He’s Got His Hands Full Today (1)
Thud.
Namgung Dan crashed to the floor with a wet smack. White steam seemed to rise from his head in wisps.
Yoon Jong slowly opened the eyes he had squeezed shut and looked down at the fallen Namgung Dan.
"...He’s dead."
"Yes. Looks dead."
Jo Geol nodded vigorously with his arms folded, adding that he hadn’t heard such a satisfying impact in ages.
But even that reaction was nothing compared to the Namgung Clan swordsmen watching from behind. Every single one of them looked as if their eyes might pop out of their sockets. They stared blankly at the collapsed Namgung Dan and couldn’t manage to form a proper sentence.
"F-father brother..."
"In one blow..."
Their mouths simply would not close.
What in the world had just happened?
No matter how many times they looked back and forth between the fallen Namgung Dan and Dang So-so, who was smiling brightly with her sword balanced on her shoulder, they still couldn’t make sense of the scene.
"Ugh... uuugh..."
"F-father brother!"
"Dan!"
Then Namgung Dan, who had briefly lost consciousness, began to twitch. Groaning in pain while clutching his head, he soon picked up the wooden sword that had fallen beside him and forced himself back onto his feet.
"Ugh..."
Halfway upright, he clutched his head again and trembled violently.
That hurts.
Of course it hurts.
I want to die.
Oh Geom shut his eyes tight and shook his head as though he couldn’t bear to watch. Only someone who had endured that kind of pain could truly understand it.
"Cough! Co... cough!"
Dang So-so watched Namgung Dan stagger to his feet and smiled sweetly.
"What? Want more?"
"Th-that..."
Namgung Dan, his eyes half-dead, looked at her and said,
"Y-you... caught me off guard..."
"Ahh, caught off guard?"
Dang So-so nodded as though she understood perfectly.
"Right. Well, if you were caught off guard, let’s just call it void. That’s fair enough, isn’t it?"
In the first place, for a swordsman, saying he had been caught off guard was never an excuse—no matter where or when. If anything, it only made him look worse. Those who staked everything on a single sword could never be allowed to let their guard down.
And yet Dang So-so accepted Namgung Dan’s excuse with startling generosity. From Namgung Dan’s point of view, it was almost too kind.
So at first glance, it might have sounded like a warm and generous thing to say.
But Oh Geom’s reaction was completely different.
"...She’s got him today."
"Looks like she’s really pissed off."
"Should we get a coffin ready in advance?"
"...Go ahead."
Unfortunately, Namgung Dan couldn’t hear the muttering behind him.
"Ugh."
He pressed hard on his own head.
The world was spinning, and his mind was foggy. Even now, pain beyond words was pounding through his skull. But he had to pull himself together somehow.
If I can just show my actual skill...
It had been a mistake to assume Dang So-so would use a swift, light sword.
Who could have imagined that such a tiny body would unleash such absurdly heavy swordsmanship? His wrist still throbbed from blocking that sword.
"Cough!"
Namgung Dan raised his sword again and pointed it at Dang So-so. He knew full well how ugly he looked, but pride was not the issue here.
If he backed down like this, the result would be that the Namgung sword had been crushed by Mount Hua’s sword without even managing to counter once. And by someone like Dang So-so, who had only just entered Mount Hua no long ago.
For Namgung Dan, that was a humiliation beyond comparison.
"Hmm."
Dang So-so looked at the sword leveled toward her, then spun her own blade idly.
"How long should I wait for you?"
"...Pardon?"
"I mean recovery. You’re going to say later that you were out of sorts and couldn’t show your real skill, aren’t you?"
"..."
Namgung Dan bit his lip so hard it nearly went white.
The fact that he couldn’t refute her words only deepened the humiliation. He was the one insisting on dragging out a match that had already ended.
"I-I’m ready!"
"Really?"
Dang So-so smiled and walked toward him. At that moment, sparks seemed to fly in Namgung Dan’s eyes.
You—!
There was a limit to how much disrespect a person could take! She was approaching him without a shred of caution right in front of his face!
"Taaaah!"
Namgung Dan shouted and brought his sword down. The Namgung Clan’s secret technique, the Iron Sword Twelve Styles, unfolded without the slightest excess.
Thud!
The moment sword met sword in the air, he twisted his wrist and swept his blade like a storm. It was a ferocious sword momentum that seemed capable of engulfing Dang So-so whole.
All I have to do is show my real skill!
He was not someone who would lose to Dang So-so, who had been training swordsmanship for only a few years. Every strike in this exchange held his blood and sweat. No matter how talented Dang So-so was, she could never match the time he had devoted to this sword. She shouldn’t be able to. She had no right to.
Certainly.
Certainly that should have been the case...
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Blocked. All of it.
Every violent slash he unleashed was being blocked by Dang So-so’s sword without a single opening left behind.
H-how?
Namgung Dan began to panic little by little.
Had the blow to the head weakened his sword?
No.
Swordsmanship was something carved into the body. His sword was drawing exactly the path he intended. And yet, no matter how he swung, it never touched Dang So-so’s body.
Throb. Throb.
Worse, each time their swords collided, pain shot through his wrist as if it might snap.
His wrist couldn’t withstand the shock transmitted through the blade with every impact.
Th-this can’t be happening!
Namgung Dan cried out and swung with everything he had. A berserk storm of sword strikes poured toward Dang So-so.
"F-father brother!"
"You can’t, Father Brother!"
