A Line That Must Not Be Crossed

I made a show ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of looking flustered.

"Ah, I—"

The Namgung Family warrior pressed in harder.

"A guest of the family, are you? The guest quarters are the other way. You going to vanish or what? Do you even know where you are, skulking around like that?"

Namgung Sogyo was trembling, fists clenched tight.

The situation in front of her made no sense.

There was no way an ordinary warrior of the Namgung Family would dare treat the fourth daughter like this. Yet no one around them raised a single word of protest.

What the hell is going on here?

One of the four warriors bared yellowed teeth in a smile.

"Heh heh. So even the famous sharp-tempered young lady can keep her mouth shut sometimes. If you'd been this obedient from the start, how much easier would it have been? Even if you hate that fat rich man Huang who's going to be your husband, he'd have spoiled you a little once you got there."

He lifted a hand toward Namgung Sogyo's shoulder.

She flinched.

—Thud.

A thick, dust-caked warrior's hand settled on the blue silk of her robe. The hand kneaded her shoulder.

"Come on, let's get along, yeah? Young lady."

Her face had gone deathly pale. She was cowed, shrinking in on herself. Even so, she tried with everything she had not to look completely crushed.

It was like watching a trampled flower still thrusting up its blunt thorns as high as it could manage.

"…."

—Crack.

A white field blanketed in snow rose before my eyes. The image of a small child being beaten in the capital. Pretending not to hear. Pretending not to see. Pretending not to feel.

That sight was not foreign to me at all.

The warrior leaned in closer, oily and slick.

"While the house empties out for the Musin Yeongneung Festival, we'll stay behind and take good care of you, so don't you worry too much, young lady…"

"You fucking—"

Jin looked at me.

Namgung Sogyo looked at me.

The warriors looked at me.

"What was that, old man?"

The warriors' faces twisted.

"I thought I just heard something weird. Old man, is it?"

A warrior shoved the tip of his sword against my shoulder.

I raised my hand. My fingers closed around the blade.

"Huh?"

The warrior snickered.

"Our guest doesn't know the first thing about martial arts. Grab a live blade like that and one little twitch is all it takes—fingers go swish, sliced righ— Huh?"

The sword did not move.

"Wh-what the hell? Why won't the sword move?!"

"Hey."

The blade began to tremble violently.

"How old does that kid look to you?"

"What?!"

I poured strength ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into my bandaged fingers.

"H-how old she looks— What's that got to do with you, you bastard?!"

Red light seeped into both of my eyes.

"No matter how much the world changes, no matter how important money becomes to people—"

—Screeeeech!

The sword bent.

"—there's still a line a person must never cross."

A ghastly, metal-rending wail rose as steel folded. A blade refined by hammer and quench bent under pure force alone.

Everyone stood stunned.

"Good gods! Th-that—!"

Jin trembled violently beneath his black mask.

"J-just as I thought… My feeling wasn't wrong."

—Clatter.

The steel sword, crumpled by five fingers, dropped to the ground and rolled.

I lifted the bandaged hand that had just crushed a steel blade.

—Thud.

I set that hand on the frozen Namgung warrior's shoulder. Slowly, I kneaded it. Under that monstrous grip, the man locked up like a chick.

"Hii… hiiik…"

—Hissss.

Scarlet light blazing from both eyes, I whispered.

"Does the Namgung Family put out a lot of meat with the meals?"

"Th-that… why?"

"Why do you think?"

I flicked my fingers clean and spoke through a storm of killing light redder than blood.

"Because you won't be chewing any more of it, you son of a bitch."

Namgung Sogyo was tougher than I had expected.

She recovered at remarkable speed, acting as if nothing had happened. More precisely, she snapped straight back into the cocky, foul-mannered attitude she'd worn the first time she laid eyes on me.

That same Namgung Sogyo stared blankly and asked,

"Uncle… why are you so strong?"

Like heated iron cooling, my pupils returned to black.

"I'm not."

I shook out my fist. Behind me, the warriors lay utterly wrecked.

"You kind of are, though."

"I'm not."

I cut her off without a shred of hesitation.

