Were You Hoping for Something? (5)
Standing at the prow and gazing toward Maehwado, Heukryongwang’s mouth twisted faintly.
“How is it going?”
“It’s proceeding smoothly. Soon, even their remaining strength will be exhausted.”
“Hmmm.”
Heukryongwang gave a satisfied hum.
Emperor’s Sword.
Now and then, Namgung Hwang’s voice, thick with rage, reached even this far. Every time he heard it, Heukryongwang could scarcely hold back the grin that rose to his face.
“A fool beyond saving.”
Just how stupid did a man have to be to think he could challenge the Water Bandit Sect on the water?
Once they were out on the river, they were no longer the Water Bandit Sect’s enemies. They were nothing more than prey to be handled at leisure.
“My lord Heukryongwang. The enemy seems sufficiently worn down, so perhaps it’s time to tighten the noose...”
“Nonsense.”
Heukryongwang waved a hand broadly.
“This is fishing.”
A sneer crept onto his lips.
“When you’re after a big catch, you mustn’t show off your strength. If you try to wrestle the fish by force, the line snaps and you lose the prize you’ve already hooked. In fishing, what matters isn’t strength—it’s patience.”
His eyes fixed quietly on Maehwado. It was the gaze of a predator waiting for the right moment.
“Just a little more and they’ll be out of steam. No matter how enormous the fish, once its strength is gone, it has no choice but to be dragged onto the boat.”
He jerked his chin toward the island.
“Continue the assault! Like letting out and reeling in a fishing line, strike again the moment they start to relax!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Heh heh heh.”
Triumph practically spilled from Heukryongwang’s eyes.
At the end of the day, they’re just sheltered brats.
He acknowledged Namgung Hwang’s skill. Even Heukryongwang could feel threatened by that power and that innate, domineering spirit.
But this was the martial world. It was not a place where victory was decided by strength alone.
By now, the Namgung Clan would surely understand the despair of a fish caught on a hook.
The more they struggle, the deeper the hook sinks and the faster their strength drains away.
The Yangtze River—this hook—had already driven deep into the Namgung Clan’s throat. There was no way for them to pull it out on their own.
Hunger and fatigue, fear and the faintest shred of hope.
All of it was dragging the Namgung Clan down toward the bottom of hell.
Two days at most.
Dragging it out too long wasn’t wise, either. Everything had its proper timing. By Heukryongwang’s reckoning, if they could bleed the Namgung Clan a little more for just two more days, the Water Bandit Sect alone would be able to annihilate them without needing to wait for reinforcements.
“Continue the attack!”
“Yes, sir!”
Heukryongwang chuckled low under his breath.
“Namgung Hwang... I’ll personally cut off your head.”
His blazing eyes looked as if they would swallow Maehwado whole.
Meanwhile, Namgung Hwang’s own eyes were dark and sunken.
The heavy shadows beneath those hollow eyes seemed to speak of just how deeply he had sunk into anguish.
“...So they don’t mean to attack.”
“Clan Head...!”
Looking at the ships that continued to surround the island without advancing, Namgung Hwang let out a bitter laugh. When he turned his gaze, he could see the Namgung retainers collapsed from exhaustion all around him.
“...”
He stared at them in silence for a long moment before a weary sigh escaped his lips.
The attacks had only just stopped.
But he knew why. It wasn’t because they lacked the strength to keep attacking. It was because they understood that alternating between attack and restraint was far more effective than striking without pause.
“Namgung Myeong.”
“Yes... Brother.”
Namgung Myeong had briefly considered calling him Clan Head, but the word “brother” slipped out instead. He had guessed that the person Namgung Hwang was calling for was not the Changgung Sword Squad commander, but his younger brother, Namgung Myeong.
“Was I wrong?”
Namgung Hwang spoke in a self-mocking voice.
“Do-wi said it, didn’t he. That we had to cut down Heukryongwang while we still had the strength. That otherwise, we’d end up withering to death.”
“Brother...”
“And that’s exactly what’s happening.”
The Namgung swordsmen who had collapsed all around him seemed too drained to lift their blades anymore. They were clinging to their pride only by not falling face-first into the sand.
But how long could that last?
Everyone was already at the limit. Even Namgung Hwang felt his mind growing distant under the weight of exhaustion and sleepiness that kept creeping over him, so how much worse must it be for the others?
“Answer me, Namgung Myeong.”
“...”
“Was I wrong?”
“N-no, Brother!”
Namgung Myeong answered with desperate urgency.
“You weren’t. Your decision was the best possible one. No clan head gambles with the lives of his people!”
“...”
“It isn’t over yet. If we just endure a little longer... if we endure a little longer, reinforcements will surely arrive!”
“Reinforcements, huh...”
Namgung Hwang gave a low laugh.
“And if they don’t come?”
“...”
“What if these reinforcements arrive too late?”
“T-that...”
Namgung Myeong could not bring himself to answer. They both knew the outcome. Namgung Hwang knew it, and Namgung Myeong knew it.
“Heh... heh heh heh.”
Namgung Hwang’s shoulders shook.
“I can’t stand it. I can’t...”
Crack.
He clenched his fist so tightly that the joints stood out like knots of bone.
“What I truly can’t bear isn’t death. It isn’t even the fall of Namgung.”
“...”
“Those men... the ones who endured that hellish training for three years, believing in me and me alone... I can’t bear the thought that I may never be able to let them die as swordsmen, and instead I’m making them die like hunted animals. That thought makes me...”
