Chapter 24

After saying something unintelligible, Pang Gak thirstily burned Pang Hyang and disappeared.
The uncle said that he didn’t want to see the end of the sword meeting.
“Why waste time watching something that’s already been decided? Buy yourself a drink next time. Take care.”
With that, she left.
“How long have you been friends with Ho Tae-do?”
“There’s not a man in the Zheng Clan who hasn’t heard my name and seen my face. Especially if you’ve seen me in my prime.”
I was wrong. I was wrong.
Why revive the memories of one who is haunted by past glories.
I realized that there is nothing more ugly than a drunkard reminiscing about the past.
After a while, he made my ears bleed with his recollections of my past glories.
“Wow, here we go!”
“Oh, oh, oh!”
Someone shouted, and I saw the Namgung Mu Baek, the Namgung Ho, and the rest of the leaders of the Sword Council walk onto the offstage area.
Everyone was curious.
What would be the treatment for the Grand Duke who had exposed the family’s shame?
Would Mr. Pang really never come out of the black cage?
Would the sword council still go ahead?
They were all full of questions, and they wanted him to answer them.
One.
“The final round of the sword tournament will be postponed.”
They weren’t kind enough to answer those questions.
So be it.
I looked at Namgung Mubai, and he was staring back at me. I felt a rush of pressure that made my heart feel like it was pounding in my chest.
Something about his gaze alone overwhelmed me, and I felt half-boned.
Cold-blooded and uncaring.
It was exactly what it had been in my previous life.
It was still there in front of me.
Mr. Bai, with his fresh, warm spring air, the man my mother used to call by name from time to time until her illness worsened and she died.
“Don’t blame him. Your father means well. ”
He meant it.
He’s still glaring at me now. Mother.
If that’s how she loves her children, I won’t be loved by her.
While I was thinking that, Namgung-ho’s voice interrupted.
“I know you’re all curious, but since the earlier disturbance will be decided and dealt with within the Namgung family, I’d like you to focus on the meaning of the sword tournament and the significance of the tournament itself.”
Namgung Ho continued to speak calmly and deliberately.
“However, the treatment and outcome will be made public for all of Anhui and those who witnessed it to know, so don’t worry, and enjoy the tournament to the end.”
Nothing is ever hidden, so the Namgung family was transparent about what would happen after the tournament was over, and no one in Anhui had any complaints, so they were all eager to enjoy the tournament to the fullest.
Now it was time for the final round.
It was my turn to go up.
“That was a long, long day for just one day.”
As my uncle said, the sword party started early in the morning. The sun was slowly setting, and the burning light of the setting sun illuminated the stairs leading up to the offstage area.
“Go. Who you are.”
The Grand Duke, the bastard, the asshole.
The Grand Duke, a man who acted like a lowlife in the midst of all the glitz and glamor, climbed these stairs to show the world that he was changing.
Perhaps this will give you the most favorable position in the race for the title, or perhaps you will look beyond that.
My uncle said that, but I shook my head.
“The Gazoo Competition. It’s just the Southern Palace, the Southern Palace, and that’s all that matters.”
That was what the Grand Duke, the Southern Palace class of my previous life, had told me when he came to visit me.
If a male palace can be a male palace, that’s enough.
I was feeling the traces of those words now.
Jab, jab, jab.
With each step up the stairs, I was met with different gazes.
The gazes I met were still dominated by dissatisfaction and doubt, but the question was why.
It was so similar to the gaze of a nanny. There seemed to be quite a few stares that I had never seen before.
They don’t even know who I am. I’m a battlefield ghost and a sword demon who can’t be defeated by a sword.
As I walked onto the offstage with a cheerful expression, I heard a tangy voice say.
“You’re smiling because you’re so happy, because you’ve won.”
I was smiling, but not in a good way. I shrugged at the boy who had told me something I didn’t know.
“What’s so twisted?”
“Your shenanigans have brought the honor of the Southern Palace into disrepute. You are not worthy to be a Sovereign.”
“Unworthy of ……?”
I smirked at the qualifications Namgung Hyuk was discussing.
“That’s right. Qualifications. Namgung’s path is the path of the emperor. You’ve tarnished that reputation with your disgrace, and that tarnish will be an eternal scar, carved by a bastard, and you’ve disqualified yourself from being king.”
The words were unrealistic for a boy of only fourteen to utter, but Namgung Hyuk’s eyes before him were unwavering in their belief that only he could reach the path of emperor.
Arrogance and fury burned in his eyes.
The self-confidence in them.
Emperor.
Worthy to be king.
I turned my head at the story and looked at my uncle. My eyes scanned the heads of the various southern palace families and locked eyes with one. I locked eyes with one of the elders. My gaze accidentally collided with Duke Tang Miyan, and my gaze intertwined with the Southern Palace’s Mu Bai.
“I see.
Everyone considered this to be the starting point for discussing the emperor.
“He must really be something since he is supported by everyone around him.”
This is not the place for that.
It was ridiculous. I don’t know how this doesn’t make me sick.
Such harsh expectations for a boy of only fourteen, and so much responsibility for a child who is so young. I think of Namgungal, who still hasn’t recovered his strength, and Namgung Dog, who isn’t here but is listening intently to the situation, and Namgung Wall, who hopes it won’t be the last time he has to go through this, but who will feel deprived someday.
