Cheon Eujin crushed the anxiety rising in his chest.

Nothing showed from his opponent, and even while watching that, Cheon Eujin dragged his tension higher.

Even if he couldn’t see it, Bang Sungyeon had.

So he ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ chose to trust Bang Sungyeon’s eyes over his own pathetic ones.

He leveled his sword.

What is this anxiety?

And—

What did he mean by “be careful”?

What, exactly, had Bang Sungyeon told him to be careful about?

He’d wanted to ask before the match started, but he couldn’t.

Because after the match with Thunder Dragon, Bang Sungyeon had already gone to the medical station.

...Is he going to be okay?

The worry came out of nowhere. Bang Sungyeon had won, but he was the one who collapsed.

Is Young Lord Bang okay?

The thought flickered through him, but—

He’ll be fine.

Cheon Eujin shook his head again and again. This wasn’t the time to worry about someone else, and as for Bang Sungyeon—

There was even less reason to worry.

If it was him—

If it was the Bang Sungyeon Cheon Eujin knew, he’d get back up like it was nothing.

Cheon Eujin held that belief.

Focus.

Right now, not Bang Sungyeon.

The match in front of him.

And then—

He said Baek Cheonin, right?

Baek Cheonin of the Shaanxi Baek Clan.

That was the name of the kind-looking young man in front of him.

I don’t know who he is.

A name he’d never heard before.

Who was Baek Cheonin?

A junior generation figure he’d never even once heard mentioned.

And Bang Sungyeon had said to be careful of him.

Why?

Cheon Eujin didn’t know that either.

...Focus.

Cheon Eujin decided to believe Bang Sungyeon first, no matter what.

“Prepare to begin.”

Ghk.

As if responding to the judge, he took his stance.

The tension poured straight into the tip of his sword.

Baek Cheonin was slowly drawing his sword then.

Slow.

Unnaturally slow, the way he pulled it free.

Then—

“Begin.”

The judge announced the start.

BANG—!

Cheon Eujin put force into his body and accelerated.

He rushed in front of Baek Cheonin in an instant, and poured strength into his sword.

SHIIING—!

The blade tore through the air.

Cheon Eujin couldn’t open Moon Eyes.

So he couldn’t use Blue Moon Sword Dance, which only became truly usable once Moon Eyes opened.

So this was the foundation of Blue Moon Sword Dance—

Blue Moon Sword Forms.

A thin layer of sword qi wrapped the blade.

A blue-edged slash carved the air.

A sword that had been trained, and trained, and trained without rest—now erupted from Cheon Eujin’s body as it was.

But—

CREEEAK...!

“...!”

Cheon Eujin’s eyes widened. Baek Cheonin was pushing Cheon Eujin’s sword aside with his own.

“Ugh! Hah!”

A groan and a shout that sounded like it had no strength behind it.

He could feel the power linked to it—pitifully weak.

And yet—

CREEEAK...!

Amazingly, the blade was shoved away and slid off.

What—

How could it slide off so cleanly with strength like that?

He couldn’t understand.

CLANG—!

The deflected tip struck the ground. Cheon Eujin’s posture collapsed with it.

He forced strength into the toes digging into the ground so he wouldn’t completely fall apart, and raised his upper body.

It was forced, but he twisted his waist with power.

A warped posture rolled over into balance through flexibility and strength.

His sword flowed again. It rose as if to cut open the air—

“Hrk!”

Baek Cheonin flinched and jerked his head back.

The blade barely grazed past him.

Again.

He dodged again. Was this coincidence too?

Or—

A miracle?

If not that—

Skill?

Was it Baek Cheonin’s skill?

But his movements were flimsy beyond belief.

No matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t skill.

“...”

Cheon Eujin’s expression tightened. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t understand.

Coincidence and miracles.

Cheon Eujin didn’t believe in them.

He knew it himself. Even if he said he trusted Bang Sungyeon’s warning—this was just an excuse.

Because setting everything else aside—

To someone like this?

Did his older sister really lose to someone like this?

How could that happen?

My sister isn’t weak.

