Chapter 23
Old Story
The gatekeeper had been extremely angry.
His teeth had ground together at the situation, where things no better than mongrel dogs could tarnish the Sword House’s name, yet he could do nothing.
Next, he had grown angry at the Eldest Young Master.
If he had possessed power befitting the position of Eldest Young Master, he would have easily retrieved the Sword House Steel Plaque on the spot and cut those things to pieces for the crime of insulting the Sword House.
But in the end, when he opened his mouth toward Yeon Sang-hyeon, what came out was neither resentment nor anger.
“…I am sorry.”
In the end, he, too, had done nothing for the sake of protecting himself.
He had merely avoided doing something he could not take responsibility for, something he could not bear the consequences of.
“What is there to apologize for? You fulfilled your role.”
Even the first words of encouragement he had ever heard from Yeon Sang-hyeon could not comfort him.
“It would be better for you to return around here. The one who handed the Sword House Steel Plaque to Golden Spider may see even you as being tied to me.”
“But I am supposed to guard you, Eldest Young Master…!”
Yeon Sang-hyeon smiled at him.
“There is no need for you to sacrifice yourself for someone to whom you have not offered your sword.”
“That is…!”
Several times, he opened his mouth as if to protest, only to close it again.
“…I am sorry.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon handed him an order he had prepared in advance.
“Take this with you.”
The order, stamped with the family head’s seal, was for him.
It proved that he had carried out a temporary guard duty according to Yeon Sang-hyeon’s command, and that as of this moment, he had received an order to return.
As he turned away with the order in hand, his steps stopped several times, but in the end, he could not turn back.
‘Damn it…’
Even after reaching his current level, he had felt powerless many times, but this was the first time he had ever felt as terrible as he did today.
‘Damn it.’
His long shadow, cast by the setting sun, looked unbearably pitiful.
“Hmm.”
Se-a’s patience, after waiting for a long while for Yeon Sang-hyeon to finish taking Jeong-ah’s pulse, was beginning to run out.
The famous physicians she had called had already come and gone, and they had assured her that Jeong-ah was merely extremely fatigued.
They said she was simply sleeping deeply.
But contrary to the world’s perception,Se-ah knew that the medical skill possessed by someone like Yeon Sang-hyeon was more than enough to establish a school of its own.
That was why she could not hide her impatience.
“The security of the safe house is perfect. And as you ordered, we have raised the guard to more than twice the usual level.”
Even at her subordinate’s report, she merely chewed irritably on her pipe and waved him away.
After pacing outside for some time, her patience finally reached its limit.
“Eldest Young Master, this girl will enter.”
Without even waiting for permission, she opened the door and stepped inside.
Inside the room, the scene was almost exactly the same as before she had left.
Her one and only younger sister was still unconscious, and the Eldest Young Master was still holding her sister’s wrist, taking her pulse.
After hesitating for a moment, she asked Yeon Sang-hyeon,
“…Is Jeong-ah all right?”
Yeon Sang-hyeon, who had been sitting with his eyes quietly closed, looked back at her.
“All right? You heard that she is only sleeping, did you not?”
Yeon Sang-hyeon’s tone was absurdly calm.
“That…!”
Her hand tightened reflexively around the pipe, but she barely managed to restrain herself.
“…Khuh. Then why is taking her pulse taking so long?”
Yeon Sang-hyeon ignored her question and held out a hand.
“You brought the information on the Skull Gang, did you not?”
This time, she nearly snapped the pipe in half.
But repeating the word “patience” over and over in her mind, she handed a bundle of documents to Yeon Sang-hyeon.
“But seeing your attitude…”
Se-ah practically threw the bundle of documents at him.
“Wh-what illness is it?!”
Yeon Sang-hyeon gave no answer and began unfolding and reading the bundle of documents he had received.
His speed was so fast that it would not have been strange to think he was not properly reading the documents, but merely skimming through them.
“Would it not be better to first tell me what is wrong with my sister?”
“This is everything, yes?”
“…It is everything.”
By the end, she had clenched her teeth so hard that her pronunciation blurred.
At that, Yeon Sang-hyeon stroked his beardless chin and frowned.
“Hm. In truth, after taking Jeong-ah’s pulse, it was revealed that she is suffering from a serious illness.”
He clicked his tongue.
Only after finally looking through all the documents did Yeon Sang-hyeon nod.
Se-ah endured the trembling that ran through her entire body and asked him once more.
“So what illness is Jeong-ah suffering from?”
At that, Yeon Sang-hyeon looked at her as if wondering what nonsense she was talking about.
“I told you she is sleeping because she is tired.”
In the end, the pipe broke in her grip.
“…You said it was a serious illness.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon frowned.
“Overwork is a serious illness. Even a young person can lose their life before they know it.”
It was a rare experience for Se-ah . On one hand, she felt relieved, but on the other, it was difficult to control the anger rising inside her.
“Then you are saying there is nothing particularly wrong with Jeong-ah.”
“That is right.”
Holding her forehead,Se-ah asked,
“…Then why did you ask for information on the Skull Gang?”
Before she knew it,Se-ah had abandoned the utmost formal speech, but Yeon Sang-hyeon, as always, did not care in the slightest.
“Looking at the amount and flow of information you have gathered, it seems you are plotting something quite dangerous against the Skull Gang.”
Se-a, whose head had been boiling with anger, naturally missed her chance to deny it.
Since she was already a beat too late, there was little meaning in denying it now.
She let out a small sigh and opened her mouth.
“What does that have to do with you, Eldest Young Master…?”
Yeon Sang-hyeon looked at her and said,
“Stop.”
Se-a’s brows shot up.
“I am not your subordinate, Eldest Young Master, and I am not obligated to obey your orders.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon leaned back deeply in his chair.
