“So it seems that boy’s been selling weapons around Heavenly Martial Castle for quite a while?”
“No. It hasn’t been that long.”
“Then?”
“He says he’ll be leaving soon. Which means there isn’t much time left.”
“W-wait a second. More importantly, is the Heavenly Forge just sitting still? If Master Smith Cheon finds out about this, he’s going to be deeply offended and raise hell.”
“Master Smith Cheon knows him too. Apparently the boy forges weapons in Master Smith Cheon’s furnace.”
“Good grief...”
“Even that divine spear of yours?”
“It seems so. I heard Master Smith Cheon himself called him a genius.”
“Then isn’t he Master Smith Cheon’s disciple?”
“Doesn’t look like it.”
“Then introduce me.”
“Me too!”
The Nameless Star gave a quiet nod.
“You too—say something, will you?”
Seeing the Nameless Star just shake her head, Gu Yaheuk let out a sigh.
“Honestly. You’re all hopeless. Come with me. I’ve already arranged a meeting place.”
“Good!”
“Let’s go, then!”
******
At the place Gu Yaheuk led them to, a table full of food and drink had already been laid out, and Jeok Wigang was standing there.
“Welcome.”
At Jeok Wigang’s greeting, the Black Axe Star, Jin Seokmyeong, asked Gu Yaheuk,
“That’s him?”
“That’s right.”
“Huh. He looks more like a scholar.”
“If you judge him by his face, you’ll regret it later.”
“Why? Is he stronger than he looks?”
“He is.”
“What? Seriously?”
“We can talk about that later. Sit down first. You’ll only make things awkward for the one who invited us.”
“Ahem. Fair enough.”
As they took their seats, they greeted Jeok Wigang.
“Pleasure to meet you. I am Jin Seokmyeong, the Black Axe Star.”
“I am Im Muhyeon, the Emerald Bow Star.”
“...”
The Nameless Star sat down without a word.
Gu Yaheuk said,
“This one is the Nameless Star. I don’t know the name. Since this one never speaks, you’ll have to understand.”
Jeok Wigang nodded.
“Of course. For now, please eat.”
“No, I’d rather see the weapons first.”
“Same here.”
There was urgency in all three pairs of eyes.
If they had not seen Gu Yaheuk’s divine spear, they would never have looked like this.
“Very well.”
Jeok Wigang set three boxes before them, one by one.
“Open them.”
CLACK—
The moment they opened the boxes, weapons of dazzling beauty lay inside.
Jin Seokmyeong lifted the axe from his box and breathed out in admiration.
“What is this? An axe this perfect? I even love the color!”
Im Muhyeon lifted the bow and drew the string.
TING-TING—
“Hahaha. This is driving me mad. That feel in the hand... I’m dying to fire it.”
Last of all, the Nameless Star stared at the dagger in wide-eyed silence.
“Do they suit your taste?” Jeok Wigang asked.
“P-perfect.”
“At last. I’ve finally found a weapon that fits me exactly.”
“And these really cost only five hundred gold taels each?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll buy it immediately.”
“So will I!”
The two men hurriedly pulled out drafts and thrust them toward Jeok Wigang before he could possibly raise the price.
“Thank you. They’re yours now.”
“Hahaha!”
With delighted faces, they kept stroking their weapons over and over.
Only one person, the Nameless Star, remained grave. She ran a hand over the dagger with a severe expression, then lifted a cold stare to Jeok Wigang.
There was even killing intent in her face.
“What’s this? Why are you releasing killing intent?”
Startled, Gu Yaheuk stepped in front of the Nameless Star.
At that exact moment—
The Nameless Star lunged at Jeok Wigang with the dagger.
BAM—
She vanished like smoke, then in an instant drove the blade toward Jeok Wigang’s eye.
Or rather, she tried to.
It stopped.
The dagger was caught between Jeok Wigang’s fingers.
The Nameless Star stared at the fingers holding her dagger, her pupils shaking.
The others were no different. They looked at Jeok Wigang in open shock.
“What is this?”
The Nameless Star did not answer. She simply tried to wrench the dagger free.
