The Incompetent Hero and the Return to Yeom Kingdom (3)
"Did you not say you would resolve this through dialogue?"
"What am I supposed to do when they refuse to talk? Besides, isn't a martial artist's true dialogue the kind you have when steel meets steel?"
"If that is how you see it… then I suppose I have no reason to object."
Baekho considered my casual reply for a moment, then nodded. Of course, Baekryeon and Seollin — who knew my usual habits all too well — fell in behind me with the air of people who had expected nothing less. Lucy, for her part, skipped after us looking thoroughly delighted.
In any case, we crossed Sichuan's fortified gates without hesitation and made straight for the Dan Clan's stronghold within.
"S-Stop them!!!"
Countless Dan Clan martial artists came pouring out to block our advance — or more precisely, to stop my footsteps. Naturally, none of them could.
Kang!
"You lot need to put more force behind those throwing weapons, don't you think? This junk can't even break skin!"
With every sweep of my sword, countless hidden weapons lost their power and clattered to the ground. Within a fixed radius of me, the space had become a pure domain of the blade — there was simply no gap for mere throwing weapons to squeeze through.
Baekho watched that sword work with open astonishment.
"Truly remarkable, you are…"
"Oh my? I heard Lady Baekho fought the Hero in a proper brawl. Didn't you face him then as well?"
"Mm… at the time I was rather running amok, so… I have no clear memory of it."
I was up front batting away hidden weapons while they strolled along behind me at their leisure, which was mildly irritating — but what could I do? I had thrown the first punch, so the cleanup was mine as well. Besides, we had already arrived.
"Come at me!!!"
Earth Cleaver
KWAANG!!!
A white flash carved along the path of my blade split the Dan Clan's main gate clean in two and brought it crashing down. For anyone living in Sichuan, the sight was unimaginable — the equivalent of open rebellion against the Dan Clan itself, the absolute masters of this land, the power that held all of Sichuan in its grip.
"Insane!…"
"They destroyed the Dan Clan's main gate!…"
Thud. Thud. Thud.
With light, unhurried steps, I crossed the shattered gate and entered the Dan estate. The grounds looked much as I remembered them, yet somehow the atmosphere felt entirely different.
"Even with things this far gone, the head of the Dan Clan doesn't show so much as a single hair. Does that make any sense?"
"How dare you insult the Clan Head!!"
"You're the ones insulting him. With skills this pathetic, how do you expect to carry the name of the Dan Clan? Looking like this, you still think you can wage a war?"
Whether that war was against the Beastman Alliance or against the whole of Yeom Kingdom made no difference.
"Oppa!!! Come out!!!"
Seollin, who had been sticking close to my side, shouted at the top of her lungs. The Dan Clan martial artists who had been ready to attack me at any moment flinched the moment they saw her and edged backward. I was a fair target after smashing their gate to pieces — but Seollin was the clan's own princess, and that made her far harder to handle. She had arrived alongside the man who had just pulled off the most outrageous rampage in the Dan Clan's history, so they could neither come down hard on her nor simply let her pass. Seollin knew that perfectly well, which was why she had stepped forward — to keep any further damage from spreading.
Step. Step. Step.
"This is… rather troublesome. Such rough discourtesy, Mr. Jang Cheon-woo."
Apparently the situation had become impossible to ignore any longer, because Dan Seollyun finally appeared.
"When you were Young Master you tacked 'sir' onto every other word. Become Clan Head and suddenly nothing's beneath you? Or does going from Young Master to Clan Head automatically improve your skills?"
"…"
I had said it to provoke him, but his expression barely changed. Then Seollin stepped out from beside me and walked several paces forward.
"Oppa."
"Seollin. Your homecoming is remarkably violent."
"…Did you kill Father?"
She asked it straight out. Dan Seollyun simply looked at her in silence. Something strange lingered in his expression.
"…What an odd thing to say. The one who killed Father was the yokai known as Fukhaedaeseong."
"Is that true?"
"Yes. It is true."
"Then what were you doing all that time?"
There was a faintly petulant edge to Seollin's question. Seollyun gave a slight shake of his head.
"You ask that because you did not see the chaos for yourself. At the time, the Beastman Alliance attacked, Fukhaedaeseong ran wild, and Yeomhwang Castle — the very symbol of the Yeom royal house — was completely destroyed. Martial artists from countless sects and great families gathered to stand against them."
"…I don't understand. By your account, every elder and clan head of every sect and great family in Yeom Kingdom, along with their elite escorts, would have been assembled there. And you still lost ground to the Beastman Alliance?"
