Chapter 25

I looked out the window. The moon was unusually bright tonight, so I gathered up my bedding then and there and left the room.

“Boss. Sleep well.”
“Sleeping outside again?”
“The moon’s bright, is all.”
“Keep that up and your mouth’ll go crooked. The air’s still cold.”¹
“A murim warrior knows nothing of such things.”
“…Suit yourself.”

Carrying on like that, he’ll catch cold. I threw a glance at the boss as he grumbled his way off to bed, and went outside.

I tipped my head back and looked up at the eaves along the roofline, worked in an old-fashioned pattern. About three meters. I gathered internal qi into the tips of my toes and leapt.

— Tak!

— Fwap-ap-ap!

The Divine Cascade Step unfolded, and in an instant I found myself standing on the roof. Seen from up here, the night had a good deal of charm to it.

“Mm. The night air is fine.”

For no reason at all I clasped my hands behind my back and murmured it like a line of verse. It really did make me feel as though I’d become a murim warrior.

I watched the moon a while, then spread my bedding where the moonlight fell best and sat down. Fingering the earring, I went back over the three powers Ishtar had left me.

Blessing of Moonlight, Sleep of Non-Action, Tetrahedron Explosion.

The ring charges by absorbing sunlight and moonlight. Of the three, Blessing of Moonlight was the one that sent the charging speed through the roof while it was drinking in moonlight. So on a bright-moon night like this one, there was no chance of me staying indoors. Sleep deep, wake up, and the battery would be full.

The charge crawled so slowly that I’d been rationing it every single day and still running on fumes, so this was the passive skill I needed most. With it I’d be able to practice the various laser abilities far more often.

And there was one set menu whose pairing with it was out of this world.

That would be Sleep of Non-Action.

Sleep of Non-Action made real the auto-hunting I had always yearned for, running qi circulation while I slept. Trigger the ability and drop off, and the qi circulation runs on its own the whole time you’re under. Of course, the speed is nothing next to sitting up awake and doing it properly. But I spend a long time asleep, so it was a tidy little ability all the same. Most of all, I liked that I could train even while sleeping. With it I’d catch up in no time, and the dream of becoming an internal-arts master wasn’t far off.

This right here is high-technology qi circulation, is what I’m saying.

It does eat a bar of battery per use, but thanks to Blessing of Moonlight that’s manageable.

I closed my eyes quietly and contemplated what lay within. Absorbing the elixir I’d been given as the reward for completing the mission had swelled the internal energy in my dantian, but all it really did was bring on thirst. One pass of a watering can over a vast plain of earth.

Not enough. More! Give me more! More internal energy! My precious!

The ruins, metal monsters nobody can name, a dream and a curse, a fate that has to be completed, the constellations, lost memories, the Imperial Army keeping secrets, a Demonic Cult with its eye on me….

Ishtar had said that temptations and crises beyond counting would come rolling in like waves. I need the strength to overcome all of it and tear the secrets open.

Strength that will never kneel to temptation or threat!

I looked up at the night sky. Countless stars glittered in the empty cosmos.

“And so — this is for your sake.”

I shut my eyes gently and laid myself down on the roof. Feeling Sleep of Non-Action take hold, I drifted slowly off to sleep.

Perhaps because the moonlight was warm,

the night air wasn’t so very chilly after all.

“The Dragon and Phoenix Conference is not far off.”
“We’ll soon have to choose which of the rising generation represents the Moyong Family.”
“By what method?”
“Isn’t it obvious? We hold a representative selection match.”
“Just so. We must pick the child who will make the Moyong name shine, and pick fairly and openly.”
“This time, without fail, we have to break the pride of those insufferable Namgung Family bastards!”

The elders and the family head were in the midst of a weighty council. In a council this weighty, tempers were bound to run hot.

