Giving Out Gifts (2)

Baek Hwayeon, who had entered her dormitory, buried her face in her pillow. After rubbing her face against the pillow for a moment, Baek Hwayeon turned her body to look at the ceiling.

And she lifted up the necklace she had received from Lee Dojin.

‘Even if Dojin is a guy obsessed with swords, would he give something like this to just anyone?’

She didn’t think it was love.

Because Lee Dojin didn’t seem to be in a state to have such romantic feelings yet.

A clear sign of affection.

That’s what Baek Hwayeon thought. It was also a situation where she couldn’t help but think that way.

-It’s a gift. It’s not an artifact. Just a necklace, but…

However, Lee Dojin had already revealed with his own mouth that he was crazier than she imagined.

-I’m giving these to people I’m grateful to.

Baek Hwayeon was so nervous when she saw the necklace that she didn’t properly hear this latter part.

Baek Hwayeon, crushed by her own delusions, tossed and turned alone before finally falling asleep.

---

6:40 AM.

Lee Dojin woke up early as usual.

And headed to the training ground exclusive to first-year combat students.

The blind swordswoman.

Ryu Jia was swinging her wooden sword as usual.

Jia drew a faint smile at the familiar presence.

“It’s only been two days since we last met. But it feels like it’s been quite a long time.”

Lee Dojin agreed with those words.

“It does.”

It really felt like it had been a long time.

Lee Dojin stood next to Ryu Jia and swung his wooden sword.

The trajectories of the two wooden swords fell steadily from top to bottom.

The same foot placement.

And sword paths at the same speed.

They stood side by side swinging their swords like that for about 10 minutes.

Ryu Jia’s wooden sword suddenly stopped.

Lee Dojin thought there must be a reason and stopped his wooden sword with a slight gap.

“Shall we have a sparring match after a long time?”

Ryu Jia faced Lee Dojin with her eyes closed.

“Sure.”

“This time, let’s add a little variation. Like real combat. Using sword aura too. I’ll use a real sword. Dojin… you’ll still use a wooden sword, right?”

“Yeah, I’m most comfortable with a wooden sword. But will you be okay?”

“I think we need this kind of variation sometimes.”

Lee Dojin didn’t find Ryu Jia’s small change in attitude strange.

After all, a swordsman should be a being that constantly changes.

And the sword he had seen from Ryu Jia so far wasn’t the level of strength that someone stuck in a mold could have.

He concluded that this was just another side of Ryu Jia.

“The training ground is a bit dangerous. Let’s go to the mountain behind.”

The open space on the mountain behind.

That place was also one of the wide areas of Iroaz Academy.

They both put on battle suits for sparring.

Sword aura rose from both of their swords.

Ryu Jia saw the approaching light.

A very clear light.

‘Has he crossed some threshold again?’

The aura emanating from Lee Dojin’s body felt more intense.

She maximizes all the senses in her body.

The ground becomes visible. The shape of the land becomes concrete through her ki sense.

The light walking on that ground.

And a streak of light extending from his hand.

Ryu Jia stepped forward and moved her hand.

Kwang!

Their swords clashed.

And dozens of exchanges followed. They both knew.

That the other would counter this level of sword path.

It was just an exchange of moderate sword strikes.

“I know.”

Ryu Jia, who had stopped, suddenly opened her mouth.

“That Dojin is far above me. So I can show my best.”

Lee Dojin also lowered his sword and caught his breath for a moment.

“I don’t think I’m that far above.”

Ryu Jia chuckled at Lee Dojin’s considerate words.

“You have a cute side.”

The blue sword aura of Ryu Jia, who gripped her sword again, became even clearer than before.

“I’ll get a little more serious.”

Swift sword.

The foundation of Ryu Jia’s swordsmanship lies in swift sword.

And he could vaguely guess why.

Blind.

Ki sense and hearing. While her spatial sense was superior to others, she couldn’t maintain it continuously.

Innate inequality that would inevitably become overwhelmingly disadvantageous if variables arise where time lengthens or she faces multiple opponents.

And to offset that weakness, the only option was to literally quickly kill the enemy.

So Ryu Jia’s sword was far from merciful.

Rather, it would be one of the top three killing swords among the swordsmen in the first-year combat class.

Swish!

Two blue blades rushed towards Lee Dojin’s neck and heart.

The rapid thrusts themselves, struck in succession, confused the opponent’s eyes.

But Lee Dojin wasn’t flustered at all by those consecutive strikes.

It was simply a matter of cutting them down.

Lee Dojin stepped forward.

A colorless horizontal slash swallowed the front. The blue light streams were crushed by the slash and decomposed in mid-air.

Ryu Jia’s movements weren’t delayed at all. Because she knew from the start that it would be broken through.

Ryu Jia suddenly threw her body backwards and then kicked off the ground to rotate her body.

An elegant aerial flip.

And a single slash was shot from her bosom.

‘Dark Shadow Ferry Style (暗影船津流).’

Lee Dojin recalled the name of the sword technique Ryu Jia had told him about sometime.

He was certain that the techniques she was displaying now were from that sword style.

Lee Dojin raised his wooden sword to obliquely cut and deflect the blue slash.

Ryu Jia’s body fell sharply downwards in mid-air again.

Without her feet touching the ground, she rushed straight at Lee Dojin.

Ryu Jia’s body rotated. Her body itself became a blade. The sword’s trajectory advanced in a spiral, leaving afterimages.

Kakakakang!

Lee Dojin clashed with all the incessantly splitting sword strikes.

Sparks flew here and there.

Lee Dojin was impressed.

More than Baek Hwayeon, the Sword Empress’s disciple.

