Chapter 42, Violence
Another day slowly passed without me deciding what to do about the raiders.
Thanks to Lee Yeonhee's devoted care, my leg fully recovered.
Lee Yeonhee, who had overused her divine power, collapsed into sleep just a short while ago.
That was everything that happened during the day.
No incidents.
No problems.
It was a peaceful day.
The kind of ordinary day I had desperately wanted at the supermarket, in the Backrooms, and inside the Company.
For some reason, however, I felt bored instead of peaceful.
Another day passed.
Then two days.
Three days.
Four days.
The peaceful days continued endlessly.
And my boredom doubled along with them.
Talking excitedly with my companions was enjoyable while it lasted.
But the moment the conversation ended, boredom immediately returned.
The Gallery was the same.
The only times I wasn't bored were when I practiced magic or martial arts.
Unfortunately, magic and martial arts were extremely unfriendly to someone like me, who had neither mana nor internal energy.
Maybe because of that, training at least kept me from getting bored.
“Hup!”
Any high-quality sword art normally assumed that its user possessed internal energy.
Because I had none, I had been forced to learn self-defense instead of true martial arts.
At least, that had been the case until a Gallery user named Near-the-Peak-of-Ascension created an entire martial art specifically for me.
“Oh, that was sharp.”
I was currently receiving instruction in the form of a sparring match.
Hearing Hwa-ryeon's praise, I moved the tip of my sword like a brush drawing a line.
Hwa-ryeon avoided it and rotated her body with a step.
Once.
Twice.
She spun twice in place like a ballerina.
Then she concentrated the rotational force and her balance into the tip of her sword before thrusting forward.
A straight line appeared toward me.
The sound of the blade cutting through the air was anything but ordinary.
Clang!
Sparks exploded like fireworks as the tips of our swords collided.
Hwa-ryeon had driven a thrust straight toward me.
Our weapons locked together in a contest of strength.
Even though she wasn't using internal energy, my arm trembled violently.
A first-rate swordswoman possessed physical abilities an ordinary person couldn't match even without internal energy.
Naturally, I lost the contest of strength.
Hwa-ryeon's sword tip slid along my blade like it was swimming over the surface.
It headed straight toward my heart.
I quickly used my footwork and shifted my center of balance.
My body tilted backward as if I were falling.
Ting!
Hwa-ryeon's thrust shot past empty air like a bullet.
I straightened my body from the deep backward bend and tried to attack her.
That was as far as I got.
Realizing the spar was already over, I put my sword back into its sheath.
I had done so just before Hwa-ryeon's blue blade struck my head like an axe.
I carefully pushed away the blade resting above my head.
Hwa-ryeon obediently sheathed it.
As expected, the spar ended with her victory.
I collapsed onto the sofa and opened the Gallery.
I could barely even hear Hwa-ryon praising me from behind.
What was the record now?
102 matches, 102 losses?
At that point, no amount of encouragement could repair my self-esteem.
I looked at Hwa-ryeon's thin, pale arms and legs, completely free of scars or blemishes.
Damn it.
With a little emotion mixed in, I began writing a post on the Gallery.
[I took the initiative. The distance was too great for a thrust.
Since forcing a thrust from that distance would require too large a movement, I began the spar by cutting forward.
Hwa-ryeon easily deflected my slash and responded with a thrust...]
My posts about sparring never exceeded five hundred characters.
The reason was simple.
The fights ended too quickly.
After reviewing the spar and describing it in as much detail as possible, I uploaded the post.
A comment appeared in less than a second.
Even before reading it, I already knew who had written it.
The person who always found martial arts posts like a ghost and was always the first to comment.
└ Your judgment wasn't bad. Your instincts look good too. Gallery Master, I think you have talent, so don't be too discouraged. Your opponent is simply a fully developed first-rate martial artist, while you are still incomplete.
It was Near-the-Peak-of-Ascension.
As I watched more comments appear beneath his, a sudden feeling of emptiness and boredom rushed over me.
Why am I like this?
My mental state had been strange for several days.
When had it started?
Probably the day after I recovered from the exhaustion caused by the Company.
In other words, the day after I spent an entire day sleeping and finally cleared away enough fatigue to think properly again.
Honestly, I had a rough idea of what was causing it.
My heart had been pounding strangely ever since I heard about the Order.
There was no way I hadn't noticed.
“I didn't think I was this kind of person...”
I drew my sword and swung it randomly.
Boring.
This time, I changed the direction of the blade and cut toward where Hwa-ryeon was standing.
She instantly reacted and attacked me back.
A sparring match began from my sudden ambush.
