The Girl Who is Serious About Poisonous Herbs. (1)
Upon hearing the fact that she would be eating with the Sword Empress, Dang So-yeol's reaction became quite strange.
Her eyes darted back and forth, not to mention her repeated fake coughs.
She seemed unable to stay still, fidgeting restlessly.
While I wondered why she was acting like that, considering what kind of existence the current Sword Empress was to female martial artists, it wasn't particularly strange.
Among the female swordswomen, excluding the Evil Faction's Dao Tian Gui Bi, she was a martial artist who seemed to have reached the highest realm.
The achievements she accomplished in her relatively short life compared to other masters were something any martial artist with a sense of righteousness couldn't help but respect.
Even without using the sword, the Sword Empress was a figure worthy of respect.
Even Nangong Bi-a, who usually seemed as disinterested in the world as I was, looked particularly excited when talking with the Sword Empress on the journey back to the Gu family.
"T-That... I know the Sword Empress's whereabouts have been unknown for a few years..."
"Just. I heard she went on a journey."
Although I heard her health had recovered significantly, it was difficult to easily speak about the reason the Sword Empress had hidden her existence for the past few years.
So I had to make up a suitable excuse.
"Then why did she come to the Gu family?"
Dang So-yeol, who had been watching me, also started asking this and that, her eyes sparkling brightly as the conversation about the Sword Empress came up.
She seemed to have considerable interest in the Sword Empress, and also seemed to like her.
It was partly to come with Gu Ryeong-hwa, and she said she had business at the family, probably.
Of course, this was not a part I could easily tell Dang So-yeol.
"I think it would be best to ask her directly when you meet her later. Since it's not my story, I'm being careful."
"Ah..."
At my words, Dang So-yeol whispered as if troubled. It felt like she was thinking, "Will it be okay when I'm shy around strangers?"
Shy around strangers...? Dang So-yeol?
It didn't seem like that was the case, but if she said so, then it must be.
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Leaving the restless Dang So-yeol behind, I looked at Nangong Bi-a, who was crumpled up in the corner of the room as if hiding.
Just like earlier, her condition didn't look very good. As I tried to approach her to check on her, she flinched like when she slapped my hand away earlier.
"Are you really sure you're okay?"
"...I'm fine."
She grabbed her long hair and hid her face as if covering it.
It seemed she knew how bright red her face was right now.
Just as I was about to really call for the Divine Physician, a presence was felt from the door. As I shifted my gaze, the door opened.
"Oppa, they said you're here..."
The one who opened the door and appeared was Gu Ryeong-hwa, whom I was seeing for the first time since returning to the Gu family. Gu Ryeong-hwa frowned as she saw the situation inside the room.
Dang So-yeol couldn't stay still with a face full of anticipation.
And Nangong Bi-a was crumpled in the corner, covering her face with her hair.
To Gu Ryeong-hwa, it wouldn't look like a normal situation. She quickly moved her gaze, which had been looking around, to me.
"...What are you doing?"
"Tell me... What is this?"
I wanted to ask too. What kind of situation this was right now.
It seemed too late to explain this incredibly complicated situation now.
So I just let out a deep sigh and asked Gu Ryeong-hwa with annoyed eyes.
"You said we're eating together today?"
"Right. Oppa, did you maybe forget? You said let's eat together last time."
"I didn't know that was today."
"Ah, did I not tell you? Does it matter?"
As Gu Ryeong-hwa said, it didn't really matter. A meal was just a meal, we could just eat.
"It seems like we'll have a few more guests at the meal, is that okay?"
"Guests who? Unnie Bi-a?"
At Gu Ryeong-hwa's question, I pointed at Dang So-yeol with a hand gesture. Dang So-yeol seemed to be glancing around, not knowing who had come.
"She is my younger sister. This is Miss Dang So-yeol."
"Dang... then, could it be the Sichuan Tang Family?"
"Ah, h-hello. I am Dang So-yeol."
As soon as she heard the words 'my younger sister', Dang So-yeol stood up and bowed her head.
Then Gu Ryeong-hwa also hastily matched her and paid her respects.
