Yeon Ryang’s mood was serious in a way that did not suit him. Flustered, I asked carefully.
“What problem?”
“I can’t sleep without a sword.”
“......Huh?”
I tilted my head, wondering if he was joking, but Yeon Ryang’s expression was grave.
“Your brother is a swordsman. I need a sword within reach at all times, but my hands are empty. It feels wrong, so I can’t sleep.”
As he scratched his cheek and confessed his difficulty, my eyes rolled helplessly.
“Ah. Right.”
I had not thought about the sword.
I had only been thinking about getting Yeon Ryang better. I had not considered how a martial artist might feel after losing his weapon.
His sword had snapped in two right in front of him, so he must have felt awful. How had he managed to hold it in without saying anything this whole time? Now I felt sorry.
“Sorry, Brother. Things were so chaotic that I didn’t think about your sword. I was planning to go to the market tomorrow anyway, so I’ll find something usable.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes. Nun Gakmun said tomorrow is market day. I need to buy some medicinal ingredients I can’t find on the mountain. I should buy clothes for you too. You can’t leave the hermitage looking like that.”
I spoke while looking at Yeon Ryang’s monastic robe with unfocused eyes. It looked as if scraps of cloth had been stitched together at random.
If he went out like that, he would draw every eye in the world.
Yeon Ryang nodded as if he understood.
“It’ll be hard to find clothes that fit me here. They’ll need extra cloth sewn on, so ask for extra fabric with the clothes.”
“Okay. How heavy should the sword be?”
“Around four pounds would be good. The sword I used for quite a long time was about three and a third pounds.”
“That’s pretty heavy. Got it. I’ll try to match it as closely as I can.”
Would that be roughly Cane’s weight? I hoped there was a usable sword somewhere.
After nodding, I held out my hand to Yeon Ryang.
“Then give me the money pouch. I don’t have any money.”
“......Fine.”
Yeon Ryang swallowed a sigh and handed over the money pouch.
The next day, I prepared thoroughly from before dawn to go down the mountain.
I put on the clothes Nun Gakmun had lent me and smeared a moderate amount of dust on my face.
It was so I could blend naturally among ordinary people.
“How does this look? Is it natural?”
“That’s enough, so stop smearing it on. You look like the alley boss who goes around smacking the village brats.”
Yeon Ryang, who had been watching me, clicked his tongue.
“My skin stands out if it’s too pale. If I’d known this would happen, I would have learned disguise techniques.”
“It isn’t too late, little sister. Join Hao Gate even now, and they’ll teach you bone-shrinking arts too.”
“Still, I was raised in an orthodox faction. Hao Gate is a bit much.”
When I answered with a reluctant face, Yeon Ryang smacked his lips.
“Well. When I look at the things you do, this brother of yours starts to wonder whether the Tang Clan should really be called an orthodox faction.”
“What? Brother. I don’t know about the Tang Clan, but I’m walking the righteous path. I didn’t even abandon my injured brother. I loyally brought you along.”
“So you {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} don’t deny the Tang Clan is far from righteous.......”
Muttering, he shook his head and brushed out the wrinkled hem of my clothes.
“Can I really trust this......? Furball, you. Stay right beside Sohae so she doesn’t get lost. If she goes somewhere strange, hurry over and bring her back.”
“Kii.”
“Don’t come out past her sleeve. Watch carefully from inside her clothes, and if it looks like she’s being overcharged, stop her from buying it. And if you notice anything suspicious, make her run away immediately. You can do that, right?”
“Kii!”
Why was he earnestly asking Cane? Say that to me.
Yeon Ryang clearly did not trust me to go down the mountain alone.
After frowning and scratching his head for a long while, he waved his hand as if giving up.
“Worrying will only make my head hurt. Go on, then. This good-for-nothing will make the meal.”
“Okay. I’ll be back.”
I shrugged and left through the mountain gate. As he saw me off, Yeon Ryang shouted behind me.
“Sohae, be careful of people!”
“Don’t worry and make the food, Brother!”
I shouted back and hurried down the mountain.
*****
The marketplace that opened once every nine days was large for a village of this size.
There were farmers who had come to sell summer vegetables and wheat, as well as wandering merchants selling household goods.
It was not hard to realize why the small village was so full of market vendors.
“Neigh!”
“Listen to me, you wretch! I said get into the stable and behave!”
There was a relay station in the village.
Travelers on horses or in carriages stopped there to rest, so naturally there were many people.
I flinched for a moment when I saw the station guards on duty, but once I realized they had no interest in me at all, I felt relieved.
They were already busy watching the martial artists who walked around with swords at their waists. There was no reason I would catch their eye.
In streets crowded with escort agency convoys, outsiders staying one night before crossing the mountain, and merchants who had come to sell goods at the market, no one cared about a child like me.
This is better, actually. With so many people, I won’t stand out.
Reassured, I blended into the crowd.
The medicinal herb shop and fabric shop were on the main road, so they were easy to find.
