Chapter 43
Part 18: Genius
“Captain, did you really cancel your transfer request?”
The gatekeeper merely shrugged without much of an answer.
At that sight, the comrades guarding the entrance of Wongakjeong with him reacted as though they found it absurd.
“No, have you lost your mind? Did you go through all that hardship for so long just so that Swordless bastard could work you like a dog?”
“Are you really insane? Think it over one more time. A warrior of your level, Captain, would be treated well anywhere in the Sword Clan.”
The gatekeeper chuckled.
“…Then why have you not taken the path to advancement, and why are you wearing these guard uniforms here, guarding a gate?”
His comrades looked at him as if asking what nonsense he was talking about.
“Obviously, because dedicating everything to the Sword Clan is the most honorable path.”
“Even so, this is better than rolling around on the front line, is it not?”
“And it is much better than licking the backsides of those powerful bastards and strutting around with stiff necks.”
They burst into hearty laughter.
After the family head collapsed, even amid the chaotic political situation, the reason the Sword Clan had not been torn apart into pieces was probably because there were many people like them.
“Then what is your dream? You do not want to live forever just carrying out the duties assigned to you like now, do you?”
At that, everyone fell silent.
After a while, one person quietly spoke.
“…Is serving a lord not the dream of a warrior?”
“Our only lord is the Grand Family Head.”
“I only wish the Grand Family Head would get up from his sickbed soon.”
“I would like to receive orders directly from the Grand Family Head again, like in the old days, rather than orders from some desk-bound high officials.”
Their conversation returned to those old days when the Grand Family Head had been vigorously active as the family head.
Watching them exchange memories as if enjoying themselves, the gatekeeper murmured softly.
“…A lord, huh.”
He looked up at the sky.
He recalled the day he had been enraged by those lowborn thugs called the Black Bone Sect, or whatever they were, and disappointed in himself.
‘What is there to be sorry about? You fulfilled your role.’
As Swordless said that, the gatekeeper had felt old memories revive in his face.
That figure like a mountain.
That figure like a cliff that would never collapse.
‘What are you so sorry about? You did your best.’
He could count on one hand the number of times he had personally faced his lord, that is, the Grand Family Head.
He was a warrior who had mostly operated outside, while his lord was the family head of the Luoyang Sword Clan.
Perhaps because of that,
for some reason, the faces of those two people seemed to overlap.
He was walking along the forest path of Wongakjeong.
It was to deliver a pile of insignificant documents, such as regular reports, that had accumulated for quite some time.
After passing through a formation for which even the expression “strange and wondrous” was far from sufficient, a breathtakingly beautiful landscape unfolded before him.
He stopped for a moment to enjoy the fresh air, then began moving his feet again.
And when he reached the open space, he could not help doubting his own eyes.
“The Sword Clan Secret Sword, Flashing Shadow Moment…?”
He rubbed his eyes.
But even when he looked again, the sight in his vision did not change.
It was undoubtedly that maid who had reminded him of his own daughter, who had married and gone far away from Luoyang.
Until just a few days ago, she had clearly been nothing more than an ordinary person without internal energy.
Yet now, although faint, the presence of internal energy could be clearly felt from her.
On top of that, what was the sword art she was displaying?
That was certainly an advanced martial art that had a notorious reputation for making even the Sword Clan’s experts challenge it confidently, only to fall away in defeat.
‘That level is certainly not at the first or second stage.’
Her internal strength was absurdly lacking, but the form itself was clearly at a level that could be called complete.
As he stood there in a daze, Jeong-ah, who had finished displaying all the forms, bowed her head to him.
“…I have only been learning it for less than half a day, so I would be grateful if you viewed it kindly as a mere childish performance.”
“…Pardon?”
“Yes?”
At that moment, he heard someone’s presence behind him, along with a voice calling him.
“Hey! Gatekeeper! Stop getting in the way for no reason and come over here!”
***
“You have arrived.”
The sight of her in black martial robes, sweat beading on her, felt unfamiliar.
“I was under strict orders not to stop once I began displaying the form until I finished, so my greeting was late.”
“Ah, no, personal maid, since when have you been learning that martial art?”
“I am ashamed to have sullied your eyes with my lowly skill.”
She blushed and hid the sword she was holding behind her back.
“Well, you came at just the right time.”
The detestable Eldest Young Master, as always, had not let go of the book in his hand.
“Well, Eldest Young Master. I just saw something strange…”
The Eldest Young Master frowned at him while he was still dumbfounded.
“You did not say anything useless, did you? I do not know about anything else, but she is better than you at Flashing Shadow Moment, so do not spout nonsense for no reason.”
“No, but the thing is, half a day…”
The Eldest Young Master snatched the bundle of documents from his hand.
“That is not what matters.”
The Eldest Young Master gave him an order.
“You cook.”
***
“Did I cancel my transfer request for this?”
“She was definitely a woman without a single handful of internal energy until just a few days ago…”
“Half a day?”
Such thoughts would not leave his mind.
The moment Yeon Sang-hyeon sat before the meal he had prepared and put a spoonful of rice into his mouth, his complexion hardened.
“…Jeong-ah.”
“…I will request additional personnel immediately.”
She took the spoon that had entered her mouth back out, set it down, and vanished with quick, hurried steps.
“Gatekeeper, you bastard. You cannot even cook rice properly?”
