Chapter 16

Getting the information wasn’t all that hard. I just had to write down exactly what I saw.

‘Bob cut, pale skin... the mole is there...’

Sneaking glances was the only tricky part. But if I had to, I could, and memorizing had been my specialty since my past life—once I carved it into my head, that was that.

‘I don’t need the size of the scar. I don’t need to note breast size either.’

I don’t know the finer details.

I saw only what was visible, literally.

‘Five, right in front of me.’

Five. That was the number of vile spirits clinging to Namgung Seong.

All of them were women.

Even in death they held a beauty that must have been talked about while they were alive.

Only, because they were vile spirits, their eyes were packed with killing intent, and the twisted faces stirred fear, not admiration.

The vile spirits were staring at Namgung Seong like they meant to kill him. Just seeing them made my legs go weak.

‘Lunatic.’

Not one, but five. What the hell had he done?

No need to keep wondering. The vile spirits had a common trait.

‘They all have red marks on their necks.’

So vivid you could mistake it for wet blood.

On their necks, the shape of someone’s palm was stamped dark.

Whose hand? No need to wonder about that either.

He was right in front of me.

The bastard those vile spirits were drilling holes into with their eyes.

Whatever he did, I could tell this bastard killed those women.

If he hadn’t, there’s no way the vile spirits would be clinging to him.

‘Then my job is easy.’

The old man told me to use the bead, but something better was right here.

Whether I wanted to get tangled up with him or not was separate. If it could be used, I’d use it.

Even if it’s nothing but reciting what I can see—how will this look to Namgung Seong?

‘Look at his face.’

His expression all screwed up, eyes burning. That alone told me.

‘Got him.’

Right now he had to feel like my information just smacked him across the face.

How must it have looked?

Information no one would ever know under normal circumstances.

Even if someone knew, only an extreme few would know the truth.

And I threw it out there like I knew it. What would Namgung Seong think?

He’d be thinking a lot, no doubt.

He didn’t know I could see ghosts.

“...What... did you just say?”

His tone changed. From informal to formal.

Hearing that, the corner of my mouth pulled up on its own. He’d wavered. Badly.

“Why do you keep asking twice? You heard me.”

“...”

This is where you press.

“I said let’s have a match.”

“Young Master Bang.”

“What. You scared?”

I added a line just to needle him, and a crack opened between his brows.

Watching that, I kept going.

“If you win the fight, I’ll tell you how I found out. If you want, I can even keep it secret.”

“Sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about, Young Master.”

Shame.

If he’d hesitated here or reacted a beat late, this would’ve been easier. Looks like he wasn’t that much of an idiot.

“I was simply angry because sending a letter like that is bad manners, Young Master Bang. That is all.”

“Ah-ha...”

So that’s how you want to play it?

He meant to stonewall from the start, brush me off as a madman, and skate past it.

“You don’t know anything...?”

I had to stifle a laugh at Namgung Seong’s line.

“I didn’t think you’d keep this up even with it shoved in your face.”

Was he going to feign ignorance to the end?

No.

‘He’s probably buying time.’

He’d mean to let it slide for now, go back, and fix the problem.

In his head he’d be deciding it was some internal leak. His brain would be spinning like crazy.

‘If any evidence was left. If there’s a witness, who it is.’

Where the problem started. He’d be thinking of all of it so hard he’d barely keep it together.

But—

“I don’t know why you’re suddenly doing this, Young Master Bang—!”

I had no intention of letting him.

He was speaking when his eyes widened at me. Because I set something on the desk with my hand.

A bead gleaming ocean-blue.

I showed it to him, and his reaction changed in a very entertaining way.

“You little bastard.”

Grrk—

His voice and face flipped in an instant. At the same time, a fathomless pressure gushed from his body.

‘Wow.’

Couldn’t breathe. So this is killing intent?

‘...Pinnacle...? Maybe beyond?’

I wasn’t sure, but it could be.

‘So I’m playing tug-of-war with my life against a pinnacle expert right now.’

