Chapter 29
“Huh? B-but….”
At Dohyun's words, Yuha unconsciously tightened her arm around the sword.
She slowly turned her head and looked ahead.
A wave as huge as a house was surging toward them, filling the horizon.
On that black crest, countless vengeful spirits were densely rising into view.
[Heeheeheeheehee…….]
[Kieeeeeeeek―!]
Gulp.
She swallowed a dry gulp without thinking.
...I-is this really right?
No matter how you looked at it, it seemed far too strong.
It was on a completely different level from the petty ghosts she'd been dealing with until now.
That swarm of water ghosts was each emitting spiritual power so thick and vicious it couldn't even compare to the others.
Honestly, just a little.
She wanted to run away.
Besides, hadn't she already experienced this yesterday?
She'd channeled spiritual power and cut down the vines, but they had been nothing more than an intangible illusion.
They only pretended to be cut, and every place she sliced had merely surged up two or three times larger.
Normally, a sword wrapped in spiritual power can cut vengeful spirits.
But those things weren't real.
An attack that was only a form projected from the circuit laid across the floor.
If there's no real body to cut, what are you even supposed to cut?
'...Still, maybe it won't work.'
And just as that corner of her heart was shrinking again.
She suddenly looked back at Dohyun.
“......”
And she froze.
He looked utterly calm.
Even with that vicious tidal wave before him, he showed not the slightest agitation whatsoever.
As if he were simply watching something that was naturally supposed to happen, with eyes that held not even a trace of doubt.
'......'
A man of that caliber believed in it that much.
It was probably trust in the sword she had repaired with her own hands.
It was strange.
Just looking at that expression, the tiny shred of unease that had stubbornly remained in her heart
slowly subsided.
'...Right. Let's do it.'
That incredible man was trusting my sword—no, trusting me, wasn't he?
Yuha adjusted her grip on the sword.
Then she slowly let her spiritual power flow into it.
Ziiiiing―
The sword drank in her spiritual power.
Thump, thump, thump…….
Her heart, which had been pounding violently,
thump…….
thump.
…….
Before she knew it, it had eerily quieted down.
*
Yuha stared blankly down at her own hand.
It was strange.
Just a moment ago, her mind had been so noisy.
That wave is scary, I want to run, there's no way.
Dozens of thoughts had been boiling over all at once.
But now—
it was silent, as if it were a lie.
As if someone had simply turned off the noise in her head all at once.
It felt as though the world was moving slowly.
The spiritual power of the Ishihara clan was a little different from everyone else's.
If others' spiritual power flowed quietly like a stream,
the spiritual power flowing through Ishihara blood—
boiled like water at a rolling boil, churning up uncontrollable waves.
That was why.
Even the most basic sword technique of steadily channeling spiritual power into the blade and cutting
was, for her, something close to a miracle.
Swordsmanship, by nature, is the use of one's internal energy spread evenly through the body and the sword.
Even the simplest slashing motion couldn't be imitated without training to channel spiritual power into the sword evenly.
But her spiritual power surged and roiled on its own even when left alone.
When that spiritual power was put into an ordinary sword, the shifting waves made the center of gravity change from moment to moment.
The sword shook and swayed on its own.
[Tsk, tsk. What's the use of good bloodlines? Can't even control your spiritual power properly. You have no talent for swordsmanship at all.]
Everywhere she went, she heard things like that.
At one place, they said her name was too heavy a burden.
At another, they said she had no talent.
They all refused to take her in, saying that accepting some big name and raising her into some average nobody would only smear the dojo's reputation.
Everyone said she had no talent.
So she had only ever believed that herself.
...But.
Even so, she had never been lazy for even a single day.
Because no one would accept her as a disciple, she swung her sword alone every day in the empty yard.
With sandbags tightly wrapped around both wrists and ankles.
Forcing down the spiritual power that was rampaging through her limbs and trying to pour it into the sword.
Until the palms of her hands split and burst open.
Because surely, someday, she would be able to become the greatest sorcerer, just like her grandfather.
Clinging to that one thing, she endured endless nights.
But then.
Now.
That spiritual power she'd struggled her entire life to grasp.
The moment she gripped the sword, it had become eerily calm.
