Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Genius
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"Captain, did you really cancel the transfer request?"
The gatekeeper shrugged without a word.
His fellow guards, who stood watch with him at the entrance to Won-gak Pavilion, reacted with utter disbelief.
"Aren't you out of your mind? All that suffering for so long, just to be treated like a dog by that Swordless One?"
"Are you seriously insane? Think it over again. A warrior of your caliber would be welcomed and honored anywhere in the Sword Clan."
The gatekeeper let out a scoffing laugh.
"...Then why haven't you all gone off to seek employment elsewhere? Why wear these guard uniforms and stand here watching the gate?"
His comrades stared at him as if he'd said something ridiculous.
"Obviously because devoting everything to the Sword Clan is the most honorable path."
"It's still better than rolling around on the front lines."
"And way better than groveling at the feet of those power-hungry types just to puff up your neck."
They burst into hearty laughter.
Even after the Family Head collapsed, amid the chaotic political turmoil, the Sword Clan hadn't splintered into factions because of people like them.
"So what are your dreams? You can't want to just keep carrying out whatever assignments you're given forever, right?"
The group fell silent.
After a moment, one spoke up quietly.
"...A warrior's dream is to serve his lord."
"Our one and only lord is the Supreme Family Head."
"If only the Supreme Family Head would rise from his bed soon."
"It'd be great to take direct orders from him again, like the old days. Not from those desk-jockey higher-ups."
Their conversation drifted back to the era when the Supreme Family Head had reigned vigorously as Family Head.
Watching them reminisce happily, the gatekeeper murmured softly.
"...A lord."
He looked up at the sky.
He recalled the day he'd raged at those Black Bone Gang thugs—what a bunch of lowlifes—and despaired at his own failings.
*What do you have to be sorry for? You fulfilled your role.*
In the Swordless One's words, he'd felt echoes of old memories stir to life.
That mountain-like presence.
An unbreakable cliff, unyielding to all.
*Why feel sorry at all? You did your very best.*
The gatekeeper had only rarely met his lord—the Supreme Family Head—face to face.
He'd been a warrior active mostly outside, while his lord ruled the Luoyang Sword Clan.
Perhaps that's why.
Somehow, the faces of those two men seemed to overlap in his mind.
* * *
He walked the forest path toward Won-gak Pavilion.
He carried a stack of routine reports that had piled up, nothing urgent, just needing delivery.
Passing through the bewildering formations—words like "strange and wondrous" fell far short of describing them—a breathtaking vista unfolded before him.
He paused to savor the fresh air, then resumed walking.
Reaching the clearing, he could scarcely believe his eyes.
"Sword Clan Secret Sword... Flash Shadow Instant Sword...?"
He rubbed his eyes.
But no matter how many times he looked, what he saw didn't change.
It was unmistakably that maid who reminded him of his own daughter, married far away from Luoyang.
Just days ago, she'd been an ordinary woman without a trace of internal energy.
Yet now, faint but unmistakable, he sensed internal energy within her.
And what of the sword form she was demonstrating?
It was undoubtedly one of the Sword Clan's supreme techniques, infamous for felling even elite masters who challenged it boldly.
*That's no mere ten or twenty percent mastery.*
Her internal energy was woefully inadequate, but the form itself had reached a state one could call complete.
She finished the full sequence and bowed toward the stunned gatekeeper.
"You've arrived."
Her black training garb, slick with beads of sweat, looked unfamiliar on her.
"I was strictly ordered not to stop once I began, so my greetings are belated."
"Oh, no. Dedicated maid, when did you start learning that technique?"
"My meager talent has sullied your eyes—my shame."
Blushing, she hid the sword behind her back.
"...I've trained for less than half a day, so if you view it as mere playacting and find it endearing, I'll be grateful."
"...Eh?"
"Yes?"
Just then, footsteps approached from behind, followed by a voice calling him.
"Hey! Life-Seizing Ghost Sword! Quit bothering people and get to work!"
* * *
"Oh, perfect timing."
The irritating Eldest Young Master, as always, had a book in hand.
"Uh, Young Master. Just now, I saw something unbelievable..."
The Eldest Young Master frowned at the still-dazed gatekeeper.
"You're not spouting nonsense, are you? Forget everything else—on Flash Shadow Instant Sword alone, she's better than you, so don't talk rubbish."
"No, but... half a day..."
The Eldest Young Master snatched the bundle of documents from his hand.
"That's not the point."
He issued a command.
"Go make some food."
* * *
*Is this why I canceled my transfer request?*
*Just days ago, she had no internal energy to speak of...*
*Half a day?*
Such thoughts refused to leave his head.
The moment he sat at the table he'd prepared and took a spoonful of rice into his mouth, Yeon So-hyeon's expression hardened.
"...Jeong-a."
"...I'll request reinforcements at once, sir."
