Chapter 4: Volume 1 - Successful Escape?

It's been 10 years since I was Transmigrated into this damn martial arts world.

"..Master, couldn't you at least remove your undergarments yourself?"

"Too bothersome."

"Hah.."

I was rolling around under an eccentric Master.

Others might envy me if they saw this.

After all, it's not often one gets the chance to touch the undergarments of a Beauty that could topple a nation—a description that doesn't do justice to my Master's appearance.

But that's only fun for a day or two.

"Master... I'm a man too... Don't you have even the slightest sense of feminine modesty?"

"Oh? Are you seeing This Lady as a woman?"

"That's not what I meant.."

She may look beautiful, but she has no feminine charm in any other aspect.

Can't cook properly by herself, can't do laundry, has an eccentric personality, and won't even show signs of waking up when the sun is high in the sky...

Seeing someone like this for 10 years would cool even a thousand years of love.

-Splash splash

"Just forget it. I've said this over a hundred times by now, what's the point of saying it again? You won't listen anyway."

"You know me well."

Am I a Disciple or a housekeeper?

It's common sense in this world for disciples to take care of their masters, but even so, being this defenseless around someone of the opposite sex...

At least I'm not starving as originally promised, but my losses are too great.

-Glance

Central Plains style clothing with a perfect blend of red and white

Golden hair flowing abundantly, shining brilliantly in the sunlight entering the floor

A figure that would put to shame most Western women I'd seen through monitors in my past life.

'My standards have gotten unnecessarily high.'

After seeing such a woman for 10 years, I'm worried about my future.

I probably won't be satisfied with ordinary women anymore.

"By the way, Master. I have something to ask."

"What is it?"

"When can I start Descending the mountain?"

It's been 10 years.

Enough time for mountains and rivers to change.

I've already reached Coming-of-age, isn't it time to venture into the Martial world?

"Nonsense! You still don't understand how frightening the outside world is!"

"I know that, but..."

Though I barely read martial arts novels before being Transmigrated, I know it's not an ordinary dangerous world.

A place where your neck could fly off if you get into the wrong argument.

A place where you could become crippled just by getting caught in a fight between martial artists, even if you weren't involved.

I know it's a brutal place, but.

"I can't stay in the mountains forever."

There's no fun living like this.

If I were at least training in martial arts in these mountains, I could endure with the hope of a brilliant life waiting outside

But with something as vague as Astrology, I don't even have that kind of patience.

It doesn't even feel like I'm achieving anything.

What's the point of fortune-telling in the mountains?

At best, I can only predict what meat we might eat tomorrow.

"..Do you hate these mountains so much?"

"I wouldn't say I hate it, but it's boring and tedious. Life isn't very interesting, you could say."

For someone who used to enjoy worldwide entertainment through the internet on Earth, this mountain life was tedium itself.

"Rather than growing old and dying in the mountains, I want to enjoy life in the Martial World even if it's dangerous. I want to meet people, drink alcohol, travel around, and taste delicious food from the secular world."

"..Wait just 3 years, just 3 years. After that, I'll take you to the outside world."

"Didn't you say the same thing last time, only to come back up after three days?"

"Tsk.. When did that obedient child I first brought grow up to be like this."

Though this day passed quietly like this,

My yearning for the outside world continued to grow.

.
.
.

One day, Master made a sudden announcement.

"I'm going into Secluded training."

"..What?"

Secluded training.

Locking oneself away, isolated from the outside world, focusing on training while surviving on Fasting Pills.

Master suddenly says she's going to do this.

"So suddenly?"

"It's about time."

"H-How long?"

"At most 3 years. At least 30 months, I expect."

Two and a half to three years.

Quite a long time.

"..Then what about me?"

"You'll wait, of course. As my Disciple."

Wait alone for three years?

In these mountains with nothing?

"..."

I won't starve to death since we have crops growing, but without Master, I won't be able to eat meat during that time.

To spend three years eating nothing but grass

I'm not a Daoist.

How does this make any...

'Wait a minute.'

Isn't this

A chance to escape?

"I will earnestly pray for your successful attainment and wait here."

I immediately prostrated myself.

"Please don't worry about me at all and focus only on your training. I'm already of age, so living alone is nothing."

"Why do you look so happy?"

"How could I, as your Disciple, not be happy that you're about to achieve what you've been wanting?"

"..You don't have any other intentions, do you?"

"Haha, where would I go, leaving Master alone? I'm not such an ungrateful person who would betray someone who has fed and raised me for 10 years. Besides, you know I couldn't leave even a scratch on your precious body even if I wanted to."

Master was a strange person.

She brought me in saying my distorted Mind, Qi, Body were interesting, and I thought she might teach me martial arts, but what she taught me was Astrology—the art of receiving heaven's energy and peeking at its records.

A Bewitching art somewhere between Following the will of heaven and Going against the will of heaven.

[Favorably speaking, it's receiving heaven's energy; unfavorably speaking, it's daringly peeking at heaven's records—truly a Bewitching art.]

It sounds nice to say I can see the Future, but honestly, it's not a good skill for surviving in this Land of Blood and Iron.

I can't see my own future, and I have no way to deal with even a normal person with a sword.

Though I begged and pleaded to learn how to write a few Talismans, even that isn't very helpful.

I can write Talismans that ward off misfortune and bring luck, but unlike Daoists, I can't do things like fold the earth or create wind.

The only thing I can use to protect myself now is... reduced stamina consumption while running?

Useful for running away, at least.

Anyway, while I, the Disciple, was in such a pathetic state, Master was different.

Though she usually lay around, when she occasionally went out, she would disappear without a trace and return with several caught beasts, so she was definitely not ordinary.

At first, I thought she might be a Daoist, but I decided someone like her couldn't be one

Now I just think she's a martial artist in seclusion.

"..Alright. Though you'll be lonely by yourself, I hope you can endure just a little longer. I'll be back soon."

"It's fine. Time will pass quickly as I water the crops. Haven't 10 years already passed? Three years will go by quickly, Master."

"I'm grateful you think that way."

Master patted my shoulder.

"Do you see that tree? You planted it when you were seven, and now it's grown so tall it towers over you. Back then, it barely reached your knees."

"...It will probably bear fruit by the time you come out, Master."

"Has so much time passed already.."

10 years.

Enough time for my memories of Earth to become distant.

I spent most of that time with Master.

"After I come out..."

"Master, please don't say what comes after. It invites misfortune."

"...You're truly my Disciple until the very end."

When I stopped her from raising a flag, Master pulled me into an embrace and rested her head on my shoulder.

-Squeeze