WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle

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◈ Raised by a Ruthless Swordsman ◈

Chapter 32: Loss Outweighs Gain

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I had just tightened my grip on the rail.

Crack.

The boards split behind me. The sword lodged in the deck had already been pulled free. It was far faster than I had expected.

On the deck, Du Gi's scabbard was sweeping toward Nangong Hwi's side.

Nangong Hwi hurriedly blocked it with his drawn sword.

Thwack.

It was wood, not metal, that rang out. Du Gi's scabbard bounced away, but he rode the recoil, spun, and struck again.

At the throat, the wrist, then the side. He kept closing the distance, launching short thrusts only at openings.

Yet his movements looked strangely awkward. Looking closer, I saw that his thrusts lacked force at the end.

His sword tip would nearly reach an opening, only for its power to slip away at the last instant. Each time, his right shoulder would start to follow, then stiffen. His face twisted beneath the lantern light.

His wound had clearly been deep. I had wondered how he could even swing a sword, but he was forcing himself.

He could not last long like that.

There was nothing to calculate. Du Gi had Nangong Hwi occupied from the front. I only had to strike from behind, just as I had when I grabbed that man in black martial attire in the mountains.

I was watching their tangled swords and measuring my chance to enter when footsteps approached from the side.

Heavy steps pressed against the boards, closing the distance in long strides.

I turned my head. The agency head was rushing toward me. With a sword drawn and charging straight at me, his target was obvious.

He was after me because I had the goods.

Clicking my tongue, I abandoned my opening. I could not strike from behind while leaving my own back exposed.

Could Du Gi hold out in the meantime?

On the deck, the fight had already turned completely around. Du Gi's sword could no longer advance. Each time the heavy sword came down, he barely managed to block it and was driven back, then back again.

Still, Nangong Hwi's sword seemed different from when he had faced me.

With that weight, he should have split Du Gi's scabbard apart by now. Yet every blow landed only near the shoulder or at the middle of the scabbard. He stubbornly avoided the throat and chest, places where one hit would have ended it.

Was he doing it on purpose?

The thought ended there. The agency head's sword was thrusting toward my face.

I angled my blade and guided the point aside. But his body, leaning with the sword, drove in shoulder-first toward my chest.

I stepped back half a pace to avoid it, and his sword followed over that shoulder, cutting toward my thigh. I lowered my sword and blocked.

Clang.

As I blocked, his foot came down to step on my lead foot. When I pulled it away, his empty hand swept past my collar. Sword, body, and foot came together in a single breath. His attacks were no ordinary threat.

The title of agency head was no empty one.

I drew circles with my blade, deflecting each move. When a shoulder crashed in, I let it slide aside along the circle. When the sword followed, I wrapped it away at the circle's edge. After receiving several exchanges, I began to notice something.

Every move fell short by an inch. His sword would come in, then pull back before the tip reached me. Even the shoulder ramming toward me never carried through. Not one attack came far enough to leave his own body exposed to injury.

There was a way to narrow the circle and press in.

But my sword point hesitated each time.

Nangong Hwi was holding back as well. That heavy sword stubbornly avoided Du Gi's vital points, likely because of the Bright Mirror Society token.

Then what was this person to Nangong? If I cut him down, where would this situation lead? I did not know enough.

When distance opened between exchanges, I swept my eyes quickly across the deck.

The escort warriors stood far away in a circle, gripping their swords. They did not dare intervene, but they could not retreat either.

But the escort captain was nowhere in sight. I searched again and spotted a figure circling the edge of the fight toward Du Gi's back.

I stopped calculating. Whoever this person was to Nangong, I had to save Du Gi first.

I drew a handful of Inner Energy from my dantian and poured it into my sword. Rather than wait for the next attack, I narrowed my circle and pressed in first.

He flinched and raised his sword to block, but my Inner Energy-laden blade slid and turned over it. As the circle closed, I flattened my sword and struck his wrist with the flat.

Thwack.

His sword fell onto the deck with a dull sound. I did not care whether his wrist had broken or not. It was enough that he would not be gripping a sword for a while.

I kicked him in the chest as he staggered, clutching his wrist. He could not keep his footing for even three or four steps before tumbling toward the middle of the deck.

He would not be able to pursue me for a while. I turned and kicked off the boards.

The escort captain's sword was just rising behind Du Gi's back. Du Gi sensed it and twisted, blocking with his scabbard. At the same time, Nangong Hwi was adjusting his sword in front of him, closing in from both sides.

I forced my way between them.

Nangong Hwi's sword paid no heed, swung straight toward me, and came down. I raised my blade and deflected that weight at an angle.

Clang.

The recoil pushed me sideways. Du Gi had also just knocked the escort captain away and turned, so our shoulders collided.

In that single breath, a voice reached my ear, low enough to be buried beneath the commotion.

"Hangzhou. Mist and Sunset Pavilion."

There was no time to ask.

"Go on ahead."

Where was Mist and Sunset Pavilion, and what did he intend to do? Before I could speak, Du Gi shoved me toward the rail with the shoulder that had collided with mine.

Then he spun the other way and charged straight at Nangong Hwi.

Only then did I see it. His left foot moved unnaturally. One trouser leg was dark and wet from the shin down, though I did not know when he had been cut.

But his sword was different now. Even as he kicked off with that leg, strength finally gathered at the point of the blade, where it had failed to do so before. He seemed to have drawn upon the Inner Energy he had saved.

Nangong Hwi flinched and stepped back half a pace, raising his sword. It should have been over already, yet the sword of a dying man was driving straight at him. For the first time, that heavy sword had been forced onto the defensive.

