“How’s your body feeling?”

After Cheon Hyein stormed off, Tyrant, who had come looking for me, asked the question.

“...Yes. I’m fine.”

“Heh heh. Right. You certainly look that way.”

...Then why ask?

I swallowed the irritation and kept quiet, and Tyrant asked something else.

“And how’s that?”

He pointed at my hand.

He seemed to mean the bracer.

“Well... nothing’s really changed.”

“Hm.”

I already knew that was what he was after.

Changed...

There wasn’t really anything to call a change.

The bracer had stayed quiet.

Muk Yeokseong stared at me.

His black eyes were oppressively heavy.

“Do you remember the conversation we had?”

“...I do.”

I wanted to forget it, but that wasn’t exactly possible.

“Don’t worry. If anything comes to mind, I’ll tell you.”

“Let me say this clearly. I have no intention of becoming Alliance Leader.”

“...”

His tone drove the point in like a nail.

“I could stand as a candidate, sure. But I’ll never actually become Alliance Leader.”

“...Are you certain?”

“I’m sure. Heh heh heh. Those people have eyes too. You think they’d make a man like me Alliance Leader? Don’t be ridiculous.”

It was a brutally objective assessment of himself.

Was it, though?

Tyrant...

He was one of the Five Kings Under Heaven, and a hero who had fought in the war.

At that level, wouldn’t there be no problem with him becoming the next Alliance Leader?

That thought crossed my mind, but Tyrant clearly saw it differently.

Whatever.

Whether Tyrant became Alliance Leader or not had nothing to do with me.

What mattered to me was whether I got put up as a candidate.

“Well. Setting that aside, the question is what to do about that.”

Muk Yeokseong’s gaze was still fixed on my arm.

“...Why? If you decide it won’t work, are you going to tear my arm off ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) after all?”

I said it while shielding the arm a little, and his eyes widened.

Then, a moment later, he burst into laughter.

“Hahahahaha—! Look at this brat. Did you really take that seriously?”

“...It wasn’t serious?”

He’d looked ready to rip my arm off on the spot.

And now that was supposed to have been a joke?

No chance.

I stared at him in disbelief, but Muk Yeokseong didn’t change his expression.

“Don’t worry. I won’t do something that cruel. More importantly...”

Muk Yeokseong looked off somewhere.

“If I did that to your arm, the Sect Leader here wouldn’t let it slide.”

“The Sect Leader?”

Why was Moon Immortal Sword coming up here?

He didn’t strike me as the type who’d do anything just because my arm got torn off.

“I won’t touch your arm. But if it really seems like there’s no other way...”

Tap, tap.

Muk Yeokseong drummed his fingers on the table as he spoke.

“You may have to come with me to the Mo Family.”

“To your family?”

“That’s right. There might be some way there. Agree to that much.”

“...”

Hm.

The Mo Family...

It wasn’t exactly a place I knew anything about.

“All right.”

The thing had originally belonged to them anyway, and if there was a chance they had a solution, I’d probably have to go.

Of course—

“...After the agreement between us is completely finished first.”

“Understood.”

Tyrant seemed willing to accept that part.

“In any case, I’ve checked on your condition, so I’ll be going.”

With that, Tyrant rose from his seat.

“I’ve done what I came to do, so next is the Alliance, I take it?”

“...Most likely.”

“Good. Then I’ll see you then.”

Once the Azure Wolf Festival schedule was over, I’d be heading straight back to the Murim Alliance.

I’d accomplished my goal here, so that was the next thing to do.

And after Tyrant disappeared—

“Tch...”

Groaning under my breath, I hauled myself up too.

My body was still stiff and annoying as hell.

...Then now.

The next thing on the schedule.

It was time to go see Moon Immortal Sword.

*****

I went to the Sect Leader’s office.

On the way there, the disciples’ stares were so heavy I thought I’d suffocate.

It was probably the aftermath of the martial match.

“That’s Moon Hero.”

