The Academy’s Sashimi Sword Master

Abel opened her eyes at dawn.

Carefully, she pushed aside the quilt that was gently swaying. For a moment she let her skin receive the blue glow that filtered through the curtains. Then she got out of bed, taking care not to wake the one sleeping at her side.

Abel went outside and stretched, feeling her abs tighten. She breathed in the scent of the morning dew in the air and returned to shower.

Abel’s life was meticulous, almost obsessive. She went to bed while the stars still shone in the sky and woke up when they began to fade.

It wasn’t because she was a daughter of the Nibelung family, symbol of the golden eyes that reflect the stars, but because staying in bed until sunrise made her feel as if she were a lazy person.

Shhh—

The water ran over her tense muscles, sliding down as if through a carved channel.

After years of training, her body was more fiber and density than bare skin.

The only person who could see that body up close was you, and every time you did, your eyes widened in astonishment.

That filled her with pride and at the same time embarrassed her. There was modesty between man and woman, of course, but what unsettled her most was the feeling that, even with a body like this—

“…At decisive moments, I don’t feel like it helps me much as a heroine.”

That insecurity made her muscles weigh on her as if they were tumors clinging to her body. Abel gently touched herself. At least, they weren’t soft like a real tumor.

“If I let my guard down, this becomes a burden immediately.”

Her words dissolved into the noise of the water.

With her skin still damp, she got dressed and left the bathroom. Just then, dawn was breaking.

Life was also beginning to awaken in Kang Geom-Ma’s residence.

Abel went back upstairs and, approaching him, patted his back.

“Geom-Ma, wake up.”

“Just a little longer… just a little…”

He resisted reluctantly.

Abel smiled softly and stroked your cheek with the back of her hand. Her nails brushed against your dark circles. Her mouth grew bitter.

‘If I had been a little more outstanding, perhaps the color of these dark circles would have lightened a bit.’

With that thought, she kept watching you fixedly. In that instant she even forgot the impatience that usually gnawed at her heart.

A routine happier than any other.

To protect it, she had to become even stronger. She wanted to be, even if only a ray of light, around the darkness that covered your eyes.

***

Lately I’ve been enjoying luxuries I don’t even deserve. In truth, not just me—my whole family.

“Eat.”

The chef of the menu carelessly tossed the dishes onto the table. Before us unfolded a banquet so lavish that our eyes opened wide.

‘Not even a king’s table could be this abundant.’

It wasn’t just Korean food. There were also Western dishes, Chinese dishes, and even fusion-style side dishes. Maybe it was courtesy of the host.

When it was only him and me eating, at most there were some vegetables with soybean paste soup.

“What are you waiting for? If it gets cold, it loses its flavor. Come on, eat.”

“Yes, yes…”

Ryozo, Abel, and I exchanged glances behind his back before daring to pick up the chopsticks. Ryozo tucked her hair behind her ear and, blowing, tasted the soup.

She had a sensitive tongue—she couldn’t eat anything too hot, and even kimchi jjigae she would take almost lukewarm.

“…Amazing.”

And even so, she didn’t mind burning her tongue. She said the kimchi jjigae I made was her absolute favorite.

While she ate in fascination, Abel took a piece of bread, lightly spread Ho Ah-Hyun’s homemade jam on it, and brought it to her mouth. Her face melted into an expression of pure satisfaction.

“Delicious… delicious…”

“Yeah, that much?”

“Try, try.”

“Geom-Ma, act with awareness.”

“Mhm.”

I couldn’t resist the insistence of Ryozo and Abel. I took a bite of palbochae, and as soon as it touched my tongue—

Ah!

It was as if fireworks exploded in my mouth. Saliva went wild. Something burning rose into my chest.

“Damn it.”

They say that when you taste something too good, rudeness slips out on its own.

In front of my father, I barely managed to hold back a full curse.

“Does it hurt your pride?”

Ho Ah-Hyun teased me as he served another dish. I stared at him before letting out a sigh.