Everyone here knew it could not last long.

What exactly was Du Gi calculating? Too much was unclear. But he must have made some calculation. There was nothing more I could do by remaining here anyway.

I ran for the rail. Two escort warriors raised their swords and blocked my path.

Without slowing, I struck the first one's sword aside with the flat of my blade. Using the recoil, I spun my sword and swept the flat across the second one's side. One dropped their sword and crumpled down, while the other toppled sideways.

Leaving them behind, I vaulted over the rail.

The black water caught me.

Cold gripped me to the crown of my head, but I did not stop. I sank beneath the surface. Lantern light rippled chaotically above, while clashing metal and shouts were pressed down by the water into a muffled hum.

As long as those sounds continued, it would mean Du Gi was still holding his sword.

I felt at my chest to make sure I still had what I had taken, then pushed through the darkness. Before long, I reached the shadow beneath our boat.

I started to grab the rail, then froze. A worker stood near the stern. They looked as though they had just woken, staring across at the other boat to watch the commotion.

Fortunately, their gaze was fixed entirely on the clash of metal. They did not look at the water by their feet.

Following the shadows cast by the boat, I circled to the other side. I grabbed the rail behind the worker's back and silently climbed into the cargo hold. Thankfully, they did not move at all, absorbed in the spectacle.

Only after burying myself in the shadow of the cargo hold did I let out the breath I had been holding.

Keeping an ear on the stern, I stripped off my wet clothes with numb hands.

As I put on the dry clothes I had folded away, my fingers would not obey me. Tying even a single fastening took a long while. I removed the cloth wrapped around my face as well and rolled it into the wet clothes. I could not leave anything behind.

I moved the wet bundle from my chest into my dry clothes. I added the bundle of wet clothes to the cloth bundle that had wrapped Hyeonam's sword, tied them together, then slung the whole bundle across my back. The ironworks sword went at my waist.

I lifted the straw mat and stepped outside. The clashing of metal had stopped at some point. In its place, several shouts carried over the water.

Even in the darkness, I could clearly see two or three torches descending from that ship's deck onto the jetty. Their light began spreading along the jetty toward this side.

There was no time to consider it.

I slipped back down from the waterside rail. Keeping to the shallows that came up to my ankles, I left the ship's shadow behind and climbed the embankment on the far side of the jetty.

Only a few lanterns lit the dock street. Pulling my bamboo hat low, I crossed the street at a quick pace, stepping only where it was dark. The shouts behind me grew louder, but I did not look back.

The street was only a few steps wide. I turned into an alley between two old houses, and the ground beneath my feet soon changed from dirt to a slope.

I climbed it. It was dark underfoot, but I had lived in dark mountains for ten years. Keeping myself hidden among the trees, I went up and up.

Only when my breath caught in my throat did I slow down. I leaned against a tree trunk and looked below.

Three or four torches moved back and forth around the dock. None came near the mountain.

Only then did the stopped sound of metal cling to my thoughts again. There were only two possibilities if the swords had stopped. Du Gi had put away his sword, or he could no longer do so.

Du Gi probably was not dead. Nangong Hwi had seemed to be holding back.

I decided to trust only his words telling me to go on ahead. Hangzhou. Mist and Sunset Pavilion. Turning those two words over in my mind, I curled up in the cold mountain air.

I desperately wanted to warm myself by a fire. But even a single point of light in this darkness would give away the whole mountain.

Clutching my pack, I wedged myself against the base of a tree and spent the night shivering. Had I not changed into dry clothes, it would have been more than cold enough to freeze me to death.

Even after dawn came pale and gray, the dock remained unchanged for a long while.

Our boat raised anchor first. Last night's commotion was not the boatmen's concern, so they went on their way.

But that boat remained tied to the jetty until well into the morning. People hurried between the deck and the jetty, apparently searching again and again for something.

That something was naturally me.

Only when the sun stood high in the sky did the boat slowly leave the jetty. I searched the receding deck with my eyes. The cart was still in the same place.

Several figures moved about as well, but there was no way to tell whether Du Gi was among them.

Even after the boat disappeared beyond the bend in the water, I waited a long while before descending the slope.

As I went down, I straightened up my appearance. What they had seen was a night intruder dressed in black with their face covered, not a traveler in a bamboo hat. I brushed off the dirt and leaves so that I would look neat.

I entered the small inn at the end of the street and ordered a bowl of noodle soup. Once the hot broth went down, my insides, stiff from the night, finally loosened.

When the server asked about last night's commotion, I answered indifferently that I had been asleep and knew nothing. The server was more excited than I was, going on at length about ships fighting with swords in the night and water bandits attacking.

The rumors had already begun growing on their own. That was not a bad thing.

As I paid for the noodle soup, I casually asked about boats bound for Hangzhou. The server counted on their fingers, then said that a boat came about once every two days, and one would arrive tomorrow evening.

Tomorrow evening.

That meant spending another day in the communal dormitory. Without complaint, I paid for a room.

Only after entering and bolting the door did I take out the thing hidden in my clothes.

The silk wrapping was soaked through and blackened. The lump inside had grown damp at the edges, leaving powder behind. Its dry, bitter scent had been half drowned out by the smell of river water.

I had no way of knowing whether it would still be worth anything in this state. I merely pressed the moisture away with a dry cloth, wrapped it in silk again, and tucked it deep into my clothes.

I had risked my life twice to obtain nothing more than a damp lump small enough to fit in my palm.

By then, exhaustion came over me, and I lay down on the floor.

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