The End of Chapter 1 - 4
It had happened not long ago.
The Sword Saint had been summoned to the inn to discuss how they would meet the enemy in the days ahead—how the coming battle should be fought. By rights, such a council belonged in the government offices, but Yu Wol had insisted that if they were going to gather anyway, they might as well do it over a meal.
And the Sword Saint had hardly been the only one invited. Hong Ryeon and Chae Jin, Chae Ryeon, Gi Cha-jo and Wi Yeol. Last of all, Magistrate Hyeonryeong himself.
As they talked over the maps, the Sword Saint found she had little to add. Strategy was hardly her forte, and she had already resolved to leave that side of things to Hong Ryeon.
Then, as the meeting wound down and the guests began to take their leave, Hong Ryeon stepped away for a word with Chae Jin and Chae Ryeon. Waiting in the interim, the Sword Saint caught a sharp, faintly bitter fragrance drifting from the inn's back courtyard.
Drawn by it, she found her feet carrying her toward the courtyard before she knew it. Concealing herself, she cautiously turned her head.
There stood Yu Wol and Hyeonryeong.
"You have been through a great deal."
"Not at all."
The voices were heavy with exhaustion.
Hyeonryeong's, and Yu Wol's alike. Though both were markedly inferior in martial skill to the others who had sat at that table, they had borne up under everything thus far—borne up so well it was almost hard to believe.
Especially Yu Wol. Unlike Hyeonryeong, a man who had served in the military, he had only begun learning the martial arts a short while ago. That he had endured such a punishing campaign at all had to be thanks to the formidable strength of his heart.
As the Sword Saint recalled that will of steel, she began to feel she was eavesdropping for no good reason, and was about to slip away when Hyeonryeong spoke.
"Let me say a word. A soldier always makes his peace with death."
What was that supposed to mean? Puzzled, the Sword Saint leaned in to listen again.
"But if a man can avoid dying, so much the better, no?"
"A commander always plans around death when he draws up an operation. And in the plan I have in mind, this battle will be counted a victory—but there will be dead men in it. Even so, if it goes as written, it will be a great victory."
"Then is there truly no way to cut the number of sacrifices any further?"
"It will be difficult."
Hyeonryeong was firm.
"Thanks to your efforts and those of Ha-O Gate, the battlefield has been narrowed. If Ha-O Gate succeeds, no further heterodox forces will join the assault, and we will face Sama Gun's main army alone."
"That is so."
"The defenses have multiplied and grown stronger besides. The men's morale? Their training? And with the soldiers you summoned, along with Gi Noya and Officer Wi, our strength has swelled further still."
"I suppose it has."
"Even so, the losses must be braced for."
"...Then if any soldier dies, I would ask that you let me share in the compensation owed to them."
"Hoh. Innkeeper, you do exasperate me. Why should the likes of you be worrying over that?"
Yu Wol chuckled low. Then he drew long on his pipe and, exhaling a plume of smoke, said evenly:
"I am the one who set this board in motion. And I am the one who called them here."
"That is not so. For the Empire's soldiers to shield the Empire's people is simply what they must do."
"Even so, I cannot claim to bear no responsibility. I am only doing what I can to carry it."
At his words, Hyeonryeong clicked his tongue, short and soft. Then he nodded and said:
"...I will rework the operation as best I can. Bend it toward whatever might spare more of our men."
"Thank you, Magistrate. When this battle is over, I will see you treated to the very best."
"Treated, he says. That courtesy is mine to pay, after all the help I've received."
Hyeonryeong let out a long sigh and left the courtyard. The Sword Saint, still leaning against the wall, closed her eyes.
This man, too, was trying to protect. Restricting the battlefield. Reinforcing the troops. Swelling the supplies, hardening the equipment. Raising defensive works. And lending Hongseong Sect his strength. Through all of it, he had been striving to keep people safe.
The Sword Saint bit her lip, just slightly. Then she moved quietly into the courtyard.
“……”
At some point in those few short moments, Yu Wol's head had sunk forward.
He had looked tired enough even during the meeting. Listening to the low rumble of his snoring, the Sword Saint looked down at him where he sat hunched over, chin dropped to his chest, fast asleep.
How much had he suffered to come this far? His skin was rough beyond describing.
"...You..."
What a steadfast man you are. A man who will not abandon his labors until the goal before him is won. You... even in a moment like this, you are still trying to keep the people beside you from harm.
Everyone knows there is no such thing as a battle that leaves every soul untouched. Loss is inevitable. And yet here you are, dreaming of the ideal all the same.
Then—since you have done everything that lies within your power—
"...leave the rest to me."
Facing the sleeping man's face, she spoke in a voice so small it could not wake him.
"If even you, frail as you are, strive this hard, how could the leader of the Hongseong Sect—the one who must protect them all—retire, crying that it is hard? So protect everyone. And win a perfect victory."
The Sword Saint gazed a moment longer at his sleeping face, then rose and slipped quietly from the courtyard, declaring—softly, but with absolute certainty:
"I shall bring it to you."
She did not feel she had made a hollow promise. The declaration he would never hear had already warmed her heart a little.
And it was no impossible thing.
Had the battlefield been wide, even the Sword Saint could never have fought while shielding everyone. Had the defenses been weak and the enemy poured into the village from a dozen directions at once, she too would have been forced to move, and the toll would have been terrible. Had there been no arrows raining support from atop the palisade, had Magistrate Hyeonryeong not honored Yu Wol's request and adopted a defensive strategy that pulled the wounded to the rear, even she would have struggled.
