At Tang Yu-hyeon's words, Tang Han-su faltered, stammered, and looked around him.
He had filled his lacking self-regard with the approval of others, so of course the eyes on him weighed.
He could not refuse the looks hoping he would strike back with something rather than tuck his tail in disgrace.
"Are you threatening to shut my mouth by force?"
"A threat?"
Tang Yu-hyeon pulled one corner of his mouth up crookedly.
"Would I need to go to that trouble?"
"......!"
Tang Han-su's face flushed red.
"I am only saying let us talk. But since you cannot speak properly when asked a question, let us do it with our bodies instead."
"Is that... so?"
"And we are the same age, so why the formal speech? Talk freely. This is the Joint Study Pavilion, where all who learn are equal."
The uncrossable gap between direct line and collateral branch.
Prodding the inferiority he had kept quietly beneath the surface made the easy smile vanish.
GRIND.
A vein rose on Tang Han-su's forehead.
He had realized that Tang Yu-hyeon was mocking him outright.
'Look at that reaction.'
The way he flew out honestly at every scratch was entertaining.
"I would like a quick answer. I am not the patient sort."
"Ha?"
Tang Han-su shook his head with an incredulous look, buying time.
'What was that bastard's attainment again?'
Pathetic.
Why else would he, who envied every member of the direct line, have paid him no attention at all?
'But it is a fact that he completed the sword art.'
He had watched with his own two eyes from right beside him as the sword path flowed smoothly together, so he could not deny the feat.
But anyone with a little knowledge of martial arts could manage that.
Why?
'Because I did it too.'
Not a secret manual.
But with his grandfather's help he had played at completing martial arts himself, at mastering things in one go though he was seeing them for the first time, at every kind of brilliance.
Bloodline aside, his current rank and his composure had all been built on those feats.
So naturally he assumed Tang Yu-hyeon was the same.
'Who on earth is helping that reject? Has someone lost his mind from eating poison?'
With that impure thought, Tang Han-su nodded.
"Fine. I could use a warm-up for once."
"Would it not have been nice to answer like that from the start?"
At the swaggering tone, Tang Han-su ground his teeth.
"What will it be? Swords? Or throwing blades?"
"Are you joking? You dare speak of swords in the Sichuan Tang Clan, the master of hidden weapon technique?"
"Spoiled full, are you."
Tang Yu-hyeon laughed low.
Learn a bit of everything, brat.
Picky eaters die.
"In my day, sword or throwing blade, everyone learned it tooth and nail because they did not want to die. The world has grown soft, has it not?"
'And when exactly was that?'
At the incomprehensible remark, everyone wore a baffled look.
"So you want throwing blades?"
"That is right."
"Then it cannot be now."
"Why? Are you frightened after all?"
"The lesson must be attended."
Tang Yu-hyeon stepped closer and brushed off Tang Han-su's shoulder.
"Should the fifth-ranked student of the Joint Study Pavilion be committing a deviation like this?"
"You......!"
Tang Han-su's face crumpled.
Tang Yu-hyeon grabbed his robe and yanked him in.
"Bring as large an audience as you can manage. I am curious whether pulling in your illustrious grandfather's power too would fill the training ground."
Then he let go without warning.
"You are good at it, are you not? Pulling people in."
"......."
With a bitter expression, Tang Han-su brushed at the cloth Tang Yu-hyeon had grabbed.
"Why go far?"
He quickly manufactured a composed expression.
"Now, during this short rest, is the right time."
"Suit yourself."
Tang Yu-hyeon turned and walked over to Tang Jong-cheon.
"Thirteenth Elder. I have something to ask."
"What is it?"
"May we use the sparring platform for a moment?"
"You may not."
Does the sparring platform belong to you?
He only wanted to borrow it briefly during the break!
When Tang Yu-hyeon was refused at a single stroke, the children watching giggled.
Tang Han-su waved a hand as if to say calm down and stood beside him.
