After the duel with Jaegal Mun-ho, seven-year-old Jaegal Mun-hyeon achieved the splendid feat of being barred from the Heavenly Star Pavilion on top of the Myriad Books Pavilion.
Thanks to which his ill fame rose higher still.
Damn it, and they told me a duel was fine.......
And in the middle of it he ended up with the result of one more useless master added to the tally.
It was not even something he had wanted.
But he could not bring himself to refuse.
Because he had learned of Jaegal Mun-ho's circumstances.
And.
-Mun-hyeon, your mother is truly proud. To think there are so many people who cherish you.......
Mother wept.
Probably because she had suffered all her life over her origins.
Born of a musician's family. What on earth did that amount to.......
And perhaps because he had been born by borrowing her body and showered in her love, now the mere sight of his mother weeping made something rise in him. Was this what is called the sharing of feeling?
No one would say a word if he turned away from it, but why feign ignorance of a thing he was able to do?
Fine, I will. I will!
What is filial piety, after all?
With Mother speaking so, what did it matter whether he had one useless master or two?
And so, after gaining two personal masters, occasions to go out became exceedingly rare apart from outings to the market with Mother or So-hye.
It amounted to isolated training that was not quite isolated training.
Thanks to it, Jaegal Mun-hyeon could devote rather more time to his training.
***
Enough time passed that even the rumors about the inborn talents of the Military Stratagem Hall Leader's scum of a son thinned out.
Enough that the ginkgo tree planted before the pavilion to mark his birth had grown past two jang (six meters) and cast a shade that covered one side of the pavilion.
And beneath it.
Han Si-heon, whose hair at the temples had gone grizzled before anyone noticed, was wearing a satisfied expression as he looked at the formation he had constructed after a long stretch of deliberation.
Three full days and nights of groaning, no less.
He had run the calculations in reverse but found no flaw.
TOCK.
The pebble he tossed into the formation vanished as though sucked in.
"Heh heh heh, that is it. That is it."
Laughing in satisfaction, he turned his head.
THWACK—!
At that very moment, along with a weighty sound of impact, Yu Gang-hu dropped to his knees and collapsed.
"Tsk, tsk, lost again. Lost again."
He could only click his tongue.
Han Si-heon, who had been looking at Yu Gang-hu with pitying eyes, then looked at Jaegal Mun-hyeon, who stood before him in a snow-white scholar's gown.
Now fifteen years old.
The seven-year-old child had become as sturdily built as a grown man, and the features he had inherited from the mother once called the First Beauty of the Danjiang grew more radiant as he did, handsome enough to send ripples through the hearts of many a woman.
"Master, I keep telling you that in True Phantom Drifting Shift you must put one more foot forward. Stop like that and you allow an attack, exactly as you did now."
"Mmm. L-like this?"
"That is it. From there you use a variant move again."
"Ah......."
At the words of Jaegal Mun-hyeon in his snow-white scholar's gown, Yu Gang-hu nodded.
A strange sight.
A disciple teaching his master.
But he had been overtaken long ago, and by now it had grown unclear who was master and who disciple.
Thirteen? No, was it before that?
Jaegal Mun-hyeon had transmitted to his master the Lesser Heavenly Star Art he had revised himself.
Yu Gang-hu, who had burst out with a pfft at first, had on hearing the verse-formula been reduced to clutching the hem of the boy's trousers and begging to be taught.
The more one saw of it, the more astonishing the talent was. It deserved to be called a genius of the ages.
But such an assessment never crossed the estate wall.
Because there was a secret oath sworn upon becoming Jaegal Mun-hyeon's master.
Never to let out what they had seen and heard.
And not martial arts alone, of course.
Han Si-heon too was in the midst of asking the boy for instruction.
"Ahem! Mun-hyeon."
"Ah, are you ready?"
"Yes."
"Hmm, the Nine Palaces Formation again?"
"No! The Nine Palaces Myriad Shapes Formation!"
"The basis is the same either way, so adding one more word to the name and revising it does not change anything."
"Hmph! That is for the doing to decide. I made it over several sleepless nights! This time it will be different."
"There is nothing to find out, I tell you. You would do better to spend this time reinforcing the training formations instead."
At the resolute assurance of Han Si-heon, Jaegal Mun-hyeon sighed and stepped into the formation.
Seven years had passed since he began learning formations.
