Sword Ghost (5)

“……!!!”

Cheon Mira let out a hollow breath.
Kugugu—! Eight sword auras howled forward like a storm.
The utmost of those swords, without taking a fixed form,
emitted a terrifying force that could split the world itself, one by one.

Their shapes shifted so capriciously,
that the chill Cheon Mira exhaled was sliced into tiny dewdrops.

There was no doubt—the Sword Ghost had forged his foundation through countless trials and hardships,
and this was the Ghost Shadow Sword that had proven itself by cutting down innumerable strong foes.
Cheon Mira instinctively knew she could not predict where that supreme swordsmanship would strike from.

‘This… can’t be dealt with.’

She couldn’t dodge it, couldn’t block it,
nor could she discern where it would come from.

Cheon Mira realized again.

The Sword Ghost, So Hang-woo.
That he had truly been going easy on opponents.
Because he had treated them like a younger brother,
and he had likewise humored her as if she were an older sister, merely engaging in conversation.
The moment he fought in earnest, the outcome was already decided.

Time slowed.
A moment like an instant.

Cheon Mira closed her eyes.
Then she saw the man she had so desperately wanted to see,
the man she would never see again.

Ji Han-seong.

The day she first met him, full of mischief.
She remembered the day they boldly challenged a B-rank dungeon and nearly died.

“Heeey~ hello! I’m Ji Han-seong! I’ve been watching you for a bit—you’re a Wizard class and dangerously soloing, huh? You seem to have talent… so stop that and party with me from now on. Even though I look like this, I’m experienced enough to give tips to streamers… ah, no, I’m like still water. I’ll raise you well!”

“…What are you saying, suddenly appearing like that, you crazy? Thanks for saving me, but I’m not in the mood for nonsense… wait, hey, what are you touching!”

“What else—I’m holding your waist. We’re in the middle of a dungeon, aren’t we?”

“Th-that’s not a reason to, ah, put your ha- hands on a woman!”

“Ayy, we’re party members now—don’t be so worried about that.”

“Y-you lunatic! I never said I’d join!”

He was truly a strange man.
But somehow, she didn’t dislike him.
Before she knew it, she was trailing behind him.

She meddled in his antics in small ways and teased him.
She shyly took the hand he offered,
and when he asked for help, she lent her strength without hesitation.
It was as if Moon Bora were being dragged around by Yu Seha now.

Fundamentally, he was a generous-natured man.
He found fulfillment in helping others.
Somehow, he grew incredibly strong as days went by.
He wasn’t secretly taking miracle potions, but his talent for strength was absurd.

Lastly, he had an oddly magnetic charm.
Therefore, various people flocked to him.
Among them was So Hang-woo.

“…Hey, Han-seong! What’s with this one? Looks like a total beggar…”
“Looks like an orphan… it’d be kind of sad to leave them. And if you raise them well, they might not do bad things…”
“…Sigh, why take in someone like this… they’re born 1★, right? Their talent probably isn’t anything special—you can’t even use them as a party member.”
“Nah, I’ll make them my real little sibling and live together. I always wanted a sibling, you know.”

He was ridiculous,
and Cheon Mira loved him.
Her affection grew with the years they spent together.
She wanted to be with him,
But twenty long years passed in which she couldn’t confess out of sheer embarrassment.

Before she realized it…
The pure, cute, mature junior who had joined last—so adorable even other women would say—
She had lost him to that junior.

A fanfare rang through the wedding hall.
A couple who matched perfectly to any eye
Sealed their lips together.

She watched the two with dead eyes.
She couldn’t even remember in what state of mind she had returned home.
She cried so much after going home that she lost count.
She beat the ground in regret.
She should have said ‘I love you’, she should have said ‘I like you’.
Then, even if rejected, she wouldn’t have been left with such lingering resentment…

Years of such regret flowed on, and on the final day,
she reunited with him as he gasped harshly in a hospital room.

“…Thank you. And I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you the whole truth…”

After saying those words, Ji Han-seong died.

Kugugu—!

Cheon Mira snapped out of her memories.
She looked at the sword aura that had already come up to her nape.
She thought of the student she had taught recently.

Moon Bora.
Her final apprentice.

A cute girl who resembled her foolish younger self.
A student she had taught earnestly so she wouldn’t regret it.

There was still so much left to teach…
She was still inexperienced…
Cheon Mira apologized inwardly.

‘I’m sorry to leave you like this…’

At that moment, at the brink of death.

Kwarung—!!!

Lightning boomed as if it would brightly light the night sky.

A single sword plunged down like a streak of lightning.
It shattered the Sword Ghost’s Ghost Shadow Sword in an instant,
a boy appeared.

The boy quickly poured a potion over the wound that had cut Cheon Mira about halfway.

It was none other than Yoo Se-ha.

Cheon Mira choked and spat blood as she saw him suddenly appear.
With startled eyes she fumbled to speak.

“…Y-Yu Seha, cadet?”
“…Sorry I’m late.”
“H-here… cough we mustn’t waste time.”

Cheon Mira tried to speak.
That the Sword Ghost wasn’t the important thing…

That they had to pursue the two who, under his protection, had gone into the Demon King’s Temple.

Yu Seha shook his head.
He gave a look that said not to worry, as if he already knew.

“It’s all right.”

Trusted comrades have already gone there.

“I’m not alone anymore.”

After saying that, Yu Seha looked at the bat perched on his shoulder—the companion who had come with him.

“Please. Soo Ok-bin noona.”
“……”

Su Ok-bin, whom he had reunited with at the academy.
She, transformed into a bat, wrapped Cheon Mira in blood.
Judging there was no time to waste even for a second, she murmured quietly.

