Sparrow scoffed.
“Hah! You want me to teach you the secret technique of the household, Iljeomsa? If you were trying to be funny, congratulations—you succeeded.”
“Sparrow Apache, there’s one thing you don’t know.”
“I’m not interested…”
“I’m a disciple of Master Jackson Apache.”
At that, Jared glanced at Yuri.
He’d sensed it before, when Yuri had slipped into Moyongchan’s tutelage—the third prince, their lord, had no loyalty when it came to master-disciple relationships.
If it suited his needs, he’d become anyone’s student just to extract their secrets.
“Huh…”
Ignoring that look, Yuri spoke with even greater confidence.
“I’ve read the secret manual, ‘Iljeomsa,’ personally written by Master Jackson Apache.”
“What?”
Sparrow’s eyes widened.
“That book’s been out of practice for ages and is considered a legendary secret within the family. How did you get your hands on it…?”
“I don’t know the reason. But what’s certain is that I read it.”
“That’s hard to believe. Then let me ask you one thing.”
Sparrow’s eyes darted as if recalling something.
“How does the book end?”
“The ending? Ha ha ha…”
Yuri burst out laughing.
That abrupt cutoff at the end still irritated her.
Looking Sparrow straight in the eye, she said firmly, as if accusing him of a crime:
“I completed Iljeomsa, but there wasn’t enough space to write it all down here.”
“Oh…”
Unexpectedly, Sparrow’s expression brightened. She thought he might not believe her, but instead, he grabbed her hand eagerly.
“So it really is that book.”
“You said you’d never read it.”
“The last sentence has been passed down in the family.”
“Why is that?”
“Ancestor Jackson left a will. Ah, when he passed away…”
Sparrow rolled up his shirt sleeves again and pointed to a spot on his abdomen.
“Ancestor died because of a stomach ailment.”
“Do you have to show your stomach every time?”
“To explain the position of the vital points…”
He resumed a serious expression.
“He once made a mistake. He said that if anyone who’s read Iljeomsa ever comes, they should be taught the full technique.”
“You don’t have to imitate his voice so perfectly…”
Yuri tilted her head.
“But what does that mean? Teach it to someone who’s already read it?”
“Because the book was a fraud.”
Yuri almost slapped Sparrow without realizing it.
“What do you mean?”
“Ancestor was in a tough spot back then. Before completing Iljeomsa, he wrote that book first and sold it to naive nobles. The claim about not having enough space to write the rest is a lie—it was only finished up to that point.”
“Damn him…”
“But burdened by guilt, he left a will that if anyone who read that book ever came, they should be taught the true Iljeomsa.”
“I see…”
By now, it seemed even the technique Iljeomsa was a scam, but Sparrow’s eyes were already shining.
“Fine. I’ll teach you.”
“Don’t act so cocky.”
“Yes…”
Sparrow bared his stomach and grinned confidently.
“Let’s go. First, I want to see how well the prince understands Iljeomsa.”
“No, before that.”
Yuri put on a stern expression, like a merchant demanding to see the goods before making a deal.
“Show me what your Iljeomsa looks like.”
“Oh? You doubt me now?”
“Yes.”
“You’re honest. I like that.”
Sparrow swaggered over and grabbed a wooden sword from the corner of the training hall.
The members of the sword guild quickly cleared a space for him.
Their movements were coordinated, suggesting Sparrow was well respected in the guild.
“This technique pierces through everything at once. It was created with that single-minded focus.”
“Sounds promising.”
“The key is willpower.”
Sparrow began to channel his mana method.
Yuri summoned the energy of her Soul Slash and entered a world drained of color—a black-and-white realm she decided to call the ‘Soul Domain.’
Gradually, shapes faded, and shades of light and dark began to form the world.
Within the figure presumed to be Sparrow, the flow of mana became visible.
“Both body and mana must be filled with the image of piercing a single point. It’s never about a line. It’s a point. Piercing through one point.”
His sword began to blur.
Yuri checked the sword both in the outside world and within the Soul Domain. In both, the sword’s form was faint.
Then, tap.
A small sound.
Yuri’s eyes widened.
On the wall Sparrow was facing, a mark remained—an imprint of the sword.
The distance between him and the wall was at least several strides.
He hadn’t sent out a sword energy wave. He hadn’t extended his sword’s reach.
He had literally pierced through space to strike a single point.
“This is…”
Yuri looked at Sparrow in surprise.
His bare stomach no longer seemed strange.
“Most swordsmen wouldn’t even notice what happened, but the prince saw it. Impressive. Ha ha ha…”
Sparrow laughed and pulled his shirt back down.
His sturdy belly and proud beret sideburns disappeared beneath the fabric.
Yuri felt a strange sense of loss and, surprised by her own feelings, placed a hand over her heart.
“Were you really that surprised?”
“Yes. You look different, Sparrow.”
“I hear that a lot. The more you get to know me, the more genuine a man I am.”
Sparrow straightened his shoulders and asked,
“So? Want to learn?”
Outside the royal castle, Yuri and Jared practiced the Iljeomsa Sparrow had taught them in an open field with the distant castle walls in view.
Jared struggled to understand.
“Isn’t this a scam? What is this?”
He kept stabbing the air with his sword, but nothing happened.
“I don’t get this Iljeomsa thing.”
But Yuri was different.
From her perspective, able to see the flow of mana, Sparrow’s Iljeomsa was like a mutant technique.
It wasn’t that his mana method was exceptional or his sword insight profound.
But Sparrow had awakened the precise sense needed for Iljeomsa.
Iljeomsa was a technique that touched on the still-unknown secrets of the world.
If before, Moyongchan had used the power of ‘Chaos’ to shatter fractals and break the laws of the world, Iljeomsa induced phenomena that transcended space and space in an unimaginably tiny, microscopic realm.
