Do You Know the Saber?

She hadn't let it show around the others, but lately Lupin's hours of sleep had grown considerably. Maybe it was the training with her master, which drove her body to the point of exhaustion, or maybe it was all the vitality she burned through—posting pigeons as sentries, and spending herself on everything else besides. What had once been three hours was now five or six, and for as long as the training lasted, the night walks had to be skipped.

Tonight, too, she didn't really have the leisure. She was forcing herself out anyway. From the way Paeng Cheong-ui had talked, the next few days didn't look likely to bring anything troublesome, and coming through Rostov had sharpened Lupin's instincts quite a bit.

She shed her Cheonghwa martial robes for her usual clothes and, at the window, cracked her shoulders and joints—pop, pop. A night outing after so long was not, however, destined to be free. A little nuisance who had been pretending to sleep crept over and caught the edge of her sleeve.

"Unnie, are you going out to steal now?"

A bright-eyed little squirt, practically bouncing. She'd slept the whole day away, and Lupin had known she'd pull this.

Lupin jerked her chin toward Klein, who was dead to the world. Go over there, lie down, and saw some logs.

Seol Baekhwa shook her head.

"But it's hot..."

The annex was well ventilated and pleasantly cool, yet even that freshness seemed to feel hot to her.

"So. You're coming with me?"

"Yeah. I want to see how Divine Thief Unnie steals."

"You've been calling it stealing since the start. It's not stealing, brat. I'm taking back what's rightfully mine."

"Divine Thieves all say that. I read it in a book."

Thieving little brats and their nerve. This, from the Lupin who never spared a thought for what she herself was doing, and saved all her scolding for some poor blameless Divine Thief.

"I'll take you. Chatter and make a racket, and you're in trouble. Hold ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on tight. If you fall, it's serious."

"Okay!"

Tap, tap.

A child clung to her back, but so long as she had the wing-robe, Lupin's body was light—absurdly light. She caught the window frame, wheeled through a half-circle, and rose easily onto the roof of the annex.

Tak—!

With that crisp sound, pigeons poured out and began to embroider the night sky. The higher her star rank climbed, the more they seemed to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠glitter brighter than the true stars.

"Whoa... they're really pretty!"

"I told you to be quiet."

"Weawwy pwetty."

"Cover your mouth like that and you'll fall."

"Oops."

Cute, though.

Stroking Seol Baekhwa's head, Lupin found herself, without meaning to, laying the person she used to be over ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the person she was now.

...The kids were getting by all right, weren't they? She was living happier here than she ever had. Surely they weren't sobbing that she was dead, or falling into some bizarre ritual begging for their big brother back...

...No. That didn't make any sense. There was no way anyone in modern South Korea could unfold a domain or leap through space. Lupin herself hadn't believed in isekai trips until she ended up like this.

Still, she thought it would have been awfully convenient if the real world had also had a brother like Taechang, or a sister like Byeol. If her body had been this quick and this strong back then, then the accident that happened because Lupin was late to the meeting would surely have—

"Divine Thief Unnie?"

"Ah—yeah! Let's go!"

Lupin kicked off the ground on reflex and shot into the sky. It was a first flight startling enough to earn a cheer, but Seol Baekhwa didn't cheer. Instead she whispered at Lupin's ear, worried.

"...Did you think of something bad?"

This was exactly why she hated sharp-eyed brats.

"What are you on about. I was just wondering if I could cut people up while dragging you around."

Seol Baekhwa let out a little snort of a laugh.

"If that's all, it's fine. I'm used to people dying in front of me."

Then she really couldn't let the kid see it. Lupin made up her mind that tonight, at least, she would come home without spilling blood.

In Cheonghwa, there existed a business known as the escort agency. One or two martial artists of the Transcendence Realm belonged to each firm, convoying goods safely to their destination and collecting a transport fee—by modern reckoning, something between an armored cash truck and a security company. They often strengthened that protection by tying themselves to great powers, and the Bukseon Escort Agency, headquartered in Beijing, had its lines running straight to the Hebei Paeng Family that ruled the city.

