After that day, it was peaceful without any particular incidents.

I spent my daily routine as usual, and the Great Master briefly oversaw my training about every other day.

As time passed and it became midwinter, a letter came from Master.

To Haeun.

I said I would arrive at Hwasan in 40 days, but something came up and it will be a little later than planned. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise.

I’ve made a separate request to your Great Master, Elder Jin Neung, so listen well to him. Don’t skip meals, and try to go to sleep not too late.

I’ll bring a gift when I return.

“Hmm.”

The letter was quite short. It seemed to have been sent hastily while stopping somewhere briefly, without even writing the reason for the delay. At first I tilted my head, but after thinking for a moment, I thought I knew the reason.

‘Come to think of it, it should be about time.’

My disciple brother.

The presumed protagonist of this unnamed martial arts novel, that is.

I don’t remember if the exact timing was mentioned in the original work, but there’s a high chance it’s around this time. Because there’s the age issue.

‘…He’s probably the same age as me or a year or two older. If he were younger than me, no matter how talented, instead of becoming Master’s disciple, there’s a greater possibility he’d be made to wait a bit and then enter as the third disciple.’

Usually, the suitable age to learn martial arts is the early teens.

In prestigious families, they perform the hair-cutting and bone-washing ritual on children soon after birth to create a body suitable for martial arts.

Because of that, it would be fine for them to learn martial arts before their teens, but families prestigious enough to perform that ritual in the first place don’t usually send their children to sects.

So when sects accept disciples, they commonly select children between 10 and 15 years old, who have developed a basic physical framework but are not yet fully formed.

‘Actually, fifteen is the upper limit.’

That’s because in some cases of early development, the skeletal structure is already complete by then.

‘Unless there’s a reason like… the talent is so outstanding that the sect doesn’t want to miss out, but the age is too old to bring in as a third disciple in a few years… it would be difficult to make another exception like me.’

Since the disciple brother hasn’t even learned martial arts yet, it’s natural that it would take longer to bring him than traveling alone quickly with qinggong.

Even at the shortest estimate, it seems he’ll arrive at Hwasan after the new year, and next year I’ll be 13 years old.

‘So if he’s one or two years older than me, he’d be 14 or 15, passing the age condition needed for entering. A transmigrator like me got transmigrator benefits, so as the protagonist he’ll surely be talented, passing that condition too.’

Well, that’s how it is.

Adjusting my grip on the sword, I let out a light sigh.

The ‘Haeun’ in the original work was a villain for the protagonist’s mental growth. An early villain who makes him witness the loss of his master and someone else’s suicide simultaneously, inflicting mental pain and shock.

‘But since the person in the head has changed, that shouldn’t happen.’

I was planning to get along as just ordinary senior-junior disciples. That way, as I thought after receiving the peach blossom, I’d be one step closer to becoming a normal adult.

Well, as long as I don’t bully him, we should be able to get along fine, right?

As I expected, Master returned after the new year had passed.

“Sister, I heard Senior Uncle brought a boy with him.”

And this part was also as I expected.

Senior Brother Ryu, who had become even closer to me than other senior brothers and sisters since the last incident, came to me and whispered quietly.

Although I had already guessed this fact, it was indeed the first time hearing it, so I tilted my head and asked.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, didn’t you hear? We met Senior Uncle earlier.”

“He didn’t say anything like that.”

Perhaps because it was too late to introduce someone at that time.

When Master arrived, the sun was already setting. When he came to see my face briefly after reporting to the Sect Leader, it was already dark all around.

“I see.”

Senior Brother, who had a thoughtful expression at my answer, opened his mouth again with a cautious face.

“Actually, it was like this when he brought you too. If it’s like this, there’s a possibility that boy will also become Senior Uncle’s disciple.”

“Hmm.”

I just shrugged my shoulders. Since I had already guessed it would be like this, it wasn’t a big deal now.

Senior Brother, who hadn’t expected me to react like that, looked momentarily flustered and spoke again.

“…Haeun, I’m saying Senior Uncle might take on a new disciple, you know?”

“Yes, then I guess I’ll have a junior disciple.”

“No, nothing’s decided for sure yet, so we don’t know yet…”

Trailing off and tilting his head, Senior Brother then looked at my expression closely and asked.

“Um, what about… worry? A sense of crisis? Don’t you feel any of that?”

“Suddenly?”

“You’ve been receiving teachings alone from Senior Uncle. But if he takes another disciple, you won’t be able to do that like before.”

I laughed deflated.

Although I’m walking around normally now, strictly speaking, it hasn’t even been a year since my entire family was massacred and I was left alone. An ordinary 13-year-old would still be mentally unstable.

In such a situation, if the only adult you rely on brings someone of similar age who is presumed to be in a similar situation, it wouldn’t be strange to feel worried and threatened, as Senior Brother said.

Like the ‘Haeun’ in the original work.

