That’s Not How You Use Martial Arts

Chapter 4
Years Later (2)

『 Translator – Divinity 』

“Pff, pffft…”

Ah, today was fun too.

I chuckled as I headed towards my personal training ground in the back mountain.

Honestly, it was a bit awkward for a twenty-year-old to be saying things like “Can’t kill me, are you? Pissed off?”, but Junior Sister Jang was just too much fun to tease.

“I just can’t stop myself.”

It was always a joy to see her cold, expressionless face contort like a demon’s.

As I entered the empty lot, still grinning at the memory, a sharp blade suddenly flew towards my neck.

I simply stood still.

The sword, which seemed poised to pierce my throat, stopped right in front of my nose.

I looked at the person who appeared before me.

A cold, beautiful voice reached my ears.

“…Why didn’t you dodge?”

“Because it lacked the conviction of a real attack?”

At my answer, her elegant eyebrows, which seemed to be painted by a skilled artist, furrowed slightly.

Seeing that, I grinned.

“Were you that upset about losing to me, Junior Sister Jang?”

“…As I said before, I’m not a child. I clearly lost the spar. I admit it.”

Junior Sister Jang stood before me, a real sword in her hand.

The distorted expression from earlier was gone, replaced by her usual cold demeanor.

Hmm, this made me want to tease her again.

“You’re pissed off because you lost, aren’t you?”

“Ack..! That tone again…!”

As I chuckled at Junior Sister Jang’s furrowed brows, I heard a long sigh.

Well, enough teasing for now.

“So you admit defeat, yet you come to my personal training ground with a real sword… How should I interpret this?”

“…That’s.”

“Ah, should I guess? You want to spar again? This time with your true martial arts.”

“…!”

Just as I had noticed Master hiding his martial arts, I had long been aware that my two junior sisters were also concealing their true skills.

Unlike me, a student who paid to learn third-rate martial arts, they must have properly inherited Master Wang-sam’s secret techniques.

“And you’re so humiliated by losing to me that you want to redeem yourself with your true skills?”

It was just two days ago.

I was about to have my usual morning spar with Master, when he suddenly suggested a spar with Junior Sister Jang instead.

—Huh? Why all of a sudden?

When I asked to spar with her, he vehemently opposed it, so why the sudden change of heart?

When I asked him the reason, Master Wang-sam cleared his throat and said this:

—Uh, ahem! There are things you can gain from sparring with a stronger opponent like your master, and there are things you can gain from sparring with someone of similar skill level. I’ve been preventing it because I was worried it might affect your physical growth, but! Now that you’ve reached the age of 20…

—Just say you want us to spar with each other now that we’re older. Why make it so complicated?

—……

For that reason, I ended up sparring with someone other than Master for the first time since entering the school, and it was with Junior Sister Jang, no less.

The result? As you might have guessed, I won.

It seemed like that result was a tremendous shock to Junior Sister Jang.

I mean, she’s pointing a real sword at the son of a wealthy family who’s somewhat influential in the village.

Besides, Cheonpung Martial Arts School’s only income was my tuition.

“What if I get hurt? What if I get hurt, cry, and complain to my family, cutting off your source of income? Aren’t you worried about that?”

“You won’t do that. Like it or not, we’ve known each other for ten years. I know you’re not that kind of person.”

“Hmm. You know too much about me. You’ll have to die now.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t die by your hand. I still have things to do.”

I tried to sound cold jokingly, but her reaction was so serious that it wasn’t fun.

As I looked at Junior Sister Jang with indifferent eyes, she suddenly bowed to me.

“Young Master Gun Ja-seong of the Gun family. I formally request a spar.”

“…What’s this? Why are you acting like this? You’re starting to scare me.”

“You must have already realized. We, Master… he can’t be just an ordinary martial arts instructor in a rural school.”

“…”

She was already assuming that I had noticed.

Seeing that denying it would be useless, I just shrugged.

“Well, yeah? He said he was cultivating the Trinity Qi Method, but lately, he’s been using footwork I’ve never seen before during our spars.”

“…He must have found it difficult to hide his true skills and handle you anymore.”

Junior Sister Jang looked at me with a heavier gaze.

“What was your reason for continuing to visit our school even after noticing that?”

“Hmm? Well… because Master is the only one around here who can spar with me, and also…”

“That can’t be it. Aren’t you curious about our circumstances?”

Wow, how did she know?

As Junior Sister Jang said, the reason I continued to visit the school even after noticing their secret was because I was curious about their circumstances.