The buildings looked fairly large too, so it seemed I would be able to get what I needed without much trouble.
But the iron workshop was nowhere in sight.
Why isn’t there one? Is it somewhere out of the way?
After walking for a long time while looking around, I realized I had gone a fair distance from the marketplace.
Just as I began wondering whether I should turn back, I came upon an alley heavy with the smell of metal.
I slowly entered the alley.
Deep inside, an old man sat in front of a shabby iron workshop with no signboard, working on the handle of a sickle.
“Ahem.”
When I deliberately made my presence known, the old man lifted his head. I clasped my hands in a respectful martial salute.
“Excuse me, sir. I’d like to buy a sword.”
“A sword, you say? Not a kitchen knife?”
“Yes. A sword a martial artist can use.”
“Doesn’t seem like it’s for you, Young Lady. Who’s going to use it?”
“My bro—no, my young master. Where should I look?”
“......A swordsman sends a servant to buy his own sword? Some fool drunk on appearances must have joined a martial hall.”
When I asked while pretending to be a maidservant sent on an errand, the old man snorted and jerked his chin toward a corner.
“Pick one from over there and take it.”
Then he went back to working on the sickle handle.
He clearly had no intention of dealing with me seriously.
After glancing at him, I moved toward the area he had indicated.
Inside a dust-covered box, as though no one had looked there in a very long time, dozens of old swords were piled in a mess.
Even at a glance, they were unimpressive iron swords.
Frowning, I drew one slightly from its sheath. As expected, it was poor-quality iron.
This is even worse than the one Yeon Ryang carried.
The other swords were in equally bad condition. Some had blades so corroded they looked as if they might snap if they struck a tree branch.
Should I go to another iron workshop? But this village doesn’t seem like it would have another one.
I was chewing on my lip, troubled by the swords’ worse-than-useless condition, when Cane poked its head out of my clothes.
“I told you not to come out.”
I scolded it quietly and tried to push it back in, but it braced itself stubbornly and scratched hard at my forearm.
As if that were not enough, it hopped down and dragged out one of the swords.
At the sound of it pattering back and forth across the floor, the old man muttered from a distance.
“What’s that sound? Young Lady, is there a rat?”
“What? No! No, sir! I’m just choosing a sword!”
The moment I shouted and picked up the sword Cane had chosen, the ill-fitting sheath slipped loose and dropped to the floor with a thud.
My mouth fell open.
“My goodness.”
My dumbfounded face was reflected perfectly on the blue-glinting blade.
The smooth edge had been sharpened so keenly that it looked capable of cutting through anything.
Even an outsider like me could tell this was no ordinary object.
No, why is a sword like this buried in a heap of dust?
As I gaped in shock, Cane scratched at my knee as if asking to be praised.
“Yes. Good job, Cane. When we go back, let’s ask Yeon Ryang for a whole jar of honey.”
“Kit.”
“Now get back inside.”
I shoved the excited little creature, which was bouncing around happily, back into my clothes and took out my throwing knife.
I relaxed my hand and lightly tapped the blade of the throwing knife against the sword.
CLANG!
A clear, chilling sound rang out.
It was so clean that I worried the sword might have broken.
Startled, I turned the blade this way and that to examine it, but there was not even the smallest scratch on the sword.
If it can strike meteoric iron and stay intact, this isn’t ordinary metal......
As I stared wide-eyed at the blade, I nearly bit my tongue.
Wait. This is meteoric iron too, isn’t it? They’re treating a sword made of meteoric iron like this? Do they not know it’s meteoric iron?
I had to buy it. No matter what happened, I had to buy this. If I could buy it cheaply, even better.
I hurriedly shoved the sword into its dented sheath, schooled my face into calmness, and approached the old man.
“I’ll take this sword. How much is it?”
The old man glanced at the sword in my hand and shook his head.
“That sword isn’t for sale, Young Lady.”
“Please sell it to me anyway, sir. My young master needs this sword.”
“I said it isn’t for sale. I didn’t make that sword. I’m only holding on to it. I wouldn’t sell it even if you brought me a thousand gold pieces.”
The old man spoke firmly.
Tsk. This is bad.
I swallowed and met the old man’s eyes.
Yeon Ryang needed a good sword that could endure even without internal energy flowing through it.
If I had never found this sword, then fine. But now that I had it in my hands, I could not give up.
As I fiddled with the sheath and wondered how to persuade the old man, he noticed my wrist and wore an odd expression.
“Young Lady. May I look at that white jade bracelet?”
His gaze was not greedy, but my nerves sharpened automatically. It was not an object that brought anything good by standing out.
I pulled my sleeve down to cover the bracelet and tried to brush it off.
“Ahaha, it’s just a crudely made fake. It’s not something you would be interested in, sir......”
“I know that object.”
“What?”
“I mean the bracelet you’re wearing, Young Lady. Someone I knew made that thing more than thirty years ago.”
The old man frowned, looked me over from head to toe, and twisted his beard. Then he asked,
“Are you from the Tang Sect?”
