268 — Sword Ghost (3)

“My parent, my teacher, and the only family I had: Ji Han-seong.”
“……”
“It means I’ve arrived where he resides.”
“……”

<Sword Ghost> So Hang-woo.
And <Ice-Cold Snow Woman> Cheon Mira.

They were undoubtedly in a moment,
Keeping a silence as if it were an eternity.

In the meantime, Cheon Mira lowered her gaze.
She looked at the sword held in the Sword Ghost’s hand.

Within the blade’s surface, so transparent it casually reflected her face under the full moon.
No matter if years, decades, or centuries passed, the same face always appeared.

‘…’

Cheon Mira thought, “A familiar sword…”
No—to be frank.
Except for one blade, every weapon was familiar to her.

They had been precious, reliable, beloved,
Belonging to the man whose feelings she never managed to convey.
They were the weapons Ji Han-seong used.

Cheon Mira looked up at the Sword Ghost again.
Seeing him standing like a petrified husband-stone,
She felt a slight pang of pity…
And at the same time found it ridiculous.

In the end, she snorted and broke the silence with a laugh.
She spoke lightly, as if looking at a cute younger brother.

“…Are you going to call him the best in the world too?”
“If I had to say it, that term would fit. And as a martial man, I admit I covet that rank.”
“…The best of all ages?”
“Perhaps.”
“How childish… why do men stake their lives on such things…”
“Han-seong hyung didn’t insist on being SSS-rank; he wanted to be state authority. I grew up seeing that, so I suppose I resemble him.”

At the Sword Ghost’s jest, Cheon Mira gave a bitter smile.
Then she chewed over his words again.
Truly a statement bordering on madness.
Yet she thought it was an undeniable truth.

‘…The best in the world…’

She vaguely guessed.
If he were sincere…
They wouldn’t be having this back-and-forth like exchanging jokes now.

At minimum, one limb.
No, perhaps…

‘He might be dead…’

Yes, the odds were probably that.

Cheon Mira, staring blankly at the Sword Ghost,
Asked softly.

“You said you were carrying on his will earlier. Do you still miss Han-seong hyung?”
“……”

Those words suddenly brought memories of the past to Cheon Mira.
A distant, distant past.
Thinking of memories of tagging along with his childish antics made her face flush.

She closed her eyes briefly.
She saw her past self, unchanged from now.
An immature, foolish girl who couldn’t even properly recognize her own feelings.

And the black-haired youth who teased her to make her angry,
who was always cheerfully smiling.

When she got angry, the youth would smile awkwardly and slyly offer his hand.
Cheon Mira would look at that hand, hide her embarrassment inwardly, and place her hand on it.

Fluffy memories rose.
Cheon Mira smiled bitterly.
Then she answered as if to rebut.

“…You’re the one to talk. You four, who gathered his weapons like catching mice and hung them around, are you the ones to say that?”
“It wasn’t that I collected them because they were his. I simply hated unqualified bastards laying hands on them.”
“Do you have the qualification?”
“I do.”

The Sword Ghost drew an extra-large greatsword marked with the number ‘4.’
Uniquely, like a weapon case,
it was a greatsword with a retractable storage mechanism.

Most of the blades automatically slid into it.
The blade extended, producing a strange noise.

“Nine years old.”

From the time he knew nothing,
Growing up with his brother’s help and learning the sword.

A companion who walked alongside him,
and, if he were like a child to him…

“Then such a person is qualified.”
“…Would such a bastard walk the path of slaughter?”
“Apart from my respect for Han-seong hyung, he and I are different.”

Hyung was too gentle.
He had such power, yet he was too kind-hearted.

“All I desire is the power my brother had. Not that childish, meddling mindset of wanting everyone to be happy together.”

“……”

Cheon Mira sighed.

In her eyes appeared a boy who hadn’t even reached his second growth,
young, timid, and wearing an innocent smile,
a white-haired boy overlapped in her vision.

Cheon Mira was certain.
Surely, that fragile, weak child…
would twist like this,
even Ji Han-seong himself probably didn’t know it would happen.

“Do you still chase his illusion?”
“……”
“Hang-woo. Han-seong is dead. Though it was an unidentified illness, he died having lived his natural life—”
“—I don’t know about other things, but let me say this.”
“…?”
“It’s not over.”
“…What?”
“Han-seong hyung died on purpose. For the world’s restraint.”

