A short while later, I was sitting at a table covered in iron filings, being served tea.
“Come now, drink. It’s old tea, but I can’t very well fail to treat a guest.”
“Thank you, Master Jin.”
“Master, my foot. Call me a blacksmith.”
“Yes, Blacksmith Jin.”
When I answered politely and took hold of the teacup, the old man laughed heartily and stroked his beard.
“Ha ha ha! To think I would meet someone from the Tang Sect again before I died of old age. This is a day worth commemorating.”
“I’m not a blood relative. I’m a maidservant serving a direct-line young master......”
“Either way, you’re part of the Tang Sect household, aren’t you? I learned a little from Elder Tang myself, so you and I are practically family.”
I really don’t think so.
Surprisingly, the old man was someone who had received the Tang Clan’s grace.
He said that when he was young, he had worked at an iron workshop under the Alliance, carrying charcoal for the furnace.
The one who had taught that clumsy young man proper blacksmithing had been an elder of the Tang Clan. The old man’s voice was soaked with joy as he told me the story.
So, according to him, that made him practically part of the Tang household too.
“How long has it been since I last told this story......? If an old country man living in a mountain village like this started talking about the Martial Alliance and the Tang Sect, who would believe him? They’d say, ‘Has that old man gone senile?’”
“Ahaha, I see.”
To be honest, I don’t really believe it either.
The Tang Clan’s metallurgy should be controlled with airtight strictness, shouldn’t it?
What eccentric lunatic taught blacksmithing to an outsider?
If the blacksmiths of the Tang Clan’s iron workshop, who would turn the place upside down over even one missing item, heard about this, they would be in an uproar.
As I awkwardly played along, I lowered my voice and whispered.
“Um, sir. It would be better if you didn’t mention the Tang Clan elsewhere. Technology leaks are a sensitive issue.”
“Goodness, look at my mind. Elder Tang said the same thing. He said my head would fly if I did. I forgot.”
There are things you can forget and things you can’t. How can you forget something involving your own neck, old man?
The old man chuckled, sipped his tea, and asked,
“Young Lady, do you know Elder Tang? His eyes were sharp like this, and his way of speaking was brusque.”
He seemed to be hoping I knew his benefactor.
I could not bring myself to answer that all Tang Clan people were like that, so I slowly shook my head.
“The elder blacksmiths rarely come out of the iron workshop. I’m not sure.”
“So he still never leaves the workshop all day long. Ha ha. That is just like him. I suppose he’s doing well.”
This old man only hears what he wants to hear. I said I don’t know who it is.
Despite my flimsy excuse that I was a maidservant serving a direct-line young master, the old man did not doubt me at all.
He was simply busy savoring his memories.
“When Elder Tang worked, he allowed no one into the iron workshop. But if it wasn’t a secret art of the Tang Sect, he tried to teach me anything he could. He always stressed that a person needed a skill in order to make a living.”
“He sounds like a good person.”
“He also had a fine set of lungs. I can still hear him shouting that if I held the hammer like that, I’d break my wrist.”
The old man laughed loudly, and nostalgia rose across his face.
“I wanted to become a blacksmith like him......”
It seemed he had admired that nameless Tang Clan blacksmith.
When I smiled silently, the old man gathered his expression and asked,
“But what brings a Tang Sect young master all the way to Anhui? And looking for a sword, no less. Do people in the Tang Sect handle swords these days?”
“My young master has been thinking about ways to face swordsmen with the martial arts of our sect. He said he would use a sword himself and told me to buy a suitable one.”
“He must be deeply devoted to martial learning. The Tang Sect’s future is bright.”
The old man believed the excuse I had roughly cobbled together and nodded. After watching his reaction, I cautiously brought up the subject.
“In that case, could you sell this sword to my young master?”
“Do so.”
“Please reconsider instead of saying—what?”
“Take it to your young master. It’ll be put to better use there than rotting away in a remote village like this.”
The old man agreed readily. He seemed to have completely forgotten that he had said he would not sell it even for a thousand gold pieces. Unable to believe his answer, I smiled brightly and asked again.
“Really? You’ll sell it to me?”
“To begin with, it was something Elder Tang entrusted to me. If a direct-line member of the Tang Sect seeks it, isn’t it only proper to hand it over? He told me to give it away if a suitable owner appeared. At last, the owner has arrived.”
“Thank you, sir! My young master will be delighted too.”
I grabbed the old man’s wrinkled hands and shook them up and down.
Yes! Unknown elder of the family, I will use it gratefully. This damned household is finally useful for once.
At my fuss, the old man chuckled and rose.
“There isn’t a proper sheath. Will that be all right? I can wrap it in cloth for you.”
“Of course it’s all right!”
The old man soon brought clean cotton cloth and wrapped the sword tightly. His work was meticulous, but......
“Um, sir. Would you happen to have something like a sack I can carry it in? It seems too conspicuous.”
It looked far too suspicious.
Anyone could tell it was a sword. If I walked around carrying this, everyone would stare.
When I looked troubled, the old man pulled out a long sack from somewhere and slid the sword inside.