"I am Gu Ryeong-hwa..."
Gu Ryeong-hwa looked at me with a face asking why a person from the Tang Family was here, but I had no way of telling her either.
-She said she came because she liked me.
To say that out loud, I knew my place too well.
As the two looked at each other, what they were thinking was fully revealed on their expressions.
Gu Ryeong-hwa was thinking, 'For someone from a bloodline that uses poison arts, she looks incredibly gentle.'
And Dang So-yeol was thinking, 'For someone from the Gu bloodline, she looks incredibly kind.'
In reality, although the Sichuan Tang Family used the highest lethal martial arts that melted and rotted flesh, they were famous for their gentle appearances, and Gu Ryeong-hwa had quite gentle eyes for someone of the Gu family's bloodline.
They somehow had a similar vibe. I almost burst into laughter remembering how Wi Seol-a once said Gu Ryeong-hwa looked like a squirrel.
I had laughed then too, and got kicked in the shins by Gu Ryeong-hwa. I briefly recalled the memory of that time, held back my laughter, and asked Gu Ryeong-hwa.
"Where is your master?"
"Oppa, why are you laughing?"
"I'm not, you rascal..."
"It looks like you're laughing."
"I said I'm not? Keep your feet still."
"Tch."
Anyway, she's quick to notice. Who did she take after to be this quick?
[For starters, it's definitely not you.]
'....'
"Master said she had some business and would be late, and told me to go ahead first."
It seemed the Sword Empress would be a bit late. Gu Ryeong-hwa said so and looked at Nangong Bi-a in the back.
"Why is that Unnie acting like that?"
"I don't know, go ask her yourself."
Since she seemed to dislike it when I went, I told Gu Ryeong-hwa to go.
When Gu Ryeong-hwa tried to go there at my words, Dang So-yeol blocked her.
"Unnie said she was a bit tired today. She'll get better soon!"
"Ah, okay..."
"And, um... Miss Gu, are you perhaps the Sword Empress's..."
Dang So-yeol was carefully asking Gu Ryeong-hwa if she was the Sword Empress's disciple. Gu Ryeong-hwa momentarily made an expression as if on guard, but then slightly nodded her head and acknowledged it.
In the past, she would have tried to hide it as much as possible for the Sword Empress's safety, but lately, she was full of confidence.
It was probably because Gu Ryeong-hwa's talent had bloomed, and also because the Sword Empress was gradually recovering her health.
Dang So-yeol grabbed Gu Ryeong-hwa's hand. For a moment, Gu Ryeong-hwa seemed surprised by Dang So-yeol's action, but she didn't pull away.
"W-Why are you doing this?"
"Miss Gu..."
"Yes...?"
Leaving Gu Ryeong-hwa behind, who was looking at me with eyes asking for help as if she was flustered, Dang So-yeol gathered her courage and asked.
"Does the Sword Empress perhaps have a favorite poison?"
"Pardon?"
At Dang So-yeol's words, Gu Ryeong-hwa crumpled her face as if she couldn't understand, and Nangong Bi-a, who was crumpled in the back, also poked her head out slightly as if she had misheard.
I brushed my face with my hand and thought.
That this was an absolute mess beyond all messes.
Around the time Gu Ryeong-hwa would have arrived at the Gu family first, the Sword Empress had climbed up the mountain behind the Gu family.
The night had deepened, and it was a rough mountain path, but for the Sword Empress who had regained half her skill, climbing was not very difficult.
Uung-.
As she passed a certain point, a sound similar to ringing in the ears could be heard. The Sword Empress did not panic.
This was the sensation of passing through a qi barrier.
To think that a qi barrier was already set up halfway up the mountain.
How much internal qi must have been used, and how much quantity was required to make this possible, even the Sword Empress couldn't properly grasp.
Following the path and arriving at a flat area, someone was standing in the center with their hands clasped behind their back.
Looking at him, the Sword Empress spoke.
"I didn't know you would be here early."
"Because I don't like making people wait."
"Right, you always came faster than us."
The one standing bathed in moonlight was none other than the Sword Sovereign.
