Chapter 26

Chapter 26. The First Hero (20)

Kang Tae-sik was warming up.

He took his stance, looked toward the sky, then turned his head from side to side to loosen his neck muscles.

Apparently dissatisfied by the sight, Rice Ball Guild Master Park Seokdu spoke.

"Does rotating your head really help? You should be swinging your sword."

"Guild Master, if you suddenly start moving without warming up, you'll get muscle pain."

"Muscle pain again."

Kang Tae-sik had been in a bad mood since morning.

Every single time I warm up, he has something to say!

He glared at the back of Park Seokdu's head as the man walked away.

Instead of approaching the guild members who were warming up, Park Seokdu went toward those already swinging swords.

He glanced back at Kang Tae-sik.

Kang Tae-sik immediately relaxed the anger in his eyes.

Look at that expression. He's clearly telling me to watch carefully.

Park Seokdu began correcting the sword paths of the guild members one by one.

The ridiculous part was that Park Seokdu was a martial artist, yet he was teaching swordsmanship.

Even more ridiculous was that the guild members were actually listening to him.

If you're a martial artist, then train martial artists. Stop bothering me every time I warm up.

Warming up was important.

It relaxed the muscles and lowered the risk of injury.

"Hey, why don't we just go train with the Guild Master? He teaches well even with this many people."

"The Vice Guild Master already stopped teaching, so maybe we should."

The conversation came from the guild members in the back row.

Vice Guild Master Lee Na-ye had received Silnyang from former Guild Master Cha Hyeonwoo.

After that, she had become unable to hold a sword.

Since Na-ye, the best swordswoman in the Rice Ball Guild, could no longer use one, Kang Tae-sik had taken over teaching swordsmanship.

That bastard!

Their voices had been quiet, but Kang Tae-sik heard them clearly.

They were guild members planted by Park Seokdu.

He kept his thoughts to himself.

Some guild members had already moved over to Park Seokdu after hearing things like that.

Kang Tae-sik had thought only members who no longer fell for such obvious tricks remained.

But one person was looking uncertain today.

There was a guild member whose skill hadn't improved much recently.

After losing once in a swordsmanship contest against someone trained by Park Seokdu, his confidence had visibly shaken.

No determination! None at all! And doesn't he realize that wasn't even a proper fight?

Anger boiled inside Kang Tae-sik.

He didn't show it.

If he complained or lost his temper here, he would lose.

The moment he became angry, he could already imagine Park Seokdu saying,

Do you really want to train under Kang Tae-sik when he loses his temper like that?

Kang Tae-sik had already fallen for that trick several times.

He wouldn't do it again.

Trying his best to act unaffected, he spoke loudly and confidently.

"Warm-up is finished! Face each other and begin with vertical cuts as though you're aiming at an enemy!"

The guild members holding training swords faced each other and began practicing vertical cuts.

"You should teach them to cut faster and more efficiently. You're teaching them like an idiot."

"They don't need to swing quickly."

"Is that why your student lost? The one who beat him hadn't even been training under me for very long."

Kang Tae-sik's eyes met the guild member who had been hesitating before beginning the vertical-cut drill.

Park Seokdu's voice wasn't especially loud.

But it was loud enough for the guild member who had lost the contest to hear.

He's deliberately making sure the guy hears him.

And he's bragging about winning a contest that wasn't even a real fight.

It had only been a competition to see who could perform a vertical cut faster.

In a real battle, Kang Tae-sik's student wouldn't have lost.

Yet Park Seokdu kept bringing it up.

Kang Tae-sik forced down his anger.

"You're interfering with training."

"I'm saying this for everyone's sake. If you want to know what a real vertical cut looks like, I can teach you."

Park Seokdu's generous tone grated on Kang Tae-sik's nerves.

Since coming to this world, Kang Tae-sik had used nothing but a sword.

And now Park Seokdu, a martial artist, was offering to teach him swordsmanship.