Well, well.

Bang Sungyeon, you’ve grown. Never thought I’d live to see the day I’d lock wills with a pinnacle.

‘This is really fucked. Ha.’

The downy hairs on my skin stood up and cold sweat ran down my back. Luckily my forehead didn’t show it; with any luck he wouldn’t catch it.

“Too scary a reaction. I showed it because I figured you’d want it, but I guess it isn’t what you were looking for?”

Furniture around us rattled and buzzed, but I ignored it.

“Do you truly wish to die?”

“Not a chance. I want to live more than anyone.”

I’d survive to the day I’m old and smearing filth on the wall if I had to—no matter what it took.

That’s how I planned to enjoy this life, so what was with that scary line.

‘I’m struggling to live, here.’

Unlike some people, I had nothing, started with a deficit.

In that situation I was clawing to stay alive.

Only, if you want to live, there are times when you stake your life. Maybe not to the hilt right now, but you put something on the line.

“You want to live? And you still pull this on me?”

“Pull what? I’m only trying to give you what you want.”

“Grind.”

A harsh sound tore from Namgung Seong’s teeth.

Scary as hell.

What if he draws his sword? If he comes straight for my neck, will I even be able to react?

A hundred thoughts skittered through, and I was scared, but—

“Stop glaring for nothing. Answer me.”

My insides were burning, but on the surface I looked relaxed to the point of arrogance.

It was a talent I’d earned rolling and rolling in my past life.

‘Let your words slither like a snake; let your lies glide like a swan on a lake.’

That’s what the man called Section Chief Baek taught me.

Words should flow out and slowly snare the other side, and lies should drift more gracefully than anyone’s—but under the lake you kick like mad.

“Did I order you to obey? Did I ask you to back me? I just asked for a fight.”

I rolled the bead lazily in front of him.

“You don’t like me either. Let’s have at it.”

“You—”

“I’ll promise you. If you win, I’ll keep what I know secret. I’ll even give this back. But if you refuse to fight?”

Tock.

I stopped the rolling bead and looked Namgung Seong in the eyes.

“Then what I know will soon be in the Beggars’ Sect’s ears, and this bead will go to the Namgung Clan Head.”

“...!”

The Beggars’ Sect is one of the Ten Great Sects, called the eyes and ears of the Righteous Path.

They gather every kind of information and spread it, and there’s a saying that if the Beggars’ Sect meddles in a rumor, it blankets the Central Plains in less than a day.

You can’t get anything through them unless you’ve got serious renown, and a country bumpkin like me obviously doesn’t—but—

‘That’s not how it’ll look to him.’

A mysterious figure who knows his secret.

On top of that, someone called the Sword Saint’s successor, tied to the Blue Moon Sect—an anomaly.

An unease that can’t be ignored in any part—right now, that’s what I am to that bastard.

Namgung Seong’s eyes trembled.

The killing intent he’d been pouring out thinned a little.

Still not enough. I had to hammer the wedge here.

“Judging by how you’re hesitating, your seat as Young Clan Head must °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° be solid, huh? Didn’t look that way to me...”

“...”

At my words, Namgung Seong’s eyes stopped quivering.

At the same time, the killing intent withdrew.

‘As expected.’

How would he play it?

‘Will he still go with “do what you want”?’

Low odds, but even if he did, it didn’t matter.

I had about four ways to handle that, too.

A few seconds trickled by like that, and then, keeping his furrowed brow, Namgung Seong spoke to me.

“...What... the hell... are you?”

Big catch.

I let out the laugh I’d been holding.

“Ha-ha-ha...”

A short laugh, and I wiped the smile clean.

“What would you do with that knowledge.”

“...”

“Stop changing the subject. Answer. I’m asking for the last time.”

I rose from the chair and shifted my upper body.

I stepped in close to Namgung Seong, pushed my face up to right before his nose.

Close enough that a wrong move would brush breath. Holding an angle where my neck could be cut at any moment, I told him:

“Will you, or won’t you.”

