Do You Know the Saber?

The Five Great Families.

Within Cheonghwa they stood at the very peak of economic power—the equivalent, if one were comparing them to modern Korea, of the great chaebol houses. The difference, such as it was, lay in the fact that they had not reached that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠summit on wealth alone.

The Hebei Paeng Family was one of those Five Great Families, and it held the whole of Beijing in its grip. In raw strength and sheer bulk they were the mightiest in Cheonghwa, and the weapon that suited that brute force was the great saber. Its weight varied wildly from wielder to wielder, yet there was a saying: if you ever saw a hulking man swinging a lump of iron the weight of a grown man as if it were nothing, he was, without fail, of the Hebei Paeng Family.

Which was why Klein knew exactly who he was the moment she saw the great saber slung across Paeng Cheong-ui's back. She caught up to Lupin, who was following him at a vigorous stride, and whispered.

"Lupin. Do you even know who you're following right now?"

"Huh? He's a good person, isn't he? Some brainless oaf ruined our meal, and this guy's offering to make it up to us, give us a place to sleep, and even throw open a twenty-four-hour buffet. If that isn't a good person, then what is?"

For once, even while riding high on her feelings, Lupin was saying something Klein could actually understand.

"...I mean, that's true. I just think you trust people too easily. We haven't even told him who we are, and all he wants to do is hand everything over."

In Lupin's experience, she had never once seen a manly man of Paeng Cheong-ui's type pull a scam. If Yegor was some enormous wolf, then Paeng Cheong-ui felt like a tiger come down out of the mountains—a king of the peaks. Men like that usually latched onto a single thing and lived for nothing else, and they almost never stooped to underhanded tricks.

"I can smell it on him. Clear eyes, pure-hearted maniac. A guy like that never lies. He'll slap you across the face with the facts, sure—but lie? Not a chance."

Hadn't that big bro, the world's strongest pilot, already shown them as much? Crazy as hell, but absolutely not a bad guy.

"...Fine. We'll just have to hope nothing goes wrong."

Klein was already regretting, a little, that she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hadn't warned Lupin ahead of time—how desperately the people of the Hebei Paeng Family longed to meet a fellow saber practitioner, and how their mouths never stopped the instant they did. Swatting away the small fry would be easy enough. At this rate, though, a future of being worked to the bone by the Paeng Family's martial artists looked impossible to avoid.

The people of Cheonghwa were mad for a fight. They were the sort who itched to become like the Heavenly Martial Emperor, who had once struck down the Heavenly Slayer, the First Apostle. They demanded ever more sparring from the strong and poured their entire lives into waiting for the day they might clash with an Apostle of the Star. Plenty, of course, knew their place and inherited a civil post or the family business—but most of them threw themselves into the martial way without rest until they were past forty, when the body began to fail.

And so Lupin was, at this very moment, walking into the tiger's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠den of her own free will. Ply her with food, drink, and a bed until she had nowhere left ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to run, and they might well force her into duels.

"Still, be careful. If they offer you something, don't just smile and take all of it."

Lupin, however, treated connections as temporary things, and she was not the sort to be bound by them. This time it wasn't even a matter her master was caught up in, was it?

"Huh? Why? I'm the type who doesn't turn down gifts. And you said he's from some great family, right? A young master of a prestigious house?"

To Lupin's eyes, Paeng Cheong-ui was roughly a third-generation chaebol heir. Back in her hometown, that sort of would-you-rather game had been all the rage for a while: ride in the domestic car the conglomerate chairman brought, or ride in the supercar an idol brought. Lupin always picked the former. She had never once seen anyone come out the worse for making friends with a chaebol chairman.

"Don't worry so much. If it smells wrong, we just bolt in the night."

The moment Paeng Cheong-ui bellowed for the servants and passed through the great house's main gate, the outer servants who had been waiting came running and took his long robe. The party following behind had nothing extra layered on, and so they drew every eye at once. Chief among them was Lupin, walking at the very front, and she became the topic of conversation in no time.

"Heavens. Where did a beauty like that come from?"

