The Scar of the Past
Clang!
Sparks flew from the blade.
The impact pushed my body back. It was a powerful strike.
However, because I had already taken a half-step back and twisted my upper body, I naturally pivoted as I was pushed.
This allowed my body to spin, effortlessly parrying the force of the blow.
The enemy's weapon slid harmlessly down the angled spine of my sword.
Screeech!
As the deflected attack went wide, my assailant quickly repositioned to the side. Not wanting to lose the initiative, I channeled my qi into the Sacred Sword.
Just as I was about to unleash a sword form—
"Wait...?"
I froze the moment I recognized the attacker's face.
"...Uncle Mu-jeong?"
At my words, the middle-aged man who had ambushed me dropped to one knee with a heavy thud.
"Please forgive my insolence."
He lowered his sword to the ground and bowed his head deeply.
I frowned as I looked down at him.
He was someone I had met a few times back in Yoryeong.
To be precise, he was Moyong Yeong-sun's personal bodyguard.
Why on earth would someone like him ambush me?
The reason was glaringly obvious. Frowning, I turned my gaze toward the entrance of the training ground.
Sure enough, a woman was leaning against the doorway, watching me.
"What do you think you're doing?"
I asked, sheathing the drawn sword.
"...You actually blocked it?"
Moyong Yeong-sun spoke with a hint of surprise, forcing a hollow laugh from my throat.
Then,
"Hey."
I spoke to her, my face completely expressionless.
"Have you lost your mind?"
"I apologize. There was something I needed to confirm."
"Confirm my ass."
I turned and walked toward her.
"What do you take me for? I'm already stressed enough as it is."
I had accumulated far too much irritation lately to let this slide. Especially not with her.
"..."
Moyong Yeong-sun simply stared back at me with heavy, sunken eyes.
Normally, I would have held myself back, but not this time.
"Hey."
"Yes?"
"I made myself clear before I left Yoryeong, didn't I?"
It had been winter, on one of the days Moyong Yeong-sun made her periodic visits.
"I told you to stop clinging to me. I told you that no matter what you did, I would never look your way."
"..."
Her eyes twitched at my words.
Back then, she had replied with rimmed, teary eyes:
"Can't you just give me a chance...?"
Her expression had been so pitiful that I had ultimately let it go back then.
"I also told you not to cross the line. So what the hell is this?"
But things were different now.
"Why did you come all the way to Sichuan just to annoy me?"
I had too much on my plate and too many things to worry about.
I was barely holding it together, and I didn't have the luxury to deal with her antics.
"Why did you do it?"
I suppressed the urge to raise my voice and demanded an explanation.
"I wanted to see if the rumors were true."
Yeong-sun replied.
"Confirm? What, whether I've actually gotten stronger?"
The Young Sword Saint. The rumor that I had slain an absolute master whom even the Poison King couldn't kill.
And that I had saved the Poison King and the Tang Clan.
Those were the exaggerated rumors currently circulating about me in Sichuan.
It was laughable just hearing how blown out of proportion they were.
An absolute master? Someone even the Poison King couldn't kill?
As if. That bastard wasn't that much of a monster.
Or was he?
Well, he was a monster, but...
Either way, it wasn't me who killed him, so I felt nothing.
If there was any takeaway from it, it was this:
That my body is capable of taking down someone like that.
I realized that everything depended on how well I could control my physical form.
This was a lesson I had learned the hard way in the Spiritual Dream.
...I seriously thought I was going to lose my mind.
How many times had I died before mastering sword gang?
And how many more times did I die even after mastering it?
It was a span of time so vast I had long since given up counting.
And the only condition was to block a single strike.
Manifesting my own sword gang to block the opponent's.
I had clung to that single goal, yet because I couldn't achieve it, I had tasted hell more times than I could count.
I succeeded in the end, but what I gained from it wasn't anything grand.
It was simply the ability to move a fraction faster.
Even with the same realm and the same body, the power and speed one can exert vary wildly.
I had to realize that.
I had to draw out the absolute maximum power and speed my body could muster.
The Spiritual Dream was a battle of whether one could grasp that concept or not.
Therefore, what Yoo Chun-gil wanted to teach me wasn't merely that a body below the Peak realm could use sword gang.
It was how to utilize one's physical body to its absolute limit.
I figured that was what he truly wanted to show me.
Anyway.
That wasn't what was important right now, so I brushed it aside.
"Did you confirm it? Are you satisfied now?"
"..."
I snapped at Moyong Yeong-sun.
"I'll take some of the blame since I've been avoiding you, but..."
I spoke, my brow still furrowed.
"You shouldn't have resorted to such a shitty method—"
"Who is it?"
"What?"
Moyong Yeong-sun cut me off.
Who? What was she suddenly talking about?
"What do you mean?"
I asked, but Yeong-sun didn't answer. Instead, she busily scanned our surroundings.
After looking around for a long moment, she turned back to me, her eyes freezing over.
"What do you see this time?"
"..."
"Who is the one making you act like this?"
Yoo Chun-gil sounded flustered by Yeong-sun's words.
Her words were so loaded that Yoo Chun-gil seemed genuinely concerned. If she could see him, it would cause countless complications—
"..."
You crazy old man. What am I going to do with you?
I barely managed to hold back a sigh.
Sighing now would make it too obvious, so I held it in for a moment before letting out a shallow breath.
"Whew..."
I exhaled softly, swept my hair back, and called her name.
