Roughly half a shichen had passed since the incident occurred. I surveyed the situation with my forehead in my hands.
First, I checked the faces of the women sitting sprawled across my bed.
From the far left, a woman with brown hair mixed with golden hues.
It was Wei Xueya.
I looked at her and asked.
“What?”
“Yes?”
When I spoke up, Wei Xueya flinched.
Looking at her face, I could see her pupils trembling like mad.
Staring into Wei Xueya’s eyes, I asked.
“What are you all doing here?”
“…Th-that’s….”
At my question, Wei Xueya glanced sideways. Next to her was Nangong Biya, swaying unsteadily as she dozed, apparently still not fully awake.
What was with that look?
As I quietly watched, Wei Xueya continued, mumbling.
“…S-Sister went… so I followed.”
“...”
At Wei Xueya’s words, I looked at Nangong Biya. Whether she sensed my gaze or not, Nangong Biya rubbed her eyes and mumbled.
“…You… didn’t come….”
“What does me not coming have to do with you coming to my room…?”
“…Huh?”
At my words, Nangong Biya looked at me as if wondering why that wasn’t relevant.
What was with those eyes?
Nangong Biya occasionally sneaking into my bed to sleep was something of a habit, so that was one thing. But Wei Xueya saying she followed her was equally incomprehensible.
“Why did you follow her?”
“…She said she was going… so I just….”
Asked the question, Wei Xueya avoided my gaze and reddened at the ears.
At that sight, I had to let out a deep sigh.
“…Are you taking after her too? Why are you trying to sleep in someone else’s bed?”
“I’m sorry….”
“You… forget it.”
I tried to say something to Nangong Biya too but let it go.
She wasn’t the type to listen anyway.
Forget words; instead, I clenched a fist and gave her forehead a solid thump.
“Uht…!”
At that, Nangong Biya let out a short scream and covered her forehead.
The expression she raised to me soon after was a mix of drowsiness and resentment.
“What do you think you did right to open your eyes like that?”
“...”
“You took my blanket last time too, didn’t you?”
“…!”
Nangong Biya’s eyes widened.
Did she think I didn’t know?
She hadn’t exactly been secretive about taking it.
“Why do you keep stealing other people’s bedding?”
“Because I don’t have enough….”
“What don’t you have enough of? Pillows? Or blankets? No, if you don’t have any, you can just ask. Why do you keep taking and taking?”
The Nangong family wasn’t exactly poor. I couldn’t understand why she was acting like such a miser all by herself.
Perhaps my words displeased her, for Nangong Biya’s gaze narrowed.
“…It’s… not like that.”
“Then what?”
“…Forget it….”
She started avoiding an answer, as if sulking.
What did she do right to be sulking like that…?
Leaving Nangong Biya be, I looked at the last person sitting to her right.
A woman with light green hair who was watching my reaction with a sullen expression.
It was Tang Xiaoye, who had joined me for dinner the previous evening.
“…Hey.”
At my voice, Tang Xiaoye flinched.
She seemed to intuitively realize I was talking to her.
“Normally, don’t people not enter someone else’s room like that?”
It was about how she’d burst through the door earlier.
Normally, one would knock before entering. Or at least ask if it was okay to come in. Not just fling my door open and march in.
Hearing this criticism, Tang Xiaoye stared at me quietly, then suddenly whipped her head away and puffed out her cheeks full of air.
Doing so, she looked just like a squirrel with its mouth stuffed full of acorns.
No, why were they all making faces like that?
What did I do wrong?
“What is that expression now…?”
“Honestly, I was in the wrong too, but….”
Just as I was about to ask what on earth was wrong, Tang Xiaoye squeezed her eyes shut and spat out words.
“But this is all the Young Master’s fault!”
“…What?”
At that outcry, I stared at Tang Xiaoye dumbfounded.
Beside her, Wei Xueya and Nangong Biya nodded as if agreeing with Tang Xiaoye’s words.
“What did I do wrong…?”
How unfair.
All I’d done today was wander around all day, endure cold glares, and come back to my room to get my clothes.
To have her suddenly say it was my fault.
As I stared at Tang Xiaoye with an absurd expression, the three of them sprang to their feet as if they’d planned it.
Startled by that action, I stepped back.
Then the three women walked toward my door, stomping their feet.
Surely they weren’t planning to leave just like this?
Though their steps clearly conveyed dissatisfaction, I had the feeling it would be better to let them leave just like that.
Because if I left them as they were, it felt like my qi would be completely drained, if nothing else.
Just as I was sending the girls off without stopping them.
“…Wait.”
I grabbed Nangong Biya as she was about to leave.
Nangong Biya, caught by my hand, looked at me with an oddly expectant expression.
I didn’t know what she was expecting, but… the words coming out of my mouth were probably not the ones she wanted to hear.
“…Could you ask your father when would be a good time to pay him a visit?”
When I passed on the message about Nangong Jin, I could see Nangong Biya’s delicate brow furrow sharply.
It wasn’t the right time to bring it up, but since I was in a position where I had to train from now on, I needed to ask while I had the chance.
‘I can’t just let it slide forever.’
Honestly, I wished I could just let it go, but given Nangong Jin’s personality, he wouldn’t allow that.
He would probably cling tenaciously to get even a single lesson out of me.
In the current situation, I happened to have an excuse I could use.
I thought it would be better to meet him and resolve things in advance.
That was why I had asked Nangong Biya.
Hearing my words, Nangong Biya replied without smoothing her furrowed brow.
