After finishing his conversation with Song Woojeol, Namgung Woo followed Jegal Seon-a’s call that dinner was ready. As soon as Namgung Woo received the food, people quickly gathered to eat together.
Paeng Ha-ryeong, Jegal Seon-a, Namgung Sol… Seeing the three women quickly securing their seats, Myorin clicked her tongue, and Song Chaeji turned her steps towards the Wind Chasing Unit.
However, Namgung Woo managed to calm the three and send them away, heading off alone to a different place.
“May I sit beside you for a moment?”
“…Of course.”
The guest at the place where Namgung Woo went readily gave up his seat.
As Namgung Woo sat down, a slight tension flashed across his face. Though it was quickly buried in his expressionless demeanor, the stiffness in his muscles, which he couldn’t hide, revealed a part of the emotions he was feeling.
Clink.
The meal was quick. Namgung Woo, still not fully recovered, only took a few bites before stopping. The guest, feeling unnecessarily concerned, hurriedly moved his spoon and quickly emptied his bowl.
“Do you plan to return?”
Namgung Woo’s seemingly random question caused a big ripple in the heart of the guest, Byung Chan-ju.
Gritting his teeth, he struggled to squeeze out his voice.
“What… do you mean?”
“Literally. I’m asking if you plan to return to Namgung.”
Namgung Woo’s words were calm. His voice, without much fluctuation, seemed to not even consider the possibility that Byung Chan-ju might not be from Namgung.
“Namgung… Did you recognize my martial arts?”
“That’s part of it.”
There could also be a path where someone picked up and learned the martial arts that were leaked after the Namgung Family was annihilated.
However, Namgung Woo judged that Byung Chan-ju was not such a case. There were too many obvious hints about his origins.
“I had an idea from the moment I heard your name.”
“Ah…”
“The Byung surname is rare even in the vast world where no surname is unheard of.”
A person who fled (竄) from the south (丙).
Or a person hidden (竄) in the tomb (丙).
The last character, Ju, must be his real name.
That name told Namgung Woo that Byung Chan-ju was not just someone who happened to acquire martial arts skillfully.
“…Do I have the right to do so?”
Byung Chan-ju asked Namgung Woo that while also posing a question to himself.
‘What did I want, following this far?’
By chance, he became close with Yi Ho-yeong. Being of the same age, the two quickly became friends. From fellow travelers to comrades solving the same requests, and then to friends willing to help each other.
So, he told Yi Ho-yeong about the place where he had turned his back on the world and lived in seclusion.
And Yi Ho-yeong came to him and said, “There’s someone I really want you to meet.”
The world he descended into was always noisy, but that day, it was especially loud.
Because of one name.
The name Namgung.
The name Byung Chan-ju had abandoned and fled from was once again moving the world.
‘Did I want to receive absolution from him?’
He was a youth more than ten years younger than himself.
Unlike himself, who had fled in fear, this youth proudly carried the name Namgung and stood against reality.
Did he want to receive justification for his actions from such a youth?
Byung Chan-ju felt pathetic. Asking if it was okay to return to Namgung now. It was a question even a passing dog would laugh at.
If he wanted to return to Namgung, he should have done so earlier. What right did a man who had lived in hiding for twenty years, barely clinging to life, have to seek forgiveness now?
“No, that was a slip of the tongue. Forget it…”
“Why not?”
“Huh?”
Namgung Woo no longer takes the name Namgung lightly.
However, the Namgung Family of the past and the Namgung Family Namgung Woo is trying to rebuild are the same yet different.
Even if there were past mistakes, if they were not irreparable wrongs, isn’t it okay to give a chance to make up for them?
“Did you betray the family and sell them out to the enemy?”
“Of course not! I just…!”
“If it’s not that, then why can’t you return? Abandoning your name and surviving alone? It might be shameful, but that’s not a crime.”
It’s not a crime.
Even though he heard the words he longed for, his heart didn’t ease because he himself couldn’t accept and understand him.
Byung Chan-ju fled. Even after seeing his comrades’ bodies, he turned away from them to survive.
Did they have a funeral? Were they buried in graves? He didn’t know. How could he? A coward who fled from the Southern Directly Administered Region to Hubei, where the White Path Martial World was most prosperous.
“…Before I even reached thirty.”
The past that Byung Chan-ju had never shared with Yi Ho-yeong or anyone else began to flow out like quiet ripples.
“The remaining Namgung clan members were gathered at the safe house.”
At that time, Byung Chan-ju was a liaison.
Being from a distant branch, his appearance was quite different from others, and his martial arts were just at the first-rate level. At that time, in the Southern Directly Administered Region, even reaching the level of a Peak Master would subject one to sudden inspections asking whose side they were on. Byung Chan-ju, who had just reached first-rate, could blend into the common folk and move around without being caught.
And thanks to that, he survived.
When the safe house was attacked and everyone was slaughtered, only Byung Chan-ju, who was outside, survived.
“I wanted to live.”
He didn’t want to die.
