Progress
The Senate of the Luoyang Sword Family.
The village of the elders.
The mother of the Second Young Master—Grand Madam Guyang of the Luoyang Sword Family—wore an expression of pure displeasure.
"…"
She had brought carefully chosen, high-caliber escorts for her visit to the Senate. Yet those escorts could not even meet the eyes of the Special Task Force members who stood dressed as ordinary village guards.
But something else enraged her far more.
"The Senate Chief has refused the madam's request. Return home."
An expulsion order.
An old man in the shabby clothes of a farmer waved her off with a careless flick of his hand as he spoke.
The way he addressed her, the casual speech, the open irritation—every scrap of it was utterly intolerable. Yet even Grand Madam Guyang could not treat that old man with arrogance.
"…Honored elder of the main family. This request is not merely a private matter of mine—of Grand Madam Guyang."
The unremarkable old man with sun-blackened skin and peasant clothes was one of the Senate elders of the great Luoyang Sword Family.
"For the Senate to intervene directly in the internal affairs of the main family is to trample upon the family's sacred house laws."
"House laws again?"
The elder looked thoroughly bored.
"I already told you—the house laws themselves authorize Senate intervention in times of crisis for the main family, did I not?"
"No. That is not so."
Grand Madam Guyang drew herself up with the full force of the dignity that usually left those around her trembling, and raised her voice.
"That is nothing more than a self-serving interpretation of an ambiguous clause about a 'crisis for the main family'!"
She pressed hard.
"How can the Senate, which ought to set the example for the entire family, twist the letter of the law so conveniently to suit its own ends?"
In truth, no one could deny that the Senate's current actions rested on a convenient reading of the statutes. That was precisely why she clung to the point.
"To decide that mere signs of unrest within the Agency constitute a crisis for the main family is, at best—"
"Enough."
The words she had been driving home with such force were cut short by the elder as he dug a finger into his ear.
"We of the Senate do not agree with that assessment."
"Y-you…!"
Dignity meant nothing here. Logic meant nothing to this opponent. This damned old man…! Grand Madam Guyang immediately changed her approach.
"…This is no ordinary matter. Even the elders of the main family are in an uproar."
The Council of Elders was one of the pillars of the Luoyang Sword Family. Its movements were something even the Senate would have to take seriously.
"The Council of Elders is already preparing an emergency session on this very issue. Before the situation grows any worse—"
"But they are only preparing, are they not? The emergency session has not actually convened."
"N-no. At any moment—"
The elder ignored her stammering and gave a short, dry laugh.
"If an emergency session were held, the first item on the agenda would have to be a discussion of that, would it not?"
As he spoke, the old man pointed toward the distant city of Luoyang beyond the mountains.
Boom—.
Kukukukukung.
Faint yet unmistakable, the sound of cannon fire rolled over the ridges. Against that low thunder, the elder continued.
"In the first place, the ones desperately preventing an emergency session from being called are you people—the Second Young Master's faction—are they not?"
Grand Madam Guyang had no choice but to close her mouth.
"…"
If an emergency session convened, the elders would inevitably be forced to address the chaos unfolding in the Valley of Sin. Therefore no such session would ever open.
"No matter how much pressure you and the Third Young Master's faction—and even the Yeon bloodline itself—are putting on the Council of Elders… those so-called elders, tsk tsk."
The old man clicked his tongue as though he had just witnessed something shameful.
"Pirates are firing cannons in the middle of Luoyang and they keep silent, buying time?"
An elder who had never taken a single step beyond this tiny village saw with perfect clarity the games being played in the political heart of the Luoyang Sword Family.
"Was the First Young Master so terrifying after so short a time out of seclusion? Or…" His voice dropped low. "…is it the wind of reform he will bring that frightens you?"
"That is—!"
Grand Madam Guyang began to protest, but the elder gave her no opening.
"Enough. Leave."
He turned and walked back into the village. She screamed after him as if she could stop him by sheer force of will.
"The elders must not take this matter lightly!"
As if to cut off her cry, the village gate slammed shut with finality.
"Do as you like."
He had dismissed Grand Madam Guyang with casual contempt, yet the steps that carried him toward the village hall were not nearly so light.
"Why the dark face?"
A teasing voice reached him.
"Did that little girl who can't even play lady of the house properly land a blow on you?"
The elder turned toward the speaker and offered a bitter smile.
"Village Head…"
Standing there was the old woman who served as both head of this village and Senate Chief of the great Luoyang Sword Family.
He looked at her and spoke.
"It seems our armed intervention this time will not simply slide past like a snake over a wall. They appear determined to hold us strictly accountable for our actions later."
A sigh colored his voice.
"Every last one of them is already sharpening their knives, waiting to demand answers."
"All of them blinded by power. Have you ever seen such people fail to shove responsibility onto someone else?"
The old woman laughed it off lightly.
"Village Head, this is not a matter for laughter. It could even threaten the very existence of the Senate…!"
There may have been a touch of exaggeration in his words, yet his concern for the Senate was genuine and deep.
"If that is what must be, then so be it."
"Village Head…!"
The Senate Chief struck the ground with her staff.
"Stop looking only at what is immediately in front of you. Look farther."
"At what, exactly…?"
The ornaments hanging from her staff chimed with a clear, pure sound.
"In Luoyang, which we may as well call our own front yard, some pirate rabble is running wild. Inside our own house, thieves wearing the faces of family members are trying to devour the eldest son."
The blind old woman named the present situation with perfect accuracy.
"…Yes. That is why we stretched the house laws and stepped in—to resolve this horrific state of the family—"
"Resolve it?"
At his words the old woman wore a meaningful expression.