We had one big fight before, and a lot of guild members went over to Park Seokdu afterward.

Park Seokdu had provoked him exactly like this.

Kang Tae-sik had eventually lost his patience and challenged him to a swordsmanship match.

The result had been obvious.

If Park Seokdu had fought barehanded, Kang Tae-sik couldn't have guaranteed victory.

But once Park Seokdu picked up a sword, defeating him had been easy.

After losing, Park Seokdu had begun using underhanded methods.

Subtle harassment spread through the guild.

Food discrimination became worse.

Many guild members couldn't endure it and eventually joined Park Seokdu's side.

Kang Tae-sik continued swallowing his complaints.

Then he saw Na-ye and Seongchan approaching.

"That side is beginner level, and this side is intermediate, right?"

Seongchan called Park Seokdu's group beginners and Kang Tae-sik's group intermediate.

He knows what he's looking at.

Kang Tae-sik nodded at Seongchan's slightly playful voice.

Then Na-ye answered.

Kang Tae-sik focused on her.

Should I pretend I didn't hear?

He understood why Na-ye lacked confidence.

But this time, he desperately wanted her to take his side.

Her voice was tense, but it didn't tremble.

"There's a reason."

"What reason?"

Na-ye had been asked a direct question by Seongchan.

Park Seokdu will be embarrassed if I explain everything.

But saying it properly is also...

No.

Na-ye made her decision.

Today, I'm going to be different.

As they walked toward the training ground, Seongchan casually asked Na-ye,

"There's food discrimination. Is there training discrimination too?"

"Yes."

Na-ye lowered her gaze.

"I believed that if I protected the villagers, everyone's feelings would eventually return to how they used to be. So I focused entirely on saving the villages of the Terk Kingdom."

She gave a bitter smile.

"Like an idiot."

"Na-ye."

"Yes!"

"You weren't an idiot. You did well."

Seongchan wasn't saying it just to comfort her.

He truly believed it.

If Na-ye hadn't been there, the villagers outside Terk Castle would either have been wiped out or fled to another kingdom.

Na-ye had no idea how valuable she really was.

The villagers constantly pressured her to arrive faster.

The Rice Ball Guild treated her as though she didn't matter.

After receiving treatment like that for so long, it was only natural that her confidence had shrunk.

"I... did well?"

Even as she said it, Na-ye looked unsure whether she was allowed to believe that.

Seongchan stared at her seriously.

She immediately tensed.

He spoke sincerely.

"You don't need to push yourself too hard. Just act like you normally do and take care of the guild members who stayed on your side."

"Is that really enough?"

"I'll help with the rest."

Na-ye nodded.

Looking at her, Seongchan remembered what was about to happen and asked another question.

"So how do you normally train?"

"We warm up first. Then we stand facing each other and practice vertical cuts."

"Why do you warm up?"

"Because we've always done it."

That answer wasn't enough.

Heroes had special bodies.

"Why does a hero need to warm up? If an enemy attacks, are you going to tell them to wait while you stretch?"

"We've done it that way for a long time."

"I'm not asking whether you've always done it. Don't you know why?"

"Because... warming up is good for you?"

Na-ye watched Seongchan's expression while answering.

He gave a small nod.

It wasn't a nod of agreement.

It was simply a nod to move the conversation along.

There is a reason heroes warm up.

Everyone knew the common reasons ordinary people warmed up.

But most of those reasons didn't apply to heroes.

Who cares if a hero gets muscle pain? Their body recovers in less than a second.

A hero's body was different from an ordinary person's.

Even so, there was still a reason heroes performed warm-ups.

Doing something without understanding the reason and doing it while understanding the reason are as different as drinking soda through a straw and drinking it directly from the bottle.

While Seongchan was thinking, the guild members came into view.

They were practicing vertical cuts.

The training groups were clearly divided into two.

Pointlessly fast.

One group's swords fell cleanly without any wasted movement.

Seongchan frowned.

The movements were extremely fast, but that was all.