At first he had thought them useless for anything, but doing it again and again, it turned out to be rather entertaining. There was none of the pleasure of cutting a thing down himself, but fighting phantoms did settle martial learning into the body.
Taking an interest in that fashion, the study of formations he had so hated came along by itself.
Just as his father had wished.......
After that it was always one contest after another.
Against Yu Gang-hu, against Han Si-heon's formations.
"Will it really work this time?"
"Trust me. It is a formation I barely managed to produce over three sleepless nights."
"You are truly confident?"
"Of course! I have mingled the Gate of Life and the Gate of Death and reversed the eight trigrams, so this time it will never be bro......."
It did not take long for Han Si-heon's confident expression to crumple.
"There, you see. I told you it would not work."
"......."
An hour.
Jaegal Mun-hyeon walked out of the formation at his leisure, crushing both his masters' expectations.
The two stared blankly at the sight.
"I shall train alone from now on, so the two of you can do some reflecting on what went wrong. With opponents this far beneath me there is no training to be had. Tsk, tsk."
The sound of his clicking tongue flew into the two masters' hearts and lodged there like a dagger.
Damned fellow.
"A drink......."
"......Let us go."
They were trudging out of the estate carrying heavy hearts again today, when.
"Oh? Where are you going?"
"That is...... please do not ask."
"It is nearly lunch."
"I have no appetite."
At the words of Baek Su-hyeon, who was just returning from buying groceries, the two answered glumly.
"It seems the two of them lost again, my lady."
"Honestly, girl. You must not say such things carelessly."
"But they lose to our Young Master like that every single time."
"So-hye. Even if it is true....... Oh dear, I am sorry. It slipped out before I knew it."
Baek Su-hyeon, who had been chiding So-hye for whispering and gouging at the two men's hearts, started and apologized.
She was the worse of the two.
She chose only words that hit the mark, so that between mother passed to son and the maidservant siding with them, the whole house was against them.
But with no grounds to protest, since it was true, their shoulders only sagged further than before.
And they truly were learning so much that they could not quit either.......
***
It was after supper one evening.
"Oh? Wine, of all things?"
"Is that a thing to be startled by? I hear you drink with your masters sometimes."
"What loose-mouthed masters I have."
"Hey now, you rascal. If you wanted a drink you should have said so to your father first......."
It was a snug drinking session between father and son for once.
"You have something to say, do you not?"
"I do."
"Is it about my future, perhaps?"
"Just so. You are fifteen now, so you can hardly go on spending all your time at home."
"True enough."
At his father's words Jaegal Mun-hyeon nodded.
He understood.
As a father it was natural to find it stifling that his son stayed shut up in the house doing nothing but training. Mother, who had laid out a drinking session like this even though he had not come of age, would be of no different mind.
Well, it seemed they had already known he was drinking on the quiet.
His future, is it.......
Then again, it was about time that came up.
Ordinarily the descendants of the Jaegal Clan undertook an apprenticeship to choose a path at fifteen, while spending their final stretch at the Heavenly Star Pavilion.
Learning, mechanisms, formations, the martial.
They went round each hall to gain experience, and upon their coming-of-age ceremony chose the place that suited each one's talents and took up their duties.
Even Jaegal Mun-hyeon, who had done nothing but train in the estate day and night since being barred from the Heavenly Star Pavilion, could not disregard the clan's customs.
He had already decided to live as a son of the Jaegal Clan.
"Have you a place in mind?"
"Not yet......."
"From your two masters I hear your martial learning and your formations have reached a fairly outstanding level?"
"They are at a crude level."
"Crude?"
"Yes."
"Hah! That differs from what your masters say."
"My masters exaggerate."
"Exaggerate, is it......."
Father let out a dry laugh and shook his head.
"I hear you are evenly matched with the Fierce Fist, and that Han Si-heon's skill at constructing formations has risen a whole tier thanks to your breaking his formations every time. And that not long ago you broke even a formation he built by modifying the Nine Palaces Formation, within an hour?"
"Ah, that is......."
He could only smile wryly.
Evenly matched? Within an hour?
These people, honestly.......
However much they had sworn to keep silent about his skill, for men who lost every single time, they exaggerated far too much.
"The Fierce Fist is a martial artist outstanding enough to have been Head Instructor of the Heavenly Star Pavilion."
