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—Clang.

The sword slips from my grasp. Gu Hwa-rin swallows the curse she was about to spit out.

There’s not a single part of me that doesn’t hurt, so I just collapse onto the ground. If this were before, I might have cared about the flattened flowerbed, but…

Right now, I don’t even want to think about such things, it’s all just too chaotic.

“…I’m dying here.”

“You’re not dying.”

The calm tone of his voice is irritating. Gu Hwa-rin rolls her eyes, lying down.

She quietly observes the man who naturally retrieves the wooden sword.

Every movement he makes with the sword is awe-inspiring. It’s not awe-inspiring just because it’s on a different level than her…

But because I can’t fathom how much time and effort went into that action, it becomes even more amazing.

She wants to ask questions, but even that is too exhausting as she just breathes heavily. The Martial Alliance Inspector, Jeok-un, casually asks.

“If you rest like that, won’t the flowers get ruined?”

“…Flowers don’t usually get ruined easily. Even if they seem broken, they manage to bloom their petals again.”

“Is that so?”

He smiles slightly.

“You’re quite similar to Lady Gu.”

“…Huh?”

“Even though you complain about how hard it is, you keep following me steadily. You might have many complaints, but you don’t drop the sword until the end…”

He casually throws out embarrassing words.

“Lady Gu is like a flower.”

“…?!”

Her face flushes. She immediately moves her mouth to retort but holds back.

He doesn’t look at her. Instead, he gazes at the flower field, quietly enjoying the stillness.

His serious eyes. His seemingly heavy lips.

He doesn’t seem like someone who would speak precious words carelessly…

A solemnity.

“…Was that sincere? Just now?”

Gu Hwa-rin turns her gaze away and mumbles an excuse.

“…I just want to fix my master.”

“I see.”

The returning silence feels awkward, so Gu Hwa-rin hastily throws out another comment.

“Um, it’s a beautiful flowerbed, right?”

“It is beautiful.”

“I took care of it myself. My master even praised it.”

“You seem to like flowers.”

“There’s no woman who hates flowers. They’re pretty, beautiful… and smell good. They carry meaning just in their essence.”

“What kind of meaning?”

“Each flower is different. The flowers here hold their own meanings. I’ve poured high-quality fertilizer, given plenty of water, and carefully tended to each one so they wouldn’t collapse in the rain and wind.”

Jeok-un, who had been nodding, suddenly asked with curiosity.

“Then what does the plum blossom represent?”

“…The reason Huashan serves the plum blossom is due to its noble grace. It never loses its dignity… it’s the first flower to let everyone know that the harsh winter is over.”

“I see.”

“What do you think of it?”

“I’m not sure if I’d be in a position to evaluate Huashan…”

He turns to look at himself.

“I can tell from Lady Gu. While you might not have the noble grace, you do have that one thing.”

“…Are you saying I’m not noble?”

“Lying flat on the ground like this is quite far from nobility, isn’t it?”

“Hey?!”

Gu Hwa-rin jumps to her feet.

Jeok-un laughs.

“You look a bit more noble now.”

“……”

“How about the other one, don’t you ask?”

“…Out of courtesy, I’ll ask. What’s the other one?”

“Patience.”

“Patience?”

“Lady Gu’s sword and mine may seem completely different, yet they share that one quality.”

The wind blows. Jeok-un, with his eyes closed, murmurs as if reciting a poem.

“At the tip of Lady Gu’s sword hangs time.”

“…But I haven’t even bloomed yet.”

“Just because a bud hasn’t bloomed doesn’t mean it can’t be called a flower.”

At that moment, her voice catches in her throat. Gu Hwa-rin stares blankly at him.

Sharp jawline. Straight nose. And from within…

A weighty phrase that he quietly utters.

“In my eyes, Lady Gu is already a flower. You just believe you haven’t bloomed yet.”

“…That…!”

Words get stuck in her throat. Gu Hwa-rin wobbles as she stands up.

She corrects her words. Desperately tries to explain so he can understand.

The thorns embedded in her heart.

The question she could never answer, even after sharpening and polishing her sword her whole life.

