Chapter 63 The Price of Karma

“It’s been a while, Sister Narin.”

I greeted the blonde woman in front of me.
A person wearing silk clothes with a sword at her waist, making quite a gentle expression.

She was the Guild Master of the Sword Saint Society and the older sister of my childhood friend Lee Na-ri by one year.

Narin.

To my childhood friend Na-ri, her sister was someone I had some familiarity with from when I was young, playing with Na-ri.

But honestly speaking, even if she was my childhood friend’s sister, she had no particular connection to me.

I just knew to the extent that Na-ri had a quite talented sister, nothing more than that.

However, now I know quite a lot of details about Narin.

The occasion when I got to know the details about Narin was just when I was working as Yoo Eun-ha’s secretary at Frozen Heart.

At that time, learning about other major guilds was one of my duties.

Naturally, I know to some extent about Narin, the head of the major guild called the Sword Saint Society.

A girl of swordsmanship called a genius.

Unlike other guild masters, she was a person with the aspect of a tyrant who saw power not as a means but as an end in itself.

She was a person with quite a violent way of thinking.

But well, that was only applicable within her guild.

She wasn’t someone who particularly harmed others.

In the end, she wasn’t someone who did anything outrageous that crossed the line.

So there wasn’t anything like imposing sanctions or anything like that, but.

“Sigh…”

By any standard, the situation now had crossed the line too strongly.

I found Si-eun sleeping on the sofa in front of me.

As I had expected, Si-eun was at the Sword Saint Society headquarters.

Probably Narin over there had kidnapped my younger sister Si-eun.

Why would she try to touch what I value most…?

My head is starting to throb.

I can’t help but be very angry, especially about someone touching my sister.

Even if it’s my childhood friend’s sister, I can’t simply forgive it.

“Hmm. It’s Si-woo. How long has it been? One year since the guild master meeting?”

Narin in front of me smiled as she looked at me.

At first, she seemed slightly surprised, but soon regained her composure.

And she lightly greeted me.

“Sister Narin. No need for greetings.”

I couldn’t accept her greeting.

Because I was currently quite angry.

I quickly got to the point.

“More importantly, what on earth are you doing? Kidnapping? You’re doing quite a bold thing.”

“Kidnapping? She was just sleeping, so I let her rest comfortably.”

“I’m not in the mood for jokes.”

“Hehe. Is that so?”

“You’re asking for a fight with me, right?”

The issue involving Si-eun was a very sensitive matter to me.

Moreover, what the Sword Saint Society did now was quite outrageous, and to me, it could be considered a provocation.

So I spoke very irritably, but.

“That might be the case. But what are you going to do about it? Are you really going to fight me?”

It seemed that despite my attitude, Narin just continued with her playful attitude.

“In the end, if you’re weak, you can only have things taken from you. And you can only submit. That’s natural, isn’t it? Don’t think of it as too unfair.”

And between her playful attitude, she uttered words that contained subtle sincerity.

It was a statement that explained Narin’s values too well.

“I agree.”

Honestly, although it was extreme, it wasn’t particularly wrong. Rather, it was remarkably correct.

I sighed and drew my sword.

Narin and I, our ways of thinking seem subtly similar.

“Are you trying to fight me now? With a sword? Hahaha. That’s amusing.”

When I drew my sword, Narin’s gentle expression changed to one mocking me.

It was an expression of too much enjoyment.

“To raise a sword against me, who has inherited the title of Sword Saint, what an impudent friend of my sister’s?”

The reason she was enjoying it like that was probably because she found it too absurd that someone was facing the Sword Saint with a sword.

In a normal situation with a normal person, it is indeed a nonsensical situation.

Of course, if I were a normal person…

“Then let’s see your skills.”

Narin drawing her sword.

Me facing her.

The battle began.

Narin looked at Si-woo while drawing her sword.

And she kept looking at Si-woo, examining him.

‘He’s ordinary…’

A skilled swordsman like Narin can evaluate an opponent’s skill just by looking.

And when she looked and gauged the opponent’s skill like that, it really was just an ordinary impression.

There was a fighting spirit, but everything else was really nothing special.

In Narin’s view, the sword-handling skill of the man in front of her now was too ordinary.

The basic posture of holding a sword was proper, but in the end, that was all.