The Sword Ghost spoke nonsense hardly comprehensible.
But the Sword Ghost’s eyes were earnest.
Suddenly he looked up at the sky.

“Han-seong hyung was chosen for this world, died for this world, and became a god for this world.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“Han-seong hyung will never die.”

The Sword Ghost stared into the piercingly cold moonlight.

“Beyond the stars in that sky. At the edge of the celestial world, the path of the supreme. He is there. Watching us from there.”

I, who received his teachings,
Will reach the place where he is by any means necessary.

It may be me,
or a successor who inherits my will.

A subtle yet certain madness.
Cheon Mira took a step back.

“You’re mad.”
“How can one become strong without going mad?”

With those words, the two of them
clashed again.

Relentless exchanges of attack and defense.
Once again it was Cheon Mira attacking relentlessly and the Sword Ghost silently defending.

It was then.
Cheon Mira spoke softly with sad eyes.

“You don’t have to use Han-seong as an excuse. I roughly know why you twisted like this.”

The Sword Ghost stared at her blankly as if to say, ‘Say it.’

“The <Gyeongbokgung Massacre Incident>. The tragedy when you, Hang-woo, strategically went full villain.”
“……”
“The man who was the master you killed in that incident.”

A young leader of the <Cheonil> clan, Ahn Ji-hwan.

“I know well that that bastard was the one who killed your biological daughter.”

Cheon Mira’s words continued.
Like a parent telling a picture book to a child.

“Cheonil is a survival-of-the-fittest clan that judges everything purely by skill. At that time, there were two candidates for clan master: a man and a woman.”

One was Ahn Ji-hwan.
And the other,
So Hyang-rim.

As you can tell by the name,
She was the only blood relative and daughter from So Hang-woo’s days before he was called the Sword Ghost.

The public believed Ahn Ji-hwan ascended without issue, but the truth was different.

“They decided the outcome by a friendly match… during which Ahn Ji-hwan, his eyes on the position, cowardly killed Hyang-rim. Even though she had clearly surrendered first.”
“……”

Cheon Mira took a breath.
Immediately, the derivative skill of [Snow Ice Divine Arts],
[Supreme Heavenly Ice] struck the Sword Ghost’s body precisely.

The Sword Ghost’s lower body froze and couldn’t move.
Cheon Mira, with a pitying look, placed her hand on his face.

“So you planned revenge. You even disguised yourself as a slime, waited for the moment, and killed him, didn’t you?”
“……”
“I’ve heard news. Moon Ha-yeon; lately you’ve been hanging out with that kid.”

The eldest daughter of the <Moon family>,
known in the world as the <Evil Blood Witch>.

To Cheon Mira,
she is the elder sister of her disciple, Moon Bora.

And…

The previous head of the <Mun family> and the biological father of the two.
He was the subject of Moon Eui-jun’s biological experiments.

“Investigating the Mun family revealed what an atrocious villain he was.”

Habitual abuse.
Unspeakable biological experiments and forced talent awakening.

All this came about because Moon Eui-jun’s father,
who was Moon Bora’s grandfather, triggered the tragedy when he died.

With no one to stop them, the cruel natures they’d been holding back exploded.
A villain who saw even his own daughters merely as test subjects.

Moreover, among themselves,
the mother figure had similar tendencies.

To the couple, the sisters Moon Ha-yeon and Moon Bora
were seen only as wombs to produce talent for the Mun family.

And naturally, the one who suffered the most oppression and experiments was the eldest daughter rather than the second.

“I heard you helped Moon Ha-yeon when she was on the run. Wasn’t it because you saw the dead daughter, Hyang-rim, in her?”
“……”
“You felt pity, so you kept taking care of her. But Hang-woo, that’s wrong. Fatherly love isn’t solved that way.”

If you truly cared for that child,
you should have forced her to step away from this matter.
You should have stopped that child’s hatred.

“It’s already too late for you, but that child might still be able to repent. So…”
“Sister, wait a moment…”

Suddenly, at that moment.

Silently…
Quietly…
Softly…

As if affirming Cheon Mira’s words,
the Sword Ghost, who had been silent, raised his hand.

He then chuckled.
A look as if he found it ridiculous.
Soon he twisted the corner of his mouth.
As if he couldn’t listen any longer, he said.

“I thought of our past ties and tried to listen to the end, but I’m sorry. I can’t anymore. Sister, what the hell have you been saying from earlier?”

“…What?”