Chapter 42

In every Segawa family, it’s important to treat the non-direct line well.
It’s a place where you have to show what you can do.
A place where you must demonstrate your abilities, or else you will fall.
Especially in the sixth generation of the Segawa family.
That’s what the current head of the South Palace family, Namgung Mu Baek, is like.
He has been strictly aiming to suppress the defense system. Not to avoid, but to pursue.
As a result, the fanggye did not hide their discomfort and showed their dissatisfaction openly, but as a result.
Many masters and martial artists have been produced by the Fang Clan.
“If you’re going to say something like that, you should improve your skills first.”
Under the blade of the Celestial Divine Sword, Nangong Mu Bai, everyone fell, and the Fang Clan was so deeply wounded that it could never rise again.
In that sense, Nan Gong Han has always resented Nan Gong Mu Bai and his immediate family. The discrimination shown by the main family, and the starkly different treatment of those not in their immediate line, made him turn back.
So when the Grand Duke, a man of high rank, came to visit, Namgung Han objected.
“Why are you coming, and what are you going to do? Is this place so disrespected that a mere fifteen-year-old should come here?!”
Many people tried to calm him down, but his anger was not easily quelled.
He’s only fifteen.
Still, the family hadn’t given them any support, and they were expecting a report on their performance.
“You sent four or five people and now you want me to do something. It’s ridiculous.”
Worried about the morale he’d built up and his relationship with the other members of the Southern Palace becoming clouded, Namgung Han cracked down before they arrived.
He did.
He barely said a word when he arrived. He said he needed to see how the bandits were lined up.
Namgung Han merely scoffed. The Grand Duke may have raised his spirits, but they will soon crumble and shatter. The majesty of being a Grand Duke, I’m sure he’ll never be able to obtain.
Even he, a man who had fought in mountain warfare, water warfare, and even air warfare, had to crawl away from the battlefield when he first entered the fray, crippled by the abysmal conditions he faced.
But.
Fifteen is a boy.
What can he do?
I’d heard he’d won the sword tournament, but Namgung Han paid no attention to that.
He wasn’t interested in the kind of gossip that only those in the immediate family share.
And yet.
As soon as I reached the front lines, I drew my sword and charged. I watched as he ran straight for me, not caring about my body.
It’s hard to think normally when you see a boy running at full speed. I wondered if I was dreaming.
However, the adults standing next to him froze at the sight of the greenery and realized that it wasn’t a dream.
The boy’s eyes never left the divine power he was showing them.
He had been showing it for five years. Now.
“Ouch, Grand Duke, you must leave today!”
Namgungseok, who had been leading the front line with Namgunghan, was now standing on the Grand Duke’s leaf, picking at it.
“I’m soaked, soaked, soaked.”
“Ah, Brother Seok, why are you doing that again?”
It’s Brother Seok. He wasn’t wrong, as they were cousins and the same age, but it was a ridiculous affinity for Namgung Han.
“Hah. What’s wrong, Grand Duke?”
But Namgungseok’s expression when he heard that didn’t seem to hate him.
As much as his name. His heart, which had been as hard as a rock, suddenly softened.
“Han, we’ve spent our entire lives on the battlefield, and we’ve spent quite a bit of time under the name of Namgung, and you’re the Grand Duke who threw yourself into saving our lives, and yet you won’t change.”
Namgungseok, who was just as attached to this front as Namgunghan, had unlimited trust in Grand Duke Namgungban.
For the first time in five years, Namgungseok looked at Namgunghan and spoke to him.
Nangong Han did not understand. No, he couldn’t understand.
No matter what.
Even if it was just a vague feeling.
For the han hidden deep within his heart was not something that could be easily extinguished.
Even so.
The trust the Grand Duke had shown him over the years.
The two clashed and intertwined.
Putting aside his complicated feelings, the Grand Duke was on the battlefield again today.
* * *
“Give it to me!”
“What do you mean, give it up?”
“The mountain villains don’t have a clue.”
It wasn’t alcohol, it was people. I was surprised.
“You’ve beaten a few of them so casually that they’re bound to run away, so be gentle!”
“You bastard, what can I do, I need to catch that many to keep my name in good standing.”
“That’s great. Good for you.”
A grave voice.
At the same time, a manner of speaking that somewhat resembled that of a young man.
Nevertheless, the movements were incomparably more explosive than those of the three men.
Kwagaga-ga-gang!
Dozens of bandits were swept away by the explosive aura of the swords drawn from thin air, reduced to unrecognizable rubble.
Each one was deemed too powerful for the bandits of the first and second rank to defend against.
A feast of earth-shattering sword energy rode the winds and struck the bandits where they stood, inflicting fatal wounds. Most died instantly, and those who survived were unlikely to live long.
