Chapter 69
"Th-that sword of the Great Swordmaster... the one you carry around with you..."
When Geom Mujin had been ambushed by the fishman Goema aboard the ship, he’d thrown his sword to save her.
Seeing the pitch-black blade embedded in the monster’s skull, she had been too stunned to say anything at first.
She’d kept quiet until now because there had never been a proper opening, but that was over.
"You mean this thing?"
At Dang Seorin’s words, I widened my eyes in feigned surprise and drew out the jet-black sword. It was the cursed blade that had once wreaked havoc in Gangseo Province by controlling a child.
"You know what this sword is?"
"Ah... I-I’m not entirely sure, but... yes..."
As Geom Mujin stepped toward her, Dang Seorin blushed and gave a tiny nod. I’d already been thinking it would be nice if I could ask the Sichuan Dang Clan for a little expert advice, so this was working out better than I’d hoped.
"So? What is it?"
"M-may I touch it...?"
"Go ahead."
I handed the black sword to her.
Over the past few days, I’d watched it closely, and there hadn’t been the slightest sign of it trying to stir again. Right now, even with its blade shattered, it was nothing more than an antique with a satisfying grip. Handing it over to her shouldn’t be a problem.
If this thing had been playing dead the whole time and tried to steal her body the moment she touched it, I’d seal it away in the latrine for good.
Tap.
And so the black sword passed from Geom Mujin’s hand into Dang Seorin’s.
"...Hngh!"
"!"
The moment she closed her hand around it, Dang Seorin swayed and let out a shaky gasp.
Holy shit!
It really had been pretending?
You bastard, you’re getting sent straight to the toilet-
"I-I knew it...! I wasn’t wrong..."
"Dang Seorin?"
Just as I was about to sentence it to a life in the shitter, she turned the sword this way and that, inspecting it, prodding it, muttering under her breath. Her reaction was... not at all what I’d feared.
"Great Swordmaster... th-this sword is incredible...!"
Dang Seorin’s eyes, half-hidden beneath her thick bangs, gleamed as she puffed out a fierce breath through her nose.
Hmph—! Hmph—!
"You’re saying it’s that amazing?"
Her almost intimidating excitement made me lean back slightly as I asked. Geom Mujin himself looked puzzled, but if a sword could mind-control people, draw in natural qi, and raise the dead, then yeah, it was definitely something.
Maybe I’d just gotten used to being absurdly powerful and experiencing every kind of nonsense imaginable, so my threshold was way too high.
Even Geom Mujin was taken aback by what came out of Dang Seorin’s mouth next.
"O-of course! This sword is a divine sword...!"
"A divine sword!"
His eyes flew wide open.
* * *
A divine sword.
Not the same thing as the soul-crushing trial called the divine sword that the youths of Geom Mujin’s spiritual homeland of the Great Peninsula received the moment they came of age.
My Martial Arts Academy, being a game, had weapon grades. Starting from the lowest junk sword, then true sword, named sword, and treasure sword, the hierarchy climbed all the way up to the divine sword at the summit.
A divine sword literally meant a blade that brought forth the power of the gods.
For the record, the Songmun Ancient Sword of the Wudang Sect and the Plum Blossom Sword of the Hua Sect were both in the named sword tier.
Wait, this is really that divine sword?
I stared at the black blade in disbelief.
The highest-grade divine swords were incredibly rare even in the original story, and making one was absurdly difficult. In fact, during my own playthrough, I’d tried crafting weapons through all sorts of insane combinations, doing every possible stupid exploit, and the best I’d ever managed was a treasure sword.
Even on the community boards, there were only four or five people who’d claimed to succeed at making a divine sword.
And even those were suspicious certification posts that people accused of being fake.
To think I’d been wearing a divine-grade weapon at my waist all this time.
I’d thought it was just a cursed sword, so the shock was enough to make me raise my arms in different directions without meaning to.
"Th-the patterns on the blade’s shell and the carving on the hilt are all clear...!"
She pointed excitedly at the geometric patterns etched into the blade and the intricate designs on the hilt.
Actually, the grades I’d just mentioned only existed in the game; they didn’t necessarily carry over into reality. So why was Dang Seorin calling this sword a divine sword?
"This sword is one of the Four Guardian Divine Swords, the Black Tortoise Sword!"
Because it really was a sword related to the gods.
"The Black Tortoise Sword of the Four Guardian Divine Swords?"
I tilted my head.
Had there really been a sword like that in the original story? I remembered the divine-grade weapons because there had been so few of them, but nothing called the Four Guardian Divine Swords, or the Black Tortoise Sword. Not among the lower grades either.
Could it be a MacGuffin?
My Martial Arts Academy definitely hadn’t rendered every last thing in that world perfectly, so the possibility wasn’t zero.