"This crazy monster bas—"

The warriors couldn't straighten their backs, thick spit trailing from their mouths. I spoke to them coldly.

"Be grateful I'm a guest of the Namgung Family. I held back."

"Y-you lunatic. If this is holding back, then how bad does it get when you don't…"

"Aaaagh… my teeth… my jaw…"

At their feet lay swords and spears bent and snapped. Broken teeth were scattered across the ground. One man's jaw had been wrenched free.

Jin muttered,

"The more I think about it, the more plausible it seems that he was dispatched from the Blood Cult, not the Blood Death Sect…"

The Namgung Family warriors vomited up everything they had eaten that day, soiled themselves for good measure, and crawled away on all fours.

Watching them hobble off, Jin said,

"It felt good, but did you really have to thrash them that hard?"

"I don't want the story spreading either. They'll keep quiet out of sheer humiliation over shitting themselves."

"Such profound reasoning."

Jin looked at me with something like admiration.

I ignored it lightly.

"R-right."

Being praised for something like this left a strange taste in my mouth.

Namgung Sogyo shoved herself in front of me.

"Uncle, did you really come from the Blood Death Sect? I thought the Family Head's promise about secretly assigning me a guard was a complete lie!"

"…Probably."

The words "Blood Death Sect origin" pricked at me, and I let the sentence trail off.

"For someone like you, Uncle—how high up are you in the Blood Death Sect? In the jianghu? You looked ridiculously strong. Our family warriors aren't exactly untrained, you know."

I had trained in hell itself inside Amyeondong. Those three hundred days made the previous two and a half years of training look like a stroll. After that, I honestly no longer knew where my real skill stood. There had been no one left to measure myself against.

Even the duel with Gwak Ido hadn't been a real comparison. Before he could bring out even a tenth of his strength, I had poured every scrap of speed I possessed into crushing his limbs and leaving him half-crippled. If someone called it unfair, I felt not a flicker of guilt. I would do the same again. The only thing that still nagged at me was that I had missed any official chance to measure how far my true ability actually went.

"Second-rate."

After a long moment of thought, I said it.

"Second-rate?"

"Yes. Second-rate level."

"Is this guy insane…"

Jin stared at me as if I had grown a second head. The instant our eyes met, he quietly turned his face away.

Namgung Sogyo looked at me with her eyes narrowed.

"Jin's face says that's complete nonsense. Quit joking. Do you actually think you're second-rate?"

Countless nightmare figures rose in my mind. I had met them more than once in the jianghu. The moment I thought I had grown somewhat, a being so far outside any scale appeared in front of me that I felt like an ant flexing in front of a grown man. That was the world of the jianghu. That was the reality I lived in.

"Yes. I'm certain of it. Second-rate."

Neither lowering myself nor puffing myself up—looking at it objectively and rationally—I was not third-rate. I was exactly second-rate.

I watched the room for a moment, then voiced the question that had been sitting in me since earlier.

"By the way, what just happened—even as an outsider, I really can't understand—"

"Still, it's a weight off my mind. I've been worried sick about what might happen over the next week."

Jin deliberately steered the conversation elsewhere.

…So he doesn't want to answer.

I changed the question.

"Why is my escort period only one week? Do you know anything about the length of the assignment?"

Jin looked at me.

"You were thrown into this escort duty without hearing any of the background?"

I nodded.

Namgung Sogyo spoke up.

"The Family Head was being considerate. I thought it was a secret."

"Considerate?"

"In two days the Namgung Family holds the Musin Yeongneung Festival. Every member of the clan leaves the main house and goes to Musin Yeongneung for the rites. Anyone who isn't blood of the family stays behind here with a skeleton crew."

Meaning the main house would be completely empty. Something about the logic still didn't line up. Context made it clear that she—the fourth daughter of the Namgung Family—would be the one remaining, and that I had been hired as an outside-force warrior to protect her in the emptied house. But of all people, why leave behind a fourth daughter who should sit near the very center of the clan?

"Now that a new escort has arrived, I'll take my leave, young lady."

Before my doubts could be resolved, Jin offered a respectful martial salute and took his farewell.

Namgung Sogyo waved.

"For the week of the Musin Yeongneung Festival, this uncle will keep me safe. Don't worry—go on."

