But what if they find out? What if they found out that I was someone with the ability to interfere with them, and that I was also a spy who caused the greatest damage among them?
Let’s live in hiding, like a dead mouse.
We made a blood oath, so they wouldn’t interfere with my comfortable life. At least until the end of this world.
* * *
But after that day, my siblings didn’t let me go.
Gradually regaining the power of their previous lives, they boasted their extraordinaryness and drove me to a situation where it made me rethink what what should I do.
When there was chaos in the family, I realized, the Duchy of Rainberg was not my place. I needed to get out of this world’s most dangerous place right now.
On a cold winter day, I went down to the southern island on the pretext of recuperating from my illness.
Ironically, thanks to the incidental power of ‘Heavenly Sky Eye’, I was also seen as one of the ‘children of the moon’ in the eyes of others. Especially in my father’s eye. With this, it was mistaken as my ‘talent.’ Anyway, I was his precious son, so my request was readily accepted.
However, my father didn’t predict that the child who went down because of an illness would imprison himself for four years.
I remained on this island until the age of 14, making up various excuses. However, as soon as I reached the age of 15 to start the full-scale successor education, there were no more excuses.
* * *
The more I remembered that day, the stronger my will became.
I looked straight into my father’s eyes and persuaded him again and again.
“Father, please understand the heart of this little one.”
“You have talent.”
“That unknown talent, I will try to bloom it myself on this beautiful island…”
It was then. The Spirit, which had been injected by my father into my body, suddenly heated up, and a rope sprouted from my skin. The rope was around my body in an instant. Damn, was this his intention from the start?
“If you don’t want to go, I will take you by force.”
“But Father!”
“No buts, you are coming with me.”
“The corners of your lips are going up. Don’t try to run away from my hands. At least until the coming-of-age ceremony, I will hold you tight and won’t let you go.”
There is no way I can escape from my father’s Spirit by my own strength. I quickly understood the situation.
Okay, let’s wait a few days. Until I seize the opportunity to escape.
* * *
Duchy of Rainberg, one day after returning to Quilz Castle.
“Young master! The first young master is looking for you!”
“He wouldn’t have found me if you won’t say it!”
“Yes? Are you here?”
“Stupid maid!”
My older brother is looking for me. Not to his room, but to the training ground.
I feel like the empty space between my molars is throbbing.
I got nervous about thinking about what would happen. There are some good points about being ignorant, but there are also many more downsides.
“Then I’ll tell first young master that I couldn’t find you.”
“Wait, Girlie. When brother asked, you will say I went outside .”
“Yes. young master.”
“Haha! Girlie, you really look like a rabbit.”
“Oh, thank you. Rabbits are cute.”
The rabbit might be smarter.
“Forget it. I will go. Just stay still.”
I will now be facing the guy who defeated knights four years ago.
After many years, he might have become more terrifying.
I cleared my mind and got out of bed. I gently pressed both my eyes with my palms to relieve eye strain.
In order not to get hurt like last time, I need the power of these eyes. It’s not like I’ve only slept for these past four years. I practiced while looking at the vast sea on the southern island.
If I had these eyes back then, I wouldn’t have an empty space in between my molars. As long as I have these eyes, I can see all his movements.
* * *
There was only one man standing in the wide training ground. Who would see him as a 14-year-old boy? Same age, even twins, but my older brother already looked twice as tall as me. He is becoming a monster.
Having inherited the same blood of the Duke of Reinberg, we are all born with brown eyes and brown hair. We all certainly looked the same four years ago. But now, it was strange to even call us twins. Wide shoulders, a thick face line, a face that looks more like a man than a boy. Above all else, eyes resemble the eyes of a lion.
“It’s been a while, Cantavia.”
I walked over to the training ground. After the blood oath, we decided to go back to being brothers and sisters as before. So he called me brother and Cantavia, and I called him brother and Ranista.
“Ranista.”
“Raise your weapon.”
I stopped walking.
“… Why?”
I took a step back
“I will teach you martial arts.”
I should have run away last night.
* * *
It’s not easy to feel like prey. Am I a deer in front of the eyes of this lion? Or maybe… I am just an ant.
Ranista only glanced at me with a twinkle in his eyes, but I already felt like he was about to eat my heart.
“Do you have any weapons you want?”