"I greet the Thirteenth Elder. We wish to borrow the break for a light sparring match, so please permit us the use of the sparring platform."
"Very well."
This time the answer came back at once, after only a moment's consideration.
Tang Han-su turned his head slightly and grinned.
So it is allowed for him and not for me?
At the stark contrast, Tang Yu-hyeon wore a baffled look.
'Why does this bastard give hell to me alone? Am I that untrustworthy?'
He must be.
An undeniable past kept catching him by the ankle.
'Even I would start from suspicion if a wastrel claimed to have come to his senses overnight.'
Whatever the circumstances, there was the conduct they had all seen.
"I will judge. Any objections?"
"None."
When Tang Jong-cheon gestured, the waiting servants brought outer robes.
Tang Yu-hyeon and Tang Han-su put them on neatly and climbed onto the sparring platform.
"WHOAAAA—!"
"Tang Han-su! Tang Han-su!"
"Smash him!"
Since it was not a formal duel, the surroundings were noisy.
Tang Han-su waved a hand as though in answer.
Then he swept back his greasily long hair and faced Tang Yu-hyeon.
His handsome looks vanished beneath a boyish fighting spirit.
With one corner of his mouth crooked up, he spoke as though chewing the words out.
"I will make you regret daring to look down on me."
"Do it, if you can."
A vein rose on the face feigning composure.
Tang Jong-cheon watched quietly, then opened his mouth.
"Then the duel between Tang Yu-hyeon and Tang Han-su begins! Victory goes to whoever renders the other unconscious or reaches within an inch of a vital point!"
WHIIISH!
The moment Tang Jong-cheon finished speaking, a throwing blade came flying in.
First strike, Tang Han-su.
He had been gripping the blade and pouring inner arts into it since before the start, and loosed it in an instant.
Tang Yu-hyeon, by contrast, merely held a blade in his hand, neither infusing inner arts nor throwing it.
THUNK!
Tang Han-su's blade landed at Tang Yu-hyeon's feet.
"That was a warning. If you do not want to die, you had better give it your all."
"Hmm?"
WHIIISH!
A second blade came flying.
Tang Yu-hyeon watched it come, then tilted his head slightly and let it pass.
"......!?"
Flustered, Tang Han-su loaded a blade with all the inner arts he could and loosed it again.
WHIIISH!
Slide.
This time Tang Yu-hyeon shifted one step to the side.
CLACK!
The blade, having lost its target, buried itself in the training ground floor.
'What? Did he read my movement?'
That could not be.
This was Tang Yu-hyeon, of all people.
That reject of a wastrel who put martial study last and loved nothing but playing!
"This cannot be!"
Tang Han-su hauled energy up from his qi center.
At the energy overflowing across his whole body, those watching the duel marveled.
"Inner arts that deep at his age!"
"Haaah. So magnificent. How can he be that outstanding?"
"Whoaaaa! Look at that! It will end in one strike!"
"Tang Yu-hyeon is dead now. Heh heh heh. All that big talk, and serves him right!"
The children shouted and raved.
Taking all their expectation on himself, Tang Han-su bared his teeth and smiled.
FWOOOOOOM!
Explosive energy gathered on the blade resting on his hand.
When Tang Yu-hyeon did not move any further, he took aim at his head.
WHISH—!
The blade came in at a relatively slow speed.
FWAAASH!
Then in an instant it surged.
KRAKAKAKAKOOOM!
The blade spun ferociously, whirling as though to suck in everything around it.
Thick dust blocked the view.
"Th-that is! The Dark Blast Dagger?!"
At someone's shout the admiration rose another notch.
"Good heavens, he has already learned the Dark Blast Dagger?"
"You fool. Do you think Han-su is fifth for nothing? Part of the hidden weapon technique taught in the Joint Study Pavilion was completed by him!"
"That is right! Truly a once in a—"
CLAAAANG!
The sharp metallic sound buried every voice.
