Shigeo was a bespectacled fifteen-year-old. You would rarely ever find him practicing taekkyon on the training grounds.

Taekkyon was the flagship martial arts of Karasuma village; its progenitors were the legendary fighters- Byeon and Subak of the now-extinct- Joseon kin. Every kin member is drilled in the martial arts from the age of six.

Shigeo's talents, however, lay elsewhere. Every news flash, sensational tidings, and remote hearsay found its way into his knowledge. He was ...