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Chapter 123: This Isn’t Right…?

[Cluck… Cluck…!]

The laughter echoing in my ears gave me a headache. What was so hilarious? Seeing people laugh all day was quite an eyesore.

“Could you please be quiet?”

“Oh, you poor thing… In my lifetime, moments like this are definitely in my top five!”

“After living so long, that’s all you can come up with…?”

Kekekekek!

I couldn’t stand Shin Noya’s rambunctiousness any longer and stepped outside the training grounds. The brisk wind blew, but I couldn’t really feel it due to the heat in my body.

It had been a day since my sparring match with Nangong Jin. Perhaps due to a considerable blunder, it felt like the clan had turned upside down.

Not only did I spar with the clan leader of the Nangong clan, but the fact that he acknowledged his defeat was also a problem.

“Why suddenly… looking that way?”

If we promised a reward for the bet and just accepted that I lost, wouldn’t that make it better for both of us? It would also protect the clan leader’s position. However, this way, my own position was becoming quite difficult.

One good thing was, I hadn’t mentioned using a sword.

I had a valid excuse for the match, and even if my actions had been a bit excessive, Nangong Jin had admitted his mistake, so it shouldn’t escalate into a dispute between the clans.

However, there was still a significant problem.

“It’s all because of you, Noya…”

“Look at this guy… I helped you out yesterday, and now you’re blaming me?”

“If you were gonna help, you should have seen it through to the end…!”

A disciple calling himself a disciple.

Claiming to be a disciple of the renowned Nangong clan’s leader? What kind of crazy talk was that?

I had said something absurd to that arrogant, prideful guy… It made my head spin.

Leaning against a tree and shutting my eyes, I felt worse.

The man leaned over and spoke to me.

“You’ve come out.”

“…How long have you been waiting?”

“Not long.”

Wang of the Azure Sky Sword, Nangong Jin, was leaning against the tree, waiting for me. It was the first time I was seeing him since I had been half-tied and dragged away yesterday.

“Are you okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean your body.”

“I’m fine. There’s no injury.”

Even though it was a spar with real swords, neither I nor Nangong Jin had gotten hurt. Shin Noya hadn’t swung to kill, and Nangong Jin’s sword hadn’t even touched me.

Nangong Jin was just staring at me quietly. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but his face, which resembled Nangong Cheonjun, was quite intimidating.

“I ensured nothing will happen to the prince.”

“…”

“Why do you look like that?”

I was startled by the sudden change in his title. Not just the title, but even the way he spoke. Calling me a prince… Just yesterday, he was calling me a brat, saying stuff like, “You brat, you’re my kid!”

“If you don’t like the title, you can just call me master.”

“No, thanks.”

Kekekekek!

At my firm refusal, Nangong Jin continued.

“I didn’t think you were serious.”

“Of course not. I wasn’t.”

“Why do you ignore my feelings? I was serious!”

I ignored Shin Noya’s words. My mind was filled with thoughts of how to handle this situation.

The fact that I had tried to push with a sword did provide some excuse. I hadn’t made a bet, and the clan was one that practiced martial arts and swordsmanship simultaneously.

Saying it was just because of my immense talent would leave me open to rebuttal. I had doubts and complaints, but there was no way to dig into that.

But using the Nangong clan’s swordsmanship was a dead end; there was no explanation for that.

I wasn’t an illegitimate child of the Nangong clan or some secret disciple either!

“Seriously, why’d you go and stir up things like this for me…?”

“Weren’t you the one who dumped work on me?”

I gazed at Nangong Jin. His anger from yesterday had vanished, replaced by a much calmer gaze.

Standing there quietly, he spoke to me.

“I haven’t made this public yet.”

A chilling statement.

“It’s not a threat; I’m not in a position to do such things. I will also acknowledge our agreement since the lady is to be engaged to the prince anyway.”

There was no particular reaction. Did he have no thoughts about Nangong Bi-ah? It didn’t feel right that he casually mentioned her thoughts without even asking.

It turned out as I wished, yet the uneasiness lingered.

“As I said yesterday, if you have a request, I’ll listen; if you want, I’ll kneel. If you want me to see you as a master, then that’s how it will be.”

Saying such daunting and burdensome words so nonchalantly…

“What… do you plan on doing with this?”

“What is it? What a funny remark, prince. You really don’t understand what it is?”

I knew what he was referring to—the value of the sword that Shin Noya had shown me last night. Let alone Nangong Jin, he’d understand even better.