"In nearly ten years… has there ever been a moment when that was even possible?"
"…!"
The elder's eyes went wide. A smile touched the old woman's face.
"Yes. This is the first time. The very first."
She lifted her sightless eyes toward the distant outside world.
"The main family now earns wealth beyond anything we could have imagined in the past. Its size and power have grown immense—and so has the rot eating it from within."
The old woman, who had served as an active elder under the family head two generations ago, asked the man who had served that same head.
"In the last ten years, was there ever a chance for us to solve this problem?"
The elder shook his head.
"…There was not."
"Exactly. Those who worried for the family's future could do nothing but desperately keep the house from collapsing."
Days spent holding up with bare hands a tower—the Luoyang Sword Family—that grew ever taller and more precarious.
"But today…!"
Now understanding what she meant to say, the elder slowly nodded.
"Yes. Exactly."
Certainty entered his voice and he spoke out loud and clear.
"Today is the first chance we have had to solve that long-standing problem!"
"Precisely."
The Senate Chief laughed with genuine pleasure.
"The only successor we can trust—and the most outstanding one—has returned. And he has drawn his sword against the very problems we could never even touch."
Nothing was reflected in her ruined eyes, yet it seemed she gazed clearly upon the newly reborn Luoyang Sword Family that would soon appear.
"Responsibility? The existence of the Senate? Those things mean nothing. If it is necessary, this old woman will offer even her own neck."
She smiled with a heart grown infinitely light.
"In this moment, my heart is so very light."
"So it is."
Before he realized it, the elder's own expression had lightened to match hers.
Looking at him, the old woman asked in a teasing tone,
"Do you know whom this old woman envies most in this very moment?"
"Ha…!"
The elder gave a short laugh as he answered the jest.
"I believe I understand. For now I, too, find myself envying that fellow Geam-jon."
Agency Headquarters.
My sword feels light…!
Standing not as Chairman of the Supreme Operations Committee but in the name of Geam-jon, he found himself smiling without realizing it.
How long has it been since a sword felt this light in my hand?
The secret sword arts of the family that the Death Command Warriors poured forth were fearsome beyond measure. Yet Geam-jon's blade unraveled those techniques with an ease that astonished even himself.
My body feels light!
Even after cutting down so many Agency martial artists and now clashing with masters of the Death Command Warriors' caliber…
It is as though I have returned to my youth.
Geam-jon's body slipped past the enemy's sword paths with a lightness that felt almost unnatural.
And slowly he began to understand the reason for this strange state.
This can only be because my heart is light…!
Geam-jon's feet danced across the corpses of Agency warriors. The tip of his sword carved a long gash down the unarmed arm of a Death Command Warrior.
"Khuhk…!"
The Death Command Warrior's body staggered for an instant after taking a blow to the skull from Yeon So-hyeon's Shaolin Five Fists.
Geam-jon.
At Yeon So-hyeon's brief call, Geam-jon's sword answered.
Secret art of the Sword Family — a blade light as the heart that wields it, parting the very walls of the air and leaving not even a shadow behind.
"Keok?!"
The Death Command Warrior Yeon So-hyeon had been facing lost an arm to that single stroke.
"Hup!"
Yet the Death Command Warrior facing Geam-jon did not miss the opening.
Geam-jon paid that blade no mind at all.
First Young Master.
And just as that trust expected—
"Keuk…!"
The Death Command Warrior's strike never reached Geam-jon.
Having left his own opponent to Geam-jon, Yeon So-hyeon had already closed the distance and knocked the sword aside.
"Excellent fist arts!"
The praise escaped Geam-jon before he could stop it. Yeon So-hyeon answered with a faint smile.
"And your swordsmanship is superb."
Yeon So-hyeon sealed the enemy's follow-up strikes with fluid footwork as he continued.
"Watching you fly about like this, it seems your earlier complaints of fatigue were nothing but pretense."
"Now that you mention it, perhaps they were."
Geam-jon threw his head back and laughed.
"…You bastards!"
The sight of the two of them exchanging casual banter made the Death Command Warrior grind his teeth.
"Do you take us lightly?!"
How could even Geam-jon and Yeon So-hyeon look down upon three Death Command Warriors who had each crossed the wall of mastery?
They were not looking down on anyone.
Their hearts were simply far too light.
Part of it was the reassuring presence of a trustworthy ally in Yeon So-hyeon.
But more than that—
"It is only that I am no longer in pain."
At Geam-jon's answer the Death Command Warrior frowned.
"What kind of nonsense is that…?!"
Geam-jon paid the man's words no attention and simply smiled.
If the First Young Master had never ended his seclusion…
If Yeon So-hyeon were not standing here now, would Geam-jon have been able to accept this moment—watching with his own hands as the martial artists the Sword Family had so carefully raised were cut down?
It would have been far too terrifying.
To hold the family upright by any means so that it did not collapse, and at the same time to rebuild the lost strength…
It would have been far too heavy a burden.
The constant addition of weight to an already crushing karma had been a nightmare.
All this time I have been thrashing beneath the weight of that karma…!
A belated realization.
Yet it was a yoke he could never have cast off without Yeon So-hyeon.
The days of desperately clinging and merely preventing collapse are over!
Not anymore.
I am now advancing together with the First Young Master.
Geam-jon and Yeon So-hyeon, meeting each other's eyes, moved as one.
There was not the slightest hesitation in the sword that drove toward the enemy, nor the slightest fear.
We are rebirthing the Sword Family…!
In this very moment, the old man known as Geam-jon was— for the first time in more than a decade—moving forward.
Without any doubt.
The Sword Family was advancing.