Chapter 957: I Want to Watch (11)

“However.”

Qing opened.

You might wonder if, after coming this far, it was even possible to wrap things up cleanly. But if you truly set your mind on wrapping it up, there was nothing you couldn’t do.

Even if, later on, you thought about it and it started to feel odd and unresolved... in the moment, as long as it felt plausible, there was always a way to end it.

The answer was emotion.

In other words, appeal to human feeling—things like benevolence and righteousness—and draw out empathy.

Then, for that instant, people got swept up in the mood and everything somehow turned warm and fuzzy. That was just how humans were.

“The Sect Leader’s love for his child is only natural. Traveling the martial world, I’ve seen countless coldhearted fathers... and it made me realize how beautiful parental love can be—loving and cherishing your child.”

Life returned to the Azure Dragon Gate sect leader’s eyes.

She’d suddenly opened a way out for him—no, not just opened it, but flung it wide open. How could he not welcome that?

This was an escape where he wasn’t a sect leader who’d power-tripped and disrespected wanderers... but a foolish father who’d been blinded by love and failed at family discipline.

Still, half of him stayed wary.

Because she’d just pretended to reconcile and then stabbed him deep. So of course he wondered if she was setting up another trick.

“They say you could put your child in your eye and it still wouldn’t hurt. I didn’t give birth myself, but I took in a child and raised her as my eldest daughter... so I think I can understand that feeling, at least a little. But if it’s truly for your child... shouldn’t you fix their habits by scolding them harshly—even if you have to beat them for it—instead of covering up their faults and pretending nothing happened?”

Relax. I really am ending this, she was saying.

The sect leader let out a deep sigh.

He did it even with all those eyes watching—either because he felt that relieved, or because it proved his emotions were even more tangled than they looked.

And then, with the sigh still hanging in the air, a line slipped out naturally.

“...I raised my child wrong.”

The sect leader breathed out another long sigh.

“You’re right.”

And then came the complaining confession that followed.

“Someday he’ll come to his senses... when he’s older he’ll come to his senses... he’s just immature because he hasn’t started a family yet. Once he marries and has children, he’ll change. And yet I kept babying him because he always looked like a child to me... and in the end, it caused this mess...”

To most parents, their child stayed a child forever.

When a little kid made a mistake, adults smiled and let it slide.

The problem was that only the parents still saw the child as a child.

To everyone else, he was already a grown adult—and that wasn’t forgivable.

“They say men never truly grow up. Honestly, getting older doesn’t erase your nature. You just endure. You learn to hold back. It’s not that you can’t—you simply choose not to. But Young Master Pyeong still hasn’t learned endurance.”

The idea that you grew up just because you got older was, honestly, bullshit.

Even when you got older, video games and comics were still fun. Food and snacks were still delicious. And the things you wanted to buy—things you didn’t really need—were still the same.

It’s just that you didn’t have the stamina to burn your life on games like before, going out was exhausting, food and snacks didn’t digest well, and you still couldn’t afford the things you wanted.

Qing was just saying what she’d lived before stepping into the martial world.

But the sect leader seemed to hear it differently.

“Funny. Women always say that. A man is a man even when he grows old.”

Oh? This bastard? I was trying to end this nicely—

But Qing’s life before the martial world was something only Qing knew. To the Central Plain, the Heavenly Flower Sword was just a twenty-three-year-old genius.

“Still, what changes a man is responsibility. When you marry, take a wife, have children—when the number of people you’re responsible for grows—a man is forced to grow up. That’s what I expected of my son...”

“That’s exactly what married people say.”

At Qing’s dry answer thrown right back, quiet laughter rippled through the crowd.

Seriously. It’s always the married ones who say this.

You have to marry to become an adult. Marriage is true happiness. Looking at your kid makes you feel full without eating. So you should definitely marry too. You have to experience this. I can’t be the only one who gets to enjoy something this good. Get married. Do it twice. Ah—no, you can’t do it twice, so definitely just once.

The problem is, those same guys are always trying to drag you out after work because they don’t want to go home, and they live off an allowance so they secretly check their bank app, and if they want to travel they have to ask their wife’s permission... and they still say that shit.

No matter how you listen, it doesn’t sound like “I can’t be the only one who’s happy.”

It sounds like “I can’t be the only one who suffers.”

Anyway.

With laughter spreading through the crowd, they were basically there.

