Chapter 99
Part 24: Opening
There was no way people like the Special Unit would fail to sense killing intent flaring right in front of their own headquarters.
“What is it? What is it? A fight?”
“A duel? A spar?”
As the confrontation between Jeong-ah and the Three Peerless Warrior began, every Special Unit member who had been awake inside headquarters came rushing out, as if by unspoken agreement.
Among them, those skilled in lightness arts did not even bother using the door. Some leaped clean over the roof of the three-story building and appeared outside.
After all, how could those who called themselves warriors miss the chance to watch a fight?
Last of all, unlike the others, Tal Myeong-gwi-geom appeared, strolling out in full uniform.
“What is going on?”
At his question, the Special Unit member called Hwang answered.
“It looks like Wongakjeong’s head maid and one of the Third Young Master’s Three Peerless Warriors are about to have a bout.”
“The head maid…?”
“I know the head maid has learned martial arts, but a Three Peerless Warrior will not be an easy opponent.”
“Mm. Should we only step in if the worst happens?”
The Special Unit members widened the gap between them and made space for Tal Myeong-gwi-geom.
Sure enough, the sight of a man and woman facing each other, neither yet having drawn their sword, came into view.
“Huh…”
At Tal Myeong-gwi-geom’s sigh, which was close to an exclamation, Hwang looked at the man and woman on the verge of clashing and opened his mouth.
“You usually cherish the head maid like your own daughter. Did you teach her some swordsmanship?”
Tal Myeong-gwi-geom firmly shook his head.
“I never did.”
At that moment, another Special Unit member asked Tal Myeong-gwi-geom,
“Since it’s come to this, I’d rather the head maid win than that dark-looking fellow. Do you think she has a chance?”
Though he put it indirectly, none of the Special Unit members disliked the women of Wongakjeong.
Their gazes gathered on Tal Myeong-gwi-geom.
Ignoring those gazes, Tal Myeong-gwi-geom murmured,
“If one is defeated one-sidedly in front of this many people, the blow to the heart will be great as well…”
When he clicked his tongue softly, Hwang asked,
“One-sidedly? Who do you mean?”
Just as Tal Myeong-gwi-geom was about to answer, the Three Peerless Warrior spoke to Jeong-ah first.
“Woman. It seems enough spectators have gathered now, so I shall thoroughly correct that wicked habit of yours.”
Although he was surrounded by people who, at a glance, were no ordinary figures, the Three Peerless Warrior paid them no mind.
It was because those who were warriors of the main family would never interfere in a duel.
Rather, this was a good opportunity.
If he gave her a proper lesson, she would never again go around claiming to be a warrior anywhere.
“If you are prepared, draw your sword now, woman.”
He warned Jeong-ah, who still merely had her left hand resting on the hilt.
Within the range of his knowledge, no ready stance existed with such a lax posture.
But Jeong-ah merely looked at him leisurely and maintained the same posture, showing no intention whatsoever of drawing her sword.
He lowered his stance and released killing intent.
“If you do not have that resolve, then throw away your sword now and apologize to the seniors here and to me for spouting nonsense about being a warrior.”
“…He has trained the Drawing Sword Form to the extreme!”
“An excellent stance.”
“It seems one of his Three Peerless Forms is the Drawing Sword Form.”
Their gazes turned, conversely, toward Jeong-ah.
Even with the tension soaring to its limit, Jeong-ah merely maintained a relaxed posture, with her left hand resting on the sword hilt—one that could even be called arrogant, depending on how one looked at it.
“If he has mastered the Drawing Sword Form, then what comes out here should be an ultimate technique…”
“I do not know whether that head maid can withstand the first strike from that posture.”
“For one thing, she is too close.”
At that moment, Hwang, who had been quietly observing Jeong-ah’s posture, clicked his tongue and tilted his head.
“That posture… I have seen it somewhere…”
At that instant, the Three Peerless Warrior’s lightning-like strike split everyone’s breath.
It was a sword fired as if triggered, as if shattering the scabbard itself.
That was Sword Heart Sword Cry, the ultimate technique of the Drawing Sword Form—Billow!
The Special Unit members who saw that perfect strike instinctively sensed Jeong-ah’s defeat.
Except for two people: Tal Myeong-gwi-geom and Hwang.
Along with a metallic sound that tore through the ears, a sword shot high into the air.
The sword spun round and round as it swam through the air.
Then it fell as it was, bounced a couple of times off the paving stones, and sprawled on the ground.
Scarlet blood streamed from the Three Peerless Warrior’s horribly torn hand.
His gaze was fixed on the blue blade pressed beneath his throat.
He could not believe it.
He could not even tell what had happened.
His eyes trembled uncontrollably.
One Special Unit member, seeing Jeong-ah’s posture, muttered with an incredulous expression,
“A left-hand reverse sword?”
Jeong-ah was holding the blade to the Three Peerless Warrior’s neck with her left hand, and with her sword gripped in reverse.
“She learned a heretical path among heretical paths…?”
The left-handed sword and reverse-grip sword had long been called heretical paths, but within the Sword Clan, that was merely a common expression and by no means a term of contempt.
The maids, who had never doubted her victory and had merely been quietly watching until now, all clapped at once.
“The Three Peerless Warrior’s draw was definitely faster…?”
“The subtlety of moving second yet striking first at this level of sparring?”
“What in the world happened?”
The Special Unit members doubted their own eyes.
They were all people who had reached a high realm, and they had certainly seen Jeong-ah’s counterattack, but they could not understand what they had seen.
At that moment, Hwang opened his mouth with a hollow smile.
