Part 48 - Value
In the courtyard, there was the man who called himself Elder Yeom's steward, the four warriors escorting him, and everyone in Wongakjeong.
"Say that again."
At the sight of Yeon Sang-hyeon kicking the door open as he appeared, the man who claimed to be Elder Yeom's steward unconsciously swallowed a dry gulp.
"I told you to say it again."
Yeon Sang-hyeon's low, pressing voice was nothing like what he'd heard in rumors about the Swordless.
But he trusted the weight of the elder whose name he served.
Because the elder held a position among the highest within the Sword Clan.
"Elder Yeom has issued an order to bring Medicine King back with us."
At those words, the triplets snorted, and Jeong-a burst into laughter.
Yeon Sang-hyeon tilted his head to the side and asked.
"Who gave an order to whom?"
The steward hurriedly cleared his throat.
"Ahem. Of course, the order was given to this steward."
Yeon Sang-hyeon asked again.
"This steward?"
The steward floundered.
"No, not this steward…."
"Not?"
"Not this steward, but… that is…."
He tangled his words so pathetically that all the maids burst out laughing.
That laughter seemed to strike the steward hard.
Or perhaps he simply wanted to deny the fact that he was being mocked by the Swordless.
"Insolent! How dare mere maids—!"
Yeon Sang-hyeon cut him off, raising his hand.
"The insolent one is you."
He was about to slap him.
"First Young Master, stop!"
The four escorting warriors all grabbed their hilts at once.
"How dare you…!"
Led by Jeong-a, the maids also grabbed their hilts in unison.
That was the moment.
The escorts' wrists—those hands that had seized their hilts—dropped to the ground all at once.
It was a sword technique so sharp that even the men who had lost their wrists realized what happened the instant they heard their own wrists hit the floor.
"U—UAAAGH!"
The steward, horrified, sprang backward.
The escorts, however, true to the composure of Sword Clan warriors, pressed their blood points to stop the bleeding and retreated.
"You lunatics…"
A man in a guard's uniform stood there with a sword in his hand.
Amazingly, the blade that had severed their wrists held not a single drop of blood.
And that sword wasn't even sharpened—it was a blunt practice sword.
"How dare you show your hilt toward our First Young Master of the main house…?"
The sword in the hand of The Sword of Stealing the Ghost flashed again.
Again, there was no sound.
No shadow.
The escorts' forearms—each of them retreating and bracing themselves—were chopped off in a single instant.
There were no blind angles in his sword.
"What are you doing, you crazy renegade bastards."
At the word "renegade", the warriors finally realized what they'd done.
They were men who habitually looked down on the Swordless, and in that arrogance they'd committed something unthinkable.
The Sword of Stealing the Ghost bared his teeth and let loose a terrifying killing intent.
It was killing intent so dense it felt as though the gentle air of Wongakjeong itself froze solid.
"Still, if you're warriors, then die with a sword in your hand."
Just as his sword was about to move again, Yeon Sang-hyeon's voice rang out, low and calm.
"Stop."
The Sword of Stealing the Ghost halted, but he did not lower his sword toward them.
Watching him, Yeon Sang-hyeon spoke again.
"No one will be robbed of their life inside Wongakjeong. That is the strict law laid down by my mother—the Madam of this household."
The Sword of Stealing the Ghost immediately sheathed his sword.
The steward foamed at the mouth.
"F-First Young Master! You think you can harm Elder Yeom's warriors and let it pass without consequence?!"
"Yeah."
Yeon Sang-hyeon seized the steward by the collar and slapped him across the face.
Even without putting inner power into it, he was a Disciple of The Ruler Of Darkness.
By Medicine King's words, he wasn't even human.
He was someone who could tear and rip people apart with sheer brute strength alone.
The steward's cheek split, and teeth clattered through the air.
Yeon Sang-hyeon looked down with indifferent eyes at the steward hanging from his fist by the collar and spoke.
