I took a small deep breath.

My mind calmed down like a tranquil lake.

And then, I thought of her sword.

‘Instructor Baek Seol-hee’s sword is silent.’

I wasn’t talking about the sound of the sword being swung or the sound of the sword itself. Of course, those sounds were also silent, but I could instinctively tell that it was due to a difference in level.

‘How should I put it… It’s like the very movement itself has been stripped of all excess?’

The handling of her gaze, her breathing, the flow of her mana, her toes, even her fingers. In her movements when she wielded the sword, there was an economy of motion, nothing wasted. There was something obsessively meticulous about Baek Seol-hee’s sword.

I lowered my gaze, clumsily imitating Baek Seol-hee’s sword that I had experienced that day.

.

.

.

Boom─!

“Ugh─!”

Lim Min-young spat out a groan as she was pushed back by Jin Yuha’s sword.

There was something she could never tolerate.

A heretic who strayed from the righteous path.

And to her, Jin Yuha was that heretic.

Unlike the special admission students who proved their skills through their achievements and deserved recognition. Jin Yuha had been admitted through the male quota system.

From the moment she first heard about him, Lim Min-young felt a sense of displeasure.

He used his looks to cling to Shin Se-hee and Kang Do-hee, winning the team duels through their support. And it didn’t end there; even after the basic training period, he continued his shameless behavior, ingratiating himself with them.

Even recently, there were rumors that he had even ensnared Lee Yoo-ri.

“Shameless…! That snake! How dare he extend his vile claws to Lee Yoo-ri too!”

Lee Yoo-ri was Lim Min-young’s opponent in the team duels. The conviction and determination Lee Yoo-ri had shown back then, along with the unwavering trust her teammates had in her, perfectly aligned with Min-young’s ideals. After witnessing her, Min-young became a fervent admirer of Lee Yoo-ri, despite them both being women.

Filled with a deep-seated resentment for losing Lee Yoo-ri, Min-young had long been sharpening her metaphorical sword against Jin Yuha.

Could this be fate? She found herself in the same class as Jin Yuha.

Anti-personal Combat Practice.

But this despicable man crossed the line once again. Despite clinging to the special admission students and riding on their coattails, he received an A grade. To someone like her, who pursued righteousness, this was absolutely unacceptable!

In that moment, Jin Yuha became not just an opponent she had to defeat, but someone she absolutely could not afford to lose to.

“So I intended to expose his true nature in our first duel…!”

From the moment his sword clashed with her shield, her expression had to harden. The impact was far more powerful than she had anticipated, shaking her entire body.

“Huh, so, he does have some skill! But now, I’ll get serious too…!”

Adjusting her internal assessment of Jin Yuha, Min-young tightened her grip on her mace.

As the duel continued, she became more earnest. In contrast, Jin Yuha seemed increasingly disinterested in her.

“Grr…!”

Clenching her teeth, Min-young charged at the expressionless Jin Yuha.

“Block this if you can!”

Wham─!

Her squeezed mana enveloped her mace, and the mace descended toward Jin Yuha’s head.

At that moment.

Swish─

The trajectory of his sword moved so quickly that her eyes couldn’t follow, and it lightly landed on the shaft of her mace.

“Don’t be ridiculous…!”

Lim Min-young compressed more mana into the head of her mace, pressing it down.

Her mace glowed a deep orange, the same color as her hair. In contrast, Jin Yuha’s sword was surrounded by a faint blue aura, almost as if it was left unpainted.

“That’s dangerous!!”

“Even if he can’t die!”

“That could leave a serious trauma!”

Only Kang Do-hee watched Jin Yuha’s sword intently, while all the other cadets imagined Jin Yuha’s terrible fate and closed their eyes tightly.

However, Jin Yuha’s sword didn’t face the force head-on but slid over the head of the mace.

As a result, the center of gravity of the mace shifted sideways and struck the floor of the training ground harmlessly.

BOOM─!!

A deafening noise filled the air.

For a moment, Lim Min-young couldn’t hide her confusion but quickly regained her composure and pushed her shield towards Jin Yuha.

But then.

Swish─! Bang─!

Jin Yuha’s sword struck the side of the shield with a short, sharp cut. Once again, Lim Min-young’s shield missed its target, failing to fulfill its purpose.

In that split second.

Jin Yuha’s sword left a blue butterfly-like afterimage as it slipped through her defenses.