Four years ago, only swords, shields, and spears were here, but now it’s like there was Weapons World’s Fair. In addition to the long sword and great shield used in the continent, the scimitar, War Scythe, and Machete used by the Ain people, as well as weapons used by western knights such as Polearm and Crescent Blade, as well as whips and maces used by the second ranks were also seen.
There were even bizarre types of weapons that could not be found anywhere on the continent. A curved sword, a saber, a gauntlet, a club with vicious nail, etc.
There were other weapons that even veteran knights wouldn’t know, but I do. They were weapons from Murim.
“Choose.”
Ranista proposing to teach me martial arts is no different from handing me over some poisoned alcohol. If I get hit, I die.
I calmly understood his intentions. No matter how much I thought about it, I could only think of him hitting me to death. Let’s refuse, like an ordinary younger brother not wanting to play with him.
“Hyung, I am okay with what currently I am.”
“Did you think it was an offer that you could refuse?”
Ha, shit.
“No, I’m good, but martial arts isn’t something you can teach casually. Look at me, I am just bones and skin. Wouldn’t it be a shame for me to learn your skills?”
The Murim people are proud of themselves, so I wanted to stimulate his pride.
I recall how he said every time that he lacks training. Of course, he probably doesn’t really think that way. If there was anyone who could destroy the imperial castle of the Empire with a single sword, Ranista could do it. As a Ruler of Murim, he regarded martial arts as sacred.
“HA HA HA!”
He suddenly burst out laughing at my words. I don’t know how it might look to others, but I thought it was the evilest laugh from of all 14-year-olds children out there. Does that laugh mean that he agrees with me?
“Hahaha. Stupid, martial arts have no intelligence. It can’t feel sadness, can it? Hahaha.”
Four years later, I forgot. He doesn’t have any sense of humor.
“Don’t worry. If I teach you, even a lazy bum like you will learn martial arts.”
Now that he has decided to teach me martial arts, it’s too late to convince him otherwise.
Damn, why is he teaching martial arts to his cowardly little brother who appeared after 4 years?
“Okay, hyung. But why… me? Aren’t there any talented person among your knights?”
“They are already practicing other methods, learning this will further complicate them.”
Last resort. If I say this, I will likely get beaten up. Anyway, I already prepared myself before coming here.
“Brother, I’ll be honest. I don’t need it.”
“You may not need it but I need you.”
“What?”
“When someone reaches the peak state, there are some cases where they realize more by teaching. Dharma wrote the Reverse Geunse Suyeong to teach the monks. Even teaching someone like you is like practice for me, isn’t it fun?”
“But the attitude of a person who wants to learn…”
Thud!
My older brother kicked in because he was dissatisfied with my excuses. Because of a boy weighing 70 kg at most, the ground shook and a thick layer of dust rose. If I get soccer kicked by him, my head will probably fly to the southern island.
“Hey, you talk a lot.”
I shut my mouth.
“Think as if I am your master. Even if we are related by blood, you are learning the teachings of your master. Bow down to me to symbolize discipleship.”
I bowed quietly. It would be a humiliating sight for anyone to be a twin brother who was forced to bow to his older brother, but I didn’t care. I bowed once, and when I tried to bow twice, my older brother lightly kicked me and caused me to lose my balance.
“I am not dead, so why are you bowing twice?”
Anyway, I’m from here, so I can say I didn’t know. However, I chose to stay silent.
“What do you choose as your weapon?”
When asked again, I walked to the displayed weapons.
I picked up a red wooden stick.
It will hurt if gets hit, so this is better than a bladed weapon.
“Hey.”
When I lifted the stick, Ranista exclaimed. At that moment, I realized I had made the wrong choice and tried to choose a different weapon, but an unknown and powerful force pulled me like a magnet.
I was thrown in front of Ranista in an instant while holding the stick.
“You have quite discerning eyes. Swinging sticks are easier to learn, and the higher your level, the easier you are to escape from life or death than any other weapon.”
He may have reassured me, but he was Ranista. A person who could torture someone without batting an eye.
* * *
PTSD.
Post-traumatic stress disorder.
Wounds from fractures, a missing tooth, and bruises at the age of 10.
In the same place and in the same situation as the guy who made me like that, my legs were trembling when I looked at him. Using the stick as a staff, I barely stood up and stared at him. This time, it’s different. My Heavenly Sky Eye lets me see everything. I hope my body can keep up with my eyes.
“First, I’ll teach you the basics of building qi, piercing blood, and putting your soul and heart into the Dantian.”