He didn’t want to admit it, but it was the one thing he had to admit.

Cheon Hyein wasn’t weak.

In Cheon Eujin’s life, she’d always been the wall he wanted to smash.

And that hadn’t changed.

And that wall lost to someone like this?

He didn’t want to accept it.

The wall he wanted to destroy couldn’t be like that.

I still haven’t reached her.

Not only could he not reach her—he was still afraid.

He couldn’t even properly look into his sister’s eyes, and when he did, the memory came back.

That moment when he’d done nothing—

When he’d been useless, only watching.

Damn it.

The memory flashed across him. Cheon Eujin’s face twisted.

His focus cracked.

And then—

WHAM—!!

“...!”

His sword suddenly bounced away.

Cheon Eujin, startled, checked the situation—

Baek Cheonin was staring straight at him.

“Uh-oh. Well, damn.”

A face like he didn’t know how he’d done it himself.

What just happened?

Cheon Eujin couldn’t even process what he’d just been hit with.

“Ahaha. Well... I’m lucky.”

“...”

Baek Cheonin acted like the deflection had been luck.

But—

“Luck is luck, but.”

As he said it, Baek Cheonin’s eyes held something nasty.

“You have to focus, you know? Getting arrogant... ah, no. I mean—no matter how insignificant I am, I’m still your opponent, aren’t I?”

He spoke with a smile, but the irritation leaking out of him was unmistakable.

Cheon Eujin bit down on his lip.

“My apologies.”

He admitted it. It wasn’t something he should’ve been doing with an opponent in front of him.

“Hhhh.”

He focused again.

The sword qi wrapped around his blade shone, and Cheon Eujin charged again with that light in hand.

Blue Moon Untraced Sword.

A sword path that opened a route as it flowed.

Cheon Eujin’s sword shot straight at Baek Cheonin.

“Hm.”

Baek Cheonin narrowed his eyes.

His sword moved against the incoming blade.

CREEEAK...! SLASH—!

Once he blocked.

Once he dodged.

And then—

What?

Cheon Eujin’s eyes widened mid-strike.

Baek Cheonin was looking at Cheon Eujin’s sword.

It was clear.

His eyes were moving.

His gaze stayed on the tip, as if reading the sword path.

And then—

CLANG—!

He knocked it aside once, breaking the continuity of the path—

TAP—!

And slid back, opening distance.

The gap between them widened in an instant.

“...”

Cheon Eujin stood there, face hard.

Because after that, he was sure.

“You.”

Baek Cheonin—

“How are you hiding your strength?”

He was hiding his strength.

“...”

Baek Cheonin kept smiling and scratched the back of his head.

“Ah. Well, damn.”

A reaction like something had gotten awkward.

Cheon Eujin didn’t understand it, so he stayed still.

“This wasn’t in the plan.”

Baek Cheonin sighed and changed his expression.

The smile vanished.

His face still looked “kind,” like before—

But—

What the hell is with those eyes?

It was his eyes.

The gaze rising in them was the problem.

Cold.

Completely different from the air he’d had until now.

“What...”

“Young Hero Cheon.”

“...Yes?”

“This wasn’t expected. Someone who made it this far...”

WHAM—!

“...!”

Baek Cheonin slipped in close, burrowing into Cheon Eujin’s space.

He wasn’t fast, but Cheon Eujin’s response was late.

His eyes widened—his pupils flaring—

And Baek Cheonin whispered from inside Cheon Eujin’s range.

“I didn’t know you’d be this weak.”

“What...?”

Cheon Eujin immediately slashed.

WHOOSH—!

The blade snapped toward Baek Cheonin’s throat—

“Ah!”

But Baek Cheonin dodged in a sudden scramble.

Again.

He dodged again.

This wasn’t coincidence.

Cheon Eujin was sure now.

This bastard—

He’s hiding something.

Cheon Eujin recalled Bang Sungyeon’s warning again and poured strength into his sword.

He re-formed his sword path and pressed in—

WHOOSH—! WHOOSH—!

But his blade only carved empty air.

It never reached Baek Cheonin.

Again and again.