"What do you mean, no work coming in."

"Just what I said. The Mojeon Mountains got stripped clean, so the roads are wide open. Who's going to hire us?"

"The greenwood forts of Mount Mojeon were cleaned out to the last? Don't tell me the Rounds moved. There was more than one or two of those bastards."

The Bukseon Escort Agency had been making fat money hand in hand with the greenwood chiefs, using the mafia who had crossed over into their hills. Disguise the mafia as men of the greenwood, then raise the escort fee because banditry was on the rise—that was one cut. Hand the mafia's likenesses, composite sketches and all, over to the Paeng Family and collect a commission—that was another. A gold mine that shed coin of its own accord. And now, all at once, it had vanished.

Somewhere around twenty percent of their entire income?

"This is a problem. I was paying off the balance on the manor I moved into with that money."

"Didn't I tell you not to? Why overreach yourself and move in the first place."

Wang, head of the Bukseon Escort Agency, clicked his tongue in regret and set his pipe between his teeth.

"Hey, Escort Dong. Rather than sit here, how about the two of us cook something up."

"You've finally gone money-mad and lost your mind. You want me to play at being greenwood?"

"Escort Dong, that build of yours is perfect for a bandit. I'll split it five and five."

"Seven and three. If I don't get the seven, I don't take it."

"Heh. So you are interested."

"I'm only saying it in case that job gets called off. The one hauling some fragment of a lost martial manual to the Paeng Family."

"Right, right. That's a seriously fat contract, but if word gets around that the greenwood's been pulled up by the roots, won't the venerable Thunderbolt Saber call the price down? Well? Shall we try it?"

"Hmm. Hmm... Eight and two."

Escort Chief Wang flared.

"Have you gone mad? Why does your share keep growing?"

"If this goes wrong, I'm the only one who ends up the villain, so I ought to get more. Otherwise you play the bandit and take the eight."

"......"

A razor-edged battle of nerves broke out, but it didn't last long. From the vault—which ought to have been dead silent in the middle of the night—came a crash.

"What was that. A thief?!"

"Let's go, quick!"

The two escort masters set down the cups they'd been tipping and hurried for the vault.

"Who goes there!"

They flung the door open, and what revealed itself inside was none other than—

"...A pigeon? Did you call a messenger bird?"

"Impossible. If I had, I'd know it. Besides, I've never seen a messenger pigeon that flashy."

Right after, a flutter, and a thud. Something had landed on the vault's roof. Tonk, tonk, tonk—a figure crossed the wooden roof and dropped in front of the window with a light tok.

As if they'd agreed on it, both escort masters put hands to the swords at their waists... but.

"Huh. Somebody was home."

A moment later the pink-haired swordswoman made her entrance, proud as a banner, and they couldn't even crack their mouths open.

Lupin's name was already famous in Cheonghwa. Among criminals especially she was an enormous named terror: the one who commanded terrifying pigeons that would chase you until you died.

The two escort masters immediately took their hands off their swords, cupped fist in palm, and bent deep at the waist. Heads lowered, they were trading secrets between themselves.

"We haven't been marked as criminals too, have we?"

"It's not impossible. Some of the goods in the vault belong to those mafia bastards."

Under the pretext of arranging new work for the mafia, the Bukseon Escort Agency had been storing their goods. Once the bastards were arrested, whatever sat in the vault naturally became the agency's—the same method the Association used to dispose of a wanted criminal's property. Until that moment, though, it was no different from holding a criminal's goods for them. Their napes couldn't help but prickle. Neither man counted the inflated escort fees as any kind of wrongdoing.

The pigeon that had been flying over the mid-sized and large safes for a while landed on Lupin's finger and crooned, grr-rook, grr-rook. Lupin nodded as if she'd understood, and muttered.

"Aha. These people aren't involved."

At those words the two escort masters nearly sagged with relief.

"I nearly got us killed, listening to you and playing bandit."

"...Sorry."