The Sword Empress slowly moved her feet and approached the Sword Sovereign.
"It feels like it's been a really long time."
"Yeah... Have you been well?"
It was a few months of camping. The Sword Sovereign was driving the carriage, and the Sword Empress was around him.
There was no way the Sword Empress wouldn't recognize the Sword Sovereign.
She couldn't know why he was doing the job of driving the Gu family's carriage, but the Sword Empress just quietly observed the Sword Sovereign.
"Alliance Lord."
At the Sword Empress's call, the Sword Sovereign smiled bitterly.
"The Divine Physician too, everyone calls me that. I am now nothing more than a worthless old man."
"If you wish, shall I call you Elder?"
"...No, now that it's come to this, nothing changes no matter how I'm called."
"How have you been spending your time?"
How many years had it been? At least before the Sword Empress went to the Demonic Realm and experienced many things, so it had easily been several years.
Ten years.
Perhaps a time even longer than that.
The Sword Sovereign stepped down from the Alliance Lord position and disappeared without a trace, and Gu Cheol-un, who was the commander of the Holy Dragon Squad, spoke of disbanding the Sword Squad and became the Family Head.
During that time, the Sword Empress headed to the Demonic Realm. She wanted to find many things, and wanted to know many things.
But she ended up knowing things she shouldn't have known, and ended up losing much more.
"How did it seem?"
The Sword Sovereign asked, and the Sword Empress said nothing.
She just quietly looked at the Sword Sovereign.
He had aged. The Sword Sovereign, who seemed like he wouldn't lose to anyone, had been swept away by time and become an old man.
The dark clouds deeply embedded in his wrinkled face gave a slight hint as to what kind of time the old man must have endured.
Still, the Sword Empress couldn't empathize.
"A lot of time has passed, and I too have aged."
The woman who had set out into the Central Plains dreaming only of the sword and righteousness had now reached middle age.
"I saw a lot, and I came to know a lot, but I still cannot understand what you did, Alliance Lord."
"The Divine Physician said the same."
"Why did you do it?"
It was the question the Sword Empress had wanted to ask the most in the past.
Why he did so.
"Dozens of righteous warriors who believed and followed the Alliance Lord lost their lives."
It was the reason the Divine Physician loathed the Alliance Lord, and the reason the Sword Empress resented the Sword Sovereign.
The annihilation of the Holy Dragon Squad.
The Sword Empress still remembers the incident where the Holy Dragon Squad, which left for the Demonic Realm under the Alliance Lord's orders, was annihilated.
How much did she resent herself for not being able to follow them there, and how devastated was she when she saw the youngest of the Sword Squad taking his own life at the end?
"I am not simply trying to discuss sacrifice."
Sacrifices must exist. When trying to achieve something, nothing can be accomplished without sacrifice.
That is why one must hold righteousness, and why one must value conviction.
Everyone in the Holy Dragon Squad was like that.
They were people who were ready to die for their comrades rather than live for themselves.
The sacrifice of those who dreamed of righteousness and did not hesitate to die for others.
Even if the Sword Empress had died in the Demonic Realm back then, she would have had no regrets.
Even when the survivors who made it out of the Demonic Realm later took their own lives, the Sword Empress did not resent the Sword Sovereign.
It was the same when she heard that reckless operational orders had annihilated the Sword Squad.
She did not resent the Alliance Lord.
She tried to live on thinking that this too was a necessary death. Since they gave their lives to contribute to the peace of the world, she told herself it was a brilliant sacrifice.
She tried to think that way.
Until she knew the truth.
"Therefore, please answer me."
The Sword Empress drew her sword as she spoke.
The Sword Sovereign looked at such a Sword Empress and didn't make any movement.
"What did we have to die for? Truly..."
A bright red sword qi gradually gathered at the tip of her sword.
"Was it to save the Alliance Lord's child?"
At the Sword Empress's words, the Sword Sovereign's eyes trembled slightly.
As the sword qi grew denser, light began to linger around the Sword Empress.
"...I am sorry."
