Chapter 12

The sky was clear, and the chilly morning air brushed against my face. I was already standing in the middle of the training ground, wearing my martial arts uniform and waiting for Seolhwa to arrive.

On the side, my Father and Mother, Master Elara, and Elder Cheon Mu-Hyeok were already there.

Master Elara had just come back last night after, according to her, scouring every nook and cranny of the Dabie Mountains for any trace of Dark Magic. She found nothing and went straight to her room to sleep.

Elder Cheon Mu-Hyeok was here because he got curious after hearing that Seolhwa and I would have another duel, only this time I would be using magic. It seemed that the Elders already knew that I had become Master Elara’s disciple and was learning magic under her. They wanted to come and watch the duel, but most of them were busy, so Elder Mu-Hyeok was here as their representative. That way, the other Elders could hear about the duel from him later.

“Haa…”

A sigh escaped my mouth, and my hands were trembling, a sign of my nervousness.

Calm down, me. I already did everything I can to prepare for this, and I’m not even going to lose anything if I lose, so there’s no reason for me to be nervous.

A while later, the small figure of a young girl could be seen walking toward us, accompanied by two larger figures.

Seolhwa, Uncle Seong-Ho, and Aunt Hwa-Yeon.

They greeted my father and mother first, then Elder Mu-Hyeok, and then Master Elara. Seolhwa didn’t seem interested in doing more than just greeting everyone, so she walked straight to the middle of the training ground and stopped in front of me.

“You’re almost late.”

“Hm. I need to poop every morning.”

“Too much information.”

This girl really has no shame that a young lady should have.

“Well, now that all the relevant parties are here, let’s start.”

Master Elara was hurrying us to start. Looks like she was still in a bad mood because she was still sleepy and tired. The bags under her eyes were pretty bad.

Uncle Seong-Ho turned to my father.

“Where’s Instructor Ma?”

“Hm... How unusual for him to be late.”

As we were waiting for Instructor Ma to come and be the referee, a servant approached my father and said something I couldn’t quite make out. I only saw my father nod his head before turning toward us.

“It looks like Instructor Ma can’t make it. His wife has a high fever, so he said he wanted to prioritize his wife for now.”

“Then who will be the referee?”

“I will do it.”

Elder Mu-Hyeok said nonchalantly.

“You will, Elder?”

“Not like anyone else can be the referee.”

What the Elder said was true. Other than him, everyone had a relation to me and Seolhwa, after all. If my father became the referee, there was a risk he would take my side, and if Uncle became the referee, there was a risk he would take Seolhwa’s side. My mother and Aunt Hwa-Yeon were not martial artists and were not well versed in combat, so they were out of the question, and Master Elara was my Master.

By elimination, Elder Mu-Hyeok was the only one here who could take on the role of referee.

Elder Mu-Hyeok stood up from his seat and walked toward me and Seolhwa at the center of the training ground. He stopped between us.

“Ahem. Well then, shall we start?”

After Seolhwa and I nodded our heads, Elder Mu-Hyeok continued,

“Thanks to Lady Elara providing us with protection necklaces, both of you can fight however you want. The necklaces you are wearing will protect you once you receive a fatal amount of damage, so there’s only one rule.”

“The first one who get their necklace broken lose. Is there anything either of you wants to add?”

“None.”

“No.”

Elder Mu-Hyeok raised his arm.

“Then, let the duel between Cheon Seolhwa and Cheon Hwi begin!”

As soon as the duel began, mana quickly flowed to my hand as I aimed at Seolhwa.

“Fireball!”

Three balls of fire shot from my palm one after another, aiming at Seolhwa’s head, right foot, and body as quickly as arrows.

Seolhwa chose to dodge to the side, avoiding my Fireballs, but my attack wasn’t done yet. When the three balls of fire reached where Seolhwa had been before, I clenched my hand.

“Explode!”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

I could hear gasps coming from the spectators after the three Fireballs exploded, but I kept pressing my attack. I stretched both of my arms forward and aimed at the staggered Seolhwa.

“Fireball!”

Six Fireballs shot one after another at her. I didn’t put too much effort into aiming. They would explode anyway, so as long as they reached somewhere near her, the explosions would still damage her.

Now that she knew that the balls of fire flying at her could explode, she pushed off with her staggered body, throwing herself to the side in a shoulder roll to not only dodge the attack but also get more distance from the explosions.

She quickly got back on her feet, circulating her energy from her dantian, and quickly closed the distance between us before swinging her sword, aiming for my neck.

I dodged her sword by going under her. With her stomach now right in front of me, I reached my arm toward her stomach and fired point-blank.

“Fireball!”

BANG!!

The ball of fire made direct contact with her and exploded, sending her flying across the training ground. As I was preparing to shoot another barrage at the downed Seolhwa, Elder Mu-Hyeok stopped the duel.

