The Heaven-Slaying Sword - Chapter 43

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Heaven-Slaying Sword ◈

Chapter 43: Chapter Five - Dragon-Phoenix Assembly (16)

──────

Star-Linking Sect.

Eleventh-generation disciple.

And young sect leader.

From the three meanings contained in those words, Namgung Hyeok understood.

"He's alive."

The Sword Star, Mok Seon-o, had not yet passed away.

Namgung Hyeok was pleased.

The force he had yet to rein in burst forth savagely, and Mok Ri-won's breath caught beneath the pressure.

"Where is he?"

Namgung Hyeok asked again.

For some reason, his eyes gleamed.

"Where is the Sword Star? Yes, that Beggar King bastard must be with him as well. Speak."

Every trace of energy in the room seemed to scream.

It was mangled and crushed into the floor.

This was merely force leaking from him. He had not even begun to reveal his true power.

Yet that alone caused such a phenomenon.

The Transcendent Realm.

Among the countless gifted talents across the vast Martial World of the Central Plains, only those considered the greatest could barely set foot upon its threshold. That supreme realm, filled with distant and unfathomable power, bore down upon Mok Ri-won.

"Urgh...!"

Mok Ri-won opened his eyes wide.

He somehow held his trembling legs steady and maintained his cupped-fist salute.

It felt as though someone had seized his throat and was strangling him.

A dazed sensation rose within him, as if he might faint at any moment, but Mok Ri-won did not collapse.

"I... cannot tell you."

"Why not?"

"...Because you have not told me why you seek my master. I do not wish to do anything that might endanger my master's safety."

Mok Ri-won met Namgung Hyeok's eyes directly.

Namgung Hyeok studied his gaze as he pressed down on him.

Those eyes held firm resolve and determination.

Namgung Hyeok remained silent as though considering something, then finally withdrew his force.

"...That is entirely right. As a martial artist, and as a disciple."

After saying so, Namgung Hyeok added, "I showed you an undignified side of myself. I apologize."

Mok Ri-won was a junior far younger than him.

He was also a man who had come all the way here without knowing why.

Namgung Hyeok felt ashamed that, even before such a man, he had failed to contain his emotions for that brief moment.

Only then, as his airway began to clear, Mok Ri-won let out a long breath.

He lowered his head deeply.

"Thank you for your consideration."

"Still, I will ask again. Where is the Sword Star?"

Mok Ri-won's body twitched.

A troubled look began to form on his face.

'We're back where we started.'

This conversation was getting nowhere.

Namgung Hyeok did not possess the savagery Ma Il-seok had described, but his stubborn temperament was so bewildering that Mok Ri-won almost thought savagery would be preferable.

"I'm sor..."

"I do not intend to harm him."

Mok Ri-won raised his head.

With his usual stern expression, Namgung Hyeok continued as if reciting something.

"I simply have an old score to settle with him."

"An old score...?"

"I have yet to settle things with him. We must spar."

Mok Ri-won pressed his lips together.

Ma Il-seok's words flashed through his mind.

"Do you know how shameless that Sword King bastard is? Whenever he spars with my brother, he loses every single time! He has never won even once, yet he keeps clinging to him and saying, 'We haven't settled things yet.' What a joke. That bastard doesn't even count the matches he lost as sparring matches. Sword King, my ass. Sword Fool would suit him better."

He could not have agreed more.

It was a statement colored by Ma Il-seok's bias, yet Mok Ri-won could not help agreeing with it.

'What should I do...?'

Mok Ri-won continued to deliberate.

For one thing, it was clear Namgung Hyeok bore him no ill will.

After all, he knew everything about him, yet had not even mentioned the Heavenly Slaughter Star.

Not only that, even while asking after the Sword Star's whereabouts, he had displayed no negative emotion toward the Sword Star.

Only his competitive spirit was visible in Sword King Namgung Hyeok.

"...May I ask you one thing?"

"Speak."

