‘Who did he just say...?’

What did the old man call him just now? I sat there broken for a while after hearing his words.

‘Sword Emperor? Did he say Sword Emperor?’

Sword Emperor. Yoo Cheongil definitely said that.

Then who on earth was he calling the Sword Emperor?

No way.

‘That coachman?’

Was he looking at the coachman up front and calling him the Sword Emperor?

‘Come on... no way.’

Where would you even find something that absurd. I swallowed a tremor and stared at the coachman.

The old man who’d introduced himself as Chu Dong was hunched and downright scrawny.

From face to toes he was all creases, and his body looked like it had never once gripped a sword in his life.

‘That man is the Sword Emperor...?’

How am I supposed to believe that.

Who is the Sword Emperor? Even someone like me, who hardly cares about the Central Plains, knows that name.

‘...A hero of the War of Righteous and Demonic.’

The blood-soaked calamity the Heavenly Demon raised.

Back then, the Heavenly Demon led the Demon Cult to invade the Central Plains, declaring he’d sweep aside the Martial Alliance and crown himself the new supreme.

As history records, that war was stopped by Yoo Cheongil.

Yoo Cheongil killed the Heavenly Demon.

And with that he was called the World’s Greatest, the greatest of all ages.

But—

‘He didn’t do it alone.’

Of course it wasn’t Yoo Cheongil alone who blocked that war. There were several who performed feats against the Demon Cult.

Among them, the monsters now called the Five Kings Under Heaven, to be sure—

And even aside from them, there were martial masters who contributed greatly to the war, like Yoo Cheongil.

The Sword Emperor was one of those.

‘Sword Emperor Ui Yangyeon.’

A man said to have started as a wanderer and split the sky with his sword. For a time, they said he stood equal to Yoo Cheongil—the only one who could be compared to him.

‘When Yoo Cheongil slew the Heavenly Demon and the war ended, he vanished.’

The moment the war ended, he disappeared without a trace.

Where he suddenly went, why he left without a word—everyone wondered, but nothing became known.

‘So the rumors ran—he died of chronic illness... or was actually assassinated.’

Whatever it was, the Sword Emperor was presumed dead.

That was the accepted “truth.”

‘And he pops up here?’

If that coachman is the Sword Emperor, why would he be here out of nowhere?

Hoping I was wrong, I snuck a glance at Yoo Cheongil again.

[...What is that fellow?]

Yoo Cheongil looked genuinely startled.

‘...It’s real?’

I forced down the panic and looked at the coachman.

As I said, he was thin, even shabby.

And—

‘He’s one-armed.’

The old man had no right arm. And this man is really the Sword Emperor?

‘What is this...?’

What happened. I stared, full of suspicion, and the old man called Chu Dong spoke to me with an awkward face.

“My arm is like this, but I am confident in my driving. Please trust me...”

He seemed to think I disliked that a coachman was missing an arm.

Not wrong. How does a coachman lack an arm.

Of course you’d find it strange, but—

‘...The Sword Emperor as a coachman...?’

If this old man really is the Sword Emperor, like Yoo Cheongil’s reaction—

‘Surely not.’

At the prickling thought, I looked back toward where the Moonlit Sword sat.

‘...So that’s it?’

I’d wondered why he allowed just the three of us to go.

‘...If the Moonlit Sword knew that old man was the Sword Emperor?’

If he attached him as both watcher and escort, the story lines up.

Only—

‘I don’t know how the Sword Emperor agreed to that.’

Then again, that’s solved if the Sword Emperor and the Moonlit Sword came to terms. It assumes the Moonlit Sword knew where the vanished Sword Emperor was.

‘Which he could.’

Nothing impossible there. Given the reach the Moonlit Sword exerts on the Central Plains, what couldn’t he do.

‘...So in the end.’

That coachman is the Sword Emperor.

And the Sword Emperor will play coachman while hiding his identity.

‘...Insane.’

Just imagining it made my breath hitch. If I didn’t know, fine.

‘But now that I know, I have to mind that, too.’

Not some random person—the Sword Emperor.

Cold sweat came on its own. My head was locking up in the tension when—

“Young hero?”

“...!”

At the Sword Emperor’s—no, Chu Dong’s—voice, I snapped out of it.

“Are you well...? If this old one displeases you...”

“N-no. It’s not that, elder.”

I flapped my hands, hurried.

“It isn’t your arm that’s the issue... From here to Sichuan will be a grueling road. I worried you °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° might fall ill from driving the horses. I’m sorry to have caused a misunderstanding.”

I put my whole mind into it.

Thankfully, the words came out clean, the voice steady.

“Hoh... As expected, Young Master, you mind even such things.”

At that, Cheon Eujin nodded, moved, like my words pleased him.

What is with this guy now? “As expected,” my foot. When did I ever do this before.

Cheon Eujin, eager to misunderstand as he did last time, and—

“Mm...”

Do Hyeong, patting my shoulder like he approved, too.

