Chapter 228: Sword Practice, Take Two (2)

Inside the private training ground built in Eunyoung Noona’s basement.

Currently, only the ragged breaths of a man and a woman echoed raggedly in the space.

“Hucck, hucck, hucck…”

“Haaa, haaa, haaa…”

Gripping their practice greatswords before them, trying to read each other’s minds through their gazes, they had lost count of how many rounds it had been.

It had been a full five hours since I started swinging my practice greatsword in front of my teacher, a former Rank S… no, since her return, she was practically a current Rank S Hunter.

It was more than enough time to exhaust both body and mind, leaving plenty to spare.

Of course, it wasn’t five hours of sword training straight; there were about three or four breaks for rest and hydration to prevent total exhaustion.

Even considering that, the act of exchanging blows with Eunyoung Noona at full power was strenuous labor and pure agony.

“Sssip…. Hooouuu…”

“Hhheup, haaaaah…”

I took the deepest, longest breaths possible to recover my exhausted body even a little faster.

It was the same for Eunyoung Noona, who held her sword across from me.

I had no idea how many rounds it had been already. I stopped counting after the 50th round.

All I remembered was that I had managed to score points against her, maybe four times.

With only one point left to reach the condition she mentioned, 5 points, I had engaged in nearly 20 consecutive, meaningless rounds that ended in my defeat.

…No, perhaps they weren’t entirely meaningless.

Since Eunyoung Noona must have been feeling some fatigue, just like I was, I couldn’t say it was just as difficult to face her.

In fact, just managing to wear down Eunyoung Noona’s stamina, who I thought might be an iron woman, to this point already far surpassed the skill level expected of a Rank B Hunter.

…That is, if we were limiting it to what a Rank B Hunter could achieve.

If I had intended to end my Hunter career as the ‘World’s Only Male Rank B Hunter,’ I wouldn’t have requested such harsh training from Eunyoung Noona in the first place.

One of the reasons I had her pick up her sword again after so long was to help her, who had been psychologically unstable, manifest her will to live once more, but…

Even so, choosing Eunyoung Noona’s tutelage was entirely my decision.

Since it wasn’t a path I chose under threat of a knife, I had to make the most of her Spartan training.

Besides, the opportunity to receive one-on-one tutoring from a Rank S greatsword master was itself an unbelievable privilege.

Perhaps due to the accumulated fatigue, quite a few distracting thoughts gathered in my mind, so I shook them off roughly and assumed a stance to charge forward.

Of the four points I had scored so far, only one was earned by parrying Eunyoung Noona’s attack.

Her abilities were based far more on offense than defense, fitting perfectly with her awakened ability, ‘Berserker of the Greatsword.’

Of course, that didn’t mean her defense was weak, but it meant that it was far more likely to succeed if I charged in to attack first, rather than trying to block the charging Eunyoung Noona and concede a point.

-……Kkwak.

Sensing that Eunyoung Noona’s gaze and grip had tightened, perhaps noticing me gripping my sword tightly…

Not wanting to give her any more time to prepare, I lunged towards her without delay.

Eunyoung Noona’s practice greatsword swung towards me, and the two greatswords bounced off each other in mid-air multiple times due to the impact.

…When the final clash occurred, the only one standing on both feet in the training ground was Eunyoung Noona.

“Heeoook, heeoook, heeoook…”

“Haaa… you worked hard…, haaa, my son…”

“…You worked hard too…. Eunyoung Noona…”

In the very last moment, as our swords were about to clash, I chose a strategy to dodge with my greatsword instead of clashing directly with her.

The blow, which barely grazed Eunyoung Noona after her stance collapsed immediately after swinging her sword, ultimately led me to victory in the spar.

Although she couldn’t stand on both feet after her stance collapsed the moment my attack landed, the definite fact was that I had cut Eunyoung Noona just before I fell myself.

It was the moment the training session, which felt like an eternity in purgatory, finally ended.

Total record: 98 bouts, 4 wins, 1 draw, 93 losses.

A victory full of wounds… No, it was a victory filled with losses.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

About 10 minutes had passed since I collapsed onto the floor after finishing the sword training with Eunyoung Noona.

As soon as the thought that the spar was finally over registered, my exhausted body slumped onto the floor and began to enter a state of rest, relaxing my muscles to the point where they felt almost completely loose within 10 minutes.

Still, it was a relief that it didn’t drag on to the 100 bouts I had initially anticipated.

Just as I was letting out a sigh of relief in an odd way, Eunyoung Noona’s nagging, which wasn’t quite nagging, reached my ears.

“Taekyung-ah, get up already. You know what will happen tomorrow if you just sprawl out like that, right?”

“…Yes, Noona.”

I had no desire to suffer from muscle aches in bed all day, so I forced myself to ignore the pain and screams from my muscles and got up from my spot.

