Right after the White Lotus Sword suddenly appeared and royally screwed me over.
I somehow tried to clean things up….
No, I didn’t exactly manage to clean anything up. I merely chased away the people staring at me strangely, then decided to sit down with the White Lotus Sword for a while.
Trying to talk to her right there had been impossible, what with the White Lotus Sword wailing at the top of her lungs.
‘This is driving me insane.’
Who could have expected a woman who had to be well into middle age to suddenly start screaming and wailing like that?
Just remembering it made my head spin.
I could only pray that no strange rumors would spread.
But considering that Uhyuk’s mouth was filthy as a rag in situations like this, some bizarre rumor would probably be making the rounds before long.
That damn bastard.
In my previous life, he had once caused a commotion for several days by twisting the rumors about Seolbong and me into something strange.
Seolbong had been so furious that she almost captured the Hidden Dragon and froze him solid, only for the Little Sword Saint to save him.
Anyway, if that bastard had seen what happened, I should have gone and shut his mouth before the rumors started.
But I couldn’t do that right now.
I had no choice….
“Haa….”
A sigh escaped me as I stared at the scene before me.
Just as I was once again wondering what I should do, I decided to try saying something first.
…But what was I supposed to say?
“Um….”
Flinch.
When I tried to force out a word, I saw her flinch in front of me.
I had to sigh once more at the sight.
Haa—
Perhaps she misunderstood my sigh, because the woman asked me with an incredibly pitiful expression.
“…S-Should I raise my hands up higher?”
Despite her cold and stern appearance, the woman spoke in an extremely timid voice. She was even kneeling with both hands raised high above her head.
She looked as though she were being punished.
The problem was—
“…No. Please, put them down.”
The problem was that I hadn’t told her to do this. She had done it of her own accord.
And she was a woman who had probably lived more than twice as long as I had.
Not only did she have more years behind her, she also had a reputation earned through decades of activity in the Central Plains. She was a master of an older generation who couldn’t even be compared to me as I was now, yet she was making such a spectacle of herself in front of me.
I had no idea how I was supposed to react to this.
In that utterly absurd situation, I asked the kneeling woman—White Lotus Sword Moyong Biyeon—a question.
“Why are you doing this, exactly…?”
“Should I raise them even higher…?”
“Please, Senior…! Put your arms down.”
Only after I pleaded with her did the White Lotus Sword cautiously lower both arms.
Just looking at her made my head spin.
Why on earth was this woman acting like this toward me?
Even trying to figure it out gave me a headache.
Suppressing the irritation rising inside me, I asked the White Lotus Sword, who was cautiously getting to her feet,
“What exactly is your intention in doing this to me?”
“Hm…?”
“Why are you acting like this?”
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand.
Not why she had suddenly come looking for me and grabbed me by the hem of my trousers.
Not why she had now inexplicably knelt down and begun holding her hands up high.
Watching her, I couldn’t get a grasp on the person known as the White Lotus Sword.
She was unlike anyone I had ever encountered before. That only made things more difficult.
What was wrong with this woman?
As I was pondering this, the White Lotus Sword heard my question and gave an awkward smile.
“Because I’m the one who did wrong. I have to apologize.”
Hearing that, I had to suppress the emotions rising inside me and stare at the White Lotus Sword strangely.
It was obviously true, but for some reason, it sounded astonishing.
In a world where the words of the strong became law, most people would let it slide even if the White Lotus Sword acted somewhat shamelessly.
For someone like her to say such a thing was simply refreshing.
But even so….
“…That doesn’t mean you should suddenly kneel down.”
To kneel before a junior who was several decades younger than her.
As far as I was concerned, such a thing was impossible.
Then again, considering that it had made it harder for me to get angry at her, perhaps it wasn’t such a bad method after all.
I wasn’t sure.
I had already been so swept up in the White Lotus Sword’s atmosphere that I could no longer think straight.
As I stared at her in bewilderment, the White Lotus Sword continued,
“You’ll forgive me, right?”
“…”
I was rendered speechless.
Forget forgiveness—why on earth was she acting like this toward me?
Forcing that thought down, I spoke to the White Lotus Sword in as calm a voice as I could manage.
“Senior. If you want to apologize, shouldn’t you be offering your apology to the others rather than me?”
As she said, the White Lotus Sword really hadn’t done anything particularly wrong to me.
She hadn’t fought me, and the slight pain in one of my arms had been caused by me stepping in myself, so it wouldn’t be right to call that her fault either.
Therefore, if she had someone to apologize to, it should be the children who had been in the middle of the duel, not me.
When I brought this up, the White Lotus Sword smiled brightly, as if telling me not to worry about something so trivial.
“I already apologized to the children.”
“You did?”
“Of course!”
That couldn’t mean—
“…Don’t tell me you did it like this?”
Had she knelt before those children and raised both hands high, just as she had done with me?
At the somewhat horrifying thought, I hurriedly asked her, but the White Lotus Sword waved both hands and replied,
“Oh, not that.”
