Part 23 - Old Tales
The gatekeeper was very angry.
Even though those brats—nothing more than yapping puppies—had acted in a way that sullied the Sword Clan's name, he was in a situation where he couldn't do anything about it. It made his teeth grind.
Next, his anger turned toward the First Young Master.
If only he had possessed power befitting the position of First Young Master, he would have easily recovered the Sword Clan Bronze Token right there on the spot, and then—holding them accountable for insulting the Sword Clan—he would've chopped every last one of them into pieces.
But when he finally opened his mouth toward Yeon Sang-hyeon, what came out wasn't resentment or rage.
"…I'm sorry."
In the end, he too had done nothing for the sake of protecting himself.
To avoid taking responsibility, he had simply refrained from stirring up something he couldn't handle.
"What is there to be sorry for? You did your part."
Even those words of encouragement—words he was hearing for the first time from Yeon Sang-hyeon—did nothing to comfort him.
"You'd better go back now. The one who handed that Sword Clan Bronze Token to Geumju might lump you in with me as well."
"But I'm supposed to escort the First Young Master…!"
Yeon Sang-hyeon smiled at him.
"There's no need to sacrifice yourself for someone you aren't offering your sword to."
"Th-that…"
He opened his mouth several times to protest, only to shut it again.
"…I'm sorry."
Yeon Sang-hyeon handed him an order slip he had prepared in advance.
"Take this."
The order slip bore the clan lord's official seal—it was for him.
It proved that, by Yeon Sang-hyeon's command, he had carried out a temporary escort duty, and that as of now he had been ordered to return.
His footsteps halted several times after he turned away with the order slip in hand, but in the end, he couldn't bring himself to turn back.
Damn it…
Even after reaching a higher stage, he'd felt helpless many times, but this was the first time he'd felt this foul.
Damn it.
The long shadow cast by the sunset looked miserably lonely.
***
"Hm."
Se-a's patience—already strained from waiting so long for Yeon Sang-hyeon to finish taking Jeong-a's pulse—was starting to run out.
The famous physicians she had summoned had already come and gone, and they had all assured her that Jeong-a was merely exhausted.
That she was simply sleeping deeply.
But unlike the common opinion, Se-a knew that Yeon Sang-hyeon's medical skill was enough to form a whole school of its own.
That was why she couldn't hide her anxiety.
"Security at the An family is perfect. And as you ordered, we've increased the guard to more than double our usual level."
Even at her subordinate's report, she only waved him off, irritably chewing on her smoking pipe.
After pacing outside for a while and letting even more time pass, her patience finally snapped.
"First Young Master, this girl will enter."
Without even asking permission, she opened the door and stepped inside.
Inside, the scene was almost identical to how it had been right before she left.
Her only younger sister was still unconscious, and the First Young Master was still holding her wrist, taking her pulse.
After hesitating a moment, she asked Yeon Sang-hyeon.
"…Is Jeong-a all right?"
Yeon Sang-hyeon, who had been sitting with his eyes closed, looked back at her.
"All right? You heard she's just sleeping, didn't you?"
His tone was absurdly calm.
"Th—!"
Strength reflexively went into the hand holding the pipe, but she barely held back.
"…Ahem. Then why is the pulse reading taking so long?"
Yeon Sang-hyeon ignored the question and held out his hand.
"You brought the information on the Black Bone Sect, right?"
This time she nearly snapped the pipe in half.
But as she repeated the word—endure, endure—over and over in her head, she held up a thick bundle of documents for him.
"Before that, wouldn't it be proper to tell me first what's wrong with my sister?"
"That's everything, right?"
"…It's all of it."
The more she spoke, the more she clenched her teeth, and her pronunciation began to blur.
Yeon Sang-hyeon frowned, stroking a chin that held not even a hint of a beard.
"Hm. Actually, after checking her pulse, it turns out Jeong-a is suffering from a severe illness."
He clicked his tongue.
"But judging by your attitude…"
Se-a hurled the bundle of documents at him in a near-throw.
"W-what illness is it?!"
Yeon Sang-hyeon didn't answer. He simply opened the bundle and began reading.
He was so fast it would've been believable if someone said he wasn't really reading at all—just flipping through.
"Hm."
After turning through everything, Yeon Sang-hyeon nodded.
Se-a forced down the trembling in her body and asked again.
"So what illness is Jeong-a suffering from?"
Yeon Sang-hyeon looked at her like she'd said something ridiculous.
"Didn't you say she's sleeping because she's tired?"
In the end, the pipe snapped in her grip.
"…You said it was a severe illness."
Yeon Sang-hyeon furrowed his brow.
"Overwork is a serious illness. Even young people can lose their lives without realizing it."
"..."
It was a rare experience: on one hand, relief—on the other, surging anger that was hard to control.
"Then you mean Jeong-a has no real problem."
"Right."
Pressing a hand to her forehead, Se-a asked.
"…Then why did you ask for information on the Black Bone Sect?"
Se-a had dropped her extreme formal speech without realizing it, but Yeon Sang-hyeon, as always, didn't care in the slightest.
"Looking at how much information you've gathered and the flow of it, it seems like you're planning something pretty dangerous regarding the Black Bone Sect."
"..."
With her head already overheated, Se-a naturally missed her chance to deny it.
Once she'd been a beat too late, denying it now would mean nothing.
She let out a small sigh and spoke.
"And what does that have to do with the First Young Master…?"
Yeon Sang-hyeon looked at her and said.
"Stop."
Se-a's eyebrow shot up.
"I'm not a subordinate who must obey the First Young Master's orders."
Yeon Sang-hyeon leaned back deeply into his chair.
