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“Um… do I really have to do this?”

“You’re severely lacking in the basics. The balance between your upper and lower body development is also greatly disrupted. Just do it quietly.”

“It’s not just hard, it’s so embarrassing…”

Duver was doing the Mabo stance exercise by the well inside the inn early in the morning, as per my orders.

The problem was that people coming to the well to wash up early in the morning kept glancing over, and every time someone passed by, Duver’s face turned bright red.

“What can we do? This is the only suitable space for training.”

“…Couldn’t I at least do it in the room?”

“It’s more efficient to do it in an open space than in a place where the flow of air is blocked. More than that, I don’t want to smell your sweat in that cramped, enclosed room.”

“I can just do it alone, you know.”

“If I let a guy who’s already complaining slip out of my sight, I doubt he’d be diligent. Once the training is over, you can wash up right next to the well, so stop flapping your lips and properly focus on the load you feel in your thighs and glutes. Depending on your concentration, the efficiency will differ even if it’s the same amount of time.”

“Still-“

“You must not be tired enough yet if you’re still conscious of other people’s eyes. Should I really push you?”

At those words, Duver had a dissatisfied expression but quietly began to focus on her posture.

Leaving Duver, who was starting to concentrate, alone, I also fell into thought to create a martial arts to pass on to Duver.

‘It’s more difficult to guide inspiration and ideas in a specific direction than to weave together a martial arts that correctly follows reason.’

‘Moreover, what’s even more troubling is that what I’m going to pass on to Duver is a hidden technique.’

‘The Tang Clan, the most famous for hidden techniques, is originally one of the most prominent clan societies among the Murim families, and martial arts related to hidden weapons are kept more secret than other martial arts.’

‘Hidden techniques are much easier to prepare for if they are known compared to general martial arts. Due to the nature of the family, where it is difficult to maintain secrecy, even lower-level martial arts are fundamentally similar, so the burden of countermeasures is greater.’

If it were a general martial arts, it would have ended with slightly messing up a suitable family’s martial arts that had already been created.

However, limited to hidden techniques suitable for Duver’s talent, there was no corresponding martial arts, so I had to create it myself.

The Tang Clan, Southern Barbarian sects, assassin groups, and hidden techniques close to the desperate tricks used by ronin.

The essence of numerous martial arts was disassembled and reassembled in my head.

‘It’s more difficult to shave off the Mind and Intent to a problem-free level than to properly forge it.’

The contemplation in my head ended, and one martial arts was completed.

A martial arts created by fusing different regions, different ideologies, and different theories.

I named the martial arts created in that way Flash Shadow Hand (閃影手).

As far as I know, there are 14 martial arts with the name Flash Shadow Hand in the Central Plains.

If you include the sloppily born martial arts that aren’t even worth looking at, there might be even more.

As a martial artist and a martial scholar, I didn’t pursue higher truths but rather created a martial arts to restrict, so I didn’t have much affection for it.

Still, the basics are in place, and it’s a martial arts where the path is very clear while learning.

It may not be good as a martial art, but it will play an excellent role as a tool.

For the human species, which is in urgent need of survival right now, this might be better.

‘The justification and appearance are roughly matched… If I were to have the same status as the thinkers of the Hundred Schools of Thought here, this binding could last much longer.’

It was not easy for later generations to directly deny the results created by the great masters who had walked ahead.

Rather, in the case of loyal disciples, they often took it as an insult to their master, whether the other person’s words were right or wrong.

In the country of the Wokou, who worship martial arts more than the Central Plains, there was even a story that they would not hesitate to draw their swords when they considered it an insult to their master.

If I could become one of them and the various complex political circumstances of human affairs aligned well, I felt that it could last for quite a long time.

Waking up from my thoughts and looking at Duver, she was sweating profusely and taking the Mabo stance with her legs trembling, looking like she was about to die.

The ends of her pants were a little dirty, probably from falling over several times.

Seeing the sun directly overhead, it seemed like more time had passed than I thought.

“Stop, go wash up and eat.”

At those words, I flicked a silver coin to Duver, who immediately collapsed and gasped for breath.

Duver was young and at the bottom, so she had been exploited and didn’t have much money.

In fact, in this era, if you were a human being who flowed into the back alleys, it was enough to just feed you without letting you starve.

Washing up was also paid, and I didn’t eat meals myself, but I had to take care of her since I had taken her as a disciple.

Generally, if you were a disciple of a prestigious family, the disciple would take care of the master’s side dishes, but there weren’t many places in the city to use a child who was an orphan and used to be a gambler, and going outside the city at that level was close to suicide.

And I wasn’t a master who taught martial arts for healthy reasons.

