The Seal of the Beggar Alliance
Bang Seo-jin.
The eldest daughter of the Bang family, and like me, the child of a concubine.
In a household so unconventional that its three children all had different mothers,
and in a complete mess of a family where the man we called father never grew up even at his age, doing nothing but chasing women like a madman, she was, in my eyes, the one and only ray of hope.
Bang Seo-jin, at age thirteen.
The moniker she went by back then was none other than:
'The Greatest Genius of Yoryeong.'
That was what she was. You might wonder what a mere thirteen-year-old could possibly do,
but back then, she really was something else.
At thirteen, she beat adult martial artists to a pulp.
Whenever local unorthodox thugs showed up, she swept them all away with nothing but a wooden sword.
Someone who saw her swing her sword even remarked that a dragon had risen from the Bang family.
Yes, even looking back now, my sister was a genius.
There was no other way to explain the sheer number of absurd things she pulled off.
Granted, her temper was absolutely rotten, and she caused trouble left and right without a care in the world, which made things rather annoying.
But even taking that into account, she was more than worthy of being called a prodigy, a genius.
Who was it again? I think it was the Moyong Clan Leader.
He had looked at her and said:
"Before long, there will not be a single soul in the Central Plains who does not know the name of the Bang family's eldest daughter."
That was his assessment.
It meant she was just that much of a genius.
'And that came from the head of the Moyong Clan, of all people.'
If the master of one of the Five Great Noble Clans evaluated her like that, she was undoubtedly a genius.
Realizing this, our father pinned all his hopes on her, placing every expectation on her shoulders, but...
'Ah, damn it. What a joke of a family.'
'I'm done! I quit!'
The so-called hope of our family couldn't stand watching the household fall apart any longer and ran away.
She left so swiftly that not a single person in the house noticed her disappearance.
She vanished, leaving behind nothing but a single letter.
And because of that, our despairing father turned his wrathful arrows toward me.
'......What a bitch.'
My fists clenched of their own accord.
If she was going to bolt, she should have taken me with her. How could she just run away by herself?
Crumple!
The letter crumpled under the sudden force of my grip.
'Calm down...'
I needed to calm down first. I repeated the words in my head.
There were too many things to process from my sister's letter.
This was no time to be reminiscing about the past.
I smoothed out the crumpled letter and stared at it, lost in thought.
'First of all...'
The seal stamped on the letter.
That was the first problem.
'Why is the seal of the Beggar Alliance Chief stamped on this...?'
Yoo Chun-gil had said this wasn't just any Beggar Alliance seal, but the personal seal of the Alliance Chief himself.
The seal of such a colossal figure wouldn't be stamped haphazardly on a random letter...
'What on earth is going on?'
Why did it arrive stamped on my sister's letter?
And.
'How did she know I was in Sichuan?'
The fact that this letter was delivered to the Martial Alliance branch meant someone had sent it here.
How did she know I was here to send it in the first place?
This was the part that baffled me the most.
My sister hadn't contacted me once in nearly ten years.
Yet, borrowing the name of the Beggar Alliance Chief, she had sent a letter to my exact location.
'Considering how short my stay in Sichuan has been.'
It hadn't been long at all. Which meant she was either nearby...
'Or she had a way of keeping tabs on me.'
What was it?
'What the hell has she been up to?'
My half-sister from a different mother.
What in the world had she been doing all this time?
'Even if she ran away, I knew she would never live a normal life.'
Knowing her, I never expected her to live quietly.
If anything,
'it was stranger that I hadn't heard any rumors about her.'
It was almost bizarre how quiet things had been.
'......As expected.'
She definitely wasn't living a peaceful, ordinary life.
That much was clear.
'......Tsk.'
I swallowed hard as I looked down at the letter.
'Father was right.'
I recalled him saying she would send a letter, and demanding that I contact him immediately if she did.
'......"Contact him and I'll kill you"?'
As if she had anticipated that, my sister had written a clear warning in the letter.
You'd think a warning from a sister I hadn't seen in ages wouldn't scare me, but...
'......With her, you never know what she might actually do.'
The lingering terror from my childhood was tightening around my throat.
Having witnessed her unhinged temper firsthand,
I was absolutely certain she hadn't grown up to be any more sane.
Finally.
'The Yongbong Association?'
The final line of the brief message.
If there was one thing that bothered me, it was that.
It said the Yongbong Association would be held soon, so we should meet there.
That was how the letter ended.
'......How does she even know about that?'
This was the part I understood the least.
'Isn't that classified information?'
The martial arts tournament for young geniuses held by the Martial Alliance every five years.
Since the five-year cycle was coming up, one could guess it was near.
But the sheer certainty with which she wrote that it would be held soon was strange.
'And then there's the connection to the Beggar Alliance Chief.'
I couldn't help but worry—or rather, wonder—if she had gotten herself tangled up in something bizarre.
Rustle.
With those thoughts, I carefully folded the letter and slipped it into my robes.
Then, I looked at the branch leader standing before me and spoke with a smile.
"I have received the letter. Thank you for your consideration, Branch Leader."
"Ah, no, not at all. It was only my duty."
The branch leader forced a smile, but his eyes kept darting toward the pocket where I had tucked the letter.
He was clearly bothered by the seal of the Beggar Alliance Chief.
"I appreciate the sentiment. Since I shouldn't take up any more of your busy time, I shall take my leave."
"Ah, wait..."
"Excuse me."
