Chapter 52
#52. Cutting, Thrusting, and Swinging
A huge mansion somewhere in Seongbuk-gu.
As could be seen from the nameplate hanging on the gate, it was the main residence of the Seongbuk Choi family, which wielded immense influence throughout Korean society, including the magical and political spheres.
The sole heir of the Seongbuk Choi family, which lacked nothing in wealth, power, or history, Choi Hye-na was considered the most desirable daughter-in-law candidate by every upper-class family in the country.
Adding the fact that she was a promising talent who had reached the third circle at twenty-one, her value skyrocketed.
If things continued this way, Choi Hye-na would clearly become the next Tower Master, or the one after that. Still, considering that the current Tower Master, Han Ra-el, had reached the fourth circle at twenty-one, it was also true that Choi Hye-na's talent seemed slightly less dazzling.
Even so, with her status as the Seongbuk Choi family's sole heir, her guaranteed future as the next Tower Master, and her youthful beauty, the wives of upper-class families were desperate even now to arrange for Choi Hye-na to meet their sons at least once.
Of course, Choi Hye-na, who knew nothing of this and had no desire to, was busy on her own.
“Hngh...♡ You bastard...!”
Her melting moans echoed throughout the enormous bath.
The way she busied herself with her fingers between her thighs looked much like when she had been in heat inside the Gate.
“Th-there...!♡ Haaah...?!♡”
Another shallow climax—she no longer knew how many—tormented her.
Kang Hyeon-woo had definitely told her that once they left the Gate, they should forget everything that happened there and move on, but Choi Hye-na was the one who couldn't forget.
The memory of that overwhelming, dangerous pleasure, which felt as if her brain were being kneaded every moment, rather than some childish little thrill, tormented her day and night.
What had initially been a little fingering before bed had become impossible to stop even during the day and while bathing.
“I never imagined the first contractor would turn out to be such a pervert.”
“Shut uuuup...!!♡”
Appearing in spirit form, Wendigo leisurely watched Choi Hye-na tremble as she pathetically craved pleasure.
“Why don't you admit it already? You know it too. No matter how many times you jab with those delicate fingers, you can't get what you want.”
It was something Choi Hye-na knew as well.
Compared to Kang Hyeon-woo's, her fingers were pitifully thin and small.
She could never forget its size, thickness, weight, and heat, which seemed to push up her womb.
She had tried desperately to ignore it, but this was the result.
Like a pubescent girl who had only just discovered sex, she was comforting herself while picturing the man.
Self-loathing overwhelmed her at such a humiliating sight, but stopping through her own willpower was impossible.
In the end, before she knew it, she found herself waiting for him to contact her.
-Kang Hyeon-woo is masturbating while remembering what happened that day too, right...?
He surely was.
There was no way he wasn't.
After all, he had taken her first time, so he had no right not to be doing it.
But why?!
“Why hasn't he even called me once...!!”
At this point, shouldn't he have contacted her first and tried to meet her with some pathetic excuse?
How could a man act as if nothing had happened?
“Next time I see him, I’m really going to kill...”
Brrr-
As her phone rang loudly in response to a statement Kang Hyeon-woo would have found unfair, Choi Hye-na's expression blossomed with a mixture of bewilderment, anticipation, and joy.
[Bastard]
“Ahem, ahem!”
Though it wasn't even a video call, Wendigo was utterly exasperated when she smoothed back her hair, cleared her throat, and straightened her posture.
Regardless, Choi Hye-na carefully timed it so she was neither too quick nor too slow, then pressed the call button.
“...Hello.”
-Ah, hello?
It was Kang Hyeon-woo's voice, the one she had heard countless times in her fantasies.
“Wh-why are you calling? You didn't contact me even once after being discharged.”
She had vowed not to say it aloud, but the words spilled out the moment she heard his voice.
-...I was discharged today, you know? And we saw each other yesterday.
“...”
He really was a man with no sense.
If he had been in front of her, she wanted to grab him by the hair and tear it out.
“If you don't have anything to say, I'll hang up.”
-No, no. Why are you in such a hurry? It's nothing special; I just have a favor to ask. Are you free?
