SHWAAAK!
Dust scattered as one of my legs slid long across the ground.
Without meaning to, I landed with one hand braced on the ground like I was trying to look impressive, then hurriedly pushed myself upright.
The two gatekeepers guarding the valley entrance stared at me with sour looks.
“What the hell? A girl?”
“Do you have any idea where this is, barging in here like that?”
“Ahaha, hello. I didn’t come in on purpose...”
Just then, Beopgong shouted in a thin imitation voice.
“I cannot live under the same sky as the villains who have defiled my homeland! Today, I shall punish you myself!”
It is not my homeland! What is that man even saying?!
At Beopgong’s nonsense, the gatekeepers’ faces turned vicious.
“Kids these days have no fear. Don’t know their own place, either. They run around shouting about heroic deeds and throw themselves in like moths to a flame.”
“That’s slander! I had no intention of doing any heroic deeds!”
As I backed away under the flood of killing intent and tried to explain myself, the other gatekeeper violently shook the cord attached to a bell and shouted.
“Intruder! Intruder!”
DANG! DANG! DANG!
With the clamorous bell ringing, martial artists poured out from inside the narrow valley. There was nowhere to run.
I grimaced with my whole face and grabbed a fistful of poison powder.
“Ah, Master Beopgong! What is this?”
“Clean it up by yourself! If you don’t do it properly, I won’t go to the Martial Alliance with you!”
“I’m putting poison in your breakfast!”
Just you wait. If I make it out alive, I’m taking care of that fake monk first.
*****
Yeon Ryang paced near the valley with an anxious look on his face. The sounds coming from inside Ghost-Spirit Valley were not reassuring.
“Graaagh! It’s paralysis poison! Be careful!”
“You little rat!”
“The ratty things are your front teeth! They look perfect for gnawing radishes!”
“Shut that mouth! I won’t let you get away with this!”
Beopgong, who had been listening quietly, glanced at Yeon Ryang in admiration.
“Wow. Yeon Ryang. Your sister’s provocation tactic is pretty good. She really knows how to scratch at someone’s temper.”
“...I think she picked up bad habits because of me. She wasn’t that kind of child before.”
“I don’t know about that. That mouth of hers sounds inborn.”
Unlike Beopgong, who answered calmly, Yeon Ryang looked uneasy. After chewing at his lip for a while, he seemed to make up his mind and reached for the hilt of his sword.
“Beopgong. This doesn’t feel right. I need to go in.”
“Wait a little. It hasn’t even been fifteen minutes since she went in. You call her your sister, so why are you acting like a father sending his daughter on her first errand?”
“I’m worried, that’s why. There are too many of them. She’s only sixteen.”
“Sixteen is grown. When I was sixteen, the old abbot threw me into the Hundred-Thousand Mountains and told me to come back alive.”
“Are you and Sohae the same? You were a monster who went around crushing your own martial uncles.”
At Yeon Ryang’s irritation, Beopgong snorted.
“Honestly. I was wondering why that kid was so strangely gentle, and it turns out you were the reason?”
“What?”
“She’s a wanted fugitive and has been traveling with a wandering martial artist like you for close to a year. If she still doesn’t have that much venom in her, then you’ve been spoiling her too much. Yeon Ryang, you deliberately kept the kid from using her hands, didn’t you? Because you were afraid she’d be shocked?”
“...”
“Don’t. Smothering a child forever is another way to ruin her. She won’t die from this much. Watch quietly today. Once her head nearly goes flying a few times, she’ll snap awake.”
“Still...”
“When you reach the Alliance, Ak Jibaek will interrogate you. Anything tied to the Demonic Sect is something he always verifies personally. If she’s going to deal with a master on that level, it isn’t bad for her to build some grit in advance. You aren’t going to keep her tucked under your arm for the rest of her life, are you?”
At Beopgong’s cold advice, Yeon Ryang sighed and rubbed his forehead.
Excuses rose all the way to his throat, but it was not entirely wrong, so he had nothing to say back.
No, in truth, Beopgong was right.
If everything was resolved, his sister would naturally return to the Tang Clan.
So it was about time he prepared to let her go from his arms.
But...
Brother! Let’s eat breakfast!
Could he return to a life without the voice that called him every morning?
Could he roam the Central Plains alone again?
Brother. How do you start a fire without a fire striker? I can’t tell what counts as flint.
Every time that child relied on him, every time he taught her something, Yeon Ryang felt as if he had become a fairly decent adult.
A human like him, useless except for swinging a blood-soaked sword, with everything about him a mess, could pretend to be an ordinary older brother taking care of a younger sister.
He wondered if this was what an ordinary family felt like.
He liked it very much.
But wanting more than this was Yeon Ryang’s greed.
Even if he called himself her brother, did the child not have real family elsewhere?
With a bitter smile, Yeon Ryang silently clenched his fist.
His mouth felt gritty, as if it were full of sand.
*****
My breathing grew ragged.
My heart thudded fast, and the muscles throughout my body pulled taut enough to burst.
The enemies sprawled across the ground seemed completely overcome by poison and did not move at all.
If I had my way, I wanted to retreat at this point, but Beopgong was sitting in my escape route with a face that said it would never happen.
Sounding bored, he shouted.
“Kid! When are you going to finish? Dawn will break at this rate!”
“Is that what you say after throwing a person in here out of nowhere?”
“I thought you’d clean them up quickly, but you’re too slow. Put some strength into it. You shouldn’t smear your master’s name.”
“Why are you bringing up Grandfather? Are you trying to fight me? Shut your mouth!”
“A moment ago, all you did was run away. Now you feel like having a bout with me? I’m always welcome.”
“Argh!”
He is so annoying I could die, seriously!
What was Yeon Ryang thinking, becoming friends with an old man like that?