“Last time was such a shame.”
“That’s what I say. It came down to a hair.”
“A Moyong sword came within a breath of felling the Azure Dragon Sword, who is called the finest hero in the gangho in name and in fact! Even now, thinking of it is a shame.”
“Moyong Bi may have an eccentric streak, but there’s no question he’s a prodigy the like of which is hard to find under heaven.”
“But he can never become family head, so….”
“Hush! Mind your tongue.”
“Hem, hem.”

Checked by the family head Moyong Jin-seong, the elder gave a dry cough. With a gloomy subject in the air, the mood sank a little.

Another elder opened a fresh topic, as if to air the room out. She was a heroine by the name of Moyong Yeon-hwa, comparatively young for an elder.

“Who will it be?”
“It’ll be Moyong Pae-cheon or Moyong Gun-ak, I’d think.”
“Cheon-bung is no less than they are.”
“It’ll come from one of the three, I’d say. This is their last chance.”
“Isn’t there Rin as well?”
“Rin is too young. Her talent is certainly no less than Moyong Bi’s, but she’ll have to aim for the next one.”
“Judging by this last mission alone, I’d say there’s a chance? Didn’t they bring back the heads of the One-Eyed Dragon and the Smiling Ghost, no less? And on top of that they subdued the Ear Rat and brought it back alive.”
“You’re not wrong. It was excellent indeed, but they had the help of the Cold Moon Wanderer and the Iron-Blood General, did they not.”
“Among the lower generation, at least, Danho looks the promising one.”
“I heard he took a serious wound on this mission?”
“They say he’ll be right again soon. Danho’s a sturdy one, after all.”
“That’s the best news I’ve heard in a while.”

They went down the list of candidates one by one, and soon sighed as one.

“If only our Gwang-seon had come to us five years earlier….”
“The Azure Dragon Sword is renowned as a rare talent who comes once in ten years. But our Gwang-seon is a genius who comes once in a hundred — no, once in a thousand years!”
“Who doesn’t know that.”
“A talent granted by heaven, but far too green.”
“Nothing to be done. We can only aim for the next one.”
“Still, if he goes and observes this Dragon and Phoenix Conference, he’ll learn no small amount.”
“At the next Dragon and Phoenix Conference, Rin and Gwang-seon will sweep the field.”

So they said, consoling themselves as best they could.

“By the by — has our Gwang-seon grown close with the children?”
“Well now. I hear he’s grown a little closer. But he still seems to be on the outside of things.”
“Mmm. It’s no easy thing for a child who has lived his whole life an outsider to melt into a family.”

Moyong Yeon-hwa put forward a clever idea.

“How would this be?”
“Mm?”
“We hold exchange matches with another sect or family. If they all become of one mind and pull together with a heave-ho, won’t the walls in their hearts come down? You know how people band tightly together when there’s an enemy from outside in front of them. And with the Dragon and Phoenix Conference ahead of us, it doubles as a check on their form.”

Moyong Yeon-hwa’s clever idea had them all clapping their hands in delight.

“Ooh!”
“That’s a good one.”
“The young do think quickly, don’t they.”
“Heh heh. You flatter me.”

Once a rough conclusion had been reached, the family head Moyong Jin-seong drew the council to a close.

“Very well. I shall convene the Northern Heaven Society. It’s about time we met in any case.”

Moyong Jin-seong wrote out the letters at once, each carrying his wish for a meeting, and sent the carrier pigeons off. He watched the beat of their wings past the window and smiled, satisfied.

“The moon is bright tonight, of all nights.”

There had been a time when he dreamed that Moyong Bi would lead the Moyong Family. That dream had been shattered by a piece of grievous news no one had foreseen. At the time he had thought the heavens were caving in.

It’s all right, though. A new hope is rising now.

His gaze turned naturally toward the house where Gwang-seon was staying.

“Mm?”

For an instant Moyong Jin-seong doubted his own eyes.

Some intruder was lying in a sprawling, insolent posture right on the roof of the residence where our Gwang-seon was staying!

His eyes flew wide, and rage sent the blood rushing to his head.

The audacity! In whose presence do you think you are!

— Tak!

