“......”

I froze, staring at the woman seated across from me.

Those unsettling blue eyes again.

Disgustingly pretty, but the kind of face you don’t want to meet for long.

“Moon Dancer.”

One of the Seven, the genius among geniuses — Moon Dancer Cheon Hyein.

Her brother, Cheon Eujin, the Sect Master’s son like her, was looking at me.

Cheon Eujin’s eyes had gone wide in flustered surprise.

Cheon Hyein was watching me as if amused.

And—

“Crazy.”

The most shocked person here was me.

“What are they doing here?”

Why were the Cheon siblings making an entrance here? I couldn’t make sense of it.

I stared at the two with a slightly dazed look, and Cheon Hyein spoke to me.

“Do you like climbing from the very bottom?”

“...Pardon?”

“No, I’m just a little curious why you’d insist on starting from the Third Disciples.”

“What do you mean by—”

I cut my words short and looked around. Only then did I notice it.

The peers who’d come in [N O V E L I G H T] with me were staring at me with eyes gone round.

I focused less on their expressions than on what they were wearing.

“...Same?”

Looking closely at the Third Disciples, they were wearing the exact same clothes I had on.

Only then did I understand why this was happening.

I’d asked for clean clothes to change into, and they’d handed me the Third Disciple uniform?

And the person up front had mistaken me and herded me in with them?

Once I grasped the situation, I narrowed my eyes.

Meanwhile, Cheon Hyein watched me, then suddenly smiled.

“If it isn’t that, then what is it?”

Last time she’d talked down to me; now she was using polite speech.

At that moment, Cheon Eujin seemed to catch on and tried to cut in, flustered.

“No, Young M—”

“Be quiet. Your sister is speaking.”

“...”

At her low warning, he shut his mouth at once.

“If you’re trying to put on a play, I can help. Do you want me to?”

“And what exactly are you offering to help with?”

I asked, for now.

“Anything.”

She kept smiling as she said it, but that smile sat wrong with me.

Haa.

I let out a soft sigh and said, “It isn’t that. It just turned out this way, and I only came to eat.”

“Eat? Eat, hmm...”

She tilted her head, faintly puzzled.

“Why aren’t you eating in your quarters, then? Why eat here?”

“...”

My thought exactly.

Judging from that reaction, meals are supposed to be brought to my quarters. How did it end up like this? I was curious mysel—

“...Hold on.”

I broke off and rubbed my chin.

Maybe...

“Was this arranged, too?”

They didn’t give me guest clothes and handed me Third Disciple clothes instead.

They didn’t bring a tray to my quarters, either.

Were these things intentional? Did someone move pieces to set up this situation?

The thought came to me, but—

“It’s thin.”

A little too thin to stitch into a full pattern.

Anyway...

“It looks like there’s been a mistake, so I’ll apologize first.”

Honestly, I didn’t think it was my fault, but it would be best to apologize quickly and get out.

Nothing good would come of lingering here. I started to rise at once—

“Don’t go. You said you came to eat, didn’t you?”

Cheon Hyein caught my hand.

“Since we’re here anyway, let’s eat together.”

Her motion drew reactions around us.

People seemed startled that she’d grabbed me. I considered for a beat.

“Shake her off and leave?”

I weighed it for a split second and had my answer just as fast.

Thump.

I sat back down. That was my answer. She smiled at that.

****

“Today is the day the new Third Disciples are admitted.”

I let the chatter wash over me and put food in my mouth.

Honestly, the food was good. Compared to the Anhui Branch, heaven and earth.

“On days like this, the Second Disciples of the Blue Moon Sect come by to take a look at the fresh faces — and it happened to be today.”

“I see.”

I gave a noncommittal reply. I was getting full.

Just as I was about to swallow another bite—

“Oh my, you don’t find it strange?”

Cheon Hyein said to me. Only then did I look at her.

“What do you mean?”

“That the Third Disciples’ ages are oddly high, or why my brother and I are sitting with the Second Disciples — things like that.”

“Ah.”

So that’s what she meant. Pointless chatter. I swallowed another bite.

Ah, did I take too big a one? It stuck in my throat.

I drank from a poured cup and forced it down.

“Hoo...”

I wiped my lips with the back of my hand and looked at her.

“What’s there to find strange?”

“Most people do find it strange.”

She was still smiling. Annoyingly so.

“But I guess you’re not most people.”

“Right. I’m not.”

“Why?”

“Do I have to give you a reason?”

“Then good. It’s fun — a chance to get to know you.”

I see. That settles it even more.

“Yep, she’s insane.”

More unhinged than I expected. The more she talked, the more so.

“My heart says I should walk out now...”

I’d eaten; I was full. I could just leave — but I didn’t.

“Not yet.”

Not yet. There was still something I wanted to confirm about Cheon Hyein.

So I’d humor her a little longer.

“Strange or not, it’s all common knowledge already. No need to bring it up.”

“Mmm.”

At the start of my answer, her interest sharpened.

Even that interest felt dubious — that peculiar opacity of people whose emotions are hellish to read.

“When the Blue Moon Sect selects disciples, they go through a long training process first. Everyone knows that.”

Unlike most sects, where children enter as Third Disciples and learn martial arts from an early age,

the Blue Moon Sect only grants the title of “disciple” after you properly learn the Blue Moon Heart Art.

So when she said “new Third Disciples,” she meant those who’ve met that condition.

Also—

“The reason you’re among the Second Disciples is simply that you’re the Sect Master’s disciple.”

Strictly speaking, the present Moonlit Sword is a First Disciple.

So it’s not strange that his children and disciples, Cheon Hyein and Cheon Eujin, are Second Disciples.

If anything here is ‘strange’...

“How did a First Disciple become Sect Master?”

But that’s a useless line of talk.