More than Kang Changhyung, the King Wang’s disciple.

He felt that her world as a martial artist was more completely formed.

He thought it might be because it was martial arts composed of her own insight from reading martial arts manuals, not the teachings of any master.

At the end of the sharp sword dance─

An even more piercing sword path bloomed.

It was a variation aimed at the careless opponent’s weakness.

The space swallowed by the blue trajectory was cut.

Lee Dojin leaned his body backwards and struck upwards with his wooden sword.

A colorless sword aura drew a semicircle.

The blue straight line was cut in half with a single stroke.

A chilly gust of wind enveloped the space between them.

Lee Dojin felt it was time to end this. Very subtly, Ryu Jia’s movements were getting slower and slower.

As they embroidered swords towards each other, Ryu Jia thought.

‘A kind person.’

Despite having the skill to thrust his wooden sword in front of her throat with a single stroke, he didn’t.

In contrast, she hadn’t held back even a single strike.

But that best effort was thoroughly blocked.

Jjeong!

The greatly swung sword was knocked into the air by Lee Dojin’s wooden sword.

The sword fell miserably and stuck into the ground.

In a sparring match between swordsmen, it was right to stop moving and admit defeat when the sword was lost.

But.

‘Just once.’

She wanted to see a flustered look just once.

Flustered by her own hands.

She maximizes her five senses.

She focused all her nerves on Lee Dojin’s movements. She predicted the moment Lee Dojin would step his right foot on the ground.

And the moment Lee Dojin’s right foot fell, she stepped on that foot.

Kwak!

Lee Dojin’s body stopped abruptly. Ryu Jia’s fist extended towards Lee Dojin’s abdomen.

“Your fist is clumsy.”

Lee Dojin’s voice was heard in her ear.

It wasn’t a flustered voice, but a voice that sounded delighted.

He turned his foot just a little bit.

He had learned how to avoid attacks at ultra-close range by getting hit countless times by Hwangbo Seryeong.

Avoiding Ryu Jia’s fist like flowing water, he lightly caught Ryu Jia’s right arm with his left hand.

And pulled her in sharply.

Ryu Jia’s body suddenly came into his arms.

“Hwaah!”

Suddenly finding herself in Lee Dojin’s arms, Ryu Jia let out a strange sound without realizing it.

Beads of sweat had formed on Ryu Jia’s forehead.

And her long hair was also disheveled, soaked with sweat.

“You don’t give up until the very end.”

Lee Dojin smiled.

Because he was so pleased with Ryu Jia’s tenacity.

He hadn’t expected at all that she would step on his foot at that moment. He was quite flustered.

If she hadn’t lost her sword just before, it would have been a truly chilling strike then.

“…Please let go.”

“Okay.”

Even her killing move was completely blocked.

Ryu Jia, freed from Lee Dojin’s arms, bit her lip once. To chew on this sense of defeat.

“I was surprised.”

“My picture was up to Dojin being surprised and flustered, allowing one light hit.”

And that picture only got as far as the sketch before ending.

“Let’s do it again next time.”

“Sure.”

The two sat on the dirt ground and felt the wind in the shade of a tree.

“…I’m hungry. Especially today.”

“Because you moved exceptionally a lot.”

The day had only just begun, but it felt like she had used up a whole day’s worth of swordplay.

“Shall we go eat breakfast?”

“Yeah, want to eat a hearty soup rice?”

Lee Dojin felt that he had blurted out “soup rice” too quickly without thinking it through in his head.

‘…I’ve been too brainwashed by Senior Simun.’

He had gone to the school cafeteria together so often that his taste had followed suit.

Even when he occasionally had to eat alone, he ended up going to places he had gone with Yeon Simun.

Ryu Jia chuckled.

“It’s funny that a first-year college student is looking for soup rice first thing in the morning.”

“Yeah, I think it’s funny too.”

“Okay. Hearty, right?”

“Yeah, you know it too, Jia.”

“After two and a half months, you get to know the good places to eat on campus roughly.”

The two went to the <Hearty Soup Rice> restaurant to satisfy their hunger.

They both emptied their respective bowls of soup rice without leaving a single drop of broth.

Lee Dojin recalled something as he watched Ryu Jia wiping her mouth with a tissue.

“Ah, right.”

What Lee Dojin took out of his spatial pocket was a bracelet.

It was a very thin bracelet in pink gold color. A small diamond was embedded in the center.

“I bought it at the Black Market. It’s a gift. I’m giving one to each person I’m grateful to.”

Choosing a bracelet as a gift for Ryu Jia was the result of Lee Dojin pulling out his non-existent sense and thinking hard.

He thought that a bracelet would have a more definite feeling of wear than a necklace or earrings, and would also be the easiest to put on and take off.

Ryu Jia, who had put the bracelet on her left wrist, carefully stroked the bracelet.

“Thank you.”

Ryu Jia raised the corners of her mouth in a smile.

It was the first gift she had received from a man other than her father.

“Really.”

Ryu Jia was even more pleased that it wasn’t a gift born from romantic feelings.

Because friendship is quite a beautiful thing.

‘People who receive gifts like this develop feelings beyond friendship. But Dojin probably doesn’t know that.’

Maybe he would never know.

To give such accessories as gifts just out of gratitude. It would be innocent even if the recipient mistook it for a sign of affection.

“Today is really a strange day. It’s only 8 o’clock now, but so much has happened.”

Lee Dojin also laughed at Ryu Jia’s words.

“It is. We sparred from dawn, ate soup rice for breakfast. Shall we get going now?”

“Yes.”

A faint smile continued to bloom on Ryu Jia’s lips as she stood next to Lee Dojin.