“...Did he finally wake up?”

There was an obvious difference in their voices now.

Something like awe.

Something like shock.

Winning the Azure Wolf Festival had probably done most of that.

Ignoring the flood of stares, I made my way to the Sect Leader’s office.

“Excuse me.”

The moment I entered, my eyes met Moon Immortal Sword’s.

“You’re here.”

“Yes. I heard you were looking for me.”

As soon as I arrived, Moon Immortal Sword stood up.

“Come.”

“Yes? Where?”

There was no answer.

He passed by me and headed off somewhere.

Tilting my head, I followed after him for the time being.

There was no conversation.

Not about the festival’s result.

Not about that fight.

Not about anything.

...This is suffocating.

It was always like this when I was alone with this man.

It made it awkward to ask anything.

Especially when I actually did have something I wanted to ask.

I wanted to ask what that thing was.

That something Silver Moon Sword had used, something like Moonbolt.

I wanted to ask about the martial art Moon Immortal Sword had apparently altered into that form, but I could feel it from his back.

That pressure telling me not to ask pointless questions.

So I kept silent and followed Moon Immortal Sword for about half a gak.

“We’re here.”

“...This is?”

We had arrived at a cave inside the Azure Moon Sect.

“What is this place?”

“The place I promised.”

“The place you promised...? Ah.”

What the winner of the Azure Wolf Festival received.

The title of Young Sect Leader—

And access to the repository inside the Azure Moon Sect, was it?

I’d been told it was the place where all of the Azure Moon Sect’s so-called divine arts were kept.

Surely not—

“...You brought me here right now?”

The second I woke up?

“Take it.”

Moon Immortal Sword handed me something.

A seal.

“The seal of the Young Sect Leader.”

“...”

Then he walked past me and went behind me.

What was that supposed to mean?

“Where are you going? You need to open it before you leave.”

If he wasn’t going to open it, then at least he should explain how.

I called out to him quickly, and he looked at me and said,

“There’s no need for me to open it for you. You’ll know how.”

“Yes...?”

“Look around as you please.”

Tap.

The moment he finished speaking, Moon Immortal Sword vanished.

It had happened in an instant.

“...What the hell.”

Left there alone, I stared at the cave.

I’d know how to open it?

Because of that, I kept looking straight at the entrance.

“Hm?”

There was a hole in the entrance.

It was exactly the size of the seal.

Carefully, I pressed it in.

“...”

Nothing happened.

“What?”

What was I supposed to do with this?

I stared at it, baffled, and then—

You’ll know how.

Moon Immortal Sword’s words kept scraping at my ears.

They felt like something scratching at the crown of my head.

...This.

Could it be...?

Fwoosh.

I stirred my energy.

My heart art spread and wrapped around my hand, and I poured that energy into the seal.

The moment I did—

KIIIIIIK—!! KIKIKIK—!!

With the sound of a mechanism moving—

Rumble.

The entrance opened as if it were nothing.

“Hah.”

A hollow laugh slipped out as I watched it.

*****

I stepped inside the cave.

The method for opening it hadn’t been difficult.

Ridiculously enough, Moon Immortal Sword’s words had given me the answer.

You’ll know how.

I’ll know.

That line lodged itself deep inside me.

...So he knew.

The existence of the Sword Saint’s vault.

And even the fact that I could open it.

Just how much?

How much did he know?

And if he knew, why had he pretended not to?

Whatever the answer was, the corners of my mouth curled upward on their own.

I’m sick of it.

For some reason, I wanted nothing to do with anything that had blue eyes.

On the outside they all looked like violent lunatics obsessed with nothing but strength.

But inside their heads...

It was just an endless spectacle of tangled psychological warfare.

Tch.

I clicked my tongue and looked over the repository.

It wasn’t that large.

For all the absurdly strict locks, there was only a single bookshelf inside.

And if you asked whether that shelf itself was huge, the answer was no.

It was just an ordinary size.

The books packed into it weren’t even especially numerous.

