Chapter 140. The Black Flame Dragon Meets the Monster of the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository (4)
“Ah, ah…….”
Seong Mo-ran, rendered speechless by Namgung Seon-hwa’s statement, could not say anything.
“…….”
Even Namgung Seon-hwa, who had made that startling confession, closed her mouth, and a heavy silence settled inside.
In the uncomfortable silence, Namgung Seon-hwa’s hand entered Seong Mo-ran’s view.
A small, delicate hand trembling faintly.
Seeing her look frightened as though she had committed some great sin, Seong Mo-ran let out a small laugh.
“……I wondered what it was. I know.”
“……Eh?”
“I said I know.”
“I, um, th-that is.”
Now Namgung Seon-hwa’s face flushed red as though it were about to burst.
Seong Mo-ran found Namgung Seon-hwa’s appearance nothing but cute.
“Did you think I would not know something like that, no matter how dense I am?”
“…….”
She had already known for a long time.
In the Demon Spirit Plateau, during the Murim Regular Exam, the occasional gazes Namgung Seon-hwa directed toward Jin So-un were different from the way she looked at other men.
“And! Did you think I would distance myself from you just because you said you liked Young Master Jin?”
“…….”
Seong Mo-ran reached out and held Namgung Seon-hwa’s hand tightly.
“You were my one and only little sister even before you met Young Master Jin.”
“……Sister.”
“Well, that does not mean I am saying I will yield. I like Young Master Jin too.”
Seong Mo-ran wiped the tears gathering at the corners of Namgung Seon-hwa’s eyes and said,
“So, whatever the result is, let us get along well, the two of us. And that human is so busy anyway that he does not even have time to look back at us, does he?”
“Thank you. And I am sorry.”
“For now, let us quickly become proper martial artists so that human can be a little less busy.”
“That is right. I will quickly become stronger and climb higher.”
Seong Mo-ran let out a sigh as she looked at Namgung Seon-hwa’s reddened eyes.
“You and I are not in a position where this would happen anywhere else. How did it come to this?”
“Pfft.”
“If you are done crying, shall we go buy clothes? We have to surprise him again when we go out this time, like we did at the last banquet.”
“Yes.”
Seong Mo-ran stood up first, and Namgung Seon-hwa gathered her belongings and was about to follow her, then stopped as if something had suddenly occurred to her.
“Sister, but what should we do if more competitors appear?”
“……That would be the fault of the man who went around scattering things like that, so we must punish that man.”
Seong Mo-ran clenched her fist as though she could not forgive him.
“Hm?”
At the sudden chill I felt, I looked around and spread out my Sensory Perception.
When I spread out my Sensory Perception, the Sword Demon seemed to notice it as well, for he looked at me strangely.
“What are you doing?”
“It is nothing. I had a strange feeling, so I checked for a moment, but it was nothing.”
“Tsk, tsk. Just how much karma must you have built up while living……”
I was dumbfounded when I saw the Sword Demon click his tongue and shake his head.
“Could it compare to you, Sword Demon?”
“What did you say?!”
His anecdotes were truly beyond imagination.
There was a time when he sneaked into Shaolin Temple, saying he had completed his sword art, and challenged the abbot to a martial duel. There was also a time when, despite becoming a Public Enemy of the Murim and falling into the Black Path, he charged into the Black Serpent Gang and waged a life-and-death battle against the entire Black Serpent Gang.
“I acted that way because I had my own justification for everything!”
What kind of justification did one need to launch a surprise attack on the Shaolin abbot’s residence?
“Have you never thought that the part about ‘your own justification’ might be wrong?”
“You bastard, just because I keep going easy on you!”
The Sword Demon threw the thesis he had been reading at me, and I snatched it.
It had already been ten days since I started recklessly challenging him to martial duels.
Still, perhaps we had grown fairly close, because even if I fainted during a martial duel, he no longer abandoned me.
Lately, my daily routine was to wake up in his hut, have a few conversations with him, and then return home.
Of course, there were also times when I challenged him twice in one day.
But whenever I did that, for some reason, I would remain unconscious all day and could not wake up.
Perhaps one martial duel a day was the line he had set.
I was walking that line very closely.
“Why on earth are you reading such a useless thesis?”
“That is none of your concern.”
“Are you looking for a Treasure Map or a Secret Manual? There is no such thing here.”
I could guarantee it because I had read every book in the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository, including the ones that would appear in the future.
Among the materials in the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository, there was nothing related to a Treasure Map or a Secret Manual.
“What I am looking for is not something like that.”
“Oh, so you are looking for something?”
“…….”
The Sword Demon began reading the thesis without answering.
He looked utterly focused, without the slightest disturbance, as though he were reading some Secret Manual from the ages.