“…You’ve improved a lot, father.”

“Improved? You never beat me, and now you say that?”

“Eh? Never…?”

“Of course.”

…

The steam from the dishes rose as our gazes clashed like sparks.

“Delicious, delicious.”

“Abel, try this one too. Wow, there aren’t any side dishes here, it’s all main courses.”

Meanwhile, Ryozo and Abel kept eating, entranced.

“Slowly, girls.”

“It’s impossible to eat slowly!”

“Hahaha. If someone saw you, they’d think I never fed you in my life.”

“No! I’ve never tasted anything this good in my life…! Oops.”

I smiled stiffly.

“Speak with confidence.”

“If I do, I’m afraid I’ll hurt your feelings, Geom-Ma.”

“I think you already did with those words.”

“Then try this, and you’ll see even wounds heal.”

…Damn it.

I couldn’t help but throw a reproachful look at Ho Ah-Hyun.

Yes, I knew it was a childish reaction for someone in the kitchen, but what man in Korea could endure that kind of provocation without feeling anger?

It had already been ten years since I left professional gastronomy.

But cooking was still engraved in my bones. It was the only field where I had forged myself alone, with my own hands. That’s why, even after becoming Heavenly Sword, I still told myself I had been the best with the knife in the whole country.

And now my father insisted on scratching at that pride.

It wasn’t the same, someone who until recently cooked every day, as me, who had been away from the stove for a decade!

The flavor aside.

It was obvious that this ostentation hid a purpose.

I decided to play along.

“And what’s with all this sudden display?”

“Display? I cooked like always.”

“…Haha, today he’s really poking at me.”

“Usually, the ones who say that are already poked.”

My father had become a master of teabagging. I felt the veins bulging at my temple.

“Good grief, you still can’t get over that useless pride. I’ve told you a thousand times—with the knife, yes, you’re better than me.”

Ryozo and Abel ate without pause, but they were paying attention to the conversation.

They had already understood the truth—that my father had been my teacher in cooking.

So they also deserved to know the rest—that twenty years ago, I had surpassed him. I was the living proof of the expression the disciple surpasses the master.

I lifted my chin arrogantly.

“So you admit it, huh?”

“That’s self-awareness, brat.”

“Bra… brat…?”

“But tell me, is cooking only about using a knife? Even if fishing is your specialty, there’s also fire and other techniques. In what do you surpass me as a cook? Only with the knife. In everything else, you’re neither above me nor above the current average.”

“Haha, what a joke. I don’t get riled up by those provocations anymore.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Because it wasn’t a joke.”

“…”

I fell silent, and Ho Ah-Hyun frowned, as if displeased.

“See? You only obsess over what’s in front of you and don’t even try to understand my true intentions.”

“What intentions could there be in showing off food? Even if there were, I wouldn’t understand them. Your technique is below even that of apprentice cooks…”

Thud!

A lump formed on my crown.

“Why don’t you correct the way you speak?”

“Sorry.”

My father, who had leaned forward, leaned back against the chair again.

“Anyway, you shouldn’t focus on the idea that you surpassed me in cooking. What matters now is that you focus on this table.”

“On the table?”

I lowered my gaze.

Now that I think about it.

The arrangement was strange. It wasn’t simply that there were dishes from all over the world.

The sense of strangeness came from something else.

“…There are no side dishes.”

“Exactly.”

Ho Ah-Hyun relaxed his face and murmured.

“Many say that side dishes are indispensable at the table, but I don’t believe so. For me, side dishes are nothing more than a resource to avoid wasting ingredients. That’s my point of view. If you have good ingredients in abundance around you, what need is there to relegate them to side dishes? In Tongyeong or in other coastal villages, what people in Seoul eat as main dishes, there they serve as side dishes. Isn’t that absurd?”

“Seen that way, it makes sense.”

“My point is, when the ingredients are that good, it makes no sense to lower them to the category of side dish. Locking them into that label can reduce the potential they have.”

