Chapter 37 – Ian, Seojun
Ian had been thinking that his mother had become strange lately.
“Mother···?”
She often did not answer when called from the side, and when Ian touched her while staring blankly at her, she would be startled and come to her senses belatedly.
“Uh, yes. Did you call me, Ian?”
Yes like now
Maybe it’s because she suffered from a fever until yesterday… Ian had no clue.
She would sometimes see her tongue licking the goulash sauce off her hands, and Ian’s crotch would feel stiff without realizing it.
No···! What is this to my mother…!
On days like that, Ian practiced more intensely. Until she can’t remember her mother’s tongue, she’ll die…
Then Seo-jun said, “Is it because he eats well, why is he so full of energy…?” I would pat her on the back with a haha-laugh.
As she walked down the street, she occasionally heard stories about her mother.
Talk about how you seem to be getting prettier these days. There were also rumors that it seemed to have matured. She even said that maybe she might be pregnant.
At first, she was Ian who wanted to say something useless, but when she heard that she was pregnant, she felt strange.
If the mother conceives a child, what will happen to Ian…
It was clear how the adoptive son would be treated when the biological son was born. No matter how much Sophia and Jack tried to treat each other without discrimination, there were bound to be differences. Isn’t this the child you wanted so much?
So I couldn’t help but worry. It must be a day to be blessed…
Jack, who had heard the rumors, advised him not to listen to what people were saying. Hagisa, most of the horses in the village were rumors and floating clouds.
But even in Ian’s eyes, he felt a sense of alienation in her mother’s expression and mood. Although she couldn’t pinpoint anything. There must have been something.
Seo-joon told his older brother about it.
“Well, no one else, and Ian, if you felt that way, then something must have happened. It doesn’t seem like anything to worry about. What kind of person is your mother? If I needed help, I would have asked Uncle Jack or you for help.”
“It is true…”
“Don’t worry too much, Inseok-ah. You take good care of Lilina.”
“Ahaha…”
Seo-joon smiled mischievously, then put his arm around Ian’s shoulder and whispered to anyone to listen.
“Therefore···. How far have you two gone…?”
“Yes Yes···? What, where are you going?”
As Ian blushed and acted out of control, Seo-jun caught his head in his damp armpit and squeezed it. Ouch ouch···! When he struggles, screaming that his head is about to explode, Seo-jun belatedly lets him go.
Seo-jun held out his hand to Ian, who fell to the floor and gasped for breath.
“Two people···. Did you?”
Ian seemed to know what the emotions were in Seo-jun’s eyes.
It was jealousy
About Seo-joon’s brother’s love for Lily, he had already said before. As much as possible, I have tried to reduce the expression of affection for Lily in Seo-joon’s presence.
I was afraid that he might get hurt…
Ian stood up holding Seojun’s outstretched hand and shook his head.
“Nope···.”
I did not want to do such an act until after the coming-of-age ceremony and the wedding ceremony. No, I really wanted to do it like a chimney, but I endured it for Lily’s sake.
She wanted to respect her. She wanted to be treated with respect. As my father said…
“Really?”
“Yeah···.”
“Why?”
In response to Seo-joon’s question, Ian revealed his true feelings.
She wants to treat her with respect…
Seo-joon smiled and tousled his hair.
“Oh brother…!” When Ian screamed, Seo-joon said, “Yes, it’s like you,” And laughed haha.
“Now, quickly pick up the sword.”
“Yeah···!”
The two mixed their swords again.
As Seo-jun taught, Ian was undergoing swordsmanship training that was faithful to the basics of the so-called ‘three-jae sword method’, horizontal cutting, vertical cutting, and stabbing.
He honestly thought it was boring at first.
To wield only three actions a hundred times a thousand times a day was hard work, but it was also mentally exhausting.
But only one swing.
It was even more difficult to wield it wholeheartedly, putting all the momentum into a single swing.
The reason why Seo-joon insisted that the three-jaed sword method was important was because he judged that it was the most effective way to train the basics of the sword.
To put all the momentum into a single swing. To unleash a perfect sword without being disturbed. It was a hundred times a thousand swings for that.
A thousand horizontal cuts.
A thousand vertical cuts.
A thousand stabs.
After all of that, it was a sparring with Seojun.
To be honest, the first week felt like my shoulders would fall off. He couldn’t even help his father with the field work and was bedridden.
But even if it’s not enough now, after 3,000 swings, his whole body was sore and refreshed. Also, there was nothing like this to unify one’s mind and get rid of wandering thoughts.
After swinging the sword, the sweat drains from the whole body and it feels as if the sword has become one with the body. Seojun advised me not to forget that feeling.