I turned my back on the girl, who was lying down and holding the silver coin that had bounced off her stomach, asking with sparkling eyes, ‘Can I really use this?’ and walked towards the inn’s restaurant.

“I thought you were coming to pick me up early, but you’re a little late.”

Should I go to Rudolph in the stable?

She made such a fuss last time when I left her in the stable, I wonder if she’ll be quiet?

Just as I was about to head to the stable, leaving behind the restaurant, which was slowly starting to get crowded because it was lunchtime, a group entered the restaurant.

The people who had just entered the restaurant started to stop talking one by one as they glanced at me, and soon the restaurant, which should have been noisy because it was lunchtime, was enveloped in silence.

The soldiers, the cause of the silence, began to look around as if they were used to the situation they had created.

Everyone avoided their eyes as the soldiers, wearing sleeveless leather armor over their lowest layer of cloth clothing, bronze breastplates on their chests, and bronze helmets on their heads, with their hands on the hilts of the swords protruding from the leather scabbards at their waists, looked around.

Soon, one of them looked in my direction and nodded at me, tapping the shoulders of the other men.

As the men walked towards me, I could feel the tension rising in the restaurant with each footstep.

The approaching soldiers looked down through the gaps in their helmets and opened their mouths.

“Elf from the west. Are you Araya-nim?”

Although it was clumsy in my eyes, it was a restrained movement.

They were soldiers wearing proper armor, unlike the pieces of iron or daggers I had seen.

Moreover, unlike with Duver, I could feel a slightly clearer energy.

They could have looked down on my small stature, but they were flawless, with emotionless eyes and one hand always on the sword hilt.

They were soldiers who showed the owner’s capabilities.

“That’s right, but?”

“King Frigos wishes to invite you. We will escort you to the palace.”

After saying that, the soldier moved towards the door, and the remaining soldiers just stood still, as if they were going to keep waiting until I moved.

As the soldiers didn’t move and kept standing there, an awkwardness filled the restaurant.

Looking at Duver, who had been happily entering the restaurant but was now rolling her eyes while looking around, I said.

“I’ll be back soon. Please take care of Rudolph.”

As everyone in the restaurant’s eyes focused on her at my words, Duver, who had been frozen, barely nodded.

Seeing that, I adjusted my bamboo hat and left the inn.

◈ ◈ ◈

I was riding in a cart driven by soldiers, looking around at the scenery.

Three soldiers who were riding with me were sitting around me.

The remaining soldiers were also surrounding us on horseback, feeling like they were on the border between escorting and guarding.

When we were passing through the main street in the village, people’s attention was focused on us because of the strict appearance.

Whether they did or not, I was admiring the scenery below the hillside.

Unlike at night, the view of the city from the hillside in the morning was spectacular.

You could feel the vitality of the humans wandering around everywhere in the city.

As I looked at the somewhat developed city, I raised my head and looked at the large mansion on the hill.

‘The mansion I saw at night must have been King Frigos’ palace.’

The bat women who came to save Ramiya were able to arrive early, so does that mean they are all staying at the palace?

It felt very ominous that there were beings using Subhun techniques in the palace where the human king resided.

‘I need to see the situation, but it seemed like I needed to be careful about the woman named Aliya.’

It was the first time I had seen a being outside who had power comparable to or greater than a High Elf.

If Aliya was manipulating King Frigos and taking control of Pohlen as a whole, and showed hostility towards me, then a battle would probably be inevitable.

‘Would it be a little tiring if we fought?’

I don’t think I would lose, but considering the strange techniques used when fighting Ramiya, it seemed like it would be a tiring fight if they attacked with even more powerful and diverse techniques along with other bat people.

Still, considering that she didn’t have a particularly active intention to fight last night, it might end unexpectedly well.

Soon, under the soldiers’ surveillance, the cart arrived at the palace without any problems.

“We have arrived. We will help you get off.”

The soldiers surrounded me and moved to the entrance of the palace.

“Aliya-nim.”

“Thank you for your hard work, Commander.”

Aliya greeted the soldiers at the entrance.

“Thank you for visiting, Araya-nim. The King is waiting for you.”

“Hmm.”

I followed Aliya, who was guiding me with a dignified attitude.

As I walked inside the mansion following the guidance, a room with a particularly large door appeared among the many rooms.

“The King is waiting inside.”

As Aliya sent a signal inside, the door slowly began to open from the inside.

And what I saw in the scenery that opened up was soldiers in the same uniform as the soldiers I had seen earlier lined up on the left and right in a large room, and at the end, a man with a nervous face sitting on a large throne made of carved marble.