Chapter 45
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Returner II
Shin Noah
4
The Sword Empress was mad, but his ability was great.
To intuitively convey just how great, some additional explanation is necessary.
This world hates humanity.
Even children in the full throes of their edgy adolescent phase mutter things like "the world must hate me." And as they grow older, they learn that the world actually (not really surprisingly) doesn't care about your existence at all.
Honestly, from the world's perspective, it has plenty of other things to worry about besides you. Like sea turtles that swallowed plastic, or quantum entanglement.
But not anymore. The moment the Gate incident erupted, something decisively changed. It had changed completely.
From that day onward, the world decided it would hate humanity a little.
Void.
Otherwise known as the Abyss, Hell, or the Deep. Previously the term "Gate" was used, but gradually the word "Void" spread among the people.
-W-what is that?
-Hmm? What?
-That flower. Why does the flower have teeth?
In the Void, shark teeth sprout from the petals of Rafflesia flowers. Spiders grow thirteen legs. Dragonflies' compound eyes multiply to six. Headless elephants wander about.
If left alone without subjugating the monsters and aberrations, massive genetic mutations occur in that land. The number of deformed creatures increases rapidly.
The Void Poison.
The culprit that instantly rendered into meaningless shapes the civilization and knowledge humanity had built stitch by stitch.
Have you ever seen rice paddies dyed blood-red? Rice grains that look exactly like aphids and flies? Instead of rice ears, orange lilies bloom. Some farmer reported that after digging up his paddy, he found all the rice plants had their roots connected underground like a bamboo forest.
Despite being grown in the exact same paddies with the same species, same water, same sunlight, the rice on the left side looked different from the rice on the right.
Human civilization was founded upon "reproducibility." However much all things in the world change, when humanity grasped the truth that after a year passes, spring returns and winter repeats, they built a golden tower. From that sharp pinnacle of the tower, time finally transformed into history.
The tower has now collapsed.
Time flows. It flows unpredictably. Like a desert storm, it buries the once-brilliant surface of the tower in sand.
What is humanity? What are "we"? Is that being with flowers growing from its head and fish gills sprouting from its tongue also us?
From those gills comes the sound of a baby crying. Before long, they communicate only through infant cries, and we cannot understand the meaning of those sounds.
Sometimes time flows quickly near Incheon and slowly near Seoul. Nothing repeats. Nothing is reproduced. It merely flows.
"We are connecting each city……."
Therefore I, the Saintess, Noh Do-ha, the Tripartite Blood Alliance declared war against the Void that was eating away at our world.
"Humanity must return to the era when it was overwhelmed by nature."
When asked if that wasn't regression, Noh Do-ha shook her head.
"Just as evolution and devolution are merely human distinctions, this too is not a regression of civilization but merely adaptation to environment…. We abandon dominion over the plane and move to dominion over the line."
From plane to line.
From line to plane.
That was the motto of the National Highway Management Corps.
"If so, we can escape our fate of being isolated by the Void and maintain our community…."
Just as prosthetic knights attach braces to the disabled, the National Highway Management Corps opened roads for humanity.
They connected "rails" to the world.
Finally, isolated points, cities, and people transformed into stations where they could briefly rest.
-In this world, I will fix the broken railways one by one and continue moving forward.
I was able to keep Tang Seo-rin's dying wish.
It took many years.
But it will take even more years ahead.
-From history to history, eternally.
The National Highway Management Corps did not represent Busan. It could not symbolize Seoul. The Corps was simply humanity's last cradle, its final unit and its frontline.
"We can do this. No, we must…."
Every time they departed on the roads, the patrol units of the National Highway Management Corps could not guarantee life or death.
The patrol unit that left for Gangneung never returned for all eternity. A patrol unit sent to explore North Korean territory returned two years later, all thirteen members transformed into walking sunflowers. The sunflowers faced not the sun but the flags they had been holding when they departed.
Nevertheless, we did not hesitate to stand at the frontline.
"Heh. Another bountiful harvest this season!"
The Sword Empress could be called a support unit for this frontline.
"With this much grain, we could easily feed all of Samhan and still have leftovers! Truly divine providence!"
No matter how much we open roads, people must eat. Eating three meals, two meals, even one meal a day is surely an urgent fate of my body.
I did not accept this hunger as hardship or sorrow.
If infected with the New Buddha, the Udambara virus, one could escape the fate of hunger at any time. But that meant shedding one's humanity and falling to become a being of the Void. Hunger was miserable, but it was human misery, the misery of a being still born and raised on this land.
However, I did not live to regard human misery as human beauty. One had to eat.
The chef responsible for the Korean Peninsula's sustenance was none other than the Sword Empress.