Within Cheonghwa, beauty was judged on eight criteria in all, and meeting even seven was enough to be hailed as a tremendous beauty. The last of them concerned a rather embarrassing region—and the catch was that no one could judge it unless they had shared a bed, or pledged a future together. A backside rounded into a perfect hemisphere, and a springy one at that. A nape so white you would have believed it slathered in powder, and a bosom so full it looked ready to burst straight through her martial robes. A waist as narrowly pinched as Lady Cho Hui, the beloved concubine of King Wu, and a lightness of body that showed in every soft, pattering step. The other four were impossible to confirm, hidden as they were behind her face veil—but on figure alone, she was already a candidate to strike the title of Cheonghwa's Four Great Beauties and make room for a fifth.

"Has the Young Patriarch finally taken an interest in marriage?"

"As if. A man who's known nothing but the blade for all his twenty years."

"No, I'm telling you—looking like that, even he'd fall head over heels. Step out into the Nanjing marketplace right now and tell me where you'd find another beauty with a body like that. The Young Patriarch must have seen his chance and brought her home."

"Enough of that. Someone go tell the kitchen. A precious guest has arrived, so they'd better serve her properly."

And so a handful of the outer servants went scrambling off toward the kitchen. In the meantime Lupin arrived at the vast bedroom of the annex and let out a cry of wonder. The estate was bigger than a soccer field, and even this annex—said to be one of the smaller buildings—was large enough that you could have played kick-volleyball indoors. So this was it. The old line about a rich man's doghouse being bigger than an ordinary person's house.

"Oooooh."

Lupin had never stayed in a room this enormous. She could just as easily sleep on a rooftop or up in a tree, and she considered spending money on lodging one of the most wasteful things imaginable—though everyone who had ever traveled with her mistakenly believed it was a thrift worn into her bones.

Seeing her so delighted, Paeng Cheong-ui smiled with complete confidence.

"Well? Does it please you?"

Lupin passed his words on to Klein and Seol Baekhwa exactly as spoken.

"What do you think? Do you like it?"

Klein nodded without a word, and Seol Baekhwa—who had been riding on Lupin's back—was in an absolute uproar.

"I love it! Are we gonna stay here forever?"

Paeng Cheong-ui seized the moment and caught the words.

"If you wish it, I shall see that you are lodged in comfort until the day you leave Beijing."

"Really?! Your generosity is as wide as the blue sea, Great Hero!"

A tacit understanding formed quite naturally between Seol Baekhwa and Paeng Cheong-ui. As it happened, Lupin was not the sort to refuse a gift that was offered. Still, as much as she wanted to simply take it, their schedule meant she would have to give it up, and that was the only shame in it.

"I'm grateful for the kindness, but we can't stay long. We have to keep heading south."

"South? And where might your destination be?"

"We have to register for the Ascending Martial Emperor Tournament, so we need to get to Nanjing."

There was a brief silence. Paeng Cheong-ui knew this was his chance for a conversation that mattered, yet he let none of it show as he carefully opened his mouth.

"I knew you for a martial artist by the saber at your waist, but I still do not know your name, nor where you belong. Might you be willing to tell me? I must inform the Family Head who has come to us, and from where."

At that, Lupin shot Klein a glance. The look meant, well, how am I supposed to answer?

...You've come all this way, and now you're asking that? What reason could Paeng Cheong-ui have for treating them this lavishly? Because he had already seen through to the fact that she was the Thirteenth Seat of the Rounds.

"You've probably already looked into it. Thirteenth Seat of the Rounds, Lupin. Klein, the prisoner dragged around by Lupin. And Seol Baekhwa, Lupin's sworn sister."

Not wanting to cause Lupin trouble, Klein finished a perfectly frank, perfectly plain introduction of the party. The person in question, of course, did not seem to care for it.

"What are you even saying. They're both my sworn sisters. This is Reformed Klein. This is cute little Seol Baekhwa."

Had she actually lost her mind? Why couldn't she see that what she'd just said could be taken as siding with the Cult? But before Klein could object, Paeng Cheong-ui asked in a puzzled tone.

"Sworn sisters with a former Shrine Maiden? Might you have ties to the Cult as well?"

"Of course not. I said Reformed Klein. She betrayed the Cult. She's got no intention of going back, so being sworn sisters isn't really a problem. Right, Klein?"

