Chapter 31

The instant I ducked, a scorching heat swept over my head.

“My hair!”

Moyong Rin stood there on the verge of tears, singed by the flames from the look of her. Still, if she had the presence of mind to worry about her hair, she’d come through it unhurt.

“Is now really the time to worry about your hair?”

Luckily, not one of the kids had taken the fire head-on.

Truly the Moyong Family, holders of the top seat (the real one) among the Five Great Families of the great orthodox sects? Their movements were remarkably quick, and not one of them had failed to react to something like that. The talk of them starting martial arts at five years old was no lie after all.

“You beast!”

Enraged by the surprise arson, Moyong Pae-cheon raised his sword and charged, meaning to give it no opening to spit fire a second time. Moyong Gun-ak and Moyong Cheon-bung went in beside him like shadows, fitting together so perfectly they might have trained side by side for years.

“Spread out!”

While Moyong Pae-cheon dealt with its head, the rest fanned out like wings and closed on the Firespit Lizard from both flanks, exactly as they had agreed beforehand.

Impressive.

They had drilled it any number of times, sure, but the real thing is another matter. Frightened as they were, they trusted Moyong Pae-cheon at the head of them and moved without a thread out of place.

Just then, the Firespit Lizard swung that mace of a tail.

— Whoooosh!

The sound of air being ripped apart was chilling.

— Crack!

Every bamboo stalk within its reach was swept away in a single stroke. Take a hit from that and there’d be no bones left to gather up.

“Dodge!”

The kids either sprang high or dropped low to slip it, then flung themselves at the Firespit Lizard as one.

“Hyaaaah!”
“Die!”

— Cla-clang!

But there was no sound of blades biting into flesh. However tough-skinned a beast is, there ought to be a whump; what came back was a clang. Which meant the blades had never bitten in at all. They had glanced off.

“What?”
“Swords don’t work on it at all?”

Hearing that blades don’t sink into monsters is one thing; running into it yourself is another. The kids stared wide-eyed at the thing’s metal-hard hide. They still didn’t know what a monster really was. Not that I could talk. Until not long ago I was the same.

— Cla-clang! Clang!

No matter how they attacked, it was useless. Not a point of damage was going in. The Firespit Lizard knew it perfectly well and took its ease, swinging its tail whoosh, whoosh, the way you’d shoo off a swarm of pestering gnats.

At this rate we can’t take it.

I sheathed the Pork-Slicing Demon-Cleaving Saber for the moment and studied it carefully.

Is there something like a weak point?

That was when it happened.

Kwaang— the Firespit Lizard let out a howl.

Moyong Pae-cheon’s sword was buried in the joint between its foreleg and its body.

How did that not glance off?

He shouted.

“Aim for the gaps!”

Gaps?

“Look closely and there are gaps between the scales! Aim for those!”

He was right, sure enough. There were openings there that would never have shown on an ordinary animal, most of all along the seams at its joints, and every time it moved I could watch them widen.

The limits of a machine lifeform, then.

Once I knew, I could see it. Here and there the movement ran faintly awkward for something supposedly alive. Seems even they aren’t perfect.

So this is what’s behind that sense of wrongness.

But spotting a weak point and driving a sword into it were two very different matters. The gaps were desperately narrow, opening and vanishing again over and over as the thing moved. Above all, it wasn’t going to stand still and take it.

“It’s coming!”
“Dodge!”

— Whooosh!

Moyong Pae-cheon’s blow in particular must have hurt it a fair bit, because it kept its guard up, swinging that tail wildly about with a whirr.

“For something that size it makes an awful fuss.”
“My point exactly.”

Moyong Pae-cheon and the other two of my big brothers and sisters could do no more than keep it from spitting fire. Nobody had a sharp answer to the situation.

Just then, Moyong Rin gave me a couple of nudges with her elbow.

“Hey.”
“Hm?”
“I’ll draw its attention. You do something.”

Do something, she says. Words of the most irresponsible kind, and yet I could feel the trust buried inside them: the belief that if it were me, I’d find a way to do something. Well then, I could hardly betray that belief, could I.

“Okay.”

The moment I nodded, Moyong Rin shot out ahead.

— Whooosh!

That mace of a tail came swinging, but she unfolded the Butterfly Step, low to the ground and sliding, slipped it lightly and bored her way inside.

No fear in her at all.

Take a hit and her head would burst like a watermelon. To dodge it that close, though.

Her thrust came next, quick as a shaft of light, straight into the seam of its hind leg.

— Crack!

— Kwaaang!

The tail went for the spot she had been standing in, but she was no longer there. She had sprung up and mounted the Firespit Lizard’s back.

“Whoa.”

