Chapter 20 – Fruitful After the Rain(3)
It was quite a bewildering experience when a strange girl suddenly presented her head to me. However, since it wasn’t particularly difficult, I patted the girl’s head as she wished.
The feel of her worn-out white hair was much softer than I had imagined. Seemingly pleased with the head pat, the girl closed her eyes and began to fully enjoy the sensation of my hand.
The way she swayed her head left and right following my hand made her look like an obedient dog. Judging that I had patted her enough, I removed my hand from the girl’s head.
But apparently still not satisfied, the girl looked alternately at me and my hand with a visibly disappointed expression. She appeared to be around the same age as Sua, but her behavior was a bit…
“It feels good, please do it a little more.”
“How rude. Shouldn’t you first express gratitude for saving your life?”
“Rude? Gratitude?”
“…Are you mocking me right now?”
“Mocking? Who? Me?”
Despite Sua’s evident anger, the girl’s innocent questioning with a tilted head was far from the appearance of someone mocking or ridiculing others.
At that, I raised my hand to stop Sua, who seemed ready to burst with anger at any moment. Fortunately, Sua seemed to notice something odd as well and obediently retreated behind me.
“Do you perhaps have a name?”
“What’s a name?”
“…What did people call you?”
“They called me Number Three. Oh, maybe Number Three is my name?”
“Master, this is…”
Sua looked at me with a serious expression, and I nodded in response. It seems the girl was trapped at a much younger age than we had thought.
At an age when she should have been learning and growing, she was trapped without care or education. While her body grew with each passing day, her mind couldn’t grow and inevitably became like this.
Wondering if she might remember something, I asked various questions, but for a girl who couldn’t even remember her own name, these were too harsh questions. In the end, I came up empty-handed.
“It seems I’ll have to show her to the doctor again tomorrow.”
“But even if we show her to the doctor, I’m not sure if there will be any improvement…”
“Probably not. Still, we can at least get some advice.”
As expected, the next morning we went down to the village early and showed the girl to Doctor Lee Cheong-woo, but he said it was beyond his abilities. Teaching her from the beginning was the only method.
“Is there anywhere I could entrust this child?”
“Well, people aren’t desperately poor, but they’re not well-off enough to take in a child who can’t work…”
The village named Seochae at the foot of Geumhyeon Mountain wasn’t in dire straits, but it wasn’t affluent either. If it were a normal child who could work, someone might take her in, but…
No one would take in an extra mouth who couldn’t work and only consumed food without any conditions. They just clicked their tongues at the sad story. At least that didn’t cost any money.
I couldn’t blame them for being heartless. The more mouths to feed, the more burden it becomes. Especially if that mouth couldn’t even do a person’s share of work.
“I’ll take her in.”
“Are you serious?”
Strictly speaking, there was one person who was willing to take her in. A man named An Tak living in Seochae, who was notorious in the village as a drunkard and a lecher.
“Yes, the child is slender and pretty… Ahem!! It’s nothing.”
“…Greet each other, this child’s name is Fist.”
“Fist? That’s a peculiar name for a girl.”
“No, I literally mean fist.”
The way he got excited looking at the girl who was sticking to my leg like glue didn’t seem normal at all. So instead of introducing the girl, I introduced my fist to An Tak’s face.
“Now even strange perverts are being drawn in.”
“Um, Master, if it’s alright…”
“What is it?”
“Since they can’t take her in due to lack of means, perhaps if we provide financial support…”
“That was my intention from the beginning.”
Hearing my words, Sua looked at me with surprised rabbit eyes. I had also considered that idea from the start. But if I offered money from the beginning, who would refuse?
“But if it’s a place that would reluctantly accept her only with payment… I don’t think the child would be happy in such a place.”
“Y-yes, that’s right. I’m sorry, Master. I didn’t understand your deeper intentions.”
“It’s fine as long as you understand now. At least today’s you is wiser than yesterday’s you.”
“Your words are most wise!”