He mentally labeled the group swinging their swords absurdly fast as beginner level.

He labeled the group performing slower vertical cuts against partners as intermediate level.

Then he spoke to Na-ye.

Apparently Park Seokdu overheard them, because he reacted irritably.

Na-ye answered,

"There's a reason."

"What reason?"

Her eyes were alive.

She looked directly at Park Seokdu.

It was completely different from her usual habit of nervously watching everyone's mood.

Even eyes that shake a little are better than eyes that keep running away.

Seongchan noticed that Na-ye's determined gaze was trembling slightly.

That was unavoidable.

It's her first time.

There had only been a handful of occasions when Na-ye had stood at the front and led the Rice Ball Guild.

She spent so much time thinking about protecting everyone that Cha Hyeonwoo handled almost all the leadership.

People had different roles.

Na-ye never doubted her guild members.

She had been so focused on turning her back to them and protecting everyone that she had barely had enough energy for even that.

She had never developed much leadership ability.

She simply followed Cha Hyeonwoo's orders, trusted him, and carried out her missions exceptionally well.

The Rice Ball Guild has been in chaos ever since Cha Hyeonwoo disappeared.

Park Seokdu had taken over Cha Hyeonwoo's role.

Na-ye had remained Vice Guild Master.

But Park Seokdu was nothing like Cha Hyeonwoo.

He only cared about his own interests.

Unlike Cha Hyeonwoo, he didn't believe that the strong should protect the weak.

Seongchan turned from Na-ye toward Park Seokdu.

"What reason is there? Why did I divide them into beginner and intermediate levels?"

He deliberately irritated Park Seokdu.

His goal was to build a defensive wall for Na-ye before she directly confronted him.

"You're wrong."

"What exactly is wrong?"

"Your beginner and intermediate rankings are wrong. The people I'm teaching are the intermediate group."

"You don't understand the reason, do you?"

"What did you just say?"

"Anyone can tell which group is beginner and which is intermediate. If you can't distinguish them, you clearly don't understand the reason."

Seongchan glanced at Na-ye.

"Right, Na-ye?"

There was a short pause.

One breath.

Na-ye used that single breath to gather herself.

Then she spoke.

"He's right."

"Na-ye noona! Are you seriously saying I'm a beginner?!"

Every guild member looked toward her.

Na-ye had expected this.

You imagined this before going to sleep.

You knew the guild members would glare at you like this.

You prepared yourself for it.

Her heart, which had been pounding wildly, slowly began to calm.

The reality she had prepared herself for was now happening.

Na-ye pictured a massive shield.

I'll block every gaze with my shield.

She had spent so much time thinking about what to do today that she couldn't even remember when she'd fallen asleep.

In the end, she'd created an imaginary emotional shield.

A shield that would protect her no matter how much people doubted her, became angry at her, or criticized her.

When did things become like this?

When Cha Hyeonwoo had still been around, every guild member had looked at her warmly.

Those warm gazes had gradually become suspicious.

Then suspicion turned into contempt.

It had begun after she received Silnyang and lost the ability to hold a sword.

As always, she'd tried to prove herself.

Even though she could no longer use a sword, she worked hard to prove that she still possessed the strength expected of the Rice Ball Guild's Vice Guild Master as a shield hero.

But the harder she tried, the more suspicious and dismissive gazes appeared.

I needed to speak.

But I could never force the words out.

She had begun leaving the Guild House more and more often to save villages.

Eventually, being outside became more comfortable than being inside the Rice Ball Guild.

"Na-ye noona. We've been together for years. Are you really going to listen to that guy?"

Na-ye drew in a breath.

Then she raised her voice.

"Yes! Seongchan is a guest of Lee Na-ye, Vice Guild Master of the Rice Ball Guild!"

[Mental Barrier (A) has been learned!]

Without realizing it, Na-ye had become so emotional that her voice rose sharply.

I wish I could say it more kindly.

The rest of that thought never made it out of her mouth.