"That Sword Clan Bronze Token was genuine. Geumju's connections are real. You, of all people in the same line of work, should know better than anyone how much power the Sword Clan's intelligence division holds, shouldn't you?"
Of course she did.
At least in Luoyang, the Sword Clan's intelligence network was unmatched.
And yet, precisely because of that, Se-a couldn't help but feel furious.
"And you knew that—!"
Yeon Sang-hyeon abruptly stood, cutting off Se-a's shout.
"Let's go out so the patient can rest."
Without waiting for an answer, he left the room.
***
At some point, darkness had settled over the sky.
In the clouded night, even the moon hid its face, and the winter wind brushed past the roof tiles with a mournful cry.
With his hands clasped behind his back, Yeon Sang-hyeon stared up at that sky.
Se-a shouted at his back.
"In Luoyang—no, in the entire world—who is the greatest merchant house? The Sword Clan. Who is the greatest martial house? The Sword Clan."
Her voice grew louder.
"And of course, the greatest in intelligence in all of Luoyang is the Sword Clan!"
In that moment, she threw off the mask of a neutral information broker.
"And yet the Sword Clan handed even a Sword Clan Bronze Token to an underworld organization like the Black Bone Sect?!"
Her remaining eye looked as though it spat fire.
"While all the people of Luoyang groaned in suffering and died of hunger—what did the Sword Clan do?!"
Yeon Sang-hyeon's back offered no answer.
"While that brutal, lawless pack like the Black Bone Sect sucked the blood and sweat from the people of Luoyang—and while countless groups like them multiplied beyond counting…!"
"The main family stood by with its hands behind its back."
Yeon Sang-hyeon cut her off.
"No—if anything, the main family is using them."
At Yeon Sang-hyeon's attitude—as if he already knew everything—Se-a's fury only intensified.
"Then what have you been doing all this time?!"
She flung the broken pipe she'd still been clutching onto the ground.
"To be honest, I felt that what Geumju said to you—though her words were vulgar—wasn't wrong at all!"
For a moment, Se-a felt she was going too far.
"I know you showed outstanding ability in the past! But with that ability, what have you done until now?"
She didn't stop.
"Using the seclusion order Father gave you as an excuse, aren't you still just playing at being an immortal?!"
Yeon Sang-hyeon's expression remained calm.
That calmness irritated her all the more.
"Of course there must be a reason. Even while being cursed at, even while being pointed at, there must be a reason you stay shut in!"
An attitude like he meant to bear every burden alone.
"But! In the end, you've done nothing properly!"
She screamed as if in a fit.
"And with all that, don't you dare tell me what I should or shouldn't do—me, who's trying to risk my life to change something!"
Her clear, ringing voice echoed through the courtyard, only to be swallowed soon after by the cutting north wind.
"..."
As Se-a steadied her ragged breathing, she turned away from him.
His calm gaze didn't waver in the slightest, no matter how she condemned him.
And in that moment, she felt ashamed.
Don't touch Geumju anymore.
That was the advice Yeon Sang-hyeon had given her.
And she knew it was correct advice.
Now that Geumju held the Sword Clan Bronze Token, it had become impossible for her to neutralize the Black Bone Sect by force.
Rather, she knew she should pour everything into erasing the traces Hyunwol Pavilion had left behind.
She had simply needed a target for her anger.
She had been venting freely on the powerless First Young Master of the great Luoyang Sword Clan to make herself feel better.
And perhaps—knowing how broad-minded that First Young Master was, that he would overlook even her rudeness—maybe she had been calculating that, somewhere deep down.
Her face burned hot.
"I-I'm s-sorr—no. I apologize, First Young Master."
Fidgeting with her clasped hands, she offered a careful apology.
It was hard to believe this was the iron-blooded woman who had built Hyunwol Pavilion with nothing but her own strength from the very bottom of Luoyang.
Her behavior was cute enough to be called adorable, and Yeon Sang-hyeon let out a small, muffled laugh.
At that laughter, Se-a couldn't lift her face any higher.
"Long ago, there were sisters who were very close."
At the sudden old tale, Se-a looked up and stared at Yeon Sang-hyeon.
"The older sister was overflowing with a sense of justice. She couldn't forgive the culprits who were ruining the neighborhood where she lived."
Se-a instinctively realized this was a story about herself and Jeong-a.
"The older sister threw herself in with comrades who shared her cause, wagering everything. In the end, she failed. And they were all killed."
Was it a sinister prophecy?
Se-a couldn't understand Yeon Sang-hyeon's intent.
Naturally—she couldn't.
"A talented younger sister learned of her sister's death and became a madwoman. She attacked the ones who had driven her sister to that death. She piled up damage, but the enemies were too strong. In the end, the younger sister also became a public enemy and was killed. Hunted down."
It was a story of the past.
And at the same time, a story of the future.
Taking the missing fragments and fitting them together into a complete picture—Yeon Sang-hyeon was telling that picture.
"They couldn't even properly leave behind their names, or their noble intentions. In a story twisted at will, they became nothing more than rebels and martial criminals. People cursed those sisters. They spat hatred and doom upon them."
After finishing, Yeon Sang-hyeon raised his eyes to the sky.
"…I am foolish, so I do not understand what you are trying to say, First Young Master", Se-a said cautiously.
"It's a story about how the good ones fall far too meaninglessly."
Yeon Sang-hyeon's tone was unbearably heavy.
"And it's also a story about how the evil ones win as if it were the most natural thing in the world."
Crunch—.
From Yeon Sang-hyeon, there rang out the sound of teeth grinding—so rough it sent chills down the spine.