He never thought he was afraid of death. If he were afraid of death, he wouldn’t have joined the remnants of the Namgung Family in the first place. He wouldn’t have volunteered to be a liaison, which was more dangerous than staying at the safe house.
But he didn’t want to die like that. He feared dying like a dog in the shadows, leaving no trace or honor behind.
‘Why did I follow?’
Byung Chan-ju answered his own question.
He came to find the grave where he should lie.
Not the tomb where the tablets of his already dead comrades were placed, but the place where he could fall, shedding hot blood alongside them.
He came to finally use this life, which had been prolonged by not dying that day, in the right place.
“I desire death.”
That was Byung Chan-ju’s true heart.
“I desire an honorable death.”
An honorable death that could wash away even the shame of the past.
A death that would be recounted by all, not as the escape of a coward, but as the heart of a gentleman waiting for revenge.
“Do I dare to desire such a death?”
Byung Chan-ju waited.
He waited for the answer, “Willingly, yes.”
He waited for the new head of the Namgung Family to give him the answer to live as a coward and die as an avenger.
But Namgung Woo, who he believed would give such an answer, was slightly taken aback.
‘No, why is everyone so eager to die?’
Namgung Sol was like that, and now Byung Chan-ju too.
It seemed like everyone had gone mad with guilt over tarnishing the family name.
‘Is it a characteristic of the Namgung Family?’
Probably not. If anything, it’s a characteristic of martial artists.
Living by reputation, dying by honor.
On the other hand, there are those like the Banunbang who say, “Screw honor and reputation,” and struggle to live long, but generally, martial artists follow the former.
It’s not for nothing that they cling to their nicknames and show off how great they are.
Namgung Woo now understands that much.
However, even considering that, the two seemed excessive to Namgung Woo.
‘The family’s annihilation must have been such a big event.’
It was still an era where the system of collective punishment remained.
An era where everyone took it for granted.
An era where the family was oneself, and oneself was the family.
Namgung Woo accepted that his way of thinking was fundamentally different from theirs.
But he didn’t tell him to die, even as a lie.
“Why must you die?”
“Huh?”
“Rebuilding the family is not an easy task, and to continue the Namgung martial arts and rebuild the family, we need people more than anything. How can we waste such precious manpower?”
Namgung Woo extended his hand.
“If you promise to fight for the family but not to die, take this hand.”
He doesn’t want those who only seek death.
That was the standard Namgung Woo set when he took in Namgung Sol.
Byung Chan-ju blankly looked down at his hand.
A large, rough hand.
And after twenty years, finally, the hand of redemption had come.
The hand of the rebuilder standing tall on the ashes of the fallen family, raising its banner once more.
How could he avoid it? How could he refuse?
Byung Chan-ju, with trembling arms, barely managed to lift his hand and grasp Namgung Woo’s.
“…Namgung Ju, greets the family head.”
On this day, the name Namgung increased by one.
§
“Then, leave the rest to us.”
With Wu Yun seeing them off, more than two-thirds of the members finished preparing to come out from inside the cliff.
The Gonji Unit remained to preserve the scene until the investigation team arrived.
On the other hand, the Jinroe Unit took on the role of safely escorting the survivors of the Wind Chasing Unit to the main base of the Luoyang Martial Alliance.
Now, only a dozen or so members of the Wind Chasing Unit remained, and none of them were uninjured. With even the unit leader, Byeok-un, having died in battle, their combat power was realistically less than that of a small to medium-sized faction, but it wasn’t entirely so.
“The next leader of the Wind Chasing Unit has been decided.”
Deung Jong-yu muttered to himself as he looked at Song Woojeol.
The stuffy feeling in his chest had cleared. The wind that had been swirling inside the cave finally spread out freely.
The realm of Transcendent Peak. Song Woojeol had reached it.
“Reliable. Then, let’s go ahead.”
In response to Deung Jong-yu’s farewell, Wu Yun nodded her head.
Beside her, Myorin clicked her tongue, saying, “This is why the Huashan Sect is like this!” but it didn’t reach her as she was using Kirin’s Step. No matter how much Myorin was, the gap between the two was too great for her to openly pick a fight with Wu Yun.
“Someday, if fate allows, we will meet again.”
“Yes. I too look forward to that day.”
Unlike with Deung Jong-yu, Wu Yun gave a formal farewell, complete with a martial salute.
Turning around, Namgung Woo looked at those who had been watching his back from behind.
Thirty-one members, excluding the Jinroe Unit and the Wind Chasing Unit.
Now, they were all part of Changcheon Pavilion, and Namgung Woo’s comrades.
“Let’s go back.”
§
Inside the cliff where everyone had left.
Wu Yun left the Gonji Unit members to guard the area where the Ghost Gate had been and went off alone.
The place she was at was where Namgung Woo and Pung Hyeon had fought.
Walking slowly over it, Wu Yun meticulously retraced the traces one by one.
And then she took something out and muttered.
“Yes. As you said, it seems to have vanished.”
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