The Last Heir of the Namgung Family
There were no such trite words as “How can your name be Namgung—” Namgung Sol accepted it with the calm resignation of someone who had known this moment would come. Her emotions remained steady, undisturbed.
“That’s right. Since you’ve come this far, I assume you heard it from the Alliance Leader.”
The surname Namgung had become the exclusive property of those in the current Murim who wished for death—suicidal hopefuls. Even though revealing it publicly made it difficult to guarantee one’s survival past tomorrow, Namgung Sol carried herself with dignity.
Namgung Woo hadn’t expected her to react dramatically in the first place. After all, even the Jegal Family Head knew about Namgung Sol. While he couldn’t be sure how far the information had spread, the upper echelons of Murim likely had a general grasp of her existence.
The question was, who had revealed it?
Was it the Murim Alliance Leader, Gak-won? Or the Head of the Sang-pyeon-dang, Woo Myeon?
No. Those two, who had been protecting her and worrying about her exposure to the world, would never take such a reckless step. Therefore, the one who had spread the news that a survivor of the Namgung Family still lived was Namgung Sol herself.
‘So the Alliance Leader’s side was the one who hid her identity until now.’
And unlike her earlier attitude of trying to push others away, Namgung Sol had accepted the Alliance Leader’s help. She had even reversed her initial stance of wanting to reveal herself.
“I understand. The Alliance Leader is someone with ties to the Namgung Family. That’s why he isn’t part of ‘those people’ and was able to help you. Then, is the Head of the Sang-pyeon-dang an extension of the Alliance Leader?”
“…Since you already seem certain, denying it now would be meaningless. Yes. The Alliance Leader… cannot be said to be unrelated to the Namgung Family. He was the one and only close friend of the last Family Head.”
The friendship between the young master of the Namgung Family and the greatest talent of Shaolin Temple. In this changed era, it was a relationship known only to those who knew, but it was a public anecdote that needed no concealment.
“Now you understand, don’t you? My duty is the family business of the Namgung Family. As someone who inherited the Namgung surname, it is a burden I must carry. Therefore… I cannot drag you into this.”
Namgung Woo finally realized what had been nagging at him. The sense of incongruity that had grown thicker with every word exchanged between them. It was the difference in how the two of them viewed the goal called the Namgung Family.
Namgung Woo saw the Namgung Family as something to be rebuilt. Although he had sworn to restore it, the only thing he shared with the family—aside from the surname—was martial arts. Their connection was exceedingly dry.
That was why Namgung Woo did not hesitate to borrow the strength of others for his objective.
But Namgung Sol did not see the Namgung Family as something to raise up again. To her, it was more like a grave she had to enter. She openly revealed the Namgung surname. Even though there was someone with both the will and the power to protect her from the danger, she still tried to leave that place.
Did Namgung Sol possess the same overwhelming personal martial prowess as Namgung Woo? She did not. Simply put, Namgung Sol was walking the path of self-destruction. As if, because she was a Namgung, her end must also be with the Namgung Family.
Was it because, unlike Namgung Woo, she truly carried their blood?
As a pure-blooded descendant, Namgung Sol harbored some special emotion toward the Namgung Family.
Honestly, Namgung Woo had no right to comment on the life path she had chosen. Although they shared the same surname, they were not blood relatives who shared the same blood.
Yet the way she rejected the helping hands around her looked exactly like himself when he had first arrived in this world. He couldn’t just leave her like that.
So Namgung Woo spoke.
“If that’s the case, then I must show you even more.”
Saaaaak—
With a dull scraping sound unlike ordinary metal, Ban-yeon was drawn from its dragon-eye wood sheath. Having been trapped in its stifling scabbard for so long, the sword burst forth with vigorous energy as if delighted to see the world again.
The demonic energy that had been suppressed by the sacred energy of the Geumgyegyeong scriptures Namgung Woo had personally carved with Samadhi True Flame, along with the spiritual energy inherent in the dragon-eye wood, exploded all at once. It instantly filled the training ground.
“Ugh…! W-what are you—!”
Namgung Sol instinctively raised her sword, her body shrinking back from Ban-yeon’s demonic aura. But before she could even assume a proper stance, Namgung Woo withdrew all of the sword’s energy and walked past her to stand in the center of the training ground.
“I’ll show you. What the path of the sword you must walk truly looks like.”
Namgung Woo’s sword began to trace clean, refreshing trajectories. Even without a single strand of inner energy infused into it, the sword qi surged and amplified the power of each strike. This was the martial art of one who had already broken down the boundary between the inner and outer universe.
Even without drawing on his own inner energy, the movement naturally resonated with the energy of the outer universe.
Namgung Sol froze where she stood.
What Namgung Woo was unfolding was a familiar sword technique. It matched perfectly with the movements from the secret manual she had read over and over until the pages nearly tore.