Look. The mood was warm now.

Now the ending was the sect leader’s job.

And apparently the sect leader hadn’t won his position in a gamble—because he wrapped it up just fine.

“I apologize once again. My worthless child caused a great disturbance, so as his father I ask for your leniency.”

The sect leader bent deeply at the waist.

And then—

“And to the wanderers there as well, I apologize. My child caused you harm, and I am truly sorry.”

He bowed again.

The wanderers didn’t know what to do.

The crowd watched, strangely satisfied.

And just like that—case closed.

*****

“There’s still a bit left from the gold we received from the sect leader. Are you really sure you won’t take it? It’s basically compensation from the Azure Dragon Gate sect leader.”

“We have our pride, don’t we? Thanks to you, we received an apology from the head of an entire sect—something we’ll brag about for the rest of our lives. Of course, we can’t exactly go around shouting it proudly.”

The senior wanderer, Southern-Dynasty King, said that with an awkward smile.

No matter how much it was simply receiving an apology where an apology was due, it wasn’t like he could go around saying, Yeah, I’m the guy who got the Azure Dragon Gate sect leader to apologize.

But saying he couldn’t brag proudly also meant...

He’d brag the hell out of it, just not proudly.

When wanderers chatted among themselves, he’d definitely pull it out.

The kind of war story you told again and again, repeating it infinitely—

And most of that story would be time spent praising the Heavenly Flower Sword.

The Heavenly Flower Sword is already the greatest hero under heaven. Huh? Why?

Listen.

Do you think the masters of the martial world even see us sword-sellers as people?

We’re just cheap labor they buy and use. When a fight breaks out, we’re straw dummies shoved to the front for a few coins—meat shields to soak up blood.

That’s what a sword-seller is.

But listen—listen.

Last time, I got caught by some vile bastard with no manners, and it was about to go wrong enough that I could’ve ended up dragged to the government office—

And then, right then!

The Heavenly Flower Sword helped us, and this and that... and in my whole damn life I’d never once received an apology from someone as high as a sect leader.

And as if that wasn’t enough, the Heavenly Flower Sword even tried to make sure we kept the money—only for me to barely manage to return it. Truly—she’s like a fairy. No, she is a fairy.

Yeah... ah, right, and that too.

I heard wanderers who went to the martial arts tournament kept saying they respected the Heavenly Flower Sword the most, and I wondered what they meant—now I get it.

Do you know the Heavenly Flower Sword?

She’s kind, beautiful, good-hearted, and there isn’t a single flaw you can find—she’s literally a goddess, and from now on any insult to the Heavenly Flower Sword is considered an insult to me.

If there are ten thousand followers of the Heavenly Flower Sword in the world, I am one of them.

If there are one thousand followers of the Heavenly Flower Sword in the world, I am one of them.

If there are one hundred followers of the Heavenly Flower Sword in the world, I am still one of them.

If there is only one follower of the Heavenly Flower Sword left in the world, that person is surely me.

And if there is not a single follower of the Heavenly Flower Sword left in the world... then only then will I no longer exist in this world.

And rumors in the martial world didn’t die—they spread farther and farther.

And the tale of the wanderers’ guardian goddess, the Heavenly Flower Sword, would spread with more and more embellishment.

That was how a martial artist’s reputation was made.

So after the wanderers—now fervent devotees—hurried off because they couldn’t wait to tell the story—

A little kid with sparkling eyes remained.

“Wow, big sister! This time you were really like a hero! So now the Azure Dragon Gate sect leader will discipline his kid super strictly and fix his habits, right!? That was so cool! Beggar big sister is the best!”

“Jun? Beggar big sister?”

“Well, me being cool is just an unavoidable truth, but—wait. This time?”

“That’s right! And last time too! So you really are a hero, right? Right?”

The boy’s eyes glittered with admiration.

Sure—Moyong Jun was twelve. Prime age for being obsessed with heroes.

For the record, the age for being obsessed with heroes was pretty broad—from snot-nosed eight-year-olds to late bloomers who didn’t stop until they were past twenty-five and just stepping into the martial world.

Qing hesitated, then decided to tell him the truth.

Twelve was old enough to hear the truth.

“Hmm. But I’m not sure. A doting parent—meaning someone who’s weak to their kid—that’s basically inborn, and it’s insanely hard to fix.”

