Chapter 9. A Third-Rate Warrior Who Protects His Sect’s Honor (3)
Seong Mo-ran was growing weary as she greeted the guests.
“Ha ha, Young Lady! Your beauty is truly as outstanding as the rumors say!”
“You are another Xi Shi. Your father must be very pleased.”
“When you entered, Young Lady, I thought the sun had already risen.”
Countless men showed her excessive attention.
“I hear your sword is exceedingly sharp, Young Lady. Might I have the honor of seeing it one day?”
“I, too, possess some depth of understanding regarding the sword. How would it be if we shared a cup of tea later and discussed the sword?”
“What would you think of coming to our family as an exchange disciple? I could speak to my grandfather……”
They swaggered as though they possessed remarkable skill.
“Flowers in a greenhouse that have never experienced even a single real battle.”
Was their swagger truly possible through their own ability alone?
Could it have been possible without the protection of their sects and the investment of their families?
At the very least, she did not think they were the same as her, who had climbed to this place without receiving anything from her family.
Of course, she could not express such thoughts.
She remembered how bizarrely Seong Mo-hyeon’s face had twisted after he failed to overwhelm her in their sparring match, and how full of concern the eyes of the family elders had been. Thus, Seong Mo-ran did not needlessly create trouble.
“Far from being true Warriors, there is not even a proper man among them.”
She was bored.
Because of her mother, who poured out lecture after lecture about the family’s dignity, she was forcing herself to endure, but she was bored beyond measure.
Her father, her grandfather, and even Seong Mo-hyeon seemed to be plotting something, but they did not tell her about it, and she had little interest in it either.
‘It must be something about the One Hundred Eight Peaks.’
To think that the only thing men gathered to discuss was scheming.
They should simply hold a decisive duel instead. Had the Iron Sword Sect not long since overwhelmingly surpassed the Taeul Sect in strength?
If they displayed the difference in power and embraced the opponent fairly and honorably, at least they would look like Warriors.
“How dull.”
She deeply regretted that Namgung Seon-hwa had been unable to attend the banquet.
If at least she had been here, things would not have been this tedious.
“She must be occupied right now.”
She had heard that a banquet was being held under the sponsorship of Namgung San, who had attended the sixtieth birthday celebration in Namgung Seon-hwa’s place, but she had no desire to attend.
Even if she went, the place would be full only of people frantic to flatter the Namgung Clan and the Iron Sword Sect.
She had already heard enough praise and flattery to last her for some time.
“My lady! My lady!”
A maidservant was searching for Seong Mo-ran.
“Oops.”
Seong Mo-ran, who knew the purpose of that call, lightly kicked off the ground and landed soundlessly on the roof.
“Where did she go?”
The maidservant reached the place where Seong Mo-ran had just been and still kept turning her head as she searched for her.
“The young master is looking for you. My lady! My lady!”
Only after the maidservant disappeared did Seong Mo-ran let out a small sigh.
“Ahh……”
After pretending to be a modest young lady, she had not even been able to stretch properly. Just as she was about to stretch in relief, her eyes fixed upon a man and woman between the halls.
They were Gye Cheol-yeong and the young lady of the Taeul Sect.
“Hmm…… Are only those two going?”
Seong Mo-ran recalled the man named Jin So-un, whom she had seen during the day.
His internal force had clearly seemed humble, and there had been no mark at his taiyang acupoints.
The martial arts he possessed had seemed exceedingly meager, yet he had subdued that Bamboo Flame something of Blue Bamboo Fortress in a single move.
“It truly is strange.”
It was not only the single move he had shown then that was strange.
A person’s attitude was determined by what he possessed.
One whose family background was solid naturally straightened his shoulders, while one who lacked such a background lowered his back. Leaving background aside, one who had achieved something through his own effort alone could also have a dignified bearing.
But the man named Jin So-un’s background was the Taeul Sect, and he was far too young to have achieved mastery.
On top of that, he possessed the eloquence to answer her father, Seong Ju-tak, point by point with flawless logic until he could not speak.
“Was he not afraid of the Iron Sword Sect?”
As she thought that, she sprang to her feet.
“This should be amusing.”
The tedious banquet suddenly seemed as though it might become enjoyable.