“Come on, guys.”
The boy clicked his tongue and watched them go. No, a young man.
Five years ago, he stood on the threshold of the mountains.
Now he’s more familiar with the mountain than anyone else.
He walks the foothills at dawn.
At dusk, he would return exhausted, fighting against the energies of the mountains.
“You’re all getting a little too excited. Let’s clean up and play.”
The young man’s eyes were full of life, and his mouth was full of a smile.
The young man’s gaze settled on one spot, and there he saw a bandit who stood out among the others, his body large and the axe in his grip swinging with fierce force.
“My turn this time.”
The burly man studied the young man’s frown.
“Are you sure.”
“Didn’t you just take out one of them a while ago?”
“One or two, I’m not keeping count.”
“Let’s be fair. Fair.”
The young man slapped the middle-aged man on the back and strode forward. A young man who looked like he was just getting out of his teens, but who was just getting started.
He stepped forward.
The young men and women behind him smiled at him without saying a word, showing their trust.
Behind him again, a group of men wearing the mark of the Southern Palace stared at him, sighing heavily.
“Enough is enough!”
“Then the bandits will run away!”
“We have to eat, too!”
None of them were unnerved. They smoked again.
Listening to such a song.
They were so full of faith that they said.
“Haha, bye.”
As if this battlefield were his own.
With that, the young man, the Grand Duke of the Chang Tian Southern Palace Clan, slowly swept the tip of his azure hovering sword across the ground.
* * *
The bandits who saw the tip of the sword gritted their teeth.
Among them.
There were only seventy-seven of them.
There were only seventy-seven of them.
There were only seventy-seven mountainous evils.
Of course, even among them, there were differences in rank. Nearly twenty of the strongest Mountain Demons had been killed by the two in front of them.
“Hmph. Bastards. They don’t even know they’re tarnishing the name of mountain climbing, and they’re just like that?”
Wang Liang, the Blood Godfather.
Wang Liang has been holding on to his life.
He lifted the axe he’d filled with seven vials of blood and tempered into the air.
A fiery red aura surrounded the axe. It was indeed worthy of the name of a mountainous mountain.
Dozens of bandits stared at Wang Liang in anticipation. At last, we have someone who can face these monstrous creatures.
This is the beginning of our counterattack!
“You dare!”
Wang Liang was so excited that he swung his axe in the air.
How many of the Southern Palace’s prestigious names were cut down with this axe.
Then he looked at the young men in front of him and the iron-blooded An Bai and sneered. This was Wang Liang, who had been sent to this front only two days ago.
Even if he was an outstanding officer. As long as you’re human, you can’t help but get tired.
Even if you can show a hundred prowesses, your limits must be clear.
And it was time.
The fight had been long enough, and no reinforcements were coming.
It was time.
It was time to step up to the plate.
That’s what I thought.
Peep.
A solid line drew in front of him, a solid line drawn by the youngest of them all.
“……?”
Wang Liang’s consciousness was fading for some reason. His breathing and movements slowed to a crawl. The cheers and enthusiastic voices faded away, and it felt like time and space were warping.
“There’s no way…… is…….”
Tuuk, tegururu.
With the sound of something rolling, Wang Liang’s heavy body fell to the ground in a heap. In the dust that followed, he saw the bandits who had turned to dust.
Behind him stood the warriors of the Southern Palace.
“……The Grand Duke has captured the mountainous mountain! Nothing to lose! Let’s have a good time!”
“Woooooooooo!”
“Namgungban! Namgungban!”
“Grand Duke! Grand Duke!”
The Grand Duke wiped off the last drop of blood from the tip of his blade, and behind him, Namgungsuk took the Southern Palace’s warriors and aimed at the fleeing bandits with their backs turned.
Like wolves entering a sheep pasture, the tip of his blade showed no mercy and mercilessly swept away the bandits. That was the situation, the current state of affairs of the Southern Palace and the Green Forest.
“Let’s see.”
“The Great Duke of An counted eleven. The Grand Duke has …… eleven.” ”You two are the same.”
The middle-aged man and the young man’s faces crumpled as they heard Kang Wumen’s count.
“Really!”
“Really?”
“No, this is what my name is worth!”
“Oh, you’re so similar to your inspiration.”
I looked at the two of them, who were snarling at each other.
“Ew.”
“Still the same.”
One of them, the young man under his master’s tutelage, sighed, while the other, the winner of the sword tournament and the one who had followed the Grand Duke of the Southern Palace in fascination, clicked his tongue.
And the last, the man who bore the Grand Duke’s shadow, shook his head.
It was someone else.
His uncle, his nephew.
How fitting, he thought to himself.