The rampaging waves rode along the blade and quietly circled back through her body.
The boiling power settled like a lake.
Then all that erupting force flowed wholly into the blade.
***
Taat―!
Yuha kicked off the floor.
Swoosh―!
Cutting through the black current beneath her feet, her body shot forward like an arrow.
Fast.
Unbelievably so.
[Heeheeheeheehee…….]
[Kieeeeeeeek―!]
At the sight, the corners of Dohyun's mouth curled up slightly.
Grin.
“H-hyung! No matter how you look at it, this is a bit.... There's no way that woman can handle it alone, right?”
Jin Mu-young, who had been beside him, hurriedly fumbled inside his clothes.
“I should help her—”
As he was about to pull out his knuckles to help her.
Tap.
Dohyun quietly laid a hand on his shoulder.
“...Hold on. Let's just watch.”
“...Huh?”
Jin Mu-young turned to look at Dohyun in confusion.
Then he looked ahead again.
She was already a good distance away.
She had reached the very front of the tidal wave.
The gigantic wave surged fiercely as if trying to swallow her whole.
The swarm of vengeful spirits atop the crest all bared their bloodshot eyes and opened their jaws at once.
But—
Yuha did not stop.
If anything, she pushed even deeper in.
And then—
she raised her sword.
Chiiiiiiing-!
From tip to hilt, the sword trembled and rang with a piercing blue vibration.
And then.
She brought it down.
Chwaaaaaaaang―!
*
“......”
“......”
Jin Mu-young and Yoo Seon-woo alike.
Could only stare blankly at the sight.
The enormous tidal wave that had just seemed ready to cover the sky.
was split cleanly in two from the middle.
Kuaaaaaaeng-eek!
The hundreds of vengeful spirits lurking within it
split apart along the path of the sword and crumbled, scattering like handfuls of ash.
“W-what is this...?”
An idiotically blank sound slipped from Yoo Seon-woo's mouth.
It was an illusion that couldn't be cut.
Hadn't he seen it himself yesterday? Those disgusting vines that surged back two or three times over, no matter how many times they were cut.
But that woman
had split the mountain-sized tidal wave in one swing.
'...Does that even make sense?'
***
'...I cut it.'
Yuha stared blankly down at the sword in her hand.
She had definitely cut it just now.
What had been useless even when cut yesterday
had been cleanly severed.
Where the sword had passed, a bright blue crack remained, as though the illusion itself had been split in half.
Only then could she understand
the power this sword held.
The spiritual power that spread along the blade was cutting down the ritual formula itself that supported the illusion.
Yes, this sword
was a sword that cut ritual formulas.
The moment she realized that,
that fierce wave finally began resonating with the sword, locking into place as one.
Then,
the latent potential of the Ishihara family sleeping inside her, the beastlike combat instinct,
finally awoke.
Her fear vanished as if it had been a lie.
Her body felt light.
Even the raging black waves and the swarming vengeful spirits
somehow no longer felt frightening.
Before she even had time to think where to step or which way to swing her sword,
before she could even think about it—
her body knew first.
'...Here.'
There was nothing to think about.
She just moved as her body led her.
Taat―!
Yuha kicked off the floor again.
Kwaaaaaa―!
Black waves surged in from all sides to swallow her, but
her sword was faster.
Chwaak! Chwaak!
Every time she slashed along their grain, the waves split apart.
And the swarm of vengeful spirits pushing through the gaps was cut cleanly in two and crumbled.
Cut once.
And cut again.
And even then, she didn't stop.
*
'...Interesting.'
Dohyun watched her swinging the sword with satisfaction.
The first one or two times, you could chalk it up to the sword's performance.
But what she was doing now couldn't be explained by the sword alone.
As the boiling spiritual power settled back down,
something that had been suppressed by that power all her life was finally rising to the surface.
Sharp senses.
Clean movements without a single wasted motion.
And even that beastlike instinct that read danger before it arrived.
'...So that was it.'
The reason this woman had clung so desperately to the sword.
And the reason her grandfather had been called the “Sword Demon.”
He felt like he finally understood.
Her natural talent had been overflowing from the start.
She had simply lacked the tool to draw it out.
If only that boiling spiritual power was brought under control.
