A Clan With Roots (9)

Clang! Clang!

The sound of hammering was incomparably clear.

The meeting of iron and iron was always accompanied by sparks. Above the clear sounds ringing out from all directions, the flying sparks looked like starlight.

The smiths, usually so lively, were hammering iron without a word.

The newly made smiths’ site. This place, painstakingly made so they could focus solely on hammering iron, had before long become a base for artisans, filled with faint smoke, quiet order, and a splendid performance.

Standing in the middle of it with his eyes closed, Jin-hyeon heard many sounds.

Starting with the sound of hammers, there was the sound of wind teasing his clothes, the sound of Oh Gyeong joking with Do Il-gang, the sound of Han Cheol-sang lecturing Im Yeo-wol on cooking, and the sound of the two assassins whose names he had not even asked yet checking their weapons…

Among them, the most impressive was Gyeong Hang’s breathing.

A breath incomparably calm. Even at such an advanced age, his breathing was not shallow. Furthermore, even though danger could unfold at any moment, he was peacefully sunk in meditation.

Jin-hyeon opened his eyes.

Right beside him, he saw Gyeong Hang sitting in a soft chair with his eyes closed.

“Are you not cold?”

Gyeong Hang slowly opened his eyes, and a gentle smile rose on his face.

“I am fine. Perhaps because I ate so many things good for the body when I was young, my energy is still quite lively.”

Jin-hyeon approached Gyeong Hang, bent at the waist, and fastened his fur coat.

“Starting tomorrow, it would be best for you to practice the heart method I teach you.”

“Heh heh, they say that the older one grows, the more one should reach into fields one did not know. They say to learn until the day one dies, so how could I neglect martial arts? However…”

Gyeong Hang took Jin-hyeon’s hand.

“This old grandfather, you see, simply wishes to live like others and be buried in the ground.”

Jin-hyeon understood his heart.

He had sent off an inadequate son and a grandson who committed an immoral crime against his family. Though he regarded Jin-hyeon as blood, with only one grandson left who was not truly connected by blood, he likely had no great attachment to life.

The reason he entered this clan and lived busily was all for Jin-hyeon’s sake, not for himself.

Living as long as he ought, then being buried in the earth. Going to see the face of his dead son. Now, only that remained for Gyeong Hang.

“Grandfather.”

“That address is good to hear every time.”

“How do you think I would feel if you lived busily like this and then left just as you are?”

He knew this grandson cared for him, but Jin-hyeon had never revealed such inner feelings before. Gyeong Hang’s eyes trembled slightly in bewilderment.

Jin-hyeon smiled and spoke.

“They say life is a series of losses and a series of resurrections. When the time comes for me to send you off, Grandfather, I will grieve deeply, but I will also keep living hard. That is loss, and that is resurrection.”

“Se-hwi.”

“Your grandson is living this stubbornly, so you should become an example too, Grandfather.”

“…”

“They say a person’s life is decided by how they spend their later years. It is not about other people’s judgment, but whether one can be proud before oneself.”

“…”

“Spend your later years anew. Your life has been filled with success and failure, Grandfather, so would it not be better to finish the end with success, not failure?”

Gyeong Hang was quite pleased by Jin-hyeon’s attitude of speaking of death and later years without hesitation.

To be precise, he liked this grandson who showed such honesty, rather than pointlessly denying things under the pretext of caring for an old man.

So he decided to become honest as well.

“Do you think I wish to give up the rest of my life? But when I think that the son who went before his father must be waiting in the afterlife, I simply have no confidence to live my own life.”

“Patriarch Gyeong In-geol committed unfilial conduct.”

“…”

“Do not let him continue in death the unfilial conduct he committed throughout his life. At the very least, he is someone who can wait well enough until you properly live the life given to you and come to him.”

Tears filled Gyeong Hang’s eyes.

“Do you truly think so?”

“I do.”

Jin-hyeon smiled.

