Chapter 15

Lifting the blue bead, I turned over a few questions.

From the start, my doubt began with why Namgung Seong had come personally to the Alliance.

The Mountain Ghost was a Heretical Path man who killed Namgung swordsmen and fled; up on Anhui’s Taesan he killed more of them.

Since the Alliance killed the Mountain Ghost and kept the body, a blood relative of the clan showed up to grasp the situation.

If you think of it that way, nothing’s strange.

Really?

A fine-sounding pretext.

I judged it to be nothing more.

I wasn’t certain before we met, but as we spoke I became sure.

He isn’t the sort to care about that.

You can tell from the feel.

His eyes, his breathing.

His aim wasn’t dead Namgung swordsmen or the Mountain Ghost.

Then what? What reason did Little Azure Sword have to come all the way to the Martial Alliance?

Me?

News that the Sword Saint’s successor had appeared.

Did Little Azure Sword come because he heard that?

It’s possible.

Plenty plausible. But—

The timing doesn’t match.

Time for the rumor to spread through the Alliance and reach the Namgung Clan down in the southeast.

Time to set out immediately and bring an investigative party all the way here.

Add the clan’s prep window and any planning of what to say, and the times don’t match.

Sure, you could say they drafted plans in a carriage on the fly...

But you and I both know it wasn’t that urgent or desperate.

That leaves one thing.

His aim was never me.

The Sword Saint’s successor appeared in Anhui; a blood relative showing up for that alone is understandable.

But I had to realize it wasn’t just that reason now.

So when I said Namgung Seong had come, I said he arrived sooner than expected.

Then what’s his aim?

I stared at the bead in my hand.

“This?”

A bead whose use I didn’t know.

We took it from the Mountain Ghost’s person, and the old man told me the Namgung Clan places importance on it.

Hard to see what grand tale a mere bead would hold, but—

If there’s something, that’s why the Mountain Ghost stole it.

It’s a guess... no, honestly I was sure.

The Mountain Ghost killed Namgung swordsmen and ran.

So the clan issued a kill-on-sight order and pursued him.

That much is plausible too, but—

Would the Namgung Clan keep that up for months on end?

Not just some blood relatives—swordsmen.

I don’t know much about the Namgung Clan, but were they ever that sentimental?

Or did they take the Mountain Ghost’s act as an attack on their house?

No.

Probably not.

There had to be some other reason.

A reason they had to get the Mountain Ghost.

I judged this bead to be that reason.

The old man said as much to begin with.

Whatever meaning the blue bead held—

For that, Namgung Seong sought out the Anhui Branch.

The Alliance would have reported immediately to Namgung that they’d captured or found the Mountain Ghost; hearing that, he’d have caught the Sword Saint rumor on the way.

I’d got it roughly sorted to there.

As for Cheon Eujin’s business—who is the one moving him?

There’s someone behind Namgung Seong.

You could tell from the conversation.

I’ll think about the talk later.

For now, take care of what matters.

“So, how exactly are you going to do this?”

Knock Little Azure Sword down.

I asked what Yoo Cheongil’s words meant.

[Hm? What else. Break him.]

“...I meant how.”

[Are there methods to knocking someone down? Break by hitting or break by cutting—isn’t that the difference.]

“Savage and brainless. Tremendously helpful.”

I held my throbbing head and stifled a sigh.

So the plan is to wreck Little Azure Sword.

I could dimly guess why.

What I didn’t understand was why it had to be done.

He’ll have his reasons.

Coming from that slippery old man, he must have some plan.

Trusting that, I politely sent the letter.

Ah, of course—

I didn’t write it exactly as told.

I’ve got what you want.

So come back and see me nicely.

That was how the old man told me to write it.

It felt lacking, so I added something.

Nothing much.

I just used what I can do.

I simply wrote what I “saw” and sent it.

It’ll have an effect.

A big one.

****

Drip... drip...

In the cave, moisture fell bit by bit.

Torches lit the surroundings.

Blood still dampened the floor; the metallic reek was thick with how much had soaked in.

Looking around that interior, the young lord, Little Azure Sword Namgung Seong, narrowed his eyes.

“You’re saying this is everything.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

At his words, a Martial Alliance swordsman—First Unit Commander Go Gyeong—answered.

Namgung Seong spoke, sounding pained:

“...So here, that vicious killing... our swordsmen met death. At the hands of that Heretical one.”

Crack.

His fist closed as if in anger; anyone would read that as righteous wrath.