“…Father… he left.”
“What?”
I paused for a moment at Nangong Biya’s words.
Left…? To where?
What did she mean, that man had gone somewhere out of the blue?
When I asked again with a strange expression, Nangong Biya gave a proper answer this time.
“…Anhui.”
Nangong Jin had returned to Anhui, where the main house was.
******************
After the conversation ended.
After sending the girls off first, I changed clothes with a servant’s help and headed for the cave.
After that, as always, I activated Tuapacheongong and started grappling with the cave, but my head was filled with sorting through my thoughts.
‘Nangong Jin returned to the South.’
Earlier, Nangong Biya had clearly said that.
The first thought that flashed through my mind upon hearing those words was the question: ‘Why?’
Going back was one thing. It wasn’t strange for the head of the Nangong family to return to his own home.
However, it was somewhat questionable that Nangong Jin, who so desired the advancement of his martial arts, would leave without seeking any enlightenment from me.
Of course, from my standpoint, the fact that he left without asking me anything was a good thing, but…
‘…There was nothing to tell him now anyway.’
The first time, I had told him by borrowing Old Man Shen’s words.
The second time, I had brought information I had briefly heard from the Demon Sword Empress in my past life to tell him.
But now, there was nothing I could tell him.
So Nangong Jin disappearing now wasn’t a bad thing for me.
Still, I was somewhat worried that Nangong Jin had hurriedly returned to his own home in the South.
‘Did something happen at the Nangong household?’
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have left so abruptly.
I tried to recall if anything had happened to the Nangong family around this time, but nothing came to mind right away.
Craaack—
I smashed the cave wall hard and pondered.
The reason I was reacting so sensitively to Nangong Jin’s departure was a single thing:
the fear that I might have changed something again.
That was what weighed on my mind and made me worry like this.
‘It’s not just Nangong Jin.’
There were far more than one or two things that had changed.
Along with the attack on the Divine Dragon Hall, the descent of the Falling Sword and the rise of a new Alliance Leader was also among them.
If the Alliance Leader after the Falling Sword was originally a position Wei Xueya was supposed to take.
That time had been advanced by a good ten years.
And due to negative repercussions, at that.
‘Then who will become the next Alliance Leader?’
I didn’t know.
If they were to run, there would of course be the Nine Sects and One Union and the Four Great Families.
As the Falling Sword had done, there would likely be many candidates from renowned martial families.
The situation had changed so much that it was difficult to grasp recklessly.
‘It’s really chaotic.’
I had been running around here and there, trying my best, but in this aspect, I was still lacking.
Was I really doing well?
I spurred my training, determined to do something, but I knew well that training alone was not enough.
‘Besides… the same goes for the main house.’
Numerous changes were unavoidable for the main house as well.
A problem that arose when I executed the former First Elder.
It was the change and reform of Guseonmun.
Currently, the Guseonmun Leader was being temporarily handled by the First Sword Lord, or so I had heard.
Since that gentleman was also from that side, he would do a good job, but…
‘Come to think of it. Where did the First Sword Lord go?’
Given that the First Sword Lord clearly served as my father’s bodyguard, I had heard he came along on this trip to the South.
But I had never seen the First Sword Lord.
‘Is he doing something separately?’
That was highly likely, but it wasn’t certain either.
‘Wuyan didn’t come either.’
Wuyan, my bodyguard who I had naturally assumed would come along, was said to have skipped this trip to the South.
Seeing this, I somewhat felt an intention from the Guseonmun side to manage Wuyan.
They must have realized Wuyan’s talent was extraordinary when he reached the peak.
Since he happened to be from Guseonmun as well, I thought they must be doing it to raise him properly.
‘Are they planning to use him as the young lord?’
Coming up with their intention, that was all it could be for now.
Sure enough, when Gu Zheye heard this, his expression had darkened for a while, perhaps having the same thought as me.
Seeing that, the only thing I could tell him was that if he didn’t want to fall behind, he should work himself to death.
If, by chance, Wuyan were to completely establish a position on the Guseonmun side…
‘It might not be so bad.’
From my standpoint, I didn’t think that was a bad thing.
After facing the Heavenly Demon, there was something I had clearly realized.
‘I need force.’
Not the strength of an individual, but a force befitting it.
I had realized that no matter how I looked at it, facing the enemy with my power alone was too overwhelming.
It was something I had known from the start, but I suppose it became even clearer from that point on.
If I truly intended to take the place of the Divine Sword.
My own force was necessary to match it.
Therefore, if Wuyan were to establish a position on the Guseonmun side.
I was thinking of putting in more effort to seize complete control of that force.
At first, I had considered joining a specific organization like the Martial Arts Alliance, but
‘There is no place I can trust.’
There was truly not a single group I could trust.
Looking at it this way, I could vividly feel how rotten the Central Plains were.
So rather than trying to enter a place I couldn’t trust,
‘…I’ll make one.’
The judgment formed that it would be better to gather people and build something myself.
Therefore, no matter how fucking shitty the nickname Little Yama was.
Even if I had to grit my teeth to the breaking point at the rumors spreading along with it.
The reason I kept suppressing myself was by thinking of the reputation that came with it.
Not only that.
I had also been sorting out personnel to absorb or include one by one.
If there was one thing concerning about this,
‘If… I were to gather the people I’m thinking of in one place.’
In the Central Plains, for them,
there was no chance whatsoever that they would be called by the name of the Righteous faction.