Chapter 45: Tang Family Sword Peak-1
Chapter 45: Tang Family Sword Peak-1
The day of Third Squad Vice-Leader Myeong Sa-hyeon always began earlier than everyone else's.
Because there was something he had to do first thing upon waking.
The very first thing he did as soon as he woke up was to prepare hot tea.
The boiling water was so hot you could not even touch it to your lips, but that did not matter.
By the time she woke and began her morning training, it would have cooled to just the right temperature.
Having prepared the tea and snacks and arranged them on a small tray, he smiled contentedly and murmured to himself.
"Perfect again today. Just like me."
For Myeong Sa-hyeon, preparing tea and a light snack and bringing them to Dang Yeoeun's training grounds was how his daily routine began, repeated without fail every single day.
He had never once heard a word of thanks from her.
But he knew full well.
That the mere fact she did not refuse it meant she was already opening her heart enough.
That the reason she could not voice her thanks was because she was afraid of acknowledging the truth that her heart was indeed opening.
He believed.
That her frozen heart would someday melt into the warm tea.
He did not particularly worry about when that would be.
After all, waiting a few years for someone you wanted to spend your whole life with was hardly a difficult thing.
It was when he had set out the tea and snacks at her training grounds as usual today and returned to the barracks.
A male squad member approached and spoke to him.
"Vice-Leader, do you know the Fifth Squad's Sojeo Do Hui-yeong?"
"Hm? You mean that shy, adorable Sojeo Do? I do know of her. Never spoken to her, though. But why do you ask?"
At that, the squad member grinned slyly and handed Myeong Sa-hyeon a note.
"That Sojeo Do asked me to pass this on to the Vice-Leader. Said she was too embarrassed, handed me just this, and ran off like she was fleeing."
"Hm?"
Myeong Sa-hyeon unfolded the note with a puzzled look and read it, then soon let out a soft chuckle.
The note said that she had been pining for him for some time, and asked him to come out to the western forest to meet her.
"What does it say? Don't tell me it's a confession of secret admiration?"
"Why wouldn't it be? Ah, this is rather awkward."
At those words, the squad member let out a cheer and teased him.
"Oooh! What's this, Vice-Leader? Are you truly planning to betray the Squad Leader?"
"How could I ever? I feel sorry for Sojeo Do, who seems to have fallen for my charms, but I must speak to her carefully so she's not too hurt."
So saying, Myeong Sa-hyeon set off on his way.
This was not his first such experience.
In the past, there had been quite a few women who approached him even knowing full well that he was in love with Dang Yeoeun.
But after word spread that he was a sunflower who gazed upon only one woman, such things had not happened for a long while...
Receiving a confession like this after so long did not feel entirely unpleasant.
Though he did feel sorry for Sojeo Do, whom he would have to reject.
***
Tang Family Sword Peak Dang Yeoeun, Squad Leader of the Thirteen Squads' Third Squad, washed up briefly and headed to the training grounds for morning practice.
And there at the training grounds, as always, she discovered the tea and snacks humbly arranged on a tray.
Sipping the tea, which was at just the right warmth, and eating the modest snacks that would not burden her training, Dang Yeoeun silently conveyed her gratitude to him in her heart.
Thank you for conveying your feelings so steadfastly and with such sincerity. Thank you for making me feel a warmth I had never once received, not even from family.
Suddenly, that voice she could never forget echoed in her head again.
'A bitch like you should never have been born!'
These were the words Dang Yeoeun had heard most often from her mother while growing up.
No matter how hard she tried to be a good child, no matter how outstanding her achievements in martial arts, her mother had never stopped hurling hateful looks and words at her.
It could not be helped.
Her mother believed that everything was her fault.
That she was the cause of all of her own misery.
Her mother was the third wife of Dang Jeong-hu, the current Gaju of the Sichuan Tang Family.
And she was also a person more greedy than anyone else.
Though she was only the third wife, she had ambition.
To make her own son the Gaju of the Tang Family...