Seong Mo-ran lightly kicked off the roof and flew through the night sky.
“……Is he not a little strange?”
Kang Chae-seok, who had entrusted Jin So-un with an important mission, spoke to Jin Tae-san, who was changing clothes.
“Hmm…… It is a little strange. The dining seats, the guest rooms.”
“No, no. Not that. I mean Jin So-un. Your son.”
“So-un?”
“No, is he not a little strange? You saw him earlier too, did you not? The way he held his head high before Seong Ju-tak and struck him with words. Even I felt pained watching it.”
“……”
“Come to think of it, ever since Gye Yeon-seung, that boy has seemed somewhat strange lately, as though he has become another person.”
“……You know So-un’s special trait, do you not? He probably remembered things he had seen in books before.”
“Then what about Gye Yeon-seung? What about the fact that he defeated him?”
“Did they not say it was a simple contest of techniques? Since he can memorize everything after seeing it once, perhaps he found some method.”
Listening to Jin Tae-san, Kang Chae-seok pondered for a while, then tilted his head.
“Mount Hua Sect’s Plum Blossom Sword Art?”
“……”
“Is that something whose weakness can be found merely by looking? Moreover, they say the boy used the Minor Heaven Sword Art.”
“……That, I do not know.”
“Perhaps.”
Kang Chae-seok unconsciously lowered his voice.
“Could So-un be training something by himself?”
“??”
Jin Tae-san’s face was full of doubt. That boy, who loved to play, training?
“No, I mean that very part. How he runs around to the mountains and rivers day after day. …Could that perhaps be for the sake of personal training? If he used that memory of his to imagine fighting the Plum Blossom Sword Art thousands of times in order to defeat it……”
So-un’s memory exceeded common sense.
Perhaps, as Kang Chae-seok said, it might be possible.
“Hah.”
What nonsense.
Because he had possessed an exceptional mind since childhood, So-un had learned easily without making any particular effort, and because of that, laziness had seeped into his bones.
If he looked at a book once, he memorized it. If he roughly watched a technique, he could imitate it. Jin Tae-san had thought that perhaps indolence was the boy’s fate.
Kang Chae-seok, however, seemed to think differently.
“Think about it. What condition did the boy set when he wagered against that Gye Yeon-seung? Was it not completing Busaeng Hall?”
“……”
“They say he does not have to attend Busaeng Hall anymore, so he goes roaming around for days without coming home, does he not?”
“……”
“And I watched the boy from behind the entire way to the Iron Sword Sect. His physique has changed a little.”
Though Jin Tae-san could not believe it, he gradually began to be drawn into Kang Chae-seok’s words.
“What I think is this. Perhaps the boy harbors an immense anger.”
“Anger?”
“Yes. Since Gye Cheol-yeong entered the Taeul Sect, how much has the hierarchy collapsed? Moreover, knowingly or unknowingly, how much has Gye Cheol-yeong tormented the junior disciples? On top of that, it is practically decided that Gye Cheol-yeong will be the one to go to the Murim Academy later. How could the boy not be angry?”
It was something he had never once considered.
“And earlier, too. Seong Ju-tak. I hate to admit it, but he is still a master who has reached the peak realm. Even if he was not openly releasing his aura, is it easy for a child at So-un’s level to meet his eyes without trembling?”
After listening to Kang Chae-seok for a long while, Jin Tae-san shook his head and spoke.
“Those are precisely the things that worry me. To live on courage alone, the Murim is too harsh for the Taeul Sect.”
“Tsk, tsk. You have grown old too. The will to move forward. The courage to take one step beyond fear. In the end, do such things not gather together to raise the Taeul Sect once more?”
At Kang Chae-seok’s words, Jin Tae-san remained silent for a long while.
He merely chewed over what Kang Chae-seok had said again and again.
“I have returned.”
Jin So-un appeared, holding a large bundle in one hand.
Kang Chae-seok shouted abruptly.
“You fool. Why did a man who will lead the Taeul Sect waste so much time on such an important mission?”
“What are you suddenly talking about? Lead what? And how is this enough to be called a mission?”
Jin So-un had been slipping into the kitchen and bringing out several bottles of precious wine that would not appear at the ordinary banquet tables.