So it ends up like this? I sighed and looked at the girl. The girl was already sitting on the ground, chasing a butterfly flying nearby with all her might.
“Child.”
“Why are you calling me?”
“That’s already…!!!”
“It’s alright, Sua. From now on, we’ll just have to teach her directly.”
“What? Does that mean…”
They say even a brushing of sleeves can form a connection. An extraordinary encounter that began with a girl floating down the river – this must also be heaven’s will. I patted the girl’s head.
“From now on, your name is Seolhwa.”
Do you understand? Daesik… no, Seolhwa.
◇
The Orthodox Sect had roots in Taoist or Buddhist traditions, and valued scholarship and etiquette as much as martial arts. Indeed, it was worthy of being called a prestigious sect. The same applied to Sua.
However, this didn’t lead to criticism of the Master for taking in the girl, or rather, Seolhwa. On the contrary, Sua also agreed with taking in a poor child with nowhere to go.
Especially since the wounds and scars on Seolhwa’s body were evidence that she had lived a life as difficult as Sua’s. At first, Sua only felt pity for her.
‘Now that I see her, she was a pitiful child. I should take good care of her too.’
Besides, they were disciples of the same master, weren’t they? That meant Seolhwa was the first younger martial sister Sua had ever had. In the Murong family, she was almost always the youngest.
But that thought didn’t last even half a month, because Seolhwa’s talent was much more outstanding than Sua herself had thought. She was trapped at a young age and hadn’t learned, but…
Her speed of learning was so fast that even Sua was shocked. In just half a month, she started to read and write Chinese characters a little, and had even perfectly mastered the Master’s Three Disaster Sword Technique.
‘Master’s insight is excellent. Did he immediately recognize Seolhwa’s talent when he saw her…’
Of course, objectively speaking, her talent was inferior to Sua’s. Sua had the talent to immediately perform any technique after seeing it once.
But no matter how talented Seolhwa was, she wasn’t that good. Originally, Sua had no reason to be jealous of Seolhwa. Except for things related to the Master.
“You’ve gotten the hang of it in just three days.”
“But I still can’t do it well… yet.”
“That’s plenty fast enough. At this rate, you’ll be able to perfectly master the Spear-Sword Mind Technique within a month at minimum.”
“…”
The Spear-Sword Mind Technique was a technique Sua had never heard of before. But just the fact that it was a technique used by the Master made its value beyond expression.
“I, I also want to learn the Spear-Sword Mind Technique! Master!!”
“Don’t you already have the Murong family’s mind technique?”
“…”
“Mind techniques have their roots in the art of breathing, inhaling and exhaling. If you suddenly change the breathing technique you’re already accustomed to, you might become weaker or, in the worst case, go mad.”
That was correct. Typically, martial artists learn to accumulate internal energy in their dantian through breathing techniques from a young age, and suddenly changing that was very dangerous. Going mad was a given.
In the worst case, extremely different energies could collide, causing the dantian to rupture and rendering one unable to use martial arts again. Because Sua knew this well…
She could not throw any more tantrums and reluctantly nodded in agreement. As the daughter of a prestigious orthodox sect, Sua couldn’t not know this fact. Nevertheless…
‘What is this emptiness?’
A sense of alienation, as if she alone was walking a different path, dominated Sua’s heart. Sua even forgot to swing her sword and watched as the Master taught Seolhwa.
“Swing more forcefully.”
“Yes sir!”
“Formalities later, focus entirely on the technique now.”
“Okay!!”
“Yes, that’s how to do it!”
Seolhwa faithfully followed the Master’s words, and the Master was pleased with his new disciple’s achievement and did not spare his praise. Looking at that scene, Sua finally realized.
Ah, so that’s it.
Why my heart feels so empty and painful.
Why I keep having these bad thoughts.
Now I understand.
“That place was originally mine alone…”
The Master’s praise, his eyes full of attention.
The touch of his hand patting her head saying well done.
The moment she finally realized this fact.
A flame named jealousy began to burn fiercely in the girl’s heart.
