Llana lowered her gaze and feigned a kick toward his right shin.
Lee Chang-Woo reacted immediately, shifting his weight to avoid it.
Exactly what she wanted.
For the past month, he had been watching her eyes and every small movement her body made. This time, she decided to use that against him.
Using the momentum from the feint, Llana twisted her hips and quickly changed the direction of her kick. Instead of hitting his shin, her leg swung upward toward the exposed side of his face.
Her kick landed cleanly.
Lee Chang-Woo's head snapped to the side from the impact, and for the first time, his balance broke.
Llana did not waste the chance.
She immediately stepped forward, grabbed the collar of his shirt, and yanked him toward her as her fist shot toward his face.
But just before it could land, she stopped. Her knuckles hovered only a few centimeters away from his nose.
Silence filled the training room.
Llana's chest rose and fell as she breathed heavily. Sweat dripped from her chin onto the mat. Her arm still throbbed from his earlier strike, and exhaustion weighed on her after another sleepless day.
Even so, she could not stop the smile slowly spreading across her lips.
"Got you," she said breathlessly, satisfaction clear in her voice.
Lee Chang-Woo looked at her fist before slowly raising his eyes to meet hers.
There was a faint trace of emotions in his gaze. Proud or satisfied maybe?
For the first time in an entire month, Llana had successfully broken through his defense.
Llana's smile widened even further.
"If I were your enemy," she said, throwing his own words back at him, "I wouldn't let you go."
She had been waiting an entire month to say that.
Llana knew Lee Chang-Woo had deliberately lowered his defense.
He was only going easy on her.
She did not believe for even a second that he failed to notice what she was trying to do. Someone like Lee Chang-Woo could read her movements too easily. There was no way he had not seen through her plan.
At least, that was what Llana believed.
What she did not know was that Lee Chang-Woo truly had not expected her kick to land.
He had realized what she intended to do after her feint, but his body had already reacted to the false movement. By the time he understood her real target, it was too late to pull back and block properly.
Llana had underestimated herself.
Or rather, she had underestimated how much stronger and faster she had become after an entire month of training.
Lee Chang-Woo stared at her for a moment before suddenly letting out a loud, hearty laugh.
"Ha! So that's what this was about?"
Startled, Llana released his collar. It was the first time she had ever seen him laugh so openly and without restraint.
"You've been waiting an entire month just to throw those words back at me haven't you? I never thought you were holding a grudge this whole time,"
Llana pouted playfully before rummaging through her bag. She pulled out a towel and began wiping the sweat from her face and arms.
"It's because you're so infuriating, Uncle Chang-Woo."
Lee Chang-Woo snorted and folded his arms across his chest as he watched the short-haired girl gather her things, clearly ready to leave.
A week after their training sessions began, Llana had suddenly cut her hair short. It had caught him completely off guard, especially since he knew how much she loved her long hair.
He still remembered how stubborn she used to be whenever her mother tried to cut even a small part of it.
At one point, her hair had already reached her calves, but she still refused to let anyone touch it. Her mother had tried persuading her several times, but the girl would not budge.
It was partly Maria's fault.
Her caretaker had filled her head with Filipino superstitions, including one that said cutting your hair while sick would weaken your body and stop you from recovering.
Because of that, whenever someone secretly trimmed Llana's hair while she was asleep, she would wake up furious and storm straight toward her mother or whichever maid had done it.
Seeing her with short hair now still felt strange.
But at the same time, it made Lee Chang-Woo happy.
The sickly little girl they had once worried over had grown up.
"You used to hate having your hair cut, even just a little," he said. "Now you've cut it this short. Why?"
Llana tilted her head and shrugged.
"It was getting in my way."
He raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"
"That's it."
She nodded and slung her bag over her shoulder.
"I'll be going now, Uncle."
"You're not staying here?"
"No." Llana sighed. "This mansion is too big. Even walking back to my room feels like a chore. I'd rather sleep at my own house."
In her past life, she had always dreamed of living in a huge mansion.
Now that she had one, she found herself wishing for a smaller house instead.
"Did your parents allow you to go back there?"
"What's the point of having trained bodyguards if they can't protect me from a single killer?"
Llana smirked before walking out of the training room. She waved over her shoulder without even glancing back.
Lee Chang-Woo watched her disappear through the doorway.
Llana's potential was honestly frightening.
Choosing her own daughter as her successor had definitely been the right decision.
Lee Chang-Woo had trained plenty of talented fighters before, but none of them came close to Llana's learning speed. Even now, he still found it hard to believe.
What normally took others one to three years of training, she had picked up in just a month.
At this rate, if he continued training her for three hours every day, it might not be long before even he struggled to keep up with her.
That was one of the reasons he had decided to shorten their sessions.
Even the sudden increase in her strength and endurance was unbelievable. Sometimes, he could not help wondering if she was still the same Llana he had known all these years.
Lee Chang-Woo rubbed his aching arm. His hand still felt numb from blocking her attacks earlier.
It would definitely be covered in bruises tomorrow.
Every training session left him wondering the same thing.
How was she improving this quickly?
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"...Could it be because of that?"