Comparing the Blue Moon Sect to other sects was foolish from the start.

“In the Blue Moon Sect, the strongest warrior becomes Sect Master.”

The warrior who has opened the Moon Eyes — the strongest — that’s the condition to be Sect Master.

Which means—

“The Moonlit Sword is the strongest in the Blue Moon Sect.”

At least as far as I knew.

“Though, the old man laughed when I said it, which nags at me.”

When I brought it up, the former Sect Master Yoo Cheongil cackled. When I asked if he was denying it, he said half right, half wrong.

“What kind of garbage answer is that.”

I couldn’t make sense of it.

In any case, the Moonlit Sword became Sect Master as a First Disciple.

And his disciple, Cheon Hyein, is of course among the Second Disciples.

“Studied hard, did you?”

She grinned, apparently satisfied with my answer.

My gaze dropped. She hadn’t eaten a single bite.

“Of course. One should study.”

I lifted the corner of my mouth as well.

“It’s a place I’ll have to lead one day. Best to learn in advance, don’t you think?”

“...!”

Sssss—

A dining hall that was already quiet turned dead still at a single sentence.

The faint clatter of chopsticks, even the sound of breathing — gone.

No one here failed to grasp what I’d just implied.

“My.”

Cheon Hyein broke the silence.

“I didn’t take you for that type... You’re a little more ambitious than I expected.”

Skk. As she spoke, her hand moved. At some point she’d picked up chopsticks and plucked up a bite.

She pushed it between those pretty lips.

Crunch.

It must have been something firm, because the sound carried across the hall. All the more so in the hush.

After she finished chewing, she added, looking at me,

“Are you confident?”

She was still smiling, but something strange flickered in her eyes.

It was chilling. I narrowed mine.

“No matter how I look at her, she’s off.”

What was she?

The Moonlit Sword is one thing; compared to Cheon Eujin, she was a different species.

How could siblings be that far apart?

And—

“Where have I felt this before?”

That feeling I got looking at Cheon Hyein — I’d definitely felt this impression somewhere...

“Ah.”

Right, she was nearby already.

“She’s like the old man.”

The vile spirit orbiting me.

She was oddly similar to Yoo Cheongil. Not as much as the old man, of course, but faintly the same grain.

Not that her looks or temper were filthy — the feel of her was.

“A sense I don’t want to get tangled with.”

The crisis-sense that if I got involved with this person, my life would break.

I felt that from Cheon Hyein, too.

I hid the discomfort and said,

“Confident, hmm...”

I tipped my head at a deliberate angle.

“I don’t need much of that...”

I met her gaze with a sideways look.

“Doesn’t seem all that hard, from what I can see.”

“...”

“Do you, Lady Cheon, need ‘confidence’ to lift a pair of chopsticks?”

Her brows creased at that.

My meaning was baked in: me becoming Sect Master would be as nothing to me as you lifting chopsticks.

Then—

“...Ha-ha. Well now.”

She dragged a hand up her face, hair rippling.

“Her eyes changed.”

In that brief moment, the air shifted hard.

The smile was long gone. To be honest, it was scary as hell.

[Heh-heh-heh—!]

Meanwhile, the old man found this hilarious.

“Fascinating.”

It really was. Her gaze changed and the entire hall’s atmosphere followed.

Third Disciples were sweating cold and watching for cues. The Second Disciples had their brows knotted, displeased by my words. I took that in and steadied my breath.

“That should do.”

I’d gotten what I needed from her reactions and bearing; if I wanted to take a little more, now was the time.

Scrape—!

I rose from my chair. Cheon Eujin, beside her, looked up at me.

I ignored his gaze for now.

“I don’t think there’s anything more to say, so I’ll take my leave. Busy man, busy schedule.”

Tap, tap. I patted Cheon Hyein’s shoulder twice.

“Enjoy your meal.”

Her eyes crumpled into something savage at that. I watched it lightly and started past—

Ssk—!

Someone stepped in front of me.

They blocked my view completely. The man was big.

“Your manner is excessive.”

I lifted my chin to the voice. Quite a bit.

“Who are you?”

“I am Hong Gyeong of the Second Disciples.”

“Ah. I see.”

I smiled and asked,

“So? What do you want?”

“...We understand you are an honored guest of our sect, but even so, your words went too far.”

“Mhm.”

I see. That can happen. I looked to Cheon Hyein.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend.”

Without hesitation, I apologized, then looked back at Hong Gyeong.

“Better?”

“...Huh...?”

“I’m leaving.”

I stepped to the side to go around him—

“What do you think you’re—!”

He grabbed my arm, temper snapping. I had to hold back hard.

“Good.”

To keep from grinning without meaning to. I checked the hand on my arm, set my face, and looked at him.

“Guest or not, this is an insult to the Blue Moon Sect—!”

“I might be ignorant, but tell me.”

I cut him off.

“In this sect, is that really how a disciple treats his martial uncle?”

“...Pardon?”

At the word, he faltered.

I ground my teeth, like I was forcing down my temper, as I looked at that dim expression.

Keeping that, I said to him,

“Second Disciple Hong Gyeong. You know who my master is.”

“...!”

At the word “master,” his face changed at once.

I said it earlier.

The reason Cheon Hyein is a Second Disciple is because she’s the Moonlit Sword’s disciple.

Then—

“I am the disciple of the former Sect Master, the Sword Saint Yoo Cheongil.”

If the Sword Saint stands as the Moonlit Sword’s senior in the line, and I am the Sword Saint’s disciple, what does that make me?

The answer was simple.

“A disciple of the Blue Moon Sect—”

If you follow this through—

“Show proper respect to your elders of the main line.”

Which is to say: I stand to the Moonlit Sword as a peer among senior brothers — and a mere Second Disciple like you shouldn’t even dare meet my eyes.