The Forgotten King's Battle [2]
"Welcome, Your Highness. I have heard the rough outline of your circumstances through Gang Chisang, Guardian of the Jeomchang Sect."
Those were the first words the Sect Leader of Mount Hua spoke upon seeing me.
Before me stood the Sect Leader of Mount Hua along with six elders, all offering their respectful bows. The plaque hanging overhead bore the characters for the Hall of Contained Jade.
"From this day forward, Your Highness shall leave every remnant of the past behind and become one of Mount Hua's own."
The elders flanking him took up the words one by one.
"The true name you have carried until now shall vanish. The name newly bestowed by our sect shall become both your true name and the name by which you command the jianghu."
"To set every past aside and grant a new name carries many meanings."
The Sect Leader of Mount Hua smiled gently.
"Our daoists skilled in the art of naming spent three full days in careful deliberation. I hope this name finds favor with you."
I received the paper.
Eun Seollyeong
"Like the snow-crowned ridges of those lofty peaks that forever look down in silence — never lose that lofty spirit in this new world. Train without rest, and the day will surely come when someone recognizes the princess you once were."
I nodded.
And so I became one of Mount Hua.
From that very day, I took up the sword.
At first I built my foundations. The moment those basics were roughly complete, I established a temporary dwelling near the entrance to the Three Peaks Secret Cavern at Mount Hua's highest summit.
The instructor's eyes went round.
"...You're going to attempt closed-door training not in some ordinary basement or cave, but in the Three Peaks Secret Cavern, where simply standing still and breathing is a struggle? And the duration? Just how grandly do you intend to go about this?"
I spoke while binding more than ten swords to my body.
"Once a week. Bring food and knock at the cavern mouth. If there is no response within the span of a tea's brewing, I will have collapsed and be dying — drag me back to this dwelling and restore me then. I leave it to you. As for the duration..."
My hands, smoothing my robes, slowed for a moment.
"Until I say I am done."
The instructor let out a low sigh.
"...She's insane."
I divided each day into twelve parts. Then I divided those twelve into twenty-four. Against each of those twenty-four segments I trained every martial art individually, managing time so tightly that not a single gap remained.
I refused abstract, blind concentration. That kind of vague measure only created the illusion of diligence while letting an entire day slip away half-wasted. I calculated everything with perfect arithmetic precision and drove myself into a state from which there was no escape.
I could not sleep a single wink. The moment I closed my eyes, the faces of every subordinate who had been beheaded rose before me, and the face of the head lady-in-waiting, eyes shut as if merely asleep.
Immersing myself in training was the only path out of that hellish nightmare.
Spring came. Winter came. Spring returned, and winter returned again.
In all that time, my footprints never once mixed with those traveling between the Three Peaks Secret Cavern at Mount Hua's peak and the sect below.
"You asked, so I prepared it — but do you truly mean to take this?"
The chief physician of Mount Hua's Medicine King Hall set out an inner core alongside the food he had brought. Before him lay seven cores of a blue serpent that radiated a piercing chill.
I spoke evenly.
"I clearly remember the diagnosis you gave when I first entered the sect. You said that though I had missed my timing, I was born with the disposition of a Heavenly Martial Body — a martial talent rarely seen under heaven."
"Your Highness — no, Lady Eun Seollyeong. This is an entirely different matter."
The physician spoke with evident frustration.
"These Blue Serpent Ice Jades are a transmission from the North Sea Ice Palace. In the process of cold qi settling into the body and accelerating the growth of inner power, the probability of qi deviation exceeds thirty percent. One misstep and you die instantly — or worse, become a half-dead cripple who cannot die even if you wish to! Heavenly Martial Body or not, that probability applies equally to everyone!"
"It does not matter."
"What do you mean it does not matter?! No wonder your instructor is foaming at the mouth and dying of misery! Whatever it is, you just say it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter!"
The physician hopped in place, then spoke as if exhausted.
"...This is not something a person in their right mind would attempt even as empty talk."
"I am nothing but a stranger in this world.... I wish to realize my dream."
