Outskirts of Schia,
Only footprints and the sound of the wind remained in the abandoned vacant lot.
The noise of the city did not follow this far.
Bido stood at its center.
The ground was hard,
and there was nothing nearby to hide behind or lean on.
Rangnan stood a short distance away.
Not directly in front of Bido, but slightly off to the side.
Muryeong was farther back than that.
He merely stood with his arms crossed, looking around.
Aslo had been standing beside Bido, but took two steps back.
Rangnan did not look straight at Bido.
His gaze rested beyond Bido’s shoulder,
in the empty air where there was nothing.
“Yesterday.”
It was a single, brief word.
“Why the one holding that sword came to a stop.”
Only then,
Bido’s gaze wavered.
Rangnan did not miss that reaction.
“Do you know?”
Bido closed her mouth for a moment.
Rather than searching through her memories,
it seemed as though the sensation of that moment still remained in her body.
“...I’m not sure.”
It was an honest answer.
“It just...”
Bido paused for a moment as if choosing her words, then continued.
“It felt like the sword stopped right in front of my eyes.”
Rangnan did not nod,
nor did he deny her words.
“At that time, how did your body feel?”
Bido slowly drew in a breath.
“...Stifled.”
“It felt like something was blocked inside me, and I was forcing it out.”
Even as she spoke, Bido’s brow furrowed.
“Breathing,”
“and moving my body, too.”
Only then did Rangnan look straight at Bido.
“Pain?”
“...There was.”
Bido nodded.
“My head was a little...”
Her words trailed off.
“It felt like it hurt.”
Rangnan did not cut her off.
After a brief pause, he spoke in a low voice.
“That is Mireukwin.”
Aslo let out a faint breath.
Muryeong said nothing,
but his gaze grew a little sharper.
“There’s no need to be surprised.”
“Mireukwin originally awakens that way.”
He took one step closer.
“The moment when you feel ready does not come first.”
“The moment when you must push out what is blocked comes first.”
Bido unknowingly clenched and unclenched her hand.
“Your body already,”
Rangnan continued speaking,
“is prepared to use that power.”
His words did not sound like praise.
They were closer to a confirmation.
For a moment, Bido could not continue speaking.
It was not because she did not understand Rangnan’s words.
More precisely, it was because she could not comprehend them.
“...But.”
Bido opened her mouth.
Carefully, but without avoiding it.
“That I might be a Mireukwin...”
“Lady Miryeong told me that before, so I just thought maybe that was the case.”
Muryeong raised his head, then quietly lowered it again.
“And the holy knight’s Mireukwin not working on me.”
“And the power that kept everyone from moving disappearing when our swords met.”
Bido continued, pointing them out one by one.
“At the time, I just...”
Her words trailed off for a moment.
“Thought that must be how it was.”
Bido looked down at her own hand.
“But why did that man stop yesterday?”
It felt as though the wind over the vacant lot had briefly ceased.
“I don’t even know what I did, and I didn’t feel like I’d done anything.”
Confusion was mixed into Bido’s voice.
“I was just—”
“Standing there, enduring it.”
Rangnan did not answer right away.
Neither Aslo nor Muryeong spoke.
“You said my Mireukwin awakened, didn’t you?”
Bido asked again.
“So then.”
“What is it, that it can make a person stop?”
Bido was asking that question of herself as well.
Everything that had happened until now did not connect into one thread,
but felt as though each event lay separate from the rest.
She had no memory of using power on her own, nor had she ever held such intent.
On the contrary, at the time, Bido had merely been trembling in fear of death.
Even so, the result had clearly remained.
Only then did Rangnan open his mouth.
“That is a good question.”
Those words were not an answer.
However—
he did not run away from it either.
Rangnan steadied his breath, then slowly spoke.
“Mireukwin is a power that twists rules.”
“It forcibly bends the original flow and connects it into a different shape.”
“That is why it looks strong, and that is why it cannot be used for long.”
Bido’s eyes trembled ever so slightly.
“The reason the holy knight’s Mireukwin did not work before you was not because you were stronger.”
“It was because your body returned the rules that power had twisted back to their original state on its own.”
Rangnan cleared his throat and continued speaking.
“The reason the force pressing everyone down vanished when your swords met was the same.”
Rangnan did not avoid Bido’s gaze.
“The twisted flow could not remain in that place.”
A brief silence passed through the vacant lot.
“That dragon weapon, the sword of Tiamar, is the same.”
Rangnan’s voice lowered.
“That sword forces power into its user and forcibly changes the rules of the body.”
“The change is great, but the price is just as great.”
“The reason you were less affected was not because you endured it, but because that change returned to its original state.”
Bido furrowed her brow as if trying to grasp something.
“Yesterday.”
Rangnan’s voice became a little lower.