The posture was correct, but besides that, nothing else seemed prepared.

She couldn’t feel even a fragment of any great technique from this man.

Just someone who had learned to wield a sword, knew how to swing it, but just that much.

This was the evaluation of Si-woo by Narin, the Sword Saint who was facing the extreme of swordsmanship.

‘No matter how I look at it, he’s too insignificant…’

Wondering if she might have seen something wrong, she kept looking, but no matter how much she looked again, it was still difficult to give a higher evaluation.

Really, at best, a man in the realm of mediocrity.

Let alone being a monster like herself, he had talent that couldn’t even follow the footsteps of Na-ri who was called a genius—just common talent, merely the talent of an ordinary A-class hunter.

But even so.

‘To not recognize the difference in skill…’

The man in front of her, with just that level of talent, was trying to confront her, the one called Sword Saint.

And he didn’t think he would lose now.

He didn’t lose his will while facing her, the Sword Saint. Rather, in his eyes, there was a certainty of victory, that he would win.

Such a fighting spirit should sometimes be highly evaluated, but…

There’s a fine line between being brave and being stupid.

From Narin’s perspective, it really couldn’t help but seem stupid.

In the end, the reason he could have such fighting spirit was because he couldn’t gauge the opponent’s skill.

There is no one in the world who can bravely rush at an absolute monster.

If there is someone who bravely rushes at a monster.

It’s because they don’t recognize that the opponent is a monster that they can be so brave.

Not knowing makes one brave.

That was exactly Si-woo’s situation right now.

He was stupid enough not to recognize the difference in skill level against the monster that was Narin.

Seeing such a pitiful sight, Narin sighed.

‘But well, this too is entertainment.’

But after a moment of sympathy, Narin smiled at Si-woo.

It wasn’t the first or second time this had happened anyway.

From before, there were more than a truckload of swordsmen who had been arrogant and impudent to her because they didn’t know the gap in skill.

The current Sword Saint Narin is the one who has brutally defeated all such people.

Every time she defeated them, Narin felt pleasure.

The pleasure of trampling the weak, Narin liked it too much.

She couldn’t help but like it.

Narin likes that it establishes her worth.

Because every time she tormented them, it proved that she existed here.

So she couldn’t help but feel a thrill every time she saw the grief-stricken expressions of the weak who had fallen into despair.

So now too, she was just doing what she had always done.

As the strong, ruthlessly trampling the weak.

Making the weak know their place.

“I’ll let you attack first.”

Narin looked at Si-woo with the corner of her mouth raised.

Narin showed composure. She had no intention of giving her all.

In Narin’s mind, since he wouldn’t even be a match anyway, she was full of thoughts to play with him appropriately.

Because this was nothing but entertainment for Narin.

So, she was thinking of yielding the first attack.

It would also be enjoyable to see the expression when he realized his attack, into which he poured all his strength, didn’t work.

“Sure. Then.”

Si-woo didn’t refuse.

Hearing those words, he began to point his sword.

And he struck down.

‘Hmph…’

Narin stared at the sword.

The sword approaching her.

All she had to do was simply parry it with her technique.

Just before the swords met.

Narin showed her technique.

Her technique that could lightly flow away any power…

But…

“Huh…?”

Boom!

A loud noise resounded.

And Narin couldn’t help but be surprised.

After that loud noise, somehow she was lying on the floor, unable to comprehend the current situation.

An incomprehensible moment, an incomprehensible situation occurred.

‘I’m sure… I flowed it away…’

She was sure she had flowed away Si-woo’s attack and taken a stance for a counterattack.

But she couldn’t flow it away.

No… she did flow it away.

She was certain she had flowed away and negated almost all of Si-woo’s power.

But…

But still…

Even though she flowed away almost all the power.

Even with just a mere fragment of power remaining, it had this much strength.

“Wh-what on earth…”

It didn’t make sense.

What kind of power could this be…

Without knowing the answer, only Narin’s black eyes stared at Si-woo.

“Sister Narin.”

The man in front of her showed the attitude of a victor.

And called her, the loser.

“Don’t think you can be forgiven easily.”

And it was in a tone as if he was somewhat angry.

The man in front of her put away his sword again, then took out his smartphone.

And pointing the camera lens at her, he smiled kindly.

“Take them off.”