Chapter 3 The Seonwoo Clan – 3

Chapter 3: The Seonwoo Clan – 3

“Brother, have you practiced your martial arts a bit? Since you’ve entered the family head’s private library, why not show us how much you’ve improved?”

The little bastard had probably chosen me as a sacrificial offering to make himself look good in front of the beauties.

He was undoubtedly a cunning bastard, no doubt about it.

But truth be told, my own rage was boiling over just as fiercely.

Even if it’s not the case now, in my past life I had reached the pinnacle of excellence. That experience and insight couldn’t just vanish.

So it was incredibly hard to tolerate the sight of some greenhorn who hadn’t even reached the top tier yet acting all cocky.

‘It’s hard. It really is hard…’

The problem was that my body was struggling even more.

I could trust myself, but I couldn’t trust my current body. Because right now, I was gasping for breath just from walking.

It pained me to realize that the saying ‘more pig than human’ wasn’t so far off.

In the end, I gritted my teeth and decided to retreat as far as possible.

Don’t they say a gentleman’s revenge is never too late?

It seemed wiser to wait for an opportunity after returning to human form.

I foolishly chuckled and tried to placate the guy with kind words.

“How could a day of martial arts training suddenly change anything? It’s just about putting in the effort. Now hurry back, ugh!”

Thud!

But it seemed he had no intention of giving me a choice.

My forearm ached as if it might break.

I’d barely managed to block his sudden lunge and punch.

“What?”

He stared at me with a look of utter surprise.

He seemed utterly surprised that I’d blocked his surprise attack.

But I was just as surprised.

It was truly astonishing that blocking a single punch could hurt this much.

My untrained arm throbbed painfully.

I could have easily dodged it, but my body wouldn’t respond, forcing me to block it.

Once again, I felt utterly hopeless about my body.

“Blocked? Third brother blocked my punch?”

But even that seemed to be enough to shock Fourth Son, Seonwoo-gi.

He stood frozen in place, muttering blankly.

Then, as if they’d been waiting for it, the brothers watching from behind burst into laughter.

“Hahahaha! Kiya, getting blocked by a pig? Isn’t your fist just too slow?!”

“Now that he’s gone, the disgrace of the Seonwoo family will have to be inherited by Ki, brother! Hahahaha!”

It was obvious what they were thinking without even looking.

They must have thought they’d been robbed of a chance to shine in front of Miss Zhuge, but now that their rival, Seonwoo Gi, had shown such a pathetic display, they saw it as an opportunity to tear him down.

Seonwoo Gi’s state after being mocked was beyond words.

Thinking he’d been humiliated in front of the woman he wanted to impress, the bloke, his face flushed crimson, took a proper stance and began charging at me.

“How dare you!”

His fists flew in like the wind, leaving afterimages.

Pabababak!

“Ugh!”

I somehow managed to block them again, but the excruciating pain was searing through my bones.

He wanted to beg him to stop.

But… something felt off.

The movements of this guy, whom I’d clearly never seen before, somehow looked familiar.

‘That’s… definitely?!’

It was none other than the Seonwoo Clan’s martial art, the Whirlwind Thirteen Strikes.

The movements of the Whirlwind Thirteen Strikes, which I had never even practiced, were strikingly familiar to my eyes.

In that instant, he forgot the pain and focused entirely on the kid’s movements.

His hands and feet flew in like a whirlwind, striking with blinding speed. Like small winds merging into a great gale, the fist techniques intertwined exquisitely, neutralizing defenses—advanced techniques of the elite.

That sight perfectly aligned with the secret manual he’d just read in the library.

In that instant, his mind cleared.

He had grasped in an instant what he could never have understood through mere words and pictures.

It felt like pure ecstasy.

Without realizing it, I let out a gasp.

“How wonderful!”

At that, the guy flinched.

“What? What? Good?”

When the bastard suddenly stopped moving, my heart raced.

The movements that had been clicking into place in my head had frozen.

