At that, the child turned around.
The face resembled Namgung Hwi’s, but the build was much smaller, and the features were delicate.
The moment our eyes met, I hurriedly lowered my head.
“My apologies, Young Lady. I mistook you for someone else.”
I had assumed it was Namgung Hwi and thought the child was a boy, but the one who had stepped down from the carriage was a bright, pretty little girl.
Just as I awkwardly turned and tried to sneak away, the girl, who had somehow already come close, grabbed the hem of my clothes.
“Do you know my brother?”
“What?”
“You mistook me for the Heir Apparent. Then that means you know my brother, doesn’t it?”
The girl’s expression as she widened her eyes and asked back was exactly like Namgung Hwi’s had once been.
This kid must be Namgung Hwi’s little sister.
I awkwardly waved my hand.
“Of course not, Young Lady.”
“Hmmm? Really? It seems like you do......”
Even after my denial, the girl did not let go of her suspicion.
The hand gripping my clothes tightened, and the way she looked me over showed clearly that she wanted to figure out who I was.
The maidservant, who had belatedly climbed down from the carriage with the luggage, called out to the girl.
“Young Lady, why are you standing there?”
“Gyogyo, this older sister just called me......”
As the girl turned her back to answer the maidservant’s question, the hand holding my clothes loosened.
Now. Run!
I began fleeing as fast as my legs could carry me.
*****
Namgung Yeona let out a small exclamation as she watched the girl’s back recede into the distance.
The girl ran away so quickly while carrying all that luggage that Yeona wondered if she had seen a ghost.
“Gyogyo. Did you see that? I think that older sister’s lightness skill is faster than my brother’s.”
“You’re right. She’s incredibly fast......”
“She must be a martial artist. Why did she smear dirt on her face?”
Namgung Yeona pressed the edge of her hand to her forehead and could not take her eyes off the street until the girl vanished completely.
“Yeona, what are you doing there? Why aren’t you coming in?”
“Sister Lan!”
Only then did Namgung Yeona turn around, run to Namgung Lan, and throw herself into her arms.
“Our Yeona, you worked hard coming all this way. Does your bottom hurt?”
“I’m ten years old now. Riding in a carriage is nothing. Sister Lan, listen. I just saw a really pretty older sister. But that sister called me the Heir Apparent. I think she knows my brother.”
“Hwi? How strange. Outside Hefei, there shouldn’t be many people who know Hwi’s face.”
“Isn’t it strange? So I asked if she knew my brother, and she ran away.”
“She did? Ha ha, she must have been startled because she mistook you for someone else.”
Namgung Lan answered as if it were nothing and took Namgung Yeona by the hand. She did not seem at all concerned about the person her younger sister had seen.
“Our Yeona, are you hungry? Shall we have tea together? We can have Maofeng tea with walnuts preserved in honey.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll show you the trading company where I work now. Yeona is a good girl, so you can stay quiet, can’t you?”
“Yes!”
Namgung Yeona answered briskly, straightened her back, and lifted her chin.
Namgung Lan barely held back a laugh at the sight of the little girl trying hard to look dignified, then matched her steps to Namgung Yeona’s stride and headed to her office.
Once her youngest sister was seated in a soft chair, Namgung Lan set tea and refreshments in front of her and asked,
“How is Hwi doing?”
“My brother? He’s exactly the same as the day you came by. He trains every day, and when he rests, he droops his eyebrows like this and just fiddles with that knot on his wrist.”
“Oh my. He still hasn’t taken that knot off?”
“No. My brother must be a fool. Who believes something like, ‘If the knot breaks, your wish will come true’?”
“Yeona. I told you that you shouldn’t say that to your brother.”
“Hmph.”
Namgung Yeona pouted and said as she chewed on a walnut,
“But my brother has gotten really strange. He doesn’t play with me much these days.”
At Namgung Yeona’s complaint, Namgung Lan’s eyes curved as she laughed softly.
“Let’s be understanding, Yeona. The fever of first love is always dreadful. He’ll be all right after some time passes.”
“Okay.”
“What a good girl our youngest is. Now your sister needs to work. Let’s talk again in two hours, all right?”
“All right.”
After lightly pinching Namgung Yeona’s clear, bright cheek, Namgung Lan opened a ledger.
Namgung Yeona held tea in her mouth as she watched her sister turn the pages of the ledger.
A fever? Is my brother sick? He can’t be sick.
No, wait. If my brother stays sick, then I’ll become the Heir Apparent! I’ll train hard and learn the Imperial Sword Form too!
Having formed an ambitious plan, Namgung Yeona smiled brightly and reached for another walnut.
She had long since forgotten all about the pretty older sister she had met in front of the carriage.
*****
After hurriedly leaving the village, I looked back and swept a hand down my chest.
Holy crap, that was close. Why did a Namgung Clan carriage show up there?
I had heard the Namgung Clan dominated Anhui, and it seemed their influence extended even to the border leading into another region.
“Cane. No one is following us, right?”
“Kii!”
After answering, Cane poked out its face and climbed onto my shoulder. Having held its breath inside the cramped folds of my clothes for so long, its fur was flattened on one side.
If Cane did not sense anything, then we were probably safe. Still, considering the possibility, I chose a roundabout route.
By the time I had gone up and down five peaks and returned to the hermitage as the sun began to tilt, I saw Yeon Ryang pacing in front of the mountain gate, waiting for me.
“Brother. I’m back.”
