Chapter 26
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: The Path Chosen
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Chapter 26.
Take responsibility for his sins?
To Namgung Mubaek, whose brow was now deeply furrowed, I continued.
Black Tiger. Please allow me to share in the punishment he is to receive.
How do you propose to atone for the sins of one who has sullied the Namgung name? Have you given this any thought, Great Young Lord?
I hadn't expected it, but he called me by my title, Great Young Lord. I responded in an equally dry tone.
Yes. I will take responsibility and share his punishment. I have said it, and I wish to do it.
Do you intend to enter the Black Prison in his stead? Or perhaps go to the military front lines and smell the stench of blood?
I had no intention of wasting my days away in a dark cell.
Send me to the front lines. I will participate in the name of Namgung, achieve merits, and suffer alongside Black Tiger to atone for his sins.
The front lines
At the Great Young Lord's response to his casually thrown words, Namgung Mubaek's eyes blazed. He seemed to find my words and actions completely incomprehensible.
What was I saying? Did my words truly mean what he thought they did?
Namgung Mubaek met my gaze several times.
It didn't matter. I was acting to keep a promise to someone I cared for and to achieve my own goals. This wasn't a situation where I needed to make them understand.
I am aware that quite a few have already fallen in the name of Namgung.
As I said this, I turned my head and met the gaze of my uncle, who was watching me from a distance with a troubled expression. The reason Namgung Mubaek's stare didn't seem strange was also due to a recent conversation with my uncle.
You said you'd handle it, and this is what you came up with? After all the effort to win the Sword Tournament, earn recognition, and finally get a chance to shed your reputation as a scoundrel!
My uncle's nagging began. I hadn't even covered my ears, yet here he was, fuming in front of a patient.
I'm a patient.
Patient, my foot. If you were going to put yourself through this hell, why did you struggle and strive so hard in the first place?
Uncle.
This is absurd. The front lines? Did you just say the military front lines?!
Uncle.
What more is there to say!
I called out to my uncle several more times.
My uncle, a man usually far removed from anger, vented a few more times before finally listening to my quiet voice.
This is a path I have chosen, a path I must walk.
Do you think that makes any sense? It's an incredibly arduous path. Moreover, it's a detour.
Please, trust me.
At those words, my uncle bit his lower lip hard.
Be entirely on my side. No matter how much others may criticize, belittle, or slander me, stand by me, unwavering. That is my wish.
Is this why you said that to me back then? Did you think that after saying something like that, I'd just nod and accept everything you say!
I gave a short smile at his words.
Huhu.
Why are you laughing?
Can I take that to mean you've acknowledged me? I've worked like a dog for the past year just to hear you say that.
Your stubbornness is truly something else. I wonder who you take after.
What's the point in asking? They'll just say, 'like uncle, like nephew.'
Enough! I'm wasting my breath!
My uncle's anger showed no signs of subsiding.
I must go before it's too late. If I stay here and participate in the competition for the Family Head position, the family will only become more desolate. I think it's one way to handle itfor the eyesore to step aside for a while.
If that's really the reason, then I!
Could it be only for that reason? I felt my own endless shortcomings. This is a path I've chosen to temper myself further.
If so, then tell me why it must be the battlefield.
My past transgressions are quite significant. As you know, the military doesn't tolerate endless gossip and complaints.
At that, my uncle furrowed his brow and clenched his teeth.
Don't tell me you're talking about the Imperial Family.
That's right.
The reasons why martial artists from not just the Namgung family but all over the Central Plains threw themselves into battle like moths to a flame were, largely, firstly for money, and secondly because of the Imperial Family's command.
In my past life, as an outcast desperate for attention and to save my mother, the path I chose to earn even the slightest merit was the military. This was the kind of story that always circulated as the background for joining the army.
The immense funds poured into the military.
The army was nothing short of a money-devouring demon. That's why the Imperial Family, which ran the military, turned its eyes to the martial world of the Central Plains.
There are so many who carry swords, yet how is it that none strive for the good of the nation? I command you to find them and conscript them into the military!
It was the Emperor's command. There was no strict selection process.
However, the sects and families of the Central Plains, unwilling to part with disciples bound by blood or sworn oaths, would often send those they deemed insignificant or those who needed to atone for their sins.
Or, like me, they would voluntarily join the military and desperately struggle to achieve merit.
The Imperial Family was already putting pressure on the Namgung family and other renowned families and sects in the Central Plains.
If you do not send capable individuals, the Imperial Guard will intervene directly.
