episode_0028

Under the bright full moon, what could be seen was a dilapidated tiled house to the point where one would doubt if it was really a place where people lived.

Sitting on the porch, she, still exuding an uneasy atmosphere amidst the old-fashioned ambiance, spoke to me with evaluating eyes.

“Hah. Are you not afraid for your life? Among those who have come to take my life, you are the first one to escape twice and show up for the third time since stepping foot in the martial arts world.”

Is this the feeling one gets when facing a high-level raid boss monster in a dungeon?

No matter how many times I face her, I just can’t seem to adapt to the situation.

Why do I feel this way when facing a woman with beauty that rivals Alia’s on the surface?

After firmly deciding to fight her this time, the pressure I felt only increased.

Just in case, I spoke to her with a slight sense of expectation.

“I did not come here to fight you.”

In response, she mixed her words with a rather gentle attitude this time.

“Oh? Then why have you come to find me again?”

“I know that your body is not in normal condition. I am here to treat you…”

“Hah. You, after meeting you three times in person, I understand. Although I may not be in perfect physical or mental condition right now, I also know that you are not an ordinary person.”

And with a sudden swaying of her head from side to side, she continued.

“Truly, at this moment, it is even confusing whether you are a spy sent by the righteous faction.”

Huh? Why is she listening to me so attentively now?

Maybe I can avoid this unnecessary fight…?

Before coming here, I realized that she was a tough nut to crack and somehow managed to train Alia, but if I can avoid an unnecessary fight, it would be a better outcome for me.

“Then…!”

Unfortunately, my futile hope was refuted by her next words.

“However, there are several issues with simply trusting you.”

Pointing with two fingers, she continued.

“First, why do you keep coming around here as if you own the place, and second, why do you keep risking unnecessary dangers to help me, who has tried to kill you twice?”

Well…?

Listening to her, I couldn’t come up with a convincing reason to persuade her.

…Honestly, my actions didn’t have much logic.

I was just acting to gain benefits through unnatural encounters with women on the dating app. If I could have a good relationship with pretty women, that would be even better.

No…

Just don’t act too high and mighty, and just show me a little bit of affection.

I was definitely just playing around with a normal dating app, but honestly, I don’t know how I ended up behaving like a reckless fool without realizing the value of life.

“I don’t know if you are an assassin sent by the righteous faction to kill me, or just a martial artist who came to learn swordsmanship from the rumors, or maybe a doctor who came to prolong my life. I can’t make a clear judgment.”

As she spoke somewhat cryptically, I asked her.

“So what do you want me to do?”

In response, she answered as if it was obvious.

“I am a martial artist. If there is even a slight possibility that you are an assassin, I do not want to take your medicine and face my end so easily.”

Yes, I can somewhat understand her perspective.

After all, everyone values their life.

However, if that’s not the case?

Is there any other way besides believing in me right now?

“If you are a kind-hearted doctor?”

“Well…. Take care of me when I lose consciousness next. If you really came to me with good intentions as a doctor, then you should be able to do that much since you’ve come this far, right?”

Oh, come on.

In the end, what she was trying to say was….

“Well…. Now that I see it, I can see that you have improved quite a bit since we first met. You now refer to yourself as a doctor, but at the same time, you may also be a pawn. Or maybe the opposite.”

As expected.

She said, twirling a well-prepared branch in her hand.

“Well…. What to say. Think of it as the antics of a pawn, a patient facing the last moments of not listening to what you say. If you are also a pawn, you must know that pawns want to meet their end with a sword.”

Unlike those in the martial arts world who have nothing but sword fights in their heads, having lived in the modern world, I didn’t know such facts.

Even though I had become accustomed to being a hunter, I preferred a peaceful life to the sparks of a sword fight, and the tranquility of life to the fierce struggle of blood and flesh.

Still, I knew it wouldn’t be easy to break her stubbornness.

“If it becomes too late to turn back….”

“Do you see any lingering attachment to life in me? It’s regrettable that I can’t seek revenge, but if that’s the case, it’s just a story.”

No, there are all sorts of messed up situations.

Isn’t it that difficult to just give full trust once?

But thinking about it, in a world where local thugs walk around the streets with knives around their waists without a care, I can understand why she can’t easily give trust.

Moreover, didn’t she say she was betrayed by those she recently thought of as comrades?

I now understand how messed up the world she lives in is.

Looking at me with a sword handle on her side, she said, “I won’t give you any more chances this time. Because my body is not in good condition right now….”

And then she disappeared from my sight.

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[Enhanced Nervous System (E)]

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I immediately drew my sword and faced her.

Swish!

In the clear field of vision, I narrowly caught her attack coming towards me.

‘To the side…. No, this is from below!’

Thud!

Blocking her attack like that, she seemed to be quite satisfied.

“Oh? You now know how to distinguish between real and fake.”

Well….

Fortunately, what I learned from Alia over the past few days seemed to have been somewhat helpful as I didn’t collapse helplessly under her attack.

“But your movements are still clumsy.”

And that statement was true as well.

Although I had developed a certain level of intuition, whenever Alia slightly confused my senses, I easily fell for it.

I was still far from being able to compete with her on an equal footing.

But the fact that I could still compete with her was evidence that her physical condition was not normal.

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[Imperfect Divine Sword Fusion Lv.4]

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I blocked each attack with all my might, drawing out all my abilities to block the real attacks within the fake ones.

As I continued to withstand and block each real attack, she smiled as if she was enjoying it.

“Hehe. I’ll take back what I said about your talent with the sword being terrible. Every time I see you, you seem to be learning something new.”

Truly, I didn’t want to hear such words from a woman who was facing a real sword with just a branch.

Surely, based on our abilities, I had improved a lot and she had weakened a lot, but why was there no decrease in the difference between us?

No, this time she didn’t have bare hands, but a sword… well, not a sword, but a tree branch that looked like a sword. The fact that she wasn’t immediately subdued even though she was wielding what seemed to be a sword made me feel like the gap between us had narrowed significantly.

Slightly furrowing my brow, I continued to face off with her when suddenly a system message popped up in front of my eyes.

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[Confirmed the presence of the trait from the app user’s match .]

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[Radiant Phoenix (C) – Receives slight adjustments to physical and mental abilities just before death.]

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[Trait (Positive): Radiant Phoenix (C) counteracts the negative symptoms of Trait (Negative): Delusional Disorder (C).]

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[Trait (Positive): Radiant Phoenix (C) partially counteracts the negative symptoms of Trait (Negative): Ju Hwa’s Curse (S).]

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[Time until the app user’s match Ju Hwa-rin ignites the last flame of her life: 14 minutes 59 seconds]

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And just as I was mixing it up with her and the sword, my head suddenly felt dizzy from the information flowing in.

For some reason, she seemed to be listening to my words with a fresh look today…

It seemed like she had regained her senses briefly just before death.

The problem was, with her regaining her senses, her skills had also somewhat recovered.

“You, you’re looking somewhere else again instead of at me right now. Do I need to wait for you again?”

Quickly reading and closing the system window, I was startled by her words, cleared the window, and immediately focused on our fight.

“Wait a moment.”

…It seemed like we didn’t have much time for each other.

I needed to quickly knock her down and make her take the medicine.