That was a relief.
Yes, no matter how strange the White Lotus Sword was, she couldn’t possibly use this method on everyone.
“I didn’t kneel. I just begged them with both hands clasped together!”
“…”
“And then they told me it was okay.”
Who in their right mind could tell her it wasn’t okay when she was rubbing both hands together right in front of their faces?
In the end, I couldn’t bear it any longer and covered my forehead with one hand.
…Was even that supposed to count as fortunate?
At this point, I truly understood nothing.
“Oh, and I told the Tang Family Head to be careful, because if he started acting up again, I’d pull him out. I said I’d really get angry.”
So she had spoken with the Poison King as well. I had to let out a hollow laugh inwardly at her words.
‘If he starts acting up, I’ll pull him out….’
Her choice of words was dizzying.
No matter how angry the Poison King had been, he surely wouldn’t have put it in such a cheap-sounding way. Still, I could roughly understand the meaning.
If a martial artist of the White Lotus Sword’s caliber acted like this, it was bound to cause problems for the transport itself.
He must have meant that if she wasn’t going to help and was only going to cause trouble, she should leave.
Even so, I had to admire the Poison King’s patience.
‘If it had been me, I wouldn’t have merely warned her. I would’ve thrown her out.’
No matter how powerful the White Lotus Sword was or how much she could contribute to the transport, if she was uncontrollable and caused accidents, I would have removed her after what happened yesterday.
The Poison King’s own daughter, Tang Soyeol, had even been caught up in the duel.
And yet he had let this pass with nothing more than a warning….
I revised my opinion of the Poison King slightly and asked the White Lotus Sword,
“Why are you really doing this?”
It was what I had wanted to ask from the very beginning.
The White Lotus Sword gave me the same awkward smile as before and began to answer.
“As I said earlier, I did something wrong—”
“I don’t think it’s something serious enough to go this far.”
I had no intention of letting her off with such a flimsy excuse.
“Is there something else you want from me?”
“…”
It was strange for her to be acting like this unless she wanted something from me.
When I asked her what her true purpose was, the White Lotus Sword’s expression grew peculiar.
Apparently, she did want something after all.
‘What could it be?’
What could she possibly want from me?
I thought about it, but that didn’t mean I could figure it out.
There was nothing in my relationship with the White Lotus Sword that could give rise to such a desire.
That was probably why it felt even more frustrating.
“If there’s something you want from me, then instead of acting like this, why don’t you simply tell me….”
“Your escort…. You said I should quit.”
“…Hm?”
I had to cock my head at the words the White Lotus Sword let out midway through my sentence.
My escort?
‘If she means the escort….’
After thinking about her words for a moment, I remembered what she had said earlier.
I had told her to quit if she wasn’t even going to listen to me, let alone act as my escort properly.
Then did she mean—
‘Don’t tell me she’s acting like this because I told her to quit being my escort?’
I had only said it in the heat of the moment, thinking it would make things easier for both of us. Was she saying that those words had been weighing on her, so she had come to beg me?
‘Why?’
I couldn’t understand.
The White Lotus Sword had said that she had come to act as my escort at Madam Mi’s request.
If a martial artist of her caliber had overcome her annoyance and come to serve as an escort, then surely she should have been happy when I told Madam Mi that I didn’t need her.
But instead, when I told her to quit being my escort, she had gone so far as to come begging me….
‘What is it?’
Did she have some ulterior motive for serving as my escort?
As I looked at the White Lotus Sword with an inscrutable expression, calculating one possibility after another in my head, she cautiously spoke up.
“I’m sorry. Can’t you let me continue as your escort?”
“…”
“I won’t cause any more trouble. I’ll be patient and behave. I’m usually really good at holding back, but it had been so long since I’d had a duel that I got too excited. That’s all it was.”
“White Lotus Sword.”
“Yes?”
“Why are you so fixated on serving as my escort?”
“That’s because…. Miss Mi asked me to….”
She seemed to be skirting around the question, which meant she had no intention of telling me the real reason.
‘She’s hiding her intentions, yet still wants to remain at my side as my escort?’
What should I do, then? Should I simply let her continue?
It left me feeling somewhat uneasy.
Either way, it meant keeping someone with ulterior motives at my side.
As I quietly considered the matter, one thought suddenly occurred to me.
“Very well. Continue, then.”
At my words, the White Lotus Sword’s face lit up in an instant.
Was this really worth such a reaction? I had merely told her she could continue as my escort.
However—
“There is one condition.”
I had a condition of my own.
Perhaps because I had said I would impose a condition, the look in the White Lotus Sword’s eyes changed slightly.
Perhaps she hadn’t expected me to set conditions as well. The atmosphere around her seemed to grow a little colder.
That bothered me.
But it was also exactly what I had been hoping for.
“A condition?”
“Yes.”
The condition was simple.
First of all—
“Unless I give you permission, I would like you not to act on your own.”
“…”
Thirty percent of my intention was to make certain that something like this would not happen again. The other seventy percent was the hope that the White Lotus Sword would take offense at my words and back out.