The whole thing was as natural and as beautiful as a butterfly settling lightly onto a flower, enough to draw admiration out of me even in a spot as perilous as this. The watching kids were astonished at the acrobatics.

“Holy shit.”
“Rin, of course.”

The rest of them had their hands full just dodging the tail, and she had not only bored inside and stabbed a gap but climbed on top of the thing as well? Watching her carry off something that difficult as though it were nothing, I could see all over again that she isn’t called a genius for nothing.

— Thunk!

Up on the Firespit Lizard’s back, Moyong Rin drove her sword hard into it. She had, quite literally, floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee.

— Kwaaang!

The Firespit Lizard went berserk trying to shake her off. She kept her balance up there somehow and stabbed away at its back from every angle.

Now.

I have to do something. I’d sooner die than have Moyong Rin look at me with disappointment.

“I can’t hold on long!”

Listening to her shout, I watched the raging Firespit Lizard with cold eyes and thought about the most effective attack I was capable of.

As I am now, with neither the laser nor chivalry to hand, I can’t land a powerful attack.

That was the reality of it. With the skill of somebody who had only just taken up martial arts, it wasn’t remotely possible. Never mind the big brothers and sisters; even Moyong Rin’s martial arts were far stronger than mine.

In that case, what is the most effective attack I can land?

Striking the weak point. The most fatal weak point of all.

How do I strike it?

I tilted the Pork-Slicing Demon-Cleaving Saber in my hand this way and that.

A cut? No, a thrust. A cut can’t aim for a gap.

A plane, narrowed to a line. A line, narrowed further, to a point.

If I aim at a single point. Where would give me the greatest effect?

All at once I caught sight of its eye, flashing with red light.

That’s it. The eye.

The softest part of all. The eye is the weak point of every living thing, and a machine lifeform imitating a beast would be no different.

Slowly, I took the opening stance of the Sword of Flashing Light and Parting Clouds. Standing side-on, I raised the Pork-Slicing Demon-Cleaving Saber to eye height, both hands tight on the hilt, the point aimed at the thrashing Firespit Lizard. It felt like looking at a bowstring drawn taut. My body the bow, my sword the arrow.

“Hooo….”

I let out a small breath. And then, the instant the tremor at the sword’s point stopped entirely.

— Tak!

I kicked off the ground with everything I had and shot forward. The Divine Cascade Step, raised to its utmost, carried me in front of the Firespit Lizard in a heartbeat.

The instant I made to drive the point into its eye, it whipped its head aside.

Damn.

My stroke was twisted out of true. But it’s all right. What I stole was not only the Sword of Flashing Light and Parting Clouds.

— Thud!

I brought my back foot forward and drove down a stamping step with all the strength in me.

— Krrk!

The sudden change of direction felt like it would take my ankle off, but I ground my back teeth together. I poured in every scrap of internal energy I had and folded in the softness of the Sword of Heaven and Earth, Sun and Moon. Twisting my body, I wrenched the whole direction of the force around by main strength. All the power that had been driving straight ahead loaded itself onto the sword’s point.

The thrust of the Sword of Flashing Light and Parting Clouds rode the softness of the Sword of Heaven and Earth, Sun and Moon and buried itself in its eye.

— Crack!

The sensation of something breaking came through my fingertips, sharp and clear.

Got it.

At the same time, unable to master the momentum of a lightness art unfolded at full strength, I went tumbling crash-bang into the bamboo. The price of a sudden change of direction. Nothing to do but take it and be glad.

— Kyaoooo!

The fury in that cry told me exactly what I’d done. I scrambled up in a hurry and looked over the state of the fight. The Firespit Lizard, thoroughly enraged, was opening its jaws wide, the frill spread out full, sparks flying.

“Everyone behind me!”

— Fwoooosh!

Moyong Pae-cheon brought his sword straight down through the pouring flames. From high to low.

And then came a remarkable sight. Something pale flew out, cleaving the flames apart, and struck the thing square in the head.

— BANG!

— Kuaaak!

It must have landed, because the thing spat out a cry of pain, wheeled around and fled at tremendous speed.

“After it! We can’t let it get away!”
“Big Bro Pae-cheon!”

Moyong Pae-cheon was already moving to give chase when Moyong Gun-ak checked him. He looked his elder straight in the eye and spoke in a cool, level voice.

“We don’t have the strength left to chase it now. Even if we catch it, it’s dangerous. We could be the ones taken down instead.”

Moyong Pae-cheon looked around at the kids, then let out a long breath and let the heat go out of him. The daylight was going.

“…I got carried away.”

He admitted it readily and went on.

“There’ll be other days. It’s late. We rest today and pick up the trail again tomorrow.”

Then he came trudging over to me and held out a hand.