"Heh heh, now surely this summer I may enjoy a journey at this one's discretion, might I not?"
And as I've emphasized several times, our chef was a madman.
"Excuse me. Sword Empress. A journey?"
"Jianghu wandering, as the word implies. Young martial artist. Please never reveal this story anywhere. Though I've kept it hidden all this time, actually…."
The Sword Empress cautiously looked around. Even the eyes of the National Highway Management Corps checking for nearby monsters would not have been this sharp.
Soon confirming that no one was around except me, the Sword Empress whispered in my ear.
"This one is the direct disciple of the 260th Sect Master of the Huashan Sect."
"…."
"The martial arts secret manual containing the very essence of the Huashan Sect's three thousand years of history is in my hands."
So this person was now claiming to be a Marquis of Yuldo-guk, the Sword Empress of the Murim, and furthermore the next Sect Master of the Huashan Sect.
Additionally, an aluminum practice sword hung at his waist.
At this point, my head was spinning.
"That…. I'm not sure if I should ask this, but why would the future of the Huashan Sect be on the Korean Peninsula?"
"Why, to hide from the despicable eyes of the Demonic Sect, of course. Since this one is the rightful successor of the Twenty-Four Forms Plum Blossom Sword Technique, it cannot be helped that the wicked ones glare at me. Look. Even now, are not the monsters commanded by the Heavenly Demon shaking the world?"
"Good heavens."
"Indeed! A feeling of wanting to call upon the gods themselves! Originally this one was a master who reached the supreme peak, but while being pursued by the Demonic Sect's hordes, I suffered serious internal injury to my dantian. However, having trained my body and mind in this land of Haedong, should I not now return to the main mountain and fulfill my duty as a disciple?"
…Surely you're not saying you're going to Huashan in China right now?"
"Exactly so."
I looked up at the sky and let out a long sigh.
"Sword Empress. Have you lost your mind?"
I briefly hinted when discussing Kim Ju-cheol and Kim Si-eun's father-daughter story, but in this era, "overseas travel" was merely a more elegant word for "suicide."
At my direct manner of speaking, the Sword Empress merely tilted his head.
"This one is perfectly sound of mind."
True, asking a madman if he's mad wouldn't yield a meaningful answer. Why would one even ask a dolphin if it's a dolphin? Unless one's eyes were crooked, it was a self-evident truth.
I revised my strategy.
"The Twenty-Four Forms Plum Blossom Sword Technique… would that happen to be the one where, when mastered to the extreme, plum blossom fragrance blooms from the sword and reaches ten thousand li?"
"Oh, so the martial artist has heard of our sect's fame. Correct."
"Does the Sword Empress happen to know that at Huashan, plum blossoms bloom profusely and such?"
"Of course."
…That's a setting created in Korea."
At this time, my wuxia knowledge consisted only of a few books I'd read as a child. But even I knew this.
Huashan was not particularly a famous mountain for plum blossoms.
One could guess just by looking at photos. Huashan was a mountain with rock exposed as bare as its leaves, making it difficult for plum blossoms to bloom lavishly.
The same went for flower fragrance. Without developing olfactory organs that perceived stone scent as plum blossom fragrance, it was evolutionarily impossible for the Huashan Sect's swords to exude flower fragrance.
What am I saying?
I'm saying that before my eyes, the self-proclaimed Sword Empress and 261st Huashan Sect Master (planned) and practice sword owner and Ulleungdo-born native Korean and non-Chinese-speaker was spouting nonsense. This old man was just completely full of it from head to toe.
"Gaaaaah!"
The Sword Empress unleashed a Lion's Roar.
"How does the young martial artist mock his senior! The plum blossom fragrance I suddenly smelled while receiving teachings from my master in childhood still lingers in my nose! If you intend to insult my master and our sect, this one will no longer overlook it!"
"Then would the successor of the Plum Blossom Sword Technique, the Sword Empress, personally demonstrate for this ignorant junior."
"If this one's dantian were intact without suffering the Demonic Sect's vicious attack, I would show you immediately."
"This is driving me mad."
Hey. You call yourself a 60-year-old but you're younger than me. Besides, back when civilization was intact, 60 wasn't even considered old.
If you ask how old I am this year… no, let's abandon this strategy.
I felt like even if I won the battle, I would lose the war.
Anyway, the Sword Empress was a style of human I found difficult to handle.
Fortunately, we had a "final weapon exclusively for use against the elderly."
"Noh Do-ha. Help."
"A 60-year-old grandfather? Heh. Piece of cake…."
The woman most loved by the elderly on the Korean Peninsula, the greatest prosthetic knight in history and commander of the National Highway Management Corps, Noh Do-ha, laughed sinisterly.