She removed the spoon from her mouth, set it down, and hurried off in quick steps.
"Life-Seizing Ghost Sword, you idiot. Can't you even cook properly?"
"No, it's just..."
Yeon So-hyeon, who never wasted food, forced it down anyway and snapped at him.
"Her Flash Shadow Instant Sword mastery is lacking compared to mine, and now she can't even eat? What good is she...?"
Trembling, the gatekeeper said nothing as the Eldest Young Master tsked at him.
*...Insufferable brat.*
After enduring the scolding and shrinking in on himself, he tried a bite of his own cooking.
"......."
He spat it out immediately.
Then, deflated further, he watched blankly as the Eldest Young Master devoured everything.
*What kind of stomach does this guy have?*
Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.
"...Young Master."
"What?"
With his mouth stuffed full of what barely qualified as food, the Eldest Young Master glared at him with eyes full of loathing.
"Uh, no, that is..."
He asked cautiously.
"Who exactly taught that young lady Flash Shadow Instant Sword?"
Talent in the student mattered for martial arts, but the teacher's aptitude was equally vital.
That was the foundation allowing great sects to nurture generation after generation of prodigies.
"And learning it in half a day—what does that even mean?"
He'd seen countless geniuses over the years.
Every comrade around him now had surpassed mortal limits, and he himself was no less talented—perhaps more so.
He far exceeded the common bar for genius.
Yet even he had never heard of mastering a supreme technique's form in half a day.
Had he not seen her just days prior, he'd have dismissed it as an absurd lie.
"Half a day, my foot..."
The gatekeeper brightened at Yeon So-hyeon's words.
There had to be something he didn't know.
"I first taught her this morning, so it's not even half a day yet."
"...H-half a day."
Those who broke through before age forty—uncertainty's threshold—were hailed as geniuses.
This genius among geniuses was now truly grasping what lay beyond the heavens.
Pondering Yeon So-hyeon's words, he jolted again.
"Did you say you taught her yourself just now?!"
The Eldest Young Master, dubbed the Swordless One, had personally instructed one of the Sword Clan's most notoriously esoteric supreme techniques.
And she'd mastered its form in half a day.
"Ah, shut it."
Yeon So-hyeon grimaced at his booming voice.
Then, in a firm tone, he declared.
"Eat your own share—all of it."
"But—!"
He started to protest, but fell silent seeing Yeon So-hyeon pop Jeong-a's portion into his mouth too.
He'd eaten snakes raw on missions, chewed tree bark—somehow, he could finish it.
Though of all those, today's cooking was by far the worst.
Gulping down a bowl of cold water, he asked Yeon So-hyeon again.
"Did you truly guide her yourself, Young Master?"
Unlike him, Yeon So-hyeon rinsed his mouth with personally brewed Won-gak Pavilion tea and smirked.
"What? Want me to teach you too?"
"No, before that. Do you possess such profound martial knowledge to teach a supreme technique?"
Yeon So-hyeon burst out laughing.
"Who do you think it was who first refined Flash Shadow Instant Sword into its current form? And you're asking me that?"
"Pardon?"
Yeon So-hyeon leaned back, chuckling.
"Back in the martial academy, the scholars got together and debated the trickiest technique in the Sword Clan."
He took a sip of tea and continued.
"So I mixed Point Acupoint's Spectrum Sword, Shaolin's Arhat Instant Hand, and our own house's Fine Slice Razor just right."
He spread his hands wide.
"Ta-da. Debate over the trickiest technique: done."
"......."
The gatekeeper wanted to say something—anything—but words failed him.
That technique so many Sword Clan warriors had challenged and failed.
The one that made so many geniuses despair at their own inadequacy.
Yet it boasted terrifying power, instilling fear in the Sword Clan's enemies.
And it had begun as this boy's prank.
"...Aren't you the Swordless One, Young Master?"
Even as he spoke, the question carried layers of meaning he himself couldn't fully grasp.
"Who knows..."
Yeon So-hyeon shrugged.
"I'm definitely without a sword, though."
In Yeon So-hyeon's teasing gaze, the gatekeeper felt a strange familiarity.
Not quite déjà vu.
His one lord, whom he revered and served.
That lord's image now overlapped with the Sword Clan's most despised eldest son.
"Life-Stealing Ghost Sword."
It was the nickname he'd buried in his past.
The Family Head's eldest son uttered the name.
"Still carrying around that toy sword, I see."
The Eldest Young Master's eyes fixed on the sword at the gatekeeper—Life-Stealing Ghost Sword's—waist.
"When your sword has rusted through and can't be drawn for any purpose, that moment will come."
Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon.
The man who should have been the Luoyang Sword Clan's Acting Family Head asked the Sword Clan's once most ferocious blade from the past.
"How long do you plan to keep wearing that fake sword?"