And she had the ability to do so as well.
Her natal family was one of the most renowned noble houses even in Sichuan, and her own beauty and ability were likewise outstanding.
So she had confidence that if she bore a son, she could use her abilities to surely make that child the Gaju of the Tang Family.
But,
Even her background, beauty, and ability could do nothing about the fact that a child simply would not come.
Though she had married the Dang Gaju and, thanks to her exceptional beauty, received more opportunities than the other wives, for some reason she could not conceive.
All the physicians who examined her said there was nothing physically wrong at all.
Yet seeing the other wives bear children, it was clearly not the Dang Gaju's problem either.
That only made her more frustrated.
The physicians all counseled her simply to keep her mind at ease.
But she could not put her mind at ease no matter what.
She tried everything that could be done—acquiring and taking every good medicine, seeking talismans from renowned fortune-tellers, attempting folk remedies, all of it.
But in the end, five years passed and she still could not conceive.
Meanwhile, the other wives' children were gradually growing up. A wife who had entered even later than her had even borne a child.
Her husband, the Dang Gaju, pitied her and tried to treat her well, but he grew increasingly weary of her as she remained childless and only grew more obsessive.
Then, suddenly, she conceived—it was in the sixth year of their marriage.
The reason the child suddenly came was unknown.
She had tried everything that was supposed to be good, so she could not even tell what had worked.
Perhaps it was not due to any method but because she had finally begun to empty her heart of its obsessions.
In any case, it did not matter.
Because it revived her when she had been gradually giving up.
Moreover, every physician who examined her said the same thing.
That there were two children in her womb.
The children were twins.
Now she wished for only one thing.
That both children—no, that at least one of the two—would be born a boy.
If only that happened, she had the confidence to do whatever it took to make that child the next Gaju.
And when the children were finally born, she realized her wish had been granted.
No—she realized it had been granted.
For the children born were fraternal twins, a boy and a girl.
Only, the problem was that the boy had been stillborn.
The opportunity she had barely managed to obtain had slipped away so absurdly.
Realizing that her dream had been shattered just one step before fulfillment, she was enraged.
It was even more despairing than when she had no child at all.
And she turned that despair upon her newborn young daughter.
The Dang Gaju, who barely managed to stop her from hurling the infant daughter she had just held for the first time, had no choice but to separate mother and daughter.
And that had been a very wise decision.
For she had been relentlessly waiting for chances to pour her hatred upon her own daughter and try to kill her.
Then she tried quickly to conceive a new child again.
But...
The Dang Gaju, who had already grown utterly sick of her, no longer gave her even the opportunity to bear a child.
Her ambition to become the mother of the next Dang Gaju had come to a complete end.
Now all that remained to her was hatred.
Hatred toward the other wives who had sons when she could not, and toward those sons. Toward the husband who no longer sought her out. And more than anything, toward the daughter she believed to be the cause of it all.
Thus Dang Yeoeun's childhood was marked throughout by memories of a mother who hated and cursed her.
And the Tang Family was not a warm enough place for a daughter abandoned by her mother to grow up with a healthy heart.
Dang Yeoeun always strove to be a good and outstanding child.
Because she instinctively knew that if she did not, she would be forgotten, receiving no one's attention at all.
She wanted to be noticed.
She wanted to be loved.
She too wanted to receive the affection that other children received as a matter of course simply for being children.
But within the walls of the Tang Family, that was impossible no matter how outstanding she became.
For the Tang Family, which from the outside appeared to be a family united by a single bloodline, was in truth a world of brutal survival of the fittest more fierce than anywhere else.
The reason Dang Yeoeun abandoned hidden weapon arts and poison arts to concentrate on the sword was not only because swinging a sword left her heart feeling far more refreshed than throwing hidden weapons, but more than anything, because she had realized that excelling at hidden weapons or poisons would be of no use whatsoever.
So when she heard she was being sent to the front lines one day, she had not been surprised in the slightest.
She had been expecting it as a matter of course that she would be sent.
