They had upgraded me from young master to Young Lord.
“You can’t call him young master! You should call him Young Lord.”
“Ah! Right! My mistake.”
The two of them fell right into step and turned me into the Young Lord in an instant.
I stared at them in disbelief, then looked at my grandfather.
He was nodding along with the most satisfied smile on his face.
When our eyes met, Jeok Mugun startled and quickly averted his gaze.
I let out a faint laugh.
He really was the kind of grandfather you just couldn’t hate.
As the argument between the two of them kept escalating, I finally stepped in.
“Excuse me. I haven’t said I’ll become ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ the successor yet. I only said I’d think about it.”
At my words, the two of them switched stances in an instant.
“Of course! It should be entirely up to you, Young Master.”
“That’s right. We overstepped. You can take your time and think about it at your leisure.”
“And please keep my identity secret if possible.”
“Of course!”
“You even have to ask? We’ll keep our mouths shut.”
At the way the two of them kept echoing each other, Jeok Mugun sent them a voice transmission.
—Excellent! From here on, let’s all join forces to make our Wigang the successor.
—We’ll devote ourselves to it with all sincerity!
And just like that, the alliance to make Jeok Wigang the successor was formed.
Jeok Mugun was in a good mood.
It felt far more reassuring to persuade me with several people than to do it alone.
More than anything, hadn’t I already brought two of the Eight Stars of Heavenly Martial Castle, the very backbone of the place, over to my side?
Strength, a brilliant mind, and even the charm to pull people in.
There was no more perfect successor than that.
Jeok Mugun vowed that even if he had to stake his life on it, he would absolutely seat me in the position of Young Lord.
Feeling the three pairs of burning eyes on me, I decided I needed to sell the rest of the weapons quickly and leave for the Imperial Capital.
*****
Among the Eight Stars of Heavenly Martial Castle, there was one man who was the most rigid of them all, a man who believed a true master did not choose his weapon.
A man overflowing with confidence that any spear in his hand would become an invincible spear.
A man who did not discriminate between weapons, yet loved spears more than anything else in the world.
A man who loved every spear that existed in the world, and therefore tried not to give his affection to any one of them in particular.
That man was the Golden Spear Star, Gu Yaheuk.
I figured the reason he never gave his affection to a single spear was simple.
He had never found one that truly satisfied him.
That said, marching up to him and trying to force a sale on him would be amateurish.
So I carried the spear I intended to show him as if it were nothing special and lingered along the route he always passed through.
I also deliberately didn’t make the spear look new.
I made it look as though it carried the marks of time. Outwardly, it looked shabby and unimpressive.
If someone who didn’t know its true worth saw it, they would probably sneer and ask if that thing could even be called a spear.
But if it was the Golden Spear Star, who loved spears more than anyone, he would recognize its true value immediately.
I already knew around what time he passed by, so I moved as though I were just naturally walking through the area.
Soon enough, in the distance, Gu Yaheuk approached with his expressionless face.
I also kept my face expressionless and passed by as though I were just happening to cross that path.
The key here was that I absolutely could not turn my head.
Step. Step.
Gu Yaheuk’s footsteps didn’t stop.
Did it fail?
Did I need to think of another way?
Just as that thought crossed my mind, I felt footsteps drawing nearer.
Did it work?
Was he coming back?
I pretended not to notice and kept walking, and then I heard his voice.
“That spear... is it yours?”
When I turned my head, I saw Gu Yaheuk staring fixedly at the spear in my hand.
“This spear? It is mine, but I’m on my way to sell it.”
“Sell it? Why?”
“It’s not something I can handle. What’s the point of keeping something I can’t even wield? Better to sell it and turn it into money.”
At the mention of selling the spear, his already blank face hardened even further, as if it displeased him.
“The spear is blameless. Don’t speak as if there’s something wrong with the spear.”
His words were filled with affection for the spear.
“There’s nothing wrong with the spear. I’m just not good enough to become its master. So I’m thinking of finding it a proper one.”
“How?”
“If someone truly understands this spear’s value, they’ll buy it even at the price I set.”
“How much do you intend to sell it for?”
“Five hundred gold taels.”
“Hmm.”
“What do you think? At that price, wouldn’t only someone who truly understands this spear’s worth buy it?”
“Y-yes. That’s true.”
Even while he kept talking to me, Gu Yaheuk’s gaze never once left the spear.
“You don’t seem to be someone from Heavenly Martial Castle.”
“No. I was able to get inside because I know someone in Heavenly Martial Castle. And I figured there would be quite a few people here who could recognize this spear’s true worth.”
“That’s true.”
“Are you interested in this spear too, sir? Would you like to hold it once?”
At my offer, Gu Yaheuk answered as though he was giving in against his will.
“W-well, if you insist that strongly... then perhaps I’ll take a look.”
He made it sound as though he wasn’t particularly interested and was only humoring me because I insisted, but he was already snatching the spear away.
I grinned.
It was over.
That spear had been made for Gu Yaheuk and Gu Yaheuk alone.
Today, he would understand.
He would understand why masters went mad trying to find a weapon that suited them.
The moment Gu Yaheuk touched the spear, he was thunderstruck.
A sensation he had never experienced before in his life.
It felt like recovering a part of his body that he had lost long ago.
He had handled countless spears, but this was the first one that fit so snugly in his hand.
WHOOOOM— WHUM-WHUM-WHUM—.
He swung the spear this way and that, marveling again and again.
Its center of balance was perfect, and it was light.
“What do you think? Do you think it’ll meet a good master?”
“Huh? Y-yes. It will.”
“If it fails to meet a good master, do you think the spear will be sad?”
At my question, Gu Yaheuk answered at once.
“Of course!”