There were two answers, but the one in his hand was only one.

Because I’d made it that way.

****

Afternoon, as the sky moved toward sunset.

Inside the Martial Alliance Anhui Branch, loud talk flew back and forth.

“What...? Little Azure Sword is fighting who?”

“You know, the idiot of this intake...”

“Watch your mouth, you punk! That’s ‘the Young Master’ now!”

The second child of the Namgung Clan, Little Azure Sword Namgung Seong, would be holding a match inside the branch.

And not just with anyone, but with the person who’d had the branch—and all of Anhui—buzzing for days.

Bang Sungyeon, the Sword Saint’s successor.

A bottom-rung agent of the Martial Alliance who’d been hiding his strength.

A boy who’d come in on a recommendation this intake and had been ignored for lacking both talent and power—only for everyone to be forced to gape when it turned out he was the successor of the previous World’s Greatest, the Sword Saint.

Those who’d quietly looked down on him could only break out in cold sweat, and those who’d openly sneered and cursed had to tremble in fear.

Even so, there were still those who doubted him.

Because what Bang Sungyeon had shown over the past year was just that pathetic.

‘I’ve never seen him last a proper morning drill.’

‘He couldn’t even handle drunks and collapsed every night, and he’s the Sword Saint’s successor...?’

‘You’re kidding me, right?’

Cheon Eujin, a Blue Moon Sect swordsman and even blood kin to the Sect Master, had personally certified him, but suspicion still filled the air—and now he was going to hold a match with the prodigy called Little Azure Sword?

Everyone’s eyes had no choice but to turn.

“...It really is Little Azure Sword.”

“He’s tall as a reed. And that face—like it was carved...”

“But if we’re talking faces, the idiot—no, Young Master Bang doesn’t lose either, does he?”

The sparring platform set up in the branch.

It was already ringed round by a crowd. All of them Alliance swordsmen.

Even men who should have been out on assignment were visible. People had already gathered at the branch because the Namgung Clan was visiting.

“Pardon me... let me slip by, please.”

“Hey, who the— Hrk!”

Someone pushed through the press.

A man blocking the way scowled back, then sucked in a gasp when he saw who it was.

A beauty so striking a jaw fell open.

Cheon Eujin of the Blue Moon Sect.

Others flinched at the sight of him, but Cheon Eujin’s eyes were fixed only on the platform.

‘Young Master... Bang.’

He’d rushed over at the news, and Bang Sungyeon really was standing on the platform.

That signature cocky, high-strung look. Holding his sword any which way.

And across from him stood Namgung Seong in a composed stance.

‘What on earth...’

What the hell was this?

Why were Bang Sungyeon and Namgung Seong suddenly facing off on the sparring stage?

He couldn’t make sense of it.

‘What are you thinking.’

Why would Bang Sungyeon, who’d hidden his strength until now, pull something like this?

Cheon Eujin couldn’t fathom his intent.

Nor could he understand why Namgung Seong accepted it.

‘For Little Azure Sword to accept a match like this... what happened?’

Namgung Seong was famous for being thorough.

He wasn’t the type to hold a public match with so many onlookers. He stood aloof on the platform with that signature gentle smile.

Then—

“I didn’t expect so many of you to gather.”

Namgung Seong opened his mouth to speak.

“We only meant to share a light bit of camaraderie, just the two of us, ha-ha. This is embarrassing.”

He tossed the words like he was abashed by the unexpected turnout, and a trickle of laughter ran around.

People felt a touch of human warmth from the man who’d always seemed flawless.

“It truly is embarrassing... but it was never meant to be secret. Since it’s come to this, please enjoy it with a generous heart.”

Chak—!

He offered a martial salute with both hands to the onlookers, and a small cheer went up.

You could feel he’d been well-schooled.

Cheon Eujin was just wrinkling his brow at that off-putting display when—

“Hey now.”

A strange voice cut in.

“Where’s that dog barking.”

From Bang Sungyeon.