Silver Dragon Legend, Episode 20
Thwack!
“Urg!”
The girl who’d slammed her fist into Jehwa’s head and leaped back laughed in satisfaction.
“Hahahaha! Serves you right!”
She had even infused internal energy into the blow, so it was bound to hurt.
“You’ll never catch m—.”
A spasm crossed her eyes as she laughed triumphantly and pointed her finger boldly at Jehwa.
“Eek!”
A moment later, the girl was hopping up and down, clutching the hand she’d used to deliver the knuckle rap to Jehwa’s head.
“My hand!”
Tears welled in her eyes once again.
What kind of head was that hard! She had struck him with internal energy, so why did her own hand hurt more?!
“What? Did you just hit me?”
Jehwa furrowed his brow, rubbing his head.
“Rock head!”
“You wanna die?”
The girl shrieked at Jehwa, and at those words, his face scrunched up as he charged at her again.
Whoosh! Fwoosh!
“Eek! Just take the hit!”
“Are you crazy? Why would I get hit?”
The girl retorted to Jehwa’s shout.
And so, one moved to strike, and the other moved to dodge.
The problem was that the one swinging his fists was bursting with frustration, while the one dodging was anxious about getting hit.
“That guy…… He’s dragged in another girl again! He definitely has a knack for that sort of thing!”
After waiting quite some time for Jehwa to return to the inn, Sawolrin, who had finally set out to find him, made an annoyed expression at the scene before her.
In Sawolrin’s eyes, it currently looked like Jehwa was fooling around with a girl he didn’t know.
It was simply absurd how that could look like fooling around.
Sawolrin’s face, which had set out to break up the two with an annoyed expression, stiffened.
“N-no way…….”
Her gaze turned to Jehwa—to be exact, his fist.
A silvery aura enveloped Jehwa’s fist.
“Stop! Control your energy!”
Sawolrin shouted in alarm.
“……!”
The girl’s face, which had been dodging Jehwa’s fist, stiffened.
‘What?’
With a bewildered expression, the girl looked at Jehwa’s fist that had brushed past her face a moment ago.
And discovering the silver energy condensed there, her face paled.
‘This guy!’
Jehwa’s movements began to change, becoming faster and faster.
‘This is dangerous!’
If she kept clashing with him like this, something truly terrible might happen.
“Ngh!”
The girl, having dodged Jehwa’s fist, immediately distanced herself from him.
‘Huh?’
Suddenly, what he saw before him was the girl, her face twisted in terror, desperately avoiding his fists.
‘What’s going on?’
The girl’s face, which had been completely fine just moments ago, was now contorted in pain.
“-Pu……ll your……self…… to…… gether…….”
‘Hm?’
Then, a familiar voice came from somewhere, and at that sound, Jehwa faltered.
“-Pull yourself together!”
At the voice that suddenly struck his head, Jehwa came to his senses.
‘When did this happen!’
Before he knew it, his fist was trying to kill the girl before him.
At that, Jehwa quickly stopped his fist, but it was already right before striking the girl.
Sawolrin, watching this, squeezed her eyes shut, and the girl also closed her eyes.
BOOM!
And an enormous explosion rang out.
“…….”
“…….”
A sword that had absorbed Jehwa’s silver energy had stopped right before the girl’s eyes.
To be exact, a sword was blocking that fist.
“That was a close call.”
At the voice that came with it, the gazes of Jehwa, Sawolrin, and the girl turned toward the one holding the sword.
An old man with an immortal bearing, his beard and hair white, stood there.
Jehwa made a blank expression before soon grabbing his hand and hopping up and down.
“Gwaaah! My hand!”
Tears trickled from Jehwa’s eyes.
“It hurts…….”
“What’s wrong? What hurts so much? It was energy against energy—there’s no way it should hurt that badly, right?”
Sawolrin approached anxiously and assessed the condition of Jehwa, who kept whining that it hurt.
Jehwa was strong enough to win even if he fought against Sawolma, the cult leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Yet it was strange that such a Jehwa would hop around claiming it hurt so much from a single clash of energies.
When Sawolrin cautiously touched Jehwa’s hand, he screamed.
“Gyaaah! It hurts!”
“Stay still for a second!”
At Jehwa’s shout, Sawolrin furrowed her brows and yelled, before letting out a shocked cry.
“Good heavens! Your finger bones are broken!”
And all of them except the thumb.
“It was an urgent situation, so I put quite a bit of internal energy into it. My apologies.”
The old man said with an apologetic expression.
“Master.”
Then, the girl cautiously called out to the old man.
At the girl’s call, the old man heaved a deep sigh and delivered a sharp knuckle rap to her head.
Thwack!
“Ack!”
“You brat, is causing trouble all you do every single day!”
“Ugh! This time I’m the victim!”
At the girl’s words, the old man heaved another deep sigh and asked Jehwa,
“How did the fight start? From what I saw, it seemed to have reached quite a dangerous situation.”