As the dust settled, they saw Tang Yu-hyeon retrieving a throwing blade and Tang Han-su with his eyes gone wide.
DRIP.
A thread-thin cut appeared on Tang Han-su's cheek, and then blood ran down from it.
"What......?"
It was a question like a groan.
Tang Yu-hyeon did not answer it.
He only drew the corners of his mouth into a smile.
Like a predator that had sighted its prey.
"You have never trained properly, have you?"
His eyes stayed as they were while only his mouth smiled, and it was chilling.
"Never having trained properly, all you do is play games with a throwing blade."
"Games? Are your eyes twisted? This is the Dark Blast Dagger!"
"Your little dirt game is not the Dark Blast Dagger. You know that yourself, do you not?"
"You bastard!"
Whether Tang Han-su seethed or not, Tang Yu-hyeon spoke in a flat tone with mockery mixed in.
"There is no chance something like you completed a martial art of the Tang Clan."
"Shut up!"
His reverse scale properly touched, Tang Han-su lost his reason and hurled blades at random.
SHWIIISH!
Once more Tang Yu-hyeon twisted his body slightly and evaded.
"Why will you not get hit! Why! Why! Why!"
Blinded by rage, Tang Han-su shouted and loosed blade after blade.
WHISH!
But the next,
WHIIISH!
and the one after that ended the same way.
The blades Tang Han-su threw with all his heart and strength, Tang Yu-hyeon slipped past with the smallest of movements.
"AAAAAAARGH!"
With a wild cry, Tang Han-su thrust out his arm.
But there was no blade left to leave his hand.
"Huh?"
Flustered, he rummaged through his sleeves.
There were no throwing blades, only needles and a few vials of poison.
"Are you done?"
Tang Yu-hyeon grinned.
Light flashed in eyes curved like half-moons.
He looked like a beast that had waited for its quarry to tire itself out.
"Now come to your senses, you bastard."
Tang Yu-hyeon pinched the blade between thumb and forefinger, loaded it with qi, and threw.
SHWIIISH!
It looked lightly thrown, and yet the sound was on another level from Tang Han-su's.
WHACK—!
The blade struck him squarely on the forehead.
"Ugh......!"
With a scream like a death cry, Tang Han-su collapsed where he stood.
Tang Yu-hyeon dusted off his hands and looked down at him.
"Nothing special about you, and there you were, acting up."
"What? Why you......!"
"Listen to that tone."
Tang Yu-hyeon flipped a blade into the air and caught it between two fingers.
"Let us properly fix that habit of yours today."
THWACK! THWAAACK!
"AAAAAGH!"
Crisp impacts and desperate screams filled the training ground.
***
After the duel, while Tang Jong-cheon was away setting things in order, the children were given another rest period.
Tang Yu-hyeon crossed his legs and enjoyed the sight of the whispering children.
From atop Tang Han-su.
"Han-su."
"Yes."
"Your back is sagging."
"Ngggh. I-I will correct it."
At that, Tang Han-su clenched his teeth and straightened his sagging back.
There were several red welts swollen on his forehead, as though he had been stung by bees.
Every one of them was Tang Yu-hyeon's work.
"Diligent. Would it not have been nice to be like this sooner?"
"Hgk, yes!"
Deliberately pressing down to add weight, Tang Yu-hyeon snickered.
See? Everyone comes to their senses once they have been hit a few times.
"Let us do better, yes?"
"......Yes."
"That voice is small."
"Understood!"
"Heh heh heh heh."
As he savored the first taste of victory in a long while, Tang Jong-cheon approached wearing the look of a man staring at an insect.
Still, he was an elder of the house, so manners were due.
Tang Yu-hyeon hopped down off Tang Han-su.
"Ughhh."
At that Tang Han-su collapsed as though fainting.
Without so much as a glance that way, Tang Yu-hyeon asked shamelessly.
"What is the matter?"
"......The Clan Head is asking for you."
Ah. A parents' conference.