Would the bastard who wrote that thesis know?
That the Sword Demon was reading the trash he had created as though his life depended on it?
“If you tell me, I will look for it with you. In exchange, please become my martial arts teacher.”
The fact that he had seen through the true nature of Ten Thousand Swords after only one clash meant that his ability was far more supreme than I had expected.
The Taeul True Scripture developed in an unstructured form the higher one’s realm rose.
Because it was such a difficult martial art that one would later have to create one’s own martial arts, I needed the teaching of someone who had experience creating a unique martial art.
Right now, I would not be able to find a better martial arts teacher than this ill-tempered Black Path man before my eyes.
“……Tsk, did I not tell you? You do not need Sword Force.”
“I know that too. But according to what you said, Sword Demon, if I use Sword Force in Ten Thousand Swords, would it not become an even greater martial art?”
“…….”
“And I also want to share in the experience you have accumulated until now, Sword Demon.”
“Are you saying you want to become my disciple?”
“I am a disciple of the Taeul Sect, so that is impossible. That is why I am asking you to become my martial arts teacher.”
The Sword Demon looked at me with a dumbfounded face.
“Just how strong do you want to become?”
It was a truly subtle question.
Both in my previous life and in this life, I had always carried the thirst to become stronger, but I had never thought about exactly how strong I wanted to become.
I could not explain it by a precise martial level.
Still, there was an answer that came to mind right away.
“Mm…… Strong enough that no matter what enemy stands before me, I can protect my people?”
“Do you think becoming the greatest under heaven is that easy?”
“I do not want to become the greatest under heaven.”
“That is the same thing. If you want to protect precious people, rather than being obsessed with martial arts, it would be better to spend time with them.”
The Sword Demon’s face fell into deep reflection, as though he had recalled someone he missed.
“What if a truly frightening enemy appears?”
“You can simply run away together, to a place they cannot reach.”
His voice seemed filled with regret.
“More important than anything else is spending time together.”
The Sword Demon seemed to deeply regret the past, just as I did.
“……Are you searching through the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository to find that precious person?”
In an instant, the Sword Demon’s face hardened.
“……How did you know?”
“I just threw it out there. Hahaha.”
The Sword Demon’s face crumpled like a sheet of paper.
“……That three inch tongue of yours is enough to rob the money pouches of most Black Path bastards.”
“Will you not tell me?”
“…….”
The Sword Demon turned his head and began reading the useless thesis again.
‘So he was looking for someone.’
I began searching through the rooms of the archive inside my head.
A room where the useless books of the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository had been gathered.
This was a place where all sorts of books whose presence in the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository made no sense, such as erotic paintings and bawdy tales, had been gathered together.
Among them, I took out one book.
A book written by a woman like a diary.
Without revealing who she was or where she belonged, it simply continued honestly, describing how, while attending the academy, she had gone to a city during a rest period, met someone there, experienced certain events, and what feelings she had during that process.
In my previous life, I had simply passed over it thinking it was some kind of romance novel…….
But now that I read it again, many things about the person appearing in the book resembled the person before my eyes.
As I read that book inside my head, my eyes flashed open.
“Did you have a daughter?”
“……!”
As if deeply startled, the Sword Demon’s eyes grew large.
“……How do you know that……?”
“…….”
The Sword Demon was known to have no family, and not even anyone with whom he had formed close ties.
He did have some friendship with a few masters, but in truth, he was a human being no different from a lonely island in the middle of the sea.
His nature was too upright to get along closely with Black Path people, and his infamy was too high to form friendships with Orthodox Path people.
I could also roughly guess why he had not formed a family even as he grew older.
It was probably because he had built up too much karma and feared that he would not be able to protect his family while he was away.
“I asked how you knew!”
“……Ah, actually, I remember every book in the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository. Seeing something once and never forgetting it—that is my curse.”
“…….”
“Mm…… Did you meet that person in Hangzhou?”
The Sword Demon’s mouth fell open.
“There, you found your hearts aligned and shared affection with each other.”
“…….”
“Huh…… Still, this is startling enough to write the character for surprise. To think you had a child, Sword Demon.”
“Where is that book?”
“It will probably be difficult for you to find it, Sword Demon. It was hidden away very thoroughly so that no one could find it.”
“Give that to me. I must confirm it immediately.”
The Sword Demon stood barefoot on the bare ground as if he would rush out at any moment.
“Ah…… I cannot do that.”
“If you bring me the book, I will teach you Sword Force as you want. No, beyond that, I will teach you a way to develop Ten Thousand Swords!”
It was truly everything I had wanted from the Sword Demon.
However, I shook my head.
“I cannot do that.”
“……What? Is there more you want from me?”