“Huh? But the Azure Dragon Gate sect leader looked like he was really reflecting...”

“That’s because people were watching, so even if he wasn’t reflecting, he had to act like it. And someone who’s spent a lifetime babying their kid and never learned to scold them doesn’t suddenly become strict either.”

Qing added a detailed explanation.

If she pressed him harder, it would only create resentment. A rat cornered in a dead end could get venomous and bite. And if that happened and the sect fell apart, what sin did the other disciples commit?

So she ended it nicely right there...

Back in Qing’s hometown, this was what you called giving someone the red pill.

Moyong Jun’s face fell.

“So nothing changes? That bastard will keep doing it?”

“Jun? Don’t say bastard. Bad words aren’t allowed.”

“He won’t keep doing it. Because rumors will spread all across the martial world. If he does it again, people will say that bastard still hasn’t come to his senses, and he’ll get branded as a complete thug to the whole world. If he wants to avoid that... then no matter what he’s thinking inside, he’ll have to watch other people’s eyes and pretend he’s a new man.”

“But then it’s just pretending. What if he’s still thinking bad things inside?”

Qing ruffled Moyong Jun’s hair.

Moyong Juhee, who’d kept trying to cut in and kept getting ignored, went ah and sent her a look—hurt, and also like she wanted something.

Qing pretended not to notice.

For some reason, she always wanted to tease Lady Moyong. Anyway—

“That’s why watching other people’s eyes matters. Who cares what he thinks inside? Even a total screwup can’t keep doing shitty things once he starts worrying about how other people see him.”

“But still...”

“That’s enough.”

Isn’t that enough?

Who am I to just magically fix people and turn them into brand-new humans? If someone could change that easily, they would’ve changed long ago.

Just making them watch their eyes is enough.

Of course, if someone is truly beyond saving, isolating them from the world is better. But before it gets that severe, watching other people’s eyes is enough.

Yeah. It’s because they don’t watch other people’s eyes that this happens.

That bastard. And that bastard’s father.

They thought they were somebody, so they didn’t watch other people’s eyes... and then they met someone who was more somebody, and got smashed.

“Hm. Jun, remember this. Everyone’s actually nothing. When someone thinks they’re a big deal—when they believe they’re a big deal—that’s what they become.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re a big deal. No matter what someone says, they go, How dare you? You dare to say that to the great me? and get angry instead.”

“Like the Azure Dragon Gate sect leader?”

“Right. So always remember: who am I? I’m just an ordinary nobody.”

“Who am I? I’m just an ordinary nobody.”

Qing ruffled Moyong Jun’s round head again.

The kid listened well, seemed smart, and for a little brat he was already handsome—he had that cute charm.

The habit of eavesdropping was a bit... but whatever. That was still the healthy kind.

“Good. That’s right.”

But... was that really true?

No matter what, how could the Heavenly Flower Sword be “an ordinary nobody”?

Her skill, her backing, even her status were anything but ordinary.

But that just made it cooler.

I am nothing! This is the true hero!

Under Qing’s long white palm, the boy’s eyes shone brightly as he giggled.

*****

That night.

Lying in bed, something suddenly occurred to the Azure Dragon Gate sect leader.

Wait.

Wasn’t the one who stole the sword... the Heavenly Flower Sword?

And what did the sword thief say when she came to steal it?

—HOW CAN YOU SLEEP AT THAT REALM?! WHAT? SUPREME PEAK? IF IT WERE ME I’D BE TOO EMBARRASSED TO SLEEP!! IF YOUR REALM ISN’T ENOUGH THEN PUT IN EFFOOOOOORT!!! EFFOOOOOORT!!!!! YOU HEAR ME?! EFFOOOOOORT!!

“KRAAAAGH!!!”

The Azure Dragon Gate sect leader kicked the blankets up violently.

If you truly set your mind on wrapping it up, there was nothing you couldn’t do.

Even if, later on, you thought about it and it started to feel odd and unresolved... in the moment, as long as it felt plausible, there was always a way to end it.

The answer was emotion.

In other words, appeal to human feeling—things like benevolence and righteousness—and draw out empathy.

Then, for that instant, people got swept up in the mood and everything somehow turned warm and fuzzy. That was just how humans were.

The Azure Dragon Gate sect leader got swept up too.

This was Formless Poison.

Truly terrifying. Truly terrifying indeed.