"Y-yes! It almost perfectly matches what’s recorded in the ancient book Record of the Total Explanation of Divine Artifacts..."
According to her, Record of the Total Explanation of Divine Artifacts was an odd, anonymous text that recorded sacred relics and treasures said to have existed since antiquity. The kind of treasures like the Strike-God Whip said to have been used by Jiang Taigong to smash Daji’s head in, that sort of thing.
Dang Seorin said she would have shown me the book if she’d had it, sounding genuinely disappointed.
"The Black Tortoise Sword, huh..."
I stroked my chin for a moment.
Listening to Dang Seorin, I thought I understood why the black blade possessed those abilities. The reason it could control minds and command the dead with such overwhelming yin energy was because it held the power of the Black Tortoise.
Among the Four Guardian Beasts, the Black Tortoise, like the White Tiger, governed yin.
So of course its yin energy would be that strong.
Hm? Something feels off.
Then a question occurred to me.
"You’re saying this is the Black Tortoise Sword? Then why couldn’t it manipulate water?"
The Black Tortoise wasn’t just about yin; it was also the god of water.
And yet, when I’d fought this cursed thing, it had shown no sign of controlling water at all. Not that it would have been holding back against me, of all people.
"Th-that’s probably because the Black Tortoise Sword is only half complete right now..."
Dang Seorin pointed at the blade, where it had been broken.
"The Black Tortoise is originally a sacred beast that combines a tortoise and a snake into one. If one half is missing, of course its power gets cut in half..."
"Then does that mean the blade is the tortoise and the hilt is the snake?"
No wonder the yin energy had taken on a serpentlike shape.
Maybe it was also absorbing the natural qi from the mountains to make up for the missing part.
"It does seem that way if you look at the snake pattern on the hilt."
Engraved on the hilt was the image of a snake climbing upward.
"B-but where on earth did you get a divine sword like this...?"
"Huh? That was..."
I suddenly felt awkward.
Thinking about what the kid had said, it seemed like the source was probably the bastards from the Demonic Cult.
"I picked it up in the mountains."
Geom Mujin gave a short, clean answer, finding it too much trouble to explain properly.
It had been chopped up like twigs being slaughtered, but it wasn’t exactly a lie.
"I-I see."
Surprisingly, Geom Mujin’s explanation worked.
If you wanted to find a divine sword, you needed a fated encounter, and in Murim those encounters were usually found in mountains, cliffs, and caves.
"But if you’re calling it one of the Four Guardian Divine Swords, does that mean the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, and Vermilion Bird are out there too?"
If that was true, then being stuck with the least stylish of the four—no, the Black Tortoise—was a little disappointing.
Somewhere, an unspeakable something seemed to scream, Then don’t use it! but nobody heard it.
"Y-yes... they said there are four divine swords in total: the Azure Dragon Sword, White Tiger Sword, Vermilion Bird Sword, and this one."
"Oh. Is that so."
Geom Mujin’s eyes sparkled like a veteran gamer who’d just discovered new content.
He didn’t know whether the Black Tortoise Sword could be repaired, but collecting the others didn’t sound bad at all.
"H-here you go..."
Dang Seorin handed the Black Tortoise Sword back with a voice heavy with regret.
She wanted to keep looking at it, keep touching it a little longer, but messing with someone else’s collection violated Rule 3 of the collectors’ code.
"All right."
Taking the Black Tortoise Sword back, I looked at her quietly.
"H-huh!? Wh-why are you looking at me like that? Did I do something wrong...?"
"Dang Seorin."
"Y-yes, y-yes!?"
She flinched at my gaze and accidentally bit her tongue. Geom Mujin opened his mouth.
"What do you think about repairing this sword?"
"M-me?"
"Yes."
For a split second, Dang Seorin’s face lit up with joy.
"I-I could never repair a divine sword myself..."
But only for a moment; her confidence evaporated just as quickly, and she murmured,
"There has to be someone better than me..."
"I don’t know. I think I’ve found the right person."
Geom Mujin spoke with absolute certainty.
His eyes were on her hands, which kept fidgeting nervously.
For all that she was the daughter of a noble family, her hands were rougher than I expected.
Those calluses. Those scars.
A blade-swinger like me could tell at a glance.
These were the hands of someone who had spent years working iron.
How hard must she have worked to end up like that when she was still only twenty?
"Your hands tell the story of the road you’ve walked and the effort you’ve poured into it. A person with hands like that is worth trusting."
"Ah... th-th..."
Moved by the sincerity in his words, Dang Seorin clasped her own hands tightly and bowed her head low.
The reason I wanted Dang Seorin to handle the Black Tortoise Sword’s repair wasn’t only because of that. As she said, there might be better craftsmen if I looked hard enough, but Dang Seorin had something special.
Her ability to reconnect a broken key.
