[Heh heh….]
[Heh heh heh heh…!]
The laughter ringing in my ears made my head throb. Laughing all day over whatever he found so amusing was quite a sight to behold.
“Could you please be quiet?”
[Oh, how satisfying…. In all my life, I can count the moments this refreshing on one hand.]
“You’ve lived that long, and there have only been five moments like this…?”
[Heh heh heh!]
Unable to bear Elder Shin’s antics any longer, I left the training grounds. A cool breeze was blowing, but the heat in my body kept me from feeling it much.
A day had passed since my duel with Namgung Jin last night. Perhaps because I had caused such a huge incident, the entire clan had been thrown into an uproar.
The fact that I had fought a duel with the head of the Namgung Clan was one thing, but the real problem was that the clan head had admitted defeat.
“He doesn’t look like the kind of man who’d suddenly….”
If I had merely received the reward for the wager and let him claim the victory, wouldn’t we both have been happier? He could have maintained his dignity as clan head as well. As things stood, this was going to cause trouble for me too.
The one fortunate thing was that I hadn’t said anything about using a sword.
I had the justification for requesting the duel on my side, and even if my hand had been too severe, Namgung Jin had admitted his own wrongdoing as well. There was no reason for this to develop into a dispute between the clans.
Even so, there was a major problem besides that.
‘This is all Elder Shin’s fault….’
[Look at this brat…? I helped you yesterday, and now you’re blaming someone else.]
‘If you were going to help, you should have helped me all the way…!’
What kind of disciple was he?
Making the head of the mighty Namgung Clan his disciple. What kind of insane thing was that?
I had said something completely mad to that arrogant and prideful man…. My head throbbed painfully.
Seeing the man standing with his back against a tree, his eyes quietly closed, only made the throbbing worse.
The man spoke to me.
“You have come out.”
“…How long have you been waiting?”
“Not long.”
The Azure Heaven Sword King, Namgung Jin, had been waiting for me with his back against a tree. For the record, this was the first time I had seen him since I had been dragged away half-bound yesterday.
“Are you all right?”
“What do you mean?”
“Your body.”
“I am fine. I was not injured.”
Though it had been a duel with real swords, neither Namgung Jin nor I had suffered any bodily harm. Elder Shin had not swung the sword with the intent to kill, and Namgung Jin’s sword had never even touched me.
Namgung Jin was silently watching me. I did not know what kind of gaze it was, but his handsome face—so similar to Namgung Cheonjun’s—was severely unnerving.
“I have ensured that no harm will come to you, Young Master.”
“...”
“What is the matter?”
It was because the change in how he addressed me was so uncomfortable. His tone had changed as well. Young Master, of all things…. Only yesterday, he had called me a brat, a bastard, and worse.
“If you dislike that form of address, I can call you Master instead.”
“No.”
[Heh heh heh…!]
At my firm reply, Namgung Jin continued.
“I do not believe you meant those words sincerely.”
“Of course not. I wasn’t sincere.”
[Why do you disregard my sincerity? I was sincere.]
I ignored Elder Shin. My mind was filled with thoughts of how to deal with the situation.
There had been some room for excuses when I had tried to overwhelm him with the sword. I had not used internal energy, and my body had reached the peak stage. Moreover, the Gu Clan was a clan whose members used both martial arts and the sword.
If I said I had been able to do it because my talent was extraordinary, would anyone be able to refute that? They might have questions and complaints, but there was no way to investigate the matter.
But using the Namgung Clan’s sword techniques was impossible to explain. There was simply no way to account for it.
I was neither a secret illegitimate child of the Namgung Clan nor some hidden disciple of theirs.
‘What am I supposed to do after making such a mess…?’
[Did you not dump the mess on me as well?]
‘Ugh….’
I looked at Namgung Jin. The anger in his eyes from yesterday was gone, replaced by a much calmer gaze.
After standing silently for a moment, Namgung Jin spoke.
“I have not yet made this matter public.”
His words were chilling.
“It is not a threat. I am in no position to do such a thing. I will also accept the terms of the wager. In any case, my daughter is already supposed to become engaged to you, Young Master.”
There was no particular emotion in his expression. Did he have no thoughts about Namgung Bia? It did not seem right for him to put this forward so casually without even asking for Namgung Bia’s opinion.
Things had gone the way I wanted, but I was still left with an unpleasant feeling.
“As I said yesterday, if there is anything you desire, I will grant it. If you want me to kneel, I will kneel. If you want me to regard you as my master, I will do so.”
How could he say such frightening and burdensome things so casually?
“…What is this worth that you are willing to go so far?”
“What is this worth? What a ridiculous thing to say. Do you even know what it is that you wield?”
I knew. I knew the value of the sword Elder Shin had shown me last night. And Namgung Jin would surely understand it in even greater detail.
