Chapter 15

Chaeng!

Pyo Wol deflected the sword.

The one who had ambushed him was none other than So Yeowol.

“Tch!”

So Yeowol looked disappointed.

She couldn’t hide her look of disappointment for a moment at the fact that her meticulously planned ambush had failed.

For this one ambush, she had waited for an opportunity for two whole days without moving a muscle.

It was an opportunity she had gained with such difficulty.

Pyo Wol had been ambushed thirteen times today alone.

He had been on edge all day, consuming a tremendous amount of mental energy, and his face was filled with exhaustion.

It was a good thing he had learned the Sword Art written in the sword manual; otherwise, he would have already fallen to an ambush.

Even though the important Oral Formula was missing, the Sword Art from the manual boasted considerable power. The proof was that Pyo Wol was still alive after a whopping thirteen ambushes today.

If one achieved complete mastery of the nameless Sword Art, they could unleash seventy-two sword strikes like a relentless wave. But because a crucial passage was missing, achieving complete mastery was impossible.

Pyo Wol, too, had only managed to learn about thirty percent of it after ten days of contemplation.

It was impossible to learn more with an incomplete manual. However, even at that level, he had no problem executing its forms to some extent.

Pyo Wol used the Sword Art from the manual to counter the children’s ambushes. Because that was the rule.

The children persistently observed the Sword Art Pyo Wol performed. If they saw even the slightest opening, they attacked immediately.

Pyo Wol tried to patch up his openings while defending, and the children sought out other openings to attack.

By attacking so persistently and defending so tenaciously, Pyo Wol and the children developed.

From Pyo Wol’s perspective, the most troublesome person was So Yeowol.

Because she attacked with completely unexpected, bizarre methods. Just a moment ago, he had nearly been gravely injured by her ambush.

Suddenly, So Yeowol spoke.

“I think you’d be better off throwing that sword away.”

“What do you mean?”

“Strangely, you’re not scary when you’re holding a sword. You actually feel more difficult to deal with when you’re not.”

“Do you think it makes sense to tell an assassin to throw away their weapon?”

“That’s not my problem. I’m just telling you what I feel.”

“……”

Pyo Wol furrowed his brow in silence.

So Yeowol watched him for a moment before stepping back.

“You’d better be ready next time.”

She disappeared into the darkness.

Left alone, Pyo Wol let out a soft sigh and looked at his hand.

In his hand was a cheap iron sword, one of those distributed to everyone.

It was a dagger, only half the length of a normal sword.

It wasn’t that he particularly liked this sword. He was only using it because it was at least somewhat serviceable.

“More difficult to deal with when I’m not holding a sword than when I am?”

If his opponent felt that way, there must be a reason for it.

She could be lying to make Pyo Wol weaker, but the So Yeowol he knew was not someone who would resort to such cunning.

So Yeowol was a woman with a spirit that most men couldn’t even begin to match.

Pyo Wol frowned, lost in thought.

It took considerable courage to discard a sword he had already grown accustomed to.

If he threw away the sword, he would have to face their swords with his bare hands.

Even for someone as bold as Pyo Wol, facing armed opponents with only his bare fists required great courage.

“But if I’m going to throw it away, it has to be now. If I get any more used to it, I won’t be able to throw it away even if I want to.”

Clang!

After a long period of deliberation, Pyo Wol threw the sword away.

A look of relief appeared on his face.

It wasn’t a decision made just because of So Yeowol’s words.

Pyo Wol himself had, for some time, felt that using a sword was as awkward as wearing ill-fitting clothes.

So Yeowol’s words had merely hastened his decision.

His accomplishment with the Sword Art from the manual was insignificant anyway.

He would have to substitute the Sword Art with his bare fists, but he felt like he could somehow manage.

It was not baseless confidence.

For the past six years, he had done things others had said were impossible.

He had perfectly adapted to the darkness, and he had developed a strong poison resistance.

Thanks to learning the Thunderclap Mind Method, in terms of pure physical ability, he had already reached the limits of a human. His physical abilities were not inferior even when compared to the children who had learned the Poison Dragon Mind Method and other Mind Methods.

Pyo Wol believed in his own abilities.

Just as he had done until now, he would be able to do well this time too.

With that thought, Pyo Wol melted into the darkness.

＊＊＊

“Keuk! Heo-eok!”

