The Ruler of Darkness

“Commander, did you really cancel the transfer request?”

The gatekeeper shrugged his shoulders without giving much of an answer.

Seeing this, his colleagues guarding the entrance of Wongak Pavilion showed reactions of disbelief.

“Are you out of your mind? All the hardships you’ve gone through, just to be ordered around like a dog by that swordless guy?”

“Are you truly insane? Please reconsider. As a commander-level warrior, you would be treated with respect anywhere within the Sword House.”

The gatekeeper chuckled.

“…Then why aren’t you all heading off to better prospects? Why are you still here, wearing this security detail uniform?”

His colleagues looked at him as if he was speaking nonsense.

“Obviously, dedicating ourselves to the Sword House is the most honorable path.”

“It’s much better than groveling to people in power.”

They all laughed heartily.

The reason the Sword House didn’t fall apart amidst the chaotic political situation after the family head collapsed was because of people like them.

“So what are your dreams? You don’t want to just keep doing as you’re told, do you?”

Everyone fell silent.

After a moment, one spoke softly.

“…The dream of a warrior is to serve his lord.”

“Our only lord is the Supreme Family Head.”

“I wish the Supreme Family Head would get back on his feet soon.”

“I’d like to directly receive orders from the Supreme Family Head again, not from some pencil-pushing high-ranking officials.”

Their conversation reverted back to the days when the Supreme Family Head was actively leading the clan.

The gatekeeper murmured quietly as he watched them exchange memories in apparent joy.

“…My lord.”

He looked up at the sky.

He remembered a day when he was angry at the riff-raff of the Black Bone Faction, or whatever they were, and disappointed in himself.

‘What do you have to be sorry for? You’ve done your part.’

He felt the swordless man’s words bringing his old memories back to life.

That mountain-like presence.

That unyielding cliff-like existence.

‘Why apologize? You’ve done your best.’

He had only met his lord, the Supreme Family Head, a handful of times.

He was an external warrior, and his lord was the head of the Luoyang Sword House.

Perhaps that’s why their faces seemed to overlap.

* * *

He walked along the forest path of Wongak Pavilion.

His purpose was to deliver some documents, which had piled up and were nothing more than routine communications.

Upon passing through an area where the word ‘bizarre’ wasn’t nearly enough to describe its geography, an ineffably beautiful landscape unfurled before him.

He paused for a moment to relish the fresh air, then resumed his steps. But when he reached the open field, he couldn’t help but doubt his eyes.

“The Sword House’s Secret Sword Technique, Fleeting Shadow Moment…?”

He rubbed his eyes.

However, the view didn’t change when he looked again. The maid who reminded him of his daughter, married off to a faraway place far from Luoyang, was unmistakably there.

Just a few days ago, she had been nothing more than an ordinary person without any internal energy. Yet now, although faint, he could clearly feel the presence of her internal energy.

What’s more, the sword technique she was demonstrating—what was it?

It was unmistakably a top-level martial art that had notoriously defeated many experts of Luoyang’s swordsmen.

“‘That level is certainly not one or two percent, is it?’

Though her experience was severely lacking, the form she displayed was unmistakably near completion.

As he stood there dumbfounded, Jeong-ah, who had finished displaying the form, bowed her head toward him.

“Have you arrived?”

The sight of her black martial outfit, drenched in sweat, was unfamiliar.

“I was under strict orders that once I begin, I should not stop until the end, hence my late greeting.”

“Ah, no. Head maid, since when have you been practicing that martial art?”

“I’m ashamed for dirtying your eyes with my modest skills.”

She hid her sword behind her back, embarrassed.

She hid the sword she was holding behind her back, looking embarrassed.

“…I’ve only been practicing for half a day, so if you could kindly regard it as a mere trick, I would be grateful.”

“…What?”

“Pardon?”

Just then, a voice calling him, along with the sound of footsteps, came from behind.

“Hey, gatekeeper! Stop getting in the way and come work!”

***

“Ah, good timing.”

As always, the insufferable Grand young master did not let go of the book in his hand.

“Uh, young master, I just saw something strange…”

The Grand young master furrowed his brows at him, who still looked bewildered.

“You’re not talking nonsense, are you? I don’t know about other things, but she is likely better at ‘Fleeting Shadow Moment’ than you. Don’t waste your time with unnecessary words.”

“No, but she’s only been practicing for half a day…”

The Grand young master snatched the bundle of documents from his hands.

“That’s not what’s important.”

He then ordered him.

“Go cook some rice.”

***

‘Did I cancel my transfer request just for this?’

‘Just a few days ago, she was a woman without a shred of internal energy…’

‘Half a day?’

Such thoughts wouldn’t leave his mind.

The moment he sat at the table he prepared and took a spoonful of rice, Yeon So-hyeon’s face turned stern.

“…Jung-ah.”

“… Request additional manpower immediately.”

She took the spoon out of her mouth, put it down, and scurried away.

“Gatekeeper, you, really, can’t you even properly cook rice?”

“No, that’s not…”

Yeon So-Hyeon, who never wastes food, forced the food into his mouth and berated him.

“If you’re less accomplished than that child in ‘Fleeting Shadow Moment,’ and you can’t even cook rice, what are you good for?”

Facing the tongue-clicking Grand young master, he had nothing to say and just trembled.

‘…Such a nasty fellow.’

For a while, he endured the scolding and put the food he had made into his mouth,

Only to immediately spit it out.

“……”

Then he slouched again and stared blankly as the Grand young master cleared all the food.

What kind of stomach does this Grand young master have?

In the meantime, a question flashed through his mind.

