Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 14

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 14
“Son~ when are you arriving~?”
“I’ve told you not to call me that?!”
Yeon-u pressed her lips to one side.
He’d promised something delicious and told her to follow along.
But not even a hint of that good smell had reached her nose.
As she was growing restless waiting to see when this supposed delicacy would appear, Gwan-hyeok, who’d been walking ahead, came to a halt.
Yeon-u’s lips rounded in surprise as she craned her neck to peer past his back and see where they’d arrived.
Her expression crumpled.
Gwan-hyeok had brought her to the Training Grounds of the Gwan Residence.
It was a hard, dull place that reeked of nothing but the sweat of martial artists, let alone any delicious food.
“I’m leaving.”
Yeon-u spun around at once. But—
“Bring her.”
At Gwan-hyeok’s single command, Yeon-u found herself immobilized. His servant Sidong had seized her by the arm.
“What?”
Yeon-u turned back, her brow furrowing.
She looked at the arm Sidong held for a moment.
“You’re not letting go?”
In that instant, Yeon-u’s gaze turned glacial.
Though she merely stared, there was something eerie about the silence of that look—and Sidong found himself trembling without meaning to.
But he couldn’t release his grip.
Sidong feared his master, whom he saw every day, far more than the younger Yeon-u.
“Um…”
Sidong swallowed dryly and whispered in a voice too low for Gwan-hyeok to hear.
“I’ll give you dried meat.”
“……?”
“You seem to like it…”
Though she’d been sold as a servant girl, now that she’d been taken in as an adoptive daughter, Yeon-u held the status of a young lady of the Gwan Clan.
Sidong proposed his bargain with proper respect, careful not to cross his master’s wishes.
“How many?”
“One… two…?”
Sidong added another finger, gauging Yeon-u’s reaction.
Hmm—
Yeon-u narrowed her eyes and considered for a moment.
“Fine.”
Yeon-u grasped Sidong’s hand and shook it vigorously, then pressed the remaining dried fruit she’d been holding into his palm.
While Sidong stood bewildered, unable to fathom what her hand-shaking meant, Yeon-u turned toward Gwan-hyeok.
“So what do I do?”
Gwan-hyeok raised an eyebrow askew.
Why had she suddenly become so cooperative when she’d been uncooperative just moments before?
It was strange, but at least it had worked.
“Come with me.”
Gwan-hyeok led Yeon-u into the Training Grounds.
The Training Grounds were empty.
While Yeon-u looked around curiously, Sidong dashed to the weapon rack, retrieved two wooden swords, and brought them to Gwan-hyeok.
“Here.”
Gwan-hyeok held one out to Yeon-u.
“What is this?”
“Never seen a wooden sword before?”
“No.”
Gwan-hyeok flinched.
She’d never seen a wooden sword?
He paused in shock, then, as if suddenly irritated, thrust the wooden sword into her arms.
“This is why I hate you. Acting like a beggar.”
“But I’m not a beggar?”
Beggars wander where they please and eat whatever they find.
“Ha! Why? Now that you’ve been sold to such a grand household and you’re being accommodated, do you think you’re something special?”
“Accommodated? Is that food?”
“Stop twisting my words!”
“All right, all right.”
Gwan-hyeok huffed and glared at Yeon-u, then picked up the wooden sword and positioned himself across from her.
Gwan-hyeok raised the sword toward Yeon-u.
“I’m telling you again—I can’t stand you.”
“The feeling’s mutual.”
“Just listen!”
Yeon-u jutted out her lower lip.
Gwan-hyeok continued.
“Maryong Academy isn’t a place for someone like you who’s never even held a wooden sword before. It’s a proving ground for selecting the finest disciples of the Main Sect.”
Yeon-u blinked.
“That someone like you—someone who doesn’t even know Martial Arts—would go there…! It makes my blood boil! That place was supposed to be…!”
Gwan-hyeok’s hand trembled as he gripped the sword.
“It was supposed to be mine…!”
Yeon-u tilted her head.
“So why don’t you just go?”
“Because of you! It’s because of you!”
“……?”
“Since you were brought here! Father would never send me away now!”
“……?”
Yeon-u couldn’t make sense of what Gwan-hyeok was saying at all.
If someone wants to go somewhere, shouldn’t they just go?
I don’t even really want to go.
Then, all at once, something dawned on her.
‘Wait, that’s it!’
If he left for the academy, he might stop giving me food, wouldn’t he?!
Because he’s giving me food instead of going there!
‘No way, no way! That absolutely cannot happen!’
Dense anger flashed across Yeon-u’s face as she looked at Gwan-hyeok.
“You shouldn’t covet what belongs to others.”
“You took what was mine first!”
‘Oh, right!’
Yeon-u faltered.
