After taking Kiril as a disciple, Yujin‘s daily routine became somewhat repetitive. Time flowed steadily, marked by the daily cycles of training Kiril in swordsmanship and—as an added bonus—putting Kisha through her paces.
Since they were both still young, he couldn't subject them to "real" combat training yet, but he treated it as essential preparation. Kiril learned the fundamentals of the blade, while Yujin focused on building up Kisha‘s frail constitution and stamina.
"Huff... huff... Old man... please have mercy..."
Kisha occasionally collapsed while running laps through the park, groaning as if her life were ending, but Yujin remained unmoved. He knew human limits better than anyone, ensuring they worked hard but allowing for adequate rest when truly needed.
Kiril seemed to genuinely relish learning the blade. He met Yujin in the park with the intensity of a protagonist in a hot-blooded novel. Passersby would sometimes linger to watch, but a single glance from Yujin was enough to make them avert their eyes and hurry away.
One day, Kiril looked up at him curiously.
"Master, why does everyone run away the second they meet your eyes?"
Instead of answering with words, Yujin showed him.
The gap between them seemed to widen.
The air grew heavy.
Kiril‘s skin prickled as if time itself had frozen, and then, Yujin gave a small smile.
"It‘s just like that."
The boy exhaled a sharp, jagged breath as the compressed tension suddenly evaporated. He couldn't even process what had just happened.
"H-how..."
"I just projected a bit of pressure to tell them not to bother us. What I just did to you was a bit more concentrated, though."
Yujin spoke as if it were a minor trick, but to Kiril, who had felt it firsthand, it felt like staring into the abyss. He wondered why his Master went to such lengths to keep eyes off them. Unable to grasp Yujin‘s intent, the boy simply focused back on his training.
As he swung his wooden sword, Kiril felt a secret sense of relief. It was better that people didn't notice him. Any citizen of Kazimierz who knew the great houses might recognize the shade of his hair or the tint of his eyes. He wasn't lying to his Master—Kiril truly was his name—he was simply omitting his family name.
"Sigh..."
No one would teach him the blade. If he asked within his own family, his father would shut it down. Finding an outside master had been effectively impossible—until he met Yujin. Though his initial misfortunes had made him prickly and rude at first, Kiril now knew Yujin was a good man and a mentor worth following.
"You're doing it wrong again."
Sometimes Yujin's explanations were impossible to follow, but Kiril chalked it up to the gap between a genius and an average man. The important thing was that he was learning. And after he mastered the sword... Kiril had something he had to do.
While Kiril practiced with grim resolve, Kisha ran laps with a miserable expression. Her favorite part of meeting Yujin had been the delivery food they shared in the park, but Kiril had ruined that happiness. Now that Yujin was training the boy, he had decided Kisha needed to build stamina as well.
The drop in her quality of life was significant. Instead of delicious roasted meats, she was now being forced to eat salads. As a child, she felt the injustice deeply.
"Eat your greens as well as your meat," Yujin would lecture. "Back in my day, we were lucky to even see a scrap of lettuce."
She couldn't exactly leave food on her plate after hearing that. She grumbled but forced the greens down and kept running. Yet, she could feel herself changing. Tasks that used to leave her breathless and clutching her chest were becoming manageable.
Yujin watched them both with a sense of pride. Kiril and Kisha both had talent. As he had suspected, Kiril‘s high-born blood granted him a natural affinity for combat, but Kisha‘s potential was just as great.
Yujin‘s satisfying day came to an abrupt halt the moment he stepped back into his inn.
The interior was a disaster.
"…What happened?"
Arrows were embedded in the walls. Tables and chairs were reduced to splinters. The bar where he and Daniel usually shared their meals was smashed.
At the far end of the room stood a figure looking down at Daniel. The intruder was clad entirely in pure, snow-white garments. Their face was obscured, but their presence was unmistakable.
This is the one who did this, Yujin realized. He looked at Daniel, who was bleeding from a cut on his lip and being held by the collar.
"Don't!" Daniel shouted the moment he saw Yujin reach for his sword. He looked desperate, as if he couldn't bear to see any more violence.