A sound like air escaping a leather pouch flowed from the child’s mouth. A short sword was embedded in the child’s chest.

The child’s name was Yuk-pyeong.

He, like Pyo Wol, had learned the nameless Sword Art. Because of that, he had to suffer through the children’s assassination attempts for the past few months.

Yuk-pyeong had not wanted to learn the nameless Sword Art. He had simply been unlucky in the draw.

This was the price for it.

The sword embedded in his chest was none other than Song Cheonwoo’s.

For the past few months, Song Cheonwoo and the children had relentlessly targeted Yuk-pyeong and the other children who had learned the nameless Sword Art.

The ambushing children and the children who learned the nameless Sword Art.

They fought with true ferocity.

At first, they had intentionally gone easy on each other, but as they exchanged blows, getting injured and inflicting injuries, the emotional rift between them deepened.

It was just as Im Sayeol and the instructors had wanted.

In the darkness, time flowed even faster.

The children became more cunning and cruel.

They mastered the method of accurately ending a target’s life even in the dark.

They grew stronger, especially through the real combat with the children who had learned the nameless Sword Art. They ambushed the children who learned the nameless Sword Art by any means necessary.

The result was the sword embedded in Yuk-pyeong’s chest.

Yuk-pyeong had grown stronger, but the children had completely mastered how to deal with him.

To be precise, they had figured out how to break through the nameless Sword Art that Yuk-pyeong had learned.

Song Cheonwoo looked at the dying Yuk-pyeong with a complicated expression.

Even for him, whose human emotions had withered away, killing a child who had been a comrade was not easy on his heart. But he had no choice.

If he had let Yuk-pyeong escape this time, the instructors would have pushed him and the children to their limits.

Thinking he had no choice, Song Cheonwoo opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry.”

Yuk-pyeong did not hear his apology.

His breath had already stopped.

Song Cheonwoo clenched his teeth.

‘One more now.’

Before Yuk-pyeong, a child named Go Sinho had died. He, too, was a child who had learned the nameless Sword Art.

They had to hunt the last one for the children to be able to rest easy.

Song Cheonwoo nodded at So Yeowol, who was standing far away. So Yeowol then gestured to the other children.

The children scattered in all directions.

It was to find the child who had learned the nameless Sword Art.

The only ones who remained were Song Cheonwoo, So Yeowol, Lee Min, and So Gyeoksan.

“Kekeke! This feels damn good. Kekekeke!”

So Gyeoksan kept chuckling.

The children knew all too well that he wasn’t laughing because he was happy.

So Gyeoksan always laughed gloomily.

When he was happy, or when he was sad.

The problem was that there was almost never a time to be happy while in here.

So Gyeoksan’s laughter was grating, but Song Cheonwoo said nothing. His own mood had already hit rock bottom, as he was the one who had personally ended Yuk-pyeong’s life.

Lee Min opened her mouth.

“The only one left is Pyo Wol, right?”

“……”

No one answered.

Everyone’s expression was dark.

It was because they knew that Yuk-pyeong and Go Sinho combined were no match for a single Pyo Wol.

After So Yeowol’s ambush, Pyo Wol had vanished.

It was an underground cavern, blocked on all four sides.

There was nowhere to escape, let alone hide. And yet, Pyo Wol was nowhere to be found.

It was as if he had disappeared.

Lee Min carefully opened her mouth.

“Could he have gone outside?”

“No, he’s inside. We just haven’t been able to find him.”

So Yeowol shook her head.

At her assertion, Lee Min’s eyes wavered slightly. Then, an explosive charm flowed out.

If there was one person among the children who had undergone the most dramatic change, it was Lee Min.

In the darkness, she had become even paler and more beautiful.

Her beauty, a coexistence of innocent charm and seductiveness, was enough to steal the soul of anyone who saw her. Because of that, a considerable number of the surviving children were so bewitched by her beauty that they were offering her their supplies.

However, Lee Min herself was not well aware of her own change.

She always moved together with So Yeowol.

She was so loyal that she would even pretend to die if So Yeowol ordered it.

Song Cheonwoo said in a cold voice,

“He’s human too. As long as he’s human, he can’t escape our grasp.”

“But it’s Pyo Wol. Pyo Wol…”

Lee Min mumbled like a small child. But everyone in here knew what Lee Min was trying to say.