Was it worth coming down to such a lowly position?

“It’s what I need most at this moment.”

Nangong Jin might have seen it as a fragment of enlightenment or just an obsession with the sword path.

That a high-value martial art is akin to poison to a martial artist. If you get addicted carelessly, there’s no escaping it.

The problem was, I had no way of offering it to him.

I had shown it, yet had no method to teach? What kind of ridiculousness was this?

What if I said I didn’t actually know anything?

“Would he believe that?”

“Of course not.”

As I stopped thinking with Shin Noya’s chuckling voice echoing in my mind, I suddenly had a question for Nangong Jin.

“Aren’t you curious why I can use the Nangong clan’s sword?”

That was an important question. Nangong Jin, at this moment, was not asking what he should be asking.

Isn’t that strange? No matter how infatuated he was with swordsmanship, not asking the most crucial thing seemed odd.

To my question, Nangong Jin displayed a baffled expression.

“Is there really a need to ask?”

“What do you mean…?”

“You should be someone like them. I’m saying you don’t need to ask.”

Them?

“Who are you referring to?”

Nangong Jin’s words were unexpectedly unconventional. It wasn’t that I hadn’t thought about it; I was already close to a certain conclusion.

Could he be talking about the Black Night Palace? But that didn’t fit the current situation.

Then who were the ‘them’ that Nangong Jin was referring to? Who would cause him to be so nonchalant about it?

As I stayed silent, Nangong Jin frowned.

“Prince…?”

“Yes. I didn’t think you, the leader of the Nangong clan, would have known.”

As Nangong Jin began to harbor doubts, I plastered on a poker face. I had nothing to say in response if I denied it.

“How can you be so shameless…”

“It’s all because of Noya’s business, so don’t comment on it.”

“Isn’t it alright to do that?”

“No, it’s not. It’s entirely Noya’s fault.”

“Not even considering your own actions, you just keep blaming me. Truly rotten of you.”

If things went wrong, I might end up taking the matriarch’s position with the Nangong clan. Would anything happen?

I didn’t know what they were, but they were undoubtedly beings that would convince Nangong Jin.

As a member of the Gu Family’s bloodline, it wouldn’t be strange if I belonged somewhere else and possessed the Nangong clan’s sword technique.

“What could it be…?”

As I thought that, I couldn’t bring any organization to mind. Just dealing with the Black Night Palace was overwhelming enough.

Did such a ridiculous condition have some people fulfilling it?

“I don’t remember any.”

This meant it could either be an unknown group or perhaps an elaborate scheme by Nangong Jin.

Too many thoughts were rolling around in my head. While I returned to my complicated thinking, Nangong Jin spoke again.

“If you intended to teach me while revealing your identity, then you undoubtedly wanted something in return.”

“That… is true, right?”

Of course, he wouldn’t want anything. If he had, he wouldn’t have asked me.

“That’s interesting.”

“…Is this entertaining to you right now?”

I felt like my brain was on fire trying to figure out where things had started going wrong while Noya chuckled and laughed. What could be Nangong Jin’s hidden motives regarding me?

“I’d love to discuss this immediately, but first, I should talk about my subordinates.”

“What about?”

“Yesterday, I heard your attendant had a run-in with my subordinate and is now bedridden.”

“…That’s correct.”

The attendant’s name was Bi-hee. Even hearing the name didn’t bring back any memories, so we weren’t particularly close.

Still, I recalled the gaze in his eyes as he looked at me at the end.

“Because of that, you’re saying the prince made my subordinates half-dead?”

“You don’t seem to be blaming me for that, but what do you mean?”

“Of course, I’m not blaming you. I just wanted to say it’s a significant matter, but even if Nangong clan holds a higher status than ours, it wouldn’t be proper to treat attendants that way.”

Exactly, that’s why it was more absurd and ridiculous.

The Gu clan wasn’t at a level to be neglected, especially when the place they visited was for an engagement. To treat the attendant of a blood relative set to be engaged that way?

That just couldn’t happen, unless they were viewed as less than ants!

As I concluded this, Nangong Jin spoke.

“No one would commit such an act.”

“…What?”

“Nobody here, including myself, did such a thing.”

You came to ask for martial art lessons, and now you’re accusing me? I felt my blood pressure rise.

“Are you saying the guy I met then was a ghost?”

