meridians had already been opened. Still worrying over nonsense, I picked up the wooden sword.
Well. I’d just have to try.
“First form. Demon Army Suppression.”
I took a wide step and brought the sword down with all my strength.
“You need to settle properly into your stance.”
I’d tried, but to Jeok Igeon’s eye it must have looked hopelessly clumsy.
With the sheath in his hand, he nudged my lower body into place and corrected my posture.
“If the roots are weak, the branches cannot spread. Again.”
There he went with roots again.
“Yes.”
Following his instructions, I brought the sword down once more.
“A sword is not a club. Do not hack. Cut. Again—with the intent to cut.”
The intent to cut.
Cut. Cut. Cut.
I repeated his words in my head like a spell and swung again.
“Better. That is finally beginning to look passable.”
Because he corrected every mistake immediately, my form improved with every swing.
Maybe because of that, the edge in Jeok Igeon’s voice gradually softened as well.
“Next. Demon Wind Sweep.”
But wait. Why was I already drenched in sweat when I’d barely done anything?
I wanted to ask for just a moment to rest, but I didn’t have the courage to say that to Jeok Igeon.
So I kept swinging.
Again and again, without pause.
How many days passed like that?
After Demon Birth Sword, the next martial art he taught me was a footwork technique called Demon Birth Step.
Jeok Igeon said the Demon Cult’s foundational arts—Demon Birth Sword and Demon Birth Step—had to be engraved into the body so thoroughly that I could use them in my sleep.
Only after mastering the basics, he said, would I be fit to learn higher martial arts.
And with that logic, he drove me mercilessly.
At first, our training was limited to the lunch hour.
Before long, it stretched into the evening.
Later, I spent so much time in the training grounds it practically felt like I lived there, enduring brutally intense lessons day after day.
What surprised me was how much fun it all was.
No matter how hard Jeok Igeon pushed me, no matter how close to the edge he drove me, I endured it and made it mine.
Is it normal to improve this fast?
Do I actually have talent?
Could I really have some kind of heaven-given martial constitution?
Even considering that my extraordinary meridians had been opened, my progress was absurdly fast by any standard.
Honestly, with the way I felt now, I was half-convinced I could take on the Ten Great Villains myself if they showed up.
“You’ve managed a minor attainment.”
Of course, in Jeok Igeon’s eyes, I was still nothing more than a novice.
“We’ll stop here for today.”
“Thank you for your instruction.”
Without ever intending it, Jeok Igeon and I had become something almost like master and disciple.
I couldn’t call him Master, of course, but every time training ended, I thanked him sincerely.
Terrifying was terrifying.
Gratitude was gratitude.
“Seolha, it seems you have a visitor outside. Wipe off with this and go.”
Cheon-gang, who had been training alone in one corner, came over and brought me the message.
Jeok Igeon’s training grounds were enclosed by high walls. The only people allowed in were me, his Personal Maid, and Cheon-gang, his escort.
Which meant the fact that I was learning martial arts from Jeok Igeon was known only to the three of us.
“A visitor came looking for me at the Hall of Lasting Glory?”
Who in the world could that be?
“Could it be my grandmother?”
“It was a man.”
“A man?”
“A young one. He seemed quite eager to see you.”
“Yes, Cheon-gang. Thank you for telling me. I’ll go at once.”
Curiosity flooding through me, I hurried out of the training grounds.
I truly had no idea who could have come to see me.
Where was he?
Naturally, I assumed he would be near the main gate and rushed there first, but there was no one in sight.
Then was he at the back gate?
I crossed the garden and slipped quickly between the buildings toward the rear entrance.
“I heard you passed the Blood Shadow Unit! They say not just anyone can get in. That’s incredible!”
“Seolha was so proud of you. And I heard the two of you are getting married soon!”
On the way there was a small area where the maids liked to rest their tired bodies after work.
The sound of laughter and lively chatter drifting from that corner hit my ears, and dread prickled down my spine.
Ugh. Yang Sobaek.
I knew instantly who the visitor was.
A man who had once been nothing more than a male friend—
and had somehow transformed into my lover overnight.
So it really was you?
If he’d needed to see me, he could have come to the noodle shop like always, so why had he come here of all places?
And why now, of all times?
Panicked that my lie might unravel on the spot, I hurried forward so fast I cut straight across the grass.
“Hahaha, I’d like to get married too. If only Seolha would agree.”
What the hell is he saying?
“Yang Sobaek!”
Before things got any worse, I shouted his name and tried to drag him away.
Every head turned toward me at once.
“Seolha!”
Yang Sobaek sprang to his feet, beaming.
But why did he look like that?
For some reason, he seemed strangely moved.
“Come outside. Now.”
I didn’t care about anything else. I just needed to get him out of there.
The lies had already gone far enough.
I didn’t want to pile on any more, and I had to explain everything to Yang Sobaek before he accidentally made things even worse.
“Seolha!”
But then—
what was this awful feeling?
The instant Yang Sobaek ran up to me and wrapped me in a tight embrace, I sensed something unfamiliar in him.
And that wasn’t even the worst part.
“…!”
I nearly had a heart attack.
Not far away, Jeok Igeon was standing there.
And he was looking at me like he wanted to kill me where I stood.