But Jeok Wigang had no intention of letting go.
If she did not have a good reason for attacking him, he had no intention of letting the matter pass.
“I asked why you attacked me.”
Jeok Wigang’s eyes turned frighteningly cold.
But the Nameless Star still did not answer. She only glared at him as if she meant to kill him and poured out even more killing intent.
Then, abruptly abandoning the dagger, she threw herself backward and unleashed a storm of hidden weapons.
RATATAT—
All kinds of hidden weapons flashed as they shot toward Jeok Wigang.
PA-PA-PAT—
Jeok Wigang caught every single one flying at him—
and hurled them right back at her.
BANG—
The hidden weapons screamed back through the air with a force on an entirely different level from before.
The Nameless Star blanched and twisted her body desperately to avoid them.
She barely dodged them and turned her head back toward Jeok Wigang—
only to find a fist right in front of her eyes.
“Ahhh!”
Jeok Wigang’s fist stopped a hair’s breadth before her nose.
FWHOOOOOSH—
The gale from his punch tore away the cloth covering the Nameless Star’s face.
“A woman?”
With the cloth gone, the Nameless Star was revealed to be a middle-aged woman.
She glared at Jeok Wigang with icy eyes.
“Why did you attack me?”
“That dagger... did you make it?”
“Yes.”
“Where did you learn to make daggers like that?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“That dagger... it carries the technique of one of the Four Divine Demons. Are you... the heir of the Heaven-Conquering Divine Demon?”
At the words Four Divine Demons, Im Muhyeon and Jin Seokmyeong both turned hard eyes on Jeok Wigang.
Depending on his answer, either one of them could become hostile at any moment.
“I did learn from someone. But I don’t know whether that person was the Heaven-Conquering Divine Demon.”
“Lies! You’re acting under the orders of one of the Four Divine Demons and trying to bewitch us with these weapons! They said you’ve been selling things to the Eight Stars of Heavenly Martial Castle and the upper leadership, didn’t they? So it was all planned from the beginning! And you—you’re absurdly strong! Strong in a way that makes no sense!”
At the Nameless Star’s words, Im Muhyeon and Jin Seokmyeong nodded.
Had they not just watched the clash between her and Jeok Wigang at close range?
One of the Eight Stars of Heavenly Martial Castle had been the one pushed back.
That made him even more suspicious.
A level of skill that did not fall behind the Eight Stars at all—
and divine relics the like of which one might not see even once in a lifetime.
Worse, those divine relics fit them as though they had been made for them alone.
At that point, suspicion hardened into certainty, and in an instant Jeok Wigang became a spy sent by the Four Divine Demons to destroy Heavenly Martial Castle.
The three of them bared their hostility and readied themselves to attack him at any moment.
“Gu Yaheuk! What are you doing? Are you hesitating because you can’t bear to turn on him after getting that spear from him?”
At that, Gu Yaheuk stepped between the three of them and Jeok Wigang.
“What is this? Did you really waver because of a single spear?”
“He is not a spy.”
“What?”
‘He’? Have you lost your mind?”
Jeok Wigang tilted his head for a moment, then understood and let out a sigh.
So his grandfather had revealed who he was after all.
At this rate, everyone in Heavenly Martial Castle was going to know.
“He is the Lord of the Castle’s own grandson.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“There’s no grandson we know of like that.”
“Have you been bewitched or something?”
“There is one. The youngest young master.”
At the words youngest young master, all three of them froze.
“The one from the True Martial Sect?”
“Yes. His eldest son.”
The three of them had already let their hostility go and were staring at ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ Jeok Wigang.
“Is that true?”
Jeok Wigang let out a low sigh and nodded.
“Yes.”
“Good Lord...”
The Nameless Star asked,
“Then where did you learn the method for making these weapons?”
“From someone whose identity I don’t know. I’d been interested in smithing since I was young, and by chance I met someone who taught me.”
“And you don’t know who that person was?”
Jeok Wigang nodded.
“That weapon-making method is one used by the Heaven-Conquering Divine Demon, one of the Four Divine Demons.”