"…This is your final warning."
The intruder looked between Daniel and Yujin, released the older man‘s collar, and began to walk out. As they passed Yujin, they shoved his shoulder.
"You‘re lucky. If you had drawn that blade, you'd be dead by now."
It was a blatant provocation. Daniel tried to limp toward Yujin, but the boy had already reached his limit.
"I was going to let it slide, but I‘ve changed my mind."
BANG!
The door had just swung open when Yujin‘s foot connected with the intruder's side. He looked at the white-clad figure with genuine surprise.
"You blocked that? I tried to time it for the moment the door opened so I wouldn't break the frame."
"You...!"
The intruder had used their heavy bow to parry the kick and was now staring at Yujin with calculated intensity. Just as they moved to draw the bowstring with supernatural speed, Yujin flicked a stone to disrupt their aim.
"Name."
"What?"
"Give me your name. It‘s a hobby of mine to hear a man's name before I kill him."
The intruder swiped the stone away and scowled.
"Platinum. That is all you need to know."
"Sounds like a code name, but whatever."
Looking closer, Yujin realized he couldn't hear the intruder‘s footsteps. Her presence was almost entirely suppressed—a professional's silence.
Platinum narrowed her eyes at Yujin. He was an unexpected variable. Her mission had been simple: intimidate Daniel Nearl and force a withdrawal. He didn't fit the profile of a bodyguard; the Armorless Union had a list of every notable knight and master in Kazimierz. This boy wasn't on it.
Is he a mercenary? But how can a mere sellsword match a senior member of the Union?
She had already dealt with Daniel‘s other guards, but she felt a spike of unease. She had a gut feeling that the moment the boy drew his steel, her life would be forfeit.
Fall back. Wait for a better opening.
With that judgment, Platinum used her impressive leg strength to wall-run up the building, attempting to escape.
"You‘re underestimating me."
"This is impossible—!!"
Yujin didn't even use the walls. Using pure, raw physical power, he leaped straight up from the ground, soaring higher than Platinum. He didn't draw his sword; he reached out with his bare hand, intending to slam her back into the pavement.
Sensing that being caught would mean a terminal injury, Platinum twisted her body mid-air, but he was already upon her.
Then, for a split second, something shimmered in the distance.
Yujin‘s heightened instincts screamed a warning. In the gaps between the glowing neon signs of the city's skyline, he saw an ominous black streak in the sky.
It was more than an observation; it was a premonition. His instincts triggered a reflex.
In the moment he reached for Platinum, the darkness flashed.
A black spear, traveling at a velocity the human eye could barely track, whistled through the air toward him. Mid-air, Yujin drew his blade in a blur, spinning half a rotation to cleave the projectile in two.
He couldn't cut it. The material was impossibly dense, and the momentum was that of a perfected ambush.
Yujin managed to deflect the projectile and looked toward the source. The world around him turned grayscale as he focused his vision on a distant rooftop. Two figures, wreathed in darkness, were visible against the night sky.
His hands were numb from the impact. A normal warrior would have been skewered and pinned to a wall like a trophy, but Yujin had held his ground.
"Hah. I see."
He looked at the 'spear' he had deflected. Close up, it wasn't a spear at all.
"…I guess it would be weird if the road were actually easy."
It was an arrow. A black arrow longer than a grown man.
"Why are the Darkirons here?!" Platinum hissed.
"So their names are Darkiron?" Yujin asked, turning to grab her, but the darkness flashed again.
This time, the target wasn't Yujin.
"You bastards...!"
The second arrow was aimed squarely at Daniel.
Dropping from the air, Yujin slammed his feet against the wall of the building. The concrete buckled under the force, but he used the recoil to launch himself toward Daniel.
As the black arrow streaked toward the old man, Yujin arrived a heartbeat faster, gripping his sword with both hands.
Platinum light clashed with obsidian shadow. The impact created a shockwave and a cloud of dust that obscured everything. Yujin swung his sword to clear the air.
"…Dammit."
The arrow had been split in two by Yujin‘s strike, but Platinum was gone.
The night quieted, leaving only the wreckage of the tavern behind.