“…”

“And just so you know, you already surpassed the frame of a simple ingredient. From before and even now, you are still a cook. But someone like you, instead of making use of these abundant ingredients, only shows off your knife skills. How could I not be angry?”

Abel blinked slowly.

“Geom-Ma, did you do something wrong to your father? Hurry up and apologize.”

“No.”

I shook my head.

“It’s not that I’ve failed my father… it’s that I’ve been failing you.”

“Eh? Geom-Ma, you?”

Ryozo asked with a face of not understanding.

“What else could you have done wrong, apart from having your love life a bit messy?”

“Ryozo!”

“Well, that was wrong too.”

My father intervened.

“But at least you always understood quickly. That’s a relief.”

“…Haa.”

I picked up the chopsticks and resumed eating with a combative air.

With a grain of rice stuck to the corner of her lips, Ryozo asked me.

“Do you have to go somewhere today?”

“No. Not me… you seem to have something to do.”

“Us?”

“My father wants to supervise your training a little.”

Because of my lack of aptitude as a cook, I had been wasting the abundant “ingredients”: the potential of this golden generation.

So he himself would take care of polishing them so that each of them could shine on her own as a main dish.

That was the true message hidden behind this lavish table.

“…”

Ryozo and Abel also changed their expressions. They already sensed that my father, Ho Ah-Hyun, was not just a simple chef.

As a teacher, he was far above me.

Ryozo interrupted her meal to ask for permission, pulled out her phone, and ordered Vixbig to reorganize her schedule. Abel did the same, calling Rachel, who was on guard at the academy.

Then both of them doubled the speed with which they devoured the food. If they were going to expend energy from the morning, they had to fill themselves properly to better absorb the learning.

“Father.”

I complained between bites.

“What is it, brat?”

“…I owe you an apology.”

Ho Ah-Hyun blinked, surprised.

Then, with a slightly regretful expression, he replied.

“The apology should come from me to you.”

***

As soon as we finished breakfast, we rented out the entire training field.

It was vacation season. The academy was quiet. Anyone who wasn’t a wandering student, like I had been in the past, had already returned home.

So that immense field was left only for us—me, Ryozo, Abel, Rachel, and Leon. Five in total.

As we lined up in formation with a certain tension, I remembered our cadet days.

It was rare to see heroes of this caliber lined up with such discipline.

After a while, Ho Ah-Hyun appeared.

“I called you on short notice and yet you all came. Thank you.”

“No need to thank us.”

Abel responded on behalf of everyone.

Her gaze was firm, so much so that just being near her made the skin prickle.

Lately Abel was thirsty for improvement, and with her own husband’s master offering personal instruction.

It was natural for her to feel overwhelmed.

Me too.

I had only known Ho Ah-Hyun as a cook.

As Balor Joaquin, founding hero, I had barely seen flashes of his power through memories.

I was curious.

Not as the greatest swordsman in history, but as the founder of the Joaquin Academy.

As one of the Seven Founding Heroes who built the foundation of hero society.

I wanted to see with my own eyes the strength of the man who had shaped such giants.

Balor Joaquin examined us one by one before murmuring.

“Your potential… is greater than that of my former disciples.”

Those words pierced my chest like thorns.

“My lessons are always intensive. They won’t take long.”

Ho Ah-Hyun cast me a glance before adding.

“But in my training, manifesting Blessings is forbidden.”

We all opened our mouths in surprise.

“Your first objective will be to wound me, even with just a single scratch, without using Blessings. That will be the end of the first lesson. Ah, Geom-Ma. You stay out.”

“Why me…?”

“If I say step aside, you step aside.”

“Yes, sir.”

He snapped his fingers.

“How long it takes you depends on you. It could be today, it could be in a week. You’ve eaten enough, so let’s begin.”

A purple curtain covered the entire training field.

Boom!

An overwhelming crash shook the air and an oppressive aura fell over us.

The others collapsed like puppets with their strings cut.

“Get up. You have to prove you’re worth what you just ate.”