“And, well, do you think he would be waiting alone? Grandmother and Mother, who left before us, must be scolding him fiercely right now.”

“Heh heh.”

“Should he not come to his senses even in the afterlife? Leave that part to Grandmother and Mother, and you can enjoy the rest of your life splendidly, then slip over there and stop them.”

The flowing tears passed down his wrinkled cheeks and reached his chin.

Even so, Gyeong Hang smiled.

“Yes, you are right. I must finish my life properly. To do that, living as hard as I can with all my strength must be the premise.”

“That is so.”

“I will learn martial arts starting tomorrow. However, I will not take you as my teacher. The Patriarch must do the Patriarch’s work. It is enough for you to look in from time to time, so send me someone trustworthy as a teacher.”

Jin-hyeon grinned.

“I accepted only trustworthy people as clan members. If I tell them to look after the Supreme Patriarch’s martial arts, they will all step forward to do it.”

Gyeong Hang burst into hearty laughter.

“Yes, of course you would have known what you were doing when you accepted them.”

“That’s right. They are mouths I will take responsibility for.”

“Right. Be sure to remember that.”

Jin-hyeon slowly rose from his seat and bowed his head.

“My thoughts have not been sorted out until now. You must have felt frustrated, but you truly worked hard.”

“What are you saying all of a sudden?”

“I abandoned the Gyeong name.”

“?”

“But the Gyeong name did not abandon me. I have finally realized that.”

Gyeong Hang’s eyes widened.

When Jin-hyeon raised his head, the smile had disappeared from his face, and before anyone knew it, the dignity befitting the head of an organization rested upon him.

“I, who wandered without roots, will today establish our foundation and create a new root to which all our clan members can return.”

Han Cheol-sang, Oh Gyeong, Im Yeo-wol, Do Il-gang, and the smiths.

All of them heard Jin-hyeon’s words.

“That is why I called everyone to this place. It may become dangerous, but since this is the place where I, as Patriarch, will establish our root, should not the people who will become the foundation of our clan all gather?”

Gyeong Hang felt his chest swell.

“Yes, you thought well. Then how should we call this root you have decided on?”

That was when it happened.

“Patriarch.”

Oh Gyeong spoke as he tapped out his pipe.

“You know, don’t you?”

“I felt it.”

Jin-hyeon approached Ok Jin. Ok Jin smiled as if he had been waiting, handed him an iron sword, then began hammering again.

“I will clean up first.”

Gyeong Hang nodded. He was curious about the identity of the root Jin-hyeon had spoken of, but he had no desire to rush him. He was already greatly satisfied simply because his grandson had set his heart.

When Jin-hyeon stepped forward, Han Cheol-sang approached his side.

More reliable than anyone, the first clan member of this clan.

“When are you going to replace it?”

Han Cheol-sang shook the Soul-Killing Blade.

Jin-hyeon gave a small laugh.

“Ironworks Master Yeo Bang stopped by here not long ago. He has already built a friendship with Master Hammerer Ok too, so he will be making my sword before long.”

“Not your sword, Patriarch. My saber, my saber.”

“Master Hammerer Ok has agreed to make Steward Han’s saber.”

Han Cheol-sang was startled and looked back at Ok Jin. Ok Jin was still hammering with a careful expression.

“So handle that saber carefully so it doesn’t break. We need to return it to Ironworks Master Yeo Bang.”

“A-Ah, understood.”

Seureuk.

Before anyone knew it, the two masked assassins stood behind Jin-hyeon like guards.

Without even turning around, Jin-hyeon asked.

“What are your names?”

The woman from the Western Regions opened her mouth first.

“I am called Geum-baek¹ .”

The Black man spoke after her.

“I am called Geum-muk².”

Jin-hyeon frowned.

“Let us change your names. What kind of names are Geum-baek and Geum-muk?”

Geum-baek spoke calmly.

“We lived lives where names were not important.”

“From now on, you will live lives where they are.”

