Chapter 08
What’s fun about making someone get beaten up?
I was quietly boiling with anger to myself when I heard giggling nearby. Judging by the clothes, they weren’t Moyong Biyeon’s maids but other palace attendants.
I was already annoyed from being hit out of nowhere, and now they were laughing at me? My rising irritation made me glare at them, and all their eyes immediately looked away.
“Hmph.”
Pretending not to notice? One of them, who had met my gaze, suddenly started coughing as if choked.
“Don’t make a fuss.”
Searanhwa spoke quietly and tugged my sleeve. It was in the Garin language.
“I’m not.”
It would be too noisy to engage with them anyway. As I turned my head, I heard whispering behind me in Mongolian.
Fine, you think you’re so great. Good for you, mighty Mongols.
I vaguely listened to the maids’ gossip. If I didn’t focus, I couldn’t even interpret Mongolian quickly enough to hear it.
After the greetings ended, the concubines started to come out one by one. For some reason, Moyong Biyeon was acting friendly with Wang Seonhwa.
I didn’t want them to get close, but there was no way to stop it. Could I really tell her that her household would be doomed because of that?
As Moyong Biyeon approached while talking with Wang Seonhwa, he stopped in front of me and scanned me from head to toe. Was he trying to pick a fight again?
“You need to learn how to hide things. Your expression, and this as well.”
The opened fan passed in front of me. In that instant, he pointed at my stomach.
My stomach? There’s nothing on my stomach… Ah.
Could it be that he noticed that “Shin-wan” had learned martial arts?
Some time had passed since arriving at the Daedo Imperial Palace.
During that time, at the Gyeongsabang (敬事房), Wang Seonhwa tried to delay her marriage night by using her monthly cycle and health as excuses.
Even so, her favor with the emperor remained strong, so he had the imperial medical office bring her all kinds of rare medicinal herbs.
At first, I wondered why the emperor treated Wang Seonhwa so well, but later I heard the story. When he was a prince in Hwon, he had been exiled to Garin’s Daecheongdo after losing a succession dispute.
And the girl he met there, Wang Seonhwa, was his first love—a truly tearful story.
No wonder the emperor pushed Wang A-seon, not Wang Tadok, as crown prince.
While Wang Seonhwa was brewing medicinal herbs she didn’t even normally eat, the attendant brought bundles of letters and parcels.
The replies to letters sent to Garin after leaving Simyang had finally arrived.
“Ma’am, letters from Garin have arrived.”
“Bring them quickly.”
Wang Seonhwa’s face brightened. She eagerly opened the letters, then handed two of them to me.
“These are for you. And this too.”
I opened the parcel she pointed to and found a book without a cover. I hadn’t sent any letters—what could this be?
“For me?”
“Yes. Look at it from the side.”
Upon closer inspection, the two letters were made of very different quality paper. One even had a faint scent. I opened the rougher paper first.
Strong, bold handwriting caught my eye.
“I heard the news. Why do you worry me without writing even one line? Surely you haven’t forgotten this senior brother? I believe you haven’t. A senior I raised since infancy wouldn’t forget me.”
The letter began without any greeting. So, there was a senior brother.
Ah… could this be the boy I first saw in my hallucinations?
“I thought you might need this, though I’m not sure if it reached you. If you didn’t receive it, find it and dispose of it.”
Was this about the book? Fortunately, it arrived, so I didn’t have to search for it.
“See you soon. Take care.
– Jin Suo (秦修悟)”
Now I remembered that Wang Seonhwa had mentioned someone named Suo. So the person who would be sad about my lost memories was this senior brother.
Would he also be coming to Hwon? I can’t leave the palace, so how could I meet him? Even if he’s not from a Central Plains sect, it would still be hard for a martial artist to enter the palace.
“I heard Senior Jin became the East Palace Dragon Tamer. Maybe he’s following your brother.”
Wang Seonhwa, curious about the contents, commented from the side. Ah, he’s undercover too, like me.
“Don’t you want to look?”
“Do you want to see it together?”
