Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Sword Flower
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She was kind.
That was the general perception people had of the Sword Empress.
Not only among ordinary folk, but even villains spoke of how she treated everyone with gentleness. Witnesses claimed that, as a regular person rather than a martial artist, she possessed an extraordinarily mild temperament.
Even when pursuing villains to subdue them, if they weren't irredeemable, she would apologize to their victims, offer compensation, and give them a chance at redemption. Such an unconventional personality would have plunged a woman whose head was filled with flowers into grave danger.
But she was strong.
That strength allowed her to uphold her justice.
Yet even she showed no mercy to those who strayed from her path of righteousness.
Villains who rejected even a single chance at mercy. Villains beyond any hope of salvation.
They had deviated from her justice, and she granted them no opportunities.
And for this Sword Empress, there was one incident unknown to the wider Central Plains and known only to a select few within the Mount Hua Sect.
The unbelievable tale that she had taken in a disciple with her own hands... only to cut her down with those same hands.
Just as the Sword Empress of Mount Hua was renowned, so too was her disciple.
Because the Sword Empress had hidden her away and raised her like a forbidden treasure, hardly anyone had seen her true face. But after she made her debut at the martial conference hosted by the Murim Alliance, everyone called her the Sword Flower.
She had inherited the very nickname her master bore in her later discipleship days. After the tournament ended, she returned to Mount Hua, leaving countless men eagerly awaiting her emergence into the jianghu.
But she never left Mount Hua again.
"What are you looking at so intently?"
"M-Master?! I'm not slacking on my training..."
"I haven't even scolded you yet, so why are you already bowing your head? I was just asking what caught your eye."
This was the outer sector, far from her original secluded training ground deep in the main peak.
It was close to where the lay disciples trained in groups.
"Those are the new disciples who just entered the sect a few days ago. I was worried because you never seemed interested in others, Soyeon, but now I can rest a little easier."
"N-No, that's not it! I didn't come here on purpose..."
"Hm? Did you come to see someone specific? I thought you were just watching the group as a whole."
The Sword Flower's face flushed bright red in an instant at her master's words.
"Do you know someone here by chance? Most of these disciples are still children who haven't passed their coming-of-age ceremony."
"No! No! Even though they're lay disciples, I just wanted to see the kids learning the sword under the same Mount Hua banner! I swear, I have no impure intentions!"
"...For someone denying that, your gaze seemed awfully fixed on one person earlier."
"Y-You saw?!"
"I wasn't entirely sure at first, but your reaction confirms it."
The Sword Empress sighed inwardly.
Her disciple, whom she'd worried about for showing too little interest in others, had finally taken an interest... in a child at least ten years younger than herself.
If it had been someone her own age, they could have grown together emotionally. It was regrettable in many ways.
Of course, the Sword Empress never imagined her interest was impure.
It was simply unthinkable by her standards.
She saw it as pure, innocent curiosity toward another person.
'Well, as a senior in life, she might try to show a mature side. Maybe there's something to look forward to there.'
"So, which one is it?"
"D-Do I have to say?"
"Unless you plan to keep sneaking out to avoid your master's eyes from now on, yes."
"...Over there. That boy."
Reluctantly, the Sword Empress followed where her disciple pointed.
At the tip of the Sword Flower's finger was a young boy diligently training.
He clearly hadn't reached his coming-of-age yet.
And her first impression of him was...
"...Mount Hua's 'flower' doesn't mean a literal flower, does it?"
He looked like he might have wandered into the wrong sect.
His body wasn't sturdy—in fact, it seemed far frailer than his peers—and he was short too.
Honestly, it was a mystery how he'd passed the entry exam.
He didn't seem suited for martial arts at all. With that appearance, he might have made a big name for himself in the Central Plains in some other field.
The kind of looks that, once grown, would make many women weep.
For now, he was just cute.
"Looks like he doesn't know the right way to train, though."
He seemed to be trying to push a boulder as practice, but that would only hurt him.
People often say the body is like iron, growing stronger with hammering—but that's only possible with the recovery to match.
For a kid that age with that build, training against a rock would just poison his progress.
"What are you waiting for? Go correct him."
"Y-Yes?!"
"He's learning under the Mount Hua name, same as you. As his senior, you should teach him if he's doing it wrong. You can't just stand by and watch."
"...! I'll go right now!"
The moment permission came, the Sword Flower dashed off, even using her lightness skill.
'She's gotten much faster than last time.'
She had surely given her all back then.
While the Sword Empress quietly rejoiced in her disciple's growth for a moment, the girl had already reached the boy and started speaking with him.
The boy seemed to have no wariness; he quickly smiled and chatted with her.
Or perhaps he'd noticed her robes were different from those of lay disciples.
'She'll handle it and come back on her own.'
Though she wanted to see her disciple interacting with others,
she thought it might burden the girl instead, so she quietly left.
The disciple must have gotten close to the boy quickly.