"Why do you wish to spar with my master?"

"..."

For the first time, Namgung Hyeok's expression changed.

At a glance, it almost looked like disbelief.

"Do I need a reason?"

Namgung Hyeok truly could not understand.

There was a strong opponent he had never overcome in his life.

There was a contest that still lingered as an unresolved regret.

If one was a martial artist, and a swordsman besides.

Would it not be stranger to give up and retreat when such an opponent existed?

"I simply wish to determine the victor."

"..."

Mok Ri-won felt utterly dumbfounded.

When had he last felt like this?

Not since the day Ma Il-seok had tossed him a snare when he was ten, saying, "I feel like eating meat today," and ordered him to catch a rabbit.

Mok Ri-won felt all his strength leave him.

Even so, one certainty came to him regarding the answer Namgung Hyeok demanded.

"...He is in Jiangxi Province. I cannot say any more than that."

"Jiangxi Province. I heard you clearly."

Namgung Hyeok's expression hardened once more.

He looked somehow satisfied.

Mok Ri-won thought to himself,

'There won't be any trouble.'

Whatever happened, Namgung Hyeok's business appeared to begin and end with a spar.

"You may leave now."

Namgung Hyeok closed his eyes.

There was not the slightest hint of lingering attachment in his words.

Seeing that, Mok Ri-won felt the urge to resolve the small unease still remaining in his heart.

"...May I ask one more thing?"

"What is it?"

"It seems the Sword King has no other feelings toward me. Surely, you know of the star that descended upon me..."

"Is that important?"

"...Pardon?"

Namgung Hyeok opened his eyes.

Now that his business was finished, his gaze held only indifference.

"Do you think something as trivial as a star determines a sword?"

Mok Ri-won's eyes widened slightly.

Namgung Hyeok snorted at the sight.

"Whatever you may be, you are ultimately a swordsman. That is all."

Sword King Namgung Hyeok.

He was a man who had truly devoted his life to the sword.

Nothing mattered to him except wielding one.

The same had been true on the day the Bloody Affair came to an end.

"Don't be ridiculous. Are you saying you will lay down your sword?"

"I am not laying down my sword. I am laying down my name."

"If I tear that baby apart and kill it, will you take it back?"

"Sword King, my resolve will not change."

"..."

He was a man who had not the slightest interest in Mok Ri-won's birth.

If he took any interest at all, it would only be in the sword Mok Ri-won had learned and his martial talent.

"You may leave now."

"...Yes. Forgive my intrusion."

Mok Ri-won felt emotions he could not put into words churning within him.

For someone born with a fate that should have earned him condemnation throughout the Central Plains, meeting someone before whom he did not need to hide his origins, someone who did not deny his existence, was deeply moving.

Even if it came not from consideration, but indifference.

Mok Ri-won turned and left the residence.

Only then did Namgung Hyeok watch his retreating back and think,

'That one is far better.'

He was comparing Mok Ri-won with his grandson, Namgung Jin-cheon.

'This will be worth watching.'

The martial artist of the Transcendent Realm was certain.

The Emperor could not defeat the killing fiend.

Because he knew only arrogance and had imprisoned his world within it, he would eventually collapse.

What mattered was what came after.

'Will he...?'

Would his grandson cast off his arrogance and move forward, or would he be consumed by a heart demon and crumble?

Either way, it seemed preparation was necessary.

* * *

After leaving the residence, Mok Ri-won headed toward a pond in one corner of the estate with a restless heart.

Scattered green pines cast shade over it, making it rather cool.

'Nothing but a swordsman.'

Mok Ri-won repeated those words to himself.

Then he smiled faintly.

'Yes, I am a swordsman. A person who fulfills Chivalry through the sword.'

He was happy.

Emotion welled up within him as well.

As Mok Ri-won smiled and repeated those words to himself, he felt a hazy mental image, long concealed by mist, begin to emerge.

It was a small realization of sorts.