A peace that lasted only a moment.

Flutter. A few more pigeons came in from somewhere and settled, one after another, on Lupin's arm and shoulder. Then, grr-rook, grr-rook again. Having understood them, Lupin muttered and shot the two men a razor-edged look.

"These ones have a file of their own?"

Still bent at the waist, the two belatedly realized their real crime and whispered.

"Looks like she caught us colluding with those fortress chiefs."

"Not the slush-fund vault? That one seems more likely."

As if on cue, both went to draw—but Lupin flashed past like lightning, tracing a sharp, jagged line, and cut through them in an instant.

"Guhk—"

"Kgh!"

She had decided not to see blood, so what struck their bodies was the flat of the blade. A flat still hurt, though. All the more when it was the heavy Lightning Sword, carrying tremendous speed. Folded in half, the two collapsed where they stood, foaming at the mouth.

Watching from the windowsill she had just climbed over, Seol Baekhwa clapped in admiration.

"So fast. Just now I saw three of you, Unnie."

"Hmm. A thief bitch— no. A Hong Gildong has to be at least this good."

"Hong Gildong?"

"A righteous bandit who takes things from bad people and brings them to good people."

"Didn't you just steal everything? I heard Divine Thieves do that."

"You—you. You gonna keep killing the mood? You're really gonna get it."

"Blehh, ahaha."

Lupin begrudged even the time spent bantering with Seol Baekhwa, and opened the chest first.

Hahh. This sweet dopamine.

She let her mind go for a moment to savor the happiness, then cinched her focus tight again.

"Ha. Hoo. Mmm~!"

Seol Baekhwa looked thoroughly flustered.

"Unnie, when you open someone else's safe... does it feel good? You look just like Dharma Protector Cheong when he groans over pictures of naked ladies."

"...Why did you see that."

"I went to ask him something, and I could see through the crack in the door..."

Next time they met, she was kicking him between the legs. If a man wanted quality time with his right hand, he could at least lock the door. No matter how long he'd lived alone.

"That is completely different, dummy. You'll never understand this feeling."

"Yeah. I don't get it at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all."

"Good. Live your whole life not knowing. I don't want you becoming my rival either."

From each chest she had opened, Lupin took a single gold coin and stuffed them into the pouch inside her robes.

The martial artists guarding Escort Wang and Escort Dong's secret vault never even saw Lupin's face. She appeared behind them, and the iron edge of her hand took them in the nape; they dropped. And so, while cleaning out the Secret Safes inside the vault, Lupin acquired a relic: a crumpled sheet of paper inside a flat case of red wood. The Hebei Paeng Family's seal was carved in intaglio on the outside, but Lupin didn't recognize it.

This is a relic?

The pictures and the writing were blurred beyond recognition, and yet, when the appraisal finished, Lupin gained a Growth Value.

No. She hadn't.

Because of Aura Cultivation.

There was a Growth Value called Aura Cultivation?

But Yegor had said it. Lupin was a Star Apostle, so it might be only natural that she couldn't cultivate aura.

True enough. Even a knowledge vending machine gets it wrong sometimes. Thinking of how GPT occasionally spat out bizarre answers...

There was only one way to learn the truth. Ask the other knowledge vending machine: Klein.

She didn't know what the Primal Thunder Saber was, but it seemed good, didn't it? Master had told her to learn all sorts of things, too. So first, Lupin had to succeed at Aura Cultivation.

About thirty minutes later, Klein woke from a nightmare in which an earthquake brought the sanctuary of the Heavenly Mandate Cult crashing down. When she forced her eyes open, what she saw was Lupin's face, looking desperately urgent.

"What! Did something happen? Do we have to run?"

Klein had been sleeping in nothing but a thin skirt yanked up above her chest, and she scrambled to find her clothes. Lupin soothed her and said:

"Teacher...! I want to learn Aura Cultivation...!"

Klein stared blankly for a while. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and threw a fist on pure instinct.

Thwack!

The clean, satisfying crack of skull meeting skull rang through the annex.