"His name is Dan Yuseong. He grew up under an old man with a warm heart who had no other family, but the old man passed away. To honor his dying wish, he entered Mount Hua."
"What a pitiful situation. So, what was the old man's last wish?"
"He wanted to smell the plum blossoms of Mount Hua once."
It was unclear if he meant the literal plum flowers of Mount Hua... or their swordsmanship.
Still...
"...Guide him well."
"...! Then..."
"Shouldn't you fulfill it, even if late?"
It was only right to grant such a modest wish.
And best to have that boy hear it directly from someone connected to him.
"His foundation doesn't look promising, but with you guiding him, he'll grasp the basics quickly. When teaching him arts he hasn't learned yet, think it over carefully first."
"Y-Yes! I'll stay right by his side...!"
"No need to go that far..."
After that, the Sword Flower and Yuseong seemed to grow close in no time.
She met him every day, and shared stories about him with her master just as often.
The Sword Empress simply smiled, watching her disciple find joy in connecting with another.
Then one day, the Sword Empress summoned her disciple.
"I need to enter secluded training for a few days. Time to consolidate my recent insights."
"Understood! Don't worry about this disciple—may you achieve all you desire!"
With a brief farewell, the Sword Empress departed for training.
And that's when it happened—after she had gone.
"..."
When the Sword Empress emerged from training, she was greeted with news that her disciple had been imprisoned in the disciplinary cell.
And the charges she'd heard on the way were so unbelievable, even for her.
"Have you come, Master...?"
"Tell me yourself. What have you done?"
"You must have heard everything on your way here. It's exactly as they said."
"..."
The Sword Empress gestured, dismissing the guard watching her disciple from behind.
"Speak."
"..."
"Speak!!!"
While she had been in training,
her disciple had tried to force herself on a boy. In the struggle, an accident occurred, destroying his dantian.
And that boy had left Mount Hua.
It was the first news she'd received upon emerging.
"How dare you call yourself a Daoist after that?! How dare you wear a human skin!!!"
She had raised the girl like her own child.
She'd taken her in young, watched her grow, from her first steps in martial arts to the conference—always by her side.
"You!! How could you!!!"
How could she force herself on someone who said no?
How could she harbor lust for a boy ten years younger, not even of age?
"If you have a mouth, explain it!!! Why!!! Why on earth!!!"
"...He tempted me first."
"...What did you say?"
"That boy looked at me first with those innocent eyes. He called me 'big sister.' He thanked me. He said he'd been waiting. He said he missed me."
The Sword Empress felt an ominous chill in her disciple's low, sunken voice.
"He pressed his body against mine. He asked to hold my hand. He blushed when he looked at me."
"If that's not temptation, what is?"
Her emotions were shattered.
Her eyes were clouded dark.
The Sword Flower was no longer sane.
"Wasn't it natural from a student's perspective...?"
Fine, the form of address aside.
Thanking her for teaching martial arts.
Waiting for the next lesson.
Missing her.
Asking for posture corrections.
And of course, her face would flush from training.
"Because of you, that boy lost his dantian. He can't use what he's learned so far—or ever learn again. Because of you. Because of you, whom he trusted and followed so blindly."
"...Haha."
"Find him. Scour the entire Central Plains if you must. Bring him to me. Kneel before him and apologize. Take responsibility and heal his dan—"
"Why should I fix what's not mine to have?"
There wasn't a shred of light left in the Sword Flower's eyes.
"Even if I did that. Even if I healed his dantian. Could I have him then? No, right? He'd end up in some other woman's hands. So why should I?"
"...What did you just—"
"Ah... Come to think of it, were you interested too, Master? Is that why you kept asking about him? You should have said so earlier. I could've shared him with you once or twice."
The more she heard, the more absurd it became.
She never dreamed her disciple would break like this.
"Ah... Now he'll struggle through the outside world. Seducing other women like he did me, exploiting their hearts and wealth."
"Don't spout nonsense...! How could that boy have—"
"But no matter what woman he meets from now on, he'll never forget me."
A chill ran up her spine.
An awful suspicion flashed through her mind.
"You... Did you do it on purpose...?"
"...Ahaha! Ahahahaha!!!"
The Sword Flower laughed like a madwoman.
No—she was already mad.
"I left an indelible mark on his body. No matter what life he leads, whenever he sees that scar, he'll think of me."
"You've... truly lost your mind. How could you even think—"
Even the Sword Empress, who had faced every manner of villain, couldn't help but falter before her disciple's madness.
At this point, she had no choice but to decide.
The justice that had upheld her life, that defined her, demanded it.
Her disciple now clearly fell under the category of "irredeemable evil" by her own standards.
She had already squandered the one chance given.
"...I'm sorry."
The Sword Empress made her choice.
She placed her hand on her sword hilt.
-Shing!
The single stroke was an apology.
For failing as a master to educate her properly.
And there was one more to atone to.
"...Find that boy. Scour the Central Plains if needed. Bring him back no matter what."
She owed him a debt too.
As the master of such a worthless disciple.