It harnessed the chaos of a minuscule world.
The first discovery was probably accidental—or perhaps the obsessive fixation of Jackson himself.
But in the end, it gave birth to the wondrous technique called Iljeomsa.
“Yuri-style Second Step is complete.”
“Oh, so you’ve got another technique besides the Whirling Tornado Sword? What’s that?”
“Iljeomsa.”
“Huh?”
Jared made a strange face—the same one he’d worn when Yuri claimed to be Jackson’s disciple.
“That expression’s annoying.”
“That’s Sparrow’s technique, not yours…”
“I’m famous, he’s famous?”
“Well, you’re a prince…”
“Then it’s mine.”
“Ah…”
“Well, if anyone asks, just say you learned it from Sparrow.”
“Okay.”
“And the Iljeomsa I use will be different.”
Sparrow wasn’t a great swordsman overall. He had trained obsessively in Iljeomsa alone.
So aside from the space-piercing effect, the technique had many inefficiencies.
But Yuri was different.
He had a keen sensitivity to mana, had mastered the outstanding mana method Soul Slash, and his insight into the sword was deepening.
The Iljeomsa completed by his hands would no longer be just Iljeomsa.
“Hmm…”
Yuri looked at Jared.
“Yes?”
“You’re not tired, are you?”
“Of course not.”
“Think you can use Iljeomsa?”
“To be honest, I don’t really understand it…”
“That’s fine. Just fight.”
“Huh?”
“Looks like we have a sparring partner.”
Yuri glanced around. Only then did Jared realize the danger and stiffen.
They could feel the hostile intent.
An ambush right outside the royal castle—someone had clearly been waiting for this moment.
Yuri smirked.
“The castle was too crowded and suffocating, but now I can let loose.”
“Seems like a lot of them…”
“More targets means more practice.”
A group of black-clad figures wearing masks appeared.
“Those are the same ones from before, right?”
“Looks like it.”
They wore the same uniforms Hassan had worn.
Hassan didn’t know he was being tracked by Yuri. Nor did he know Yuri had uncovered the connection between the crown prince and the drugs.
“Did they catch on to us tailing them?”
“No. This is just…”
There weren’t many reasons for them to target Yuri.
“Maybe they’re annoyed I keep saving people.”
Yuri was a symbol of the war against drugs in the royal castle. After putting Gott in a drug rehabilitation clinic, she had worked with the temple to drive out drugs.
Thanks to her efforts, the castle was becoming healthier—but that was not what the crown prince wanted.
“Good. It just makes it clearer that the crown prince is behind this.”
“Indeed.”
“Jared.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t embarrass yourself.”
“Prince, what do you take me for?”
The two of them stepped forward toward the black-clad group.
The masked figures seemed momentarily taken aback but quickly spread out to surround them. There were about twenty of them.
“One against ten.”
“That’s a lot.”
“Scared?”
“A little…”
Even as they exchanged casual words, the black-clad figures remained silent.
Yuri spoke up.
“Hey, you dark ones over there.”
Jared flinched.
“Isn’t that a bit of an outdated term?”
“‘Dark ones’?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, okay then…”
Yuri changed the address.
“What should I call you? Children of darkness?”
“Hmm…”
“Does that work?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. You little bastards.”
Yuri slung Guilty over his shoulder and said,
“Not gonna say a word?”
“…”
“Trying to kill me? That’s not it, right? You didn’t come here to kill the third prince of Briol, did you?”
“…”
“Whoa, seriously? These guys are tough.”
Yuri aimed Guilty at the one who seemed strongest.
“But there’s always the chance you all end up dead instead. So at least tell me why you attacked. That way, I can think, ‘Ah, I messed up. From now on, I better watch my step around certain people in the capital, or I’ll get ambushed again.’ You get me?”
The dark-clad assassins exchanged glances. They were convinced by his reasoning.
The one who appeared to be their leader spoke to Yuri.
“Drugs.”
“Drugs? I don’t like those.”
“Don’t interfere.”
“Oh, so you’re drug dealers?”
Yuri feigned ignorance.
“Where the hell did you crawl out from? Stirring up trouble in the capital like this—are you spies from another country? Or some kind of organization?”
The dark ones said no more. At a subtle nod from their leader, the rest charged at Yuri and Jared all at once.
Twenty assassins came flying in from all directions, like a black wall crashing down.
Yuri drew his sword.
“Single-point strike.”
But it didn’t go as smoothly as he’d hoped.
“Ugh!”
He only managed to lightly stab one in the thigh.
Still, that was enough.
As the dark-clad assassins charged in formation, the moment one fell, the rest began toppling like dominoes.
One of them stumbled badly, rolling right up to Yuri’s feet.
Guilty pierced his skull.
The bone cracked, and as the sword was pulled out, whatever was inside scattered.
Wiping the blood off his face with his gauntlet, Yuri smirked.
“Hope you didn’t come looking for the wrong guy.”
The eyes of the regrouped assassins darkened with a new emotion.
Yuri stepped forward.
“Seeing blood after so long—it’s kind of fun.”
At a signal from their leader, three of them lunged at Yuri.
They surrounded him, stabbing their swords from three directions at once. Yuri blocked one and dodged another.
The last one slipped his blade between Yuri’s arm and side.
Yuri yanked his sword back, throwing the assassin off balance, then sliced through his neck with Guilty. Blood gushed from the wound.
Grabbing the corpse, Yuri hurled it at another attacker and struck down the last one again.
The assassin tried to block with his sword, but Guilty shattered the blade and cleaved him in two.
The body split perfectly in half.
“Don’t even think about running.”
Yuri caught the last one retreating, drove his sword into the assassin’s back, and laughed.
“Now this is getting interesting.”