“…I’ve already contacted the Overlord Sword and the Plum Sword Empress. They’ll definitely come. Hold on until then, Seha.”

The words ‘hold on’,
were spoken by Su Ok-bin to Yu Seha—someone she trusted and acknowledged.

That much proved the old man before them was an outrageous monster.

Soon, Su Ok-bin took Cheon Mira and vanished like the wind.

Until then, the Sword Ghost had taken no action.

To the Sword Ghost, Cheon Mira had always been an old acquaintance he cared little about, whether she lived or died.

He had long since forgotten someone like Cheon Mira.

What interested him now was the boy standing before him.

The Sword Ghost felt puzzled.
The Ghost Shadow Sword that had been swung with such subtlety moments ago was not something an ordinary being could block.

‘…Who is he?’

That thought.
Soon, a memory surfaced.
One of the figures mentioned in the report Moon Ha-yeon had casually tossed for him to read.
The Sword Ghost made a small ‘ah…’.

“Did the Overlord Sword have a disciple? What rank?”
“…D-rank.”

The boy Moon Ha-yeon had said was surely the Overlord Sword’s disciple.
The Sword Ghost studied Yoo Se-ha up and down.

Certainly, no matter how he looked at him, he wasn’t D-rank.
At least A.
Maybe even nearing S?
One thing was certain: he was stronger than Na Tun-tun and Neung Ha-ack.
He was probably stronger than Moon Ha-yeon as well.
Though that was saying something…

The Sword Ghost, not particularly interested, lightly swung his sword.
Fragments of the Ghost Shadow Sword no different from before.

Four sword qi forming a square moved freely in all directions.
Just that, they thought, would be enough to cleave this boy—who had luckily blocked earlier—into two.

Kang-!

“……!”

But it wasn’t so.
He blocked it.
He defended.
Amazingly, the boy had blocked it.

The [Sword of the Saint] he raised had, without doubt, read and discerned the Sword Ghost’s trajectory,
and showed swordplay able to counter it.

For the first time, the Sword Ghost’s eyes glinted with curiosity.
Of course, it was only a glimmer of interest.

He launched sword qi’s once more.
This time, stronger and faster.

Yu Seha stared at the approaching diamond-shaped sword aura and fixed his gaze on the Sword Ghost.

He was in trouble.
Truly, in every sense.

‘Fuck.’

Why is the hidden boss here?
Questions and dismay.

Originally, the Sword Ghost So Hang-woo was not someone you could see openly like this.

You had to meet special conditions,
seek out the old man who trained like a lunatic in seclusion,
and even hand over the Star Potion to face him.

Before that, he wouldn’t respond.
Additionally, for reasons unknown, you had to offer at least five different rare-or-better swords.

‘The Sword Ghost’s strength when faced like that was peak A-rank.’

He was an opponent who fought so impeccably for his level that tricks never worked against him.

Even as an instructor, one could not kill him.
Because the final blow always came from the Plum Sword Marquis.

Anyway, once he had been possessed, they didn’t worry about him at all.
They assumed they would never encounter him.

What felt strange came from conversations with the Sword Emperess.
The Sword Ghost she described was by no means A-rank.
From that, they realized something had changed.
They prepared various things assuming he might come.

‘None of it worked…’

Nothing worked on that mad old man.
Like humans before a walking natural disaster, there was nothing to be done.
That didn’t mean they just twiddled their thumbs.

Yu Seha took a deep breath and assumed a stance.

‘I’ve seen it dozens of times.’

The power of the Ghost Shadow Sword the Sword Marquis had unleashed in the Eastern Sword Heaven Mansion.
He had thoroughly practiced and honed his responses for real combat.

Of course, it was much stronger and faster than the sword auras the Marquis had used then, but the principle wasn’t different.

Yu Seha regripped his sword.
He infused his blade with the most important ‘something’ as well.
Then he used a technique in actual combat for the first time.

A clear tone rang out as he unleashed a storm of sword auras.
The strike clashed with the ghost swords and scattered in all directions, slashing the area wildly.

An unmistakable secret art learnable only by the Sword Saint class.
It was one of the techniques commonly called [Heavenly Path One Kill].

[‘Heavenly Path One Kill’ skill tree has been updated.]

‘Good!’

Yu Seha clenched his fist.
For the first time, he had succeeded in countering swordsmanship that always invoked death.

Yu Seha felt encouraged.
In that instant, a low chuckle reached his ear.
The Sword Ghost, So Hang-woo—whom he was meeting in reality for the first time—was laughing.

“I never thought you’d appear here, at such an unexpected timing. The world is truly inscrutable.”
“…What?”

The Sword Ghost’s eyes glowed red.

The movement Yu Seha had shown a moment ago.
And the way he had responded.
And that final, instant ‘something’ he had put into his sword.

There was no doubt.
Though it had been less than five seconds, the Sword Ghost was convinced.
That the Yu Seha before him was the sun-like talent he had been searching for.
A talent who would, no matter what, ascend to the celestial world.

Literally…

‘Just like Han-seong hyung…!’

A holder of talent and potential that made one want to call it absurd!

The Sword Ghost laughed.
He laughed as if overjoyed.
In his eyes, he saw it.

He saw Han-seong hyung’s return before him.
He even thought it might be his reincarnation.
Madness filled him, and his laughter shook the world.

“Yes, it was you. It was you…”
“…What have you been—”

Kwang-!

Yu Seha was startled.
Because the Sword Ghost had closed the distance in an instant.
Swords swung like lightning and clashed with each other.

“Yu Seha!!!”

It was you.

“It was you!!!”

At last,
He found you!