How did my brother know this…
After the sparring, Seo-joon always reviewed the fight. Just like a soldier planning a military strategy reviewing the process after a war, he chewed on each move.
Why did you act like this…? Why didn’t you do it here…? The same question follows.
The question was very sharp, and it pierced the heart.
At that time, Seo-joon changed from a good older brother to a strict swordsmanship teacher.
And if Seojun broke the four rules, he would get angry, and those four rules were as follows.
1. Don’t cry.
2. Don’t fawn.
3. Don’t miss the sword.
4. Don’t close your eyes when the sword approaches.
Seo-joon would undoubtedly swing his fist on the day he broke these four rules.
When he was a bully, he didn’t hesitate to spit out the curse he used to do, and beat Ian randomly. And at the same time, he always hit me indistinctly. He is amazing only in the part that is covered by his clothes…
These days, Ian has been following the training well, so it’s been a while since he was hit, but at first, whenever the sword flew around, he closed his eyes or missed the sword, so he was beaten frequently.
Seo-joon said this like his habit.
‘People have to be right. Whether it’s a beast or a person, it needs to be beaten to fix it.’
At first, such violent teachings did not appeal to me, but when I saw my skills increasing rapidly as the day passed, I could not blindly deny Seo-joon’s words.
How different he is from when he trained alone. When he was training alone, he thought that if he attacked himself now, he would be able to handle it alone even if 100 people attacked him…
That’s how today’s training ended.
“Heh, heh, heh, heh…”
Ian sprawled on the floor, gasping for breath, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. Beside him, Seojun took out a canteen and took a sip.
“Hyung, by the way, how did the peddler win?”
Ian remembered the fight a few days ago.
A drunken wandering peddler had quarreled with Seo-jun. He said he hates cute little bastards the most in the world…
At the time, Seo-joon had finished training with Ian and even finished running, so he was sweating profusely. Not wanting to be disturbed in training with Ian, he shook his hand and replied, “If you are drunk, wipe your feet and go to sleep.”
The drunken peddler, of course, was furious with his head.
The young blue kid dared to ignore the man who once lived on a knife’s bread as a mercenary, and her head turned.
The peddler took out the shortsword he had been using as a mercenary since he was a mercenary, which he uses to protect himself while carrying a peddler.
When I saw that blue blade reflected the moonlight-. Ian was so surprised. How frightened he was… How afraid he was…
After Ian had practiced like that, he immediately collapsed on the floor in a state of fascination. In his fright, his legs gave way.
However, Seo-joon was different. It must have been the same as growing up in a rural village, but he spat on the floor and poised with his wooden sword in his grip.
It was the cessation of the ‘three-talented sword method’ that Seo-joon had been teaching Ian all along.
I remembered that the peddler giggled as Seo-jun took out his wooden sword and held it. He laughed so loudly that the elderly in the neighborhood came out with his voice.
The peddler shook his head, flicked the tip of his sword, and muttered these words.
“Hey, you little rat-sized bastard… If you don’t want to die, just go home, wipe your feet and go to sleep! Huh? If you pray for help, I’ll let you go…!”
He said so, but Ian realized that he was provoking Seo-jun. The tip of the sword was clearly aiming for Seo-jun, and the eyes were those of a murderer who had committed countless murders.
Ian tried hard to stop Seo-jun, but he shook his head.
When the peddler shouted, ‘Don’t complain after you die…!’ And rushed at him, Ian forgot Seo-jun’s advice and closed his eyes.
And when I opened my eyes to the sound of a kang, a single sword… There was an end to the sword.
It was the horizontal cutting of the three-jaed sword method.
With that one move, the peddler’s sword spun around and flew away, landing in the grass.
Not only the drunken peddlers, but also the elders who tried to stop the two fighting with me in the middle of the night were shocked. Seo-joon tapped the floor with his wooden sword and looked at Ian.
“Ain, what did the third rule say?”
“Oh, don’t let go of the sword…?”
“Speak with confidence, you fool. Yes. Don’t miss the sword. If you miss the sword, this is what happens. Take a good look.”
Seo-joon put his wooden sword on his shoulder and approached the peddler, who was standing bewildered and talking gibberish to himself.
He mercilessly cut down his wooden sword.
Horizontal cutting, vertical cutting, stabbing. With those three things, the peddler was exhausted from crying so hard that he made his hands and feet pray.
Ian felt a strange catharsis there.
My teacher – Seojun hyung is so strong… Maybe I can be like that… I thought.
In fact, I don’t know if the peddler was a mercenary or not. It could just be the bullshit peculiar to drunk people.
However, only that short sword was real. The blue-forged blade was also real.
And-, Seo-joon’s skill in defeating that blade with a sword was real…
