Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: The Old Man's Resolve
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"Grandpa!"
"Yeah. No troubles today, huh?"
"Ah, I made even more friends today!"
I looked down at the little boy gazing up at me.
An orphan I'd taken in during my later years, after a lifetime scraping by on a swordsman's meager wages, never knowing when death might come.
I still couldn't quite fathom what whim had possessed me to adopt a child with no family ties.
Had some sudden craving for a grandson struck me in old age?
Or had I gained some enlightenment watching my old comrades from my youth decide to retire because they had homes to return to?
Whatever the reason, this was a boy I'd raised like my own flesh and blood with my own two hands.
When I first took him in, I hadn't thought much of it.
He was so young back then, but I figured he'd grow into a heartbreaker once he matured.
And as it turned out, he exceeded even those expectations.
"...Yuseong. I know you've got a kind heart, but you need to learn how to turn down girls who want to get too close."
"But then she'd be sad..."
'Accepting for that reason is the real poison...'
This kid, not even fully grown yet, somehow kept charming women left and right. Girls never stopped flocking around him.
I even spied on him secretly to figure out what he was doing to cause such chaos every time.
But nothing special. No tricks.
Even when he was just playing alone in an empty lot, digging in the dirt, eyes would gather around him in droves.
I'd seriously considered making him wear a mask or a hood.
But since he was still just a child, I couldn't stomach the frustration it would cause him, and it fell through.
Truth be told, up until then, it wasn't a huge worry.
I could see he'd suffer endlessly from admirers in the future, but that was tomorrow's problem. Nothing for the immature boy of today.
I simply sent silent condolences to the girls whose hearts he'd unwittingly set ablaze at such a tender age.
And so time passed.
Then the trouble I feared arrived far sooner than expected.
"Elder! Please, I beg you! It has to be Yuseong! I can't live without him anymore!"
"Enough of that creepy nonsense! Get lost and never show your face around here again!"
"Elder!! Elder!!!!"
She was deranged.
For a grown woman to accost a child not even in his double digits—what kind of madness was this?
Arranged betrothals between noble houses weren't rare, with child brides set from infancy.
But this was no such alliance of interests.
It was pure, unadulterated desire.
At first, I chalked it up to bad luck—running into a lunatic in the vast Central Plains teeming with people.
But when similar incidents piled up two or three more times, I couldn't ignore it.
No matter how many crazies roam the world, this probability stretched credulity beyond mere misfortune.
'Just what the hell is he doing out there?'
I investigated what Yuseong got up to.
Most days, he still played with kids his age.
But occasionally, I caught him mingling with... others.
Young women, mostly.
Yet even that seemed harmless.
What Yuseong did was utterly ordinary—no pretense, no schemes. Just his usual innocent words and actions, even toward adults.
The realization hit me like a thunderbolt.
His pure, unintentional behavior was having a profound effect on them.
Leave him be, and disaster loomed on the horizon.
Around then, I also realized my own days were numbered.
My health plummeted. Soon, even leaving the house grew impossible.
Once I took to bed, Yuseong stepped up manfully, somehow procuring food and living expenses from who-knows-where.
Curious how such a young child managed it, I asked.
He beamed innocently.
His big sisters had given it to him.
Watching him, I wondered.
Could this boy survive on his own after I was gone?
Without me, he'd be utterly alone, no family left.
I doubted the women around him would simply watch over him protectively.
Something would happen, and it wouldn't all be for the best.
With his unfairly handsome looks, it was inevitable.
Suitors he couldn't fend off would keep entangling him, hands reaching out inescapably.
In common parlance, a peach blossom curse.
Predicting Yuseong's future after my death was child's play.
So I pondered how he might thrive in a world without me.
And in that moment, a memory surfaced—not coincidence, surely.
The plum blossom scent amid dazzling sword dances on the battlefield.
Taoist priests, severing worldly ties, mastering the seven emotions and six desires.
It would sever Yuseong's ill fortune too. And those he'd meet there would all be priests—no mishaps.
Perhaps even a benevolent soul might take pity and aid him.
Mount Hua wasn't far from where we lived.
A final solution, discovered just before my life's flame guttered out.
The biggest hurdle was whether Yuseong could enter Mount Hua.
But agonizing over a dying old man's final wish was pointless.
I could only pray before heaven as my spark faded.
Heaven and earth, spirits divine. If you pity Yuseong, let him receive Mount Hua's teachings.
And once inside... let him meet kind souls, not harsh ones, so he may live well even without me...
-Pfft.
A hollow chuckle escaped after the prayer.
Harsh ones, after he entered.
As if priests would harm the boy.
Worries born of folly.
-Clang! Clang!
-KABOOOM!!!
The clash of swords and the shockwave echoed as one.
Master and disciple. Living and dead. Savior and slayer.
One side strained to save her two beloved.
The other poured every ounce of fury to slay her two hated betrayers.
The vampire power grafted onto Sword Flower's corpse granted strength beyond her living prime, even beyond moments ago.
But enough to overturn this fight?
No.
Ten years of training might have changed that. But frozen in death, she lingered at her peak mortal realm—leagues below her master, like heaven and earth apart.
Yet this absurd battle persisted, thanks to Sword Empress.
Her selfishness—refusing to abandon either beloved—stayed her hand from lethal mercy.
-Grit!
'Is there truly no other way?'
Her original plan—to exhaust Sword Flower's power, subdue her, then talk—now seemed a pipe dream.
The acupoint strike failed; Sword Flower menaced fiercer than before, untiring.
Sword Empress saw it.
Waiting for another power drain would balloon the damage beyond control.
'...Forgive me.'
She steeled her heart.
Not the neck this time. Her disciple's legs.
With her current form unlikely to yield from one limb lost, it was a gritted-teeth choice.
-Slash!
Plum scent bloomed amid the spray of a grisly splatter.
Sword Empress averted her eyes, unable to watch.
Her disciple, legs severed, collapsed. Then spoke.
"In the end... you're no different from me..."
Envy, jealousy, rage, indignation, inferiority. Betrayal.
Emotions laced her voice, burrowing deeper into Sword Empress's ears.
"To be with that boy, you lied to him... lied to yourself just to cling to his side. You think you're better than me?"
"...Soyeon."
"Don't call me by name with that mouth."
Sword Flower no longer named her master as such.
"You're... no different from me. You call my love twisted... but in my eyes, yours is too."
"..."
"Love that demands you deceive your own heart to sustain it. How absurd can love get?"
Their loves stood mirrored.
Sword Flower brutally honest with her feelings.
Sword Empress unable to be.
Stare reality in the face for a moment, and contradictions crashed in—a love that could shatter her.
That was Sword Empress's love now.
"Now I see why you went to that tavern. Not to get him drunk, but to steel yourself. Without liquor dulling your sober mind, you lack the guts for it?"
-Grip!
Sword Empress clutched her sword, mute before her disciple's words.
The ground glowed with a bizarre pattern.