“She tried to pickpocket my money and got caught. But then she got all annoyed. So we fought.”
“…….”
At Jehwa’s words, the old man smiled faintly and looked at the girl, whose face stiffened.
“Iseolhye.”
That day, the girl, Iseolhye, took a merciless barrage of knuckle raps from the old man.
***
The old man invited Jehwa and Sawolrin to his house.
Of course, the place called the old man’s house was…….
“Kunlun Mountain…….”
Sawolrin muttered as if groaning.
Jehwa and Sawolrin were currently standing before a thatched hut at the highest point of Kunlun Mountain.
“Sigh……. I had a feeling, but…….”
“Hm? A feeling about what?”
Jehwa asked, frowning while cradling his hand at Sawolrin’s muttering.
“No, it’s nothing.”
Sawolrin looked at the old man entering the thatched house with anxious eyes.
‘Jehwa’s fingers broke just from having his attack blocked. An expert definitely stronger than Jehwa……. A former expert of the Kunlun Sect, or perhaps even two generations back.’
An expert of that caliber would easily be able to guess her identity.
“Uuugh…….”
Then, a groan filled with pain flowed from beside the two.
Jehwa ignored the groan, but Sawolrin glanced toward the source of the sound.
There, a girl around her age was sniffling and holding her head.
Her name was Iseolhye, the disciple of the Kunlun Sect expert who had just entered the house.
She was glaring at Jehwa as if she wanted to kill him. It seemed she thought everything she had suffered was because of Jehwa.
Of course, Jehwa paid her no mind whatsoever, frowning as he looked at his own hand.
“You there, boy……. Come inside.”
Called by the old man who had entered the house, Jehwa went inside as well.
Silence fell for a brief moment. But soon after, an enormous sound filled with pain was heard.
“Gwaaah!”
It was Jehwa’s scream.
Jehwa had entered the thatched house at the old man’s call. Looking at him, the old man spoke.
“I’ll set your bones for you. If left as is, it could become a serious problem.”
“Hm?”
At the old man’s words, Jehwa tilted his head innocently.
But a moment later, he would regret having handed his hand over to the old man without resisting.
Crack! Crunch! Snap!
“…….”
For a moment, Jehwa fell silent at the sound ringing in his ears and the tremendous pain he felt in his fingers.
And he felt his mind going white from the agony.
“Gwaaah!”
It hurt so terribly he couldn’t bear not to scream!
Jehwa, having wrenched his fingers free from the old man’s hands, began rolling around the room.
“Tsk, tsk! Such a terrible fuss you’re making.”
The old man clicked his tongue at Jehwa, who was rolling around with an expression of dying pain, and at those words, Jehwa barked.
“It hurts! I’m not making a fuss!”
“The nerve.”
Frowning at Jehwa, who was wailing, the old man spoke toward the outside.
“You two come in as well.”
With those words, the two entered.
Sawolrin looked at Jehwa, who was cradling his fingers and grumbling, and spoke.
“Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not!”
When Jehwa spoke with a sulky expression, Sawolrin heaved a deep sigh. This man, younger than herself, truly couldn’t endure pain to save his life.
“While the two of you did get into a fight after a quarrel started, your actions were a bit excessive. They say bloodshed is commonplace in the martial world when disputes arise, but using energy against such a scrawny little girl—isn’t that too much?”
At the old man’s slightly reproachful words, Jehwa puffed out his cheeks.
“What do you want me to do about not being able to control my strength?”
“You call that an excuse? How does it make sense for an expert who wields energy to be unable to control his strength! I almost died!”
At Jehwa’s words, Iseolhye sprang up from her seat and shouted, pointing her finger at him.
It seemed this girl, Iseolhye, was a bit of a slow learner.
Chomp!
“…….”
“…….”
Jehwa had bitten the finger Iseolhye was pointing at him once again.
“Kyaaah! You bit me again? Let go! Let go!”
Iseolhye began struggling to pull her finger out of Jehwa’s mouth.
But Jehwa didn’t seem to have any intention of letting go easily.
“Waaah! I’m bleeding!”
In the end, blood began flowing from her finger.
“Jehwa, let go.”
Unable to watch anymore, Sawolrin sighed deeply and pulled Jehwa away from her.
Iseolhye glared at Jehwa as she sucked on her bleeding finger.
“Hehehehe!”
Then, the old man burst into laughter with a delighted expression.
“Don’t laugh!”
Thwack!
“Ack!”
Iseolhye, who had been shouting at the laughing old man, rolled on the floor at the sudden pain she felt in her head.
“Insolent brat.”
After lightly clicking his tongue at Iseolhye, who was rolling around the floor cradling her head, the old man looked at the two and spoke.
“So……. What are your identities?”
“Uh……. I……. w-well, that’s…….”
As Sawolrin made a troubled expression and hesitated, the old man smiled faintly.
“You are a child of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, aren’t you?”
“Yes…….”
At the old man’s words, Sawolrin lowered her head and answered.
As expected, the old man had known she was from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.