Moyong Jin-seong hurled himself straight out of the window. An ethereal movement art at its extreme trod on empty air and crossed the night sky as though in flight. In that brief span every kind of thought tore through his head.

A spy sent by another sect? What in the world are the guards doing?

Landing without a sound, Moyong Jin-seong leveled a fingertip at the intruder at once.

Meaning to strike him dead on the spot if it came to it.

But then he made out the intruder’s identity, and his eyes went wide.

“…Gwang-seon?”

He blinked. Then he gazed down blankly at Moyong Gwang-seon, who had hauled his bedding up and gone to sleep on the roof.

“Now really, why should the boy sleep on the roof with a perfectly good house right there?”
“Khhhh….”

Moyong Jin-seong looked at the sight a moment longer, let out a small sigh, and shook his head.

“…They do say every genius is an oddball.”

“Red Persimmon and Egg!”

I shot upright, and at some point the sun had begun crawling up the eastern sky.

“Aah, what a color.”

I watched the red-stained eastern sky a while, then folded my legs and began to meditate. I sank slowly downward and looked in on what lay inside.

Mm.

I’d banked a considerable amount of internal energy while I slept. Enough to leave me full without breakfast.

Having taken stock of the previous night’s yield, I tapped the ring to check what was left in the battery.

A bar and a half. Better than I expected.

A satisfied smile settled at the corner of my mouth. The moonlight must have been good and bright last night.

I try to keep a bar of battery in reserve at all times, for self-defense. You never know what’ll happen. And with half a bar of slack on top of that, it’s just right.

Today’s the day.

I took the triangular metal fragments out of my pocket. I’d handed over a fair amount when I reported the mission, but that was what Danho and Moyong Rin had looted. What I’d looted, I’d kept separate.

I brought the corners of the triangles close to each other, and clack— they clung together like magnets.

Carry a whole clump of them around in a pocket and they never stick to each other. Same when anyone else tries it. They join only when I join them like this, with a precise intention. What the principle is, I don’t really know myself.

In any case, I joined edge to edge and made a tetrahedron.

“There.”

That’s the preparations done. Half a bar of battery, and the tetrahedron on top. Everything I needed to use the third ability the earring had granted me was in place.

As I sat there playing with the tetrahedron,

I felt a presence behind me.

Who’s there?

I turned around, and there it was. The puppy-sized big-eared rat we’d brought back from the Phoenix Mountain ruins. The Ear Rat. Which is to say, a monster! A terrifying metal monster!

“…!”

I startled violently and shot to my feet.

“Wh-what the hell?”

How is that thing here? Don’t tell me it escaped?

Don’t panic, Gwang-seon.

I brought my agitation down and glared at it, ready to draw the sword the instant I needed to.

I can’t cut it, but I can beat it. Surely the sword won’t break in a stroke or two.

There was no telling how many times the old researcher had beaten it; the thing was in tatters. In places the camouflage had peeled away and left the metal skin plainly on show. It was like looking at an animal gone patchy with hunger.

I swung the sword in a wide arc and threatened it.

“G-Get back! Shoo!”

— S-Squeak!

Maybe it was all the beating the old researcher had given it,

but the thing was plainly afraid. Which at least told me for certain it hadn’t done the old researcher any harm.

Trembling as it was, though, it didn’t run; it circled around me.

What’s it doing?

It hadn’t come looking for me out of revenge. Nothing that looked so pathetic could be after revenge.

Watching it closely, I happened to follow where its eyes were pointed. It was staring a hole through my hand. My hand, or rather the metal fragment in it.

“This?”

— Squeak!

Apparently so. I remembered the metal fragments that came pattering down every time the old researcher struck it. Curious, I tossed it one.

“Here.”

It watched my face as it edged carefully closer, snatched the fragment up in its teeth, and darted back. I waited to see what it would do, and it gnawed the fragment down in no time, like a bit of cheese.

That rock-hard scrap of meteoric iron, mind you!