My heart went out to them.
I don’t know what will happen to these children when they grow up.
The adults were just passing on their own desires to them.
And the child was accepting the expectation as if it were a blessing, as if it were something he deserved, and I could only laugh in vain.
Mr. Pang, I suspected that the woman was not the only problem.
I didn’t realize it was so deep, a tangle of threads beyond common sense.
What an uphill battle you’ve fought, brother.
You must have been lonely.
Now I’m the one who carries the burden.
I looked up at the sky and gave him a smile before I spoke the words I’d been holding back.
“There’s no point in being an emperor if you can’t be shaken by a little rain. I’ll have to break you.”
“Come …….”
Nam Gung-hyuk raised the tip of his sword. The aura rising from the tip of the sword was the aura of the heavenly winds.
It was the first time in my life that I had ever seen and tasted a sword of the Namgung family, a sword that I had never handled before, even though I bore the same Namgung surname.
The Iron Sword Sixty-Six and the Thunderbolt Thirty-Three were nothing compared to the Sword of Ascension.
Nevertheless, it had a familiar scent.
The Iron Sword Sixty-Six Sword, which had been struck countless times in the life of an iron sword, and the Thirteen Thunderbolts Sword of Island Warfare.
All were sword arts created in the name of the Southern Palace.
And I.
I set the tip of my sword against the tip of the Heavenly Wind Sword that the Southern Palace boasts.
Ch’uan.
The iron sword, the eclipse.
Heavy sword speed.
The stance was set, and Namgung Hyuk wore a perverse expression.
“You’re using an iron sword to fight against the Heavenly Wind.”
An iron sword.
“I’ll smash it,” he said, ”and only then will I smash your maddening thoughts.”
Nan Gung Ho’s signal to start the match sounded early. At the same time, a sharp flash of light cut through the air, splitting his head in two.
Iron Sword Sixty-Four, Two-Style.
Foot Sword Speed.
He clashed with his iron sword against the cipherun flash.
Grrrr!
The flash burst into flames and streamed down the path I’d taken.
Kulk!
My body was too weak to withstand the short burst of power that stopped it, unlike the one that was still drawing power from me.
Feeling my chest heave, I straightened the tip of my sword. At the same time, I stood up on my tiptoes and struck Namgung Hyuk’s shin.
Pfft!
“……what are you doing.”
Nam Gung-hyeok’s eyebrows twitched as he tried to summarize the situation quickly, realizing that he couldn’t use his inner strength.
There probably isn’t a martial art like this in the ten schools of the Iron Sword Sixty-Six that I know of.
Look. The life of a man who overcame a life of hardship to come back alive from the hell of the Abyss.
Nam Gung-hyuk shook off his throbbing leg and raised the tip of his sword again. The searing flash of light grew brighter with each passing second, and like a bird of prey, it struck at his temple, then his eyes, then his uvula, then his armpit, then his chin, in that order.
My whole body screamed as I tried to squeeze every last ounce of strength out of my veins and arteries, but I didn’t hold back, and I struck with the tip of my sword at every single piercing sound. At the same time, he raised his feet several times and kicked Nam Gung-hyuk’s thighs and knees.
He couldn’t go much further than that, but it was enough, he thought, as he rained down a barrage of sword strikes with a casual attitude. The accumulated pain would come back to haunt him later.
The iron sword, the three styles.
Sword Speed.
He assumed an extremely defensive stance. My fingertips tingled with each parry.
Mere brute strength was not enough to block the power of the Heavenly Wind. He took it a step further and minimized his sword power to block the blows that were coming down from the dense castles and the momentum of the Eighty-Fourth.
At the same time.
Iron Sword Six Forms, Four Forms.
Archery Sword Speed.
The tip of the sword pierced through the gap, and Namgung Hyuk twisted his head and took a step back to nullify the attack.
A brief lull followed.
I had no intention of stopping. I twisted the tip of my sword to the side.
Thirteen Sword Thunder.
The transition from iron sword to island warfare was a masterstroke that made one a ghost of the battlefield.
The flow from sword to sword is like a wave.
Thirteen Sword Thunder.
Two-formed, rippling thunder.
As the waves of lightning rippled through the air, Nan Gongxue clenched his teeth and unleashed a series of crisp flashes of the Heavenly Wind Sword Technique.
Tada, tada, tada!
The dusky sunset was replaced by a darkening rainstage.
A series of harsh clangs erupted, the sword light from the clash of sword against sword.
My whole body throbbed as if the veins in my limbs were going to burst at any moment.
The tenuous strength I had raised to such a level could not withstand a boy filled with Ascension Inner Qi and Ascension Sword Qi.
Nevertheless, I was suddenly amused. It felt alive. I could feel the vibration of the sword tip as it clashed.
At the same time, I felt the world around me become still. I felt a moment of stillness.
Had everyone moved away?
They could have. It was just the silence of ten-year-old children.
In the stillness of the moment.
Still. Filled.
The crowd crowded around the unarmed man.
I secretly smiled at their determination not to miss a single moment.