Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

Proof of the Irrational (1)

"You have no talent."

That was what his teacher said as he tapped his own head with a stick.

"You are dull and stupid, capable only of gripping a sword and swinging it around."

His teacher always told him that.

His teacher—one of Korea's most renowned sword masters and an S-rank awakened—was a peerless genius.

Before such a teacher, he had always been nothing more than an inadequate student.

"Why can't you understand? The sword is not just a tool to be swung around."

He didn't know.

No matter how many times he heard these abstract words, he could never understand them.

Is this what it means to lack talent?

"As expected of Hunter Jung Yoo-shin's student! Like teacher, like student, I suppose."

"Yes, he's truly a genius on par with his master. The future of Korea is bright."

Yet, everyone else in the world called him a genius.

The experts who spoke of his mastery, the hunters who had fought against him—everyone said the same thing.

"Is this what it means to be a genius?"

"As expected, he's different—just the kind of disciple worthy of his master."

He wanted to deny those words.

But he did not.

Because he believed it was his duty to accept them.

"Hojun, do you not think that you are unhappy?"

"I do not think so."

"Is that to say, you don't resent being born without enough talent?"

He did not know what his teacher meant by this.

But Hojun looked directly into his teacher's clear, honest eyes.

"I certainly lack talent. But I consider myself fortunate."

"Fortunate?"

"I became your disciple—something everyone dreams of—and I have a sturdy body that can make up for my lack of talent."

He knew what he lacked.

Knowing was enough.

He possessed a body sturdy enough to allow him to work hard.

So he worked.

Continuously—more than anyone else.

And just that was enough for everyone to praise him as a genius.

If that was the karma of being a genius's disciple, he could accept it.

"If the world calls me a genius, then so be it."

His duty as a genius's disciple—to inherit and carry on the legacy.

Therefore, he must not be a fool.

Because that is what the world wanted.

After quietly listening, his teacher finally spoke.

"Indeed, you are the 'Thousand Sword'."

"Pardon?"

"If a genius needs only one sword, you require a thousand to reach the same point. What they achieve in a day, you must labor a thousand days for just a glimpse."

It was the first time he heard such words, calm, yet with intense anger in his teacher's tone.

He did not understand what that anger was directed toward.

Honestly, even now he did not know, but perhaps those words had been spoken out of concern for him.

"When you witness true talent, will you still be able to remain unbroken?"

After that, his teacher called him the 'Thousand Sword'.

It was not the impressive title the world thought it was.

It simply meant that, in order to achieve one thing, he had to break a thousand swords—clumsy as he was.

KWA-KWA-KWANG!!!

Blades of light fell from the sky and slammed into the arena.

With the downpour of countless blades, staff members had to scatter in a hurry to save themselves.

"They're really fighting at full power, aren't they?"

"Is that okay? Isn't Hunter Lee Soo-ah going to die?"

No one expected Baek Hojun would fight with all his might.

As the disciple of Jung Yoo-shin, the Divine Sword, and one who, alongside the Sword King, represented Korea with his swordsmanship—

To achieve such mastery by his thirties was rare by global standards.

Except, of course, for Shin Ah-yeon, the youngest ever S-rank Hunter who reached that level as a teenager.

If Baek Hojun truly went all out against Lee Soo-ah, who was only twenty-one, then the battle would end instantly.

"Isn't this going to be a broadcast accident?"

Even PD Do shuddered.

The fight unfolding before their eyes was being broadcast live via cameras.

If a fatal accident occurred here, it might not simply end with him resigning.

'Damn it, it's all or nothing.'

Some things could only be achieved by taking risks.

Bust or jackpot.

PD Do prayed for a jackpot.

"Is that all?"

Baek Hojun's even voice emerged from the thick dust cloud.

"Just dodging will mean nothing."

A sharpness tinged his words, unlike before.

Soo-ah felt his voice was like a blade.

A thousand blades fell from the heavens—just blocking them left Soo-ah's clothes slashed all over.

'No major injuries, but....'

Her body trembled.

The Thousand Sword, Baek Hojun's full power, far exceeded her expectations.

And if Shin Ah-yeon at her peak surpassed even this Baek Hojun, she could not even imagine that level.

"He said it, you know."

By the time she blinked, Hojun was already right in front of her.

She instinctively raised her sword, sparks flying as his black blade grazed her cheek.

"He said you were a genius."

Up, down, diagonally—without pause, Baek Hojun's sword swept at her.

"Not just a raw gem."

KAANG!!

Hojun's upward swing knocked Soo-ah's sword high.

She barely managed to hold onto her blade with a strong grip, but it left her guard wide open.

Hojun did not miss that instant, and kicked Soo-ah in the stomach.

"......!!"

Without even time for a scream, Soo-ah's body was flung backward, rolling across the ground.

She could hardly even breathe for the pain, but desperately rolled to the side.

"Already a completed existence."

A blade of light crashed down vertically, striking the spot where she had just fallen.

Had she not rolled away, her back would have been pierced straight through.

"I really can't understand."

Watching her, Hojun murmured.

It was all as expected. Soo-ah was impressive, but merely at the level of an A-rank Hunter.

Better than Ju Ji-sang, but she wasn't even close to S-rank like Ji Yeon-hwa.

Just an A-rank Hunter with a bit of talent.

"What did he see in you that made him think you could do this?"

Catching her breath, clutching her aching side with her left hand, raising her sword toward Baek Hojun with her right, Soo-ah understood that the "he"

Hojun referred to was Jung-woo.

It was always Jung-woo who said she could do it.