“You’re finally here. It was almost dinnertime, and you still hadn’t returned, so I thought something had happened.”
He smiled weakly, checked that I was unharmed, and took my luggage. I grinned broadly and brought it up.
“Something did happen, Brother.”
“What? Did you run into pursuers?”
I turned around and pointed at the sack on my back.
“Ta-da. Look at this.”
“You found a sword? So this is why you were late.”
“Hurry and unwrap it. You’re going to love it.”
“I won’t refuse, then. Let’s see how badly our little sister got overcharged.”
Yeon Ryang chuckled as he opened the mouth of the sack. But his laughter did not last long.
Bewilderment spread across his face as he unwrapped the cotton cloth wound around the sword.
“Wh-what is this? Sohae, did you rob some divine thief’s hidden vault?”
“Isn’t it amazing? Cane found it in an iron workshop.”
“Kit!”
Cane lifted its chin as if asking to be praised, but Yeon Ryang did not even glance at it.
He spoke firmly.
“Put it back where it was. Right now.”
“Huh? Why? Brother, look closely. This is a meteoric-iron sword. It’s incredibly precious.”
“That’s exactly why it won’t do. Objects like this always cause trouble later.”
His attitude was so firm that it made me shrink back automatically. I mumbled an excuse.
“It’s not something that will cause trouble. Even the person who made it has completely forgotten about it. ......Probably.”
That was why it had gone unclaimed for more than thirty years.
“How do you know that? The fact that a village iron workshop had something like this in the first place is unbelievable.”
Yeon Ryang frowned at my excuse. Then, perhaps conscious of the nuns at the hermitage, he lowered his voice and jerked his chin toward the forest.
“Let’s talk over there. We’ll startle the nuns.”
“......Okay.”
“Wait here for a moment.”
After leaving me standing there, Yeon Ryang carried the luggage into our room, returned, and pulled me along. His face was grim in a way that did not suit him.
I thought he’d be happy......
When my shoulders drooped weakly, the crease between Yeon Ryang’s brows slowly smoothed out. He spoke in a much softer voice.
“I’m not angry at you, Sohae. It’s better to avoid objects that can invite trouble, so I’m saying we should be certain. How did you get it?”
Suppressing my own disappointment, I answered.
“Cane found it buried in a corner of the iron workshop. The owner of the workshop knew a Tang Clan blacksmith. He said he had been holding on to a sword that blacksmith made.”
“A Tang Clan blacksmith? Why would something like that be rolling around here?”
“I want to know that too. It must have been one of the family elders, but what on earth was he thinking......? Though it isn’t exactly strange for that family to have oddballs.”
There was no need to go far. Even my siblings came in every variety.
Even after my explanation, Yeon Ryang still looked doubtful.
“Let’s say the sword’s origin is as you described. Why did he give you a sword made by a Tang Clan blacksmith? Don’t tell me you revealed your identity.”
“The iron workshop owner recognized my bracelet. He asked first if I was from the Tang Clan. It seems this was also something made by the elder who made the sword.”
“What? You’re being chased. What are you going to do if the clan finds out?”
Yeon Ryang pressed hard against his temples. I awkwardly rubbed the back of my neck.
“I used my brother’s name, so there shouldn’t be a serious problem. I gave him my second brother’s name.”
“The brother who was your writing teacher?”
“Yes. When I left the house, he gave me his identity token. I used that to pretend I was a maidservant sent on an errand by a young master.”
“You pretended to be a maidservant? And the iron workshop owner believed that? When you were wearing a protective charm made by a Tang Clan blacksmith?”
“I don’t know if he believed it, but...... he promised to keep it secret. That old man seemed to like our family an awful lot. He claimed he was a disciple of a Tang Clan blacksmith, so he probably won’t go around talking recklessly.”
Yeon Ryang stared at me with a suffocated expression, then sighed and rubbed around his eyes.
“Haa...... I’m not trying to criticize your choice, Sohae, but...... you don’t actually believe that old man would keep his promise even with a blade at his throat, do you?”
At Yeon Ryang’s words, which pointed out the part I had tried hard not to look at, cold sweat gathered in my hands. I mumbled as if making an excuse.
“He was an ordinary old man. Just because there might be trouble later, there’s no need to k-kill him.”
The people I had fought and killed until now had clearly been enemies aiming for me. But that old man was not.
He had only met me by chance. He had treated me as a guest and even served me tea.
I did not want to become someone so far gone that I would drive a knife into the back of a person who had readily shown me kindness.
“......You knew what had to be done, but you just came back. You softhearted young lady.”
Yeon Ryang let out a breath of laughter and murmured quietly.
“Well, that’s part of your charm, little sister. That’s why you couldn’t abandon one dying Demonic Sect bastard and ended up suffering like this.”
The words, close to a lament, snapped me back to my senses.
I had acted like I did not know and done nothing because killing the old man from the iron workshop to leave no trouble behind would make me feel like I had become the same kind of person as Third Madam.
But what if information really leaked through the old man?
What if my paltry sympathy put Yeon Ryang in danger too?
With Yeon Ryang’s body as it was, he could neither fight nor run. This was not the time to be arrogantly hypocritical.
I took a deep breath and raised my head. Since it had been my error in judgment, it was right for me to settle it cleanly with my own hands.
I looked straight into Yeon Ryang’s eyes and said,
“......I thought about it wrong, Brother. I’ll go to the village after sunset.”