"Sir… does this feel good…?"
"Oh my, oh my. My old bones are melting."
Noh Do-ha performed a shoulder massage on the Sword Empress. With movements so exceptional one could believe her former job was a masseuse rather than a civil servant, the Sword Empress's expression melted away.
"The plum blossom is a plum blossom whether it blooms on a mountain peak or by the roadside. Then is it not also a plum blossom if it blooms in a person's heart? The lineage of the Huashan Sect has now been passed to you, sir, so what does it matter whether this is Haedong or Chang'an…?"
"Hmmm, but my junior disciples…"
"No, no… Your master has already passed away, has he not? Then you are the eldest in the Huashan Sect. In this world, there is protocol for juniors to seek out their seniors, but I've never heard of seniors going to find juniors. Those kids should come to you—why are you traveling, sir…?"
"Oh! That is truly a reasonable statement."
"If you grant me a letter, I will take responsibility and send a dispatch to China. If they know the proper relationship between senior and junior, they will surely come here to see you…."
"Oh-ho! The escort agency head's advice is a hundred times, a thousand times correct!"
"Then I look forward to the autumn harvest as well…"
"Hmm! Just leave it to this one!"
So the National Highway Management Corps is an escort agency, and its commander is the escort agency head.
Noh Do-ha, having finished her godlike handiwork and wordwork, turned to me and went "Heh."
"This is why I like adults better than young people… we can communicate…"
I won't bother objecting to that claim.
But even with Noh Do-ha's all-out performance, there were limits. The Sword Empress was a madman, and madness was an incurable disease.
"Before I die, I really must visit Huashan at least once."
Every time the seasons changed and rice was harvested, the Sword Empress endlessly murmured like someone suffering from homesickness.
"Before I die, I must go…"
In the 54th cycle since the National Highway Management Corps was founded, and in the 55th, 56th, and 57th cycles, the Sword Empress murmured this every season.
Time passed.
Finally, the 108th cycle.
On vacation season, I went to find the Sword Empress. The very beginning, before even the first year had passed. The Sword Empress still lived in his hometown of Ulleungdo (yes, this person had absolutely no reason to have homesickness).
"Sword Empress."
"Hmm?"
An old man watering flowers in the front yard of a shabby house turned to look at me. Water trickled from the watering can.
"Young man, who might you be?"
"I am one who has been bestowed the title of knight from Yuldo-guk."
"What?"
A normal person, when a stranger walks into their front yard and suddenly claims a micronation's title, would report to the police or at least wave a broom.
"Ah, a compatriot of this one! Welcome!"
But indeed the Sword Empress was extraordinary. I had suspected this old man might have started his noble cosplay after coming to Ulleungdo, but it seems he was already mad even when in his hometown.
"But your address is strange. This one is not the Sword Empress but the Sword Man. Why have you come to find me?"
I put on the saddest expression I could. Method acting wasn't particularly difficult. I just had to recall the scene when Tang Seo-rin died.
"It is too sorrowful to report, but Yuldo-guk has fallen."
"What?"
"The wicked hands of the Demonic Sect have reached even across that distant sea to Yeonggil-li. Not only Yuldo-guk but the entire eastern region of Yeonggil-li has been devastated, and His Highness the Grand Duke could not escape the calamity."
"No…! How could such a thing…!"
"Sword Empress."
Thump. I knelt in the yard. Then I cried out with the utmost solemnity.
"The court of Yuldo-guk has fallen, but how can we call it proper for the people to accept the sorrow of a ruined nation? Is it not loyalty to maintain a nation with only the remaining people?"
"…!"
"Now there are no nobles left in Yuldo-guk except for you, sir, so you must open a new court in this land. However, as one who knows human duty, I cannot forget the grace of His Highness the Grand Duke, so I beseech you—please ascend to the title of Marquis and revive Yuldo-guk as a vassal state!"
For reference, the Sword Empress's house was shabby.
And a shabby house was located in a shabby neighborhood.
Also, the characteristic of a shabby neighborhood was that when something strange happened next door, one could quite easily peek over the gate. The neighbors were all looking this way.
To describe their gaze—it was like, oh. Roughly the look of someone watching something ridiculous.
"Heaven has not yet abandoned this one!"
The Sword Empress didn't give a damn about the neighbors' attention.
"Rise quickly! How have you understood this one's will so well!"
"I am ashamed."
"You are truly my Jang Ja-bang!"
Roughly meaning best friend.
The 108th cycle.
That day, I became best friends with the Huashan Sect Master (planned).
I'm an infinite regressor, just telling a story.