Pyo Wol was, in many ways, an incomprehensible person.

They had been trapped here together for a full six years, but no one knew Pyo Wol’s true nature.

He had adapted perfectly, as if he had been born in this place.

None of the other children had shown as much ability as Pyo Wol.

Not even those with outstanding abilities like So Yeowol or Song Cheonwoo.

‘Did I give him bad advice?’

So Yeowol thought that Pyo Wol’s long absence might be because of what she had said.

She couldn’t count how many times she had regretted telling him her feelings on a momentary impulse.

It was because she had belatedly realized that the advice she had casually given would make Pyo Wol even stronger.

Pyo Wol was always like that.

He would tenaciously cling to small details that others might casually overlook and use them as a cornerstone for his development. When other children took one step forward, it seemed he would leap two, or even three steps further.

He thoroughly hid his achievements from the instructors, but So Yeowol and the children thought he was concealing his true power.

His strength was something only those who had directly faced him could feel.

But So Yeowol couldn’t easily gauge the exact extent of his level.

So Gyeoksan said, as if joking,

“How about we kill the instructors instead? I think that would be easier than killing Pyo Wol.”

“I agree.”

Song Cheonwoo nodded.

But they knew.

They knew that some kind of restriction must have been placed on them.

The instructors or Im Sayeol, as they knew them, were not people who would leave them like this without any precautions.

The problem was what kind of restriction had been placed on them.

“We can figure out the restriction later. Right now, we need to focus on finding Pyo Wol. If we leave him be, he’ll only get stronger.”

“Mm!”

Everyone nodded at So Yeowol’s words.

They left the spot to find Pyo Wol.

In the place where the children had disappeared, only Yuk-pyeong’s corpse lay rolling about in solitude.

It was then.

Suddenly, Yuk-pyeong’s corpse began to move.

As if it were breathing, Yuk-pyeong’s chest heaved, and then it rolled over to one side. And from the spot where Yuk-pyeong’s corpse had been, something suddenly appeared.

Covered in dirt from head to toe, it was none other than Pyo Wol.

He had been using the Breath Concealment Art to hide in the ground beneath Yuk-pyeong’s corpse.

The children had never imagined that Pyo Wol was hiding right under their noses.

“Hoo!”

Pyo Wol let out a soft sigh and looked at Yuk-pyeong’s dead body.

He himself had learned the nameless Sword Art of his own will, but Yuk-pyeong had been chosen by a draw.

He probably thought it was unfair even at the moment of his death.

Pyo Wol reached out and closed Yuk-pyeong’s eyes.

Doing this wouldn’t resolve his sense of injustice, but he hoped that at least in death, he wouldn’t have to suffer the pain of staring wide-eyed.

Pyo Wol briefly looked in the direction the children had disappeared.

Even at this very moment, the children would be searching for him relentlessly. The instructors, too, would be monitoring the children’s actions with sharp eyes.

In other words, all eyes were focused on tracking Pyo Wol.

It was the moment Pyo Wol had wanted.

Pyo Wol moved his feet, concealing his presence as much as possible.

No matter how skilled a person was in martial arts, they could not completely hide the sound of their footsteps. But Pyo Wol was different.

As he moved, not a single faint sound escaped.

It was as if the soles of his feet completely absorbed the sound, like a cat or a leopard.

No one had taught him this.

It was a skill Pyo Wol had mastered on his own.

The place he was heading to was the residence where Im Sayeol and the others stayed.

The children did not know their real names. They simply called them Il-geom, I-geom, and Sam-geom.

Their martial arts were far superior to the instructors’, making them objects of fear for the children. Even the children who looked down on the instructors couldn’t hide their tension in front of them.

Having spent six years together, they had become psychologically subordinate.

It was the same principle as how even a large, ferocious beast will not attack its master if raised from a young age.

Pyo Wol called it a psychological restriction.

The greatest restriction placed on the children was their psychological subordination. That was why they didn’t dare to think of defying them.

A flicker of tension also crossed Pyo Wol’s face.

No matter how independently he thought and acted, having spent six years in the same space meant that he, too, had become psychologically subordinate to some extent.

But he couldn’t keep living like this forever.

Pyo Wol gave his head a slight shake, trying to cast off his anxious feelings, and then moved his feet.

His target was the residence of Il-geom, Im Sayeol.