“Then please give us names, Patriarch.”

“I will. After we finish today’s business.”

Sasak. Sasasak.

From far away came the sound of the brush moving.

A moment later, Sang-eon and the Lotus Seven Swords, guided by the White Tiger Unit, revealed themselves.

Huk.

An inexplicable tension began to rule the area.

Im Yeo-wol’s eyes hardened, and Do Il-gang’s hand gripping his sword case turned white.

But surprisingly, aside from them, no one showed any sign of tension. The smiths hammered iron, Oh Gyeong merely yawned, and Han Cheol-sang was cold. Gyeong Hang was also unmoved.

Sang-eon’s eyes narrowed.

‘Look at these bastards.’

Could they possibly have been waiting?

“Unit Leader Heo.”

“Please speak.”

“Are those the ones?”

“They are.”

“No matter how I look at it, it seems they were waiting for us.”

“I brought you here knowing they had gathered in this place. If they were waiting for us, would they really have called only those forces?”

At those words, Sang-eon nodded. No matter how he looked, there were not many people who had trained in martial arts.

The question was how remarkable their skills were.

Sang-eon stepped forward and asked.

“I am Sang-eon, Fifth Elder of the Great Hengshan Sect.”

A strong pressure lay in his heavy voice.

An elder of a great sect, one of the Nine Sects, rooted in Hengshan, the Southern Sacred Mountain, had appeared. For anyone living in Murim, no, in the lands of the Central Plains, it was a name before which they ought to turn pale and bow their heads.

However.

“I am Jin-hyeon.”

Jin-hyeon, with an iron sword at his belt, even had his arms crossed.

“What are you expecting to mooch off us, coming all the way here?”

In that instant, Sang-eon’s face twisted sharply.

It was a tone no one could easily hear and let pass, no matter who it was directed at. Moreover, the other party was a young man in his twenties. If not for his white hair, he looked young enough that one might believe he had only just reached adulthood.

And such a fellow was speaking like that to an elder of the Hengshan Sect.

“You wretch!”

The one who stepped forward before Sang-eon was Yeon-il, leader of the Lotus Seven Swords.

“How dare you hold your head high before someone like him! Will you not kneel at once and bow your head first!”

“What are you?”

“What?”

“What great position do you have besides belonging to the Hengshan Sect that we should kneel? Do you even have an official post?”

In that instant, Yeon-il lost his words. Naturally, they had no official post within the Heavenly Will Alliance.

But were they not one of the Nine Sects? If they were members of a sect belonging to the de facto alliance that ruled all under heaven, then of course others ought to bow their heads.

“Even if you did have an official post, your side should still show courtesy. Only then would our side greet you with a smile. Is that not so?”

“Y-You bastard!”

“You have all eaten so many years, yet you failed to learn what even a seven-year-old child knows? Just what kinds of lives have you lived?”

“Shut your mouth!”

The moment Yeon-il, who had lost control, placed his hand on his sword.

“Enough.”

Sang-eon stepped forward.

“You are that bastard called Jin-hyeon?”

Jin-hyeon gave a small laugh.

“It seems I’ve really become famous. Every dog and cow is bringing up my name.”

Having been made either a dog or a cow, Sang-eon’s face flushed bright red.

“You bastard! Cut off one of your arms right now! Then at least you will be transported to the central headquarters still alive!”

“The reason?”

“Will you not shut your mouth! This is an official order of the Heavenly Will Alliance! No reason is needed!”

“If we keep babbling, it seems this pathetic conversation will only continue.”

Seureureung.

Jin-hyeon drew the iron sword.

“Cut off one ankle. I’ll let this end with crippling you.”

In the end, Sang-eon’s terribly shallow patience exploded.

“Make that bastard kneel before me!”

Pababak!

All of the Lotus Seven Swords launched themselves forward.

In that instant, Oh Gyeong’s hand moved like lightning.

Seogeok!