The watching Namgung swordsmen screamed before they realized it, because they could tell Namgung Dan’s sword was no longer suited to a spar.
At this rate, Dang So-so’s body would be torn to shreds by the savage storm of sword energy!
But contrary to appearances, the one being driven back was Namgung Dan.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Even as swords clashed repeatedly, Dang So-so’s eyes gradually cooled. Her gaze fixed on Namgung Dan with not even the slightest tremor.
At that moment, her small voice rang clearly in Namgung Dan’s ears.
"Are you done?"
"Huh!"
That was when it happened.
Thoom!
Just as sword met sword, Dang So-so gave her wrist a light twist and flicked Namgung Dan’s blade upward. Naturally, his upper body opened wide.
"Your head!"
Dang So-so’s sword fell like a beam of light toward the crown of his head. Namgung Dan desperately yanked his blade back up to shield himself, pouring all his internal energy into it so it would not be crushed by her sword this time.
I-I blocked it...
But just as he braced himself for the impact of the two blades colliding, Dang So-so’s sword spun once. Then it slipped right past Namgung Dan’s sword.
What?
And then, clearly, he saw it—the sword that had slipped past his head was driven straight into his right ankle.
Taaaak!
With a crisp sound, Namgung Dan’s mouth flew open so wide it looked as though it might tear.
Pain impossible to describe in words shot up from his ankle and spread through his entire body.
"Ugh... ughhh..."
In the next instant, Namgung Dan, filled with rage, jerked and swung his sword wildly.
Taaaak!
But before he could complete the motion, Dang So-so’s sword came smashing down onto his knee.
"Ugh... aaahhh!"
Namgung Dan swung his sword with everything he had. But at that very instant, Dang So-so did not dodge the blade coming at her—she met it head-on and slapped it aside instead.
Kwaaaang!
Namgung Dan’s waist twisted as if it might break. His sword was forced completely behind his back. His grip tore open, and bright red blood dripped from his hand.
This... this can’t be...
Then Dang So-so’s voice, seething with anger, stabbed into his ear.
"You call yourself a swordsman and you just swing your sword around because you’re pissed off?"
Dang So-so lifted her sword in a motion that was impossible to miss. Namgung Dan, horrified, raised his wooden sword with both hands to shield the top of his head.
Dang So-so’s sword came crashing down.
"If you want to!"
Kwaaaaang!
"Put power!"
Kwaaaaang!
"Into your sword!"
Kwaaaaaang!
"Then lower your stance first, you bastard! Your stance!"
Kwaaaaaaang!
Namgung Dan lowered his stance just as Dang So-so demanded. Well, if his spine twisting backward at nearly a right angle counted as lowering his stance, that was.
"What about face? You little bastard who hasn’t even dried the blood on your head yet, and you’re talking about face?"
"Ugh... ughhh..."
Half out of his mind, Namgung Dan instinctively tried to straighten his body. No—he tried to straighten it.
"I said lower your stance, you bastard!"
Kwaaaang!
Namgung Dan’s wooden sword slammed into his own face. Two streams of blood from his nose sprayed comically into the air.
"He really doesn’t understand a word I’m saying, does he? Fine. If he can’t hear it with his ears, I’ll make him understand with his body!"
Watching the scene, Oh Geom turned his head away, already anticipating the carnage that would follow. He simply couldn’t bear to watch.
"Knees down!"
Dang So-so’s sword smashed mercilessly into Namgung Dan’s knees.
"Straighten your back!"
She struck the side of his slumping waist and forced it upright.
"Shoulders! Relax your shoulders!"
After both shoulders were hammered in rapid succession, Namgung Dan’s body had taken on an absurdly correct posture.
Baek Cheon said nothing. He merely looked up at the distant sky and let out a low sigh.
Why was violence inherited?
Why...
"If you’re going to swing a sword, do it with your damn head in the game, you bastard!"
Dang So-so’s sword shot toward the center of Namgung Dan’s crown like a shaft of light.
Staring at the blade falling toward his head, Namgung Dan smiled blankly without realizing it.
This is... a dream.
Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaang!
The sound of something one did not want to imagine coming from a person’s head rang out five times in a row.
Thud.
At last, Namgung Dan collapsed to the ground like a rotten sheaf of straw.
The entire estate watched in a daze as he lay there trembling all over like a frog that had been hit by a stone.
"What? That’s all it took to drop him? Hey. Aren’t you getting up?"
Then Yoon Jong quietly turned his head and asked Baek Cheon,
"Uncle martial brother."
"Hm?"
"Why did So-so turn out like that?"
"Yoon Jong."
"Yes?"
"...People can only grow up by learning what they see. If the water above is that bastard, what can the water below do about it?"
"..."
"Just be thankful that you’re the senior brother of that Cheong Myeong bastard."
It was a very meaningful thing to say, but Yoon Jong still seemed to have something bothering him.
"Uncle martial brother."
"What now?"
"...Then what happens to the plum blossom buds that will be entering Mount Hua in the future?"
"..."
Unable to answer that question, Baek Cheon turned his sorrowful gaze away. At the end of that gaze, Cheong Myeong was laughing gleefully to himself.
"...Primordial Heavenly Venerable."
Please look over Mount Hua.
"Next! Who’s next? Not coming? Hey, Daoist, you, get over here!"
Across the silent estate, only Dang So-so’s rampaging voice and Cheong Myeong’s snickering laughter spread far and wide.