Namgung Hwang’s voice trembled.
Not because he couldn’t contain his indignation and rage, but because he couldn’t endure the disgust surging up from within himself.
“Brother...”
“Was I truly making that choice for the future of the clan?”
“...What?”
Though the words were addressed to Namgung Myeong, they were not meant for him at all. They were a question flung at himself.
“Or was I simply afraid?”
Namgung Myeong held his tongue and even held his breath. The weight of that voice was such that he couldn’t even think of offering clumsy comfort.
“Was I actually afraid to stake both the clan’s fate and all their lives on my sword?”
Instead, Namgung Myeong bit down hard on his lip.
He had never once seen Namgung Hwang look this weak. Though they were not so far apart in age, Namgung Hwang had always been larger than life to him—greater than a mountain.
And now that Namgung Hwang was collapsing before him...
“Brother! You can’t be like this. You’re the head of Namgung! The whole world might shake, but not you!”
“...Right. Yes, that’s what a clan head is, isn’t it.”
Namgung Hwang slowly closed his eyes.
The burden of those two simple words weighed on him like a crushing mountain.
“I...”
He spoke with bitter resignation.
“Have often regretted being born in this era.”
“...”
It was a sudden remark, but Namgung Myeong did not interrupt. Right now, Namgung Hwang simply needed someone to listen.
“Because there’s nothing for me to do with this peaceful age and this sword of mine.”
His gaze drifted toward the distant sky.
“If I had been born a hundred years ago, in that age of catastrophe... I’m confident I would have risen to a glory far beyond anything now possible, and become one who saved the world. I would have cut down that Heavenly Demon with my own sword.”
“Brother...”
“And yet...”
A dry laugh burst from Namgung Hwang’s lips.
“They fought a war like this for years, didn’t they... Endured hells that can’t even be compared to this one, watched their precious families and disciples spew blood and have their throats cut right beside them, and still they kept fighting, and fighting...”
“...”
“How could they do it? How could they... how could they not break?”
There was no strength left in Namgung Hwang’s voice. It was the first time in his life that he had ever felt so small.
“Someone like me, who can’t even summon the courage to cut down Heukryongwang and save the clan... and I dare to talk of troubled times? Of the Heavenly Demon? Heh, heh heh heh...”
He laughed and shook his head.
“I was just a pup barking at the moon, without even knowing my own place. I was only ever that kind of man. Nothing more than...”
His fist, clenched as if it might burst, trembled violently.
“Brother...”
“I know.”
Before Namgung Myeong could offer any comfort, Namgung Hwang was already shaking his head.
“I know well enough that this is no time to stand here like this.”
“...”
“Changgung Sword Squad Commander.”
“Yes, Clan Head!”
“The enemy will launch a full assault within the next few days. They’ll try to strip us of every last scrap of strength and finish this.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Until then, do whatever you can to let the retainers rest in shifts.”
Namgung Hwang gritted his teeth.
“At the very least, we cannot allow them to die without even having swung their swords once.”
“I will obey!”
Namgung Myeong ran toward the retainers. Watching him go, Namgung Hwang let out another deep, exhausted sigh.
And so the attacks continued without ever truly stopping.
The Namgung Clan, having lost any place to hide, changed its strategy and formed a ring at the center of the island. Those on the outside protected those in the middle, taking turns in the hope of stealing even the slightest bit of rest.
With shells flying in and the bandits launching hit-and-run raids, there was no chance of real rest, of course. Still, simply not having to swing a sword allowed them to conserve some strength.
But it was hardly a good solution.
Gathering inward only made them more keenly aware of their surroundings than before, and they could not help but feel, with painful clarity, just how hopeless their situation truly was.
A faint hope.
Only the desperate, bottomless belief that someone would surely come to save them was all that kept them going.
But... a day passed, then two, and even by the third day—
Salvation still had not arrived.
Namgung Do-wi forced his eyes open and looked up at the blazing sun.
The sunlight was truly warm, yet even that felt like too much for him to bear, like a weight pressing hard against his chest.
...They haven’t come?
He turned his head on instinct and looked toward the riverbank, but there was still no one there. How cruelly empty that shore had become.
“Kuhk.”
A dry cough escaped him on its own. Even though he had drunk enough water, his whole body felt as though it had been left out to wither.
Can I keep going?
No—whether he could or not no longer mattered. He had to endure, no matter what.
Because others who had it even worse were still enduring.
Namgung Do-wi instinctively gripped his sword and drove it into the ground. Then, with great difficulty, he hauled himself upright.
His eyes, blazing with fury, landed on the bandits’ ships. Those vessels surrounding Maehwado were so hateful that...
“...!”
Then his eyes went wide.
“Wha...?”
His mouth fell open on its own, and the corners of his eyes trembled.
“Get up. Get up!”
A strained cry burst from his throat.
The ships that had been circling Maehwado, surrounding it and slowly starving the Namgung Clan to death, were all turning their prows toward this island at once!
Blood burst from Namgung Do-wi’s mouth. But he didn’t even notice, screaming at the top of his lungs all the same.
“They’re coming! It’s an attack!”
The full assault—the Water Bandit Sect’s final strike meant to cut the Namgung Clan’s throat.
The final chapter of the long, relentless hell that had been the Yangtze River was unfolding at last.