A suspicious martial artist and his disciples hiding their identities and running a martial arts school in this countryside.

Kuu, it just screams mystery, doesn’t it? The smell of a grand adventure!

“I admit it. I was curious about Master and your circumstances. So? Does this mean you’re willing to tell me about those curious circumstances?”

In response to my question, Junior Sister Jang threw her sword.

I caught the sword, still in its scabbard, and immediately understood her intention.

“So, you’ll tell me your story if I win the spar?”

“But there’s a condition. If I win the spar, I want you to help us.”

***

Hmm.

It seemed that the shock from the last spar was greater than I thought.

She would tell me their story if I won the spar.

But if I lost, I had to help them?

…In the end, wouldn’t I learn their story whether I won or lost? What did she mean by that?

Even though I stared at her silently for a while, her expression didn’t change, nor did she seem embarrassed.

In other words, it wasn’t a slip of the tongue, but what was she thinking?

After tilting my head in confusion for a moment, I cleared my mind of useless thoughts.

Eh, whatever. It was good that I would learn what I was curious about.

Besides, judging by the atmosphere, it seemed like she was planning to fight with her true martial arts this time.

In the last spar, she had used the same Three Talents Sword Technique as me, trying to hide her true skills.

And she lost to me in less than ten seconds.

Hmm, thinking about it again, maybe it was enough to be shocked?

If she had a weak mind, she might have suffered Qi Deviation right there.

Anyway, if she wanted to spar with her true martial arts, I welcomed it.

It wasn’t like I was using my full power in the spar either.

This was a golden opportunity to test how useful the new martial arts I had created over the past five years, through all sorts of trial and error, were.

“Alright. Let’s do it.”

I drew the sword from its scabbard.

The sword was drawn with a clear, ringing sound.

Looking at the smooth blade, I immediately realized that it wasn’t something commonly sold in a street blacksmith’s shop.

“What’s this sword? It looks extraordinary.”

“It’s my spare sword. I’ll give it to you as a reward for indulging me.”

So she was aware that she was forcing this on me.

With a smirk, I put down the scabbard, lightly gripped the hilt, and held it out in front of me.

It was the basic stance of the Three Talents Sword Technique.

Seeing my stance, Junior Sister Jang’s eyes twitched slightly.

“…Are you planning to face me with the Three Talents Sword Technique?”

“What else? That’s all I’ve learned.”

“…”

Disappointment briefly flickered across her cold face.

Seeing this, I chuckled.

“I think I understand what you’re thinking, but I haven’t actually learned any other martial arts. You know I haven’t had the chance.”

Until I was ten, I foolishly waited for a fateful encounter.

With the baseless belief that I, too, would stumble upon a hidden master and learn incredible techniques, just like the protagonists in those stories.

But such an encounter never came.

All I could learn was the Three Talents Technique, a third-rate martial art that could be bought for a few coins in the market.

So I created a new one.

I thoroughly dissected the only martial art I had learned, the Three Talents Technique.

I then rebuilt it, incorporating inspiration from the countless martial arts novels I had read in my past life and the imaginations of the countless authors who wrote them.

As a result, my Three Talents Technique became quite different from the original.

But in the end, it was still the Three Talents Technique.

Ultimately, the only martial art I had mastered was still the Three Talents Technique.

“…We’ll soon find out if that’s true or not. Because I’ll be using my full power today.”

However, it seemed that Junior Sister Jang didn’t quite believe my words.

She lowered her stance, pulled the sword in her right hand back, and built up her momentum in a posture I had never seen before.

I couldn’t help but gulp at her sharp aura.

Feeling a pleasant tension coursing through my body, I grinned.

It was just a bluff to hide the fact that I was already losing in terms of aura, but it helped loosen my slightly stiff body.

That’s how much pressure Junior Sister Jang’s aura was putting on me.

“…Huu.”

I had to admit what I had to admit.

At least when it came to internal energy, the difference between Junior Sister and me was like heaven and earth.

She couldn’t be a rejuvenated master, so she must have consumed a tremendous amount of beneficial elixirs.

Come to think of it, there were times when the school was closed for a few days when we were younger.

Did she secretly consume elixirs and increase her internal energy then?

Thinking it was a reasonable suspicion, I focused all my senses on Junior Sister.

Her stance gradually lowered as her knees bent.

The moment her knees were bent to the maximum—

Bang!

With an explosive sound, Junior Sister Jang kicked off the ground and charged towards me like an arrow.