"And what is Lady Eun Seollyeong's dream?"
I answered.
"I want to show that even if everyone laughs — that even one person can prove there truly exists a blade raised for the sake of all."
And so, countless stretches of time flowed past.
"P-please — I beg you for the Covenant of the Sacred Mountain...! Guardian — no, Fairy!"
Before me, a man who sold charcoal with his whole body blackened by soot and who had been training in swordsmanship prostrated himself flat on the ground.
"I may be ignorant, but I've started learning martial arts now, so I'll manage somehow!"
I felt my words stick in my throat at that expression, unsure how to answer. He seemed to interpret my silent, unmoving gaze differently.
"Ah — r-right! Of course. Look at the state of my head!"
He rummaged frantically through his robes. What he pulled out was a small slip of paper with a silvery sheen.
Facing me as I stood stupidly holding the offered paper, the simple young man said,
"I heard the Covenant of the Sacred Mountain requires some object to serve as a token of mutual trust, right? This is something I've treasured — I'll give it to you in its place!"
It was a toy-like silver paper. Every time I moved my hand it made a foolish little tinkle-tinkle.
I pressed a hand to my faintly aching head.
"Do you even know what the Covenant of the Sacred Mountain you so casually speak of actually is?"
"...Yes!"
Through years of wandering the jianghu, I had long since been steeped in its waters. I spoke coolly, my voice level.
"Do you know which sect I belong to? I am not the Guardian of some minor, insignificant school. Even if you happen to have more money than your appearance suggests, for the sake of my sect's interests alone, entering a Covenant of the Sacred Mountain with you would require not merely comfortable wealth but at minimum one of the Five Great Families—"
The man whose name I could not even remember ignored my words entirely, clenching his fists tight as he declared,
"The Covenant of the Sacred Mountain means joining forces among those whose wills align — for righteousness and chivalry, does it not?!"
"..."
I felt a dizzying sense of not knowing where to even begin explaining things to this simple young man.
Perhaps that was why. Without meaning to, I asked,
"For whose sake?"
The young man answered without the slightest hesitation.
"For family weaker than I am, for the grandmother and grandfather next door... in other words, for everyone!"
"..."
That figure looked endlessly foolish. Truly foolish.
Because through all my travels across the jianghu, among Orthodox, Unorthodox, Demonic, and Blood factions alike, I had never once heard that answer — obvious as it might have seemed — from anyone.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
"About what?"
I turned around. There stood Gang Chisang, his face flushed as if about to explode.
"The Guardian of Mount Hua who turned down countless Covenants of the Sacred Mountain has gone and signed one?! The rumor is already everywhere!"
"...Why would the Guardian of the Jeomchang Sect care about something like that?"
At my words, Gang Chisang's expression soured.
"Eun Seollyeong...!"
Gang Chisang reached to seize my shoulder. I slipped half a step to the side and avoided it as smoothly as water. His eyes flew wide.
I spoke coldly.
"What does it mean for a martial artist to try to grab another's shoulder? Even fellow disciples of the same sect do not seize each other's wrists or shoulders — that is an unspoken rule. Surely the Guardian of the Jeomchang Sect would not be ignorant of it."
"...Just one thing. Let me confirm one thing."
Gang Chisang struggled to shake off the shock of having his Guardian's hand so instantly avoided.
"Why did you enter a Covenant of the Sacred Mountain with a man who has nothing?"
"..."
I did not know what to say to that. I had never been gifted with words.
Gang Chisang had his head bowed. Then he lifted it.
"In the end — is it because he's a man?"
"...I have no idea what you mean."
I spoke evenly.
"Since we've met, and because you are my benefactor who led me into this world and a precious connection, I will say one thing."
I cut the words clean and cold.
"Strange stories about you have been circulating of late. Rumors that after your defeat by the Guardian of the Wudang Sect, you have clung not to training but to sorcery, wine, and women. Of course I do not believe such things, but if you would focus more on your cultivation—"
"Enough!"
Gang Chisang roared. The blood vessels stood out in his eyes.
"Is that all you ever say? Benefactor, benefactor — always drawing that line and nothing more?"
