Chapter 140 - The Black Flame Dragon Meets the Monster of Manseogo (4)

"Ah, ah..."

Stunned by Namgung Seonhwa's words, Seong Moran could not say anything.

"..."

As even Namgung Seonhwa, who had blurted out the surprising remark, kept her mouth shut, a heavy silence lingered in the room.

In the uncomfortable silence, Namgung Seonhwa's hands entered Seong Moran's line of sight.

Small, delicate hands trembling slightly.

Seeing her look so afraid, as if she had committed a grave sin, Seong Moran let out a soft chuckle.

"... And here I thought it was something serious. I already know."

"... Eh?"

"I said I already knew."

"U-Um, well, that is."

Now, Namgung Seonhwa's face flushed so red it looked ready to burst.

To Seong Moran, Namgung Seonhwa's reaction only seemed cute.

"Do you think I wouldn't notice something like that, no matter how dense I am?"

"..."

She had known for a long time.

Because in the Demonic Spirit Plateau and during the standard Murim exam, the gazes Namgung Seonhwa occasionally cast toward Jin Sowoon were different from how she looked at other men.

"And besides! Did you think I would distance myself from you just because you like Young Master Jin?"

"..."

Seong Moran reached out and tightly grasped Namgung Seonhwa's hands.

"Even before we met Young Master Jin, you were my one and only younger sister."

"... Sister."

"Well, that doesn't mean I'm going to yield to you or anything. I like Young Master Jin too, after all."

Seong Moran wiped the tears welling up in Namgung Seonhwa's eyes as she spoke.

"So, no matter what happens, let's keep getting along. And besides, that man is so busy he doesn't even have time to look our way, right?"

"Thank you. And I'm sorry."

"For now, let's hurry up and become full-fledged warriors so we can make that man a little less busy."

"You're right. I'll hurry up and grow stronger so I can climb even higher."

Seong Moran looked at Namgung Seonhwa's flushed, red eyes and sighed.

"Neither you nor I are the type to be in this kind of position anywhere else. How did we end up like this?"

"Pfft."

"Are you done crying? If so, should we go buy some clothes? Just like at the banquet last time, we need to surprise him when we go out to play."

"Yes."

Seong Moran stood up first, and Namgung Seonhwa gathered her things to follow her before stopping, as if a thought had suddenly crossed her mind.

"Sister, but what if we get more rivals?"

"... That's the fault of the man who goes around leading them on, so we'll have to punish him."

Seong Moran clenched her fist tightly, as if finding it unforgivable.

* * *

"Hm?"

Feeling a sudden chill, I looked around and expanded my qi senses.

As I expanded my qi senses, the Sword Demon must have noticed, because he gave me a strange look.

"What are you doing?"

"It's nothing. I just felt something strange so I checked for a moment, but it was nothing."

"Tsk, tsk. How much bad karma must you have piled up in your life to..."

Seeing the Sword Demon shaking his head and clicking his tongue, I was dumbfounded.

"Could it be any worse than yours, Sword Demon?"

"What was that?!"

His anecdotes truly defied imagination.

There was a time when he secretly infiltrated the Shaolin Sect, claiming he had perfected his swordsmanship, and requested a sparring match with the Abbot. There was also a time when, despite being a public enemy of the Murim Alliance and having fallen to become a figure of the Underworld, he barged into the Black Death Gang and waged a life-or-death battle against their entire organization.

"I did all that because I had my own justifications!"

'What kind of justification could possibly allow someone to ambush the Shaolin Abbot's quarters?'

"Don't you think those 'own justifications' of yours were wrong?"

"You little punk, just because I keep going easy on you!"

The Sword Demon threw the thesis he had been reading at me, and I snatched it out of the air.

It had already been ten days since I started recklessly requesting sparring matches.

But perhaps we had gotten reasonably close, because even when I fainted during our spars, he never abandoned me.

Waking up in his hut, having a few conversations with him, and then returning home had become my daily routine lately.

Of course, there were times when I attacked him twice a day.

But whenever I did that, for some reason, I would end up unconscious for the entire day and unable to wake up.

Perhaps one sparring match a day was the limit he had set.

I was precariously walking along that very line.

"Why are you even reading this useless thesis?"

"That is none of your concern."

"Are you looking for a treasure map or a secret manual? There is nothing like that here."

I could guarantee it, because I had read all the books that would ever come out of Manseogo in the future. Among Manseogo's materials, there was absolutely nothing related to treasure maps or secret manuals.

"What I am looking for is nothing of the sort."

"Oh, so you *are* looking for something?"

"..."

Without answering, the Sword Demon simply began reading the thesis again. He was so completely focused, without a single hint of distraction, that it looked as if he were reading a peerless secret manual.