“Will this do?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Stick a few dry branches in it too. It would be better if it looked as though you were carrying firewood.”
After offering advice, the old man brought over a handful of small branches. I tucked them in so they poked out of the sack, then tied the mouth shut.
The bulging shape of the sheath still bothered me, but it was far better than a cloth bundle that obviously contained a sword.
“Sir, the payment......”
“What payment? I told you, it was an object Elder Tang entrusted to me. When you return to the Tang Sect, simply pass along my regards to him. Tell him the Jin fellow opened an iron workshop in Anhui.”
The old man cut me off and waved his hand as if I were saying something absurd.
I’m sorry, sir. I can’t deliver that message......
My conscience pricked too much for me to answer that I would. I smoothly changed the subject.
“It’s best to make everything clear. If this is an object entrusted to you by an elder of the Tang Clan, I don’t think it’s something I can pay for at my level. Please charge it to the Tang Clan’s Second Young Master, Tang Un. I’ll give you a rubbing of his identity token.”
If it was Tang Un, he would realize it was a message from me. He was not someone who would reveal my location, so I could trust him.
“True. If it’s something for your superiors to decide, then you can’t just take it on your own. If that will put your mind at ease, do so.”
“Thank you for understanding, sir.”
I bowed deeply, then took out Tang Un’s identity token and handed it to the old man.
“My goodness, to make a token out of such precious plum-blossom jade. It seems the Tang Sect’s wealth truly is enormous.”
As if the identity token of a Tang Clan direct-line member was too much for him to handle, he accepted it with trembling hands.
While I watched the old man make the rubbing with great care, I slipped in a question.
“By the way...... why did Elder Tang entrust the sword to you?”
“He hid it because if people learned he had gone to the trouble of obtaining meteoric iron only to make a sword with it, the clan would curse him for the next hundred years. He said hidden weapons were too small, so forging them was no fun.”
“......Ah.”
Yes. I see. That elder really was an eccentric.
I began to wonder about the identity of the Tang Clan blacksmith who had made this meteoric-iron sword.
The old man wiped Tang Un’s identity token clean and returned it to me, then smiled brightly.
“To think I got to touch the identity token of a direct-line Tang Sect member! This old man has gained another story to drink over.”
His words sounded like they would cause serious trouble if I did not keep his mouth shut, so I hurriedly spoke.
“Um, sir. Could you keep today’s events a secret?”
“Why is that?”
“Well, the Tang Clan researching swordsmanship is a matter of pride. We don’t want word of it leaking outside. That’s also why my young master sent me on the errand.”
“Ah, of course! This old man was thoughtless. Don’t worry. I’ll keep the secret until I enter my coffin.”
The old man nodded with a solemn face. In many ways, he was quick to accept things.
“Thank you for understanding, sir.”
“There is nothing to understand. It’s only natural. Your young master must be waiting. Hurry along.”
“Yes. Oh, sir. The blades of all the iron swords in that box were corroded. Is it all right to leave them like that?”
As I slung the sack over my shoulder and asked, the old man answered as if it were nothing.
“That way, flies won’t gather.”
“What?”
“Farming tools are one thing, but if a country man like me makes weapons too well, it will only bring harm. If word spreads that the swords I make are worthless, I can live quietly. That’s why I left them that way.”
“Ah.”
I found myself nodding at the wise decision. He seemed to cherish his connection to the Tang Clan, but he had no intention of getting deeply entangled with the martial world.
“Then I’ll be going now.”
“Take care on your way.”
After leaving the iron workshop, I began walking toward the marketplace. A hum slipped out of me on its own from the joy of having obtained something good.
A sword made of meteoric iron. What kind of windfall is this?
Yeon Ryang will be pleased, won’t he?
*****
I bought a sack of medicinal ingredients for making deworming pills, then bought Yeon Ryang’s clothes and cloth.
Even though I chose the widest and largest clothes among the ready-made garments at the fabric shop, it seemed he would have to sew on quite a lot of extra cloth.
The pants will probably end up more than a handspan too short...... Well, Yeon Ryang can handle the sewing himself.
As I muttered and left the marketplace, I saw my reflection in a bronze mirror in front of a street stall selling accessories.
With a sack over one shoulder, a bag of medicinal ingredients and a large cloth bundle on my back, I looked, to anyone watching, like a mountain girl who had come to the market to buy daily necessities.
......The disguise is so perfect no one will suspect a thing.
As I smacked my lips and turned, a large carriage slowly passed beside me.
A flag embroidered with the cloud pattern that symbolized the Namgung Clan hung from the carriage.
As if enchanted, I followed the back of the carriage with my eyes.
After moving about thirty feet, the carriage stopped in front of a two-story building. A man rushed out of the building and opened the carriage door.
At the same moment, a young child hopped down from the carriage.
The child’s clothes, pale sky-blue silk embroidered with clouds in blue thread, looked familiar.
The half-glimpsed profile overlapped with the face of a boy in my memory.
Blinking blankly, I murmured without realizing it.
“The Heir Apparent?”