Every one of those conditions existed because he had willed it so.
And—
"Master!! We're joining the fight!!"
Her precious, pride-worthy disciples had chosen to follow her into a battle fought to protect.
One by one, the disciples of Hongseong Sect began closing in around her. And with them, breathing room returned, little by little. The enemy host Sama Gun had led split apart and began to give ground before the Moonlight Squad, Hongseong Sect, and the soldiers.
The battle to protect everyone was racing toward its end.
In that case, pushing herself a little further could hardly hurt.
"The casualties?"
"There are wounded, but not one dead."
When the magistrate—exhaustion written plainly across him—said his piece, the Sword Saint nodded. Then she turned her eyes on those staring at this place in open astonishment.
Now. It was time for the Sword Saint to step forward.
Meteor Rain is out of the question.
There were too many people, friend and foe tangled together. And she had already burned through far too much internal energy shielding the soldiers. Even so, the momentum belonged to their side.
Had Yu Wol not done everything within his power, she might well have run dry fighting to protect Seomhwachon and her disciples—and lost in the end.
Heh. I still have far to go.
Why did laughter rise in her even as she glimpsed her own inadequacy? Shaking her head gently, she lifted her greatsword.
The internal energy of the Hongseong Divine Art began to surge. As a power like an erupting volcano went racing along her meridians like a maddened stallion, Sama Gun and Yu Hyo-jin—and every one of their followers—felt dread settle over them.
"Stop her!!"
They did not know what the Sword Saint meant to do. They did not know what form she intended to unleash. All they knew was that the Transcendent before them was gathering every last ounce of her strength for something.
Wrapped in that foreboding, they hurled themselves at her to bar her way—but the disciples of Hongseong Sect already stood at her side, and the Moonlight Squad, a match for any of their counterparts, stood there as well.
"Stop her!! Stop her!!"
Dread. Unease. Utterly ruled by those dark feelings, Sama Gun screamed.
Until now she had spent her strength watching the whole field, protecting everyone. That was over now.
Hongseong was the Ominous Star. A power raised to protect—yet a power born for destruction all the same.
Standing before pure, unadulterated destruction, they could do nothing but freeze in terror.
"Y-you... bitch!!"
Yu Hyo-jin came on with tremendous force, snarling as she flung herself forward. Facing her charge—a tigress wreathed head to toe in golden qi—the Sword Saint walked.
Yes. Walked.
As though stepping out for a stroll, she simply walked, light and unhurried. Her steps were as easy and unburdened as a woman's on a spring path. Yet nothing in the world could bar them—and Yu Hyo-jin, golden qi flared to its utmost, spear whipping toward her, felt nothing but a single breath of gentle wind.
Nor was she alone. Sama Gun, every warrior of the Lightning Spirit Legion, and the Iron Blood Dan members besides—all of them who faced the Sword Saint felt the soft wind she had made. And when she passed them by, sank her greatsword slowly into the earth, and let out a long, deep breath—
"Guh-haaaagh..."
—everyone her faint breeze had brushed past vomited blood and collapsed where they stood.
Having wrought a feat that silenced every soul on the field, the Sword Saint smiled gently, making no effort to hide her weariness.
"It is the final form among the sword techniques of the Hongseong Divine Art. Its name is Bleak Wind. The Moonlight Blade Technique has something similar, and the Blade Emperor can perform it as well."
She patted Chae Jin on the shoulder.
"Keep striving, and keep learning."
"Ah... yes, ma'am."
"And the same goes for all of you. If you strive, it is well within your reach. Without fail. For I will lead you there myself."
At her even, unhurried words, the disciples of Hongseong Sect, Chae Jin, and Chae Ryeon could do nothing but nod.
"Now then. Is there anyone left who still wishes to fight?"
The Sword Saint swept her greatsword around and leveled it at the enemy.
"D-damn it all!!"
Their will to fight shattered outright, the heterodox warriors broke and fled, scrambling over one another in their rush to escape.
"Hooooo..."
Pursuing an enemy too broken even to form ranks was no difficult thing—and with the seasoned Gi Cha-jo and Wi Yeol joining the hunt, not to mention the Moonlight Squad, it was easier still.
Watching them go, the Sword Saint's legs finally gave out beneath her, and she sank to the ground. Hong Ryeon hurried to her and, so that no outsider might see, gathered the disciples into a wall around her before speaking.
"Ryu Hyeon, Sa Yun, Hyeon Hwi—guard the Master. Take up the protective guard. The rest of you, join the pursuit. The moment Master finishes regulating her breath, we join as well."
The disciples of Hongseong Sect—the very people the Sword Saint had fought to protect—raised their weapons to guard her in turn. At the sight of them, the Sword Saint smiled.
What dependable disciples she had.
"Master, aren't you pushing yourself too hard?"
"Hmhm."
Folding herself laboriously into a cross-legged seat, the Sword Saint told her:
"There are times when one simply must push beyond one's limits."
Because I cannot let his efforts to protect them all come to nothing.
With that final thought, she passed into the selfless stillness of no-mind.
The battle ended in victory once the Sword Saint finished her breath regulation, recovered her internal energy, and joined the pursuit.
A great victory—wounded there were, but not a single life lost.