"Gang Chisang."
Shiiing!
Gang Chisang drew his blade.
"Draw your sword. As Guardian of the Jeomchang Sect, I formally challenge the Guardian of Mount Hua to a duel!"
"..."
Gang Chisang's eyes blazed with some fire I could not comprehend.
"I'll show you. What kind of man I am! I'll show you just what third-rate trash you've been losing your mind over!"
"...I still have no idea what you keep talking about, but you are laboring under one clear delusion, Gang Chisang."
I said,
"Before I am a woman, I am simply a body that vowed to become a single blade."
"...You!!"
Those words were a fuse. Gang Chisang lost all reason and charged, and he was defeated within thirty exchanges.
Immediately afterward, he vanished from the Jeomchang Sect.
When I faced him again a full year later, he was no longer the Gang Chisang I had known.
"Why doesn't the Orthodox path pursue chivalry the way it used to? Has the world changed?"
The young man whose name I still could not remember — the one with whom I had entered the Covenant of the Sacred Mountain — spoke toward me.
It was autumn.
I myself did not know the jianghu especially well, but he knew even less than I did.
"And what nonsense are you about to spout this time?"
He clearly possessed outstanding talent and improved by leaps and bounds. In some ways, his gift may have surpassed even mine — I who had become the youngest Guardian. But if he had one flaw, it was his hot temper. Combined with a heart that pursued chivalry, he could never stand by in the face of injustice no matter how unfavorable the situation. There had been several times he would have died if I had not been there.
Even standing always at his side, I felt as though I were walking on thin ice.
He looked at me and said,
"You're angry again. Right? Miss Guardian?"
"..."
"Sorry. Don't be mad. I won't go charging off on my own. Okay?"
When I gave no answer, he rubbed his hands together again and again and spoke cheerfully.
"I know better than anyone that I would have died this time too if Eun Seollyeong hadn't stopped me. So here's the thing. Just once, I'd like to be the one protecting Eun Seollyeong. Properly. Magnificently. Haha."
I drew a deep breath.
"Hah. You, protect me? I wonder if such a thing will happen even once before you die."
"Haha, is that so? Still — just wait and see."
"We have to hold them here! The Demonic Cult is coming!"
It was the mouth of a gorge. The man with whom I had formed my first and last Covenant of the Sacred Mountain shouted through a face soaked in blood. Behind us, the family members of several Mount Hua branch halls who had not managed to evacuate were all gathered together.
Grab!
I seized him by the collar.
"Eun Seollyeong?!"
His eyes flew wide with shock.
"Go. Now. There is no need for you to be here."
"What?"
"This is our sect's affair! As Guardian of Mount Hua, I alone am enough!"
Everyone fled in terror. All of them — everyone except me, the Guardian who was Mount Hua's sword turned toward the jianghu — ran from the demonic warriors surging forward like a tide of death.
And yet this man, who was not even formally affiliated with any of the Nine Sects and One Gang, volunteered to remain until the very end.
He roughly shoved my hand away.
"Do you think I entered the Covenant of the Sacred Mountain just to be protected by you? People of the same will joining their purpose — isn't that the whole point of the Covenant?"
"..."
Tightening his grip on his sword, the man said,
"I think that moment I always talked about — it's right now."
"You fool. This is not the time for stupid stubbornness—"
"It's not stupid stubbornness!"
The man shouted toward me.
"It's a man's pride, and his conviction too! Even if I'm nothing but a powerless worm — my heart is real!"
He cried out.
"This is the chivalry and righteousness that any person of the Orthodox path ought to uphold! Thinking of the common people — that those who hold power must bear responsibility for that power!"
That was the self I had briefly forgotten — the self from the day I was cast out of the imperial household.
I was about to speak when—
Eun Seollyeong!!
In the distance, a throng of demonic warriors drew near. At their head stood Gang Chisang.
His body, saturated with murderous aura, had grown turbid with demonic qi, and his two eyes were overturned with jealousy and rage.
And that day, of every living being in the gorge, the only one who survived was me.