Chapter 50: Rival Friends Meet on a Narrow Bridge (5)

It was the night before Cheon Soyak left on her Roaming Pillar Journey.

The second guest detached quarters of Mount Hua.

The lodging where Jegal Yeon was staying.

Ak Jupae saw Jang Yul sitting on a wooden chair in the front courtyard.

A master of the Cloud-Cleaving Sword Canon—an expert.

Someone who had reached Transcendent Apex alone.

Even if he was merely Transcendent Apex, he wasn’t the sort of man you could look down on and dismiss.

“Good to see you. It’s been a while.”

“Your name was Jang Yul, wasn’t it. Where is my niece?”

“The young lady is inside.”

But he didn’t like Jang Yul.

There was too much killing intent soaked into his martial arts.

Even his epithet came from his deeds.

A sword that splits heads in two.

“Understood.”

So there was no way he could bring himself to view the man kindly.

No matter how loyal a mad dog might be to its master...

how could Ak Jupae, as that master’s maternal uncle, not feel worry?

Ak Jupae clicked his tongue and knocked on the door.

“Yeon. Are you there.”

Jegal Yeon quietly opened it for him.

“What brings you all the way here, Uncle...?”

“You came all the way to Mount Hua with only a single escort. Have you forgotten you are the youngest daughter of the Jegal Clan?”

“But if you come here, what am I supposed to do? You were even the Heaven-Net Platform Unit Captain.”

Her words were gentle, but her eyes were not.

She clearly didn’t like this.

Ak Jupae let out a long, heavy sigh—and said it plainly.

“I quit.”

“...What?”

“I quit the Heaven-Net Platform.”

Jegal Yeon also knew that he had recently lost his beloved only son.

She suspected it was the work of someone within the Heaven-Toppling Society, but—

she didn’t know exactly who.

It could be that, despite being part of the Heaven-Toppling Society, they weren’t speaking out of fear of information leaking.

Or it could be that the killer wasn’t even from the Heaven-Toppling Society—some other rogue hero.

“...Is this related to what happened recently?”

“You mean losing Seowon.”

Jegal Yeon nodded slowly.

Ak Jupae sighed even deeper.

“Yes. I understand it, more or less. The ones I’ve killed until now were someone’s sons and daughters as well.”

“...They were.”

“So if you’re asking whether that’s why I quit—yes.”

It was unexpected.

The Ak Jupae she’d known wasn’t a man like this.

Could the death of the closest, most cherished blood relative change a person this much?

Or...

had his heart simply snapped.

“...What about revenge?”

“I will do it. That will be my last killing.”

“To be honest.”

Jegal Yeon let out a deep sigh.

“After killing so many people all this time, it feels... strange that you’re only having thoughts like that now.”

“...That’s a blunt truth that cuts deep.”

“Uncle Ak, you’re just being swept up by grief right now. Your last killing?”

She stood up.

Anger was thick in her eyes.

Of course it was.

She still couldn’t forget the sight of the Strategist Corps she led being butchered so brutally.

Ak Jupae saved only himself, using everyone else as bait.

And that wasn’t something to be grateful for.

Yeora wasn’t merely Eunsong’s lover.

She was the handmaid who had grown up with Jegal Yeon since childhood.

A girl who was like a younger sister—like blood.

“So now you’re planning to lose more people around you because you can’t stop yourself from killing?”

“That’s—”

“They say you shouldn’t make oaths you can’t keep. You taught me that.”

Jegal Yeon’s words stabbed coldly.

She had watched, with her eyes open, what Ak Jupae did while serving as a member of the Heaven-Toppling Society.

Because he claimed they had violated the Alliance’s order—

he burned people alive, and slaughtered parents in front of their children.

What was that, if not what the unorthodox factions and the Demonic Cult did?

If you were orthodox—

if you were orthodox enough to write the character for “right”—

shouldn’t you, at the very least, carry out punishment while preserving the bare minimum of human decency?

That was why Jegal Yeon did not trust Ak Jupae.

What he was showing now was only momentary grief.

Once that grief cleared, and “true vengeance” lifted its head...

he would become a flame dragon again and burn everything down.

He would want to burn to death everyone who stood in his way.

That was the kind of man he was.

As long as he believed he had some “reason” that could justify it...

he could do anything—no matter how horrific.

That was Ak Jupae, as Jegal Yeon had seen him until now.

“Please go back, Uncle.”

It was an expulsion.

*****

Ahwa Hall.

The afternoon of the day the Roaming Pillar Journey departed.

Cheon Soyak returned to her room and gathered her swords.

Her spare blades were the issued Plum Blossom Short Sword and the one her master Eunsong had bought her.

She chose to bring the issued Plum Blossom Short Sword—the one she could consider selling.

‘...Still. It was the first gift I ever received.’

She wanted to treasure it.