That explosive force would become a weapon stronger than anyone else's.
Dohyun looked back at her as she swung the sword once more.
Her eyes were frighteningly focused.
And yet.
The corners of her mouth.
Were faintly smiling.
It was the face of someone possessed by a god.
***
Chwaaaak―!
Another wave split apart.
Scrape! Kwaaaang!
Every time her sword flashed, a tidal wave the size of a house collapsed and hundreds of vengeful spirits scattered into ash.
The more she cut,
the more something surged up from deep within her chest.
'...Ah.'
For some reason, it felt like she might cry.
This was it.
It was this easy.
It was this light.
The contempt she'd received. Being turned away at the door.
The label of having no talent.
The lonely nights she had to swallow every day in the empty yard.
All of that pent-up resentment exploded out through the tip of her sword.
The more she cut, the more the sword seemed to cling to her hand.
The more she swung it, the more it felt like something blocked off inside her was being blown wide open.
The exhilaration of tearing through the ritual formula awakened every cell in her body.
'……아아.'
Yuha gasped for breath, trembling all the while.
This insane exhilaration, this overwhelming sensation!
'...30 percent?'
A thick smile spread across Yuha's lips.
'...That measly 30 percent? That's nothing. I can add way more than that.'
She cut, and cut, and cut again.
The wildly surging waves.
gradually began to calm.
At first, the tidal wave that had reared up even more viciously in desperate struggle
gradually lost its momentum as she cut it down without pause.
When she chased after the wave retreating as if trying to flee and split the final strand,
“......”
the hand gripping the sword froze in place.
There was nothing left to cut.
The raised tip of the sword cut through the air, then stopped, with nowhere left to go.
Everything around her was eerily quiet.
Even the screams of the vengeful spirits that had filled her ears and the heat that had burned through her mind.
had already receded like an ebbing tide.
All that remained was the sound of her own ragged breathing, as if it weren't even hers.
Only then did whatever had been boiling wildly inside her slowly subside.
Huu, huu…….
Breathing hard, Yuha looked around in a daze.
The black sea had already vanished by more than half.
Even the remaining waves looked somehow awkward.
They didn't seem like real seawater.
The blood-red sky was blotchy here and there, as if its color had been washed out.
And the waves rippling in the distance were hollow in places, like a half-finished painting.
The scenery that had been so vivid just moments ago
now looked like a faded imitation of itself.
As if the force upholding this world
had almost all been drained away.
And then.
At the far end of that faded sea, beyond the hazy mist as it lifted.
Something slowly revealed itself.
A single old skiff floated silently through the black water mist.
On it.
There was an old man crouching.
Bound tightly by dozens of strands of some black substance.
An old white-haired man with his head bowed low.
*
'...At this point, it's starting to show itself.'
Only then did Dohyun draw up spiritual power and bring it to his eyes.
Swoosh―.
The moment his blurred vision cleared, bright blue circuit lines surfaced beyond the collapsing illusion.
All those lines converged into one and were being drawn toward the skiff floating far away.
And on that boat, an old man was crouching.
Dozens of black circuit lines were binding that aged body tight, continuously squeezing it dry.
'...So that was it.'
This giant sea and the endless swarms of vengeful spirits that kept rising.
They had all been fashioned by wringing out that old man's soul.
In other words, that old man was the heart and power source running this illusion.
'...What a pitiful old man.'
He probably hadn't even come here of his own accord.
Trapped there, his soul was being stripped away in its entirety.
Well, the details could be looked into later.
If he just cut those circuits off,
this illusion, having lost its power source, would collapse completely.
Dohyun slowly turned his head.
“Yuha.”
“...Yes!”
The look in her eyes as she turned around was completely different from before.
Dohyun jerked his chin toward the far side of the faded sea.
“...Over there, far away. Do you see the old man on that skiff?”
“...I do.”
Beyond the thinning mist, the crouched old man with his head bowed came faintly into her sight as well.
“That is the heart of this painting.”
A smile spread across Dohyun's lips.
“If we cut that off... it's over.”
Yuha didn't ask anything else.
She simply adjusted her grip on the sword.
“...Understood.”
Taaaat―!
Her body shot out like an arrow.