Right now, the Sword Demon was so agitated that he had lost his reason.
It was a glimpse that showed how desperately he had searched for his daughter all this time.
However, even if our interests aligned, as long as I did not know the intention of the woman who had written the book, it was not an offer I could easily accept.
“No. That is not it. This is a matter related to people, is it not? Moreover, if your beloved hid the book so thoroughly, she may not have wanted you to find her, Sword Demon. No matter how urgent I am, I cannot carelessly hand over information related to another person’s life.”
In the latter part of the book, she had also revealed where she would stay after leaving the place she belonged to.
I did not know when the book was written, but if one wanted to find someone, it could be information that became a major clue.
I could not carelessly hand over such information without confirmation.
“……What if I give you a Fortuitous Encounter unlike any other in the ages?”
Because of bastards who believed there was something more important than a person’s life, I had lived that sorrowful and miserable life in my previous life.
I had not even the slightest desire to become the same kind of human as them.
“Even if you gave me all under heaven, I have no intention of handing it over.”
The Sword Demon lowered his head and said nothing for a long while.
At last, he checked his dirtied split-toed socks, then sat back down on the wooden bench.
Then he looked directly at me with complicated eyes.
“You…… truly are a bastard who goes far beyond my expectations.”
The Sword Demon’s words made no sense to me.
But I could tell one thing.
At this moment, he was not controlling his emotions.
“Is the author written?”
“It is not. That is why it will be even harder for you to find.”
“The one who wrote that book is probably Seop So-jeong.”
“Seop So-jeong?”
The surname Seop was not that rare, but if it was a Seop related to the murim, the Hundred Flowers Palace would naturally be the first to come to mind.
“Yes, it is the Seop So-jeong of the Hundred Flowers Palace you are thinking of.”
“Huh…….”
The Hundred Flowers Palace was a murim clan, like Emei, where women formed the core.
Moreover, it was a remarkable place counted among the prestigious families even within the One Hundred Eight Peaks.
“What, is it hard to believe that a daughter of such a prestigious family and an illegitimate son like me shared affection?”
“……I did not say anything about an illegitimate son. It is just that the Sword Demon and the Hundred Flowers Palace do not suit each other.”
“We knew that well too. That is why we parted back then.”
Seop So-jeong was an extremely important figure within the Hundred Flowers Palace, and the Sword Demon’s grudge against his own family and the entire Orthodox Path was too great.
The difference in their positions, which they could not narrow, had cooled even the heat of their passionate love.
“But ten years later, I suddenly received contact.”
She said that between him and herself, there was a daughter.
At first, he had been flustered.
Why had she not told him immediately back then?
And why was she only now revealing the existence of their daughter?
The Sword Demon suddenly laughed like someone who had lost his mind.
“And she told me that if I wanted to find them, I should search for their traces in the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository.”
“…….”
“I thought it was a joke that was not even funny. To begin with, it was not something I could easily believe, that I had a daughter. But…… in the end, I am here.”
I could not express it honestly, but inwardly, I could not hide my surprise.
The reason the Sword Demon’s endless journey of martial duels had suddenly stopped was right here.
The Sword Demon carefully took out a folded carrier letter from his chest.
He had kept it preciously and well-preserved, but it was so old that it was practically a rag.
“This is that carrier letter.”
“Just how long ago was this?”
“About five years.”
“…….”
As I guessed at the years the Sword Demon must have spent enduring so much humiliation from academy students over the past five years, I unfolded the carrier letter.
It had faded quite a lot, but it was still enough to distinguish the handwriting.
Just as the Sword Demon had said, the carrier letter said that if he wished to find her, he should go to the Ten-Thousand-Book Repository.
I carefully folded the carrier letter again and handed it to the Sword Demon.
“H-How is it…… Is it right?”
“What do you want to do after finding that book?”
“……Hm?”
The Sword Demon looked as though he had been struck on the back of the head.
“That book clearly states where she planned to stay. After meeting them, what do you want to do?”
“I do not know.”
The Sword Demon spoke with a face soaked in regret.
“I simply…… want to see them.”
“Who?”
“……Seop So-jeong and the child……”
In the murim, those who have seen the ultimate essence of martial arts are called transcendent beings.
In that sense, the Sword Demon was certainly a transcendent being.
And yet, like the thin branch he had held in his hand a few days ago, he was shaking faintly and weakly.
As though his entire life depended on a single word from me.
“H-How is it? Is it right?”
This was probably the Sword Demon not as a transcendent being, but as a father.
I smiled and said,
“You have worked hard all this time. It is right.”
“Ah…….”
He suddenly began shedding tears like fat drops of chicken dung.
Unable to even estimate the weight of those tears, I simply stepped away for a moment so that his heavy time could pass.
