Part 42 - Dragon Eyes
The day I first met Geumju.
Jeong-a collapsed as if she'd fainted, but in truth, what was happening to her was far from ordinary exhaustion.
"Not simple fatigue."
Only Yeon Sang-hyeon realized it.
Every physician who had taken her pulse before had insisted she was merely sleeping because she was tired.
He spoke to the fallen Jeong-a.
"You can hear me, can't you?"
Yes, she wanted to answer, but her body wouldn't move at all.
"I examined your constitution. It actually took quite a while."
It seemed he had finally reached a conclusion only after finishing today's pulse diagnosis.
"I thought it was a rare constitution, but it surpassed my expectations by far."
He said she possessed not one, but two extremely rare constitutions.
"First is Dragon Eyes—and honestly, I'm not even sure 'Dragon Eyes' is the correct translation."
It couldn't even be found within the Central Plains Nation, so he had discovered it only in records from faraway lands.
"Those born with Dragon Eyes are said to have bodies closer to dragonkin than to humans. They say it's a constitution of extraordinary value, but I can't translate it in greater detail than that."
In other words, her eyes were called Dragon Eyes.
But the claim that it was "extraordinarily valuable" felt strange to her.
From everything she'd experienced so far, it was hard to believe she had been born with a power worthy of such praise.
"I know what you're questioning", he said.
He explained that the reason her Dragon Eyes could not properly display their power was entirely because of the second constitution.
"Second is a kind of Jeol Meridian. The name wouldn't mean anything to you even if I told you."
That Jeol Meridian prevented her—despite being born with natural martial bones —from accumulating any internal energy at all, and it even severed the channels through which Dragon Eyes flowed, so the power of Dragon Eyes couldn't manifest properly either.
"I'm going to begin treating that Jeol Meridian now. Of course, don't expect everything to be cured in one session."
His touch was astonishingly delicate—and warm.
Her master, who usually looked so frightening, seemed like a completely different person when practicing medical arts.
Before long, she fell into a deep sleep.
***
"With this treatment, you can consider the first stage completely finished."
Her entire body was densely covered in gold needles. Jeong-a asked.
"Master."
"Why? And if you can help it, it'd be better not to speak."
But she had to ask.
"May I dare to ask what the Golden-Eyed Witch is?"
Yeon Sang-hyeon's hand stopped in midair.
"…So you were conscious back then."
He meant the first time she had collapsed at Wongakjeong.
She remembered the name Yeon Sang-hyeon had called her.
"It's a memory I couldn't recall until now. While receiving treatment from you, Master, it came back to me."
"Fine, fine. I get it—so close your mouth now."
He continued placing gold needles toward her face.
For some reason, she could sense that he was troubled.
Something she had never been able to read before—her master's heart-qi, his inner state—was now faintly visible to her.
Perhaps that, too, meant his treatment was working.
"…It's a name that has nothing to do with you. You can forget it."
Jeong-a wanted to hear more.
As if he'd read even her heart, her master offered a little more.
"It's the sobriquet of a woman who lived a very unfortunate life. She hated the world so much she was willing to throw away her own life."
Hesitation seeped into his voice.
"…And one day, in the end, I had to perform her autopsyBwith my own hands."
After finishing the needling, he raised his hand and gently swept her fallen hair back.
Just like that day.
The first day she came to Wongakjeong, when he had stroked her hair as she lay collapsed.
A powerful regret and sorrow flowed from him.
…And an enormous rage, too.
It was a rage so great she could scarcely bear it.
"…Sleep a little."
When he tapped an acupoint, she felt her eyes growing heavy.
"As I said, it's a story that has nothing to do with you…."
For some reason, it felt as though he wasn't speaking to Jeong-a at all, but to himself.
"Forget it now."
***
With a solemn expression, Yeon Sang-hyeon studied her golden eyes.
"The effect is better than I expected. And we've only taken the first step…. Or perhaps this 'Dragon Eyes' thing is far more extraordinary than I thought."
He looked at her face and smiled.
"…Now you'll be able to see clearly what I am."
He closed her eyes for her.
"Rest easy. I have no intention of ordering you to walk the same path as me."
He pulled the blanket up and covered her.
"What I want is simply for you to do your best as the First Young Master's personal maid."
As he left the room, he added.
"This treatment is merely a small gift I'm giving you because you've offered your loyalty to First Young Master Yeon Sang-hyeon—so don't burden yourself over it."
***
Her older sister, Se-a, left the safe house with her subordinates, leaving only the minimum number of people behind.
The final assault against the Black Bone Sect was about to begin.
After preparing a late-night meal for her master, Jeong-a went to find him.
"…Huh…?"
She knelt before him.
"This sword will now be yours forever."
For a while, he said nothing.
