What to call it.

The first impression I got the moment I saw the woman was nothing else.

Pretty.

Ridiculously pretty. That was the first thought that flashed through.

I haven’t met that many women in my life, but even among them she’d rank near the top.

If I had to compare—Yeongsun. Pretty enough to put her next to that damned one.

Her personality was rabid, but her face was pretty.

I ran from that psycho personality. Anyway.

Judging from that, this woman was unreasonably pretty.

Only—

Setting pretty aside—the feeling is bad.

I didn’t guess “crazy bitch” for nothing.

A chilly sensation was digging into my head from somewhere.

“Do you know who I am?” on a first meeting? How would I know that.

“...Uh... no. I don’t.”

“Oh, really?”

She smiled bright, and somehow it was creepy. Nothing but pretty, yet it put me off.

The reason was simple.

Moon Eyes.

The Sect Master. And like me, a possessor of Moon Eyes. The woman’s blue eyes meant exactly that.

[Ho.]

As if to prove it, the old man behind me breathed out in admiration.

[She’s a marvel.]

My eyebrow ticked up at the old man’s praise.

He was stingy even about the Little Azure Sword, and now he calls her a marvel?

He’d been tight-fisted with praise for Namgung Seong; for this woman he was generous.

It rubbed me wrong.

From the same old man who never called me anything but dullard and idiot.

Couldn’t even nitpick—he wasn’t wrong.

Hoo. I shook my head on a silent sigh.

“Hm, how could you not know...”

The woman tilted her head like she couldn’t understand.

“Do you really not know?”

“Should I? Have we seen each other before?”

“No, right?”

“Then how would I know you, Lady? Do you know me?”

“Of course. I know you very well.”

Step. She closed the distance by one pace.

“You are the successor of our great Sword Saint... and the most precious son of the Liaodong Bang Family, aren’t you?”

Most precious son.

I almost laughed—never heard that in my life.

“Well now... you did a cute bit of snooping.”

All wrong. And yet, in a way, not wrong.

“But you don’t know who I am?”

She asked. Her blue eyes felt like a clear sky.

Same Moon Eyes, and yet they felt quite different from the Moonlit Sword’s, which had resembled a deep sea.

Don’t I know who you are.

I took a very short moment to decide how to answer, then opened my mouth.

“Moon Dancer Cheon Hyein.”

“Oh my.”

She smiled, apparently pleased with my answer.

“You did know?”

“...Wouldn’t it be stranger not to know you?”

I’d wanted to pretend ignorance, but honestly I knew the moment I saw her.

In today’s Central Plains, it’s stranger not to know that woman.

Moon Dancer Cheon Hyein.

Daughter of the Moonlit Sword Cheon Seonghwa, and older sister to Cheon Eujin.

The Seven.

Unlike the Little Azure Sword, who was merely said to be near the Seven, she’d actually joined their ranks.

And, if rumor serves—

The most gifted talent in Blue Moon Sect history.

Anyone who’d seen Cheon Hyein’s sword dance even once always said the same thing:

She was the Blue Moon Sect’s blazing hope without Yoo Cheongil.

That was how extraordinary she was.

And that extraordinary woman—

“Why did you come to see me?”

“Well, word said the successor of the great Sword Saint had arrived... I just couldn’t help myself.”

Her ingenuous smile pinched my brows.

A face that could ensnare a crowd of men. And yet—something greasy about it.

“So—your impression, now that you’ve seen me?”

“Mm...”

At my question, Cheon Hyein thought a moment and answered.

“Not bad.”

Flat as a rock.

“Yeah?”

“Yes.”

No way. I looked at her with a gaze that was turning colder and colder.

“That’s your answer?”

“Yes. Do you need anything else?”

“No, I mean. Not particularly... it’s just odd.”

“Odd?”

“Yes.”

At that, Cheon Hyein’s expression turned puzzled. I spoke, watching her.

“Then why are you doing this to me?”

“Pardon?”

“Coming here with some ridiculous act to see a guy who’s merely ‘not bad’.”

“...”

Her eyes wavered.

“Feels like you came to verify something... but I’m a little tired right now. You know? I literally just arrived today. I don’t feel like doing anything, so... I’ll just ask it straight.”

I was dead tired and holding back the urge to collapse into a bed. Subtlety could go hang.

“What do you want from me?”

No answer came. I only watched it happen.

Cheon Hyein’s smile slowly vanished, and she became a completely different person.

“Ah, there it is.”

Her clear, bell-like voice dropped low.

Much lower than most women.

“How did you know?”

Her manner of speech shifted, too. A voice with no trace of emotion.

Ridiculous—but hearing it finally let my chest ease.

“Know what?”

“That I was acting. How did you know that?”

“How? It was obvious to the eye.”

She dropped honorifics first, so I dropped them too. Why do geniuses always ignore the other person’s pace and talk down?

I don’t get it. Do talent and personality run inverse?

“Obvious?”

“Yeah. Obvious.”

“That’s impossible.”

At her words I nearly burst out laughing. How could she be that sure of herself?

“You must trust yourself a lot. The way you’re so certain.”

“...”