Along with the Sword Sovereign's powerless apology, the sword qi from the tip of the Sword Empress's sword flew and struck toward him.
Kwa-ga-ga-gang-!
With a tremendous sound that overwhelmed the surroundings, wind pressure spread in all directions, creating a thick cloud of dust.
The flat ground was turned into a field of devastation, and as the sword qi burst, sharp marks spread around the area.
Trees and rocks were swept away and cut in half.
Where the Sword Empress's fearsome power had passed, the dust cleared, and the Sword Sovereign remained in that very spot.
In the exact posture he had been standing from the beginning, without a single wound, looking pristine.
Seeing that, the Sword Empress spoke.
"...You haven't changed."
The Sword Empress couldn't help but smile bitterly at that sight. Even if she hadn't regained her original strength, since her body had been ruined by corrupt qi.
Compared to the last time she saw the Sword Sovereign, the Sword Empress had grown stronger.
Because she had swung her sword viciously since that day.
It wasn't for revenge.
Because she had promised herself not to wield such a sword.
Even so. Still, the distance between her and the Sword Sovereign was still far.
"Do you desire my death?"
"If I say I do, what are your thoughts on doing so?"
"If you desire it, I shall do so. I no longer think my life holds any outstanding value now..."
"...!"
"But, not yet... I cannot die yet."
There was nothing in the Sword Sovereign's hands.
He was merely standing with his hands behind his back, looking at the Sword Empress, but she couldn't feel even a speck of hope that she could win against the Sword Sovereign.
It wasn't a presence gained by exhaling internal qi or showing something.
She felt an overwhelming something felt merely from the realm he had reached as a martial artist.
Should she be glad that the gap she couldn't feel before was now being felt, or should she despair at facing an endless wall?
The Sword Empress couldn't easily accept either.
"That is a contradictory statement."
"I am sorry..."
"Is it because of that child this time?"
"..."
"I also saw that child. She was a very pretty child."
Was her name Wi Seol-a? The girl who was said to be the Sword Sovereign's granddaughter.
She was a beautiful child. Seeing her kind heart and how well she followed the people around her, it made one unknowingly break into a smile.
However, as the Sword Empress recovered her strength little by little, she was able to recognize the massive presence the girl possessed.
In some ways, it could be seen as not feeling any presence at all.
But to the Sword Empress, it was the exact opposite.
It was likely that the power was so immense that nothing could be felt in return.
That was how it appeared to her.
To the Sword Empress's question, the Sword Sovereign gave no answer.
"What do you dream of?"
"...Just."
"That the child, will be happy. Do you dream of such a thing?"
A sharp edge returned to the Sword Empress's voice.
"If you knew how to dream of such things, you shouldn't have done what you did."
The youngest of the Sword Squad, who was also a disciple of Wudang and took his own life, cried in the Sword Empress's arms.
The little hero, who had passed his twentieth year and wanted to live a life to protect people, ended his breath alone, filled with fear.
"I don't know what the Commander and you saw to be living like this, but it's a narrow excuse, and you're just running away using it as an excuse."
The massive tree rooted in the Demonic Realm, even she who had seen it faced death feeling despair, but she did not give up.
Even if they had seen something worse than she did.
The Sword Empress couldn't understand.
"I wanted to die at your hands, Alliance Lord."
"How...!"
"It was so just a few years ago. But no matter how much I searched, you didn't leave a single trace behind."
Leaving behind that period of absence, the Sword Empress didn't know why the Sword Sovereign had revealed himself like this. To be exact, she didn't want to know anymore.
"Now that it's come to this to die, I too have found a reason to live."
Her lovely disciple was growing day by day. She had wanted to die, but having regained her time, the Sword Empress wanted to live.
"I don't know what you have seen to keep on living. Nor have I made up my mind to forgive you."
Even if a lifetime passes, there would be no forgiving the Sword Sovereign.
The person he needed to apologize to wasn't the Sword Empress either.
"At the very least, I hoped you wouldn't look like this... Even that was wrong."
If only he had remained in the appearance of the strong man who stood above tens of thousands and looked down on the world like in the past.
