Surprisingly Common Among Middle-Aged Men
"Why the hell do you hate Sword Matriarch so much?"
"It looks so damn old at first glance...."
"Argh, seriously. What are you, a kid?"
The morning after the enthronement ceremony.
I was strolling through the market street with Hyeji senior.
"A young person can be called Sword Matriarch, you know."
"Sword Matriarch is a title only for those fifty or older!!"
Sword Matriarch.
A title for female swordswomen who had reached a high realm in the martial world.
With all sorts of variations. A Sword Matriarch from the Plum Blossom Sect would be Plum Blossom Sword Matriarch, from the Wudang Sect would be Taiji Sword Matriarch, something like that.
The key point was that the title Sword Matriarch carried the respect and envy of all.
"Change it to Sword King, please!!"
"You think you can just change a title on a whim?!"
But why the hell did it have to be me?
Yeah, I get it. There aren't that many titles for female swordswomen, so how likely was it to get one that perfectly fit my taste?
Still, there's such a thing as appropriate, right? Sword Matriarch screams "fifty-year-old Kim Sook-ja from Gwangseo-gu, Seoul, last dance" no matter who looks at it! And I'm not even a real woman....
"There was talk in the market about using a different title."
"Oh! Like what?"
"One that stuck with me was... Taeshim Hannyuh (Thai heartless woman)."
"The vibe sounds fucking awful... What does it mean?"
"Literal translation: big-breasted cold woman."
"Fuck off."
The barbaric martial world bastards are all the same.
If you've got big tits and you're pretty, they only focus on that and ignore everything else.
No, but shit, Taeshim Hannyuh? Whoever came up with that is getting hanged when I find them.
"Sword Beauty would be better at least...."
"Someone already has that one."
The next-best option, Sword Beauty, was already taken, apparently.
The eldest daughter of the Nangong family, head of the Five Great Sects of the Central Plains, was using the title Thunderstorm Sword Beauty.
In that situation, if I used Sword Beauty too, our character concepts would overlap, so they settled on Sword Matriarch.
"Haa... Whatever, let's talk strategy."
"Shall we?"
Rubbing my throbbing head, I started discussing the dungeon clear with Hyeji senior.
Now that I'd officially inherited the Palace Lord's position, praising our Strategy team for their merits would end the dungeon clear right away.
But where's the fun in something so straightforward? This dungeon had an additional reward condition.
Just getting praise from the Palace Lord gave standard rewards, but if you earned recognition and got appointed to a key position in the Ice Palace, you'd get even bigger rewards.
"Coming this far and settling for standard rewards would suck, right?"
"Of course. After all the shit I went through to become Palace Lord."
"...Doesn't seem like you went through that much."
"True enough."
Obviously, no matter what key position it was, we could assign it however we wanted.
Since I was the Palace Lord with decision-making power.
But there was one problem....
"That man's bothering me."
The fact that the mysterious man hadn't shown himself right up to the end.
Our plan had gone off without a hitch at the enthronement ceremony with some self-staged drama to muddle through.
But since things went too smoothly and the guy didn't even show his face, it felt off.
"Well, strictly speaking, the enthronement ceremony isn't fully over yet, is it?"
"True."
Actually, the enthronement ceremony wasn't completely finished.
Even after the Palace Lord ascended the platform and received the position, they held a three-day festival to celebrate the new Palace Lord's ascension.
That period was included in the ceremony too, so the man might come looking for me before the festival ended.
It could turn into a dangerous festival where my life was on the line.
"Fresh fish skewer, one nyang each!"
"See the portrait of the Palace Lord before you go!"
"Didn't expect much from the North Sea festival, but she's pretty hot."
"Pretty flashy, huh."
Even in a situation where assassins could strike at any moment, Hyeji senior and I wandered the market with our faces covered by masks, enjoying the festival.
The reasons for goofing off at the festival in this situation were two: one was rest to soothe our weary bodies and minds after the long dungeon raid.
"Someone's tailing us from behind."
"Bite already, huh."
And the other was to lure out anyone after my life as bait.
We could tell it was working from the black-masked figures who'd started following us at some point.
Stopping our steps and turning around, I spotted the masked guys about thirty meters back.
They stopped in sync.
We glared at each other across the passing crowd.
"Pick one from the left, one from the right."
"Gotta do one-on-one?"
"That's the romance."
"Looking at my junior like this brings tears to my eyes."