Namgung Seong, grieving the deaths of his clan’s swordsmen.

Seeing it, the First Unit Commander nodded, moved.

The Namgung Clan’s future is bright.

A youth whose talent is so great his name is already known.

If he’s a good man who thinks so dearly of his clan’s swordsmen, then when he becomes Clan Head the Namgung Clan will shine brighter.

I’d better secure a connection before that happens.

Just as Go Gyeong firmed his resolve, having swiftly found profit—

“...”

While glancing around, Namgung Seong covertly furrowed his brow.

Vermin.

Namgung swordsmen had died in droves here.

Thinking of them, he bit his lip.

To die failing to catch a mere Heretical cur. How can one be so useless.

The Mountain Ghost had stolen the Azure Dragon Orb from the main house and fled.

They’d used every means to catch him.

For whatever reason, he’d been hard to catch; it was a nuisance.

But—

So a loach had slipped in.

One of the Blue Moon Sect’s shadow guards had grown a crooked heart and played tricks.

Thanks to that, information leaked and catching the Mountain Ghost was a struggle.

Because of that—

the Alliance took him from us. And we still haven’t found the Azure Dragon Orb.

Everything got tangled.

Annoying.

Soon there’d be a struggle over the next Clan Head’s seat; this would be a problem.

He knew how his father would look at him if he failed to find the Azure Dragon Orb.

If I slip, “that one” might seize the chance.

He was holding the edge in politics, but being overtaken at any time would hardly be strange.

The elders might turn their backs over the Azure Dragon Orb.

Disgusting old men.

They knew exactly what cards he held.

And yet they were still dithering.

So, I must find it, whatever it takes.

Before anything more troublesome happened, he had to make it certain.

The Anhui Branch hasn’t said anything...

If they’d found something, word would have spread at once. A letter would already be on its way to the Clan Head.

Since there was no word, either they hadn’t found it—

or they were keeping it quiet.

If they were keeping it quiet...

Are they trying to warn me.

They knew that if it got out, he’d be in trouble—and that they wanted something from him.

Hah.

Daring to me? Who would try that? With cold eyes, Namgung Seong sorted the suspects.

At most, three.

The three who survived.

Yoo Hyungin, eldest son of a ruined clan. His skill was, surprisingly, first-rate, they said.

Second, the prime suspect: Cheon Eujin.

Annoying worm.

Son of the Blue Moon Sect Master and one of the Young Lord candidates.

“Candidate” meant little. His standing was far, far lower than the other candidates.

So did he hide the Azure Dragon Orb.

Plenty of pretext. If he truly found it and hid it, he could use it to put the Namgung Clan in his debt.

But—

Doubtful.

Contrary to the pretext, Namgung Seong didn’t buy it.

Cheon Eujin was upright.

He looked smart and talented, but his problem was a nature too straight.

Poor at politics, unable to harbor sharp intent in relationships; his seat was shallow.

So he’d been betrayed and nearly killed.

Would that Cheon Eujin hide the Azure Dragon Orb and play tug-of-war with him?

Namgung Seong thought not.

He’s already choking on what he swallowed.

Cheon Eujin had certainly gotten something here.

The Sword Saint’s trace? Something the man left behind?

Whatever it was, he’d gotten it.

Since it wasn’t anyone else but a Blue Moon heir who took it, even the Alliance wouldn’t interfere too heavily.

Namgung Seong was curious how great a thing he’d gotten—but only that far.

No matter how great, his vessel won’t bear it.

He won’t digest it.

That was Cheon Eujin’s value in Namgung Seong’s eyes.

Then only one suspect remained.

Bang Sungyeon... was it.

The Bang Family of Liaodong.

Once famous, now ruined; a man named Bang Cheonho was the family head.

Nothing much known.

There wasn’t much.

After the fall, the head chased skirts; the eldest son was a wastrel, the eldest daughter left home.

A mess of a clan.

And yet from such a clan—

the Sword Saint’s successor, out of nowhere.

Not even the eldest son, but a bastard who’d stayed in Liaodong and only came to Anhui a year ago.

Is he hiding something.

So strange and so strange it almost seemed plausible.

Or perhaps he wasn’t truly Bang Sungyeon at all, just borrowing the identity.

Cheon Eujin had done exactly that.

Tsk.

Pathetically thin information.

An unexpected player.

It was the situation Namgung Seong hated most.

Moreover—

A snake.

Bang Sungyeon was a strange one.

Silver-tongued, subtly twisted the control of the talk and drew it toward himself.