Lim Min-young rolled to the side to evade the blade but couldn’t completely neutralize the attack.

Swoosh!

“Ugh!”

Her side was slashed, and blood oozed out.

At that moment, Jin Yuha lunged forward again. He lowered his body and swung his sword horizontally at her ankles.

Swish─!

She pressed her shield down to block the attack.

BOOM─!

But she hadn’t stabilized her stance, and the impact knocked her sideways. She rolled on the ground and barely managed to push herself up using her mace.

Huff─

Huff─

Lim Min-young gasped for breath, looking at him with eyes filled with a mix of fear and disbelief. Her pupils trembled as if there was an earthquake.

‘What… What is happening…?’

She couldn’t regain her composure.

Even though she hadn’t expected this, she was now fighting him with all her might. However, Jin Yuha seemed to toy with her, effortlessly handling her attacks.

No matter how powerfully she swung her mace, her strikes couldn’t even graze the hem of his clothes.

Before she knew it, Jin Yuha’s sword, leaving swift afterimages, silently flew towards her.

‘Ah…’

Despair clouded her eyes.

His sword stopped just in front of her neck.

“……”

A sharp, stinging pain. A single drop of blood trickled down her neck.

Glancing down,

she saw the sword halted just below her neck.

She struggled to speak, her lips refusing to move. She had to say words she couldn’t even imagine when they first started this duel.

A deep sense of defeat welled up inside her.

“I… I lost…”

Then,

Jin Yuha frowned.

“Why are you ending this on your own?”

“…What?”

“I’m not accepting your surrender.”

Lim Min-young looked up at him in confusion.

“It’s not over yet.”

In that instant, Jin Yuha’s sword moved again, descending towards her head.

‘Even if we can’t die, to do this to someone who has surrendered…!’

Thinking once more that he was nothing but a scoundrel far from righteousness, Lim Min-young shut her eyes tightly.

But then,

Whack─!

“Ugh─!?”

A sudden pain on top of her head made her cry out in surprise.

“What the…!”

She glared up at him.

And this time, she saw it clearly. Jin Yuha’s expressionless face as he brought down his sword.

Whack─!

His sword curved sideways, striking her forehead sharply.

“Ouch!”

Whack─!

“Kyaa!”

Whack─!

“Why, why…!!!”

Lim Min-young looked up at him with eyes full of injustice.

“I have some pent-up frustration with you. Hmm, I’m still far from feeling better, so let’s continue.”

Jin Yuha calmly declared his intention to keep hitting her, saying some incomprehensible words.

Lim Min-young’s pupils trembled violently.

.

.

.

Smack─!

“Ouch, ouch─!”

Whack─!

“Ack!”

Thwack─!

“Stop, please!”

In the now quiet training ground, only the sound of Jin Yuha’s sword striking and the accompanying cries could be heard.

At first, the cadets had looked on in shock at Jin Yuha’s skill. Their expressions slowly began to change.

Gulp─

One female cadet swallowed hard.

‘S-somehow… I feel a bit strange…?’

‘Hmm, such a handsome guy hitting without mercy…’

‘Is this a reward?’

‘…Should I sign up for a duel too?’

While a few female cadets’ sexual orientations seemed to be shifting in a concerning direction (LoL) , Instructor Hong Jinada, who was trying to maintain a calm exterior, was internally breaking out in a cold sweat.

‘What on earth did that crazy woman teach him…!?’

Although it still looked rough and unpolished, appearing almost like an ordinary sword,

There was an unmistakable hint of the ruthless killing sword style of the mad slayer in Jin Yuha’s movements.

‘Did she really pass on the Execution Sword to a newly admitted cadet…?’

The Execution Sword was a merciless, combat-focused style used against demonic beings, that could be learned only by those who had mastered the art of killing.

‘And this kid can imitate it even if it’s just a rough copy!’

Hong Jinada, who was obsessed with all forms of martial arts, knew very well how incredible it was to even mimic that sword style, given the grueling learning process.

‘There’s no one here who can match him…! No, that sword style isn’t meant for prolonged battles!’

Defeating someone using the Execution Sword could cause irreversible psychological trauma to the cadets.

At that moment,

“Instructor.”

Hong Jinada turned her head.

There stood a cadet with red hair roughly tied up, a hair tie held in her mouth.

It was Kang Do-hee.

“I want to duel Jin Yuha.”