It wasn’t a treasured blade made of Black Iron or Meteoric Iron.

But for her, it was still the sword she cherished most after Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge.

Cheonhwa was also in the room.

Cheonhwa watched her with uneasy eyes.

Soyak hesitated for a moment, then picked up the sword her master had gifted her.

“...Senior Sister Cheonhwa.”

“Y-you called? Huh? What is it?”

The way she flinched and looked over—

it made her look pitiful.

Soyak held Cheonhwa briefly in her arms, then placed the sword her master had given her into her embrace.

“This. It’s a sword I truly treasure.”

“T-then why are you giving it to me...”

“I’ll be away for two or three months. So while I’m gone, I want you to keep it for me.”

Soyak’s voice softened more than usual.

Cheonhwa blinked, looking back and forth between the sword and Soyak.

“R-really... you can leave it with me?”

“Yes. I trust your skill, Senior Sister Cheonhwa.”

Skill.

In an instant, Cheonhwa remembered the time she had clashed with Soyak.

The internal power and martial arts that overwhelmed her so completely.

And now that junior sister was saying she trusted her—and leaving her most cherished possession in her hands.

“...Okay.”

Those seized by fear inevitably lose their self-esteem.

What they need to escape is a sense of purpose.

And someone’s trust.

Being trusted is a far greater strength than most people think.

People sustain themselves by receiving someone’s trust and expectations.

A child raised as a “genius” might reach the level of “talented.”

But a child raised as a “fool” won’t even become ordinary.

“Then I’ll be trusting you, Senior Sister.”

Soyak offered Cheonhwa a polite fist-and-palm salute.

Cheonhwa watched her—

then rose and returned the salute.

“Don’t worry.”

A resolute gaze.

This alone wouldn’t be enough to completely strip away Cheonhwa’s fear.

She had been forced into something close to torture with Hair-Cutting and Marrow-Washing every month, while being threatened that her only connection—her senior brother—would be murdered if she lost.

Still, it would make things easier for Cheonju to help her.

Because one clear goal had appeared.

Because she now knew someone trusted her, and expected something from her.

She wouldn’t simply collapse in place.

“Then this lacking junior sister will be going for a while.”

With that, Cheon Soyak left Ahwa Hall.

At the training ground, Cheonjeong and Cheongak were already out, fully prepared.

They were talking with someone—

“Head Senior, I’ve finished preparing—” ℯℯ𝑙.

Soyak froze as if nailed to the spot.

The gaze fixed on her.

That beard and those eyebrows that looked like they were burning.

The flashing eyes, and the massive saber hanging across his back.

The Flame-Saber Lord, Ak Jupae.

The enemy who had beheaded her father, and burned her mother alive.

“Ah, Soyak. Let me introduce you. This is the hero Ak Jupae.”

Soyak couldn’t answer.

She stood there, blinking, her mouth opening and closing.

Cheongak grinned as he walked up and patted Soyak’s shoulder.

“What’s wrong—why are you stiff? They said to greet him.”

Only then did Soyak regain herself.

She couldn’t show anything here.

She couldn’t be killed before she even fastened the first button of her revenge.

“...I am Cheon Soyak, a Third Generation disciple of the Mount Hua Sect.”

With a small, fragile fist, she formed a fist-and-palm salute.

She clenched her teeth and buried her expression.

“So you’re Cheon Soyak. I heard from the gate guards. They said you defeated Namgung’s young clan lord?”

“...I was fortunate.”

“I heard the story from the others as well—they said it was a clear victory. Excessive humility is not a good thing.”

Ak Jupae did not remember Cheon Soyak.

No—he couldn’t possibly recognize her.

He had surely heard the name at least once.

Cheon Baekgyeong, the master of the Flower-Halo Sect—Black Plum Sword Lord.

And his daughter, Cheon Soyak.

Ak Seowon had only needed to see her eyes to recall an old memory.

But Ak Jupae did not have an eye as sharp as his son’s.

When a child reached fourteen, the baby fat fell away and the bones settled into shape.

Especially Soyak—unlike when she was young, she was now thin and frail.

It was Ak Seowon who had been exceptional, to recognize her from her eyes alone.

“...I will keep your words in mind.”

“Good. So—you’re going to the Shandong Ak Family, is that what I heard?”

It seemed Cheonjeong and Cheongak had already explained.

Cheonjeong nodded and replied.

“Yes. That’s correct.”

“I was just about to return to the Ak Family myself. The branch houses and main house are separated, but it isn’t terribly far, so...”

A bad feeling crawled up her spine.

On a Roaming Pillar Journey, there was no rule forbidding you from receiving help.

Rather, it meant you were to tumble through the secular world—take every help you could, and awaken to people and the world.

If, here—if Ak Jupae chose to travel with them...

“It would be very good if we traveled together on the way.”

It was the worst possible outcome.