I bowed and cut him off before he could say anything else.
Getting more involved here would only lead to trouble.
Having wrapped up the conversation, the branch leader had no choice but to let me go, looking rather disappointed.
And so, I stepped outside.
[The Yongbong Association, is it...]
Yoo Chun-gil muttered the moment we stepped out.
[Right, I remember that.]
His gaze was filled with nostalgia, as if reminiscing about the distant past.
Just as I was wondering if he had some special memory of it, he spoke.
[It was a fun place to beat up those arrogant punks who called themselves geniuses. Not a bad place at all. There's no better venue for letting off some steam.]
"......"
I wondered how someone could sound so sentimental while saying something so violent, but since I had already resolved to stop trying to understand his mind, I simply ignored him.
[But it's being held around this time, you say?]
Hehehe.
Yoo Chun-gil let out an ominous chuckle. He was definitely plotting something weird again.
'Well, it should be fine this time.'
The Yongbong Association shouldn't pose any problems for me.
The old man probably didn't know.
'Disciples of Cheongwol Gate cannot participate in the Yongbong Association.'
As a sect directly affiliated with the Martial Alliance, Cheongwol Gate's members were barred from participating in tournaments hosted by the Alliance.
Since that rule existed, whatever happened at the Yongbong Association had nothing to do with me.
I decided to brush it off lightly, thinking that was the end of it.
But at that moment, I had temporarily forgotten.
I had forgotten that I was a guy with absolutely rotten luck.
I slowly made my way back to the Dang Clan. I wanted to look around the county a bit more, but the gazes trailing me were too sharp to ignore.
'They told me to walk around comfortably.'
Despite their assurances that I could wander freely without worry, the fierce gazes watching my every move from behind made it impossible to do so.
Escort and guide? My foot.
This was blatant surveillance.
What's worse,
'Do-hyeong and Cheon Ui-jin said they weren't watched this closely.'
I was getting special treatment, with tailing guards sticking to me like glue wherever I went.
It was suffocating, but I couldn't exactly blame them.
The circumstances were just too perfect.
'Not only did I open the door to someone else's Secret Vault like it was nothing,'
but an attack had occurred right inside that vault.
And while the Poison King was trapped by the enemy's schemes,
'a young martial artist had slain the leader of the attackers.'
To an outsider, I might look like a hero.
'But politically and logically, I was the most suspicious entity.'
Given the situation, I couldn't blame the Poison King for his precautions.
'But that didn't make it any less annoying.'
It was still incredibly grating.
"Tsk."
I clicked my tongue. The moment I stepped into the Dang Clan estate, the tailing guards vanished.
Was their surveillance limited to outside the estate? Or...
'There might be eyes watching me without my knowledge.'
They could be hiding their presence, observing me from the shadows.
It was like walking into a tiger's den.
'But the fortunate thing was...'
If I were alone, it would be a problem, but I had someone with me who was actually useful in this regard.
[It seems there are no Dang Clan martial artists nearby.]
Relieved by Yoo Chun-gil's words, I quickened my pace.
The place I arrived at was the training ground.
Do-hyeong and Cheon Ui-jin had asked to train together today, so I had made sure to match their schedule.
'Just a few more days.'
The chief blacksmith, Cheolgangju, had said it would only take a few days to finish repairing Man-wol.
He said five days at most.
Which meant I could return once that time passed.
'Let's just take it easy until then.'
I resolved to just keep a low profile and do what was expected of me.
Besides, there was no more work for me to do in Sichuan.
If anything, my only task now was to digest what had happened and make the gains my own.
'For now...'
Since I had nothing to do until the Poison King summoned me, I needed to focus on training.
The newly learned Blue Moon Sword Dance, and...
'I need to test the Sacred Sword.'
The top-tier weapon that Dang Ye-ran had poured her heart and soul into repairing.
The beloved sword of Cheonma, which was now destined to be my own weapon—the Sacred Sword.
It was time to test it out.
Clack. I placed my hand on the hilt of the Sacred Sword at my waist.
I had felt it before, but the grip was truly magnificent, fitting perfectly in my hand.
As I lightly wrapped my fingers around it, a thought occurred to me, and I asked Yoo Chun-gil.
"But is it really okay for me to use this?"
The sense of incongruity still lingered.
"I'm technically a member of the Orthodox faction, so using a sword that belonged to the head demon of the Demonic Cult is a bit..."
Was my barely-existent conscience pricking me?
It was especially baffling that Yoo Chun-gil, the very man who had slain Cheonma, was the one telling me to use it.
"If it were Man-wol, at least I'd have a justification."
Wielding that ridiculously heavy sword would be its own problem, but at least there was a justification.
A disciple wielding his master's sword.
Who could possibly argue with that? I would have plenty of excuses if anyone questioned it.
But not the Sacred Sword. Even if the chances of getting caught were slim, I couldn't understand why he was entrusting this to me.
So, I tried to press him on this specific point.
"Why this..."
I stopped mid-sentence.
Yoo Chun-gil's expression was strange.
He wasn't answering my question at all, his gaze fixed on something in the distance.
Seeing his face, my tension spiked instinctively.
Just as my hair stood on end from the extreme tension,
[Half a step back. Tilt your sword diagonally, back of the blade to the northwest-left.]
Yoo Chun-gil's voice rang out.
The moment I heard his words, I threw myself into the stance.
In that split second—
Screeech—! Clang!!!
An attack flew straight toward my sword.