“And how do you know that so well?”
“Because I was the Heaven-Conquering Divine Demon’s lover.”
Jeok Wigang was startled.
What the hell? He had a lover?
The others were just as shocked.
“Y-you were the Heaven-Conquering Divine Demon’s lover?”
“Yes. I met that person without knowing who he really was. I thought he was just an ordinary blacksmith.”
“...Good Lord.”
“Watching that person make things always calmed me. That’s why I know it well. His methods.”
Then she examined the dagger closely.
“The reason the blade carries this wave-like pattern is because of that person’s unique casting method.”
Then she looked at Jeok Wigang and said,
“So it seems you were deceived by that person as well, young master. As an apology, I’ll buy this dagger.”
Jeok Wigang scratched at his jaw.
When she had attacked him at first, he had really been angry.
But now the misunderstanding had been cleared up.
“Very well.”
“But this dagger... it was made perfectly for me. How did you get information about me?”
“Through my grandfather.”
“The Lord of the Castle? You’re saying he gave my information to you?”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t sound like something he would do.”
“We made a deal.”
“A deal?”
“If he gave me information, I said I’d think about the successor position.”
Good Lord.
The position of successor to Heavenly Martial Castle was one anyone would covet.
And he had used it as a bargaining chip?
Wait—
if the Lord of the Castle had been the one giving up information, that meant he was the more desperate side.
All of them stared at Jeok Wigang in shock, and Gu Yaheuk cleared his throat.
“Ahem. I understand the Lord of the Castle’s feelings perfectly well. I would have done the same in his place.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“There is no one better suited to become the next Lord of Heavenly Martial Castle than this young master.”
“What?”
“Power so great that even I could not defeat him, and a brilliant mind to go with it. On top of that, he commands mysterious sorcery and formations, and doesn’t he even have the bearing for it? Above all, he is the Lord of the Castle’s own grandson, so the bloodline is unquestionable.”
“You couldn’t even beat him? Are you saying you actually fought him?”
Gu Yaheuk avoided their eyes.
“So you did.”
All three of them looked at Jeok Wigang at once.
Unlike before, their gazes were not hostile.
They were burdensome.
“Is the young master truly that strong?”
“When I saw the way he moved earlier, I did think he was no ordinary man.”
“He stopped my sneak attack as if it were nothing.”
At the Nameless Star’s words, the other two nodded.
Lifting his axe, Jin Seokmyeong said,
“Would you be willing to show us as well?”
“You’re not going to show him and then refuse us, are you?”
“You shouldn’t discriminate between customers.”
At their words, Jeok Wigang gave a short laugh.
“Then all three of you, come at me together.”
“Hah!”
“You’re overflowing with confidence.”
“Whether it’s too much or not, you can judge for yourselves. Come on.”
The three exchanged looks, then nodded.
And all at once, they charged at Jeok Wigang.
*****
After Jeok Wigang left, the four of them remained behind at the now-lonely drinking table, drinking together.
The faces of the three, aside from Gu Yaheuk, were swollen all over, and every movement sent pain through their bodies.
“Ugh... I’m dying.”
“There isn’t a single place that doesn’t hurt.”
“To think he’d be that strong. The three of us went at him together, and we still couldn’t land a single hit.”
“We couldn’t even brush his sleeve. He just beat us senseless.”
“He didn’t go easy on me just because I’m a woman, either.”
“So you finally started talking. I was getting suffocated all this time because you never said a word.”
“I was practicing silence to calm my anger.”
“So your silence training is over now?”
“Yes.”
“But really... just how strong is the young master?”
Gu Yaheuk spoke.
“When he fought me, he used ten percent of his strength. And from what I saw, it didn’t look all that different when he fought the three of you.”
“What? Don’t tell me he only used ten percent against the three of us too.”
“Exactly. He must have used more than he did against you.”
“Whether it was ten percent or twenty isn’t the point. The point is that he turned us into this without even seriously exerting himself.”
“Now I understand why the Lord of the Castle tried to make a deal with the young master, even to the point of handing over our information.”
“He needs a reason—any reason—to make him the successor.”