Days of Growth (3)
No. One and No. Seven were walking down a broad corridor.
It was a clean corridor, with the walls, floor, and even ceiling painted pure white. Rather, it was so excessively white that if one looked at it for a long time, it seemed the mood would turn strange.
“There is no need to be nervous.”
“Yes.”
At No. One’s words, No. Seven answered dryly. Originally, she was someone far removed from nervousness, but honestly, right now she was a little nervous.
Since being raised by the organization, this was her first time coming here. It was also the first time she would see the leader above No. One.
She could not know where this place was. Before coming, she had taken the medicine No. One had given her and lost consciousness, and when she came to again, she was at the end of this corridor.
It was an obvious act showing that they did not trust her, but she did not feel offended.
If this was something to feel offended over, then what emotion should she use to accept the reality that she had been dragged away recklessly when she was too young to even remember and raised regardless of her own will? There was no need to feel bad over a trifling thing like this, she thought.
At the end of the corridor, there was also a pure white door.
When the two of them stood before it, the door opened as if it had been waiting.
No. One and No. Seven stepped inside. The instant she entered, No. Seven was startled.
It was truly an enormous space. It was a space that showed precisely what it meant to overwhelm through scale.
Inside the well-decorated place, bookcases full of books and expensive ornaments were neatly displayed.
The moment she took one step onto the carpet laid across the floor, she could tell it was something expensive, the sort she had never stepped on in her life.
At the far end of the carpet, a desk was placed. Without exaggeration, the room was so large that she could not clearly see the face of the man sitting there.
She thought they would walk along the carpet, but No. One stopped in front of the door at their end.
The man at the desk spoke. Though he was far away, his voice could be heard clearly.
“So in the end, the Sword Emperor was killed by this man called the Nameless Great Hero.”
It was the low yet heavy voice of a middle-aged man. Whether because of the internal energy contained in his voice, or because of the atmosphere of this place, No. Seven felt cowed by that voice. At the same time, she felt displeasure. If he had called someone here, he ought to have them come closer and speak to them.
“That is correct.”
At No. One’s answer, the middle-aged man singled out No. Seven this time.
“No. Seven.”
He called her as if he had seen her many times, but No. Seven was seeing him for the first time today.
“Yes.”
“Why did you not pursue him?”
“Goe Mang-Ryang and Drunken Wolf are outstanding assassins, but I judged there was a high possibility they would be detected by him.”
“Was that the only reason?”
“Yes.”
Though he was so far away that she could not see his face, she felt as if the light in his eyes flew toward her and pierced her.
No. Seven tried to remain as composed as possible. Because Goe Mang-Ryang and Drunken Wolf had already asked her in advance whether she loved him, she did not waver.
If she had not gone through that process, she would have thought of the Nameless Great Hero at this very moment and wondered whether she had personal feelings for him.
If that had happened, perhaps that person or No. One standing beside her might have sensed her agitation. The man called the Nameless Great Hero had certainly shaken her emotions.
Fortunately, she had already had enough time to think about that part beforehand, and now she was able to answer without any agitation.
If she had saved Goe Mang-Ryang and Drunken Wolf that day, then they had saved her from a crisis.
“There is no way the Sword Emperor lost through Martial Arts. Was he perhaps poisoned?”
At the man’s question, No. One answered,
“The corpse had burned completely, so confirmation was impossible. We also could not find any traces of battle there.”
“There is no way he defeated the Sword Emperor in a proper fight.”
“I think the same. In any case, what is certain is that the man called the Nameless Great Hero intentionally approached us.”
“Interesting. Then what happened to Ma Ryeong-In?”
“He has currently been summoned to the Grand Martial Alliance together with Ma Cheol-Gun.”
Silence flowed for a moment. As if he were speaking of someone as important as that silence itself, the man said cautiously,
“That person moved first.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
No. Seven could not know who “that person” was, but she could understand one thing. There was another someone above even this person whose face she could not see.
“Even if we do not search for him, he will certainly appear before us again.”
At No. One’s words, the man fell silent. She could feel that the man was displeased. It was a silence containing the rebuke of whether they were supposed to wait until he appeared again.
“Withdraw.”
“Yes.”
The two of them came outside again.
As they walked back down the corridor, No. Seven said nothing.
At the end of the corridor, No. One held out a pill. It was the very medicine she had taken before coming here.