Because carrying the signboard of the direct line while possessing a status worse than a collateral branch, she was the most convenient pawn to discard while saving face.
She had thought it would not matter if she went to the front and died.
She had no reason to keep living anyway.
Nor did she consider herself a person worth enough to continue living.
But having come to the front lines with such a heart full of resignation, her life had changed one hundred and eighty degrees from before.
She had already known that her face was quite pretty.
That was only natural, since she resembled her mother, who had once been called the greatest beauty of Sichuan.
But she had never once felt gratitude for the looks she inherited from that mother.
Rather, the face she saw whenever she looked into a mirror had only seemed to curse her, and she had been tormented by it.
That had been how it was.
That had been how it was, but once she arrived at the front lines, everyone praised and admired her appearance.
It was a reaction she had never received within the Tang Family.
Her swordsmanship was the same.
She had already reached the peak-level before coming to the front, yet apart from receiving a formal word of praise from her father the Family Head, no one had paid it any mind.
At the Sichuan Dang Clan, anything that was not hidden weapons or poison arts was not subject to evaluation, after all.
There were warriors with excellent swordsmanship, but they were all just externally hired hands.
But here, things were different.
Here, what mattered most was not what you had trained in, but how deeply you had trained in it and thus how much more effectively you could deal with the demons.
So she, who had already reached the peak-level in her twenties, was naturally afforded respect as a supreme swordswoman.
All of this was so deeply unfamiliar to her.
She did not think herself a person worthy of such treatment.
And so she was afraid.
She was so terribly afraid that at some point people might come to know her true self — the self that ought never to have been born, the self that deserved only hatred.
So she had opened her heart to no one.
She merely played the role of the strong, cold Tang Family Sword Peak, exactly the image that others gazed upon.
And she had resolved to live like that forever.
That had been how it was.
That had been how it was....
But drinking the warm tea left at the training ground each morning, at some point such a thought had crept into her mind.
The thought that perhaps this person might truly come to love not the Tang Family Sword Peak, but Dang Yeoeun — that girl who deserved hatred — with sincerity.
She feared she might be mistaking the warmth of tea for the warmth of the heart, but still, she wanted to believe it, just this once.
That there existed in this world someone who genuinely loved her for who she was....
And so today, drinking tea as she thought of Myeong Sa-hyeon, Dang Yeoeun had a thought suddenly rise up.
'Maybe now, just this once, it would be all right to tell him directly — that I am grateful, that I have always been grateful?'
Expressing her heart in words was a thing far too frightening, but still — could she not muster a little courage for that person who had gazed at her unchangingly for years?
Such was the thought she had.
And returning to her quarters after finishing training, she made up her mind.
This time too it might prove to be nothing more than a resolution,
but still, she would make an attempt.
She would tell him.
But Dang Yeoeun, walking toward her quarters with such determination, was suddenly jolted and froze on the spot.
Myeong Sa-hyeon was standing before her quarters with a rigid face.
"V-vice Squad Leader?"
She had resolved to tell him herself, but this was far too sudden, was it not.
Her mouth felt sealed shut; she could not bring herself to speak.
At that moment, Myeong Sa-hyeon, his face hard unlike his usual self, spoke to her.
"Squad Leader, I have something to discuss. Come with me for a moment."
Flustered, she nodded absently.
"Huh? Yes, y-yes, all right."
Myeong Sa-hyeon began to lead Dang Yeoeun into the forest.
Evidently he meant to go somewhere with few people around.
Dang Yeoeun's heart was pounding harder and harder.
Thinking about it, a place without people did seem better for what she had to say to him.
Myeong Sa-hyeon not being his usual self was a little strange, but for that reason the anticipation grew stronger.
Perhaps, today he might... to me....
And it was just as she followed him deeper and deeper into the forest.
Myeong Sa-hyeon, walking ahead, suddenly halted his steps.
The flustered Dang Yeoeun asked.
"Why? What is it? Vice Squad Leader, why here...?!"