“...What is it?”
If he had a favor to ask, he should come see her in person instead of calling.
For no reason, he started to seem obnoxious to her.
Unable to control her pout, Choi Hye-na listened for a while as Kang Hyeon-woo explained what he wanted to ask.
In short, thugs had come to the orphanage where he had lived as a child and were causing trouble, so he wanted to know whether she could send guards to protect it until a place to relocate it was decided.
It was such a simple favor that she let out a hollow laugh.
“...Is that all?”
A sharp tone slipped out before she knew it.
-There is more, but I’ll tell you the rest when I come to your house tomorrow.
“...What?”
He was coming tomorrow?
Where?
To her house?
It was news to her. She was hearing it for the first time.
-Huh? You didn't hear? Your grandmother contacted me and told me to come over.
“I didn't hear anything...”
Despite her somewhat deflated voice, the corners of her lips were twitching more intensely than ever.
-Well, you know now. Anyway, I’m going tomorrow, so could you recommend a gift for me?
“A gift?”
Kang Hyeon-woo had been slightly troubled ever since he received Madam Choi Yeong-ok's invitation.
It was only natural that he should show a certain degree of decorum when visiting the hostess of the Seongbuk Choi family, one of South Korea's most elite families, so a gift was essential.
Bringing something like CheongKwanJang to such an important occasion would be insane by any reasonable standard, and he didn't have anyone else he could ask about something like this.
It might have been a little pathetic, but asking Choi Hye-na—the only connection he had and the family's granddaughter—was the surest way to avoid wasting money.
“Th-then, should we meet tonight...?”
Choi Hye-na crossed her legs while sitting on the edge of the bath.
It was an unconscious habit that surfaced when she was nervous.
“It’s nothing, I just have a few things to buy at the department store too. Since I’m going anyway, I thought I’d get your gift as well...”
-Ah, sorry. I’m busy tonight.
“...What?”
-I was planning to buy it before going tomorrow anyway.
“...”
-Anyway, if you text me a list of gifts, I’ll choose something suitable and buy it from among them...
Click-
Choi Hye-na ended the call harshly, tossed her phone far away, and immersed herself in the bath again.
“...You impotent bastard.”
Her mood soured.
***
“Hello? Hello?”
I stared blankly at my phone after my call with Choi Hye-na suddenly ended.
“What was that? Did I say something wrong?”
Then again, we hadn't talked long enough for me to have had much opportunity to say something wrong.
I considered calling again, but decided to call her back later if she didn't text me, then quickly changed clothes and left the changing room.
“Do you have anything bigger? This is a little small.”
“XL is small?”
“Yes.”
Since I had come dressed in a suit, I had no choice but to borrow some training clothes.
But didn't dojos usually keep sizes up to 3XL for their members? These days, even 4XL was standard.
“...Just wear it.”
“Pardon?”
“I said just wear it.”
“Yes.”
Why are you suddenly giving off murderous intent?
You're scaring your student.
“So what am I supposed to do now?”
“What do you think?”
The wolf woman abruptly tossed me a wooden sword.
“You see that wooden dummy over there?”
“Yes.”
“You can see the parts painted red too.”
“I can.”
“What are you waiting for?”
“Huh?”
With an utterly serious expression, the wolf woman said,
“Cut, thrust, and swing ten thousand times each.”
“...?”
“Begin.”
“Bullshit.”
Smack!
“Begin.”
“...Begin.”
I had thought she was joking, but she wasn't.
Crack!
Despite myself, I swung the wooden sword at the wooden dummy, forced to obey her overbearing attitude, with only one thought in mind.
‘...Is this really right?’
Honestly, I had expected the training of a reclusive master who could draw sword aura to be something unusual and incredible.
Of course I knew the basics were important, but wasn't this too mundane no matter how I looked at it?
“I can see you thinking about something else.”
She's short, but her perceptiveness is no joke.
Smack!
“Ow?!”
“I can see everything.”
“Does that mean you have to hit a student who's training?!”
“What student? I don't take on disciples.”
The wolf woman's expression suddenly grew complicated.
“Then what am I?”
“What do you think? You're a dojo member. I'm the dojo master.”