I stared at the empty gaps between them with narrowed eyes.

...Hm.

What exactly was I supposed to be looking at here?

They said this was a place only the Azure Moon Sect Leader could enter.

So what had the Azure Moon Sect Leader looked at in here?

Look around as you please.

That was all Moon Immortal Sword had said.

But what was I supposed to look at?

There was barely anything here.

Even after glancing over the shelf, nothing in particular stood out.

It was just a place full of old books.

What was I supposed to see in that?

...Look around as you please...

Did he mean it didn’t matter how many books I read?

Or how much I read?

Handing over a privilege reserved solely for the Sect Leader like this...

Did that mean looking through all of it was pointless anyway?

Or did it really mean he didn’t care?

“...Hm.”

I stared at the shelf.

What exactly am I supposed to do?

Carefully, I pulled out one of the books.

It was caked in dust.

I brushed it off with a few pats.

There was no title on it.

I opened it and checked the contents.

...A sword art?

It seemed to be something about the Azure Moon Sword Dance, but it wasn’t anything that looked particularly useful to me.

To begin with—

My sword branched off from Yoo Cheongil’s.

A sword art activated on the foundation of the heart art he had altered.

Did that count as a sword path too?

In truth...

Each strike felt more like a killing blow than part of a formal path, so calling it a sword path felt a little off.

Come to think of it...

I’d never actually learned set forms.

Even the way I use Great Moon...

Rather than a sword path, it was closer to fusing multiple martial arts together.

A martial art that gathered everything I’d learned into one.

And on top of that—

There are still two left.

I still couldn’t use two parts of that martial art.

I hadn’t learned the rest yet.

...But a sword path.

I’d never separately learned the Azure Moon Sect’s sword path from Yoo Cheongil.

All the other disciples used it, yet Yoo Cheongil had never taught it to me.

That felt strangely odd.

Does Yoo Cheongil just not use sword paths?

The thought occurred to me all at once.

The more I thought about it, the more that actually seemed likely.

Seeing how he’d never mentioned sword paths and had never shown any intention of teaching them, maybe he simply didn’t think that part mattered much.

How is that possible?

I couldn’t understand it.

For a swordsman, a sword path held enormous importance.

Most martial arts were used through established forms, and the sword roads I saw after opening Moon Eye—

All swordsmen had sword paths.

That was what made it possible to predict them and reflect them back.

And yet.

I had never learned anything that could be called the Azure Moon Sect’s sword path.

“Hm.”

With that in mind, I looked at it with a flicker of interest.

I studied the forms written there.

Then I pulled out another book beside it.

That one was just as dusty.

I took them out one by one and examined them.

And as I read line by line—

What is this?

Something felt strange.

There’s overlap here?

The direction of the forms used to express the sword.

And the methods written to use them.

As I looked through them—

Coincidence?

In the way the forms were explained and expressed, I kept seeing oddly overlapping sections.

“...”

I pulled out another book and checked.

Some didn’t have it.

Since I remembered everything the moment I read it, comparison came easily.

It was subtle, but it was definitely there.

What was this supposed to be?

“...”

Thunk.

I put the book down.

Then I slid it back into its original place and stepped away.

Two steps.

Far enough back to take in the whole bookshelf at once.

Standing there, I stared at it.

Look around as you please.

Moon Immortal Sword’s words surfaced again.

As I please?

Don’t tell me—

Wooooong.

I raised my energy and activated Moon Eye.

Blue light answered and my sight opened.

The world gleamed blue.

And then—

“Hah.”

My eyes widened.

Because I found the difference.

“This is ridiculous.”

The bookshelf.

The books inside it were glowing.

Not all of them.

Only some of them were giving off a vivid blue light.

Now I understood.

So that’s why.

A place only the Sect Leader could enter.

Which meant—

...The divine pill gained upon becoming Sect Leader.

This repository could only be seen in full by someone who had consumed the Azure Moon Sect’s divine pill.