But seeing Myeong Sa-hyeon's face, Dang Yeoeun could not continue her words.
Because his face was twisted in agony.
He barely forced out words through a hideously contorted face.
"No... don't. Squad Leader, if you follow me...."
"Huh? Vice Squad Leader, what's wrong? What is it?"
Then in an instant, Myeong Sa-hyeon's face went expressionless, and he spoke stiffly.
"It is nothing. Come with me, Squad Leader."
At that moment, struck by a thought suddenly surfacing in her mind, Dang Yeoeun trembled as if struck by lightning.
She had recalled something too dreadful, something she did not even wish to imagine.
She called his name with a face of utter devastation.
"Vice Squad Leader?"
But he still spoke with a rigid face.
"Let us hurry. I have a place we must go."
Tears suddenly streamed down from Dang Yeoeun's eyes.
He was not the Myeong Sa-hyeon she knew.
She murmured with a blank face.
"No. This isn't right, is it? This can't be. Sahyeon, please."
Then Myeong Sa-hyeon roughly seized Dang Yeoeun's arm and spoke mechanically.
"Let us hurry. I have a place we must go."
Dang Yeoeun shook her head dazedly with a lost expression.
The Myeong Sa-hyeon she knew was not a man who, seeing her in tears, would only speak of his own business.
Neither was he a man who would handle her roughly like this.
Dang Yeoeun had no choice but to acknowledge it now.
That he... was not Myeong Sa-hyeon....
Realizing that Myeong Sa-hyeon had been soul-possessed, Dang Yeoeun now seized his arm, shaking it as she cried out desperately.
"Sahyeon! Snap out of it! No! You can come back! You can come back! Snap out of it, now!"
Then Myeong Sa-hyeon's face twisted in agony once more.
A face wracked with pain, and a look of desperate earnestness in his eyes.
He spoke with difficulty.
"Kill me... please.... Before I harm you...."
The strength drained utterly from her body.
Kill him, he said.
When she had just barely come to the point of being able to trust someone.
When she could no longer imagine herself without him.
And this was what he told her — to kill him.
It felt as if her heart were being torn out.
Dang Yeoeun at last broke down into sobs.
She shook her head through her tears.
"No. No! Don't do this! Don't say such things. Don't try to leave my side — please!"
Then Myeong Sa-hyeon, his face contorted, screamed and drew his sword.
"Uwaaaaaaaah!"
Chang!
"Sahyeon!"
Though Myeong Sa-hyeon raised his sword with a terrifying expression, Dang Yeoeun could not defend herself.
She could not bring herself to point a sword at him.
She could only weep like a child and call his name.
"Sahyeon! Sahyeon!"
Then Myeong Sa-hyeon, who had raised his sword in a reverse grip, finally brought it down with all his might.
Puuk!
"Kurghk!!"
Dang Yeoeun's eyes went wide in shock.
Myeong Sa-hyeon's sword had pierced through not her, but Myeong Sa-hyeon's own heart.
"Sahyeo-eoooon!"
Dang Yeoeun, who had screamed his name like a shriek, rushed forward and caught him as he collapsed strengthlessly into her arms.
"No! No! Nooooo!"
Myeong Sa-hyeon, cradled in her embrace with a sword through his heart, was now smiling just as he always used to.
With a blood-soaked hand he gently stroked her cheek and whispered.
"I'm... sorry.... I love...."
And then his hand, all strength gone, dropped limply down.
"Noooooooooo!"
The members of the Thirteen Squads, who had come running at the outcry, could only stand around watching Dang Yeoeun as she wailed, clutching Myeong Sa-hyeon.
No one could utter a single word.
Myeong Sa-hyeon — a man beloved by many on the frontlines for his jovial, easygoing nature, a man who for Dang Yeoeun had been like salvation come into her life for the first time — thus breathed his last.
That he took his own life occurred, by grim coincidence, at roughly the same time that Mae Yeo-kyeong's body was discovered.