That was precisely why I wondered whether it was worth lowering himself to this extent.
“It is something I need more than anything else right now.”
Namgung Jin might have seen it as a fragment of enlightenment, or perhaps he had simply been captivated by the sword path.
A martial art of great value was like poison to a martial artist. If one became addicted too carelessly, there was no escaping it.
The problem was that I had no way to give it to him.
I had shown it to him, but had no way to teach it? What kind of absurdity was this?
If I said now, Actually, I don’t really know how to do it….
‘There’s no way he’d believe me.’
[Of course he wouldn’t.]
‘...’
I stopped thinking at the sound of Elder Shin’s laughter-laced voice. Then, struck by a sudden question, I asked Namgung Jin:
“Aren’t you curious why I can use the Namgung Clan’s sword techniques?”
This was an important question. From Namgung Jin’s perspective, he was deliberately not asking what he ought to be asking.
Was that not strange? No matter how blinded he was by the sword, he was ignoring the most important question.
At my question, Namgung Jin instead made a puzzled expression.
“Is there any need to ask?”
“What…?”
“Because you must be one of them. There is no need to ask, is there?”
Them?
‘…Who is he talking about?’
Namgung Jin’s answer was completely unexpected. It was not that he had thought nothing of it. He had already formed a conjecture close to certainty.
For a moment, I wondered if he meant the Black Night Palace, but that could not be it. That name had no reason to come up in this situation.
Then who were the people Namgung Jin was referring to? Who were they, that he could so casually let the matter pass?
When I remained silent, Namgung Jin’s brows furrowed.
“Young Master…?”
“That’s right. I didn’t realize Clan Head Namgung already knew.”
When Namgung Jin began to grow suspicious, I put on a shameless face and answered. If I denied it, I had no suitable answer to offer.
[How can he be so shameless….]
‘It’s all because of the mess you made, Elder. Don’t complain.’
[Is it really all right to do this?]
‘It isn’t all right. It’s all your fault.’
[You never think about what you eat and leave behind, and blame me for everything again. Rotten brat.]
I was on the verge of taking the head of the Namgung Clan as my disciple. Surely I had to do something.
I did not know what they were, but they were beings who could immediately make Namgung Jin accept the situation.
As a blood relative of the Gu Clan, there would be nothing strange about me belonging to some organization and possessing the Namgung Clan’s sword techniques.
‘…What organization?’
Now that I thought about it, no fitting organization came to mind. The Black Night Palace alone was already more than enough to deal with, and now I had to come up with something else. Had there really been people who fulfilled such ridiculous conditions?
‘There’s nothing like that in my memories.’
If so, they might be an unknown group—or perhaps this was a scheme by Namgung Jin himself.
Far too many thoughts were spinning through my head. As I repeatedly turned the matter over in my mind, Namgung Jin continued speaking.
“You revealed your identity and tried to impart instruction to me. You must have wanted something in return.”
“That’s…right?”
Of course, there was nothing I wanted. Even if there had been, I would not have asked Namgung Jin for it.
[What an amusing knot you’ve tied yourself into.]
‘…Do you find this amusing?’
I felt as if my brain were burning from not knowing where everything had gone wrong, while Elder Shin merely chuckled and said it was amusing. What backing did Namgung Jin think I had?
“I would like to discuss it with you immediately, but before that, I must first speak about my subordinate.”
“What about him?”
“I heard that your servant was assaulted by one of my men yesterday and is now bedridden.”
“…That’s correct.”
The servant’s name was Bihee. Even after hearing the name, no one came to mind from my memories, so we were not particularly acquainted.
Still, I remembered the look in his eyes when he had last looked at me.
“And because of that, I also heard that you beat my men half to death and left them bedridden.”
“It doesn’t seem as though you’re bringing that up to blame me, so what are you trying to say?”
“Of course I am not blaming you. It is simply an important matter. No matter how influential the Namgung Clan may be, it is not so powerful that it can enter another clan’s estate and treat its servant in such a manner.”
Exactly. That was why it was even more absurd and outrageous.
The Gu Clan was not at a level where others could look down on it, and this was a place I had visited for an engagement. Yet they had treated the servant of a blood relative who was supposed to marry into their clan that way?
It would have been impossible unless they had regarded him as less than an anthill in the neighborhood.
As I came to that conclusion, Namgung Jin spoke.
“No one did such a thing.”
“…What?”
“I mean that none of the people of the Namgung Clan, myself included, committed such an act.”
I had heard that he wanted me to teach him martial arts, and now, rather than apologizing, was he pretending ignorance? Anger began to rise within me.
“Then was the man I encountered some kind of ghost?”