A force you couldn’t have if all you’d done was swing a sword all your life.

And such a man worked as a branch underling for a year?

A year here, treated as a third-rate.

Did the Sword Saint’s successor need to do that, just to get this cave?

To begin with, how did a man who died over a decade ago leave a successor?

How was Cheon Eujin proving it?

So many crooked angles that furrows deepened between Namgung Seong’s brows—

Enough. What I need now isn’t his identity. It’s the Azure Dragon Orb.

He hastily reset priorities.

Bang Sungyeon, who killed the Mountain Ghost—he was most likely to have the Azure Dragon Orb.

The Mountain Ghost might have left it here, but he didn’t assume that.

In that case—

Withdraw for now and attempt an approach.

So judged, Namgung Seong was about to order the investigating swordsmen to return when—

“Young Master.”

Someone approached from behind and spoke.

A Namgung swordsman.

“What is it?”

There were many Alliance people here.

He composed his expression quickly and asked.

The man handed him a letter.

“A letter from the Branch.”

“From the Branch?”

“Yes. They said you’d know if I said it was from Young Master Bang.”

“Mm?”

Bang Sungyeon?

At the unexpected turn, Namgung Seong knit his brow.

Wants to revisit that patronage talk?

If so, he’d be disappointed.

He’d be no different than the rats who needed the Namgung nameplate.

Still frowning, he unfolded the letter—

“...”

—and froze with the opened letter in hand.

“Young Master?”

Seeing something off, the man called him carefully.

He still didn’t move.

“You—”

“Where is he?”

Loosening at last, Namgung Seong asked.

The man flinched at his face.

His expression was strange.

He was trying to smile but couldn’t; combined with a twisted look, it was grotesque.

And—

“That bastard... Young Master Bang. Where is he now?”

There was a killing intent in his eyes, inexplicable.

****

I lay at ease, staring at the ceiling.

How many lines? I counted every visible line and every stain I could see.

Maybe half an hour passed like that?

Knock, knock.

Footsteps outside. Probably the news I’d been waiting for.

I raised my head slightly.

“Who is it?”

—Young Master Namgung has come to see you.

At the servant’s words, I scratched my cheek.

Feels like I’m being treated.

A servant, huh.

My house ruined; there wasn’t anyone you could call a servant. The closest were house guards.

Ordering people around felt weirdly uncomfortable.

And it’s a feeling I don’t need to get used to.

These clothes aren’t mine.

Thinking so, I rose.

“Yes. Please show him in.”

Creak.

Before I even finished, the door opened; a young man smiled and bowed to the servant holding it.

Namgung Seong.

The servant flushed, shy, and closed the door.

“...”

In that instant, Namgung Seong’s face changed in a flash.

Wow, look at that glare. Deadly.

I smirked and spoke to him.

“What brings {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} you—”

“What is this.”

Cutting me off, he stepped in close.

Then he tossed a letter in front of me.

“I’d rather you didn’t throw trash around in someone else’s room.”

I picked the letter up off the floor.

Short lines were written there.

All of it in my hand.

It said:

[Fair skin. One mole on the nose bridge. Hair cut to the shoulders. About nineteen. Cause of death appears to be strangulation.]

[Slightly darker skin, two moles under the eyes. Hair down to the waist; eyes with a brown cast. Sixteen or seventeen.

Same cause of death.]

[Moderate complexion, monolid eyes. A small burn scar at the neck; looks just shy of thirty...]

“I asked what this is.”

As I read, Namgung Seong’s voice reached me.

He stared at me, eyes lifted murderously.

I curled my lips at him.

“You started talking down? Then I’ll talk down too.”

“What?”

His brow twitched at the flat tone.

“Why ask what you already know? That’s why you came.”

At my words, his face twisted.

Even the expression control he’d barely kept collapsed.

“They’re the women you tormented to death. Right?”

Handsome men do get their face’s worth.

My father was an example; this bastard is worse.

So bad that—

those vile spirits cling to him like that.

Women turned into vile spirits, glaring like they’d kill him from the moment I saw him.

Afraid I’d meet their eyes, I looked only at Namgung Seong.

They say a woman’s resentment is terrifying.

Not a lie.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I merely—”

“Save it.”

I cut him off, not wanting to hear it.

“If you don’t want me doing useless things with this.”

My bottom line was one.

“Then have a match. You perverted bastard.”

“...What?”

Knock Little Azure Sword down.

Time to carry out what the old man wanted.