'Would the person who wrote that thesis even know?'

'That the Sword Demon is reading their garbage like his life depends on it?'

"If you tell me, I will help you look for it. In exchange, please become my martial arts master."

The fact that he had figured out the true nature of the Ten Thousand Swords after just one clash meant his skills were far more profound than I had expected.

As its realm deepens, the Taiyi True Scripture evolves into an unstandardized form.

Because it was such a difficult martial art that one would later have to create their own techniques, I needed the teachings of someone who had experience in creating an exclusive martial art.

Right now, I wouldn't be able to find a better martial arts master than this bad-tempered Underworld figure right in front of me.

"... Tsk, didn't I tell you? You do not need Sword Force."

"I know that, but. According to what you said, Sword Demon, if I use Sword Force with the Ten Thousand Swords, wouldn't it become an even more incredible martial art?"

"..."

"Plus, I want to share in the experience you've built up all this time."

"Are you saying you want to become my disciple?"

"I am a disciple of the Taiyi Sect, so that is impossible. That's why I'm asking you to be my martial arts master."

The Sword Demon looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.

"Just how strong do you want to become?"

It was a truly nuanced question.

In both my past life and this life, I had always held a thirst to become stronger, but I had never actually thought about exactly how strong I wanted to be.

I couldn't explain it with an exact level of martial arts proficiency.

Still, there was an immediate answer that came to mind.

"Hmm... Strong enough to protect my people, no matter what kind of enemy stands in front of me?"

"Do you think becoming the Number One in the World is so easy?"

"I don't want to become the Number One in the World."

"It is the same thing. If you want to protect the people precious to you, rather than drowning yourself in martial arts, it would be better to spend time with them."

The Sword Demon wore an expression of deep reminiscence, as if he were recalling someone he deeply missed.

"But what if a truly terrifying enemy appears then?"

"Then you just run away together, to a place where they cannot reach."

His voice sounded tinged with remorse.

"What is more important than anything else is spending time together."

Just as I had been, the Sword Demon looked like a man deeply regretting his past.

"... Are you searching through Manseogo to find that precious person?"

In an instant, the Sword Demon's face stiffened.

"... How did you know?"

"I was just taking a guess. Hahaha."

The Sword Demon's face crumpled like a piece of paper.

"... That glib tongue of yours is enough to empty the money pouches of most Underworld bastards."

"Are you not going to tell me?"

"..."

Turning his head away, the Sword Demon went back to reading the useless thesis.

'So he was looking for a person.'

I began searching through the rooms of the archive in my head.

The room where the useless books of Manseogo were gathered.

This was a place where assorted books that had no clear reason for being in Manseogo, such as erotic paintings and indecent novels, were collected.

I pulled out one specific book from among them.

A book that a woman had written like a diary.

Without revealing who she was or where she belonged, she simply wrote candidly about a person she met, the things she experienced, and the emotions she felt in a city she had visited during a break while attending the academy.

In my past life, I had just skimmed past it, thinking it was just some romance novel, but...

Reading it again now, there were many similarities between the character in the book and the man right in front of me.

As I read through the book in my head, my eyes snapped wide open.

"Did you have a daughter?"

"...!"

The Sword Demon's eyes widened in profound shock.

"... How do you know that..."

"..."

The Sword Demon was known to have no family, let alone anyone he shared a close relationship with.

Although he had exchanged pleasantries with a few experts, in reality, he was a man who lived like an isolated island in the middle of the sea.

Because his nature was too upright to get along with Underworld figures, and his infamy was too high to build connections with the Orthodox faction.

I could roughly guess the reason why he had never started a family even as he aged.

It was likely because he had piled up so much bad karma that he feared he wouldn't be able to protect them when he wasn't around.

"I asked how you knew!"

"... Ah, actually, I remember all the books in Manseogo. Never forgetting something once I see it, that's my curse."

"..."

"Hmm... Is it true that you met her in Hangzhou?"

The Sword Demon's jaw dropped.

"Your hearts connected there, and the two of you shared your affection."

"..."

"Hah... Still, this is truly shocking. To think that you, Sword Demon, had a child."

"That book, where is it?"

"It will probably be difficult for you to find it. It was hidden away carefully so that no one else could find it."

"Give it to me. I need to check it right this instant."

Looking ready to dash off at any second, the Sword Demon had stepped onto the bare floor in only his traditional socks.

"Ah... That won't do."

"If you bring me that book, I will teach you Sword Force just as you wanted. No, going further, I will teach you a method to evolve your Ten Thousand Swords!"

It was exactly everything I had been hoping to get from the Sword Demon.

However, I shook my head.

"That, I cannot do."

"... What? Do you want something else from me?"