“No, well…”
Yeon Sang-hyeon, who never wasted food under any circumstances, forced the food into his mouth and snapped at him.
“You are less accomplished than that child in Flashing Shadow Moment, and if you cannot even cook, then where exactly am I supposed to use you…?”
Toward the Eldest Young Master clicking his tongue, the gatekeeper could say nothing and merely trembled.
‘…Detestable brat.’
After being scolded for a while and shrinking in on himself, he put the food he had made into his mouth.
Then he immediately spat it out.
And after shrinking back again, he stared blankly as the Eldest Young Master devoured all the food.
Just what kind of stomach did this Eldest Young Master have?
Then, in the middle of that, a question suddenly flashed through his mind.
“…Excuse me, Eldest Young Master.”
“What?”
The Eldest Young Master, his mouth filled with food that could hardly be called food, looked at him with a gaze full of hatred.
“Ah, no, it is just…”
He asked carefully.
“Who on earth transmitted Flashing Shadow Moment to that young lady?”
In martial arts, the talent of the learner was important, but the talent of the teacher was no less important.
Was that not where the great sects obtained the strength to continuously raise outstanding successors?
“On top of that, what do you mean she learned it in half a day?”
Until now, he had seen countless prodigies.
All the comrades currently around him were those who had crossed the wall, and he himself had talent that was, if anything, greater than theirs, not inferior.
They had long since surpassed the standard of what people commonly called prodigies.
But even someone like him had never heard of completing the form of an advanced martial art in half a day.
Had he not seen her a few days ago, he would have been certain it was an absurd lie.
“Half a day? What half a day…”
At Yeon Sang-hyeon’s words, the gatekeeper’s face brightened.
As expected, there had to be something he did not know.
“I first taught her this morning, so it has not even been half a day yet.”
“…N-not even half a day.”
Commonly, experts who crossed the wall before the age of forty, before reaching the age of no confusion, were called geniuses.
He, one of those geniuses, was experiencing today what it meant for there to be a heaven beyond heaven.
As he mulled over Yeon Sang-hyeon’s words, he was shocked once more.
“Did you just say you taught her yourself?!”
The Eldest Young Master, called Swordless, had personally taught one of the advanced martial arts famous for being among the most difficult in the Sword Clan.
And the one who learned it was said to have completed its form in less than half a day.
“Ah, you are noisy.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon frowned at his loud voice.
Then he spoke to him in a firm tone.
“As for that, you eat your own portion.”
“No, that is…!”
Just as he was about to shout something, he saw Yeon Sang-hyeon putting even Jeong-ah’s portion into his mouth and could say nothing.
During missions, he had experienced tearing into snakes in the mountains and chewing tree bark, so he was somehow able to eat all the food.
Of course, even combining all of those experiences, the food he had made today was the least delicious.
After gulping down a bowl of cold water, he asked Yeon Sang-hyeon again.
“Did you truly instruct her yourself, Eldest Young Master?”
Unlike him, Yeon Sang-hyeon rinsed his mouth with Wongakjeong tea he had personally brewed, then chuckled.
“Why? Do you want to learn from me too?”
“No, before that, was your knowledge of martial studies high enough to teach an advanced martial art?”
Yeon Sang-hyeon burst into laughter.
“No, who do you think organized Flashing Shadow Moment into its current form in the first place?”
“Pardon?”
Yeon Sang-hyeon leaned back with a giggle.
“In the past, the martial scholars affiliated with the Martial Studies Hall gathered and fiercely debated which martial art in the Sword Clan was the most difficult.”
He took a sip of tea and continued.
“So I took the Dian Cang Sect’s Dividing Light Sword, Shaolin’s Arhat Moment Hand, and our clan’s Fine Cutting Sharp Edge, mixed them together appropriately, and organized it.”
He spread both hands.
“Ta-da. The debate over the most difficult martial art was over.”
The gatekeeper wanted to say something, but he could not figure out what in the world he was supposed to say.
That martial art, which so many Sword Clan warriors had challenged only to drink the bitter cup of defeat.
That martial art, which had made so many prodigies rush at it, only to feel that their talents were worthless and fall into despair.
That advanced martial art, which nevertheless boasted such terrifying power that it made the Sword Clan’s enemies feel fear.
To think it had begun from the playful whim of the boy before his eyes.
“…Were you not Swordless, Eldest Young Master?”
Even as he asked it with his own mouth, the question contained so many meanings that even he could not tell exactly what he meant.
“Who knows…”
Yeon Sang-hyeon shrugged.
“It is certain that I do not have a sword, at least.”
Watching Yeon Sang-hyeon throw a joke at him, the gatekeeper felt a sense of déjà vu.
No, to be precise, it was not déjà vu.
The only lord he had respected and served.
The image of that lord was overlapping with that of his son, whom the Sword Clan despised the most.
“Life-Stealing Ghost Sword.”
That was the old epithet he had buried in the past.
The one calling that name was his lord’s eldest son.
“You still carry around a toy-like sword.”
The Eldest Young Master’s gaze was directed at the sword hanging from the gatekeeper, the Life-Stealing Ghost Sword’s waist.
“When your sword grows old and can no longer be drawn for anything at all, that will be the end.”
Eldest Young Master Yeon Sang-hyeon,
the person who originally should have been the young family head of the Luoyang Sword Clan, asked the most ferocious sword of the former Luoyang Sword Clan,
“How long do you intend to keep carrying that fake sword?”