I’m sweating bullets here and both of them are being a pain.

“I see... Thank you for your concern.”

Chu Dong looked at me with a kindly smile.

“Your worry is truly appreciated, but this Chu Dong has driven horses for decades. I have never seen anyone in Anhui drive better than I. Even the great Moonlit Sword knows this and entrusted me with the task.”

“...”

At those words, I was sure.

‘He really is the Sword Emperor.’

That old man is the Sword Emperor.

No—if not the Sword Emperor, then a master for certain.

‘Driven for decades?’

It’s not about believing the claim.

The important part is he invoked the Moonlit Sword.

The Moonlit Sword knows his skill and entrusted him.

Which means—

‘The old man is indeed someone the Moonlit Sword attached.’

For me, that sealed it.

I was shocked.

I knew it because Yoo Cheongil said “Sword Emperor.” If not for that...

‘I would’ve taken him for a frail old man.’

That’s how little I sensed.

There was none of that edge unique to masters.

A common old man. One missing an arm, if anything below common.

To look like that—and be the Sword Emperor.

‘...A journey with the Sword Emperor.’

A Sichuan run with the Sword Emperor holding the reins.

It’s suffocating already.

“...Please... take care of us, Elder Chu.”

Now that I knew—

There was no such thing as refusing.

And so I boarded the carriage the Sword Emperor would drive.

****

Final checks on the carriage were almost done; departure was imminent.

We could have moved that instant and it wouldn’t have been odd.

From inside the Blue Moon Hall, the Moonlit Sword watched it through a window.

He didn’t need to crane his neck or make an effort.

If he wished, he could grasp it all at will.

—Much obliged, Elder Chu.

The Moonlit Sword paused his hand when he heard Bang Sungyeon’s reply.

He’d been clearing the stacked letters one by one. In that moment, his eyes shone.

Accepted.

Good. It worked without a hitch.

‘Well.’

No matter how bright and exceptional he may be, there was no way he’d see through that old man’s identity.

If there was one worry, it was that he’d scorn the one-armed man and refuse.

‘But apparently not.’

Bang Sungyeon had instead shown humility to the old man.

With that, the biggest concern was resolved.

After all, the old man had said something to the Moonlit Sword.

‘If he displeases me, I’ll kill him outright.’

If it chafes, I’ll just kill him.

Chilling words the old man had spoken with feeling.

It wasn’t just talk. The Moonlit Sword knew how tight that old man’s lips were, and that he never spoke nonsense, so he was certain the words were sincere.

On that score, the start wasn’t bad. He was thinking that when—

“Are you truly fine with this?”

At the clear voice, the Moonlit Sword turned.

Cheon Hyein was looking at him.

Seeing her, he asked with a cold face,

“What do you mean.”

“Sending just those three. It seems important... I question whether so few can finish it properly.”

At her words, spoken like she truly worried, the Moonlit Sword sneered inside.

His daughter’s coyness struck him as a touch comical.

“It seems important,” does it?

How laughable.

‘She already knows exactly what it is.’

That brilliant child had surely long since learned why the three were going to Sichuan.

He knew how many eyes and ears she had planted around her.

He found it amusing that she pretended not to know.

And amusing that even as she spoke, she would also expect he’d know she knew.

“Are you saying you dislike my decision.”

“That’s not it. I’m only concerned.”

“About what.”

“That incompetent child, tagging along and being a nuisance. That he’ll come back even more foolish. That kind of concern.”

“...”

At Cheon Hyein’s words, the Moonlit Sword thought of his son.

The dull boy who couldn’t even meet his eyes to the last moment.

His brow knit a fraction at the thought.

Seeing it, Cheon Hyein spoke with a sigh.

“You, as always, surely have a plan. We don’t know it; we simply think you are right. Isn’t that so?”

The Moonlit Sword didn’t answer. He only looked at her, frowning.

The meaning of that look was plain.

—Do not cross the line again.

A cold warning. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Even so, Cheon Hyein didn’t stop talking.

“I know you’re pleased to have a new toy, but please don’t let it steal your eyes.”

She smiled under her father’s icy gaze. As always.

“No matter how hard he tries, he won’t catch up to me. In the end, it’s obvious he’ll fall out of your favor like that boy.”

There was certainty in it.

Creak.

Cheon Hyein took the door handle behind her. The Moonlit Sword hadn’t told her to leave.

But even if he hadn’t—

“Don’t expect anything. If you must, expect only of me, as always.”

Saying that, she stepped out. The Moonlit Sword said nothing as he watched.

“Because I will meet your expectations.”

Whatever they may be.

She swallowed the last words and left the room.

“...”

He stared for a moment at the closed door after she left.

Then his eyes cooled and slowly shut.

He quietly recalled what she had said.

A while later—

—Depart—!

Neigh—!

The sound of the carriage setting out reached him.

“Hm...”

With a sigh, the Moonlit Sword realized:

Of the words Cheon Hyein had spoken before she stepped out,

there was exactly one that was true.