I remembered the man I had met in front of the detached residence. I had sensed something strange in his reaction to and treatment of the servant, so I had subdued him and forced my way inside. In the end, the servant had been lying there unconscious.
Namgung Jin asked me:
“That is why I am asking you, Young Master. Who was he?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The martial artist you encountered was not one of our people. Neither the one who did that to your servant nor the one who secretly left him in the privy. My men knew nothing of it.”
At Namgung Jin’s words, I could only stare at him with trembling eyes.
“You expect me to believe that ridiculous story?”
“To belong to the Namgung Clan, one must undergo a restriction spell. If you wish, I can call my men here and have them confirm it. If you do not trust me, I believe the Gu Clan has more than enough means to prove the matter.”
Nothing in Namgung Jin’s expression or demeanor suggested that he was lying, but this was not something I could easily believe.
The man who had blocked my way at the door. I had twisted his arm, shattered his ribs, then struck his jaw and knocked him unconscious.
I had touched his body directly, so I had felt his qi clearly enough.
His face. What had his face looked like?
…It was blurry. No matter how fleeting my glance had been, there was no way I could fail to remember it this badly.
“I have already reported this separately to Clan Head Gu, but I came here to confirm things more thoroughly. I will have to send a letter about this matter as well.”
“…What do your men say?”
“They claim they do not know. It is as if their memories all suffered some kind of problem.”
No matter how I heard it, the situation was strange. In the end, I swallowed dryly.
If Namgung Jin was telling the truth, then whether he became my disciple or not was no longer the issue.
“…For now, we should wait for your servant to regain consciousness….”
Namgung Jin continued speaking, but I turned and walked away without listening to the end.
[Where are you going? It seems there is still more to discuss.]
‘I need to see my father.’
The sight of an entire group seemingly suffering from memory loss, combined with the face I could not clearly remember, had already set off alarm bells in my mind just from hearing Namgung Jin’s words.
‘…That can’t be.’
The man’s characteristics clearly brought ‘him’ to mind, but that was impossible.
He was supposed to be buried beneath the Gu Clan at this very moment.
******************
Crack. Crack—.
The sound of bones breaking filled the room. The man was rubbing his grotesquely twisted arm, forcing it back into its original shape.
Crack—.
“My hands are pretty spicy too, aren’t they? Who would’ve thought a little brat could leave me like this? He smashed my chest too, you know?”
The man spoke toward the darkness. He had assumed no one would be there, but an answer came from beyond it.
“You could have escaped for certain, yet you went and did something pointless.”
“Escape? It’s easy for this old man to say that. Do you think handling things is easy while sucking the sweetness out of that Nangong bastard?”
“It was part of the contract, so naturally, it had to be fulfilled.”
“What a load of nonsense.”
As he spoke, the man tossed a book into the darkness.
“I wrote it as requested. Is this enough?”
“This will do. What about the second task?”
“Why ask when you already know? I failed. An intruder showed up at the end.”
“You mean the one who left your body in that state?”
“I couldn’t let him hit me without putting up a fight. If I had, I would have been discovered there. I told you, it would have been easier just to catch him, kill him, and bury him….”
“That foolish talk ends here. You failed, and that is enough. It was not particularly important to begin with.”
If he had attempted it as a martial artist rather than a servant from the outset, it would have been easier to manipulate their relationship. The man found it difficult to understand what that damned old man was saying.
The old man spoke to him.
“That face has served its purpose. There is no need for you to remain with the Nangong family any longer. Return.”
“I’d grown rather attached to the place. What a shame.”
Along with the man’s regretful words, the muscles of his face twisted grotesquely.
Krrrkkk—crack.
He changed from a middle-aged man into an old man, from an old man into a middle-aged woman, and finally into the appearance of a boy.
Now a boy, he asked the old man,
“Can’t I take a break for a while now?”
His manner of speaking was the same, but because his face had changed, his voice had also become that of an entirely different person.
“Your next destination is Shaolin.”
“…This is seriously fucking ridiculous. You’re not even going to let me rest?”
“If you wish to be released even later, then do so.”
“Fuck…. What am I supposed to do?”
The old man calmly answered the boy’s curse-laced question.
“As always, the item you must steal is the same. A deadline before winter ends should be sufficient, correct?”
“You give me a shitty deadline, too. Do you know what I’ll do first when I’m free?”
“I have heard it more than a hundred times: you say you will kill me first.”
“You know me well. Wait for it.”
“I shall wait for you to bring back a favorable result.”
No further answer came to the old man’s words. The boy had already disappeared.
Since this was how things had always gone, the old man paid it no mind.
His gaze was fixed on the letter in his hand. Its contents were interesting. They were related to the task he had failed this time.
The sender’s name was Gu Changjun.
The old man read the letter slowly, then pressed his seal onto it near the end.
It meant that he accepted the commission.