“That’s what I think too. So I plan to do my best to make sure it finds a master worthy of it.”
“Y-yes. You should.”
“Use it a little more, and if you know anyone around here who handles a spear, please recommend it to them.”
Gu Yaheuk kept swinging the spear over and over, as if he couldn’t even hear my voice.
“I need to be going now, sir.”
At those words, he handed the spear back with a regretful look on his face.
“I made good use of it.”
“Please spread the word around.”
“I will.”
Without urging him any further, I took the spear and left the spot just like that.
*****
Gu Yaheuk sat blankly in the office of the Spear Martial Pavilion, staring at the spears hanging on the wall.
His head was full of nothing but thoughts of the spear he had held earlier.
Had it already been sold?
He wanted to feel that sensation again, that perfect union with the spear.
Gu Yaheuk rose from his seat, took down one of the spears hanging on the wall, and swung it.
WHUM-WHUM—.
“No!”
This wasn’t it.
He didn’t like this feeling.
Still, because it was his spear, he carefully set it down on the floor.
Then he took another spear and swung it.
Not this one either.
Another spear, then another.
In the end, only after swinging every spear hanging on the wall did he realize it.
He could no longer use any other spear.
With that spear, he could push his signature ultimate technique, Heavenly Thunder Extreme Spear, to a higher level.
I want it.
A possessive desire unlike anything he had ever felt in his life flared up inside him.
The problem was money.
Five hundred gold taels.
He had never cared much for money in the first place, so he had no savings. He didn’t have that kind of huge sum on hand.
But there was one person he could borrow money from.
His son.
Would that boy really lend me five hundred gold taels without protest?
A man who had never held out his hand to anyone in his life was now actually considering whether he should do so for the first time and ask his own son.
Then he quickly shook his head.
No.
There’s no need to go that far.
To steady his wavering heart, Gu Yaheuk sat down cross-legged and immediately entered meditation.
The next day.
Gu Yaheuk opened his eyes, looking haggard.
He had meditated all night, but the spear I had been holding kept appearing in his mind, and he hadn’t been able to focus properly at all.
He wanted to swing that spear.
He wanted to swing it so badly he could barely stand it.
That thought was all that filled his mind.
It felt like meeting the partner of his lifetime and being unable to be with them because he lacked the money.
“Urgh!”
In the end, Gu Yaheuk couldn’t endure it anymore and sprang to his feet.
He couldn’t quite bring himself to borrow from his son, so he decided he would go to his friends first and see if he could scrape together some money.
Would his friends really lend him five hundred gold taels?
Letting out a sigh, he left the room with the mindset that he at least had to try.
*****
Gu Yaheuk returned empty-handed.
Every one of them had refused him.
It was simply too large a sum to borrow.
At this point, he should have been able to give up, but instead, the thought that he might not be able to have it only made him want it more desperately.
Now there was only one person left.
His son.
“Nngh...”
The truth was, when his son had been young, the relationship between father and son had been good.
Things had only gone wrong after his son suffered qi deviation and lost his martial arts.
Gu Yaheuk had tried however he could to salvage his martial arts, but his son had said it was over and gone off to find another path.
In the end, his son had begun walking the path of a merchant, and Gu Yaheuk had cut ties with him completely, declaring he had no need for the child of a merchant.
He was one of the Eight Stars of Heavenly Martial Castle, yet his son was a merchant.
It had been so embarrassing he could barely hold his head up.
And so time passed.
Perhaps his son had a gift for trade, because he had expanded his merchant company on a grand scale and risen into the ranks of the wealthy.
His son had come to see him several times.
Each time, he had asked him to live together.
And every time, Gu Yaheuk had stubbornly refused and driven him away.
The truth was, his son’s qi deviation hadn’t been his fault.
He had only pushed himself too hard because he had wanted to impress his father.
Yet instead of praising him for that and comforting him, Gu Yaheuk had only scolded him harshly.
That wasn’t how he had truly felt, but when he thought about how his talented son had lost his martial arts overnight, he had been heartsick and furious.
Even now, he could still clearly remember the expression on his son’s face when he drove him out.
Bitterness, resentment, and desperation.
But Gu Yaheuk had never hated his son.
He had simply been clumsy in the way he expressed himself.
After agonizing over it for a long time, Gu Yaheuk finally made up his mind.
This wouldn’t do.
Even if he had to bow his head to his son and beg forgiveness, he would borrow the money.
If he could only obtain that spear, he felt like he could do anything.
He wanted to feel the touch of that spear one more time.
No, he wanted to spend the rest of his life together with it.
Never once in his life had he wanted anything this desperately.
That desperation finally drove him to go seek out the son he had cut off contact with for so long.
*****
As Gu Yaheuk was about to set out for his son’s merchant company, he ran into me.
“Looks like you’re heading somewhere.”
“T-that’s right.”
Gu Yaheuk’s eyes fell on the spear.
“Ah, so it still hasn’t been sold.”
“That’s right. It seems nobody else understands this spear’s true value.”
“So it would seem.”
“You’re the only one who truly recognized it, sir.”
“Does that spear have a name?”
“Yes. It’s called the Heavenly Thunder Divine Spear.”
“The Heavenly Thunder Divine Spear... That truly is a splendid name.”
His own martial art was Heavenly Thunder Extreme Spear, so even the name felt like fate.
“Right? I hope it finds its master soon.”
“It will.”
“Do you think maybe the price is too high?”
For a moment, Gu Yaheuk wavered before temptation.
Should I slash the price drastically?
Then maybe I could buy it.
But then he looked at the Heavenly Thunder Divine Spear and shook his head.
“No. Considering the spear’s true value, it’s actually cheap. You could ask even more.”