“Are you all right?”
“Nnngh. Probably.”
“Get up.”

I took his hand and got to my feet.

“That was something. To think you’d run its eye through. Was that last part the Sword of Heaven and Earth, Sun and Moon? Unless I’m mistaken, it looked as though you converted a form of the Sword of Flashing Light and Parting Clouds into the Sword of Heaven and Earth, Sun and Moon.”
“Exactly right, sir.”

He couldn’t hide his surprise.

“Is that even possible?”
“I did it and it worked.”
“Have you been practicing it separately?”
“No. I’m the sort who’s strong in a real fight.”

He stared at me, out of words entirely.

“Gwang-seon, you….”

“Hey, are you all right?”

Just then Moyong Rin came pounding up and cut in.

“You’re not hurt anywhere?”
“My ankle does hurt a bit.”
“Let me see.”
“Aaagh! Gently!”
“Such a baby. Doesn’t look broken, luckily. Rest it a while and it’ll heal.”
“Anyway, how was I?”
“Moyong Gwang-seon, of course. I knew you’d do it.”
“Shame, though. If that thing hadn’t turned its head at the last moment I’d have run it straight through the skull.”
“That’s a bit of a stretch.”
“….”

Moyong Pae-cheon watched the two of us chattering away for a moment, then went back to the kids.

There was one problem, though.

“By the way, where’s your sword?”
“Ah.”

Now that she mentioned it, I remembered the Firespit Lizard fleeing with a sword still lodged in its eye.

“No. My Pork-Slicing Demon-Cleaving Saber!”

The next day. The fourth day of the hunt, to be exact.

The previous day’s fight with the Firespit Lizard had left us with wounded. Nothing serious, luckily, but they’d be no help on the hunt, so it was decided they would head home first and be treated.

“Kkh. Sorry I couldn’t be more use.”
“It’s fine, just get going before a monster turns up. Bunch of dead weight, the lot of you.”
“Follow me.”

Yeon Seo-ha the Plum Blossom Swordsman turned, taking the five swordsmen with her. She would see them as far as somewhere safe and come back.

Five injured out of a fight that dangerous — is that all right, as these things go?

Meanwhile the rest of us settled on eating breakfast and resting, but Big Bro Pae-cheon, impatient as he is, must have been fretting about losing a quarry he’d as good as caught, because he put together a scouting team himself and went off.

“Brother. The Plum Blossom Swordsman told us to wait until she came back.”
“Don’t worry. We won’t go close enough to be in danger. We’ll get a rough fix on its position and come straight back.”

And so the rest of us did the clearing-up, longing, waking and sleeping, for Yeon Seo-ha and the scouting party to come back.

“Give it back, my Pork-Slicing Demon-Cleaving Saber….”
“Should’ve treated it better while you had it.”
“Anyway, what was that thing Big Bro Pae-cheon cut the flames with yesterday?”
“Sword qi.”
“Sword qi?”
“Yeah. You load qi onto the blade and send it out. You have to be able to manage at least sword qi before you can handle a monster at all.”
“But we can’t use sword qi.”
“That’s why we were stabbing away at the gaps yesterday.”

The grown-ups really are too much. Sending us out after steel monsters you need sword qi to handle at all.

I was squatting down beside Moyong Rin, working through the clearing-up, when…

— Squeak!

The mini Ear Rat popped out of the undergrowth without warning.

“Huh? It’s back again.”

Moyong Rin didn’t repeat the previous day’s blunder of hurling herself at it. She gazed at the thing for a while, then tilted her head to one side and muttered.

“…The more I see it the fonder I get. Looking at it like this, it’s sort of cute in its way.”
“That’s you getting Mini-pilled.¹”
“Come to think of it, what do we call this one?”
“The mini Ear Rat.”
“Mini? Why the mini Ear Rat.”
“Because mini means small. It means little Ear Rat.”

At my explanation, Moyong Rin gazed quietly at the mini Ear Rat, and under that gaze the rat cocked its small head to one side.

“Never mind that, let’s give it a proper name.”
“Do we have to?”
“Is there a reason not to?”

Thinking about it, there wasn’t any particular reason not to.

Mini Ear Rat, Mini-iseo, Mini-seo….

“All right. From this moment on, your name is Min Hui-seo.²”
“Why Min Hui-seo? It sounds just like a person’s name.”
“No reason.”

Moyong Rin spoke to Hui-seo.

“By the look of it you roughly understand what we’re saying. Your name’s Min Hui-seo, apparently. Do you like it?”

— Squeak!

A shake of the head, then another.

“Seems it doesn’t like it?”

I held a scrap of metal in my hand and asked once more.

“I’ll ask you again. Do you like it?”