Right now, the Sword Demon was so agitated he was losing his rationality.

It was a glimpse showing just how desperately he had been searching for his daughter all this time.

But even if our interests aligned, as long as I didn't know the intentions of the woman who wrote the book, it wasn't a proposal I could easily accept.

"No. It isn't that, but rather that this involves people. Furthermore, if your lover hid the book this carefully, she might not have wanted you to find it. No matter how desperate I am, I cannot simply hand over information related to others' lives so carelessly, can I?"

In the later parts of the book, she even revealed where she planned to live after leaving her affiliated faction.

Though it was impossible to know when the book was written, it was information that could serve as a massive clue if one wanted to find her.

I couldn't recklessly hand over such information without confirming anything.

"... What if I give you a peerless fortuitous encounter that will never be seen again in this world?"

Because of bastards who believed there were things more important than human lives, I had lived that sorrowful and miserable past life.

I didn't have even a speck of desire to become someone just like them.

"Even if you gave me the entire world, I have no intention of handing it over."

With his head bowed, the Sword Demon remained silent for a long time.

Eventually, after checking his soiled socks, he rested his rear back on the wooden bench.

Then, he looked straight at me with complicated eyes.

"You... are truly a guy who strays far beyond my expectations."

I couldn't understand the meaning behind his words.

But I could tell one thing.

For this moment at least, he was not controlling his emotions.

"Is the author written down?"

"It isn't written down. That's why it will be even harder for you to find it."

"The one who wrote that book is probably Seop Sojeong."

"Seop Sojeong?"

While the surname Seop wasn't particularly rare, if one mentioned a Seop related to the Murim, the Hundred Flowers Palace would undoubtedly be the first to come to mind.

"Yes, it is the Seop Sojeong of the Hundred Flowers Palace you are thinking of."

"Hah..."

The Hundred Flowers Palace was a Murim clan centered around women, much like the Emei Sect.

Furthermore, it was such an incredible place that it was counted among the most prestigious families of the 108 Peaks.

"What, can you not believe the fact that a daughter of such a prestigious family and an illegitimate child like me shared our affection?"

"... I never said anything about you being an illegitimate child. It's just that the Sword Demon and the Hundred Flowers Palace don't suit each other, do they?"

"We knew that well, too. That was why we parted ways back then."

Seop Sojeong was far too important a figure within the Hundred Flowers Palace, and the grudge the Sword Demon held against his family and the entire Orthodox faction was far too deep.

The unbridgeable gap between their positions had coldly extinguished even the fiery heat of their love.

"But ten years later, I suddenly received a message."

Saying that there was a daughter between me and her.

He said he was bewildered at first.

Why hadn't she informed him right then?

And why was she telling him about their daughter's existence only now?

The Sword Demon suddenly laughed like a madman.

"And then she told me that if I wanted to find them, I should look for their traces in Manseogo."

"..."

"I thought it was an unfunny joke. To begin with, having a daughter wasn't something I could easily believe. But... I ended up here in the end."

I couldn't openly show it, but inside, I couldn't hide my astonishment.

The reason why the Sword Demon's endless journey of spars had abruptly stopped lay right here.

The Sword Demon pulled a carefully folded missive from his robes.

Though he had kept it precious and safe, it was so old that it was no different from a tattered rag.

"This is that missive."

"Just how old is this?"

"It's been about five years."

"..."

I unfolded the missive, imagining the years the Sword Demon must have spent enduring so much humiliation from the academy students over the past five years.

It had faded considerably, but it was still legible enough to distinguish the handwriting.

Just as the Sword Demon had said, the missive stated that if he wished to find her, he should go to Manseogo.

I carefully folded the missive again and handed it back to the Sword Demon.

"W-Well... is it true?"

"What do you want to do once you find that book?"

"... Huh?"

The Sword Demon wore an expression as if he had been struck in the back of the head.

"That book clearly stated where she intended to stay. After you meet them, what do you want to do?"

"I do not know."

The Sword Demon spoke with a face soaked in regret.

"I just... want to see them."

"Who?"

"... Seop Sojeong and my daughter..."

In the Murim, a person who had seen the pinnacle of martial arts was called a superhuman.

In that sense, the Sword Demon was undoubtedly a superhuman. Yet he was trembling faintly, like the slender tree branch he had held in his hand just a few days ago.

As if his entire life depended on a single word of mine.

"W-Well, is it true?"

This was probably not the Sword Demon as a superhuman, but the Sword Demon as a father.

I smiled and spoke.

"You have suffered a lot all this time. It is true."

"Ah..."

Suddenly, thick tears began to spill from his eyes.

Unable to even fathom the weight of it all, I simply stepped away for a moment so his heavy time could pass.