The only difference now was—

“This is a method too, you know.”

Baek Cheonin kept talking to him in the gaps between the sword path.

“The opponent has to be able to support it a little for me to pull off what I can do... ah, seriously. I really didn’t expect this.”

A distance where the judge couldn’t hear.

Words that only reached him when Baek Cheonin came right up close.

“Moon Dancer was on a different level, so I could keep it from showing, but this is just not it.”

CLANG—!

The sword was shoved aside.

Before Cheon Eujin could even swing properly, Baek Cheonin had knocked it away as if swatting it.

“You’re weak. Weak enough I can’t even say you’re the same blood. You’re so weak I can’t move you however I want. If I push it, I’ll be the one who shows.”

“...!”

Because I’m weak.

At that, Cheon Eujin’s brow tightened.

But Baek Cheonin kept going.

“So I’m curious. How did you know? Looking at your reaction, it’s like you were tense from the start. There’s no way you noticed on your own. And besides.”

He clearly didn’t believe Cheon Eujin had noticed.

Total dismissal.

Cheon Eujin didn’t answer.

He focused on swinging his sword.

That was all he kept doing.

Then—

“Seriously, are you really Moon-Thread Sword’s son? You’re Moon Dancer’s little brother, right...? But for that—”

Baek Cheonin smiled.

“You’re completely incompetent.”

Heat flared in Cheon Eujin’s eyes.

“Shut up...!”

WHOOOOOSH—!!!

Emotion flooded into the blade, and power surged out.

A strike far stronger than before unfolded—

But strength he couldn’t control mixed into it.

“Oh. Well, damn. Guess I shouldn’t have said that?”

Baek Cheonin dodged even more easily, like he was enjoying it.

The absurd part was that he was still dodging by a hair—triggering the same ridiculous evasions as before.

Rolling on the ground, scrambling in clumsy bursts—

A chain of crude motions.

AHAHAHAHAHAHA—!!!

The crowd laughed nonstop at Baek Cheonin.

To them, it looked like he was throwing his whole life into dodging Cheon Eujin’s sword.

“You’re reacting to something this small? So there is something that catches, huh?”

Baek Cheonin kept prodding at Cheon Eujin’s nerves.

“I can feel the inferiority complex. Who’s it toward? Your sister? Or the great Moon-Thread Sword?”

Grind.

Cheon Eujin clenched his teeth. He wanted to make that filthy mouth shut.

So he kept swinging.

But he still couldn’t reach him.

“Or if it’s not that—”

Baek Cheonin said.

“The Little Sword Saint everyone keeps calling so great and so great. Young Lord Bang. Honestly, I don’t get that either.”

Slip.

Baek Cheonin dodged and fell into Cheon Eujin again—like an accidental embrace while avoiding the blade.

AHAHAHA...!!!

The crowd’s laughter flooded in.

And in the laughter that felt like it would bury him, Baek Cheonin spoke at Cheon Eujin’s ear.

“Young Lord Bang isn’t even that great a person, is he?”

“...!”

Cheon Eujin’s blood boiled.

What did this bastard just say?

“Don’t speak of Young Lord Bang so carelessly.”

“Hm?”

Cheon Eujin’s eyes gleamed.

“Young Lord Bang isn’t someone like you gets to put in his mouth, and not someone you can call a friend. How dare you—!”

Someone whose intentions he couldn’t even read dared speak Bang Sungyeon’s name.

He had mocked his idol.

Cheon Eujin couldn’t endure that.

But then—

“...How dare I?”

Baek Cheonin reacted strangely to that phrase.

And in that instant—

THUNK!

“...!”

Baek Cheonin’s sword drove into Cheon Eujin.

The blade cut into his abdomen.

“Hrk...!”

The sudden pain forced Cheon Eujin down to one knee.

“Hh—... hhk...!”

With shocked eyes, he looked up at Baek Cheonin.

Baek Cheonin stood there, looking down at him.

“Ah. Well, damn.”

In flat eyes with every trace of laughter erased, Baek Cheonin said—

“Oops.”

A voice without the slightest emotion.