“Your Mireukwin left the state where it remained only within your body,”
“and reached even the opponent in front of you.”
He looked into Bido’s eyes.
“At that moment, the flow that sword had been twisting lost the place it was meant to continue.”
The wind brushed across the vacant lot.
“The change stopped, and as a result, the sword fell.”
Bido did not speak for a long while.
It was not because she did not understand,
but because some sensation still remained that could not yet be bound in words.
The moment from yesterday rose in her mind again.
The sight of the sword stopping before her eyes.
The moment after that, when her breath continued as if nothing had happened.
“...So.”
Bido carefully opened her mouth.
“My Mireukwin isn’t a power that stops something.”
She paused for a moment as if choosing her words.
“It’s simply a power that makes things return to the way they were?”
Rangnan did not answer.
Bido did not take that silence as denial.
“Then...”
Bido spoke again.
“If I don’t know about it, it could become dangerous?”
The question was not one of certainty, but confirmation.
Bido looked straight at Rangnan.
“And that’s why you’re telling me now.”
Rangnan nodded once.
“Yes.”
He spoke briefly and firmly.
“The explanation ends here.”
Bido looked at Rangnan with a puzzled expression.
“From now on, don’t think about it in a complicated way.”
Rangnan spoke while looking not at Bido’s eyes, but at her chest.
“Recall what you just felt.”
“The tightness in your chest. The feeling of pushing out what was blocked.”
Bido unconsciously drew in a breath.
“Don’t force it out.”
“And don’t try to hold on to it.”
Rangnan’s voice was calm, but firm.
“Just—”
“feel that it’s there.”
Bido did not close her eyes.
Instead,
she lowered her gaze to the ground.
Her breath slowly rose and fell.
Then—
she felt a slight tightening deep inside her chest.
A sensation neither unpleasant
nor yet familiar.
Bido instinctively tried to put strength into it, then stopped.
Because Rangnan’s words remained in her mind.
At that moment,
the air around them changed ever so faintly.
Rangnan noticed it.
“Don’t stop.”
Bido’s gaze slowly rose.
“That sensation just now. Hold it as it is.”
Rangnan said.
“Don’t try to control it, and don’t try to get rid of it.”
Bido pressed her lips together.
This time as well, she did not put strength into it.
She did not raise her will.
She merely
remained conscious of where that sensation was.
Then—
slowly, that stifling feeling gathered into a single point.
From her chest, to her throat, and then behind her eyes.
Bido felt her breath catch for a moment.
So she unconsciously clenched her teeth.
Muryeong tilted his head ever so slightly.
There was no change around them.
The wind and the air of the vacant lot remained the same.
But inside Bido,
the sensation that something was holding firm was unmistakable.
A strange feeling of holding it in place
so that what had been twisted would not twist any further.
“Lord Rangnan.”
Aslo called in a low voice.
Only then did Bido realize that it was not her own vision,
but the gazes directed at her, that had changed.
Rangnan was quietly looking at Bido’s face.
“Her eyes.”
It was a brief statement.
Muryeong spoke as if confirming it.
“They’ve turned red.”
Bido could see nothing.
The world had not changed in the slightest.
However—
inside her body,
only the feeling that something was holding firm remained clear.
A state not forcibly altered,
nor drawn out.
Merely
the sensation of holding what had been twisted so it would not twist further.
“Good.”
Rangnan spoke as if confirming it for the first time.
“This state,”
“is proof that your Mireukwin has reached outside.”
He immediately continued.
“And that is as far as it goes.”
Bido’s breathing gradually quickened.
Rangnan raised a hand.
“Release it slowly.”
Bido nodded and exhaled.
The constricted sensation slowly loosened.
The pressure behind her eyes also receded.
Only then did Aslo relax the tension in his shoulders.
Muryeong was watching Bido without a word.
To be honest, Bido still did not know exactly what she had done.
Only after confirming that Bido’s breathing had completely returned did Rangnan open his mouth.
“That state just now.”
With his hand lowered, he spoke calmly.
“You must be able to bring it out at will.”
“But only when necessary.”
Bido looked at Rangnan.
“Do not force it to extend. It is not a power meant to be used for enduring.”
Rangnan’s gaze lingered briefly at Bido’s chest.
“If pain comes to your body, that is already a late signal.”
Aslo nodded.
“When that happens, stop immediately.”
Rangnan raised his head and looked behind Bido.
“When you come to use that sword from now on, you must take this state with you as well.”
“Do not use only the sword. Use the sensation you are holding on to as well.”
The wind once again swept across the vacant lot.
“This power does not exist only so that you can stand alone.”
Rangnan added his final words in a slightly lower voice.
“The holy knights you may face again.”
“And,”
“even things more twisted than them.”
“When that time comes,”
“this power will stand on your side.”
Bido nodded once.
“...I understand.”