“It really wasn’t bad. Ah—right.”

I recalled what she’d said to me and gave it back as-is.

“Not bad.”

“...”

“Just about that much?”

Returning it word for word, her delicate brows drew together—only for a heartbeat.

Cheon Hyein smoothed her face at once and said to me,

“Amusing. You.”

“And you’re extremely rude.”

“I only came to take a light look today... seems I made the right choice.”

She suddenly turned her back and added,

“I like you. See you later.”

“You say something skin-crawling like it’s nothing. Later, my ass.”

I barely kept myself from spitting a string of curses.

Just then—

“Sister...!!”

Someone burst into my quarters. Cheon Eujin.

He must have run hard; he looked exhausted.

“...What do you think you’re doing...!”

He raised his voice at Cheon Hyein, plainly furious.

For shit’s sake... If you were coming, you could’ve come sooner.

She was just about to leave; what was the point now?

His late entry irked me. Meanwhile, Cheon Hyein walked on as if Cheon Eujin were invisible.

“Sister—!”

He moved to block her, but—

“Move.”

“...!”

“Since when does a useless man dare block whose path?”

Her voice speared him, sharp as a blade.

Wow. Useless, huh.

For a guy with decent talent and a handsome face to get called that—rough.

The word must have hit hard; Cheon Eujin froze like stone.

Cheon Hyein didn’t even look at her brother as she passed him by.

A woman like a typhoon.

“...Are you all right?”

I stepped to him and asked; only then did he come to.

“...My apologies, Young Master Bang.”

“No. It’s fine... no need to apologize.”

If anyone should apologize, it’s that crazy woman, not Cheon Eujin.

Father and daughter both—bitter stuff.

The Moonlit Sword, and Cheon Hyein as well—they both, oddly, seemed to dismiss Cheon Eujin.

Not blood? The thought flickered.

That’d be laughable.

The three looked stamped from the same mold. So, no.

There was a problem somewhere...

Clocking that, I asked Cheon Eujin,

“That crazy— I mean, that woman just now—is she your sister?”

“...Yes.”

I already knew, but I asked again. I wanted to confirm something.

He’s scared.

At the mention of Cheon Hyein, unease bled out of him. I wanted to see that for myself.

Unease... more precisely, fear.

A little brother afraid of his big sister. Sure, I’m afraid of my so-called big sister—the hellion of our house—so maybe that’s similar.

But the feeling is completely different.

This was fear in the literal sense. Not just a bad relationship.

There was something very wrong there.

I don’t care that far.

Honestly, I was too lazy to dig.

Knowing that such a thing exists is enough.

What matters here—

She’s paying attention to me.

That {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} murderous woman had her eyes on me.

Tsk.

The most gifted genius in Blue Moon Sect history.

A top candidate in the current race for Young Lord.

That alone would be a troublesome backdrop. The biggest problem, though...

Cheon Hyein is...

Far more chilling than I’d expected.

In a very bad way.

****

A day passed like that.

I must have been truly spent; I collapsed and bled all the fatigue out of me.

The quarters were warm and the bed was soft.

This is why you climb. So you can feel this for the rest of your life.

Especially after spending several days in a carriage, the contrast was stark.

I ate a proper meal, lazed for the first time in a while,

and around noon I put myself in order and headed somewhere.

“Did you pass the night well?”

“Thanks to you, I did.”

It was the residence of the Moonlit Sword, Cheon Seonghwa, whom I’d met yesterday.

“I’m glad to hear it suited you.”

“Thank you for the consideration.”

His face and manner were the same as yesterday. Even so, I kept my guard up inside.

Men with faces that calm are the ones who slide knives into their words without a ripple.

“I hear you met my daughter yesterday.”

Right on cue—no circling, straight to the point.

“Ah, yes. I did.”

“How was she?”

“Uh... well. A singular person.”

I dressed it up as much as I could.

However she may be, how could I tell a father to his face that his daughter’s a crazy bitch no dog would bark at.

“Singular, you say... I see.”

The Moonlit Sword gave one nod. That ended the topic of Cheon Hyein.

Neat.

Not that I had much I could say anyway.

As for what that brief exchange told me...

Cheon Hyein is a crazy bitch, and there’s an incident concerning Cheon Eujin.

That much.

And both are things I couldn’t bring up to the Moonlit Sword.

Especially not here.

Plenty of company, too.

Besides the Moonlit Sword, several others sat in the room.

Mostly faces I didn’t know.

There were elders and there were middle-aged men. What caught my eye—the elders all had blue eyes.

“The reason I have called Young Master Bang here is simple.”

As I calmly took stock, the Moonlit Sword addressed me.

“We are grateful that you have brought our sect’s treasure back.”

“Yes.”

“Even so, there is something we must verify—including that.”

At his words I steadied my breath.

What was he going to say? I already knew the answer.

“Judging by the internal art within your body and the eyes you bear, it is certain you are one of our sect... but that alone is somewhat insufficient.”

I pressed down the tension climbing my throat and thought.

“Thus, I must ask.”

This was it.

“How you came to inherit his true transmission—tell us that.”

Time to spit out the bullshit the old man and I had prepped for days.