“…Um, Grand young master.”

“What?”

The Grand young master, whose mouth was full of food that didn’t even taste like food, looked at him with hate-filled eyes.

“A-ah, no, it’s just…”

He cautiously asked.

“Who imparted the technique of ‘Fleeting Shadow Moment’ to that young lady?”

In martial arts, the quality of the student is important, but the quality of the teacher is equally important.

The power of great sects to continuously cultivate excellent disciples stems precisely from there.

“Moreover, she’s only been learning for half a day. What does that even mean?”

He had seen many prodigies until now.

All of his current colleagues have surpassed barriers, and he himself was no less talented than them.

The standard of what is commonly referred to as a prodigy had been far exceeded.

But even for someone like him, who had seen many prodigies, he had never heard of someone completing the form of an advanced martial art in just half a day.

If he hadn’t seen her a few days ago, he would’ve been certain that it was an absurd lie.

“Half a day, you say…”

The gatekeeper’s complexion changed at Yeon So-Hyeon’s words.

Indeed, there was something he did not know.

“I taught her for the first time this morning, so it’s not even half a day yet.”

“…H-half a day.”

Traditionally, experts who had surpassed the ‘wall’ before the age of forty, before the time of ‘Bulheok’ (Age of No Doubt)¹, were referred to as ‘geniuses’.

He, being one of such geniuses, was truly experiencing something beyond this world today.

Upon digesting over Yeon So-Hyeon’s words, he was shocked once again.

“You just said you taught her yourself?!”

To think that the Grand young master called Swordless One had personally taught one of the most intricate martial arts in the realm of swordsmanship.

Moreover, the student completed the form in less than half a day.

“Ah, so noisy.”

Yeon So-Hyeon frowned at his loud voice.

Then, with a firm tone, he said to him.

“Eat all of it. It’s your share.”

“But, that’s…!”

He was about to shout something when he saw Yeon So-Hyeon also take Jung-ah’s share into his mouth and couldn’t say a word.

Having had the experience of eating a snake in the mountains and chewing on tree bark during missions, he managed to eat the food somehow.

Of course, out of all those things, the food he made today was the most tasteless.

After gulping down a cup of cold water, he asked Yeon So-Hyeon again.

“Did Your Grace really personally instruct her?”

Yeon So-Hyeon, who had a sip of carefully brewed bitter tea unlike him, chuckled.

“Why? Do you want to learn from me too?”

“No, before that. Were you highly knowledgeable in martial arts to be able to teach advanced martial arts?”

Yeon So-Hyeon burst out laughing.

“No, who do you think finalized the technique in question to its current form in the first place?”

“Huh?”

Yeon So-Hyeon leaned back in his chair, chuckling.

“A while ago, martial scholars from the Martial Arts Academy gathered to debate which technique was the most complex within the sword arts.”

He took a sip of his tea and continued.

“So, I combined Danchang’s Bunkwanggeom (Point Reed Separating Light Sword), Shaolin’s Lohanchalnasu (Arhat Flashing Hand), and the original Bon-ga’s Sejeolyeye (Fine Cutting Sharpness) to consolidate them.”

“So, I mixed a little bit of ‘Jeomjang’s Bungwanggeom’ (點菅分光僉), Shaolin’s ‘Nahan Chalna-su’ (羅漢刹那手), and ‘Bon-ga’s Sejeolyeye’ (細切銳銳) and organized them.”

He spread out his hands, “Ta-da. The debate over the most complex martial technique ends here.”

“….”

The gatekeeper wanted to say something but couldn’t figure out what to say.

That martial technique, the one many swordsmen had challenged and had to drink the bitter cup of defeat. The technique that made many talents realize their limitations and brought them to despair. Yet, it was also a technique so terrifyingly powerful that it struck fear into the hearts of the enemies of the swordsmanship circle. And all of this originated from the mischief of the young boy before him.

“Weren’t you, Grand young master, supposed to be swordless?“

Even as he asked, his question was so loaded with implications that he himself couldn’t fully grasp its meaning.

“Well…”

Yeon So-Hyeon shrugged.

“It’s certain that I don’t have a sword, at least…”

Seeing Yeon So-Hyeon joke with him, the gatekeeper felt déjà vu.

It wasn’t exactly déjà vu.

The person he had revered and served, his one and only master.

He saw an overlap of that master’s image in his master’s eldest son, the person whom the swordsmanship circle most despised.

“…Life-Stealing Devil Sword.”

That was his old moniker, a name he had buried in the past.

The one who called him by that name was his master’s eldest son.

“You’re still carrying around that toy-like sword, I see.”

Grand young master Yeon So-Hyeon’s gaze was directed toward the sword hanging on the waist of the gatekeeper, or better known; ‘Life-Stealing Devil Sword’.

“”When the time comes that your sword is so deteriorated you can’t unsheathe it for any reason, that will be the moment.”

Grand young master Yeon So-Hyeon, who should have been the minor head of the family of Luoyang Sword House, asked the person who once wielded the most vicious sword in the past of Luoyang Sword House.

“When will you abandon that fake sword?”

1. The term “불혹(不惑)” is a classical Chinese expression that has been widely used in various East Asian cultures, including Korea. It literally translates to “no doubt” or “without confusion,” and it traditionally refers to the age of 40. The expression comes from Confucian thought and is based on the belief that by the time a person reaches 40, they have gained enough life experience and wisdom to no longer be easily led astray by external influences or personal doubts. In other words, it’s the age at which one is supposed to have achieved a level of mental and emotional maturity, stability, and clarity.[↩]

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