“Ah, that's not how you do movement technique.”
Yeon-woo pressed his lips tightly with both hands, almost shouting in frustration. The two of them looked in the direction of the voice.
There stood a young boy, who looked to be about eleven or twelve years old, leaning against the city wall and looking at them.
What the, how long has he been there?
When Yeon-woo looked at Baek In-hwa with that thought, she also had a surprised expression. Forget about him, even Baek In-hwa hadn't noticed him…?
Baek In-hwa spoke with a clearly wary expression.
“…It's not very good to peek at other people's training.”
“What training? You haven't done anything yet.”
And that has nothing to do with this old man~.
The boy, who spoke in an old man's tone despite his youthful appearance, teased sarcastically, and even the usually expressionless Baek In-hwa's face flushed red, as if she was having trouble holding back her anger.
…But what? I feel like I've seen him somewhere before….
“Hup.”
The boy jumped lightly and stood up, approaching them. Baek In-hwa saw him and took a stance. Blue magic power drew a line between the two. However, as if rendering that boundary meaningless, the boy crossed it casually.
‘What……?’
Baek In-hwa's expression turned to bewilderment. Of course, she hadn't intended to fight him seriously. But it was also foolish to let someone unknown approach, so she had first tried to control the space.
However, the boy crossed the line Baek In-hwa had drawn so naturally that she didn't even notice.
Baek In-hwa was flustered and couldn't go on the offensive. It wasn't that she had expected him to stop and talk to her, but her intuition was ringing alarm bells, telling her that she shouldn't attack rashly.
“The young lady of the Ice Palace is also young. Is it because you specialize in monsters? If you act so carelessly, you'll get your nose bloodied soon.”
The boy chuckled like an old man and passed Baek In-hwa, approaching Yeon-woo.
What? Baek In-hwa was broken through so easily…?
Although he was ignorant about battles between awakened individuals, he knew that the series of events just now had been excessively smooth.
This was especially true considering that Baek In-hwa had clearly prepared for an attack by raising her momentum, while the boy hadn't released any magic power at all.
What should he do? He had sparred with Namgung Seong, but he wasn't used to fighting using magic power yet. He had barely learned the basics, so he didn't think he could stand a chance against the boy in front of him.
The boy hadn't done anything to Baek In-hwa, but that didn't mean the same would apply to Yeon-woo.
Yeon-woo drew the wooden sword he had borrowed from Namgung Seong and hung at his waist.
He had thought about buying a real sword to enter the gate, but considering that all he could buy were cheap ones, there was no way there was anything better than this wooden sword right now.
The boy unclasped his hands behind his back and loosely extended his right arm. It wasn't clearly visible, but something shimmered like a heat haze on the surface of his arm. It was slightly different from magic power and different from aura as well. He couldn't even grasp what to call it.
The boy walked slowly. Baek In-hwa, who had taken a stance as if to jump in, suddenly relaxed her posture as if she had given up on intervening, and just watched them.
Hey! What are you doing!! Help me!!
“Don't be too nervous. It's just a test. Swing with all your might. Just swing, no matter what. If you don't swing, you won't die, but it will hurt a lot, so be prepared.”
“I don't understand anything……!!”
He didn't know anything about the situation he was in, but it was clear that if he didn't swing, he would be in a lot of pain.
Then I'll swing, damn it!!
He exhaled once and inhaled again. The nameless boy walked slowly. He waited with his sword raised in a high stance until the boy was exactly within reach of the tip of his blade.
That short amount of time felt so long, like an eternity.
His heartbeat echoed like a metronome.
Thump, thump, thump, thump…….
───Now.
When it was time to swing, Yeon-woo's body unhesitatingly brought the sword he had raised above his head down in a slash. The magic power surging from his heart area permeated the muscles of his arms, firmly supporting them.
He felt an omnipotence as if he could cut even the sky right now. Even with that feeling, what he did was the downward slash he always did. The sword swung to cut the sky cleaved the air quickly and intensely.
Whoosh!!
However, the feeling of omnipotence that made him feel like he could do anything soon vanished with the dull impact that followed.
Thud, it was a sound he had never heard since he started swinging a sword. As if lightly catching a flying newspaper.
He saw the boy still holding his hands behind his back, catching his wooden sword with only his right hand.
“Oh ho.”
I've lost 10 years…….
Looking at the dumbfounded Yeon-woo, the boy, Yuri, thought.
‘What a funny guy.’
His middle stance, pointing the sword at his opponent, was frankly clumsy. The posture itself was good, but it showed everything about how he was going to swing the sword. A downward slash. Just a pure downward slash without any variation. His clean posture was telling him that.
What was even funnier was that the downward slash was quite good. The realm that people often referred to as the unity of sword and body. Simply judging by the downward slash alone, Yeon-woo had reached that level.
‘Starting from the age of five, he's only been practicing downward strikes for ten years?’
He had unintentionally guessed correctly, but Yuri had no way of knowing that. Anyway, he could tell that Yeon-woo had no significant habits and was practically a blank slate except for the downward slash. It was a satisfactory result.