Coincidence or not, there were exactly two tailing us.
I prepared for a fair, upright one-on-one fight, as befitting a righteous knight of the orthodox faction (not sure if North Sea counts as orthodox).
"I'll take the right one. Senior, handle the left guy."
"Don't act like you're being generous by dumping the big brute on me."
"Skip the petty details."
As soon as we finished talking, Hyeji senior and I split off and charged in opposite directions.
We were masked too, so they couldn't tell who the real Palace Lord was.
This way, they'd split up and chase us.
"Plenty of internal energy, no strain on lightness skill."
Using the lightness skill I'd learned from Teacher I-hwa, I swiftly passed through the crowd toward a deserted spot, sensing footsteps following me.
Coming after me, as expected.
Thrilled, I left the bustling festival market behind and stopped in an open clearing.
"Come on out already."
"Ran pretty far, huh."
"Gotta pick a nice spot to die."
The masked man appeared as if he'd been waiting.
One with the black mask had massive fists, the other held two daggers... Wait, why the fuck are there two?
"Uh... why'd both of you follow me?"
"You lured us here, bitch."
"Faces covered, we split into two. You were supposed to pick one."
We'd definitely had our faces masked.
Since leaving the Ice Palace, so there's no way they could've known....
Was it a traitor again this time?
"What bullshit. Your body's different from the start."
"Hanging those things on your chest and expect us not to notice?"
"Ah, fuck."
Hmm, not that reason.
A more primal, basic one.
Why did Hyeji senior, barely B-rank in heart, cause this mess? So infuriating.
"Should've wrapped 'em in bandages."
"Too late for regrets now."
"Ah, if you play with us a bit, maybe next chance?"
The masked men vulgarly thrust their hips, revealing their disgusting lust toward me.
Daring to spew such mocking words at the Palace Lord—unforgivable, they must be severely punished.
"FYI, don't get any funny ideas. Both of us are peak experts, so you, barely past your twenties, are just an easy toy."
"This old man knocked up plenty of women back in the day. Today, let's... "
"Your mom's cunt."
An emergency trial convened in my mind for their gem-like words.
Obviously, the verdict was death.
I drew my sword from my waist and charged.
"This bitch!"
"Careful! Suppress her limbs intact—we gotta enjoy it!"
Still not grasping the situation, babbling about keeping limbs intact.
Well, peak experts were pretty skilled martial artists.
Even as Palace Lord, I looked like easy prey, not even thirty yet.
But life is fun because unexpected shit always happens.
"Fool! Taste this seat's ultimate technique!!"
"Would've been easy if you'd come quietly!"
A fist smashing toward my head, two daggers at my shoulder.
I dropped my waist low to dodge the daggers, kicked off, accelerated left, and easily evaded the slamming fist.
"What the?!"
"Intel said first-rate realm!"
The masked men panicked hard as their internal-energy-infused attacks missed easily.
They were right. Up until the Palace Lord selection ended, I'd been stuck at first-rate.
Less than two weeks had passed since, so my realm should've been unchanged.
If I weren't a regressor.
"Peak? Tried hard for a week, was easy."
"Don't spout nonsense!!"
One week.
Even geniuses take at least three years to break the peak wall, but I did it in one.
Exactly, one week repeated thirty-two times.
"Figured something like this might happen, so I grinded ahead."
According to Teacher I-hwa and the Grand Elder, I had innate talent for martial arts.
But even geniuses can't break peak in a week—impossible. So I used the regressor's cheat: looping one week thirty-two times, focusing on training.
Thus, compressing 224 days of training into one week to reach peak realm.
"...Even if you reached peak, you're still green! If we don't let our guard down, no way we lose!"
"Sword aura!"
The dagger assassin yelled, steadying himself somehow.
At the same time, yellow auras bloomed on the daggers and fist.
Hmm. Green? Kinda hurtful.
"Sword aura's nice. Shall I use it too?"
"...What?!"
I wrapped my sword in energy too, drawing out a sharp blue sword aura.
The difference between them and me? My sword aura was over ten times bigger.
Theirs on the daggers barely hit 1cm, while mine was so thick and long you'd mistake my sword for a greatsword.
Difference from the energy gained in the Eternal Ice Crystal—honestly, mine was closer to sword ray than aura.
Theirs? Kinda wilted.
"Sword aura deficiency, maybe?"
"You bitch!!!"
The assassins foamed at the mouth upon seeing my superior extreme sword aura.