Even without asking, she was watching, but I asked anyway. Wang Seonhwa waved her hand and shook her head.
“No, you read it alone.”
Didn’t she care much because she had already skimmed it earlier?
Wang Seonhwa picked up a romance novel that had been quietly circulating among the palace maids. Seventeen-year-olds would find that kind of thing interesting.
I opened the letter from someone whose name I didn’t know. The faint scent of sandalwood drifted from the folded paper.
Wang Seonhwa had mentioned that the Baeksan Sect practiced a single-transmission principle—no other members were allowed.
There was the Grand Master, the original disciple and heir Jin Suo, and the second disciple who was the exception: me, Shin-wan.
Could this letter be from the Master?
The scent of sandalwood made me feel like it could be from the Master, and opening the paper fully, the fragrance grew stronger.
“Wan-a, read this.”
They say you can tell who wrote something by their handwriting. Even though I don’t know much about calligraphy, the characters looked beautiful—consistent stroke thickness and soft flaring ends.
The handwriting was worthy of praise even from the Grand Master.
I wanted to know who wrote it, so I checked the end first—but there was no name.
I had no choice but to start reading from the beginning.
“I don’t know how to start. Even if you’ve read many letters, what use is it if you can’t write a single line?”
Not the Master then.
“After you left, my heart felt as if a stone was placed upon it. I shouldn’t have let you go like that. I shouldn’t have failed to smile, or scolded you—but all I have is regret.
I can’t imagine how heavy your heart must have been.”
I immediately recognized the sender. This must be Wang A-seon. The image of him shouting in the rain during the hallucination was still vivid.
“I heard you lost your memories. I hope the memories of that time never return. Will you understand my feelings?
However, even if you forget all the time we spent together, please remember the one promise from that day.
I’ll be going to Yan-jing soon, and I hope to at least see your face.
Please stay safe.”
Was the promise to pursue their respective duties in Garin and Hwon? I vaguely remembered the hallucination, but I couldn’t recall their exact goals.
After struggling to remember for a while, I gave up and continued reading.
The letter ended, but the postscript was longer than the main text.
Who writes letters like this?
It seemed to contain trivial shared memories: which flowers bloomed again, how the little ones grew, how the cat succeeded at hunting for the first time.
Reading someone else’s letter in secret felt oddly strange.
“Finished reading?”
“Yes.”
Wang Seonhwa didn’t particularly ask about the contents. Perhaps she could guess and didn’t need to ask.
Now, what was the book about?
“Ugh.”
When I opened it, I squeezed my eyes shut. The text was tiny—almost microscopic. Seriously, it seemed like rice grains. How was anyone supposed to read this?
“Wan-a, you’ll end up inside the book at this rate.”
“Too small to read.”
Finding this amusing, Wang Seonhwa chuckled while I began reading, resentful at the unknown sender Jin Suo.
…Ah, this is a martial arts manual.
Starting with the basic Baeksan Shin-gong, the book contained all of Baeksan’s martial arts. I rescinded my resentment—senior brother really is a good person.
With this, I could potentially learn to use all weapons, not just the bow. After fully mastering Baeksan Shin-gong, the applications of Baekmang techniques would be limitless.
My heart thumping, I eagerly turned the pages. I had no idea how much I could learn from this one manual.
It seemed some techniques from Gwak Jagyu’s Baeksan Shin-gong were missing—had I been practicing them incorrectly?
After the internal skills came footwork—the foundation of all martial arts.
Stances (Kangye-bu /寒鷄步), foot techniques, fist techniques, palm techniques, hand techniques.
Weapons: sword, blade, spear.
Special techniques using hidden weapons and whips, brush techniques using the Pan-Gwan brush, and…
Archery, which I was already familiar with.
“…Why is it so short?”
Compared to other martial arts, it was brief. Reading carefully, I noticed a footnote in the corner:
“During the two-century revival of Balhae from 926, many Baeksan disciples died, and in the process, disciples of the Oksoegak (玉碎閣) were annihilated…
‘Most of Baeksan’s archery techniques were lost.’”