“Who calls a seed without land to root itself… a flower?”

“I shall call it.”

“…Huh?”

“Now. Lady Gu.”

He picks up the wooden sword again.

“Let’s continue.”

“…….”

He’s an enigmatic man.

Really. Just when she thought she knew everything…

Now she realizes she knows nothing at all.

…

All eyes are on her.

Gu Hwa-rin finally realizes she’s on stage.

“……”

The inspector who spoke to her.

The Plum Blossom Divine, who quietly watches.

Their gazes intermingle within. Gu Hwa-rin steadies her breath.

The murmuring begins.

Very vividly.

“…Is that a foreigner?”

“Is that the woman the Plum Blossom Divine accepted as a disciple…?”

“She’s pretty, but a bit…”

“Strange.”

“How can someone like her hold the sword of Huashan?”

“What nonsense is that?”

“Clearly an outsider. Can she even be considered a warrior?”

“How could a foreigner embody the essence of Huashan…?”

“What absolute nonsense.”

“How can a disciple not formally accepted by Huashan…?”

The noise pours out.

Just like that marketplace.

She closes her eyes. Just for a moment.

In that fleeting moment, she reflects on herself.

Her hand rests on the hilt of the sword. She opens her eyes again.

She stares ahead. Into the seemingly emotionless gaze of the inspector.

In a voice barely above a whisper, she murmurs.

“Lady Gu. Let’s move forward. The path has opened.”

“……”

“I did not lie.”

…A lie.

That’s right.

He’s not someone who would lie.

She stretches out her foot. Begins to step down to the stage.

The training ground. Standing tall in the center of it.

She draws her sword. The derision of the crowd reflects on the blade.

“With that pride…”

“She’ll just swing a few times and then it’ll be over.”

“Clearly an outsider; she must know nothing of Huashan’s sword.”

“Even if she defeated Bai Hyang, it was merely luck.”

“At least one thing is certain.”

“She lacks the eye to judge people.”

Laughter echoes.

Whispers stir.

The familiar voices she had always endured.

“A lump of plague. A girl who even ate her own parents.”

“Stay away. What would happen if you got close to someone like that?”

“There’s always a reason someone is different from others.”

“She’s an outsider.”

There was no earth to take root in.

Everywhere she was an outsider.

…Yet she endured.

Because there was someone who picked her up.

“Would you care to join me?”

She draws her sword.

Now she glares at the blade she can see clearly.

She erases the unnecessary sounds one by one. Keeping only what is needed in her ears.

She feels the gaze. The eyes hidden behind the voices.

In there, she erases all the unnecessary things too.

Because only two people want to see her sword dance.

“……”

Plum Blossom.

The flower that bloomed from Huashan.

What was it like?

To be honest, in the past, she viewed it merely as an object of admiration. Even when her master taught her about the sword.

She thought it was something she wanted to catch up to but never could. Though enchanted, she thought it would only remain an admiration.

She was a foreigner without even a place to take root.

Could someone like her dare attempt to emulate the dazzling flower?

…But.

There was someone who shook their head against that narrative.

“In my eyes, Lady Gu is already a flower.”

A smile escapes her.

It’s impossible not to laugh.

Isn’t that a silly thing to say? Saying a weed is a flower—what’s different about that?

She was certainly foolish. Though not now, back then, she was.

Her swordsmanship was unstable, and the plum blossoms she had bloomed lacked scent and form. Even if she tried to imitate them, they were fakes.

To anyone, it was merely a half-baked Huashan swordsmanship.

…But.

Yet he believed in her.

“Hu-rin.”

Her master always said.

To look within her own plum blossom. That was the true flower of herself.

Then what is her flower?

“……”

The Plum Blossom Divine who asked if she would learn the sword.

Regardless of talent, she had not managed to properly bloom a single plum blossom in over ten years.

Her roots were even excluded by other outsiders.

Wherever she went, she was treated as an outsider…

And could not even be accepted as a member of Huashan.

That’s why she raised flowers. Not simply because they were beautiful and she wanted them…

But because she wanted to see a flower that had rooted itself somewhere firm.