“This is all part of the important process of measuring the Iron Sword Sect’s wealth.”
Kang Chae-seok hurried over to Jin So-un and all but snatched the bundle from him, then abruptly stopped and stared at Jin So-un.
“Sniff, sniff.”
“……Ahem. Ah, it was stuffy, so I went out for some air……”
“You drank wine, did you not?”
“Is that what you should say to a disciple who risked his life to gather information? I spilled a little while carrying the wine.”
Kang Chae-seok grabbed Jin So-un firmly by the scruff just as he tried to leave.
“You. Say, ‘Haa.’”
“How could I thrust my foul breath before the august countenance of the Swift Blossom Hall Master, who is like the heavens themselves?”
Kang Chae-seok’s head turned stiffly.
“Tae-san, forget what I said a moment ago. I was mistaken.”
“What are you talking about? Was it perhaps something impor— Aaaagh! Aaaagh!”
While Jin So-un was unable to escape Kang Chae-seok’s rough grip, someone knocked on the hall door.
KNOCK KNOCK.
Kang Chae-seok and Jin So-un’s eyes met, and the two began moving like arrows.
Kang Chae-seok hid the wine inside the bedding, and Jin So-un concealed the bundle where it could not be seen.
“Young Lady Mo-ran?”
When the door opened, the person standing there was not a manager or servant of the Iron Sword Sect, but the Beautiful Wolf Iron Sword, Seong Mo-ran.
“What brings you here so late?”
“The young later-generation talents of Anhui Province have prepared a banquet among themselves. I thought it would be good if you attended as well.”
Jin So-un looked behind him at Jin Tae-san, and Jin Tae-san shook his head.
“Thank you, but because I have been walking all day, my mind and body are weary. It would be better to take such a seat another time.”
At Jin So-un’s refusal, Seong Mo-ran paused briefly before speaking.
“…Will that be all right? It seems Young Lady Hong is already there.”
The gazes of Jin So-un, Jin Tae-san, and Kang Chae-seok intertwined.
Ha ha ha ha.
Ho ho ho ho.
The banquet hall was overflowing with laughter.
Beautiful men and women laughed without pause, as though something joyous had happened.
Yet Sa-ryeon’s face was stiff as she sat as the only one dressed in martial robes amid all the silk garments.
She had prepared herself.
She knew she would not be treated with respect anywhere……
No, she knew it would be fortunate if she was not ignored and ridiculed.
Because she had prepared herself for that, she had attended this gathering.
All because of the faint expectation that, at the very least before her, the child of a Sect Leader, they might show the minimum courtesy.
“As it happens, as one who holds a sword, witnessing the sword of the Taeul Sword Emperor has always been my dream. Could you arrange an appointment with the Sect Leader for me one day?”
“……”
The words coming from the mouth of the man in jade-colored silk were not as beautiful as his clothes.
From one side, someone seemed to stop him.
“Come now, my friend. Tease her only in moderation.”
But then—
“Was that Taeul Sword Emperor tale not simply something fabricated so they could enter the One Hundred Eight Peaks?”
“Hoh! Is that so?”
Exaggerated, absurd gestures.
At those movements, the women in court dresses covered their mouths and laughed.
“No, to begin with, can one enter the One Hundred Eight Peaks with a story like that?”
“The story is quite realistic, is it not? Perhaps that was why they were able to enter.”
They were words that would have presented no problem if the person concerned had not been present.
“……”
She had prepared herself for it.
“Enough, everyone. Young Lady Hong will be embarrassed.”
The person who had mocked her the most stepped forward first to stop the others.
“I apologize, Young Lady Hong. We are men, and our jesting has gone too far.”
On the one hand, she thought it was fortunate.
Because Senior Brother So-un probably would not have endured this.
He might have become wildly indignant and angry.
He might have run his mouth like that and been beaten for it.
‘But how did he defeat Senior Brother Cheol-yeong?’
Suddenly, as a stray thought crossed her mind, her heart felt a little more at ease.
For some reason, she felt as though she could endure more comfortably.
It was truly fortunate.
It was truly fortunate that she had come instead of Senior Brother So-un.
Instead of answering, Sa-ryeon placed a smile on her lips.