Crossing the collapsing black sea in an instant, she headed for the old man on the skiff.
Kwaaaaaa―!
The remaining waves surged up one last time to block her path, but
it was already too late.
Chwaaaaaaaaaang―!
Yuha's sword cut down everything binding that aged body in one stroke.
Crk, crk―.
At that moment,
the limp old man slowly opened his eyes.
[...Thank you....]
That form
slowly shattered apart and scattered as light.
Crk―!
Then—
A huge crack ran through the faded sky.
Crk, crk-crk―!
The remaining black sea cracked open everywhere like a pane of glass.
Clang―!
The illusion shattered to pieces and collapsed.
***
“...Hah!”
“Haa, haa...!”
When they came to their senses,
the group was once again standing in the very center of that storage room.
“...E-elder sir...?”
The butler who had been waiting outside muttered, his face ashen.
Staring blankly at a single point in the air,
as if he'd just seen something.
But soon he shook his head, as if he had merely seen a hallucination, and hurriedly supported the stumbling group.
The black water that had reached their knees and the tidal wave that had covered the sky
had all disappeared as if it had never been there.
The paintings of Master Cheongram that had filled the walls were only hanging quietly, faded as if they'd lost their power.
In particular, the painting of the massive tidal wave was now nothing more than an old picture with black paint smeared across it.
'...Hmm.'
Dohyun slowly looked over the paintings that had lost their light.
He'd roughly figured out what was going on.
That Cheongram fellow had apparently been plotting something sinister.
He'd engraved a real, effective ritual on the surface, luring people in with talk of wealth and blessings,
and hidden another circuit beneath it.
One that would slowly gnaw away at the life force of whoever was kept nearby.
From the very beginning, it had been a trap designed that way.
And that old man from just now was probably the mansion's former owner.
The butler probably hadn't seen anything clearly.
Only, when that soul was released in its final instant, the lingering trace must have been strong enough to brush even someone without spiritual sight.
The more it was kept close and cherished, the more the painting would slowly gnaw away at its owner's life force.
And then, using the soul that hadn't even managed to escape, the painting must have been activated in earnest.
As for what kind of person Cheongram had been
the Bureau would handle that itself.
'...Anyway.'
This request had ended safely as well.
And there was extra income, too.
Wasn't it basically just Yuha and me who handled everything?
Besides, 30 percent of Yuha's share would be coming my way.
'...Heh. What a thoroughly satisfying result.'
That said,
no matter how many times he thought about it, it was an incredible item.
Whoever had made it,
had precisely matched the raging spiritual-power waves of the Ishihara bloodline, calmed that ferocious, explosive flow back down,
and turned that power itself into the sword's destructive might.
The rough, explosive wave that was the worst possible match for ordinary swordsmanship.
Yet this sword had inverted that hopeless wave, compressing it and turning it into an interference wave that shattered the ritual formula itself.
In other words, it had been a sword that cut down ritual formulas—a blade of anti-sorcery.
'...A design that draws out latent potential.'
That was a truly amazing idea.
Just looking at it quietly made new inspiration seem to bubble up in his mind.
'Hehe.... I should try applying this later.'
He was happily thinking that when
swoosh.
From over there, he heard the sound of Yuha sheathing her sword.
She, who had cut down that enormous illusion all by herself,
was slowly walking over this way.
“...Good work—”
The very moment Dohyun was about to greet her.
Whoosh.
“.......?”
Yuha suddenly rushed at him and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.
“...Huh?”
“...Hup... sniff...”
Her slender shoulders, held in his arms, were trembling against his chest.
Her scent, now so close it was almost suffocating, and her hot breath brushing his ear
Yuha clutched his collar tightly
and, in the end, couldn't hold back any longer and burst into tears.
'...What? What's wrong with her.'
Dohyun stood there with both arms awkwardly raised.
Against his chest, she kept sniffling and sobbing at length about something.
“H-hey. Ms. Kim Yuha? ...Did something happen to the sword, or...?”
“...N-no.... sniff... It's not that...”
From within his arms, she pressed in even deeper.
“T-thank you. Really... for everything...”
Her tearful voice tickled Dohyun's ear.
Dohyun ended up having no choice but to keep his mouth shut.