“Well, is that a big deal?”

That’s why I had already decided not to be like that.

However, at my answer, Senior Brother suddenly grabbed the back of his neck as if his blood pressure was rising sharply, and raised his voice, making his previous whispering meaningless.

“No, it is a big deal! Hwasan’s First Sword! One-on-one! Attention…! Teachings…!”

At this sudden intense reaction, I looked at him with wide eyes. Then, as if suddenly deflated after getting worked up alone, he turned to me with a blank face.

“I… I mean.”

“…Yes.”

“Looking at you, I think I just realized something. People who have a connection with the Way must be like this, I guess. I was just a guy with some strength, not a vessel for the Way.”

What are you suddenly saying…

As I quietly looked at him, at a loss for words, Senior Brother didn’t stop talking.

“Now I really have no lingering attachments or anything. I’m going to go down and live in the secular world. I’ll open a sect in the secular world and live as a sect leader. So you must inherit Senior Uncle’s title and become Hwasan’s First Sword. Then I’ll go around boasting that Hwasan’s First Sword is my junior sister…”

“Ah, yes… do as you please, Senior Brother.”

You keep realizing strange things in odd places.

The next day.

Actually, I thought I would either meet my prospective junior disciple that Master had brought, or at least hear some explanation about him today.

But unexpectedly… Master didn’t say a word about him.

He looked at my face a bit more closely than the night before, said I seemed to have grown a bit taller, and gave me a decorative tassel that could be attached to the sword tip as a gift.

After that, he checked if I had been consistently practicing the Six Harmonies Sword, and seemingly pleased, he said he would teach me the Seven Plum Blossoms Sword and the Jade Lady Sword as promised before leaving.

Yeah, he did everything else but there was no mention of the disciple.

‘Should I pretend to be curious and ask first?’

It’s not pretending anymore, I’m genuinely curious now…

But there was no room for distractions beyond that. It was because Master first demonstrated the Seven Plum Blossoms Sword, just like before.

“Would you like to try on your own as far as you can this time too?”

Master added one more thing after that.

“Don’t feel pressured.”

Perhaps because I had seen and followed the Six Harmonies Sword in one go before, he seemed to be saying this in case I might get anxious if I couldn’t achieve the same result this time. The Seven Plum Blossoms Sword was a bit more complex than the Six Harmonies Sword after all.

But I… did it again.

I couldn’t follow as smoothly as the Six Harmonies Sword, but it still ended up being memorized completely after seeing it once.

‘This works.’

I, though I didn’t want to keep using this word, reconfirmed to myself that I seemed to be receiving some kind of transmigrator benefit.

It was the same with the Jade Lady Sword.

Actually, the Jade Lady Sword is a sword technique passed down only to female disciples of Hwasan. It was created for women who have relatively less arm strength and hand grip strength compared to male swordsmen.

Instead of lacking strength, it’s fast and flexible.

Rather than clashing and overpowering, it gently deflects force, deceives the eyes with quick movements, and gains the upper hand by penetrating into the opponent’s space – that’s the basic form of the sword technique.

Because of that, Master had no occasion to learn it himself, but it seemed he had researched it separately since taking me as a disciple.

‘But if it’s since he brought me, hasn’t it not even been a year yet?’

Indeed, Master was a real genius, not a fake genius like me who thinks ‘This works?’ every time I unfold a sword technique. Even now, as I’m unfolding the Jade Lady Sword, I’m having such thoughts…

“Well done.”

After I more or less finished the Jade Lady Sword as well, Master praised me first with a face that didn’t bother to hide his pleasure.

“You should continue to train diligently in the Seven Plum Blossoms Sword and Jade Lady Sword, just as you’ve been practicing the Six Harmonies Sword until now.”

“Yes.”

“However, due to the gender difference, there are clearly parts of the Jade Lady Sword that I fundamentally cannot understand. So first learn from me, but I’ll speak to a few of your senior and junior sisters separately later, so it would be good for you to observe the Jade Lady Sword they unfold a few times as well.”

“I understand.”

It was then.

“Senior Uncle Yu Un!”

From far away, a senior brother came running, calling for Master. The senior brother, who quickly came close, delivered a message to Master as he turned around.

“The Sect Leader is looking for you.”

“The Sect Leader?”

“Yes, he said he wants to see you now…”

“Hmm.”

Master sighed softly and then turned to me.

“I’ll have to go for a moment. Since it’s come to this, rest for about an hour. After an hour has passed, be practicing the Six Harmonies Sword.”

“Yes.”

Master lightly patted my head and nodded to the senior brother. They immediately set off towards the Sect Leader’s quarters.

On the way, the senior brother briefly looked back and waved at me, so I waved back.

Thus, I ended up having a break time unexpectedly, and was sitting on the training ground floor retying my hair when it happened.

“Hello, hall master.”

Suddenly sensing a presence, an unfamiliar voice greeted me.