The Red Turban rebels, the Green Forest bandits, and hordes of mounted brigands were throwing the entire country into chaos, while neighboring nations eyed the newly established Imperial Family like hyenas, waiting for an opportunity.
From the Imperial Family's perspective, it was a time to consolidate their power. Feeling threatened, they began to harass the martial world.
My uncle, who knew the whole situation, looked increasingly troubled. Seeing his reaction, I pressed my advantage.
I need to meet with the First Elder, Namgung Yeoul.
Why do you want to see him?
You can't paint a picture with just a brush and an inkstone. You also need ink, and sometimes, you need someone to offer direction to bring the painting to life.
Namgung Mubaek's profound gaze was fixed on me. It felt as if he were looking at someone beyond me, but it didn't matter.
Surely, for the sake of Namgung, you wouldn't yourself
Please, make your decision.
This is not a matter that can be decided easily. We will make a decision during tomorrow's family meeting.
With those words, I descended from the Sword Tournament stage. With each step, my shadow, flickering in the torchlight, seemed unusually large.
After coming down the stairs, I passed by the dumbfounded elders and came face to face with the one standing at the very end.
It was Namgung Yeoul.
Impossible.
They called him a stubborn old man from the back rooms.
Standing beside me, he showed more resolve than my uncle.
Or so I thought.
However, if it's not the military front lines, then the story changes.
I lifted my head. As if he knew I would come, Namgung Yeoul did not hesitate to meet my eyes. In fact, his gaze was so full of keen light, as if peering into my very soul, that I almost wanted to look away.
There are three main fronts where martial artists from the Central Plains are deployed under the Imperial Family's command. The first is against the Red Turban rebels, who have historically plagued the Imperial Family. The second is the front against neighboring countries, a place of constant, volatile conflict. The third and final front is suppressing the chaos caused by mountain, river, and mounted bandits.
In my past life, I was sent to the front against the Red Turbans, known as the most dangerous front where one constantly flirted with death. Perhaps that was why, on a battlefield infamous for its harsh treatment of outsiders, I, who was not a traditional military man, was able to rise to the rank of Commander of a Thousand.
This time, too, I wanted the first. But Namgung Yeoul was declaring it impossible.
First Elder, are you looking for a justification?
Yes. If, as you say, you wish to share in the punishment of the man called Black Tiger, and if you wish for things to proceed according to your will, then the first and second options are impossible. However.
Namgung Yeoul smiled faintly. His gaze was like that of a grandfather looking at his grown-up grandson, and once again, I felt an itch all over my body.
If you say you are volunteering for the front that directly opposes the Green Forest, who are at odds with the Namgung family, there will be no justification to stop you, and no reason to refuse, would there?
His words made sense. As I nodded, I could feel Namgung Yeoul's constant gaze on me.
You will likely need to be there for at least five years. His sins are by no means light.
I am prepared for that.
It will be different from here. The food, the rest. There will be many days when you stay awake for a full day and night yet still cannot sleep.
I was used to it.
Comrades you've grown close to will be cut down by stray blades, their deaths coming one after another.
Dozens died every day.
Friend and foe will become indistinguishable as the land grows desolate all around you. There, you will not be the Great Young Lord, but just another sword-fodder thrown onto the battlefield.
I met the eyes of Namgung Yeoul as he spoke.
And yet, despite all that, I do not know why you look at me with such eyes.
Until now, I had doubted the path Namgung was taking.
But now, I intend to do so no longer.
His words carried a weight different from the slick, empty phrases uttered by lesser men.
Go, and return safely.
Unlike the others, Namgung Yeoul didn't tell me to reconsider or change my mind.
Instead.
And prove it.
He asks me to prove it.
That being Namgung is enough in itself.
For some reason, in Namgung Yeoul's face, I saw what Namgung Ban had shown me in my past life.
The thought for Namgung.
The worry for Namgung.
And the hope that Namgung would walk a righteous path. I could glimpse that heart.
Then, Namgung Yeoul spoke calmly.
A month. Give me a month to personally instruct you in swordsmanship, Great Young Lord.
First Elder, you?
That is right. What do you say, Great Young Lord?
Namgung Yeoul.
Despite being the First Elder representing the Namgung family, he was considered to have remarkably little political standing or influence.
However.
There was a reason he still held that position so securely.
Grip.
I grasped the hand of the guardian deity who had protected Namgung for decades.
That day.
The eccentric master who had ceased his activities in the martial world long ago, returned to the family, and laid down his sword.
Born of the Azure Sky,
Namgung Yeoul, hailed as one of the greatest swordsmen of his time, declared for the first time in his life that he would take a disciple.