Fortunately, this time, unlike before, it focused more on education than beating. I don’t know when things will change, so I tried to listen to him as much as possible. Following Ranista’s words, I sat up straight.
“It induces qi and builds it up in the Dantian. However, the demonic spirits ignore the providence of nature to obtain a more profit-oriented flow…”
I quietly listened to his teachings. Naegong, Danjeon, Simbeop? Okay. They are worth hearing. Pyocheonmori, Prince Shanghai, Daegolmanli? I wonder what kind of bullshit Ranista was trying to teach me. Didn’t he know that right now, he is no different than reading the sutras?
The crazy people who came from Murim were like that in my previous lives too. However, we, Earthlings, could not learn the martial arts of Murim no matter how much we tried to understand them.
I heard that a lot of research has been done to learn the divine strength of slashing mountains with a sword.
The people of the Murim sometimes also became friends with the people of the earth, and sometimes they shared some of their techniques.
Unlike the others from other worlds, their martial arts were relatively easy to access.
However, Earthlings still couldn’t learn martial arts.
Even their Murim books were nothing more than a collection of dog jokes in the eyes of the Earthlings. Researchers tried to understand it as a science, but there were only philosophical elements, and to follow martial arts straight away was nothing but a ridiculous feat.
Look at that figure—the figure of Ranista, who was suddenly floating, saying that he is showing how to control the qi. I couldn’t understand it, no matter how I looked at it. If I thought I could learn it, I would try.
“Why can’t you follow me? If you gently flow your qi and go to and from the boundary between Sanghwa and Hwama, the qi will automatically pierce through the dantian…”
What? Whatever?
“Hey, are you following me? I’ve been talking for a long time, but it seems like you haven’t understood anything.”
I really can’t understand how qi works.
“Ha ha ha.”
Suddenly, his attitude changed.
“Come here; I will teach it to you myself.”
My legs started trembling. My whole body was trembling.
“I will engrave it on your body.”
Just like four years ago.
* * *
I greeted the maid who came to apply medicine.
“It’s been a while, Michelle.”
The maids in the medical ward were friendly with me. Four years ago, I came here frequently, so it’s good to be close to her.
“First of all, the first young master is too strict. The fourth young master is back after a long time, really…”
The maids were on my side. Ranista became a commander of knights at a young age, but at the same time, he was also a target of fear. I heard that even now, the medical wing of the building next door, used by the knights, is full of patients.
In the end, Ranista started with teaching and ended with beatings.
I was beaten like a dog four years ago. The difference is that, unlike before, there are no external scars. No bones were broken. Although the pain was like having a broken bone.
It didn’t make it any less painful. My stomach was bruised. The wounds engraved this time presented another important lesson about my already missing molars. It’s like a warning. A terrifying warning that Ranista could kill me even without leaving any evidence.
[What do you mean?]
After the beating, while struggling in pain, Ranista suddenly asked me kindly.
[What have you been preparing for 4 years?]
I was in a state of numbness in my judgment because of the pain. So I answered stupidly.
[What should I be preparing?]
[I took a step of peace to understand this world in the way of ‘Murim’. So do our sisters. Each of us has a different way of trying to find out why we were born as quadruplets. But, what were you doing?]
[I…]
I couldn’t tell him that I was hiding from them.
[Were you hiding? But it doesn’t matter. There must be a reason why we were born as brothers and sisters. build up your strength and… don’t be scared; I am not your enemy.]
For some reason, his last words were so warm that I almost fell for it.
Now that I think about it, I was beaten up, but he was not my enemy?
But there were parts of my brother’s words that I could relate to.
Building strength.
“I saw it, I definitely saw it. Hahaha”
Heavenly Sky Eye let me see all the things that couldn’t be seen by others.
If only it gave me physical strength like Ranista.
“Ahhh, it hurts!”
“What are you laughing to yourself young master?”
Michelle handed me a pain reliever.
* * *
‘Is this enough?’
On the training ground, there was a lion-like person left alone.
No, it was a young boy.
‘The feeling at that time was not an illusion.’
He avoided the unavoidable sword path.
Although it had no power, it was the same.
“No talent, ha!”
He laughed.
It was fun.
As if he dared to see through his wit, the ominous eyes that looked at him kept coming to his mind.
Moreover, the more he looked into those eyes, the more he remembered them.
The memories from his past life.
“Those are really creepy eyes.”