“Do none of you still know what sword art that is?”
Everyone’s gaze turned toward him.
Hwang shook his head and spoke as if he himself could not believe it.
“Isn’t that the Sword Clan’s secret sword, Fleeting Shadow Instant?”
At his words, absurd expressions first appeared on everyone’s faces.
“Fleeting Shadow Instant…?”
But in the next moment, their expressions changed to shock.
“Fleeting Shadow Instant?!”
Among the Special Unit members gathered here, there was not a single one who had not been called a prodigy in his youth.
And in the end, every one of them had crossed the wall.
But among them, there was not a single one who had not tried to learn Fleeting Shadow Instant, known as the most difficult sword art in the Sword Clan.
It was a secret sword that any Luoyang Sword Clan warrior with talent above a certain level would try to learn.
But even among all those overflowing talents, extremely few ever mastered it.
A counterattack sword of moving second yet striking first, and killing with a single blow.
A sword that embodied the extreme of those two concepts in the real world, and whose eight forms existed solely for those two purposes.
That was Fleeting Shadow Instant.
While the Special Unit members wore dazed expressions, Tal Myeong-gwi-geom smiled bitterly.
“Left-hand reverse sword. The sixth form of Fleeting Shadow Instant, Wicked King’s Predation.”
He shook his head.
It was the most complete form of Wicked King’s Predation he had ever seen.
‘To have mastered Fleeting Shadow Instant in the meantime…’
He looked at Jeong-ah with the expression of someone staring at something incomprehensible.
‘Head Maid. Just what are you?’
***
“F-Fleeting Shadow Instant…!”
The Three Peerless Warrior shouted as if in a fit.
Jeong-ah’s blade had grazed his neck and blood was seeping out, but he paid it no mind and shouted.
“Don’t lie! This is sorcery! It’s sorcery!”
Jeong-ah withdrew her sword with an expression as if she had seen something absurd.
“There’s no way! Once more! Fight me once more! I-I was just careless for a moment!”
He staggered toward his sword and tried to grab the blade lying on the ground.
But his right hand, whose ligaments had been damaged, dropped the sword, and he lifted it with his left hand instead.
“This time, I will face you properly! A-attack me at once!”
The Howon steward, who had no idea how the situation was unfolding, shouted hurriedly.
“Y-yes! Fight her once more!”
But Jeong-ah had no intention of doing so.
“It is almost time for the guests to arrive, so all of you should withdraw.”
At her words, the Three Peerless Warrior shouted,
“Why would guests come to a place like this? Are you running away like a coward?!”
The Howon steward also shouted,
“There is no way guests of the First Young Master would come, but even if they did, what of it?!”
Tal Myeong-gwi-geom turned his gaze in the direction Jeong-ah was looking.
It was toward the far end of the main road.
“Any Special Unit member whose attire is not proper should return to headquarters immediately!”
“What do you mean, Captain?”
Tal Myeong-gwi-geom pointed toward the distance.
“The guests are coming.”
***
As expected, the first to arrive were people from within the Luoyang Sword Clan.
“I have come under the orders of the Director of the Administrative Pavilion of the Supreme Operations Council, bringing a congratulatory letter and a gift!”
“We have come representing the will of the entire Council of Elders to offer congratulations and present gifts to the First Young Master!”
“I am the fifth-rank steward of the Inner Court, carrying a congratulatory letter from the Chief Steward of the Inner Court.”
With people carrying gifts and letters from figures whom anyone in the Luoyang Sword Clan could not fail to know, the area before the main gate began turning into chaos in an instant.
The maids Jeong-ah had brought guided them to the waiting room or led them into Wongakjeong with perfect coordination.
Next, congratulatory envoys dispatched from the vassal families and branch families of the Luoyang Sword Clan began arriving one after another.
“We are envoys from the Kaifeng Yeon Family, a branch family of the Luoyang Sword Clan. Please guide us to the First Young Master.”
“I am an envoy of the family head of the Sagong Family from Taiyuan, Shanxi.”
But that was only the beginning.
“We are from the Mae Family of the Imperial Capital. We wish to meet the First Young Master and deliver the former family head’s gift and letter.”
“I serve the esteemed Grand Tutor, who has now retired.”
Congratulatory letters and gifts sent by people of tremendous status who had personal ties with Yeon Sang-hyeon lined up in carts and on carriers’ backs.
“This was sent by Elder Ham, who serves as an external adviser to the Imperial Secretariat.”
The Howon steward, watching the scene, wore an expression of disbelief.
“The former head of the Mae Family? The Imperial Grand Tutor? An external adviser to the Imperial Secretariat…?”
These were connections even the Second Young Master did not possess.
No.
It was not only that.
Those who had already been guided inside Wongakjeong, those heading toward the waiting room, and those now surging in line from behind—
Among them, there was not a single name whom a mere steward would dare greet with his head held high.
The Three Peerless Warrior, dragged away by the Special Unit members and shoved into a corner, could only stare blankly at the endless procession.
And the grand finale was marked by a thunderous shout filled with inner force.
“Everyone, clear the way!”
Everyone’s gaze turned back.
“The Vice Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, bearing an imperial decree from His Majesty the Emperor, has arrived!”
At the words “imperial decree from His Majesty the Emperor,” everyone prostrated themselves on the spot.
“…An imperial decree from His Majesty the Emperor?”
The Howon steward, who had merely been standing there muttering with a foolish expression, was grabbed by the startled people around him and forced to his knees.
‘What is this? Just what in the world is happening? Have I still not awakened from last night’s dream?’