What kind of nonsense was this? From Klein's perspective, it was no different from being forcibly dropped into a would-you-rather game. Keep her loyalty to the Heavenly Fate King? Or, as Lupin said, become a traitor to the Cult and a sworn sister? But the only choice Klein had was the latter. Well, obviously. Pick the former, and the future was as plain as the word plain: Lupin cursed in the same breath as the Cult, hunted as a Shrine Maiden who had infiltrated the Rounds, and so on and so forth.

"Y-yeah. Klein... betrayed... the Cult........."

Heavenly Fate King, I am so sorry. Please, please don't come looking for me because of these words. You must not fall for Lupin's wicked coaxing! So Klein raged inwardly, fit to burst.

Fortunately, thanks to her heartrending sacrifice, Paeng Cheong-ui withdrew every last suspicion.

"So the rumors were true—that you subdued that infamous Shrine Maiden and made a mere girl of her. And beyond even that, the magnanimity to grant her a chance at reform.... You did not rise to the Rounds for nothing."

Lupin twisted this way and that. She hadn't quite caught whether it was praise, but the vibe felt like it, and that put her in a good mood. The good mood, however, vanished in an instant. A hefty serving of cold, hard fact from Paeng Cheong-ui came down and pressed hard upon the head of a Lupin who had been set on Nanjing.

"However, there is one thing I must tell you.... Are you aware that outsiders are not permitted to enter the Ascending Martial Emperor Tournament?"

Outsiders couldn't enter the tournament? Had her master wasted two whole weeks of hard work for nothing?

Then what was this objective supposed to be? Even Big Sis Star and Big Bro Taechang slipped up sometimes, huh.

When Lupin tilted her head, Paeng Cheong-ui pressed a hand to his brow as if it were a pity.

"In truth, the qualifications for entry were changed not long ago. It seems the news was slow to reach you. There have simply been too many cases of outsiders wielding wicked arts, committing fraud, or disgracing the tournament with wretched skill."

It was not as if there had truly been no misconduct by outsiders. The Jinzhou Eon Family, taken in by the Cult's coaxing, had suffered the calamity of its fall last year, and there had also been the incident of a vicious elixir, crafted by the Blood Cult, spreading far and wide. But peel back a single layer, and those incidents were closer to a state project designed, under such pretexts, to keep Lupin bound within Cheonghwa.

Just one week prior, the family heads of every great house and the leaders of the sects had gathered in the hall of the Martial Alliance, and the words they traded were the proof.

"Lupin is coming to Cheonghwa."

"Whoever it is, see to it that she takes up a place here."

"Should they succeed, it will be a joy for all of Cheonghwa—and if in time she is seated among Cheonghwa's Rounds, the merit will belong wholly to that house or sect."

"It is not that there is no way at all. Would you hear it?"

Lupin, who did not dream of that vast scheme, asked with her lips pushed out in a pout.

"Let's hear it, then."

Paeng Cheong-ui smiled with satisfaction, like a salesman who had barely managed to land a client.

"First, go to any faction under the Martial Alliance and defeat every one of their Transcendence Realm experts. Hmm, yes—put in outsider terms, that would be an Aura Master of the early to middle stage. After that, follow the set procedures and receive a token declaring you one of that faction."

Having heard him out, Lupin's expression was not particularly pleased. Still, she had to enter the tournament if she wanted to strengthen her pigeon aura, so dropping it wasn't an option. More than that—

A status window had popped up square on Paeng Cheong-ui's face, so refusing felt awkward too. If they were just handing stuff out again, shouldn't she take what was given?

Anyway, what even was the Five Tigers Gate Severing Saber? Was that the doctor from Liore, the one who goes wherever he feels like? She was pretty sure Paeng Cheong-ui had been swinging something like the blade on his back, too. ...Aha. So it's a martial art where you throw the blade and hit people! That actually sounded kind of fun.

"All right. Anyway, you're saying if I smash all your Transcendence Realm experts or whatever, that's enough?"

Before that, though, she ought to savor what Cheonghwa's treasure chests tasted like. The pigeons, idle for a while now, were raising a fuss that their wings itched and they wanted to be sent flying.

"Then... shall we start after lunch tomorrow?"