"My mother only told me not to kill."
His palm struck again.
The few teeth he still had flew out into the air with a mist of blood.
"And I'm sure that even if I turn some steward bastard with no sense of his place into a cripple, Elder Yeom won't say a word."
His palm struck again.
Now half the steward's face was a mess of blood. His cheekbone caved in, and one eyeball ruptured and sagged, oozing out.
"Do you know why?"
That question was clearly meant for the steward, but the man had already lost consciousness.
"I-I don't know."
One of the warriors answered instead, clutching his severed forearm and trying to stop the bleeding.
Yeon Sang-hyeon smiled at him.
"Elder Yeom knows the value of his own name. No matter how lacking I may look, he's the sort of great man who can still do the math—he knows his name carries less weight than mine."
Yeon Sang-hyeon bared his teeth at the warriors.
"Then what's the conclusion?"
The warriors couldn't answer.
So Yeon Sang-hyeon's palm struck the steward again.
An ear tore off and flew away. Skin peeled back, exposing the already-shattered cheekbone.
"This bastard lied. That's what."
Yeon Sang-hyeon shook the steward by the collar for the speechless warriors to see.
"And even if it wasn't a lie, it wouldn't matter."
As his killing intent seeped out, a chill swept over them—something incomparably colder than even the Sword of Stealing the Ghost's killing intent.
"Elder or not, I'll make him look just like this bastard."
As everyone froze in place, Jeong-a stepped forward.
"...Master."
Yeon Sang-hyeon let out a sigh and drew his killing intent back.
But he didn't let go of the steward. He spoke to the warriors.
"Are you worried I'll disobey my mother? Don't."
Yeon Sang-hyeon chuckled.
"Because there are two of the greatest physicians in the Central Plains right here."
This time, Medicine King stepped forward.
"It seems Elder Yeom's underlings grew overzealous in their loyalty, eager to earn merit."
As he approached Yeon Sang-hyeon, he continued.
"Elder Yeom's daughter suffers from an incurable disease. Whenever I passed through Luoyang, I used to look after her."
Medicine King frowned at the blood-soaked courtyard.
"First Young Master. For my sake, since I have ties with Elder Yeom—or for the sake of your kind mother who tended this courtyard—how about you send them away now?"
He was trying hard to seem composed, but there was no way Yeon Sang-hyeon couldn't guess the tangled, stifled emotions in him at the sight of his changed grandson.
Yeon Sang-hyeon threw the half-dead steward at the warriors.
Medicine King addressed them.
"Tell him that since such an unpleasant incident has occurred, it will be difficult for me to continue attending to his daughter."
To the ones who'd caused this, it was no different from a death sentence.
They knew Elder Yeom's temperament.
But they said nothing—only bowed deeply, hoisted the steward with them, and left Wongakjeong.
The Sword of Stealing the Ghost followed them all the way to the front gate and confirmed they had completely departed.
The courtyard fell into silence.
After a moment, Yeon Sang-hyeon spoke to Medicine King without turning around.
"This, too, is my responsibility."
Medicine King said nothing, waiting for him to continue.
"Because I was foolish and dull—because I ignored the contempt and let it fester—four warriors of the main house with bright futures had to pay that price."
In the courtyard, their wrists and forearms lay scattered.
Medicine King sighed and walked up to Yeon Sang-hyeon.
"...No. They only paid the price for their own stupidity."
He draped an arm around Yeon Sang-hyeon's shoulder.
"Come. Tonight, run with this old man until dawn."
Yeon Sang-hyeon let out a short laugh.
"At your age, you're talking about 'running'? How undignified."
"You little—! And what was that earlier about there being two best physicians in the Central Plains? I misheard, didn't I? The best is only Medicine King—me!"
"You misheard. Medicine King is the best in the Central Plains Nation… and I'm the best on this continent."
As the two bickered and went back into the room, Jeong-a finally exhaled in relief.