“Stop! The duel is over!”

Elder Mu-Hyeok hurried over to Seolhwa and checked on her. Her necklace had broken, and there were no injuries on her. She had simply passed out. Once he made sure of Seolhwa’s condition, he turned to Uncle Seong-Ho and Aunt Hwa-Yeon and nodded his head, signaling that their daughter was okay.

I could see the sighs of relief from both Uncle Seong-Ho and Aunt Hwa-Yeon, then Elder Mu-Hyeok announced the result of the duel.

“Cheon Seolhwa’s necklace broke, and she passed out. Cheon Hwi wins the duel!”

After the announcement, I could see my mother smiling widely with both hands in front of her mouth, while a smile could be clearly seen on my father’s face. I just stood in place, still trying to process the result.

I won…

Against THAT Seolhwa, I freaking won…

Looking at Master Elara, she just sat there beside my mother, sipping her tea and grinning at me. The reality slowly sank in, and I couldn’t hold back the excitement bubbling inside me.

“HELL YEAH! I WON!”

With that, the duel was over, and for the first time in my life, I had won against Seolhwa.

…

Cheon Mu-Hyeok’s POV

Not long after I announced the result of the duel, Cheon Seolhwa woke up and got back on her feet while looking at the broken necklace around her neck. She must have realized that she had lost, but she did not say anything and just went back to her room.

Cheon Hwi, still riding the excitement of his first victory, was talking to Lady Elara with a grin that he simply could not hide, only to get his head smacked by her before making his way back to his room.

Now, only the adults were left on the training ground. I sat back in my seat, poured myself another cup of tea, and took a sip.

That was interesting.

I had heard that Hwi had become Lady Elara’s disciple because he was supposedly talented in magic, but I never expected him to actually defeat Seolhwa.

“Your son has grown strong, Patriarch.”

“It was thanks to Lady Elara taking Hwi as her disciple after noticing a talent in him that none of us had realized.”

Hmm... He tried to be humble, but it was clear that he was proud.

But saying that none of us had realized his son’s talent... While it was true, it felt like he was taking a jab at the Elder Council for causing his son to lose his position as heir.

A smile appeared on my face. To think that this man, who was as stiff as a statue, had shown this much emotion.

“Magic is quite interesting. To be able to shoot a ball of fire and make it explode, it’s a technique that is very different from martial arts.”

“It is. This is also the first time I’ve seen magic used in combat, so I can’t tell whether it was good or not.”

“It wasn’t.”

Both the Patriarch and I turned our heads toward Lady Elara.

“It wasn’t good?”

“Yeah. That was terrible.”

“But he won?”

“Through sheer luck. So it wasn’t good.”

The Patriarch and I could only tilt our heads, not understanding what she meant.

“The only reason the kid won was because the little girl didn’t expect his Fireball to explode. That caused her to make a mistake. She should have dodged farther to the side to create more distance, but she didn’t, allowing the explosion to reach her and stagger her.”

“After that, the kid could just do what he did, shooting a barrage of Fireballs. But even then, he almost got finished when the little girl immediately did that rolling thing to dodge and create more distance between herself and his Fireballs. Then she rushed toward the kid and swung at his neck.”

“His last attack was the worst. Who the hell shoots a Fireball and makes it explode at point-blank range!? He’s lucky that his control over his magic is great enough to focus the explosion in one direction, but it’s a bad habit. If things had gone wrong, he could have easily injured himself.”

“Well, I guess that’s on me because I haven’t taught him the basics of magic combat. But still, stupid things are stupid.”

“You said that, but I could clearly see you grinning widely at your disciple, Lady Elara.”

“That wasn’t because he won. It’s because he mastered Fireball magic in just a week.”

“I’m not familiar with magic, so I can’t tell if that’s amazing or not.”

“Hm... That’s true.”

Lady Elara stopped to take a sip of her tea before continuing.

“Mastering Fireball in a week is way too fast. Just making it explode takes quite a bit of control over mana and the magic itself. Then, considering that he only started coating his heart a little over two weeks ago, his progress is abnormal.”

“Then, how long does someone normally need to accomplish what Hwi has accomplished?”

“Seven to eight months. And depending on the talent of the apprentice, it could even take up to a year.”

Seven to eight months normally, and Cheon Hwi did it in just over two weeks, huh?

So Cheon Hwi is basically Seolhwa, but in magic.

To think that the heavens have blessed our clan this much.

A bad feeling grew in my chest.

The fact that two exceptionally talented individuals were born into our clan should have been something worth celebrating.

Yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Something ominous.

Like this was a bad omen.

I hope I’m wrong about this.

But if this is anything like the generation that emerged 50 years ago...

Then Murim will experience another chaos.