It might have been a story where her mind could have been at ease.
She might have comfortably vented her anger, resented him, and swung her sword even after sensing her defeat.
"Do you know what Tae-ryong's last words were?"
It was the name of the youngest who died in the Sword Empress's arms.
"He said he was scared. Of living, of enduring."
-Noonim... I'm so scared...
Unable to overcome her tightly closing eyes and her hand clenching tight, the Sword Empress tried to swing her sword once more, but she firmly suppressed her emotions.
"I... when everything is over, I will end my life with my own hands and meet them to atone for my sins."
"...Today will be the last, and I will not come to see the Alliance Lord again."
Gu Cheol-un was like that too, and it seemed the Sword Sovereign also had many stories and reasons he couldn't act upon, but this was the limit for the Sword Empress.
No matter what story was hidden, what had happened wouldn't disappear.
Nothing could be justified.
For the Sword Empress to live for revenge, something too precious to protect had sprung up in her arms.
So she would endure.
The Sword Sovereign's death, and her own death.
Since she only wanted to ask, the Sword Empress had achieved her goal.
"Did the Divine Physician also search for that child?"
The Sword Sovereign didn't answer this either, but his silence was a sufficient answer.
How did the Sword Sovereign end up like this?
She didn't think he was that kind of person from the beginning.
He was a person who drew his sword for the peace of the Central Plains more than anyone else, and a person who held great righteousness and conviction behind his steel-like exterior.
"I do not know what made the Alliance Lord so weak, but I pray that you at least do not lose your dignity."
Saying so, the Sword Empress sheathed her sword.
For a moment, she thought: if she possessed a stronger power than the Sword Sovereign, would she have been able to not kill him now?
'...I don't know.'
Not being able to give a definitive answer meant that she too was not quite a complete human being.
She needed a place to resent, and having found her opponent, she merely poured out the emotions she had kept inside.
"I will go down first. Thank you for coming out here."
Turning her back, the Sword Empress went back down along the mountain path.
Since her disciple would be waiting, her footsteps were a bit faster.
Beside the Sword Sovereign, who was left alone, only the rising moonlight remained.
Hiding his trembling hands, the Sword Sovereign knelt on one knee. At the same time, the qi barrier spread across the mountain vanished in an instant.
"...I am sorry... I'm sorry..."
He covered his face with his wrinkled hands. There were no tears left to shed.
He just had to wait for the right time.
Recalling the moment he must end this incompetent life, the Sword Sovereign quietly sobbed.
Arriving at the quarters where Gu Ryeong-hwa would be waiting, the Sword Empress, guided by a servant, arrived at the place where the people had gathered.
She hid her tightly packed emotions and turned her expression. Since her disciple was a sharp child, if she didn't focus, she would notice her changes.
Calmly gathering her thoughts and opening the door, someone popped out.
"Hello...!"
At first, she thought it was Gu Ryeong-hwa, but seeing the dark green hair, it wasn't.
Wondering who it was from her attire and features that reminded her of a certain family, she looked closely.
The girl, Dang So-yeol, shyly handed something to the Sword Empress.
"It's a medicine made from Mubang-cho...! It's really good for the, the skin! Please accept it...!"
Mubang-cho...?
'...Isn't that a poisonous herb?'
As the Sword Empress looked at her with a bewildered gaze, Dang So-yeol just smiled shyly.
Puuut-!
Gu Yang-cheon, who was watching that, spat out the tea he was drinking.
It was because he hadn't expected her to actually gift poison.
"...Oppa."
"...Ah."
And Gu Ryeong-hwa, who was sitting across from Gu Yang-cheon, had to take all the spat water.
"Sorry."
Gu Yang-cheon quickly offered an apology, but Gu Ryeong-hwa's face had already transformed into the appearance of a yaksha.
Only then did Gu Yang-cheon nod his head.
Looking at that face, he could be certain that Gu Ryeong-hwa was also of the Gu family's bloodline.
'...She looks freaking scary.'
"You crazy bastard!"
Gu Ryeong-hwa, in her yaksha form, shrieked.