With that ability, which was almost like a supernatural power, and her skill, maybe a repair really was possible.
I absolutely was not thinking something cheap and lazy like, if extra materials were needed during the repair, she’d be so excited she’d go fetch them on her own and never bill me for them. No way. Never.
"So, what do you say? Will you take it on?"
I held the Black Tortoise Sword out to her again.
"...Yes."
Dang Seorin glanced back and forth between the sword and me, then nodded.
"I-I won’t disappoint you if you leave it to me..."
Having made up her mind, Dang Seorin reached out with a determined expression.
Just as she was about to take the sword—
Whir-!
"Eep!?"
The Black Tortoise Sword bounced out of her hand like a dog kicking itself free.
* * *
"Young Lady Yulin, everything is ready."
Behind Hayoung, who had finished preparing to leave, O Naho was bound and gagged.
"Mmph...! Mmph!"
O Naho thrashed helplessly, the gag stuffed in his mouth doing nothing to save him.
As Dang Yulin had said, he was indeed being taken away.
What awaited him now was the lone shred of a future he’d be granted in the name of freedom.
"Keep him with you for a while. I’ve got something to handle later too."
"Don’t worry."
They had yielded their turn to the Dang family because of circumstances, but I was next in line. Reserved and waiting.
".....!"
He was already in trouble as it was, and now the next beating had been announced right in front of him. His face went white.
"We’ll be going now."
"Oh."
"Seorin?"
"Hehe... I’m just a person as useless as rust blooming on iron..."
Before leaving, Dang Yulin told her twin sister to say goodbye, but Dang Seorin, wrapped in a dark aura, only muttered to herself.
Just a moment ago, when Dang Seorin had taken hold of the Black Tortoise Sword’s hilt to try repairing it, the sword had been flung away.
She’d tried several more times, but every time, the Black Tortoise Sword had been thrown back from her grasp.
As if it refused to be held by her.
The thing had been obedient enough before, but now that she was trying to repair it, it was acting like this.
According to her, a thought was imbued in divine swords, and that thought was rejecting her.
So it’s fine with you staring for a bit, but anything beyond that is too much?
Thanks to that, Dang Seorin had hit 100 percent gloom mode.
"Seorin!"
"Huh? Ah, right. Good-byes... I should say them.... It was an honor meeting you, and I doubt someone like me will ever have a chance to see the Great Swordmaster again... heh heh..."
Dang Seorin gave her farewell in a voice that sounded like she was crying and laughing at the same time.
"Th-then... hang in there. Don’t dwell too much on what happened earlier. Just get stronger and try again, that’s all."
"Y-yeah... even if I try to hang in there... I’ll probably just get rejected again, so what’s the point of trying..."
"....."
Well, damn. I’d gone and poured fuel on the fire for nothing.
"Sigh... take this."
Leaving his sister like that, Dang Yulin handed me a token of identification.
It was the jade badge belonging to her and Dang Seorin, along with Hayoung’s blue one.
Woohoo!
After Moyong Yehwa, I’d just obtained a top-tier difficulty Dang Clan identification badge. Jackpot, baby☆!
"I’ll return the badge once all the compensation has been carried out."
"Got it. And don’t forget what I told you on the ship."
"....."
Dang Yulin shut her mouth.
Not just poison—refine your martial arts too.
Those were the words Geom Mujin had flung through the air along with the fragments with his Threaded Object Pulling.
She remembered the scene vividly.
Honestly...
It was cool.
She couldn’t deny the skill of a master at the pinnacle.
"...I’ll try."
Dang Yulin muttered softly.
And so will I...
A small desire began to bloom in her small chest.
"Good."
Her response was a little underwhelming, but I was satisfied.
She was a prickly little thing—no, a girl with a very bad temper—but if she said it herself, she’d keep her word.
Poison and martial arts.
With the talent I knew she had, she could even aim to become not merely a Poison Matriarch, but a Poison Martial Empress.
"Then until the day we meet again, take care of yourself."
"Take care of yourself."
"Hehe... take care of yourself."
And with that, the Dang family group departed.
......
......
Watching them disappear beyond the darkness of night, Geom Mujin finally turned around and set off in another direction.
Whoosh—!
Using his movement technique, his body leapt lightly into the air.
Geom Mujin headed toward the Hansu side, the exact opposite direction from the Dangs. Entering the forest near Hansu, he moved forward, guided by the thread linked through his spirit.
Before long, the feet that had been rushing forward without hesitation came to a stop.
Deep inside the forest, far from prying eyes—
"Kki-eek!"
there stood Sodam, saluting, and Sama Ryeong, whose face had been half melted and mashed to pieces.
Now it was time to finish the reason he’d come here.
Whoosh— thud.
Geom Mujin’s toe slammed into Sama Ryeong’s abdomen.
"Get up, bastard."