"…Yes."

Jin did not lower his salute. He could not tear his eyes from Namgung Sogyo. Moisture clung to his voice.

"I… don't… worry. Until now, and from now on—I'm the family's exclusive guard."

Her exclusive guard kept glancing back until the very end, then vanished.

—Crack.

A white, snow-covered field flickered across my vision and disappeared. The forever-tightening residue of a searing past rose like a hallucination and faded again.

"…Shit."

I spat the curse under my breath.

Mindful of Namgung Sogyo beside me, I muttered quietly,

"So you noticed."

"…No. I'm fine. I'm okay."

I drew a deep breath.

Namgung Sogyo muttered,

"Yeah. One week left now. For everything about living here, too."

"What do you mean by that? Is there some other event after the Musin Yeongneung Festival ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ends in a week?"

It was a thoughtless question.

"In a week I'll be completely thrown out of the Namgung Family. They have their reputation to keep, after all."

"What?"

I looked at her. Namgung Sogyo was already walking far ahead. She crooked a finger at me.

"Let's go home! Hurry up, heel!"

She pointed straight at me with one finger.

"Did you just say that to me?"

"Yep. Warrior uncle!"

"And the 'uncle'?"

"Yep!"

…

Fine.

Better this. Far better that she show her original self than the cowed, shrinking figure those bastard warriors had forced on her. A hundred million times better.

I muttered that to myself and followed at an unhurried pace, sighing.

Namgung Sogyo strode ahead, chattering the whole way.

"I'll show you the house I live in! It's super comfortable! Well—okay, I've only got a week left to live there. But still, I liked it here! I could sprawl around as much as I wanted without worrying about anyone watching."

There was truly no one. Across this vast courtyard, not a single weed, not a single flower—so bare it felt almost alien. One house sat alone in the emptiness.

As the fourth daughter of the Namgung Family, she ought to have had at least one or two maids attending her at all times. Yet no matter how hard I looked, there was no one here serving her.

I spoke to Namgung Sogyo as she kicked off her shoes.

"Understood. So where ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is my room? For the next week I'll stay close and guard you. That's the duty I was given."

"Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah."

The little brat wasn't paying attention at all. At this rate I felt less like an escort warrior and more like a nanny.

"…."

Autumn was ending; early winter had begun. A dry fallen leaf landed on my head and blew away again.

"Look, you need to tell me where my room is so I can rest, or at least map the layout…"

"There's one room. Can't you tell by the size of the house?"

"……."

Far off, the sun was setting. Night was coming on. With a small sigh I closed my eyes tightly.

The world was never kind. I had never expected lavish hospitality wherever I went. The places I lived were always reality, and my circumstances were never going to overturn like heaven and earth.

Yeah.

This is what life is.

I muttered that and decided to accept reality.

"Cold."

I stamped my feet for no good reason, then curled my body into a ball. White breath streamed out. I sat cross-legged, arms locked tight across my chest.

I sat on the wooden veranda with my back to the room. I would sleep here on the porch. That was the conclusion I had reached.

This body had been tempered in Amyeondong. It wasn't even deep winter—mere early winter. There was no way I would lose to something like this. I had not trained my body so soft that I would.

"Huh. I was worried, but you can actually handle it?"

From the closed room behind me, I could even hear Namgung Sogyo's snoring.

I kept patting my own shoulder.

"Heh. I really did train hard, didn't I? Good job, body of mine. Enduring this freezing cold without complaint. Yeah. Doing just fine. Absolutely fine. No threat to my life, floor's nice and flat."

I was tired. Leaning against a pillar, I closed my eyes for a moment. With steady breathing, I fell asleep.

White breath seeped out from between my tightly curled limbs and cut across the winter dawn stars. The night deepened.

"…."

I opened my eyes. I looked at the night sky. I checked the angle of the stars and the moon. I checked the shadows.

"…Just when does the sun come up?"

I had thought I slept a long while, but not even a single shichen had passed. Winter nights were far too long.

It was a bitter cold. Beneath the blue winter moonlight I shivered and ground my teeth.

So Yeomgyo… are you screwing me over like this on purpose?