As I grumbled and wiped the sweat from my forehead, my vision cleared.
I glared at the enemy in front of me and estimated how many hidden weapons I had left. I thought I could exchange about four more rounds.
The swordsman flinched under my gaze and edged backward.
“Kh... For a little girl, you’re rather capable.”
“And that tongue of yours is rather long. Standing is about all you can manage, but you still have energy left for bravado? Should I put a poison needle in your tongue too?”
“You... insolent brat! Even if I have to take us both down, I’ll kill you!”
“Bwahahaha!”
I heard Beopgong cackling and saying something to Yeon Ryang.
“Hey. That’s not something you can learn. I told you, it’s inborn.”
“It’s all my fault...”
Ignoring their incomprehensible noise, I put strength into my legs.
His center of gravity was shaken, so I could not give him an opening. I had to push him all at once.
If I took him down, that would be fourteen.
After that...
“Master Beopgong, wait fifteen minutes! I’m going to plant a throwing knife right in the top of your head!”
“Kha-ha! I’ll look forward to it!”
That fake monk makes fifteen!
Grinding my teeth, I adjusted my grip on the throwing knife.
*****
Beopgong laughed hard enough to split his sides as he watched Tang Sohae’s back.
“Kekeke, what is this? That kid is funny. Earlier, she was making such a fuss about not wanting to see blood that she twisted the throwing knife’s trajectory by force. Now she looks ready to beat me to death on the spot.”
“You scratched at her temper.”
“Your sister’s temper is no joke, is it? She seems gentle, but if you touch her wrong, she’s the type to foam at the mouth and charge. I suppose Tang Clan blood can’t be hidden.”
Snickering, Beopgong slung an arm around Yeon Ryang’s shoulder and pointed.
“Look. I was right, wasn’t I? The way the kid uses her body is changing bit by bit. Orthodox kids have to be rolled first. They grow exactly as much as you roll them.”
“It’s annoying, but you’re right.”
Yeon Ryang answered bluntly and scratched his head hard.
Even in his eyes, that was true. The more Tang Sohae exchanged blows with the enemy, the more noticeably her movements improved.
“Is it because she’s a Tang Clan kid? She definitely has talent for fighting one against many. Look at the way she hits and withdraws. She knows exactly when the poison will spread through the body. She uses the terrain well too.”
“She should know exactly. She dosed a person with that much poison. Do you know how many buckets I drank?”
“What?”
“Nothing. Talking to myself.”
Yeon Ryang clicked his tongue and waved it off. Beopgong snorted as if it were ridiculous and said,
“Then stop trembling and roll her. If you can’t do it, should I do it for you? It’ll take us a while to reach Wuhan anyway.”
“Fourteen! I got them all! Brother! Hold that monk down! I’m really not letting this slide!”
Seeing Tang Sohae come running while shouting, Yeon Ryang smiled good-naturedly and replied in a whisper.
“Piss off, bastard.”
*****
Im Seol-yak stood still and looked up at the towering wall.
The Tang estate, built in the heart of Chengdu, had not changed much from Im Seol-yak’s memories.
Perhaps that was why.
If you come to Sichuan, make sure to stay with us. We will always put the guest quarters at your disposal.
An unpleasant voice from long ago brushed past his ear and vanished.
Am I truly getting old? Stray thoughts are multiplying.
Swallowing a sigh, Im Seol-yak slowly approached the gate. Perhaps because that accursed old man had cherished and tended it for over a hundred years, the Tang Clan seemed not to have declined in power at all. If anything, it had prospered further.
Cowed by Im Seol-yak’s arrogant bearing, the gatekeeper asked politely,
“What brings you here?”
Without a word, Im Seol-yak lifted his tiger-rattle staff above his head.
Not to his chest, nor to his shoulder, but above his head. It was the gesture of a man declaring himself a distinguished physician. The gatekeeper asked again,
“Are you a physician?”
“Yes. I came to see a patient.”
The gatekeeper slowly looked over the unfamiliar physician.
His long, slender hands were smooth, without a single trace of hardship. He did not smell of medicinal herbs as physicians usually did, and above all else, he was far too young.
He did not seem old enough to possess the skill needed to tend to the precious young master’s illness.
“You must be a wandering physician who came after hearing rumors about the Second Young Master. Please return. First Madam ordered that no one whose identity is unclear be allowed inside.”
Im Seol-yak stared at the gatekeeper with an expressionless face. The gatekeeper looked troubled and waved his hand.
“It is not that I do not trust you, my lord physician. That is simply the procedure. If you had brought even a letter of introduction, it might be different, but empty-handed...”
In that instant, irritation appeared in Im Seol-yak’s eyes.
“...How troublesome.”
“H-Hiiik!”
When he slowly swept his hair back, the gatekeeper, crushed beneath the aura of a supreme master, choked and collapsed heavily onto the ground. The gatekeeper’s trousers began to darken with wetness.
At the sight, a patrolling guard came running and blew a whistle.
FWEEEEET!
“Who are you?”
“Do you know where this is?”
In an instant, the Tang Clan martial artists who had rushed over surrounded Im Seol-yak.
“...Haa. I should never have accepted such a troublesome request.”
Muttering, Im Seol-yak toyed with the whip at his waist with a bored look on his face. The bits of metal and bone embedded in the whip reflected the light, flashing sharply.
“Should I just kill them all?”
It was a tiny murmur, almost a whisper. But the voice, laced with killing intent, was more than enough to plant fear in everyone present.
At the threat that seemed to drive itself directly into their minds, several martial artists lost the will to fight and dropped their weapons to the ground.
Just then, someone rushed out and pushed the frightened martial artists back.
“What are you doing? Everyone, lower your weapons!”
Then he respectfully cupped his fist.
“I greet you, Elder Divine Therapist.”