Once I stood up, I cleaned the rather messy interior of the training ground, treating it as tidying up after the spar.

As I was restoring the training ground, which had been thrown into disarray by the spar, Eunyoung Noona spoke to me as if in praise.

“Your movements have improved a lot, my son.”

“Thank you.”

“And in today’s spar, every single sword swing had proper logic behind it. It’s definitely different in many ways compared to last time, when you just swung wildly.”

“…Is that so? I just moved thinking I would parry or dodge Eunyoung Noona’s sword, just like last time.”

“Perhaps it’s instinct ingrained in your body rather than your mind, so you haven’t consciously realized it yet. But one thing is certain: Taekyung-ah, your movements today were based on logical judgment.”

Come to think of it, when I was preparing for the Rank B promotion test last time, I did swing my sword while properly considering my opponent.

Although the opponent being a monster rather than a person was different from now, it was around that time I started swinging my sword properly without relying on skills.

The person who gave me that mindset was Eunyoung Noona, who had also given me sword lessons shortly before the promotion test.

If my way of swinging the sword changed around that time, then three weeks was enough time for logic to be incorporated into my swordsmanship.

“It’s all thanks to Eunyoung Noona’s teachings.”

“Hoohoo, praising this Ahjumma like that won’t get you anything, you know?”

Well. Based on experience, I recall getting things more often than not.

Shoving aside the slightly lewd thoughts that popped into my head, I expressed my gratitude again to my sword instructor.

“I’m only saying it because I’m genuinely grateful. It’s true that I’ve grown thanks to Eunyoung Noona’s teachings.”

“Isn’t that also because you, Taekyung-ah, have the will to learn, which allows you to grow quickly? It’s all the result of your own efforts, so be confident.”

However, complacency is forbidden. I nodded at Eunyoung Noona’s words.

“First, let’s wash off this sweat. Are you planning to stay for dinner?”

“If possible, I’d like that.”

“Since today is also a day Hye-eun gets off work early, it would be nice for the three of us to have dinner together and chat about various things. I happened to have something I needed to tell you, Taekyung-ah.”

“Something you needed to tell me?”

As I momentarily pondered what she might need to tell me, I vaguely recalled a conversation I had with Eunyoung Noona during our last drinking session.

“Is it perhaps about changing companies?”

“You have good intuition, my son.”

At this point in time, the only significant matter Eunyoung Noona might need to tell me would be something like that.

It seemed her words about meeting with the company representative, Seo Ok-hee, weren’t just empty talk.

I already knew well enough that Eunyoung Noona wasn’t the type of person to lie or deceive me about such things.

“The weekend after next… around the end of November, she wants to talk. Would that be alright?”

“Whether it’s alright or not is irrelevant. If I’m given the chance, I’ll make time.”

“Alright. Then, let’s tentatively set it for the weekend after next. I’ll relay that to Ok-hee-ssi for you.”

Besides Eunyoung Noona, there probably aren’t many people in the world who could speak so casually to the CEO of Eun & Ok Co., Ltd.

Putting aside the fact that she’s an SSS-rank Hunter and the head of a major guild, Seo Ok-hee herself wasn’t known for having a wide circle of acquaintances.

To be precise, she was famous for having almost no personal connections, so Eunyoung Noona’s ability to connect directly with her was fortunate in itself.

“Let’s head upstairs, my son. We need to ventilate the basement now, and lingering sweat smells aren’t pleasant, are they?”

“…Yes, that’s true.”

“You use the bathroom outside, son~. Ahjumma will use the one in the master bedroom…?!”

At my touch below her waist, Eunyoung Noona let out a cute yelp.

“Why go through the trouble? Your house has a big bathroom, we can just shower together. Like last time.”

“Hyaoot, Taekyung-ah…”

As soon as I instinctively massaged her firm, well-trained buttocks, Eunyoung Noona responded with an easily discernible reaction.

The strict sword master persona she had shown moments ago had completely vanished, replaced by ‘my woman,’ aroused by my touch and my erection.

“If we go in together like last time, you’ll focus only on my body instead of washing…”

“So, did you perhaps dislike it?”

“……”

“If you really disliked it, this time I’ll really just wash with you. I can be satisfied with just that.”

“…It’s not that I disliked it, exactly.”

“Then does that mean Eunyoung Noona enjoyed it too, in her own way?”

“……”

It was still a shy reaction, but her silence served as an answer.

“Let’s shower together, Noona.”

“When Hye-eun arrives later, we won’t have much time alone. You should enjoy my body while it’s just me here.”

“E-enjoy… Where did you learn such strange words…”

“Enough, let’s be clear, Noona. You’re coming into the bathroom with me, right?”

“……”

In the silence, her head nodded slowly up and down.

…Well, honestly. I had already expected this would happen even before I came to Noona’s house today.