I remembered the man I had encountered before the detached house. I felt discomforting signs from his reaction toward the attendant and behaved in a certain way, resulting in the attendant now lying there.

Nangong Jin asked me.

“Thus, I ask you, who was that person?”

“W-What are you saying…?”

“The martial artist you met is not one of us. The one who did that to the attendant, who secretly abandoned him in the side room. My subordinates are unaware of it.”

I could only stare at Nangong Jin with trembling eyes.

“Are you asking me to believe that absurd claim?”

“To be part of the Nangong clan, one must receive a golden binding. If you wish, I can summon my subordinates to verify, and if you can’t trust me, you know there’s plenty of evidence within the Gu clan.”

From Nangong Jin’s expression and aura, he seemed truthful, but it wasn’t easy to accept.

The guy who stopped me at the door, I had crushed his ribs and knocked him out.

Having felt his aura directly, I was sure of it.

His face. What did he look like?

…It was blurry. No matter how fleeting the moment was, there was no way I couldn’t remember!

“I already reported to the clan leader separately, but I wanted to confirm it more clearly. I must send a separate letter regarding this matter as well.”

“…What do Nangong’s subordinates say?”

“They said they didn’t know anything, as if they all had memory problems.”

No matter how many times I considered this strange situation, I finally swallowed hard.

If what Nangong Jin said was correct, the fact that he was referring to me as a disciple wasn’t a problem anymore.

“…I suppose we should wait until the prince’s attendant wakes up…”

Nangong Jin continued but I stopped listening and began to walk away.

“Where do you think you’re going? There still seems to be more to discuss.”

“I must go see my father.”

The appearance of the subordinates seemingly having memory problems, a blurry face stuck in my mind.

Just listening to Nangong Jin’s words rattled the alarm bells in my head.

“…This can’t be true.”

The characteristics definitely brought forth an image of that “guy,” but it shouldn’t be so.

That guy should still be buried beneath the Gu clan at this very moment!

Crack crack—

The sound of bones breaking filled the room. The man twisted his arms strangely and was trying to return them to their original shapes.

Crack.

“My hand hurts. I never thought a kid would put me in this state. I’ve also shattered my chest, you know?”

The man spoke towards the darkness. Assuming no one was there, he was surprised to hear a response.

“You could have definitely run away, but you decided to do something unnecessary.”

“Run away? This old man speaks lightly; do you think it gets easier to handle things if I suck the life from that Nangong guy?”

“That was the contract; you must fulfill it.”

“How ridiculous.”

The man said and threw a book into the darkness.

“I wrote as you wished. Is this enough?”

“That’s done, but what about the second matter?”

“You must know it already, why even ask? It failed; I was interrupted at the last moment.”

“The one who put you in that state?”

“I couldn’t take them down without hurting them, otherwise, I would have been spotted. Really, it would be easier just to kill and bury them…”

“Enough of that foolish talk. If you failed, that was it. It’s not exactly an important matter.”

If he had tried it not with an attendant but with a martial artist, it would have been easier to twist the relationship. The man had difficulty comprehending the old man’s words.

The elder spoke to him.

“That’s good enough for now. There’s no need to remain in the Nangong clan. Return.”

“Nah, I somewhat got attached. This is unfortunate.”

As the man expressively said this, his facial muscles contorted ominously.

Wheeze—

He changed from a middle-aged man into an elderly man, then into a middle-aged woman, and ended finally as a boy.

Now a boy, he asked the elder.

“Can I take a break for a while?”

Though the tone was the same, his voice had entirely transformed due to the face change.

“Next is Shaolin.”

“…Just kidding, huh? You’re saying not to rest?”

“If you want a longer imprisonment, you can do that.”

“Damn… what do I need to do?”

In response to the boy’s query mixed with curses, the elder calmly replied.

“As always, steal what must be taken. The deadline should be before winter ends, that’s sufficient.”

“You’ve given a ridiculous deadline. Do you know what I’ll do first when I’m released?”

“I’ve heard it a hundred times; you’ll start with killing me first.”

“I know, so wait for it.”

“Hope it brings good results.”

After the elder’s words, no further response emerged. The boy had vanished long ago.

This had always been the case; the elder didn’t pay it any mind.

The elder’s gaze fell to the letter held in his hand. It was quite interesting, related to the recent failure.

The name of the sender was Gu Changjun.

The elder slowly read through the letter and, nearing the end, stamped it firmly.

This was an indication of accepted commission.

 

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