—Swish.

The wielded sword reproduces the first movement.

Plum Blossom by the roadside,

The sight of plum blossoms blooming by the road.

She continues the movement. Within it, she asks.

The question she had repeated hundreds, thousands of times.

Who am I and where should I go?

She kept chasing only questions about that. Thinking there must be something at the end of it.

But…

There was an insurmountable wall. A wall that wouldn’t break or scratch, keeping her from leaving.

She was frustrated and wandered. Even her master could not give proper advice.

Feeling like she had fallen into a pit from which she couldn’t possibly crawl out.

But within it, there was someone who pulled her up.

“It’s about the sword…”

She wanted to bloom flowers.

It was always like that.

To properly bloom a flower…

She wanted to show it to all the people who treated her like an outsider.

Just like the splendidly bloomed flower of the Plum Blossom Divine…

She too was a wielder of the Huashan sword.

“Isn’t this fun?”

But even that reason has been surpassed. She infused the thrill she felt when she first picked up the sword into the sword itself.

She immersed and concentrated. She hammered her soul into the sword she wielded.

And finally, she saw it.

The small seed she longed to bloom. The flower bud that had been waiting to burst forth.

If she just took a single step, she could see…

The full bloom.

—Kaaang!!!

The air explodes. Her hair that was tied back bursts free in the wind.

Her hair dishevels, but she moves forward without hesitation.

Qi gathers on her sword. It accumulates and sparkles like a star.

A gasp escapes someone, she doesn’t even know who. But she erases even that.

Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique

Plum Blossom Gradually Opening

She continues the movements.

The petals she wishes to show herself.

The sight of blooming.

“…What’s that?!”

“The flower of Huashan!”

She wanted to show it. She wanted to show it to everyone.

But more than anyone, the one she wanted to show it to was…

Herself.

A woman who always recoiled, always watching others closely.

A woman who was always chased for having no roots.

A woman who cried alone, abandoned by everyone.

She wanted to show him. That she was not a small person. That she was clearly a person with a single flower.

She moves her sword, connecting the interrupted techniques into one shining burst.

Ignoring the crowd starting to rise. She even surpasses Huashan, which begins to shout.

It’s okay. Even if not everyone sees it, it’s fine.

Because you are watching. Because you acknowledge yourself.

Right? Gu Hwa-rin?

So let’s show it now. Here…

What you’ve been longing for.

What you’ve wanted to possess.

“What nonsense…?!”

“What is this…?!”

Gazes brush within the sword dance. She sees the tears of the Plum Blossom Divine.

Gazes brush within the sword dance. She sees the shocked eyes of Jeok-un.

Gazes brush within the sword dance. She sees Sua’s bright smile.

Gazes brush within the sword dance.

She sees the whispering face of Jeok-un.

A short statement telling her to do what she wants.

The moment she hears that, she finally blooms.

She jumps over the wall she’d tried to cross several times…

Finally blooming her own flower.

Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique

Plum Blossom’s Scent Spreading for Miles

Once a plum blossom has bloomed…

Its scent can travel over ten thousand miles.

“…Ah.”

The seed that had no roots finally seems to bloom.

A petal to comfort her who had nowhere to go.

—Kaaaaaaang!!!!

The exploded sword dance flows through Yi-hyeong Ki. It sweeps across the training ground, scattering numerous petals toward the sky.

Golden Plum Blossom.

Though it has a completely different form and appearance from Huashan’s plum blossom…

Countless petals blooming brilliantly soar high before slowly descending.

Filling the training ground where all of Huashan’s warriors can see.

Overwhelming the astonishment and murmuring.

—Thud.

The tip of the sword touches the ground. One of the falling petals lands on her outstretched hand.

The scent of the plum blossom tickles her nose.

So…

“…You were right after all.”

So…

“Jeok-un.”

Once again, she finds herself agreeing with him.

His words.

Reflecting on the time that has passed.

Giving thanks to the one who taught her something precious.

“The sword, you know…”

She smiles.

“Is indeed enjoyable.”

Having learned how to stand tall late in the game…

 

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