But she quickly waved her hand dismissively and shook her head.
“No. Why would that be yours? Father bought that for me, didn’t he?”
For Yeon-u.
“Don’t you dare call him that!”
As if you have the right—a servant, a beggar!
“Father just doesn’t know yet that I can do well too!”
If I enter Maryong Academy, I’ll be more than enough…!
“…So hurry and take up that sword! I’ll show Father what I’m really made of!”
“What are you going to show him with this?”
“That I can do it! And how pathetic you are, how worthless you are—I’ll show him everything! Absolutely everything!”
Gwan-hyeok raised the sword toward Yeon-u once more.
Yeon-u still didn’t understand what he meant.
So what exactly am I supposed to show him?
Yeon-u furrowed her brow and twisted the wooden sword this way and that.
Then she gripped the short handle the way Gwan-hyeok was holding his and raised it toward him.
“Like this?”
“From now on, you and I are going to Spar.”
“Spar?”
“Idiot—it means you and I are going to fight.”
“Ah!”
I get it now!
“So the two of us—me and your son—are fighting over who gets to go to Maryong Academy?”
“Yes. Finally you’re making some sense.”
Gwan-hyeok smiled wickedly.
“During the Sparring, you might get hurt, you might bleed. But neither of us blames the other for that. Understand?”
Yeon-u nodded.
“Good. You start first. It’d be cowardly of me to strike first against someone who doesn’t even know how to handle a wooden sword. Though I should mention, I’ve already been training in Martial Arts for five years….”
That was when it happened.
Tap-tap-tap!
Yeon-u seized the wooden sword and rushed toward Gwan-hyeok.
‘So that’s it…’
I just need to hit him with this?
Whoosh!
“……!”
Her form closed the distance in an instant, and Gwan-hyeok scrambled into a defensive stance.
Yeon-u raised the wooden sword high and brought it down with all her strength—
Crack!
Her blade met Gwan-hyeok’s sword, held horizontally as he lowered his body to block.
Tap-tap-tap!
Gwan-hyeok stumbled backward in a panic.
“That’s—! That’s dirty! Who attacks someone mid-sentence?!”
“Why? You said it had started.”
“Ugh!”
Gwan-hyeok raised his sword again.
His hands were visibly trembling more than before.
Not from fear or anger.
‘This tiny thing—what is this strength?!’
Like a boulder falling.
‘I thought a boulder was dropping on me…!’
Gwan-hyeok suppressed his alarm and gripped the sword tighter.
Sure, she hit harder than expected, but he couldn’t lose to a child who didn’t know the first thing about Martial Arts.
“I’m not going easy anymore.”
“Hmph!”
Yeon-u stuck out her tongue with a teasing smirk.
It was a childish taunt, but it struck a nerve with Gwan-hyeok.
Tap!
He gripped the sword and charged at her.
‘Her strength makes the sword feel heavy.’
If blocking once was enough to sap the strength from his hands, his palms might split open if he blocked a few more times.
‘Then…’
I just won’t meet her blade head-on.
Whoosh.
As Gwan-hyeok closed in, he suddenly dropped his stance low.
Yeon-u, standing with grim focus as she waited for the strike, faltered in surprise for just an instant.
Tap-tap-tap—smack!
“Ow!”
Gwan-hyeok had circled behind her, bringing his sword down hard against her back.
Yeon-u yelped and stumbled forward.
But Gwan-hyeok didn’t wait for her to recover.
Thwack! Smack!
Her back! Her shins! Her forearms!
“Ow! It hurts!!”
Yeon-u twisted and writhed under the onslaught of blows.
Yet Gwan-hyeok’s sword showed no mercy, striking relentlessly.
“Stop! It hurts!!”
She lost all sense of direction.
Where the strikes came from, where she was standing—she had no mind for anything but the pain.
“Stop it!!”
Whack!
Finally, unable to endure it any longer, Yeon-u swung her sword wildly—a desperate, sprawling motion full of openings.
‘Now!’
Gwan-hyeok pivoted behind her thrashing figure and raised his sword.
Whoosh!
‘I’ll knock her out in one blow.’
As the hard wooden blade descended with all his might toward the nape of her neck—
It stopped.
The wooden sword was blocked by something unseen.
“……!”
Gwan-hyeok’s eyes widened.
A man’s fingers rested against the tip of his wooden sword.
“That’s enough.”
Two fingers held his blade effortlessly, as though cradling a feather.
……
Gwan-hyeok lifted his trembling gaze to see the fingers’ owner.
A man in a black half-mask stood above him, silhouetted against the sun.
Merely looking down at him felt like the weight of the world pressing down on Gwan-hyeok’s shoulders.
Gwan-hyeok met the man’s calm, settled gaze beyond the mask and swallowed hard.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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