She'd been worried that with her master's emotions running high, "that" might surface.
It hadn't been long since her master's mind—being eaten away by corrosion after mass slaughter—had finally stabilized.
She clapped her hands.
"What are you all doing? Hurry and clean up this mess, and prepare more drinking snacks."
The triplets, still frozen from the lingering aftermath of Yeon Sang-hyeon's killing intent, began moving busily at last.
***
"What did you say?"
An enormous Greatsword struck the ground again and again.
"Say it again."
Each time the sword collided, the earth shook as if from an earthquake, and a roar thundered through the air as if lightning had crashed.
"I said, say it again?!"
The hall trembled, and dust that had piled up in unseen places scattered into the air.
"Why aren't you answering?!"
The ground was pounded into deep craters.
Everyone nearby had gone deathly pale.
"Elder."
Unable to watch any longer, his chief steward stepped forward and spoke.
"As you can see… he's been dead for quite some time."
Elder Yeom panted harshly.
What he had been smashing again and again with his giant sword was his steward—returned in a half-dead state.
The corpse had been crushed so horribly that it was impossible to tell whether it had once been a human or a beast.
Gazing down at the blood-soaked lump of meat jammed into the collapsed earth, Elder Yeom sighed.
He flung his giant sword over his shoulder; it drew a gentle arc through the air and slid neatly into the fixed scabbard.
A sword control technique.
He dropped into a squat.
"...Damn it. I killed him in a temper. Guess I'll be hearing some nagging again."
Then he looked at the four warriors who had their heads pressed to the floor before him.
"You lot, go confess your crimes to the Law-Enforcement Maiden and take your punishment. If anyone thinks they're wronged, request a duel trial."
"...Thank you for your mercy!"
The warriors shouted, but for some reason they were trembling more than when Elder Yeom was raging.
None of them looked like they dared to request a duel trial.
Elder Yeom waved his hand.
"Now everyone get out. Only the advisors stay."
Once the crowd cleared, only the small group he called his advisors remained.
"Medicine King said he won't come anymore?"
"From what I confirmed, he said: 'Because of this unpleasant incident, it will be difficult for me to continue attending to the young lady'."
Elder Yeom didn't snap, That's the same thing, because at his level he knew exactly how much difference a single careful phrasing could make.
"On top of everything else, that Dragon-Phoenix Gathering is making my head feel like it's going to burst…"
Elder Yeom lifted a massive hand like a bear's paw and clutched his head.
"...Swordless, Swordless—always that damned Swordless!"
When he slammed the floor with his bare hand, spiderweb cracks spread across the paving stones.
In a low voice, he said.
"There's something the underlings have gravely misunderstood…."
The chief steward took the cue.
"And what is that?"
Elder Yeom answered.
"The First Young Master wasn't looked down on because he was Swordless. He was called Swordless because he stayed still even when they looked down on him."
He stared up at the ceiling.
"If he doesn't stay still, then he isn't Swordless. Then what is he?"
"Then… he is the First Young Master."
Elder Yeom suddenly roared.
"Right! The First Young Master! The First Young Master of the Great Luoyang Sword Clan! Is there any bastard here who doesn't know what rank the First Young Master holds in the main house's legal code and ceremonial hierarchy?! Any bastard who doesn't know how heavy that name is?!"
"...We have no excuse."
The advisors all bowed their heads deeply.
"And how the hell are you training those steward bastards under you?!"
He shouted at his advisors.
"Make everyone under me undergo rank-and-order training again! Especially those warrior bastards with nothing but swordsmanship in their heads—train them twice as hard! If that doesn't work, three times!"
His advisors answered in unison, loudly.
"And figure out how to bring Medicine King back again!"
He growled like a mountain lord.
"And any idiot who comes to me with a so-called plan that drags in someone they can't take responsibility for…"
He raised a finger and pointed.
Everyone's eyes turned toward the lump of meat in the pit.