"Yes."
Seollyun stated it without hesitation.
Were the Beastman Alliance really that strong?
According to the Dragon Demon King, it was true that he had driven Dan Seolpung into a corner. But he had not been the one to finish him. I had only met the man twice, and one of those meetings had been a brutal, all-out fight — which was precisely why I knew he was not the sort to lie about something like this.
So Seollyun definitely intervened mid-battle and stabbed Dan Seolpung in the back. That much is certain. The Dragon Demon King is focused on recovering right now, so he won't be around. Even if he is, I can just take his head. Fine.
The rest was the problem. If the Beastman Alliance's rank-and-file soldiers were on par with — or stronger than — Yeom Kingdom's martial artists… the casualties would be enormous.
"And you expect me to believe that?!"
"I am not asking you to believe it. I am merely conveying the truth."
While I was deep in thought, Seollin drew a hidden weapon from her sleeve.
"Fight me."
"…Seollin."
"I heard. You expelled every member of the Yeom royal house from Sichuan. And after that, you've been up to something here. Oppa — did you join hands with the Beastman Alliance?"
"…That is quite the leap."
Seollyun stepped forward, one pace at a time.
"Can you take responsibility for those words, Seollin? Even if you are my younger sister, I cannot overlook what you just said."
"The head of the Dan Clan has always been someone who can use Blood Awakening. You can't use Blood Awakening, can you?"
"…Ha."
At Seollin's words, Seollyun's mouth curved as if he found the whole thing genuinely amusing.
"Even now… you still believe I cannot use Blood Awakening?"
"…"
"I, too, can wield Blood Awakening now."
Saaaaah…
Seollyun's energy surged. At the same time, Seollin activated her own Blood Awakening and amplified her power. Both of their pupils sharpened into serpentine slits, and scale-like patterns faintly rose across their faces. As humans of the Dan Clan who carried the blood of the divine beast Imugi, they were revealing their full strength from the very start.
"Hup!!"
"Haah!!"
Fwing! KAAAANG!!!!
Invisible lines shot from both their fingertips. Dan Clan hidden weapons — tiny, unseen daggers meant to take a life. When the gang-gi-wrapped weapons collided, green martial energy burst outward like a spray of light, and a thunderous crash rolled through the courtyard.
"Doryeong."
Watching the exchange, Baekryeon turned to me carefully.
"Can Seollin win?"
"Hard to say. I don't know either."
In terms of raw energy — that is, magical power — the two were roughly even. Seollyun's was a touch larger if you measured carefully, but not enough to decide the fight. Their precision with hidden weapons was likewise comparable. Seollin aside, it was clear that Dan Seollyun had never stopped honing his own techniques. So in the end…
"Whoever creates a variable first. That's what will decide it."
"A variable… is it, Doryeong?"
"Like us sneaking up and whacking him in the back of the head~!"
"Well… we could, but then Seollin would look ridiculous after stepping out so confidently."
I set Lucy's cheerful suggestion aside and looked at her.
"Lucy. You said you were a Shadow Priestess, right?"
"Yes, that's right. Why?"
"There's something I need you to do. Since the board's already a mess, we might as well make full use of the chaos."
"?"
Soul-Severing Sand — a hidden weapon like grains of sand that cut the opponent's very soul — scattered through the air. Each microscopic particle was laced with an extremely lethal poison. Seollin could not afford to let even a single grain of the sand Seollyun had cast touch her. Her gang-gi was not yet strong enough to block every hidden weapon.
"Haaaaaaaaah!!!"
Pabababababat!!
Like flowers scattered by a celestial maiden, a dense spray of hidden weapons — nowhere near the Soul-Severing Sand in lethality, but tightly packed all the same — shot out and altered the flow of the air. Weapons that fine were heavily affected by air currents, after all.
"I already know how to counter that!!!"
"Hmph. You don't truly believe Dan Clan hidden weapons end at something so simple, do you?"
Shwaaaak!
A single hidden weapon flew. Before it reached Seollin, it detonated with a tiny metallic click — and the explosion scattered into countless fine, powerful needles in every direction.
"Torrential Rain of Heavenly Heart Needles."
"!!"
Pababababat!
"Ugh!…"
She twisted to avoid them as best she could, but several of the tiny needles buried themselves in her skin.
"The match is decided."
"It's not… over yet!!"
"No. It is over. You know it as well. Our Dan Clan blood may grant resistance to poison, but the toxin coating my weapons is nothing like the mild poisons you carry."
Seollyun paused, then spoke again.
"Yes… the poison on these weapons is serpent venom."