“That Sword House Steel Plaque was genuine. The line Golden Spider has caught is real. As someone in the same line of work, you should know better than anyone how much power the Sword House’s intelligence division possesses, no?”
Of course she did.
At least in Luoyang, the Sword House’s information network was so far ahead that no one else could dare follow it.
And yet, rather, precisely because of that,Se-ah could not help but be furious.
“You would say that…!”
Yeon Sang-hyeon rose abruptly, cutting off the shout that was about to burst from Se-ah .
“So the patient can rest, let’s go outside.”
Without waiting for an answer, Yeon Sang-hyeon left the room.
***
Before anyone knew it, darkness had fallen over the sky.
Even the moon had hidden its face behind the clouded night sky, and the winter wind brushed past the roof tiles with a wail.
Yeon Sang-hyeon stood with his hands clasped behind his back, looking up at that sky.
Se-ah shouted at his back.
“What is the greatest merchant house in Luoyang—no, in the world? The Sword House. What is the greatest martial household in the world? The Sword House.”
Her voice grew even louder.
“And naturally, the one with the greatest information network on the streets of Luoyang is also the Sword House!”
At that moment, she threw off the mask of a neutral information broker.
“And that very Sword House gave even a Sword House Steel Plaque to a black-hearted organization like the Skull Gang, did it not?!”
Her one remaining eye seemed to blaze with fire.
“While all the people of Luoyang groaned in suffering and died of hunger, what did the Sword House do?!”
Yeon Sang-hyeon’s back offered no reply.
“While ruthless, merciless groups with no sense of morality, like the Skull Gang, sucked the lifeblood of the people in Luoyang, and while countless other organizations like them kept growing…!”
“The main family stood by with its hands behind its back.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon cut off her words.
“No. Rather, the main family is using them.”
At Yeon Sang-hyeon’s attitude, as if he already knew everything,Se-ah grew even angrier.
“Then what have you been doing all this time?!”
She hurled the broken pipe still in her hand to the ground.
“To be honest, I felt that what Golden Spider said to you was not wrong at all. Only her wording was vulgar!”
For a moment,Se-ah felt that her words were going too far.
“I know that you once displayed outstanding ability! But what have you done with that ability until now?”
She did not stop.
“Have you not merely used the seclusion order your father gave you as an excuse to sit around playing at being an immortal even now?!”
Yeon Sang-hyeon’s expression remained calm.
That expression botheredSe-ah unbearably.
“Of course you must have your reasons. Even while being insulted, even while being pointed at, you must have a reason for shutting yourself away!”
That attitude, as if he intended to shoulder every burden alone.
“But! In the end, you have done nothing properly!”
She shouted as if in a fit.
“Despite that, do not tell me what to do when I am trying to do something, even if it means risking my life!”
Her ringing voice echoed through the courtyard, only to be buried and vanish in the biting north wind.
Se-ah steadied her ragged breathing and turned away from him.
His calm gaze had not wavered at all, even under her abuse.
Rather, in that moment, she felt ashamed of herself.
“Do not touch Golden Spider any further.”
That was the advice Yeon Sang-hyeon had given her.
And she knew that it was accurate advice.
Now that Golden Spider held the Sword House Steel Plaque, it had become impossible for her to neutralize the Skull Gang.
Rather, she knew she had to devote all her strength to erasing whatever traces the Dark Moon Pavilion had left behind.
She had simply needed someone to vent her anger on.
She had been relieving her feelings by pouring everything out on the powerless Eldest Young Master of the great Luoyang Sword House.
And perhaps she had also unconsciously calculated that this Eldest Young Master was broad-minded enough to let it pass even if she committed such rudeness.
Her face flushed hot.
“I-I am sorry. No, I humbly apologize, Eldest Young Master.”
She fidgeted with her clasped hands and carefully offered her apology.
The sight made it hard to believe she was the iron-blooded woman who had built the Dark Moon Pavilion with her own strength from the very bottom of Luoyang.
At her behavior, which could almost be called cute, Yeon Sang-hyeon let out a small chuckle.
And at the sound of that laughter,Se-ah was even less able to raise her face.
“Long ago, there were sisters who shared a good bond.”
At the sudden old story,Se-ah raised her head and looked at Yeon Sang-hyeon.
“The older sister was full of a sense of justice. She could not forgive the villains who were ruining the neighborhood where she lived.”
Se-ah instinctively felt that this was a story about herself and Jeong-ah.
“The older sister risked everything with comrades who shared her image , and in the end, she failed. And all of them were killed.”
Was this an ominous prophecy?
Se-ah could not understand Yeon Sang-hyeon’s intention.
Naturally, she could not.
“The talented younger sister learned of her older sister’s death and became a madwoman. She attacked those who had driven her sister to death. She accumulated damage against them, but her enemies were too strong. In the end, the younger sister, too, became a public enemy and was killed. Hunted down.”
It was a story of the past.
And at the same time, it was a story of the future.
Yeon Sang-hyeon was telling the picture he had completed after fitting together the empty pieces.
“They were not even able to leave behind their names properly, nor the noble will they had held. In the story fabricated as others pleased, they became nothing more than rebels and public enemies of the martial world. People cursed those sisters and reviled them.”
After finishing the story, Yeon Sang-hyeon looked up at the sky.
“…Because I am dull-witted, I do not quite understand what you are saying, Eldest Young Master.”
Se-ah spoke carefully.
“It is a story about how good people fall far too vainly.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon’s tone was terribly heavy.
“And it is also a story about how evil people often triumph as if it were only natural.”
Grit—
From Yeon Sang-hyeon came the sound of teeth grinding so harshly that it sent a chill down the spine.