I meant exactly what I said: she was not to cause trouble without my permission.
As my escort, I had every right to make such a demand.
But considering that the person receiving it was a martial artist from a much older generation, it was bound to be unpleasant for her.
And that wasn’t the end of it.
I had one more condition.
“Additionally, I’d like you to do one favor for me.”
“…A favor?”
“Yes.”
Not only was I telling her not to act without permission, I was also asking her to do me a favor. The White Lotus Sword’s eyes narrowed sharply.
It couldn’t be helped.
If I had heard something like this, I would have been offended enough to quit on the spot, so her reaction was entirely natural.
And that was exactly what I was hoping for.
After I had gone this far, accepting would surely wound her pride. No matter how easygoing the White Lotus Sword might be, after all this, it wouldn’t be strange for her to refuse—or even get angry….
“Will that be all?”
“…What?”
“Let’s do that, then. Your big sister will continue being your escort, okay?”
I was momentarily left speechless by the White Lotus Sword’s beaming, delighted expression.
“No…. Senior, did you really hear all of the conditions I just gave you?”
“Of course I did. You said I had to ask before doing anything and do you favors too.”
“But why…?”
Even after I had gone that far, she was happy to accept? This was completely unexpected.
…Why was she so pleased?
The White Lotus Sword studied my bewildered expression, then cocked her head and asked,
“You don’t believe me?”
“…”
I gave a slight nod at her words.
To be honest, it was difficult to believe her. The fact that she was accepting all of this was completely incomprehensible to me.
The White Lotus Sword rolled her eyes slightly at my suspicion, then clapped her hands as though she had thought of something and spoke to me.
“If you don’t believe me, should I place a binding restriction on myself?”
An even more absurd statement came flying out.
“…What did you say?”
A binding restriction wasn’t some dog’s name that one could casually invoke, and she was a martial artist—how could she decide so easily whether to place one or not?
Just as I was staring at the White Lotus Sword in disbelief—
“Then you’ll believe me, won’t you? Where should I put it? My stomach? My chest? I’ll take my clothes off right now!”
“No, there’s no need for a binding seal… Argh! Don’t take it off! What are you doing!”
I hurriedly stopped the Baekryeon Sword as she tried to bare her stomach, and thought:
This was clearly my mistake.
I should have realized it from the very first moment we met.
The Baekryeon Sword was far crazier than I had expected.
******************
Time passed, and it had been about a month since we had begun our journey to Sichuan.
Because we had been taking a rather roundabout route, we were spending more time on the road, and our expected arrival date had been pushed back somewhat.
It didn’t matter much. The time had been lost because of the incident in the first place.
Since I was using that time for training, I didn’t consider it a major problem.
Of course, as far as training was concerned, the conditions were anything but favorable, and I was going through hell.
Not only was my body worn out from traveling by carriage,
but at night, I was dying at Amwang’s hands, while during the day I repeated the process of being summoned by Paejon and worked to the bone, including physical training. It was hardly an ideal situation.
It got so bad that Wiseol-a, apparently worried about me, even tried to forcibly hold me back, telling me to get some rest.
The funny thing was that seeing Wiseol-a do that only made me feel even less capable of resting.
Could the spar with the Baekryeon Sword last time have been the problem?
Wiseol-a and Namgung Bia spent their time occasionally sparring with each other. And lately, I had realized that those around me were training just as intensely as I was, so I couldn’t bring myself to rest even when they told me to.
It was strange.
‘They’re running themselves into the ground because they want me to rest….’
I was pushing myself this hard because I wanted to make sure they didn’t suffer as much as they had in my previous life.
But the harder I worked, the people around me began suffering alongside me.
What was this…?
Was I having some kind of negative influence on them?
If a martial artist was redoubling their training, could that really be considered a negative influence?
In any case, things were taking a strange turn.
It was on one of those days when I was spending each day in grueling training.
We were just beginning to creep into the territory of Sichuan.
Paejon spoke to me while I was taking a break after being thoroughly beaten black and blue.
“Boy.”
“Huff… huff… Yes?”
As I panted heavily, drenched in sweat, Paejon told me something as though he had heard something rather interesting.
“It’s something that bat bastard told me.”
The bat bastard Paejon was referring to was Amwang.
Good heavens… To call the King of Assassins a bat.
That old man was clearly not entirely right in the head either. After checking my expression, Paejon furrowed his brows and spoke.
“Judging by your eyes, you seem to be cursing me inwardly again.”
“…No, sir. Of course not.”
His instincts were disgustingly sharp.
Paejon looked entirely unconvinced by my answer, but he didn’t bother pressing the matter any further.
Apparently, the main point was more important.
“Anyway, he said there seem to be some strange fellows lurking around us.”
“Strange fellows?”
“Yeah. Apparently, they seem to be bandits. Bandits in this day and age… Tsk, tsk.”
“…!”
My eyes flashed at Paejon’s words.
Bandits?