Martial arts and Chivalry, intent and sword.

It was a realization about their essence.

The realization was a vague glimmer, closer to a passing thought and difficult to grasp, but Mok Ri-won did not grow impatient.

'I should return and meditate.'

Now that it had appeared so faintly, this realization would eventually fall into his grasp, as such things always had.

His hands itched.

He wanted to return and swing his sword at once.

As he sprang to his feet with that thought,

"Uhee..."

A very young voice sounded nearby.

Mok Ri-won realized something with a start.

He felt oddly embarrassed that he had been so lost in thought that he had not noticed someone approaching.

Mok Ri-won turned his head.

A little girl, perhaps five or six years old, stood there with a vacant expression and flushed cheeks.

"Hm?"

"Uhee..."

The little girl's eyes shone dreamily.

Her plump cheeks had turned rosy, making her look rather adorable.

'Is she a child of the Namgung Clan?'

He could only think so, because the clothes she wore were clearly made from expensive fabric.

"Little one, who are you?"

Mok Ri-won asked with a bright smile.

Startled by that smile, the little girl's eyes sparkled.

"So, So-a..."

"All right, So-a. Are you lost?"

He asked because, despite her fine clothes, no attendant appeared to be looking after her.

The little girl who had introduced herself as So-a shook her head.

"Noo..."

Then she fidgeted with her fingers.

Mok Ri-won tilted his head at the sight.

Whoosh.

So-a threw her arms around Mok Ri-won's leg.

"My husband...!"

So-a squeezed her eyes shut and cried out again.

"You're my husband...!"

Mok Ri-won panicked.

How could he not? What person would not panic if a little child suddenly appeared and called him her husband?

Mok Ri-won scratched his cheek with an awkward smile, then stroked So-a's head.

"I'm sorry. I'm not your husband."

Boom!

So-a stared at Mok Ri-won in utter shock, as though her world had crumbled.

"You're not...?"

"I'm not."

It was unfortunate.

Mok Ri-won was clever and not especially lacking in tact, but there remained many things he did not understand about people.

Children especially.

The only people Mok Ri-won had ever formed friendships with were elders or those his own age. He understood neither a child's innocent heart nor the admiration a child might carry.

Tears welled in So-a's eyes.

"My husband is gone..."

"That is not quite right. 'Gone' means something that existed has disappeared. Since your husband never existed in the first place, it would be more correct to say, 'I don't have a husband.'"

Thinking he had explained that quite logically, Mok Ri-won smiled in satisfaction.

It was a grave mistake.

"Hic...!"

The truth was far too heavy a burden for a child.

So-a's tears grew worse.

Mok Ri-won panicked.

"W-Why are you crying?!"

"Husbaaand...!"

"Hm? Husband? Are you crying because you don't have a husband? You don't need to cry! When you grow older and become an adult, you will surely meet a wonderful husband!"

"Husbaaand...!"

"Y-You're still too young to get a husband! So stop crying!"

Without even taking a breath, Mok Ri-won continued to press the child with his words.

At this point, all he had to do was say, "I am your husband," but Mok Ri-won was the sort of person who only knew how to speak honestly. Such a thing was difficult to expect from him.

The little girl So-a, whose full name was Namgung So-a, had met someone for the first time against whom her childish demands did not work.

To make matters worse, he was an astonishingly handsome man who made her eyes go wide.

It would have been better if she had been able to get angry, but Mok Ri-won's looks were simply too extraordinary.

After all, Namgung So-a had never encountered a face so soothing that simply looking at it made her anger fade away.

In the end, there was only one thing she could do.

If it did not work, keep trying until it did.

Just as her uncle, the Azure-Forming Sword Namgung Un, always said, Namgung So-a displayed persistence for the first time in her life.

"Husband!"

Namgung So-a clung to Mok Ri-won's leg like a cicada.

At that booming cry, Mok Ri-won felt his heart drop.

Then,

"So-a."