“No, it’s fine. Instead, have you by any chance seen my apprentice?”

“Apprentice?”

The warrior looked puzzled as he repeated the question. He truly seemed to not understand. In this chaotic and urgent situation, I suddenly found it absurd.

Maybe next time I talk about Ha Hyun, I should just vaguely say he’s my executioner.

“Tall, about a lieutenant in rank…”

“Ah, is the apprentice in the temple?”

Finally seeming to understand, the warrior pointed at the temple.

“He’s inside the temple. Despite being young, his techniques are firm, quite impressive. So, I asked him to stay inside and closely guard the young masters…”

It was at that moment.

From inside the temple he pointed at, a sharp noise of something breaking and crashing resounded.

“What…!”

It was a noise that hinted something unusual had happened; anyone who heard it would think so.

Not just me but also the warrior I was conversing with, and the others around us briefly exchanged glances as if on cue. Those who would go outside to keep watch and those who would enter the temple quickly divided.

“Let’s go! Hurry!”

“Hurry up!”

I had already entered the temple before they even exchanged glances, so I was the first to set foot inside.

Following the sounds of breaking and crashing, an eerie clang that could only happen when weapons met rang in my ears. Not only me, but everyone who had followed into the temple realized a fight was underway.

“Find them!”

“There are ambushers inside!”

While running to locate the source of the noise, I spotted the warrior I had been talking to earlier and grabbed him.

“Was Ha Hyun the only one inside?”

“No, there should have been two of them…!”

It was the moment I turned the corner.

“Ah!”

The warrior next to me gasped, halting in his tracks. I also stopped.

Right in the middle of my field of vision was someone’s back.

A man in a black stealth suit, of large build—a stranger.

‘An enemy.’

Instinctively, I gripped my sword handle, raising my gaze just a little. What I perceived next was a deeply cut throat, from which blood flowed. The stranger was clutching at a life-ending wound as he collapsed.

“Ugh, ah…”

The sound of life ebbing away could be heard. His knees buckled, hitting the ground, and his upper body also fell like a deflated balloon. I could then see what lay beyond him.

Standing beyond him was…

“Ah.”
It was Ha Hyun.

Ha Hyun was looking slightly downward, observing the opponent he had just brought down. Coincidentally, this allowed our eyes to meet directly.

There was not a hint of hesitation, pity, or compassion.

I too ‘knew’ where to strike a person for ‘subjugation.’

Knew, but couldn’t do it. I froze when the opponent I was fighting managed to grab the blade of my sword, ignored someone I knew was an enemy and would soon die, and even when I swung my sword with the intent to kill, incapacitating them was the most I could do.

However, Ha Hyun, who had learned the same as me, and even started a year later, had eyes that showed no slight hesitation in applying that ‘knowledge’ to people.

If it needed to be done, then it was simply done, as if there was no deeper meaning to it.

“……Master?”

The moment passed, and recognizing me, Ha Hyun paused and widened his eyes. Simultaneously, the warrior beside me cheered.

“You took him down! Excellent! Move with the Master now. I’m going to assist my comrades!”

With that, the warrior rushed past me toward the still-echoing clash of weapons. A faint breeze stirred by his movement brushed my hair. Only then did I come to my senses. I realized I had been frozen in place without even knowing it.

Regaining my senses, I almost simultaneously grasped the current situation.

‘I wielded my sword against people…’

I had done it.

As a result, a person had truly just died before my eyes.

I had seen many people badly injured today. But since none had died, the shock was not too severe.

Now it was different.

I felt my entire body chilling as if being iced down. Witnessing a person dying was more eerie than I thought.

That’s why.

‘……Is it alright?’

The first emotion that came to me was concern.

‘If just witnessing it is this shocking to me, what about Ha Hyun…’

I couldn’t help but worry, even if his eyes had been calm. Perhaps that reaction made me even more worried. In my cold and eerie state of mind, my concern for Ha Hyun and my confusion stemming from the situation itself mingled confusingly.

For a few seconds, I stood there unable to speak.

Ha Hyun took the initiative and stepped closer to me.

“Master, your eyes….”
Up close, Ha Hyun was not the expressionless face I had seen when our eyes met earlier. Confusion and worry spread over his cool, well-defined features. Just as his face was, Ha Hyun extended his hand toward me, muttering something he couldn’t complete, and then suddenly hesitated.

My gaze rested dumbly on the hand he had almost extended. A moment’s silence passed. For some reason, Ha Hyun seemed a little self-conscious, and slowly lowered his hand.

And then, at that moment.