"Yeong-sun."
"..."
A vein throbbed on Moyong Yeong-sun's forehead at the casual mention of her name, but unlike before, she didn't lose her temper.
I could tell she was holding it in.
"I told you before. It's not like that."
"Liar."
Yeong-sun cut me off flatly.
"You're caught up in something. Otherwise, there's no way you'd be acting like this."
"...What makes you so sure?"
"Because you're not this kind of person."
"Don't make assumptions. What do you even know about me?"
"I do know. I've watched you for years. How could I not?"
A smirk slipped past my lips before I could stop it.
"You can't know a person in just a few years."
A few years at best.
And it wasn't as if we had spent every single day together. It was just briefly, under the pretext of an engagement.
And for a fleeting moment, under the pretext of breaking it off.
And after that.
"What could you possibly see through eyes blinded by lingering regret and obsession? You know nothing."
"..."
"Whatever you're thinking, it's meaningless and futile. So stop this already."
"...Stop?"
Yeong-sun's petal-like lips pressed into a tight line.
Her emotions, usually so guarded, laid bare.
Just then—
Rustle!
"...!"
Suddenly, Moyong Yeong-sun pulled open the collar of her robe, exposing her collarbone.
"Are you insane...!"
Startled by her sudden action, I reached out to pull her robe back together, but—
"Then why did you save me?"
"..."
I froze at the sight of the dark scar near her collarbone.
Because I knew exactly why that scar was there.
"If you saved me, shouldn't you take responsibility?"
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
I was dumbfounded.
"What, are you saying you can't get married because of a scar on your body, so I have to take responsibility?"
"No."
Yeong-sun shook her head, dismissing the notion.
"As if a tiny scar like this would stop me from marrying. I'm beautiful. Extremely so. Enough that a blemish like this doesn't even register."
"..."
She wasn't wrong, but it was incredibly annoying to hear.
Especially since I had heard something similar before.
"I'm pretty, you know."
That was exactly how that crazy girl from Cheongwol Gate had described herself.
...Is this a common trait among them?
They shared a similar vibe, and even their words were identical.
What made it worse was that their confidence was actually justified.
"Who are you thinking about right now?"
"...I'm not thinking about anyone. I was just too stunned to speak."
"You had the eyes of someone thinking about another woman."
"Don't talk nonsense."
They were both terrifyingly quick-witted.
"And even if I was, what does it matter? We're long over."
"True. We are."
It had been nearly ten years since our engagement was broken.
We might as well be strangers now. In fact, we were strangers.
"So stop this and go your own way. If you're not asking me to take responsibility for the scar, then what is all this about?"
That scar had been made right after the engagement was broken.
It was the result of a terrible incident that occurred while cleaning up the aftermath.
It was also the root cause of Moyong Yeong-sun's obsession with me.
"No matter what you want from me, I can't give it to you, nor do I want to. Have you forgotten why I ran away?"
"Exactly. Why did you run away like a coward? If you were going to face it, you should have done it properly."
"Properly, my foot. You're really something else, aren't you?"
I scrunched up my nose and glared at her.
"You got caught bribing my family's servant to spy on me, didn't you? You also got caught giving money to my bastard brother to pull some scheme. Do you know how many other things there are?"
Just thinking about it made me sick.
My family had helped her, hoping that we might get re-engaged to the Moyong Family.
Unable to bear it any longer, I had to run away.
That was the real reason I left for Anhui.
I worked so hard to make sure I wouldn't get caught at the end.
I had reached an agreement with my father, and even secretly aligned with the Moyong Family Head.
And yet.
They both betrayed me?
Had those old men lost their minds?
After everything I did for them before I left.
I ground my teeth in frustration.
"I still shudder just thinking about those days. What do you expect me to do with you?"
"Isn't that level of effort worth accepting?"
"How can someone be this shameless?"
I wondered how many layers of thick skin she had.
"I have absolutely no intention of doing so, now or ever. So stop bothering me and get lost, before I send a letter to your father this instant."
I spat the words out with venom.
Moyong Yeong-sun fell silent, her lips pressed tight.
Her eyes cast downward, her eyelashes trembling slightly.
I clicked my tongue and turned to leave.
Then, I paused and spoke to her one last time.
"Don't expect anything from me. What you're feeling isn't a beautiful emotion like love or affection."
The reason I didn't look kindly upon her actions,
the reason I didn't respect her or try to accept her:
"Stop trying to find your deceased mother in me."
Because I knew that the root of her feelings was nothing but longing.
At the mention of her mother, Yeong-sun's shoulders trembled slightly.
Glancing at her, I delivered my final words.
"Then, Lady Moyong, I shall take my leave. Given your insolence today, I trust you will be more careful in the future."
I reverted to formal speech. It was a clear sign that I had nothing more to say.
I walked straight out of the training ground.
The moment I stepped outside, Yoo Chun-gil spoke up as if he had been waiting.
It seemed Yeong-sun's words had lingered in his mind.
"She can't. Don't worry."
"So it was disappointment, not worry?"
Which meant the other half was dead serious.
"...It's nothing. Just a consequence of my own mistake."
"Yes."
Yes, it was a mistake.
Seeing the ghost of her mother when I was a child.
Giving in to her mother's desperate plea to save her daughter.
Sticking my nose where it didn't belong and saving Yeong-sun because of it.
And because of that...
...the way she tries to see her mother through me.
It all stemmed from my own mistake.