“Ah, no! That just slipped out! What are you doing? Come on, attack! Attack more, more!”

His expression twisted.

It was like he was looking at a pervert.

The other brothers didn’t miss the chance to sneer.

“Pwahahaha! Hey, you like it, huh?!”

“He wants more? Guess he likes your attacks, huh? Hahahaha!”

Then, gnashing his teeth, the bastard’s eyes blazed as he charged again.

“Die!”

“Come on then! Bring it on! Hahahaha!”

I was exhilarated.

What I had learned in my past life were the sword techniques of Jeomchang and Cheongseong, picked up over my shoulder. Naturally, they were just empty shells—I didn’t know their precise forms or how to wield them.

So now, for the first time in two lives, I was properly learning martial arts.

And that too, the martial arts of my own family, the Sunwoo Clan.

As I parried the storm of attacks pouring from the enemy, I finally managed to match every technique in my mind with the real thing.

It felt like a clear bell had rung inside my head.

And in that instant, he attacked me with a technique I could now see as clearly as the palm of my hand.

It was the ‘Whirlwind Wave’ technique—a move that unleashed fist strikes like a gale before instantly shifting to a leg strike to exploit an opening.

I saw his fists flying in, leaving afterimages as they came through the thick arms wrapped around my upper body for defense.

Thud thud thud thud!

His fists pelted my arms like a downpour, and I could see him shifting into a leg technique.

In that instant, I took a step forward without even realizing it.

His opening, which had seemed awkward and under-trained since earlier, was now clearly visible.

Stepping forward, I swiftly thrust out a long fist. His chest, rushing forward of its own accord, collided with it.

Thud!

The heavy pressure sent a tingling sensation through my palm.

“Gah!”

He was flung backward at the same speed he’d come, spitting blood from his mouth.

Thud!

As his body was flung onto the grass, I too collapsed, as if the tension had finally left me.

“Gasp, gasp!”

It seemed I had pushed myself to the absolute limit of what this body could handle.

In that instant, even the older brothers who had been mocking Seonwugi fell silent.

The sight of Sunwoo-gi, his eyes rolled back, unconscious, seemed to throw them into a state of utter panic.

But they quickly regained their senses and began approaching me with fierce eyes.

“You pig got lucky.”

“Why don’t you show us that trick again?”

This was bad.

Now he truly had no strength left to get up.

‘Damn it. This can’t be happening.’

Cold sweat poured down his back.

Getting hit didn’t matter, but right now, he could feel murder in their eyes. If he got badly hurt and couldn’t return to Seoro, nothing would feel more unjust.

He tried to salvage the situation.

“Hey, guys! It seems like I’ve seriously damaged my ki by mistake! Shouldn’t we check the details of the ki first?!”

But they just snorted in derision.

“Hmph! Who’s going to worry about who?!”

“Ki himself would want revenge on you!”

That was when it happened.

In that moment of crisis, an unexpected savior appeared.

None other than the very person who had put me in this predicament, Lady Zhuge.

“Your younger brother is injured, yet instead of tending to his wounds, you’re tormenting someone too exhausted to even stand? Truly disappointing. Isn’t that right, Qingyan?”

Then, the woman standing half a step behind Zhuge Xiaojie, her eyes hidden by her bangs, nodded stiffly. With that, the situation abruptly ended.

The flustered brothers scrambled to make excuses and rushed over to Sunwoo Gi.

“Ah, no! That’s not it! We were just about to check on our younger brother’s condition!”

“I’m already checking! Giyo, are you alright?!”

A hollow laugh escaped him.

Truly, it was a pitiful sight.

To think I’d been living all this time at the mercy of such fools.

I was just as pathetic myself.

Then again, if those bastards had been decent people, we’d have been on good terms by now.

Like my friend Danhasang.

Suddenly, the face of my friend, who had died unjustly, flashed before my eyes.

Even though I’d returned to the past, I could only see him dead. I resolved once more, firmly:

‘Hasan, I will find the murderer who harmed you. And I will make them pay.’