And then a patch of the skin, bare and ragged as though it had been torn away, knitted itself back together.

“What the….”

I could guess how it had escaped, too. It must have gotten hold of the fragments that had fallen off its own body, eaten them, regrown the teeth or claws that had been pulled, and bitten through the leash.

Being fed seemed to have taken the edge off its wariness a little; it came slowly closer, its big ears twitching. As I watched it, a certain possibility occurred to me.

Could I tame it?

If it were possible,

I thought I might get a little closer to the ruins’ secret. And to the business of my memories along with it.

I fished out a metal fragment and held it out. It crept nearer bit by bit, ears swiveling as it eyed the fragment.

“That’s it. That’s the way.”

And just as it was getting closer and closer,

the sound of something like a cane thumping at the roof spoiled the whole thing.

— Gwang-seon! You alive up there?

It was the boss.

The mini Ear Rat startled violently and fled at a tremendous speed. I watched it go, blankly.

“How is it that quick?”

How on earth did General Hwa Mu-hong catch a thing like that. Given it was in one piece when I first saw it, I’d guess he just grabbed it barehanded.

Anyway, that’s a shame. I’d almost pulled it off.

“…Tch. Shame.”

— Has the brat’s mouth gone crooked so he can’t talk? Why no answer? Shall I make breakfast this morning?

“Don’t touch the wok. That’s your last warning.”

I scrambled down off the roof.

A solid breakfast eaten,

and after swinging swords lovingly at my martial arts teacher Moyong Bi and romping about to my heart’s content,

I washed, changed my clothes, and headed for my second martial arts teacher.

“Yong-rin!”

I climbed up onto the wall and offered a fond greeting, and my teacher welcomed me warmly by leveling a sword-point full of sunlight at me.

“What. What is it now.”

Moyong Rin stood there breathing hard, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. She must have been swinging her sword.

“Good morning.”

She glared daggers at me.

“Good morning my ass. Is the gate decoration? Why do you keep coming over the wall when there’s a perfectly good gate? You want to die?”
“Huh. Wasn’t wall-hopping a Moyong Family tradition?”
“Tradition, bullshit.”

Moyong Rin’s mouth was getting coarser by the day. There must be a bad influence somewhere around her. She really ought to keep away from a person like that.

“What are you doing?”
“Can’t you tell by looking? I’m training.”

She answered mid-swing. The paths her blade carved as she spun were beautiful.

I propped my chin on my hand and said,

“You seem suddenly hard at it.”
“Because the Dragon and Phoenix Conference is right around the corner. I am going to break those wicked Namgung Family bastards, take the championship in my hands, and have Father acknowledge me.”

I stretched out at a slant on the wall where the tree’s shade fell and watched quietly as she swung her sword, sweat beading off her.

Moyong Rin is young. I’d heard she’s the same age as me, so she isn’t even twenty yet. The direct-line descendants a rung above her are getting on into their mid-twenties; along with Moyong Rin, those are the ones who are now my big brothers and sisters. The Dragon and Phoenix Conference is a competition where the rising generation, around twenty years old, show off their skill, so for them this is the last chance.

Their martial skill is outstanding too, by all accounts. The three of them cleared five Grade A missions in seven days and nights, no less. If it hadn’t been for us, the championship would surely have gone to them.

“You’re serious? You’re going to knock the big brothers and sisters flat and go to the Dragon and Phoenix Conference?”

Moyong Rin said, without so much as a glance at me,

“If you’re going to get in the way, go. I don’t have time to chat with you.”

I watched her a while as she whipped through the forms of the Sword of Heaven and Earth, Sun and Moon one after another. Each linked into the next smoothly, without a break.

“Hm.”

She did look serious about it.

“Yong-rin.”
“What.”
“Do you have anything pretty to wear?”
“What?”

She stopped mid-swing and looked at me.

So now she looks at me.

“I have some, sure… why?”
“Let’s go on an outing.”
“An outing?”

I said, rolling the tetrahedron over my palm,

“Yep. An outing.”