"If that really is all you have, then he saw wrong. He was mistaken."

Soo-ah gnashed her teeth at Hojun's words.

Regardless of herself, she wanted to deny his claim.

She wanted to prove Jung-woo was not wrong.

'I can do it.'

Jung-woo always said so to her.

But he never exactly told her what she could do.

'What is it I can do?'

She had never thought about that herself.

Never—not once.

Because whenever she tried, everyone always said she couldn't.

'I...'

As Baek Hojun's blade rushed at her, Soo-ah opened her eyes wide.

A blue flash darted across her vision.

She saw a path.

She traced the curve of its trajectory.

"Oh."

With Baek Hojun's brief exclamation, a drop of blood splattered on Soo-ah's cheek.

She twisted her body along the trajectory but failed to dodge perfectly.

'What I can do.'

When had she stopped thinking about it?

When her body was ruined by magic power fission?

Or maybe from the very moment she became an awakened?

Looking back, Soo-ah's life had always been on its heels.

Buffeted by others' words, she often made poor choices.

"It doesn't really matter, does it?"

Coming back from watching baseball, sitting in the car, Jung-woo once said so.

"You can't always take the straight path. In the end, all that matters is that you arrive at your destination—one way or another."

Soo-ah had always gone the long way around.

There was never a direct, easy path, with so many obstacles in her way.

"Yes, Soo-ah-ssi, you really have come far. But was it meaningless? I don't think so."

Her body was consumed by magic power fission.

Reviled and ostracized by everyone.

"But you never stopped trying, Soo-ah-ssi."

No one else had ever said that to her.

"You wandered and went in circles, lost in the unknown, but that's fine."

So she never really knew what she could do.

She didn't want to know. Wasn't even curious to find out.

"Still, I think you'll catch up quickly, Soo-ah-ssi."

But now, it was different.

She wanted to know what Jung-woo saw in her.

"I believe that you have such talent, Soo-ah-ssi... I truly believe it."

The talent Jung-woo believed in.

She needed to believe it too.

Because that was the beginning.

In that case, what should she do now?

If she thought about it that way, the answer was simple.

"To know myself."

Blue flames flared up.

Hojun's sword, which had grazed her cheek, seemed to move in slow motion in a world of black and white.

Now, where would it go next?

As she thought this, the blue flames began to move.

Like painting over a black-and-white world with blue paint, soft curves traced the air.

Like a child's doodle.

One stroke. Another stroke—the blue trail curled in every direction.

The thick blue lines painted haphazardly across the monochrome world began, at last, to connect and form a path.

She heard no sound from the audience.

All she could see was black and white.

All she could hear was a ringing like the wind.

And within, blue flames spreading everywhere.

KUUNG!!

Soo-ah stamped her foot hard forward.

The arena shattered by Baek Hojun's sword broke apart like a spiderweb, sending debris flying everywhere.

Come to think of it, she'd never driven her body to its limit before.

Pain always flared up before that, and magic power fission burned her body.

Even now that she had recovered from magic power fission, the memories remained vivid.

She was afraid.

Terrified.

Afraid that she would break again.

Afraid that it would even burn away this fragile hope she had now.

'But...'

She gripped her sword tightly.

Magic power surged from the mana hall in her abdomen and spun in a loop near her solar plexus.

That magic power spread throughout her entire body.

KWAJEEJIK!!

As she stepped forward, as shattered debris fell, Hojun's sword and Soo-ah's sword collided.

The arena, made of special metal, crumpled like a lie, their feet digging deeper into the ground.

"This is..."

Hojun squinted at the sword that, unlike before, was no longer pushed back.

Until now, Soo-ah's magic power had always stagnated near her solar plexus.

But now, as the rotational speed increased, Soo-ah's magic power began to explode outward.

'Let's do it.'

Soo-ah felt it herself.

The magic power, ready to burst at any moment.

'Let's see how far I can go.'

Within the black and white vision, blue flames flickered.

Those blue trails showed the future path of Hojun's blade.

KAGAKAK!!

Toward it, Soo-ah did not dodge but met it head on.

Sparks flew as the two swords clashed in the air.

"I see."

Hojun too, now met Soo-ah's blade head-on.

He saw it with his own eyes.

The shell Jung-woo mentioned, gradually breaking away from Soo-ah.

She was discovering for herself—

'How much strength she could draw out,'

With every clash of the sword against Hojun's sword, bit by bit.

'How fast she could move,'

Over and over.

Again and again,

Clashing swords countless times,

Until she could fully understand herself.

KWAJEEJIK!!

The sound of something breaking filled the air.

Soo-ah didn't know what it was.

All she could see were blue flames.

The magic power spinning near her solar plexus shot up to her head.

And then the hateful blue flame that always used to burn her began to consume her whole body.

But this fire felt different from before.

It burned away the hideous burn marks disfiguring her face.

Her skin, her bones—

All the things that had ruined her up to now.

"What... is that?"

Someone in the audience muttered.

Soo-ah, striding through the blue flames, looked utterly changed.

Her once-hunched back, the ugly scars—

All gone.

As if they had never existed.

Step, step.

Her hair spilt from beneath her torn hoodie, rippling like flames.

Each step raised blue fire from her feet, burning away the ambient magic power.

She looked like the very incarnation of flame.

A spirit of fire that seemed to burn everything she touched.

"This was it."

Only then did Hojun understand what Jung-woo had meant.

As she walked slowly out of the blue fire, she was nothing like the old Soo-ah.

Proof of the Irrational.

An incomprehensible being, different from ordinary folk like himself.

The world—

Calls such a person a genius.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】