— Squeeak!

A nod, then another.

“See? It says it likes it.”
“….”

When I tossed the scrap of metal over, Hui-seo ate it with relish. Then the thing’s great ears pricked up, and it stared hard in one direction.

“Is somebody coming?”

I got to my feet and looked in the same direction. All at once I had a bad feeling.

This is a dangerous area where monsters appear.

With Moyong Pae-cheon gone as well, it would be serious if a monster on a par with yesterday’s Firespit Lizard showed up.

You never know. Something even more dangerous might come out.

I took four scraps of metal from my pocket and joined them corner to corner into a tetrahedron. If it came to that, I would breathe ‘chivalry’ into it. I kept my eyes hard on the bamboo.

— Crinkle—

The moment I caught the sound of someone there, I bellowed.

“Somebody’s coming!”

The kids who had been resting leapt to their feet. Moyong Gun-ak stepped forward and shouted.

“To your positions!”

The Moyong Family kids formed a sword formation with astonishing speed, as though they had never been sprawled about at all. A grim, keen air rose off them, sharp enough to cut at a touch.

A tightening.

My grip hardened on the tetrahedron. I set myself to breathe chivalry into it and throw it the instant it came to that, and watched the place the sound had come from. Yeon Seo-ha the Plum Blossom Swordsman wasn’t here either. If the kids asked what it was, I planned to fudge it somehow.

Better than somebody dying or getting hurt.

Every one of them stood watching, hands laid on their hilts. Footsteps came through the bamboo grove on the far side.

“Who goes there!”

At Moyong Gun-ak’s bellow the other side faltered, and then a voice came back.

“Who are you!”

— Phew—

A sigh of relief came out of me.

At least it isn’t a monster.

“We asked first!”
“Identify yourselves!”
“You identify yourselves first!”
“Don’t wanna!”

The exchange raged on, neither side giving an inch.

“This is too childish to watch.”

At the voice from above I jerked my head up, and at the same moment a figure dropped straight down in front of us.

“Draw your swords!”

— Shring-shring-shring—

I reached reflexively for my own sword too. Something at my waist felt oddly empty, and I looked down.

Oh. Right, I don’t have a sword.

The intruder who had dropped out of the air looked us over once and then, before anyone could react, was standing in front of me.

— Thwack!

“Ow!”
“Why are you the only one not drawing? Slacking off, aren’t you.”

Clutching my forehead, I protested.

“How am I supposed to draw when I haven’t got a sword?”
“Huh? So you haven’t. Where’d you go and sell your sword off?”
“A wicked monster stole it, sir.”
“Stealing the famed Pork-Slicing Demon-Cleaving Saber. What a terrifying creature.”

Having identified the intruder, Moyong Gun-ak let out a deep sigh and put his sword away.

“You gave me a fright.”
“Where’s Pae-cheon gone, that you’re playing captain?”
“Big Bro Pae-cheon has stepped out a while to scout the monster.”

The mysterious intruder was none other than my own martial arts teacher, the star-crossed genius, the Glancing River Sword, Great Hero Moyong Bi.

If Moyong Bi is here, that means….

Presently a band of young saber-wielders showed themselves out of the bamboo grove.

“So it was you lot. Moyong dogs.”

Moyong Bi was the one who had gone along with the Paeng Family as guardian. The lot of them had turned grubby since we last saw them.

“I was wondering where that vicious stink of sweat was coming from.”
“Sniff, sniff. Do we reek that much?”
“Don’t fall for it! It’s a trick of the wicked Moyong dogs!”
“What was that?”

I watched them trade their affectionate greetings for a while. Moyong Bi, having greeted Moyong Rin too, looked about him.

“Where’s your guardian gone? I don’t see her.”
“Ah, you mean our Big Sis Seo-ha?”
“…Our Big Sis Seo-ha? When did you get that friendly?”
“It just sort of happened.”
“Hm. Plum Blossom Swordsmen aren’t known for being that easy-natured, as far as I’m aware.”

That was when it happened.

Speak of the tiger and it comes, they say.

Yeon Seo-ha the Plum Blossom Swordsman, who had escorted the injured away, came back.

“I’m back. Nothing happened while I was…gone?”

Moyong Bi raised a hand in cheerful greeting.

“Yo.”
“G-Great Hero Glancing River Sword?”

Catching sight of Moyong Bi, Yeon Seo-ha went rigid with an audible crack, then avoided his eyes, fidgeting, and spoke in a voice that trailed away to nothing.

“W-what brings you here…?”
“…?”

Yeon Seo-ha the Plum Blossom Swordsman had been as chilly as the cold wind off the North Sea. I gazed blankly at the flush that had risen on her cheek.

What’s this?