Following the Iron Sword Ten Forms, the Great Swallow Sword Art revealed its true form through Namgung Woo’s hands. He traced the exact same mental image that Namgung Sol had been practicing moments ago.
He wasn’t copying what she had done. The sword art he displayed, based on a far deeper understanding, was on a level that could never be replicated after seeing it only once.
This sword technique wasn’t something he had stolen from another. It was purely something Namgung Woo had mastered himself.
The moment she realized that, Namgung Sol understood how he had been able to point out the immature parts of her swordplay so exquisitely.
“Ah… aah……”
While all twenty-one forms of the Great Swallow Sword Art were displayed, Namgung Sol lost all sense of the passage of time.
Her internal clock only began ticking again when the sword art Namgung Woo displayed changed its form. The center of gravity of the movements shifted downward. Instead of the fierce, heaven-splitting strikes that had come before, a supple, flowing sword path that seemed to gently embrace the air extended like a swallow soaring through the sky.
She recognized its name the instant she saw it.
It was the advanced sword art for the women of the Namgung Family—one so lost that even its manual was thought to have vanished from existence.
“Changgung Bi-yeon Sword Art……”
Softness instead of strength. Illusion instead of dominance.
The Changgung Bi-yeon Sword Art, which utilized the superior flexibility women possessed over men, was a sword technique created exclusively for females. Even for Namgung Woo, drawing out its maximum potential would be difficult.
Yet he had mastered it.
What that meant was clear.
This man. It is this man.
He was the last true successor who had inherited every legacy of the Namgung Family. The one who had grown in the cradle of martial arts built by the Namgung Family and fully embodied its heritage.
The existence she had only ever dreamed of or fantasized about had suddenly appeared before Namgung Sol without any warning.
Namgung Sol did not know what to call the emotion she was feeling right now. It was joyful yet fearful, welcoming yet hollow. A contradictory feeling. The word “love-hate” did not fit. Because she herself had no right to harbor hatred.
So let’s just leave it without a name.
The swallow finished its flight and returned to its nest.
After completing the final form and sheathing his sword in one seamless motion, Namgung Woo turned to look at Namgung Sol.
She was crying.
With her eyes wide open, sniffling, she shed tears endlessly. Even as the tears rolled down her cheeks, gathered at her chin, and fell in droplets, she made no move to wipe them away. With a voice thick with moisture, she repeated over and over.
“I’m so glad… truly, I’m so glad……”
They say that whoever cries first wins, or something like that.
Namgung Woo couldn’t bring himself to press the weeping Namgung Sol. He waited quietly until she had gathered her emotions.
Staring at her the whole time felt awkward, so he idly checked whether the barrier he had set up before entering the training ground was still intact. The barrier he had spread to conceal their qi and block surveillance or eavesdropping still enveloped the training ground exactly as it had in the beginning.
Namgung Sol’s tears showed no sign of stopping, but as the aura around her gradually regained its composure, Namgung Woo asked.
“Has this been enough proof that I am not one of ‘those people’?”
“Yes… of course. More than enough. Overflowing, even.”
Namgung Sol’s tone had changed noticeably from its previous thorny quality. Biting her lip as she wiped away her tears, she spoke without any pretense, as if she had shed an invisible yoke she had been carrying all this time.
“I’ll tell you everything. Everything I know.”
Simply standing in the training ground felt uncomfortable, so the two moved a short distance away. They sat side by side on a resting area prepared at one corner of the training ground.
And then Namgung Sol’s story began.
Her tale resolved many of the questions Namgung Woo had been holding.
The Namgung Family had possessed greater power than even the current number one family, the Heonwon Family. Even though they had lost much of their strength during the Blood Cult Catastrophe, it was strange that they had been so utterly destroyed after their defeat in the bloody war against the Dokgo Family.
Although the Family Head had been defeated and killed in a life-or-death duel between family heads after repeated losses and a clearly unfavorable situation, it was still suspicious that they had declined so completely that not a single survivor remained after twenty years.
They say even a ruined noble family lasts three generations. For a family like the Namgungs, even if the Dokgo Family had been determined to exterminate them, shouldn’t they have been able to flee into the righteous faction’s territory and dream of a comeback?
Namgung Sol knew the reason.
“The fall of the Namgung Family happened because there was a traitor within.”
“…A traitor.”
A turncoat who had sold information about the remaining forces of the Namgung Family’s movements to the Dokgo Family in exchange for her own safety. Because of her, the Namgung Family lost even the chance to plan for the future and collapsed pathetically.
And that traitor left the Murim, got married, and gave birth to a child. She gave that child a name.
“Sol. It was a name given with the wish that she would not get entangled with Murim and would simply live a plain, unassuming life.”
Namgung Sol spoke with self-mockery.
“That’s right. The traitor who sold the Namgung Family to the Dokgo clan… was my mother.”