There was no humor in the line she drew with such razor-sharp precision.
It felt as though she was pushing me away, telling me not to cross it.
I wasn't so oblivious that I couldn't notice even that, so I silently kept cutting, thrusting, and swinging at the wooden dummy.
It felt better in my hands than I expected.
But after hitting it for about ten minutes, my arms began to tremble and my palms grew numb.
“It's normal for it to be hard, so keep going without resting.”
Thwack!
“Ow?!”
This time, even though I had been working hard as instructed, the wolf woman abruptly struck my wrist, waist, and pelvis in succession with the wooden sword.
“Why are you hitting me this time?!”
“Do you think I hit you because it was fun? I was pointing out flaws to correct your form. Keep your back straight even when you're tired, maintain abdominal pressure, and try not to let your pelvis twist. And you need to use your wrists flexibly; if you only apply force like you're doing now, you'll damage them quickly.”
I had no counterargument, so I couldn't protest and had to swing the sword again.
Getting angry because a trainer corrected your form while you were exercising would make you the crazy one.
In any case, the spots she hit didn't hurt as much as I expected.
I wondered if this was a master's skill, but her constant corrections whenever she found an opening gradually made my anger boil over.
Of course, being angry didn't mean there was anything I could do.
I didn't want to challenge the monster who could draw sword aura and die young.
I kept swinging the sword.
I kept swinging until I was gasping for breath and couldn't even tell how much time had passed.
Counting was a luxury. If it became truly impossible, I planned to just lie down on the floor.
Until then, I intended to keep swinging, moving while maintaining my form according to the wolf woman's corrections.
Just as the sensation in my arms was gradually fading and my legs were beginning to buckle, something amazing happened.
I found that I could swing, cut, and thrust a little more properly than when I had been bursting with stamina.
Was it because I had become more practiced?
But it felt as though something fundamental had changed, something that couldn't possibly have changed this much in such a short time.
With the sensation I had now, I began to imagine more and more that I could have fought much more easily in the isolated Gate.
Distribution of strength.
The correct grip.
The knack for using the shoulders.
Even an unidentified sensation rising from the ground through my legs.
It felt as though all of it flowed together naturally like water, then was loaded into a single sword stroke.
I could forget both my breath rising to my chin and my trembling arms.
Just as I was about to swing the sword once more, feeling as though my hands had fused to the hilt—
Crack!
“...Huh?”
“Stop.”
A familiar pain shot through my waist.
“You've finished ten thousand, so go home now.”
Only then did I notice that the sun was setting outside.
‘Already...?’
I never imagined the sun would already be setting when it felt like hardly any time had passed.
Then again, by the time I had arrived at the dojo, it had already been well past noon. But I had finished ten thousand already?
“What.”
“...Nothing.”
I couldn't insist on doing more when the dojo master was telling me to leave.
“Don't wander off somewhere else; just go home and rest today. Unless you want to collapse in the street.”
“You’re awfully devoted to worrying about your student.”
“Do you want to die?”
She's awfully shy.
“Oh, right. I don't think we've even exchanged names.”
“I know your name.”
“I don't know yours.”
“What would you do with it?”
“...”
Fair point.
“I want to rest too, so hurry up and leave.”
“...Even though I barely did anything.”
Smack!
“I can hear you perfectly, you bastard.”
***
After Kang Hyeon-woo left the dojo, Jeon Seo-ha remained alone and stared for a long while at the wooden sword he had held.
“What kind of creature is he?”
She carefully examined the deeply indented grip.
She wondered whether a mage who hadn't even used mana could do this, but when she considered that a man who had held a sword for less than a year had reached the threshold of mastery after only three or four hours of training, it was something she could accept and move past.
The more she looked at him, the less she understood why he had become a mage at all.
With talent like this, he could have made a living without trouble even if he had steadily devoted himself only to swordsmanship.
Moreover, although it had happened only once, the way he corrected his posture before she even pointed it out had been quite impressive.
“A student...”
After mulling over her own words for a moment, Jeon Seo-ha tossed the wooden sword aside and entered the master's office.
It was something she would never have any connection to for the rest of her life.