First-rate at best.
Fight him in earnest and it ends within ten moves.
"If you unraveled the Nine Palaces Myriad Shapes Formation within an hour, your grasp of formations may fairly be called considerable as well."
A mere Nine Palaces Formation.
Seven years of digging into it in the name of training make breaking it nothing at all.
That much was enough.
It was an ability he had cultivated incidentally while learning martial arts anyway.
"Well? Have you no thought of gaining experience through an apprenticeship while you are at it?"
"An apprenticeship?"
"Yes. It comes somewhat late, but if you are to choose a path after your coming-of-age ceremony, gaining some experience in advance would be no bad thing."
"Hmm."
At the word experience, laughter rose inwardly.
Is there anyone in the Jaegal Clan with as much experience as I have? In martial arts at least, you could search all under heaven and find no one to match me.
While he emptied his cup with a short laugh, Father went on.
"I have long known your purpose does not lie in learning, so I shall not urge you that way."
"For which you have a hundred thanks."
"You rascal."
Smiling wryly at the banter, Father seemed to deliberate a moment, then spoke in an insinuating tone.
"Entering the Dark Guard Corps, the main house's martial corps, as an apprentice straight away would be difficult, so begin with an apprenticeship in the Military Stratagem Hall."
"Pardon?"
Absurd.
How is it that the talk has flowed that way again?
Whatever the beginning, it ends in formations.
"Surely you have not still given up on your dream of raising me into a formations master?"
"Could you give it up, in my place? When my son has talent enough to break the Nine Palaces Formation at fifteen?"
"Haa, you really are stubborn."
"What is to be done? When your talent is such....... But being a formations master is not entirely a bad thing. There is no law that a formations master may not train in martial learning. For you, it seems you could do both well?"
"That is true, but......."
"Son, it is not that I do not know your heart, but the Military Stratagem Hall is as good as the backbone of the Jaegal Clan."
"That I know. The parts dealing with strategy, formations and mechanisms play the most important role in the main house."
"Just so. And do you know why that is?"
"Why? Was it not a matter of identity, of a sort?"
"Not an incorrect answer. But the more practical reason is that the Military Stratagem Hall is the main house's largest source of funds."
Father's eyes were sly. He apparently thought money would tempt him.
Then again, where is the man who dislikes money?
But!
What is money to a martial artist?
He had been detached from riches for ages.......
Was it because of his listless manner? Father changed tactics again.
"Not money alone. At times you may experience a variety of martial learning as well."
"Pardon? A variety of martial learning?"
That was somewhat tempting.
"The present state of affairs is so evil that all have split into their own parts with no distinction between orthodox and unorthodox, but there is no sect that does not use formations and mechanisms. Whether they are building a treasure vault or constructing a defensive or offensive formation, one can say it is impossible without our help. For that reason we also serve as advisers when the various sects build their sword formations. And each time, we get to observe each sect's martial learning."
"Ah......."
A short exclamation.
But Father.
I can see that you are trying to stir the interest of a son devoted to martial learning so as to raise him into a formations master by any means, but you have chosen the wrong man.
I am a man who toured all under heaven, met every master there was to meet and observed every martial art there was to observe.
And constructing mechanisms and formations and offering advice sounds fine put that way, but it is simply...... taking money to go and work at someone else's house.
"You have heard of the Wudang Sect, I take it?"
"......."
His face hardened past stiffness into stone.
Wh-what did he just say?
"Oho? Have you some interest in the Wudang Sect?"
"......."
He had evidently offered the example with a mind to whetting his son's interest, but the moment Jaegal Mun-hyeon heard the name his blood seemed to run backward.
How could he not know those bastards?
They were the very ones who had made him undergo birth instead of Ascension.......
"A most considerable interest, Father."
Should he one day grow strong as he had been in the past, that was the first place he would visit to tear apart.
"Ha ha, you rascal. Murim may be scattered with the present state of affairs so evil, but you may well be going there before long."
"To Wudang?"
"Yes. I hear that in the rain that fell not long ago, the secret cave of the Wise Heaven Sage, who ascended long ago, collapsed. A request for help has come, so we are studying the mechanisms and formations we installed at the Wudang Sect."
His heart nearly burst.
The Wise Heaven Sage, Yu Gil-cheon.......
That damned bastard's secret cave?
No, hold on. That bastard as......cended?