While I was lost in these thoughts, my brothers carried the unconscious Seonwoo-gi and vanished before my eyes as swiftly as an ebbing tide.

Only the young lady with the long bangs, whom Jegal called Cheongyeon, remained, gazing at me with a meaningful look until the very end.

Now that they were all gone, I lay sprawled on the empty grass, gasping for breath for a long while longer.

White clouds drifted leisurely across the blue sky.

Then, suddenly, a shadow fell across my face.

Seonwoo Jung, my father, was looking down at me. I didn’t notice when he had arrived.

Startled, I cried out.

“Ah, Father?!”

My heart sank.

I feared he would think I was being lazy, even though he had gone to the trouble of sending me to the exclusive library for the head of the household.

“I, I mean, I’m just…!”

It was strange.

Somehow, disappointing a father I’d never once missed in my past life felt far more terrifying than being beaten by my brothers.

But the look in his eyes wasn’t one of disappointment.

His gaze held something sorrowful, and an emotion I’d never seen in him before.

An emotion so unfamiliar it was almost unbelievable.

He spoke to me softly, gently.

“You’ve been through a lot, Jin-ah. And…”

Words I’d never heard from his mouth before, utterly unbelievable, were flowing out.

“You’re admirable.”

Something welled up inside me.

I didn’t know what expression to make.

She could only barely suppress the rising emotion.

Then Father suddenly turned his gaze skyward and murmured as if reciting poetry.

“Do you know? Of the four marriages I had, only one was truly what I wanted.”

It was the first time I’d ever heard this.

“Back then, I thought it was simply what I had to do for the family. But… now, I’m not so sure.”

His voice was so desolate it made my heart ache.

But at the same time, my mind was in turmoil, and I couldn’t understand what he meant.

No, to be precise, I couldn’t believe it.

‘So, that one marriage out of the four that you said was your own choice—could it be…?’

Not knowing what to say, I just looked at my father with a pained expression. Then, suddenly changing the mood, he smiled faintly and said.

“Have you read the secret manual of the Seonwoo Thirteen Swords?”

“Huh? Yes! I have.”

Then, my father slowly walked toward the open grassy field and said.

“I intend to practice sword techniques for the first time in a long while. You should rest a bit and then go back inside.”

Then he began to slowly unfold his sword techniques.

It was the Sunwoo Thirteen Swords.

From start to finish, very slowly.

Then again from the beginning, a bit faster.

He repeated it several times, gradually increasing the speed.

Over and over, again and again.

Until I could watch no more.

By the third time I watched, I could already understand every move.

But still, I kept watching my father’s sword dance.

Mesmerized, endlessly.

Somehow, this very moment felt like it would never fade from my memory.

And when my father’s breathing grew heavy, I slowly bowed to him and stepped back inside the study.

The thought that perhaps I could stop reading martial arts manuals now had long since vanished.

As if for the first time. No, with even greater focus than before, he began reading the book again.

I didn’t want to waste a single moment of this time.

After finishing the martial arts manuals, the last books I read were like the diaries of my ancestors.

They recorded various experiences and insights, but I still couldn’t understand them at all.

‘Well, even the basics were hard to grasp. It would be strange if I understood the insights already.’

Finally, as I finished the last volume and was about to place it back on the bookshelf, I suddenly felt a slightly odd sensation and pulled the book out again.

Then I examined it closely.

‘This…?’

No matter how I looked at it, the thickness of one side of the cover seemed off.

Compared to one side, the other was far too thick.

I knew this well from when I worked on the front lines and had uncovered spies who passed messages this way.

Something was definitely hidden inside the cover.

Carefully, I tore open the cover and split it apart.

“Just as I thought!”

Inside was a thinly folded piece of paper.

And on that paper, several drawings and words were written on both sides, with a large title written at the top of each side.

‘Fourteen Seconds’, ‘Fifteen Seconds’.

Fourteen seconds, fifteen seconds…

“…No way?”

I was probably the first to discover this.