“Is there nothing you are curious about?”
Of course, there were many things she was curious about. But she did not want to ask. At least not at this moment, when he was holding out this kind of medicine.
“No, there is not.”
After answering briefly, she immediately swallowed the pill.
Ping—the world spun, then soon turned dark.
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The entrance test for the Lesser Sword Unit was the same as before.
The first stage was forms, and the second stage was an interview. Since I could roughly recognize their skill just by seeing their forms, there was no need to hold a sparring test.
Among the more than five hundred martial artists who gathered, I selected eighty. I selected them with half skill and half character in mind.
During the final interview, I had Gwan Hui and a few of the sword unit members join me. It was to establish their authority.
In that way, we selected eighty additional sword unit members.
When the eighty were confirmed, Song Hwa-Rin came and greeted them. I had not even asked her, yet she personally came all the way to the main estate and stepped forward.
The fact that she stood in this place had great significance, confirming that the cooperation with the Song Estate was certain. Of course, the sword unit members were more captivated by her beauty than by such political issues, and they looked at me with envious eyes.
When she came inside after finishing her greeting, I expressed my thanks.
“Thank you for coming.”
“There is nothing to thank me for. But seeing a hundred of them together is incredible.”
One hundred was by no means a small number. The number itself was one thing, but the presence of the existing sword unit members was sharp, and among the newly selected ones, there were quite a few who were not inferior to them, so their momentum looked tremendous.
“It is still far off. I have to make their true skill tremendous.”
“I am looking forward to it.”
She was being stimulated by this sight. Of course, it was certainly a positive stimulus. She had said several times that she had to work harder.
And it was not only her.
Sword Unit Leader Seo Jung and all the existing sword unit members came out to watch the Lesser Sword Unit recruitment.
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
Seo Jung congratulated me sincerely. I could feel it. He too was being stimulated by the Lesser Sword Unit developing and growing. What makes people develop is always stimulation. Since organizations too are led by people, the existing sword unit would also devote itself even more to progress.
With the twenty existing sword unit members and eighty added, the Lesser Sword Unit was now born as a sword unit of one hundred people.
Even so, the name remained the Lesser Sword Unit. The “lesser” here did not merely mean that the number was small, but came from courtesy toward the existing sword unit.
I divided the one hundred people into five squads, from the First Squad to the Fifth Squad.
I assigned four of the existing sword unit members to each squad, and among them, I selected the most skilled person as squad leader.
I appointed Gwan Hui as the leader of the Lesser Sword Unit.
Having gone from commanding twenty people to becoming the head leading one hundred, Gwan Hui was extremely tense.
“I do not have confidence. I am still too young.”
His face truly looked as if he wanted to run away at any moment.
“You are not too young. You are just youthful. There will be many who want a young and capable sword unit leader.”
After reducing his burden about his age that way, I next brought up the matter of confidence. The issue right now was precisely this confidence.
“You think you will have more confidence when you grow older, don’t you?”
“Will I not?”
“Not at all. The older you get, the more confidence decreases. When you get older, you endure through experience. What looks like confidence is probably proficiency. So you, who are young, should have confidence. Think of this as the moment in your life when you can display the greatest confidence.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Even so, there was still no strength in his voice.
I could guess the reason.
This time, someone with exceptional skill had entered. He was a man named Yong-Tae, a martial artist with quite a name in Shandong. Because of personal circumstances, he had withdrawn from the front line and rested for a while, but this time he newly entered our Lesser Sword Unit.
He had a good character and reputation, and he was skilled as well, so it seemed Gwan Hui could not help being conscious of him. There also seemed to be talk that Yong-Tae should be made the unit leader. It was a kind of inferiority complex.
“Hui.”
“Yes.”
“Why do you think I appointed you as the unit leader?”
Gwan Hui could not answer.
“I do not know.”
“Because you are handsome? Because you have a good personality? Because you are young?”
Flustered by those words, Gwan Hui shook his head fiercely.
“No. I am not handsome, and my personality is not good!”
“Then because you are strong? Because you work harder than anyone else?”
“I, I… do not know.”
“Then I will tell you.”
Gwan Hui was showing the most nervous appearance he had shown since meeting me.
“Because I like you.”
Gwan Hui was startled. He had not expected to hear such words.