She didn't say anything more either, but she believed her master would understand her act.
It was separate from the loyalty she offered as a maid—this was a ritual of a sword that served its lord.
A vow to walk his road alongside him.
"…I will accept your sword."
A little awkwardly, he took it.
"But where did you get this sword?"
Jeong-a smiled.
"I exchanged a trinket for it with a female warrior guarding the safe house."
Yeon Sang-hyeon burst into loud laughter.
In that laughter, she felt sorrow spilling out.
"Master. Perhaps…"
Now she could feel his heart.
And because of that, she could say this.
"If you had met 'her' just a little earlier, Master, she would have acted the same way I did."
Surprise rose on his face.
And then, slowly, a gentle smile settled there.
***
"…Aren't you scared?"
At her sister's words, Jeong-a couldn't answer for a moment.
Was she scared?
Of course she was.
He was more frightening than all the nightmares she had ever had combined.
But at the same time—
He was warmer-hearted than anyone she had ever met.
He was the person she wanted to resemble most.
"That's why I want to become like him, too."
***
Sensing that familiar presence—demonic energy—Jeong-a woke from sleep.
With the quietest steps she could manage, she headed toward the source of that demonic energy.
Entering Yeon Sang-hyeon's bedroom, she saw her master lying in bed.
"…Mother."
It seemed that dreadful "thing" clinging to her master was tormenting him again.
"I'm sorry, Mother…."
She approached him quietly and swept his hair back.
Just as he had done for her.
Maybe it helped.
Before long, his expression eased again.
She watched his face for a long while, then silently left.
Without going far, she sat on the wooden veranda where the moon was visible and began the basic qi-circulation and breath-regulation he had taught her.
***
Outside Wongakjeong, a cold north wind was blowing hard enough to make the morning sunlight feel welcome.
But inside Wongakjeong, it was as if a cool breeze of a warm spring day merely brushed past petals.
It was the power of a barrier-grade formation.
Yeon Sang-hyeon, dressed in comfortable everyday clothes, sat on a chair placed in the open space.
"Do you know what lies at the root of the problems surrounding you?"
Jeong-a wore neither her neat maid uniform nor an elegant outing dress, but a black martial outfit. It gave her a different kind of charm.
"…I believe the most fundamental problem is my status as a slave girl, Master."
Slavery was legally prohibited in the Central Plains Nation.
Yet wherever you went in the Central Plains Nation, you could see people living lives no different from slaves.
It was the same for her—sold to the Sword Clan as a child.
"Correct."
He nodded.
"The highest position you can reach from that status would be posts equivalent to a maid."
He continued evenly.
"In the Sword Clan, being a direct bloodline's personal maid is a position that can earn respect from most people regardless of one's original status."
He raised one knee on the chair, resting his chin on his hand as he looked at her.
"…But you know that isn't enough."
The image of the Second Young Master's Howon steward, and the Third Young Master's Third-Grade Elite Warrior, flickered through her mind.
To those with even a little power—and those who leaned on status—being a personal maid meant nothing.
A maid was still just a maid.
"There is one and only one way to raise your status in the Sword Clan. What is it?"
"Becoming a warrior."
A warrior—meaning "a martial person belonging to the Sword Clan"—was a status in itself, and a class.
"That's right. So no matter how hard it gets, you must follow my training as much as you can."
"This lowly servant cannot know where to place herself at Master's grace."
And so Yeon Sang-hyeon began her martial training.
"The sword technique you will learn is called Seonyeong Chalna. It's an advanced martial art highly regarded even within the Sword Clan."
He grinned.
"But the requirements are strict, and the martial principles you must follow are difficult—so much so that it's hard to find anyone in the Sword Clan who has fully mastered it."
Jeong-a swallowed hard.
What she had picked up over the shoulder with the power of her "eyes" was, at best, no more than the tricks of the Sword Clan's low-ranked warriors.
Could someone like her really learn and wield a high-level martial art?
And hadn't he said it was famous for being difficult?
"With your constitution, you more than meet the conditions this technique demands—so it would be a waste not to try."
"Yes, Master. This lowly servant will do her utmost."
"Good. Then let's start with the basic understanding."
He took a branch and swung it here and there, teaching her the forms.
Because it was a form performed without internal energy, she couldn't confirm its true original shape, and many parts of the flow broke off.
And as he'd said, it was profoundly difficult.
But with Yeon Sang-hyeon's smooth, lucid explanations beside it, she could somehow use Dragon Eyes to infer the original form.
So Jeong-a struggled, but at last managed to learn the form.
"Master! How is it?"
"..."
What was he supposed to say to a maid who learned the form of an advanced martial art in half a day?
Yeon Sang-hyeon let out a hollow laugh.
"You—starting today, stop preparing meals."