“There are sword unit members more handsome than you, there are those with better personalities, there are those with greater skill, and though there have not been any so far, someone who works harder than you may appear. But I like you the most.”
Emotion and moved feeling mixed together on Gwan Hui’s face.
“That is why you are the leader of my sword unit.”
I was not lying for his sake. I was not a fatalist, but there were times when I felt fate. When I looked at this Lesser Sword Unit and Gwan Hui, I felt that. When I looked at him, I had a premonition that he would lead this Lesser Sword Unit better than anyone.
And above all else, I liked him.
“Now do you understand why you may have confidence?”
“Yes! I understand.”
Gwan Hui answered powerfully with a bright expression.
Starting the next day, the Lesser Sword Unit entered full-scale training.
After finishing two months of special training, I intended to deploy them straight into actual combat.
With even greater passion and sincerity than usual, Gwan Hui earned the recognition of the newly entered martial artists in less than a few days. The talk that Yong-Tae should be made the unit leader quickly subsided.
Thanks to Gwan Hui’s efforts, the four existing sword unit members who entered each squad also set an example. Although four out of twenty was only two tenths, it was enough to create the atmosphere of a squad.
Conflicts could arise at any time. I advised Gwan Hui and the squad leaders not to fear such conflicts.
I told them that they could naturally occur, and when they did, they should not avoid them but resolve them. In the process of resolving them, relationships would become even stronger, and the organization would become even more powerful.
I told them not to worry even if the conflict deepened and the organization split because of it. In that moment, they would be angry, exhausted, and afraid, but in the end, they would overcome it all and make their way through.
Lastly, I told them this:
“Once we pass through all these processes, we will have become the strongest sword unit in the Central Plains.”
Gwan Hui and the squad leaders probably slept restlessly that night.
At last, Su contacted me.
Su, whom I met at the contact office, looked slightly flushed. His long investigation had produced results.
“I looked into the Namhyeon Escort Bureau.”
It had been a cautious investigation. Originally, investigating a single escort bureau was something that could be handled in an instant. But because I had emphasized the danger of this matter several times, Su had investigated the Namhyeon Escort Bureau using the most cautious method he could.
“Namhyeon Escort Bureau is an escort bureau based in Zhejiang Province. At first, it began with one escort chief and four escort guards, but in only three years, it grew into a mid-sized escort bureau with five escort chiefs and seventy escort guards.”
It was not common for an escort bureau to grow like this in just three years.
“How was that possible?”
“After analyzing the escort missions they had taken on in the past, I was able to discover one fact.”
“What is it?”
“A certain place funneled work to them. They put forward several agents to hide that fact, but it was one place.”
“Where was it?”
Then a surprising name was mentioned.
“It was Sung Wang-Bo, the head of the Continental Merchant Company that hosted this Golden Grand Banquet.”
I was startled. Sung Wang-Bo, who led the Continental Merchant Company, was one of the three wealthiest men in the Central Plains. Because of that, he also served as the chairman of the Central Plains Merchant Federation. He had also been the host of this Golden Grand Banquet.
“You mean he is involved?”
Could he perhaps be the one behind this matter?
He was enough of a major figure to make me think that.
“Will you approach Sung Wang-Bo?”
After thinking for a moment, I said,
“I must. But not now.”
“Yes?”
“There is no need to investigate him right now. Do not provoke them, and for the time being, devote your full effort to raising the Third Eye Pavilion.”
“I receive your command.”
Now I felt I understood those bastards clearly. Their force was enormous, and they were woven through this Jianghu like a spiderweb. In other words, it was not something that could be wiped out by eliminating one of them or by rushing in hastily.
And they were strong. If, immediately after I fought the Sword Emperor, an expert with skill similar to his had appeared, I would have died.
This was not the time to stamp my feet in anxiety. Now was the time to become truly strong.
Until this winter, I intended to train quietly. I would begin moving from next spring onward.
By then, the Taeseong Merchant Company would have established itself, the Third Eye Pavilion would have spread throughout the entire Central Plains, and the Lesser Sword Unit and the Black Panther Unit would have grown further.
Most decisively, once this winter arrived, my internal energy would be able to fill two gapja. That meant I would be able to use the fifth form of the Soul-Chasing Asura Sword Art.
Judging by the size of the monsters, now was the time when the fifth form was needed.
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